A/N: I don't usually put notes at the front, but you may find your experience enhanced by hearing the song used in this chapter. It's called "All Things Must Die" by Jeff Williams, and in-story it begins as soon as a piano is mentioned.
"I am the prince of Albion, Wales Tudor."
Louise froze for a moment as Musician laughed. Well. If this was for the sake of disguise, then Louise could very well say it completely worked. She could only think that it was lucky that the first Albion ship they'd encountered was the prince's. "Ah. Your highness."
Wales smiled bitterly. "None of that, ambassador. All that pomp and fancy etiquette… it's difficult to hear in the face of our reality."
Louise looked at the dirty interior of the "pirate" ship again with a more considering eye. "I… My apologies. Is this ship…?"
"It's the Eagle. Technically a fleet ship. Though it's difficult to have a fleet when it's the only ship."
"At the risk of sounding rude, I would agree…"
Wales snorted. "I can see Henrietta has chosen an ambassador with spirit. That is… if you really are her ambassador."
He wants proof? Louise held out Anne's ring. Wales held out one of his own. Wind and water coalesced into a rainbow. And without further ceremony, Louise delivered the letter Anne gave her.
For the few minutes he spent reading, Wales' face and posture softened. He kissed the signature, then gave the paper to one of his bodyguards, who promptly burned it. "You are aware of the full extent of your mission, yes?"
"I am to return with Henrietta's other letter."
"It is not with me right now. It is at Newcastle."
Louise hesitated. "I have no desire to distract from your current mission."
"It is of no consequence." Wales shrugged. "Nothing we could do would matter that much anyways, so I may as well fulfill… this last request. Helmsman, set course for Newcastle." He sighed. "For what it's worth, welcome to Albion." The ship began to move.
"Um… thank you. How long before we reach Newcastle?" Louise asked.
"Not too long. Ten minutes at most."
Louise shuffled nervously. She glanced quickly at Wardes, who was calm, and to Musician… who was staring directly at Wales. "Musician?"
"His song is bittersweet. Courage and cowardice. Love and sadness." He kneeled close and whispered into Louise's ear. "This is a man who knows he is to die, and has made peace with it."
Louise flinched. "Die?"
"If I had to guess, Reconquista is winning. Soon there will be no nation of Albion. And this one intends to die with honor. Or something like that."
Louise swallowed, listening to the few slow, light notes echoing in the space. "I guess… there's not much we can do, then. We'll have to complete the mission and leave." She pushed down the feeling of loss and wrongness as best as she could.
Albion, one of four holy Brimiric nations that had stood for six thousand years, formed by the Founder's firstborn son, torn down. The Tudor bloodline, uprooted by heretics with a lust for power. And on a personal note, Anne's beloved, Prince Wales, gone, with much of the princess' happiness taken with him. Louise could feel the echoes of the sorrow that was to come.
None of this was right.
"Is that what you want?" Musician asked, voice more serious than she'd ever heard from him.
"No," she whispered. "I wish I could do something."
Her breath caught.
What would you do if you had my power?
Could… could she? "Musician?"
"Yes, my lady?"
Images of madness and destruction flashed across her eyes.
"If I told you to stop Reconquista… If I told you to… to kill them all… would you?"
Her heartbeat quickened.
"Yes," he said simply, as if discussing the weather.
But Louise couldn't finish her order. She couldn't knowingly unleash that upon the world.
She just couldn't.
After retrieving the letter, Louise couldn't snap out of her somber mood. Just outside the walls was a vast army, far greater than what remained of the Tudors'. Yet it seemed everyone was ignoring this fact. She watched soldiers around her drink and be merry, knowing they were going to die. It was hard to be here during that, but Wales had insisted on her being a guest at his table.
Wardes sat down next to her and took her hand. She smiled slightly. "I don't understand what is going on in their minds."
"It is hard to gain resolve in the face of despair. And so they choose not to despair. I've seen it a few times before," her fiancée said.
"This is wrong. All of it. We of the faith should not be fighting each other. And even if it is so, Brimir's descendants should not be able to be snuffed like a candle."
