Although Lidea had tried, she barely slept. Instead, she spent her final hours watching the night sky turn bright through the little window of her cell. It barely registered that this might be the last time, she ever experienced a sunrise. Her mind was too focused on dissecting every piece of information that the stranger had given her, which was barely anything.

When mealtime arrived, it was a bit more than the piece of bread, she normally received. A bit of pity for the final day of a dying person. However, she found it hard to down the porridge and apple she had been given. Halfway through, she decided that the extra energy wasn't worth getting nauseous over. The rats would be happy with the free meal. After that, she heard nothing for a long time, until finally, some familiar footsteps approached.

The sound of the keyring teased her. If she hadn't had any hope of escape then she would have attempted to knock out the guard and make a run for it. Knowing that she wouldn't get far, it was better to die fighting than whatever death awaited her outside. Nevertheless, as she wasn't desperate yet, she let the guards shackle her once again.

The brute holding her chain, roughly pulled her to her feet and started dragging her to the hallway. She hurriedly regained her footing and tried to keep up as she took in her surroundings. The number of guards had swelled to five, including the man that was dragging her around as if she was a dog. As a unit, they climbed out of the royal dungeons until they finally reached the outside door that she had entered so many weeks ago. As it opened, she was blinded by the sudden amount of daylight. Before she got used to it, another hard tug at her chain made her stumble and fall to her knees on the hard cobblestones.

"Just wait a moment for her to get up."

"Why should we? The sooner she is at the Great Market, the sooner we can go home."

"Even though she is condemned as a traitor, she is still a noble. Let her have her dignity."

During their little discussion time, her eyes had been able to adjust. She wanted to thank the man, but didn't think it to be wise and just quickly got back to her feet.

"Careful Thorn or somebody might think you a traitor as well."

"Nonsense. I just don't like seeing someone of the fairer sex being mistreated."

"That you can even recognize that thing as one of the fairer sex. She wanted to act like she was a man then she can now be treated as one."

Both men looked at her, making her uncomfortable. Though she scoffed at their opinions of her womanhood, she was keenly aware of how filthy she had to be. She remembered once more her father and how he had looked. At least she had been spared from any torture.

The men led her to a rickety old wagon that seemed to lean a bit more than it was supposed to. A cold breeze made her shiver as they made her get on. When she tried to sit, the brute roughly pulled her up again.

"You are the main part of the show."

She wished that she had knocked that man out when she had the opportunity. Even if she would have missed a chance to escape, it still would have been worth it.

As the cart started moving, she tried to keep her balance as well as she could. Luckily it wasn't too hard as the wagon made its way to the Great Market at a snail's pace. She subtly moved her hands to test out the shackles. She would be able to jump down and run before the guards could catch up to her, if only she hadn't been attached to one. To her disappointment, they had properly fitted them to her wrists and no amount of wiggling could get her out of her binds. Defeated, she instead looked at the streets they passed. Many houses looked dilapidated and most of the shops had been boarded up. A testament to the economic downfall of the once-great city.

Reports had reached her ears that in the last five years, taxes had been more than tripled. A decision that is pure madness and made her dread the future. There were only a few reasons why a king would decide on such a drastic measure. One would be in the case of an emergency like a natural disaster or draught, the other was when the country was preparing itself for war. Neither of which were options she particularly liked.

The streets seemed all but deserted, but this changed as they neared the city center. Soon the cart was making its way through a crowd of people. As they noticed their approach, they all turned to stare at the heretic traitor. Some had rotten vegetables which they had brought specifically to throw at her. An especially moldy tomato hit her straight in the face and caused a wave of laughter among the masses. She had forgotten how cruel the common people could be.

Gritting her teeth, she tried and failed to ignore the almost festive atmosphere around her. Thinking back to the strange priest's words, she could see very little of that 'respect' now.

