"Get back! Step away from the Lady before I forget my oath of fealty!"
"My Lady! Seraphina! Look at me! Breathe!" Sir Gallahan panicked wildly, ignoring his mutinous peers and reaching his large, armored hands out toward the hyperventilating child on the floor. He desperately attempted to scoop her up. "We are extracting! I am taking you out into the fresh mountain air! I will summon the ice-bees! I will fetch the wild honey! Please, My Lady, do not look at the grumpy Duke! Look at Gallahan! I will squish your cheeks! I will protect you from him!"
The knights actively mutinying against the most terrifying warlord on the continent to protect a crying toddler from his emotional incompetence was an absolute, high-fantasy comedic masterpiece.
However.
The legendary commanders of the North had made one fatal, catastrophic tactical miscalculation.
They thought Seraphina wanted to be saved from Kaelus.
