"Stupefy" said Arya as a Lannister soldier fell to the floor like a potato sack.
"Confringo" roared Arabella, burning a gaping hole through three unlucky men.
"Protego" shouted Arya, blocking an incoming arrow.
The sortie was going fantasticly. With the Witches' arrival, the scales finally tipped in the favour of the defenders of Riverrun. At first, Arabella wanted to scatter Kevan Lannister's men the same way she had done with Tywin's, but the Tullys convinced her to help in another way.
Instead of conjuring the Dark Mark to crumble the enemy's morale, they'd sally out during the night and strike deep into the besieger's encampment with one goal in mind: capture Kevan Lannister alive and use him against Tywin to force him out of the Riverlands and perhaps to the negotiations table.
Thus, that night Edmure and the Blackfish lead the sortie, accompanied by Arabella and Arya. The Witch had wanted to leave the Stark girl inside the walls, but no amount of words would convince her. Now, the two forces had clashed and the Witches were doing everything in their power to be the gauntlet that broke this army's back.
"For the King, For Riverrun!" shouted Lord Edmure "Press them back!"
The men of the Riverlands pushed onwards with a battlecry that could have routed less organized forces, but the Westerlands army was perhaps the best trained in the whole world. That, however, didn't mean their morale was ironclad.
"Incendio" shouted both girls as they started causing fires all over the camp. Not only would the Lannisters have to deal with the invading men, but also with the flames destroying their tents and their supplies.
On multiple fronts men killed each other in a frenzied battle for ideal and survival. Arabella tried as much as she could not to use the Killing Curse, but in a few moments it was needed, especially if it was to save someone from taking a sword to the back.
The path to Kevan's tent was carved with steel, magic and blood. At one time, a man hiding in the shadows of a tent jumped into Arabella and was about to stab her with his dagger, but Lord Edmure ran him through with his sword. At another time, she was able to repay the favour by killing a bowman aiming at the young Tully.
"I guess, we're even now, My Lady" he said with a smirk right before having to parry the attack of an incoming man-at-arms.
"Depluso!" Arya could be heard shouting the spell as a section of the Lannister shieldwall was trampled by the strength of her magic, creating another breach for the Rivermen.
Soon, they were fighting right outside the main tent, with Kevan and the other Westerlander Lords that had accompanied him joining the fray. They cut through the invaders of their camp with relative ease, given their better training and equipment. However, they couldn't contend with Magic.
"That's the Lannister" said the Blackfish to Arabella while pointing his finger at the man "Seize him!"
"Petrificus totalus" she flicked her wrist and Kevan hit the floor absolutely straight and paralysed.
"Defend Ser Kevan!" roared one of the Westerlander Lords, trying to form some sort of cohesive defensive position but he soon met the same fate as his commander when Arya used the same spell to incapacitate him.
"Thank the Seven for your magic, My Ladies! That's it, men!" roared the Blackfish as he saw more and more Lannister men running towards their position "pick these two up and let's get back into the castle. No point in waiting for them to encircle us! Edmure, sound the horn!"
The other Tully obliged and sounded the horn and formed a defensive stance around the men carrying the two captives. The Rivermen proceeded to leave the camp, converging into a meet point to bolster their numbers and facilitate their escape.
Now that the captives were alive and in their hands and they were retreating, Arabella felt more encouraged to use heavier spells.
"Bombarda Maxima!" she shouted and the spell blew up against a whole squad of men, killing some instantly and injuring several of them to the point they'd wish for death. That did not stop the tide of men coming their way, desperate to save their commander and to kill the Witch before she killed them.
"Go with them!" she ordered Arya while she stopped to face the incoming men "ensure their safety until they reach the gates and have the archers provide me cover fire, I've got an idea!"
"But…" the girl turned to argue.
"Arya, now!"
The girl obeyed and relayed the orders to Blackfish. At first the old Tully frowned at the idea of leaving archers behind with no infantry support, but he agreed since it was Arabella's idea and she hadn't failed them yet.
Soon the archers were positioned by her side, taking any cover they could from incoming projectiles that would soon start coming when the Lannister archers showed up.
"Your task is simple," she said looking at the captain, a middle-aged man with eyes that spoke of veterancy "focus on their archers, shoot them before they shoot me. If my spell fails, we're all dead."
"Aye, My Lady. You heard the Witch lads, let's spare her from becoming a pincusshion." he roared as the men launched and took their firing positions.
