Remember Me

There was no mistake. That was an army approaching from the east, an army with the banners of the house of Laus. My gaze was hard as I dashed back down the wall and over to the great hall to speak to my grandfather, my skirt and hair trailing behind me.

“There’s about three hundred of them,” I said as I approached him, and Wil, behind me, nodded to confirm. “They have seige weapons. I’m not sure how we’re going to fight them off. We only have half that number.” What with most of the Caelin army deployed in the east against a surge of banditry from Khathelet, we were severely underdefended against this surprise attack from Laus.

How dare they!? How dare they attack my grandfather, who hadn’t done anything to provoke it!?

Grandfather was pacing in front of his throne, his head bowed in thought.

“A small group can hold out long against many in a fortified location, my lady,” Kent said. “Remember when we fought bandits in the tower in Bern. But if they have siege weapons…”

Grandfather raised his head and stopped pacing, looking at me with a small smile. “Lyndis. You won’t like this, but I must order you to leave the castle now, before it is surrounded.”

He was right. I hated that order. “What! But – but Grandfather, I must defend you!” He was almost seventy. He had long given up swordfighting, even before he had been poisoned. “I want to help!”

“While there is the slightest chance that the castle will be taken, I must insist on your safety,” Grandfather said firmly, striding to me and putting his hands on my shoulders. “I know you would fight valiantly in defense of me, but Lyndis, your survival is paramount. I am an old man. If Darin comes in, I will try to reason with him. But you are young; you should not lose your life in the foolish politics of Lycian nobles. Take Dame Florina and go to the village.” He turned to Kent, Sain, and Wil. “Commander, Sub-Commander, I will ask that you go with her if you can, but remain for now, and you, Sir Wil.”

I squared my shoulders, frowning. “I will not leave while Castle Caelin stands!” I changed the frown to a plea. “Please, Grandfather, I will leave with Florina if the battle goes poorly. But let me fight first!”

Grandfather hesitated, then shrugged with a rueful smile. “You are as stubborn as your mother. Very well. But when next I say…”

“I promise,” I said, reluctantly. I turned to Kent. “Kent, what’s the plan?” What would Ceniro do, was the thought in all our minds.

“We must bar the gates with all strength,” he said, gesturing to some soldiers, who ran off. “Every man who can shoot, to the walls. The rest, half will be on the walls in case of ladders and grappling hooks, and half in the courtyard in case the gate breaks down. Wil, you are in charge of the archers. Sain, you will be in charge of the other soldiers on the wall. I will remain in the courtyard. Lady Lyndis…”

“I’ll help Sain,” I said. “I’ll have better targets up there, and Florina can whisk me away more easily from there.”

Kent nodded solemnly. “So be it.”

“You make a good commander,” Grandfather said approvingly to Kent, and I nodded, smiling.

Kent lowered his gaze. “Thank you, my lord. …Though that is as far as my strategy extends for now. I wish General Wallace were here. Or Ceniro.”

He’d said it. “We’ll have to do without. Everyone, fight your hardest! I’m counting on all of you!”

“Yes, my lady!” cried the soldiers in the hall, and we ran to our posts.

 

The battle did not go well. Laus had many archers as well, and while we were all keeping our heads down, a large battering ram was brought up by bulls and moved to attack the gate. Kent brought all the non-archer soldiers down to the courtyard to help defend, but it wasn’t going to be enough, not the way the gate was shaking. Not with all the enemies outside.

A messenger boy came for me. “L-l-lady Lyndis, Lord Hausen commands that you leave at once.” He was terrified to be in this battle, I could see, flinching at each arrow that came over the parapet.

“I understand,” I said unhappily. “Get back into the castle, quickly.” He turned and fled. I looked around. “Kent! I’m out! Florina!”

“Here I am!” Florina cried, and took flight from the courtyard, stopping beside me just long enough to pick me up and shoot high into the air, aiming not for the village, but for the forest south of the castle. “We can hide there for a while before we go to the village. They won’t find us there. There are so many archers!” She couldn’t hide the quaver in her voice, and I hugged her reassuringly as we soared through the air.

“I hope the others are all right,” I said. “We already lost a lot of people. I saw… I saw Emmiline go down, and Caleb and Girion.” I felt Florina shiver. “We’ll be back later, and we’ll avenge them, don’t worry.”

“Oh, Lady Lyn… That is just what I knew you would say.” We were in among the trees now, and she cantered to a stop in a small clearing.

I exhaled long and frustrated. “Now what? We can’t attack Laus with just the two of us.”

“We should go and observe first, then,” Florina said.

