• Chapter 2
    Nosalia’s Last Hope


    Nosalia was a rich nation, or at least had been at one time. Sometime before the war, before all their funds had gone to the effort. Surrounded by all the riches she could have ever wanted, Catriona gazed out her window. Her eyes scanned the beautiful countryside of her homeland, bathed in sunlight. Right now, the lavish contents of her room meant nothing to her.

    To think that in a matter of moments she would be leaving her home behind nearly brought tears to her eyes. She was a princess, but for now it seemed that all she amounted to was a peace offering! The fact hurt, so much so that she had refused to speak to anyone all morning while they prepared her for her long journey.

    Now she sat on a cushioned window seat, her chin resting on her crossed arms, just wishing that she didn’t have to go. Wishing that she didn’t have to marry a stranger. Wanting it all to be a bad dream.

    Her attention strayed away from the view as the door to her chamber creaked open and her father stepped inside. “Your escort has been assembled, they are nearly ready to leave.” he said quietly.

    Catriona’s heart sank even more and her eyes traveled to the floor. “Oh . . . So I’ll be leaving very soon then. . .”

    “I wish it didn’t have to be this way . . . Please don’t feel bitter towards me, Catriona.”

    “I don’t, Father.” the princess answered, not looking to him as she did so. Her voice seemed to betray her words. She did feel bitter, though perhaps not at her father or anyone in particular. More bitter at what was expected of her. “I understand that this is my duty. I need to make sure that the people of this country are safe and if this is the only way, then I will follow through.”

    She wiped away a tear that threatened to roll down her cheek. This trapped feeling nearly overwhelmed her. She knew that just six days over the very horizon that she looked at now, people were making sacrifices much greater for their country than she did. They were giving their very lives. Her sacrifice paled in comparison, but surrendering the rest of her life to someone she barely knew still stung. The thought that bothered her the most was the worry that she may never be happy with this king.

    She fought back the selfish thoughts of her own happiness and tried to think of the good she would be doing her people instead. This was Nosalia’s last chance. She was their last chance.

    “It’s time for you to meet your escort.” her father said after a long silence.

    She looked back to him finally. “Don’t you mean ‘it is time to leave?’”


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    The courtyard bustled with activity while all the final preparations were being made. Lively chatter filled the air, much different than Seiya’s experience back home where the mood had been less than excited. Some of the soldiers seemed ecstatic about being chosen. After all, they had all been hand selected by Commander Roarke, a good friend to the king. Here in the courtyard were assembled fifty of the finest men that the king had left. To be part of them was an honor.

    He tried to brush aside his bad feelings and made himself useful, helping to load one of the few carts with crates of supplies. Perhaps if he kept busy he could forget how horrible he felt for putting his mother through such stress.

    “Hey kid! Glad to see you could make it!” a cheerful voice exclaimed from behind him, followed by a less-than-light pat on the back that nearly sent Seiya falling face first into the cart.

    He sent a bit of a glare to the tall blonde man who now laughed at his expense. “You think you could give me a little warning next time, Keefe?” he said, helping one of the servants secure the back end of the cart now that everything had been loaded.

    Keefe raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him, following him. “Not just a little uptight are you? I figured you would be, getting so close to the princess and all.” he said, playfully jabbing him in the ribs with an elbow.

    “That’s not it--”

    “Of course it is! Admit it!”

    Seiya let out a heavy sigh, looking as irritated as ever. His job done for now, he leaned up against the side of the cart for a bit of a break. “I’m not admitting anything. I’ve never seen her before, for all I know she could be ugly. She’s betrothed anyway.” he said, sending a glance to his friend only to find him distracted.

    Frustration washed over him. He hadn’t heard that at all had he?

    He followed Keefe’s gaze to see what had the man so preoccupied, rolling his eyes when he made the connection. Off by what would be the princess’s carriage stood a small group of young women. They talked amongst themselves, giggling at whatever conversation they were having. Typical Keefe, to have his attentions stray at the sight of a pretty girl. Or a group of pretty girls as the case may be.

    “You know . . .” Keefe began, raising his eyebrows. His hand went to his chin in thought, “The princess has some of her lady servants coming with her. . . This could be an interesting trip.”

    “Come on, get your mind out of the dirt.”

    Keefe gave a small laugh, finally tearing his attention away from the girls. Seiya knew he was up to no good when his friend gave him one of his sly, crooked smiles. And so the relentless picking and ridiculing was about to begin. Seiya folded his arms across his chest, preparing to ignore whatever came out of Keefe’s mouth next. He should be used to this by now.

    “You know, if you keep acting so uninterested like that then you’ll have people thinking that you’re a little . . . You know . . . Funny.”

    “Funny?!” Seiya echoed, his face turning a wonderful shade of red.

    “And the long flowing locks don’t help.”

    “Just what are you implying!?”

    He opened his mouth to come back with some kind of smart remark but before he could say much else Keefe was distracted yet again. He motioned out toward the carriage, quieting his speech to nearly a whisper. “Look who’s finally arrived. Give you one guess.”

    Seiya nearly walked away this time, shoving himself off the cart to do so. Normally he could handle the picking and the prodding but after his mother worrying him this morning he didn’t much feel like taking it. He gave an agonized look to the sky as Keefe latched onto his arm.

    “Hey, come on, just take a look. I promise you, she’s not ugly.”

    Giving up all hope of escaping this time, Seiya didn’t even bother to fight it as Keefe placed a hand on top of his head, turning it in the direction he wanted him to look.

