Wylerra, 100 years ago...
One wasn't supposed to grieve forever.
Death happened, people mourned. Then people moved on until some other tragedy struck. But Aldeheid felt as though he was stuck in some kind of limbo between mourning and moving forward.
Amalie'a demise was still fresh in his mind. During the day, there were enough people around to distract him. But at night, when he was alone and all was quiet, his heart ached. He would often roll to his side and face her half of the bed, imagining her there. Peaceful, sleeping soundly, her hair all tossed and brows furrowed. It made him ache even more.
And he was beginning to think that the pain would never go away. It was permanent, gaping wound in his chest.
Aldeheid thumbed the edge of his card as he waited for Wenry to make her next move. She sat at the foot of his bed with brows furrowed, staring down at the figurines scattered over the map between them. As she had been for longer than was normal.
If she clasped the wooden cards in her hands any tighter, they'd break and give her splinters. For the first time he noticed that she wasn't looking at the board, but through it. As though her mind was in some far off place.
"Is something the matter Wenry?" he asked her, keeping his words gentle.
Her bottom lip trembled, and she looked up at him with misty eyes. "Baba said he wants to send me away."
Aldeheid scowled, clenching his jaw to quell his rising anger. "Why?"
"He said it's..." She hiccupped. "Because I don't know how to behave. So he's sending me somewhere where I can learn. I..." Another hiccup. "I don't want to be by myself, Al. I'm scared."
He laid his cards down on the board and took her gently by the shoulders. "Look at me Wenry. You're not going anywhere, alright? I'll make sure of it." He'd do everything within his limited power to make sure Wenry could stay until he formulated an escape plan for all of them. But there wasn't much he could do until the thaw. The tundra was far too dangerous now.
"Promise?" Wenry asked.
"On the ice god's heart." He placed his hand over his own to seal the promise. "Do you want to keep playing, or do something else?"
She wiped at her tears and picked up the cards. "Keep playing."
" Alright. Your turn." He took up his own cards, studying both them and the board.
She nodded and pulled a card from her hand, revealing it with a flourish. "Dragon siege!"
Aldeheid set his cards back down and breathed. "Wenry, that's the third dragon siege you've used. How many of those do you have?"
"A few..." She brought her cards close to her chest. "So what?"
"You're only allowed two." He held his hand out. "Let me see your deck."
"No you're just trying to cheat!" She scrambled out of his reach, but he snatched her deck before she could. "No!" She lunged at him, and he held her at bay with one hand while fanning out her cards with the other.
His jaw fell. "Wenry, these are all dragon sieges. This is probably half the Dragon sieges in existence."
She folded her arms across her chest and huffed indignantly. "So? Jet lets me play with all dragon sieges. And it's the best card in the game. So there."
"And you said I was trying to cheat? Did you bring your other cards? I'll help you build a deck. A legal one." He set his own cards aside and cleared the figurines from the map while Wenry brought out her wooden box of cards.
"Well make you deck that focuses on the dragons. But you can't abandon the rest of your..." His words trailed off as he gawked at the cards in the box. There were hundreds of them, some so rare that the shouldn't even have left their packaging. "Where did you get all of these?" He plucked a card at random and his jaw came unhinged. "A phoenix card?!"
"Jetei helped me get them."
A knock sounded on the door, interrupting their conversation, and a guard poked her head in before Aldeheid could protest. "The King has requested your presence in the trial chamber, Sahn Cera. As well as Wenry's."
He couldn't help the scowl that tugged at his lips. There was no helping it, and he'd predicted this. Baldavin probably just wanted to berate him for staying in bed well after his recovery. Tell him how worthless he'd become since Amalie's death.
It was moments like this where he missed her most. The moments where he felt helpless, vulnerable and trapped under the King's boot.
"I'll be out in a moment."
"But I don't want to go." Wenry wrung her hands, and looked at him with eyes wide with fear. "What does Baba want?"
"I don't know," he said, pulling on a shirt. "Let's go find out. Then we can come back and play so more, alright?"
She nodded and jumped off of his bed, keeping her eyes downcast as though mentally preparing herself.
"Here, you can ride on my shoulders." He kneeled so she could get up on his shoulders, then they proceeded to the trial chamber, flanked by the guards.
"I can touch the roof," Wenry said, stretching her hands up. "How are you so tall, Al?"
He smiled up at her, happy to see her in somewhat better spirits. Gods knew that would change when she caught sight of the King. "I just am."
They arrived at the trial chamber moments later, and the guards pushed the doors open. But Aldeheid wasn't prepared for what he found inside.
Jayer was just inside the door, and only spared Aldeheid a fleeting look as he walked by. Baldavin stood next to the pedestal with a claymore in one hand and a rapier on his hip. Behind him were three people in chains. Two he recognized right away.
His stomach churned, and a pang of phantom pain radiated through his back. The attendants who'd tried to kill him. He swallowed and looked away, only glimpsing the third person. But that glimpse was all he needed. While her hair was ratty and robes disheveled, there was no mistaking... the High Priestess.