“What a sensible suggestion,” I said.

We snuck through the trees until they thinned and we had a good view of the castle. I think it was quite near where we’d done so before, a year ago. But then it had been a lot more than the two of us. “If we even had one more person, I’d consider it.” Florina sighed and shook her lavender head. “I mean it! Grandfather’s in there, Kent and Sain and Wil are in there, Reissmann and Salir are in there, and who’s to say Laus won’t slaughter everyone, even the maids and staff? Isn’t that a thing that happens to defeated Lycian castles?”

Florina shivered and sniffled. “Please don’t say such things, Lady Lyn!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Florina. That was mean of me. Please don’t cry. Wait, what’s that?”

The gate had been broken, and in the melee of soldiers in the remains of it, there was familiar red and green armour. “What are they doing? Are they trying to get out?”

“I think they are!” Florina cried. “And – I think they’ll make it! Laus is too interested in getting inside! Oh! Wil is there too, thank goodness.”

The two knights had somehow made it through the melee and were galloping towards us. Wil was sitting on the back of Sain’s horse, hanging on for dear life. A few arrows shot towards them, but none struck home, it looked like. I stood and waved at them, and they altered course towards me.

There were five other knights after them; they would catch them before they reached the forest. We could take five. “Come on, Florina, saddle up! We’re going to save them, at least.”

 

Laus underestimated the five of us, and soon after, we were safely in the forest. Kent was bleeding badly from several wounds, and as soon as we stopped, Sain and I almost dragged him off his horse to tend to him with vulneraries and bandages. Wil was injured too, but not as badly, and patched himself up.

“All right, how do you feel, partner?” Sain asked after a minute of frantic work.

Kent lifted his head and furrowed his forehead. “Still like I’ve had a bout with an ogre. I’m glad you’re safe, Lady Lyndis.”

“I’m glad you’re safe,” I said anxiously. “Many Caelin soldiers died back there, and are probably still dying.”

“I know. I wish… but Lord Hausen ordered us to try to meet up with you at the last minute, and we had to try.”

“Well, let’s rest for a minute, and plan out how to retake the castle,” I said.

Sain laughed aloud. “That’s our Lady Lyn. No goal is too big for her!”

“I’m serious,” I said. “We have to rescue everyone.”

“I know,” he said, and his smile was sincere. His wife was still in the castle, after all. He must be worried sick already. “Well, then, What Would Ceniro Do?”

“I honestly have no idea,” I said, frowning. “With only five of us… I know he’s a wonderful strategist, but maybe even he would say this is impossible.”

“Perhaps we could ask Lord Eliwood for assistance,” Kent said. “He is the reason Lord Darin abandoned Laus Castle, after all. He must have a force capable of aiding us.”

“That’s a good idea!” I said. “But Laus is so far away, and Eliwood’s on his own quest to find his father, isn’t he? Although… if his quest led him to Lord Darin already, and Lord Darin is here…”

“I’ll go,” Florina said, standing up.

“Florina?” I asked.

“I can do it,” she insisted. “I know I’d have to go alone a long way, and Eliwood’s a man, but… But he’s a man I’ve met before, and I know how kind he is, and I’ve traveled alone before. I’ve grown up a lot in the last year, Ly- Lady Lyn. I really can do this.”

I smiled at her. “You know what? I know you can. You sound more determined than I’ve ever heard you. We’ll wait here for you, then.”

“You’ll probably be gone two or three days, even if Eliwood marches immediately,” Kent said. “We will stay safe as much as we can, although we might not be able to remain in this forest.”

“I’ll go for supplies,” Wil volunteered. “Without my bow, I just look like a regular guy, right? Laus won’t suspect me.”

“Until then…” I looked in the direction of the castle, although I couldn’t see it through the trees. “Grandfather, stay alive…”

 

Eliwood arrived to help us three days later, and he did bring a small army. A very small army, really. But he’d come, and that was the important thing, because I was beginning to lose patience and was suggesting to Kent that yes, we could really take the ten-man patrols that were getting closer and closer to the forest.

I heard them before I saw them, but instead of the enemy like I was expecting, I was met with a shock of disheveled bright red hair over surprised happy blue eyes. Behind Eliwood were some other people, including Serra and Dorcas. Eliwood said something, but I couldn’t quite catch it, and I was distracted by Serra running forward to greet me anyway.

At last, Eliwood made it past Serra to greet me. “We’re here to assist you, Lady Lyndis,” he said. “I fear that Marquess Laus may have attacked Caelin because of our actions in attacking Laus. So we are here to help if we possibly can. And yes, Florina came to get us. You will be happy to know that Ceniro is here, co-ordinating the attack.”

