Aelia flew for a short while until she was over the forest of Crell Monferaigne, looking down into the trees. From up in the sky, nothing suspicious seemed to be going on…except for foul-smelling smoke from the northeast.
She cringed at the memory of the flames on her skin. She wondered if someone had burnt at the stake; either way, that smell meant someone had suffered horribly. Maybe it was a dead body that burned, she thought. You felt the burning. Don't delude yourself. She waited a few moments for the dread to pass, which it did rather quickly. Lenneth had said it would be difficult, but she could do it. Not liking how this recruitment was turning out so far, she descended into the woods and felt herself synchronize with other human beings once again.
What can I do? How can I help my sister with this loss? The young woman, dressed in black, stared at her crying twin helplessly. "Lillium," she said softly.
Lillium looked up, her long hair falling over her face. "Sissher? I want Mommy and Daddy."
"I'm sorry." Trillium sat down, stroking Lillium's hair. "I'm sorry, but I can't bring them back." She placed a hand on the plain wooden caskets, sealed to prevent anyone from looking at the ruined remains inside. "I wish I could."
Their family had lived in a tiny village in the outskirts of Bede Manor, one of many manors in Crell Monferaigne. Trillium had taken Lillium out into the woods, as she normally did on her free weekends to give their mother a break and give the curious Lillium an idea of what her work was like. Caring for Lillium wasn't an easy task. The girl had toppled a large shelf over on herself when they were around three; her survival had been miraculous, but the shelf had done its damage. To this day, at twenty years old, she was mentally a toddler and had difficulty with a lot of basic tasks. A dumb person being hit in the head as a child was something a lot of folks made jokes about, but Trillium knew exactly what the injury could do.
They had camped out several miles away from home; Lillium loved to camp out. They'd made a campfire and sang dopey songs and cooked their dinner over the fire, and spent the night being merry and carefree, and had fallen asleep soon after the sun had set. The next morning, they had returned to find their entire village burned to the ground, their neighbors and friends slaughtered. Trillium had led Lillium through the wreckage with her eyes covered, hoping against hope that their parents had made it. There was nothing left of their home but smoldering framework, and Trillium had later found their mother's body in the remains of their house. Their father was out back, in their small garden. He had still been alive. He had told them what happened, and how he'd tried to defend their home and mother and failed them. He had fought to stay alive until they returned. He had died less than five minutes after their return.
And now they sat beside their parents' caskets, which had been decorated with flowers and were laid next to the hole they would be put into. The few who had survived the attack were with them, mourning over the caskets of their own families. The sun shone absurdly bright and cheerily over the ashes and debris of their village.
"Is we can see them?" Lillium asked.
"No," Trillium said. "They died, Lillium." She had explained it in as simple terms as possible. When someone died, they were gone forever. When someone died, you would never see them again. Lillium didn't understand, but that was as simple as she could make it.
"But…but who take care of me?" Lillium asked.
Trillium stared blankly at her sister. Caring for Lillium would be a full-time job, possibly more difficult and trying than any mercenary's work. Mercenary's work. I probably won't be doing that any more, either. But, she needed to be cared for. She couldn't care for herself, and Trillium couldn't stand to just shove her off on someone else, not after Lillium had become so needy and attached to her. "I won't let anything happen to you," Trillium assured her, kneeling next to her sister. "I'll take care of you. You'll be fine, I promise."
Lillium smiled, tears still pouring from her eyes, and hugged Trillium. "Really? Thankie! I love sissher! Sissher love me please? And we love each other together?"
Trillium hugged her back, beginning to cry again, for her sister and her parents, but also for herself. I can do this. It's not like I've never cared for her before. "I love you. Of course I love you. Everything's going to be okay, that's a promise…"
"Camping! We go out in woods and sleep together!" A bright-faced Lillium jumped up and down joyfully.
Trillium, who had aged nearly five years in only one, nodded wearily. "We need to go get supplies. I hear Derian grew a lot of apples this year."
"Tashy apples?" her sister asked happily.
"Yes, tasty apples."
"Tashy apples!" Lillium bounced around the room, her long hair flying everywhere. It smacked Trillium in the hip and got tangled up in her sword hilt. Lillium whined when it pulled.
"Right." Trillium untangled the long hair from her blade irritably. Her patience was wearing thin. Lately, it seemed Lillium was trying to annoy her. That's not true, you're just getting more annoyed at the same things she's always done. "Let's go."
