Interlude - Battle Maid

Diana POV

Nyna and I have successfully made it to Aurelis, where we live 'in exile', seeking to build an army to destroy Medy, Garf, and all those who fight under the name of the 'Shadow Dragon'. But it's slow. So many people have lost all hope. But a few more join each day, and each new recruit gives us a little hope that things will be fine.

But Macedon is determined to grind Aurelis into the dust before that hope blooms into something meaningful. It is simply a matter of who falls first.

"Hold still, Nyna," I scolded, frowning. "If you keep flinching, I'm going to stab your eye with this."

"Why are you lining my eyes anyway?" Nyna complained. She did her best to sit still at the vanity while I finished up her make-up. "What's the point again?"

"It'll make your pretty eyes more noticeable, and people will think they're getting special attention when you look at them." I smiled as I finished lining her eyes and then went to touch up the rest of her makeup. "That makes you appear more approachable and more loved."

"I am half convinced this is you getting me back for something." She squirmed as I switched to checking her hair. "I am simply visiting the town. You dress me up like I am going to a battlefield."

"But you are. It's a battlefield to win their respect. It lessen the chances of someone turning traitor on you." I held out my hands and helped her stand with a smile. "Since you do not really have combat ability, the ability to win loyalty is something you must cultivate." Loyalty meant there would be people willing to throw themselves onto an assassin's blade to keep her safe.

"I have you."

"Yes, you do. But I am not invincible, sadly. I can't fight Garf and Medy for you, and I certainly cannot win an army." I nudged her out the door with a little laugh. "So, win them with your dazzling smile. Who knows? Maybe some of the Macedonian spies will turn their coats."

"Oh, now you're just teasing me." She made a face and I snickered. "You will be near?"

"I will be but a message away if you feel uncomfortable, but after what happened to the last batch of laundry…" I shuddered dramatically. "So much pink… not that pink wouldn't look lovely on you, Nyna. But those dresses were white for a reason. It's easily your best color."

"You're ridiculous." She laughed and waved as we finally left her room. "I'll see you later, then."

"I'll make sure a bath is ready for you when you get back. But try not to climb a tree and rip another hole in your skirts? I still need to mend the last one."

"I make no promises." She grinned and I laughed. "Ah, I'm going to be late."

"Be careful!" I waved as she walked off, and felt a little bit of sadness as I watched her visibly school her expression and demeanor to a dignified calm. I was the only one she let herself act like a girl around. To everyone else, she was Princess Nyna, the Empress in Exile. She let no one else cross that line.

I worried for her, but at the same time, I knew why she did so. The people needed the Princess in order to hold onto their hope. And, while Duke Hardin and the others didn't need 'the Princess'... she did not want to give a false impression. It had been a few months, but her feelings for Camus were as strong as ever. While she couldn't admit it to them, the formal distance should, in theory, help show she had no interest in romance.

We'd see how well it worked, but I could understand the reasons.

"You're more of a maid than a mercenary." That condescending voice could only belong to one person, and I had to exercise a considerable amount of willpower to keep from rolling my eyes as I turned to face Wolf, Duke Hardin's right hand. "Do you even know how to use the sword on your belt?" he asked, tone dubious. He leaned against the wall, studying me closely. "You've not even attended a single practice."

"I practice whenever Nyna has no need of me," I replied cooly. I debated just walking away then, but decided to play with the bait a bit. "But what makes you say that?"

"You fuss over her clothes, her jewelry, her shoes, and her hair. You do her mending. You bring her breakfast and get her baths ready. And now you're going to do her laundry." His eyes narrowed. "That sounds like a maid."

"Well, I suppose that does." I shrugged and leaned forward slightly to smile politely. "But only a fool believes that a woman cannot be skilled with pretty things and kick ass." I rocked back on my heels and stepped around him. "Have fun with whatever duty gives you free time to make snarky comments about how I take care of my lady. I'm sure it must be important."

I walked down the hall, and felt his stare boring a hole in my back. I had a slight, slight, feeling that he was simply trying to understand the weird woman who took care of the princess, but he had a bad way of wording things and I wasn't going to babysit him. I had more than enough to do.

I finished Nyna's laundry in record time, and left her clothes with the 'actual' maids of the fortress to dry, content that they couldn't stain them. After that, I tidied up her room, mostly because Nyna just did not like the other maids coming into her room, and made sure her bath was ready. When she returned, she regaled me with stories of the town and chattered about little things like the scents of the flowers and the taste of the spices. Afterwards, Nyna decided against taking lunch with the others in the fortress, and I brought our food into her room.

"So, Aurelisi nobility used to enslave the people of the plains?" Nyna murmured, startled. She was studying the history of the various nations, to get a better idea of how best to reconstruct the continent. "And no one cared?!"

"Yeah, I heard about that," I replied, focusing on my mending. I was working on one of my own shirts, for once. I was much easier on my clothes than Nyna. "Duke Hardin was the one who abolished the practice, about ten years ago or so. He brute-forced the policy through and challenged his brother on it, threatening to abdicate his right to inherit the throne."