Even Arabella chuckled before assuming a serious tone. What she was about to do required great concentration and in no way was a funny matter. Men were about to die in the hundreds. She pointed her wand towards the enemy camp and the soldiers pouring out of it and with a slight pain in her heart, spoke the word. The incantation of a spell she had been too afraid to use until now.
"Feindyre"
A tsunami of flames engulfed the field ahead of her. The waves of fire soon took the shape of giant snakes, chimeras and other monstrosities unknown to the world of Westeros and chased after the Lannister men. Soon enough, men were screaming by the dozens, the luckiest of them having been incinerated alive.
Arabella tried to take her mind out of the horrid sounds of men dying in droves in such an agonizing manner. It was war, and unfortunately, they were the enemy. If she dropped the spell, their numbers would overwhelm them. If she maintained it, she could at least finish the job and cease those men's suffering.
"By the Seven" exclaimed the archer captain next to her, with his jaw wide open and taking several steps back.
"Maitain your focus on the enemy. If they distract me we'll share the same burning fate as them" was all Arabella could answer while more and more hungry flames spewed from her wand.
The captain wanted to run back to the castle but his legs decided it was better to disobey him than to disobey the god-like sorceress in front of her. He did his best to recompose himself and he and his men returned the focus towards the flaming camp, keeping a lookout to any bastard lucky enough to escape the fire and crazy enough to try and shoot an arrow their way. There were none.
Further away from the massacre, Arya, Lord Edmure and the Blackfish, alongside the rest of the Tully men-at-arms and the prisoners looked back in shock as the night was lit as bright as day. Ser Kevan was almost dropped as the men carrying him flinched instinctively.
"What in the Seven Hells is that?" spoke Lord Edmure with a trembling voice and even more trembling hands. Were his sword not in its scabbard already, he would certainly have dropped it.
"No time to watch the show" roared the Blackfish as he pushed Lord Edmure forwards, though his voice and the way he looked into the sea of flames also gave away his fear "She's buying us time, let's use it. Into the castle, the lot of you, now!"
Arya didn't know if she was more scared or amazed by what she saw in front of her. A large portion of the Lannister army was being incinerated in minutes while the lucky ones camped further away had already left all their belongings behind and started to flee. They trampled each other, stole horses and even stabbed their slower comrades ahead just to make sure they themselves could outrun the flames. The screams, however, both from the living and the dying, would stay with her, likely for the rest of her life.
Meanwhile, Arabella was already feeling the strain of maintaining the spell for that long. Her arms felt like they were tied to slabs of concrete and she could feel her vision starting to blur.
"Just a bit more" she thought "need to ensure they reach the castle."
Ahead of her, there were only burning trees, burning tents, burning horses, burning men and the fleeing of the desperate. She saw a squadron engulfed by a giant fire snake as it tried to flee. She witnessed a man kneel down and beg, either to the gods or to her, she wasn't sure, before a blazing chimera devoured him. She looked behind her, just for a moment, and saw the drawbridge of Riverrun lowered and a group of people crossing through.
"They did it" she thought with her last remaining wits. She dismissed the spell and then collapsed on the ground.
____________________________________
When she woke up, it was already morning.
Her room was lit by the rays of midday sunlight and she squinted her eyes trying to take a look around, until they adapted to the light. As soon as her vision came back to normal, she could see a small figure sitting next to her bed.
"Arya?"
"You finally woke up" replied the girl with excitement and worry in her voice "are you alright?"
Arabella tried to sit up, but immediately decided against it.
"Yes" she groaned, raising her hand to her head "apart from a massive headache, I'm allright."
It didn't exactly get better when Arya threw herself at her and embraced her in the closest version to a bear hug a child could produce.
"Ugh, Arya…"
"You were amazing! What you did last night, how did you do that? You destroyed their army! Uncle Edmure said more than half of them got killed and the rest fled and probably will never set foot here ever again. Can you teach me to do that? I want to be as cool as you!"
She looked at the girl for a long time until realization hit her about what she had done the previous night. She had defended her friends, sure, but in doing so, she likely ended thousands of lives and severely traumatised several others. She simply wanted to remove the closest threat and have the others flee, but the spell got out of her control and spread much further than intended. Or did it?
Her memory brought her back to the screams. Part of her hated the sound and would never forget it. The other, much smaller part, enjoyed seeing her enemies suffer. Did that man kneeling in the mud and begging really had to die to the flames? Could she have avoided it? Should she even bother?
If she were in her world, three lifetimes in Azkaban would not have been enough to cover the sentence she would receive for ending so many lives. Even the dementor's kiss wouldn't be enough as far as the law is concerned. In fact, she felt like in one night she had wracked a kill count higher than Voldemort himself or at least pretty close to it. She was now, perhaps, the darkest wizard in living memory. Or was she? Didn't she do it all to defend her charge and her family from an army led by a power-hungry man who cared not for the lives of anyone if it would forward his ambitions? Did it justify it?
