The castle is in chaos.
Violet runs down the long corridors of the upper halls, away from her room, away from the noble's living quarters, away from her home, nearly stumbling several times. The roars of blighted monsters and the clashing of blades between soldiers blighted and those who haven't yet succumb to it fill the air.
Violet yelps and ducks her head as an arrow gets stuck in the wall where her head would've been.
She keeps running.
The front entrance comes into view in the main hall below, and her heart leaps as she spots a cart with a covering on top to protect from the blighted rain, right up at the entrance. She races down the steps so fast that she misses a step, tumbling over and falling down with a yell of panic.
Strong arms catch her before she can hit the ground painfully. It's Giles.
Violet blinks and her racing heart slows somewhat.
"Th-thank you, Giles." She says shakily as she's let down. The beastial roars and sounds of weaponry ring in the distance, too close to be safe. Giles nods and points to the cart, which has nobles who have not yet been struck down or afflicted climbing into it.
"Let us flee, Young Priestess. You must stay safe." He starts to lead her to the cart and as she moves towards the exit, her gaze turns to the castle around her that has been her home for most of her short life.
She looks at the tapestries, regally blowing in the breeze from outside, now stained with blood. The imposing marble pillars, now cracked from the attacks of weapons. The stain glass windows, with such beautifully designed images of the royal crest, cracked and shattered.
Her gaze turns to the nobles in the cart who have survived. The loss of home, the happy faces now filed with fear. She thinks back to the people she's purified, the agony they were in and the rejoicing when she cured them.
She thinks of Mother, and voices from the past flash through her mind.
If I don't take on the blight, we will be overrun by it.
I can have one brought up to live in the castle, and take on the blight.
I-I promise I'll wait until I'm older.
I don't know how I can repay you!
Thank you Violet, thank you!
You're welcome. It's... why I'm here.
Her own voice echoes in her mind, and she stops.
Giles turns to her with alarm. "Young Priestess, we must go!"
Violet looks up at Giles for a long moment and then smiles sadly.
"I can't leave, Giles. I have to take on the Blight. It's why I'm here." The softness in her voice leaves Giles stunned. The horses carrying the cart start to neigh impatiently.
Violet turns around back towards the stairs she came from and her heart breaks as she hears cries of pain amidst the sounds of battle. There are people suffering that she has the power to save. Despite her fear, and the promises she'd made to her Mother, she knows in her heart that she can't leave. She couldn't live with herself if she did.
She expects Giles to try and stop her. Instead she hears the sound of shifting armour and the cart leaving as he waves it off.
"I understand. Let us go, then." Giles steps up in front of her and pulls out his sword, which Violet has never seen before. She looks up at him with wide eyes.
"You're coming with me?"
He nods solemnly. "I swore to protect you with my life, Young Priestess, and that has not changed."
She feels a warmth fill her at those words and smiles slightly again. "Thank you."
Violet clasps her hands around the blue amulet hanging from her neck as they head back up the stairs, its blue light glowing brightly as a show of its power. It had belonged to her Mother and aided in her service to the kingdom. Now it would do the same for her.
___________________________
CLANG
Giles's sword comes into contact with the shield of a blighted knight, the rot peeking out beneath the cracks in his armour. The mad knight swings his blade in a counterattack that Giles blocks in return, before swinging his sword up to pierce its target through the chest. Blood darker than it ought to be for a human flies out and Giles retracts his sword.
Violet stands a couple feet behind Giles, hands clasped together nervously. The blight may be regenerative and so she knows that the soldier would simply get up again soon, but the sight of such violence before her eyes shakes her up a little.
Giles retracts his sword, now stained with blight and blood, before wiping it off on the ground.
"It is safe for now, Young Priestess." He tells her, but turns his attention to the hallway ahead of them where sounds of violence remain.
Violet nods slowly and steps up to the fallen knight. She hadn't known him, yet her heart breaks seeing the rot, the hole in his chest, and the amount of pain it'd take to drive someone so insane. She reaches out her hand.
