King Rampossa III drew himself up at the front of his army. At the head of each of them stood a freshly appointed young man personally selected by Gazef Stronoff. Across him stood an army not but twenty percent the size of his own force.

‘And I still have no chance. The Carnian Wolves are equipped with magic weapons that can penetrate steel, they have armor that stops our spears, they have trolls that heal absurdly fast, goblins and wolves that tear through horses and men like a sword through wet paper. Good… that will do for this.’ The King thought, and the drums began to sound.

The whole of the Re-Estize army began to advance, “Majesty… I will protect you. I promise.” Gazef said to his aged King.

“Today, protect yourself.” The King ordered, and Gazef fell silent.

The King drew his sword, and Gazef drew his own.

They watched as the wolf riders began to advance, relief swept over the King. ‘This will work!’ He realized, and for the first time in some time, Gazef saw a genuine sense of ‘peace’ come over the face of the heavily armored warrior King.

Glories of old passed before the closed eyes of the old King Ramposa, memories of battles won, the Brotherhood of Banners that was once shared, the happy moment that filled his heart with joy when his sons and daughters were born, the thoughts he wanted to have most, he had, and they set his skin tingling.

He raised up his sword, and Gazef raised up his.

The wolf riders were close, the magic casters were moving into position and covered by infantry.

Ramposa braced himself, and then he heard it.

“Haaaaaaalt!”

It wasn’t the only voicing of the command, but even where it couldn’t be heard, the fruits of it could be seen. All along the line, units led by Gazef’s chosen, stopped dead in their tracks.

King Ramposa gave no such order. Instead, he lowered his sword, and shouted… “Chaaaarge!” With the vigor of youth that Gazef had never seen, the old man spurred his horse forward, the rest of the unit, not knowing what was afoot, followed.

Countless nobles, their most elite and loyal guards…

And no one else.

Gazef heard the drums of the Wolf Queen and her King, and saw them give their own orders, spells launched into the air and began to explode, screaming nobles and their retainers fell to ruin, some bore a look of shock on their faces, others never understood that they were dying.

The wolf riders wheeled about and began to surround the unit, Gazef desperately swung his sword within the maelstrom as the magic died and weapons meant to kill him came closer. Halberds belonging to heavy goblin infantry thrust out, it was a forest of sharp points that were being steadily thrust from the front, and the old feeling of pain began to fill his body.

Screams of nobles and their retainers swallowed the space between men, horses, and those who killed both, the grass was cast aside for dirt, and dirt became mud as the unit became ever more tightly pressed.

“I will defend my King!” Gazef roared like a beast when he saw his lord continue his advance, a quick look showed that the rest of the army still had not moved.

“Forward!” King Ramposa declared, rearing his horse back, its hooves kicking furiously, his sword aloft and white hair billowing, age was taking its toll on his body, his movements were slowed, but his voice still had the power of youth. The goblins, and the humans who began to fall in on the left, now had the unit completely surrounded. Gazef dodged a halberd thrust, swept in, and swung his blade, cutting the weapon in half, but the bearer in heavy dark armor drew a sword, while another halberd bearer filled the gap.

“Forward!” The King’s voice boomed, but there was no going forward. A halberd thrust struck the horse in its noble pale breast, and it fell on its side, kicking and whinnying in agony as it tried to dislodge the deeply lodged halberd from its already dying body.

The King, unhorsed, fell on his side, and even over the din and chaos of the dying nobles and retainers around him, Gazef heard the break of bones.

“Forward!” King Ramposa shouted, weaker at last, his sword wobbling in his hands.

Gazef flung his body in between the King and the attackers, ‘How can they be so strong?! They’re goblins!’ Gazef wondered as wounds began to find his body.

“Get… out… of here!” Ramposa finally uttered other words, but as there were no living bodies around him, only the dead, men fell on their backs, sides, and bellies, some still clutching wounds where armor should have saved them and did not. Gazef swung his sword with all the skill of a desperate novice, battering away blows that fell with constancy and steadiness of rain, and like drops of rain, he couldn’t stop every one and wounds began to pile up on his body.