“Thank you for coming! I must speak with him as soon as possible.” If he was here, no wonder Eliwood had come with such a small force and with such confidence.

“H-hi,” said a familiar, shy voice almost in my ear, and I jumped with a gasp, looking around in all directions. He wasn’t in the group following Eliwood, so how…? “Look, this end of the battlefield is about to get sticky,” the voice continued, “so you guys – one minute.” And it stopped again.

“W-what was that?” I demanded of Eliwood.

Eliwood tried to look innocent. “You don’t know?”

“Eliwood…!”

“It’s magic. I’m not sure how it works, but it’s been an incredible boon to us. Now, Florina was saying something about you retaking the castle?”

Ceniro’s voice cut in from nowhere again. “As I was saying, once we’ve successfully split the Laus army in two, your group should have enough strength to take the remaining twenty or so and make it inside the gate before they know what hit you. We’ll catch up as soon as we can. Marcus, Kent, make a plan. I’ll check in when I can.”

Only twenty left? Eliwood’s army was incredible, even with Ceniro commanding! I wondered how many were still inside the castle.

Eliwood’s General Marcus and Kent immediately introduced themselves to each other and set to work making their plan. I did as Kent told me, and shortly we were finally engaged in battle with the enemy. My sword was eager; I could finally take out my frustration and worry on suitable targets.

Then the rest of Eliwood’s group began to join us, and I saw more familiar faces – Erk and Matthew. Florina was with them too, and gave me a bright smile, happy with her success. I smiled back, and then went back to fighting.

Everything was going well, I was fighting opposite Eliwood, when a tall, blue-haired man with heavy armour stormed past him, chopped our opponent’s lance in half with a swing of his axe, elbowed the soldier and very nearly Eliwood in the face, and then bashed the soldier in the head with the axe, almost hitting me! As the enemy fell over dead, I stared at this man and my hackles rose. “Are you an ally?”

“That’s what it looks like, yeah,” said the blue-haired man, giving me an unimpressed look. What! I was the one unimpressed with him! “Got a problem with that?”

Why yes, I had several problems! “You fight so recklessly! You’re a threat to your allies! Be more careful next time!”

His blue eyes narrowed dangerously. “Be more careful, or don’t steal your kill?” The nerve-

Eliwood stepped between us. “Hector, Lyndis, please. Let me introduce you. Hector-”

“What!?”

“Hector, this is Lyndis. She’s Lord Hausen’s granddaughter. Lyndis, this is Hector. He’s Lord Uther’s brother.”

I paused. So he wasn’t some idiot. Probably. “His brother? Really?”

“Yes,” said the tall man, his own face softening to something less stone-like. “And, you’re right. I taught myself to fight. So it is a little rough.”

“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” I said. “I’ve… been on edge, with my grandfather still inside the castle… I don’t even know if he’s alive. I apologize.” I gave him my hand to shake.

“I understand,” he said. “I guess I was kind of a jerk just now. I apologize too.” And he shook my hand firmly. His hands were massive compared to mine.

More importantly – “So you’re here with Ceniro? Where is he? I saw him a minute ago.”

“H-hi,” came a small voice, and I turned to see him shuffle out from behind Sain’s horse. I felt my face light up with a big grin and I threw myself at him to hug him.

“We missed you! It seems like every other day, someone’s saying ‘I wonder what Ceniro’s doing now’. It’s so good to see you! Have you been well?”

“Pretty well,” he said, and backed away out of my hug, blushing fiercely. My stomach flip-flopped. “I can tell you all about it once we’ve secured the castle.”

“Yes,” I said. “Thank you, Ceniro, and you, Eliwood and Hector, for coming to my aid. Without you, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now. Something suicidal, no doubt.”

 

We took back the castle, but not without loss – Lord Darin escaped by magic, and took Sain’s wife with him. Now that was just adding insult to injury – and liable to drive Sain mad with fear and worry if we didn’t go after him straight away. After a rest. I knew everyone else was exhausted, but I could not rest just yet. While the others ate dinner in the hall, I went beneath the castle to where my grandfather was recuperating from being literally stabbed in the back. “Grandfather…”

He opened his eyes. “Lyndis. You’re safe, thank Saint Elimine.”

“I’m safe. The castle is safe. Some of the soldiers survived. Eliwood came to help us.”

He closed his eyes again. “That’s… good.”

“I was told it would be safer to let everyone think you are dead for the time being,” I said. “So you just rest up and get better. No one will try to assassinate you for a while. Or else I’ll kill them.”

