Authors note: So....this is a LOT darker than anything I've ever written. I don't know if it qualifies as a lemon seeing as I don't go into a whole lot of detail, but there is rape in it. It was kind of a "what if" situation if Valter ever caught Erika. He's creepy, gross and probably gets off on really disturbing things. Reviews are much loved and more than welcome, criticism (of the constructive variety I hope) is greatly appreciated. If I owned Fire Emblem, I wouldn't be writing Fanfics for it.
"Take it and go Seth!" Erika shouted as she thrust the bracelet onto Seth's lance. "He wants me...but...if I can convince him I still have the bracelet, you and Ephraim can finish this." She pushed the tears back.
"But Erika I can't just-"
"GO! Sir Seth, the Silver Knight. I, Princess Erika of Renais ORDER you to leave!" She turned her head so he couldn't see the tears. Seth, with one gloved hand pulled her face to his.
"I'll come back for you. Don't die Erika." He kissed her forehead, the blood from his tunic staining her blouse.
"I love you," she wept, slapping the back of Seth's horse and sending him charging away. Seth's horse retreated in the distance, its injured rider barely holding on the reigns. Erika wiped the tears from her eyes, she'd not give Moonstone the pleasure of her tears.
Crunch, crunch, came the sound of a legion of boots on the grass around her. The Princess pulled her rapier from the scabbard. And stabbed one man through the heart. Then another. They dove and struck at her, but Erika wove between them. A paladin's lance came down and bored into her shoulder. The Princess screamed and skewered the paladin's horse before running her bloody rapier through him. The wound burned and she began to tire, to slow. She fought hard but missed blows and her defense was weakening. Grado's troops laughed as whistled as they became a blur around her. A moving circle of dizzying, jeering faces. The laughter ceased as a wyvern landed behind them and cold sadistic laughter oozed into Erika's fragmented thoughts.
"Oh Erika. That's my girl. You'll more than slate my lust." Moonstone laughed. He pointed at two men. They laughed bitterly and grabbed her, wrenching the blade from her hand and breaking it in two.
"Where is that lovely bracelet you always wore? My little whore princess?"
"I...hid...it..." Erika manage. She collapsed of exhaustion, praying to either wake up beside Seth or else not at all.
Instead, she woke up in a cell. Dark, dingy and smelling of mildew and rot. She looked around and realized much to her horror, she was chained up in a bedroom. Her cloths were gone and all she wore was a dog collar and shackles on her hands and feet.
"That's my girl." Valter's voice crept over, Erika didn't turn around. She curled up, trying to protect as much of her modesty as possible. Valter laughed all the harder and tossed a shrieking and crying bag at Erika's feet.
"You don't cooperate Erika. And the minnows die." His horrible laughter echoed as he left the room.
"Erika?" Came a sniveling voice from the bag, "Colm....Colm...COLM!!!" Erika grabbed the bag with her teeth and ripped. Neimi was cradling the thief in her arms, sobbing.
"Colm!" the pink haired archer wept, "Colm!"
"Ne....Neimi..." the boy tried to sit up to wipe away the tears, "Don't...cry..." Erika's heart choked, she wrapped her shackled hands over Neimi and pulled the two of them into a hug.
"I won't let them hurt you." she said softly, "I won't..." The situation seemed more than hopeless. Erika wept bitterly, Seth made it to Ephraim, she told herself. Over and over again in her head she replayed everything about the silver knight, the warmth of his arms as he cradled her to his chest, the ridiculous way his hair stood up in the mornings. The soft tone of his voice as he said her name, the warmth in his eyes as they sparred together. Erika willed herself to remember the touch of his leather gloves as he stroked her cheek, wiping away the tears.
"Oh, Seth..." she wept, eyes closed. In her arms, Neimi was holding an injured Colm, the pink-haired girl sobbing uncontrollably,
"Colm...don't leave me..."
________________________________________________________________
Day after day, Valter would walk into the room, naked and laughing his mad man laugh. He'd unbind Erika's hands and feet and hand her a weapon, never sharp, and "spar" with her. His lance was always sharp, and while he'd never kill her, he would cut her and cut her until she collapsed from exhaustion. Then, he'd grab her roughly by the hair and bite her hard on the neck, causing her to cry out in pain as his hands explored the map of her body, its mountains and its...its valleys. Day after Day, Colm sunk deeper into fever and Neimi wept over him and her princess. Erika did her best to comfort them. She'd smile at Neimi and whisper her hopes that Ephraim, Seth and all their friends would ride in and rescue them. She'd do her best not to let Neimi see her cry, to remain strong for the girl's sake. Yet late at night, when Neimi was finally asleep, Erika would curl up in a ball, holding her legs as close to her bruised and tattered torso, and weep in silence.
The days ran together and became weeks when one day Valter seemed a little more...sadistic than usual. He laughed at her and threw a crown at her feet.
"A gift for my pretty princess." the moonstone howled, "Wear it," Erika gingerly took her late father's crown and cradled it to her. So many memories attached to one hunk of gold. She refused to let the symbol of her country be used in one Valter's sick games.
"Wear it." The man said through gritted teeth.
"And if I don't?" Erika asked, definance singing through her veins. Valter smiled his creepy patronizing grin and gestured at Neimi and Colm in the kennel.
