(Violet's Pov)
-Two Years Ago-
I was ridding my horse quickly around the field to distract any of the enemies from my men, it worked for a good while to the point where my archers could shoot them down. I was able to slay some of the men a swell with my sword, blood coated it as I ran to the next victim for the blade. I looked to see one of the Delta knights coming after one of my groundmen and I quickly road up and stabbed the man in the chest as he fell back, my blade dropping to the ground with his body and I quickly try to grab it. That was my mistake as I felt a stab in my shoulder and another one in the chest, I looked down to see both the blade protruding from my body and I slowly raised my hand up to the blade in my chest, for what reason I don't know. I heard one of my Knights call out to me as I fell to my knees and I felt the sword in my chest get pulled along with the one in my shoulder. I was placed on my back as I felt pressure on the wounds and I was picked up quickly and dragged away from the battlefield and to a tent.
"We have to get the nurses." I heard and I looked around, my vision was a bit blurred and I began to hurt a lot as I felt alcohol being poured on my wounds and I yelled out as it began to burn. And I tried to get up as they pushed me back down. I finally passed out from the pain and woke up to see a woman with red hair patching me up. I felt the sweat on my face and she looked to me as she had a rag in her hand too and wiped the sweat off my face.
"Seems like you had a rough battle Knight." She says and I nod a bit and gulped from the lack of liquids. She helped me up a bit and handed me some water and I take a drink. It felt good and I coughed a bit as I looked to her.
"Thank you." I say and she nods.
"How are you feeling?" She asked and I looked at her.
"Like hell... what happened?" I asked.
"You were stabbed near your heart and through the shoulder, I was able to save you." She says and I looked to her.
"Thank you, I owe you." I say and she nods and holds her hand out to me and I shake it.
"I'm Minerva." She introduced herself.
"Violet." I tell her and she smiled at me as she continued to help patch me up.
-Two Year Later-
I woke up quickly shooting up in the bed as I placed my hand on my chest and took a few deep breaths, it was getting hard to breath and I felt someone move next to me and I felt hands on my shoulder, I looked to see Clementine looking me in the eyes saying something but I couldn't hear her as I heard my heart pounding like crazy and I shook my head a bit and I felt her place my head near her chest and I tried to copy her breathing. It took me a minute to finally calm down and I felt her rub my head and hum a sort of lullaby to me. I pulled away from her a bit and I looked to her as she looked at me scared.
"Are you ok?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yea I just... nightmare." I tell her simply.
"Was it about the battle?" She asked and I looked at her.
"How'd you know?" I asked.
"You said something about your chest and shoulder hurting and I know you told me about your shoulder." She says and I look at her and I sighed and I wiped the sweat from my face and saw that it was still dark out and I rubbed my face a bit of sweat and I sighed.
"Ok... uh, I just need a breath is all... thank you." I tell her and she nods as she looked at me and I looked at my hands a bit.
"You should talk to the priest if this is bothering you, I heard it that when people talk in their sleep it's from guilt or something." She says and I look to her and I shake my head.
"I don't need to talk to a priest." I muttered and I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Violet, please for me." She says and I look at her sadly and I sighed a bit.
"Alright... I will talk to the priest." I say and she nods as I lay back down and look to her as she stayed up a bit.
"You should sleep for a bit longer; we don't have to go to the church yet." I muttered and she nods as she lays her head on my chest and I rubbed her back as we fell asleep for a short while. When we finally did wake up I went and did my stretches with Clem also stretching with me, we then had some of the left over stew from last night and I had cut some bread for us to eat as well. We then got dressed up for church, I was wearing my black clothing though since my other cloths are tarnished and would need to be cleaned as well, I made sure I wore Clem's family crest near my heart and I grabbed the cloths and gem she gave me and I looked to her as she grabbed it and placed them both in my pocket as she straightened out my outfit and I looked to her as she fixed her hair a bit and I think.
"Ever think about cutting your hair?" I asked as we walked out of the house and helped her onto the cart and took us to the church.
"No, though I can't." She says and I look to her.
"Long hair does get bothersome though." I say as I run my hand through my short hair and she looked to me as she ran her hand through my hair and I chuckled.
"I like your short hair though." She says and I nod.
"I'll keep that in mind." I say as we kept heading in the direction of the church.
