Out of the Ashes Ch. 01

"Is that... from... all these years?" Margaret gasped and felt tears dwell up in her eyes.

"It's the same one and I waited for the right occasion to give it back to you, just... a little piece of memory for you, my friend" Alexia felt a bit emotional herself seeing how much Margaret was moved by such a small, but heartfelt gift. She would receive many presents that day, but this might be the only one that actually had any emotional worth for the young princess.

The now more cheerful heir put the ring on and despite having another three and far more expansive looking rings already on her hand she quickly put the newest addition on her ring finger.

"This... is beautiful, thank you so much" Margaret simply couldn't hold back her tears anymore and had to pull out a tissue from her dress's pockets. "I... don't know what to say"

"No need to say anything. Just... hopefully this gives you strength in the days to come" Alexia took her hand off her technically destined to rule friend's shoulder.

"So, you heard of it as well?" Margaret's mood got worse by the second and she lowered her gaze as she proved the rumours to be true.

"What else can I say, this ... this might be my last birthday we will share" the blonde princess sobbed and once again she needed to wipe tears of her young but deeply saddened face.

Alexia clenched a fist and felt anger fire up inside her as she responded.

"This is preposterous! Why would the king even do that? Marrying you to a human?! What does the queen say about that?!" her voice was filled with a fury that she was barely able to contain from any possible guards waiting nearby.

"I am afraid she doesn't have a say in this. Queenmother tried everything... I think. But Queenfather..." her voice trembled as tears dropped to the ground. ".. Sold me like a piece of cattle... just ... for politic-..." her voice now died out midway through her desperate rant.

This was too much, Alexia completely ignored her orders and took a step closer and as Margaret looked up to her she kneeled down and hugged her tightly. The blonde's tears were soaking onto the bigger hermaphrodite's black armour but she simply needed this. Her hands were reaching behind her friend's back to return the hug.

"To a human as well?! They don't deserve you" Alexia hissed in anger.

"Maybe this isn't that bad" Margaret whispered in between her sobbing. "Atleast humans won't judge me by my size... I hope"

"But by your race! That's even..." Alexia growled but stopped herself from ranting about the inevitable. She wouldn't want to discourage Margaret even further, so the two just hugged each other for a few seconds before the smaller princess pulled away.

Both didn't continue this conversation and just looked at into their friend's eyes... maybe for one of the last times they would have the opportunity to do so.

The two looked eventually off into the distance, over the sea, to the fishermen in the distance and the famously crime filled harbour town, and brought up some stories of their more hopeful past, while the sun slowly set.

The sun was just barely able to reach over the mountains at the horizon with the stone marble in the gardens getting illuminated in a stunningly reddish tone.

"I guess it's time to return to 'them', not like they would miss me anyway, but ... " Margaret sighed, regained some composure and continued ".. you know how it is. Everyone's gotta play her part, right?" she rhetorically asked and walked past the armoured commander as Alexia noticed something.

The black-haired fighter looked over the pavilions of the gardens, the plethora of exotic fauna and the nearby buildings. It was peaceful, even uncharacteristically so.

No one was in sight, no visitors, which was a relief, but no single guard as well, despite their duties to stay nearby. Something was not right.

"Maggie... wait for a second. This is odd" Alexia said and stopped Margaret with a soft grab of her shoulder.

"What do you mean?" the princess asked, while she slowly pulled her tissue away as soon as she thought her tears couldn't be seen anymore.

Alexia didn't respond and walked in front of her unaware friend, now standing in between the young heir and the marble railing over the sea.

"Guards!" Alexia shouted and Margaret peaked out behind her, her gaze wandering off the familiar gardens but no one was to be seen.

This might be the first time in forever that she didn't see atleast one guard looking over her, besides Alexia.

Alexia instinctively rested a hand on her pistol around her waist while she slowly drew her sword as she heard footsteps in the distance.

"Nobody is coming" a strangely deep voice originated from the gate the queens originally walked through. The carpet was still on the floor as some hooded figures made their entrance, all of imposing stature, and all had their faces concealed with black china facemasks.

The commander pointed her sword at the group of 8 hooded intruders.

"Who are you?" she asked firmly and took a step forward while she shielded Margaret as best she could.

Nobody cared to respond and the newcomers walked over the carpet and walked past the pavilion the highking gave her speech from, just to stop around 30 feet before a stunned Margaret and eager to fight Alexia.

