After the long traversal of the vegetationless salt pans, a steep ascent over equally desolate mountains followed, the roof of which, however, was covered by huge glaciers. It was an arduous journey over rough high-mountain passes. Then the route descended into a high-lying valley, that belonged to the southern Medye – in Ordania it would be called a county - of Kascharvarosh. Up here in this inhospitable region was their meeting point with the Hordes. On the long march here, which Viktoria had covered partly on horseback and partly on foot, she had frequently had conversations with Bertram. He seemed fine to her but radiated a certain amount of nervousness in her presence. She could understand that, since her magic was something terrifying to others, especially if, like him, you were an Alethic and saw magic as something sinister.
As they approached one of the larger farmsteads here, they could already see the countless woolly horses of the Kashar Hordes grazing on the wide highland pastures up here. Only farther down in the valley could forest be observed. Here they were still above the tree line. Over rocky paths and past all kinds of beautiful highland flowers in pink, yellow and even blue colour, the Alethic resistance fighters now slowly but steadily clambered down towards their destination. The large dwelling house of the mountain farm made an inconspicuous impression, especially as it was situated in what appeared to be such a picturesque location. The huge lodge, the lower storey of which was brick-built, and the upper storey made of timber, had a pitched roof on which, for whatever reason, a large number of stones had been laid at regular distances.
Lucius was the first to arrive alongside Viktoria and came to a halt in front of a fence made of larch wood, that enclosed the relatively large area directly in front of the farmstead. Despite the extra layers of clothing he had put on, he was shivering. What a contrast this was to the oppressive heat of the Geächtetenpfann, which they had passed through not too long ago! The sorceress, on the other hand, didn't seem to be feeling cold. Again and again, one could see her bending over her hands, out of which, as if from nowhere, small flames were suddenly flaring up. While the rest of her not-so-poor-in-numbers troop leisurely made their way down the hill, their leader gave instructions to tie the mounts to the pasture fence a little away from the farm, so as not to cause any trouble with the locals. He was apparently not yet aware that a huge number of woolly horses on the pastures here were those of the heathen rebels, with whom they had arranged to meet.
Before they had even set foot on the meadow in front of the large farmstead, a few seemingly rough contemporaries came out to meet them. They were wearing very light clothing considering the temperatures, at least from the visitors' point of view. However, they were not used to the clearly different climate of the Kashar Lands. What felt like late autumn temperatures to the outsiders was normal summer weather for these mountain people. A man with long brown hair - well, that description actually applied to at least half of the Kashars here - approached Lucius and extended his hand to him. After a quick greeting, they made their way inside the house. There would be a lot to discuss.
The interior of the multi-storey building was definitely unexpected and fascinating for the guests. There was no fustiness hanging in the air, but the aromas of smoked sausages and wood were nonetheless all-pervasive. As soon as one entered, it was immediately apparent how, just like in a shoebox, many things were crammed into a very small space here. All the walls had been adapted in some way for one purpose or another, be it as a cupboard, to store clothes, to hold tools or simply to lean things up against or pile up on. Accordingly, the space available in the corridors here was extremely limited, leading them all to walk through the house in single file, one behind the other. Following the host, they passed a few doorways and then finally entered a room to their left.
Only Lucius, Viktoria and another man from the Free Lancers would be joining the negotiations here. Everyone else would have to wait outside. The last man closed the door behind him, then all those invited took their seats on the simple wooden chairs, standing around here, which looked somewhat unprepared. In one of the far corners, a tiny house altar had been set up. It consisted mainly of two candles, a few sprigs of greenery from outside and a colourfully painted skull. It could be assumed that these were the remains of the master of the house's forebear.
