Ch11. Acquiring Pyke

Thomas and the girls sailed towards Pyke without anyone bothering them thanks to the liberal use of Imperio on ironborn raiders that crossed their path. Irene was yet again forced to acknowledge the usefulness of Bellatrix's magic as she saw the sheer number of people under her control.

Bellatrix and Thomas were training, while Irene was reading a copy of a book on Occlumency from the mental library. Bellatrix was conjuring dense metal balls out of thin air, not a very easy task, and Thomas was trying to catch them before they fell on the ground.

The catch was, he was supposed to catch them with his magic only, the gravity manipulation. Well, it was not like he would try to catch iron balls weighing around a hundred kilograms with his hands, now, was it?

As sweat poured on his forehead, Irene suddenly pointed at him, engulfing his body in a red glow. Her enchant got a neat upgrade thanks to being a humanoid dragon and she was now able to enchant humans.

Her spell rejuvenated Thomas and completely replenished his magic from the reserves of Irene. He shot her a thankful look and continued training as Bella giggled happily, conjuring these balls of certain death.

Every time Thomas didn't manage to grab the ball and carefully laid it onto the deck where Bella promptly vanished it, the ball would impact the water, sending crushing waves into the hull of the ship. As result, the ship would rock from side to side with such an intensity, even the experienced ironborn sailors begged on their knees to stop this madness. Unfortunately for them, Irene was not bothered in the least and Bella enjoyed the ride, so the training continued.

...

Thomas and the girls arrived in the Pyke a few hours prior. Right now, the sun already fell beyond the horizon, painting the surroundings in darkness. Thomas stood under the walls of Pyke, uncertain of their plan of infiltration.

"Are you sure it will be alright?" He looked down the cliff at waves breaking on the sharp rocks, sweat drenching him. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Don't worry, I got your back." Irene reassured with a cheerful smile. "And besides, if you screw up, there is still the option of being revived later on."

"I see." Thomas glared at her but obediently pushed his magic.

As he affected the gravity on himself, he started to float slightly above the ground. So far, so good.

Then he took the hands of the girls and tried to affect the gravity on them too. His body strained a little but the girls floated next to him.

"Hurry up, Irene. I won't be able to hold this for long." He urged his companion to not dilly-dally.

Bellatrix cast Wingardium Leviosa on them in order to control their make-shift 'flight' while Irene used Enchant Magic to strengthen the spell. The Levitation Charm coupled with the Gravity reduction of Thomas and Irene's Enchant made the trio quickly float towards the top of the castle walls. As they reached a quiet, out of the hand place, Thomas and Bella canceled their magic and flopped on their knees from strain while Irene shrugged it off as if nothing happened.

It was only then that Thomas remembered one important fact.

"Why the hell did we try to combine our spells to fly when you can use flight easily, Irene?" He asked, irritated.

"Ah, but master, if you won't do some things by yourself, you will never learn." She replied smugly, making him groan. "Shall we continue?"

Bellatrix stood up, swaying from side to side, still breathing somewhat hard.

"Yes, let's..." She grimaced and Irene took pity on her by transferring some of her magic to her, fully replenishing her reserves. "Thanks." Bellatrix ground out.

"I am still astounded at just how little yet how potent your magical energy is." Irene offhandedly commented, knowing well it would rile Bella up even more.

With a huff, Bellatrix stomped her feet on the ground and marched away from Thomas and Irene. She needed to vent her anger and she needed to do it now!

"Well, that went well." Thomas deadpanned.

"Don't pretend you didn't notice she is frustrated due to the difference between us." Irene seriously stated. "She needs to vent. And this is a prime opportunity to do so."

"You know she will massacre at least a fifth of the soldiers in the castle, don't you?" Thomas tiredly asked.

"Surely not. She will manage more than a measly fifth, master." Irene pecked him coyly on his lips, also restoring his magic by doing so.

"Damn, I didn't even use five percent to restore the both of you." Irene smirked. "That won't do. Not at all."