"Okay!" Lillium followed her out the door. "Bright sun. Ow. Owwwwww."
Trillium sighed at the sky. It was a gorgeous, warm day with a sky full of puffy white clouds. They made their way into town as Lillium babbled nonsensically about tasty apples and the Duchess Masilia, who she always did her best to emulate. She even kept her hair long, all the way down to her knees. It was cute sometimes, but it got annoying whenever Lillium tried to imitate the speech of the nobility.
Lillium squealed when she saw Derian's ramshackle cart, and ran ahead of Trillium. "Tashy apples! Tashy tashy tashy tashyyyy!"
Trillium sighed and chased after her. The cart was covered with the old canopy his wife had fixed with patches; cute patches featuring embroidered mice in little dresses that his daughter had sewn into them. The twins had become frequent customers after they had moved here a year and a half ago. Lillium loved the mouse patches. Derian hated them, but he put up with them because it was his daughter's work. He'd once torn one off to give to Lillium, and she kept it in her pocket, occasionally taking it out and using it as a doll.
"Trillium! I haven't seen you in a while," Derian greeted, squinting in the sun. His son, a boy of around eight, finished filling a sack of apples for another customer. "And Lillium. My sweet, darling Lillium. How are you today?"
"Owwwwww, suuuuun." She swatted dramatically at the air. "Owwwwwwwwwwww—"
"Enough,Lillium!" Trillium snapped. Lillium pouted and lowered her face, making puppy eyes at her sister. Trillium turned away. "We've been trying to eat from the garden. I can't do much mercenary work anymore and I've been working odd jobs here and there. The generosity of our neighbors had kept us alive so far."
"Your hair's gotten longer, Lillium. It looks just beee-yootiful," Derian declared. Trillium, peeved at being ignored, placed a hand on her hip. Lillium giggled at his voice. "You take good care of it."
"Is long and pretty, jush like the bee-yootiful Duchess!" Lillium cried. "I bee-yootiful like the Duchess?"
"You arebeeee-YOOOtiful, just like the Duchess!" Derian replied, pinching her nose. She squealed in delight.
"Yes. Derian, how are the apples this year?" Trillium asked. "We were looking to buy some. I'm going to take her out for a stay in the forest; I think it will do her good and get some of this energy out." She gestures to Lillium, who was twirling in circles and fanning her hair at everyone who passed by.
"Ah, I see. They're good this year, big and juicy. Are you sure you're wanting to go out into the woods, though? What if you meet Eldaborg troops?"
Trillium raised a brow. "But I thought there hadn't been any sightings lately."
"I wouldn't trust that, but it's your choice. How many apples would you like?"
"Two pecks ought to be good. Lillium eats them quickly enough." Derian started bagging the applies. "So, is there any news on the war? We won't be going that far out and we certainly won't leave the bounds of the country," Trillium asked.
"Not that I've heard," Derian said. "No scouts have been spotted or anything like that. There's plenty of undetermined rumours flying about, though."
"Oh?"
"Mostly stuff about Commander Ezra. Bastard. Someone said he's seeking one of our noblewoman to force into marriage."
"Mah-ridge?" Lillium asked. "Pretty brides in white dresses. I be a bride one day?" she asked of Trillium.
Trillium snorted. No you won't. Nobody wants an idiot for a bride. No, I shouldn't think such things. That's mean. Her thoughts took on Lillium's voice. Meeeaaan. "You never know, you might be one day."
"Not for peace, of course, but as a means to obtain more land and make his 'War on the Goddess-Worshippers' easier. As if taking Lusannia wasn't enough. Hey, boy, could you help that lady over there?" Derian finished bagging the apples; his son began dealing with the other customer. "What he did to those poor people over there was awful. Lady Pheriba's daughters are understandably frightened and—according to my customers—have taken to wearing chastity belts. One man even said he was planning to murder Duke Larnell and force the Duchess into marriage, like he hasn't done enough to her."
Trillium cringed. She remembered the story; it had spread like a plague over the entire city in less than a day. The Commander had snuck into the city and had taken the Duchess for eight days and tortured her to the brink of death. He'd finally returned her to her father, with her eyes burned out. "I was mostly wondering if any of their scouts or bands of them had been seen," Trillium said. "I'm taking Lillium out into the wilderness for a day or so. Let her climb some trees. Get some exercise, you know. Both of us have been going stir crazy."
