Our little group of outsiders meet in front of our room a little after seven. Lein and Veria were given formal dresses while Albius got some sort of greyish tuxedo. The dog was left behind nimbling on a bone, Albius also thought that I, as a pet, should stay behind but Lein refused. Erith lead us to a large dinning hall. Most of the already seated guests looked our way when we entered. There was the occasional glare but most were gazes filled with innocent curiosity.

Lein and Veria were seated next to Erith, on the left of a suspiciously huge armchair, oversized to the point it looked more like a throne. Vatel sat on the other side of said armchair, still displeased by our presence.

Then she came. A beautiful iceborn in a short sleevless dress, a coat resting on her shoulders. On top of her head a black crown adorned by multiple saphires proved her rank. She has red eyes and black hair that make you think she could melt the ice walls by staring at them. A queen, radiant and imposing, sat in the armthrone or whatever it is. None seemed too bothered by her until she sat, at that moment all chatter and movement stopped.

Oh and I'm 100% sure that she is the woman from my dream. I need to learn more about her.

The woman looked around her and rose her glass of what I believe is some sort of local alcohol.

"To my brothers and sisters" she said then drank the whole thing.

Everyone did the same and started talking like before.

"Does this happen every time you eat dinner?" Lein asked Erith.

"Yeah, it's a tradition for the memebers of house Ervadiel to drink together after a day of work."

"And who might those guests be?"

Lein and Erith both looked at the woman that asked that question. The queen, having already emptied her glass was getting a refill from Vatel. Erith answered her as she was gauging us. She feels strange, the same feeling as Lein, as if I have met her before, like an old friend that I don't remember. I couldn't help but stare at her and she stared back. We locked eyes for ten seconds before Lein interupted us.

"Is there a problem with my cat?"

"It's not a cat, is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"We'll talk about this later, I want to enjoy my food now."

The way she cut off the conversation means it's not something peoples should know. Is she a witch?

Erith ignored the conversation and introduced her sister, Sylm, queen of the iceborns and matriarch of house Ervadiel. Said queen became such after proving herself in the trial of legacies, some sort of arena challenge one faces in the royal mausoleum. The challengers has to go through one trial for each of the previous rulers, effectively making the challenge harder and harder over time.

And you can tell that she isn't some sort of decorative ruler, you can tell at a glance she exels in both battle and political power. Even in the middle of a meal she has a longsword hanging on her hip and is always keeping her legs far enough from the table so she could unsheath and jump on it at the same time.

The food here is surprisingly normal. Mostly meat from cattle that can survive the weather with a bit of mushrooms and some root-like vegetables. The wine is made by fermentation of wild berries from forests that can only be reached by traveling on drake back.

She didn't have to be on guard though, nothing worth noticing happened during the banquet. When we were about to leave Sylm grabbed Lein's shoulder.

"Please follow me, there is something we need to talk about."

Veria wanted to stick with us but Sylm refused saying that she only wanted to talk to Lein. Veria relented when Sylm said that I could come with.

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Lein nodded, took me in her arms and followed the queen. We went through several corridors and ended up in front of a large metal door. The guards in front of it are wearing dark grey armor that look far sturdier than the light blue ones the other common guards have.

The guards were wary at first but lowered their weapons when they realized their queen was here.

"Open the doors, I am going in the vault."

"But your magesty, outsiders aren't..."

She cut him without a second thought: "I don't care, I am in no danger and these two may be of help with some of our relics."

"Two?" the guards looked at Lein and noticed my feline appearance yawning from my master's arms.

"What did old man Oradiel say again? Believing in your eyes is conceited, for there is a whole word outside of your sight." Sylm said with a smirk.

The guards sighted and opened the door and my blood froze, not because it was cold but because I noticed the slightly lighter shade of blue the ground was. This is the place where Sylm died in my dream.

But there is no one else than me and Lein here. Where is the murderer? Is this event supposed to happen later?

I methodically checed everything in the room, the walls are covered in artifacts but none seem alive and they are kept behind some sort of ice cover that prevent mana and curses from excaping. Sylm walked toward a largeer and thicker ice prison. A book and a staff are floating inside it. Sylm stared at it for a second and looked back at us.

"This is the staff of the winter witch."

Good to know that it's here but right now I need to know if this place is safe.

"It's an artifact that every leader of the Ervadiel inherit. Sadly, none of us seemed able to use it. When I was born and managed to get a witch job everyone was mad with excitement. Until we realized that I was terrible at ice magic and couldn't wield it either."

Wonderful story but where is that assassin?

"Why did you tell me that?" Lein asked, quite lost.

"You are a witch, I'm pretty sure of it, your familiar is proof of that."

"You know what Fenrir is?" she took a step closer to Sylm.

"He should be a witch's beast right? He is a pet created by witches to be able to transform and adapt to their every need."

"But I'm not a witch though."

"Wha..."

At that point I realized, I haven't looked up! The enemy must be on the ceiling. And I was right, a large part of the ceiling is covered in mana. Someone is hiding here. The tool he is using to hide is extremely good, it doesn't let out much mana, I wouldn't have noticed it without checking every inch of the ceiling.

He must be waiting for us to lower our guard, then kill Sylm and use Lein as a scapegoat. The best moment would be when Sylm will have her hands taken while opening one of the showcases. If I make the others notice him he'll attack, it would be better if I suddenly strike him by surprise.

As I was doing that, Lein and Sylm were done arguing and realized that Lein was a witch but didn't have the job since no one could teach her. Problem was that she had filled all her job slots already.

And I used Visions of madness on the thing hiding above us. The man screamed in both surprise and fear and fell on the ground. The spell only lasted one second because of my terrible mana capacity but that was enough. The iceborn was completely covered in magic clothes that blend into their surroundings and had a blade coated in poison, everything is right.

Wait no, it's not. Where is Veria? She was here in my dream but right now she isn't. Did I fuck everything up? Was that man just a scout? Why does he have a blade then? Does that mean this attempt would have failed anyways? Or is Veria nearby? I don't know.

Well I did it anyways. Now's not the time to think.

Sylm engaged the man in a swordfight while Lein instinctively started chanting ice domain. The man tried to throw a smoke grenade at us but I read his mind to anticipate and threw it out with telekinesis.

After that Lein froze his feets and the battle was done. The guards came in and took the man into custody.

Once the doors were closed again Lein ans Sylm resumed their talk. Sylm explained that the first iceborn was a witch that mastered ice magic. She also said that she couldn't use the ice staff but that the book's content about witchcraft was already far enough, hence why she wanted to give the staff to a witch that could wield it.

Lein said that she didn't have the witch job but Sylm said it wasn't a problem since she was a cryomancer. Cryomancer is a rare job that can only be obtained by an elementalist that has an affinity in both water and wind magic. I was plenty strong in my previous life with just one affinity, I can't immagine how powerful having two would be.

Lein relented and Sylm gave us a plan. Why? Because she can't just give a legendary relic to a foreigner. So when the rebirth festival happens tommorow Lein will stand in front of the statue of the ice witch. If she really has what it takes something should happen.

Both me and Lein were dubious but I guess it's worth trying. Plus it's still better than the 50km from Pampil.

Once we were done talking, Sylm went to handle the unwanted guest and me and Lein walked back to our room. The nightsky we can see from the windows is beautiful, though there is no aurora borealis this time.

When we reached our room we both collapsed on the bed and had to strain ourselves just to get ready and sleep in a decent position.