On the way in, the princess had already taken off her headdress, as the temperature in here was sufficiently warm. Still, it was only now that the person who had led the three of them in noticed how strikingly red her mane was. In response, he momentarily shuddered for all to see. “Calm down. This is not a trap. We have not betrayed you. Allow me to explain the circumstances as to why this young lady is here,” Lucius tried to calm the situation down on the spot and stem the rise of any animosity. That was the first thing he said. Only then did he introduce himself under his false name, Bertram, and claimed to be the new leader of the Alethic resistance. He was not entirely wrong, as Etzel, Di Alduino and Petra were now in the hands of the regime, but he nevertheless had simply appointed himself as such. His host replied, “Lajosch. It's an honour!” He seemed to have recovered very quickly from his shock at the wizards' presence.
Even Mr. Cornel knew his name. The Supreme Leader of the Hordes was meeting them here in person. Therefore, the honour was actually theirs and not the other way around. A folk talisman hung around his neck, its striking lapis lazuli blue particularly eye-catching. The man was staring at them with a penetrating gaze while his guest proceeded to explain how they came to have a witch with them. As hard as it was to believe, that the girl had simply dropped in on him, at the same time, finding an alternative explanation was nigh impossible. The dishevelled-looking Alethic tried to make the matter palatable to him in another way:
“Just imagine what a stroke of luck this is for us! What we couldn't achieve with an ally like this!” Lajosch quickly relented and noted, “Your arguments make sense to me, Ordanian. What surprises me more, though, is that you are bringing this up so openly in front of the child.” It now seemed as if the Kashar had no inherent aversion to witchcraft. After all, it did not contradict their traditional ancestral worship, but this conjuncture was not just self-evident either. At least the Ordanians present here had not been aware of it.
So-called Bertram had already given a lot of thought to what the Supreme Leader of the Hordes had just said about Viktoria. As a result, he immediately proceeded to address the girl directly. “We've had a few conversations recently. I know that there is deep pain inside you, Viktoria. In all of us who have left our old lives behind and taken up arms, there is such a pain. We share your burden. For us, there is only one way to get rid of the sorrow is to tackle the root of the problem. In our specific case here, the root of this evil is the regime in Meglarsbruck. If we join forces with the Kashars here and march on the Imperial City together, we would probably still have a very poor chance of success. YOU, however, can make the decisive difference here! Help us! Destroy the city, then we can stand victorious!”
Viktoria looked sceptical, but did not utter a single word. So, the man urged her on, “Wouldn't it be the ultimate revenge on the one who is the source of your misfortune to cause destruction and chaos when, as is widely known, he loves order and reconstruction so much? You'd really get one over on him.” Sitting quietly, the teenager brooded over the matter. When Lucius was about to turn away, she finally gave an answer: “All right. I'll help you. But not for your sake. This has nothing to do with you or your beliefs.” When he heard this, Bertram almost wanted to burst out into malicious laughter, but just barely managed to control himself. “That's it! I have won! Hahaha!”, it went through his head. It really was ridiculously easy persuading a child to do something.
He then addressed Lajosch as follows, “Look, our goal is attainable. Let's combine our strength and strike a blow against Meglarsbruck!” The man addressed only returned a stern look for the time being. He clenched his large, strong hands into fists as he stared into one of the corners of the room. Now and again, even if only fleetingly, his gaze wandered over to the sorceress. He didn't say anything. What was going on here? Had Lucius expressed something wrong? But what was it then?
“I would rather we free our city of Nargyosh first. Our deepest desire, as Kashars, is to throw off the Ordanian yoke and make our homeland independent again. Therefore, our own capital comes first.” Somewhat confused, Mr. Cornel now made an effort to change the Supreme Leader's mind. “Remember that such an initiative can hardly last long. The empire would very quickly gather a large force for reconquest. This would only use up resources to no avail. It would be better for us to cut off the head of the snake!”
Pacing around the room in his traditional fur boots, Lajosch only gave him the same refusal once more. The man tried again and again to get through to him, but it was no use. The once so young, boisterous upstart, who back then had replaced the Tibors, had grown wiser over the years. He remembered only too well the disastrous defeat they had suffered in their invasion of Ordania during the revolution. He was no fool. Before he would do something so foolhardy, these monotheists had to give him something in return. Nargyosh appeared to be a good pawn for him. Thus, he stubbornly stuck to his position. At the end of today's negotiations, he politely bid farewell to the three invitees and had them escorted to their rooms. The last word had not yet been spoken, even if he wished this were the case.
