As A’seri left the room, she couldn’t help but glance back at the door as it closed behind her. The man standing, confused and disoriented, she couldn’t help but care for him. Whatever he was.

A’seri remembered the first time she saw him vividly in her mind. Her village had been attacked by monsters from the Deepwood. A self-proclaimed Devil-king led an onslaught against her family’s people for weeks. Chasing them from one shelter to another. They hadn’t sought shelter farther east, away from the forests, they couldn’t, the Dwarves would never allow them past the hills and mountain passes. They couldn’t go south, the Gods waged their war across the plains and none survived without divine protection. They couldn’t go east, the Humans warred against foes darker and more sinister than the fiends of the Darkwood, things that made A’seri’s clan’s woes seem trivial in comparison. Their only option was to fight and flee.

At the last shelter for her family, the final place they could find that still held the blessing of their wayward god, El’uvias. When her clan first set up their war camp in that old grove, she was barely eighty years old, a child who would have just been old enough for proper schooling or entry into the squires. In that last bastion of their people, A’seri’s father was away from the camp, believing their god’s protection would hide it, and he led the remnants of their army to where the bulk of Nefelair’s forces pillaged. Yet none anticipated that Nefelair would strike their hidden camp.

Despite their bravest attempts, despite the deaths of their veteran warriors, and despite the near-death of A’seri’s mother at the hands of Nefelair; the fiends were slaughtering them completely. Nefelair’s magic and control over his fiendish minions bolstered them to a frenzy that would ignore death and injury. Yet, in the fire and chaos of Nefelair reveling in his victory, a single figure appeared. One that might normally inspire fear and dread. Yet that figure, that skeletal monster, fought against Nefelair and killed the very fiend-lord that had defeated A’seri’s family and clan time and time again. Despite its victory, the mysterious figure ran away, fleeing away into the trees.

It was a long time before A’seri would see this mysterious figure again. It was several years after her father’s remaining forces finally drove off the last of the fiends back into the Deepwood. A’seri was wandering the edge of the trees, escorted by her caretakers and guardians, when she saw the glint of white stone shining in a morning sunbeam, a sign that would lead her to the resting place of her savior. A’seri admitted to herself that she was afraid when she first saw him. The body of her people’s savior sitting and groaning in the corner of an ancient ruin. Yet as the years went by. As she visited more and more. The creature would look at her, and it would almost talk. Incoherent nonsense, words that didn’t make sense, yet it would sit and speak to her. It would listen to her in turn as well, as she spoke to it the creature would pause and listen despite the years of built-up dirt. A’seri had assumed it picked that spot to sleep, to die, or simply to slowly vanish under the earth. Yet when the time came that she needed help, that she had no one else to turn to, that creature from her youngest days was all that could have saved her. And he did.

A day doesn’t go by that A’seri doesn’t remind herself of her gratitude. The hope that the creature inspires in her is a deep-seated and unshakeable faith. Regardless of how strange, or even painful, its methods might’ve been. This creature had always protected her like some personal deity, a sworn and immortal knight, a best friend who would always be there to listen and talk.

A’seri had spent many years under the pretense of ‘wanting to become a mage’ to study what she thought was the strange language her monstrous friend spoke. When she first began, learning simple incantations and basic grammar, she was ecstatic when she was able to understand random mumbling words when she visited the skeletal creature. Yet her talent for actual magic was close to none, her tutors would remark about the futility of becoming a mage. They couldn’t have known, or even understood, her real reasons.

Her savior, her hope, and her knight. It spoke the language of magic. The people who created magic, discovering something not even the gods willingly shared with mortals; the Helnuan, the cursed and exiled, the creators of all magic. and an extinct race that hadn’t been seen since myth and legend. Whatever A’seri’s skeletal knight was, he had spoken words of magic as if it was normal language, and he was so different from normal undead that might normally lurk in dark caves and haunted battlefields…

A’seri suddenly snapped out of her reminiscing. A hand grabbed her arm, sweaty and rough, a tight grip that threatened to hurt. Looking up at the owner of the arm was a portly elf, short military-straight silver hair, and eyes that didn't even attempt to hide his foul intentions. “Lord Nual. What a pleasure to see you once again.” A’seri said, trying to carefully pull her arm away.

Nual’s grip only tightened, “It is Baron now, my princess… I have recently been given charge over the copper mines half a day’s walk from our fair capital.” he said, staring into A’seri’s eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time.

“I am glad to hear of your noble deeds being recognized by our good Queen’s Regent… I am sure you and your family are proud.” A’seri finally wrenched her hand free of the man, small red marks left behind where his steel grip once was.

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“Yes, my wife and son are glad indeed. Our new mansion is under construction now that the snow has thawed, perhaps you would care to visit once it is finished? My son always speaks so highly of you, and it would be my pleasure to… host you.” Nual pulled his hand back, assuming a noble posture, but his eyes remained fixated on A’seri, he looked down at her with greed and hunger that was so common among the new nobles.

