After the battlefield finally fell silent, I turned my attention to the men and the wounded.

“Relus, please keep an eye on the transport of our new orc captives. Ensure no one tries anything,” I instructed.

“Of course, my Lord,” Relus replied with a grin and an exaggerated bow before he went on his way.

As usual, I couldn’t avoid a lecture from Lea, who was already starting.

“You know your charge in the end was reckless. Your riders would have easily cut them down,” she said.

I rolled my eyes. “Didn’t it work? Don’t tell me you’re afraid these greenskins will hurt me. They couldn’t even penetrate my armor, see?” I knocked theatrically on my plate.

“In that, you’re right, but what happens when you charge an organized army in the same fashion? What if the enemy has casters, has plates, has Taron? Do you think you’re unbeatable, unkillable?” Lea said with a frowning sigh.

“Well, maybe I am,” I smirked.

“Cut the crap. I saw that same proud and arrogant attitude in your father. You know, I was beside him when he ordered his flagship to charge, standing proud and tall like a Taron of old. I told him not to. Told him he´s not unkillable. Told him even he, Sejan, could bleed. Do you know what he did? He laughed me off, saying with his confident smile that humans and traitors wouldn’t be able to touch him. And where did that attitude lead him, Palladion?” Lea recounted, her eyes distant, reliving past memories.

“I know what you’re trying to tell me, Lea,” I said, averting my gaze. The pain of my parents’ fate echoed in me as always.

“On the pyre, Palladion. It led him to the pyre. I saw his remains, saw your mother staring at them on the final day of Taron.” Lea grabbed my shoulder, turning me forcefully. Her eyes bore into mine with an intense focus, a glint of fanaticism. “You have the potential to be the greatest of us,” she continued in a whisper, “the lux in umbra, but even a lux can bleed. Your mother knew that. Even you can die. So shove that attitude of yours up your ass and listen. You’re too important to risk yourself in these little games of courage and display. You’re not like your knights, not like Relus or me or my brother, even if you wish that to be the case. You’re Palladion ás Pendragyn, lux in umbra. You’re destined for more. Do you understand?” Lea still gripped my shoulder.

I looked at her for a few moments, embarrassed by her fanatical outburst and at a loss for words.

“Yes, Lea, I get it. No more unnecessary head-on charges, I promise. Can you let go of my shoulder now, please?” I said.

Reluctantly, she obeyed.

My promise to her was true—no more unnecessary charges. But, damn the sun, I won’t stand by and watch my comrades die while I’m safely tucked away doing nothing.

“It’s time to see to our dying and wounded,” I told Lea, changing the subject.

As we walked through the carnage, looking for nurses needing support, I recognized a familiar face.

My newest knight sat on the chest of the giant orc Relus felled earlier, appearing to meditate. As we walked toward him, Lea asked beside me, “Ah, that’s the brazen one you picked up recently. What was his name again?”

“Jaquess de Rodesió,” I replied.

“Ah, right. Did you know he came to me last night, serenading me as if I were a maiden trapped in a tower?”

I burst into laughter. “Indeed, no one could mistake you for a fair young maiden.”

“You cunt!”

The hit I received hurt even through my plate armor.

As we approached, I remembered the circumstances under which I had found Jaquess. Last moon, during our journey toward this settlement, my scouts had spotted a bandit camp along our route, exposed in the open. The opportunity was perfect to train my men-at-arms and the squires of the armored cavalry. After rallying my cavalry, I ordered them to crush the vagabonds head-on. The clash was brutal but swift, our superior training and equipment ensuring an easy victory. My men, now flush with success, began searching the camp.

While plundering the site, they found a disheveled man in a cage who introduced himself as Jaquess de Rodesió. He was a disgraced knight of the Order of the Iron Maiden, originating from distant Dións, a neighboring land to the despotic Republic. His order had been sent to the old world to aid in the crusade against the Legion. Whatever transpired after that, Jaquess refused to divulge, but the consequences suggested it was something his fellow knights did not take kindly to. Being castrated and excommunicated counts as one of the harshest punishments in the code of orders.

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My men freed him and presented him for my judgment. Many would have discarded him as useless, but I saw something in him. The man had been held like an animal for weeks, beaten, and pissed upon by his captors. His elven ears were pruned, the worst humiliation for an elf. He had lost everything his life stood for, degraded and disgraced as few in the orders ever were. Few men would want to continue living after such treatment.

But as I stared at him lying helplessly before me, I noticed the same thing I saw in the half-blood today. Defiance. Rage.

Despite his status, he hadn’t lost his will to live. On the contrary, his eyes showed me an unending fury.

I respected that.

So unlike Lea, I took a liking to the fallen knight and decided to give him a second chance—a chance he was proving worthy of right at this moment.

