"Princess Ariana, Sir Cooper left this for you."

The man in armor left a packet on the table next to Ariana's desk. The room well lit By the open window. She nodded to the man before opening it up, It contained a thorough and detailed report on A group of brigands that had been hassling The town recently. Provided by none other than her childhood friend Cooper Dozzi, Or more commonly referred to as Sly. A self proclaimed 'Gentleman Thief' but in reality, he was the biggest oddball she'd ever met. though after the war ran it's course, Cooper lent his 'talents' to the cause as a scout, reporting sightings of brigands and bandits, chasing down more common thieves, and supplying reports on the larger, more organized groups.

The group in question had attacked The town outside the castle twice in the past week, each raid involved fifteen basically trained brigands, Though according to the report, their total numbers were in the lower twenties, meaning some of them had been in both attacks, What really caught Her interest was their Leader, According To Cooper, their Leader was Donavan Gurun. A former Escalean general, Who had abandoned his position, taking a few soldiers with him, and created His group, the "Crimson Marauders". As uncreative as it sounded, they were very threatening. murdering seven Civilians and tearing down buildings that were still in the process of reconstruction. Costing Aronia precious lives, gold, and materials, presumably lost to the fire. On the last page of the report it was documented that their base of operations was hardly three miles away. and they were prepared to strike, when they would was unknown. After closing the report and tucking it onto her shelf, she left, she was already late for the strategy meeting.

Ariana pushed The door to to the meeting room open, The familiar group of faces turned to greet her.

"Princess Ariana, I assume that you will be taking your fathers place once again?"

Ariana's father, the King had participated in the six year war from start to finish. even participating in the attack on The Aerie Fortress, Crohathas capital building, With the Goddess at his side. It had been proven that that was there when The Goddess had fallen. King Zael had been the only soldier to return from The Aerie Fortress, He had even brought back the Very Lance That the Goddess had used in both scripture and reality, Proof of the Goddess's demise.

"Yes, yes I will."

The Man at the front of the table, the general of Aronia's forces, Edo Senforth, nodded to her, one of the kings closest friends.

"while I am on the topic, Is the King faring any better?" Ariana simply shook her head,

"He has made no progress towards recovery..."

Ariana's father had returned alive from the war, which overjoyed the citizens, But rather than take the throne back from his daughter, who at the time was still but a child. He was distant, sorrowful, and dismissive, leaving the few people who had survived the war to look to Ariana for leadership. Which proved difficult for both the people and the frail Child.

"That is unfortunate, But we must continue on without his highness then..."

During the meeting, they discussed several things, how to make up for the lost materials from the raids, Which they more than gladly left to Their convoy manager Thade, last name unknown, he volunteered to make up for the lost lumber on his personal time. Then the meeting turned to what they should do about the Crimson Marauders, This is where the meeting got interesting, debates over letting them be and forcing them out of Aronian territory. After hours of incessant arguing, They came to the conclusion of driving them away forcefully, and to do it before nightfall. Meaning a full mobilization. With that, the meeting ended and Ariana retreated to her quarters. She immediately started to prepare for the march on the marauders, She was mostly equipped when she heard a knock on the door, Before she could respond the door swung open.

"Evening Silver Bell!"

The quirky thief himself had picked her lock and entered once again.

"Sly, what have I told you about asking before entering? what If I wasn't dressed?"

Sly flung himself into her desk chair, helping himself to the papers in the cupboards.

"Well then I'd walk in on something sweet."

Ariana lowered her eyes at Sly in a piercing glare as he went through her desk.

"It was a joke. Ooh, you went through my report, did you like it?"

Ariana snapped her gauntlets on before reaching over his shoulder to grab her glasses.

"I didn't have time to 'enjoy' it, I had to rush to the meeting, which you missed, again... for the record, we're going on the offensive, I'd suggest that instead of bothering me, you go get ready."

Sly, clearly hearing this for the first time scrambled out of the room spewing excuses, once he left, Ariana closed the door, Looking to her window she plucked a flower from the potted plant and placing it just above her ear. A red Annual, her favorite. as she turned to leave she noticed the familiar weight of her fathers rapier at her hip, a gift from before the war. a small spark of sorrow sank into her from the memory.

The army had mobilized in the city square, well, army was an overstatement, there were ten well-trained militants in total. Among the group was Sly, who had somehow managed to change into his cloth armor and join the group in a matter of twenty minutes. and Edo, who was leading the force, and not to his surprise, Ariana was taking her father's place once more on the front lines.

"All present and accounted for general. shall we move out?"

Edo nodded to Thade and pulled his axe off his back, driving his spurs into his steeds side, setting it in motion.

"We shall, we leave through the south entrance. It's a half hour march, get ready everyone. Especially you milady."

Edo glanced at Ariana as he said that. Not surprising in the slightest considering her title. They were halfway to the south entrance when Edo stopped, checking his surroundings quickly he shouted to the group

"They beat us here! To arms!"

Edo rode to the left out of Ariana's field of vision. Then Ariana saw them, The Crimson Marauders were already inside the city and they had them surrounded. Drawing her rapier she followed after Edo, Hoping to air on the side of caution.

