Tonight wasn't supposed to be different from any other.
Edea couldn't sleep. Whether it was due to adrenaline running over from today's training session with Kamiizumi or the excitement of her upcoming fifteenth birthday in a few days, she just couldn't get her mind to calm. She exercised, she read, but she simply could not will her eyes to shut.
And it was far too late to bother anyone else in Eternian Central Command. Well, no. She would've gladly bothered Alternis, but he was deployed to Caldisla at the moment. Augh. It seemed like he was never around anymore…
But that was all right. Edea was used to being by herself. More specifically, Edea was used to being out alone at night by herself, and so that was exactly what she did. Training blade in hand, she snuck out of her room and dodged around guards (she was getting very good at memorizing their patrol patterns), heading for the southern exit.
It was while as she turned a corner that she bumped into someone coming out of the kitchens, and with a harsh gasp, bundles of neatly-packed food came tumbling down.
"H-Hey! Watch where you're going," It was a servant boy about her age, who was scrambling now to pick up what he'd dropped. As his gaze met hers, however, he paled. "Y-You're the Grand Marshal's daughter—!"
Oh no. If he went about shouting like that, she was sure to get caught!
"Shhhh! No, no, it's okay— don't worry about it. Just, um — here, let me help you! " Edea was careful to take keep her voice low, hoping guards hadn't heard them. She helped pick up one of the boxes, too but paused upon reading the label. "Wait a minute…these are …" She frowned, looking up at him. "What are you doing with these? These treats are for my birthday banquet!"
The frantic, panicked look on his face said it all.
"You were stealing them?" she narrowed her eyes, but kept her voice low.
"I-I've got my reasons!" The boy insisted defensively, and gave her a look over as well. "And anyway, what are you doing out here all…all equipped like that? Sneaking out?"
Edea opened her mouth — and then shut it, simmering. Now they were both in a predicament.
"…Okay, fine. Let's agree that we're both doing something we shouldn't be," she said, trying to be diplomatic. "I'll pretend I didn't see you if you pretend you didn't see me. All right? Have a good night… thief." She made a face at him but brushed aside, heading for the exit once more.
"Hey! Wait up," The servant boy caught up to her in a few short strides and she spun to face him, hissing.
"Not so loud, geez! What is it now?"
"I…I was actually wondering, if you're going that way…Do you think you could help me out?" He nodded towards her training blade. "I might need…protection."
Edea blinked. "What do you mean?"
It turned out that Cavan — the servant boy, that was his name — came from a poor family that lived in the woods in a small settlement just beyond Eternia. He often posed as a servant to sneak them food from the kitchens when his father couldn't find any decent animals to hunt.
Edea did not approve of this, of course, and instead resolved to speak with her father — or someone of authority — to send aid to the settlement so that they wouldn't have to resort to a life of crime.
"Really, Edea?" The boy was overjoyed. "You'd do that for us?"
"It should've been done in the first place!" She huffed. To think that such sad settlements existed just outside Eternia's doors! Although, it was rather far away… "Are we almost there? I don't think I've been this far from Eternia before…at least not in this direction."
"We're really close, don't worry — just over that ridge, in fact! Come on!"
The two of them stomped up through the snow at a hurried pace — but a scream filled the cold winter air, and they skidded to a halt at the sound.
"W-What was—" Cavan's eyes shot wide open and he ran for the ridge.
"No! Hold on!" Edea caught his arm and dragged him down into the snow instead, forcing him quiet. They could hear other voices, other screams — just beyond the ridge. Edea made a gesture for him to remain silent and crawled forward on her stomach, peering over — and stifled a gasp at the sight:
Cavan's settlement was under attack — or rather, it had been, and what they saw now was the aftermath of a one-sided battle. Families had been rounded up and forced into a circle while raiders invaded their homes, dragging out supplies and treasures to seize for themselves. A man had tried to resist, and now his corpse lay bleeding upon the pure white snow while his wife shrieked and pleaded for him.
"This—" There were too many of them. If she was stronger, if she was with Master Kamiizumi, surely they could have taken them out — but alone, there was no way. "Cavan, we have to get —"
"NO!" But the boy was already scrambling to his feet in a rage, the food boxes abandoned.
"Cavan!" Edea hissed and stood too, catching hold of his arm and trying to drag him back, "Stop!"
