While the soldiers around them clashed, Titania had struck first at Frances. A bolt of magic hit the ground under Frances’s feet. She managed to leap off the ground before it sucked her under. Her arm was screaming with pain as she shifted, and it was all she could do to fire a blast of magic back. Titania deflected the bolt with a casual flick of her wand, opening her mouth to yell a Word of Power.

That’s when Martin slid into her flank and swept his blade at the trorc’s back. His sword scythed toward the princess’s unguarded back. At the last moment, Titania somehow saw him and twisted away. She wasn’t fast enough to dodge the blade from cutting into the side of her jacket, though.

Martin followed up his cut with an overhand strike that Titania parried and countered. The princess opened her mouth, and Frances took this moment to surround her friend with a shield.

It was a good thing she did because Titania blasted Martin with a fireball that the shield blocked. The knight blinked in surprise, but realizing what had happened, pressed on and managed to drive the princess back. Every time the princess blasted Martin with a spell, Frances would shield her friend.

It was a temporary stalemate that Frances knew she had to break or get out of. She was running low on magic and for all the fact that Martin was armoured and had a much longer weapon, he wasn’t a mage. Already, Titania was scoring hits on Martin’s armour, her shortsword seeking the gaps in his steel plate.

“Oh come on Frances. Can’t you fight your own battles?” Titania cackled.

In disbelief, Frances screamed a note and yanked on the princess’s arm with her magic, forcing the trorc’s wand off aim and sending a red bolt of magic sailing into the sky. How did the trorc manage to insult her with the rain beating on their heads and them locked in combat?

Laughing, Titania yelled a Word of Power, while at the same time blocking Martin’s cut to her shoulder, and twisting the knight out of the way. Frances had gotten a shield up, but the spell had bolstered the princess’s speed, not targeted Martin.

Titania was suddenly on top of Frances, her sword cutting down. Frances reacting rather than thinking, screamed, throwing her magic at the princes. Ivy’s Sting channelled that into a transparent blue shield around her arm, which blocked Titania’s strike. It still drove Frances’s heels into the mud. Trying to back away, Frances felt her breath seize in her throat as the trorc drove a hard roundhouse into her broken left arm.

That staggered her, and Frances almost fell over. As it was, she was stumbling to the left. Her agony-addled mind vaguely realizing she was getting farther away from Martin who was trying to reach her. He was being engaged by more of Titania’s soldiers, bellowing something. Oh, that was her name he was crying out.

A sultry laugh drew Frances back to the trorc stalking towards her. “Oh come on now. Are you shy? I thought your parents only beat you, not cut off your tongue?”

Frances couldn’t help it, she flinched, all thoughts of what spell to cast, gone. The memories of her mother and stepfather were all she could see. She couldn’t stop herself from shaking, even as she blinked, trying to focus on the visage of the sneering princess striding towards her.

“Let me send you to them.”

Master! Frances! Frances, snap out of it! Ivy’s Sting cried out.

Crying out a strained note, Frances forced her magic into her armour. Titania’s blade was blocked by a shield. The trorc grumbled and slashed with her wand, red magic scythed out impacting on the hundreds of shields from Frances’s armour. Yet the force pushed Frances back.

The all-too-familiar hollow feeling in her stomach came back and Frances realized she was almost out of magic. She jumped backward as Titania’s blade cut across her armour, scraping across the plates up toward her face. Only a tilt of her head made the shortsword nick her jaw rather than cut through it.

Frances, you have to fight! Don’t give up! You won’t see your friends again! You won’t see your family and Edana again!

Frances knew that, but what did she have left? She didn’t even have time to draw her sword.

She only knew she was going to be killed by Timur’s sister, another child abused by their father.

Hold on.

“Why are you fighting for the one who hurt you?” Frances gasped.

Most humans around wouldn’t have heard it, but Titania was a trorc and had a troll’s keen hearing. She picked up on what Frances said instantly.

