HOHOHO MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Happy Boxing Day
Yule
Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa
I hope you have a great time no matter what holidays you celebrate!
For the record it did take me two week to write
and many days to rewrite...
Still, I'm relativly happy to get this out 'in time' for christmas.
I still don't own Familiar of Zero or Skyrim
ivanruzic3758: Thanks, the issue with using Dovahkiin shape is that you're visible from miles and have a target on your back from stoping the invasion of Tarbes.
DragonSword35d: Ya, there was a deleted scene where Sheev screams in rage for someone to get him out. There's been talk about using runes in Dove's cave but not actually used. Thankfully Dove isn't going to wander too much.
The Phantom Crusader: As am I.
RedBurningDragon: He doesn't know because Dove has been so low key with her powers. I don't know, you can get pretty far in an entire night of flight, across america is around 8 and a half hours.
Touhoufanatic: I hope the escape was everything you hoped for. If she tore into the school then there'd be casualties, she'd kill everyone but Louise, Tabitha, Kirche, and all the rest wouldn't have escaped unharmed.
Shadowkragg: The crash, and what survived to get to the capital, is a mystery for now. The issue with Akatosh and co's reactions are that they can't directly interfere with the world of another god due to rules... who do we know who doesn't care for rules though.
Mephiles666: DANG IT! That was supposed to be a surprises!
Mathew5641: Well, that might be common sense in Skyrim, but this is Halkeginia, It's full of arogant nobles in need of 'reminding' that they're not the greatest thing in the realms.😁 I'm glad you liked the fights, they were hard to write since I was trying to capture how chaotic it would be in real life. As for what might survive the crash, you'll have to find out.
XSDStitch: I'm glad you liked the explosions, I felt there hadn't been enought things going boom. Survive the crash... unknown at this time.😜
GGFBank: Did the fight sort of make it all run together? if so I hope it was enjoyable.
alexis: I hope google translate works (Sorry if it didn't) Thank you for saying my story is amazing, it's rather interesting to get reviews in other languges. I can't wait for baby dragons either, any guesses on what they'd look like?
dreaddragonknight: I was tempted to use burning vengence, but this way Dove had time to set up her trap and get resources before the ship realized she was gone.
Guest: As am I.
Engineer4ever: I felt that Dove would be causal about things exploding because of all the fire and eldritch horrors in her life.
Alexis: I'm sorry but google translate is failing me and I don't know anyone who speaks french, yould you please restate this line; "Je suis impatient de voir aussi de voir la reation de magnee par dove en découvrant sa véritable nature" Sorry for being english 😅.
perfectshade: Thanks for understanding my posting schedual. I agree, it was dragging and I honestly didn't see a way out for awhile, Louise and Co were taken before they were fully awake and once their fellow students were taken it would have caused issues and deaths if they fought back. Dove being taken was a miscalculation, she thought she could get in, wait for a good moment, and bust them all out from the inside. Once she woke up she was alone and all bets were off.
I'm very pleased with the action myself, I rewrote the scenes a few times as I kept remembering other people that were there and how they might react to the chaos, 'wait the nightingales are here, what would they do?' Guess I'll write them a portion, 'what would the housecarls do now?' for examples. When I wrote Dove's reaction to being imprisioned I drew on the 'no one escapes cidhna mine' quest where they make calculated deals and double deals to get out instead of fighting the guards and escaping.
THANK YOU ALL FOR REVIEWING.
Beta'd by evevee
Henrietta tapped her fingers on the table in front of her. It was early morning on the front lines of Albion and she was in the command tent going over the reports of how her army had fared before her arrival. Said table was covered in papers, pamphlets, and a large map of the island. All that she needed to run this invasion of her fallen love's homeland was readily available to her in one place, she thought morosely.
They had made a lot of progress in the past few days. The port towns closest to her country were all under her command and they were steadily moving inland. Her allies in Germania had harassed the north side of the island, drawing the majority of their enemy's land forces in that direction while she dealt with their dragon knights.
The island of Albion was basically a large mountain range with the center being the highest point and the range stretching from southwest to the north east point. In the south was a vast forest and farm land. The bulk of Albion's military might was placed in those mountains, forming a natural secondary wall between her forces and the capital. She might be able to capitalize on this move by providing protection to the serfs who were left behind when their new lords had fled over the hills, their crop would be useful in the months to come as they pushed further in.
She sighed as she thought about the battles so far. Her Manticore and Griffin knights under General de Poitiers command had matched the enemy in the air and her calvary had swarmed the meager foot soldiers and took the town.
