We should have fled.

I looked through the window of our manor and what greeted me was a large boulder covered in flames traveling through the sky. Very quickly another followed right behind it, then a few more. It wasn't long before the first reached the ground somewhere in the city and while I couldn't see where it landed, the sound that followed was impossible to ignore.

Yet I haven't even flinched. It's been already a few weeks our capital is under the siege.

Even now my mother was helping with the defense on the walls. As one of the most powerful mages in the history of Raldus, she alone could be considered a one-woman army. Father and most of our troops have died two months ago and only she with few uncles managed to escape. After the defeat at Reino, the forces of our household have greatly diminished, but it was still a force to be reckoned. It's one of the reasons why our capital Luara is still standing.

Yet even I knew that it's only a matter of time before it falls.

Where is that promised help? Even if Union soldiers were delayed on the way, it's nearly a week now! Could it be that they decided to abandon us? But if the kingdom of Raldus falls, as our allies, they will be next on the list...

I looked at the servants next to me and could see only fear in their eyes. Only my brother looked unaffected, but a single glance at his hands told me that it was only an act.

He wanted to help my mother with the fight, but in the end, was persuaded to keep me safe instead. At times like these, even people at your side can't be fully trusted, as there is very little one wouldn't do in order to survive.

I shouldn't have delayed this long... my mother was right, even if I wanted to help her, I was only a burden when it comes to a fight. Back then the portals were still working, but now it was impossible to leave even if I wanted.

"Oh, no..." brother's voice suddenly brought me back to reality, but when I followed his gaze outside, saw nothing that should cause this reaction.

If anything, the attacks on the city have actually stopped... Stopped?! I looked at the empty sky and found it unusual without a bolder or two. All this time, they never stopped bombarding the city and to do that now... Oh, no. Don't tell me that the wall was breached?!

Please, let it be just a strategy of the enemy...

"Young miss, Master Bolton..." suddenly a single warrior rushed inside the manor.

His name was Clark and he was there to help us keep in touch with mother at the ramparts. After taking a few breaths he continued.

"We have to..."

But was interrupted by my brother, "What the hell happened?!"

I already knew the answer even before he managed to answer. His face said it all.

"Th... the wall has fallen," Clark started to speak. "They used some unknown spell or a weapon and most of the earth mages were killed in the blast. The enemy... is swarming the streets as we speak."

It wasn't long before the last word left his lips when I heard some sounds in the distance. And it was getting only louder with each passing second.

"Dammit!" cursed brother, servants started to quiver when realized what comes next.

"M… mother," I whispered with the tears on my cheeks and fell on my knees.

"We have to escape," the soldier continued, "the city is lost and if we..."

"Where?!" shouted brother, "Luara is surrounded and the portals are still broken from the last time I tried to send off Celina."

"We have to at least try," Clark insisted, "if we stay there only death awaits..."

But he was unable to finish when loud bangs from outside interrupted his speech. Brother quickly pressed a stone tile near the window and activated an enchantment allowing us to hear what's happening outside.

"Hey, Jack, are you sure he entered through there? We can barely leave a dent on this thing. There is no way a simple soldier would have a key."

I rose on my feet and when looked through the window, saw a group of people near the gates at the outer walls of our estate. Clark silently cursed when heard them, from their words it was obvious that it was him they have followed to our place.

"Maybe we can climb it over the wall?" another man asked from their group.

"Wait!" another voice quickly followed, "Let me check. If they bothered to enchant the gates, it is very likely there are some surprises on the walls as well."

A bright glow that soon was visible even from there left little doubt for his identity.

"Dammit! The gates won’t hold long against a mage." cursed brother. "and if that thing in his hands is a tool to use detect most of our traps will be almost useless."

He then sighed and looked at me.

"There is no escape for us now. Go, find a place to hide. We will try to kill as many as possible. With any luck, the traps will be still enough to deal with this group. We will think of our next step when the time comes. If not..." brother paused for a moment, "they shouldn't search for you very thoroughly. The war is practically over and they can't just kill everyone in the city. People whose knowledge is limited only at killing in the most efficient way will be never enough to control a city. Eventually, the soldiers should be replaced by the guards to keep the order. This is when you should try your luck. Trust no one..."

