“Let me out, Minos!” Eva cried, her hands sore from banging on the wooden door. Each thump reverberated in the dark basement, echoing into no one’s ears but hers. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she knew better than to lose control. Crying was for the weak and the helpless, and she was neither.

It had been perhaps five minutes since the door shut. There’s still time, she thought as she felt around for a lantern. She eventually found one lying near the door and quickly ignited it. She started plunging into the darkness, doing all she could to recall the layout of the basement, her nose barely noticing the damp smell. She took turn after turn while feeling doubts rising in her heart. What if she went the wrong way?

Eva heard the sound of heavy steps above her head, the sound of people fighting and dying. She knew that she was putting herself in danger, but to her, nothing was as important as going back.

She didn’t know how long she was underground, but soon she found herself in the wine cellar, a place she knew off the top of her head. Knowing that she came the right way, she confidently rushed ahead with even more speed until she found herself before two flights of stairs made of stone. She raced up the steps and saw light shining through the crack under the door. She swung it open and whipped her head left and right. No one was in sight. She placed the lantern down and hurried to her bedchamber. That was probably where he was.

“Die, you imperial scum!”

Eva stopped just before a sharp turn and put her body against the wall, peeking her head out from the corner. In the corridor behind her were soldiers and barbarians clashing their weapons: the soldiers with their swords, the barbarians with their axes. She could tell at a glance that the soldiers were at a disadvantage, being outnumbered and visibly more worn out.

“You will not get past me, you damn beast!” said a bleeding soldier who was having a contest of strength with a barbarian, their weapons in a lock, though the soldier’s grip was faltering. Others were in the same predicament, with some handling two opponents at the same time.

Eva gritted her teeth and went back the way she came from. She knew she was of no use in battle, but that didn’t make her feel any less guilty. She took the long way around, avoiding and hiding from the skirmishes inside her own manor, each time feeling the sins weighing more and more on her back.

Finally, she arrived at the grand bedchamber where she had spent the last eight years in. She stepped forward and felt dampness under her feet. She looked down to see a pool of crimson and a red trail continuing into the room. She felt as if the floor had vanished, and now she was falling endlessly into the abyss.

What if he was… dead?

She swallowed and walked forward another step, feeling her heart racing like never before. What if she was too late? The further she walked, the more blood stained her feet. What if it was because of her? Again?

Eva heard a groan inside the room, and she rushed forward with her hope flared up. Amidst the dark room and sitting against the bed was her husband, a man so scarred that it would be difficult to find a part of his body with fair skin. He had black hair that shimmered against the moonlight, his red eyes glimmering faintly, dark blood painted all over his body, and he was looking at… his left hand? Eva ignored the smell of blood and moved forward, and as she got closer, she realized that he was looking at his ring—at their ring. She relaxed her hands and touched her matching ring, then reached out to him, giving him a hug.

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“Minos… You fool. Imbecile. Idiot.” She started sobbing despite her effort to hold it in. “Why would you think that sacrificing yourself will make me happy? Do you truly think that I will be able to go on without looking back in regrets?”

“Eva…” Minos sounded startled. He shakily hugged her as if he couldn’t believe she was real. When the marquis realized that she was not an illusion, however, he pushed her away, his eyes widened in horror. “Why did you come back?” he said, looking as if the world had fallen apart. “You were supposed to—“

“Live on without you?” She grabbed his bloody hand and put it to her cheek, smearing blood all over. She smiled. “How could you be so cruel?”

“No! You… I… I just…” He looked away, gritting his teeth. “How could I bear the thought… of you…”

Eva caressed his hand and trailed her fingers to his ring. “Don’t you remember our vow?”

Minos’s eyes shook. “How could I forget?”

“To live and to die as one, to share each and everything, to be of one mind, to our eternity.”

“To our eternity.”

Eva leaned forward, putting her mouth over his, tasting iron but also tasting sweetness. As much as she wanted to stay like this, she knew she couldn’t as they had little time. “Minos, we have to get out.”

“And go where? After everything, we don’t have a place anymore. Not in this whole empire.”

“We can start anew. Go to a far village, use fake names, and live peacefully.”

“I… I can’t… Not with the blood of my men spilled. And… the battlefield is the only place I will ever be.”

Eva bit her lips, but she nodded anyway. “If that is your choice, then I will follow you anywhere, but now, we have to get out first.” She held him from the armpits and pulled him up, but she stopped when she heard Minos groan deeply. She let him sit back down and jerked his military outfit away, revealing a gashing wound running down his chest to his abdomen, blood pouring out endlessly. “M-Minos… Y-you…”

The marquis laughed. “It seems I won’t be able to live a simple life with you, regardless,” he said, smiling. “Please forgive me, Eva, but it appears that I have no choice but to break our vow.”

She held her hands to her mouth, and, without realizing it, tears started falling out of her eyes. She didn’t try to wipe them off. “No… no, no, no.” She sniffed, reaching her hand out to touch his face. She noticed that he was visibly paler than when she first arrived, and his eyes were losing focus as well. “Please don’t do this to me.” Tears blurred her vision until she couldn’t make out what was what. “Please.” But even through the blur, she could also see tears streaming down his face.

“Forgive me,” he sobbed. “I wish it hadn’t come to this. If only… if only…”

Eva shook her head, tears dripping down onto the pool of blood. “No, it was my fault. I got you into so many troubles since I arrived. I am the one who led this entire territory to ruin. I… I am the one who killed your vassals.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” he said, grabbing her hand. “It was no one’s fault but mine. I am their lord but before that… I am your husband. It was my pleasure to be able to spend time with you, so please run away now…” His grip lost its strength. “You have many skills… You will be able to survive… Perhaps you could go… to a far kingdom and… start a new life…”

“Please don’t do this. Please don’t.”

“Eva…” His hand fell off. “I love you…” His eyes lost focus, his head lolled forward, his body lifeless.

“Mi… nos…?”

She shook him. He didn’t stir.

“Minos?”

His body grew cold.

“Minos!”

But she could see clearly: He was smiling. A wail left her throat before she even realized that it was her own’s. Tears poured out of her eyes. What weakness. What helplessness. She forgot everything about her pride at this moment and cried until her voice was gone, her eyes dry of liquid. She clenched her fists and bit her lips until she could taste her own blood mixed with his. In the corner of her eyes, she noticed a shining dagger on Minos’s body, the moonlight reflecting on the golden hilt.

Eva mindlessly reached out. “I won’t,” she rasped as she unsheathed the blade, raising it high, pointing at her neck, “let our vow be broken.” She could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching, could hear the shouts of the barbarians slaughtering the soldiers and the servants, could hear the end approaching.

“To live and die as one. To our eternity.”

Without a moment of hesitation, she pulled the blade down, and everything went dark.