"I see. I haven't heard anything except those rumors. And, of course, the rumor that the Commander's secretly King Wendell's Man-Queen and that's how he keeps getting his way over in heathenland." Derian and the other customer snickered.
"Thank you, Derian, we'll be going now," Trillium said, placing the coins in Derian's hand and tugging on her sister's hand.
"Alright, you guys have a good trip. And take care of that hair, miss Beee-yooootiful!"
"Bye-byyye!" Lillium called. She smiled and tapped Trillium on the shoulder. "Sissher."
"What is it, Lillium?" Trillium asked impatiently.
"Whassa Man-queen?"
"It's…" She paused. She wasn't in the mood to explain such terms, and Lillium wouldn't understand, anyway. She wished Derian had kept his mouth shut. "It's what foreigners in Eldaborg call their king."
"King?"
"Yes. King."
"But…but…Derry said King Wendell was a king, right?"
You couldn't just conveniently forget that bit, could you? "It's like…" Trillium sighed, She wished Derian had just kept his mouth closed. "…it's like a king but not quite. Right below a king. Like a prince."
"Commander Ezra is Prince Man-Queen?"
"Sure." Just shut up, please.
"And Wendell's Man-Queen too?"
"Yes, now stop talking about it."
"Oh." She toyed with her hair. "Sissher?"
"What?!" Trillium snapped.
Uh, um." Lillium lowered her head and muttered something inaudibly.
"What?"
"Is I please have an apple please?" she asked quickly.
"Yeah, here you go." Trillium handed one of the apples she'd just bought to Lillium. She smiled.
"You're welcome," Lillium said.
"No problem," Trillium responded absently.
"You're…" Lillium paused as she realized her mistake. "I mean thank you before. Say please, then thank you, then you're welcome. Right, sissher?"
"Yeah."
"Right."
"Right," Trillium said shortly.
"What?" The loud cry came from a woman next to them. Lillium jumped, and nearly dropped her apple. "Are you serious?"
"I am!" An older woman replied. Trillium recognized them as the two biggest town gossips. Almost everything they said was grossly exaggerated or untrue. "She hasn't announced it yet, but everyone around the castle's pretty certain a baby's on the way."
"Come on, Lillium," Trillium said.
"Babyyy?" Lillium cooed. "You have baby? I see babyyyy?"
"Not me, the Queen! Queen Ulrika's pregnant!" the younger woman cried. "They suspect the baby belongs to the jailer."
"Pregnant? That means baby, right, Sissher? Babyyyyyy!" Lillium squealed. "Awwwww, babyyyyy. Awwwww."
Trillium sighed. "Yes, Lillium, now—"
"See baby? Babies cute with soft skin," Lillium babbled. She petted the palm of her hand. "We see baby soon, right? Awwwwww!"
"Is this a definite thing?" Trillium asked. "Or just something some soldiers with nothing better to do cooked up?"
"No, the people around the castle have been saying she's got that look," the old woman said. "You know, puffy face, and her clothes are fitting a little tight lately—"
"Little haaands, and little feeeeeet, and then noooooses and say goo goo with diapers! Awwwww."
"Hush, will you?" Trillium snapped. Lillium pouted. "I doubt the kid belongs to Clement, if there is a kid."
"It does! In a few decade's time, this country will be destroyed," the old woman said angrily. "Their Majesties Jestina and Halkard ought to have taken more care in raising the future Queen and maybe she wouldn't be such a trollop!"
"Let's go, we don't need to listen to these biddies insult Her Majesty," Trillium said.
"Tuh-rollipop? The queen is…the queen is…" Lillium paused for a moment. "The queen is Ul-reek-a, not lollipop!"
"She's right. You shouldn't say such things about Her Majesty," the young woman whispered.
"Bah! Biddy indeed. I speak the truth! And to be the child of the jailer! Imagine how he'll feel, being the child of a trollop and a murderer!"
"Come on, Lillium. You don't need to be hearing this." Trillium pulled on Lillium's hand.
"Baby?"
"No, there's no baby here," Trillium sighed, exhausted.
"Queen is Ul-reeeeeka, not lollipop, right, sissher?" Lillium asked.
"Right. We don't call people trollops or lollipops."
"Is it make feelings hurt?"
"Yes. It's a bad word."
"Like fuck?" Lillium asked.
Trillium turned and glared at her. Lillium covered her mouth with her hands and mumbled an apology. "Yes, like…that word. Where did you hear that word, anyway?"
She thought about it. "No."
"No what?"
