Chapter Text
It was a freezing and unpleasant morning. Grey clouds blocked the sun and made the ugly winter day even more unappealing. The remaining grass was covered in a thin layer of frost. In front of a moderately sized castle, clearly belonging to a minor nobleman, a single knight stood still, while a small group of strangely dressed warriors was standing a couple dozen meters away from him.
“Be gone, barbarians! You’re intruding on the land of my lord Earldric of Backenwood. If you leave, I’ll spare you. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to use my sword against you.”
From the center of the group emerged one distinct warrior. Contrary to every person there, she was a woman — a tall woman, not only for the women’s standards but clearly taller than all of her peers. Long, curly strands of reddish hair were flowing from underneath her helmet. This could be a sign of either stupidity or bravery, since during a battle, they were an excellent target to grab and gain an advantage. This, however, was clearly not on her list of concerns. She was dressed similarly to other men — leather outside for protection from cuts, and fur inside to keep her warm. It was far from the defense a proper metal armor would offer, but for these strangers, it seemed to do the job just fine. The only difference between her and other men were various daggers, stones, and weird accessories that made her look much more mystical and menacing. Although, nothing was more menacing than a giant battleaxe held in one hand leaning on her shoulder.
“You! I… I… leave my lord’s possession or…” The man was clearly losing his confidence as he took more of the unusual sight. “…or face the—” he couldn’t finish. A loud stomping noise the redhead’s heavy weapon made as it was dropped on the ground took him by surprise.
“I am going to give you a good piece of advice now. You are not scaring us with that speech of yours. In fact, most of the guys behind me don’t even speak your tongue.” She stated in a heavy nordern accent. — “I am not going to ask twice, so think about it carefully. I am giving you a simple choice — give up and live or fight and die.”
Flabbergasted, the man was weighing his options. After some thought, he once again lifted his sword. While his hands were shaking, his face showed determination. As a response, the woman lifted her axe, this time with two hands, and turned around slightly to the men behind her. “This is a duel, understood?” The lack of response was a clear sign of obedience.
The man charged at his opponent, screaming to intimidate the person in front of him, but the girl stood still and just took a position. As he swung his sword, it was met with a powerful blow that threw his weapon away and left him completely open. Before he even realizing what had happened, a second slash came almost instantly, hitting him in his stomach and basically ripping the knight half, spilling massive volumes of blood in every direction. With that, the battle was over, if you could even call it a battle. The woman looked down at the man, who was barely alive at this point, bleeding out to death with fear in his eyes.
“You were afraid, and yet you decided to fight me. You have my respect. I’m sure your God will gladly welcome you to the afterlife. Now… I’m not going to prolong your suffering.” She lifted her weapon and, in one perfect blow, cut off the man’s head. A moment of silence came, as all the warriors behind her didn’t dare to disturb the duel. After a couple of seconds, she opened her eyes, laid down her weapon, and made an improvised tube out of her hands, which she pointed up in the direction of the castle.
“Alright, you fockers! I just killed your last goddamn knight. He defended you well, but now he’s dead, so I focking advise you, you better open these gates if you don’t want to spend this afternoon with him in hell!” At first she was done, but when the silence became too long, she continued. “And believe me when I say, I had mercy for that brave warrior, but I have absolutely zero respect for cowards who hide in a castle when others fight for them. If you don’t open these gates right this fucking instant, I will personally cut off your han— ” She wasn’t done, but the gate started opening in that exact moment. “Finally.” When the entrance was fully open, the men behind her drew their weapons, but as soon as they did, she stretched her arm as a sign to stop. “I gave them the word. Take anything you want. But no killing. Are we clear?”
“Yes, chief!” Without even trying to argue, they hurried into the castle, curious of what treasures they can find. The woman was not so hasty and just walked up to a middle-aged man in expensive-looking clothes.
“So, you’re Earldric.” She asked while looking down on the person that was easily one and a half heads shorter than her.
“Actually, I’m Earldric of Backen—”
“I don’t care.” She interrupted. “Title, your land; I don’t give a shit. I’m Kiara — just Kiara. And I’m here to take whatever cool stuff you have in your castle. Show me around.”
The man was outraged, and she knew it. Seeing those little angry faces of these so-called noblemen always made her day better. ‘Noble,’ she thought many times. ‘There’s absolutely nothing noble about them.’