"Brother, no! I can help you fight. My magic isn't completely useless. If you die as well, there will be nothing left for me to live for!" I yelled in panic.

"One spell before you faint is hardly enough. What do you think will happen if they capture you? If they turn you into a slave... for any woman, it's a fate worse than death. I can’t let the name of our House to be tarnished like this. Go and hide. One day you might be able to avenge us, but for now, you have to live. Don’t let the House of Darkmoon fall just like this." brother then kissed me on the forehead and turned around, he checked his gear and started to give orders to Clark and the servants.

With tears flowing like a river I turned around and ran but quickly found myself lost of what to do. Where do I even hide? They will probably search for wealth so the vault is no go. And with their mage able to use detect, there is no place they wouldn't find me at... Wait. The study room! Its enchantments are made to prevent any attempts at spying on the meetings so it should be possible for me to avoid the detection if I hide inside.

With my course of action decided I quickly ran to the study room and after entering the room, started to look for a place to hide. But this was when I heard a loud explosion just outside the manor.

They are already there?!

When have they dealt with the gates at the wall? Was I so deep in thought that haven’t even noticed? No! There is no time for this! I quickly closed the door behind me and continued my search for the best place to hide.

This might be just a study room, but the enemy still might come to search for spell books or some documents. I can’t hide inside something as obvious as wardrobe either. Damn it. How I wish we had a secret room behind a bookcase like Alice at her manor...

After looking around a bit my gaze stopped at the fireplace. It was quite spacious inside... no other choice I guess. The room doesn’t exactly have many places that a few kicks or pushes won’t reveal me. Heading to fireplace I looked at my dress and frowned. This won’t do, the skirts will get me exposed.

I quickly started tearing the bottom of my dress and stopped only when the skirt part was barely covering my underwear. But this still left me with another problem. What I am to do with the ripped cloth?

I couldn’t just burn it as the smell would expose me just as easily. And if I drop it somewhere easy to find, it will be like screaming 'search for a girl.’ My gaze then turned to the pillows on the couch. I quickly ran to them, grabbed the letter cuter from the table and made a cut on the pillows, I then stuffed the ripped cloth evenly inside.

There, now to hide and hope for the best.

I ran to the fireplace and carefully stepped inside, then hugged the inner wall as best as I could, so I am not visible from outside, and with that done all that was left was to calm down my breathing.

But it was easier said than done. In my current state of mind, meditation, that was usually the best way to achieve that, wasn’t working at all. Only after some time I somehow managed to calm down and started to listen for the noises, sadly without any success.

The enhancements of the room were working as intended, and the moment I closed the door, all sounds from outside were cut off. Only after what felt like eternity doors to the room suddenly opened.

"Search to the left, if find anything with that symbol place on the table. There should be something I can use to weaken the enchantments..." Said one of the visitors.

It took all my willpower to stop myself from crying when I realized that their arrival meant my brother was no longer alive. 'To weaken the enchantments?' They can't mean enchantments of this room, right? They shouldn't know anyone is hiding there...

"Jack, we have to hurry, others are getting more achievements as we speak. With most of the generals killed, only nobles will get us something now. There is no guarantee we will find anything in that vault, anything of worth should have been used in the war. Why don't we just make a quick sweep and hurry to the others? Head of a noble is worth way more than a few coins we will get there... and if we wait too long, we can forget about getting our hands on any women of noble birth. Those are worth a fortune..."

"Yes, and if we rush again we can lose another third of a squad," the man replied in an angry tone, "All just because you couldn't wait for a bit longer. A handful of people, without a single mage and we lost six knights! Six! Half of them were not even warriors. Tell me cousin, how I am supposed to explain this to my father? And for what? A single head of a young noble we know nothing about? A few peasants?"

'A third of our squad? Six dead knights? That means that my brother fought nearly twenty of them... and still managed to kill so many despite being outnumbered one to five. And those were knights, not some barely trained mercenaries... and that's even with a mage on their side!