"No, we don' say those words." Her eyes teared up. "They bad words and make feelings hurt. I don't want you be mad at me."
"No, we don't say those words, but where did you hear it?"
"Ummm. Ummmmmmmm. Uh." She kicked guiltily at the ground and licked what remained of the apple. "Aaahhhnnnaaaaahhh..."
Trillium rolled her eyes. "Whatever, nevermind. Don't say it again."
"I'm sorry," she said dejectedly. She took a bite of her apple. "Mmmmmmm, yummy yummy in my tummy! Owmmmmmmm! Yummmmmmmmmm! Mmmmmmmmm-MMM!" She bounced happily.
"LIL-LI-UM!" Trillium yelled. "What have I told you about those stupid noises?! Knock it off!"
Lillium pouted, but took another bite of her apple, quietly.
"You are trying my patience today! You're doing things you know make me mad! You'd better stop it, or I'm going to forget about taking you out and you can sit in the house and stay bored!"
"Noooooo!" Lillium whined. "Noooooo, sissher!" She bounced agitatedly. "No, want to go camping together!"
"Then behave! Do you understand me? Behave!"
"Yes, sissher," Lillium said sadly.
"Now let's go, we still need to gather our tools for tonight." Trillium said. Annoyed, she walked quickly back to the house, ignoring her sister's breathless, tired pleas for her to slow down.
Trillium woke up to a tickle on her nose. Groggily, she tried to brush it away. It came back.
"Buhfly! Buhfly!"
Lillium's squealing jolted her awake. She opened her eyes, and to her annoyance, found a lock of long brown hair dangling in her face. Oh, what a way to wake up.
"Sissher 'wake? Look at buhfly! Look at buhfly, sissher! Look at buhfly! Look!" Trillium looked up to see Lillium hanging over an old, gnarled tree trunk, watching a red butterfly flutter gently in the air. Black and blue spots graced the tips of the wings. Lillium stared at it, hypnotized. "Colors. Pretty." The butterfly fluttered away. Lillium cried out and chased after it, falling over the log with a loud squeal on top of her sister. "Eeee! Sorry, sorry!"
"You putz!" Trillium cried, throwing the girl off of her. Lillium, not caring about her angry twin, looked around frantically for the butterfly. She stood up when she spotted it sitting on a small white flower.
"Buhflyyyy!" she said, running after the butterfly and crouching down to stare at it. Sensing the girl's presence, the insect took flight again, quickly flying away into the woods. Lillium eagerly chased after it.
"Don't go too far!" Trillium cried after her. Lillium disappeared from sight. Trillium sighed and tossed her blanket aside, rubbing her eyes and looking into the sky. A few clouds drifted overhead, blocking out the sun for a few seconds before it reappeared and shone warmly on her face.
Such a nice day out, she thought, smiling. She stretched leisurely and yawned. She could hear her sister's delighted giggles from somewhere to her right. I guess I have to follow her now.
She looked at the stream they had camped next to, somewhat annoyed. I wish we could enjoy this all like normal people. Suddenly, one of Lillium's fabric-tipped arrows flew by, not two feet from her. "Lillium! Watch where you shoot!"
"Sorry, sorry!" A neighbor had given her a weak child's toy bow as a present after their parents' death. Now I be sol-der, like my sissher, Lillium had cried upon receiving it. Trillium had taught her to use it, in the hopes that it would improve her focus. She wasn't good at it, despite Trillium's attempts to teach her how to aim, but she enjoyed watching the arrows fly. Trillium had made her arrows tipped with little wool-filled balls to prevent injury. Another arrow hit a tree ten or so feet away and bounced harmlessly off. Lillium squealed. "I hit the tree! Look, sissher, I hit the tree! I hit the tree!"
"Okay, Lillium," Trillium snapped. "There are a thousand trees, it's not that big of an accomplishment."
"But that tree, I wanted to aim that tree. Sissher proud?"
Trillium ignored her and shut her eyes again. She was so exhausted lately, having to care for Lillium constantly. I wish our parents were still alive. She almost missed her mercenary work. With the war going on with Eldaborg, she supposed she was better off. Entire battalions were being wiped out. If I had died before the attack on the village, Lillium would have been dead, too. She absently noted Lillium's squealing in the distance.
"Lillium, get back here!" Trillium called tiredly.
She heard Lillium run back to the camp and climb back on top of the log. Lillium sat down and bounced happily and started singing a song Trillium had since come to regret teaching her. "I love my sis-sher, my sis-sher loves me! And we love each other hap-pil-y!"
