Shiba's world was a blur of fire and blood when the blades struck her down. Her body hit the stone, heavy and numb, her breath shallow. The last thing she heard was Lillia's cold command, sharp as iron:
"Bind her. She will hang before the people. Let them see their knight broken."
Rough hands seized her arms, ropes bit into her wrists. She could not fight — not even breathe properly. The rebels dragged her limp body across the burning hall, through the shattered gates of her home, out into the night. The smell of ash and smoke clung to her, the weight of her greatsword taken from her side like another wound carved into her.
They cast her down on the cold ground beneath the stars, her face pressed to the dirt, guards circling like vultures. She lay there tied, drifting between ragged scraps of consciousness and the darkness threatening to swallow her whole. The jeers of the rebels reached her only as muffled echoes.
Then silence.
Something sharp hissed through the night. A thud. A gasp. She thought she heard someone choking, then another, then another. Her ears rang, the sounds fractured, fading as quickly as they came.
Shapes moved at the edge of her vision — dark, blurred, shifting with the shadows. She could not tell where the night ended and they began. One bent close, warm breath brushing her face she could not clearly see. Familiar… maybe. Or only a dream.
The ropes slackened. Hands — small, trembling, but steady — pulled at her arms. She felt her body lifted, weightless and heavy all at once. Her sword, too, dragged from the ground, the familiar weight brushing against her side.
She tried to look, to see the face above her. All she caught was the faint glimmer of eyes, a breathing too soft to hold onto. Her mind clawed at recognition, but the darkness was stronger.
The forest swallowed them, branches whispering overhead. She thought she remembered these trees, thought she had run through them as a child, laughing with someone beside her. But the memory slipped through her fingers like smoke.
Her head fell against a shoulder. Warmth carried her deeper into the night. The world thinned to nothing — just the rhythm of footsteps, the hush of leaves, and then the final pull of unconsciousness.