Cessilia nodded, her fingers tightening up around Ashen’s.
“...I p-promise I will.”
Next to her, Naptunie had her eyes on her brother and uncle, looking about to cry.
“Sab... Uncle...”
“Nana, I’m entrusting you with the Princesses,” said Sabael, ignoring Tessandra’s furious eyes. “You stick to them and the King and help the best you can, alright? I know you’ll be the best to assist them. Make sure the Princesses and His Majesty are safe, it’s the most important thing right now.”
“Sabael!” shouted Tessandra, still furious. “You can’t do that! You guys barely have any chance of making it!”
Sabael chuckled, and turned to her with a smug expression.
“I already know that. And I may not be as good as you,” he said, “but you still shouldn’t underestimate me. I’m still a Royal Guard. Protecting the King is my duty, and I’ll die doing so if I must.”
He stepped closer to her, squeezing her hand. Tessandra tried to pull away, but from what Cessilia saw, she probably didn’t use her full strength as Sabael held on.
“...I love you,” he muttered, “but my duty to my King comes first, Tessandra. I’m sure you understand.”
Once again, Tessandra had nothing to retort, simply glaring at him with her furious, but conflicted, dark eyes. It was only a matter of a few precious seconds, and the fight around them would resume. There was no time to lose, but she still didn’t want to let go. No one knew when they would see each other again. There was no guarantee they would even see each other again, and they knew it all too well. The urgency of the situation, coupled with their respective dutiful personalities, made it even more painful. For once, Tessandra had her personal feelings battling her rational mind, and she hated it. She clenched her teeth, and suddenly kissed him. It was a quick but forceful kiss, with a salty taste as tears ran down her cheeks.
“...You’d better make it,” she muttered. “If you die, I’ll kill you.”
“Got it,” he chuckled.
After that, as if to get this over with, Tessandra angrily turned around and grabbed Naptunie’s hand, pulling her toward the lake. As the echo of Cessilia’s voice started dying on the other side, they knew it was time to leave before the fight resumed.
“You should hurry, Princess,” nodded Nana’s uncle, looking at his niece’s silhouette.
“Will you b-be alright?” muttered Cessilia.
“We will do our best. But you guys have a higher chance of making it out if you go through the lake,” said Sabael. “Don’t worry about us, Princess. There are more of our allies on the other side. I’m sure you and His Highness will be fine.”
He didn’t say anything about himself, and realistically, they all knew their chances were slim. Not void, but still, scarily slim. Cessilia nodded. Although it broke her heart to separate from Sabael, and everyone that had sided with them this way, she was aware everyone there knew exactly what they were doing. They were making this decision willingly, not for her or Tessa, but for Ashen and the future of their kingdom. That was something she had to respect and, if anything, she had to keep her side of this promise by saving their King. On the other side, the echo was over, and the Yekara forces were already getting ready to fight back, gathering their fighters and trying to save those who hadn’t been crushed to death. Cessilia’s voice had done considerable damage, though. She had greatly reduced their numbers, and perhaps, given the chance Sabael’s side needed to survive this...
“You go ahead,” nodded the Dorosef Leader, noticing her hesitation.
The first fights were resuming on the other side. The Yekara Clan leader, infuriated by Cessilia’s devastating attack, was yelling orders like a mad man for his men to regroup and fight back. There was no time to lose. The remaining fighters made a wall between their pursuers and them, but it wouldn’t last long before some of their enemies broke through the ranks. With a heavy heart, Cessilia grabbed her lover, using her incredible strength to carry him while being careful of his injury, and ran behind Tessandra and Nana toward the lake. She wished they could have taken everyone along with them, but realistically, it was just impossible. They couldn’t swim with more than one person with them, it would have been too risky, especially since they would go almost blind.
“You hang on to me tight,” Tessandra was saying to Naptunie. “No matter what, you have to hold your breath and hang on to me.”
“...Are you sure we’re going to make it?” muttered Nana, on the verge of tears. “If we drown, it’s such a horrible way to die...”
She glanced toward her brother’s side of things, but realistically, it wasn’t looking much better. Too many people had died. There were almost as many bodies on the ground as the ones standing, which was terrifying, especially for someone with no fighting skills like Nana. Tessandra grabbed Naptunie’s cheeks and turned her head back toward herself.
“Nana, trust me. We’re going to make it. All I ask of you is to hold on and hold your breath. I promise I’ll take care of everything else and get us to the other side.”
“But... But what if I’m wrong and the tunnel is blocked, or we get lost...”
“Nana, it’s g-going to be alright,” said Cessilia, arriving at their side. “We t-trust your knowledge, and you t-trust us, right? We will be alright.”
Naptunie nodded, her eyes going to the King by Cessilia’s side. Perhaps the sight of Ashen’s half-unconscious state helped make up her mind, because she nodded again, looking a bit more resolute.
Meanwhile, Tessandra quickly took off her shoes and turned to Cessilia.
“You should probably go ahead, just in case. You’re the better swimmer, and if you lose the King, I can always grab him after you.”
“I think so t-too.”
Naptunie watched both young women prepare the bottom of their outfits, tearing apart some of the fabric and using Tessandra’s sword to cut large slits until most of their legs were visible. Then, they did something even more shocking. Grabbing a handful of small rocks and broken seashells, Cessilia suddenly rubbed them against her legs, grazing all of her skin until it turned red.
“Oh my God!” shouted Naptunie, shocked.
“It’s alright, Nana,” said Tessandra. “Look.”
She did just the same as her cousin, injuring her own legs, all the way down to her ankles. When she removed all the rocks and dust from her legs, Naptunie noticed the wound itself. It was superficial, with a few cuts here and there, but right away, Tessandra’s skin was replaced by vibrant green scales covering her legs. She looked to the side, and sure enough, the same phenomenon was now covering Cessilia’s legs but with ash-colored scales. Within a few moments, the two young women had transformed all their skin from mid-thigh to their ankles into scales.
“To go faster in water!” exclaimed Naptunie, who had only just understood the reasoning.
“Exactly. It will make us win a few precious seconds, and it’s easier to move too...”
Naptunie was astonished. So this was part of their secret as to why the Dragon Empire Princesses were so confident with their swimming! She glanced at the lake. Despite this new information, she was still nervous. The fact that this lake led to a cave outside was still pretty uncertain. Not only that, but they would be swimming in the dark for a pretty long part of the trip. The mere thought of dying underwater, drowning and in the dark, made poor Nana shiver. She considered herself a decent swimmer, as the daughter of a family of fishermen, but this was very different...
There weren’t any other ways to escape. She could still catch sight of her older brother on the other side, fighting the Yekara’s people, trying to keep up a wall between their little group and the enemy. There was a lot of bloodshed already... The Yekara were also focused on their people that had been crushed by the rocks, trying to save who they could. Nana didn’t feel the slightest bit sorry for those people. They didn’t think twice about betraying their own King and Kingdom to have a usurper pose as a potential king! That man wasn’t dead either. They seemed to be trying to save his life, several people around him, including that woman, Jisel. While Naptunie kept staring, that woman suddenly lifted her head, and looked right back at her, as if she had felt her gaze. She glared at them and suddenly stood up, running in their direction.
“Uh... T-Tessa...” muttered Naptunie, taking a step back.
“Nana, come on, hurry.”