I am so sick of hearing that song, Trillium thought tiredly. She tried to ignore Lillium's bouncing and singing.
"And we love each other hap-pil-y!" After a minute or two of bouncing. There was a loud crack from the tree Lillium sat on. Trillium jumped up, startled."Sissher! I fall!" Trillium looked up just in time to see the log that Lillium was on land right on her head. She heard Lillium frantically screaming her name, and then the world went dark.
Lillium gasped. "Sissher? Sissher?" Trillium wasn't moving. Lillium slowly pushed the log off of her chest, grunting with effort. It finally fell to the side. "Sissher! Sissher, wake up!" Lillium shook Trillium's shoulders. "Sissher!"
She glanced around the forest desparately. She had to get help. Yes, need to find help. I no good for help, need good help. Go to town! She tried to pick up Trillium, but the unconscious woman was too heavy. I can't leave sissher here. What if sissher dead? What if she die, like Mommy and Daddy?
Lillium started to panic. "No! Sissher can't die! No die!" She shook Trillium's shoulders harder. "Wake uuuup!" It was no use. If Sissher die, then I don't see her no more! Sobbing hysterically, she took off into the woods. "Sissher can't die! Help! Sissher hurt! Help!"
"Lillium!"
Trillium ran through the woods, agitated and frightened and neck aching something awful. She had woken up, the beautiful day already having started to disappear. More importantly, though, Lillium had disappeared. She had left a pretty clear trail of broken sproutlings and shifted leaves, but she was still long gone. Her sister had probably thought her dead had run off to look for help.
The dark will come soon, and the trail will be difficult to follow. Trillium swallowed heavily. Her sister's trail was already becoming less visible in the growing darkness. She ran another few yards, her short hair whipping in the chilly wind, and called to her sister again. A growl behind her caught her attention. She spun around to find some odd creature of the night, mouth foaming and eyes burning, readying to jump.
She clumsily yanked out her sword and swung at the beast just as it leapt, slicing it in two.
Lillium doesn't stand a chance against these things, Trillium thought. I need to find her, or she's going to die.
Resuming her search, she left the dead creature behind and ran into the darkness.
"Help, my sissher gonna die! Someone, help!"
Lillium had been crying that same sentence over and over for hours. "Sissher can't die. Can't die. I don't see no more if she die." She had to find someone who could help Trillium.
She wasn't sure how long she had been searching for help, but the sun was just starting to set. Her emotions had skewed her already poor sense of time. She ran through the woods, her reddish-brown cotton dress torn from the snagging branches and brambles that grew along the forest floor. Finally, she saw lights up ahead. She heard people talking. Laughing. Shouting.
She headed towards the sights and sounds. Light and laughing meant people. They might be able to help her find and help her sister; she raced into the camp, startling several of the men who were gathered around the roaring fire.
"Whoa!"
"Hey, watch it, ya make me drop mah mandrake."
"You'd be better off without it!"
"Sorry, sorry," Lillium said, looking at the group. They appeared to be soldiers. Good soldiers. "Soldiers!" She jumped up and down excitedly. "Soldiers helps me save sissher and help me! Sissher no die!" Soldiers good, soldiers help me help sissher.
"Who is Muspel are you?" a blond man asked, looking at the girl.
"Sissher!" Lillium cried frantically. "Sissher hurt bad by log! Help!"
"Scissors?" cried the one who had yelled about mandrake. "That's a funny name. Innit, Desmond?" He grabbed the arm of the man next to him and shook it furiously.
"Stop acting like a fool, Marius," the man called Desmond snapped, trying to wrench Marius off of his arm. "I know mandrake doesn't affect you that badly, so stop pretending."
"Shut up, I can't hear her," the blond man said, who stood up to speak to her. She shrunk away; he was gigantic, and towered over her. "Now, what's wrong?"
"Sissher! Sissher hurt and losh!" she cried, looking up at him. If only she could make them understand her.
"Your sister's lost?" he asked. The light from the flames flickered against his armor and hair.
She shook her head frantically. "No, sissher hurt, and I losh my sissher and now I losh, can't find sissher, help!"
"Hey Ezra, when did you learn to speak retard?" another man asked. Desmond and a couple of other men laughed.
Marius looked confused, then said, "Hey, that's not nice."