"So that meeting, do you need to inform my father of anything?" She asked and I shook my head.
"No, I got it sorted out, I have my men walking the edge of the lands to make sure no one comes in without proper identification and where they are going in the kingdom, it seems a bit harsh but until we know for sure what is going on it's best we did that for now." I lied but made sure to tell the Knights this when I got the chance. I looked around a bit as we got to the church and I set the horse and cart over to the proper spot and made sure to tie the horse up to the post. I then helped Clem as she tried to get out the cart herself and I smiled down at her as she glared at me.
"I can do it myself." She says and I chuckled.
"And what kind of Knight would I be if I let the Princess trip and fall on her face?" I asked and she looked to me and hit my shoulder and I laughed as I took her in the church. We took our seats in the front since she had to be up in the front for some reason, though she said she would have been ok with the back. I made sure to keep my eyes on Carver when he passed by and gave a small prayer to us and he went to the podium and I saw Louis as he got ready to get the choir to sing. This is what he was getting ready for and I stood a bit taller in my seat as I heard the Choir start. I tried to pay attention to the chant as I watched Louis as he sang and I looked to Clementine as she watched the choir as well and I looked back to them as they continued. It was a good while before they finished and then Carver opened his book and I looked as he looked around the room.
"Today is a holy day, for we are gathered here in the Lords house, we pray in his name and hope that others will one day walk down the path he had originally designed and turn away from sin." He says and I look to him, it seems he didn't stay with the normal talk like the old priest did.
"When we come here on this day, we are showing the Lord that we are willing to follow his path and we are willing to repent as well, we confess our sins to him and we do what we can to spread his word." He spoke and I looked as he turned to face Clementine and I moved a bit so she was out of his view and he looked at me as I looked back to him.
"The Lord wanted me to speak today on the Knights of Macon." He says and I looked at him and hope he would choose his words wisely.
"They have committed a sin bigger than most of us here today, they took the life of Gods children, they raged a war on Holy Lands and destroyed the earth that the Lord has mad for us." He says and I was quickly sat down as I tried to get up and I looked to Clem as she looked to him and I kept to myself for now.
"They have spilt blood on the grounds of the earth and for that they must be punish for doing the Lords work, if he wanted those men gone, he would have done so by his own hands." He says and I had enough as I got up.
"THE LORD BROUGHT US TO THOSE MEN TO DO THE WORK HE COULDN'T YOU SNAKE!" I yelled and the people looked at me and started to talk.
"My dear child I think I would know what the Lord would want." He says and I glare at him.
"The lord sent us to take care of those men who slaughter children and rape them along with defenseless women, their husbands died to protect their family and we as Knights went and did our job to stop those men for killing more of his children, you have not seen battle like I have, you have not seen the lord like I have, you have no say until you have the blade of a knights sword pierce through your chest as your blood spills on the ground." I tell him and he looked to me.
"I have seen good men die to protect these lands and you, had we not done so many here would be dead and your head would be on a spike for teaching these people the lies to you are spewing now." I say to him as he glared at me.
"I know what the Lord wants child and it was his will to have those people suffer for their sins." He says.
"INNOCENT CHILDREN WERE SLAUGHTERED YOU MONSTER, THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE TIME TO KNOW WHAT SIN WAS, AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE OUT THERE, YOU HAVEN'T LEFT THESE GROUNDS ONCE EVEN WHEN I WAS A CHILD YOU WERE JUST HERE IN THESE CHURCH WALLS!" I yelled at him and the people looked to me and spoke.
"How dare she talk ill about the priest." I heard and looked to see the one who spoke and I glared at Carver as he smirked at me.
"My child you seem to be lost, the Lord works in many ways, those children would have committed the worst sins and were probably unrepeatable, so the lord did us a favor by having them taken to his kingdom before the devil claimed their souls." He says.
"Yea, you keep telling yourself that, but in the end, you are the sinner for having those evil vile thoughts in your head, you are an unholy man." I say and I go over to Clem as I helped her up and we left the church and I helped her onto the Cart and I untied the horse from the post and got in the cart and took her to my home.
"Violet." She says.
"That unholy man, thinks he knows what it is like to be a Knight, to see the innocent have the blood spill from them, those Lands have not been Holy for a long time." I muttered as I kept the horse steady.