"Which would be bad, as Hardin is the only heir."

"And he knew that, so he blackmailed the country, basically, to make sure the practice ended." I tied off a thread and moved to the next piece of clothing. "Wolf, Sedgar, Vyland, and Roshea are all former slaves. In fact, most of Duke Hardin's personal guard is made up of those he freed. They were desperate to repay his kindness."

"It is horrible that was considered a 'kindness' instead of simply something they should've had anyway." Nyna sighed, eyes dark. "My father just… allowed it."

"Yes, he did."

"Roshea is even younger than you and I."

"Yes, he is."

"...Has every country fallen into corruption?" She sighed, raising a hand. "No, don't answer that. I'm sure the answer is yes, anyway." She paused. "Well, maybe not Altea?"

"Altea had a bunch of arrogant idiots who served as knights, blindly loyal fools who never questioned a single order, and no adequate orphanages or help for those in poverty." I smiled slightly as she flinched. "Altea neglected many because of illustrious lines too. Every country was starting to fall apart."

"If only it did not take a war for the future leaders to see it." She looked so sad. "Ah, I hate my old self."

"Your old self is the one who chose to learn." I smiled at her. "You shouldn't forget that."

"That… is true." She smiled back, laughing a little. "Ah, you always manage to cheer me up."

"I've had a lot of practice in recent days." I hesitated as I noticed the hopeful light in her eyes. "I'm afraid I haven't heard more about Camus." What I'd heard was… bad. He'd been locked into a cage and dragged behind a cart. He was locked in a dungeon. "But, in many ways, that is a good thing."

"He still lives." Nyna sighed, setting her book to the side and pressing a hand to her chest. Over her heart. "So long as he still lives, we… can meet again."

"Precisely." Though, every night, I had nightmares of Camus dying, starving to death in a prison with no light or sound. It made me worry of how Yubello and Yumina were being treated. I'd heard nothing on them. "Ah, but we should switch the topic to something…" I trailed off as I heard footsteps coming down the hall. They were quiet, too quiet for one of the soldiers, even the scouts. It was someone trying to be stealthy. "Nyna, get my sword and your staff."

I stood slowly, and moved towards the door, keeping my sewing needle in hand. Nyna crouched by the bed and tugged out my sword and her staff from underneath. I kept one eye on the window and one ear for the sounds as they approached the door. They opened the door slowly, a knife glinting in the light.

I gave them a heartbeat to realize something was wrong before shoving the needle into their eye. They screamed from pain and I twisted, slamming their chin with the heel of my palm and using the momentum to slam their head on the corner of a nearby dresser. Blood speckled the ground as they hit the floor and I rolled them over to stomp on their throat, grinding my heel to make sure I had enough pressure to crush their windpipe. When I saw another assailant approach, I snagged one of Nyna's perfumes from her vanity, unstopped it, and threw it into their eyes. As they stumbled back, sputtering, I landed an axe kick on their shoulder to dislocate it, and threw them into the window, making it crack.

When that happened, I held out my hand to Nyna. She took it instantly, and passed me my sword before gripping her staff and following me out the room and down the hall. I heard more people approach and saw even more with weapons out and coming straight for us.

"What happened?" Nyna gasped as we continued to run. "The defense lines…"

"Fight now, question later," I retorted. I found a small study, devoid of windows, and swung inside, keeping her behind me as I brought my sword up. "Well, heal now in your case. Keep low."

"Should we shut and barricade the door?"

"We've got them coming now, so there's no time." I grit my teeth as one proved my point and struck, catching my arm. I retaliated quickly, taking advantage of how they wore even less armor than I did to cut their throat. "If we get a moment to breath, we will."

"Leave the healing to me."

"So long as you keep low. They have archers and there's not enough room for me to fully block."

The bodies piled as I kept cutting down our attackers. They might've had numbers, but I had Nyna to keep me healed, and seven long years of practice fighting until my arms were numb and beyond. The mages and arrows were annoying, but thanks to the corpses, I had a wealth of 'shields' to kick up and use as bait. My sword ended up breaking, so I stole a couple from the corpses to keep on fighting.

The river of blood flowing down the hall and into the room behind me reminded me of when Archanea fell. That only inspired me to fight harder. It reminded me of the promise I'd made Charles, and the promise I made to Camus and Nyna. I was determined to keep those promises. Few things were more sacred than a kept promise, and these were people I loved and gave my loyalty to. I would never break a promise to them.

I cut down the last one, and rolled my shoulders as they began to ache. I was splattered in blood and gore, to the point that my hair had turned from gold to scarlet, and was sopping wet. My armor and clothes were damp, sticky, and heavy. I tried to wipe the blood off my face, but only managed to smear more in.

A quick count proved it had been thirty people. If Nyna hadn't been healing me, I likely would've died at five unless I'd gotten lucky on dodges. I'd thank her later, when I was a little cleaner.

"Diana! Princess Nyna!" The desperate cries made me turn, and I stepped out of the doorway. I tried to find a bit of free space, but didn't quite manage it, so I just climbed onto one of the corpses and waited as Duke Hardin and Wolf raced down the hall.

