Steel clashed and shrieks tore the air. The marble floor of Aurelys was already drowning in blood when Shiba realized the truth: they could not hold. For every knight that fell, three more rebels forced their way into the hall.
She cut another man down, her greatsword splitting him from shoulder to hip, but even as his blood sprayed across her armor, her gaze broke from the fight. Across the hall she saw Elise, her comrade from Kyosu, her blade flashing as she dueled two rebels at once. Tianna screamed for help as she was dragged into the mob. Claire fought like a lioness, teeth bared, her white cloak stained crimson.
They were her sworn brothers and sisters-in-arms. She should have stood with them. She should have died with them.
But when her sword struck again, her heart was elsewhere.
Aiko.
The name cut through the chaos sharper than any blade. Her sister, her blood, the last fragment of her life beyond these walls. If the rebellion had reached the palace, then the baronies would already be burning. And if Aiko was still there—
Shiba's chest clenched.
"Shiba! Hold the line!" Elise's voice, raw and sharp, carried over the clash. Their eyes met for the briefest moment — Elise's fierce, demanding; Shiba's already breaking away.
She hesitated, sword trembling. For an instant she almost turned back. Almost.
Then another wave of rebels poured through the gates, and the hall drowned in fire and screams.
Shiba gritted her teeth, ripped her blade free from the body at her feet, and ran. Past Claire, who snarled curses at her. Past Gizmo, who laughed bitterly as he fended off three men at once. Past Tianna's desperate cries, cut short in a wet, choking gurgle.
She left them all. She left Aurelia. She left Aurelys.
Shiba tore herself from the burning hall, the echoes of her comrades' cries snapping at her heels. The corridors of the palace were no refuge — servants cut down mid-scream, guards overwhelmed by swarms of rebels, the clash of steel and fire devouring everything sacred.
She forced her way out into the streets. Aurelys, once the jewel of the kingdom, had become a pit of slaughter. Houses smoldered, flames licking out of shattered windows. Rebels dragged nobles into the open, cutting them down in the filth of the gutters. Children cried over the bodies of their parents. Shiba kept moving, jaw tight, her sword wet with blood.
A man lunged at her from an alley, dagger flashing. She sidestepped, drove her blade through his chest, and left him crumpled in the mud. Another came with a hammer; she split his skull open with a downward swing that sprayed her in gore. There was no choice, no pause — just survival, just motion.
The city roared behind her, the capital collapsing under its own fury. Shiba shoved past the chaos, through burning markets, through crowds of rebels too busy looting to stop her, through blood and ash and screams that would never leave her.
At last, the gates rose before her — half-broken, the guards either dead or fled. She cut her way past the last line of rebels, mounted a riderless horse still frothing with panic, and spurred it hard.
Behind her, Aurelys drowned in fire. Ahead lay the road to her family's barony — and the faint hope that Aiko still lived.
Hours blurred into a haze of smoke and hooves. And when at last she crested the ridge and saw her family's lands, her stomach turned to stone.
The barony was aflame.
Her ancestral halls, the place of her childhood laughter, the walls where Aiko had played — all burning. Black smoke coiled into the sky. The stench of charred flesh and blood choked the air. Shiba's vision swam as she pushed the horse harder, until the gates came into view. They were already broken, the courtyard littered with bodies.
She dismounted, sword in hand, boots slipping in blood as she stumbled into the manor.
Everywhere — servants cut down mid-flight, guards sprawled in pools of crimson, her people slaughtered like cattle. The halls echoed with the groan of dying timber as the fire ate through them.
And then she saw them.
Her mother and father, crumpled on the marble of the great hall. Her father's hand still outstretched as if reaching for his sword. Her mother's eyes wide, frozen in terror. Both broken, lifeless, discarded like they were nothing.
Shiba's knees gave way. The greatsword clanged against the floor beside her. For a moment she couldn't breathe — couldn't think — the world collapsed into smoke and silence.
Her family was gone. Her comrades abandoned. Aurelys fallen.
Only one thought cut through the haze:
Where was Aiko?