The following morning the much awaited envoy of the Starwatcher temples arrived. For that reason, Nua’s complement of Breakers stood in full panoply on the front of the great manor. All of them, herself included, were completely battle ready. In addition, most of the manor had come out on Nua’s own order to watch the selection of those who were chosen by fate to accompany Sobella into the Triumvirate.
‘You think you’ve got me, but it's the other way around you slimy bastard.’ Nua thought while wearing a pleasant smile. Her golden hair tumbled down at her back. Solution stood beside her at her right, Sado at her left, and Vargas behind them all, centered on the ranks.
A priest of the Starwatchers circled the formation. He wore dark robes bedecked with bright white stars woven from enchanted fabric that twinkled like the real things they represented. His head was covered, and in front of his face was a black veil, he walked faintly hunched over, bowed by great age. ‘Don’t worry old man, you won’t be getting much older.’ Nua amused herself with the thoughts of vengeance over the thing she already knew he was going to do to her.
The ranks of her Breakers were opened, allowing enough space for the farce to be carried out. True to her expectations, as he passed by, she felt the eyes she couldn’t see, lingering on her and seething.
She ignored it, pretending to stare straight ahead as the figure began to mutter, the smell of incense hit her, and she heard a chain snap taut. The sound of faint swinging reached her, as did the sound of feet brushing over grass. “Not your fate.” The old priest uttered, and moved to the next. “Not your fate.” He uttered again, and moved to the next. “Not your fate.” And he moved to the next yet again. In front of each of her soldiers, she heard him step, stop, turn, and move on. The acrid smell of the incense was unpleasant at best. ‘You’d think they’d come up with something better than that.’ Nua thought while crinkling her nose.
His steps came on closer, soldiers began to shift uncomfortably as the ranks of the escort shrank smaller and smaller from expectation.
She finally heard the old priest in front of Sergeant Vargas. “Not your fate.”
‘Betrayal in ten… nine… eight…’ Nua mentally, and with much embittered amusement, counted down the pretense in seconds, until he stood in front of her. ‘Three... two… one…’ She counted.
“Your fate.” A hand came up, wreathed in dark sleeves, hand in dark gloves, the old priest’s lone raised finger was pointed upward, squarely at Nua’s nose at the center of her face.
In his hand, the slow swaying object proved to be an oversized black pearl the size of an apple, which had been hollowed out, filled with burning incense and then secured by a dark iron chain. Its motion stopped dead in front of Nua, “You have been chosen by the stars, you and you alone will take Sobella as tribute.”
“You can’t be serious!” Sado shot from where he stood, “No escort has ever been just ‘one person’ before! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!” He balled up his fists. The metal of his armor clinked as he shook with fury, nor was his the only set of armor to do so.
Dark mutterings among the Breakers were echoed by the gossipping horror of the watching common house servants. Mutterings and gossip that might have become a riot when the priest snapped out, “It is her fate! The will of the stars cannot be contradicted!”
Though the priest stared through the veil at the fallen Prince, Nua could feel an eye turned on her. “And it won’t be.” Nua said with utter ease, “I’ll do what you ask.” She shrugged it off, and then she could feel the disbelief coming off the priest, the way he stepped back and stared at her after fairly daring her to object.
“I’m sorry?” He asked, his cracked old voice an octave higher than during his farce at divine selection.
“My student said it would be no problem.” Solution said, with a confident laugh, “The stars wouldn’t choose her alone if they needed more to protect their people, right? And of course the temple of the Starwatchers wouldn’t ever dream of manipulating a divine selection for political purposes, so this must truly be divine will for the greater good of Pas’en, and all the cities, isn’t it?” Solution’s voice was sweet as syrup over hotcakes, and it caused the priest to instinctively take another step back to sputter out his denial.
“O-of course not, the stars must place great faith i-in the Lady Aiwenor, to send our new Duchessa into such dangerous straits on her own, they must know her fate is to achieve great glory for Pas’en, and for her house.” The old man was quick, but the rapid acceptance had thrown him off so much that his voice went yet another octave higher, till he finished his words with a veritable squeak.
“Then return to your temple, I am prepared to leave tomorrow morning.” Nua said with a wide, gregarious, open smile on her face like she couldn’t have been happier about the news given to her.
“Ah, w-ah-well yes, of course… Duchessa. May the stars deliver you to a proper fate.” He stammered out, and began to shuffle away.
