Shahla couldn’t bear to look herself in the eye, much less leave her room.

A rapping knock sounded from her door.

“Shahla? You’ve been cooped up in your room all day.” Lokapele’s voice. “There’s a lot of exciting shit happening on the ground.”

Shahla didn’t respond.

“Shahla, I’m going to break down this door if you don’t give me some sign that you’re alive.”

“I’m alive.” Shahla muttered just as Lokapele kicked the door open.

“Whoops.” Lokapele pursed her lips, “Uh...sorry.”

Shahla waved away at the Aotearoan, “Eh. Not our house anyway.”

“Still, what the hell’s wrong with you? You’ve done nothing but mope since yesterday.” Lokapele asked.

“I’m...I’m just...I don’t know.” Shahla curled her knees up to her chin. “I’m weak. That’s what.”

“What do you mean you’re weak?”

“I’m not a warrior like you or Seang or Najeem.” Shahla said, “I’m a sheltered princess who’s never known true suffering. I won’t be able to fight. I’ll just freeze up when I’m needed most. It’s my fault that Najeem was captured.”

Lokapele opened her mouth to protest.

“Don’t tell me it wasn’t.” Shahla said, “I was there. I could’ve at least tried to help.”

The Aotearoan sighed, “Fine. It was your fault. But what are you going to do about it? Sit here feeling sorry for yourself?”

“I want to help, but I’m just going to get in the way.”

“Bullshit! There are kids out there readying to fight a war with the biggest Empire in the world! And you can’t get off your ass to give them a helping hand? I’ve seen you put your life on the line for Najeem before.”

“I wasn’t scared then.”

“Everyone’s scared, Shahla! The townsfolk are scared, the rebels are scared, hell I’m scared. We’re choosing to fight despite that fear. You can’t let it consume you.” Lokapele insisted, “You’ve come this far from your home. Are you just going to give up because you’re afraid?”

Shahla sighed, “But what can I do? I’m powerless.”

“You’re only powerless because you believe yourself to be. No Shedim Master is weak unless they willingly give in to weakness. You wanna do something? Get up, go outside, and pick up a spear. Be willing to bleed. That’s it.” Lokapele said.

Shahla couldn’t look her in the eye.

“Stop wallowing in your guilt and do something. That’s the only way you’ll be able to forgive yourself.”

Shahla nodded. Lokapele was right. The only thing truly holding her back was herself. She wasn’t helpless in Aotearoa. She wasn’t helpless in Jambudvipa. She wouldn’t be helpless ever again after Qahtan.

The princess stumbled to her feet, “I’ll fight with Xinhou.”

___________________________________________________________________

Kameko’s heart counted down the precious seconds before the Nikan assault. Her lungs burned with anticipation while her stomach churned like a storm with dread. She looked up at the orange sky. The sun setting on the city was, to many, an omen of being abandoned by the universe. But to Kameko, she welcomed the night. Blindness would only affect those who didn’t know this city like the back of their hand.

She could hear war drums of the enemy over the walls.

Catapults were positioned on the roofs while trebuchets were set up behind the first stretch of bamboo barriers.

Kamkeo made a silent signal to the archers near the gate to light their arrows aflame. They’d spread all their reserves of black powder across the wall tops in case anyone thought about using a ladder.

Then the drums played a quick finale of beats before going silent. The sign to attack.

As they’d predicted, the first signs of that attack were projectiles streaking over the walls, yellowish-green gas streaming behind them.

Men and women in masks ran out to the empty street with pots and jars, scooping the spewing grenades and setting them in the trebuchets or throwing them at the gate to meet the first wave of soldiers that would inevitably crash through. They quickly retreated into alleyways and other hiding spots.

The trebuchets fired the gas grenades back over the wall.

War cries started to grow in the silence as the Nikan army drew closer to the wall. Kameko had to repeat the same message in her head over and over again to keep herself from trembling in fear as she watched from the shadows with her soldiers.

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For free Xinhou. Death to the Empire.

