Thanks to Donbasos and King Quinn Of Tucky for pointing out that I had messed up the uploading.

II: Baptism in Blood

Climbing a ladder onto the walls, past hundreds of my own fallen, was surprisingly easy. They were dead already and were nothing but automatons. But what I saw on the wall was something different. Dead people. And not just soldiers but also many wearing ordinary clothes. Men, women, and children. They fought for their lives and now they're dead. Because of me.

No, I corrected myself. Because of me and their leaders who saw war and violence as their only answers. If they hadn't shot me, I would have made peace. I tried. I tried and failed. A dozen meters away, I saw some of my seemingly living servants, tearing at the dead bodies and eating them. The sight was sickening and I put my hand on the battlement to steady myself. Those monsters.

Down below I however heard a voice, muttering and whimpering. People remained in houses and some even out in the streets. Trying to back away from my halted army. I could almost feel their fear and called out: "Surrender now! All those who lay down their arms will be spared!"

My voice was surprisingly loud and all fell silent. I climbed down the wall. Perhaps I could have jumped, but I'd rather not risk it. With every step, I felt my armour cutting into my skin. It hurt, but what could I do? I couldn't take it off. Not yet at least. Not while people still had weapons and might want to attack me.

I tried not to show it on my face and approached a cluster of people. Not soldiers. Just three women and a gaggle of children hiding behind them. They carried improvised weapons. One had a pitchfork, one had a broom, and the third actually had a rusty spear. I didn't know how to look at them. I've been the bearer of bad news before. Yes. But I'd never been a killer. And now, I probably was the killer of the rest of their families and many friends.

In the end, I settled on a sad expression and said: "Please. There is no need for more violence. I said I came here because I want peace and I mean it. I wanted everyone to live".

I stepped closer, holding out my steel-gauntleted hand: "Come. Let us have peace".

They were trembling but then, the first dropped her broom. The pitchfork and spear soon followed. Their leader, the one who looked the oldest, asked with terror in our voice: "Please. Please m'lady. Please. Spare us".

"Of course I will", I smiled, "you are my people and are my responsibility".

A short distance away, I saw some of my guards and I called them: "Gather all the living in the market square. I will address them!"

Not a single voice answered but more of my warriors started moving and I heard more voices. One of the women from behind me interrupted my thoughts: "M'lady, who, who are you?"

The question caught me by surprise. Who was I? I actually didn't know. I didn't know my name and I didn't know anything else. I just had my instincts and my old knowledge. I decided to evade the question: "I am your mistress now".

I stalked off, needing some time to think. I returned to where it all started. My shelter. There were two guards there, dead knights like the others. My grave guard. They stood motionless, only their clothes blowing in the wind. I entered the house. It must have belonged to someone, but there was no trace of them. The windows had been covered and a small tent set up inside. I walked in to find a coffin. My coffin, I presumed.

It looked strange and beautiful, even with the lid on. There were sculpted flowers of gold on the lid but no name. Of course there wasn't. Nothing ever came that easily. There however were several black chests as well. I opened them. The first was filled with clothes, fine dresses mostly in black and midnight blue. The second contained books and must be excessively heavy. I took one of the books. It looked ancient, centuries old at least, and had no title. I opened it and found a hand-written tome. It appeared to be about dark magic.

The third chest contained many bottles of strange ingredients and pieces of bones and scrollcases. The fourth was mostly empty but looked like it was meant to carry my armour. The armour that had now become useless. Finally, I had my chance and took off my cape before I tried to remove my breastplate. Even after undoing all the straps I could see, it remained stuck. I pulled and a savage pain spread through my chest. Right at my wounds.

The flesh and bone had grown back around the jagged metal. That wasn't good. Not good at all. I put my hands on the breastplate and pulled hard. I screamed as it tore loose, bits of padding and flesh stuck to it. I fell. It hurt so much. Almost more than the cannonball had hurt.

Slowly, I gathered my wits and fumbled with other straps. It felt good to be free from the breastplate and on closer examination, I started to wonder about the make. Why would a suit of armour not cover the whole chest and leave the top of the breasts, the most vulnerable part of the chest, exposed?

And then I remembered. Warhammer. It tended to be a bit silly sometimes. I however didn't intend to play by those rules. I didn't want to be hit by anymore gunfire or any other kind of craziness. I took off more of the armour and when I removed my gloves, something struck me. My hands were old. Pale and wrinkly like an old woman's. But they also were spotless. My nails were long and looked like they were drained of all colour.

I sighed. Of course I was immortal but I had to do it as an old woman. A few moments later I realized that that actually was a good thing. No one would even pay too close attention to me. It took me a while to take everything off. Perhaps I had servants somewhere but the thought of the cannibal monster coming in to help me made me shudder. No, I would do it myself or find someone a little less repulsive to do it.

Without a mirror, it was hard to see what I looked like. I wondered if I even had one somewhere in my luggage. I feared that I hadn't, which meant that I cast no reflection. Which other such flaws did I have? The sun definitely. Otherwise I wouldn't have waited for it to set before the attack. Other than that? I couldn't really tell but at least felt no urge to start counting random things. That would have been a huge pain.