She should be happy for the progress they were making. General de Poitiers certainly was, however, each enemy that fell was one of Warde's countrymen. It stabbed at her heart to make war on his people despite their rebellion.
When she had arrived on the front line, the General had gladly informed her that with the way things were going, it was estimated that they would make it to Londinium in just over a year. From there, they might need to put the city to siege, estimates placed the city's fall at four months after that, a 'short' nearly a year and a half long war.
"Your Highness," General de Poitiers stated as he burst into the tent.
Henrietta looked up as he entered. "General," she acknowledged before frowning. General de Poitiers was a tall, thin man with a large moustache and black hair. He stood in his usual red uniform with a blue cape thrown over his shoulders for warmth. Despite his very put together appearance, he was breathing heavily. In his hand was a rolled piece of paper with a broken seal.
"This just arrived by hawk familiar from the mainland," De Poitiers stated, handing over the report. "There has been an attack on the Academy of Magic."
Henrietta's eyes widened and she took the report from him. "Twenty musketeers dead, seven students injured, another guest was poisoned," she gasped, skimming the paper. "Baroness Bosquet is missing?"
"Indeed," De Poitiers affirmed. "Despite what the report says, I believe that the hostage takers true purpose was the capture of that woman and her potion." He as the supreme commander of the allied forces had been informed of Dove's potion and its effects. "Their demands for us to retreat sound like a smoke screen for this kidnapping and to sow disorder and dissent in our nobles."
Henrietta nodded, the court wasn't too happy with the state of things as war took a lot of resources and money away from their own homes. "Do you think they will call for my return?" she asked thinking about the nobles close to the battle line.
"That might be a side objective to our enemy," he allowed, "however there's no way it was their main reason for this attack. The potion and it's creator had to be."
"Which means they'll bring her to Londinium," Henrietta said, thinking out loud. "They'd need to pass near us. General, prepare a flight of knights for an important scouting mission, a continuous one if they can manage it. We can not let them get Dove to Londinium." Their occupied portion of the floating island was closest to the mainland right now so the ship would need to pass them by.
"I'll have the Griffin knights ready as soon as possible," De Poitiers said with a bow before departing.
"Please be alright," Henrietta muttered, both for the captive noble and for her friend back in the attacked school.
Agnes sighed and sat back in her chair. Her wrists stung but the last report she'd needed to copy before being allowed to follow up with her own plans were finally made and ready to be sent off.
The casualty list was done, the damage to the old school was properly reported, the single hostage they'd taken was now locked up in the wind tower basement awaiting interrogation, finally the overarching in depth report for the queen was complete. They'd sent of a short report informing her majesty as the matter was urgent but the in depth one with all known facets of the attack was now finished.
She'd have to send it along with Osmond's separate report soon. She winced as she wondered what Osmond would say, something that'd cause her issues no doubt. Still, it wasn't like she didn't deserve them.
To form this report she had gone from person to person in her own musketeer forces and received verbal reports from her girls. The musketeers under her command had been brutal with her. They'd told her straight to her face that she'd been acting like a self absorbed ass, not a good thing to hear for such a young royal guard.
Many nobles in court had questioned the queen's decision to have a royal guard solely made of commoners, but they'd been silenced by their marked efficiency and loyalty. Her actions in hindsight made them all look sloppy.
She sighed before standing up and stretching. Outside of her building was a scene of mass exodus. The students were all leaving as their family servants came to take them back to their various estates, a few were staying as their parents or homes were on the 'front lines' and two were staying because they were waiting for their countries say on the war.
They were acting rather cowardly in her opinion. Shaking her head and putting them out of her mind, she refocused on herself. Now she needed to focus on what she could do to help her girls. The Musketeers were her responsibility after all, it'd both look good back in court if she could respond quickly to this emergency and to her girls if she could give them clear orders to follow, then she could spend the trip over rebuilding her relationships with them.
Stepping out of her office, Agnes went in search of Colbert. Since he wasn't a prisoner, the teacher had been allowed to go wherever he pleased within the school. He'd surprised her after the battle though by telling her that he'd be waiting for her in his classroom.
She passed a few of her subordinates on her way. The musketeers gave her a respectful nod but no more. She wasn't used to that, her girls used to look to her both as a superior and a friend but now she was lucky to get the required salute from them.
'I will get your respect back,' she promised both herself and the girls she passed.
