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The eternal blue flame of the Palace of Justice shone brightly in the distance, visible to everyone in Libestal's capital. For those dwelling in the ruined kingdom, it was a beacon of hope, a sign that the curse would one day be lifted, peace would return, and the work of rebuilding could finally begin.
At least, that's how it looked until you actually tried going there.
Passage to and from the Palace was heavily restricted. Even the royal army was subject to intense scrutiny and mandatory checks to ensure they were Stain-free, to say nothing of what the low-class laborers who staffed the place had to go through. Any unregistered Libestan attempting to cross the gate was detained on the spot, and the chances they'd see their friends and family afterwards were near-zero. Only a select few were allowed to stay on the premises: personal chefs, messengers, those the Queen deemed too useful to put through the ordeal every day. With five notable exceptions, the Warriors of the Stars were also allowed to come and go as they pleased; despite the schisms that had occurred, the Queen trusted them enough to know at least six of them wouldn't fall to corruption.
If you were to make it into the Palace somehow, and your movement wasn't as tightly restricted as most of its inhabitants, you would find on the third floor the office of Sir Gonathon G., the Chief Royal Knight and captain of the Libestal Armed Forces. While Queen Bloodflame would always lead her troops in battle, it was Gonathon who handled day-to-day training and the more managerial side of things.
In that office stood Tam Gandr, trying her hardest to stop herself from trembling at the sight in front of her.
It could hardly be believed that the owner of this office once called himself "humble". Adorning the wall behind him were several Stain heads mounted as trophies, as well as different versions of the knight's gauntlets cast in various rare metals, and even one made of diamonds. On the sides, artwork of himself in battle hung like rich tapestry, and several framed photos of himself with the Queen were bolted to his extravagant desk. Tam's eyes darted around quickly to see if she was in any of those photos, to no avail.
The desk itself sat at the top of a small set of stairs, as if it were a throne of its own. Anyone meeting with the knight would effectively be towered over, and Tam was no exception. Behind the desk sat the man himself, slightly slouched and tapping his fingers against mahogany. Even with his new role in society, Tam could tell he still wasn't comfortable sitting still.
"A pleasure to see you again, Ms. Gandr," Gonathon opened with a polite smile, "what business have you with the royal army?"
"Gonathon, please-"
"Pardon me?"
"S-sir Gonathon, I would like to make a humble request... that you return to fighting with us. Please. This isn't where you belong, and you know this in the depths of your heart."
Gonathon's expression quickly made its way into a frown, before he caught himself and returned to a neutral stare.
"I see. And what authority do you have to make that claim?"
Tam had carefully rehearsed this meeting. She had gone over what to say with the others and how to respond when he pushed back. All of that practice flew directly out the window upon hearing her authority challenged.
"Excuse me? I am a Queen, in case you forgot, and I-"
Tam's incredibly ill-advised tirade was interrupted with a deafening, screeching laugh from the knight that caused her to cover her ears both in shame and for her own safety. Once it finally died down, he stood up and began pacing around the desk.
"Oh yes, how could I have forgotten? Queen Tam Gandr, proud monarch of Libestal! What's left of it, anyway. You'll have to accept my apologies, the state of your attire made it completely slip my mind!"
Tam looked down. Indeed, her garb wasn't quite befitting of royalty such as herself. It had gotten tattered and dirty in a way that was inevitable for anyone who spent enough time in Libestal's streets.
"I have a great idea! Perhaps I should call the real Queen here, and the two of you can-"
"O-oh! That won't be necessary, I promise you..."
It was deeply embarrassing for Tam that someone as strong as her would feel such a guttural fear upon the mention of a fellow Warrior of the Stars, and yet...
Something had changed about the former Lady Bloodflame that night. When she returned covered in blood and Nerissa didn't, people had their suspicions, but Tam had noticed something about her eyes. The warmth and kindness of the knight she knew wasn't there anymore. What no one could have foreseen, however, was how powerful she would become. Despite not awakening to her memories like most of them, her revelation grew exponentially more destructive, and Thorn became more than just a sword: it was a projectile, an excavator, even an explosive, its massive size not remotely a hindrance to its wielder. The fateful battle thankfully never came, but it was theorized she could decisively win on her own against all other 14 warriors. With such power, it seemed inevitable that she would manage to whisk her three fellow unawakened warriors into her inner circle and cement her rule within such a short timespan.
"Hm. Oh well, the Queen is likely busy anyway. Best not to disturb her with trivial matters such as this."
Tam sighed. She wasn't sure if Gonathon could tell how terrified she was. Perhaps he was still just as bad at reading people as always.
"Anyway, if that's all you have to say, you can go now. It was nice reconnecting, but I really must-"
"Wait! You didn't even answer my question and now you're telling me to leave?"
"Oh, right. Obviously, I decline. Honestly, what did you think I would say? Why would I ever give any of this up?" Gonathon gestured around himself, making sure to point out everything worth looking at.
Tam steeled herself. She knew this would be the hard part. With a gulp, she pressed forward.
"This isn't you, Gonathon. None of this is you. And you know that."
Gonathon stopped pacing and placed his palm on the corner of the desk. "Alright then, who am I? Since you're such an expert."
"A humble knight. One who cares about his friends more than anything, who always keeps his convictions close to his heart. Trusting, compassionate, empathetic... those describe you better than they do any of us. And I... I wish I had told you that more often, Gonathon. I really do."
Tears began to well in Tam's eyes. Memories of all the times she had relied on him, taking his goodwill for granted, came flooding back, haunting her like the spirit of a thousand missed opportunities. She dwelled on what could have been, and perhaps what could still be, during the brief moment of silence her words created.
