-berserker-
[https://i.imgur.com/LoYByv0.png]
An odd white bird flew past the entrance to the Citadel. Some sort of residue that looked like smoke dispersed into the air around the creature.
Shortly after the bird had caught my eye, my Empress came into view. Emerging from the Citadel’s massive gateway, she seemed to be following after the bird—though, in a calm manner.
I thought about calling out to her, to ask if the Empress would need my assistance in anyway, but I was quickly distracted as some kind of magickal portal opened and a small object fell to the ground.
When the Empress bent down to pick whatever it was from the dusty stone tiles, I fought the urge to rush ahead to do it for her.
I could she that she was talking to someone, or to that weird bird—I’d heard about a similar sounding interaction at the smithy with an otherworldly white fox that had been sent by the Goddesses—and I didn’t want to interrupt her if this was another of those Celestial familiars.
A moment later, the white bird disappeared in a burst of magickal energy leaving the Empress with a disgruntled look.
I quickly crossed the distance between us and she spotted me approaching. Her sour expression faded and was replaced with a bright smile.
She called out to me with a wave, “Hey, kiddo!”
“Your Majesty.” I replied out quietly with a salute.
“Haah,” she sighed, “You as well, huh? Everyone has acting way too formal since I returned.”
“Hanna has been drilling it into us. Starting around the day you all set off.”
The Empress squinted her eyes, turning her gaze back the way she came.
“Is that so? Seems like someone is compensating because they can’t get it right themselves. I’ll have a talk with her about it. It’s becoming tiring.”
“I’ll try my best to keep it from being overbearing, Your Majesty.” I teased. “Ah, I meant to ask, what was that white bird just now?”
“…”
The Empress pursed her lips and quietly looked on at me for some time.
She eventually yielded, “That was Virgo.”
“As in, the Celestial Goddess Virgo?”
“The one and only.” She replied with a drawn out sigh, seemingly a bit distracted.
The Empress held a fancy white pouch in her hands, and was gently tumbling it between her palms.
“Why was the Goddess—”
“A raven?” She cut me off, “Ya’ know, I kind of gave up on digging into that. Capricorn does the same thing—well, except she’s always been a fox.”
“Huh? I thought I heard your white fox was a familiar sent by the Goddess?”
“Yeah, well that’s the ‘official story’,” She emphasized by quoting the words with her hands, “but I didn’t wanna lie to you, Soren.”
The Empress looked at me with a toothy grin, all traces of her earlier worries had been washed away, or at least buried further down.
Before her trip to the elven city, anything to do with the Goddesses or her ascension to proper royalty had really seemed to be weighing down on her—so I tried to move the conversation further along, away from those topics.
“I heard you were dueling in the courtyard yesterday. Some of the soldiers that were close by said your display of strength and skill were off the charts.”
“Yesterday?” She looked at me with a tilt of her head, then looked up at the sun. “Huh. I suppose that was yesterday, wasn’t it.”
“Did you spend all night in the Citadel? I’d heard you were there last night with an unknown visitor.” I paused, then tilted my head, “A new companion, or…?”
“Yeah, something like that. Just somehow turned out that way. Actually, thanks to her I gained some new powers—Oh, speaking of companions, where’s Alistaire? It’s not often I find you two separated. Not that it’s a problem, of course, but you do seem quite chatty today, Soren.”
I laughed at her comment.
It’s true Al and I are usually together, but it’s not like we’re inseparable!
“You actually just missed Al and the Commander. They both went to investigate rumors of a blue-haired girl causing a ruckus near the mess hall.”
“Haaah, that girl. I swear…”
“Haha! Sounds like you’re already aware. Anyway, I went on without them. I’ve got physical rehabilitation everyday around noon at the training ground.”
I patted my bum leg and reassured her, “They say I’ve only got a week left before I’m returned to duty.”
The Empress gave me a smile and offered to walk with me to the barracks. I was a few minutes late since I got distracted, and showing up with Her Majesty herself would keep the others off my back.
Our arrival caused a brief commotion that was quickly quieted by the field instructors with threats of punitive laps around the Citadel.
Though the commotion between the troops had been handled, a new development was unfolding. Some of the muscle-brained officers had begun to petition the Empress to practice with them under the guise of mock battles—some of them went all the way, asking for actual duels.
Before I had the chance to think of a solution to get them to back off, she’d already managed to solve the problem.
“Sorry everyone, I was actually looking forward to participating in Knight-Lieutenant Soren’s rehabilitation. We’ll have to put any tests of strength to rest for another day.”