The small man started showing her around. At first he tried to hide stuff from her, but after a little convincing from the trusty weapon, this stupid idea was quickly abandoned. Generally, Kiara wasn’t interested in gold, rather all kinds of fancy stuff those rich people loved to hoard. Wardrobes, weapons, stones, and relics. Being shown around and enjoying her stealing spree got her into a great mood, as if she was shopping in a marketplace.
But then, strolling down one of the many corridors, she stopped. Earldric continued walking for a while before he realized no one was following. Frustrated, he turned around, wondering what caught Kiara’s eyes this time. Closing the distance between them, he realized the warrior was looking at the painting on the wall. Although “looking” might’ve been the wrong word. She was absolutely fascinated by it, more than anything she had put in her bag up to this point.
“What is that?” She asked, not even looking at the man, her voice surprisingly soft.
“Well… that’s a painting.”
“Don’t focking mock me; I know what a goddamn painting is. I’m asking, who’s in this painting?”
Startled by the sudden shout, he rushed to explain himself. “This is our queen, Calliope the third. She took the throne around two years ago, and I’ve been given this painting as a present…”
“She’s beautiful…”
“Excuse me?”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me the queen is so pretty?” She was looking at the painting like she was hypnotized when suddenly, she snapped back to reality. Her enchanted smile disappeared, with panic and fear taking its place. “Oh my God!” Kiara turned around and hastily made her way to the exit.
“Where are you going?” The confused man asked.
“Oh, right!” She came back only to take the picture off the wall. “This will do until I reach the capital.” Without even looking back at Earldric, she was already halfway down the corridor.
“Why are you going to the capital?”
Still facing back, the warrior screamed. “To kidnap the queen, of course!”
“…To do what!?” The man looked at the leaving woman, and his face became pale like chalk when he realized that because of him, the capital might be sacked by a crazy Nordwoman.
Kiara was the last one to exit the building. Outside, the rest of her army was ready to leave after taking whatever suited them. Standing in front of a pair of horses, waiting for her arrival, was another tall woman, this time with crimson red hair. As Kiara mounted her horse, she quickly asked. “Any slaves?” Before the woman could answer, a heavily panting Earldric left the building as well. He looked dumbfounded at the sight of 2 warriors on horses.
“We found nothing.” She finally answered.
“Good.” Kiara looked down on the guy. “You’re lucky Liz here didn’t find any slaves on your land; otherwise, you would’ve met your creator faster than you anticipated.”
The man didn’t really listen. “Miss Kiara…”
“Just Kiara, I told you.”
“Kiara. Please. You can’t invade the capital! But if I can’t change your mind, by God, don’t tell anyone about me or this whole situation. I could be killed for treason!”
“Invade? Earldric, boy, I think you misunderstood me. The capital will be invaded no matter if I am there or not. I am going to save the queen.”
“What?”
“The king of Nords is on his way to the capital. I’m here to capitalize on the chaos and steal from rich guys like you, who gave their soldiers for the war.”
“What is he talking about?” The woman on the other horse finally asked.
“I’ll explain it to you in a bit. And speaking of which, we don’t have much time. Let’s go save Queen Calliope!” She screamed and rode her horse to the front of her army to lead it to their new destination, while everyone around her didn’t seem to grasp what she was talking about. The army slowly followed her, leaving Eardric examining his life choices.
When Liz caught up to Kiara at the front of the army, they both slowed down so they could talk.
“We’re gonna march south.” The ginger stated. “If the information we have is correct and up to date, we should be in the capital just before the final attack of the main Nordern forces.”
“Kiara, what the hell are you even talking about? I thought you wanted to leave Anglia just before the attack on the capital? And in the name of God, what is it about kidnapping the queen?”
“It’s not a kidnapping Liz, I’ll save her!” She cleverly ignored every question except for the last one. “Like in those tales you’ve read to me when I was a child. Think about it like this. She’s the princess, the king is the dragon, and I’m the knight.”
“You didn’t mind the queen getting killed before you saw her portrait.”
“And what’s exactly wrong with trying to save a cute girl from death, huh? Just because you never decided to sweeten your life with that cute black-haired girl doesn’t mean I should follow in your steps and remain in some kind of celibacy.”
