"How could this happen?" Espen thought as he ran his shaking hands through his long silver hair. The city was on fire. He could hear his people screaming. Their wails echoing through the halls of his empty palace. His mind had been racing all day, but he was calm now. Aside from the fear nagging the back of his mind. But what was the point? They were in the city now. Everything he planned, all the soldiers he forced to fight, the citizens he told to stay in their homes. Gone, destroyed, killed. The balcony he stood on seemed to tremble with the force of Claude's army. Or maybe that was all in his mind. He couldn't tell anymore.
Espen closed his eyes for a minute. Shutting them tight against the heat from the fires and the smoke that billowed in the air around him. Suffocating. Black. "They warned me," he thought, his fist tightening as he filled with regret. "They warned me Claude was coming, and I did nothing." Espen wasn't worried when he heard that King Magnus was targeting his fair kingdom next. Claude has been moving from small kingdom to small kingdom. Killing all who did not bow down to him. But the city was protected by its walls. Safe and secure. Espen had been through many sieges in his 450 years on this planet. What was one more? He would bunker down, gather resources, and if he had to meet them on the battlefield, his well trained army would defeat them.
He reassured himself that nothing would come of this "King in the East'' but here we are. Claude's army, though small, ripped through Espen's like they were made of pure moving steel. No arrow penetrated them, they moved like water. Uniform, and beautiful. Killing every soldier they touched. It was impossible how they moved. Like they were one mind. One of his soldiers was worth 20 of his, and they mowed down the front lines like Claude had crumpled a paper in his hand. One Thousand lives gone. Blown away like a feather in the wind.
Espen was pulled from his thoughts when a sudden BOOM came from the palace gates. "They're here," he whispered aloud, panic gripping his throat and his thoughts. He moved with a purpose that he didn't even know he possessed. His body turning suddenly and running towards his large open room. He moved the flowing sheer white curtains out of the way with one hand as he moved into his room and across the great marbled floor. His footsteps seemed loud as they hit the perfectly polished marble. As he exited the room and entered the long white hallway he began to panic. The hallway, like every room of the palace, was tall. Tall enough to fit a half giant at least. Espen had been raised in these halls, and the simple beauty of them never really registered with him. He had become numb to the simple designs that had been carefully planned by his ancestors thousands of years ago. On either side of the hall was a thin beautiful river fueled by small water fountains. The room was closed off to the outside, but there was always a gentle breeze that moved the air and calmed anyone who walked in it.
Espen didn't feel calm. He felt afraid. For the first time in his life he was truly afraid. "Haira!" He shouted. "Eliza! Xaier!" Where could they be? His face was panic stricken as he looked around. His body shaking with the adrenaline which was now filling it. He took off into a sprint down the long giant hallway, searching for his family. He didn't have any rhyme or reason as to where he was searching, he just knew he had to find them. They needed to escape. They were the only hope. If he died, they needed to live. He suddenly saw his wife Haira and stopped dead in his tracks. She was running, leading the small children down the hall. "Haira!" Espen yelled, but his voice was drowned out by the explosions from the front gate that echoed in the once calming halls. The palace shook with a force he had never felt before. The narrow peaceful river began violently trembling and sending water onto the walkways. Espen breathed rapidly as the realization that they would be through the gate in a matter of minutes fueled his anxiety and panic. Haira, unknowing of her husband's presence ran down the hall, Espen could hear his children crying. She led the children to a set of giant gilded doors at the end of the long hallway where the Herem was. Espen felt a sudden pang of guilt wash over him. He hadn't even thought of the Harem. His other children who would die today. The women he had grown to care for.
He shook the thought out of his head. Nothing could be done for them now. The time to evacuate had long since passed, and sending all of them from the palace would be too noticeable. No. He had to focus on Haira and the children. His heirs. Espen ran after Haira. "Haira!' He shouted once more. But she was gone. The door closed tight behind her. BOOM! Another explosion sent Espen flying from the ground. He hit a wall and crashed to the floor. His head was spinning, his ears ringing. He could only assume this meant they had broken through the gates. He got to his feet slowly, holding his bleeding head. His long gowns soaked in the water from the small river. He began walking again, his feet trying to find their footing on the smooth path, as a flash of brown caught the corner of his eye. He quickly turned ready to fight any soldiers who had managed to make it to this part of the palace so quickly. But it was a woman leading a girl. They moved quickly down the hallway across a large landing. "Olivia!" He yelled before he even thought why. She stopped and met his eyes. He could see her hesitation as she looked at him. Her large brown eyes looked him over with longing and sadness before she began running again. Espen thought to go after them. Maybe Olivia had found a way out. The thought was a flash before he remembered Haira and the children. He ran again. Haira was the only thought on his mind. His beautiful Haira.