She disengaged the flock of meatheads with grace and joined me.
Is she really gonna stick around and do training, or was she just bluffing to get away from them?
The Empress answered my question by unsheathing her blade. Dark flames flared from the steel. Though I hadn’t seen her weapon in action for a while, the fire felt like it held an ominous pressure compared to how I remembered it.
“I’ll go easy on you. If you want me to.”
I felt a tightness in my chest form at the way she said those words in her raspy voice.
I shook me head to decline. “No need. I may have a week before they sign off on my waiver, but I’m in top shape.”
We both headed to the center of the training ground.
The Empress took her place opposite mine in a makeshift arena, and readied her blade in a guarded tail stance—leaning ever so slightly forward with her right foot extended, and her sword trailing to the back left held tight against her hips
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I planted my feet firmly and wide, taking a blade-forward second position stance Commander Julius had drilled into me.
During the Commander’s training drills we learned two things from him specifically about the Empress. I could recall his words as if he stood right beside me.
Firstly, ‘Airis is as stubborn as they come, and she refuses to learn proper swordsmanship. She’ll take every stance you know and reverse it, because her left hand is dominant. At first glance you’ll believe she has many openings, but know that you’ll lose your hands if you try to capitalize on any of them foolishly.’
And secondly, ‘That hard-headed girl favors the tail guard and will aim for your neck on her first swing nine times out of ten. Facing an opponent like that, take a plow guard and be ready to extend into a long point to quickly defend if she transfers during the follow through.’
The field instructor, with a long red baton raised above his head, quickly brought his hand down and shouted “Match start!”
The Empress exploded forward with a rising strike aimed directly at my head. The force of her blow caused my sword to rebound towards me chest, and I struggled to defend.
My reflexes kicked in and I barely managed to take a proper defensive long point.
She gracefully continued up into a hanging point, and brought down a swing that I narrowly parried. Her blade missed my neck by a hair’s width and I jumped back to regain ground.
We continued to trade blow after blow, with each of my successful parries or dodges taking considerably more effort.
I could see fatigue taking its toll on my opponent—which is why I could hardly believe that even while her breath labored heavily, her strikes continued to aim true.
After an unsuccessful forward strike of mine, she put distance between us and took her favored tail guard.
I attacked from a high guard and attempted a sort of feint to take advantage of her presumed low STAMINA. I loosened my grip with my left hand, with the intention to grab at her arm and bring her into a grapple, hoping to either put our match into a draw or gain a win.
Contrary to my expectations, her blade seemed to drift along a course her stance and position couldn’t have parried from.
I felt the impact of her blade find my left leg.
My body fell backwards as I lost my footing and I landed on the ground with a hard thud.
The whole bundle of armor and lower limb came down in front of me in a crash of metal.
[https://i.imgur.com/zAZCJWq.png]
The Empress’ face had gone pure white, and her sword clattered to the ground.
Ahh, this is gonna be awkward to explain.
“Waaah! Soren! Your leg! Oh by the Goddesses, what have I done? Did I really strike so hard that it would sever a whole leg?”
“Empress, it’s not what it looks like—”
“Shit! And you were so close to returning to duty, and now what’s gonna happen!? I have to get Hails. Wait, no, she’ll never speak to me again if she sees this!”
“Empress. Really, you don’t—”
“I can heal something like this. If I can bring people back from the dead I can reattached a leg. Right? Hey! You!” she called out to the field instructor who was standing by in a daze, “I need you to fetch clean water, get a mage to boil it, and get me medical tools to debride the wound.”
“Empress, my leg is—”
“Right, your legs! Soren, lie back and elevate your legs so you don’t go into shock. I’ll find something for your neck and head, so don’t move—”
“Your Majesty!” I yelled loudly, interrupting her never-ending stream of rambling. She flinched upright, as if an electric shock had zapped her body. “That was a false leg. I’m not injured. I’m fine.”
“W-what do you mean a false leg? I cut off your leg, you can’t be fine.”
“Your Majesty is the one who seems to be in shock right now. Look! There’s no blood. If my leg had been cut so badly, I’d be minutes away from bleeding out. But there’s no blood anywhere, right?”
----------------------------------------
“Have you finally settled down?” A gruff voice sounded nearby.
The Commander was standing over the Empress, holding out a steel flask.
She accepted it and took a swig.
Her face twisted with a sour grimace, but she gulped down whatever was in there till it was empty.
She glared at the Commander, “I want to be briefed on things like this beforehand in the future.”