"Yes... yes, I remember. You're right." Gonathon turned to face Tam with a wry smile. "That's who I was."
"No, Gonathon-"
"A humble knight who saved Libestal, only for it to all be fake. Who thought he could avert fate, only to have that ripped away from us. Who fell in love with a witch, only for her to..."
Gonathon trailed off before rubbing his hand against his forehead. Suddenly, he jumped down onto the middle of the stairs so he was at eye-level with Tam.
"But most of all.... you."
Tam stepped back from the sheer malice of the glare Gonathon hit her with. It was unlike any emotion she had seen from him, a dagger made of hate aimed directly at her and no one else.
"I believed in you. I fought for you. I laid down my life for you several times. I built a statue for you in your absence! And what.... what did you have to show for it?"
Gonathon was visibly shaking now, his face red and tears pouring down his cheeks. He made no effort to stop them.
"You abandoned us against the false king. You failed to help Fia. You became a goddamn maid because you couldn't deal with the consequences of your own treachery, and yet I still... I still believed. In the lie you sold me. In your royalty!"
His eyes were closed now. It didn't stop the tears.
"You're no Queen. You're a fucking fraud!"
"So you think you're just an innocent little victim here, huh?"
Gonathon opened his eyes to see Tam standing on the step below him, standing above him for the first time since before he set foot in the palace.
"Everything I said about you is true. But at the same time, you're a frustrating, naive, foolish brat who can't think for himself, and your failure to understand how people truly feel keeps pushing people away from you as anything other than a useful tool!"
A slight pause. No response, as Tam expected.
"And no matter how much you decorate your office, no matter how much the Queen praises you, you're still like that. You just serve a different master now."
After a quiet moment of introspection, Gonathon looked down, then turned around and sat back down at his desk. Tam followed, not ready to lose her height advantage.
"....I know."
"What?"
"I know that about myself. She made me realize it."
"What do you mean?"
"I didn't want to believe it at first. I knew I wasn't perfect, but that I was so foolish... it wasn't easy. But she forced me to accept it... mentally and physically."
"P-physically? Hang on, what did she do to you?!"
"What a true Queen does to all her subjects!" Gonathon slammed the desk with his fist. "She guided me with a stern hand, molded me into the best version of myself, and made me prove I deserve everything I have! All of these decorations? I earned each and every one of them. All she gave me was an empty office, and I mean entirely empty! I had to fight her for THIS! VERY! DESK!"
Tam was speechless. She had witnessed the Queen's cruelty firsthand, but to hear it out of her second-in-command's mouth, in the form of praise... nothing could have prepared her for how to process that.
"Do you get it now? No one's taking advantage of me, nor am I getting any undue praise simply because I'm nice, or because I trust them. Yes, I do the Queen's bidding, but she's proven herself to me, and I to her. From now on, everything I do..."
Gonathon suddenly and unexpectedly trailed off. His resolute expression turned forlorn as his gaze shifted away.
"Is everything alright, Gonathon?"
No response. Tam grew concerned, but soon realized what Gonathon was staring at.
Sitting there, on the corner of his desk, was a beautiful, shining pearl encased in glass.
She had forgotten. After everything between them, she had forgotten that there was someone else he belonged with. Someone who disappeared without anyone knowing why.
"I... everything I did was for her... why? Why did I do that? Why did I... feel that way?"
Suddenly, he turned to face Tam, seeing her without the smug disdain he had carried their entire meeting up to that point.
"Did I... really love her? I don't... I can't imagine it, and yet... the pearl, it beckons to me, like nothing else means anything except for her, even the Queen..."
Tam opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She wanted - no, she needed to tell him the truth, that what was once a relationship of convenience grew into something real, something genuine, that couldn't be broken even when her memory of him was lost. She needed to tell him that his pearl was gone, and she won't be coming back, but she was here for him, she may not have always been there but she was here now, and all he would have to do is ask and she would never leave his side again. Not as a queen and her knight, but as partners. In battle, and in love.
Just as the words began to escape her lips, the door burst open.
"S-sir Gonathon!" A messenger shouted into the room, his rectangular frame panting from what must have been quite the jog across the palace.
The knight's vulnerable state immediately collapsed as he nudged Tam out of the way to face the intruder. "Yes, what is it? I believe I asked you not to disturb me for the next hour, so if this isn't urgent I'm sending you to the fields."
The messenger, likely accustomed to these threats, did not flinch. "It's the queen, Sir. She wishes to spar posthaste."
"Oh, how wonderful!" Gonathon's eyes lit up as a cheerful grin, one that Tam was once so familiar with, covered his face. He stood up and hopped down the stairs, as if his guest wasn't even there.
"The Queen spars with you?"
"Oh yes, quite often! We use wooden swords to level the playing field, but I still lose most of the time, of course."
"I-I wouldn't mind sparring with you on occasion..."
The messenger butted in. "Ah, only permanent residents of the Palace are allowed to fight. Have to maintain purity and all that, you know."
"How about it, Tam? If you abandon that stupid resistance and come live with us, I'd love to face you sometime."
Conflict split Tam's mind. She should have immediately declined. The pact she had made bound her to never abandon Libestal and her fellow Warriors. But... if it meant she could be closer to Gonathon...
"I'll... I'll think about it."
"Very well. You there, is my armor ready?"
"Of course, Sir. And the guest?"
Gonathon gestured for Tam to exit the office. She sighed and dejectedly followed his lead before he shut the door and locked it. With a slight bow, she made her way to the palace exit, before Gonathon's voice stopped her in her tracks.
"If you'd like to stay a bit longer, I can put a word in with the Queen. I'm sure she'd love to let you watch."