The archers loosed their fired arrows, causing a chain of explosions across the top of the wall and setting the ladders that were being used on fire.

The blasts were accompanied by the first pound of the battering ram. Another pound echoed among the ambience of crackling flames. A third pound dented the gate.

Kameko’s beating heart seemed to match up with the sounds of the battering ram after about ten pounds. On the fifteenth, the gates were bashed open and the cloud of gas waiting for them cut the battle cries of the Nikan soldiers short.

But the cloud had mostly faded, and the infantry could run right past it into the bamboo barrier. The maze slowed them to a crawl as those who tried to run through tripped and took four or five others down with them, since all the bamboo was interconnected.

“Now!” Kameko roared.

She, with her soldiers, lined up among the trebuchets with loaded crossbows and fired at the incoming Nikan. Once her row fired, she bowed back to reload as a second row fired. A third row took over after them before they repeated the process.

The same assault was happening on the sides of the barrier. Once the Nikan had organized themselves and made a shield wall, squadrons of slingshots filed out from the shadows and started launching bricks and bottles full of hot oil onto the invaders.

Soldiers on rooftops rained flaming arrows onto the oil-soaked Nikan and dropped logs full of nails and metal spikes onto them.

Kameko retreated with the crossbow squads as the Nikan steadily moved inward, despite their heavy casualties. As the enemy went, they cut up the bamboo barricades.

So far, they were doing really well. That is, until the archers got through. They had forced the army to turn to bows without their crossbows, but the sheer number of them forced the rooftop archers and sling-shotters to retreat.

Kameko and her squad ran around the alleys and corridors, bypassing the giant wall of flaming wood and cloth built on the main road.

As soldiers tried to follow them through the alleys, residents of the poorer areas let logs and debris fall from their roofs, blocking the Nikan off.

Kameko left her squadron under the command of a lower officer and took a lift to a nearby spire. Soldiers waited at the top, ready to cut the lifts off and destroy the bridges the moment the Nikan took them. She looked out to observe the city.

The enemy wouldn’t stop streaming through the gate. It was as though they were endless.

“They’re splitting themselves up, just as you said, Captain Iseri.” Captain Gua grinned. He was a portly man, but a brilliant mind.

“The Nikan think they have the manpower to risk it. Especially since they dealt with the Koinis.” Kameko sighed. She gratefully accepted a cup of water from Auntie Wu, an elderly woman who was helping keep guards in top shape with her daughters. Her son was somewhere among the university students who were building barricades and walls.

“I’ve deployed our skirmishers already. They seem to be doing quite well.” Gua said.

The skirmishers were small groups of soldiers Captain Yan had suggested that focus entirely on mobility and could trade off with three or four other groups in battles to keep the enemy guessing. Currently, they were handling groups of the enemy that had tried to bypass the wall through the alleys.

“Down there!” a scout shouted. Kameko turned to look at a young girl, no older than sixteen, pointing down at the army. The army had split as if making way for something.

Kameko took the spyglass in her hands and looked through it to the thoroughfare near the gate. Black Armor. A Bane Knight.

“Shit. Where are the Shedim Masters?” Kameko asked.

“They went to rescue their ally. They said they would assist after that was done.” Gua said.

Kameko peered through the spyglass again as the Bane Knight spewed frost from his hand at the flaming wall before smashing it to bits with his mace. She tossed the spyglass back to the girl.

“Get five skirmisher squads to the Liao Promenade and send for my battalion to meet up in the lower market. Get some fire bombers and slinger squads on the roofs and have ground troops light up waste and use it to hold off the infantry. You guys cut the lift and move back to Chen Spire.” Kameko ordered.

“Right away.” Gua said. He relayed the command to his soldiers.

Kameko ran across several bridges to another spire and took the lift down to the intersection of two main streets. It wasn’t long before the fifty skirmishers she’d asked for arrived to face the Bane Knight and the hundred or so Nikan Infantry that could follow him.

“Lieutenants, never let your escape route be cut off. We’re gonna slow them down until the first battalion gets to the lower market, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am!” the lieutenants shouted.

