Chapter 18Lucina - The Lone Princess
Grima the Fell Dragon felt a sense of annoyance flare up within him.
His strongest tool, and she couldn't even manage the simple task of annihilating a bunch of children. And after all the trouble he did to isolate them. Like instructing that mayor Varin to not pursue them, but instead inform their sailors while he had one of his familiars shadow them. They had practically been delivered in a silver platter and still Aversa had failed. He was surrounded by incompetent fools, each and every one of them! The old saying held true, if you want something done, you need to do it yourself!
He would deal with those children once he had his true body back, but for now he could only find ways to keep them apart.
In this it could be said that he had succeeded for by sending Aversa seems to have drawn most of the girl's allies away. In that there was a small consolation prize. She could not have commanded more than a dozen of them or so. This he was fairly certain, as he had slaughtered most of her people back in the future and had only seen a few that managed to reach the portal. Another point was that she had only sent two riders to save her allies in the ship, if she had more, she would have sent them too. Like her weakling father, she would do anything to save her so called ''friends''.
He had been watching her closely. Grima's connections to the ravens made it possible for him to see through their eyes, but it had its limits. His vision was poor, and making out the details was difficult. More so because Grima never did not care much for those so called ''mortals''. They all looked and smelled the same. It was as if a random stranger was asked to differentiate between two cows.
The girl was an exception of course. She had defied him for many years now, and he had come to know and despise her more than any mortal since maybe the first Exalt.
It was almost a shame that their little dance would end soon.
Or maybe not…
No, he would be sure to savour every moment of her despair once he had taken everything from her. He would isolate her and break her before he would end her. And once he did, she would beg him for death.
But he should not get ahead of himself. Now it was the question of preventing a certain message from reaching the little princess. His raven had been following their little messenger bird for some time now. It was the same raven that had tailed those children since Plegia and notified Aversa as soon as she came near. He could intercept the messenger bird now, if he so desired, but held it off for the moment.
He had noticed that it did not seem to seek the girl out directly. Instead, it had made for one of the supply tents. Those tents were the responsibility of one young quartermaster named Laurent. Grima recalled that he had been under the princess's former short-lived command.
It seemed that he still had some rats to exterminate in the camp.
A task he would need to fulfil himself, now that he had sent away all his cats' paws.
A task he would relish to do, considering recent failures.
First, he needed a distraction and excuse.
Utilising some of his regained strength, he summoned a handful of Risen soldiers around camp. It was a pitiful amount compared to what he usually would be able to beckon, but it would serve for now as the camp went into an uproar at this sudden intrusion.
The boy masked his surprise well, as Grima entered his tent unannounced and with little warning. Grima noted that the boy subtly and neatly tucked away a few pages into one of his many pockets, as soon as he saw his newcome guest.
But Grima would not be fooled! The boy had clearly just read the message. Not that it mattered, he would not have the opportunity to share its content to anyone.
''Oh…sir is something wrong? What's that commotion…''
Grima didn't let the boy finish or bother to answer him. With one swift hand motion the fell dragon cut his throat. His victim only managed to make a short gasp before he began to choke on his own blood. With futile effort the young mage tried to stem the bleeding with his own hands as he collapsed into the ground, while Grima watched with bemusement.
Humans…How could such a weak creature even survive? One simple cut and they were done, no natural scales or bones to protect one of their most vital areas.
It was pathetic how vulnerable they were.
But as much as Grima would enjoy watching the boy struggle to keep himself alive for a few more measly seconds, he knew he was on a tight schedule. Digging through the mage's pockets before he had even expired, the fell dragon soon found the pages he was looking for. Quickly reading it to ensure it was the correct one, Grima then burned it with a simple fire spell and took his leave.
There would be no clues to the princess.
Something was wrong.
She could feel it as she patrolled the camp.
She could sense it as her feet touched the ground.
She could smell it in the very air.
It has been so long, this familiar feeling of ice that ran down one's spine.
The telltale signs of the dark arts being performed by its most adept practitioner.
The risen that had appeared behind her didn't get a chance to do much as Lucina swiftly turned around and cut it in half with Falchion.
As the body of her assailant evaporated, her mind had already begun to shift to the meaning of the Risen's sudden appearance. Not to mention its presence in the middle of their camp!
Was that traitor finally making his move? Possible.
Was this an assassination attempt on her? No, too sloppy and insufficient.
Or more likely this was…
Shouts and sounds of blades clashing was soon heard around her, interrupting her thoughts. Lucina looked around and saw how the first risen had not been the last. Several of those creatures had appeared in the camp and attacked at random.
Lucina sprang into action immediately, cutting those creatures down as she confronted them and shouting a few orders around in order to organize the soldiers.
However, one thought stood above her mind above all else.
She had to confirm her father's safety first!
Dashing through the spontaneous battleground, Lucina desperately prayed that her father was not with that traitor. It would be easy for him to backstab her trusting father with all this commotion around.
Her worries would soon prove to be unfounded however, as she found her father to be quite safe. The tactician was nowhere near her father's presence, and Frederick had already seen to it that the royal family was protected by the best fighters of the Shepards like Lon'qu, Vaike, Sully and Stahl.
''Where is he?''
Lucina asked, once she was certain that her father had not suffered any wounds.
''Robin? I don't know, but I have sent Gaius and Libra to find him.''
Her father answered, failing to catch the true intent of her question.
It gave the future princess a sense of relief that this attack didn't seem to be aimed at her family specifically, but it also gave her pause.
What was the intent of this attack?
It was reckless and brazen of that traitor to attack their camp in the middle of the day, and with risen no less! He was revealing some of his hand by summoning those creatures now.
A desperate random attack perhaps? No, nothing was rarely random with that monster.
Maybe Laurent could shed some light into this…
Laurent…
A familiar sense of dread washed over the princess, and she immediately rushed towards the mage's tent, not bothering to hear her father's question of where she was heading.
She would find her last companion in camp slain in his own tent.
His throat cut and left to slowly choke on his own blood. An agonising death, Lucina knew from experience.
It was a fine precise cut, which indicated that Laurent had been slain by that bastard himself. The risen would have just torn the body to pieces, their approach are usually far more brutal and cruder.
She once again felt a righteous anger rise in her chest. Laurent would be another name in a long list that the traitor would answer for.
She was tempted to seek him out now and run Falchion through his black heart. The traitor was not with her father and most of the Shepards was busy containing the risen, which meant that he was most likely alone somewhere…
Lucina shook her head and forced the thought down.
No, he would expect it. This was his move, and he most likely had already prepared himself if she would come rushing towards him with blade drawn.
Observe, analyse, and then act.
Giving her fallen companion a small and silent prayer, Lucina began instead to investigate the scene before her, hoping that she could find some evidence of that traitor's presence and guilt.
Blood stained the linen which formed the walls of the tent. That could only be expected, but it was strange that Laurent's body was not slumbered near it. Instead, it was as if Laurent had made a concerted effort to drag himself away towards his stack of tomes atop of a table a few feet away from the bloody wall.
A trail of blood indicated as much.
It would be easy to dismiss this as the last act of desperation of a dying man, if it were not for one curious detail.
In Laurents left hand was an open book with markings written in his own blood.
With some difficulty, Lucina could make out that it simply represented two numbers: One and two.
As for the book itself, it was a piece of literature that concerned itself with various musings of the dark arts of Plegia. With the two numbers being written on a chapter that addressed transfers of the soul.
But what did all of this mean?
No comment this time, except thank you all for reading!