"Violet." She says and I look to her.
"It's ok." She says.
"The hell it is, he is spewing lies and has no idea what it's like, if we had not gone and helped the other Kingdoms we would have been slaughtered here on our homelands, you would be dead, he would be dead, the Lord might not be a kind man to those who sin but to have the men sin as they kill the innocent or violate the innocent is not the right thing to do, it is not ok and never will be, even if they sin in the future they are allowed to live a life with consequences." I tell her and she looked to me and nods a bit as I look to the dirt path and I gripped the reins harder, making my knuckles turn white and I felt a hand touch mine and I look to her.
"I... I'm sorry for speaking out in the Lords home, but I cannot in good intentions allow that man to speak as if he knows all." I tell her.
"I understand Violet." She says and I shake my head a bit as I tried to calm down.
"You said you saw the Lord... Vi." She says and I look to her and then to the road and sighed.
"I was stabbed near the heart, I was dying, I did die for a short while, but was brought back, I saw the Lord and he said it was not my time to go, not yet... and then I woke up." I told her as I remember that day.
"I had no idea; I am sorry Violet." She says and I nod.
"You were not the one who spoke out of line, he was." I say as we get to my home and I set the horse back in their spot and I helped Clem out the cart.
"I am sorry for taking you out of the church, I will repent for that later, I will let Aasim come here to teach you what we were supposed to learn today if you want." I say as I remember the battle where we had our priest Aasim with us.
"It's ok Violet, I will read the book later tonight." She says and I nod a bit as I help her inside and I see a letter on the table and I go grab it, breaking the seal once again since I know who it was.
'Hello, Grand Cross, it seems your little outburst at the church today will be reaching the king soon, it was a wonderful speech you gave though, I will have to admit to that, but just remember it was not the Lord that brought you back but the Devil and I that let you live, we shall meet tonight but this time in the taverns in town, again the same stipulations apply, no Armor, no Weapons, and be sure to bring the blood covered cloth you keep close to your heart. From: Minerva' I read the not and I groaned to myself as I went and grabbed one of the lock boxes I have and set the note inside. I turned the key and removed it then placed the key in my pocket.
"Another letter from the men?" She asked and I looked to her and I nod.
"Yes, we have another meeting tonight at the taverns." I tell her.
"You won't be drinking, will you?" She asked and I shook my head as I looked to her.
"No, or maybe one, if they ask." I tell her and she nods.
"One and that's it, or do I have to make in an order?" she asked and I looked to her.
"I think you should." I say and I smirked as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Then I order you to kiss me, right now." She says and I nod as I lean down and I kiss her. She kissed me back and I pulled her closer to me if possible and I pull back and kiss her neck.
"But really, don't drink tonight." She says and I nod at this. I sighed as I looked around the house a bit and she looked to me and I roll up my sleaves as I got to work on the house, and she got ready on making lunch and dinner since we had finished the stew this morning. I look to her and I think a bit as I fixed one of the posts in the house.
"When did you learn to cook?" I asked and she looked to me as I looked back to her.
"I went into town once and smelt this delicious food and I asked for the recipe, when I asked one of the cooks to make it they declined calling it peasant food... so I went back to the town and asked the man to help me cook it." She says and I nod.
"What is the man's name?" I asked as I worked on another section of the house.
"Omar, nice man, a bit younger than me." She says and I nod.
"I'll have to thank him one day." I say and she nods.
"We could go to his shop one day." She says and I nod as I look to her.
"Would be a nice break to have someone else cook for me." I joked and she gasped as she came up and hit my shoulder with the spoon and I chuckled at her and then pulled her by her dress and I kissed her cheek.
"I love your cooking." I tell her and she nods.
"Though to be fair I am not as good as Omar." She says and I chuckled a bit as I got back to work and she did as well.
"I'm going to get some more water from the well." She says and I look at her.
"I can do it; I fixed the one side of the house." I say and she nods as she hands me a bucket and I went and took it to the well and wrapped a rope around the handle and lowered it down. I thought about the men in my army that died and I took a breath as I pulled the bucket back up and brought the water into the house for Clem as she began to use if to make dinner. She handed me a sandwich that I thanked her for and ate it as I watched her.
"You ok?' she asked and I nodded.