It was her turn to freeze, eyes widening.

“That bitch wand told you didn’t it? That’s none of your business!” Titania hissed, raising her wand.

Frances croaked out a sound and managed to form a shield focused on her diamond ring. The white shield was blown apart by the fist of magic punching into it, but it dissipated the spell. Desperate, out of options, and driven by simple curiosity, Frances stammered her next question.

“He’s still hurting you, isn’t he? King Thorgoth is threatening you, or someone you love. He’s threatening your husband, General Antigones, right?”

Titania slashed Frances again. This time, despite lunging backwards, Frances felt the cold tip of the princess’s blade cut her thigh. Gasping, Frances tried to stagger away but fell backwards onto the mud. She tried to roll away, but the princess’s boot pressed on her stomach.

“Do you think I’m so weak, you puny human?” Titania roared. Frances blinked. There was a wild, furious look to the trorc’s features. She’d struck a chord. Maybe it wouldn’t save her. Maybe just maybe, she was going to be killed tonight, but she needed to try.

“That’s what I don’t get. You’re so much stronger than me. So, why haven’t you broken free of him?”

Master that would just—Oh.

Titania had frozen. Frances, grasping at straws, seized it. “Isn’t he General Antigones? Don’t you have friends that can help you?”

Whatever spell was on the princess snapped and she growled, “Shut up” before stomping on Frances’s arm.

The already broken limb was throbbing, but now Frances howled in agony as her arm felt like it was being ground to dust.

Ivy’s Sting was in a full-on panic. She was sending thoughts and feelings so quickly to her that Frances couldn’t tell what she was saying half the time. She did hear her scream, Frances! Try to say more, anything. Remember what I told you about what Titania’s father did!

But the girl’s attention was on Titania sneering down at her. “Good try, but I won’t put my husband in danger because you and I share the same sob story. Besides, I’ve worked too long and too hard for my happiness.”

Part of it was the pain and sheer exhaustion, but Frances’s sympathy for the trorc vanished at those words. Titania should know more than anybody what she felt, what faced her if she went back to Earth. She had to know her father was a terrible, horrible person, who had people murdered in secret, and yet she was still going to send her back.

“You both are already in danger! Your father killed Antigones’s first wife! What makes you think you won’t be next?”

Frances had no idea what the words she was blurting out would do. Ivy’s Sting was babbling hysterically into her head, and she was just so angry at Titania, so horrified at the prospect of her going home that she just wanted to hurt the trorc somehow.

She did not expect Titania to look like she’d just got shot.

“He did what?”

Frances stared at the princess. “He let Ixtar take Ivy’s Sting to murder Zirabelle. You… you don’t know that.”

Titania stepped off Frances’s arm. “You’re lying—wait. No, the Firehand killed Ixtar, and you’re her daughter. That’s how Ivy’s Sting fell into your hands. ” She blinked rapidly, her tail stiffening, taking deep breaths, but she could not stop trembling.

Frances stared at the princess of Alavaria—no, Timur’s sister and confirmation of what she’d known all along, that her crush’s father was an abuser. Her anger doused in an instant, Frances couldn’t help but wince at the broken look in Titania’s eyes.

The princess suddenly leapt away. Frances didn’t know why until she saw Ginger’s sword cut across Titania’s back. The princess had avoided most of the wild hack, however, and it clicked then for Frances that Titania could hear the fall of Ginger’s feet against the mud.

“Frances! Get away!”

And just like that everything seemed to speed up again. Frances hesitated, though. Ginger couldn’t beat Titania, even if she was slightly wounded. She had no magic left, but maybe she could do something?

However, Martin, bellowing, having broken free of his opponents, now swung at Titania, who ran away, not even casting spells.

“Retreat! Retreat!” the princess cried out. She disappeared into the curtain of night and rain, her troops rapidly following her.

