Xena ended up exhausted only a little after midnight, falling asleep in my arms on my bed. But it took me a little while longer to get to sleep myself, not quite satisfied even after a lot of teaching. I ended up borrowing the fingers of a serenely sleeping Xena, finally passing out some time in the night.

And I am woken only a few hours later, just as the sun begins to rise. A titanic shriek shoots its way across the world, something so alien and terrible that I almost flinch right off my bed at the sound of it. Only being wrapped up in Xena keeps me from the floor... The sound is loud enough to break Xena’s very deep sleep, whatever made that noise must be horrifying.

She stirs, and looks at me quizzically. "That noise wasn't you, was it?"

I shake my head, wondering just how loud I must have been if Xena thinks I could make anything even approaching that noise."N... No... I don't think a human being could make that noise. Not even Katarina."

"Oh... Sounds fascinating." She yawns, then looks down to notice our entangled state of undress. "... We should probably get dressed and investigate then, shouldn't we?"

"... I don't want to get dressed just yet. I certainly don't want you to be dressed just yet."

Xena giggles, before reaching out to pet my head. "Good. Being honest about what you want."

"I guess you've just domesticated me well." I’m trying to snark, but it’s hard not to smile with her hand in my hair.

Xena finds it less amusing, looking me over carefully as she continues to stroke me. "About that... Flicking your forehead and petting you isn't precisely intensive brainwashing or anything... And yet you are very susceptible to it. You do what I say quickly when you understand the task, you display fairly violent reactions to each trigger... Serena, I think you might be uniquely susceptible to suggestion."

I blink, trying to apply Xena's speculations to any understanding of reality. "Are you saying I’m easy to brainwash? … Why?"

"Well... You seem to be stuck in your brother's shadow, according to Pasche you have more than a few misgivings about your family, you're a long way from home, you didn't have many friends until recently, and... You like to trust people. You're always sincere and honest, it's not hard to believe that you might want others to be honest with you as well, right?"

I’m lost for words. Xena has done her homework on me. On me of all people. I must be remarkably fascinating to her, for her to pay so much attention to what I’ve told her, and find so much information I hadn't-

"Wait, Pasche told you about my family history?"

"She was worried about you. I was worried about you. And the two of us talk a lot when I administer her medicine. I've been using the time to teach her German."

"... I guess I did worry you both a great deal. I can understand it."

"You don't need to be scared about me knowing your history. You don't need to keep any secrets from me."

"... Even if I use your fingers to get off while you're sleeping?"

Xena looks at her free hand, and gently pops a finger in her mouth, savoring it for a moment before removing it. "Even if that, yes."

That is an absolutely abnormal thing that no normal person would think to do... I want to do it too. I gently open my mouth, and Xena very quickly figures out what I want, offering me her ring finger.

"Xena! Officers! Where's Serena!?"

Katarina slips into my tent, clearly in something of a hurry, and finds the two of us naked. Oh dear, oh gods... Katarina and Xena are sweet on one another, aren't they? Xena put so much effort in making sure I lived last night and now I might just have gotten myself killed anyway. Katarina reaches out a hand toward me, and I see my life flashing before my eyes. It was a very bizarre life, but somehow I only regret not doing this with Xena sooner. Not pushing over Pasche sooner... Not telling Lazierte and Theophania that I love them sooner…

Katarina rubs my head with a playful flair, giving me a smile... I am not at all being murdered. Odd. Maybe Katarina is like me, and knows what it’s like to love more than one person?

"Haaaah, guess our morning is definitively over, huh?" Xena slips out of our shared bed and goes to reclaim her clothes, ones I managed to mostly remove from her without breaking them. "... Did you have to break my brassiere? It's hard to find them in my size you know."

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"I'm sorry, I'm overly enthusiastic!" Shamefully, my eyes drift over to Xena's form as she attempts to get dressed, wanting one last glimpse of her chest. "And I can be remarkably clumsy around clothing it turns out."

"Haaaah. I guess that's just another part of you." There’s a smile in her voice as she dresses herself, simply going without her damaged garment.

Katarina finds my own clothes strewn haphazardly around my tent, and offers them to me with a smile. She’s being remarkably helpful this morning, and is dramatically unfazed by the whole 'me being naked' thing. Katarina’s an odd sort. I know I’m not supposed to speculate about her body, but would Xena forgive me for speculating about what goes on in her head? Or whatever part of her thoughts come from, seeing as she doesn't have a working brain for the purposes of my magic... Maybe I should get Xena to teach me German too, so I could learn what my cannibal mercenary was all about.

