Royal Knight

“Do… do you think she’ll be okay?”

Rionara asked with apprehension clear in her voice as she waited in front of the rented bedroom. Lucina was with her as it was her responsibility as the guild representative.

“I…”

She hesitated. She didn’t know what to say to her. To Lucina, it was painfully clear that no matter how much they tried, only a miracle would be able to save Priscilla.

“I don’t know, Rio.”

Rionara raised her hands onto her chest and gripped them tightly. The sword on her hip felt heavy, heavier than any burden she had shouldered thus far.

“She… she will live. I’m sure of it.” The high elf spoke with trembling hands. “She has to! It’s Priscilla we’re talking about, right?!”

The door to the room opened and Rionara turned at the chirurgeon with hope yet, he wore an expression that explained everything. He didn’t even say a word, he simply shook his head towards Lucina and took his leave.

A terrible chill overcame Rionara’s senses as she rushed into the room. Priscilla was awake, just barely. She held a weak smile on her face as if trying to keep Rionara’s image of the knight intact.

But, she didn’t move an inch. She couldn’t. Moving was painful and trying to talk was even more straining, but even though it hurt—she decided to address Rionara.

“Rio.”

Her voice was weak and rasp. The high elf swallowed hard as she replied, almost crying.

“Y-yes?”

“Come here.”

She couldn’t even lift her arm, instead she simply turned her right palm up. Rionara approached her and kneeled on her bedside before holding gently on her hand.

“What is it, Pris?”

“Live on. Live the life you were meant to have…”

“I… I am. You are here with me, right?”

The knight slowly closed her eyes and shook her head ever so slightly.

“Live, not for me or anyone else… but for you, Rio.”

The high elf started to chuckle amidst hiccups.

“W-what are you talking a-about?” Her small hands were trembling as she squeezed Priscilla’s hand. “P-Pris, I told you I’d s-stand by your side…”

“...” The knight’s lips gradually curled from a smile to a bitter expression. She knew the next time she closed her eyes, that it would be the last time. “Thank you, Rio.”

“No, Pris! You- you can’t die! You- you are a royal knight, right? The spellfencer from the Knight’s Trio!” Her chest was tightening painfully, her heart throbbed. It was as if her insides were being torn apart. “You’re my hero! My reason to continue on! The one I could call family!”

Priscilla tried to smile, but her body didn’t comply, she was trying her hardest to stay awake, but everything was growing cold.

‘Ah… so this is how it ends…’

She couldn’t even hear Rionara’s pleas anymore as her eyelids were becoming heavier.

‘I’m sorry, my Queen… but… I couldn’t… fulfill… my… duty…’

In a tired, short gasp, she had breathed her last.

Rionara gently shook her hand.

“Pris…? Pris. Priscilla…! No… you can’t… no…”

Lucina closed her eyes as she averted her gaze.

That morning was a long and arduous one.

Constant crying could be heard from the foot of the stairs. Both Karla and Gerolt didn’t know what they could do to help the poor high elf.

Arcadia had lost a knight. A young high elf had lost her hero and the world continued to move on, uncaring and uncertain.

Hours passed and Rionara continued to sob on Priscilla’s body despite not having any more tears to cry. Lucina eventually grabbed her shoulder and said, gently.

“Rio, we need to…” She swallowed hard before completing the sentence. “We need to give her a proper burial.”

“I… Lucina… I… I can’t… I can’t… not… not yet…”

“I… understand. I will go arrange things, please. Don’t do anything harsh.”

Lucina quietly left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Rionara alone.

The quiet footsteps from the street below echoed in her ears like some type of torture. The people around her didn’t know, they couldn’t know, how truly great and selfless Priscilla truly was.

‘Nobody… nobody will ever know…’ Rionara looked at both her hands before closing them tight—so tight in fact that her palms began to bleed from her nails digging into them. ‘I won’t forgive… whatever did this to her, I won’t forgive you…!’

A dark miasma started to seep out from her body. All that rage, the despair, the wrath she felt—it took physical form as the black mist started to spread throughout the room.

The moment it reached Priscilla’s body, her right hand twitched. That sudden motion snapped Rionara out of her swirling hatred for a split second.

“Pris…?”

The black miasma returned to her. A painful surge of mana coursed through her, and she fell on her back, clutching her chest.

“Aaah…! Argh…”

Through her squinted eyes she could see Priscilla’s body suddenly jerk. The sudden stiffness of the deceased knight’s fingers collapsed in painfully audible cracks as the corpse shifted and turned—arcing its back as if it was possessed.

“Pris…! Pris!”

She pleaded, but to no avail. The twitching corpse suddenly ceased all movements and fell back on the bed as if its strings were cut.