“Lightning battalion, hold your ground and rally to me!” Martin bellowed. He turned to Frances. “Ginger, can you—”

The convict was beside Frances, ripping out a field dressing from her pocket. “I’m on it. Frances, where else were you hurt?”

“Arm, my cheek, I—I think—ah! Where’s Elizabeth and Ayax?” Frances whimpered.

“They sent me. They’re chasing after Helias.”

“Wait, what? Talk about terrible timing!” Frances groaned.

Martin grumbled. “Tell me about it. How the hell did you survive her, Frances? I thought—” he lifted his visor, revealing his face twisted with consternation and worry “—I thought she was going to kill you.”

“I… I told her something. I didn’t realize she knew. Something Ivy told me.” Despite the pain, Frances smiled at her wand. “She saved me.”

Ginger snorted. “Let’s hope the risk we took was worth it.”

----------------------------------------

Firing the priority target flare into the sky had drawn every Erlenbergian soldier in the vicinity towards General Helias. So it wasn’t just the Lightning Battalion, but hundreds of soldiers that stormed towards the general.

Elizabeth could tell the tauroll hadn’t expected this because he was pulling his soldiers back while the few mages he’d managed to rally fired back at the Erlenbergians.

Only, nothing seemed to stop them. It didn’t matter that gouges were carved through the mud-strewn wave of Erlenbergians. They were screaming, bellowing, roaring out their battle cries, or vengeance for the murdered children of Erlenberg.

Elizabeth shivered, and not from the rain, or the thundering of her horse’s hooves as she guided her cavalry around Helias’s flank. Ayax had dismounted and was leading the troops against Helias’s soldiers.

Thankfully, she wasn’t the only war mage with the Erlenbergians attacking Helias.

Flamboyant, out-of-place orange plumes of dust sent Alavari troops flying as a female voice cackled in the distance. Elizabeth had to hold back the urge to laugh. Ophelia had insisted on being part of the attack with her friends Robert and Jeffrey. She could see them targeting Helias’s mages in the darkness.

“Cavalry, prepare charge!” Elizabeth bellowed. She turned her horse towards Helias’s guards and slapped her visor down back over her face. “Charge!”

The Erlenbergian cavalry let out a whoop and the horsemen hundred towards the stricken Alavari. Despite the darkness, they had seen her group, but exhausted and pressured from almost all sides, only a small smattering of troops turned around.

Elizabeth’s eyes however were on Helias, who scowled at her, before drawing his sword. Her company plunged through the enemy rear ranks, putting Alavari to flight, and bowling over the few that were too stupidly brave to retreat.

Her blood roaring, the storm drumming on her helmet, Elizabeth pulled on her reigns a few meters from Helias, and leapt off. Two hulking orcs charged at her, but to her, they seemed to move in slow motion. She blocked the swing of one, and slipping underneath his follow-up strike, buried her hammer’s pick-head into the back of the orc. The second orc stopped, dropped his weapons and knelt on the ground.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Elizabeth hesitated, and in that instant, Helias killed his surrendering subordinate with a single hack of his arming sword, decapitating the orc in an instant.

“Hold your ground! Cowards will be executed!” Helias stepped forward, switching his grip on his squad to a two-handed one, and swung at her with a growl.

She moved automatically, blocking with her shield, hitting back with her hammer. Roaring a feral battle cry, Helias dodged her strike, and her next swing, before suddenly replying with a flurry of cuts and slashes. Suddenly on the defensive, Elizabeth tried to bull forward using her shield, only for the tauroll to nimbly sidestep her and strike her head.

The Otherworlder staggered aside, narrowly dodging the general’s next attack. She was dazed, but most of all, Elizabeth was confused. She’d been able to overpower or out-move all her opponents until this very moment. Otherworlder agility and strength were that powerful. How was it this tauroll could keep up with her?

No, Helias was beating her. Elizabeth originally planned to capture Helias as he would prove a decisive bargaining chip, but now she needed help if she was to stay alive. However, her lightning battalion soldiers were completely engaged in the now chaotic melee.

