Victor arrived with more bandits in tow, the setting sun casting a long shadow before him on the road. Her face to the floor, Lucina could feel the captain shifting uncomfortably, but he planted his feet back on the ground before she could grasp the chance. As Victor drew closer, the pebbles on the cobblestone shaking with every step, Lucina craned her next to give the captain a glare.
"What makes you think they'll listen to you?" she asked.
The captain's eyes narrowed. She felt his fingers twitch. "I've got something they want. Bandits are just like anyone else. They'll listen to reason."
"And what's to stop them from simply killing you as soon as they have what they want?"
"What other choice do I have?"
Lucina tried to wriggle free from his grasp, but his fingers tightened around her arms. She glanced up to see Victor approaching, and with it, her doom. Lucina made another desperate bid for freedom. Again, the captain shut her down.
Without thinking, she blurted out, "You're making a mistake."
"Am I?"
"Yes, you are! I must ask you to reconsider. I'm–"
"Well well, a little birdie told me one of the little children wanted to speak with the adults," Victor said, coming to a stop before them, hands on his hips. His eyes roamed over the guards assembled before him, his grin growing wider by the second before he continued, "So which one of you is it?"
The captain cleared his throat. "That would be me."
Victor's eyes snapped to him. "You, darling? You're the captain of this bumbling band?"
"Aye."
"Oh, that's just wonderful. Well, here I am. What do you want from me?"
Unceremoniously, he dragged Lucina off the floor and held her up by the scruff of her neck. The sword in Lucina's gut stung from the movement, but Lucina kept quiet.
"We all know you've come for this girl," the captain said. "Take her and leave. That is all I ask. The rest of these good folk have no quarrel with you."
"Quite the deal. But I've got another one–what say I take the girl, and I kill the rest of you?"
"Then I have her killed on the spot."
Lucina craned her neck back, and though she couldn't see well, she could have sworn she saw the glint of an arrow being drawn back behind the captain. She wriggled again, and when the captain didn't budge, she hissed, "That's crazy!"
"Clever, too," Victor sneered. "I could just have you killed for that."
"And rob yourself of the satisfaction of killing her yourself?" The captain raised his right hand.
Victor narrowed his eyes. The captain glared back. Lucina tried to escape a fourth time to no avail.
"What would your people think if they saw you?" she asked. "Sacrificing a girl to the bandits–surely they would not approve?"
"I do what I must," the captain shot back, but even he refused to meet her gaze.
"To what end?"
Across from them, Victor snarled, "Oh, just hand her over. I'll take it, if only to shut you two up!"
The captain frowned. "Call off your men. Then you can have her."
Victor clicked his tongue twice. A few of the bandits around them stepped back slowly, vanishing into the shadows of the alleyway. They were still there–Lucina could still feel their gazes from all around them–but if they wanted to make a break for it, the captain and his guards would have a fighting chance.
The captain grunted. "Good enough." And he shoved Lucina forward and into Victor's waiting arms. Her arms flew to the hand around her neck. She got a glance of his vicious grin, yellow and rotting teeth behind cracked lips, before he thrust her around, snatched a sword from one of the mercenaries beside him, and held it to her neck.
Lucina's eye locked with the captain. "Help me," she hissed.
Again, the captain looked away.
Victor's grip tightened around her chest. "There's no help for you, girlie. None for my brother, and none for you. Poetic, isn't it?"
The steel pressed against her neck was cool to the touch. It was that cold touch that allowed the reality of it all to sink in. Here she was, in the middle of a burning wreckage of a town, surrounded by enemies, staring death in the face. It was like she had never traveled back in the past at all.
Except–back then, she had her friends by her side. Now, she was all alone.
Was she about to die?
No, this isn't how I die, she thought, shaking her head. It can't be! I still have a mission to complete. I still need to save my family. I still need to save my father!
"Help me!" she cried out, louder this time.
"Shut it," Victor snarled. "There's no one here to save you now, you hear me? No one! Just shut up and accept your fate."