As the crowd grew, she felt the glimmer of hope in her heart turn to despair. Whatever plan the stranger had, must have gone array. There was no way to escape, now that she was surrounded by thousands of people. Confronted with the reality that this would be her last day alive, she started to tremble. Fear and despair as she had never felt before, coursed through her body.

For a moment she wondered if her father had felt the same on that day. He truly had been amazing. As she remembered his strength, she felt herself calm down. She understood that if she faltered here, showed them her weakness. Then the public would see it as an admittance to guilt, and interpret it as her regretting her actions. After a couple of deep breaths, she lifted her chin and met the eyes of the people that were so eager to cheer for her death. For her father and herself, she decided not to cower and to show them her resolve.

The rickety wagon finally entered the Great Market, a central square right in front of the palace gates. It was framed by several big guild halls on all sides and the governor's house across from the palace. It normally was a place of commerce, where the best goods of every craft would be traded. But in recent years, it had gotten a second function as the execution ground for nobility accused of heresy.

She could already see the raised platform which bore the banners of the royal house of Kyeira. They had once been red with a black dragon, a testament to the founding myth of the country as the birthplace of the dragon orders. After the Pleberien faith was recognized by the King, the dragon had been replaced by a golden scale. The symbol of the church and their preaching of equality. They had also changed its color to sky blue as the red was too reminiscent of war. Lidea thought they should have kept the color, as it suited them better with how willing they were to spill blood.

She could see the King's throne, flanked by a slightly smaller one on which the crown prince sat. The queen was absent, but that was no surprise as she had been sickly for a long time.

As the cart drew nearer, she looked at the man she had once called uncle. In her childhood memories, he had been a kind man who was surprisingly quick to laugh and cared deeply for those dearest to him. No matter how occupied he had been by his duties, he had always made time to visit them and have a sparring match with her father. With age, his once midnight black hair had grown more grey but his physique had stayed mostly the same. She didn't doubt that he still practiced his sword regularly.

In the first years of her open protest towards him, he had tried to give her every chance to repent. He had stated that her actions were only those of a daughter who was too loyal to her father and that he couldn't punish her for that. But as her rebellion lasted longer than anyone had expected and her actions grew bigger, he had no choice but to officially name her a traitor. Even if she knew that he wasn't a bad man, she couldn't forgive him for what he had done to her father, for what he had allowed to happen to thousands of innocents within this country, and for what he had now planned to do to her.

Next to him sat Valerian. With his blond hair and blue eyes, he looked nothing like the king. Still, nobody would doubt that he was his father's son, as in personality they often seemed to be the same person. With a king as a father and a mother who was sick, he had spent most of his time at their house and her mother had practically adopted him. As he was only a year older than her, he was the perfect playmate to have adventures with. In contrast to the stoic posture of his father, Valerian was clearly conflicted about the situation, choosing to not even look at her. Although he had entered the royal army, he had never once fought against her directly. Suggesting that he still cared, however, he allowed everything to happen just like his father.

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She could see bundles of wood stacked in a pyre, leading to a central pillar. The intents were clear, that she wasn't to be hung. Instead, they planned to burn her alive.

Her heart started racing as her transport finally stopped. Her escort jumped off the cart and she quickly followed before they pulled her down. Now at eye-level with the crowd, the loudness of their cheering made her feel overwhelmed. Tightening her fists, she managed to hold her composure as her chain was given to the kind guard from before. He escorted her up the steps towards the pillar that was to be her funeral pyre. Her shackles were removed and she tensed her body, willing to jump down into the crowd below. Before she could do so, the guard managed to grab her wrists and pull them above her head.

As he worked on attaching her to the new pair of shackles drilled into the pole, he leaned into her and whispered into her ears: "I have asked the servants to put as much wood as possible... hopefully a great fire will shorten the length of your suffering. I am sorry that I can't do more."

His kindness made her almost tear up but she didn't respond as he took a step back and left her alone on the stage of her execution. She hoped that he was right and her pain would be short-lived.

A hush fell over the crowd as the king stood.