“Dismiss the soldiers, Sergeant Vargas.” Nua ordered, and headed off toward her manor.
Sado jogged after her immediately, “Mistress you can’t be…” He stopped when he saw the hard look in her eye.
“My office, now.” She stated flatly.
A few minutes later he found himself on his knees with Kaiji, Priceless, Freyjin, and Onimeus, while their shared mistress’s bodyguard stood at her back right hand with arms folded calmly behind herself as if everything were normal.
Nua took a moment to look outside the long window as the carriage of the temple vacated her grounds, when it was finally gone, she spoke. “Well, that went well.” Her voice was pleasant, warm even, and the lot of them save for Solution, reared back on their heels.
Onimeus was the first to recognize it. “You knew, didn’t you, mistress?” The old man asked in his deep, confident voice.
“I did. I’m not without information sources, and from what I was given, this much was obvious. It isn’t a problem though. It’s an opportunity.” Nua said with a wolfish smile spreading over her face.
“For… what, my Lady?” Sado asked gingerly.
“Power, of course. When I come back, I’ll be the mercenary commander who returned from the mouth of hell. In the meantime, while I’m gone…” Nua said and then pointed to Freyjin, “Ensure you’ve either bought someone skilled with numbers, or trained someone. Preferably buy a Komestran banker, and put them on the board of the Bank of Pas’en. Make buying up debts a priority, especially debts over land. Pas’en’s currency has dropped a lot in value since the introduction of my coins into circulation. Buy up all the Komestran slaves you can, especially farmers, and start settling them on the lands we’ve bought. With the glut of slave labor, free Pasenians are going to work for less just to have work at all. Start foreclosing, I want people out looking for work, and…”
“You want them to travel to the places you’re rebuilding.” Kaiji guessed eagerly and clapped her hands together.
“Exactly, pay good wages, and establish a counting house, even if it is only one small building in every village. In the area of Komestra you’re going to rebuild, establish the Bank of Aiwenor. Start buying up the debts of the nobles. Allow all the slaves to work certain shifts, with the coins from excess being theirs to keep, guaranteed in the Bank of Aiwenor under a malamution account.” Nua looked at blank faces staring back at her.
“Oh, ah, it means they’ll be able to save for their own freedom if they want. I own their labor for certain shifts, but if they want to work harder and longer and buy their way to freedom, then let them earn what they want.” Nua explained patiently.
“You want this… for everyone?” Sado stared at her with a furrowed brow.
“No. Starting only with Komestrans, and only Komestran farmers. Farmers don’t tend to move around much, I won’t lose anyone that way and I’ll make a great deal of money off all the extra harvest lands they work on their own. The other cities would object too strongly if we did this for all… but the last big war hurt harvests badly, Komestra provided a lot of farmland, didn’t it?” Nua asked the Prince.
“Yes, yes it did. The price of grain will be high for a while.” Sado replied solemnly, “Much worse, and people will sell themselves into slavery in some places if someone just promises to feed them.”
“Guess what we’re going to do.” Nua stated, her face deadpan while she folded her hands tranquilly together on her desk.
Solution answered with her gleeful, sadistic voice, “Make it much, much worse.”
“Precisely. Buy the grain futures of the small cities, it doesn’t matter what price you pay, when people sell themselves into collars of leather or iron so that they don’t starve, I want them traveling to my lands to do it.” The merciless words ripped hard into Sado as he traded a look with Onimeus and Kaiji, his eyes began to open as the future was laid out before him.
“I… I wanted a population growth so I offered freedom to slaves. You’re offering slavery to the free for the same purpose, and a way out when they get into it…” Sado stared with open awe at his mistress, but she was not through.
“For specialty tradesmen, set a quota for production, anything over that quota is going to be given to merchants we will fund, to be sold at undercut prices in other cities, the coin for that production will be partially set aside to buy the families or friends of the skilled craftsmen, or if they have none, to set aside for them to open a business of their own where we tell them, before they are allowed to buy their freedom.” Nua laid out the next stage with icy calm, and Onimeus watched the pattern unfold.
‘Skilled craftsmen will establish themselves in her territory, once established, they’ll be reluctant to leave and go somewhere else, especially if they’re bound to the Bank of Aiwenor and abandoning her land changes lending terms… once free, they won’t want to go…’ Onimeus felt his breathing go faster and faster.