As we neared him, I studied his appearance. The two weeks since his liberation had greatly reinvigorated him. Though not fully recovered, a bit of flesh had returned to his face, marking a huge difference from his once weak and frail appearance. My nurses had tended to his ears, curing the infection from the cuts.

He had discarded his helm, and I was surprised to see him proudly displaying his disfigured ears. Normally, shamed elves would do everything to hide this indignity. Short green hair graced his head, typical for elven warriors.

After I accepted him into my ranks, I knighted him a chevalier of the Order of Thorns—a sacrilege. Allowing an excommunicated knight into a new order was considered unspeakable. But who am I to give a fuck about the opinions of the orders?

Instead of the typical red paint of my order, his plates were a deep scarred black devoid of any emblem. A fact that, in addition to my sponsoring his armor and blade, made him unpopular with my men, who saw him as a spoiled brat who didn’t earn his standing in my order.

I hoped today’s display of his prowess would dismiss these prejudices, as I knew the abilities of a fully-fledged knight of the new world.

When we stopped in front of him, Jaquess opened his eyes, studying us. Then he proceeded to stand up, only to kneel the next moment—not to me, but to my companion, Lea.

“I salute you, dominus. You were spectacular on the battlefield,” he said, turning to Lea. “But truly, I must concede I feel envious of you fighting beside the goddess of war. Domina, you were indeed ascended as you battled the hordes of greenskins. Each of your blows, each of your slices, each of your stabs transcended the mortal realm, giving me a glimpse of the beauty in the realm of gods. Each of your nimble steps resembled a small part in the graceful and bonny ballet of death, showing me in comparison how futile my own imitation of your aptitude was,” Jaquess de Rodesió confessed, his words dripping with genuine awe.

Suppressing my laughter, I looked at Lea and noticed something I thought I would never see on her stern face: a light pink blush on her golden complexion.

“Oh, don’t understate your skills, my knight. I saw you in your black armor overcoming an assault of a dozen orcs,” Lea replied, embarrassed, her usual stern demeanor faltering.

When Lea addressed him as “my knight,” Jaquess beamed with joy, only to be further augmented as she complimented him.

“My domina, you shouldn’t belittle yourself by commending me! Please accept my humble homage to your magnificence,” de Rodesió declared, pulling out the big heart of an orc and presenting it to her.

It was nearly impossible to contain my laughter as Lea turned to me with an imploring and helpless gaze.

Shrugging my shoulders, I smirked.

Sighing with frustration, Lea picked up the heart. “I, Lea ás Ras, accept your homage.”

Before the situation could become more embarrassing, a panting nurse interrupted us.

“Imperator, I fear Ser Loriks won’t make it,” the nurse stammered, her voice tinged with panic.

My face turned grave in an instant. “Show me, woman.”

After a quick run, the nurse led us to my chevalier. Judging by the appearance of his massively deformed breastplate, his entire thorax must have been crushed.

“Dominus, I... I’m s... sorry,” the knight mumbled, coughing blood. He certainly didn’t have much time left.

“Nonsense, you carried out your duty valiantly, Ser Loriks. What happened?”

“A l... lucky blow f... from a club h... hit me as I... as I rode past a g... green swine. M... My bad. D... Dominus, my w... wife is p... pregn... ant. P... Please su... support h... her. S... She... can’t r... raise it a... alone,” Loriks mumbled, his coughing worsening by the second.

My gaze was firm as steel as I locked eyes with my chevalier. Situations like these reminded me that, as Lea had said, war isn’t a game—especially for the more mortal men and elves. I wondered if this typical Taron fault, a fault I myself was victim to, was in the end the cause of my empire’s demise.

“Ser Loriks, you have my vow as a son of gold that your wife and future child will be supported for their entire lives,” I promised.

“T... Tha...nk you. H...elp m...e salute th...e sun on...e mo...re time.”

I nodded, guiding his gauntlet to his larynx. Drawing my red-gold longsword, I waited for his sign.

“Lux Invicta,” the chevalier coughed one last time. All answered his call equally as I delivered the coup de grâce, my blade swift and merciful.

After I closed his eyes, I studied him once more. Now he lay peacefully, having left the realm of mortals at last.

“Nurse, do you know his wife?” I asked, averting my gaze.

“Y... Yes, Luisis is her name. Shall I get her, dominus?” the nurse replied, avoiding my red eyes.

“No, informing her is my duty. Do you know where she could be right now?”

“As a pregnant woman, she must be at the barracks with the other protected women.”

“Then we have our next destination. Thank you for your service, madam. Now help the other nurses in need of further manpower,” I sent her away, steeling myself for the next task.