He raised his sword. Lucina wrenched in his grasp. He didn't budge.
No, no, no! This isn't how I die! I refuse to let it end like this!
"Let this be a message to all of you! To the whole world! No one defeats the bandit brothers! No one!"
Then the captain cleared his throat. Victor paused, his snarl frozen on his face.
"Then surely you wouldn't mind delivering your message outside of town, would you?" the captain said quietly.
"Outside? A little squeamish for a guardsman. What are you, five?"
The captain's mouth clamped shut, but Lucina could see something change in Victor's eyes, something sadistic and malicious. Her hand flew to the arm around his sword. She tried to pry it out of his grasp, but his meaty fingers held strong.
Slowly, she felt him shift her to the left. Straight into the path of the archer behind the captain.
"If you feel so poorly about her blood," Victor said, humming, "I wonder how you would feel if it were your own blood on the road, hm? Perhaps I should find out."
The captain tensed. Behind him the guards raised their spears. Victor pretended not to notice.
"Yes, yes, I've got the girl. I suppose I could kill her outside–once I've let my men have their fun with you sorry lot."
"I can still have her killed," the captain said.
"You could," Victor replied. "But perhaps that's not fun to me anymore–perhaps I might find you more entertaining. Tell me, how loud do you scream?"
An arrow let loose. Lucina jerked to the side. Steel tore through her shoulder, and her arm exploded into pain. The arm grasping at Victor's sword slumped to her side, limp and lifeless.
"Have at them, boys!" Victor sang, and the bandits swarmed forward with a roar, descending upon the guards in a whirlwind of clashing steel. They threw themselves against the guards' raised lances, running the cobblestone road red, but they just kept coming and coming and coming. Lances snapped, spearheads tossed to the ground.
Lucina felt Victor's muscles tense behind her. This was it.
An idea. Stupid, painful, but she was desperate, so what else could she do?
Lucina reached up. Her fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword. The one buried in her gut. She sucked in a breath.
Victor's sword closed around her throat. One swift motion was all it would take.
Lucina pulled. Immediately, she could feel her insides being sliced open, pain spreading across her stomach like a blaze. The sword pushed out the other end, straight into Victor's side. He howled. Something warm ran down Lucina's back. His grip around her loosened, and she pushed herself out of his arms before the sword could tear into her throat, drawing a red line across Victor's chest instead.
"Get her!" he screamed, pointing at Lucina. "Somebody get her!"
A few bandits tried to reach down to grab her, but Lucina managed to duck under and weave through. In the chaos, somehow she managed to find herself next to the captain again, locked in combat against an axe-wielding fighter. Though both men were the same size, the bandit's heavier weapon gave him more strength, and as he pressed down, Lucina could see the captain begin to waver.
But she was here. She could save him.
A part of her protested the idea–it was his fault, wasn't it? But Lucina ignored it and looked around for something to arm herself.
Lances littered the floor, still grasped by the cold fingers of dead men. She could not hope to reach them, not unless she wished to risk being trampled by the mass of thrashing bandits and guards struggling to survive. The only weapon she had with her was–
She looked down at the hilt protruding out of her stomach.
It was a bad idea. A horrible one, and she was risking it all for what, a man who'd as good as sentenced her to death?
And it was what her father would have done–so it was what she would do as well.
Lucina grabbed the hilt. Braced herself. And with a roar, she tore it free.
Blood, her blood, splattered onto the street. More of it, she could feel running down her side. If Brady were here, he would tell her she only had a few minutes to find a heal staff before she passed out from the blood loss.
More than enough time to get something done.
Lucina flicked her sword once, raised it to her eye level, and thrust. The bandit, busy with the captain, never noticed her sword sliding through his ribs until it was too late. He gasped once, his axe clattered to the floor, and he followed shortly after.
The captain turned to her, surprised. Lucina just glared back.
"You should have listened to me," she hissed.
"Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't," he snapped back. "I don't know!"
And couldn't Lucina relate with that. A quick look around, and she could tell that this couldn't hold. The bandits outnumbered the guards five to one, and with the bandits pouring out from the alleyways, that would only get worse.