"It'll be okay." She whispers quietly, knowing she won't get a response. That familiar white glow grows between the two of them, and the blight flees the man's body and enters hers as black tendrils. Violet shudders as she takes it on. It's more of the rot than she'd ever taken, only having purified small patches, early on in the affliction. Her amulet glows brightly and the black tendrils deteriorate some. Her body isn't as pain racked as she'd expected as she opens her eyes and lets her hands fall to her sides.
She looks down at the knight before her, whose colour tone had shifted to a light gray. The blight was gone and he was no longer in pain. He wouldn't be getting up again.
Violet gives a prayer for the man and turns back to Giles.
"Let's keep going."
They travel down the halls methodically. The fighting is thinning out at this point, leaving either corpses, corrupted knights, or blighted behemoths. Giles and Violet do their best to only take on knights in isolation, where Giles won't have trouble subduing them in their crazed state.
It's not until the fourth purification that Violet really starts to feel the toll on her body.
She's wincing with each step. Some black on her hair fills her view occasionally. She feels something growing on her head again. Giles notices.
"Young Priestess, shall we stop? You seem as though you cannot handle much more." He has worry in his voice. His sword and shield are bloody and a bit rotted, but he is otherwise none worse for wear.
Violet shakes her head. "I'm okay. The amulet is helping." She holds it up in one hand. "We need to keep going. They're... they're all suffering, Giles." Her voice cracks at the end of her sentence. Her pain doesn't compare to theirs, she knows. She can't leave them to suffer forever.
Giles nods hesitantly. "Remember that your well-being is important too. Let us stop when you need to."
Violet continues on without a word and Giles follows without comment. They've made their way back into the noble's living quarters, in the hopes that possibly someone still survived and was simply trapped there.
At the sight of Violet, two soldiers immediately rush towards them. One has a cape and Violet's eyes widen in surprise before she quickly dives behind Giles, who just barely manages to block one sword with his shield and the other with his own, and evidently strains holding them both back.
"Giles!" Violet watches in fear as he's pushed back. The two blighted knights have no strategy or teamwork, but as they swing wildly, Giles has no opportunity to fight back, merely keeping any blows from connecting.
Violet can see that Giles is stuck and that she has to do something, so she does the only thing she can think of and runs out from behind him, circling around behind the action.
"Hey!"
She jumps and waves to get their attention. They quickly both turn to her, and Giles takes that moment to swing his blade forwards and cut into the side of the caped one, immobilizing him. The other knight, however, charges at Violet, who screams as she dives to the side, a resounding metal clang reverberating throughout the room as the metal of the blade collides with the floor where she was just standing.
Adrenaline fills her veins and she doesn't even notice the pain in her body as she scrambles to her feet, looking back. The knight is between her and Giles, who is still struggling against the caped soldier. Violet swallows nervously as the enemy before her readies his sword with another swing. She dives away this time, putting more space between the two of them, but now Giles is even farther. She watches wide-eyed with her pulse pounding as the caped knight slams his shield into Giles' knocking him off-balance, and time seems to move in slow motion as a sword swings forwards, stabbing straight through Giles' midsection.
Violet covers her mouth and screams. Tears fill her eyes as Giles falls.
The knight is back at her and she can't even process what just happened as she dives out of the way again, this time the blade slicing off a few blackened ends of long hair. She quickly gets to her feet and watches in fear as the caped knight starts turning to her.
"Run..."
She gasps. Giles sits up slowly, somehow still alive and breathing.
"Run, Violet." He says her name in pain, slowly stumbling to his feet.
She shakes in place for a moment, uncertain, until both knights are advancing towards her, and she turns and runs, covering her own mouth to hold back a shriek that would alert every blighted creature on the floor.
___________________________
Violet hides behind a bookshelf, panting as she tries to catch her breath yet remain as inaudible as possible. The knights had eventually lost interest as she had gotten farther away, but she didn't want to be found by anything else.
Her mind races as she tries to comprehend what just happened.
Giles was stabbed. Giles was dead. Except Giles wasn't dead.
Adrenaline starts to wear off and she feels the aches in her body after diving on the floor repeatedly with the blight from purifications hurting her.
That feeling, the need to purify, that she'd felt around the guards and Giles before the rain began to fall. Could it have been...?
She shakes her head and sniffles, wiping tears from her eyes. If Giles had already been afflicted with the blight, surely he'd have told her.
