PELAIR. The Gems of the Golden Serpent.

30. Two Spirits

"Get away from me, you bunch of morons!" shouted Agneer, trying to divert the people who thronged around her, attempting to get off the ground after falling in the heat of her strife. "Who do you think you are?" snapped furiously.

She noted a group of female warriors standing by her side, watching something that lay on the ground. She stood up violently, observing that two other women were lying down, one utterly inert on the ground and the other resting in the arms of an older woman. She felt an uncontrollable rage, recalling the strife she had just sustained with that imbecile who had tried to oppose her.

She walked a few steps hesitantly, still feeling the dizziness that follows a great physical effort. She felt queasy and a little strange. A kind of sloth and torpor dominated her will. Without paying real attention, she nonetheless saw that the body of the woman lying flat on the floor wore clothes that resembled her own. Feeling a wave of immense anger and disappointment, she arrogantly tried to kick that body over the side with the butt of her boot to get her away from her path, only to notice her foot passing long through that body.

"Nooo!" exclaimed Agneer with a wrenching and terrifying scream that went lost in the void, since no one could hear her. With bulging eyes, she contemplated herself lying on the floor with a dagger thrust into her belly. She watched at herself lying down with a blank stare and a whitish face devoid of life. "Agnees!" she shouted again, as she felt her ethereal body driven first to the sky and then to her dismay, towards where her opponent laid. Quickly and helplessly, the witch's soul joined with the shape of the princess.

"Where am I?" asked Aela for her part awakening confused as Rinna helped her to her feet. She walked a few steps to halt suddenly beside the body of a dead woman lying on the floor. "The witch!" she exclaimed, recognizing the pale figure of Agneer.

Suddenly, she noticed the gem that hung to one side of the neck of her former opponent, evoking the purpose that brought that confrontation. She reached down and firmly gripping the cord that held the black opal from Agneer's neck, tore it violently, closing her fist tightly on the stone.

She then raised her eyes to stare with dazzling bright eyes, to face the woman she loved like a mother.

"She hasn't even realized what happened to her," commented Deirdre to Rinna, who, by being close enough to Aela, noticed the change of personality that had experienced the girl.

Meanwhile, the troops from Alasia that had accompanied Agneer during that war looked puzzled at their boss lying lifeless on the ground. They couldn't believe their leader dying at the hands of that strange woman who had appeared almost out of nowhere. As if moved by an invisible spring, they started a disorderly flight with no one bothering to pursue them.

The amazons that had escorted Aela let the soldiers leave. They were more concerned about the well-being of the princess.

The vast bulk of the Triad's army stood paralyzed. They had lost their commander. But most importantly, they didn't feel any longer that fear, which had forced them to undertake such conquest. No one dared to move. Many did not even remember why they were there. They saw themselves wearing military garb and a spear or a sword in their hand, without understanding how they got there in the first place. They looked at each other with faces of shock and bewilderment.

Aela noticed the tiny winged creature hiding under her skirt and started to go slowly over the events that had just occurred.

"I murdered her," said the girl laconically to the woman that had cared for her since she was a child, who waited expectantly.

"Yes, honey," Rinna replied. "Thanks to Noor, it was you who killed her and not her who could've killed you."

Aela opened her hand and spread it to show the black gem for which everything had happened.