Yelena
Shrugging off the last piece of heavy protective gear she was wearing, Yelena covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve and stumbled past another row of burning houses towards the back of the town. The Valken troops had retreated and only the enemy commander and 2 other soldiers remained lingering behind. Likely to inspect the wreckage of military weaponry they expected to find in the rubble after the fire turned everything else into ash.
Soren and Yelena had tried their best efforts to put out the fire in some of the areas while those who could escaped but their efforts were futile as the roaring flames refuse to be tamed. There was nothing they could do except wait for the fire to die down on it's own. Not once did Yelena catch a glimpse of her mother and every second that passed felt like an eternity of growing despair.
When the fire finally diminished enough so that Yelena and Soren could enter the town, Yelena feared it was already too late but she had to find her mother no matter what. She wasn't the only one though, many other survivors had rushed in in hopes of finding their loved ones.
Smoke filled her lungs and the taste of ash was bitter in her mouth, threatening to choke her, but she plowed on through the charred town hoping to catch even just a glimpse of her mother's platinum blonde hair or even the turquoise gown she had last seen her mother in this morning.
Soon she reached the location of Madam Marley's house, the usual place where her mother and the other ladies of the town gather for tea and the latest gossip. Where she also would have been had she not gone out hunting with her father.
Soren helped Yelena dig through the ash, burnt corpses and wreckage of the collapsed building. The burnt pieces of wood singed their fingers but any such physical pain was nothing in comparison to the quickly growing emotional anguish.
"Y-Yen, l-look at this..." Soren stammered. In his trembling palm he held a soot covered gold ring embedded with a single sapphire gem. Her mother's wedding ring.
No, no, no it can't be. Her mother can't be dead, it can't be true. She didn't even get to say goodbye. What was the last thing she even said to her mother? Some petty complaint abt wearing armour. If only she knew that would be the last time, she would have said so many other things instead. A loud anguished wail broke out from Yelena's chest and she could do nothing but sob and clutch her mother's ring tightly in her fists.
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"I'm so sorry Yen. Queen Rosalind was a good person and an even better Queen and mother even to me, she didn't deserve this. Nobody did. One day they will pay for this." silent tears rolling off his own face, Soren pulled her into his embrace and hugged her tightly.
Yes they would pay. Yelena would make sure of it. She would personally hunt down whoever was responsible for this meaningless death and destruction and give them a taste of their own medicine. She swore it over her mother's dead body. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
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In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Valken commander searched the remnants of the town but found no signs of weaponry or evidence of harboring Gordelian soldiers. This proved that the Valkens had breached the peace treaty and hence the treaty was no longer in effect. King Oscar had captured and interrogated a left over Valken soldier in an attempt to find out who had ordered the assault and where the false intel came from but all that managed to escape his mouth was "Prince-" before he was shot in the head and silenced by the Valken commander who took off immediately after.
King Oscar, wanting to avoid the start of any war, negotiated a new treaty with new trade terms heavily favouring Hesteria as well as demanding compensation for damages caused to the town during the fire.
The King was devastated by the loss of Queen Rosalind, however the queen's cause of death was kept a secret to the public except for the people in the town who knew of the queen's presence during the incident who were sworn to secrecy. Princess Yelena's presence at the town was also kept a secret from the Valkens. Upon return to the palace, the queen's death was announced as due to illness. This was to prevent an uprising of the citizens within the kingdom whom all love Queen Rosalind dearly and who would demand her death be avenged by way of war against the Valkens even if they had to go to battle themselves despite only being merchants and farmers.
The war between Valken and Gordelian forces raged on with the balance of power slowly tilting in favour of the Valkens and their superior military strategies led by the young 2nd Prince.
Meanwhile in Hesteria, Yelena bidded her time and plotted her revenge on the Valkens. For the first part of her plan to work, she needed 2 more years to pass. And when she turned 20, her plan was to walk right in through the front gates of Valken as a bride to one of the Princes.