Gazef’s wild eyes darted around, there was no one left to protect, and nowhere left to go, wolves were already feasting on horse flesh at his back, and humans leveled long spears to hem him in, but the Warrior Captain had no intention of fleeing.

King Ramposa’s lips were moving, but no sound was coming out, at least none that Gazef could hear. Frustration and anger overflowed throughout his body, and he abandoned the King’s last order, disobeying his lord for the first time in his life, his feet squelched in the bloody mud, a rope of unfortunate intestines was ripped further out of the belly of its dead or dying owner when he spun around to stop another piercing strike.

And then it hit, a single piercing blow, as the last of his martial arts ran out, as the last of his strength began to fade, a halberd ran through his body from one side to the other, tearing open kidneys, liver, and stomach.

“I will protect my king!” He said through blood foaming lips, and a halberd pierced his chest, came out the other side, and pinned both he and King Ramposa III to the ground, where they died, with Gazef’s corpse still trying to protect his king, and his sword in nerveless fingers that somehow, still did not open to let loose their grip.

Getting nobles drunk was easy. Getting confident nobles drunk was easier. Getting frightened nobles drunk was easiest. The servants of the royal family kept the wine bottles coming out, and from where she sat at her father’s place at the table, she raised her glass again and again in toast.

“To victory!” She said, and they drank.

“To the Kingdom!” She shouted, and they drank more.

“To the future!” And she would raise her cup again, and they would drink with her.

But where they drank wine, wine Renner had drugged, the Princess herself drank only pressed juice. The rich full flavor was, to her, better than wine anyway, with a tart sweetness that she only barely suppressed her urge to indulge in too often. ‘A little bonus this evening, I get to have all of it I want.’ That in and of itself was enough to keep her smile warm and genuine.

The wine flowed like a river, and in it, nobles chose to swim and drown. One by one they began to pass out as the evening wore on, their cheers and the loud cacophony of their private heaven became as tranquil and quiet as a monastery, little by little.

Renner looked out one of the high windows. In the darkness beyond, she caught sight of the full moon shining down, and then straightened her back. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of her watchful bodyguard. ‘I wonder how father is faring out there? Has he engaged already?’ It was an idle thought she quickly brushed off, then she ‘winked’ at Climb and he gave a sharp nod and addressed a guard that promptly left the room. The heavy footfalls of the palace guard trodding up the stairs was an unexpected sound to those revelers still awake enough to recognize the sound, but not sober enough to comprehend it.

The golden princess stood with back straight as Climb approached and leaned over to whisper, “It’s done, Princess Renner.”

Renner tapped her glass one more time, and weary, bleary heads raised to look at her.

“It’s been a wonderful evening, and now, if you’ll hear me out, there are things that need to be said that have gone unsaid for far too long.” Renner put a hand behind her back and folded it into a fist. Her sense of hatred and contempt for the nobles that provided the maids as veritable spies for their houses and invaded her life, began to boil. Her knuckles cracked a little with the force of her fist, and she began.

“In times of peace and tranquility, you proved adequate in taking care of my family’s kingdom… barely adequate. But whenever any disturbance arose, any trouble or trial or threat, you forgot your duty to my family, our kingdom and its people. Instead you looked out for something else.” She paused and let the words hang.

The more clever and slightly less drunk, began to sense danger and tried to move, inhibited by the mild additional dosing given to them.

“You protected your lands, your names, your titles, your interests. You put yourselves first, many of you, I know, engaged with Eight Fingers, openly using your peasants to grow the plant that was turned into black dust. Or selling off your peasants as if the anti-slavery measures hadn’t passed. Those very actions caused the rebellion that my father has had to go attend to. When it came to the Baharuth Empire, you often sold out information on one another or the royal family. In every way you could be a failure in difficult times, you were failures.”

Renner paused again and took a sip of juice, the flavor exploded on her tongue, its tartness bringing happiness that kept her smile growing as she laid out words long held back.

“In every way you could be corrupt, you were corrupt. As of today, every corrupt, disloyal, faithless, or incompetent house has its land and titles officially revoked! You will be replaced by competent people. Your fortunes are forfeit, and for most of you, so are your lives.” Renner then flung her glass down hard against the floor, shattering into a thousand shards pointed at the guests, and shouted, “Guards! Seize them!”