Elizabeth desperately tried to swing her hammer into Helias’s shoulder, only for the tauroll to catch it. She stared, in complete disbelief, as the hissing general smashed the pommel of his sword into her face.

Her visor took the brunt of the hit, but Elizabeth saw stars. Her head screaming with pain, her hands grabbing fistfuls of grass, trying to pull herself backward, while she wondered how she’d gotten there.

Suddenly her helmet was ripped off her head and Elizabeth looked up into Helias’s merciless teal-green eyes, the tip of his sword pointing at her nose. He didn’t say a word or make a quippy villainous one-liner.

He would have stabbed, had it not for a staff swinging out over Elizabeth’s head that forced the general to block. The tauroll managed to deflect the blow but slid back.

“You alright?”

“Ayax!” Elizabeth gasped, grabbing onto her girlfriend’s arm and lifting herself. Her hammer was thankfully still in her hand, but she’d lost hold of her shield.

Ayax squeezed her arm fondly and turned her attention back to Helias, who was backing away, sword at guard.

“He’s dangerous. I don’t know how but he managed to outfight me,” Elizabeth stammered.

Ayax frowned. “That’s not good, and we’re running out of time.”

The Erlenbergians were aware that they didn’t have forever to raid Helias’s camp. They’d need to pull back before General Antigones’s reinforcements cut them off from the city. They would still be able to fight through any cavalry he sent, but it was a risk they didn’t want to take.

“You go at him, I’ll catch him off guard then,” Elizabeth suggested.

Ayax nodded and shifting her grip on her staff to like she was holding a spear, she began to sing, channelling her magic into her fighting. Yet, even as Elizabeth backed away, trying to fall into Helias’s blindspot, she could see Ayax and Helias exchanging blows evenly, without stopping.

One of Ayax’s blows that should have broken Helias’s blade was deflected and returned with a cut that clanged off of the troll’s armour. Ayax pushed the general back with a stab, only for him to almost knock her aside with a savage blow that seemed to bend her staff.

Elizabeth struck at that moment and caught Helias on his shoulder with a clang. The tauroll howled with, but whether due to adrenaline or long experience, he sprang out of the way of Ayax’s counterblow. Still wielding his sword one-handed, he took a guard position, hissing at the pair.

Elizabeth took her hammer in both hands and was about to charge forward, but Ayax grabbed her shoulder.

“Liz, no. He’s a mage, the same kind as I am,” Ayax hissed.

The tauroll had to be sneering behind his visor because Elizabeth could hear the condescension in his tone.

“Ah, so you’re Ayax, Allaniel’s daughter, and you must be Elizabeth the Otherworlder. You can’t beat me.”

“How is he casting without a wand?” Elizabeth demanded.

Ayax slowly began to step away from Elizabeth, trying to circle Helias. “It has to be in his sword, and all the sounds he makes when he strikes with it. Sneaky bastard. Then again, he’s a child murderer.”

“Children of worthless and violent beasts. No more than livestock,” Helias hissed. The tauroll smiled as more of his bodyguards ran up beside him. “You and your traitorous allies won’t escape this alive.”

A shrill whistle-like sound shrieked over the battlefield. In the rainy night sky, green flares soared and Elizabeth winced. That was the signal for enemy reinforcements spotted. Their time was up.

“Retreat! Lightning Battalion, back to the city!” Elizabeth bellowed. Backing away from Helias and his guards, the pair reached a safe distance away, before turning around and running.

They had done as much as they could, but now they were out of time. Only tomorrow would tell them how successful they had been.

----------------------------------------

General Antigones’s Camp…

It was just as well that Titania was confined to bed in her husband’s tent because she didn’t know what else to do. The strikes that Frances’s friends—Martin and Ginger she believed—were deeper than she realized. That was the last time she was going to underestimate two non-magical humans again.