“Noted. But as you’re aware, I was away from the city with you. Additionally, I wasn’t briefed on this particular thing until this morning. And, although the OSW has made great strides in it’s efforts to be on top of current events since we’ve been gone, none of us could’ve anticipated this. That you’d run into Soren on his way to training, somehow finagle your way into being his sparring partner, use real weapons in said spar like brain-dead idiots, and ultimately manage to dislodge his prosthetic leg that, mind you, had survived weeks of intense physical therapy just fine.”
“…”
The Empress remained silent under the ceaseless beratement.
“Haaah,” the Commander sighed, “both of you just take it easy for the next few days. Alright? Celestials above, I don’t even know how you managed to cause such a ruckus after all that business with the minister. I’ll be telling Hanna to get your attendants sorted without delay. The days of Airis Vanixi gallivanting around all on her own have ended. You hear me?”
Commander Adaemus walked off while muttering something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like a string of harsh curses.
She remained sitting, seemingly staring at a spot of ground very intently.
After a fair amount of time had passed she finally looked up and motioned for me to sit next to her, patting the ground nearby.
I sat down awkwardly, having to adjust the straps which kept my prosthesis in place.
“I didn’t damage it, did I?”
“No, Your Majesty. It doesn’t appear so—though I kinda wish Your Majesty had scratched it up a little. I could’ve shown it off to the senior officers and made them jealous.”
“What would there be to get jealous over? If they want scratched up boots, they can just do it themselves.” The Empress squinted her eyes in thought. “Actually. You let me know if anyone does that and I’ll court-martial them. We don’t have the gear to spare. If that’s some kind of new trend spreading amongst the ranks it needs to be stopped.”
“I’m not aware of such a trend, Your Majesty. I only meant to imply the other officers would’ve jealous over receiving attention from Your Majesty—”
A loud thumping noise accompanied a stinging pain across my chest. The Empress smacked her fist hard against me.
“Quit it with the ‘your majesty’ crap for a bit, kiddo. I won’t lock you up for calling me ‘you’ every once in awhile.”
“Got it. Sorry.”
My stomach had been tensing up with anxiety since I sat down, and it was getting worse as a silence followed.
I stole a glance at the Empress in an attempt to gauge her mood, only to see her staring at that particular spot on the ground again.
“I, uh, overheard a bit about what happened with that traitor Bashir. I don’t think you mishandled anything—and neither does anyone else in the Citadel. So I’m not sure why the Commander brought it up.”
“No, he’s right. I really ought to be keeping my head down to prevent the rest of those haughty aristocrats from gaining more ammunition against me right now.”
“How can they find any fault with what you’ve done? The whole reason we’re in this situation is those traitors in Axio to begin with. Anyone who turns against you for this, I’ll…”
The Empress let out a heavy sigh.
“Perhaps I should round all the dissenters up and hasten them to the chopping block? I fear the aristocracy of Tolin would become wholly extinct if I did.”
“Maybe that would be best, though.” I replied in barely a whisper.
The Empress locked her eyes with mine. Her gaze was that of a predator, a poorly concealed bloodlust raged behind those soft violet eyes.
A shiver ran down my spine—a mix of fear and excitement—as her cold voice clawed at my ears.
“I’ve rationalized my choice already in my own way. Without their backing to legitimize my claim to the Empire, there is a nominal risk of losing the Aestori. What would the elves think if we just started cutting necks all of a sudden. I need both the human nobles and the Aestori to believe that everything is proceeding well so that we can embark to retake Axio.”
The Empress leaned to her side momentarily, before recoiling back with a small stone in her hand. With a quick flick of her wrist, it was sent flying off into the overgrown foliage nearby.
Once the clack of stone clipping on stone faded, she continued, “The Renaultians are doing worse things to our people in Axio right now. I know it for a fact. I was thrown into one of their prisons back there, did you know that?”
She sighed deeply.
Her chilling expression eased as she exhaled, and she relaxed her tense posture. “If it wasn’t for Julius I’d likely be dead by now. Who knows what sickening things those bastards would’ve done to me before finally ending it. Those traitors alongside Bashir got off easy if you ask me.”
The Empress stood up and brushed off her clothes.
“Alright, I’m exhausted. So I’m going to return to my cozy little manor and sleep till the sun comes up again tomorrow.”
She struggled to return her sword into its sheathe.
“Oh this damnable…” She muttered to herself.
The Empress let her scabbard sit empty on her hip, and walked off while till holding her sword.
What was that all about?