“Of course, if I have the time away from my other duties. Please let me know once your property is complete. I fear I must excuse myself, our Queen’s Regent has called for me.”

Dismissing herself with a modest curtsey, A’seri pulled away from the conversation. She only caught a glimpse of him as she walked away, but his eyes were that of a predator’s. So many of the new nobles after her father’s death were shameless in their greed. Her people were distraught after the loss of so much land and power from the wars against Nefelair. Even almost two hundred years later, more than an entire generation, they still felt the pains of so many noble men and women dying to protect their families and people.

As A’seri approached the reception hall once more, she braced herself. Few in these halls could be considered a friend to her or her father’s vision anymore. They only sought to feed their greed, and the Queen’s Regent was a generous chef for new noble titles were handed out like appetizers and her people used like disposable silverware. There was nothing she could do, not until law decreed A’seri the new monarch. Yet for that to happen, would mean her mother’s death…

The doors were opened. Elsie announcing her return. The eyes and glares of pompous nobles and greedy lords were already awaiting her before she even entered. All she could do was maneuver her way to the end of the hall, curtsying, bowing, and smiling the whole way through a sea of hungry eyes and false pleasantries.

When A’seri finally reached the end of the hall, bowing deeply before the Queen’s Regent, she noticed something odd. Where normally the men and women among the lords and ladies would stand far away from the royal thrones, for fear of being accused of impropriety, now there was a collection of men tending to and speaking pleasantly with Velronica. “Oh! Princess, you’ve returned! Just in time to meet these fair fellows…” Velronica said, shooing away the young men who fawned over her.

“My royal Regent… What exactly do you mean?” A’seri asked, the acts of debauchery stumbling her thoughts.

“Oh my, didn’t I tell you? Today is the day you must introduce yourself to your suitors! ‘Attend your people’ as I said, Princess. These fine fellows are the sons of our wonderful nobles, all who wish to get to know you very well…”

“My lady Regent, there are customs and procedures for these kinds of things. This sort of gathering, it can't be proper to introduce suitors in this way!” A’seri said, mustering her courage to speak back.

“Oh, but any one of these men could be your future husband. Stiff procedure and complicated tradition, those get in the way. I believe in spending time with your potential husband, to understand them without the pretense or barrier of royal titles, to intimately know them before you make your decision…”

“But-” A’seri was cut off.

“Silence! I already promised these wonderful boys and their parents a chance to meet you. You will do your duty as the princess, you wouldn’t want your mother to die before seeing her only daughter get married would you?”

“My mother is perfectly healthy! This surely wouldn’t please my father if he were-”

“I SAID!... silence…” Velronica shouted, bleeding into a quiet demand, the reception hall coming to a complete stop, “You will greet your potentials now. Leave the hall and get to know them why don’t you. Stop complaining, you have your duties and so do I.”

Velronica stood up, the youngest men among the suitors being shaken off her fully. Waving a hand dismissively and refusing to even look towards Aseri. The suitors approached, along with four flanking guards that didn't wear the royal colors of blue and white. Elsie, quietly furious as she usually is in these sorts of places, placed herself between A’seri and the guardsmen, “What is the meaning of this? What need are there for armed guards for a conversation between the princess and these lordlings?” she demanded.

A large, gray-metal with purple regalia, knight approached directly in front of Elsie, “We were told our lady, princess needs privacy. We are here to make sure she gets it, that is all.”

“I should suit that role well enough. Back off.”

In a sudden lunge, one of the guards pounced behind Elsie and drew their sword into a slash. The Guard Captain was experienced enough on the battlefield to just barely block the blow by parrying the blade against her large pauldron, but the attack was clearly aimed for her head. In the same moment the large knight punched down at Elsie, who barely avoided the attempt by pushing herself to the ground with the momentum from her previous dodge. The final two guards jumped on her, before Elsie could even draw her sword the final two pinned her with their bodies. It was easy work to push the struggling Guard Captain to the ground after that.

As the sudden attack erupted, A’seri had reached for a dagger she kept hidden strapped to her leg, but one of the ‘suitors’ had grabbed her from behind. The soreness and pain from the injuries she suffered made her slow, the grappled her from behind as another suitor disarmed her of the dagger. In fits of yelling, begging those watching to help her and Elsie, A’seri was taken away. None present even gave the sight a second glance as the Queen’s Regent entered the fray of the reception hall and made her way to the main hall entrance.

A’seri and Elsie were dragged off and out of the reception hall against their will. Taken to a quiet corner of the keep, in a private chamber elegantly prepared. A’seri was shoved into the room, followed by seven men, her ‘suitors’, as Elsie fought and clawed against the four guards outside the door. As the door shut, and she was thrown onto the floor, all A’seri could think about was that hopeless scene from her childhood; a monster killing her friends and family, when all hope was lost there was a single person that could have protected her. Willing every fiber of her being, she begged for her savior to hear her prayers. The prayers that her own god ignored, the prayers that were dashed and torn apart by greed and pain. The only person that could save her now, her personal knight who had secretly saved her people from destruction, she prayed to him and him alone.