I looked down at the child in her crib. She was small, less than a year old if I had to guess, with lovely blonde hair that fell over her eyes. She cried, cried for a mother who'd never return to her, because of me.
It made sense why the would-be queen had fought now, as I stood over the babe. For her losing meant that she'd likely see one of several horrid fates for her baby, there was no option but to fight in her mind. I could respect that, it was the right thing to do, and if I'd known... could I have done much? Could I have convinced the powers that were in the process of reestablishing a new order to just let them live peacefully? Probably not if I was being honest with myself.
If they'd been captured by our unit one of only a few things could have happened, they could either be used as tools, or, more likely just killed. My dad was a good guy, as was Mystien, but they also knew that there was no option for leaving our old enemies a clear person to rally around, and this kid could be just that.
I reached down, brushing away the hair from her face, I didn't even know her name. The right thing to do from a military perspective would be to kill her here and now, make it quick and painless and burn the evidence. Smash her skull against the stones and be done with it, it would be so easy.
I sung briefly, reaching out and touching each of the fallen nearby with a bit of healing mana, checking, making sure. They were all dead, all gone, yes, that would make things easier, no witnesses. It wouldn't be much for me to burn this room and blame it on the queen, a last desperate spell to keep us from capturing her, from taking her.
"I'm sorry darling, I killed your mommy and daddy. Don't worry though, everything's going to be okay," I said, wiping away her tears, "Everything's going to be okay."
I began singing in earnest now, weaving spells quickly, as I had much to do, and who knew how much time to do it in. The room around me got a quick once over, soaking bits here and there with ethanol. I wove silence and invisibility to hide what I would do. While I worked, I pulled off the baby's clothes, they were far, far too expensive, too easy to realize who this might be.
I'd dyed my hair before with actual dye, and while I didn't have any I was going to use magic to try and ad-lib it a bit. I managed to darken her hair by a few shades, hopefully it would be enough to keep anyone from seeing her, and then scooped her up in a holding spell. I hastily added my old warming spell to it as I remembered how fragile a baby at her age would be, then we left the room and I lit the fire.
The invisible, silenced, nude infant hovered nearby as we made our way out. If I could pull it off, if I could just make this happen, it would be enough, just this one thing on this night of horrors. I couldn't save the world, or the empire, or our now dead emperor, but maybe, just maybe, I could save this child.
I made my way back to the nursery, that room of horrors. It was perhaps one of the few places here that could help me. The deaths of all those innocent children were horrible, but perhaps the chaos would allow me to slip my new one in. That could work, if I could make things happen right.
When I got there people were still working, several getting the surviving children, so very few as there were, together to begin moving them out. The bard I'd seen working earlier had managed to save only a couple of the older ones, but many of the youngest still lived.
"There's a fire down further in," I said to the soldiers trying to give aid. "Evacuate them all now, grab the worst and get them out, I'll stay with the rest until you return, go."
The medic responded quickly, understanding the form of triage this world used. He didn't even stop singing, trying to pull the poison out of the child he was working on as he hauled the kid from the room, right for the exit. Some of them were already in the midst of being removed from the room, and the soldiers grabbed up as many as they safely could, promising to come back and send help.
"I've got it for the moment, go, quickly," I insisted.
As soon as the room cleared I leapt into action. There were things I couldn't do in front of others right now, not if this were to work. Luckily all the diapers, blankets, and extra clothes for the kids were stored nearby, so redressing the little princess as one of these abused infants was a simple prospect.
A soldier walked in while I was in the middle of it and I nearly lost my composure. I tightened up for a second, then quickly remembered that I didn't even have to lie, redressing a baby was something one had to do all the time. Nervously my hands finished up as he and several others returned to grab up more of the little ones and get them out. Then I did something very, very difficult.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
With a careful move I passed off the crying little girl to one of the soldiers, pushing her gently into his arms. "Get her out, poor thing has seen enough for most people's lives tonight." Then I looked down at her and said one final thing. "Good luck sweetheart."
He sped off and while it was hard not to be nervous there were others that needed help. Sure, I'd been the one to start the fire and really make things worse here, but there still was a fire, and while it wasn't an immediate danger, I still wanted all of these children out and safe.
As the last of the children were being evacuated a group of mages came running down the hall towards us.
"We heard there's a fire, need to put it out," the leader explained when I stopped him.
"No," I said in a moment of inspiration. "It's already taken a lot of the last room, at least it had when I was there, and it'll drive any of those hiding from us up. Don't stop it, just slow it down a bit. Not like we're keeping this place anyway." He smiled in cruel understanding and they continued on. I wasn't his direct commander, but I was one of the higher ups on this particular mission, so he'd do as I said unless ordered directly by his commander otherwise.
The mopping up and evacuation went fairly smoothly after that. There were a few little hiccups here and there, but that happened with everything. All in all, we lost very few men in the fighting, and the victory would shatter what was left of the old supporters of Bergond. If any of the old nobility might have joined them, after tonight I suspected that they would abandon those thoughts. Lief was dead, his queen was dead, their child was officially dead, I might be able to hide the fact that I was responsible at least partially for the deaths of most of those claiming to be royals tonight...
As I made it back to the surface I thought about that. There was actually almost no chance that I wouldn't be blamed for some, perhaps all, of the potential royals tonight. It would depend on who learned what, but I might well be getting a moniker like 'king-killer' or something by the end of this if I was unlucky. Even if I was lucky, people knew I was involved. Perhaps going to the elven lands for the next decade or two would be a good idea...
That would leave my family here unsupported though, not something I really wanted to do. Dad would want to stay, and while I might be able to convince John, he was pretty dug in too. It would also abandon Dras and Mystien when they needed me most, and I wasn't sure I had the heart for that. I wasn't sure what I'd end up doing, but I had the feeling a retirement from the public eye would be best, or at least setting up somewhere very secure.
On the surface a few buildings had been picked for the most immediate processing of prisoners and the like, and when I got there there were already problems brewing. Someone had gotten some priests from The Shield, if not just to take the rescued kids to one of their orphanages, then to act as observers for how we would process the prisoners, accusations could be worse then truth of course. Said priests did not look pleased as they stood to the side, one of their number in a low, animated argument with one of our knights.
"You cannot just show up with several dozen children, several of which have been clearly POISONED, and not have an explanation for it!" The very displeased caster said, leaning towards the nervous looking soldier.
My father's subordinate, and the provider of most of the troops for this action was hurried over, and I met him there. Another fight tonight, with people we had no problems with was out of the question. I arrived just behind him, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Can you handle the prisoners here?" I asked. "Not something I'm good with, but I can talk to The Shield."
The man looked relieved and nodded briskly, uttering a quick, "Thank you," before he left.
The priest on the other hand looked less pleased. "Well?" He asked.
"Well, I'm tired and your bishop will want a report on things anyway, why don't I go talk with him? Better than me repeating myself several times. It's still Bishop Theodore right? Or has he retired yet?" I wanted off the field for the night and throwing him off seemed the best way to take the wind out of him.
"Er... it is. Do you know the bishop?" He asked.
"Indeed, and while he's an asshole, we've at least dealt with each other with... acceptable results in the past."
He snorted at my description of his nominal leader. Seems I wasn't the only one who thought he was a bit of a twat. "Very well, let's go see him then."