I awake to the sound of swords clattering against shields. I hurriedly get up and grab the twin daggers I always keep next to my bed. My parents say I'm paranoid, I say it's practical.
As I start to get my armor on a Howe knight bursts through my door.
"Die Cousland Scum!" he yells fiendishly and charges. I deflect his blows with ease and as he staggers I stab him in the jugular. Well, Shit. I step out of my room to see fighting everywhere and the castle burning. I turn to wake my sister up when a servant slams in her door and screams for help right before his throat is sliced by a Howe soldier. I then see my sister's mabari hound tear out his throat and my sister step out in full armor.
"You could have at least tried to help she said mockingly"
"Sorry I didn't think that the one who taught me to fight would need any help" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Wait!" she says realization dawning"We need to find Mother. In my rush to find my sister I had completely forgotten about my mother, how stupid of me. We both rush over to our parents bedroom to find two Howe soldiers banging on the door. She throws one of her daggers into ones back while I rush over to the second soldier and trip him and sliding my dagger cleanly in and out of the gap between his helmet and his mail cuirass severing the vertebrae.
"Mother It's us!" I say with panic rising in my voice.
"Edex?" I hear her faintly say from the other side of the door. The door opens to reveal my mother in full battle armor with an ironwood bow in hand.
"Not the first thing I would expect the woman who cared for me for 13 years to be dressed in" I say stunned.
"I'm not just some Orlesian wallflower." She huffs indignantly.
"Am I the only who would be thinking we should probably check on Oren and Oriana?" my sister says with steel in her voice.
"I was just about to say the same thing" I lie. The look I catch from my sister proves she saw through my bluff. I couldn't help but feel a bit sheepish after that. We ran over to Oren and Oriana's room and I can not actually describe the scene perfectly because I took one look and looked away fighting to hold back tears. There was my sister-in law and my little cousin lying in a pool of their own blood. After mother and my sister had said their goodbyes to them we went to see if there was any resistance to the Howe onslaught. We saw various skirmishes between our troops and theirs but it was clear. We were heavily outnumbered.
"I'll go check on Brother Aldous, and you two go check the dining hall." I say with a bit of my sister's steel hinting in my voice. I dash down the ramp leading to the library and slam the door open only to be met by the sight of two squires and Brother Aldous laying dead on the floor. I walk over to brother Aldous and gently close his eyes.
"You will be avenged my friend" I whisper into his cold, dead ear.
I hadn't noticed that a Howe soldier had managed to sneak up on me. I quickly jabbed him in the abdomen with one of my daggers. After that my vision went red and I can only remember after my mother and sister pulled my away from the corpse that when I look up was A bloody, mutilated mess.
They had managed to save two soldiers and one servant in the dining hall, all of which held their own as we fought through other rooms to eventually find more of our loyal soldiers. Eventually we entered the Great Hall with a dozen or so of our troops plus Ser Gilmore and his men. We quickly dispatched the enemies they were fighting including a mage that had counted for our only casualty so far
"We have have to find your father!" my mother said clearly distressed.
"Men! Stay here and guard the hall I ordered on my way out. We eventually found several more servants and sent them to the great hall. We entered the kitchens to find Nan and two elven servants on the floor. I could hear my sister choke back a sob. We entered the larder to find my father with a severe sword wound and bleeding profusely.
"Hello my young pups" he says with the same smile he has on every morning when we wake up.
My sister rushes over to his side just when the gray warden Duncan enters. Apparently he had temporarily saved my father, but with a simple examination you could clearly see it was a fatal wound. He gave me and my sister two choices stay and die or join the gray wardens at Ostagar. I chose the third option evacuate the soldiers. My parents started to protest, but I was already out the door and headed to the great hall. When I entered we still had a full force.
"Somebody Replace Ser Gilmore on the door!" I shouted and a soldiers switched with Ser Gilmore. I walked over to him and said
"Order the troops that aren't holding the door to go to the larder." Ser Gilmore rounded up the troops and I guided the to the passage in the larder. What I hadn't noticed were my wounfs, and that my hands started to grow hot and small flames flickered in my palms. I saved twenty men that day. I also got nineteen killed by the end of the next day.