[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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In the same laboratory, located in some remote and hidden place,... With an imposing and somewhat sinister aspect, there is a large underground chamber with dark stone walls, illuminated only by magical torches.
Around the room, various dark wooden shelves house books of sorcery, yellowed scrolls, and magical objects. On one of the walls, there are a series of cages containing rare magical creatures used by the mage in his experiments.
There were more structures with alchemical equipment, such as distillers of magical essences, glass retorts containing liquids that change color, and small flames burning without any visible fuel. There were many other things, but now the attention turned back to the man looking at the paper.
While the servant dressed as a beggar stood still in front of the two people waiting for their next orders, the mage barely looked at him. "You may leave us." He said calmly.
As the man withdrew and quickly disappeared, the woman standing next to the mage looked intently at her master. "Who is that?" she asked, curious.
This woman is Lydia van Bredevoort, a loyal assistant and a talented mage who serves her master with devotion. She does not care what type of task her master is undertaking; she always helps him carry out his plans and manipulations.
The man continued looking at the name on the paper for a few seconds and decided to respond with a tone indicating rare confusion as he looked at her. "I don't know," he finally said, having never heard of this Madara Uchiha, and certainly not remembering any noble house by the name of Uchiha.
"Master Vilgefortz, then why is this name in a message from Cintra?" The woman asked.
The man was thoughtful. "He's a boy of 6 or 7 years, but he appeared out of nowhere. Only the mage, Mousesack, and Queen Calanthe know more about the child and his origins. After all, our spies in the castle only saw him appearing overnight..." He murmured before continuing.
"No one knows his origins. However, the boy stands out not only in his relationship with the court mage, who seems to be in contact every day, or even the queen who sometimes has audiences with the boy alone, which is very intriguing," he continued. "However, what surprises me more in this letter is his significant contact with Princess Cirilla, and it seems that the princess is very attached to this Madara," he said, looking back at the paper.
"Why would the queen put a stranger with the princess, or let her have contact, he's certainly not noble, right?" his assistant could not help asking.
"No. And I don't know the exact reason, but this boy is much more mysterious than the message says. Here it mentions just one more piece of information, also that the boy has superior skills with weapons, far beyond his age, fighting even with the lord commander, with years and far more experience, yet the boy still stood his ground like any other royal guard of Cintra in a fight with him. The letter also notes that he might be a witcher from a trial of herbs, something reasonable to explain how a boy has so much strength." He finished his observation.
"Do you believe that, Master Vilgefortz?" She asked.
"It could be, I would be surprised at the witcher schools conducting new trials, they haven't created new witchers in decades, but it's hard at that age, unless the boy really did this madness and became something very powerful for a boy like him." He said and began burning the letter in a fireplace, while continuing to talk.
"It's strange, Cintra is full of mysteries lately, gang wars, a disappearance of children suspected to be by an unknown mage to me, who is trafficking them in the city. Gangs being eliminated by a monster, they say is a child. Could this Madara be the child everyone is talking about? Is he a vampire or something?" The man did not fail to ask.
"And what should we do?" the woman asked after everything her master had commented.
"Nothing yet, our target is Cirilla, but we will just observe for now. But I also cannot help but be interested in this boy and what he really is, I will continue investigating with my spies." He said in conclusion.
"I have some information that Nilfgaard is starting a movement in the south, they have always been ambitious and aimed north, let's wait and see their intentions," he spoke after thinking for a bit. "We can use this to catch Cirilla as well, after all, we want the power that lies in this girl's blood, and I will get it," he said with a dark tone.
This was Vilgefortz of Roggeveen, one of the most powerful and influential mages of the time, if not the greatest of all. This man intends to increase his powers and has been after the blood of Princess Ciri, who possesses the so-called Elder Blood, a gene that emerges in the descendants of Lara Dorren, and he intends to acquire this power.
Elsewhere, in another laboratory, another letter arrived in the hands of another mage. He read it carefully while crumpling the letter with some force. "Madara Uchiha," he commented angrily, "so that's your name." He murmured angrily, after all, he remembered very well the boy who managed to corner him, even though the battle was still in his favor, he let his guard down to the strange boy and nearly died to a child with strange powers.