Ezra, Ezra… Lillium grinned. Ezra was the Eldaborg Man-Queen! "Man-Queen Ezra!" She cried. She jumped up and down happily. The whole group giggled quietly. She giggled with them, until she noticed that Ezra was glaring at her. "Right?"
"Excuse me?" He stood and moved closer to her.
She smiled up at him and bowed. "Missher Commander Prince Man-Queen King sir of Edelburg! Right."
Ezra stared at her for a few seconds. "Are you mocking me?" There were barely-stifled laughs from the rest of the group. A sharp glare ended the giggles.
"Man-queen of the scissors, Comman-dah!" Marius babbled and cackled insanely. Desmond covered Marius's mouth and chastised him again. Marius shoved his hand away and cackled obnoxiously in Desmond's face, and everyone started laughing again.
She beamed up at Ezra, pleased at having remembered his title. "Right. You King Wendell's man-queen, right?" She nodded. "Right. My sissher says so." Her words silenced the laughter of the men around the fire. They stared at her, aghast. Lillium shrunk away. "Um, right?"
Ezra gaped at her, wide-eyed, as if not believing what he was hearing. Finally, he narrowed his eyes. "What are you trying to say about his Majesty? Who told you that?!"
"Um. Uhh."
"Get out of my sight, right now." He turned away and sat back down, gazing into the fire.
Lillium cried out in anger and disbelief. "But Man-Queen sir—"
"I said get out of my sight, idiot." His voice had dropped dangerously low. "Leave, before I lose my patience."
"I not an idiot!" Lillium cried. "Sissher says I not an idiot!"
"Ezra, she's just--" The man named Ian was cut off by an angry glare from the Commander. The desperate Lillium, tears streaming from her eyes, sobs escaping her throat, ran to Desmond.
"Please! Help!"
"No can do. I'm not stupid enough to go against the commander, and what you just said was slanderous."
She ran to Marius, increasingly desperate. "Soldiers supposed to be good. I need to save sissher! Please help me help sissher please!"
"I'll help you!" said Ian, whose entire body was covered in all sorts of weaponry. Lillium smiled when he stood up. "I can't stand to see such a beautiful lady in such agony—"
"Ian," Ezra snapped, "if you so much as step out of this circle, I will consider it treason, and Crell Monferaigne's army will find your burnt head hanging from a tree. Now sit down!"
Ian gulped, hesitated, then sat back down, grumbling. Lillium pleaded with him. He shook his head. She begged several others for help, finally turning back to Ezra. He was no longer looking at her, his eyes trained on the flames.
"Stop staring at me and leave!" Ezra growled. The small fire grew dangerously large. Lillium screamed. Ezra cringed, and she screamed again. He snarled and stood up and approached her. "Enough of that noise. Get out of here now or I'll kill you."
"Oh, Ezra, calm down," Marius snapped, suddenly seeming sober.
"You be quiet!"
"Good Lord of Muspelheim, I can't watch this." Marius stood and wandered into the woods, talking long drags on his pipe and singing loudly.
"Nooooo! Please, help, help me, Man-Queen…" Lillium pleaded once more. "Can't leave sissher—"
He smacked her across the face, and she cried out, surprised. "You've said that phrase one too many times, you little bitch. I suppose you want to die."
His large hand grasped her shoulder; her dress burned and smoldered where he touched her. She screamed again and shook her head. No, she didn't want to die. Her parents had died and now she couldn't see them anymore; she wouldn't be able to see Trillium, either. "Noooo, don't wanna die."
"Oh, Ezra, don't, she didn't mean any harm—" Desmond said softly.
"Be quiet!" Ezra snapped. Desmond sighed and covered his eyes. Ezra threw her to the ground and picked up an axe that was leaning against a tree, then started toward Lillium.
"No, no," Lillium pleaded; she scrambled along the ground in panic and screamed. "Lemme go! Lemme gooo!I want sissher…I want her help me! Help me, sissher!"
"Shut up about your sister!" he roared. He raised the axe over his head and brought it down on her head, and after a brief burst of light, she saw no more.
Trillium had been running for nearly three hours. She had presumed that Lillium had probably taken a straight path through the forest; the occasional broken branch or sapling caught by the moonlight proved her right.
"Lillium! Lillium!" Trillium cupped her hands over her mouth and went to yell again, but paused. "Oh, thank the Goddess!" She saw a campfire glowing beyond the trees. She ran towards the light. She entered the clearing, and found two men sitting by the campfire. "Please! You need to help me! Did my sister come through here? I can't find—" her voice caught. The armor they wore, and the red, blue and gold beads they wore…those were Eldaborg's colors. She took a couple of steps back.
