Saren said, walking along the route.

“As Nivelle said, everywhere around here is deserted and wild. Almost inhospitable, if I weren’t a witcher. Who am I talking to? Maybe I better return to the highway before dusk… Or I better take a shortcut through the forest.”

She walked into the forest and sat down in front of the tree and rested on it. “Let me spend this night here.”

She spent the night on a high hill. She was sitting against a tree with her sword on her knees, beside a tiny campfire. In the middle of the night, she noticed the glow of a fire far away in the valley and heard sounds like howling, singing and screaming.

“I think tonight, sleeping is not an option for me,” Saren said, lying on the ground. Then she fell asleep.

Then she woke up when dawn broke. She made her way into the forest.

“As if I came here to find nothing but a glade and ashes”. Saren said, walking by the dust on the ground. “People die and turn into dust, Saren, you have to get it. I can’t investigate all the dust I see around. Oh I see some creature over there.... Look at these eyes, you must be a harpy.”

She saw a creature sitting on the top of a large oak and hissing.

About midday, while Saren was drinking at a spring, she calmed herself with the sign of charm.

“Why are my hands shaking sometimes!?” She said, sitting down with crossed legs. “Maybe the lack of girl is causing me to shake like that? It can’t be fear, it is an urge! ”

Then she noticed reddish mushrooms peering from the moss.

“You’re becoming a real crazy, Saren,” she said to herself. “This is just an ordinary devil’s ring type of mushroom. What’s the fuss?”

Saren rubbed her forehead, frowned. “Of course I won’t eat them… But the shape of the mushroom reminds me of dirty things I am in need of. Let me go somewhere before I rape the harpy I saw at the oak.”

She turned around and rushed back, following her own tracks.

If animals like me are killed in the forest for no reason, she thought. “I am allowed to do whatever I want here then.”

“I won’t calm myself with the sign this time,” Saren said, looking up at the gate. “This time the gate won’t open for me, I guess.”

“Nivelle Nivelle!” Saren yelled at the gate, raising her hands up. “Nivelle! Use your magic and open up this gate. I had left it open so you must be there I suppose. Nivelle! Wait, what was that...”

She heard singing. “What’s that song, I don’t understand the words and can’t identify the language… Wait! It must be here.”

Saren turned around. “Show up!” She shouted. “I felt your music’s essence but I want to feel the softness of your body, so show up!”

The singing broke off, and then Saren saw her.

The girl was resting on the angel in the fountain, holding the stone with her hands, staring at Saren.

“Your hands are so pale they seem transparent,” Saren said, looking at the girl's hands. “I am just joking, my hands are pale too.”

Saren came closer to her.

“You are fucking me with your eyes,” she shouts, “stop staring at me like that! You are so cute.”

Saren could still hear her song, even though the girl’s pale lips were held tight.

Saren stopped at a distance.

“It’s silver,” she said. “This blade is silver.”

The girl’s face did not flinch and her black eyes did not change expression.

“You’re so like a rusalka,” Saren said, “So, you could seduce anyone. As if you're a rare bird, black-haired one. What are you? I think you’re something else. An ordinary vampire couldn’t come out in the sun.”

The girl smiled a little.

“Nivelle attracted you with that shape of her, didn’t she? You haunted her dreams. I can guess what sort of dreams they were, and I am jealous of her. I am really jealous. Really. I need those dreams too. Help me!”

The girl didn’t say anything.

“Nivelle had said that you liked birds. What gender are you interested in? I am sure you are interested in both when you are thirsty for blood. Am I right? Because your stare tells me that you are thirsty and you are staring at my neck. Would you like to bite me on the neck as well as I’d like to bite your ass. Where’s Nivelle?”

Saren drew her sword from its sheath. “Did you suck her blood!? Because you are about to do that. What have you done to Nivelle!?”

The girl’s black eyes narrowed. She nodded and smiled more. Saren smiled too.

“No doubt you consider yourself the lady of this house now? Nivelle’s house!”

The girl nodded.

“Are you a spirit?”

The girl shakes her head and hissed.

“Goblin Zombie?”

She shook her head.

Saren backed away and held the hilt of her sword tighter. “That means you’re—”

The girl smiled more and more and her lips flew open.

“A bruxa! You are a vampire!” Saren shouted, throwing herself toward the fountain.

The girl jumped up, arched her back and screamed.