"Edea, I can't just —"
"We don't stand a chance against them! We have to go back—"
"Hey! Who's that up there?!" Try as she might, Edea could not prevent them from being seen by the raiders below.
"Run!" There was no time for discussion. She clutched his arm and took off, half-dragging him as they fled from the shouts and screams from the men behind them. Knowing the path back to Eternia was far too open, she sought out an alternate way into a nearby cluster of trees that was too thin to be called a proper forest, but good enough for cover all the same.
They raced into the trees, dodging and stumbling over roots and branches and ankle-deep snow. She could hear the shouts of the raiders just behind them, but then suddenly they grew softer … and then silent.
Edea didn't believe in Crystalism, but she thanked the Crystals now as she fell to her knees to catch her breath. Cavan did the same close behind.
"C…Cavan," she panted, looking over at him, "I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, but we would've — we'll go and alert the Eternian guards right away, I promise you!"
"Th…Thank you, Edea," Cavan curled up in the snow for a moment, shaking. "You made this… a whole lot easier."
"Wha—?" Edea turned just in time to see Cavan lunge at her, drawing a previously-concealed knife out from his belt and pinning her on her back to the ground. Edea screamed and struggled, but the boy used his own weight against her, trapping her arms. "What are you doing?!"
"Didn't think the Templar's daughter was such a gullible idiot," He smirked, pinning her wrists to the snow with one hand while the knife was jabbed dangerously close to her throat. "You really think a boy would want a little girl's protection?!"
"Get off!" Edea struggled and kicked at him, but he didn't seem to care.
"Didn't think my brothers'd still be busy with that settlement when we got there, but it all worked out in the end, yeah?" He pressed the blade closer to her throat. "Now get up, or your pretty little throat'll be painting the snow just like that poor bastard back there."
"You're filth," she hissed, and the boy chuckled, not releasing her wrists as he practically dragged her to stand. Keeping the knife faced in her direction, Cavan called out into the woods, "Brothers! I'm this way! And I got us a prize — think the Templar'll pay for his daughter if we send her in pieces?"
A few men called back in response and Edea looked at him, horrified, "Y-You can't—you can't possibly—"
The raider boy swiveled around, kneeing her in the stomach with all his strength and releasing her hands as she doubled over in pain, falling to her knees.
"Don't test me, bitch," he growled, delighting in how she squirmed upon the snow, and seizing the opportunity to rip the training blade from her side and throw it across the clearing, all the while keeping his knife poised at the ready. "Now get up and shut up before I—"
Edea seized the moment to try and escape, but he dove and tackled her into the snow, jabbing his knife into her shoulder as he did. Edea screamed but, by pure luck, managed not to get pinned beneath the boy's weight this time. Instead she struggled, rolled, and managed to kick him off for a moment and yank the knife that had been buried into her free. The awkward angle tore the wound in her muscles further but adrenaline fought off the pain; again, Cavan grabbed at and dragged her back, now fighting to regain control of the knife.
She'd be killed if he got hold of it again. She could see it in his eyes, the cold, cruel, and wicked black-as-night expression of insatiable desire to end her life. With a burst of strength fed from fear, Edea threw him off of her — she didn't run. She didn't scream. As soon as the boy was on his back, she was straddling his waist, plunging the blade over and over again into his chest, wild with fright.
Again and again, even after the boy's gargled cries were silenced and his blood had stained her hands and clothes, the knife in her hands plunged into his flesh.
It was only when she heard the raiders near the clearing that she fled, picking up her training sword along the way but leaving the murder weapon behind. She couldn't remember making her way back into Eternia, or into Central Command completely undetected.
She didn't even realize what she had done until she had collapsed onto the floor of her room, laying still upon the rug in a trembling state of shock.
Edea would tell the maids what she saw in the morning, when they came in to check in on her and found her where she lay. Word would spread to the Grand Marshal, and he would soon order the raiders seized, arrested, and executed for their crimes. The survivors of that lost settlement would be granted aid and welcomed to the city.
The blood would be washed away. The wounds would heal, with no visible scars left over thanks to the magic of the Healing Tower.
But Edea would never forget what it felt like — watching the life of another human being vanish beneath her weapon, watching the light of someone's eyes fade to a dull nothing.
And she would never cease to be terrified by the brief, thrilling surge of satisfaction that rushed through her veins on the night of her first kill.