Maria del Avenie of the Flame Realm

Maria and Arthur were in the prison room. The room was completely empty; the walls were a boring grey colour. In this room, you could use magic to conjure only the most boring stuff in the world. Arthur discovered he could also create tea, which was a change since he was last here.

Maria didn't put up any fight after a guard came to detain her for creating coins illegally. The coins from the dwarf were seized, and the punishment would be announced soon. Until then, they were bound to be here. Arthur was also captured for trying to help her; he quickly conjured fake licences for coin production, but that didn't pass through the sharp minds of the royal guards.

"Ey, Arthur, how long do you think they could keep us here?"

"Hmm, they will try as much as possible."

"Do you want to escape or not?"

"Let's wait a little longer and see what will happen."

On the gray wall, a hole appeared, and another inmate was thrown with Maria and Arthur.

He fell on his head, and his butt was up to the sky as he was, just for a second, enjoying the taste of the floor.

He rose and tried to conjure a bunch of flames and fireballs in an attempt to escape. Nothing happened. He was baffled.

"Hey guys, I am Gabi. Nice to meet you."

"Same here," Arthur smiled and bowed.

"Ey, ey," Maria said with the glow in her eyes. The room, for a second, was filled with silence.

"I can't do it, why can't I do it?" Gabi was shocked and annoyed.

Arthur started explaining calmly, "You see, this room is an anti-visualisation magic box... It was made by one of the greatest conjurers in this kingdom, even though I hate to admit it. The lady that conjured this prison is pretty good." And then he subtly shifted his eyes to Maria.

"YO!" she said with a smile.

"Don't you YO me, you want to tell me that you created this?" Gabi said with anger on his face and fire in his eyes.

"Well, yes, I created something similar to this, but then they stole my idea and made some tweaks."

Arthur scoffed. "Yea, stole idea. You sold it to them."

"Sh, sh, sh, Arthur, not everyone needs to know how I get funds for the Revolution."

Gabi's anger chilled down somewhat, and he closed his eyes. He was trying his best to create an exit or to break free. Nothing was happening; when he would open his eyes, nothing would happen. His anger and focus turned into sadness. How? How is this possible?

"Listen," Maria said and grabbed his hands to comfort him, "if you want to get out of here, we can help you, but in return you owe us. You must do everything we say."

"Yes, please," Gabi said while nodding.

"Well, that was easy peasy. Are you here for something messed up?" Maria asked and slowly started to let his palms drop when she saw the shift in his eyes.

"Messed up is relative, what I have done is relative, but yes, you could say that I did something messed up. You see, I killed one of the royal guards."

Maria and Arthur looked at each other simultaneously.

Arthur poked Maria with his elbow. "Maybe, like, a step back a little bit," he whispered gently into her ear.

Maria grabbed Gabi and punched him around like it was nothing. She started beating him so hard that Arthur had to stop her. "Here, take this, and this! You should not take another person's life."

Gabi didn't fight back or block punches. He didn't know women could punch that hard, and Maria just blasted him into the world of pain, which in his mind he accepted as deserving punishment.

"There!" Maria said and clapped her palms together. "That is your punishment. Don't just go around murdering people. And now, we should also escape from here."

Gabi bowed and said, "Thank you," with tears in his eyes. In his head, an image of the royal guard that he killed flashed. But it was an image from the distant past. It was an image of a royal guard when he was in his prime, when he was not drinking and when he was actually good to Gabi. The image that flashed next was the image of his ashes, burned to ashes; that is how Gabi dealt with the issue at hand. It is an image that Gabi will have in his mind for the rest of his life.

Gabi's body was now half numb; he was in a kneeling position, beaten down. Looking up at Maria, he saw her long hair starting to rise and her body enveloped in a black aura of flames. Her eyes looked possessed and without a soul, without glow, total darkness, pitch black.

The next moment, our small crew of three prisoners was teleported. They were at Maria's workshop in the kitchen. Maria was standing on the kitchen table, slowly cooling down, with steam leaving her skin. Arthur was with his butt stuck in the sink, and Gabi was still kneeling but now on the filthy kitchen floor of Maria's workshop.

Gabi was in disbelief. "How?" he asked, and then shouted, "HOWW!!" with his spit going everywhere. "The anti-magic box didn't prevent you, HOWWW!?" He then saw that Maria hadn't fully become aware yet.

He got up and tried to catch her, but she was hot as a bonfire. He helped Arthur get out of the kitchen sink. And when he looked around, Maria was good as new. She winked seductively at Arthur and Gabi while pretending to clean the dust off her shoulder.

"The realm I drew energy from to cast that spell is one that can't easily be locked down by that simple box prison trick."

"The energy? The realm?" Gabi looked at Arthur, who just raised his shoulders and eyebrows as high as possible, for a clearer explanation.

"Look, Gabi, even if you are still a beginner in visualisation, magic, and spell casting, the first rule is always to believe in yourself. When you failed the first spell there, you lost confidence and had doubt."

"I didn't!!" Gabi said, like a little kid accused of misdemeanour.

"You only think that, but the doubt is multi-layered. Also, the doubt can be conjured and cast on someone. Remember that."

"YES, master."

"HA HA HA, don't call me master. Maria or Mari is just fine."

Gabi smiled, and Maria smiled back. Then she got that serious look in her eyes.

"They will come for us again sooner or later. Now that we escaped, we've sentenced ourselves to doom. So, new guy, show us what you got."

Gabi stood up, and in a second he created a bunch of small fireballs that had mouths and creepy smiles. "I am mostly a fire and pet conjurer, so I combined it into this. This is my best spell. Little fireballs that can think and do what I would do in every situation."

"Impressive, welcome aboard to the revolution squad," Maria said, and Arthur facepalmed.

"Arthur, heal him and prepare us for the trip. We need to find more people to fight and take the throne of this realm. I, Maria del Avenie of the Flame Realm, will be the next ruler, and you will be there by my side. We will bring this realm freedom."

"What kind of freedom?" Gabi asked with sadness in his voice, looking at Maria like a lost puppy.

Maria didn't hesitate; she locked eyes with Gabi, the loving kind.

Since that day, Gabi has been Maria's right hand. He was the soldier in her army with the most attacking and offensive fire spellcasting? prowess in this long battle they embarked on.

"I think I can fight for that," Gabi said.

And while Maria found a new, strong ally in Gabi to help her chase her dream, Arthur was still not very sure if he even wanted to be a part of this group. Since he was little, he only wanted to have peace and quiet, to be alone. Loneliness is something that Maria couldn't take, but for Arthur, that was what he longed for. He spaced out while Maria and Gabi were planning the next steps. He was feeling lazy and was even thinking about just going to the palace and giving up his freedom.

He started to cast simple tea spells and made some thyme tea for himself and others.

Maria noticed something was wrong. She had known Arthur for a long time now, but his body was not generating as much energy and aura as it used to.

"If you don't want to come with me, Arthur, that is fine. I will bring peace to everyone even if you don't come with me now. I will fight for the freedom of my friends, my foes, and all the neutral people who just want to live their lives without politics ruining it."

"Thank you," Arthur said. A visual gate opened; he conjured a small gate for realm translocation and walked in slowly. At the last second, he gave them a small fake smile, his eyes filled with boredom.

"What just happened?" Gabi asked, confused, looking at Maria.