Hilda…
All her life she had been raised by her mother, the Queen, as the one who would inherit the kingdom of Brunhildt when she was ready.
And yet…
In spite of what she was raised up to be, Hilda had always secretly looked fondly upon Queen Diana’s actions.
She had not been raised under the harsh and unforgiving society like her mother had been. In fact, her mother had been too busy with trying to lead the kingdom under the growing pressure of the citizens refusing to abandon the new age that the queen before her had built. Her own mother had little time to spare in raising her and had shifted that responsibility to Geirolul instead.
Being raised by the Valkyrie commander did come with its challenges of having to learn the Amazonian forms of combat, but she was not cruel.
Geirolul would tell her stories of the founding queen, Athena, The Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. She would then tell her the stories of the glorious bygone Golden Age and even the horrible stories of Queen Penthesilia, along with the long decaying age that followed after her.
But the stories that fascinated Hilda the most were that of the Nøkkran Assassins. A group of women, of which were extremely skilled with the sword, and who could manipulate fate. According to the rumors that Hilda heard of as a child, the assassins were founded by Princess Sophia as a way to control and mitigate the aggression between Brunhildt and Duranell in the hopes that the war would come to a peaceful end.
The stories of the assassins were always her favorite and the unlikelihood of meeting them after their group disbanded before she was born saddened her.
However, when she heard of the tournament happening, she had practically begged her mother for the kingdom’s participation. Even more so, she was ready to get on her hands and knees to be a champion herself. She was ready to do anything for the chance to meet the heroes of old that she had read of, almost as if in fairy tales.
When the moment finally came to meet one of her childhood heroes, it took every ounce of her willpower to maintain a cool head and not react immaturely. She had been trained to maintain the grace of a princess since birth, so she had to show that air of elegance.
But it was not just any member of the Nøkkra, it was the one that she loved the most, Camilla The Almighty!
Seeing her walk past her with grace equal to Hilda’s own, her long flowing blonde hair braided on one side and loose on the other, and her beautiful piercing green eyes…
It was like a dream.
Hilda did not dare make eye contact with her otherwise ruin the moment.
Yet as Camilla walked past her, she paused and said, “Before you go Princess Hilda, may I share a few words of caution?”
Hilda was startled and ecstatic to hear Camilla address her personally. She was so excited to actually be talking to her, yet the arrogant life of a princess that was ingrained into her caused her to respond reflexively.
“What do you want?!” she said with the rude arrogance of her position.
Hearing her own words, Hilda wanted to hide in a corner and cry herself to death for misspeaking and misbehaving in such a way.
Oh god...what have I done…? she thought to herself.
Camilla then smiled so sweetly that Hilda knew she would have happily given her own life to see, if not for the words that would come afterward.
“I am Camilla Lykos, daughter of the former princess Sophia Lykos, granddaughter of Queen Diana, and I plan to take Ichor Doru from your grasp and mount your head upon its tip,” she said, before giving an obviously court trained curtsy and walked away.
She left her standing in the hallway, stunned and mouth open like an idiot.
Despite the obvious and terrifying words threatening her life, Hilda was too busy fixated on the fact that she called herself ‘Lykos’ and claimed to be the daughter of Princess Sophia.
…
….
……
She is a princess!
If not by title, than by birthrate at the very least!
It was so obvious to see that Camilla was the spitting image of Princess Sophia based on the paintings and pictures taken of her.
The only difference being that unlike Princess Sophia’s striking blue eyes, Camilla’s were green like that of Prince Dorian the Second!
It was obvious to see that she was their child!
It was as if all of Hilda’s fantasies were coming true right in front of her eyes!
Aside from having her life being threatened, but that didn’t bother her in the slightest when it came from Camilla.
In fact, she was so busy thinking about what had happened that she nearly forgot what she was supposed to fight and rushed to the exit and onto the arena floor.
As she made her way towards her opponent who was waiting patiently for her, Hilda looked up at her mother as if expecting her to get mad for being late.
However she seemed more amused than mad as her mother looked down at her from the Ruler’s Podium and gestured with her hands, ‘show no mercy.’
Hilda nodded to her even though she was not that focused on the fight.
Right now she was thinking of a way to hopefully catch up to Camilla and maybe ask her some questions.
Hold on…, it wasn’t against the rules to just end the fight instantly. She could just kill her opponent, be done with the fight, and hopefully catch up to her.
“Prepare yourself. I will not hold back just because you are a princess,” her opponent said, clearly trying not to sound intimidated.
Hilda felt bad for him so she said, “Fear not, for this battle will be over in less than a second.”
Unfortunately, her voice came out in a more harsh and aggressive tone than she had intended.
By the time the announcer’s voice finished calling for the start of the match, her opponents head was already rolling on the ground.
