The rchants knew that the bandit problem would end. But they also knew that the western roads would be painted with blood before that happened. And so of that blood might belong to innocent people caught in the crossfire.
"Sera," King Eric said from his throne, his voice carrying warmth and absolute authority in equal asure, "we welco your assistance. Your power will be invaluable."
Aurelius’s expression remained neutral, but there was sothing in his eyes. He was calculating probabilities and outcos with cold precision.
Sera bowed, a gesture that made people uncomfortable.
"It will be my pleasure, Your Majesty," she said, and sothing in her tone made it seem like she ant that in ways that extended far beyond simple duty.
The bodies she left behind weren’t just dead; they were destroyed, desecrated, transford into warning ssages written in gore and viscera.
And most importantly, she liked to bathe in the blood of her enemies for so reason.
-------
The next scene unfolded hundreds of miles away from the capital, on a darkened forest road just miles away from entering the territory of Cordelia’s Magic Academy.
A lone, ornate carriage traveled down the winding path, its velvet interior glowing softly with enchanted light.
The horses pulling it were obviously expensive, matched pair, perfectly grood, synchronized steps with the kind of training that only noble houses could afford.
Inside the carriage, two won sat across from each other in comfortable silence.
The carriage suddenly lurched to a halt.
From outside ca shouting, coarse, aggressive voices barking orders. The sound of weapons being drawn. The organized chaos of an ambush being executed.
A large, coordinated group of heavily ard bandits burst from the tree line. They surrounded the carriage, weapons drawn, expecting an easy slaughter and a massive haul of luxury goods. The kinds of goods that traveled in carriages this expensive were worth small fortunes.
The bandit’s leader, a scarred brute with massive arms, approached the carriage door with his blade drawn.
"Open up!" he roared. "Hand over your valuables, and maybe we’ll let you live!"
From within the velvet interior, a soft, refined woman’s voice rang out, letting out a heavy, thoroughly bored sigh.
"Honestly..." the voice said with exasperation, dealing with bandits was beneath consideration. "Who are these idiots? We are almost at the academy."
A second woman’s voice responded, calm and entirely unbothered by the situation unfolding around them.
"Relax. Let handle the disruption. It will take no more than thirty seconds."
The carriage door clicked open.
An elegant woman stepped out onto the dirt road, moving with the kind of refined grace that only noble breeding stretching back generations could accomplish.
She was tall and slender, with sharp features and eyes that held an intelligence so profound it bordered on the supernatural. In her left hand, she casually held an intricate fan, the lacework so delicate it seed almost transparent.
She held the fan in front of the lower half of her face, obscuring her features from the bandits’ view.
The group’s leader observed her with a sense of bewildernt. Her deanor diverged significantly from his anticipations, which had included panic, supplication, and desperation.
Instead, he was being regarded by a woman whose composure hinted that the bandits were beneath her notice in ways that transcended simple social hierarchy.
"You have ten seconds to disperse," the woman said, her voice muffled slightly by the fan but carrying an unmistakable edge of authority. "After that, you will cease to exist as a coherent entity."
The bandit leader laughed, a harsh, brutal sound.
"You think you can..." he started.
The woman didn’t draw a blade. She didn’t chant a long incantation. She didn’t gather visible power or prepare for combat in any conventional sense.
She uttered a single, quiet word.
"Darkness."
The effect was instantaneous.
The ambient light of the moon and stars, which had been filling the forest road, was completely swallowed up.
A terrifying, unnatural pitch-black void dropped over the entire forest road. It wasn’t just the absence of light; it was the presence of sothing that actively consud visibility.
The bandits were plunged into absolute, sensory-deprived blindness. They couldn’t see their own hands held directly in front of their faces.
They couldn’t see their weapons, their allies, or anything that existed in the physical world. For them, there was only infinite, all-consuming darkness.
But the mysterious woman stood perfectly visible in the center of the dark.
She could see everything with absolute clarity. Every bandit frozen in place, every weapon held in trembling hands, every expression of terror that transford their faces into masks of primal fear.
She looked down upon them like an executioner regarding condemned criminals waiting for the axe to fall.
The fan remained held delicately in front of her face, obscuring her identity from view.
"Sister," she called back toward the carriage, her voice clear despite the supernatural darkness surrounding them, "I may require a mont longer than anticipated. These rcenaries appear to lack functional consciousness."
From within the carriage, a younger voice carrying a different tone but the sa refined accent, responded with amusent.
"Take your ti. We are not in any particular hurry."
The bandits stood frozen in the darkness, unable to see, unable to move, unable to escape from whatever nightmare they’d triggered by attacking a carriage carrying occupants far more dangerous than they could comprehend.
They had no idea who they’d ambushed.
They had no idea that they’d attacked mbers of a dukedom. One of the most powerful noble houses, with connections extending into the highest levels of political power and magical capability.
They had no idea that these won wielded magic so profound that they could reshape the fundantal laws of light and darkness with nothing more than a whispered word.
All they knew was darkness.
And standing in that darkness was a woman whose presence suggested that the next few monts would be the last they would ever experience.
The forest road fell into a silence so profound it seed to compress reality itself.
The bandits stood frozen in the supernatural darkness, their minds struggling to process what had happened. One mont, they’d been confident predators, surrounding an easy target. The next mont, they’d been plunged into a void so complete it felt like non-existence itself.
The rcenary leader tried to move his sword, but the weapon felt impossibly heavy in his trembling hands. His eyes strained against the darkness, searching desperately for any hint of light, any visual anchor point that might help him orient himself in space.
There was nothing.
Only the woman’s shadow was perfectly visible despite the absolute darkness surrounding her. Only the faint sound of her breathing, steady and patient. Only the terrible knowledge that he and his n were completely, utterly helpless.
Behind them, abandoned and forgotten, the carriage waited with its doors open, a gateway to a level of power and authority that transcended anything the bandits could have imagined in their worst nightmares.
The woman holding the fan tilted her head slightly, as if regarding insects beneath her notice.
And then, in the absolute darkness, things began to happen that would leave no witnesses and no evidence except for ash and the faint scent of ozone hanging in the midnight air.
"How fascinating," the lady in the carriage murmured to herself, her voice carrying amusent. "These rcenaries are of higher quality than the bandits we encountered in Elysium. Their training is evident. Yet they remain equally helpless."
From behind her fan, her voice drifted out, carrying absolute certainty.
"Darkness recognizes no hierarchy of combat skill, sister. All are equally blind."
She smiled behind her fan.
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