That night, Viktoria dreamed of nothing at all, because she couldn't catch a wink of sleep. This was hardly any different to how she had been for the last few weeks. Nevertheless, there was a huge sense of unease festering within her. “Do I really want to stand by these pagans? The subversives at least believe in God, but the others are really dubious. Their barbaric world view just repulses me!”
As the sun illuminated the mountain peaks in a bright glint, Lajosch pushed aside the curtains of his room on the second floor to enjoy the ever so intoxicatingly beautiful view of the surrounding scenery. A crowd of foreigners were camped out on the pastureland below. These were, of course, the Ordanian dissidents. At the sight of them, the long-time resistance fighter now realized how much weaker the troops of these would-be revolutionaries actually were compared to his men. Barely three thousand men they had been able to drag here! Consequently, he concluded that it had been the right decision to insist on prioritizing the conquest of Nargyosh over these people’s objectives. It may be that these were not all of their forces, but he still felt vindicated in his position.
At around the same time, Lucius also peeked out of his window. What caught his eye, however, was something quite different from what the Supreme Leader of the Hordes had seen. In the early morning bustle of the young warriors, a person could be seen approaching down the steep trail from the mountain. The moment he recognized her, his jaw dropped to the floor. It was Petra Vogt, accompanied by a few stragglers of the Free Lancers! Like a whirlwind, he rushed out his door, down to the ground floor and out into the open in clothing that was clearly too light. As if impelled, he rushed towards the woman he had already written off.
On her descent, the lady spotted her “ally” rushing towards her from afar. She stopped and waited for him to come to her. Out of breath, the guy came to a halt in front of her. Nevertheless, he immediately addressed her, panting: “You ....and your companions.... will henceforth only call me Bertram. That's my name, do you understand?” - “Well, good day to you too!”, she cynically replied. “What's the rush?” Of course, the man had to explain to her straight away why he was so hurriedly going like a bull at a gate. “Something has come up that you don't know about. The girl, I mean the witch, who is the princess, is with us. And I was able to ensnare her. But she thinks I'm Achaz's uncle who goes by the name of Bertram. So, call me that name from now on, or we all could really be in big trouble.”
Petra's arrival carried the great risk of exposing him and his web of lies to Viktoria. That's why he had to eliminate this danger as quickly as possible. He elaborated, “She hadn't seen me in person yet, which is why she doesn't know that I'm Lucius. It would only confuse her, if she now found out that I was pretending to be someone else.” - “I understand,” the lady replied offhandedly. “I'll try not to reveal your deceptions.” This immediately caused the man to relax markedly. Then he said to her, “We'll discuss the rest later. I'd better get back inside.” The morning air was clearly too brisk for his thin sleeping garments.
While the short man, Mrs. Vogt and her handful of companions strolled down to the farm together, she had a little chat with one of the fighters. It was the one who had helped her escape from Alexander in the Duhnmarshes. For quite a while she had already noticed that someone was stalking her back then, but she had no idea what to do as he had always stayed out of reach and especially out of her sight. However, when she happened to run into one of their rebels, she had the idea to follow an already existing trail on the ground until the road branched off into different directions, whereupon she rode along on the back of the Free Lancer’s horse. The young Kuhn had then simply continued to follow the other trail, as he did not anticipate that Petra's trail could suddenly turn into hoofprints. It was a trick of passable cleverness. In any case, it had succeeded in shaking off the pursuer.