Kameko drew her naginata from her back and lowered herself into a stance. In true Southern fashion, they were without shields, which would only get in the way of their long-reaching polearms.

“Hold your position!” Kameko ordered as the Bane Knight charged them. “Let me handle the big guy.”

As the two sides clashed, the skirmishers got the first hit with a preemptive wave of spear thrusts.

Kameko flipped over the Bane Knight’s shoulder as his mace swung downwards, covering the road in frost. She landed behind him and stabbed at his backside. She pierced flesh, but the Knight reoriented himself before she could do any actual damage.

Fog appeared to stream off the Bane Knight’s weapon as he swung upwards, summoning ice spikes from the ground. Kameko rolled out of their path and slammed her weapon with all her might into the back of the Bane Knight’s knee. He crumpled, but still evaded her naginata’s blade from nearly point-blank range as he fell.

Kameko lurched as the Knight pulled on her naginata and slammed the back of his fist into her jaw. She gritted her teeth and slammed her elbow into the Knight’s abdomen.

The Knight let go as he clutched his gut and Kameko hit the ground a few feet away. They both clambered to their feet and engaged once again.

Kameko exerted all her skills, trying to keep up with the Bane Knight’s magic. She was an impressive warrior, but the Empire trained Bane Knights from birth to be killers. Kameko surmised she could only maintain her position in the battle because there was no penalty for giving ground.

Kameko and her skirmishers-who had lost about fifteen to twenty from their ranks-backed into the abandoned marketplace for the city’s low-income areas.

White Tiger Soldiers flooded the market. The first battalion created a wall of woven Rattan shields against the encroaching Nikan.

As the two sides clashed in true field battle fashion, archers atop the buildings rained hell on the enemy. But the Bane Knight was still an unstoppable threat. The Knight slammed his mace into the ground once and impaled five White Tiger on spikes of ice.

Formations were breaking up, so Kameko took it upon herself to face the Bane Knight once again. She rushed the brute with a flurry of fearsome thrusts with her naginata, the pushing momentum of her movement stealing his balance away. But the Knight regained his footing and kept Kameko locked in a further prolonged duel.

White Tiger soldiers tried to assist Kameko, but more often than not, they ended up dying to a swing of the Knight’s mace. The White Tiger were lightly armoured, so any hit with that weapon could be a fatal one.

She recalled that fact with startling clarity as the metal weight slammed into her gut. A crack echoed through her body before she was thrown backwards like a rag doll.

The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth as her body spasmed and coughed up her innards. Kameko made a valiant effort to stand, but even if she managed to get to her feet, she would undoubtedly collapse.

The Bane Knight towered over her like a dark shadow and tried to smash her head in. Kameko was conscious enough to move her head out of the way. The Knight kicked her in the abdomen, sending waves of excruciating burning through her, but she was too hurt to scream. The Knight knelt down and pressed the shaft of his mace to her throat.

Despite her condition, Kameko still fought him, struggling to push the shaft off of her throat. She was managing, but the magic in his weapon was numbing her finger to redness.

She would not die here. Death would not silence her.

Her fingers were going black from frostbite, but Kameko wouldn’t give in. She spit her blood into the eyeholes in the Knight’s stylized mask and let out the loudest roar her deteriorating lungs could offer.

This war was a losing battle from the beginning. The odds of her walking away alive were practically nonexistent. So why did she continue to struggle?

Because I swore an oath to protect these people. I will fight to the last breath because that is what I chose for my life.

Hadn’t she fought enough? Hadn’t she paid her dues?

No! This isn’t about paying a sacrifice to life. This suffering was of my own choosing. I will bear it so long as the Nikan oppressed people.

Then her fingers broke off. She couldn’t feel any pain from them, since the cold had stolen their feeling away a long time ago.

The Knight raised his mace and bashed her eye. Redness exploded across her other eye as all her senses seemed to spasm. Then she was bashed again.

Then again.

And again.

Until the world went dark.