The first princess, Vidia, summoned the second princess to the basement the next day.

They walked to a large wooden door with a gothic ogive and the hinges were extended into a sculpture of steel sheets holding the boards together and thick nails protruded forbidding any breaking down of the doors by physical means except a siege ram, but given the space, that was unthinkable.

Torches in front and on the sides produced the light necessary for the queen to enter a large iron key and open the two doors. They opened automatically, as if an invisible force was pushing them open.

Obviously, this was a world of magic and... almost no science.

I was hidden under the shoulder strap of my princess' dress and I was accompanying her, helped by an invisibility spell that I had been trying to learn these last days.

I could not attack nor move, well, the bare minimum not to break the enchantments.

I was only an apprentice magician after all... and I was a wyvern too, which complicated everything. Well, I had something to defend myself against, but 2-3 knights and I was sure to lose, even with my 6 m length, which, if you took away my tail and the length of my neck, left me only 2 meters tall. Apart from the immense strength of my arms, I had the strength of 2 knights... and nothing more. I was far from the strength of dad or Kratos or even Sido, the clumsy one. She was so distracted, that she managed to hit the same tree more than twice because she was not looking where she was going.

I smiled at the thought of her. Everyone loved her and her clumsiness made the atmosphere fun. But she could laugh too.

But something told me that she was not far away... and I was not wrong.

She had gotten lost on her "mission" and had mistaken Winter Fort for the capital...and she wanted to enter through the front door as if nothing had happened.

Of course, nets were thrown on her and as she begged, she was not put to death but dragged to a dungeon, under the castle, in the dragoons, where they trained wyverns for knights but .... they were all eaten...

The queen was warned by a page, just before going down the stairs and she looked at Chlorophylle smiling.

The second princess then lowered her head, because a smile always meant misfortune.

She clenched her fists and swore through her teeth. "These heroes and this kingdom, he can go to hell, let him die ... and me with ..." Then she put her hand on my head, looking for comfort from a friend.

"Mir... save me from this hell.... kill me for mercy..."

I clamped my claws into her shoulder to make her react but she relented and I stopped. I didn't want to stain her dress with her blood.

I whispered

"Princess, I need you.. You matter at least to me and your godfather... we are here..."

But I kept quiet, so as not to attract attention, but the princess could sketch a small smile. she sighed..

She wanted to give herself another chance thanks to me.

Then she shed a tear... "Mir... You are my prince charming..."

I blushed at this sentence but I was still too young...or so I thought...dragons becoming teenagers at a lightning speed. But in my head, I was still a baby dragon and an adult human and everything was mixed up. But this was not the time or place to think about romance. Besides, if I took advantage of the princess, I would feel like I was taking advantage of her and I would lose face with myself and the knights.

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But the reality hit me in front of the wickedness and brutality of this family.

It was indeed a family of witches. The queen was a witch, well, half a witch, because she could not inherit the powers of the witch of the East, the original being the mother of Chlorophylle who had to inherit the powers of her mother. In order for Vidia to inherit, through the blood of Felicius, Chlorophylle had to die. But not murdered. Accident, illness or death by exhaustion, yes. Not by poisoning or murder. The title sought the closest family blood. That was one of the weaknesses of this power, that if no family members existed or were simply eliminated, then it would fall to the remaining witches.

This was, of course, also in the Enchantress' mind.

Vidia, her sister, me (hidden) and the queen arrived in a circular room in one of the large halls in the basement of the imperial palace. Guards had followed us and were stationed at the base of the 12 Gothic arches that held the vaults in place.

In the center, marble geometric figures represented a kind of pentagram with a circle with a triangular shape on the side, but in this configuration, the pentagram was off-center and had three other circles with a triangle in it.

According to what I had read, the circles with the triangles served as points of appearance of objects or creatures that were to appear during the Summoning. The pentagram could rotate according to a celestial or demonic clock, depending on the point of view.

Everything was already in place and calculated, which is why the Summoning was held on the same date every year. The adjustments to be made were very long and so were the calculations. Another configuration could take several years before giving the same result.

It was a mixture of astronomy, astrology and also empirical geometry with trials/results that took ages (in my head... a stupid precession calculator... and there you go!).

From what I could see, the sciences were at the level of the renaissance, at most, and instead of being limited by the inquisition, it was the guild of magicians who were holding back, favoring empiricism and past experiments instead of a true mathematical revolution. They were still using the abacus and had not yet invented differential, matrix and analytical calculus. The Romans were further ahead in mathematics.

It was, in a way... sad. So much potential wasted by a plethora of rituals instead of a deep understanding.

But I certainly wasn't going to help them evolve... hah... no way! Idiots they were, idiots they will die. Well... a little less I hope... And idiocy was often the cousin of wickedness, often serving to hide their incompetence...

"As is appropriate for this time of year and the new 12-year cycle, we will proceed with the invocation of 2 or 3 heroes blessed by our patron goddess"

"First princess, please bleed the second princess! as the ritual requires.."

I could not believe my eyes.

The first princess, dressed as a figure from the Arabian Nights, like Scheherazade, but without the veils approached, a curved dagger at her belt made of red ribbon, the rest of her clothes, in blue and decorated with small leaves sewn in white and in relief, holding pearls and small silver semi precious stones.

"Courage big sister".

Queen: "FIRST PRINCESS! NO FAMILIARITY! "

Chlorophylle reached out her arm and her sister made a small incision causing a small trickle of blood.

"YOU CALL THAT AN INCISION?

But as soon as the blood hit the ground, the light came on and the queen did not interrupt the ritual to scold her daughter.

Then all the torches faded away and everything was plunged into darkness.

The pentacle lit up, revealing words in Latin and our alphabet, lost and unknown to the people of Alpha.

This alphabet, Roman, was lost, and only I could decipher it.

But I kept quiet, not wanting to be seen now.

And, given the situation, I don't think that either the emperor or the queen empress would be inclined to listen to my request. I think it would have the opposite effect. They were cruel like the whole empire and corrupt.

A hissing sound was heard throughout the kingdom and as far as the Enchantress's lair.

It was at this moment that the imprisoned dragons woke up and realized with horror that they were chained up in the dragons' stables.

Immediately, without realizing it, they all began to moan and small and large began to cry and scream in despair.

This shook his fortress.

No dragon or wyvern in captivity was screaming or crying. Never before this tribe...

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