Kjelle was usually able to ignore any noise that would have otherwise bothered her during training. In fact, she had trained herself to do that. But this situation was different than most. But that fact was obvious to everybody.

The problematic situation was this: an enormous group of Risen was slowly but surely ganging up on everyone in the tiny group of survivors traveling this apocalyptic world. Most of the group had barely escaped with their lives, and had caused the last remaining adults of the group to talk. For a really long time. Kjelle had no idea what on earth they could be taking them so long. All they really had to talk about was -

"Gods! Freakin'! Son of a...!"

...That's probably Allegra.

Numerous other swears and curses followed.

...Yup, that's definitely Allegra.

The loud sounds of glass breaking and what sounded like something being set on fire also came.

...That... probably isn't good.

Kjelle instinctively took off from the training ground she had set up earlier, and sprinted towards the noise.

Gods, she'd better not burn down the whole camp again... I... really hope somebody else can take care of this instead of me. Assuming everybody else hasn't started running away from her...

Kjelle ran around a tent, and saw what Allegra was burning. She was furiously blasting numerous fire spells at what appeared to be an enormous pile of both firewood and numerous glass bottles. Whatever it was, it didn't really matter, since Allegra's inferno was a good distance from where they had set up camp, and probably wasn't going to set anything on fire. Not unless Allegra deliberately tried to set everybody on fire.

"Damn it, Shadowfax! You don't run towards the crazy woman setting things on fire!" Kjelle heard a voice shout. "Look... Would you... just..."

Kjelle turned towards the noise, and saw Philandros's horse running towards the scene while carrying its irritated master. The horse stopped in its tracks next to Kjelle when it saw what Allegra was incinerating, causing Phil to fly off of the horse.

"...If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were trying to throw me into that fire, buddy," Phil muttered, picking himself up.

The horse whinnied.

"Yeah, yeah, I know that you wouldn't do that..." Phil muttered, climbing back onto his horse. "So, you see that nothing bad's going on, right? Can we go now?" The man looked up from his horse and to Kjelle, who was looking at them oddly. "...What are you looking at?"

Kjelle rolled her eyes and shook her head. She didn't know why the behaviour of these two still seemed odd to her. Everybody had had to put up with it for years, now.

Still, Phil was acting surprisingly natural. Surely he'd heard of what had happened in the last battle by now...?

To her other side, Kjelle then heard somebody running towards them. She turned and saw Rhys stop next to them to place his hands on his bent knees, panting.

"I... came... as soon as I... heard..." he gasped, a stupid grin plastered on his face. "She's... freaking out? Where is..." Rhys turned towards the sight of Allegra burning things. He paused for a moment to take in the sight, and then cursed, "Damn it! That's it?! Just a pile of trash?! No... No tents, or... anything?!"

"...Rhys," Phil spoke up. "Are you still upset that you missed that other freak out of hers?"

"Of course I am! The last time it happened... it sounded epic! And I slept right through it! And I had to be rescue by him!" Rhys shouted, pointing his finger right at Philandros. "He's the guy who sleeps through everything! It should've been the other way around!"

"Would you calm down?" Phil deadpanned. "Honestly, keep this up, and you'll start throwing a bigger tantrum than Allegra over there."

"No, I wouldn't..." Rhys muttered, pouting. "That ain't my style. Although... it would be pretty damned cool if I could set things on fire like her..."

"Yeah – no. That would be catastrophic," Kjelle said. "And don't make fun of Allegra – do you even know why she's freaking out?"

"Well... It's because of that last battle, right? I mean, I didn't see it for myself, but I heard about what happened to her father..."

Kjelle heard the sound of Philandros and his horse already walking away. The knight rolled her eyes away from Rhys, and followed Phil.

"Huh? What is it? Was I wrong or something? Come on! Tell me!"

I'm sure as hell not going to be the one to break it to him...

That was the last time Kjelle saw her mother. Still, it wasn't as if she was the only one who had had to give her final goodbyes to anybody. The flames of Allegra's rage had burned down – both figuratively and literally. Still, she was only in "Phase 2" of her tantrum, which involved giving the silent treatment to whoever it was that was responsible for her anger, so she angrily stormed away whenever spoken to. The rest of the kids who were about to lose a family member were taken aside and spoken to.

The atmosphere was still and calm, yet terrifying all the same. As far as Kjelle could remember, nobody tried to talk any of the adults out of their decision. Everyone had been through the conversation before, and the kids already knew the truths that they had all been told numerous other times.

Somebody had to go and fight this battle, and it was their responsibility to fight and depend their children.

The kids had to stay and protect their friends, because they were the last of the exalted bloodline.

Some left their kids with depressing speech telling them that they had to take care of themselves now, along with some sappy comment on how they knew that they could do it, and that they believed in them, and that all they wanted was a bright future for their kids.

Some left their kids with more reassuring speeches saying that there was no way that they were going to let some Risen scum take them away from their family, and promises that they would come back.

No such promises were made that day.

Kjelle forgot a lot about that day, really. She did remember her mother telling her to give up on learning to ride horseback.

