Kiera found the first aid kit and took a painkiller. There were also some amphetamines and med gel in the kit, but it would be too much effort for her to pull off the jumpsuit and both of her layers to apply the gel to it. Their basic first aid classes had taught them how to apply med gel to stop bleeding and set a bone. It was also a numbing agent and worked great on burns. Six other mecha surrounded the one she had hijacked, their weapons raised. The snow was begging to pick up, threatening a storm and making extraction dangerous. No doubt Mustache had ordered his soldiers to wait until the blizzard died before capturing her. Either that or the men had enough sense to not risk the maneuver. She idly wondered if Dalmut had told them who she was. He had walked over to one of the other mechas and had been rescued.

Kiera was tired. The stress of infiltrating the maintenance staff, the worry someone would become sober enough to recognize her or the man whose place she stole would be discovered combined with restless nights, being kidnapped and thrown into a cramped and being thrown down a mountain, twice, had been all she could handle. She had raised Alphonse’s hopes only to fail him and the others. Waiting to be taken prisoner by Tracksuit with everything she had done to escape dampened her spirit. She didn’t want to think about what he was going to do to her.How do you prepare for a hopeless situation when you’re surrounded by the enemy out of options and completely spent?

Even if she wasn’t injured, fighting off half a dozen enemy pilots would be difficult. Based on their armament all of them were long ranged combatants; it was easy to tell what weapon a mech pilot preferred based on their armament. The truly dangerous ones carried a variety.

The snow had obscured her vision and she couldn’t see her opponents anymore. No one had tried to contact her through the access band, but they didn’t need to; everyone knew she was beaten. Kiera closed her eyes, part of her wanted to sleep, part of her knew that she shouldn’t. Being woken up by men with guns pointed in her face wasn’t her idea of a good time. Would death be preferable to the torture that awaited her?

The sound of the mecha moving broke her from her thoughts, it was finally time to meet her enemy. She took her beam sword from her tool belt. It would be a futile effort, she was injured and outnumbered; but she’d be damned if she was just going to go down without a fight. Her Radiance would be her best weapon, but an attack might throw them off enough to give her precious few seconds for the charm to take hold.

The capsule opened and she flared her Radiance. She pushed herself forward, but instead of leaping into an attack she stumbled forward, her ignited blade was knocked out of her hand and leather clad arms caught her around her body. It wasn’t even a fight.

“At ease, Kiera,” she heard Captain Feren say, the familiar soft voice was immediately comforting. “You did a phenomenal job. Relax.”

Kiera let out a breath and felt the Knight-Captain lift her into her arms. She heard Major Peregrine’s steady voice and then smelled the peppermint scent that always seemed to surround Dr Farosh.

“Rest, Kiera.” Captain Feren said again.

“How informal, Ella,” Major Farosh teased.

“Hush. There is a time and place for ranks, Solanthus, but this is not one of them.”

Kiera didn’t hear anymore of the conversation. She laid her head against Captain Feren’s chest and passed out.

-[]-

Kiera woke up in an unknown bed and room. She was dressed in a white hospital gown and a red and purple wristband was around both of her wrists. Captain Feren was sitting in the room. She turned as Kiera stirred and sat on the bed, “Welcome back, Kiera.”

“Captain?” Kiera asked, she didn’t remember how she got here. The pod opened and… “What are you doing here? Where are we?”

“You can call me Ella,or Leiella. We’re off duty,” the knight said with a smile, “We’re atFort Danak, on Dalimar. We found the datapad that you had on you. Intelligence is investigating the palace and Planet Security. Albrecht Dalimus and Eugene Farbagton have both been arrested.”

Kiera smiled weakly, “What about the workers? They’re wage slaves, shackled with debt they’ll never be able to repay. A lot of them are drug addicts, they need help.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Either the courts or King Selune will decide what happens to them. He’s been working on unraveling all the corruption that has been plaguing Dalimar and hadn’t looked into the dukes yet. This will likely make those investigations a priority..”

A knock sounded at the door. Majore Peregrine walked in a moment later with Dr. Farosh, “Glad to see you awake, Kiera,” Peregrine said, “How are you feeling?”

“Holt, she’s in the hospital recovering from injuries. That’s a pointless question.” Dr. Farosh scolded, “Has Leiella explained everything to you?” he asked, turning to Kiera.

“Mostly, I was so relieved when I heard your voices. Thank you for coming to my rescue.” Kiera said.

“You rescued yourself,” Peregrine said, “We didn’t do much, only forced the soldiers to stand down.”

“I also caused everything. I used my Radiance, my charm, with as much strength and focus that I could muster on Tracksuit, I mean—“ she paused, “Whatever his name is. I had thought to cow him at the time, put him in his place like father would have, instead I made him dangerously obsessed with me. Captain Feren, I used it on you as well and I apologize.”

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“Nothing to apologize for,” Leiella said, ”It didn’t affect me.”

Relief flooding through her. Kiera turned to Peregrine, ”Major Peregrine, will I have the opportunity to make up my finals?”

“Considering what you went through, I think we can consider them to be completed. Your marks in your classes showed competency, and your application of those skills proved mastery. Know this, Kiera. You may have caused him to be obsessed with you, but every action he took was his choice and the consequences are his to bear. That you recognize the root cause is admirable, but that does not make you responsible or alleviate his responsibility,” Peregrine replied.