-[]-
Colbert's classroom was empty of people apart from the man himself, he sat in the front row where his students would usually sit. Agnes entered and walked right up to him. A minute of silence passed before Colbert finally looked up.
He looked terrible, his eyes were heavy and there was a worn look to his clothes. It took her a moment to realize that he wasn't wearing his normal garb either; his clothes were older robes with an open collar and pins on the cuffs. It took her a moment but then she realized this was an older style uniform used by the fire squad. Surprisingly it was also blue as his teaching robes had been.
"Good day Agnes," he said, breaking the silence. "So, how do you want me to repay my debt to you?" His eyes bore into hers as he spoke.
It was so tempting to ask that he just stay still while she shot. The musketeer captain even felt her hand shift towards the pistol at her side before moving away.
"First, I want to hear what you have to say," she decided. "Why did you burn my entire village down? I know you weren't officially punished for it since I couldn't find any record of such. However, that implies that you were following orders; what were those orders and who gave them?"
Colbert leaned back, a frown on his face. "I was the captain of the third Fire Mage squad," he started, traveling down memory lane. "We were a squad of mages known for our fast response time. If there was a call to arms within a hundred miles we were on the way almost as fast as those who had flying familiars."
Agnes nodded. Her research into the incident had told her as much already.
"On the mission in question," Colbert said, moving to the specifics, "we were given a written order to quarantine and then burn down everything within a twenty mile radius of the copper spring. Reportedly the water had been infected with pourriture douloureuse. There was no saving anything within those boundaries."
Agnes frowned in confusion. "But there was no disease. No one in my village even had a cold at the time," she claimed.
"I know," Colbert stated, "or at least, I figured that out. After we started our 'work' we noticed that there were no signs of disease. Everyone we found was healthy, and on fire." The teacher shuddered as the memories hit him and Agnes fought to keep from looking sick herself. "Once I realized that something must be wrong with the orders, I ran into the village to confirm and help the villagers while my men completed the command as to not get in trouble."
"You went in alone?" Agnes repeated, shocked.
"Indeed," Colbert nodded. "I looked for anyone who was living who had survived our initial attack. Part way through one of the buildings, a burning beam fell on me. I was trapped under it until my familiar came. He pushed me out of the building before the rest came down on top of him." The man looked at her, his eyes wet.
Agnes remained as outwardly calm as she could. She'd wondered where Colbert's familiar was when she'd first been placed at the academy, however, most of the teachers didn't have their familiars for various reasons.
"After Reggy died, I kept looking through buildings. No one was there though, everywhere I looked there were just bodies. Bodies that my men and I had killed."
"But I lived," Agnes said, confused. "If there were only burned bodies then how did I make it out?" She knew how she'd survived, that bleeding man had pulled her out, but she wanted to hear what his reasoning was.
"When I was just about to give up, I found one building that wasn't completely on fire. Inside was a little girl who was alive."
Agnes' eyes widened as her mind jumped ahead and put together what the flame snake was saying before he could finish. "You saved me?" she blurted out, needing confirmation.
"Yes," Colbert nodded.
"Prove it," Agnes growled, "The man who carried me out had a burn on the back of his shoulders."
Colbert reached up towards his neck and unbutton his collar. "I got it when the beam fell," he said, letting his shoulder out.
Agnes jaw dropped as he pulled the cloth down. His neck and shoulders were a deep pink color and looked waxy compared to the rest of his body. She'd seen a lot of burn scars while researching rouge fire mages.
She could tell that this was an old burn, the size was what threw her though. It reached from the nape of his neck and disappeared around the small of his back. His back was well defined, except the area of the burn itself that was sunk into his back. 'Damaged all the way down to the muscle,' her mind provided, 'at least third degree, maybe even fourth.'
She stared at his neck, she remembered the exact shape of the burn her rescuer had. 'Wait,' she thought, 'if it goes all the way down then he carried me-.' "I'm sorry," she finally let out.
"It's fine," he replied, pulling his shirt closed.
The Musketeer sat back. "So you were following orders," she recapped. "What about where the orders came from? Do you know that?" she reiterated her last question.
Colbert shook his head. "I checked into where the written orders came from," he said. "I had a few friends who traced the document to Lishman the Chair of Finance of all people. He had no reason to make such a thing. Later I found documents claiming that our orders were to stop the spread of 'the new religion'."
"Lishman?" Agnes asked, remembering the traitor who the queen had personally become bait to draw out. "But later documents claimed that your orders were to stop a cult?" she mussed. That made no sense whatsoever.
