The fire sorceress

Asteri follows the giant's movements with curiosity. The latter places his hand on Asteri's shoulder, begins to squeeze his hand so hard that that strange blue liquid comes out. The liquid falls on Asteri's wound and dissolves instantly.

The boy's wound begins to heal at an astonishing speed, leaving everyone stunned.

"That should be enough, human. Now you can go your own way." The giant returns to his sleeping form. Blending into the rocky form of him.

"Asteri, that giant managed to cure you, I didn't think they could do such a thing." Lanola approaches Asteri, looking at her completely healed shoulder.

"I didn't know either, well now we know something else." Asteri also knew nothing about it.

"Asteri ..." Beatrix approaches the two, followed by Allatu and Betty.

"I already know what you mean, eh no, you don't have to accuse yourself of anything." Asteri gives Beatrix a pat on the head, trying to calm her down.

"Guys, can we discuss this later? We have to hurry before more of the bastard's henchmen chase us." Lanola sees Beatrix trying to argue with Asteri, she interrupts them by noting that they are taking too long to stop in that place.

Everyone nodded to Lanola, except Beatrix who stared at the ground, still with accusing thoughts towards herself.

The group starts running towards the city of rebellion again, but first they will stop at an outpost just before the city. Lanola informed them that this outpost is used to control the enemy's movements.

"Smoke? Quclosa is on fire ..." Allatu was the first to notice the smoke rising in a certain direction.

"Oh no, that's the direction of the outpost, let's hurry up!" Lanola probably recognized the source of the smoke.

The group prepares to reach the outpost. And just as Lanola suspected, the outpost was on fire.

"No ..." Lanola runs towards the burning outpost, followed by the rest of the group.

Asteri begins to analyze this structure. It was a simple garrison of soldiers, he estimated it could house from forty to fifty soldiers, therefore a small outpost. the outpost was built entirely of rock but this did not prevent the fire from devastating the structure.

"Completely destroyed, if this outpost was meant to spot enemies, why didn't they request reinforcements before the attack?" Betty looks around, noting burnt or completely incinerated corpses.

"Most likely they didn't see them coming, their attack was lightning fast." Asteri speculates that they were few but very strong.

"There is only one person who is capable of causing such destruction ... Framlee, the fiery madwoman." Lanola was almost sure of her statement.

"Who is she?" Allatu raises an eyebrow, not knowing the woman in question.

"She is a fire sorceress, she is also very skilled. But she is also a madwoman who sets fire to everything that bothers him, at the moment she is our enemy, but I don't think she is so faithful to the bastard who sits on the throne . " Lanola gives a quick explanation of the sorceress.

"She is an extraordinary woman, she managed to defeat an outpost in such a short time, it is not to be underestimated. Being a sorceress, she most likely opened a portal as close as possible to this outpost." Asteri kneels to inspect a charred corpse.

"Maybe that's exactly what happened, but we were convinced that Framlee was still in the capital, most likely she was tired of being quiet." Lanola walks towards a part of the outpost.

"Do our enemies have other wizards available?" Asteri stands up, having finished checking the body.

"No ... oh at least we think so, we don't know if they have other tricks up their sleeves. But we think someone is helping this bastard, someone very powerful." Lanola enters the only tower of this garrison. His intention was to find the captain of this outpost.

The group follows him, walking among all the charred corpses. "They were soldiers who were in the green core phase. Except for the captain who was at the start of the blue core, they had no hope against Framlee." Lanola explains to the group, trying not to step on the corpses so as not to disrespect the dead.

They climbed to the top of the tower and entered the captain's room. And as they suspected, the room was completely charred.

"Do you know her?" Betty felt a strange bond between Lanola and Framlee.

"I fought her several times, a few to tell the truth, but it was enough for me to understand that she was an opponent to be reckoned with". Lanola does not seem to be telling the whole truth, this is a presentiment that only Asteri feels. But the boy still decides not to speak.

"She also held back, usually it would have brought more destruction." comments Lanola, looking through a hole in the wall, the outpost below.

"I suspect this attack was also orchestrated by our mole. But we won't find anything here to help us track it down, let's run into town, before more dangers can occur." Asteri wanted to try not to waste the little time available to him and to immediately identify the identity of the spy.

"You're right, let's hurry." Lanola agrees with Asteri and they head to their destination.

Of all, the princess was the most despondent. All these soldiers were her supporters, but they died for nothing and she doesn't know what to do to honor their services.

Asteri notices the bitterness on Beatrix's face. "They were soldiers, so they were prepared for such an event. You didn't force them to follow you, it was their choice, they knew that death could come at any moment."

"They died for a useless princess who can't do anything good ..." Beatrix continues to be depressed.

"You can instead, you just have to try. Do you trust me?" Asteri looks into her eyes.

Beatrix does the same, she is completely lost in those very attractive dark purple eyes, too much to be honest. But she could sense various emotions from those eyes, including her sincerity about her. And not only that, but she too was determination, hope, strength ... but she was also able to perceive two other emotions, hidden in the shadows of the others; Fear is pain.

'Does he feel such emotions too? How stupid, of course he can. After all, he's a human like me ... it's just that his whole being looks like something more superior to a human.' Beatrix was lost in her thoughts about Asteri, but he had decided he couldn't go on like this.

"Yes! I trust you, Asteri." Beatrix says it without shame or insecurity in her heart.

"Good." Asteri shows a beautiful sincere smile full of warmth.