She had already known the agreed meeting place with the Kashars. Since there were only two of them at that time, they were able to catch up with Lucius' convoy. Or, well, they had almost caught up with them. Only a day after them did they arrive. But now Petra would really have to walk on eggshells. She couldn't blow Lucius' cover in front of Viktoria, but of course, she would also try her own manipulation on the girl. This traitor would get his just deserts, she would see to that. Perhaps she could even use the she-devil for this. All this continued to fester in her mind as they were entering the farmstead. This entire thing had become a huge poker game, and she had to play her cards RIGHT, then she would be able to win.
“Should I seriously go along with this? Am I actually prepared to do something so contradictory? None of these people, neither the Alethics nor the Kashars, think anything of wizards like me. I'm not afraid of them, no, that certainly not. And the act of rebellion against my homeland, does that bother me? No, that's not the case either. I don't give a damn about all those rich bimbos, snobs and highborns there. They can burn in the fires of hell for all I care! So, why am I so hesitant? What's holding me back?”
Lying on an uncomfortable straw mattress, Viktoria was staring at the ceiling and pondering the doubts that now plagued her. Very quickly, however, the images of her murdered parents reappeared in her mind. Deeply affected, she began to cry, as if out of nowhere. How many times had this happened to her now? She had never even begun to count. Though, it was clear that she shed tears for them every day. And mixed in with this deep melancholy was the loss of Achaz and the loss of her relationship with her adoptive parents. Her life was in shambles!
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As this was going through her mind, she remembered Wenzel again. It made anger well up inside her. “All of this is his fault! He didn't want to see me with Achaz, and so he did the unthinkable. If that hadn't happened, the events with my parents wouldn't have taken place either!” Of course, she overlooked the fact, that the consequences of her actions during her night-time sleepwalking could not possibly be Wenzel's fault, and that blaming him for this was going a little too far. But she didn't care. In her eyes, the origin and root of all her sadness was solely and exclusively Wenzel!
“No, I will inflict the greatest possible pain on him by destroying the stability and prosperity of Ordania! Therefore, helping these rebels is the right way to go about it,” was the conclusion she now drew from this. Blind emotionality caused by trauma. The girl was a most dangerous time bomb. And in an instant, this was demonstrated once again. As a manifestation of her irate temper, her mattress spontaneously caught on fire!
In an instant, she jumped up, let the thing float into the air, opened her window with telekinesis and threw her sleeping pad out there. She didn't see it fall onto the grass below, but she could hear the thud of it hitting the ground. The smoke quickly called the residents of the house to the scene, who rushed in at her door in concern. “It's all right. I've already solved the problem,” she simply informed them, without going into any detail. What followed, however, was very outlandish for the interlopers in her room. The magician spontaneously and without any apparent cause burst into laughter. This episode did not last long, and she swiftly regained her poise. Nevertheless, it was a strange incident for the involuntary witnesses of this.
The situation soon calmed down again. Although the mattress below burned down, it quickly went out again. The flames did not spread to the surrounding meadow, as a few menials quickly rushed over with buckets of water and suppressed the source of the flames. Thankfully, apart from the brief shock the inhabitants had received, not much had happened. Yet, Viktoria didn't offer them any apologies. She was far too angry with herself, as she hadn't been able to keep her power in check. This affair, just like everything else that had happened recently, was eating away at her, quite literally driving her crazy.
Later, she crossed paths with Bertram. Somewhere in one of the narrow corridors of this large house, she met the man she had been looking for. Right off the bat, the girl approached him. “Hey, I've been thinking about this whole thing with the Hordes some more. I think we should help them reach their goal first. Then we could do what you wanted, and they would have no excuse not to support us. As the saying goes, you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.” The person she was talking to stood there dumbfounded for a moment, not knowing what to say. The girl had obviously thought it over carefully beforehand.
Eventually, however, he replied, “You actually want to stand by them? I don't think we can really trust these,” he demurred for a moment, but then continued in a quieter tone, ”barbarians. They probably just want to take advantage of us, and you in particular!” In a serious voice, the girl gave him her rebuttal, “They won't risk betraying me. Anyone who makes me angry will rue it bitterly! Please, tell that to their leader, too.” At that, even Lucius almost got intimidated. This was a wily approach the witch had taken here. It was not so dissimilar to his own. But being feared also entailed being unpredictable. And to the supposed Bertram, she was predictable. At least that's what he thought.