“Soldiers will train constantly while I am away, remember the principle I laid out, one can train ten, ten can train a hundred, a hundred can train a thousand. In this way we can forge an army in weeks instead of the usual three years. Then as our numbers increase, we relocate them to areas around my lands, build bases and let communities grow up around them to provide for their needs. When I return, we’ll start taking contracts with the smaller city-states over their own conflicts. Komestran soldiers will have their reputation back, and when they’re renowned as warriors again…”
“They’ll lose some value as slaves… mistress” Priceless spoke up with boldness Nua had not expected.
“Precisely, Priceless. The cheaper your people become, the more I can buy, the more I can buy, the more I can build, arm, train, and do. In a year, I want an army like the city-states have never imagined before.” Nua looked sharply at Onimeus and Sado, whose looks had gone from awe and disbelief, to the looks of ravenous wolves, with bared teeth and ambitious eyes.
“Freyjin, Kaiji, here are your tasks, in addition to those I have already laid out for my absence. See that they are done, Solution will protect and support you. Sergeant Vargas, Sado, Onimeus, make my army unbeatable.” Nua let her words hang before her kneeling, tense, eager servants, then gave them words that not one of them did not wish to hear.
“The Five cities will fear Komestra, as never before, when I am done.” Nua said with sweet serenity, her folded hands becoming fists.
“The five… Mistress?” Kaiji asked, “Don’t you mean, ‘the Six’?”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Nua shook her head, “No, I do not. Because Pas’en will either be at my side, or under my foot before I get started, the last war will not repeat itself.”
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That night, Kaiji held her lips to Priceless’s desperate, hungry sex, devouring her anxious lover into a bucking, writhing frenzy that made her arch painfully back and cry out for more. Her bold and daring tongue traced itself from there over her belly, up to her sensitive, heaving breasts, where she was stopped by the brown haired girl’s hands gripping at the demon-elf’s horns.
“M-More…” Priceless demanded as she savored the suckling feel at the little pebbles her Kaiji could not seem to keep from nibbling. She gasped, feeling the dark purple hands wrap beneath her in their private bed, in their private room, nothing between them but darkness. Priceless lost her grip on the horns of her lover, who came up and captured her lips in an aggressive, ravenous kiss, giving her human lover a gift of the taste of her own desires still fresh on lover’s lips. Their hands danced wildly then, going from one place to another, legs parted to open themselves, exposing intimate flesh, making it vulnerable, each of them, to the one most trusted and most loved by the other in turn. For hours they took turns with one another, until only physical exhaustion forced them to lay panting in one another’s arms. Priceless pushed her back against her lover’s front and let the warm arms enfold her thereafter.
“In the morning, do you think we’ll see her off?” Priceless asked the question that was on both of their minds.
“I hope, but I don’t think so. It’s not really her way, we’ll wake up in the morning, and then Freyjin and I will run her estate on her behalf. The mistress is away, and we can play… just a little.” Kaiji kissed the back of Priceless’s neck, enjoying the taste of deeply loved and very heated skin.
“While she’s gone, you’ll be one of the most powerful women in Pas’en.” Priceless pointed out to her, and Kaiji didn’t answer. “Are you OK with that, being… well you’re purple tagged, like me, acting as her voice. You’ll be lady Kaiji again.” Priceless added, when Kaiji didn’t answer.
“That may be… at least in name, but if that is so, then ‘you’ are going to be, ‘Lady Priceless’ at my side, where you belong. You had best get used to handling power, because if we follow her plans, you will hold a great deal of it.” Kaiji pointed out in turn, and began to trace circles around her lover’s sex, and as she honed in on it again, only to find that Priceless started rolling herself over, and lightly pressing Kaiji’s shoulders down into the mattress. When she was on top of the demon-elf, Priceless whispered duskily, “Then I’d better practice, and get good at handling it.” The lips that pressed down to her, took Kaiji by surprise, but they could not have been more welcome.
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“You’re going to do it yourself then?” Solution asked when Nua got up out of bed in the dark and began to dress.
“Of course, Teacher.” Nua remarked when throwing on her cloak. “And don’t worry, I’ll do what you said, I’ll leave one survivor, I’ve already picked her out. As for the rest, well… if anyone escapes, it’s because they weren’t there to die.”
