"Stop! The queen inside me is under control, there is no danger for you, you don't need to be afraid of me," Selesta said, trying to believe her own words.
She took the sword from the hands of the woman who was on top of the straw bag, all naked, "don't ever do that again, okay?"
"I… I'll try…" she stammered.
"Nice girl, what's your name?" Selesta asked.
"Faca," she replied.
"I'm Selesta, I had another name, but it brings back bad memories, so I stopped using it."
"Faca, you must have more clothes in your tent. Go, wear something," Selesta said with a blush on her cheeks.
Faca thought that was funny, someone so powerful, blushing like that. It relieved some of the tension she felt.
Faca went to the tent and came back dressed in men's clothes.
"That's all I have," she said.
"It'll have to do, you don't have to wear bandages on your chest anymore, you no longer have to pretend you're a man," Selesta noted.
"It's okay, it's the habit…" Faca said, opened her shirt, took off the bandages, and closed it again.
Her chest became more prominent under the shirt.
Selesta blushed again.
Faca smiled, the tension was all gone.
Faca raised her hand and a warm halo emanated from it, "This is my power, I was born with the spirit of fire within me, and with it I can melt anything. I can also create fireballs to throw at unsuspecting people."
"Interesting, a Nature spirit, look, melt that sword over there," Selesta requested, pointing to a crude sword that was on the ground.
Faca picked up the sword, and as soon as she touched it, it turned into incandescent ash and disappeared.
"Incredible! Look, I want you to try to melt one of my metal chains, but don't touch it, it could be dangerous, just bring your fire closer to it."
A thick metallic chain emerged from the ground, Faca brought her hand closer, and nothing happened, the chain remained unchanged.
"Hmm, maybe it's too thick, I'll try to make a thinner one," Selesta said, making the chain disappear to make way for another one that looked more like a neck chain.
Faca brought her hand closer to the chain again, but the result was the same.
"My power doesn't work with your chains! Amazing, it's the first time something hasn't melted with my fire."
"So you mean this thing I'm wearing is fireproof? Good to know," Selesta said with a smile on her lips.
Faca noticed that the other woman was dressed from head to toe in a vest made of those chains.
"How…how can you use that? Don't you wear anything underneath? You must be freezing!"
"Believe it or not, the metal is in sync with my skin, as warm as the thickest coat in the cold and as cool as being naked in the heat."
"Incredible!" Faca was amazed.
Faca, you said you could be very useful to me, I would like to know how.
"Hmm, I can give you a lot of information about what you will find further south, I can also teach you how to use the sword, if you depend on these chains for everything, you could find yourself in trouble if your power fails, mine isn't Infallible either."
"Can you show me your swordsmanship skill?" Faca asked.
Selesta picked up a sword, it was kind of heavy, and it didn't feel natural to her.
"I see you've never used a sword before," Faca said, amused, "if your power failed right now, I could easily defeat you."
"If you have a spirit, you can use it for more precise things like strengthening your hand so that the use of the sword is as efficient as possible."
Selesta remembered the stone that Marianne had sent into the deep sky, she tried to concentrate on the arm that had the sword, and the exoskeleton lines appeared, she tried to move with the sword but it was so violent that the sword flew out of her hand and disappeared into the sky.
"Yeah, you have to learn to control it," Faca said, instinctively she had ducked.
The situation could not be more comical, Selesta was still in the pose with the sword, but without it, and Faca lowered in a squatting position.
They both burst into laughter.
In the following days, Faca taught Selesta how to use the sword, after two more lost swords, Selesta began to get the hang of it. Faca was surprised at how quickly she learned.
"You're getting the hang of it, soon I won't be able to beat you anymore," Faca said, panting after a long exchange of blows.
"Faca, tell me about the South, what awaits me when I get there?" Selesta asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
"Further South there is a big city, inside the city there is a circular citadel, and thousands of women are imprisoned there. All the women you see trapped in those camp's logs came from that place… I… was one of them."
"A prison, then," Selesta concluded.
"It is more than a prison, it is the symbol of the corruption of this land, it is also a fortress, it is almost impossible to enter or leave," Faca said.
"You, with your powers, you could free them."
"I have other priorities, I have to find and kill the Southern warlord. Also without defeating him, even if I freed the women, they would be captured again sooner or later." Selesta said.
"I know where he lives!" Faca said with a penetrating look.
"What? Do you… do you know where he lives? Tell me! Now!" Selesta ordered.
"Yes, the son of a bitch lives in the citadel, before the women are sent to the camps, they are all his slaves."
"He's…horrible…" Faca said, looking away.
"Did you…did he…mistreat you when you were there?" Selesta asked.
"No! I was lucky to have never been in his presence, there were thousands of women, and there were probably more attractive ones to choose from, beauty is a curse in that place."
"The women who had been with him became unrecognizable, they lost the little will they had to live."
"His name is Anao, he is over two meters tall, and he is very intimidating. When there is someone who wants to challenge his power in the Southern lands, he leads him to the citadel, humiliates and kills him in the arena with all the slaves watching. That's why the citadel is circular, so they can watch without even leaving their cages, to show them what happens to anyone who gets in his way."
"I think you have a chance to beat him, his spirit is very powerful, but he only has access to half of it, the other half is with his brother: the warlord of the North. I noticed it once, I could see his split aura in the arena. Promise me, Selesta, that you will free them, some of those women have spirits, they are the key to ending the tyranny of the South."
"I can only promise you that I will try to kill him, whatever the cost, even if I have to die too! That son of a bitch is to blame for everything bad that happened to me in my life!"
"For me, that's more than enough," Faca smiled.
"But you have to be very careful, even with only half the spirit, he is very powerful. And there's an army in that city."
"I also have an army," Selesta said, she erected some chains, an army without limit, at least I never felt there was one.
"Can you please withdraw them? These things make me nervous," Faca requested.
At a thought from Selesta, the chains returned to the ground.
After a few more days in the valley camp, Selesta was already able to fence on equal terms with Faca and won most of the time.
At night, as a precaution, Faca slept in a tent set up a hundred meters from the camp, hidden in some bushes.
After a week, Selesta was leaving the next day, heading south. Faca would try her luck further North.
"Tomorrow you're leaving, aren't you? I wanted to show you something else, so you remember me," Faca said.
"Sure, what is it?"
Faca approached Selesta and touched her lips with hers gently.
"I wanted to try it, but I never had the chance, in our world of rude gestures," Faca said softly.
Selesta blushed to the tips of her hair, but after three more kisses, it was the second best thing she had experienced, the first was still Marianne's hug.
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