Kallixenia stirred with a groan.
A dull ache radiated through her chest, but she was alive. With bleary eyes she surveyed her surroundings, finding herself in a tranquil recovery room. A healer came to check on her, and out of the corner of her eye she could see Lunaeris, perched in a chair with her nose buried in a book. The princess made no indication that she had noticed her awaken, but at no point during the healer's examination did she turn a page.
The healer poked and prodded at her, examined her scar, dressed it with a poultice wrap, and then with a nervous glance at the princess announced to nobody in particular that she needed to fetch some supplies and would be leaving them for about five minutes.
Kallixenia didn't know what to say, left alone with her beloved. She had hoped, foolishly, that Lunaeris would never have to know the details of her oath.
"Princess-" She croaked, her throat sore.
Lunaeris slammed her book shut loudly.
"Princess!?" She replied, her voice cracked and shrill. "You call me Princess, after everything?"
"I know you must be upset-"
"There are no words that describe the depth of my fury, my knight!" Lunaeris all but shrieked. "I would kill you myself, if I thought I could bear living without you! How long?"
It pained her to have hurt her beloved so.
"Since the moment I swore my oaths to you, Princess."
"I have a name!" She choked. "I thought you of all people understood! And then I find that this whole time, you've, you've-"
Lunaeris' hands were balled at her sides in rage as tears streamed down her face. She struggled to speak through her overwhelming emotions.
"You've placed your life beneath mine, in this way. I thought- You know, you know I don't like when you treat me as your better!"
"I know. I'm sorry, Lunaeris."
"How do I stop it?"
"You can't, Lunaeris. Only I can end my oath."
"Well, end it!"
"I will not. I'm sorry."
"Gods damn you, GODS DAMN YOU KALLIE YOU STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" The princess shrieked.
"No. I will not see my beloved die when I could prevent it."
It was precisely because Lunaeris wasn't just the princess that she couldn't release her oath now. She had no regrets, giving her life for the one she loved, and she would have no regrets doing so again.
"And so you would force me to?"
"...I suppose I am selfish, in this way. Forgive me, Lunaeris."
"Fucker." The princess swore. "You oafish, inconsiderate-"
It was at this moment the healer returned, to the princess sobbing and cursing her knight. She looked quite unhappy to be the one who had to interrupt this.
"Princess?" She said.
"WHAT?!"
"I-I'm sorry, but your father wants to see you."
"Fine." Lunaeris spat. "I was just leaving."
Lunaeris was a mess.
She was happy, she was so happy Kallixenia was okay, and she yelled at her, and she made a scene, and she stormed out letting her think she hated her.
Why couldn't Kallixenia just understand that a life without her was no life at all? That maybe she thought her life was more valuable than her own?
It wasn't fucking fair. To force this upon her and not even tell her. She had been sick, when her father tried to explain to her that this was simply a part of Kallie's duty.
To- To die for her. The most insignificant royal in the kingdom, and it was so obvious to Kallie that her life simply mattered less that she hadn't even mentioned it.
It was all such fucking shit.
Her heart was a pyre. She couldn't even try to hide her emotions anymore. She openly wept as she stomped her way to the throne room.
The king, of course, intercepted her, because he couldn't fucking trust her to make it there on his schedule.
"Lunaeris! Oh, oh Lunaeris." He said, throwing his arm around her and guiding her to the throne room. "I know, it must all be so frightening for you."
She felt she might be sick again. Never had it been so apparent that her father just, fundamentally didn't understand her as a person.
"But worry no more!" He said, triumphantly. "Your hero has arrived!"
She stopped dead in her tracks.
"...No."
"...Yes? He's waiting in the throne room now, if you'll just-"
"No, no, no!" She cried, shaking her head. "I already have a hero, Kallie-"
"Kallie?"
"Yes, she-"
"Who's Kallie?"
"My knight!?" Lunaeris said, appalled.
"Oh, my sweet daughter. I know she saved you, I mean the prophecised hero."
"I know what you mean!" She shrieked.
"Now now, there's no need to yell." Her father chided.
"I, we-"
She couldn't breathe. This was too much.
"She- And-" She choked out between sobs. "I-I made the sword for her!" Was all the explanation she could manage.
The king sighed.
"Lunaeris, I know you're at that age where you think you're cleverer than everyone, but you can't just decide how a prophecy is going to play out. Come, let me introduce you to the hero."
Lunaeris was beyond words, her sorrows escaped her lungs in a horrible wail. She couldn't accept this fate. She would rather die.
The king ushered her into the throne room, and she discovered she wasn't beyond words after all.
"YOU!!!" She shrieked, seeing the figure she had seen in the smoke of her would-be assassin's charred body just standing there like he belonged.
"Hello, Princess. I'm here to protect-" He said, oozing smugness.
"BASTARD! DEMON! FUCKER! I'LL KILL YOU!!!" She screeched, her mana reserves bursting into flame before she even decided on a spell.
"Lunaeris! What's gotten into you?!" The king gasped, the royal guards restraining her as torrents of flame spewed from her mouth, scorching her surroundings. "I-I'm terribly sorry, you have to understand she's had quite a stressful time of late-"
"-I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND SHIT DOWN YOUR THROAT FUCKING LET GO OF ME-"
"I understand, highness. The demon king could be anywhere, it must be terrifying." The demon king said, keeping his eyes locked on Lunaeris'
"-YOU'RE THE DEMON KING YOU SON OF A GODS DAMNED BITCH DON'T TAUNT ME-"
They didn't believe her. He was right fucking there and they didn't believe her because she was just the princess, she's fragile, she's hysterical from the stress.
She howled, venting her frustrations in a gout of white-hot flame that etched her discontentment into the very stone of the castle, melting a wide trough in front of her into bubbling magma.
The room was silent. Even the demon king seemed intimidated by the display.
She coughed, cinders scattering on her breath.
And then she blacked out.