"Indeed," Colbert replied. "I met with The chair of Finance soon after that, he denied all knowledge of making the order. At that point I lost faith in our military. If someone in our country could trick me with official orders into wiping out an entire village and then lie about the why without anyone blinking an eye then something was wrong at its heart."
Agnes stood up. "Thank you for your honesty," she said briskly before moving towards the door. "I need a moment to process." Colbert nodded in understanding.
The musketeer captain stalked away, she needed to leave this room and clear her head before deciding what she would do next. This was technically everything she'd wanted, the man who burned her childhood down was behind her and yet nothing felt right. Not the situation, not her relationship with her subordinates, and not how she'd failed her queen.
Now she needed to fix things.
"AKATOSH DAMN YOU!" Dove yelled at downed wooden boat. Taking a step back the dragonborn, defeater of Miraak, Alduin, and Harkon, impatiently ran up and kicked the small boat for failing her. "FUUUCK!" she screamed louder this time, reaching do to rub at her toes. Apartently the stupid thing only had enough air stones, magic, whatever it ran on, to fly for about four hours.
Really it'd only been luck she'd been able to figure out how to fly it at all last night she realized but still, this was a crummy spot to end up. She'd flown for about an hour to get away from the burning ship in case someone came to investigate the fire before sinking to the ground and taking a break.
"Stupid," she huffed sitting down to rub her foot.
The forest went on as far as she could see in the dark, she couldn't navigate by the stars and she didn't recognize any of the local topography so she'd set the airboat down and rested.
It felt like she'd only just closed her eyes before the rising sun woke her she'd once again risen into the air to look around. Now that she could see better: the land was a rolling forest with a few mountains stretching in a line nearby to the north. 'Was there a forest that went into the mountains near Tristain?' she'd wondered, flying towards the mountains. 'Also, if there's any people nearby, would they set up by the mountains or a random clearing?'
She didn't get her answer though as the boat had suddenly lurched under her feet, before it started sinking.
Her reaction to the sudden drop was to calmly and quietly maneuvered herself to the nearest opening in the trees and set herself down, thankfully no one was there to call out her bullshite or point out the broken limbs above her.
This led to her current situation, kicking and cussing out the stupid boat that nearly gave her a heart attack. "Why couldn't those mercenaries have died somewhere within sight of a town?" she grumbled, it was inconsiderate of them.
Even with the food she had, walking in a random direction in a forest she was unfamiliar with was just plain dangerous. She could run into rabid animals, she could touch a poisonous plant, or run into a stranger who notices her ears and decides to try and kill her.
Dove shook her head to clear it. "Where do I go now?" Dove finished, her tone changing into a thoughtful one. "I guess I can march towards the mountains… but the gear will be heavy and I need better clothes, especially shoes." She needed to take stock of what she had.
She was at least certain of which continent she was on: The men she'd been taken by were from Albion, she'd been unconscious for a few hours, she didn't recognize the land: she was on Albion. Possibly in the middle of the warzone. This wasn't a good place for anyone to be, her more than others. If she was seen shed be killed for her ears, if she turned into Dovahkiin and was seen then she'd be hunted down and either killed or held for 'other' uses, breeding being the most useful to Albion.
Guess that was the down side of being a famous dragon in war, everyone wanted you and your babies.
That thought caused her blood to turn to ice as half remembered nightmares flashed through her head. Shaking her head she rolled onto her hands and knees to examine what she had put in the boat.
Her supplies were a mostly ruined maid uniform, three crates of food so at least a month of rations, two wool blankets and one of fur, a bow with thirty iron tipped arrows, a small knife she found, and the boat itself.
After looking everything over, she grabbed the boat and pried at the slats with the knife. It took a bit of elbow grease but soon she had a pile of eight foot and three foot slats. Taking a few of the slats and one of the wool blankets, she made a rough pack and started stuffing it with food.
Once that was full she threw the furry blanket over her shoulders and tore off a thin strip from her dress to form a cloak. "Still need proper clothes," she muttered, looking down at the soft shoes she'd been wearing for the entire hostage situation.
Picking through the remains of the boat, she tore off another strip of cloth and tied a few extra slats to the side of the pack. The forest around her was dense and mossy, she shouldn't have any issues scavenging useful things from the plants, but the animals would be a threat.
"Well, nothing I can do about it now," she finished. Picking up one of the slats, Dove started walking towards the mountain. "Please don't let me run into any fights," she said out loud, not quite praying but more asking the world to cut her a break as she walked through the trees.