"Hand over the princess or face the consequences" the biggest of the hooded figures drily remarked.

It was obvious that everyone in their group was no human, they all were atleast around 8ft in height. Even in their black hoods they looked intimidating, unable to conceal their physical strength. The leader tried to hide her voice as best she could and lowered it almost to a comical degree.

But still, Alexia could have sworn she heard that voice somewhere, but couldn't pinpoint from where or by whom.

Margaret took a step next to Alexia and tried to calm the situation.

"I... don't know what you could possibly want from me. But... if it's gold, believe me, there is plenty for all of you. You just need..."

"We don't want your gold, we need you to follow us" the biggest hooded figure interrupted and pointed at Alexia. "This can be easy or painful, your choice. This is our first and only warning"

Alexia took another step forward and pushed the confused Margaret behind her back and whispered.

"Whatever happens, stay behind me"

"I... but ... please be careful" Margaret responded in a vary voice.

She was no novice to fighting, but a sparring match with a close friend and facing actual warriors was something entirely different to the princess. Her mind was racing a thousand miles a second. Could this be assassins? This can't be humans, so why would fellow hermaphrodites attack her? Or...kidnap her? That sounded more likely.

Alexia quickly assessed the situation. There was no way they could simply pass by the group of intruders and it was highly unlikely she could punch her way through all of them. The only options they had was going forward... or... facing the sea behind them.

"Stay calm. Remember what we said before. If I say so, do like we did back when I got you this pearl, ok? Trust me on this" Alexia whispered quiet enough the intruders wouldn't hear her.

"You mean... jumping!?" Margaret's eyes widened at this suggestion but before she could object, she was interrupted.

"Enough whispering! Hand her over now!" the leader once again demanded, her lowered voice sounded inpatient though.

"If you want her, go, get her" Alexia lowered her sword and took a step forward, like she was surrendering.

"Lexi?" Margaret pleaded in confusion.

"Trust me" Alexia whispered and lowered her gaze.

This was very unusual. She never backed down from a fight, even if it was almost hopeless, but it looked like she just did.

The leader nodded and two of her masked companions were walking up to Alexia and Margaret.

The blonde princess took a step back and she was horrified by the lack of action of her usually very capable and most loyal friend.

As the two were walking by the seemingly surrendering Alexia they were greeted by a quick thrust from the young commander's sword, followed up by a heavy kick. The quick blade successfully found the first attacker's throat, bypassing any armour that could be hidden under the dark hood and splashing blood all over the already red tone of the illuminated marble floor.

The other one was falling to the ground as the kick was aimed at the kneecap, probably breaking it in an instant. Before she could react or block Alexia's attack she got stabbed at almost at the same spot. 2 down, 6 more to go. But Alexia doubted that this would get any easier now.

Margaret was amazed and a bit frightened how swift her former teacher moved and how effortlessly she dispatched of the, what she assumed, kidnappers. But still... this was the first time she actually saw someone being killed in person. Her hands started to shake and it felt like she felt her blood almost freeze in her veins.

Now the rest of the group drew their swords and the leader stepped forward.

"You bitch! Alright, you brought this on yourself!" she hissed and whispered orders to the others.

The leader slowly walked closer, seemingly getting bigger with every step. She was truly of imposing stature. Alexia drew her pistol with her left arm and before the aggressor could move or dodge, she took aim and pulled the trigger.

A loud boom filled the princess' ears which made her snap out of her paralysis and she noticed the sound of... armour? Alexia's eyes widened as well as the shot of her sidearm was deflected by some heavy armour underneath the attacker's hood. The leader of the group didn't even slow down. She lunged forward at Alexia, completely unfazed by the hit and charging through the mist of her still smoking pistol.

The surprised commander dropped the gunpowder weapon at the last second before the masked attacker would hit her exposed side. Just in time she managed to move her enforced iron gauntlet in between her body and the strong swing.

Alexia didn't have time to react or to think about this, but Margaret was trying to make sense of what just happened. These types of armours were restricted only to the military and strictly guarded ... and rare. They were almost considered sacred, since they brought victory over the humans so many times, but ... this stranger here seemed to have some military grade gear. This was surely no ordinary kidnapping.