She peeks out from behind her hiding place. The only way to go without retreating was down towards her own living area. Towards her room.
She slowly walks down the dark path, and hears the sound of the rain from far away.
She also hears the click-clack of what somehow sounds like a horse walking. She nearly jumps when the half horse monster appears down the hall and charges towards her. It's close to her when she dives past it onto the ground, barely avoiding getting run over. But before she even has time to get up, the creature pulls the drawstring back on a bow and fires, not even stopping it's charge down the hall while doing so.
The sound of breaking glass fills Violet's ears and she tumbles forwards in a somersault. She takes only a moment to register the cracks in her amulet as it protected her from that attack before getting to her feet and sprinting down the hall as fast as she can.
The sight of sickly-purple and red rain appears before her as she exits the hallway and onto the large lookout at the edge of the castle. She doesn't stop and slips a little on the wet ground, but manages to barely maintain her balance as she reaches a spire, one she had often sat against while peering out towards the end of Land's End. Now she does the same, but to hide.
The top of the spire provides some protection from the rain and she breathes heavily again, leaning against the stone structure. She can hardly keep up with what's happening at this point and slowly slides down the wall until she's sitting against it. Warm tears prickles her cheeks and she sniffles again.
"Was this the right thing to do?" she mumbles to herself quietly. She stares sadly out at the rain-swept kingdom before her. The beautiful vegetation and plant life have rotted and turned ugly browns. The sky is completely overcast with the colour of the blight. Her heart aches.
The kingdom...
She had thought of seeing this view with her sisters, and Giles, and Mother. Now she never would. It was gone.
They were gone.
She places her hands over her eyes and cries quietly, the rain drowning out her sobs.
She doesn't stay that way for long.
After several moments she wearily steps out from behind the spire and into the rain. It's uncomfortably warm to her skin, but other than that no negative effects afflict her. Thinking about that feels unfair. She can't understand why she's granted safety from the blight, yet others are not.
None of this is fair. She clenches her eyes shut tightly.
She stumbles a little. Her body aches and the ground is slippery. She steps slowly over to the stairway up to her room, grasping her cracked amulet hanging from her neck tightly, feeling the familiar warmth.
Mother...
She stumbles her way up a dozen steps when she freezes and turns at the sound of knight's armour. She hopes in her heart despite all doubts that it's Giles.
It isn't.
A blighted knight charges up the stairs, and Violet lets out a scared squeak. The knight's sword swings wide, and Violet dives to the side, banging her elbow against a step and cringing.
The knight quickly swings his blade again and Violet tries to leap to the left pushing with her arms and legs before she can even get up. Her body is racked with pain from the blight, the bruises, and the exhaustion. She doesn't get far enough.
The sounds of glass shattering fills the air and light blue shards scatter. Violet screams.
The sword is lifted again. Violet clutches her bleeding side where the sword collided, her hoarse voice crying in agony. The blight was nothing compared to this.
The sword is about to come down one more time when suddenly another knight comes into the way to block it.
Violet can barely make out what's happening. She has one eye squinted open and filled with tears. The blighted knight that struck her goes rigid and disappears off the side of the stairway. The knight before her turns and kneels down.
"Young Priestess!"
She has her teeth clenched tightly together and she's curled into a ball holding her side and the large wound. She feels the wetness of blood on her hands. All she can feel is pain.
"Please, let us get to your room, you must survive!"
Hearing the voice sounds like she's listening from underwater. All she feels is pain.
"Hold on. I will carry you."
She hisses as she's gently lifted up into the man's arms, the change in position burning more. She can't do anything as she's carried up and out of the rain. As the door closes behind them, she can vaguely recognize the room as her own.
"Violet... please, tell me you're awake."
Violet shudders and slowly opens her eyes farther than a crack. She realizes she's still curled herself into a ball, but on her bed now.
"...Gi-Giles...?" She manages to whimper out.
The man before her nods. "You are... not well, to put it lightly."
She clenches her eyes shut tightly.
"Take deep breaths, if you can."
Violet tries to do so. The wound is still bleeding heavily.
"Here, let me look."
She shakes her head. She doesn't want to stop holding it.
"...Hurts." Violet chokes out.