    Seiya paused, blinking a few times as he caught sight of the king and the princess, both walking from the front entrance of the castle itself. They talked to each other, carrying on some unheard conversation. From the looks of it, it wasn’t a very happy one.

    As much as he hated to admit it, the princess wasn’t ugly.

    Not in the least.

    She wore a dress, much more simple than he had expected to see, but even so, it didn’t take away from her beauty at all. She had long brown hair that flowed in waves down her back. Although a light color brown, her hair was dark in comparison to her fair complexion. She was as beautiful as the rumors said.

    Seiya frowned a bit as he watched the interaction between the king and his daughter when they stopped next to the carriage. The princess looked so upset. Her gaze focused on the ground in front of her as her father reached up, gently taking the thin golden crown from her head.

    “What did I tell you? Beautiful isn’t she?” Keefe questioned, his voice breaking through Seiya’s thoughts only a little.

    “Yeah . . .” he answered though he’d barely heard the question. He hadn’t expected a princess of all people to have such a sad appearance.

    An even wider smile tugged at Keefe’s lips as he threw an arm around Seiya‘s shoulders. “Quit staring, Runt. She’s betrothed anyway remember?”

    Seiya shot him a glare though he could feel his cheeks burning again with a blush. He quickly tried to shove him away. “I know that!” he exclaimed quietly, “And I was not staring!”

    “Was so.”

    “I don’t see you working Keefe. . .” a familiar voice stated in a sing song tone. “Stop pestering the kid, you always get him in trouble.”

    Keefe finally lightened up his horsing around and Seiya turned to look as the owner of the voice strode up to them. There was no mistaking who she was, they would have recognized her a mile away. One of the few women in the army, also one of the few nymphs. She looked nearly human aside from her odd, blue hair color and her long ears which came to points at the ends and her complexion, one that was nearly as white as the snow she seemed to love so much.

    She smiled as both their faces lit up a bit upon seeing her.

    “Kaida, nice to see you again.” Seiya said in greeting. He looked hassled, but relieved that she’d shown up. Anything to distract Keefe from irritating him any more than he already had.

    “Nice to see you too Seiya.” Kaida replied before she turned her attention to Keefe. She raised an eyebrow, giving him a look out of the corner of her eyes. “Don’t know what to say about you though.”

    Keefe seemed to ignore it. “What are you doing here? I didn’t see you at any of the meetings; you made the escort too?” he questioned, sounding a bit surprised.

    “I suppose you could say that.” she said with a quirky grin.

    “Where have you been lately? I haven’t seen you in such a while that I thought maybe you’d actually retired to wearing a dress and acting like a real lady.” Keefe stated in humor, letting out a short laugh.

    Kaida scoffed. “As if.” she said, laughing a bit herself. “Not in a million years would I ever wear a dress.”

    Seiya couldn’t help but feel that this made things so much better. He had served along side these two in battle before and they had helped each other out of more tight spots than he could think of. Despite their jokes now, he could always trust them to be serious when the time came for it. He was pulled away from their banter as he heard their superior officer calling for Kaida.

    Not saying anything at first because he had been certain she had heard it, it soon became apparent to him that she’d heard nothing at all. She and Keefe continued their pointless argument. “Um . . . Kaida . . .” he said, trying to get a word in but unable to.

    “We’ll see you in a dress one of these days. You just watch” Keefe continued.

    “Kaida!” the commander could be heard yelling, but it was times like these that the nymph seemed to have selective hearing.

    “Oh really? You and the rest of the army going to try forcing me into one? Good luck with that, it’s not happening.”

    “Kai-” Seiya began, louder this time, but he was cut off.

    “Kaida!! Get over here now!” the commander roared, finally getting the nymph’s attention.

    She visibly flinched. Despite the fact that things already weren’t looking too good for her, she turned to shout back over her shoulder. “Coming!”

    Soon after Keefe found himself the recipient of a good whack in the arm.

    “Ow! You hit too hard!”

    “Now look what you did! You got me in trouble!” she said with mock disapproval before she began to hurry off.

    Seiya suppressed a laugh though couldn’t help but smile away. It was those two that had certainly made everything he had been through tolerable. Besides that, it was nice to see the tables turned on Keefe for a bit. . . Especially after he had made fun of him earlier.

    Kaida paused up ahead for a second, eyes on the sky as if she had just remembered something. “Oh yeah, and Seiya!” she called back. “Nice hair by the way. Hair thief.”

    Seiya’s smile faded along with his good feeling and he sent a glare at her back as she continued on her way. “At least mine isn’t blue.” he muttered. She always did this to him, ever since the day he had met her. Oh, he remembered all too well how she’d made fun of his hair for wearing it the same way she wore hers. Seemed like he would never hear the end of it.

    Ever.

    “Well.” Keefe spoke up after a moment, ready for a change in subject. “It should be close to time to leave. I wonder when we find out who the king has picked for his daughter’s personal guard.”

    Seiya heard him though he was interested to see where Kaida had been called to. He watched her reach her destination where their commander, the king, and the princess all stood. She stopped in front of them, standing at attention like she should have done a good five minutes ago. He couldn’t hear what was going on but he could only guess.

    “That guy’s one lucky fellow, huh? I wonder who it is. . .” Keefe continued.

    Seiya motioned in the direction Kaida had gone in, “I’m pretty sure she just walked away from us.”

    Keefe blinked, a puzzled expression on his face. “What?”