The Terrible and Fearsome Prince Ephraim
Final warning: This story contains violent imagery. If you mind reading content of this nature, the back button is up there. Otherwise, read on.
"Fall in, recruit!" bellowed Amelia's commanding officer. Amelia had just tripped over and accidentally stabbed her lance deep into the ground.
"Yes, sir! Coming, sir!" She struggled to pull out her weapon. It had really gone in deep.
"I said, fall in, recruit!"
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Amelia cried desperately and continued to grapple with her lance. At this, her superior came over to her roughly forced her into line. "But-but! My lance!"
"I said to fall in, nitwit! If this had happened in battle, do you think you'd stop and risk your life to retrieve a disposable weapon? No, you wouldn't! And if we were in a battle with Prince Ephraim's forces, you'd suffer a fate even worse than death!" With that, he began leading the soldiers onward.
Amelia looked back at her lance, almost glad. It was difficult to carry it around all the time. Then again, the more she did so, the stronger she became. She pondered her mild dilemma for a while, then started to develop curiosity about this 'Prince Ephraim' her superior had mentioned. She began to remember hearing other soldiers talking about him late at night, after she had gone to bed, but couldn't recall any details. Perhaps she would ask about him later. She began to fantasise about who he could be for the rest of the walk; he must be an enemy of Grado, or her superior wouldn't have spoken of him in such a negative way. Perhaps he was a mighty warlock? Maybe a brilliant, yet sadistic, tactician? Or could he just be a small enemy, glorified to frighten recruits such as her with? Before she could come to a conclusion, the group came to a stop and began to organise themselves for the night. Amelia approached their convoy and asked for a new lance, but preferably a lighter one; one that she could actually carry without nearly collapsing under the weight. Thus, she was handed a Slim Lance. She took it in her hands and sighed with contentment at the weight of it. It was still difficult, but it was a more realistic challenge. As she was walking away, she was shocked to find that she'd also taken a Speedwing by mistake. After internally debating about whether to take it back or not, she decided to assume that it had been given to her to help her out.
As she began to look for a spot to rest, she noticed a group of soldiers sitting and talking amongst themselves. She suddenly remembered about Ephraim and resolved to ask the soldiers about it. She put her lance down and walked to them, but found herself struck by a sudden shyness and uncertainty. She began walking around them, avoiding eye contact, thinking of a way to ask them. Fortunately, one of the men noticed her and called,
"Hey! Girl! What are you doing, walking around so nervously? Are you planning to ask one of us out?" The other men seemed to find this very funny and began to chuckle heartily. Amelia blushed, then composed herself and said,
"Actually, I wanted to ask about... Prince Ephraim. I've been hearing about him for a while, but I don't know who he is." The men began to snigger, much to Amelia's dismay. Evidently, everyone knew about Ephraim except her. How humiliating. The same man that had addressed her pulled himself together and said,
"You don't know about the notorious Prince Ephraim? Well, let's see... Where to begin...?" Another soldier picked up on the discussion.
"Well, for starters, he is an enemy of Grado. But you probably worked that out yourself, didn't you?" Amelia was relieved that they didn't think of her as a total idiot and replied,
"Yes. I did. But, what I heard made him seem like some sort of monster. What is he really?" The men chuckled again.
"You haven't heard much at all, have you? Prince Ephraim is quite literally the most deplorable individual you could ever have the misfortune to happen across. When you face him in battle, he will show no mercy. With his lance, he will slay you as soon as he so much as looks at you. To him, you are nothing more than another walking meat sack to be cut down. However, that's only if you're lucky." By this point, Amelia was mildly horrified. Ephraim sounded bad enough already, but it could get worse? How?
"Wh-what do you mean, if you're lucky?" she stammered.
"Well, they say that sometimes pretty young girls catch his eye and he decides that he might like to spare them." Amelia looked at them in confusion. She couldn't quite make the connection that would establish this as a bad thing.
"I don't think she gets it."
"Oh boy... Well, then he takes them prisoner and keeps them as slaves in his palace. It's all richly decorated: silk curtains; beautiful tapestries; exotic flowers everywhere; no pretense of modesty, you know?" Amelia was growing more and more confused. The brief description she'd just been given sounded rather nice and not somewhere she'd mind going. "Of course, these slaves don't get much time to enjoy the scenery. Oh no, it's all work, work, work. And that Ephraim isn't exactly shy about... enjoying his company, if you know what I mean." Amelia was gradually starting to pull together a picture of who Ephraim was. It was putting some strain on her mind though; she'd never thought that such a person or traits could exist prior to now and it was difficult accepting it. The soldier noticed this and said,
"Look, I'm just going to drop all subtlety and tell it to you bluntly. Ephraim takes women from the battlefield as he fancies - soldier or civilian, it doesn't matter – takes them home, forces them to work for him and freely molests them. It's an awful life. But you know what? It gets worse." Amelia gulped. Worse? "He has a twin sister and she's almost as bad as him. He gets most of his sexual favours from her." Amelia gasped. Another horrific concept to add to her mind. "But sometimes, he gets to favouring one particular slave. Focuses his energy on her. Sometimes, he takes that woman into his bedchambers and she is never heard from again." Amelia choked back a sob.
"And-and what happens then?" Amelia asked timidly.
