The king’s grand wizard, Gandalus the Great, was sitting in his private laboratory where he conducted experiments and honed his magical arts. He had been working on some of his totems, trying to find out how that little witch managed to destroy it. He put charms and protections on them to prevent someone from being able to destroy them, and he couldn’t figure it out. He was also looking into the claim that this witch made about someone else tampering with the totem and using it to harm children. Regardless of what the old wizard thought about the witch, if her claim was true it was something he would have to look into. The last thing he wanted was for his magical items to be used to harm people, and in response to the witch’s allegations, he sent out his most trusted knights to check on every totem that he had out there to find out if any of them were missing. Despite his doubts, the knights came back to report that several of the wizard’s totems were missing, and that the witch wasn’t making it up. The captain of the knights took it upon himself to harshly interrogate some of the farmers who were supposed to be using the totems to protect their crops, and a few of them confirmed that they sold the totems after their crops were harvested to make a few extra bucks. Their plan was to come back to the kingdom and claim that the totem was stolen so Gandalus would replace them before the next season. The old wizard found this quite troubling, and while he didn’t like the idea of a chaos witch destroying his property the missing totems was too dire to be ignored, and he had the young witch to thank for exposing this problem to him.
He was sitting at his desk, looking over some books for answers to how to locate his missing totems when he heard a sound that caught his attention. There were screams of men and women coming from outside the castle. It wasn’t a single person, but a lot of people all shouting at once and the sound was difficult to ignore. The wizard stood up from his desk, wondering what they were responding to when another sound caught his attention that answered his curiosity. There was a loud roar, from a beast that he hasn’t heard in a very, very long time. It was a dragon. Seconds later, a solider burst through the door to get the old wizard’s attention.
“Dragon!” he called out, “There is a dragon circling the palace!”
“Lead me to the roof!” Gandalus ordered, as he was eager to see it for himself.
They both scrambled to the roof of their part of the palace, and as the wizard emerged through the door, the massive black dragon was sailing past. It was pretty big, and Gandalus hadn’t seen one that large in decades and the people below were still screaming and running for cover. After flying by, the massive dragon stopped flying and slowly landed on the roof of a large cathedral. The old wizard walked up to the edge of his roof, and never took his eyes off the massive beast. It was at that moment when he finally noticed there was someone on the dragon’s back, and he recognized her immediately. It was the very same chaos witch that had destroyed his totem, and she now was before him on the back of a dragon. He turned to face the soldier the that escorted him to the roof.
“Where is the king?” the old wizard asked him.
“He’s in the throne room,” the soldier answered.
Gandalus removed himself from the roof and descended back into the belly of the palace and made his way to the throne room. When the old wizard opened the big doors and entered the massive room the king was sitting on his throne, and he looked just as scared as the people who were running around outside.
“Is it true?” the king called out. “Are we under attack by someone riding a dragon?”
“There is someone out there riding a dragon,” Gandalus confirmed, as he strolled closer. “But she we do not appear to be under attack.”
“How can you be so sure, Gandalus?” the king demanded.
Gandalus could tell by the king’s tone that he was scared, and didn’t like his power being threatened so publicly. There was no immediate danger, but Gandalus had to make sure that his king was pushed into making decisions he could regret later.
“Your highness,” Gandalus started, with a calm tone, “The dragon is perched upon a tall building and yet to fire a single puff of smoke. If this dragon and its rider wanted to attack us, they would have already. I have a feeling that is not why she’s here.”
“She?” the king repeated, “You know this rider?”
“I recognized her,” Gandalus confessed, “She’s a witch.”
“So, we are under attack!” the king roared, his fear heightened again.
“I’m not sure,” Gandalus replied, trying to calm the man down. “All she has done is fly around the palace with her dragon. Neither of them have made any action that would suggest this is an attack. Let’s wait for her to tell us why she’s here rather an assume it.”
“How are you sure she’s here to talk?” the king asked.
Before the old wizard could respond, there was someone yelling from the door leading into the throne room.
“There’s something approaching!” another solider called out.
The parchment that Ginelle has sent into the castle floated past the big doors and softly soared into the big room. The king stood up as he thought it might be a threat, but the old wizard recognized what it was and started to walk towards it. He snatched the parchment the moment he was close enough to reach it and the spell carrying it faded out.
“What is that?” the king called out.
“It’s a message, your highness.” Gandalus replied, “Our young witch sent it specifically to me to make her demands heard.”
“What does it say?” the king asked.
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Gandalus opened the parchment and read the message, which was brief but was clear about what she wanted.
“She is asking for the witches in the tower to be released,” Gandalus replied, “And says that if you refuse to do that, there will be dire consequences.”
“She’s threatening us?” the king asked, angered by the witch’s audacity, “How dare she! Who does she think she is?”
“It could be an empty threat,” Gandalus suggested, “And she could be merely using the dragon to scare us into giving her what she wants.”
“Well, it will not work!” the king replied, “I will not release anyone!”
“A wise choice, my lord,” Gandalus replied, “I would also recommend calling her bluff. There is only so much damage a single dragon can do. We can also have billistas mounted on every towers to defend the palace.”
“How soon can we get them up there?” the king inquired.
“I believe we can have them set up and loaded to fire by dawn,” Gandalus answered, “Which is when I believe she will return. She’s going to give us the night to consider her demands, and we’ll use that time to set up our defenses.”
“An excellent suggestion, Gandalus,” the king agreed, “Make it so.”