When she witnessed her body just become limp once more something snapped inside of her.

A memory of an old moldy shack came into her mind. It felt familiar, warmingly so, until the doors burst open—tough looking men came into the room bringing a girl with them—Rionara herself.

‘What… what is going on…?’

“What do we do with them?”

“Kill the old man, forget the other girl.”

‘Kill…?’

A flash of red filled her vision as an old man she didn’t recognize entered in front of her. Despite begging for his life, he was cut down like an animal and left to die on the floor.

Rionara didn’t know him, but it felt exactly how she had lost Priscilla. Cold, ruthless, death.

“Dad…! You can’t die! Please! Stay with me!”

Her own voice rang into her mind, but she never spoke those words. Her father was anything but dear in her world and yet the man in front of her felt just like Priscilla, a light amidst the darkness—snuffed out by the darkness around it.

“Now you know what I felt, Rio.”

While still grabbing her own chest, the high elf glanced briefly to the side and noticed a blonde girl standing beside the bed with her small hand on the mattress—emerald eyes locked with hers.

“What it is to have your whole world fall apart.”

“What… what are you talking… about…?”

At that moment, the door suddenly opened and Lucina came back with a few guards in tow. She looked at Rionara fallen on the floor and quickly rushed to her side.

“What happened?”

The receptionist asked with clear worry in her voice.

“I… my chest… it… it hurts…”

Meanwhile, four guards approached Priscilla’s body and one of them looked over his shoulder to them.

“Miss Lucina, we’ll be taking her down to the barracks then.”

“Very well… Please, do handle her with care.”

She replied while holding Rionara in her arms. Upon hearing those words however, the high elf tried to protest.

“No…! Don’t… don’t take her away from me…!” Despite her pleas, the soldiers started to lift Priscilla’s stiffen corpse as they slowly made their way out. “Please…!”

She tried her hardest to make Lucina let go, but the receptionist was able to hold her effortlessly despite her thrashing.

“Rio! Please, calm down! We… we can’t do anything else for her…”

“I can’t…! She can’t be dead…!”

“Rionara!” Lucina shouted as she hugged her tightly. Her voice then softened. “Priscilla… Priscilla is in a better place now. Don’t refuse the dead their rest, Rio.”

From the corner of Rionara’s eye, she saw her again. The blonde girl whose name she didn’t know—she was looking down at the bedside, where the sheet previously covering Priscilla was now crumpled on the floor.

“Will you let go?” She asked as she locked eyes with Rionara. “Or will you cling to that last bit of hope you have?”

It was all it took. Rionara suddenly pushed Lucina away and desperately ran out of the room.

“Rio!”

The receptionist quickly ran after her.

The high elf made her way out of the inn, pushing and shoving everything and everyone that stood in her way while trying to catch up to the men carrying Priscilla’s body. She didn’t know where they went but something guided her.

It was like a rope inside her chest, tugging her body towards the last bit of hope she had.

She ran. Her lungs burned, her legs wanted to give in, but her mind persevered. She couldn’t let it end like this. Not for the knight that brought her back from the brink.

She stood just outside the barracks’ gate where two guards blocked the entrance with halberds.

“Halt! What business do you have-”

“Out of my way!”

She pulled out the tool Geralt made her and cracked the flint and steel together. A violent blast of flames exploded in front of them, knocking both guards on the ground as she rushed past them.

Guards posted at the barracks’ main building started to run after her with their swords drawn.

“Hey! Stop her!”

Her legs moved, her mind was racing, her chest tightened. As she ran around the building, she saw the guards carrying Priscilla’s corpse. They were partway through the training grounds where other guards stopped their training once they heard the commotion.

Rionara stood just a few meters away from her broken hero as she shouted.

“Let her go!”

Every single person in the vicinity turned to her. All their weapons readied in unison with a shout coming from behind her.

“Apprehend her!”

But Rionara couldn’t hear anything else. Her eyes were locked on Priscilla as she instinctively raised her left hand towards her.

Miasma seeped out of the high elf’s wrists and ankles. It was akin to a black fog that at first was ignored by the rushing guards.

But when they touched it, they would instantly fall on the ground into an agonizing death scream that could only be described as a massacre.

The mist seemed to feed on their being. Their bodies would shrink and dry as if their vitality were sucked out of their corpses in a flash. The other guards watched in terror as their comrades died in such horrific agony.

“Rio!”

Lucina reached the barracks’ training ground only to see a dozen guards dead around Rionara’s feet.

The high elf turned her left palm upwards and grasped something in the air. The same deadly mist channeled into Priscilla’s body and as it twitched, the guards holding her instantly let go in horror.