"Oh, not again…" one of them muttered, putting his face in his hands. He was covered in weaponry, half of which a kid his age probably had no clue how to use.
"I suggest you leave," the man next to him said. "I won't hurt you, but others will if they see you."
She couldn't leave yet. She needed to know if they'd seen her. "Have you seen her? Have you…seen…" she noticed something in the flames, splintered and blackened. A human skeleton. Oh Goddess, what savages, she thought frantically. It couldn't be…it just couldn't be…
"I think that's her," The second man pointed into the flames, at the skeleton.
"N…no. It can't be," Trillium argued. "Have you seen her? Honestly?"
"Did she have long hair? Talk like a child?"
"Yes! She's been—"
The walking armory gestured at the flames. Trillium's heart sank. "You must be the 'sissher' she was talking about. She came here looking for help, but…well, she called the Commander a man-queen. Five times. I counted. You know what that means, right?"
"She even spouted something about him being the King's man-queen," the other said. "That's what made him so mad, I think, not that it takes much. The king only just turned fifteen and is unwed, you don't spread rumors like that. Not only is it slanderous, but the Commander would be in pretty deep shit if a rumor spread in Eldaborg and people started believing it."
"Oh, Goddess, no. No, she didn't," Trillium cried, horrified. Of all the people she could have run into, why did it have to be Eldaborg and their demonic commander? If that was the case, then the skull in the flames was, without a doubt…
This is my fault. This is my fault, I told her it meant something perfectly innocent.
"If it helps, her death was quick," the man said.
"I tried to help her, but…well, I tried. She was really pretty. You're certainly pretty, too." The boy smiled and flipped his hair.
"Knock it off, dumbshit Ian, her sister just died!" the other man snapped, smacking at him. Ian said something angrily. The two got into a fight, but Trillium didn't care. She fell to her knees, staring into the crackling flames, watching them dance in and out of her dead sister's eye sockets, remembering the promise she'd made to Lillium.
"Everything's going to be okay, that's a promise…"
She thought back on that promise she had made to her sister, now broken; she thought of Lillium's happy voice, singing that song that Trillium had come to hate, and she began to cry. "Goddess, no. No…" her eyes turned toward the two men, who were wrestling angrily on the ground. They stopped and looked at her as she approached them. "How could you let him do this? How could you? I promised her…You savages!" she stood up, drawing her sword. They jumped up and held up their hands. "You cowardly excuses for human beings! She was helpless! How could you let him kill her?!"
"H-hey, man…er, girl…" Ian cried, waving his hands frantically. "We couldn't stop him!"
"Why?" she demanded. They didn't answer. She shook the man called Ian by the shoulders. "Why couldn't you, you cowards?!" she screamed, trying to get an answer. "Tell me where he is! I'll find him and cut out his—" She stopped. They weren't looking at her anymore, but at something behind her. She spun around, and stared in horror at the blond man behind her as he elbowed her in the chest, hard; she dropped her sword, and he grabbed her by the hair and lifted her off the ground, so that they were face to face.
"Cut out his what?" he mocked. Trillium just sputtered and wheezed incoherently. He narrowed his eyes, and she smelled burning hair—her hair, she realized. She panicked and weakly tried to punch him, and he grabbed her arms instead. Her shirt smoldered where he touched it. She kicked at him, but he pinned her down, and she was rendered completely immobile. She shut her eyes and turned away, remembering the Duchess's story. "You think you can just run into our camp and start threatening me? I am sick of you and your sister. You can join her now." He lifted her off the ground and tossed her into the fire. She screeched and tried to scramble out of it, but a heavy boot held her in place, keeping her from escaping…
After an agonizing minute, the pain was gone. The heat faded, and the cool night air brushed against the sisters' skin. Lillium and Trillium, united in death, stood before the goddess, both of them whole once again.
Lillium played with her hair, felt her face, and played with her hair some more, then smiled. She looked at Aelia, and her smile grew wider.
"You a Goddess?" asked Lillium.
Aelia, never having been called a Goddess before, smiled. "I suppose I am, sort of."
"Goddess!" Lillium chirped. "Goddess! You help me save my sissher!"
Trillium smiled sadly. "Lillium, we're dead. Both of us."