"For the time being, anyway. I hate to say it, kiddo, but you lack talent. I know you're jealous that that Phil kid can do it so well, but I want you to just forget about him. Your time would be better spent training for ways to stay alive in a battle. 'Kay? And, who knows, maybe one day, when all of this crappy apocalypse stuff is over, you'll be able get somebody else to teach you to ride. But until then, just focus on not losin' your head in battle."

Kjelle also remembered that she had taken this speech as something of a challenge, and had taken it upon herself to teach herself horseback riding. The bitterness of defeat was hard to forget.

After the near ritual of saying goodbye had finished, Captain Phila had given them one more speech, urging them to protect the future exalts. Once she had left, Lucina had immediately told them to disregard the speech.

Per Captain Phila's orders, the children set off in the opposite direction of their parents immediately after their departure. Kjelle couldn't remember just how long ago it had been since that day.

All she knew was that it was so long ago she wasn't sure if she could even remember her own mother's face.


"Craven dog! You promised me a duel, you dishonorable cur!"

Cassius let out a hollow laugh. "I suppose I did. Well then, you can consider all of these men my seconds. Still, I'm not entirely heartless. If you bend down now and beg for your life, then I may show you mercy."

Taking a brief moment to look back, the trap had been pretty obvious. Kjelle wasn't entirely sure how she had let herself fall for it.

She should have known in the first place not to have trusted Cassius, the man who had tricked her master and murdered him, in the first place. Cassius suddenly and conveniently deciding for the duel to take place so deep in the nearby ruins should have been suspicious enough, as well. And even while walking through the ruins, Kjelle could swear she saw movement from the corner of her eye a few times, but she decided that it was just her imagination.

Damn it... I was too focused on taking down Cassius, that I didn't... Argh!

Still, despite all of these hints, Kjelle had only realized that she had walked into a trap by the time it had become brutally honest – right after the stone doors behind her shut and the archers walked out from the shadows.

"I'd rather die than submit to you!"

"That can be arranged! Have at her, boys!"

Kjelle immediately raised her shield above her head, covering up all parts of her body from the onslaught of arrows that were instantly fired at her.

Gods... How the hell am I going to get out of this? Two archers to my back, two archers and a cowardly sorcerer to my front... Plus, even if I do manage to get out of the mess in this room, I still have a locked door and an army between me and the outside world!

Tch... Well then, if I'm going down, then I sure as hell am going to take that soulless bastard Cassius down with me!

Kjelle quickly turned around, focusing her sights on the two archers on the side of the room opposite to Cassius. If she planned to take down the sorcerer, then she'd first have to get rid of the annoying little pests with bows and arrows – she would need to give Cassius all of her attention if she was to defeat him.

Once she had taken a brief moment to see where the two archers were standing, Kjelle once again rose her shield to cover her head, and rushed at the archer to her left, prepared to ram him with her shield as arrows bounced harmlessly off of her shield. She kept her gaze to the ground in front of her, getting ready to try and spot which direction the archer would inevitably run in to dodge her attack.

As she expected, the archer took to her left, probably trying to avoid both Kjelle's shield and her lance. As soon as the knight caught sight of the archer's foot taking off in the direction, Kjelle threw her body in that direction, tackling the archer to the ground.

Well, that's one archer down...

Kjelle quickly finished the man off, and turned to face the remaining four men in the room.

Well, they're now all to my front, so I guess I don't have to worry about somebody trying to attack me from behind any more...

Still being forced to cover her face with her shield, Kjelle couldn't really take any time to survey the area and figure out just what the situation was. All she knew was that she wished that she could have some time to let her guard down, and just run at another archer – the men had put a cease to their fire, realizing that their shots would be useless, but it was obvious that they were ready to open fire on her the very second she began to let her guard down. Kjelle supposed that, if she tried hard enough, she could fake out the archers a bunch of times and try to make them run out of ammo, but she knew that she didn't have time for that. Even now, she could hear the footsteps of Cassius as he walked towards her, and she wasn't sure how much of his magic her armour could take.

Oh, to hell with it. I'm not going to get anything done by just standing here and over-thinking everything.

At the very least, Kjelle knew that she could always rely on her brute strength. Which is exactly what she did as she dashed blindly towards one of the archers, swinging her lance around wildly.

Kjelle could feel the arrows bouncing off of her shield and armour, and began to locate the archers based on where she sensed the arrows coming from. It wasn't too long before she was able to pin down own archer and take his life.

And that's two down.

Kjelle, taking tiny glances around the room from behind her shield, determined that she had made her way into one corner of the room, with the two remaining archers and Cassius keeping their distance from her, standing next to the doors that had trapped Kjelle in this room in the first place. Still, she wasn't necessarily cornered, seeing as the archers and the sorcerer were to cautious to begin to make any move on her.

Those archers are sticking close to Cassius, now. They probably know that I won't stand a chance against him and his magic if I can't concentrate solely on him...

"Gr... If you believe in any gods, then I suggest that you start praying to them, now!" Kjelle shouted at Cassius from afar.

She wasn't entirely certain what she was doing – shouting meaningless threats at the man certainly wasn't going to help her in any way. Maybe she just wanted to stall the man for whatever reason. Even though she would never admit it to anybody, she was a little bit frightened.