Her mind was occupied, though, by what she’d learned from Frances, and all its horrifying implications.

Antigones stomped into the tent and sat down beside his wife’s bed without a word. With a ginger wince, Titania pulled herself up and took her husband’s hand.

It might be the last time she could do so.

“Dear?”

The orc sighed. “It’s bad. Like, iceagle shit bad.”

Titania winced. Iceagle poop was amazing fertilizer but it smelt horrible. “Well, at least Helias is going to be out of our hair.”

Antigones twirled the end of his beard. “That’s part of the problem. He isn’t. Or at least, it won’t be easy to hold him responsible for this. He took reasonable precautions against a sally. He built a fortified camp. He posted sentries. He even had advance companies deployed in the city.”

“Wait, what are you saying?” Titania asked, not liking where this was going at all

“The humans outplayed us, completely. They went with a high risk, high reward strategy that on initial thought seems crazy, but is very well thought out.” Antigones grimaced and steepled his fingers. “What I don’t understand is that this attack… isn’t something Alexander or Elowise would have done.”

“Well you’ve only been fighting them on the defensive, dear,” said Titania.

“There is a character to their defence, Titania.” Antigones stood up and walked to his table strewn with notes. “Alexander and Elowise are very conservative in how they fight. They divided the city to compartmentalize any losses they took. They had quick response forces to shore up gaps. They launched limited counterattacks and were trying to prepare for a big counterattack to retake ground, but only after we lost momentum. Whoever planned or suggested this attack decided to exploit a situation where we would be weakest to achieve a critical blow, and then did everything they could to make that situation even worse for us.”

Titania felt, rather than realized, who her husband was talking about instantly.

“Fuck, this was Elizabeth Kim’s plan.”

Antigones’s eyes snapped to his wife. “Who?”

“Elizabeth Kim the Otherworlder. She’s Frances Windwhistler’s best friend and commander of the Lightning Battalion. You said it yourself. She’s an aggressive commander, always trying to get the initiative—”

“—and trying to stack the odds in her favour. Shit. If that’s true, then we cannot afford to underestimate them, especially Frances. That lightning spell was terrifying.”

The princess shivered before comprehension dawned on her. “Dear, you never told me exactly how bad it is. I mean, it has to be bad, but… what did we lose?”

Antigones didn’t move or speak. He just sat next to his wife, eyes fixed forward. The cold pit in Titania’s stomach, already there before he’d arrived, only grew.

“Dear? You’re… you’re beginning to scare me alright.”

“Titania, my army started this campaign with fifteen thousand troops and was reinforced to about twenty thousand. We have around sixteen thousand now because after months of fighting the army took five thousand casualties or captured, some of which were returned. Helias’s army, started with thirteen thousand troops and had taken some casualties, but also received reinforcements so that he began yesterday with about twelve thousand soldiers.”

Under most circumstances, Titania would tell her husband to get to the point, but his voice sounded so tight, it felt like if she interrupted her husband, something was going to break.

Antigones took a deep breath and reached out to squeeze Titania’s hand.

“Helias’s army lost ten thousand soldiers last night and the Erlenbergian losses from what we can tell didn’t go over a thousand. This campaign… it’s over.”

Titania felt her world spin. Ten thousand in one night. That fact kept pounding into her head.

“That’s not possible. The Erlenbergians can’t have more than ten thousand soldiers and they couldn’t hit us with all of them. They had to hit us with seven thousand at most!” Titania stammered.

Antigones nodded, his expression grim as the winds that battered Alavaria’s northern coast. “Yes, and they caught Helias’s troops without armour, without weapons, sleepy at night, and out of formation. Most of our soldiers were either cut down while they were fleeing, killed while trying to wake up, or deserted the army. You and Helias managed to rally segments of the army around yourselves to resist them but everywhere else it was a slaughter.” The orc steepled his fingers. “Finally, they were boxed in by their own camp. The Erlenbergians had taken the front gate and the rear gate was nowhere near wide enough to let everybody out once they rushed it at the same time.”

