They stumbled through the night, arm in arm, reeking of food and ale. Tomori could hardly see straight.

“M-my lady–”

“–Raana.”

“I… I believe I’ve had too much to drink.”

“Hehe.” Raana hiccuped. “Me too.”

“You made q-quite a stir. I was… not prepared to be bought so many rounds.”

“‘Twas fun,” Raana whispered. In her free hand, she held the lute they’d bought just this morning.

“When… pray tell, did you learn to play with such… dexterity?”

“Grandma taught me. Hic. …She’s dead now, though.”

“I am… terribly sorry to hear that.”

“Whatever. We’ll go again tomorrow. But this time, you sing.”

“S-sing? I… no, I couldn’t.”

“Why not?” Raana tilted her head. “It’s your words.”

“I don’t know how. And besides, I would not… dare stand beside you as your equal.”

Raana stopped in her tracks. She looked Tomori in the eyes.

“But you are.”

“I… am not, my lady.” Tomori’s voice grew cold. “I was born and raised to serve. I have no purpose save to die so you may live.”

Raana pouted and elbowed Tomori.

“That’s dumb.” She looked away from her, off into the distance. “I don’t want you to die.”

“I-it is the only truth I have ever known.”

“…Then I’ll teach you a new one,” Raana said.

The taste of ale turned bitter in Tomori’s mouth. She felt, more acutely than ever before, the sheer gulf between them.

“U-um. My lady.”

“Raana,” she insisted.

“Do… you know where we are?”

“Hm.” Raana looked around. They were in the middle of a dark, indistinct alleyway. “Nope.”

“We have… taken a wrong turn, have we not?”

“Guess so.”

As they stood there dumbfounded, the rasp of a blade unsheathing filled the air around them.

“Ser Tomori, you fiend,” a low, familiar voice boomed. “For the treacherous abduction of Princess Raana you are sentenced to death. I have come to carry out your execution.”

“…Ser Roderic.” Tomori breathed in and reached for the hilt of her sword.

“I have no words to give you. Come and take her, if you will.”

Their blades clashed. Even with dulled reflexes, Tomori was more than a match for the man. She had spent her childhood being meticulously forged into the finest soldier of the Togawa dynasty. The movements were seared into her nerves, practiced until they were automatic.

Soon he was disarmed, and her sword was at his neck.

“Do not make me do this, Roderic,” Tomori seethed. “I like you.”

“Heh.” Roderic spat at her feet. “And that’s why all that gear and training’s wasted on you, ser. That fragile little heart of yours.”

He looked her in the eyes right as an arrow found the small of her back, through a gap in her armor.

It was laced with poison; Tomori could tell right away. She fell to the ground and doubled over in pain.

Roderic stood up and put his boot to her neck. “You seriously believed I’d come alone? Think I’m stupid, do you?”

From the other end of the alley, five men filtered in.

“Princess Raana. We’re here to take you home,” one of them said.

Raana backed away from them. In her eyes Tomori saw pure terror.

“I do not know what you intend, milady,” hissed Roderic, “but I am under orders to return you by force, if necessary.”

The men approached her, but Roderic motioned them to stop. “Easy. Perhaps seeing me cleave this cur’s head off’ll take the fight out of her.”

And so he raised his sword and brought it down.

But as he did a blood-curdling shriek rang out, and a blinding white light blotted out the night.

A bloody view greeted Tomori as she regained her vision.

White petals rained down around her. Roderic and his men were dead, run through by dozens of twisted, thorny wooden appendages, from whose bark bloomed hundreds of mountain lilies.

Tomori recognized the flower.

It was the symbol of Asyre: goddess of Freedom, Chaos, and Humanity.

She turned her head and noticed Raana straddling her, looking down at her with a vacant expression.

She was covered in blood, and her odd-colored eyes were faintly glowing.

“M-my lady,” Tomori breathed. “What… are you?”