"That's what I like about you Erika. You've spirt and fire. And Give me the best excuses to bleed the minnows." He started to lunge.
"No!" Erika shouted. She put the crown on her head. Valter laughed and pulled her to him.
"That's better." He laughed, pressing her against a wall. Holding her shoulders against the rough stones.
"Where is the bracelet my pretty Wench?" Asked Valter as he thrusted into her, Erika wept for the pain, but did not answer, did not scream.
"Shall I guess?" He asked with that horrible smile of his, thrusting again and grabbing a knife. Erika stared wide-eyed, hoping, hoping that this time he was mad enough to kill her. Instead, he drew the razor sharp dagger along the inside of her thigh.
"S" he carved, hissing the letters, "E-T-H" the name burned on her inner thigh, blood dripping from it onto Valter's feet. But still, Erika held her silence. Even as Valter took her from behind, lying her over a bed of coals. She was silent, but could not stop the tears. That night as she crawled, naked and bleeding towards the kennel she shared with Neimi and Colm, she let them see her weep. Neimi bandaged the wound on the Princess's thigh, but not before Erika pressed her fingers to her lips and then to the name.
"Princess...are you smiling?" Neimi asked, unbelieving.
"Valter thinks he hurt me with this," she gestured towards the name, "But...it has been carved into my very soul." She smiled sadly, "All he has done is gaurentee that I will be Seth's until the day I die."
Another week passed, and Valter seemed to be getting bored. Oh yes, he played the same games with Erika. He praised her unbreakable spirt, but...she could see in his eyes that he was getting angrier. She knew her life was going to end soon...and....she was glad of it. She had no knowledge of the world outside, of Seth and Ephraim. She sat awake, shivering in the cold, Colm and Neimi had snuggled close together, and while they always offered to share the heat with Erika, the princess always declined, they needed each other now. Like she needed Seth.
Valter came in the morning with fire on his heels. Her put the crown on Erika's head as he always did, but this time, he wasn't smiling.
"Where's the bracelet!" he shouted, cutting into Erika's side with a knife. She screamed in pain.
"I ... " Erika tried to say. Valter grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up, throwing her into a wall.
"Where. Is. It." He hissed in a rage.
"I don't know!" she screamed in pain as he cut her.
"HERE IT IS!" A familiar voice shouted. Erika looked down weeping, Valter looked up.
"Ah yes...you again." he laughed, "Figured you be here for your little whor-" his laughter was cut short as the lance buried itself in his head. Erika looked up, a weary smile on her lips. The man was glaring, his entire being tensed with rage. Yet he extended his arms towards Erika, pulling her to him gently and kissing her forehead.
"Seth..." she groaned before passing out in the safety of his arms.
________________________________________________________________
She awoke sometime later in a wood clearing wearing Seth's old gambison. The knight sat beside her weeping.
"Seth?" she whispered.
"I....I failed you..." he choked looking into her blue eyes, "I swore to protect you and I couldn't." She smiled numbly, reaching up, ignoring the searing pain in her arm, to brush a tuft of red hair from his face.
"Seth I..." she whispered again, "You...found me..."
"Erika...I love you. Of course I found you," He kissed her forehead, her lips. Each was soft and tender, as if she was a flower. Not the cold kiss one gives to porcelain and other cold, dead things. He kissed as if she were made of rose petals. He held her as tightly as he dared until Natasha came in to heal the wounds. He refused to leave, even as she undressed cuts in the most private of areas. He wept, for shame, for sorrow, for what Erika suffered. At last Natasha came to the cut on Erika's thigh. As the gauze came off, the wound gushed with blood anew. Seth's name, emblazoned in red on her thigh. The silver knight kissed Erika's face and wept.
"Seth..." she said sleepily, "That one, I don't mind so much. Your name is already carved into my heart and soul. What is a thigh compared to those?" She kissed his cheek and sunk into sleep.
When next she awoke, it was in Seth's tent, on his cot. She could see him sitting by the door, half-asleep, keeping watch. She vaugely remembered Ephraim whispering over her that Seth wouldn't go more than a foot from her. Her heart felt light at this thought.
"Seth..." she croaked. The attempt to sit up brought to much pain, so she remained lying as the knight walked over to her and looked at her with tired worried eyes. With great effort, Erika pulled the blankets off and made room for him. Seth, understanding (for once) removed his armor and lay down beside her. She snuggled against him, but not to tight, for her body ached and her gauze-wrapped torso was tender and sore. Seth held her as close as he dared, and wept into the blue sea of her hair.
"I'm sorry Erika...I'm sorry."
"I'm okay Seth." she replied, running a hand through his red hair. "I'm okay because I knew...everyday I was there, I knew you'd come for me."
"If only I'd been faster he wouldn't have..." She silenced him with a kiss.
"Seth, its okay." she said at last, "What he did to me...it...hurts...physically and otherwise. But he can't hurt me any more."
"Why did it take this for me to realize how much I love you?" he asked, pulling her a little closer. The warmth of her small frail body calming him and the pleasant scents of the herbal healing salve permeating the blankets.
"Because, this time, love was duty Seth." She said softly, drifting into sleep in his arms, "I love you Seth." He kissed her scalp and held her too him. Sorry that he could only kill Valter once.