After this brief conversation, the man left the building and went for a short walk. He now had to think about everything that had happened in the past 24 hours alone. Earlier, he had had another conversation with Petra. There had been a couple of things he wanted to know from her. Her explanations, especially those concerning the fact that the Demon Emperor had simply set her free, surprised him greatly. “I don't believe her one bit! There's something she is refraining from divulging to me, and I don't know what it is,” he mused as he walked along a rutted path leading away from the farmstead.
There was considerably more going on in his vicinity than one would ever imagine in such a place. Countless Kashar warriors, Lajosch's loyal men, who were working as helpers for the mountain farmers for the duration of their stay here, were running around everywhere doing all kinds of work. Looking a little further up into the valley, one could spot the camp site that the Free Lancers had set up for themselves, or, well, those who had not made a run for it. A large number of those who had gotten away in the recent strike by the Melgarist forces in Camenia had in fact turned tail and had not made their way to their designated destination, which was this location right here. Probably without knowing it, the devil Wenzel had put a severe damper on the resistance.
As he was leaning against the pasture fence, the second-in-command of their organization came up to him from behind. His name was Randolf, and he was the one who had been present at their meeting with the Supreme Leader of the Kashar Hordes. “What are you doing out here?”, he wanted to know from him. The answer followed without delay, “Devising our strategy, drawing up plans by myself.” Right away, the guy was all ears. “It looks like we'll have no choice but to help the Hordes accomplish their objectives before we can start the counterrevolution in our homeland. Perhaps Etzel had even foreseen such an outcome. That could also be the reason why he didn't invite the remnants of the Alethic Commune to this, and indeed why he didn't even contact them. Well, that and probably their current internal fragmentation in general.”
The commander just nodded and continued listening to him. “What he naturally could not have foreseen was the ‘Unholy Army’ finding us, and the she-devil coming to us and making herself our willing tool. A stroke of misfortune and a stroke of luck in close succession. No matter, we now must make do with what we have.” Then he finally turned directly to his listener, “Go to Lajosch and tell him that we consent to following his plan. Unless, of course, you think we could go about this differently?” - “No, it's like you said. We hardly have any good options here.” Consequently, the fighter strode off and made his way to the Supreme Leader.
Nighttime was falling. The living area of the building was filled with the smell of sausages and other fumes, and it felt like there was far too big a crowd of people crammed together, spending the night here. Viktoria, who had spent most of the day in her bedchamber, now followed Lucius, who led her to a private room where they could be alone. Most likely, this was about the issue of how their group would now proceed. When she arrived in a small room, however, she spotted a black-haired lady who had already been waiting for them there.
“Viktoria, may I introduce you to Petra,” he said, getting the two of them acquainted. Mrs. Vogt immediately stood up and held out her hand to greet her, but then stopped short when she noticed the princess's eyes with their little red veins. Pulling herself together, she introduced herself to the teenager in a friendly manner. However, her first name alone had made it immediately clear to the youngster who the person in front of her was. As a result, she tensed up. Immediately afterwards, she turned to Lucius and asked him, “Does she know about.....you know?” - “No. I haven't told her anything yet. But I do think we should approach the matter cautiously,” the man replied. Although he had expected such a question from her, he hadn't anticipated her asking it outright in front of Mrs. Vogt. That was most definitely a problem!
Petra understood perfectly well what this was all about, but played dumb by just looking at the two people opposite her quizzically. Bertram made a dismissive hand gesture and said, “Let's forget about that for now. What's more important are the things I have to tell you.” He took a quick breath and then continued, “I have informed Lajosch that we will first...ahem... ‘free’ Nargyosh. This should give our alliance a basis of trust, on the basis of which we can then prepare a blow against the heartland of the Empire.