"You need to find somewhere to regroup," Lucina said, ducking under a stray Elfire spell. "A building that will not catch fire, preferably."
"You think I don't know that?" the captain snapped, fending off a bandit mercenary. "The only place like that is the town hall. It's just a few streets away–but the townsfolk are holed up in there."
"If we die, what are the odds the bandits won't go for them next?" Lucina nodded behind her. "Order your men into a retreat."
"And how do you suggest that? We're packed in here tighter than cattle in a herd."
"We take the alleyways," Geralt said, poking his head between them.
The captain jumped, but Lucina just blinked. "You're alright," she said.
"It'll take a lot more than this to put me down." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, first rule of thieving is to avoid fights if you can–but the second rule is to always make sure to take fights to narrow spaces–it doesn't matter how many men you have if you can only fight one-on-one."
The captain frowned. "I don't know about that..."
Lucina turned to the captain. "Do as he says."
"He's one of them!"
"I'm a thief, not a bandit. Now do you want to get out of this in one piece or not?"
The guard scowled, but his shoulders slumped, and he let out a breath through his nose. "Into the alleyways, men!" he cried, waving his lance behind him. "Fall back!"
One by one, the guards grouped up and seeped through the alleys. The few bandits still making their way out attempted to fight back, but against trained guards and without their advantage in numbers, they fell swiftly to their lances. Lucina, the captain, and Geralt were the last to go, holding off the swarming bandits as they pushed through the alleys. As they slipped through, Geralt dragged over a pile of crates, obstructing the path and allowing them to press on.
As they spilled back out onto the street, Lucina could already feel the effects of the blood loss. Every step she took, she could feel the world sway, and she could see darkness creeping in from the edge of her vision. Her head felt much too light on her shoulders, then much too heavy, and she could feel it dragging her toward the ground, falling, falling–
Then, someone caught her.
"A little too early to take a nap, don'tcha think?"
Wearily, Lucina craned her head up to meet Anna's shining red eyes. "It's you," she said. "Why?"
"Well, my girls would never let me live it down if I didn't go back to check on you, and though Gregor won't admit it, he was worried for you too."
Lucina looked to the left, and sure enough, there was Gregor, looking down at the floor. "Gregor is not distraction. He will prove it to Marth."
"Let's get you back on your feet, hon." With a quick motion, Anna brought Lucina up to lean against a nearby wall, and with a tap of the heal staff in her hands, Lucina could feel the sluggishness dissipate from her head. Her stomach still hurt–she could feel the newly healed skin tug at her every time she turned–but for the time being, it would do.
As soon as she could stand on her own two feet, Lucina took the chance to look around. The road was mostly clear, a few bandits scattered about and engaged in combat with the guards–perhaps when Victor had heard where she was, he had brought most of them with him to support him. She caught sight of a few signs, too, so it was clear that this was some kind of business district. And there, at the end, she could see a big stone building, one that towered over the others at two stories tall, watching over the street through tall glass windows. The town hall.
"There!" Lucina said, though she probably had no need to. "Tell your men to head to there."
As the captain opened his mouth to shout the command, a war cry echoed through the street. Lucina glanced the other way just in time to see bandits pouring out onto the street.
"Go!" he said. "Back to the town hall, everyone!"
"No!" Lucina snapped. "Don't turn your backs to them."
The captain turned to her, scowling. "If you think you're a much better leader than I am, what do you think we should do?"
"Close ranks–it'll make it harder for them to surround us."
The captain looked like he wanted to protest. Lucina didn't blame him–at least in the future, she had the credibility of being Ylisse's Exalt. Here, she was a girl who had shown up out of nowhere and landed them in a heap of trouble.
Her eyes narrowed. Perhaps that was just what she needed.
