Chapter Text
Princess Cherrifire stood in a courtyard. She knew this courtyard well; she had spent much time there, peering at the carefully maintained trees and flowers, speaking and laughing with her father, discussing how best to care for their kingdom. It was a courtyard of bright sunlight and gentle moonlight and soft lantern-fire; it was a courtyard of birdsong and gentle music and stargazing. It was a courtyard of peace.
But not anymore. The peace had long since left this courtyard, leaving only memories in its wake.
Where once there had been tall, stately trees bearing sweet fruit, now there were charred stumps, embers still lingering in their cores. Where once there were beautiful, carefully maintained flowerbushes, now there was mud and trampled petals and bootprints. Where once there were clean, shining footpaths, now there were cracks and discarded weapons and…and…
Where once there were people laughing and speaking, now there were only bodies. Bodies so covered in mud that the red and blue of their coats had blended into a muddled, unclear brown. Armor and flesh had been torn alike; weapons and people broken just the same. One might suppose that perhaps the weapons and the soldiers were one and the same, in the eyes of those who had guided this attack.
But Princess Cherrifire did not think this. She did not have it in her to consider it.
She was too busy looking at the body at the end of the courtyard, laid up against the wall, the bodies of a dozen foes scattered around him, dealt their final blows by blade and by fire alike. The ground smoldered. The tiles around were covered in blood. And a crown lay shattered on the ground.
King Ren had fallen in battle. The attackers had succeeded.
Cherri’s father was dead.
In that moment, she was not Her Highness Princess Cherrifire of Soluna. She was not the Crown Princess, she was not the Royal Heir.
She was just Cherri. She was just a scared girl who missed her father.
She took a step towards his body. And another. She knelt down in front of him, scared to look but unable to turn away. She opened her mouth to speak and could not make a sound around the choking, horrid lump in her throat. She swallowed. She spoke, just a whisper.
“Father…?”
A moment of silence. Another. The silence stretched longer than any in Cherri’s life ever had.
The corpse of her father turned to face her.
She jumped back with a scream, falling and desperately pushing herself away, heedless of the scarlet mud that squelched between her fingers and soaked into her dress. She met the hollow, dead eyes, nothing like the kind, smiling ones she remembered, and she knew that her father was not behind them.
“You…did…this…”
“No, no I- you told me to run, you told me-”
Another voice came from the side, a soldier with a nasty gash across his neck, rasping and choking out the words. “If you had used your magic, you could have stopped this.”
“I can’t, I don’t-”
“We are dead because of you.” Another knight, with a round hole punched through his breastplate.
“No, I couldn’t- father, you told me to- no, please, I-”
“You…” her father’s corpse pushed itself to its feet. “Killed…” One step, another, another, bringing him closer and closer to her. “Me.” He reached out a hand, and she couldn’t move, and he was getting closer, and his hand brushed her cheek like it had so many times before but it was wrong, all wrong, and there was blood on her face and-
Cherri jerked awake with a start, chest heaving and tears welling in her eyes. She pulled her knees to her chest and tried to take deep, calm breaths that came out shuddering and panicked instead.
A short distance away, she saw a head look up, eyes watching her. She buried her face into her knees so they couldn’t see her tears.
“Are you alright, my lady?” Apo’s voice was measured, steady, just like her. In the day they had spent together since escaping the castle, Cherri had only seen that calm, collected demeanor, even as she had rowed for long hours down the river, even as the pair had hidden in the woods from enemy soldiers searching for the missing princess, even as she had stayed up and kept watch while urging Cherri to go to sleep.
“I’m…I’m fine.” Cherri took a breath. She could still feel a corpse’s hand on her cheek. “Just a…just a bad dream.”
Those eyes kept watching her, piercing through her. Cherri’s breath wouldn’t steady. “Don’t worry about me.” She could hear her voice breaking. “You have enough to worry about.”
“There is nothing more important than you.” In the voice of another, it might have been a declaration of love, or a pledge of fealty. In theirs, it was a statement of fact. “You need to get some rest. We’ll have another long day tomorrow.”
“What about you?” Cherri asked. “You’ve been keeping watch this whole time, what about your rest?”
“This isn’t the first sleepless night I’ve had, and it won’t be the last.”
Cherri watched her. The soft light of the moon illuminating her features was…beautiful. There was no other word for it. “Let me take watch. I can wake you up if I see anything.” She hesitated for a second, then added “I don’t think I’ll be able to fall back asleep, anyway.”
Those eyes watched her, glinting in the moonlight. Apo sighed. “Come here.” They set aside their sword, which they had been holding in their lap, and gestured towards her.
Cherri shouldn’t have listened. Who was a knight to tell her what to do? But at that moment, she didn’t care about her title. She didn’t care about what she should have done. All she wanted was something safe, something comfortable.
At that moment, nothing felt more safe and more comfortable than Apo.
She walked over, and Apo motioned for her to sit next to her. Cherri considered for a moment, then decided instead to settle herself down directly in Apo’s lap.
Apo froze. “Um. My lady?”
Cherri leaned her head back. “Carry on, my knight.”
Cherri carefully shifted herself into a more comfortable position. Apo might as well have been the only solid thing in the forest right now, for how they felt. Cherri felt them shift behind her for a second, and there was the briefest moment of hesitation that perhaps this had been too much, but instead she felt well-muscled arms, more used to wielding weaponry than providing comfort, wrap loosely around her.
The two sat in silence for some time, and Cherri felt herself growing drowsy. The nightmare was fading, becoming a distant memory, the sensation of Apo’s arms around her more real, more solid, than any dream could ever be. She fought the drowsiness, trying to stay awake, to give her knight a chance to rest herself.
But Cherri was no trained warrior, and the battle against sleep was soon lost as she drifted away, warm and safe in her knight’s arms.
Apo looked down at the princess and smiled to see her already asleep. This was not what they had expected, when she had settled herself into their lap, but it was good to see her getting more rest. They had not lied when they had said it would be a difficult day ahead. They shifted just a bit, letting her head fall into a more comfortable position against the soft, thick cloth of their gambeson.
A few traitorous thoughts crossed her mind, of how she would like to have this again, to hold the princess again once this was over, to be able to sleep in the her arms just as she slept in Apo's, how she wished to take the kiss she had pressed, oh so gentle, to the back of her hand and move it to her cheek, her lips-
Those were not the thoughts of a loyal and noble knight. So Apo tucked them away, in some chest in the back of their mind. They were here to protect the princess, to serve her. Nothing more.
So Apo let her sleep, and waited for the sun to rise and this dream of a princess resting in her arms to end.