Thea

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The next half hour was spent running around. I did not argue with the king and used his chambers as my own. I laid out the clothes provided to me on the bed and began to undress. I was still a little shaken, either from the expectation that I would return home again, or from the fact that Raphael evasively avoided answering my questions.

On the bed were brand-new underwear, stockings, a thin and very soft dress of muted blue color and a wig of long brown hair. Of course, I’m supposed to be undercover. I alternately put on underwear and stockings, and had already undone the buttons on the dress when... When I realized that I had come up with a better cover. Throwing things aside, I went to the royal closet and examined its insides.

I took out a white shirt with long sleeves, black slightly narrowed trousers (they will need to be tied up well with a belt so that they do not hang out) and a jacket of the same color. I chuckled to myself when I imagined the expression on Raphael’s face. It’ll be fun to see him.

Having finished dressing, I gathered my blond hair neatly under the wig cap, allowing the now brown hair to fall over my shoulders.

A strange combination of "a girl in men’s clothes". Looking around the room, I saw a desk, rummaged in the drawers and took out a letter opener, which shortened the wig to the desired length, leaving short hair hanging just below the earlobes. That’s better, though not too manly. That`s not manly at all. Now I looked like a cute teenage boy.

- Well, let’s get started. – clapping my hands, pleased with myself, I hurried back.

Raphael

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After returning from Riliya, Dexter and Richard reported everything they had learned while in enemy territory. The news was interesting and intriguing.

Someone witnessed how the princess jumped out of the window and, although I tried to be careful, but apparently at that moment I was too involved with the princess and did not follow the situation around. Rumors of a kidnapping spread through the castle with the speed of a flame. But they don’t have any proof.

According to our intelligence, there were also rumors in the castle that the royal family began to lose their magical powers. And that was already very entertaining. What is the reason for the disappearance of magic?

It seems that the king is in a hopelessly panicked state and, trying to hide his problem, begins mass military training under the pretext of finding and returning his daughter. Or maybe it’s not an excuse at all. The role of the Marquis Stonberg in all this has not yet been fully understood. Why is he so obsessed with Thea and what power does he have over the king?

One thing is clear for sure, the king is trying in every possible way to drown out all rumors, and martial law is the best way to do this. People’s minds will be distracted while he solves his problems. I immediately remembered about the hated witches. They will surely make a fuss to serve the Riliya king, they always do. Damn witches.

Although the military potential of magicians and witches is absolutely different, even without the help of magicians, they take a large number and are not inferior in strength on the battlefield.

Bright flashes of memories flashed through my head.

/ The beginning of Raphael’s memories/

Feet tread on cold snowy ground, but this snow is not white, as we are used to seeing, it is mixed with mud and fresh blood in the slush. There is a fetid, disgusting, coppery smell and the smell of fried flesh around that would make someone else want to close their nose, but not me. This smell sobers me, supports my inner thirst, depriving me of self-control and adequacy.

Bones crunched under my feet, loudly and distinctly caressing my hearing, and I absorbed it with pleasure and ecstasy with my ears. Ears that from that day began to perceive sounds at such distant distances, which I could not even think of before. My vision has become clearer than an owl’s at any time of the day, and my own strength has grown to stupefaction. The witnesses to that were lying on this ground now with severed limbs, decapitated and torn to shreds.

I stopped near a huge embankment littered with ashes. This place was proof that there had been a bonfire here quite recently. But the bonfire is not simple, but sacrificial. Pain gave way to anger and bloodlust. A sharp, heartbreaking, piercing hellish pain in the very heart. The once confident rigid stance failed and my knees trembled, dropping me to the ground, which was still warm with the remains of the fire. I touched with my hand.

They say a man shouldn’t cry, but I couldn’t hold back my tears, they seemed to live their own life and had no master, flowed without stopping. I continued to stare at one point at the ashes, realizing the irrevocability of what was happening and at the same time trying to make myself believe that this was a dream and I would wake up soon. But I didn’t wake up. Didn’t wake up from that damn dream. I was devastated, killed and defeated, but not physically, but mentally.

- I wish I had died instead of you. It should have been me. – I shouted at the top of my voice through the tears that were not drying out, through the hellish mental pain. – Temi. Hey, come back to me, baby. Don’t leave me, please.

- Why? Why did you leave me? – out of anger, I hit the damp ground with my fists and pieces of dirt flew apart, dirtying me even more.

Although it was hardly possible to get dirty more, all my clothes, my whole body was covered in blood, as if I had bathed in it. Dried, fresh, it emphasized my new eye color, which my beloved gave me before her death.

- Why did you do that? I can’t even kill myself to be around you. I shouted through agony, continuing to complain about fate.

I destroyed all the witches who were here, who were responsible for her death, burned her alive. But I could not find out who was the initiator, who took it into his head to take my wife’s life. The witches sealed themselves with the bonds of silence and in return paid with their lives, every single one. But even if it were not for these bonds, I would still destroy each one, in a sophisticated and monstrous way, exactly as they deserve.

While she was alive, through the screams of agony, I heard her reciting a spell in an already fading voice, and then dark red threads began to stretch from her to me, wrapping around my wrists, squeezing and tearing the skin, penetrating inside, as if the fire itself was getting under my skin.

"I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, darling." - her last words were still ringing in her ears, which she uttered until her body was completely submerged in the flames of the witch fire. I didn’t even have time to get close to her, she died right in front of my eyes in a matter of moments.

And now what? I had speed and strength, but there was no need to use them anymore, she was no longer with me. The most important person in my life died giving me this string force that I didn’t need. I would give anything in the world to go back in time and change everything.

My witch-smashing sword was stained with their blood and a red line appeared in its very core, along the entire length of the tip, as if the steel had absorbed the blood, reminding me now of who my sworn enemies are. Forever.

I don’t remember how long I knelt there in front of the place of her death, I don’t remember what was in my head that made me calm down, but by the time the coolness of the mind prevailed, there was only one feeling in me-an uncontrollable thirst for blood and revenge. Revenge on all witches. I got to my feet and walked to the center, shoveling the ashes until I found what I was looking for.

The crown of Artemis.

My queen’s crown. My wife.

/ The end of Raphael’s memories./