Other than that, I would have to assume that everything would affect me, from garlic to holy symbols and even salt. I had to find a way to experiment safely once I had found a safe place to do so.

But first, there were other matters. I still had nasty-looking cuts on my chest from my armour and they hadn't healed. I stroked my fingers over the wounds and winced. It hurt. And it looked terrible. There was no blood coming out but also nothing that looked like healing. Perhaps I needed the sword for that? Or just blood on general?

I stroked a hand through my hair. It was wine red. Almost like dark blood but there was a dullness to it. Almost like something was wrong with me. I sighed. That still hurt with my open wounds. Perhaps blood would help?

Distant screams broke my thoughts. Why was there screaming? The people of whichever town I attacked should just have been rounded up so I could try to salvage something of this mess. I went for the clothes and sighed again. Why wasn't there something simple that could be put on quickly? I mentally added that to my long list of things I needed to do.

First though, I had to get dressed. All the dresses were black or in another dark colour and so, I went for a silk dress, dyed black and with black lace decorated with skulls. It made me feel like I came from an edgy teenager's wardrobe but everything was like that. I added riding boots because they looked the most solid and took my sword. There was a great power to it and I definitely didn't want to lose that.

Running at least went easily and I didn't feel any exhaustion when I found the source of the screams. It was in the town square where the townsfolk had been driven to. Unfortunately, my cannibals had found them and apparently wanted their meal a little fresher. The gruesome scene was surrounded by my undead warriors and with a mental command, they moved in as I shouted: "Stop this at once!"

The degenerates looked up and stopped as I took it in. Many were severely wounded and others were dead. I felt my rage boiling over and without even a doubt, I commanded my warriors: "Kill them all".

They closed in and I heard more cries for mercy, both from my ghouls and from the people. I didn't move in, I just watched as the cannibals were slaughtered. It took them a few moments, but then they started to fight back. The fight however was hopeless and soon enough, they were all dead, leaving only the people. Those poor miserable souls.

My warriors parted and I strode through. Over the bodies of the monsters I had commanded and their victims, some still alive, some dead. I saw the blood coming from the living and felt a deep thirst, the strongest I had ever felt, but somehow, I kept it under control. Although, it would help with the pain in my chest and arm. The temptation was so strong, but my will was stronger. It had to be.

The dead withdrew, leaving me with the living. Only a few dozen remained, half of them seriously wounded. Or wounded enough that they couldn't come up. On the ground, I saw the children I had spared earlier. Two of them were dead and one more was nursing a horrible wound on her arm. The fourth was shaking an adult figure. Dead as well. Only one of the women was left. I recalled her having asked who I was earlier and she glared at me with a kind of hate that told me all too much.

This was my fault. All my fault. I could just have withdrawn, but what would that have meant?

"Dear people", I began to speak, almost feeling their pure terror of me, "I wished we could have resolved this without violence. Unfortunately, your leaders found your lives and those of your loved ones to be worth less than their futile pride. And that makes me feel so sorry. All I wanted was peace and prosperity for everyone and…"

"You!", The woman I had faced earlier called out, "you said we would be safe, and you killed them all! You murderer!"

For a few moments, it caught me in silence as others spoke up as well. Somehow, I had broken right through the fear and found rage. I turned to face her and stepped closer: "Am I a killer? Yes. Yes I am. But everyone knew that the moment I arrived here. Not simply submitting only brings more suffering. I don't want anyone to suffer".

She glared at me even as others backed away: "Really? Then why did you attack us? What did we ever do wrong?"

I had to confess that I didn't know, but at the same time, I had no clue what my reason to attack here was. But there had to be something, right? At least, if I hadn't been a complete lunatic before. Which wasn't entirely impossible given that I was attacking a town and the only talking companions I had were the cannibalistic ghouls and the necromancer I had already out to the sword. So now there were none. I knew that I would need living creatures i could trust to attent to things at daytime but none of the townsfolk would do.

After a pause to gather my thoughts and wander off, I replied: "Because you refused my request to submit. That's all. But I have to apologise".

I knew that arrogance was part of my role. At least, until I could get away from here and find a safe spot to make an actual plan: "My servants proved disobedient in their attack on you, and for that, you have my most sincere apologies. And because of that, I will permit everyone who wishes to to leave and grant you until nightfall to gather everything you want to take".

She remained silent after that, almost gasping for air. I must have seemed like a complete lunatic and continued: "Those who want to stay will be free to pick their houses as some have been damaged in the fighting. They can also help themselves to anything they want".

I turned away. I didn't know what else I could do. I went back out of the city, to my little headquarters where I realised that the ones I had pack and unpack before probably were dead. I wasn't going to raise them up. Control came naturally but I had no clue how to use magic and knew enough about it to know that I would have to be exceedingly careful. I would at the very least need a teacher.

"And what about the wounded?", The woman behind me asked. I felt my shoulders slump. I didn't know. The temptation was there to make them a feast but that would be beyond monstrous.

"Take care of them. If they live, they are yours. If they die, they belong to me".