It cannot hurt.She smirks to herself.
The crimson gaze overtakes her, and she throws herself at the man like a feral animal, scratching at his face and ripping out his throat with her teeth. The wrath that courses through her veins is like none other. Whirling around, she unleashes a roaring blast of fire that consumes the remaining bodies and incinerates the heraldry on the walls.
“Blasted, Aura!” Crystal curses, forced to throw up a frost shield until the flames disperse. “What did I say?!” She scolds with her hands on her hips.
Aura releases the berserker, feeling herseidrlevel out more swiftly than ever. She has never had this much control over that ability. Even her father had little discipline over it.
“We killed them all, didn’t we?” She gives the Wicked Wyvern a toothy grin.
“Ah, yes, we did.” Crystal strides over to a blackened Odo, plastered against the stone wall. Aura’s last blast of flames must have torched him.
“Well,” Crystal sighs, kicking him in the shin and crumbling his charred leg to the floor, “you get to explain to your man what you did.”
As if summoned by their realization, Calder, Edmund, and Argnier rush inside, followed closely by a towering, older woman whom she assumes is Jarl Clementia.
They all freeze as they stroll inside. A widening smirk develops on Edmund's face, while Clementia’s jaw drops.
“What in Briny’s balls is that rancid stench?” Argnier waves his hand through the air as if he can fan it away.
Crystal nudges Aura forward. “The first witch on the continent since the end of the Halvgud Rebellion.”
Calder smiles widely, clutching each side of her face. “You make me so proud, beautiful girl!”
Aura glances at Odo, feeling her cheeks burn at his statement. “Yeah…thanks, Calder…”
“Where’s that bloated seal, Odo?” Argnier sniffs one of the fallen soldiers whom Crystal had strangled with a decorative plant.
“Yes, Aura, where is Odo?” Crystal crosses her arms.
Aura’s head droops slightly with shame as everyone follows the Wicked Wyvern’s gaze to what remains of the Sumpland Hold Jarl.
“Ah, that would be the aroma that makes me want to hurl the contents of my stomach.” Argnier curls his lip.
Edmund’s nose is close to the burnt skin, as if inspecting an ugly painting. “Didn’t we order this one raw?”
Calder wipes his hand across his face. “You had two rules, Aura. Only two!”
Aura kicks the stone floor with her boot. “You know how war gets. You get wrapped up in the moment and…” She forces herself to look at Odo, his face holding a ghastly look of surprise, and she doesn’t finish her thought.
“I think he makes a splendid new addition to my Great Hall.” Clementia interrupts, her presence far more imposing than Aura imagined.
Calder’s ire quickly wipes away to a smirk. He pulls Aura to his chest and kisses her forehead.
“What rule did you learn?” Crystal nudges Aura.
Aura observes the room, feeling like she could climb a mountain or fly to the moon.
“That myseidrhas good instincts.” She winks at Crystal, who scowls with a smile.
39
AURA
October 20th, Year 21, 10th Era
Sannhet Burg, Skalor
The team divides the remaining tasks to fortify Sannhet Burg against another attack. While the men stay in the city, Crystal flies back to retrieve their boat, and Aura heads to the docks to freeze the channel and prevent reinforcements from reaching the city by ship.