I almost laughed as they slowed to a stop, eyes wide as they noted the carnage. Instead, I used their surprise to silently check on Nyna. Her dress was ruined, and she looked more than a little green, but she gave me a small smile to reassure me that she'd be fine. She'd probably vomit later, and would likely have a bad night of nightmares, but she'd be fine.

"Diana, are you two unharmed?" Wolf asked. He looked stunned, but at least he could speak. Duke Hardin looked to be beyond even that. "There are a lot of…"

"We're fine," I reassured. "Though we might need to change rooms. There were two who caught us there, and I didn't stick around to confirm if they were dead."

"You're really fine?"

"Yep. As I said before." I smirked and slung the blood off my blade before resting it on my shoulder. "Only a fool believes that a woman cannot be skilled at pretty things and kick ass. I'm good at murder and fashion, thank you very much."

I had to say. Their looks of stunned respect? Hilarious and very gratifying to see. Very.

My bravado ended up costing me a couple hours later. Everything ached to the point that I was near tears even after soaking in a few warm baths and rubbing muscle salve on the worst of it. Even with two marks to recover, it took me quite a bit to hobble down to Duke Hardin's study to learn what the hell happened.

"The whole thing was very strange," Duke Hardin explained. He'd insisted on me sitting down as soon as I managed to limp inside, and had be drink some water. "It seems like the original plan had been two ambushes. One inside the fortress and one outside."

"With the one inside not expecting Nyna to have much of a guard," I murmured. The water was delightfully cool, and tasted a bit of mint. "Since you, on the surface, never leave one for her."

"And anyone who had been watching would've just seen you acting as a lady's maid. I applaud that bit of ingenuity, by the way. I know you said it would work, but…" He shrugged, smiling slightly. "Well, I seem to have also done you the discourtesy of severely underestimating you."

"At least you didn't say anything to my face like Wolf did."

"He's always been a little… prideful. And careless with his words. I think it's to compensate for…" He trailed off and shook his head. "No, ignore that. It isn't my place to speculate."

"It's fine." I tried not to wince as the muscle in my left arm spasmed. I really overdid it. If I'd been holding the cup in that hand, I might've dropped it. "So? Two ambushes?"

"Ah, yes." He nodded, laughing a little. "Well, you see, we were informed of the ambush… by a Macedonian spy. Something about how Princess Minerva would not tolerate such tactics?"

"I'd heard of Macedonian pride, but never did I think it would help us." I set my water down and tried not to whimper as my back keened. I really over did it. "I'm guessing you were only warned in time to keep yourselves safe, but not to prevent either."

"Yes. We're still working on how they managed to get past." Duke Hardin frowned and leaned against his desk. "We'll move to a different fortress in the morning. I know we planned on staying here longer, but there must be a way inside I do not know…"

"Or a traitor." That was always a possibility, especially when you fought a war with hope alone.

"Yes. I'll be setting up some stories later and seeing which ones our scouts report the enemy reacting to." There were few ways better to catching a spy than feeding them false information. "But, speaking of rumors…"

"Yes?"

"Well, a very interesting one flitted through earlier today." Duke Hardin smiled slightly, the smile of someone who just got a new wave of hope, but wasn't quite sure if it was a good thing or not. "Comes all the way from Talys."

"Oh?" I leaned forward slightly, already intrigued. "What could it be? Talys doesn't really have an army, so I'm assuming it's no promise of support."

"Not directly. But it's said they were attacked by pirates recently, and a group of people wearing Altean armor and led by a young boy with blue hair stopped them."

"Altea?" My eyes widened at the implication. "Prince Marth? How did…?" I shook my head as I thought of the answer. "No, never mind. King Cornelius and King Mostyn were well known for their friendship."

"Alongside General Lorenz of Grust, yes." His smile widened slightly, and I spared a thought wondering about how he was doing. What did he think? Did he hate me, for not keeping Camus safe? "There's also rumors that he has left Talys, coming to the mainland."

"He's answering Nyna's call?"

"Yes, I think so. And, if nothing else, the morale boost alone…" The morale boost alone would rally our weary troops… and the morale of the enemy would plummet. "We'll see if it's true. We'll see if he can make it."

"But if he does, we can use the momentum to take back Aurelis." From there, we could finally… "Well, I think this is going to be a longer night than we originally expected, so let me get Nyna."

I raced out of the room without even waiting for reply, unable to keep the grin off my face even as everything throbbed. This was just the sort of good news we'd been waiting months for. There was no way we could waste it!

Author's Notes: Aurelis enslaving the people of the plains isn't revealed at all in FE11, and I think it's only vaguely mentioned in FE12, but it was outright stated in some supplement materials iirc. Wolf, Sedgar, Vyland, and Roshea are all former slaves, and were freed by Hardin, which plays a HUGE role in why they are so loyal to him. Diana taking on so many assassins with healer support is a play on the popular 'choke the point to get the fighter and healer experience' tactic.

Next Chapter - The Pirates of Galder