The sound of eating permeated the surrounding area. Siraya didn't seem to care that the women were standing around her, she was completely focused on eating, but if she paid any attention to them, she'd be able to hear the intermittent sobbing that the women were trying to suppress. They ate with tears streaming down their faces. They couldn't help it, they had been kidnapped from the capital. Some of them watched in horror as their families were slaughtered, others were abandoned by their families, while they ran ahead, and after that, they were forced to suffer unwarranted humiliation and beatings.
How could they not want to cry? Their innocence was lost and they had nowhere to go back to. They snuck glimpses of the tattered soldier, but they knew this person probably wouldn't give them a way to live. Just looking at the soldiers appearance, they couldn't guess what they had been through.
The facts were as they believed. After the tattered soldier finished eating, the women watched her about to leave. One of the braver ones that had tried to resist before, but was severely beaten tried to call out after the soldier.
"E-Excuse me" she stuttered.
Siraya turned around after hearing the voice. The look in her eyes terrified the women. Siraya's eyes were like a rabid beast looking at its prey. Their didn't seem to be any humanity left in those wild, piercing eyes. Seeing that gaze mixed with the darkness of night made the women tremble, not just from the cold. However the brave woman still mustered up the courage.
"C-Can you p-please help us?" she said in a voice as light as a whisper.
Siraya seemed to fall into a daze hearing the woman's voice. In a rare moment of sobriety, she was forced to remember something her father had once said to her.
"My daughter, there are only two creeds the Dren family lives by. One is loyalty to the emperor, and the second is to protect the people of our empire".
Siraya had lived by those creeds her whole life. Until she lost everything, and killed her way through the palace, directly breaking the two creeds she had promised her father.
She stared at the group of women. They were all shivering from the cold. Their bodies covered in bruises. The few that still had clothes, were little more than just rags hanging on them by this point.
Siraya didn't know what went through her mind. Perhaps it was the long lost words of her father, but she suddenly felt a desire to save this group of women. However she understood her limitations. These women were weak and powerless, and she had no ability to protect them all any more. However she knew that there were people following her. Although they kept their distance, she had felt their presence for a long time, ever since she entered the woods.
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She could feel that they held no malice which is why in her bouts of insanity she could choose to ignore them. After all, these people might not be anywhere near as strong as her, but they were fast, and she didn't have the energy to waste chasing them.
She didn't say a word to the women, but looked towards the darkened treeline.
One who was watching from a distance felt a chill as those eyes fell on her. She had maintained a great distance from her target. The princess had ordered her to protect this person's safety, but that look alone made her want to run.
However one knew she couldn't outrun this person so she resigned herself, and showed up in front of the group.
Siraya looked at the woman who covered herself head to toe in black clothing, her hoarse and scratchy voice that hadn't spoken any words more than a mumble for weeks, spat out a short sentence.
"Help them".
The words were hard to listen to, but concise enough that everyone present could understand them. One was particularly surprised by the generals willingness to intervene in this matter. She had watched her slowly succumb to madness, with small instances of sobriety, but this was the longest she had seen the general remain sane.
After Siraya ordered the little tail that followed her, she seemed to feel herself losing control. She quickly forgot about these people, and disappeared into the night.
One quickly ordered some of the other shadow guards to find clothes in the stronghold, then to take the women to one of the princess's lesser known properties. She also sent one of the guards back to report the situation to the Princess, before she and the rest of the shadow guard followed the lingering bloody smell in the direction that Siraya had left.
The shadow guard had just finished reporting the situation tk the Princess, and heard the princess say "Alright, go down and rest".
The shadow guard saluted and disappeared from the room.
The princess just heard the report that Siraya was sober enough to to order those pitiful women to be protected. The princess knew of the Dren family's creeds. Siraya had always had unending respect for her own family. When she was young, before Siraya was take to the border, the two of them had many interactions.
She remembered how Siraya used to pretend to be majestic in front of her, pledging that one day she would be a great general of the Dren family. That she would bring honour to her family.
Remembering the innocent promise from the child back then, she felt her heart tightened in pain. She bent down to try and ease the sharp pain she felt. The memory of the little girl, and then the carnage that she reportedly created. Tears ran down the princess's face. The person she loved lost everything she once cared about.
Her dream was to bring honour to her family, but now there is no family left to bring honour to. Not only that, but her ideal to become a great general, has also been dashed. The fear and suspicion of her father, the greed of those ministers. She hated them. She hated that they destroyed the pride of the woman she loved. She hated how they can live normally, while her beloved is slowly losing her mind, with nothing but a tarnished reputation left.
She wanted them dead. They took everything from Siraya, so, should she repay them?