Ella gave Wolfe a concerned look. "If there are witches being held prisoner inside the city to be transferred to the Grand Dutchies as slaves, we should go rescue them, but what will we do with all of the Witches here? We can't just leave them on their own."
"Why don't you three start taking them back to the Academy, and I will go deal with the city?" Wolfe suggested.
One of the Witches in the cage raised her hand to speak, so Wolfe motioned for her to stand.
"With all due respect, even if it was possible for one man to take on an army and clear a city, well over half of the residents of the city are local humans. I might have been evicted for not going with the plan, but those are still my friends and neighbours among the soldiers."
"That does make it more complex. I had thought that the whole population was soldiers since they drove the residents out of basically every village in Sylvan Coven territory. If most of them are local humans or nonmagical Witch descendants, then it wouldn't be right to treat them all as enemy combatants." Wolfe sighed.
The soldier inside the cage looked at Wolfe with suspicion in his eyes. "You were planning some sort of large-scale attack just to kill everyone, weren't you?"
"Not JUST to kill everyone. To rescue the prisoners. I can tell by looking at you that most of the people in this cage are not from the Morgana Coven originally, which means you were brought here. Myrrh Coven has been good about working with me to recover their people, and Sylvan Coven is happy to have anyone they can find back.
So, if I have to eliminate the remnants of the invading army to get to them, it's not really a problem." Wolfe explained.
The soldier sighed while the Witch, who had become his Warden, shook her head.
"Keep in mind that he is a Demon and a powerful one. Do you recall the story of the Third King of Hiziros?" She asked, referring to a nation on the north side of the mountains that border the Frozen Wastes.
"The one that wanted to wipe out the last remnants of magic and led ten million men into the mountains, only to come across the Witch Child Synn and her Rank Seven Demon Familiar? Who doesn't? An entire nation lost loved ones that day, and a nation nearly fell to two people, all because they annoyed the wrong Demon and his Fae-blooded Witch."
Wolfe realized that he also knew that story. It was a legend from after the war. Synn was half Nymph and never grew to more than waist high, giving her a childlike appearance, according to the legend.
She had hidden in the mountains, wanting nothing to do with the world after the war. But the King of Hiziros had led an army straight into the valley where she lived, and the Witch told her demon to "Make them go away," which led to the Demon wiping out the entire army and half the nation before she called him back.
It was a cautionary tale about being careful with your actions and a joking reference to call before you bothered someone at home.
"Well, fortunately, I'm not Rank Seven yet, so the chances that I'll wipe out half a nation are fairly small. But I suppose you were referring more to the ruthlessness of Demons in general."
The Witch nodded. "Demons aren't cruel and violent like monsters are, but they're no less dangerous when left to their own devices. The lives of those who annoy them hold very little meaning to the Demons."
Wolfe thought about mentioning that it was the same with humans and all of the Fortress Cities, but he decided to hold his thoughts inside and let the Witches believe what they wanted.
Most of the time, it worked out in his favour, and they didn't argue with him when he had an idea. It made leading a group of strangers much easier if they were all afraid of the consequences of misbehaviour, and that was the reason why Wolfe had always preferred to welcome and escort new groups himself.
Christa cleared her throat. "Why don't we take these ones far enough away to escape to a safe location while you wait here for the soldiers who come to see what is going on? That should be enough to change the balance within the city, and it won't mess up the chances of getting these Witches back to freedom.
It's going to be multiple days of travel before we're back to a point where we can safely say that they won't be in danger anymore, but I think that we can manage that."
Wolfe nodded and smiled at the nervous Witch. "That's a great plan. It's better than having them chase us all day today. By the time they finish dealing with me, you all will have a day's head start.
You have Ella, who is a Rank Two Witch, with you. Plus Grok, who is an excellent sentry. So, if they don't send out the army to defend their fake bandits, then at least only I am wasting a day here waiting.
A few of the prisoners gave a soft smile at that. Even in their situation, the thought of this Demon who so handily dealt with all of the bandits who were holding them prisoner, simply sitting in the middle of an abandoned camp waiting for a response that never came, was a funny one.
Of course, the response was likely to be swift and violent. The bandits didn't hide the fact that they were soldiers from the prisoners. So, the ones in town would notice very soon that they had a tragedy befall them, and they should be sending out someone to see what was going on.
"Alright, that's settled then. But first, let me get those wristbands off of you all so you can begin to use magic again."n0velusb.c0m