“Shit. But… the siege can’t be over. We still have your army and Helias’s remaining troops. I mean, it may not still be enough, but we have a chance.”

The orc didn’t reply, instead, he put his hand into his pocket and handed a folded piece of paper to Titania, who opened it. She skimmed through the message, blinked, and read it again.

“Are you fucking pulling my tail?” she gasped.

“No, you’re not. Someone lit a fire under the Erisdalian council and recalled the Erisdalian Expeditionary Force from Roranoak. Furthermore, several Erisdalian counties including the County of Conthwaite and the Barony of Leipmont have mobilized their personal retinues and have assembled an army to our northeast. The leader is Mara of Conthwaite, who was second-in-command of the Erisdalian expeditionary force to Roranoak. It’s only twelve thousand strong but after today’s defeat, we’re outnumbered. They have around twenty thousand, we have nineteen thousand. We need to withdraw, and we can’t.”

Titania frowned. “Why not? We have our supply wagons and baggage train.”

Antigones shook his head. “Way way too many wounded in Helias’s army and the Erlenbergians destroyed Helias’s baggage train. We’d be leaving them to die. Right now, I’m waiting for word from a royal diplomat that I requested to negotiate our withdrawal. It’ll save a lot of lives on both sides if we can withdraw without a battle”

The princess sighed, “Shit, and we were so close too.”

“Well, I told King Thorgoth this was a terrible idea. I was hoping I would be wrong.” Antigones exhaled and glanced at his wife. “Titania, you don’t have to answer, but what’s wrong? Something seemed to be bothering you after that battle. What happened? You wouldn’t even tell me.”

“I can’t keep—argh, no that’s not what I want to say.” The trorc curled up her knees, and wrapped her arms around them and shut her eyes. She couldn’t face her husband right now. She didn’t want to see him, to hear his worried voice because well, there was a strong chance she was going to lose that forever.

Because the thing was, Titania loved her husband too much not to tell him what she’d found out. At the same time, she also knew he wasn’t going to react well to what she had discovered.

“Titania?”

“Antigones, I… I was fighting Frances Windwhistler. I had her on her back and at my mercy. She was trying to get under my skin, saying stuff that… that’s true, but wasn’t relevant.”

“What kind of things?” Antigones asked, gently resting a hand on her shoulder.

She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “I’d insulted her about her parents, so she was asking why I was serving my father when he abused me, and why I wasn't rebelling against him. But that’s not important. W-what’s important is that she blurted something out that Ivy’s Sting told her. Something t-that… I-I need to tell you.”

The orc blinked. He didn’t know why his wife sounded so scared suddenly, but he slid onto her bedroll and wrapped his arms around her.

“There, there, it’s going to be fine. It can’t be that bad.”

“Antigones, it’s not going to be fine. I… just. C-can you promise me something?”

The general nodded and Titania, tears running down her cheeks, buried her head against her husband’s shoulder and braced herself. “You… you’re going to hate me for what I’m going to tell you. You are going to want to hurt me. I don’t mind if you do. I deserve it, but please, please don’t do something stupid. Please don’t let anybody know you know this, or do something stupid—”

Antigones squeezed his wife. “Titania what are you saying? I would never—”

Titania, crying now, grabbed her husband’s shirt. “Promise me! Promise me you won’t let anybody find out that you know, or do something stupid.”

Antigones, frowning, nodded. “I promise I won’t let anybody find out I know or do something stupid.”

The princess, her hands shaking, pushed herself away from her husband’s shirt and bowed her head.

“King Thorgoth, my father… he let Ixtar the Agoniser take Ivy’s Sting from the royal vaults, and he used Ivy’s Sting to kill Zirabelle.”