Finally, the captain relented. "Close ranks!" he yelled, and the guards rushed out to form a defensive rank before them, lances extended. Against the bandit's axes, their weapons were quickly batted away, but the line held strong. An Elfire spell smashed into their ranks, and a few guards were knocked away. Acting fast, Lucina ducked between them, filling the gap herself, Anna and Gregor not far behind. Together, they forced the bandits away before they could pour through the opening.
An arrow whizzed past her head. What few archers the captain had fired a volley from the safety of the town hall, and as the bandits scrambled for cover Lucina motioned towards the open town hall door.
"Run inside, while they're distracted!"
Perhaps they might not have listened to her, had they had the time to see who was speaking, but in the chaos, the guards heeded her instructions, fleeing behind the sturdy stone walls of the town hall. The few bandit mages that slipped through the volley of arrows slung spells after them, but they fizzled harmlessly against the walls.
Just as Lucina was about to follow them inside, however, she heard a voice break through. "Oh no you don't!"
Lucina looked back. Standing at the front of the line, staring down the archers as they hurled arrow after arrow at him, was Victor. He drew his hand back, and Lucina caught a flash of red of the short axe in his hand before he hurled it forward.
Lucina ducked. The axe sailed over her head. She heard a thunk behind her. Craning to look over her shoulder, she saw the captain, eyes wide and staring down at the axe buried in his chest.
"Perhaps I should have listened to you after all," he muttered. Then, he collapsed on the floor. A wooden mug spilled out from one of his pockets, rolling against the floor before coming to a stop against a nearby wall.
Cursing, Lucina slammed the door shut behind her before any more bandits could get through. Anna was already by the captain's side before Lucina could reach him, but when Lucina gave her an inquisitive look, the woman shook her head.
"He's dead, darling," she said.
Lucina's shoulders sagged. No one spoke. She saw a few guards exchange uneasy glances.
At last, the silence was broken with a wail. "The captain's dead?!" a woman cried.
Lucina blinked, and it was then that she noticed they were not alone. Behind the guards, she could make out a dozen or so townsfolk, huddled against the wall, afraid. She recognized a few–the fruit vendor, the people she had saved in the stable. And as the woman's panicked cry settled over the crowd, she could hear murmurs begin to spread.
"What do we do?"
"The captain's dead?"
"Oh Naga, are we next?!"
Slowly, Lucina dragged herself to her feet. "No," she said, loudly, clearly. "No, we are not."
Beside her, one of the guards snapped. "We might as well be! With the captain dead, what are we supposed to do?"
"We fight."
Another guard this time stepped up to confront her. "I don't know if you're blind or stupid, but just look at us! They outnumber us ten to one! We can't fight them all off!"
"We don't have to. We just have to fight them off long enough to survive."
"We are not going to survive this, miss!"
Lucina paused. She gave him a good, long look before she said, "What's your name, soldier?"
The man gave her a look. "Samwick. My name is Samwick," he replied.
"Do you have family here, Samwick?"
"I do."
Lucina scanned over the crowd of terrified townsfolk behind them. Her eyes roamed over each person there, wondering which one of them was this man's family.
"How big is your family, Samwick?"
"I've a son. Expecting a second."
Then, she turned to him, eyes steeled. "Do you want to see your sixth child, Samwick?"
"Miss, we're not going to–"
"Please, answer my question."
The man swallowed. "I do."
Lucina grasped his shoulders and squeezed firmly. "Then grasp that desire of yours, Samwick. Take it with both hands, because that desire is more than enough to see that you live to see another day." Then, she turned to the rest of the guards, to the rest of the townspeople. "I've traveled through hell and back to see my family, and here I stand. As long as my heart still beats, the hope I have that I shall see them again will never die. As long as you can still draw a breath, I should hope that you shall carry that same hope with you, because as long as you have hope by your side, I promise you, you shall live to see the sun rise tomorrow."
She could feel everyone's eyes on her now, silent, intent. No one protested, no one argued. She had as good as made them an oath that she would see every single one of them alive by the end of the day. And... though she was not Morgan, she could feel the inner workings of her mind beginning to form a plan to do just that.
Lucina closed her eyes. Took a deep breath.