"Yea just... want to take a small break before I work more." I tell her and she nods.
"Take a long break, you've done enough work." She says and I look to her as she cooked more and I thought about the future we could have.
"You'd make a great house wife." I say and she looked to me.
"Is that you proposing something?" She asked and I look to her.
"Maybe, but we can wait." I say and she nods as she comes and sits next to me as she cleaned her hands and I look at her as I share the food with her and she ate some of the sandwich and I smiled.
"imagine the kids going over to you and pulling on your dress trying to get your attention." I say and she smiled a bit.
"I could see you trying to teach the little ones how to read and write." She says and I nod at this and I smiled.
"The older ones would probably outside messing with the chickens we'll have." I tell her and she giggled at this and I smiled more as I thought about it. As we sat and talked a bit with each other I watched her as she got up and I did as well and helped her with dinner, it was a simple dish of meats and vegetables, I cut up some more of the bread for us to eat with the food and I look at her.
"We should get a cow, have some fresh milk, and if we get some tots, they're going to need the milk." I say and she looked to me and smiles.
"That would be good, I can get a cow from my father he won't mind if I asked." She says and I nod and helped her out some more and I looked to the flames and added more wood to the fire to warm up the house.
"Winter will be here soon; you should wear your jacket when you head out tonight." She says and I nod and looked to her.
"I will." I say to her and she nods.
"You know I will bother you if you don't wear it." She says and I chuckled at her statement and I nod.
"I will, I'll even make sure to grab some the scarf too." I say and she nods and I get back to work.
"I should make you another one." She says and I look back to her.
"I'd like that." I tell her.
"Make sure to put my name on it too." She joked and I laughed as we kept working on dinner.
"I'll wear whatever you make, just tell me before I leave so I can get you some supplies." I tell her and she nods and I cut some of the meat and I think back to when I was in my tent helping the cook with preparing dinner, I don't know why but I missed the meat and end up cutting my hand and hiss in pain as I moved it away from the meat and held it to me.
"Fuck that's sharp." I muttered and Clem grabs a cloth and wraps my fingers in it and then moves it away to look at the wound and I looked at it too.
"It's not that deep, what happened?" She asked and I shrugged.
"Just remembered when I helped the cook when I was out in battle." I say and she nods and helps me fix my hand up.
"He died." I say and she looked to me.
"I'm sorry." She says and I nod, I mean what else is she supposed to say at something like this.
"It's fine, he died of old age." I say and she looked to me and I looked to my hand.
"I'm still sorry." She says and I nod as we look at her handywork and I nod.
"Thanks." I say and she nods.
"Maybe I should be a nurse." She says and I chuckled.
"You'd be a great nurse; all the patients would be cured with your beauty." I say and she smiled a me as she pats my shoulder.
"Sure." She says and I look to her and she worked on the food again.
"I mean it, you're very beautiful... if I was a man, I would have asked your hand in marriage when I first met you... Though you may have rejected me." I say and scratched my cheek a bit as I say this.
"I don't think I would have, if you're still the same as you are now." She says and I look to her.
"I know I have talked about marriage with you before but if you really could marry me, in a realistic sense, would you have married me by now?" I asked and I see her turn to me and look at me.
"Even now I would." She says and I keep my eyes on her as she kept looking back at me, it was silent but the crickets were making noise as we just kept up our little staring contest.
"I would ask my father to make a law that allows for you and I to get married if I have to... if you're really serous about being with me." She says and I nod a bit at this and I looked to my hand.
"But I am a Knight, I might die in battle." I tell her.
"I know, but that doesn't change the way I feel... I would never love another person like I love you." She says and I got up and went over to her and hugged her.
"One day... even if your father doesn't agree with this, I would take you away from here, I would ask Aasim to marry us if I have to just so we can be together." I tell her and she looked to the side of her shoulder to look at me as I looked to her.
"One day." She says and I nod as I kissed her head and she turned back to cook the food. Once dinner was done, I helped set the table and made the plates as we sat down and ate I just couldn't help but look at her from time to time.
"I'd like a summer wedding." I say and she looked to me and I cleared my throat a bit from food.
"Summer wedding hu?" She asked and I nodded.
"Or spring." I say and she looked to me.
"They both sound nice." She says and I nod at this.