“At once, your highness,” the wizard said, making a respectful bow. “And with that I shall take my leave.”
The wizard removed himself form the throne room and got his knights to assemble all the men then needed to set up the ballistas. He ordered them to work around the clock and get them up to each tower and assembled immediately. He also emphasized that the tower above the throne room was the highest priority to be set up first. Once the knights and their men were put to work, Gandalus felt it was time to get some more information about who he was dealing with. He immediately walked over to the tower when all the witches were imprisoned and spoke with the warden of the guard. After getting most of his questions answered, Gandalus knew who he wanted to speak with as he walked up to specific cell and located the witch in question. There were two women in her cell, but he didn’t care about the other who was laying down quietly in her cot. The other witch was sitting upright and appeared to be doing some king of meditation. Since she was the older of the two, the wizard knew she was the one he was looking for.
“You there,” Gandalus called out, “You’re the witch they captured at the logging camp, aren’t you? The one they call Margorie?”
“I am,” Margorie replied, “But I was not captured.”
“You were not,” Gandalus replied, “Then how did you get here?”
“I surrendered,” the old witch replied.
“I see,” Gandalus said, processing her answer, “And what of the young girl that flew away with her dragon. What kind of danger does she present?”
“None that I’m aware of,” Margorie answered, “She is far away from your clutches.”
“I find that hard to believe,” the old wizard countered, “She was here about an hour ago, riding that big black dragon.”
“She was,” the other lady in the cell said, sitting up. “What was she doing here?”
“Making threats,” Gandalus said, as he held up the parchment Ginelle send him.
“What did she ask for?” Margorie asked.
“For your release,” the old wizard informed her, “And she threatened to attack if her demands were not met.”
“With what army?” the younger witch in the cell asked.
“That is a very good question,” Gandalus said, turning to face Margorie, offering her the letter for her to read for herself. “Do you think she’s bluffing?”
Margorie walked over and took the parchment from the wizard and carefully read it. It was definitely a threat, as she promised great consequences if the witches were not released as soon as possible.
“I cannot answer that question,” Margorie answered, handing the message back.
“And why not?” the wizard asked.
“Because I haven’t seen her in a while,” Margorie replied, “I’ve been stuck her for months since you arrested me, so I cannot say how strong she may have become in my absence or if she resumed her training at all.”
“Are you the one that was teaching her chaos magic?” Gandalus asked, curious to see how she would respond.
“I think you already know the answer to that,” Margorie asked, not in the mood to play games with him.
“I suppose I do,” Gandalus said, “But it matters not. After we kill he dragon, the young chaos witch will be brought here and executed along with you on the King’s birthday as scheduled.”
“She’s just a child!” the other young woman yelled, “You wouldn’t dare!”
“I will dare,” Gandalus countered, “Especially if she attempts to attack us!”
“I would suggest you not underestimate the young girl,” Margorie recommended, “She is quite powerful and very creative.”
“I see,” the old wizard said, “I will make preparations for that as well.”
“I look forward to seeing what happens,” Margorie said, as a small smile crept across her face. “I suggest you get started on those preparations, because I doubt you have a much time to prepare as you believe you do.”
Gandalus was tempted to respond to the snarky witch, but he didn’t want to tip his hand and reveal too much. Instead, he left the dungeon and the tower and returned to his own chambers to hit the books and start to look up things he could to do assist his king and defense of his palace. The old wizard was reading through various spell books looking for something that might assist his defense of the palace, but despite his best efforts he wasn’t able to find any. There were plenty of spells to use if he wanted to defend the walls from elephants or mounted bears, but nothing to assist with taking out a dragon. The problem was dragons were immune to magic, and that made the ballistas their only hope. After looking through books all night, Gandalus decided to climb the towers and inspect the ballistas and make sure they were all properly assembled and loaded. There were as many as ten of them set up on various towers around the palace, and the old wizard made his way around to each tower to check on them and make sure they were ready to use. He had checked over half a dozen of them and thus far the knights had done a fine job. He was in the middle of inspecting one when the Captain of the Knight’s came up to speak with him.
“Are you checking each one?” the captain asked him.
“Wouldn’t you do the same if you were in my shoes?” the wizard replied.
“I suppose so,” the captain conceded, as he understood. “There are three more that are still being assembled, but they should be finished and ready for inspection very soon.”
“Excellent,” Gandalus said, as he stood back up. “I’m not sure if we’re going to need them, but I guess there’s nothing wrong with a little practice setting them up.”
“Nothing at all,” the captain concurred, but at that moment a loud piercing roar filled the sky that was just starting to light up.
“Where did that come from?” Gandalus called out as he stated to look around for the source of the sound that had just startled him.
“Over there!” the captain called out, and pointing in its direction. “Rising up from the forest!”
Gandalus turned to look over where the captain was pointing, and he was right. That black dragon was emerging from the treeline of the forest that was beyond the gates of their kingdom. He was unsure if the dragon had been hiding out there all along or if they just crept up before dawn to get the element of surprise.
“I guess seven ballistas will have to do,” Gandalus said, as he turned back to face the captain “We’re going to have to make do with what’s already assembled.”
“Are you sure that’s going to be enough?” the captain then asked.
Gandalus turned back to see what the captain was referring to, and the site before him was something that he did not expect. There was no longer one dragon emerging from the forest but over a hundred black dragons rising up out of the trees. The sky was filled with dragons, and it was at this point where the old wizard realized that the young chaos witch was not bluffing as were about to suffer Ginelle’s consequences.