Titania screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the slap she knew was coming. She knew it was going to hurt. Not only because Antigones was a strong, burly orc, but because it was coming from her beloved husband. Yet, she knew she deserved it. Her father had killed her love’s beloved wife and then married his daughter to him. It was the least she deserved for her part in tearing Antigones’s family apart.

Fingers wrapped around her throat. Titania sobbed. Oh, well, if she was going to die, at least it was to someone she loved.

Except as soon as Antigones’s fingers touched her throat, they retreated before arms grabbed her.

“I… fuck… fucking hell. Fucking hell. Titania, I-I thank you for telling me.”

She blinked, her vision still blurry with tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t want to replace her, I just… I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know—”

“I know you didn’t… I… fuck.” Titania, I’m going to kill that clodthrog. I’m going to kill him.”

He moved to stand up, but Titania quickly wrapped her arms around her husband. “You can’t! You’ll get killed! We’re not strong enough!”

“Let go of me!”

She hung on tighter, bracing herself again. “No! I won’t lose you. I don’t care if you hate me, I don’t care if you hurt me, I am not letting you do this.”

“Hurt you? Oh. Oh, fuck.” Titania blinked as Antigones’s shoulders sagged. He was still trembling, breathing deeply, his face set in a scowl, but he sat down and placed his hands on hers. “I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to touch your neck like that. I… I was angry at you, furious really, and I shouldn’t have been.”

The princess stared at her husband. “But… but I… I replaced your wife. Dad married me to you after he killed her! It’s my fault—”

“It’s nobody’s fault but his and that’s why I’m going to kill him!”

The roar shook the tent, and Titania’s ears screamed in pain at the shout. She covered her ears wincing, only to find her husband gently touching them.

“Fuck! Are you alright?”

Titania nodded, slowly. “I… I am, but… why are… why aren’t you mad at me?” she asked, not able to believe what she was seeing.

Because her husband was furious. She could tell by the tensed muscles underneath his shirt and his red-tinged face. There was an air of tension around him, and yet, as he looked at her, his expression flickered to one that she didn’t understand.

He was looking at her with sorrow and grief.

“Because I love you, and I know you love me. Because I know you didn’t know and once you found out, you told me, even when you thought I would hate you. How could I stay angry at you once I realized that?” His hands balled into fists and the dark, furious expression returned to his features. “How could I be angry at you, when your father was the one who killed Zirabelle, who hurt you so badly that you think you’re at fault when you were just used by him!”

When Titania thought about it the way her husband said he did, it did make sense. At least, it did to the logical part of her brain. Guilt continued to gnaw at her, whispering to her that she was wrong and that it was her fault.

“But… I…”

“Sweetheart, any other day, I would love to tell you you’re wrong and I still love you, but right now, I’m…” The orc scowled and stood up. “I need to hit something. And you need to get out of your funk. We’re sparring and after that, I’m going to ravage you.”

The princess stared at the general. “You’re… how… what? I mean I’m okay with that but—”

Antigones narrowed his eyes and growled, “Titania, what would you rather me do? Kill your dad? I promised you I wouldn’t do something stupid. So let’s go hit something and then fuck each other until we fall asleep. I know you want to.”

Dumbly staring at her husband, Titania stood up and followed him out of the tent without another word. As she staggered into the sunlight, she blinked away her tears.

Her husband… still loved her, somehow. He did seem angry, but he still loved her.

“Come on Titania!” Antigones snapped, but not unkindly.

She smiled and wiped her eyes. Lunging forward, she caught up to her husband and grabbed his hand. “Dear… thank you.”

Antigones paused, turned around, and kissed her roughly on the forehead. “You’re welcome, now let’s get going! The sparring is just a warmup for later,” he growled.

Something in her husband’s angry growl made her blush, though, part of it was her remembering what they were going to do after the spar. Before she could say another word, Titania yelped as Antigones, now holding her hand, dragged her along to the sparring area. She didn’t resist.