Even staying close to Edo, Ariana spilt her fair share of blood during the battle, So far her body count was up to six. Splitting off from Edo She had taken down a myrmidon and a fighter with ease, Her Rapier was still in fine condition. Out of the corner of her eye She saw an archer taking aim at her, she had to quickly leap to the side in order to avoid the oncoming Arrow, and despite her speed, The arrow blew her glasses off base, adjusting them quickly she gave chase to the archer, refusing to give him the space and the time to shoot another arrow. Ariana closed the distance quickly and silenced the Archer. Drawing the rapier out of his body, She felt a slight breeze behind her, her instincts took over and could just barely raise her rapier fast enough to catch the axe before it split her skull. She felt her mind slow down as she took it in. The axe was made of strong and durable steel, something that none of the marauders that she had seen had been in possession of. She ground the gears in her head and she put the pieces together, she had just been put up against the leader of The Marauders himself, Donavan Gurun.

"Would ya look at this? The pretty Princess has come out to play~"

The axe wielder Laughed as he swung his axe at her repeatedly using only his left hand.

"It's a shame I'm going to have to break such a pretty face!"

Ariana was barely able to catch the axe this time, her arms hurt on the impact, and she couldn't react in time when Donavan's right arm swung around and slammed directly into her nose, stumbling back against the beam of a building in the process of reconstruction. Ariana's vision darkened significantly, and her nostrils were filled with an unfamiliar, Metallic scent, Pressing her gauntlet to her face and pulling it away, there was a large red spot sliding down the metal. Blood, Looking up she saw Donavan Swinging the axe sideways at her. she slipped to her Left, the Axe breaking through the beam, Ariana landed in a crouch, but much to her dismay the building above her head collapsed, sending wooden beams and broken fragments of the stone wall above her. She tried standing up but her leg was pinned. Her glasses had fallen off and shattered. Looking up at Donovan she could barely see that had already grabbed his Axe, spinning it around in his hand in a show-boding manner.

"Enjoy your beauty sleep Princess!"

He was just raising the axe over his head when a slip of metal crossed her line of sight, a tiny knife had just slit Donavans cheek, following it's arc, Ariana saw Cooper standing in the entrance to the Alleyway.

"Miserable pests, interfering with our plans!"

Turning his attention to Cooper, he stormed after the thief. Ariana wanted to yell to him, tell him to run and get Edo, that he was outmatched in every way but the blood from her nose fell into her mouth, cutting her off, she had to spit it out, Ariana tried to pull her leg free, but she couldn't get any purchase on it. She turned back to Cooper, no use, everything she tried was hopeless, she looked down at her hands, she tried to grab a stone and throw it, but she froze, unable to move, she couldn't hear anything clearly, and her vision was fading...

"Gerard! Run! You couldn't possibly defeat him! Flee While you can!"

Ariana's vision focused, but in an odd way, she felt like she was spectating an event, she couldn't move, looking forward, she saw a scene very similar to the one she had been in, An older woman with pure silver hair was trapped underneath a crumbled market stall, there was food and jewelery scattered everywhere. She could only move her left arm and it was clear that her right one was broken. In front of her was an equally as old man, wielding a green tome as he dueled with a Sword master,

"Lady Candesca, I cannot! Your life is far more important than mine"

The duel lasted several minutes, but in the end, the sword master landed a slash across the man's chest, presumably Gerard, and he fell to the ground, the blood pooling around his body, The sword master turned to his side and ran when a very large man bearing an Axe across his back entered the frame, instead of giving chase, he stopped and pulled the woman, Candesca, from the rubble, carrying her easily over her shoulder. out of the frame, the woman crying, staring at the corpse of The sage, still bleeding. Then Ariana's vision faded to black and zoned out

Ariana came to and was able to witness the end of the fight between Cooper and Donavan. Cooper was holding his own using his sheer speed, but when Donovan kicked Cooper in the ribs, he collapsed almost immediately, Donovan raised his axe over his head with both hands, ready to finish Cooper. It was almost identical to what she had seen in that vision. Ariana looked away, not wanting to see her best friends death. She cringed, awaiting the sound of metal tearing through flesh. It never came, but what she did hear was the sound of metal on metal, looking up, she expected to see Edo with his own axe confronting Donovan in an even match, but what she saw was even more surprising, the massive form of Donovan, putting every ounce of his strength into a final blow, had been not blocked, but caught, by a young Man of average build, zoning in again, she could see that the man had a light suit of armor, with older looking gauntlets, which must have been made of sturdy material in order to catch the solid steel axe. Looking up she saw that The Man had blue eyes, Just like hers, and looking even higher she saw that the man had dark blue hair, which was unheard of in Aronia, the man pushed back against the axe, the gauntlet making a spark against the steel. The man looked back at Cooper before saying in an unfitting deep voice

"Are you just going to lay there or are you going to get her out!"

Cooper nodded and sprinted over to Ariana, tossing stone and board to the side rapidly, Ariana leapt up as soon as she could move her foot, not minding the dry blood on her lip, she picked up the rapier that had fallen in front of her and ran blindly over to Donovan and the mysterious man. Catching the mans eye he sprung into action, he tore the axe from Donavans hand and tossed it skyward with an underhand toss. When Donavan looked up to try to grab it, The man took a step forward and slammed his hand into Donavan's throat, with enough force to break a wall, sending him stumbling backwards, right into Ariana's path. Ariana then turned on her heel and swiped backwards, the sharp edge of the rapier slipping right through Donavans armor and body, cleaving his heart in twain before they both skidded to a stop. Donavan collapsing to the ground, unmoving. Cooper then ran up to them.

"Ariana are you alright, your nose!"

Before she could respond she noticed that her vision was being seen through a panel of red, their words escaped her as she heard a hollow buzzing, Bloodloss was finally getting the better of her, and it was going to hit her hard. her vision went black and she felt the ground spin, losing her balance, the last thing she felt was the sharp pain of her skull hitting a brick before she faded away.