He coughed a laugh. “I imagine you will. Thank you, Lyndis. I’d heard Eliwood was abroad, looking for his father. Darin confirmed as much, in between his ranting about ruling the world. I tried to persuade him he was being used, and I was getting somewhere, but the other man got behind me while I wasn’t paying attention. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I said. “You did what you could. And now I’m going to do what I can. I’m going to go with Eliwood, to get his father back, and to stop Lord Darin. Don’t worry about me, there are many strong fighters there. I met Hector of Ostia, and my old tactician Ceniro is there too.”

“Ah, the tactician boy. He was the one you liked, wasn’t he?”

I looked away, pouting. “…Maybe.”

Grandfather sighed. “Lyndis. I’ve seen what happens when you tell a strong woman she’s not allowed to love someone. You may marry whomever you please, and if the nobles of Caelin protest, they’ll just have to deal with it. You have my word.”

“I’m not marrying him just yet,” I protested, blushing more. “We haven’t even spoken to each other properly since he arrived. I don’t even know if he still likes me.”

“I’d be greatly surprised if he felt otherwise,” Grandfather said with a little smile. “But I will leave your future up to you. In the meantime, be safe, chasing Darin. I can’t not worry over you, even after I fully recover.”

“I will,” I promised. “I’ll be back.”

 

To my disappointment, I didn’t really get a chance to talk to Ceniro as we journeyed to Badon, the port city south of Laus, to find a ship to take us to the Dread Isle, where Darin reportedly was. I was burning to talk to him, but he was so busy, going about with Eliwood, and I hardly got the chance to even learn what he’d been up to in the last year, and that not in private. I wanted a chance to talk to him alone, to know if he still cared for me, to let him know that I had been thinking about him all the time, that I wanted to see if we could be a couple. That I… I loved him.

But unfortunately, when we got there… “Pirates are fearless, or as close as makes no difference, and they’ll go anywhere for a fee,” said the non-piratical sailor, grimacing fearfully at us. “Who knows? They might decide to accept your mad offer.”

As he hurried away, I turned to glare at the others, who had expressions that suggested they didn’t think the idea was total madness. Time to put a stop to that nonsense. “I will never treat with pirates. Never!”

“If it’s the only way…” Eliwood began.

No! They were kin to the ones who slaughtered my family. I spat in the dust. “I’ve misjudged both of you. To trust them is foolishness. I’ll find another way! I’ll return when I’ve succeeded.” I began to go, and my knights followed me, but I stopped to look at Ceniro. “You’re not coming?” I don’t know why I was disappointed. He had no reason to come with me. I just wanted him to.

He bit his lip nervously and shrugged. “Eliwood hired me…”

My temper soared. He was hiding behind Eliwood? “Bullshit,” I snapped, the worst language I’d ever used. “You could come help me look in sane places if you really wanted to. Goodbye, Ceniro.” He shrank back, a most unhappy look on his face, and I began to feel bad.

“Look here, don’t bully the tactician,” Hector said. “You let him do what he wants to do. What’s your problem, anyway?”

I left, but already I was regretting my outburst. I was upset and angry about pirates, yes, but I didn’t have to hurt Ceniro so badly too. What kind of lover was I if I hurt the person I loved when I was angry? I knew he wasn’t really good at setting his own course when there were other people around.

Did I, though? I had only just been getting to know him during our journey a year ago, had only known him a few months, and then he hadn’t come back or even sent a letter for a while year. Was I in – in love with a real person? I could have exaggerated everything I knew about him. Was I even in love with him? Was I imagining it, a naive girl just wanting to be in love, it didn’t matter with who?

A well-worn memory of smiling grey eyes came to mind. I hadn’t imagined everything.

But now I wouldn’t blame him if he had forgotten his own feelings for me over the last year. The way he’d cut short the hug I gave him when we met again, the way he cringed pathetically in the face of my anger, it was easy to see he was at least questioning our tentative relationship, perhaps more than I was.

Maybe I’d just killed his feelings for me, as effectively as if I’d taken my sword to them. I held back a woeful sigh. I was the daughter of Hassar, I did not sigh over lost boyfriends. Especially not ones who cringed pathetically at my temper.

I’d have to make the best of it. We all had the same goals in mind, to rescue Lord Elbert and stop Lord Darin, and the army needed both his tactics and my sword.

“Lady Lyndis?” Kent asked gently, and I came to myself to realize I was striding purposefully down the street with no goal in mind.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Just… thinking. Let’s try in that direction.”