“Disaster! Princess! Princess!” The messenger yowled as he came closer, he was breathing hard, he’d clearly run here from… ‘Who knows where? Why are these idiots always surprised?! It’s madness.’ Despite her contemptuous thoughts, she covered her mouth with one hand and used the moment to cling closer to Faust, tightening her arm around his own to draw herself closer.

“What’s happened?! Is father alright?” She asked, her eyes she made wide and as distressed as they could be.

The effect on the young messenger was palpable, she could see the ache and worry on his youthful face. “We have word from the field. The army was routed on the plains, your father lives, but he has fled the field with what remains of his forces, your brothers… they are missing.”

Deirdre bit back her retort and used the silence to phrase a different question instead, “Are we in danger?”

“The Auxkos Empire’s four knights are marching here with twenty thousand soldiers at their backs! They’re moving to surround the capital! We have only a matter of weeks before they arrive!” He cried and dropped down to one knee. “My Princess, you need to flee the city!” The servant finally caught his breath, gasps slowly faded and his chest expanded and contracted in slow but steady spasms.

Faust put one hand over her arm, “Princess, I’ll get your things ready.”

“No. Not yet.” She said and took a long, slow, deep breath. Her eyes closed as she laid out the future in her mind as she saw it. ‘The Emperor will be looking for me, he’ll have his minions scouring the countryside, sweeping up anyone who might harbor me. If I run too soon, I’m bound to be caught, and even Faust can’t protect me then. And if he tries?’ The mere thought was enough to make her weep, he would undoubtedly die, and even if he could be resurrected, there would have been nobody willing to do it, even if anyone survived who could.

‘I must wait until they draw closer and least expect it.’ Deirdre told herself and then opened her eyes. “Go tell the council to begin preparations for the siege.” She batted her eyes and put a shaky smile on her face, “I’m just a young girl, I can’t even lift a sword for more than a few minutes. They can handle the war matters, I’ll go out among the population, I’ll be a symbol of their courage. That’s where I belong.” The Princess remarked and though she didn’t avert her eyes from the messenger, she could feel the eyes of her Faust looking down at her with the adoration of a puppy. She felt that far more than anything from or about the youthful, terror racked messenger.

Finding however, that the Princess had resolved to stay with them, shame swept over his soul. “Princess… we won’t let them anywhere near the castle.” He tried to put on a brave face, to appear more fierce than he felt.

“I’ll be counting on you.” She promised, “Now hurry, tell them what I said, and we will come through the burning times together.”

“My Princess!” He shouted in a youthful, cracked voice, and made his retreat to carry out her will.

When the messenger was gone, Faust finally spoke, “Princess, perhaps we-” He stopped speaking when her finger came up and was placed tenderly at the center of his lips.

“Faust…no. We don’t have long, but we have long enough. For now, I just want to walk with you in my garden. After all, it might not last.” She looked around at the open place.

The flowers bloomed bright in a rainbow of colors, bees buzzed and butterflies flitted about, the path of stone on which they walked was laid with care over four hundred years before, and the gardens of the palace of Gelia were renowned for their beauty among the nobles of her own Kingdom and beyond, and were one of the few places where the Princess truly felt herself relax.

She took an easy step down the path and lightly pulled Faust beside her. He fell into rhythm, heavy boots and delicate place slippers trod the stone in equal step, a bird lit on a feeder, its silver wings glinted in the summer sun. “Gardens don’t do well in wars, Faust. They never do. They’re far too delicate. In a few weeks, this will all be gone. Only the weeds are really strong enough to survive in that kind of nightmare.”

“Princess, you can’t think we’ll be defeated?!” Faust gasped, his heart skipped a beat.

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“I’m afraid so.” She replied, “I can’t leave the city. Even if I wanted to, I’m the Princess of this country, I have a duty to remain. I can buy my father and brothers time to rally more support. But the capital is too large, and militia are no match for Auxkos knights.” She closed her eyes, “They’ll take the city, but they’ll have to take me with it!”