The knight’s body convulsed violently, joints cracked, her outstretched hands grasped at the dirt beneath her as if trying to get a hold where there wasn’t—then, silence.

Everyone stood still for what it felt to be an eternity until it finally happened. Priscilla sat up.

At first Rionara felt peace. It was like a stake was finally removed from her heart. But that sensation would soon turn into something else entirely.

Priscilla didn’t have her usual kind expression on her face. Instead, she remained with her mouth half open as she stumbled to get herself upright.

Weapons were lowered, boots scraped against the dirt as the guards instinctively backed away in terror. Rionara watched as Priscilla slowly shambled her way towards her.

But Rionara’s relief was slowly turning into despair as she noticed the knight’s unnatural movements, her unfocused gaze, and the quiet groaning she let out with each step.

As Priscilla stood face to face with Rionara, she finally realized. The knight she knew was no longer there.

“Haaaaaah!” One of the younger guards tried to rush in with his halberd for an overhead swing at Rionara, but the shaft of his weapon was grabbed mid-swing by Priscilla. “Wha-!”

With a wide swing, the knight punched the guard’s face with enough force to send him sliding across the dirt, unconscious.

Blood dripped from Priscilla’s knuckles. She held on the halberd with her body crooked to the right side as if she was using it to keep her body upright.

“Guards! What happened here?!”

A male voice came from behind Lucina—it was Captain Rhys. He was flanked by two other senior guards as he witnessed the massacre. He stood still for a moment, trying to comprehend the situation. But all his subordinate’s eyes were on him, he couldn’t falter.

“Priscilla!” He shouted. “What have you done?!”

“Sir, the other woman.” A sword bearing guard came closer to the captain—explaining the situation without taking his eyes off Rionara. “The other woman just ‘raised’ the one holding the halberd.”

“Raised? What in the world are you saying?”

“I don’t know, Sir. The corpse-” He swallowed hard before continuing. “-just… came back to life, Sir.”

“Corpse?” He turned and looked at the royal knight. “Priscilla!”

Though he shouted to make sure she’d hear it, the corpse didn’t even flinch. He started to walk towards her. The guards flanking him were about to follow, but he simply raised his hand, making them stop in their tracks.

He walked slowly, but once within halberd range—Priscilla turned her head towards him, her crimson red eyes had an empty gaze in them. Rhys stood still for a while, observing the undead’s movements, but it didn’t do anything else aside from staring at him.

“You there.” He spoke to Rionara, who now had her hands tightly closed on Priscilla’s jacket. “Did you do this to her?”

It took a while, but the high elf eventually nodded. Silence once again. The training grounds had never felt this ominous to the captain.

Corpses of his men were all around him and a person supposedly dead was standing right in front of him. That is when it occurred to him.

“Were you in the slums a few days ago?”

He asked and she nodded. Rhys swallowed dry.

‘A corpse with a will of its own…’ His eyes met Priscilla’s and she kept her gaze locked onto his. ‘This isn’t a mere coincidence…’

“Men.” He spoke firmly. “Lower your weapons and clear the corpses. I will handle this on my own.”

“But captain-”

“It’s an order!”

Even though they hesitated, the senior guards followed his orders and eventually the younger ones as well, but they were clearly holding animosity against Rionara who just stood with her face resting against Priscilla’s chest.

Lucina carefully approached as well with both of her hands near her chest. She wanted to speak, but she couldn’t—no amount of words could comfort a child that just went through all of that.

Rhys took a deep breath before asking.

“What is your name, young girl?”

It took a while but the high elf answered with her face still buried against Priscilla’s cold body.

“Rionara…”

“Rionara. Can you make her let go of the halberd?”

Yet again she became quiet. Rhys didn’t know whether or not she heard him or just chose to ignore, but as he was about to open his mouth—Priscilla simply dropped the weapon on the ground.

The royal knight stumbled half a step forward, but it caught itself against Rionara’s frame. She remained with her back slightly hunched over as her eyes were still locked on Rhys.

The captain closed his eyes and lowered his head. His hands clenched into tight fists.

‘If I didn’t take her potion… would this still have happened…?’

As the captain of the guards, he couldn’t let this stand and yet he couldn’t bring himself to punish the young woman in front of him.

Lucina mustered up enough courage to take a few steps forward. Her gesture prompted Priscilla to shift ever so slightly towards her.

“Captain.” The receptionist spoke. Her voice was still filled with fear and regret, but she swallowed down her emotions as she tried to sound as confident as she could. “I will take responsibility for her. She-”

Rhys raised his open left hand and she stopped mid-sentence. He turned his head and with his gaze over his shoulder, he said to Lucina.

“I will take her under me.”