She'd obviously spent some time in the dungeon master's care -- she had that look. The haunted, empty look of someone who'd been stripped of their dignity. The rattle of her chains filled the air as she shook uncontrollably, her shoulders rising and falling with her heavy breaths.
Aldeheid set Wenry down quickly, ensuring her back was to the prisoners. "Why don't you go find Jet, alright?" There was no need for her to bear witness to whatever madness Baldvin had planned.
"No, Wenry is to stay. I asked for you both," Baldavin said, and Aldeheid cringed.
Wenry whimpered and hid behind his legs, clutching to his pants as though they could save her from the King's wrath.
Dear gods, help me. "Please, my King," Aldeheid begged. "This isn't something one so young should see."
The King took slow, measured steps toward him, his footsteps like the ominous toll of a bell. "Perhaps, my dear Sahn Cera, if you'd been exposed to such at her age, you wouldn't have turned into this." Each word was like the sharp edge of a knife relentlessly slicing into Aldeheid. "After all my grooming, all the time I spent shaping you into someone worthy of my throne." He tapped Aldeheid on the chest with the claymore. "This is what I get."
"You." The King looked down at Wenry, and Aldeheid felt her face on the back of his leg. "Dislodge yourself from the Sahn Cera now."
Jayer pulled Wenry away and ushered her to the far corner of the room. "Just don't look, alright?"
Aldeheid clenched his jaw, his eyes shifting from Wenry to the King. "Did you request my presence so that I may identify my attackers? If that's the case then you caught the right people." He switched his gaze to the High Priestess. "But she had nothing to do with it."
The King scoffed. "So you think. Apparently she commissioned these two to kill you."
"I did no such thing!" she screamed, and a guard backhanded her.
Aldeheid winced as the crack of the slap rebounded off the walls. He should've expected this. One doesn't kill so many people and get away with it. He probably deserved to die himself. No wonder Baldavin chose him as a successor. He was a monster too.
"If that's all you wanted, I—"
"We're not done here." Baldavin dropped the claymore at Aldeheid's feet before strolling back to his gang of guards. "There's still the matter of their punishment. After all, attacking the Sahn Cera is an act of treason."
"And treason is punishable by death," Aldeheid finished, but he made no move to touch the sword. "We have an executioner for that, it's called the Tundra's Embrace, and it's most effective during this time of year."
"Ah, but running your would-be murderers through with a sword, leaving them to die as they left you. That would be a much more fitting punishment, no?" He nodded to the claymore. "I don't have all day."
Aldeheid kicked the sword away. He was done with Baldavin's games, and if that meant getting slapped again, so be it. If that meant being stripped of his title, rank and privileges, then so be it. He had enough blood on his hands, no more.
To his surprise, Baldavin didn't even look angry, which was somehow more frightening. Because it was uncharacteristic. The King didn't take his word being disobeyed lightly.
"Wenry," he said, without taking his eyes off Aldeheid. "Come to baba."
She rung her hands and looked up at Jayer, but the only thing he offered her was a grim look. Aldeheid's stomach tied itself into knots as he watched Wenry walk across the room to the King. There was nothing either of them could do. Baldavin had ten guards at his command, and they didn't even have capes.
"Stand here." He place a hand atop Wenry's head and turned her to face them. Her eyes were misty and she bit down on her bottom lip.
"Al, has been quite defiant towards me lately," Baldavin continued. "You know how much baba hates disobedience, don't you?" He tilted Wenry's head up, and she gave a jerky nod. "To make matters worse, he's shown a level of weakness that I find disappointing."
Aldeheid clenched and unclenched his fists, his jaw aching from grinding his teeth. Fear had paralyzed him – not fear of the king but fear for Wenry.
"Why don't you tell the Sahn Cera what happens when people disobey me?" Only a hiccup escaped Wenry's lips, he fisted her hair and wrenched her head back. "Tell him what happens when people disobey me!"
She shrieked and squirmed, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Stop. Just stop!" Aldeheid pleaded. "I'll do whatever you want just... let her go. Please..."
Baldavin kicked the sword back to him, and he scooped it up. The weapon felt clumsy and cumbersome in his shaking hands.
The King unsheathed his rapier and held its tip at Wenry's neck. "I said I don't have all day."
Wenry's eyes were wide and pleading. She was but a tiny mouse, caught under the claws of a ferocious predator.
Seeing her in such a position heated Aldeheid's blood to a boil, and he embraced that anger. His grip on the sword became strong, sure. He didn't think, only acted. He surged forward, and in a blink he was in front of the King. The claymore came down, and he felt the resistance of flesh and bone.
Baldavin's severed hand fell to the ground, the rapier still in its grip. He roared, letting go of Wenry to clutch the stump left behind.
Aldeheid tried to grab Wenry, but an invisible force slammed into him, sending him skidding across the stone floor. A guard was on top of him a moment later, and his hands were wrenched behind his back.
"Throw him in the dungeon. Now!" Baldwin roared.