Thus, Every Day, We Fight
It is never easy. Not for the lowest of the low, nor the highest of the high. Each of us struggles to bring that thing from our ambition and from our minds eye into the world. That unfeeling world will always offer obstacles. To remove those obstacles, we must fight.
There was a moment as Pina took a knee before the Emperor. She could hear the traditional words as he announced her new position as the crown Princess. The crowds, though swollen around them in vast numbers, remained unnaturally still and silent.
She mustered the only response that seemed appropriate, "I will dedicate my body and my soul to the Empire!" In the roar of the trumpets, the doves, the colorful confetti that danced lazily from above, she could almost forget the extraordinary burden she was taking upon herself.
The sound of the people's adulation was so great that it crashed through her. She braced herself, the raw feeling of the cheers moving through her was intoxicating. She resisted these feelings. She'd seen what pride had done to her brother's mind. His mind had been twisted into a thing which threatened to destroy everything she held dear.
The Emperor smiled weakly as the roars erupted around Pina and their eyes met. Any doubts that Pina had, she kept them smothered beneath the surface. She faced her father with a face of determination, and in him, she saw uncharacteristic warmth.
He did much as Emperor. But he is weak now, weaker than perhaps he can ever remember being. He's not afraid, but he knows that he cannot take the empire forward. If he can no longer fight... I must.
Pina had faced many terrors in her life and she knew that she had to move forward. But she could feel the weight on her shoulders. This weight had been given to her by her father. She knew that if she didn't move forward, neither would the empire.
Pina smiled for one last moment to her father before facing the crowd, the thousands of hopeful faces. Many had abandoned homes and family to follow her here, to her exile in italica. She raised her arm to them, gazing out at the crowd with the same steely determination. The chant began like the crash of a great wave, "Pina! Pina! Pina! Pina!"
She let the cheer go for a time before straightening herself in a serious manner. The chant began to scatter as a buzz of voices passed through it making room for her voice to rise above them all.
"The glory is not mine," Pina said firmly, "the glory is ours. It goes to the Empire, to we, the carriers of its legacy. The legacy of the empire lives in millions of hearts, human and non-human, from our world and from another," she said, motioning to the SDF. There were a few cheers but Pina's strong voice cut them out, "That legacy is one of peace and justice, both of which are under dire threat. Offer me your hand that we might restore them!"
If I am to lead, I need the faith of the people.
She walked from the crowd as their cheers continued to wash over her, where her knights stood in their beautiful armor, ceremonial swords held in steady hands.
"Wonderful speech, princess," Bozes said, her face scrunched up.
"If you make me cry in front of all these people, Bozes. I won't forgive you," Pina responded as she fought the growing impulse within herself.
"I'm sorry princess," Bozes responded, wetness glistening in her eyes. Pina reached her arms out and drew all her knights close. She did not shake or shiver. A single tear ran out of one eye.
Pina broke the embrace and drew her sword in a sudden flash or steel, raising it to the sky as her other hand wiped her face clean. "Our work begins now! A new battle on a new field! For the empire!"
"For the empire!"
A terrified scream issued from the crowd. Pina whirled. "WHORE OF THE OTHERWORDLERS!" came a ragged cry. Pina whirled, her knights drawing around her in a shield of flesh of steel as a man, eyes wild with adrenaline threw himself upon them. Above the shoulders of her knights she could see the dagger raised high in the sky.