"I want to thank you all for being here today. To see to the punishment of a traitor to our country. A heretic that has cost many army men their lives. Lidea Valkyrea, daughter of traitor Syrion Valkyrea, will hereby lose her title and privileges. She is condemned on earth as well as in the afterlife, and will therefore burn as to destroy her soul completely."

A cheer rose from the masses and Lidea could hear them chant the word traitor over and over.

"Before the traitor will burn, we will give her one last chance to clear up her name. If she repents, her heart will be staked before her body is burned. This is the last chance at mercy I will give."

She could almost hear the plea in his voice. He didn't want to see her suffer. How dare he feel bad, when he was the one to condemn her in the first place? The decision wasn't a popular one, based on the silence lingering within the crowd. None were brave enough to boo at the king's decision but the cheering had all but disappeared.

"Speak now traitor, or be silenced forever."

Lidea looked at her king. The once lovable and quick-to-laugh man from her childhood memories had turned from her father's best friend to his murderer and was going to murder her too. She then turned to her childhood friend who still refused to look at her. Not wanting to face the reality that it was he and his father who were going to kill her.

Finally, she allowed her attention to go to the tribune set up next to the royal balcony. Her eyes wandered from face to face, looking for two familiar ones. As expected, her mother and sister were absent. They hadn't been present for her father's hanging and had clearly decided to forgo her burning as well.

She closed her eyes for a moment and a soft smile broke on her face.

"I have nothing to repent for. Neither had my father. We were just saying the things that you are not willing to hear. You are killing and torturing innocents Morto, and all that because you are looking out for your neck. Call me foolish, but I rather die, knowing that I have kept my honor. Yes, I might have killed men but only those who had chosen the path of the sword. Can you say the same, your honor? I hope my words and those of my father haunt you, and maybe in the future you will finally open your eyes to see what we were already seeing."

A heavy silence fell over the market. As used as she was to battlefields, she knew how her voice had carried to the farthest corners of the crowd. She had officially branded herself a traitor as she had chosen to call him by his name instead of his title. Having said what she wanted to say, she refused to look at the royal seats again. Instead, she focused her gaze on the horizon, where just over the rooftops, she could see the rolling hills of the countryside.

"You have made your choice. Burn her."

She knew him well enough to recognize the desperate bitterness in his voice. It was the same tone that he had used when he ordered her father to be hanged. At least she would be reunited with everyone in the afterlife.

Underneath her feet, servants rushed to set fire to the wood bundles. Smoke started to rise, making Lidea cough and her body tense as it expected scorching heat to hit at any moment. After a couple of minutes in which no fire seemed to reach her, she finally peeled her eyes away from the horizon to see the servants below in a frantic flurry. The executioner next to them was screaming profanities, as he kept trying to light the pyre. The wood they had used, seemingly wasn't dry enough to catch fire. That explained the smoke. Lidea tried to turn her face into her shoulder to avoid inhaling it as much as possible.

After another couple of attempts to light different parts of her pyre, the crowd started to become restless. She could hear some mumblings, wondering if God had decided to protect her. While others were convinced that it was the devils doing.

She thought back to the kindness of the guard, that he had asked more wood to be sent. Revelation crossed her face and she frantically started twisting her hands inside the shackles. Although still firmly attached, they were looser than the ones set by the previous guard. She wanted to shout in excitement but controlled herself at the last moment. The man had created an opening for her, but she hadn't escaped yet. As the smoke built worse, she would have a couple of seconds before anyone could see her escape. The question was, where she could go in those futile moments. She couldn't just walk off the pyre with no one noticing her.

While going over different options, she hadn't noticed how the executioner, clearly having enough of the situation, had climbed up to the central pillar with a torch in hand.

"She will burn like any other of us, the devil has no power here!"

