Release that Witch

At midnight, a messenger came running to the tavern, panting.

”We won.....we won!” He said with a husky voice, without even drinking a drop of water, ”Sir, the Osha clan has won!”

To return from the Land of Fire to the small oasis on foot it required a day, and if one could arrive on the same day if traveling by horse. It was obvious that once the fight was over he had immediately rushed back to the oasis.

The whole ”Skull Cup” shook with the news.

”Ha, I knew they could win!”

”What was the course of events?”

”Tell us, how did they win?”

”No casualties as always?”

Talking and asking, everyone surrounded the messenger while at the same time the best fruit wine was delivered in front of him.

Thuram also felt relieved. After all, the stronger Osha was, the better life he would have as a member of the clan. He did not care much about the fact that it was not him who had led the clan to score such a victory in the fight. As long as he could make his clan members shed the half-dead and dead status, he would always believe that he had made a good bargain with Graycastle.

He clapped towards that clan member. ”Take a breath first and then tell us the details of the fight.”

”Yes!” The messenger satisfied his thirst with some fruit win, took a deep breath and said, ”The two sides didn’t fight as the Wildwave clan reached an agreement with the Osha princess and willingly gave up the second seat!”

”What?”

Everyone in the tavern remained quiet for a while and then suddenly all of them started talking so loud that the roof seemed to shake!

”The two sides didn’t fight?”

”Willingly giving up...does this count as surrender?”

”Doesn’t this mean that Osha is one step away from becoming the chief clan?”

”Winning a series of four holy duels while not killing anyone. This has never happened before!”

”I also heard of this so I came as fast as I could.”

”Haha, me too. If it wasn’t’ for this, who would want to leave the Silver Stream Oasis during the cold winter.

”Damn, it was worth coming here!”

”To the Three Gods from Osha!”

”To Lady Drow Silvermoon!”

Thulam was also stunned for a moment. But not because of Wildwave clan’s surrender—this kind of action was understandable. Saving their strength by keeping temporarily the third seat, waiting for Osha and Wildflame to both weaken through their battle and then finding the opportunity to regain second place, or maybe even becoming the chief clan. After all, they could afford to retreat, unlike Wildflame.

What surprised him was that he had suddenly come to realize, during all the chatting, what was his new master’s purpose.

They were quickly gaining popularity!

There has never been a holy duel before that attracted as much of Sand people’s attention as this one—the vengeful return of the Osha princess, the continuous challenges just like a mighty storm, no matter how many the enemies were... always fighting with four people, plus the extraordinary record of not killing anyone. All of these, as unbelievable as they may sound, greatly attracted people’s curiosity.

Even though the holy duel was an important ritual in deciding each clan’s position and power, but for many of the Sand Nation’s people, that was very far from them. Some clans, from their establishment until their disappearance, would never leave the Silver Stream Oasis and so naturally would not care about the challengers and the fights between the clans.

After all, being able to stand out from a myriad of clans was so rare that the news of a normal alternation of power was not even as attractive as the news of the Osha being framed by the Ironwhip. But it was different this time. A clan member who had been subjected to exile and the daughter of a chief who was sold as a slave still had the opportunity to turn things around. Just by considering this, most of the weak clans had unconsciously taken the side of the Osha. But the things that happened afterward were even more bizarre and thus in just one month, Osha had turned from an unknown challenger into the center of Sand people’s discussions.

The full of people tavern was the best proof.

No matter if they were full of expectation or sarcasm, or if they were just curious to see how far could Osha go, at least Drow Silvermoon had now become a household name. It was not hard to imagine that at the time of the last holy duel, numerous people would go to the Land of Fire to personally watch Osha’s battle to ascend to the top.

Thuram naturally understood the meaning of such a reputation.

The last clan chief whose name spread throughout the entire Southernmost Region had almost unified the whole desert, and even though later he had fallen in the war with Graycastle, he was widely considered as the Three Gods Emissary.

Did the new master also had this goal in mind?

The only difference this time was that the Osha did not need to oppose Graycastle— the power supporting them was actually the northern kingdom which was suppressing the Sand Nation.

”His Majesty Roland Wimbledon will bring order and oasis to the Mojin Clan.”

Thinking of Iron Axe’s words, he suddenly realized that once Osha really became the chief clan, maybe something great would happen.

That would probably change the fate of all Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan.

***************

Two days later, outside of the small oasis, at the camp of the First Army.

”Your injury... is it ok?” Echo looked at Ashes worryingly. The battle with the Black River clan had stained her whole body with blood—even though most of it was her opponent’s, she still didn’t come out unscathed.

”Don’t worry, it won’t affect our plan.” Ashes carelessly untied her dark hair letting it fall on her loose cope. At times like that, it was impossible to see that she was an experienced fighter, but more of a graceful beauty. ”Leaf’s herbs are also very effective, the deeper cuts are almost healed.”

”They are only a few exterior injuries, Extraordinary witches are physically better than us. After all, all of the nutrition goes to the muscles instead of the brain.” Andrea shrugged. ”When she was fighting alone against the church, she was hiding in places that even mice were not willing to stay, surviving on dead animals. If that didn’t kill her then don’t even mention these small injuries.”

Ashes rolled her eyes but instead of arguing with her like usual, she leaned on the chair and closed her eyes.

”This is how a veteran should act,” Iron Axe next to her thought, ”apart from eating and fighting, the rest of the time should be used for resting, in order to restore both physical and mental health. The other witches of Neverwinter may also be strong but not many of them would be able to do that.”

This is why His Majesty had delayed his plan only to wait for her.

”What’re we going to do next?” Echo asked.

”We have done our best according to His Majesty’s instructions.” Iron Ax recalled Roland’s instructions before their departure. Although some words were very hard to understand, like the making hype being the most important thing, by creating a topic, a legendary duel, so that the whole desert could hear their voice and so on...but in overall, the plan was to draw as much public attention as possible. Nowadays, more and more people were coming to watch the holy duel from various locations of the Silver Stream Oasis, so their plan was successful. ”All that is left is to defeat Wildflame, and then, at the holy land, in the presence of everyone, you tell them what His Majesty has instructed you.

”I...Understood,” Echo remained silent for a while and then clenched her fist as if motivating herself.

”Don’t worry, lady Silvermoon, His Majesty didn’t require everyone to understand this, you don’t need to feel too much pressure.” Iron Axe said. ”You only need to do as usual and let your voice be heard everywhere in the Land of Fire. No matter how many people respond to us, the new order will spread in the whole Southernmost Region down the Silver Stream.

Suddenly, Thuram entered the room.

He saluted the four of them and took out a letter. ”The Wildflame clan responded to Osha’s challenge request, but...they require specific people to participate in the battle.

”What do you mean?” Andrea frowned.

”It says in the letter that Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan wishes to have a one on one fight with Ashes on the Burning Stage,” Thuram replied respectfully.