Chaos ensued as those unconscious failed to understand that their lives as they knew them were over, while those awake enough to understand the changing of their world, struggled to resist, and failed.

Renner watched with Climb at her side, as nobles were dragged, sometimes by their feet, clawing at the stone floor until their fingernails tore off, crying for mercy that didn’t exist, or protesting innocence that both Renner and Climb knew they didn’t possess.

Upstairs, Evileye ran through the halls faster than the eyes of mere common noble guards could hope to see. A part of the adventurer pitied the guards, but it was only a tiny part. ‘They’re no different than Eight Fingers thugs, and some of them are probably exactly that!’ And so as she went down the hall, her vampiric claw came out and throat after throat from guard after guard standing outside of door after door, opened up and spurted an arc of bright red blood out onto the once clean, cream colored floor.

As one man fell, another would turn to see the commotion, but before that could happen, her finger tore its dread arc over the veins of the men who waited to die, and the noise of their tumbling armored bodies, loud as thunder for a second or two each, went through the hall, only to be reduced to twitching and gurgling, then nothing.

On other floors her sisters would be doing the same, dispatching the most trusted guards of the most powerful nobles as if they were but trash monsters beneath even novice adventurers to kill.

For the twins, it was a trivial chore, they would fade through shadows and thrust their daggers through armored backs as if the only armor they wore was a cheap shirt. For Lakyus, sending out her flying blades took an entire hall before the last managed to catch a glimpse of his inevitable death.

Within an hour, Gagaran was doing her part, leading the palace guards from room to room, all it took from the giant swaggering woman was one jab of the butt of her hammer and doors popped off hinges.

Cries of fear and outrage, including the unfortunate shrieks of children who didn’t understand why men with swords and spears were breaking into their dark rooms and dragging away their mothers or fathers, overflowed into the death filled and bloodstained halls.

Within an hour, the palace was purged. Renner looked over the now empty table, the goblets lay toppled, glasses and bottles shattered, wine spilled over, dripped to the floor, the wet smack of drops of fine ‘Re-Estize Red’ falling into a puddle was the only sound in the great hall.

“Climb?” Renner said without turning from the sight of overturned chairs and spilled plates.

“Yes, my Princess?” Climb said, immediately at her side and with one eye turned toward her.

Princess Renner faced him directly and with eyes pooling with tears that made her naturally blue eyes seem all the deeper, “Climb… h-h-have the children removed from their parents. Separate the families. But please, be gentle. We can’t risk any kind of mass escape.”

“As you wish, Princess.” Climb said with stoic resolve. ‘She’s so merciful and kind… even giving a practical order just breaks her heart… I must protect her, at any cost.’ He resolved as he left her side to carry out her orders.

When the palace was secure and Climb was gone, Renner took a folded paper from within her sleeve, went down to one of the lower floor guardhouses. In the dim candle light that cast her shadow about the room, she passed the folded, sealed paper over. “See this to the captain of the city guard, place it only in his hands.”

“My Princess… of course.” The guard shot to his feet and shot out his response.

‘Illiteracy has its uses.’ Renner kept the somewhat repugnant thought to herself as she watched the common soldier scurry up the stairs, ‘He won’t read it, though I should consider transferring or eliminating the Captain of the Guard… I can’t very well risk having Climb learn I sent out an order saying, ‘Kill the rest’ after all.’

In darkness of the night, the ‘reserved homes’ for minor nobles, and temporarily ‘borrowed’ inns, were hit by rank after rank of Re-Estize city guards. Screams were few as stealth was a priority, but when panic set in, the old died first, the young hid, the cowardly fled, the brave fought, the weak froze and all, in time, joined the old.

When dawn came, Princess Renner went to the throne room of the Re-Estize Kingdom. There sat her father’s chair, his place of power for decade upon decade.

Empty.

Alone.

With her.

The Golden Princess Renner stepped up on the slightly raised platform on which it lay, turned around, smoothed her dress back, and as the golden sun streamed into the hall of the Kingdom… the Princess sat on the throne.