TWANG! Pain filled his body. A sudden jolt of it right in his back. The pain faded quickly as he fell to his stomach. Espen couldn't feel his legs. He couldn't move them. He screamed as the pain came back in sharp jabs up his spine. "Haira!" He yelled again. He couldn't hear anything. Blood was rushing to his ears. "Haira!" He yelled again. "Be safe!" he thought to himself. "Escape!" he wanted to scream but the only sounds he could make were screams.
His eyes locked onto the golden gilded doors as one swung open. Haira. Haira was running to him. "No!" He yelled. But it was too late. The soldiers saw her. She was crying. He could see the tears running down her face. But she didn't stop running. Her eyes focused on the soldiers and she raised her arm and flexed her fingers as she ran. Her lips began moving and a light began to form down her arm falling into her hand like a small sun. A magical bolt shot from her hand and hit the soldiers closest to him. The soldiers flew back as the magic knocked them from the ground they stood on. their bodies fell limp into the river on the side of the walk way, the water trickling their blood down the water. Haira's footsteps got louder and then she landed gracefully next to Espen. Falling to her knees, her skirts billowed all around her, she reached out her delicate hand grabbing his arm. "Espen! Get up! We have to leave, they are coming Espen," she tried to move him between sobs. Haira looked him over. His upper body was barely supported by his arms and a large crossbow bolt stuck out of the middle of his back. His long legs were sprawled out and unmoving as she pulled on his arm. She saw where the arrow had hit, but she didn't want to believe it. Nothing could hurt him. He was strong, he was always here with her. He would be okay. "Haira," Espen said between sharp painful breaths, " Haira, leave, take the children and go." She cried, her tears landing around her. She was beautiful even when she cried. Her long blonde hair fell around her in waves that framed her soft sweet face. Her flushed cheeks only added to her beauty as her soft pink lips trembled.
Espen could remember the first time he saw Haira nearly 200 years ago. She was so breathtakingly beautiful he could barely believe she wasn't a god. She was presented to him as a wife and without hesitation Espen accepted her. Through their years together he had known her to be just as kind and loving as her appearance would have you believe her to be. Although he had many loves, and many maidans, she was his only true love. It was at that moment that he regretted not telling her more. "Not without you Espen, please, get up." He smiled at her. A smile full of pain and sorrow. "Haira, I am not going to be able to come with you. Please, take the children and-"
TWANG! Espen watched an arrow strike Haira in the neck. Blood shot from the wound, covering Espen's face. "No!" He screamed. Her beautiful blue eyes were wide as she gasped for air. Her mouth moved, trying to form words that wouldn't come. "NO!" He screamed again. She fell to the ground. Her hand grasping the arrow in her neck.
The blood was pooling around her, spurting. It covered everything. He used what little strength he could muster to drag his dead legs and be over her. His beautiful Haira. Her rose colored lips began turning blue as her eyes searched his face. Those perfect lips trembled and they formed more words that wouldn't come. He put a hand to her cheek and the tears flowed down his face, "please, no," he sobbed to her. Her eyes moved between both of his and she smiled faintly, her cheeks draining of color. Espen sobbed as her eyes slowly stopped searching his. They looked past him. Past the pain and the blood. He could see her dying. Espen held her face. He started screaming for her to stay and moving to help her, to heal her, but the pain as he moved was too great. It shot like daggers in his spine. Pinning him to the ground. "No," he whispered as her face turned pale and her hand fell peacefully into the pool around him.
Espen's mind went blank. There was nothing. Only her. The world around him faded in and out. He thought briefly that he could hear footsteps coming from behind him. But they didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Only his beautiful Haira. He watched her as fingers tangled themselves roughly into his long silver hair. His head was yanked up and the pain in his spine hit like lightning. He saw only the quick flash of silver before his throat was slit. The dagger cut a perfect slice right across his neck. Blood sputtered from his lips as the men moved past him and Haira. Stalking down the hall. He choked and tried to spit the blood out that was pooling in his mouth, but he couldn't. He couldn't breath and the blood began filling his lungs. His head was laying in Haira's blood, soaking his face and his silver hair which had turned red. The soldiers began pounding on the door at the end of the hallway. Kicking The gold gilded door, and slamming their bodies into it. The vision around his eyes began to blur, blackness was taking over. The men smashed the doors open and Espen could hear the faint screams of women and children from that direction. His face was tingling now. His limbs gone numb. And the blackness was calling him. It pulled him down further and further. Until he could not see the door broken in the distance. Or hear the screaming filling the hallway. There was only black. Only painlessness. Only nothing.