"Let's first secure the territory, then worry about magic training, okay?" Thomas quipped but his hands betrayed him and snaked around her waist. Their faces found each other as their lips pressed together, both knowing they should return to the task at hand but quite reluctant to do so.

It was five minutes of intense kissing later that an enormous explosion shook the castle, pulling the two lovers back to reality.

"Well, that was definitely Bella's Bombarda Maxima." Thomas offhandedly commented and before Irene could nod, searing flames ignited a tower nearby, burning to crisps everyone there, lighting the night sky.

"... and that was her fiendfyre. Damn." He commented yet again, his tone getting progressively more deadpan when another tower shook and slowly started to fall into the courtyard.

"And that was the transfiguration of the supporting pillar." Irene rolled her eyes. "She is quite excessive, isn't she?"

She barely managed to finish her sentence when another Bombarda Maxima impacted the barracks. Torn body parts, lifeless corpses, painful shrieks, and Bella's insane cackling filled the courtyard of Pyke.

Thomas and Irene looked at each other, blinking indignantly.

"We should go and... dunno stop her? Help her?" Thomas asked, unsure what to do and Irene managed to only nod in agreement, also not knowing if she actually agreed with the first variant or the second.

The due came closer to the battlefield and finally got a clear view of the battle.

Cackling Bella was surrounded by a bunch of soldiers, frightened so much, they didn't dare to approach as the archers tried to shoot her to death. Unfortunately for them, Bella's Shielding Charm was working perfectly and the arrows had no effect as Bella had the time of her life.

She transfigured the ground into spikes, impaling over ten soldiers nearby. Then she spun on her heel as yet another stream of fiendfyre flew from her wand, ravaging the entire area around the castle gate, preventing the soldiers from running away. Green bolts flew in every direction, signifying certain death for anyone they touched. Blasting Hexes ripped apart progressively more and more people and her overpowered Cutting Curses were now slashing through multiple armored people before losing their power. As the fight progressed, fewer and fewer soldiers stayed, most already ran to the inside of the castle with horror etched in their expression. Bellatrix looked like a Death Reaper, pale and donned in black as she breathed heavily in ecstasy in the middle of the destruction and pile of corpses she created. It was a shuddering sight.

"Well... that was definitely more than a fifth." Thomas calmly uttered, already used to the sight of corpses due to the past incidents while traveling through Westeros. Many bandits learned Bella can be one very mean and very sadistic bitch when an insult strikes a wrong note with her. Neither of those survived nor died swiftly. And Thomas's stomach usually emptied itself a few times before she was done with them. The massacre around? That was a warm-up...

Before Irene and Thomas could call out to Bella, she disappeared inside the castle, forcing them to follow. As they advanced through blood-filled corridors, more painful moans and screams could be heard as occasionally a dark creepy cackle of joyful glee reverberated through the fortress followed by either loud blast or bright fires.

They finally arrived at the throne room, spotting Bella sitting on the throne, giving Thomas a 'praise me' gaze as her wand pointed at a man with glazed over eyes, kneeling in front of the throne.

Balon Greyjoy was deeply ensnared in Imperio, waiting for orders.

Thomas came closer to Bellatrix and patted her head gently, enjoying her delighted expression and narrowed eyes as Irene amusedly watched them.

"Good job." Thomas told Bellatrix, making her beam at him. "But next time try to keep at least half of the castle standing, kay?"

And just like that, her expression turned to a dejected sullen pout, making both Irene and Thomas laugh out loud at her.

Irene was kinda disappointed at Bellatrix for leaving witnesses as she had to use her magic to Enchant the surrounding lands in a pale imitation of Universe One.

The ground started shaking so violently, it was hard to keep standing as she raised a thirty meters tall wall of smooth, unclimbable rock around the entire castle and cut any and all escape ways through the sea by filling the harbor with sharp jagged rocks. Additionally, the earthquake her terraforming caused created many violent waves reaching over five meters in height. No ship would pass through without being shredded to pieces. Even getting onto the sea in such conditions would be the height of suicide.

It would not do if somebody escaped and started yapping about witches, would it now?