From what I understand, the Supreme Leader of the Kashar Hordes has already given the order for all available forces on their side to assemble. With the mage here at our side, we cannot lose this battle. The subsequent campaign against Ordania will probably be much more difficult. But I have high hopes in this regard.”
Consequently, the older woman let him know that she was extremely unhappy about having been passed over in this decision. The deceitful Bertram only apologized to her rather lapidarily, which offended the one who had lodged the complaint. She just tried not to show it. After that, the two women took over the conversation, barely letting Bertram get a word in edgeways.
“I've heard of you once or twice. My son knows you. At the moment he isn't here; he's probably still in Ordania with Fabio, my partner.” She deliberately tried to come across as clueless as possible. After all, she did have to deceive the witch AND Lucius, neither of whom were allowed to catch wind that she was aware of Achaz's passing. It seemed to work, because Viktoria only spoke to her in a fairly reserved manner, quietly and about more pleasant topics. She kept looking at the mother's face, only to avert her gaze again instantly, whenever their eyes met.
Very soon, however, it all seemed to become too much for the teenager. Less than an hour later, she got up from the table where they had been sitting, said her goodbyes and turned in for the evening. Petra and Lucius also called it a night. The lady had been only moderately successful in her attempts to get closer to the princess. She would still need a while to build up trust with her. And Lucius? In her eyes, he was an imbecile! He hadn't even been able to put one and one together, that Wenzel had informed her about what had actually happened in the palace on that fateful day! It should have been in his own interest to keep her as far away from the sorceress as possible. But he was too naive even for that. This gave her confidence that she would be able to give him the runaround. Her revenge would come when he least expected it!
Gingerly and on tip-toes, a person toddled through the hallways. It was already pitch black and you almost had to use your sense of touch to find your way around. Apart from the occasional squeaking of the floorboards when they were stepped on, or the occasional loud snoring coming from one of the nearby chambers, it was completely silent. The figure hurriedly crept on until they arrived at the door of a certain room. They pushed the door handle down very carefully so as to not make any noise, then slowly entered and closed it just as carefully behind themself again. The moonlight fell through the window onto the clandestine burglar. It was Viktoria. Lying in the bed in front of her, wrapped in a thick blanket, was Mrs. Vogt. Leerily, she looked down on her.
“Here I can get to the bottom of things undisturbed now. In front of Bertram, I wouldn't have been able to look into her thoughts and memories without causing massive friction with him. I really don't want that to happen.” The young lady soon had gotten a queasy feeling during her interactions with Petra. It wasn't just the fate of that person's son, which weighed heavily on the redhead, that was to blame for this. No, all the signals that Mrs. Vogt's mannerisms, her facial expressions and gestures, had sent her had been suspicious. She sensed that this woman was hiding something from her. And she did not believe that it was simply the fact that Achaz's mother had deliberately pressured her son into entering into a relationship with Viktoria in order to take advantage of her. Although Petra had concealed this from her too, the mage was convinced that there had to be more to it.
She would uncover the mystery here and now with complete peace of mind. Even though she could get into her head at any time, because unlike her father, she was able to read the minds of others without them allowing her to do so, it would have caused her too much trouble in the presence of others and would have had consequences. This nocturnal operation was much smoother and less problematic. Besides, in this scenario she would offer no mental resistance to her intrusion, which of course made it much easier for the girl to penetrate her innermost recesses.
She approached the dormant woman right up to the very edge of her bed. Then she reached down and tried touching her as gently as possible. She succeeded. Petra did not wake up. Next stop: her memories.
......
An oppressive voice rang out from the gaping void: “Lucius, wake up!”
“Huh? What?” He recognized the voice. Why was she disturbing him at such an hour? It wasn't even light outside yet.
“Time for you to wake up, Lucius.” - “Can't this wait? It's......” He abruptly stopped himself from uttering any further words. It had occurred to him, with which name he had been addressed. Gripped by pure horror, he jumped up, only to unexpectedly find himself gazing directly into her face. Two luminous spheres, in which flames wild like purgatory itself were blazing, lit up the room and were staring at him balefully.
