Reincarnated! A Tale of the Sorceress Amaya

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Lucy

I still could not believe how much my life had changed in such a short time. I knew magic! I was running through a forest in the shape of a fox. It was the stuff of legends. My body had changed as well. It still did not seem real.

I looked at the black panther running next to me. There were many things I did not know about Amaya. But I felt secure in her presence. Whatever our future held, I was looking forward to it.

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Amaya

With the speed in our animal form we could have reached the city in one day. But we decided to camp outside for a night and approach in the morning. We were both tired and wanted a good night’s sleep before facing the city. I laughed as Lucy transformed back and stood there naked. Her clothes were still in my storage. She blasted some water in my face as retaliation. We had a quick meal and went to bed early.

The next day we approached the gate. The guards seemed to recognize us but made no hostile moves. Once we were in speaking distance they addressed me: “Lady Amaya, the duke would like to meet with you.”

“I see. Did he mention a reason for this?” I was curious what the guards were told about the situation.

“No, my lady. We were only told to show you the utmost courtesy.”

Interesting. My show of force might have worked better than intended. I suppose it could be a trap by the empire but I was confident in our strength.

“Then we shall head to the palace immediately.”, I stated. It would be good to get this over with.

We made our way to the palace without any trouble. While the guards seemed a bit nervous they were very polite and led us to a meeting room. We were told the duke would be with us shortly. Meanwhile a servant brought us some coffee. After about 10 minutes the duke arrived. He actually bowed to us.

“Lady Amaya, I am in your debt. My sincerest apologies for our last meeting.”

Now I was confused. “What do you mean my lord? Also, you can just call me Amaya.”, I responded.

“Certainly, in that case just call me William. After you left our healers took care of sir Meiser. The electrocution combined with the fear aura left him in a bad state. Imagine my surprise when our healers discover a vial of poison on him. Afterwards the healers checked me and discovered the same poison in my body.

It was a nasty thing. A complex magical concoction that would have triggered during the night and caused a heart attack.”

The duke stared at me while telling his story. He was probably looking for my reaction. I kept my face neutral to hide my surprise. What was going on here?

The duke paused to look at Lucy before he continued. “It is now clear to me that you engineered the incident so we would find the poison. Your fellow agent infiltrated the embassy posing as a slave. I assume that is also why you knew about that attack on our caravan. Thank you for protecting my people, by the way.

Unfortunately the captured bandits haven't told us much. They all pretend to be deserters from the Empire. Sir Meisler hasn’t talked yet. I am afraid the Empire will send their inquisition to investigate the matter. I am hoping you can add some more information. I am prepared to cooperate fully with the Dominion.”

This was getting out of hand. “William, I am not representing the Dominion.” It was time I made that clear.

William looked at me, thinking. Then he nodded. “I completely understand. Officially you are simply a travelling adventurer. So the Empire cannot claim that their diplomat was attacked by a foreign nation.”

What? No! That was not what I tried to say!

William continued: “I would like to officially hire you to investigate the matter. That gives you a lot of leeway to poke around in the city. Some of the nobles were already getting upset about the presence of the Dominion. They will have a hard time to argue against an independent investigator though. While they will all know the truth, that is rather meaningless in politics. They won’t be able to prove your allegiance.” The duke seemed rather pleased with the situation.

I did not know what to think. The duke was probably a man looking for hidden plots everywhere. He would never believe the truth. It was time to use the age old tactic of delegating responsibility.

“Lucy, what do you think?”, I asked.

“What William says makes sense. We should start with questioning the prisoners, especially sir Meisler, before the inquisition arrives.” Lucy’s smile was slightly disturbing. Maybe I should have expected that. I was hoping she would be uninterested in this mess. But it was an opportunity for revenge. It looked like we would be investigating this mess after all.

“William, I dislike politics. We will be rather direct in this investigation.”, I warned him.

“That is fine. Just try to make sure that nobody can prove you broke any laws.”, he answered. “I will inform my men to fully cooperate with you.”

Afterwards we said our goodbyes and left. The whole situation was rather overwhelming. Thankfully I was not alone, I had Lucy by my side.