“She’s not— I’m not getting into that discussion again. And just because you don’t want to find yourself a stable relationship doesn’t mean you should shoot for every cute maiden you see.” She gave her a look, but it seemed the younger girl didn’t have much more to say. Liz sighed in defeat, knowing full well she can’t change Kiara’s mind. “Do you even have a plan?”
“Of course I do… kind of…”
“Kind of?”
“Remember that gunpowder we found earlier this spring?”
Even if one looked at the capital from far away, it was clear that the war had already reached it. The buildings were on fire, and the smoke was covering the sky. Throughout the streets, the screams and cries of its citizens mixed with the laughter and rage of foreign soldiers. The knights were still trying to stop the Nordern army from advancing, but those attempts were futile, and it was only a matter of hours before the city would fall.
In a mostly empty throne room sat the queen. Dressed in the finest clothes, she was staring at the door, awaiting the inevitable guests. In front of her, a couple of steps lower, a middle-aged man was begging her.
“My dearest queen, please. Evacuate like the rest of the court. We still have time—” A loud explosion could be heard clearly from a distance. “What the…”
“You hear this, William? The destruction? The screams? The pain? I failed William. They’re all dead because I failed to win the war. This is my punishment. I will not abandon my people. And if I can’t defend them, I’ll go down with them.”
“What about an heir?”
“Is the house of Mori really that small? You’ll figure it out. Just like you did with me.”
“Your situation was different. I know you didn’t want the throne… which is why you should flee now.”
“You’re right, I didn’t want to sit here. But I accepted it anyway. I was ready for the consequences… And now they came.”
“My queen…”
“You’re dismissed, William. Go. The court needs you.”
“But…”
“That’s a royal order, William.” She smiled. “And you would never disobey your queen, would you?” The man was stunned for a little. He looked her in the eyes for a moment before bowing and leaving at a slow pace.
Finally, Calliope was left alone in the big room she had spent most of her time in for the last 7 years. She took a fairly large book from the table beside her and opened it on a random page. The poems were to make the last hours of her life just a little less miserable. As the pages were turned, she tried to remember the last time she had some time to read them but couldn’t recall anything.
Outside, the screams of knights suddenly got louder. She didn’t anticipate it so quickly, but nonetheless, ready for her demise, she closed the book and stood up to meet the invaders with dignity. One scream after another was silenced. Weird. It seemed like the approaching army was not an army at all, but… one person? Heavy steps could be heard behind the door, before they finally burst open with a headless corpse of a knight flying into the room. Right behind it approached not a group of soldiers, not a prideful king, but a tall woman with long, fiery hair and a battleaxe in her hand. Her face, hands, and part of the torso were dripping in blood, but not their own. Looking behind the girl, the reason was clear — a dozen knights lying dead scattered around the corridor leading into the throne room. Calliope looked at the woman once more.
“You!” Calliope pointed her finger at her. “You may have defeated our army, but believe me, our souls will never…” She wanted to continue but couldn’t focus. Kiara was not listening but, instead, seemed to be lost in another dimension. Her mouth was wide open, and her eyes were visibly enchanted by the person in front of her.
“Beautiful…”
“Ummm… Excuse me?”
“You’re like twice as pretty in real life as you were in that painting! No, three times!” Her face would look so innocent if not for the aforementioned blood covering half of her face.
Giving up on trying to understand the woman in front of her, the royal continued. “Cut the useless stuff, barbarian. If you want to kill me, do it now. It doesn’t matter anyway; I am at the end of the day just one person, while the entire nation is still alive and will fight you until your days are—” While speaking, Kiara quickly approached her until she was in arm’s reach of the queen. It was only now that she realized the warrior in front of her was way bigger — Calliope was quite tall for a woman, but despite that, her head only reached slightly beneath the redhead’s shoulder. This, combined with the ability to kill ten knights without even getting a cut on her, was insanely intimidating. Looking up into the enemy’s eyes and trying not to show any signs of fear, a single bead of sweat went down her temple. “Do what you came here for.”
Kiara, a little confused but nonetheless motivated by the comment, raised her battleaxe. Calliope said a prayer in her mind and, for the last time, recalled some of her most fond memories. However, instead of slicing her with the weapon, the warrior just put it on the floor, knelt, and looked up to the confused pink-haired woman. Silence commenced for a while before Kiara took a deep breath.
“Will you be my wife!?”