“How will you cover your tracks?” Solution asked, the cloth of the bed sheets rustling as she drew her knees up to her chest and watched her student go through the usual stretching routine she did before a task.
Nua held up her left hand. “Yersin will be helping me. Not to worry, I’ll make it from Ulmin’s country estate, back to the palace with such speed that nobody will suspect me personally. Of course,” Nua shrugged, “that won’t stop people from thinking I had a hand in it, or wondering at least. But…” she snorted derisively.
Solution caught the meaning that was cut off, “You’re right. You’re going into Tlalmok territory with nothing but what you can carry, and the tribute for their emperor. People won’t give a lot to the idea that your mind is on revenge just yet. Or even that you might know you have something to be vengeful about.”
Nua bowed to her teacher, “I’ll see you when I get back in a month, don’t let anything happen to Prince Rasgen while I’m gone. Or anyone else if you can.”
“As if I would let your final exam be disrupted by lesser beings.” Solution gave a sadistic harumph, then rose from the bed and went to where her student stood.
“Teacher?” Nua asked, and the monstrous smile spread over the face of the beautiful blonde monster.
“Give me your face, little elf.” Solution ordered.
When Solution’s hand went palm up, Nua obediently placed her chin there, and her teacher’s right index finger went up, and was brought to Nua’s cheek.
Nua felt the burning sensation immediately as it was traced over her skin. She didn’t scream, or cry out, or flinch. She endured the pain, looking up into her beautiful teacher’s eyes as a tiny pattern was marked on her.
“I marked you with my name. Burned it onto the inside of your mouth. Return to me before that heals.” Solution gave the order and stepped away, withdrawing her fluid from within Nua’s mouth, back out of the pores of Nua’s cheek, and nodded with satisfaction.
“I will, teacher.” Nua said with a clenching of her suddenly pained mouth before she snatched up her knife, and headed out of the door of her quarters.
The darkness of her manor and its silence were strange things, and yet it was also something she savored, the darkness of the estate and its silence reminded her of the time beneath Raymond’s staircase, when dread and hope lived side by side.
She made her way out of the estate, off into the darkness, hopping from rooftop to rooftop where she would not be seen, until she reached the city walls. Guards often looked for people going in, not for people going out, so it was easy to get up to them, and then to hop down. The moon had already gone, leaving little light to betray her. The breeze was comfortable, warm even, and it floated her light cloak behind her even more easily than usual as she ran to the nearest outdoor stable.
The building was simple wood, and the horses were secured by a large door that was latched shut at night. Nua moved to the latch itself and lifted it up. Her wood elf vision told her what it was. ‘Iron, pathetic.’ She took out her knife and in a downward slash, it was cut. She pocketed the remains of the lock, opened the gate, and went within where horses slept in peace.
Her footsteps were silent as the inside of a coffin, and her breath like that of the dead, so not even the horse knew she was there until it was too late. ‘Yersin. Kill it, then resurrect it.’
‘With pleasure!’ He answered, and the horse’s great stupid eye opened in alarm, incomprehendingly staring up as the life was ripped out of it when the gem touched its throat.
It was dead before it could have more than a second moment of fear, and then the power taken was returned to raise it to unlife.
Nua took it gently at the reins and led it outside, flung her leg up after putting a foot into the stirrup, and they then spurred it away as fast as the unliving beast could move.
She rode like a bat out of hell, like a demon pursuing its prey, her riding posture low even though it wasn’t needed on the tireless, powerful horse, the cloak of night hiding her necromancy. She nonetheless fingered the hilt of her knife, pitying any poor fool wandering the dark that she would have to kill to keep her secret along the way.
For two hours she rode, until at last she reached the country home of Minister Ulmin.
She looked around her more closely as she drew nearer to his distant residence. Great high trees that had gone uncut for centuries to grow so high, made for a thick forest. Beyond the woods of the simple dirt road she traveled to reach his estate, the great clearing held a large garden, a great pond, and a small stream that cut a winding path through the open field and into the woods, perhaps even connecting to the endless river that flowed to the western sea. The estate itself was actually modest as far as it went, only three stories high with the master bedroom evident even from where she sat on her horse in the distance. A great open air balcony with a table and chairs faintly visible as she drew close, left no doubt about where to find him.
Nua dismounted her horse and led it a little into the woods out of sight as a precaution.