"Well, like I said, no-one really knows what happens in there, but it's not hard to guess." Another soldier launched into his version of the tale,
"What happens is, he takes her onto his bed, tears off the already skimpy clothes, then begins to strip off himself. He's quite strong, so it's no challenge for him for restrain his victim. Then, he begins to brutally rape the poor girl, breaking her limbs if she resists too much and causing as much pain as possible. Sometimes, Eirika (that's his sister, by the way) walks in on the scene and joins in herself. When it's all over and there's orgasms all round...
"Well, if Ephraim is in a good mood, he keeps the girl in his chambers for another time, to be watched and abused by Eirika until he's ready, but when he tires of her, he violently strangles her, taking pleasure in watching her die slowly and painfully. When she's dead, Eirika cuts the flesh from the body, gives it to to the cook and-"
"Enough! The poor girl's had enough!" And it was true. Amelia was reduced to tears by this point. How trivial her past worries seemed now! How could she have been worried about lances and getting in trouble with her superiors when this could happen to her?
"Oh, look... Don't cry. If we go to battle against Ephraim, we promise to protect you." Amelia didn't listen. She turned and fled from the soldiers, sobbing. One of them turned to the one that had given the horrific account and said,
"Nice going, dickhead!"
"What? She needs to know! If she actually comes across Ephraim now, she'll know to fight to the death and not surrender!"
"You didn't have to be so horrible about it though!" The other soldier didn't know how to rebut this, so he kept quiet.
Amelia did not sleep well that night. She was plagued by terrible nightmares in which she would live out the scenario described by the soldiers. It would always end when Ephraim began choking her and she would wake up, certain that she was dead, but always relived to discover that she wasn't. These nightmares continued to haunt her for a month, then finally receded from her sleeping hours. Gradually, thoughts of the prince also left her daily consciousness. Eventually, she was able to get on with her day-to-day activities in peace. After the incident, she became particularly attentive and dedicated to her tasks. No-one, apart from the men who told her the story, had any idea as to why she suddenly improved herself, mostly because no-one cared; she was just a lowly recruit.
One day, she was deployed to Fort Rigwald. She was feeling very confident and was certain that she would rise through the ranks fairly quickly. However, that same day, an assault on the fort began and her first encounter with her new commander, Gheb, fixed those assurances.
"Who do you think you are, you piece of trash?" "Why I oughta-!" "Get you to the frontline, wench!"
Amelia realised that Grado wasn't perfect either. Deciding that she would prefer to keep out of trouble for now, she stuck with a soldier that was kind of nice to her and followed him to the field. Soon enough, she saw that the leader of the attack was a man with blue hair. As he approached her, she was struck by a desire to do a service to her country. However, to her surprise, the man stopped and said,
"What's this? You're just a child. What are you doing here?" Amelia went red and snapped,
"Shut up! Prepare to die, Frelian dog!" Annoyingly enough, the man merely said,
"Now, now. Relax. I'm Prince Ephraim of Renais. What's your name?" At this, Amelia went white. "If you surrender, you needn't be harmed. Come with me." Amelia shook her head and snarled.
"No! I'd sooner die! You won't take me like all the other girls you've taken! I won't go and work in your palace! I won't-! I won't-!" Amelia couldn't bring herself to mention the horrible fate that she knew she might get.
"What are you talking about?"
"Quit the act! Everyone knows about the evil Prince Ephraim! You capture women and keep them as palace slaves, you hurt them and-and-and you get sexual pleasure from your sister and-and you might rape me and-and... Ohh!" Ephraim just looked at her blankly. Then, he said,
"I don't know what you're talking about. Well, if you want to live, come with me. Otherwise, try and explain to your fellow soldiers why you spoke with me and lived." With that, he turned his attention back to the battle at hand.
"But-but! Ohh... What should I do?" Amelia pondered, then came to the conclusion that something was wrong here. Ephraim was supposed to be a bloodthirsty, lustful monster. Could everyone have been mistaken? Then, another idea occurred to her. Maybe it wasn't even Ephraim! He could just be lying to upset her! Either way, she decided, it couldn't hurt to follow this man. Clutching her lance tightly, she ran off to try and do something useful.
After a long battle, the attack on Fort Rigwald ended. Ephraim was taken aside by a man with red hair to discuss things that Amelia had no interest in. However, she hung around, waiting for an opportunity to speak with him in private. Eventually, the two men finished their talk and began to go their separate ways. Amelia rushed up to Ephraim and demanded his attention, which she got.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Are you really Prince Ephraim?" Amelia inquired.
"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well... I heard things about you and... they weren't very nice... but you seem to be a good person..." Amelia began to feel shame at having believed the horrible stories at all, let alone losing sleep over them.
"What sort of things did you hear?" Amelia took a deep breath and began to recite what she had heard so long ago. Ephraim listened intently, although she noticed a slight smile when she mentioned sexual relations between him and his sister, which then vanished as she proceeded with the story. Ultimately, Amelia wasn't sure if he was unfazed by it or if he was just hiding his horror. When she finished, she quickly and ashamedly admitted her stress over it. Ephraim stood there pondering for a brief moment, then said,
"Well, now you know that I'm not really like that, so therefore, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, I think you'll be safer with me than the Grado Empire. Now, come along. We don't have time to waste. I really must speak with General Duessel." Amelia's eyes lit up at the mention of Duessel, but she said nothing. As she followed Ephraim from the fort, she began to forget that she was ever frightened of this man.