Cassius laughed loudly. "My, my. Aren't we confident? It's no use trying to hide it, girl – just admit it! You're terrified!"

"I don't fear you, coward!"

"Ah... I suppose not. Most fools assume that people like me are weak... They think we're nothing more than liars and sneaks. Don't you see? They just want us to be weak. They need it. It gives them the false hope that they can win in the end, simply because they're fighting for what they think is right. Heh... They can hold on to that false hope. A cocky fool is an easy target. In the end, it's the clever ones like me who survive."

"Clever?! You're just scum who took a hostage! No animal would sink so low! But enough. I'm done wasting my words on the likes of you. My master will have vengeance!"

"Wrong! Your master will have-"

"Uh, sir?" one of the archers said, meekly tapping Cassius on the shoulder.

"Gr... What is it?! Can't you see that I'm in the middle of something here?!"

"M-my apologies, but... Don't you hear that?"

Cassius' nose twitched irritably, and he perked his ears. "Hear what?"

Seeing that the archers had put their bows down, Kjelle let her shield down ever so slightly, and tried to listen as well.

A bunch of muffled noises seemed to be coming from behind the doors which Cassius and his archers were standing next to. Eventually, the noise began to become louder, and Kjelle could swear that she heard explosions, fire, and pretty high-pitched screaming.

Everybody in the room simply stared at the doors that stood between them and the noise, not sure what to make of the situation.

Eventually, the noise stopped abruptly, and a silence followed. However, it wasn't too long before a loud tapping could be heard against the door. The tapping continued. Cassius didn't make any movement to open the doors.

"...Why are you knocking on that door?" Kjelle heard a voice from the other side ask.

"Because it's locked, and I can't find the doorbell," another voice spoke.

"Do you seriously expect them to just open it because you knocked?"

"That's what a polite person would do."

"You... do remember who we're dealing with here, right? You know... bad guys?"

"I'm giving them a test of character. I might show them mercy if they decide to open the door and do as I say. They'll get bonus points if they offer me candy and ask what costume I'm supposed to be wearing after I shout 'Trick or treat' in their face. ...Say, do you think they can hear us on the other side?"

"...Whatever, I'm going to go find a key. One of these guys ought to have been carrying one, so we should be able to find one... That is, unless we incinerated it..."

"Oh, there's no need for that. I think I've given these guys long enough to open the door."

Right after that, the door flew off of its hinges and onto Cassius and the two remaining archers.

"Trick or treat!" a man yelled. "Sorry about the door, but you wouldn't open, so I had to start huffing and puffing."

"...Was that supposed to be a joke?" a woman standing next to the man said.

"Kind of, yeah."

"I don't think they'd get it. You know, unless they have that pigs story over here."

"Oh, right... Well... At least you guys get to experience some out-of-this-world humour!"

"...Yeah, they wouldn't get that either. You... don't want them to get that. Remember?"

"Oh, right... Well, would these guys get anything?!"

"...I think they're dead," the woman said, looking at the door that had crushed Cassius. "...Yeah, they're dead. In serious pain at the very least."

"I knocked 'em dead with my comedy..."

"No, that would've been the door."

"Well, evidently, they couldn't handle me and my jokes!"

"...Handle? As in... door handle?"

"Yes?"

"...Yeaaah – no."

"I flattened the competition?"

"...Okay, that works."

"Really?"

"No, but I get the feeling that you're just going to continue if I don't say that."

"That's good enough for me!"

Kjelle didn't really know how to react to the situation, so she decided to just continue staring at the two people who had just arrived. They... seemed to be on her side. At the very least, they appeared to have defeated Cassius and his men, so Kjelle probably didn't have a quarrel with them.

"...Okay kid, if you're going to keep staring at us like that, then I'm going to have to ask you to put the lance down," the man said, looking straight at Kjelle. "You're making me nervous."

"Are you Kjelle?" the woman asked.

The knight hesitated, and then nodded.

"You're lucky this guy didn't just happen to knock that door on top of you... There's a woman outside who's worried sick about you."

"Plus a dragon girl who's too big to enter here, and a really frightened archer who think they know you," the man added. "Shall we get going?"

Dragon girl? Frightened archer? How...?

Well... If this is some obscure plan to trick me and kill me... Nope. No way that would make sense. Killing everybody else in the ruins and just to lead me into some sense of security? No way. I can probably trust these guys.

Wordlessly, Kjelle walked out of the ruins with the two of them.

"Kjelle!"

Huh... These are some familiar faces...


AN: I like Cassius. He's funny. He thinks he's incredibly clever because he tricked the woman who wanted to kill him into walking PAST the army of people that could easily have killed her, and locking her in a room alone with him (granted, with a pair of archers, but still).

Why has Kjelle forgotten her mother even though I made her to be one of the last of the adults to die, while some of the other kids can remember their mothers, you ask? Well, there's a very logical shut up.

Seriously though, I don't even get if Kjelle's supposed to nearly forget what her mother looks like or not. I can think of a logical explanation for whichever, but, really, who cares?