"And yet… it is," Wardes mused. "I must wonder if this is Brimir's will." She stared at him, shocked. "Oh, Louise, don't look at me that way. What I mean is that it is impossible to go against the Founder's will. So what must it mean that Reconquista is winning? I don't like the idea, but I can only think that perhaps the Tudors have earned Brimir's disfavor."
Louise tried to understand this, but it grinded against her very being. Wales is just a boy thrust into circumstances beyond his control. He tries to hide it, but his bitterness is very real. It is not his fault that these power-hungry extremists wish to kill him for his name. Nor that he cannot flee to Tristain because Reconquista would use it as Casus Belli. How could Brimir be displeased with such an honorable, honest, hard-working prince? How could Brimir want his blood to be extinguished by the maddened desires of maniacs?
Maybe he doesn't. He sent me Musician for a reason. Maybe the Founder wants me to…
She shuddered momentarily, and Wardes took it as reason to hold her close. In her mind, the conflict continued. It just couldn't be that the Founder wanted her to bring genocide upon the rebels. No matter their ill intent, no matter their delusions, no matter their violence, they were still humans. People.
And yet, to reconcile that with being sent a familiar of great power who told her to follow her desires? Was this a test of her faith? If so, what was success? Did He want her to resist the temptations and follow a holy path where she, like Wales, gave up her desires for the sake of one of the Founder's unknowable, unseeable plans? Or did He send her here to enact divine judgment on those who would corrupt His word, preserving His bloodline?
"Louise…" Wardes whispered. "I have something I wish to ask you." Louise nodded into his shoulder. "Would you… marry me, here, before we leave?"
She was immediately snapped out of her reverie. "Here? Now?"
"If you would have me."
It wasn't as if she didn't love him. Their journey here had been filled with wonderful moments that she'd remember forever. It was just… "Is this the right time for that? Everyone here is going to die."
Wardes gestured around vaguely. "They're trying to make happy memories before the end. I cannot think of anything happier for them, or for me, than binding us together forever."
Louise considered it. Truly did. But in the face of her sorrow and the decision that was tearing at her, she had to shake her head. "Not… now. It's just… too much. There will be other days, better days."
His grip tightened slightly. "And if I told you that there wouldn't be other days?" She looked him in the eyes, and saw that they were as hard and cold as ice.
And so she gathered her courage. "If you cannot accept my feelings now, then you could never care for me as a husband ought to."
"I see." He pushed away from her and stood up. "It's too bad. I really, really liked you." He walked around to the head of the table. Hurt by his words, Louise could only watch as he approached the prince.
"Ah, Viscount! How are you enjoying the feast?"
Wardes didn't answer. He pulled up his wand-cane and bathed it in wind magic, striking for the prince before the bodyguards could react.
It barely deflected off an axe. Instead of going into his chest, it gouged out one of Wale's eyes. As the prince screamed, Wardes was forced to back off before Musician could cut him in two.
"You know," said her weird, ridiculous familiar, "I think I got your theme song right the first time."
A fast-paced dubstep remix of the Imperial March began to play as Musician and Wardes traded off several blows at lightning speed. Literally, as bolts of lightning shot past the large man's body, striking soldiers that rushed towards them.
One could probably call their previous battle a tie, if they were being generous. This time, it was different. Gone was the humored smile on Musician's face. Gone were the intervals of dancing and fooling around in his movements. Faster and faster he swung, silver-yellow arcs streaking in complicated patterns. Wounds appeared on Wardes' body one-by-one, before the cane was knocked away and Musician held the Viscount against the wall by his throat.
Warde's left arm came up, bringing the remnants of a wind spell across the side of Musican's face. Her familiar's eyewear went skittering across the floor, ichor splattering across Wardes' jacket. Yet her familiar didn't move. The brief fight was over.
Louise approached them slowly, and took Musician's hand in hers. In Musician's other hand, Wardes' struggle had only increased. "My Lady?"
"Y-yes, Musician?"
"What do you want?"
For a moment, uncertainty filled her. She looked around, at the blood-covered prince rolling in pain on the floor, the corpses that were cooked from the inside out, and to the only man she could say she loved. Wardes looked back at her with a resolve tinged with calculation. "Dear… Lou… ise…?"