Faust’s blood was afire with passion, “They won’t get past me.” He vowed and gripped his sword tight enough for the leather to squeak.

The garden walk was, in his own mind at least, shockingly carefree, she seemed utterly undeserved, sharing a peach with him beneath the shade of a tree and talking about nothing for the better part of two hours before they made the full circuit of the path and found themselves again where they began.

‘How can she walk as if she hasn’t a care in the world?!’ Faust wondered, word, he concluded, had already spread among the palace goers, and knights in full armor, the relatively few professional full time soldiers Gelia had, still rattled their own armor with the trembling of their bodies.

And yet the Princess, barely a woman by her years, had a steady hand and fearless step. Reaching the carriage would have gone faster, but she kept ‘pausing’.

“Be brave, sir knight. After all, if you won’t defend our home, we won’t have it anymore. They’ll take me away to Auxkos and force me to my knees in front of their emperor…you won’t let them do that to me, will you?” She looked up at him with unblinking, wondering, searching eyes.

“Never, Princess! But… you aren’t running?”

“I’m the Princess! If I run, how can I ask anyone else to stay and fight!” She said it louder than she must have meant to, because her words echoed off the walls and high ceiling, carrying to multiple rooms and to all the ears within.

“I won’t place one foot outside our walls by choice! They’ll have to bind me, bundle me, and drag me out to take me from my home and keep me from clawing their eyes out to protect this place. Even if I don’t have the strength of a knight, I won’t go quietly!” She bowed her head and put her hand on the nameless soldier’s armored chest.

“But… I can’t ask anyone to die. Sir Knight, if you want to flee, I’ll do what I can with the ones willing to fight on, who can blame you for leaving me behind to save yourself. You have only one life, and it’s yours to decide where to spend it. I shouldn’t ask if you’re going to let them have me, you have a right to your fear…”

“They will have to get past my corpse to get into the Castle, my Princess!” The knight protested, his soul enflamed with a mix of dismay, shame for his cowardice, and pride in his Princess, he made his vow loud and clear for all to hear.

“Then thank you, Sir knight.” She said, and moved on.

She stopped every servant in whom she saw so much as a tremble and traded a few words with them. Faust watched over each interaction, and every one made him more determined than the last, that… ‘I will not let anyone take her! I won’t!’

By the time they left the castle by the front entrance, word was already spreading like wildfire throughout the staff and soldiers that the youngest Princess, the only member of the royal family still within the castle, refused to leave.

And fragile nerves of gossamer became as strong as the castle’s stones in her wake.

“Princess, where are we going?” Faust asked after they reached and sat within the carriage.

“The common people won’t know the truth for at least another day or two. So we’re going to the Adventurer’s Guild. They’re not political and they won’t fight in the siege, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do anything.” Deirdre said with a little smile on her face, “I can hire them for ‘nonmilitary purposes’ without violating guild rules.”

“Their rules are foolish. The capital is in danger, people will die!” Faust exclaimed and looked out the window to hide his face of frustration with the guild’s inaction.

“I know. But if we use adventurers in a war, then so will Auxkos and the Divine Kingdom and so will… then they’ll die and there won’t be anyone to protect people from monsters, vampires, and other horrors… a Kingdom without adventurers is a kingdom of the damned. But I feel your frustration, my Faust.” She patted his leg and enjoyed the faint blush she saw on his face at the contact that passed between them.

“Forgive my outburst, Princess.” Faust said and hung his head for a moment. “I just…it’s not fair to them.” He tilted his head toward the window where the city passed them by, peasants carrying goods or hawking them to others, the occasional drunkard or aspiring drunkard going in or out of a tavern, the march of semi-professional militia and city guards rang on, and the buzz of thousands of chattering voices continued as if nothing was wrong. Like the inevitability of fire, flame, and the terror of a siege was not bearing down on them all.

“I know, Faust. I know.” Deirdre smiled again, “But don’t worry, we can still do something.”

Though what she had in mind, she didn’t say, not even when the carriage came to a stop in front of the small fort in the middle of the city.