Agnes walked around the school grounds. She wasn't going anywhere in particular, just looking for answers to her questions and letting her feet cary her where they will. It'd been over half an hour since she'd left Colbert behind but she still wasn't any closer to an answer. "Where did the orders come from?" she said, verbalizing her struggle in hope that it'll make the answer a lot clearer.
"What orders?" a male voice surprised her by responding to her.
"What?" she asked, looking up. To her surprise, Julio was standing in front of her. She had ended up in the middle of the tower of Earth by the classrooms. Last she remembered she'd been by the front gates so why was she back here?
"That's what I want to know," Julio said with a small laugh. "What orders are you talking about?"
Agnes shook her head. "Nothing that you need to be concerned about," she replied before trying to walk past.
"Really?" Julio asked, stepping between her and the rest of the hall. "I think I'll be the judge of that."
Agnes glared at him. "It's something personal, something that has been bothering me for a while and I was looking into it on my spare time," she said, brushing him off.
"I see. It must be something very important to you for you to ignore your subordinates, attack a teacher in the middle of a crisis, and get rebuked by the headmaster of the prestigious magical academy," Julio commented as she walked past him. "I imagine that will cause a stir back in the capital."
She froze as his words, causing him to smile. "Something that might be rather damaging for you if it would get out wouldn't?" he continued blandly.
Agnes turned around and glared at him. "Why are you threatening me?" she growled, infuriated.
"Because I need to know why," Julio sighed, looking at her like she'd just missed the point of a lesson. "You spent so much of your time in your room focusing on one thing that the musketeers were caught off guard by mercenaries and when they turned to you, you were too absorbed in trying to kill one of the teachers to care. Why? I'm frightened Agnes, frightened for you." His words caused an ache in her chest, rammed home by his, honest to brimir, wet eyes.
"Why?" she wondered. Julio was from the Romalia, the most holy of lands apart from the promised, and outside the country, so he shouldn't have a stake in the local politics.
He had no reason to be 'frightened' for her.
"We want to help you," Julio continued, reaching out to grab her shoulder. "Me and the Pope. I know that you're under a lot of pressure. For the first time in the history of any country, the entire queen's guard is made out of commoners and you have to make the stuck up nobles in court take you seriously. How hard has it been when people treat you like you're incapable. Now with this public blunder as ammo, they will start second guessing you."
Agnes frowned as she imagined the scene Julio was describing. She'd already had a lot of issues with certain members of the court calling for a "proper" guard for the queen. It wasn't too hard to imagine the rest following suit. "The Pope wants to help me?" she muttered, lost in thought. Pope Serevare was said to help the young and in need, would he reach out across the country just to help her?
"Neither the Pope nor I want this great step forwards in social equality to be stopped by some stuck up noble picking holes in your command. Let me help you," Julio pleaded, pushing for an answer. "Tell me what you've been busy with and I'll talk in court." His finger came down and pointed at her, "With you and the queen on the front lines, I can bring the word of our Lord into this, his voice just to help you."
That sounded really nice. "I guess it couldn't hurt to get help," she muttered. His connections to the Pope might get her answers that both she and Colbert hadn't been able to find. Besides, he was a former Falman, a priest, surely it wouldn't hurt to have the church on her side.
"Alright."
Julio leaned in.
Agnes started to talk.
"Sixty three bottles of black briar on the wall~ Sixty Three Bottles of Briar!~" Dove sang. It was truly a painful song to listen to and even worse to sing for hours on end. However...
"WHY DID I HAVE TO GET IT STUCK IN MY HEAD!?" Dove cried, mock tears in her eyes. Forget the whole 'in enemy territory' thing, getting lost with this song stuck in your head was the worst.
The dragonborn shook her head to refocus. "That mountain looks to be a few hours walk away," she considered, looking ahead. "Sixty Tw-, Maybe I should climb a tree? If I can get a look around from atop one of them I might see a place closer by." Anything to move her mind off the song. Decision made, she started looking for a good tree to climb.
The forest she was walking through was thick, the light coming through the branches was very dim and the undergrowth was up to her knees in places, leaving her legs a patchwork of small cuts from her trudging.
Ten minutes of walking later she saw a large pine tree. It was a really tall tree that poked over it's neighbors and had branches only twenty feet off the ground, perfect.
