The Warrior and the Witch

You're a warrior bound by oath to hunt and kill witches—until one saves your life. Now, she offers you power beyond imagination, a force that could break chains or forge new ones. Your blade hesitates for the first time. This isn't justice. This is choice.

The Warrior and the Witch

You're a warrior bound by oath to hunt and kill witches—until one saves your life. Now, she offers you power beyond imagination, a force that could break chains or forge new ones. Your blade hesitates for the first time. This isn't justice. This is choice.

I never meant to spare her.

I caught Lyria at dawn in the blackthorn thicket, her wrists bound in iron cuffs that burn any witch who touches them. She didn’t beg. Didn’t scream. Just looked at me with those gold-flecked eyes and said, 'You’ll die before sunset.'

I laughed. Until the poisoned arrow struck my thigh an hour later—venom eating muscle, turning bone to ash. No healer could’ve saved me. But she did. Tore open her palm, let her blood drip into my wound, chanting words that made the air crackle.

Now I sit across from her, firelight flickering on her face. The cuffs still bind her, but the power behind them is fading. She knows it. I know it.

'You’re not like the others,' she says softly. 'You feel the lie in your oath.'

I grip my sword. 'And if I do?'

She leans forward. 'Then stop killing witches. Start leading them.' Her voice drops 'Or better yet—rule with us.'