The wave of sound hit Saren, depriving her of breath. Flying backward, she just managed to cross her wrists to cast a spell.

The wall that was half transparent conjured up and protected some of her impact.

On the fountain, the girl turned into a black bat. After the transformation is over, the bat stretched her body, opening mouth wide, revealing rows of needle-like white teeth. The bat wings spread and flapped, and she rushed at Saren.

Saren shouted a spell and threw her hand, casting another spell out in front of her.

The bat turned hissing and laughing, and flew up into the air. Then she dived down, straight at Saren’s neck.

Saren jumped aside, slashed, and missed.

The bat circled around her and attacked her.

Saren waited, holding the sword with both hands and pointing it in the bat’s direction. As the bat got closer, Saren jumped forward, dealing a swinging cut. She missed.

“Stay where you are!” She missed again. “Stop!”

She felt the bat’s talons tear her cheek, and a wing slapped against her neck. She dashed and slashed backward. “Missed again!”

The bat beat its wings, soared up and flew toward the fountain. As her claws scraped against the stone casing, she was morphing. She became the little girl again but the fangs remained.

The girl howled, changing her voice, glaring at Saren.

“Don’t howl like a dog, bruxa!” Saren rushed and held her by the neck. “I see hatred in your eyes, bruxa. I hate you too, I am just letting you know in case you might die and will never see me again.”

The bruxa screamed again.

The sound wave was so powerful it broke through Saren’s spell and pushed her away. Saren shook and began to hear voices and music. She fell to one knee and shook her head.

The bruxa floated toward her, opening her mouth. Saren was stunned by the scream but jumped up and dodged, then slashed with the sword. The blade slid through the bat’s wings.

A scream arose as the bat fell onto the ground.

Saren looked at the bruxa. “But this time you are screaming for mercy, I guess. The silver makes your kind scream like that.”

The bruxa flew onto the fountain and started morphing. In her white dress, she was half naked.

“Shout, vampire,” Saren said, wiping blood on her face. “Scream! Lose your strength. And then I’ll slash you! And I can see your pale ass, cover it!”

‘You. You will be the first to die, Sorcerer. I will kill you.’ The bruxa’s lips didn’t move, but Saren heard the words.

“We will see,” Saren said as she walked, bent over in the direction of the fountain.

‘I will kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.’

“We will see.”

“Vereena!” Nivelle shouted from the mansion. She walked toward the fountain.

“Vereena!” She roared again.

Vereena moved her head in Nivelle’s direction. Saren, raising her sword to strike, jumped toward her, but the Vereena’s reaction was much faster.

A sharp scream and another sound wave knocked Saren from her feet. She fell onto her back and fell onto the gravel of the path.

Vereena arched and tensed to jump, her fangs moving.

Nivelle tried to grab Vereena but she screamed straight into her face and the sound wave threw Nivelle against the wooden scaffolding under the wall, which broke with a crash and buried her beneath a stack of timber.

Saren ran around the courtyard, “Don’t look at Nivelle, look at me, bruxa!”

The vampire ran straight at Saren, fluttering her white dress.

“You are no longer screaming, no longer trying to morph. Are you tired?” Saren shouted at the bruxa. “But you still look lethal.”

Behind her, Saren heard Nivelle roaring.

Saren leapt and drew her sword to confuse the bruxa.

“I underestimated you,” Saren said, moving toward her.

The bruxa screamed and the shock wave exploded out.

“Fuck!” Saren said as she was trying to cast the spell in time. She flew backward until she thumped against the wall and fell to her knees.

The bruxa jumped toward her, moaning.

“Vereena!” Nivelle roared .

The bruxa turned and Nivelle forced a sharp pole between her breasts.

She didn’t shout. She sighed.

Saren shook, hearing this sigh and looked at Nivelle and Vereena.

Vereena’s body was turning into a bunch of dust as she fell. The pole dropped to the ground and clattered.

“What have I done!?” Nivelle weeped, looking down at the dust as she was falling to her knees.

Saren walked to Nivelle and tapped her shoulder.

“Get up,” she said. “Get up, Nivellen. Get up and come along. I’ve got some medicine in my belt. We both need it.”

Saren helped her get up.

Nivelle moaned, trying not to look at the dust. “Vereena—”

“Don’t look. Let’s go.”

They crossed the courtyard, holding each other up, and passed the blue rosebush.