Setting her gear down, she started climbing. It wasn't too hard to get up the tree once she reached the lower branches and soon she was standing towards the end of a thick branch, looking out over the tops of the rest of the trees. The sweeping forest lay before her like a rug of dark green and brown. The days have been getting shorter and the trees here had started to change color.
Dove looked around, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary apart from the mountains. "Dang," she muttered a moment later, the tree line on this side of the tree was unbroken as far as she could see. Shimmying around the trunk, she started searching the other side of the forest.
"YES!" she cheered once she made it around the trunk. In front of her was a line of smoke in the distance, maybe five miles to the right of the path she'd been following.
The elation soon drained from her face almost as quickly as it appeared. That was a lot of smoke for a single house or even a small town and the trees didn't break so it wasn't a large clearing.
It wasn't too much smoke for a company of soldiers trekking through the forest, though.
"Is that Albion or Tristain?" she wondered out loud. If it was Tristain then she'd be home free but if it wasn't she'd probably be killed. A flash of light in the sky caught her attention while she was wondering causing her to narrowing her eyes to try and spot it again.
After scanning the sky for a bit she saw something fly through a cloud. It looked like a wyvern flying in a slow circle around the smoke. "Welp, I guess that's Albion," Dove decided quietly, slithering back along the limb for cover. She couldn't quite remember but she thought the 'dragon' knights belonged to Albion.
"Okay, new plan," she decided after watching the 'dragon' loop around the smoke a few times, "Lets keep walking." With that decided, she started sliding down the trunk. "Which side would Tristain be on?" she thought as she got lower. "South East maybe?"
A voice from below interrupted her musings though.
"Huh?"
Dove froze. It was a young woman's voice.
"Uh, miss? Why are you climbing in a dress? Can you uh, please come down, I can see up your skirt."
Looking down, Dove could only see a large hat over top a green dress. 'Well, at least it isn't a soldier.' she thought with relief.
We've arived in Albion!
I honestly like the war episodes
they have a lot of great things hinted at that I want to expand on.
Can't wait to start expounding canon!
So, something interesting,
A long time reviewer wrote an Omake for I will Summon a Dragon!
Just a warning!
There is a lemony scene in here!
So, from Mephiles666
"Never trust a tired cook"
The night shared between the two lovers was passionate, filled with moans as their senses were overloaded with pleasure, and creaks of the bed as it rocked from their movements.
"Oh Tabitha! Harder!" Dove exclaimed.
"Mm." Despite her mute response, Tabitha was more expressive of late. Her apple red face making her all the cuter. And it certainly didn't stop the blue haired mage from sending her lover over the edge.
"I'm about to-"
Dove didn't finish that sentence as a new wave of pleasure washed over her, causing her to spasm. Almost immediately, Tabitha pushed deep into her one more time and held her position before unleashing all over Dove's insides. This sent another wave of pleasure over Dove before the two collapsed.
Dove was in a state of bliss, Tabitha had been more open with her today, and their love making was better than ever. Although, as the two laid their in bed...
"We've been having sex a lot," Dove noted. "At this rate, you're going to get me pregnant," she teased while imagining what Tabitha's babies would look like. They would need to have at least three; she could see one inheriting her hair color while another would be a cute little bluette like their 'father' while the third would have a tealish mix between the two.
"Mmhmm," Tabitha hummed in simple agreement.
"You're not worried?" Dove asked.
"As long as the child survives childbirth this time," Tabitha assured her, "It should be okay."
...
What?
"What do you mean 'this time?'" Dove asked in confusion. Her lover looked up at the elf with a neutral expression.
"Because the last child we had together died," Tabitha confirmed. "It wouldn't do for you to get this one killed as well."
Get this one killed? "Wha-?" A burst of cold air rushed up Dove's spine through the bedding. And then, images of a dead child in Dove's arms flashed before her, she nearly jumped at the horrific sight.
"You got the last one killed, remember?" Tabitha's eyes were cold as they peered into Dove's, and her tone was filled with bitterness and disappointment. Images of a dead child flashed again.
Dove gasped, she was no longer in her bed nor in her lover's embrace. She was now sitting in a cave, coated in ice and snow and the sweat on her body had frozen her to the ground. Her stomach was spilled open, and before her was a pool of her own intestines. In the center of her gore, a small misshapen thing still attached by its umbilical cord tried to scream for her as the snow fall slowly buried it. Haunting laughter came from all around her.