“Where did you.....” - “Shut up, you mother******!”, it thundered back. “I will neither ask nor beg you for this!” Then she read his thoughts as well.
Ice-cold air was whizzing around his ears. At a dizzying height, the Chosen One flew towards the horizon, which gradually revealed the distant summits of the Kasharian mountain ranges. “This Alexander really is good for nothing!”, he fretted. A few weeks after the start of his mission to track Petra, the guy had come crawling back to him wistfully, only to inform him that he had lost her scent. His Majesty had obviously not been pleased with such news, but at the same time he hadn't really been upset about it. “Whatever might happen, she can't get away from me,” he repeated his own earlier statement as he looked at the cerulean sparkle of the stone. The sceptre, of which it was a part, was lighting him the way to the woman.
A barren desertscape passed beneath him and he crossed the first mountain. Right then, his wayfinder stirred and pointed him in the direction of one of the valleys in the immediate vicinity. Despite the thicker clothing he was wearing as a precaution, Wenzel was shivering from the freezing temperatures. He sank down and got closer and closer to his destination. Eventually, his sceptre guided him to the large ruins of a farmhouse, that had apparently burned down. Black and charred, it loomed before him, the smell of smoke and ash still in the air. It was obvious that it had only recently gone up in flames.
Strewn all around were countless, seemingly lifeless corpses. When the emperor noticed this, he let his gaze wander in search of the perpetrator of this carnage. Nothing. Further away, he saw a few marauders dumping the deceased together into a heap, most likely after having stripped them of their still usable belongings. For some reason, they hadn't picked up on the wizard's arrival, so that's probably why they didn't run away from him right away. Wenzel would certainly question this lot about what had happened here. But first he had to find Petra. The scene which presented itself to him here gave him a bad feeling though.
The Imperial Sceptre pointed in the direction of the destroyed farmhouse. He approached it step by step and then cleared away any rubble in his way using his telekinesis. In the end, he was piloted to a charred, pitch-black corpse. There were quite a few of them under here. It was essentially just a skeleton, which made it impossible to verify without the shadow of a doubt that it was indeed Petra Vogt. However, his magical artifact said that it was, so His Highness assumed this to be the case. “Was she perhaps killed by the Kashars with whom she found refuge? That would be pretty absurd!”, he observed in a smug tone, followed by a laugh. He didn't care about her undoing. All it meant, was that he no longer had any means of finding Viktoria.
Next he moved on to what he assumed were the looters. He quickly floated over to the group, who only now realized who he was. They tried to run away, but he immediately restrained one of them. The poor guy was thrown to the ground and when he tried to get up again, the one above him grabbed him by the collar. “Tell me what happened here!”, he ordered him. Somewhat hesitantly and obviously confused, the man, who was wearing simple clothes but seemed to have good fur shoes, replied: “The witch did this! She killed them all!” Astonished, the mage let go of him for a moment. Viktoria's involvement in things here caught him off guard. But he quickly regained his composure and asked the next question: “Who? Who did she kill? Petra Vogt?” - “All of them! The Supreme Leader, Bertram, Gandolf, the woman who had joined them, and then everyone she could catch from our fighters here,” the interrogated man answered head over heels. It seemed that Petra was unknown to him.
Instead of joining in the poker game with these people, the princess had simply flipped over the whole table with all the cards on it. Thus, Empress Elisabeth's curse, with which she had maledicted the Cornels all that time ago, had finally come true. “And where is the girl now?”, he now was eager to learn. The guy simply responded by pointing his finger out into the distance. He indicated westwards. “That's the direction she made off in. From what I've heard, our leader has also discussed the possibility of attacking Meglarsbruck. Maybe...” His sentence remained unfinished. Wenzel let go of him and stomped away. But then he stopped again and thought about it. He was convinced that the man had deduced correctly. He would find her in the capital of the Empire. An ominous sense of foreboding overcame him.