by Packbats
Last updated:
(Back to Dietlinde's Sword index)
Content warnings: casual racism, mentions of alcohol and looting, violent death, emeto.
Our orders were simple: apprehend the lost princess and bring her home. The Captain may have had her own secret orders, but for us, it was simple.
Until we reached the ruins we tracked her to.
As we circled the ruin, testing each gate until we found a way in through the garden, it became harder and harder for me to focus. I slowly realized it was affecting the others, too - the usual muttering about being driven like slaves got louder and louder, to the point that the Captain had to spin around and bite off heads, and when we got inside and began our circuit, soldiers immediately began to peel off to search for loot or even just a secret spot to drink or screw. I thought at first that the Captain and her elites were just unaffected, but then I heard them start ... 'bantering', and I had never heard them be so openly cruel.
I went silent, like I always did.
I was pretending to check under a bench for stray princesses just for the reprieve when we all heard the footsteps. We all converged on the sound, and ... there she was. Princess Dietlinde. Clothing torn, sword in one hand, birdcage in the other, wild-eyed with fear, chased by three of her guards. The guards were saying something - some of the elites were, too - but the bird in the cage was laughing with a human voice, laughing like a criminal on the chopping block, and my head was spinning, and...
...and the sword itself, spoke.
"Choose", it said.
"I'll have my blood", it said.
"Will it be hers, or yours, or theirs?" it said.
We were all shocked into silence. And the silence was broken twice.
First, the bird began to sing, name after name after name.
Second, her guards died. With one movement, faster than I could have believed, she crossed the space between her and them and swung, cutting through two bodies like they were nothing but air, and taking the head of the third on the backswing.
I saw Roderick swing. She parried, stepped in, and thrust him through the heart.
I saw Edmund sidestep and thrust from behind. She, impossibly, lifted Roderick full in the air by a sword at arm's length and slam his body down on Edmund's spear. Edmund let it fall and drew his dagger, but died before he had it raised.
I saw Lane turn to run, and get cut down from behind.
I saw Sonja try to sweep her off her feet. The princess jumped over the blade, tumbled to the ground, and rolled back to her feet as Sonja stepped back to keep her from closing the distance. She closed the distance.
I saw Princess Dietlinda standing among bodies, birdcage still in her other hand, breathing heavily and looking about. As she stared me in the eyes, I realized there was no-one left here but me, and I couldn't move. She was Death, and I was nothing.
She stepped forward, guided my spear down to the ground with her sword, and watched me let go of it. She pointed her sword at the dagger at my waist, and I unbuckled the sheath and dropped it. She stared at me for a while, and then pointed at my regimental armband.
I untied the knot and dropped that, too.
She turned and walked away, limping, sword in one hand and birdcage in the other.
I turned and threw up. I sunk to my knees, and slumped to the ground. I cried, I sobbed, I hiccuped. I rinsed out my mouth with water from my canteen.
I'd watched my companions die. I'd watched my tormentors die. I didn't lift a hand to protect them.
Don't stop her. She will kill you if you try.