The pain of her being gutted didn't register; she did however thrust her hands into the snow, trying to uncover the crying thing. But the snow covered it faster than she could dig. Pain ran through her fingers as she clawed into the freezing ice. Still, it wasn't fast enough, hard enough; she had to dig harder, and harder.
And harder.
And when she finally pulled it from the snow, it was already dead. Its life snuffed before she could embrace it.
Her fault, her fault that she brought her baby into battle.
Her baby, dead.
Her fault.
She shrieked in horror and despair.
-[]-
In the Servant's quarters, Siesta was startled by the sudden screaming coming from a fellow employee.
When Dove's eyes opened and she sat straight up, Siesta backed away from her to avoid Dove's body colliding with her own. The black haired maid could see that the baroness' body was in a cold sweat and that she was hyperventilating. Dove looked around and saw that she was in her bed in the servants' quarters, and had gotten the attention of some of the other servants.
"Dove, is something wrong?" the black haired maid asked. Before Dove could respond, the round bodied chef burst through the door.
"I heard screaming," Martone shouted, "What's wrong?!"
Dove blinked before reality fully set in.
"It... was nothing," she answered. "I just had a nightmare."
"Again?" Martone asked.
Dove nodded.
Martone's palm met his face before leaving the room. Siesta couldn't blame him; this had to have been the sixth day in a row where Dove was plagued by nightmares. It disrupted her sleep patterns and in turn made her too tired to perform her duties as a maid, chef, or a teacher. Her skills as a cook was part of the reason the other servants looked forward to the day, and they were waning since day one. If that was lost, then it would affect both the servants and the spoiled noble children. To make things worse, nobody succeeded when they attempted to help Dove.
Go to bed early? Dove is woken up prematurely by a nightmare.
Go to bed late? Dove is woken up prematurely by a nightmare.
Go to bed hungry? Dove is woken up prematurely by a nightmare.
Go to bed full? Dove is woken up prematurely by a nightmare.
There were other combinations such as massaging and using different beds, but they all failed. And that made them feel all the more useless to see Dove struggle while they watched helplessly.
If gossip was to be trusted; none of the school staff knew what to do about it either, making it a bigger problem as she couldn't teach their special musketeer mages. Siesta couldn't deny Dove's feelings regarding being the victim, but nothing she did soothed Dove even on an emotional level (making it particularly hard for the girl as she owed the baroness greatly). If the man who got her pregnant was any sort of gentleman, he would worry about the bags under Dove's eyes.
She may have been the only one being hurt directly by the nightmares and insomnia, but Dove's declining efficiency was affecting everyone at the school.
Now that she's woken up, she won't be able to go back to sleep without having another nightmare; so Siesta was not surprised when Dove got out of her bed to begin her day.
-[]-
"By Brimir, I think she and that new guy are having a tryst!" one maid said as she stirred the tea.
"Eh," Dove said as she honestly couldn't care; she was tired and in the middle of work.
"Well, only time will tell; thanks for listening!" the maid said as she picked up the food loaded tray and left the kitchen with it. And with that done, Dove could take a breather. She took a few steps towards a nearby chair when-
"Wah!" she screamed as her body fell without tripping over anything, stopping short of the floor as her arms hit the counter top. It wasn't even an hour in, she found herself nearly collapsing from exhaustion.
Her ears twitched at the sound of glass hitting the floor, though not breaking. She turned her head and saw a Fortify Magicka bottle on the ground. She straightened herself out and picked up the bottle before setting it on the counter. Why did she have a spare one again? She vaguely recalled Agnes mentioning a new set of musketeers they needed to turn into mages that week. But given her state of declining sanity and energy, maybe she shouldn't have made it, especially not with the racist priest hounding her.
Maybe she could regain her strength by having Tabitha spear her again? She recalled some women managing to relieve themselves of stress by being bedded.
"Ah, Tabitha, my love," she murmured. Dove perked up and looked over when she heard the sound of something hitting the floor. Siesta had a platter of dishes, and one had fallen off and onto the floor, spilling the contents.
"S-sorry!" she said before placing the platter on the counter and grabbing a nearby towel. "Did you just call Tabitha your lover?" Siesta asked with a... worried expression on her face? Dove couldn't perfectly tell because she was too tired. But she needed to stamp out this leak of information before it got around.
Dove let out a surprisingly convincing laugh. "Oh no, Siesta; that can't be right. After all, Tabitha's a girl, not a boy." Dove smirked before sliding up to Siesta and continuing in a whisper. "It's not possible for her to be a boy in disguise."