Lillium looked over her shoulder at the sound of Trillium's voice, and, seeing her sister behind her, squealed excitedly. "Sissher! Man-Queen said I was gonna die, but I not died because sissher here!"
"No, Lillium, both of us died."
"We died?"
"Yes."
She squealed again. "Then we see Mommy and Daddy! Mommy and Daddy died, too! Mommy and Daddy!" She hopped excitedly over to Aelia. "I miss Mommy and Daddy. I see them?"
"I don't think we're going to see them. Not right now. Maybe later," Trillium said. She turned toward Aelia. "May I have your name?"
"My name is Aelia."
"The Einherjar?" Trillium asked.
"The same," the Valkyrie replied. "But the Allmother has selected me as a replacement Valkyrie of sorts, and I've selected you--both of you--to join me."
"A Valkyrie?" Trillium gasped. "But…but Ragnarok already happened, didn't it? Don't take me wrong, we are honored, but I thought there would be no more use for warriors in Asgard…"
Aelia smiled. "I don't know all the details, but the short version is, the goddess Hel has formed an army and is preparing to take Asgard. We need warriors to help us in this battle."
"I see," Trillium said, shaking her brown locks out of her face. "And you've chosen us…" she smiled at her sister. "…both of us."
Lillium smiled. "I a hero! Go to Valla with sissher together!" She laughed happily and jumped up and down. Trillium laughed.
Aelia chuckled. "I couldn't separate you two, not after…" she cringed, and turned away from the two. "Not after that irrational act of cruelty."
"Thank you," Trillium said, tears building in her eyes. "We're so close. I've been caring for her, since our parents…" She looked at Lillium, who appeared to be thinking hard about something. "They were killed by those monsters."
"Ezra," Lillium said. "Man-Queen of Edelburg. He hurt me. Hurt sissher, too?"
"Lillium," Trillium said. "We don't call people Man-Queen. It's not a nice word."
"But you said king," Lillium protested.
"I…" She paused and lowered her head. "I was lying."
Lillium gasped. "You liiieeed? Lying is baaaaaad. You said so!"
"I know. Oh, do I know." Trillium buried her face in her hands.
"This is not your fault," Aelia said, knowing exactly what she was thinking. "Don't blame yourself for this. You only did the best you could."
Trillium sighed. "Lillium, we don't call people man-queen. It's a bad thing to say."
"Like fuck," Lillium said matter-of-factly.
Trillium smirked. "Don't say those words anymore."
"Okay." She toyed with her hair and smiled.
"I assure you, that man will receive due punishment for his sins in time." They stood, invisible to mortal eyes, outside of the camp. Several men had, as their commander had said, hung the skulls of the twins in the trees. Ezra, a knife in his hand, looked at the two skulls impassively.
"Wha's those?" Lillium asked, pointing to the skulls. "Those mean dying, right?"
"Yes."
"Dying is bad, right?"
"Maybe not," Trillium said.
Ezra, oblivious to the two spirits and the Valkyrie, raised the knife to the tree as if to carve something into it. He hesitated, then lowered the blade. He turned and walked away.
Aelia gripped her spear tightly, her knuckles turning white.
"He will not go unpunished. I swear it on my Dragonian blood," Aelia promised the two. She drew the glowing orbs of their souls into her own, and unfolding her leathery wings, took flight once again. The skulls and the camp became tiny, then disappeared beneath the trees as she rose into the air. She was about to concentrate, in search of some basic foes to train them, when Freya's voice burst into her head.
Aelia! Can you hear me?!
Yes. Is something wrong? Aelia asked.
Yes! Hel's forces are gathering around the Forest of Spirits. We think they mean to attack the World Tree, possibly Bifrost. How many Einherjar have you collected?
I have three right now.
Have you trained them at all?
I've not been able to train them, I've been down here for all of a day and a half, Aelia said, a little peeved.
Aelia, now is not the time to be enemies. Are your Einherjar at least fairly strong?
Two of them are, one is…not so much, but I'm sure she'll be okay, Aelia replied.
Good. Meet me in the Elves' village. We'll have the elves and several gods helping us, but we need all the help we can get. They must not reach the Tree! You will be towards the front lines. Get here as soon as possible!
Aelia cringed. She'd been hoping to take the Einherjar to a nearby forest, giving them time to practice on weak undead animals before bringing them into what sounded like a big battle. It looked like that wasn't going to happen.
She took off towards the Forest of Spirits, beating her wings as fast as she could.