She then struck a sprinter’s posture, scanning the horizon once more for any threats, and activated her martial arts. [Stealth] [Scent of Water] [Shadow Cloak] [Paralysis] [Greater Speed] Her knife glowed faintly for a moment, and she pushed off and ran. Behind her the scent of the woods retreated and she ate up the ground in front of her. Her legs pumped with supernatural strength and carried her to the comfortable home.
It was not completely unguarded, but it might as well have been.
Nua vanished into a shadow in the corner where two walls met outside, and as a lazy looking guard walked past and yawned, she stepped out of the dark, and shoved her knife into the back of his neck.
He dropped his halberd, and Nua caught it with her free hand.
He was armored lightly, simple leather with half steel plate at the chest, but thanks to his unguarded neck, he was virtually naked.
She lowered him gently to the ground, and dragged him into the shadow.
The smell of blood lingered in her nostril and her ears twitched as she listened for any hint of detection or other targets.
‘No one. Probably another one or two inside though.’ Nua considered it briefly, then went to the door, and taking out a small wire, she picked the lock, a simple tumbler system, she was in within a minute. ‘I wish I’d had more time to learn the layout, but at least the idiot’s bedroom is easily found.’ She took a long, deep breath and twitched her ears, listening for the sound of breathing.
One by one, she ventured into occupied rooms, and drew her knife over the throats of those who slept. The first floor was dead within a few minutes. She crept down the hall of the second floor, ‘How are we doing, Yersin?’ Nua asked patiently
‘Exceptionally well.’ Yersin replied, ‘You’re as gifted an assassin as I hoped.’ She felt the praise in his voice, and it made her blush.
‘Thank you, I was taught by the best. Still, I don’t know why Solution ordered me to kill ‘everyone but one’. It seems like such a waste.’ Nua responded to the voice in her head, her ear twitched at the sound of a belt buckle. ‘Latrine… oh this poor bastard. He’d better hope I don’t miss his throat.’ Nua thought and waited in the darkness beside the door.
‘Let me do it, if you pity him that much.’ Yersin suggested.
‘Fine, he’s yours.’ Nua’s hasty whispered thought was followed by the soundless motion of her removing the glove that covered her false hand.
The door clicked open, and the guard for that floor stepped out, Nua spun on her heel and her left hand found his throat. She squeezed, he was human, and couldn’t see her well in the dark. He gurgled and clawed at the hand, trying to grab for the weapon he’d set down in the corner of the latrine.
Yersin glowed as it drained away every last bit of his life. A faint gurgling noise was all he managed, aside from tearing out a nail or two of his own, tearing hopelessly at the impossibly strong white hand.
Nua watched him die through cold blue eyes, and keeping his body upright, she entered the latrine.
She closed the door and looked down into the hole where he’d been sitting. ‘Just large enough.’ She nodded, and shoved his legs into the hole, she slid him down until he got stuck at the chest, his limp corpse half in, half out. She looked at the corpse with pity, “I really am sorry about this, nobody would want a resting place like you’re getting, but I’m afraid somebody has to take the blame. The cause of death for this entire house is just, ‘getting in the way of the powerful’. And besides, you knew the risks of the job.” She talked to the corpse while she put her hands at his chest and began to squeeze, cracking his bones inward. “OK, maybe not ‘this’ exact risk, but still. At least you’re dead while I’m doing this.” Nua muttered, and when he was compressed enough, she shoved him the rest of the way through. The body went down into the water below landing with a single faint splash and sinking to the bottom. ‘Nobody will be digging through that.’ Nua thought with confidence, and tossed the weapon down with him, the weight of armor and metal edge sunk everything down to the bottom of the pit of human waste, where she was sure it would not be found.
She left the latrine, and made her way to the top floor. She twitched her ears and listened for breathing.
There it was, a double door, large and thick, it had no evident lock, it was simply ‘closed’. There were sounds within, two persons. ‘So he really did make Lodira come back here.’ Nua thought as she crouched down at the door and listened closely.
‘Try to kill me, will you? What did I ever do to you… well, before now I mean… Yes, now it would be reasonable to strike at me but… a little late for that. You’re not going to get a second chance.’ She savored the security of her victory, quietly opened the door, and remaining close to the floor, she crept toward him.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Inch by inch toward her target, her blade in hand, her hatred in her eyes, she was at his side, the side of her enemy, while he slept beside his wife.
