PROLOGUE Part 2
With a fierce battle cry, she charged into the fight. Her sword flashed in the moonlight, cutting down the first enemy before spinning to block another strike.
Fiona clutched her dagger, backing away as the battle raged around her. She wanted to help, to do something. But she doesn't even know how to fight and she was afraid that she would only get in the way.
Diandra fought like a storm—spinning, slashing, dodging. But there were too many. A blade sliced across her arm. She gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain.
She parried an enemy soldier's lunge, only to have her side pierced with a searing pain again. A dagger. As blood bloomed beneath her armor, she gasped and staggered back. Her knees threatened to give out as the world became hazy.
"Diandra!" Fiona's voice cut through the air. The princess moved forward, her eyes burning with resolve, before Diandra could respond. With desperation of someone who could not give up, rather than the skill of a warrior, she raised her little dagger.
Fiona was fed up when an enemy lunged for Diandra. She stabbed the assailant in the throat with her dagger. As the soldier fell, blood spattered the ground. She didn't hesitate even though she was panting and her chest was rising and falling quickly. She pivoted, extending her arms before her lady knight.
Diandra couldn't let Her Highness do her duty. Though blood was dripping from her wounds, as long as she was still alive, she wouldn't let herself lost the fight. They had to kill her first to stop her from fighting.
She grunted and pushed her knees with the help of her sword that was stabbed on the ground. She held Fiona's hand.
"I'm sorry for the break, Princess." She grunted and smiled at her. Though her face winced but she managed to reassure her. She couldn't let down the emperor also. She was sure that he was coming home for them. It might take days for them to arrive. But the best thing was that he was safe far away from the palace attack.
She tasted copper in her mouth as she coughed. She swallowed it back. "Stay on alert, Your Highness." Diandra pushed the princess behind her to block another surge of attack.
The enemies were ruthless, they aimed to kill. To finish everyone. And her only goal was to get the princess to safety. It was just one person. But she couldn't even do it properly.
Diandra staggered as the scorching pain heightened. She was gasping for breath to fill her lungs. Her armor seemed a burden for her now that she felt heavy.
Then a shadow moved—too fast. A blade flashed in the dark.
Diandra heard a steel piercing flesh. She gasped, expecting the pain to be hers but it wasn't. She lifted her head as someone's back was at her.
It was Fiona.
The princess was in front of her, a sword driven through her chest.
"No!" Diandra's scream tore through the night as Fiona's body slumped forward, her hands gripping the blade impaling her. The dagger in her hand fell.
The enemy wrenched the weapon free. Diandra jolted her body up and slashed the killer by her own sword. The soldier's head almost left his body and it thudded on the ground.
Diandra caught Fiona who collapsed in her arms. She was ignoring her body's own agony. Blood pooled beneath them immediately as she cradled the fallen princess in her arms.
"Fiona." She choked, tears streamed her eyes as she failed. Completely failed her, the emperor, the people for protecting their kind princess. Most importantly, a friend like a sister to her.
Fiona's breaths were shallow. Her delicate fingers clutching weakly at Diandra's wrist. Her eyes fluttered open, glassy, full of pain that she shouldn't have felt under her protection. But still, there was strength in her eyes.
"You have to go." Fiona whispered, her voice barely a breath.
The enemies around them seemed to pause, seeing that they succeeded in killing the princess. And they couldn't care less about anyone else anymore. Some looked bored at the scene of the two girls who were bloody on the ground.
Diandra shook her head, pressing her forehead to Fiona's. "I'm not leaving you."
"You have to." Fiona's grip tightened for a moment, her nails digging into her skin. "You must live. My brother… the emperor… you must protect him."
Diandra's breath hitched and she shook her head. "Your Highness. I fear I couldn't. I couldn't even save you—"
"—You did your best. No one… could blame you. It's my last wish, my Dame Diandra." She tried to smile behind a wince. "Promise me." She begged, her voice breaking. "Swear it, Diandra."
Tears burned in Diandra's eyes as she pressed a trembling hand to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding—knowing she couldn't.
"I swear it, my Princess Fiona—Your Highness." She whispered, voice cracking.
Diandra held her tighter, but Fiona's body was growing colder, her strength slipping away.
From afar, a battle raged around them. Richard was shouting. Sera was calling for her. But all Diandra could hear was the princess' final breath as the light faded in her eyes.
And then, she was gone.
Something inside Diandra shattered.
For a moment, the world felt silent. Empty.
Then sudden rage erupted.
A fire unlike anything she had ever known slammed in her chest. Slowly, she laid Fiona's body down, pressing a bloodstained hand to the princess' cheek one last time.
She held her sword by her side and picked up the dagger on the ground. It was the dagger the emperor gifted to the princess in her 18th birthday just few months ago. It was a beautiful object but deadly sharp. And the princess tried to practice with it just for self-defense when necessary.
And Diandra couldn't believe that the first time Fiona would use it on an actual battle was to protect her.
Her heart burning with grief and fury. She was just numb. Even her wounds couldn't penetrate her senses. She kept the dagger in her belt. She wouldn't part with it.
She had made a promise. And she would see it fulfilled. No matter the cost. Even if it was her limbs, her heart, her life. Everything. Nothing matters anymore. Only the swore she made.
Diandra barely felt her body as she staggered forward. Her limbs heavy, and vision blurry. Fiona's blood still stained her hands. Her warmth already fading from this world. She had nothing left.
Her sword slipped from her grip, clattering against the blood-soaked earth. Her knees buckled, and the world tilted.
"No…" She grunted. She just made a swore and she couldn't fail her again. She hadn't even started yet.
Strong hands grabbed her. She was too weak to resist as the enemy seized her arms, yanking her forward. Someone laughed—a cruel, mocking sound.
"She put up quite a fight." One of them sneered.
"A shame. She'll die like the rest. Like her princess."
Diandra barely registered their words. Her mind was drowning in exhaustion, grief, and the unbearable weight of her broken promise.
Fiona was gone. She had failed again and again.
The hands dragged her across the battle, past the fallen knights, past the bodies of those who died trying to protect the princess. She also failed them. The feeling of failure was enough to make her heartbeat stop.
Richard and Sera were still calling for her from the distance. They were trying to make their way to her. She couldn't even turn around to look at them as the hands that were like chain in her arms, prevented her to do so.
Then, suddenly, she was at the edge of a well. She felt the cold stone beneath her fingertips as they forced her over the edge.
"Any last words, knight?"
Diandra slowly lifted her head, her breath shallow, her body trembling but she looked at the eyes of her captors. "I'll haunt you." She whispered in choking rage in her.
Above, the moon hung in the night sky—pale, luminous, untouched by the chaos below.
Then, as if answering her grief, shadows of the dark crept over it.
The lunar eclipse began.
Darkness swallowed the moon, bathing the world in an eerie crimson glow. The air crackled. The wind whispering through trees like an omen.
Diandra exhaled, her red lips curving into the faintest smile. "Even the moon weeps tonight."
Then hands shoved her.
She fell. She made no sound. Not a single scream—nothing.
The cold air rushed past her. Her tattered cloak billowing as she plummeted into the abyss. The walls of the well blurred around her.
Then she just felt it. The impact. She choked a gasp. Pain exploded through her body as she hit the water. The icy depths swallowed her whole, dragging her down.
She didn't fight it. Breathing wasn't even an option. She'd die a failure. And she would haunt those who killed the innocents. Her ghost would never be in peace. She wouldn't want to meet Fiona yet. Her eyes fluttered shut as she sunk deeper, the crimson light of the eclipse moon shimmering above.
The world faded into darkness.
Then, complete silence.