Giles places a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "I know." He takes off his metal gloves to reveal strong, chiseled-looking hands. "Let me help."
Violet slowly, hesitantly takes her hands off the injury and Giles gently coaxes her to roll over a bit.
Giles' breath halts for a second at the sight of it.
"That is... very bad."
Violet thinks about how she feels a lot worse than just bad. She's struggling to simply focus on his voice instead of the pain.
"This... could be fatal, without medical assistance."
Violet's breath speeds up a little as she gets a chill.
"With such an attack, it should have killed you outright, but that amulet of yours seems to have held off some damage."
She distantly recognizes the lack of an amulet's weight on her chest.
"I cannot do much here. I must go to the medical ward. They may have something that can assist you there."
Violet's breathing is ragged. She feels the wound still pouring out blood.
Violet squeaks in pain as she's lifted again, this time along with the blanket she was on. Giles wraps it around her waist and ties it, pulling tightly, causing her to cry out.
"I'm sorry. We must stop that bleeding, or else..."
There's a sudden roar outside, scarily close to the door. She wants to stop thinking and pass out.
"Here."
She's sat down gently at the back of the room.
"Stay quiet here, in case something comes to find you. I will be back shortly with medical supplies."
She forces her eyes to crack open one more time as she watches Giles head to exit the room.
"...Giles..." She chokes out.
He stops and turns to face her.
She tries her best to give him a smile, but it comes out more like a grimace. "Thank you... f-for everything."
He nods, and steps out the doorway, closing it behind him.
Violet closes her eyes, phantoms of the sight of blight on Giles's body staying in her mind.
She knows that he, too, won't be coming back.
The sound of rain pitter-pattering against her bedroom window slows her muddled thoughts. The notion of something bringing so much death also bringing tranquility is strange to consider.
Violet doesn't care much for it.
Her breathing is still laboured, but has slowed down. She's still holding a hand to her wound, even with the blanket there. She feels the blood still flowing out. It's soaked through the blanket already.
Her body feels frail, weak, and worn-out, more so than ever before. She feels as though she could sit there with her eyes closed forever.
A few minutes pass. The pain isn't as bad now. The blight in her body is just a distant, dull ache. She's resting. Bruises from her constant dives are forming. The cut through her side hurts greatly, but even it is turning more into a drumming throb of pain. It feels distant somehow, like it's happening to someone else and not herself.
Her breathing slows further. Her eyes are still closed.
She thinks about Giles. He'd taken care of her so well, from the day she stepped cluelessly into this castle. He'd fought alongside her, even till the end.
She thinks of her sisters. Were they okay? Did they make the same decisions she did? They'd talked about visiting each other someday. Violet is certain she won't get to do that, now.
She thinks of Mother. The one who gave her purpose, who gave her home, who comforted her, guided her, took care of her, loved her, the one that she wanted to be like. The one who gave all she had to protect this kingdom, and to protect Violet.
She'd made promises to Mother that she'd broken, and now Mother was gone.
Did I do the right thing...?
The sound of rain is getting distant and her mind is foggy. She can't feel much other than the tears still falling past her cheeks. There's fear filling her slowing heart. The others are gone. Violet realizes that she's going to join them.
I'm scared.
Mother, save me.
Please save me...
.
.
.
.
.
.
I wish...
I wish that everyone could be saved...
.
.
Notes:
Thank you so much for reading until the end! Please leave a comment if you'd like, it'd be greatly appreciated :)
This story took me well over 3 months to make and was by far the most ambitious thing I've ever written. Seeing the poor dead White Priestesses in game made me think of how they must all have their own stories to tell, and I realized that would also be a great vehicle by which to view the world of Ender Lilies prior to the game itself. I didn't feel qualified to write a good enough story, but I decided to try, because for it to exist SOMEONE has to write it.
Canon info on the Ruined Castle's Young Priestess: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ps5Z-BnJmiCXTG933g3i835Eq7PdapSVe09Z8YXssqc/edit?usp=sharing:
Unused/Rewritten scenes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ulENw-ZCIafnz99WvXi617xzYrG20vNppODj2cbazws/edit?usp=sharing
The next part will likely take a while also, but please check it out when it's uploaded!