Siesta blinked and thought about that, and then looked at Dove's grin. Then she thought about it, again.
"Anyways, aren't you on serving duty for breakfast? Best get to the dinning hall," Dove said cheerfully as she took the tray and towel from the confused girl. "I'll clean up here."
"Ah, thank you!" Siesta said before scurrying out of the kitchen. Dove sighed in relief. Hopefully Siesta assumed it was a double bluff and that Dove was messing around with her. Not that anyone would believe Siesta if she claimed that Dove's was made pregnant by the elite mage girl.
But the outcome of that crisis would have to wait, Dove needed to resume cooking for the spoiled brats and their enabling instructors. But first, she needed to clean up the mess Siesta left behind.
"Dove!" Martone exclaimed as he entered the room. "The students and noble staff have been served breakfast, so we need to begin preparing meals for the servants. Can I trust you to spice the soup?" He probably noticed the mess on the floor; he couldn't have seen the likely bags under Dove's eyes since she was putting Siesta's tray into the sink and thus looking away from him.
"Yes," the elf answered resolutely before the head chef moved to another area of the kitchen to do his part of the cooking. The servants shared a different set of preferences from the nobility when it came to the soup. The teachers tended to want more delicate flavors if they weren't the gluttonous types, while the students preferred sweeter things. There were no hard rules, but commoner staff in general appreciated spicy soup.
There were some other things she needed to do as well... reduce the salt, swap pig bone for chicken bone, etc. etc. She turned to the kitchen and resumed her work. Given the amount of soup she would be cooking in the pot, she would need to up the amount of pepper especially since it was the only spicy ingredient available that the commoner staff was allowed to splurge on. Thus she picked up the pepper shaker and emptied its contents into the broth before stirring it.
After all the other preparations, she eventually finished the soup.
"Martone, I'm done!" she said.
"Here, let me get that for you," the chef said, putting his butcher knife down and grabbing the pot. "You need to take a break."
Dove grumbled to herself, she was too tired to stand. She would leave the kitchen as Martone's orders and take a nap. "Oh right," she recalled, she turned around and grabbed the Fortify Magicka bottle off the counter before leaving the kitchen. Halfway to her bed she realized something...
'Was the liquid in the bottle always black in color and grainy in texture?'
...
She must have been too sleepy to tell. Darkness claimed her as she flopped onto her bed.
-[]-
In one of the courtyards, Julio smirked to himself. Dove de la Bosquet was a tough nut to crack, as the plebian would say. His attempts at getting her to accept the Church's authority regarding the gift that Brimir bestowed upon her may have had been initially stalled, but over the last week, she had been progressively becoming worse. When she wasn't too tired to care, she was fearful. It had all been thanks to him and his... 'ally.'
Just a bit more, and the baroness would finally submit to his authority. The reality of how vulnerable she was could not be ignored much longer as she has been beset by nightmares. Now how was he to approach her? The commoners liked to gossip, he could have easily learned of her having nightmares by one of the maids he decided to seduce. Dove may not have been interested in him, but she would know that he could get women to talk given how the female students reacted to him on his first day. Perhaps he could spin a tale regarding the nature of her nightmares and point out that the cure was contained by the Pope?
His train of thought was interrupted when he heard and explosion, followed by screaming. He ran in the direction and stopped when a horrific sight fell upon him.
One of the School's towers was completely destroyed, surrounded by panicked plebeian servants... some of which were doing magic?
No, Julio was not imagining things; there was maid conjuring ice from her hands, the chef's clothing was on fire while he himself seemed fine, a butler with lightning dancing off his body... one of the servants even had one of those swords that the Baroness conjured out of thin air.
"Stop following me!" a terrified maid shouted at some sort of Ice Golem-like creature that refused to leave her side.
"What happened!?" Julio demanded of her, pulling her attention away from the Ice Golem standing next to her.
"We were in the middle of eating, then suddenly we can all do magic, and Siesta started ripping apart the walls," one servant said.
"I didn't mean to!" the black haired maid, she was standing away from everyone else. Seeing that more rubble than could be transferred by wagon was... suspended in the air by green ethereal energy emitting from the maid, Julio could understand why.
As the gravity of the situation sunk in, Julio's face turned from worry to horror; the baroness had, either unintentionally or out of spite, turned over half of the commoner staff into mages.
Worse, these mages didn't need wands; the removal of such being part of removing a fallen noble from power.
...
Was this his fault?
So, that was fun.
Happy holidays to all and to all a good day.