She rose like a shadow over his sleeping body. The Contessa Lodira rolled over, away from him as if in her sleep she didn’t want to see anything. Nua sniffed the air, ‘Ew. Poor woman, that couldn’t have been fun for you, no wonder you’re tossing and turning. I had my doubts he could even keep it up.’ Nua thought, then shrugged, her hand came down over his mouth.
His eyes flew open in sudden alarm, but before he could even thrash, the point of her knife pierced his blanket, then his nightshirt, then his aged and weak chest. The tip of the adamantite knife passed between his ribs, pierced his lung, and it was done. His body, briefly tensed, was already relaxing in death. Nua withdrew the blade, and left the Contessa alone.
‘Some suspicion might come down on her, but probably not as much as she’ll first fear, not when they find that one of the guards is missing.’ Nua reasoned as she crept out of the house and back the way she came.
In no time she was back to her undead mount, and riding hard for the city again, burning through the hours of darkness, she rode like the light of day was on her heels, she rode until she found herself at the walls themselves, and stopped her horse out of sight below.
‘Finish it, Yersin.’ She ordered, and put her false hand to the undead mount. The dark mana began to drain from the corpse, and in minutes, nothing but dust remained. Nua watched as the faint white dust was slowly picked up and carried by the breeze. Within moments, the dust was forever part of the world, to be carried wherever the wind blew, never to tell the tale of the murder it carried on its back.
Nua dug her false hand into the stone of the wall, and yanked herself upward, she caught her natural hand on the next spot, a bit of outhrust stone from the rough cut wall. Again and again she grasped for finger holds, drawing herself up the length of it until she reached the crenelations.
Her keen ears searched around her, distant steps were there, but moving away from where she was. ‘Now!’ She ordered herself, and yanked herself up onto the wall and jumped down into the street below, bounding off a shingled roof and landing with a bounce of her feet onto the stone street of the upper district.
“Job well done, Nua. Job well done.” She nodded sharply for emphasis and strolled the rest of the way toward the home of the Prince, so that she could ferry his beloved into the Hellscape beyond.
She didn’t end up having to enter the palace, as she approached, she found the Prince waiting at the entrance for her, alone except for Sobella at his side. His unkempt beard was gone, shaved away, and he was ‘clean’ freshly bathed and dressed in his finest clothing. Sobella wore the bright clothes of Pas’en, a long slit blue dress that exposed her thigh with every step, and silver bells dangled from the horns on her head. Prince Rasgen’s arm was around her waist, and hers was around his own. His free hand held a fine black horse with a saddlebags full of supplies draped over both sides of the expensive, high mount. The saddlebags were leather, but bulged almost like a yew bow, so tightly were they packed with materials for her final journey.
“See, I told you, she came early and alone.” Sobella said, and before the Prince could respond, she covered his lips with a passionate kiss. “No words, no words my beloved. I know you love me, but you’re the Prince, and must love your city more.” She faced him and brought up her shaking hands to touch his cheeks, their foreheads touched and eyes closed, his hands found her waist.
“Save the tears till I go, I don’t want our last minute together to be… to be like that. Then remember our promise, and pick a worthy bride.” Sobella begged him in a tender, loving voice.
“Duchessa Aiwenor… Nua.” Prince Rasgen said in a low, humble, but firm voice with his head held high.
“Yes, my Prince?” Nua asked, lowering her head just as she quieted her pitying voice.
“I’m sorry about your lack of accompaniment on this, why the stars declared it be you alone, I can only guess but… thank you, you’re the second bravest woman I’ve ever met. When you come back, there will be a suitable reward waiting.”
Nua approached and took the reins of the horse in hand. “Don’t worry about the reward, this is what I do.” Her blue eyes went to his green, and she put a hand to his shoulder as Sobella broke away and went toward the horse.
“Take care of her, until it’s your duty not to anymore.” Prince Rasgen pled, laying his hand over that which touched him, his eyes only barely holding back the pending sense of loss he was about to endure.
“I will, I know this is difficult.” Nua whispered, and putting a foot into the stirrup, she swung herself up, then reached down and helped Sobella to join her.
When the lady was up, Nua looked down at the regal Prince in all his helpless glory, and said in the most gentle voice she could, “Hard times and hard choices, they come for everyone sooner or later. Most people, if they get the chance, they run from those choices, but for those of us who lead, there’s nothing else we can do, My Prince… but endure.”