????Perspective of Luiz Fernandes — The Smiling Copas

  ?? After the fall of the last fortress

  She did not scream.

  She did not beg.

  She did not tremble.

  She bled.

  And even bleeding…

  … she kept her spears raised, as if the body was just a detail — and the soul, the true weapon.

  Boudica.

  Back then, I didn’t even know her name.

  They called her “the northern savage,” “the shadow of ice,”

  “the one who killed thirteen men in a corridor with a single spear.”

  But what I saw was not a savage.

  It was a soul the world tried to tame by force… and failed.

  Her fight wasn’t beautiful.

  It was raw.

  It was real.

  But there was dignity in the way she fell — and stood again.

  As if defeat was only a pause… never the end.

  While other warriors died with either honor or cowardice…

  …she did not die.

  She survived.

  As if survival itself was punishment.

  And when she collapsed before me, after three days of combat, I did not see weakness.

  I saw choice.

  She looked at me — with hatred.

  Not for losing.

  But because she believed I was like all the others.

  In that moment…

  I understood.

  She expected to be broken.

  Dragged away.

  Turned into something she wasn’t.

  Just as the Empire taught men to do with women who fought until the end.

  And then, my hand touched the shield.

  I remembered what is carved in its center — not as a decoration…

  …but as a law.

  ---

  ?? The Seven Mandates of Copas — Law of the South

  1?? The spear does not start wars.

  It ends the ones that have already begun.

  2?? Strength can open doors.

  But only honor can walk through them.

  3?? Copas does not take.

  Copas earns — and only what comes by free will.

  4?? No spear stands higher than the shield beside it.

  5?? A leader does not command from behind.

  He bleeds in the front line.

  6?? Victory is not dominating the enemy.

  Victory is dominating oneself.

  7?? A spear can conquer bodies.

  But only respect conquers warriors. ??

  ---

  In that moment, I understood:

  I could win. But I did not have the right to break.

  So, I didn’t offer chains.

  I didn’t offer submission.

  I returned the spear.

  She didn’t understand it then.

  But a month later —

  She returned.

  She spoke only one sentence:

  “Copas defeated me. Copas saw me. I choose Copas.”

  But what she truly meant was:

  “You saw me. And I have not forgotten.”

  Since then, she fights by our side.

  She never smiles,

  Never surrenders…

  But she protects.

  With more ferocity than any shield ever forged.

  And every time her spear strikes…

  I remember:

  > The hardest battle I ever won…

  I won without lifting my sword.

  Without breaking anything.

  Without destroying what was already unbreakable.

  She was a broken weapon.

  Now…

  She is a living spear.

  Not mine by possession.

  But mine by will.

  —

  — Luiz Fernandes, Commander of Copas.

  ---

  ?? Volume Epilogue:

  > In the Tower, everyone bleeds.

  But only some bleed for real.

  And those who survive…

  …will understand that respect is rarer than magic.

  ?????END OF VOLUME 3 – THE TOWER’S CALL

  (With soul. With blood. With story.)