Once the words left her mouth, there would be no going back.
As soon as she opened them, her eyes landed on Samwick, the guard to her left weakly clutching an iron lance. She looked the weapon up and down, before she asked, "This town hall was built to act as a stronghold in case of something like this, was it not? Do they have any more weapons in the store room?"
Samwick nodded. "We do."
"What about javelins? Do you have any in the back?"
"I... I think we do, yeah."
"Then I want everyone here without a weapon to grab one from the store room and sneak out through the windows on the second floor onto the rooftops around us." Then she scanned over the townspeople in the back. "And I mean everyone."
Beside her, Geralt stepped in and cleared his throat. "I don't mean to rain on your parade or anything, but they've got us surrounded. They'll be watching every exit to make sure we don't leave, not until they're ready to storm inside here."
Lucina tilted her head. "I've got a plan for that. Until then, go with them–on my signal, have them hurl as many javelins down onto the street." Then, she turned to the guards. "The rest of you, come with me."
"Come with you? Where?" one of the guards piped up.
"Where else? Out."
The guard blanched. "They'll kill us where we stand!"
"I'm willing to bet they won't. Victor wants me dead, and he wants me dead personally. The moment I leave, his eyes will be on me."
"That won't solve the fact that his men will still be watching the exits," Geralt said.
Lucina gave him a coy look. "I wouldn't bet on that."
"Are you feeling lucky today?" Anna asked from her right.
"I might just be." Lucina glanced outside. The sun had gone down a lot more–not enough to hide Victor and his bandits, and not enough to hide anyone who came out the front door, but enough to obscure the rooftops in shadow. Unless they were being watched intently, it would be easy to miss anyone climbing out onto them. Lucina was willing to bet they were being watched right now–but not for long.
Nodding her head, Lucina dragged the door open. She held her hand outside, and when she didn't see anyone attempt to fire a spell at her, she stepped outside.
As she had predicted, there was Victor, standing at the front, bandits behind him, weapons glistening, all of them tensed for an assault they had been preparing to launch. As soon as they saw her, they tensed, but Victor held a hand up for them to wait.
"Given up yet, dearie?" he snarled. "Come over here, and I'll make sure you die quickly–more quickly than those inside, anyway."
Lucina huffed. "Funny. I thought I'd be the one saying that to you."
That got a response from him. He frowned, confused, before he burst out laughing. "And where was all this bravado before? You? Kill us? In case you haven't noticed, I've got an army at my beck and call. How many men do you have?"
"More than you."
Now, all Victor's bandits were laughing. Between laughs, Victor said, "And where is this army you believe you have, huh?"
"They can't be more than a few minute's flight out from here."
"Flight?"
Lucina crossed her arms. "I thought you were smarter than this, bandit. Don't you know? When Pegasus Knights more, they don't ride–they fly."
Slowly, the laughter died down. The smile dwindled on Victor's face, and his brows pulled down. "Pegasus Knights? Who do you think you are, the Exalt of Ylisse?"
Slowly, Lucina reached up to her face. Her fingers closed around her eyepatch. "I am."
This is it.
Then, she ripped it off, and even in the dying light of the sunset, her brand, emblazoned on her bright blue eyes, shone for all to see.
"My name," she yelled, "is Exalt Emmeryn Lowell of Ylisse–and these people are under my protection!"
Dun dun dun! Here it is! The big reveal that you've all been hoping for–though hopefully not exactly the same as you all were predicting it'd be. Consider this my (belated) Christmas present to you all!
In lieu of doing another Christmas special, I decided to work on this story. Then I got operated on, which pushed this back further, and this update really stretched out longer than it should've–anyway, excuses aside, it's here!
Funny enough, I don't think the second half's going to take quite as long as this first half. Don't know if it'll be enough to finish it before New Year, especially with how woozy I get sometimes, but I'm hoping I'll be able to at least get it somewhat close.
Until then, feel free to leave a review! Any feedback keeps me going and keeps this story at the top of my to-do list. Take care of yourselves out there, and stay safe!