Kiera was stunned. She wasn’t expecting to be forgiven so quickly and easily, to be alleviated from blame.

“We are glad that we found you, Kiera. We had intelligence looking for you even after we received a report stating confirmation that you had been killed. We have a suspicion about who caught you but nothing more,” Leiella said.

“They’re not from the Empire. When they delivered me they were paid in quasar diamonds, gold latinum, and the command codes for the system’s gate. At least, they were supposed to. Mustache swindled them.They also had a container that held the key to the cage I was in and said if the container, lock, or cage was damaged before the container opened which meant they had left imperial space my location would be broadcast throughout the empire,” Kiera explained, “I was able to convince one of the workers to break me out to trigger the signal. With how skilled they were saying that where I could hear him seems like a pretty big blunder.

“There was a signal, but its meaning was unknown. Planetary Security investigated but found nothing unusual,” Major Peregrine said, “My gut said it was significant. I ordered our mecha to be loaded into the Everlight. You’re our cadet, and we are very possessive about those who come under our care. As soon as Major Farosh clears you we’ll take you to Orlan.” Peregrine said.

“You should be able to leave this afternoon,” Dr. Farosh said, “You’re healing nicely and can return to light training after a couple more days of rest.” He and Major Peregrine left.

Having a bodyguard while on Dalimar didn’t come as a surprise to her, but having the officers who were serving as their instructors did. She laid back against the pillows, glad the ordeal was over. “Wait a minute, did Major Peregrine say he commandeered a ship?”

Leiella smiled, “He called in a favor from a dear friend. There were some regulations that were broken. As soon as your signal came through on the Emergency channel we left. I’m sure there won’t be more than a slap on the wrist for rushing to rescue an Imperial Princess and our cadet.”

Kiera closed her eyes. Dandelion would accuse them of favoritism, but she didn’t really care. Just another petty, arrogant person; she opened her eyes, “Leiella, what day is it?” Using her Captain’s first name felt strange.

“It’s Founding Day,”

-[]-

The Everlight’s planetary landing was much smoother than the shuttle her kidnappers had used. Night had already fallen on Orlan by the time the ship touched down at the Royal landing pad.

“Are you all certain that you don’t want to come with me as my guests?” Kiera asked for probably the hundredth time.

“Go enjoy the rest of the day with your family, Kiera,” Leiella said, “We’ll see you when the new semester starts.”

Emily was waiting for Kiera with a hover car parked nearby. The pair embraced and entered the car. On the ride to the palace Kiera changed into her dress and told Emily everything that had happened. When they reached the palace Emily took Kiera’s arm so tightly Kiera thought she would break it.

The celebration was beginning to wind down when she entered the ballroom, nobles were already saying their goodbyes, and her younger siblings were nowhere to be seen, likely already sent to bed. Tamerial spotted her first and made a beeline to Kiera, enveloping her into a hug and prying her away from Emily’s protective grasp.

One by one her brothers embraced her with the noticeable exception of Darthian who simply left the ball room when she reached the head table. She thought her mother would never let go of her, and then with trepidation, faced her father.

“I apologize, father,” she said bowing low, “My actions resulted in the waste of Imperial resources, the loss of a life and needless worry to my family. I hope you can forgive me.”

Warmth filled her, causing Kiera to look up. Her father pulled her into his arms, “Did you not understand Holt, Starlight? You faced the consequences of your action, but you are not to blame. There is nothing to apologize for, and I am proud of how you handled yourself. Welcome home.”

Hearing it from Peregrine had eased her guilt, but seeing her father had brought it rushing back. With her fathers words it was burned away, “Many happy returns of day, Father.”

-[]-

Kiera sat curled in the window seat of her castle on Orlan staring out at the sunrise as it made the waters of the sea shine. She loved watching the sunrise. Having to get up every morning for training was worth it just to see one. Kinsley sat down next to her, kissed her cheek, and handed her a mug of cocoa. Having her lovers with her had helped raise her spirits. Zax was sound asleep when Kiera woke up.

Neither spoke; Kiera rested her head on Kinsley’s shoulders as the sun crested the horizon. It was such a simple thing to be able to do. Kiera had told both Kinsley and Zax everything that had happened, holding nothing back. They both held her, their emotions informed her of Zax’s pride, Kinsley’s amazement and their mutual relief that Kiera was home and safe.

“Your instructors must really like you for them to risk their careers like that,” Kinsley said.

“Cael Feren and I have a good relationship. I want to believe the Major when he said he’d go rescue any of the cadets, but I’m pretty sure it was because I am who I am and they took me while under their watch,” she paused, “Or it was of who took me. Cael Feren said they had suspicions but never elaborated on them,” Kiera said. “Pretty dumb to swindle them.”

“Pretty dumb for that moron to not treat those beasts he had captured well,” Kinsley said, “The arrest of Tracksuit made the Imperial News cycle. The Frost Gorilla was returned to his homeworld. They said a member of the Ambassador’s corps convinced them to come peacefully.”

“He was surprised to see me piloting the mech. Definitely not a stupid animal,” Kiera agreed.

“Kind of like Gargax,” Kinsley said, flashing the ork a grin as he wandered over to them, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Kiera laughed, “Gargax is cuter.”