His spies in the castle spoke of the boy and his activities. "He is working with the royal family..." He murmured, knowing how Cintra had become bad for him and his agents and businesses in the city. "So, it seems they want to take the rest of my contacts..." He concluded after reading about Madara's activities and some conversations with the court mage, after all, he had one of the royal guards among his spies and some nobles of the kingdom, so he had a lot of privileged information.
He just smiled in the end. "Well, so be it. I will wait for you and I will take revenge on you, boy. I will dissect you and see all the secrets of your body and find out what you use, which is not magic." He said, burning the letter while murmuring to himself.
"Of all the things I have seen in this world, you were one of the most intriguing things I have seen in the last 100 years," he said looking at his wounds, not hiding the pain he still felt, he was still recovering from the fight that occurred. "Soon, the taste of revenge filled his mouth, already planning how he would catch the boy and make him pay.
Meanwhile, a bit closer to the kingdom of Cintra, in a council room of a kingdom adjacent to Cintra, Angren, there was a meeting happening at that moment. Their king was in the main chair while listening to his advisors.
"Cintra is in a bad political position. We have a chance to acquire the eastern valley of the kingdom," one subject spoke, seeing it as an opportunity to grab new lands for this kingdom. The others nodded, but some questioned.
"Why should we go to war? There are rumors about movements in the south, Nilfgaard might be planning an attack and expanding their lands north, you all know how greedy they are in invading the north!" the man spoke, seeing that it was not a good idea to go to war with another northern kingdom.
"That's just a set of rumors, nothing true comes from it. It would take many years to start a campaign to the north, and we will be well-prepared if that happened," another advisor spoke.
A man rose from his chair and moved back to the main side of the large table, "My king, this is an opportunity. Cintra is commanded by a woman, this is a good chance," spoke the advisor, towards his king, sitting at the head of the table.
"Don't forget Calanthe's reputation... She is not called the lioness of Cintra for nothing," another man said but then continued. "Besides that, I agree with this man, it is a good opportunity to attack the kingdom and grab some lands." He said.
The king looked at his advisors while tapping his finger on the table, thinking. With each tap, he studied each possibility. However, his greed led him to believe that this would be a positive campaign, and believing that he could achieve it easily in another way. "You only talk of war..." he spoke after five taps.
"It's interesting, and we will surely come out victorious in a fight," he said confidently.
"But my lords, we don't need a victory on the battlefield if we can have one on the political field, without spending a gold coin on armor or a sword, after all, wars are expensive." He said in a tone as everyone's attention was on him, waiting for him to continue.
"Remember, there is only one princess in Cintra, a princess means an heiress. Calanthe wanted to betroth her to Verden, but that only weakened Cintra compared to all the other northern kingdoms. We can show a generous hand and propose a marriage with my heir," he said.
"But isn't your heir nineteen and not yet a knight?" a counselor asked.
"He might have had a fiancée, my advisors... after all, accidents happen..." He said calmly, his fiancée was an important noble from his kingdom, but a princess was much better and he would eliminate the girl if necessary, he spoke openly about these things there because he trusted these men, as they were as greedy as he was.
"If we secure a marriage, we can take the entire kingdom and unite it instead of just a piece of Cintra! Forming a powerhouse in the north," he said with his vision of having an even more powerful kingdom.
"My king, you speak with wisdom, as expected!" a noble flattered him.
Even those who did not like to flatter had to agree with his thinking.
"Yes, not all wars are fought on a battlefield. We can offer help to Cintra while their kingdom is vulnerable. Among an alliance of union with conditions in our favor, the greatest union the north has ever seen!" he said, after all, if he could follow through with his plan, they could merge the two kingdoms into one, becoming one of the largest kingdoms in the north.
"That is good, as expected," another said with a sincere compliment.
"Now, mage..." He turned to his advisor, a beautiful woman but over fifty years old, her chaos within preventing her from aging. The king continued, "Send a letter to Cintra with our conditions," he said with a slight smile.