She pushed the thoughts away as she noticed that Arya was still looking at her, waiting for an answer.
"Perhaps one day, Arya. Once you're stronger, once you're older" she replied while standing up. The thoughts had sent the migraine away and she could finally move freely and she went to pour some water from the basin on her face.
"But I'm strong enough! You could teach me today!" pouted the girl "You saw me yesterday! I can fend for myself! I can help too!"
Arabella sighed and opened the door.
"Yes, Arya, I saw how you performed yesterday and I'm very proud of you for your battle instincts and your diligence in learning magic." she paused "however, before I teach you any sort of magic that could end up with as many deaths in your hands and I have now, I'd like you to remember the screams of those men yesterday. I want you to think if you'd be ready to deal with those screams weighing on your conscience."
Arya was about to reply when she looked at her friend and tutor and she could feel the heaviness behind her eyes. Arabella was already out of the door when she stopped and turned around to say something Arya could hear perfectly, but would only fully understand much later.
"I don't know if I can."
And with that the Slytherin Witch left to find someone to explain to her the full aftermath of what they had done. What she had done.
____________________________________
All the men present in the Lord of Riverrun's solar stood up once the young woman strode in on her emerald dress. For a second, Arabella stopped in her tracks and gazed at the men assembled around the table. There was something in the way they were looking at her. Awe, perhaps, and fear. She wasn't sure she liked it.
"Lady Slytherin, I'm glad to see you well so soon" said Lord Edmure with a polite smile that did not reach his eyes "Your feats were monumental last night. The men have started calling it the second Field of Fire, and I myself can't say they're wrong…"
His flattery ceased once she spoke.
"What happened last night?"
For a moment there was silence, until Lord Edmure broke it.
"What do you mean, My Lady. You don't recall the events of last night? The sortier, the fire?" he asked in genuine bewilderment.
"I remember casting Feindfire and I remember hearing the enemy screams. Then I lost my consciousness and dropped to the floor. I don't know anything else apart from what Arya told me. Did I really kill half of Kevan Lannister's army?"
"Give or take" said the Blackfish, who despite being used to men dying in droves during war, did not have a good night of sleep "We think a bit more than that. That power you've got, My Lady… Well, let's just say I'm glad it's on our side. The remaining Lannister men, leaderless and utterly routed by your magic, fled into the forest in scattered groups. Some will try to return to the Westerlands. Most of them, however, will end up becoming brigands and we'll have to kill them ourselves soon enough."
What he said next, however, shifted her thoughts entirely.
"Oh and that red comet you've conjured also helped to put the fear of the Seven in them. Never seen men running that fast in my entire life."
"What do you mean I conjured a Red Comet?" she asked wide eyed.
"When you cast your spell and the flames hit the Lannisters, a red comet appeared across the sky. We assumed it was you who conjured it."
Arabella ran towards the window and sure enough, even in the afternoon sky, she could see the Red Comet flying across the heavens. It was finally here. That explained why her spell had felt more potent than she had intended. The Comet had coincidentally appeared right at the time she cast it.
That means that Arya's magic, as well as that of every spellcaster in this world, was about to surge too. That also meant that Daenerys Targaryen had hatched her dragons, like in the original story. That also meant that she could likely retry the spell to go home. A pang of something she couldn't identify immediately crossed her heart when she thought about it. Home. She missed Hogwarts and her friends. But she also knew she couldn't leave. Not right now at least. She couldn't abandon Arya or her family in the middle of a war.
She was taken away from her thoughts as Arya arrived in the room together with Maester Vyman, both at a fast pace. By the look in her eyes, it didn't seem good.
"Arya, what happened?" asked Lord Edmure.
"Bran has fled Winterfell."
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Hello everyone, Agandor here! It's good to be back!
During these 8 months since I've posted for the last time, I've had some personal problems regarding mental health and my change of work also left me with little time for writing. I also need a working VPN to be able to access Webnovel and it hadn't been working for a while now, but it miraculously worked today, so I decided to finish this chapter and publish it.
I can't promise a fixed schedule for posting, but as I've said in my last chapter, I don't want to abandon it. So maybe there'll be a new chapter in a week, maybe in two, maybe in three months. I'll take this project as a no-pressure writing to get into when I'm feeling better or when I need a rest from my writing my own IP.
I wish you all a fantastic week!