A Ballad of Heroes

Chapter 2 - Fire and Blood

Back to Avalon?!

Arianna rose so jerkily at these words that the chair tipped backward and crashed to the floor with a loud thud.

"You can't do that!" the young woman exclaimed loudly.

Ector heard the resentment and anger but also recognized the hidden despair behind it. Many years ago, one of the priestesses of Avalon had stood before him in white robes. The beauty in white-faced a warrior without hope. A man stained with blood and a broken soul because a battle seemed lost, for which he had risked everything. And to him, of all people, she entrusted the greatest treasure of the empire.

When he returned home a few days later, he brought a young child to his fortress in his arms. A little girl with big eyes reddened by tears. A child that did not want to speak or come out of her room. But finally, she resigned herself to his fate... and for a long time, he even hoped that she would eventually forget the horrors that had brought her into his arms.

He had raised the child as his own from then on. Yes, he had probably spoiled her too much. His two sons loved the girl with the red curls from the first moment and protected her as good brothers should. Indeed, it hit them all particularly hard when, shortly after her tenth birthday, a white-robed priestess took her away from here again. But rumors made the rounds among the discontented people. The king's son had been considering the assassination attempt, and the king's fanatical search had become too dangerous. Now he had taken her back to her home a little more than a year ago... but their time together seemed to be coming to an end again.

"My mind is made up. I will travel with Kay and Alan to the court as soon as you have departed." He explained, and the man's stern expression regained a bit of fatherly warmth, "When we are convinced it is safe, we will bring you back home, Arianna." He interrupted her peace offering to no avail.

"You cannot always send me away!" revolted Arianna, and her slender fingers erratically wiped one of the reluctant red strands from her delicate face. The lord now groaned audibly and shook his head.

"It's not the right time yet."

"It will never be the right time!" she returned, brushing his argument aside in a waving gesture. "You cannot keep me hidden forever, and your caution would only arouse more suspicion than is already the case. I've barely been allowed to leave the feast for a year now. Do you think that wouldn't have been noticed?" Arianna paced back and forth like one of his hunting dogs as they prowled up and down his door, and he denied them entry.

"I'm not a child anymore, Father. PLEASE, let me go with you at last! I will never be able to find allies if you don't let me-"

"It is not YOUR job to find allies." He interrupted her now a little more harshly than he had intended. "I will find a suitable consort for you."

"Who what? Who can fight my battle for me?!" the girl returned, and now the lord's expression hardened.

"It is not for women to fight the battles." He admonished her and watched her clench her fists. "You are MY daughter in everyone's eyes, Arianna, and you are a woman, and as such, you must finally accept your place!"

Ah, he should have stifled the rebellious spark much earlier. Instead, he allowed his sons to fight the girl with wooden swords, put her on horseback, and ... now?

"Arianna, you must learn to use your own weapons..."

"A woman's weapons? And what do you imagine? Me as a string-puller with sweet words or poisons?!" she returned, now coming up to sink down before him. The dress's fabric fell around the young noblewoman's body like petals. And that's how he still saw her today, no matter how dirty or fractious she might be: a flower he had to protect.