The Imperial Sorceress

Chapter 3

The skirmish had started an hour ago and the mestra hadn't made an appearance. I was getting annoyed. I had said that the problem would be resolved before that night and I'm a woman of her word.

"Lady Dominica," a short man shouted approaching me. "The bear has attacked on the western front."

I took the spyglass from his hands and started looking for the mestra, but I wasn't able to find it. A little storm over the western front was disappearing and I still couldn't find it. Finally, I saw a little silver fox running over the city walls in the direction of the southeast tower where some of our men were fighting soldiers of the alliance.

"Men prepare the crossbow," I raised my arm while I kept watching. The little fox arrived in the tower without anyone noticing. Some red sparkles began to surround its body and the fox turned into a silver bear.

"Fire," I shouted.

The archers hit better than I expected, we didn't even have to fire a second round. Arrows stuck in the border of the tower with a similar distance between each one like I had ordered. Then I created a portal to the tower for Romulo, Remo, and me. Ludovica tried to follow me but I closed the door before she could.

I expected a massacre in the tower, but the mestra wasn't especially violent in its attacks. It roared fiercely but it almost seemed like it was trying not to hit them.

"Aurbera venti." I directed a gust of wind against the soldiers of the alliance who ran away when they saw they had lost his advantage. I ordered the men to deal with them. The bear stared at me confused. "Claudere auream caveam." The doors of the tower closed and gold threads came out of the enchanted arrows creating a cage that prevented the entry or exit of magic.

The bear tried to get out smashing the door, I couldn't avoid grinning. If he had known that the barrier only prevented the transition of magic, he could have escaped turning into his human form. But this wasn't the case.

"Romulo, Remo, attack," I said. They each bit one of the bear's hind legs. It screamed in pain. The red sparkles surrounded its body again and it turned into a big silver and black colored bird. It flew high until it crashed into the magic barrier, it tried two times more until it realized it had no escape.

It dropped and with its long and sharp claws grabbed Remo by the neck. The mestra took flight again and dropped Remo from the maximum height that the barrier allowed. My beloved beast vanished when it hit the ground. I thought about summoning it again but if I wasted my magic it would kill me easily, the barrier already consumed an important part of my power.

"Romulo defense." I took one of my flintlocks and shot it. I'm not sure if I hit but the mestra turned again, this time into a bear, and it tried to swipe at me. Romulo pounced on it, but the mestra broke it in half. I took my second flintlocks and shot just inches of his head. He fell backward, the image wasn't pleasant, I could see part of its skull.

It hadn't moved for a second. I thought that the battle had finished, which would have been a lucky break, although I had been reserved and magic the barrier consumed a significant part of my power. However, that wasn't my lucky day, the red sparkles appeared again but that time they were less bright, and the mestra turned into a fox.

The fox tried to catch its breath and looked at me, I took my steel sword and it ran away hiding behind a rickety wooden barricade. I gripped my sword tighter and was getting closer. "Ense perniciosa vi," magical spikes surrounded the edge of my sword. I feel my magic almost drained.

The atmosphere felt heavy and the temperature dropped rapidly, at the same time I was getting closer. In the top part of the barrier, it seemed like some black clouds were formed. I prepared myself. I wouldn't have many changes to make a precise thrust. I was so exhausted due to the consumption of magic that I couldn't fight much longer.

I pounced ready to strike. I only could see the red sparkles before thrusting the sword into the bear's right chest. I grinned while it fell on his back with the sword still stuck. I couldn't bask in my victory because I noticed a strong pain in my stomach. I had received a deep swipe.

I sat against the barricade, both the clouds and the magical barrier had disappeared, and despite this, the ozone smell filled the air. The mestra smelled like a garden that after months without water receiving the first autumn rain, it was a pleasant smell.

Knocks on the door took me out of my thoughts. "Well, you look to be as broken as I am. The result of our fight will depend on who opens that door, my people or your people."

The red sparkles surrounded it again, this time barely bright. Instead of the bear, a boy of no more than fourteen years with honey-colored skin and green eyes appears.

"They are not my people," he said in a foreign accent but it didn't sound like any of the alliance empires I knew of.

"Who are you?" I asked but before he could answer my men opened the door.

Then I saw a portal a meter over the floor and Ludovica appeared through it, tripping and falling. She got up quickly and looked at me.

"My lady." She ran to me and started to inspect me. "I go to do a health spell and." She looked at the boy. "Who the hell is the kid?"

"Our mestra, now better focus on the urgent," I said.

The captain of the squad approached the boy. "Then this is the bastard who has been terrifying my men, now don't look very dangerous. High sorceress, would you allow me to end the suffering of this monster?" he said while moving the sword stuck in the boy's chest.

The boy screamed in pain. Although if you looked at the lower part of his face he had a confrontational grin, his eyes transmit fear, sorrow, and even shame. I couldn't help but ask myself why he looked so ashamed.

"Captain, if this boy dies you will be the next," I said and the man looked at me with fear. "Ludovika, I suppose your treatment will make me sleep for a few hours. I want you to use a reinforcement spell on whatever you use to hold him and paint over him magic-draining tattoos. Don't be excessive, he needs magic to survive those wounds."

"Are you sure my lady?" Ludovica asked me.

I looked at the boy who tried to avoid looking directly at anyone. "I have big plans for him," I grinned. Ludovica nodded and started with the treatment. I didn't bear more than a few seconds before failing.