She's capable of such gentleness…

She mentioned officers, I need to actually get dressed rather than idly speculating all day. I quickly slip on my clothes and boots, whatever the officers are meeting about is probably related to that terrible shriek. Anything that can make that noise is not something I can ignore... At least, now that Xena is dressed it is not something I can ignore. As soon as I have my boots on I slip out of my tent, soon joined by Xena and Katarina... And find the officers standing outside the command tent in utter shock, staring out at the city of Ravenna. I look past them, trying to find what has transfixed them.

And I hear the shriek again. I see the maw that produced it. Perched upon the Royal Palace of Ravenna is an eagle, taller than a clocktower, larger than any eagle is capable of being... And completely without a head. Its headless neck-stump opens wide so the beast can scream, before diving into the city proper... A monster that big could do a lot of damage. It could rip our army to pieces if we aren't ready to fight it. We need to wake the men, we need to get the cannons brought forward, we need to get into formation right now!

"Could someone please explain to me what exactly we are seeing?!" Antoine is the first among the officers to regain the ability to speak, and with it the ability to ask panicked questions. "What godless thing is this?!"

"Not godless..." A priest in steel scales breathlessly speaks, apparently having run here in his heavy steel robes. "That... That is a monster of Steel. In a kingdom's most dire moments, they can be summoned to protect the monarchy."

"I... Steel has his very own monsters?" Antoine's voice knows terror for the first time in his entire life. "Why? Why?!"

"It takes a special sacrifice that can only be performed by a member of the royal family, and only in the face of an existential threat... The monster represents the state itself, the head is upon the banner so the headless creature represents the subjects of the state-"

Steel is apparently determined to become my least favorite god... And I am already a sinner, I may as well be a heretic too. "How do we kill it?"

The priest turns to stare at me. As does Antoine, and the rest of the officers, still rapt with fear. It’s almost too much to face all at once, until I feel a hand on my shoulder. Katarina's hand... She’s smiling. And it’s clearly a smile in the presence of understanding. She knows exactly what I am proposing we do.

The priest manages to stammer out a confused answer to my question, and not an especially helpful one. "No one ever has... There's no record of one ever being felled. It... It would be the end of a Kingdom-"

"Then let's figure it out!" Katarina's hand on my shoulder has me feeling bizarrely bold, as if I can take the beast single-handedly. "We are an army! We have cannons and rifles and grenades, and courage! Not a man among you disagreed when we resolved to kill this odious monarchy just the day before, and here it is, with actual wings waiting for us to do so! This will not stop us, it just gives us a bigger target! Our enemy has to resort to summoning ancient monsters to halt our advance, we should not fear these weaklings!"

The officers look amongst each other nervously, not sure what to think, until they hear Antoine applaud my speech, having regained his usual smug confidence. "You're right! You are absolutely right, sis! This beast is nothing to be afraid of! It is merely the enemy showing their neck, letting us know we have already beaten them! We must seize the initiative, and take this city now!"

At Antoine's encouragement the officers are immediately filled with morale again, cheering their inevitable victory... At least they’re going to be moving. There’s no reason to let this sting.

Xena emerges from behind me, apparently having taken the time everyone spent scared and depressed to find a spyglass, which she uses to observe the city. "The bird isn't coming to attack us. It wasn't summoned to repel an attack from our forces, it doesn't seem like they were scared of us at all... The bird is attacking Ravenna itself."

This shuts everyone up in an instant. The King summoned this beast to lay waste to his own city? Right before a major battle with the Avernian army? Insanity. That’s the only possible explanation, this is the product of genuine insanity. And gods and their monsters still answer the call of the insane.

We need to attack immediately if we are to save the city of Ravenna from its own defenders. "I'll wake my men. Xena, can I trust you with the cannons once again?"

"Serena can trust me with anything."

Even after seeing that giant beast she can still so brazenly say things that make me want to kiss her. But for now I'll have to settle for letting her blast a giant bird to pieces with artillery. I can't resist putting a hand on her shoulder for the briefest moment, running my thumb over it through the cloth of her dress, just to let her know that everything would be okay... Assuming she understands my little signals. Whether she understands or not, she rushes to the cannons. Katarina meanwhile gives me a salute and runs off to assemble her priests, eager to fight that giant creature in person.

I check my sword, and my gun. They are pitifully tiny things compared to what we are up against, but so am I, and I've made it this far. And perhaps destroying an entire Kingdom is supposed to be a little scary. But this victory might earn us some respite, might give the people I love some measure of safety and security. Might buy me some time to work on redressing some of my mistakes.

The first step on that road is for Serena to kill the Kingdom of Samnia.