Surprised at the voice, she looked over her shoulder, just in time to have him hold the flame against her left eye. A blood-curdling scream erupted from her, as she felt the delicate skin around her eyeball get scorched. Trying to turn her face away from the flame, she tried desperately to free her hands, but the squeeze was too tight. Screaming and coughing, she didn't realize when suddenly the flame extinguished. She also didn't register the executioner's shocked face, as focused as she was on trying to free herself. The delicate bones in her hand felt like they would break, but her desperation made her not care.

Come on... Goddammit

Finally, the cuff slipped over her left hand. Behind her, she could hear a yell of surprise followed by the gurgling sound of a dying man. Something wet sprayed on her back and arms but she was too distressed to care. Vaguely she could hear chaos erupting in the crowd below. She knew that something must have happened, but she couldn't see anything through the thick smoke which made her cough and her remaining eye sting. Closing her eyes, the throbbing in her face seemed to become worse. As her adrenaline was losing against the lack of air. She could feel her pulling becoming weaker by the second. Still, she refused to give up. Not now.

Suddenly a hand grasped the remaining shackle and a cloth was thrown over her head. It felt cool on her overheated skin and she gladly gasped at the mostly smoke-free air.

"Li..a"

The voice of a man barely broke through her muffled hearing. Somewhere in her mind, she understood that she must have been on the edge of losing consciousness.

"Lidea, Breath!"

As her mind recovered, she could finally hear him and a flash of recognition went through her. She opened her undamaged eye and looked directly into the same orange eyes of the night before.

"That's it. Keep breathing. I know that you are in pain, but I need you to hold on. If you do so then I promise that I will get you out of here."

Slightly surprised she felt her other arm fall as he had somehow released it from the other cuff. She could barely believe that she might survive this. Pushing the pain away to the back of her brain, she tried to grasp whatever strength she still had.

She would survive.

"I can follow whatever pace you set, priest."

Lidea barely recognized the quiet and hoarse voice as hers, but a triumphant smile from the stranger informed her that he had understood. Grasping her hand, he removed his robe from their heads and started pulling her with him. She followed blindly as the smoke had become so bad that she could barely keep her one eye open.

"Here, jump down."

Her time as a soldier had taught her that sometimes you had to blindly follow orders to survive. Therefore she did not hesitate and jumped down, preparing herself to land on the rough cobblestone. Instead, they landed on something soft and uneven.

Bodies.

On the battlefield, it hadn't been uncommon to trample over fallen comrades. However, it wasn't something you ever got used to. Vaguely she wondered how many more people would die because of her, but she didn't get a chance to ponder as the stranger pulled her along more quickly. Relief hit her as she felt normal cobblestones under her feet and they immediately set out in a run.

Far away from the smoke now, she could see the mass of people trying desperately to escape the square. Her savior didn't pause and pulled her into the crowd. Lidea felt as if she would suffocate, but as quickly as they had entered the stream of people, they left it again for one of the first alleyways that branched off. It was surprisingly devoid of anybody, but she understood why as they came up to a dead end.

The stranger seemed to have already known this as he pulled her to the back door of one of the guild halls. Three rapid knocks and the door opened, after which they were ushered in. If she hadn't been in this amount of pain, she would have wondered which guild was as foolish to betray the king. In her current state she could do little more than concentrate on staying on her feet until they reached some measure of safety. The person who had led them in shut the door behind before disappearing.

The priest confidently tugged her along through the corridors until he started dragging her right into a wall. She wanted to say something but was shocked as they both passed through it and into a musty, cold hallway. She thought that her pain-ridden brain must have imagined it, but those unnatural orange eyes that looked over her, made her reconsider.

"They won't be able to follow us here. How are you holding up?"

He sounded worried and she wanted to assure him that she was fine, but she then noticed her own haggard breathing. As if her body had waited for him to confirm that they were safe, the throbbing of her face came back in full force and her skin felt heated even in the cold air of the tunnel. A bone-deep weariness spread through her body, taking the strength of her limbs.

"I think I ..."

Before she could warn him, her consciousness fell away.