Our father would have been so proud... brother should have been the one born with the gift of magic instead of me. As long as I remember he always worked hard, and yet all I ever did was laze around, definitely not a behavior of an heir.

If only I spent more time in training, perhaps I could have helped them. My mother always told me that the way my magic works is a bit strange. Maybe if I worked harder I could have learned that legendary spell of teleportation. My parents might have taken their duty as nobles very seriously and never planned to abandon the kingdom in its darkest hour... but at the very least I should have been able to save my brother.

No! I should stop getting myself so agitated! I will only expose myself like this. I need to survive, only then can I can get revenge. Maybe with the help of my sister we can somehow get Aizerus Alliance involved. Now that the Kingdom of Zolmor is exhausted from the war it would be a perfect opportunity for the third party to strike...

"Manor is clear." yet another knight entered the room, "We found no one else but just in case I sent Ren and Zed to double check... though I highly doubt there is anyone who could escape your eye, Jack. By the way, what was that spell you used on that young lording? I’ve never seen anything like that."

"Don’t overestimate the magic. Everything has a weakness and detection magic is no exception. As for the spell I used... let's just say I have yet another soul to use for my experiments. The guy has killed six our people so it's the least I could do..."

The moment I heard that he took away the soul of my brother, I was so agitated that haven't even noticed when loudly breathed in.

"Did you hear that?" asked one of the knights.

"I think it came from there." said the mage and I heard his steps getting closer.

'I’m sorry, brother. In the end, I have failed you yet again. There is no escape for me now... but the least I can do is drag all of you with me!'

I started to gather mana preparing for the only spell I’ve ever managed to cast and slowly stepped from the fireplace.

"Elements of Fire answer my call..." I chanted while directing every ounce of mana in my body and pointed my hand at the group.

I rarely practiced this spell. Because even if I did it right, I usually got exhausted to the point of fainting with a single cast. And since I never managed to cast weaker spells from the same school, it could be said that my magic study made almost no progress.

"Whoa, jackpot" shouted one of the knights while looking at me.

"Idiots! Stop the incantation!" shouted the mage.

"Wind Barrier!" a diadem on his head slightly glowed and a miniature cyclone of wind started to form around his body.

"Burn the enemy before me..." I continued the chant, but when one of the knights almost reached me, I panicked and rushed the incantation, skipping some of the chant.

"Inferno!"

The failed spell still managed to kill one of the knights. Just in a blink of an eye, his body was covered in flames and was incinerated into ash, even his armor was not spared and only a molten puddle of metal was left on the floor.

The backslash, from the spell cast wrong, sent a part of the spell back to me and the pain, thousands of times worse than anything I have ever experienced, assaulted me through the hand, lungs, and then the rest of my body.

I wanted to scream, but no sound left my mouth. Strength quickly left my body and I fell on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut short. I could see the glowing cracks on the skin of my arm, but despite how it looked, it was soon the only part of my body that wasn't ravaged by the pain.

I couldn’t even thrash, nor scream. Only the ever-increasing pain, that was eating at my sanity, let me know that this was still my body.

"You bitch!" shouted the knight that survived. When his companion died, he wasn't very far and most of his face was burned from the heat.

"Wait! Don't kill her!" shouted the mage and then took an orb from his cloak.

"Dammit," he cursed quickly after, "That backlash destroyed her insides beyond healing. Even if we had a healing magic expert here and now, at best he could only prolong her life. What's up with our luck?! First those idiots with stupid traps, now probably the only mage that wasn't killed yet just had to fry herself right in front of us..."

The mage kicked a chair to the side and left my field of vision.

"Hey Cousin, how much time she has?" the man with a scar asked while looking at me with barely suppressed rage.

"A few hours."

"A few hours you say..." the knight with scar then walked to the door and after opening them wide with a kick roared from the top of his lungs. "EVERYONE, GET YOUR ASS THERE!"

In a few moments more knights rushed in and cousin of the mage spoke through gritted teeth.

"This bitch here has killed Valter and as you can see there was nothing left even to bury him... She has only a few hours left to live and our job is to make sure it's as memorable as possible."