"Outside or in a church?' I asked her.
"Traditionally it would be a church, but an outside wedding sounds nice as well." She says and I nod.
"Small or big?" She asked and I chuckled.
"Small, don't have any family left and you have your father." I say and she nods.
"What about Louis?" She asked and I think and I nod.
"Yea, he can come." I say and she nods.
"The knights? Are they not family?" she asked and I looked to her.
"They ae but not blood family... though it would be nice to have them there if you are ok with that." I say and she nods a bit. We finished the talk on weddings and finished the food, we cleared our plates and cleaned them up as she dried them, I watched her.
"Is it bad that I kind of would like to see you taking care of our big family?" I asked and she laughed a bit.
"I don't think so, but I know you want to help those in needs so it's a happy thought in all honesty... so long as you help too." She says and I smiled.
"But of course, I wouldn't let you take care of the kids alone." I say and she nods and I help her get ready for bed. I asked her to show me how to hold a dagger properly and she does, I nod at this as she repeated to me what I told her to do incase something happens while I am gone and I nod as she gets everything right and I get up and grabbed my coat and scarf and headed out into the town to the old tavern, where women wear a tiny bit of clothing in order to make the men throw their gold coins to them, and to have later services in the bedroom if possible. I looked around a bit and saw Minerva in the corner of the tavern and I go to the table and sit across from her as someone comes by and drops off two mugs of Ale, I give them some coins and I looked to the Ale and I looked back to the Witch as she drank some from her mug.
"Seems like you're having a happy home life." She says and I look to her.
"Come on Vi, I'm just having a conversation." She says and I grabbed the mug and looked at the liquid inside it but didn't take a drink.
"Not drinking hu?" she asked and I looked to her.
"No." I tell her and she looked to me.
"I saw what you did at the church, had you been unprofessional I would assume you would have run your sword threw the man." She says and I looked at her.
"He... why am I even talking to you about this?" I asked.
"Because you have to." She says and I glared at her and she pulled out an item that resembled a human heart and I look at her.
"I literally hold your heart in my hands Violet, the beats you feel aren't real." She says and I looked to the heart as she squeezed it a bit and my chest hurt and I looked to her as I grabbed my chest a bit and she let go.
"You aren't going to tell her the truth, will you?" she asked and I shook my head no at the question as she kept the item in her hand and I look at her.
"Surprised though that she didn't notice all the bottles of Ale you drank would have killed two men." She says and I look at her.
"Maybe I should tell her." She says and I looked at her.
"Don't." I say.
"Then you will do as I say?" she aske and I look at her.
"I need you to attack the Kings castle this summer." She says and I look at her with wide eyes.
"I can't-." I tried to say but I felt the pain in my chest again and I clenched my chest a bit and she laughed a bit at this.
"You said you owe me and this is what the Delta wants." She says and I look at her.
"You could have just left me to die." I tell her and she gripped the heart harder and I coughed a bit.
"Oh, but I didn't want you to break your promise to Clementine." She says in an annoying voice and I glared at her.
"You bring the cloth?" she asked and I looked to her and I nod as I reluctantly handed her the cloth and she looked to it and smirked and said something quietly, I couldn't make out the words and I look at her as I feel my shoulder and lungs hurt and I coughed a bit.
"Sad that you were stupid to bring this, then again if you didn't your poor princess would have gotten hurt." She says and I look at her.
"...Fuck... You." I coughed as she gripped the heart tighter and I tried to breath but it hurt.
"This is fun." She says and I coughed as the pressure was let go and I looked to her as she got up.
"But I have to go... Remember you need to attack in the summer, after the summer has passed and you haven't done anything, I'll make sure your death is a painful one." She says and I watch her as she leaves and I patted my chest a bit and grabbed the cloth and looked to it and sighed.
"Fuck." I mumbled and I got up but staggered a bit from the lightheadedness and I started to walk home. It took me longer than usual to do so as I felt a pain in my chest here and there, I just knew she was fucking around with my life and I finally got to the door of my home, the pain had stopped but it still hurt to breath a bit. I opened the door slowly and I looked to see Clementine still awake in the bed and I looked to her as I stood up tall so she wouldn't get worried. I then went to her and I laid in the bed but before I could hear her speak I fell into a deep sleep.