Hilda had unfurled her golden wings and slashed through his head with Ichor Doru before he had a chance to react.
At least he didn’t suffer, yet she had used her wings against her mother’s wishes. She had not used them in battle until now as her mother wanted the fact that Hilda could use them to be a secret.
Hilda wanted to avoid looking her mother in the eye but failed as she could see her eyes twitching in confusion and anger, yet she was forcing herself to applaud.
When the time given for those who die in the arena had expired and her opponent had been declared unable to continue, the match ended.
Her opponent was restored to life and walked away in shock of how quickly he had been defeated.
Yet, just as she was about to turn around and start walking back to the hallway, hoping to catch up to Camilla, the announcer’s voice came on again.
“Would you look at that! Just as swiftly as Camilla The Almighty, Princess Hilda of Brunhildt dispatched her opponent before they could have a chance to fight! What fearsome and awe inspiring strength indeed!”
Hearing them sound her praise without even saying anything of Camilla before hand made her angry.
How dare they compare me to her! Why sing my praises but not her own!
Yet she knew why.
She was the princess of Brunhildt, one they could not afford to disrespect else cause meaningless conflicts between Duranell and Brunhildt.
Curse my damn title!
Regardless, the battle was over and she she had all the time to spare to try and catch Camilla before she disappeared.
The moment that Hilda walked into the hallway and was out of sight from the audience, she took off at a run.
She dashed through the hall so fast while thinking of the possible places that Camilla might be staying at that she wasn’t paying attention as someone left the waiting room onto their own match.
Just barely catching them in the corner of her eye, Hilda tried to step out of the way and ended up tripping over her own feet.
Before she could fall to the ground, two firm hands grabbed hold of her arms and caught her.
“Oh! Are you alright?” a fairly masculine yet also feminine voice said as they helped Hilda stand up straight again.
When she was able to get a good look at the person who had saved her from falling, she realized that it was none other than Raum The Raven.
“Oh…,” Hilda said, her voice becoming that of a little girl who could barely contain her excitement.
Raum, a tanned woman with black hair and hollowed yellow eyes, tilted her head in confusion as she said, “Is something wrong?”
“Oh! Uh…no! Can you...can you tell me where Camilla went? I want to talk to her. Can you...point me in her direction?” Hilda asked as politely as she could.
Understanding the situation, Raum nodded and smiled to her as she said, “Of course. It is very likely that she either went back to the Inn we are staying at or Boggart’s Diner…”
Raum then patiently explained how to get there before giving Hilda a pleasant wave as she headed off to her own match.
I had no idea that Raum would be so nice…!
She then shook her head and took off at a run to make her way to the Inn.
Camilla…
Feeling quite satisfied with herself over intimidating the false Princess Hilda, she decided to make her way back to the Inn to bathe, change into some more comfortable clothes, and hopefully get something to eat.
For the first several minutes of making her way back, things seemed normal.
It wasn’t until she was halfway there that she felt something unusual. It was as if there was an agitated and nervous energy following her that was failing to hide the spiritual energy from leaking.
Someone was tailing her and doing a terrible job at it. In fact, the more she listened in, the more she could hear the startled voices of other people around whoever was tailing her.
She decided to rush off into an alley before levitating herself above the roofs of the buildings in wait for who was following her.
It didn’t take long before the figure of a brown skinned, slender woman wearing striking clothing…
It can’t be…
Is that Hilda?
She followed me all the way back here?
Its likely that she did not appreciate having her life threatened, yet she doubted that Hilda would have been foolish enough to abandon her fight and wound Queen Hylla’s pride. She likely killed her opponent instantly and rushed after her.
But even still, to follow after her for her aggressive words seemed unnecessarily petty. What is really going on?
Hilda looked around the alley with a dumbfounded expression, wondering how she was able to disappear so easily before turning around.
Before Hilda could leave however, Camilla jumped off the roof and back into the alley. She quickly grabbed Hilda by the shoulders, pulled her out of sight, and slammed her against the wall.
“So you decided to follow me then,” Camilla said as she pulled her sword and rested the edge against Hilda’s throat.
Acting strangely meek, Hilda raised her hands in surrender and said, “Wait! Wait! I don’t want to fight you! I’m not even mad you threatened to kill me! Although I’m sorry I was so rude to you in the hallway.”
What…?
Now she just felt confused.
Why was Hilda surrendering and apologizing to her? This has to be some kind of game because its too ridiculous to make any sense of her actions.
“Tell me why you decided to follow me, if not for me threatening your life,” she ordered.
Hilda slowly and gently pushed the sword away from her throat before saying, “You said your name was Lykos right? As in, Sophia and Diana Lykos? You’re related to them?”
Camilla narrowed her eyes and said, “Yes…?”
With an almost childlike expression on her face, Hilda said, “I want you to tell me your story.”