In the meantime, the fight continued with Alexia slowly losing ground. The fierce attacks of this armoured and highly trained stranger seemed to get stronger by the second. Margaret saw her friend being pushed onto the defensive, only barely able to block and dodge the fierce but still precise strikes of this masked enemy.

The young commander was forced on her backfoot and took steps back in hope to lull her opponent in some sense of false security. There were no openings yet to be found and as Alexia felt she was about to get overpowered she switched to a two-handed stance, throwing everything she had against this now likely and final defeat.

"Maggie! Get ready!" she screamed in between grunts as another strike was just barely blocked before making contact with her face. Her black curls falling into her vision multiple times as the fight picked up speed.

The young princess saw the desperate struggle and took a deep breath as she turned around and got on to the railing. She heard the other masked figures pull out their pistols as well and looked at her increasingly more fatigued friend.

"I won't go without you!" Margaret muttered and faced the other intruders' pistols, taking aim at her and Alexia.

Alexia noticed for a second that her increasingly overwhelming foe was looking at the princess behind her and what she was about to do. That was enough of an opening to capitalize on.

The black-haired commander and the masked hermaphrodite locked swords and for a fracture of a second her movement wasn't monitored as expertly as before. She took a step forward and pushed all her weight and strength into the deadlock.

The surprised opponent saw her sword pushed upwards for just a few inches and she tried to quickly bring her sword down to a lower guard in an attempt to meet with Alexia's blade once more. But the young fighter lowered her guard lower and even lower, eventually completely letting go of her trusted sword and the attackers blade met no resistance until it smashed into the ground.

The fatigued commander stepped aside and used this opportunity to go for the masked face and hit the supposed kidnapper as hard as she possibly could with her reinforced iron gauntlet. The facemask shattered and besides the sound of the sturdy material breaking there could be the nasty cracking of bones being heard.

"They won't shoot! DO IT!" Alexia hastily screamed as soon as she landed the decisive blow. But she wanted to see who was hiding behind this mask.

The attacker screamed out in pain, holding her face with both hands, with blood dripping from beneath her hands. Just a little longer and she would see who was behind this attack... until she heard the others take aim at her.

Margaret, still standing on the verge of the marble railing, gulped as she saw the fight come to an end and heard her friend's pleading. She looked down the cliff and even knowing that she already done this once, she felt anxious about it.

The heavy weight of her dress would be restricting, so she ripped it open and removed the lower parts, showing her white stockings and slender feet underneath it. The still horrified princess ripped most of her expansive dress from her and was ready to jump... but not without Alexia.

The injured intruder fell to the ground, both hands still shielding her almost exposed face and screaming out in pain. Alexia was close to actually see who was hiding underneath it as she heard some of the so far idle and obviously not shooting attackers charge forward, their swords drawn.

She didn't have time to reveal the identity of their leader, she turned around and ran towards the railing as soon as she noticed the movement of the group. Alexia hoped she was right in thinking, that the attackers wouldn't risk hitting Margaret in an attempt to hit her from behind.

The princess' eyes widened as she saw her now unarmed friend quickly charge forward, with some of the hooded figures in close pursuit.

Alexia couldn't wait for Margaret to make a move, nor could she afford to stop, otherwise she would have to face the attackers without any weapon. She nonchalantly grabbed the princess and jumped with Margaret in her arms all over the railing.

Both knew the height wouldn't be lethal, they guessed it was around 80 feet at most, but more the weight of their outfits. Especially Alexia's heavy armour.

Their landing was hard but both made it unharmed... yet.

While Margaret was the first to reappear on the surface, looking up to the obviously tilted and not pursuing attackers, Alexia struggled to remove her armour. The heavy weight of her thick protection was dragging her down like a stone and she was trying to remove the plates and open all belts as fast as she could.

"Lexi?!" Margaret screamed and dived down, looking for her friend.

It lasted almost a full minute until she saw bubbles appear in front of her.

The young heir felt great relieve as she saw her exhausted friend emerge from the depth of the sea, and gasping for air as soon as she was able to breathe again. It was close, Alexia almost drowned, but both managed to flee from what would have been atleast for the commander certain death.

The blonde princess swam close and hugged her friend, in hope of preventing the still from above observing attackers from shooting at a now unprotected Alexia. Her plan seemed to work and they retreated behind the ceiling and out of their sight... for now atleast, but their journey only had begun.