The Crow of Death

"Everyone clear the palace."

All of her aunt and uncle's trusted personal attendants had already fled alongside them, and Daphne had previously dispersed the peripheral palace staff.

Looking around the room, there were only familiar faces.

Her tutor tried to hide his fright as he waited stiffly in front of his prized manuscript collection.

A few guards who had sworn their lives to the previous king and queen stood their ground by the room entrance.

A scattered crowd gathered at the base of the staircase.

Her nanny knelt near her broken daughter, sobbing at the lifeless body as she draped a thin shawl over the corpse.

Akira. And there was Akira.

She hadn't only been Daphne's personal maid. She had been her lifelong friend and most trusted companion.

And now, she was gone, taken away by the Northern barbarians.

"EVERYONE CLEAR THE PALACE!" Daphne screamed with all the might in her body.

The lingering people looked at her with glossy eyes. In their minds, their little princess had always been so good and proper, never even raising her voice by a single octave.

"If you all still take me to be your princess, this is my final command to you."

Looking each of them straight in the eye, she willed them to leave the room one by one. No one did as much as move an inch.

"Please, I beg of you all. Do you need me to kneel on the ground in order for you to listen to me now? Is that what you want?"

She didn't allow them time to respond.

"GO!"

One by one, they filed out of the room.

Seeing the familiar silhouettes disappear into the darkness, Daphne's heart broke.

Only one person remained.

"Nanny!"

The trembling figure remained on the floor, her white hairs more pronounced than before. As she looked up, she looked like she had just aged ten years.

"No Princess, both you and my daughter are here. Where will a bag of old bones like me go? What worth is there for me to keep on living?"

Daphne dropped to the ground alongside her nanny, no longer caring that her skirts trailed on the floor or her tiara threatened to fall from her head. She cupped Akira's soft cheeks with her hands, uncontrollably sobbing as tear after tear fell onto her dress.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Her nanny pressed her head to her chest, bringing Daphne in for a warm embrace.

"Princess, please leave," her muffled cries were barely audible as she repeated them over and over again. "I've lost Akira already. I can't bear the thought of losing you as well. Please leave."

"But no one here is leaving." A deep voice interrupted the scene.

From the darkness of the doorframe, a tall figure materialized from the shadows. His figure largely hidden behind a cloak of black furs, he seemed like he walked right out of hell itself.

"My dearest Princess of Eversun, did you enjoy the gift that I've sent to you?" A low chuckle sent chills down Daphne's back.

He walked forward, his heavy boots thudding against the ground with his every step and sending Daphne's heart racing ever faster.

"You barbarian. Leave my palace immediately. You're not welcome here." Daphne stood up, straightening her attire. She would not bow down to this foreign beast. And compared to the torture he put Akira through, what was a little pain?

His amber eyes glittered venomously. "My dearest Princess of Eversun, I'm assuming that you mean the banquet you have laboriously prepared to greet me is not yet ready." He paced in circles around Daphne, slowly closing in around her until his slightly stubbled chin hovered right above her head. "Unless, my message was not clear enough?"

Daphne took a step back, glaring at him. His eyes were eerily golden with the separation between the iris and the pupil a hint too stark, like one of a predator emerging from the depths of hell.

"Princess, what is that look on your face? A pretty face such as yours shouldn't ever bear such an expression." A sickly playful smile twisted up the corners of his thin lips. "It doesn't suit you."

"So why are you here? Why didn't you set up the palace in a wave of flames or just do to me like what you did to my poor Akira?" Her voice was strained as she reminded herself to take deep breaths. She couldn't break down in front of this demon. "Why are you still wasting your words on me?"

She adjusted her tiara. "I didn't even know barbarians like yourself could pronounce such advanced words."

"And I didn't know a Princess like you would be so unrelenting with hers." He chuckled, his laughter ringing in the now-empty corridors. "I thought you would prefer to play this game for a bit longer."

"What do you want?" She repeated, trying to stand as straight as possible. But even then, she had to look up at him in order to meet his eyes.

"I thought my message was already clear." His gloved fingers reached for a strand of her hair, twirling it between the leather. "I want Your Highness. I want the Princess of Eversun."

She socked him in the jaw.

"I'm not an object meant to be given to anyone." Her knuckles tingled from the hard impact. "Especially not to a barbarian like you."

Surprisingly, he didn't even flinch from the punch. Instead, he casually strolled to the window. In the distance, the chaos in the Kingdom of Eversun had only worsened. Her people were like ants scurrying to a different home, only to find that they had none other.

"I guess Your Highness is sentencing them to die alongside yourself then, just like you are with your supposedly precious maid." His broad shoulders blocked out the rest of the outside world from Daphne's view. "But Your Highness must not really care about your people if you're not even willing to hear of my humble proposal."

A sudden twinge of pain twisted at her heart.

"Princess, you don't really care about these mere peasants." He slowly spun back around, his expression cold. "All you want is to die with peace of mind."