Mercy was a prisoner, sure her prison was larger than most but it remained a prison nonetheless. She was still held within tall stone walls, she was still under the constant watchful eye of soldiers, and she still had a hateful warden who constantly denied any form if release.

Sure, those walls belonged to a castle nearly twice as large as a city, those soldiers may have also been her personal guards instead of prison guards, and yes the 'Hateful Warden' was her father, but the feeling of being trapped remained the same

Twenty-Three Rioke forsaken years and she had yet to step foot beyond the polished stone walls of her family's domain.

But not today, no longer would she remain trapped inside this ridiculously gilded cage. For years she had trained in combat with the captains of the guard. And more recently she had sparred with her younger sister who had been born with an exceptional talent for swordplay, her achievements in past few years far outstripping those of any of their guards.

She had even managed to overcome the main reason for her lack of freedom. Due to being 'blessed" with both a rare Soul and Affinity she held extremely high potential.

The only issue was it was potential for support rather than personal, direct, power. This meant her father was loathe to let her leave his grasp until she had someone strong enough to protect her, a level of strength he claimed man had yet to reach.

However with the results of her training, and a number of skills she had secretly learned with the help of her mother, today she would make him change his mind.

Taking a deep breath and pumping her fists, Mercy pushed open the doors to her father's throne room, her four guards faithfully followed behind her showing no indication they had been standing there for nearly an hour as she psyched herself up.

She strode in as the doors swung open taking in the solemn as always throne room. It was a long room holding only a long walkway lined by pillars, the area behind them cast in shadow by the ceilings shape. At the end of the walkway was a series of concentric raised platforms, upon the tallest of which sat both her father and his throne.

The throne was a simple, high backed, black steel seat crafted as part of the dais as a whole. The matte black metal of the throne was embellished by thin strips of gold running along the frame.

The lower platforms held his many advisors, the lower a platform the less important their role, with the platform just below her father's being reserved for his closest advisors.

Every one of them was dressed similarly, wearing light and flowing gray robes tied together with a simple length of cloth, blue for domestic advisors and red for military. The only difference in dress was their masks, each one depicting a different beast of burden.

Her father on the other hand wore no mask, instead he sat quietly upon the throne in leather sandal, loose pants made of some black cloth and a tunic of the same material. A crown, no more than a small silver band with four slight crests rested on his head, it shifted ever so slightly as he turned towards motioned for an advisor in a bull mask to stop speaking.

Heart thumping, Mercy slowly walked towards the dais, unsure if her father's continued silence was boon or bane. Finally, she reached the throne giving a slight curtsey and lowering her gaze she spoke

"Father"

Taking a peek up towards the throne Mercy saw most of the advisors pointedly looking away from her, most likely afraid of attracting her father's ire. The man himself however had shown no change in expression at her arrival, upon seeing her gaze however he motioned slightly for her to continue.

"Father I was observing the guards train the other day and I happened to overhear capta-

"No"

Before she could even finish preparing him for the question her father's deep voice cut through the room interrupting her.

"What do you mean no!?! You didn't even let me ask the damn question!"

Dropping the pretense of humility, Mercy snapped back she glared at her father, a slight glow beginning to show in her eyes as she grew irritated.

"What I mean, my dear daughter, is that you will not be leaving this city without an adequate escort. And you most definitely will not be leaving it to gallivant around a warzone!"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Starting calm his voice grew louder and louder until by the end he was shouting down at her.

"Do you think I don't know what you want? Do you think I wouldn't be able to realize you might be asking the same thing you've been asking for twenty Rioke damned years. The answer is what it always is, earn your class or train until you do, got it?"

Standing up he began stalking down the steps leaving footprints of white flame on the immaculate stone floor, pausing halfway down he turned to look at the advisers who surrounded him.

“Leave us”

With that simple command they quickly and silently made their way down the steps keeping their heads bowed. Her father stood there silently holding her gaze, his face was blank but Mercy could see the fires burning in his eyes quite literally at this point. As the last one left his expression changed to one somewhere between exasperation and anger.

“We can't keep doing this Mercy, we both know your not ready to leave the castle, much less become a warrior. I’ve spoken with the guards, I've seen you train with your sister but your a fucking healer. You cant even heal yourself and you want to go join the biggest war this plane has seen since the imperium was founded. What are you going to do when you fight someone who moves faster than you can think, someone whose flesh is stronger than your blade, someone who can do THIS”

Shouting the last word he stomped his foot, causing flames to flare up around him, and began to walk down the rest of the steps. As he walked the sparks coming from his path began to float in the air, slowly filling the room as he got closer. The sparks grew brighter as they increased in size until the room was filled with iridescent weapons floating mid-air, the tip of each one pointed directly at her.

“The world is a vast and terrible place Mercy, it has no place for your namesake, and until you learn that, it will have no place for you. Yes I am stronger than nearly every being in the nation but compared to the emperor I'm pitifully weak”

Lowering his voice into a hushed tone her father continued his rant

“You call me cruel for disallowing your freedom but what would you do with it exactly? Other than need to be saved putting yourself and others at risk, It's truly laughable to think I'd allow anything of the sort”

Sweating both from nervousness and the conjured arsenal, Mercy closed her eyes and gathered her confidence before finally responding

“I'mgonnatellmomyoucheated"

She hastily spat out before cringing slightly as she looked away and awaited his response. After waiting some time with nothing happening she turned back towards him only to see his face shifting through a number of inscrutable expressions.

Finally settling into one that could only be called strained he spoke once more

"Would you like to repeat that, my dearest daughter?" He said slowly in a sickeningly sweet tone

Voice shaking slightly she replied "I si- simply said that if you didn't give me an assignment in the war I would tell mother about your unfaithfulness"

"And where exactly did you hear about this so called unfaithfulness"

"F- From Neirau while we were drinking the other night"

Sighing as he placed his hand over his face her father slowly replied "I knew I never should have let her be one of your bodyguards, Mercy what you have to understand is your mo-"

"HOLY SHIT YOU ACTUALLY DID!" Mercy suddenly burst out, cutting him off. "Oh my God I was just gonna threaten you I didn't think you were actually that big of a scumbag HAHAHAHAA"

Mercy doubled over holding her stomach as she began laughing uncontrollably at the shock of being right.

Shaking his head, her father continued “Well first of all, I'm glad your blackmail lessons are finally paying off, second-” he paused for a minute to glare towards her guards who had remained after the advisors left.

“If I hear a word about this from anyone it's your heads, got it? And as for you Mercy, fine ill let you join the war, on two conditions. One, obviously you won't be speaking with your mother about this. Two, youll have to prove your strength to me, otherwise ill be assigning you under Rick”

“Wha- no dad you cant put me under that assholes command”

“I can and will unless you can prove it's unnecessary, despite your personal issues with him he's a fine general and an even better warrior. He would do a fine job ensuring your safety in my stead.”

“Ughhh fine, and how am I supposed to prove my strength to you?”

“Simple” he replied with an all too wide grin “Fight me, I'll restrain myself to your level of course. If you can strike me with even a single clean blow ill admit my doubts were unfounded and send you on your merry way”

Inwardly panicking at the sight of her fathers sadistic grin Mercy simply nodded and motioned for her guards to give them space.

Allowing her a moment to prepare he flicked his wrist, causing the flaming weapons to return to nothingness, afterwards he crouched slightly and raised his hand one slightly in front of the other. Grinning he closed his hands into fists causing small jets of flame to burst from the center of his grip like small knives as he spoke

“Tell Rick I said Hi”