She began to shake. First lightly, then more and more. A member of Reconquista. A traitor to Tristain. Even now, playing on her feelings. To what end, she didn't know. Again, her eyes found the fallen prince as she remembered Wardes' words from not even five minutes ago. I must wonder if this is Brimir's will.
"Musician. Kill them all. Every single member of Reconquista."
There was a snap, and Wardes fell to the ground, neck broken. Her familiar faced her, and Louise's blood turned cold. Where his eyes should've been were only blank sockets. The darkness in them swirled in a way no ordinary shadows could. Darker than the new moon. Darker than midnight.
Louise stared into the Void, and felt it welcome her. What have I done.
"As you wish, my lady." He began walking away, in the direction of the oncoming army. Five chords of fear rolled across a piano of ice and bone. And Louise somehow knew that all Reconquista could hear it.
/Day by day, it's nearer,
Step by step, you grow…
Closer to your ruin,
Soon your time to go.
Life is just a journey,
Yours is near its end.
Bloody evolution,
This world transcend./
Louise rushed to the window, seeing a bright orb of light rise into a suddenly-stormy sky. Below, soldiers were pointing and shouting.
/Black out the sky.
All things must die…/
The tempo accelerated, and the light accelerated down, striking the earth like a meteor.
/This is the end, here's where you'll die.
Legends should scatter, so just say goodbye.
No one will miss you, when you're finally gone.
At your conclusion, sing your swan song./
Group upon group of soldiers were consumed by a hideous yellow glow. Energy shaped like eighth notes spun out, slicing wagons and people alike apart as easily as a knife through butter.
/Murder, Unkindness, Conspiracy!
Embers extinguished in effigy!
Just close your eyes…
Don't fear demise./
Yellow-gold rests speared out, obliterating tents one-by-one. Lightning arced down to hit dragon-riding mages, and Louise watched in horror as the very sky twisted down in several places to scourge the earth. She found herself glad to be this far from the carnage. Though suddenly she hated that thought. This atrocity was hers. She should bear it like the sin that it was.
/Black out the sky.
All things must die…/
And suddenly, she found herself seeing through her familiar's eyes.
The vision moved faster than humanly possible, but never blurred, and she realized she could see in all directions around him. He doesn't have eyes, Louise remembered. Instead, it seemed like he could see through his very skin.
An axe came down, shattering rock and sending shrapnel into panicking men. Rain became hail and fell sideways, piercing through people's limbs and torsos like musketballs, leaving behind half-attached limbs and spilled guts.
Immediately, Louise felt like she was going to puke. She held it back. Every last life lost here was because of her. She would watch until the end.
/All tales conclude. All bonds dissolve.
Infinite matter will always evolve.
Just pray for mercy, at your time of death.
Be glad you existed, enjoy your last breath!/
A man kneeling in surrender was beheaded. A mage threw down her wand and fled, but was suddenly torn apart by a series of clef-shaped bolts. A boy that could have been an academy student was speared through by spikes erupting from the earth. Young and old, male or female, it didn't matter. All were nothing before a God.
/Gleefully voicing this eulogy!
Spawn of the tenants of treachery!/
Musician rose above the earth once more, holding his axe aloft.
/Rest now, subside…/
The weapon glowed brighter than the sun.
/With fate, collide./
He threw it forwards, into the thickest remainder of the army.
And suddenly all that was left was a single commander's tent, in the back.
/Black out the sky.
All things must die…/
Musician rushed forwards, bursting through the thin fabric. Behind it were three men.
/It's time to accept to abide./
A swish of the axe, and then there were two.
/Admit that the hour's arrived./
The table in the center was kicked into one hard enough to crush him.
/Resign, comply./
The last was a gaunt blonde man wearing a ring. He took a step back, waving a sword-wand in their direction.
/It's time to be one with the sky./
An incantation was interrupted by a backhand. The man fell to the ground.
/Surrender your pride.
Let death be your guide./
Their hand was pushed into the man's chest. Louise felt as his heart was grabbed, then crushed.
/All things must die…/
And it was finished.
