Chapter 40: Heloiza

[Days before the bloom]

Princess Heloiza Thyssen of Kovir was the second daughter of Esterad Thyssen, the previous king before Tankred. She was the older sister of Tankred, and a younger sister for Gaudemunda, who was married to the Duke of Creyden. Until now, Holiza had been without a husband, which was strange for a Thyssen family, as they were famous for marrying their kin to the kingdoms all over the continent.

That was soon to change however, when her brother tasked her to get to Nilfgaard, to find some suitors. But, when she was barely on the way, her entourage was raided by foreigners, her ship was boarded, all of her guards killed, only her remained. Strangely, she was brought home again, but they didn't bring her to her home in Lan Exeter, but to the dragon mountains up north. To her surprise, as she arrived, she was greeted by Redanians, Temerians, Rivians, in other words, proper nordlings. They looked like they were nobles, wearing good clothing, eating good food, drinking good wine.

She didn't know what was going on, why did these nobles kidnap her?

As she was brought to a rather shabby room, a noble walked inside the place.

"How's the room, princess?" questioned that noble.

The princess just frowned, she didn't say that this room is far from comfortable, but instead, she asked another thing. "Why?"

"Why what?" the noble said innocently.

"I am the princess of Kovir! Why did you kidnap me? Do you realize what you have done?"

"Oh, I assure you Princess. We do." smiled the noble. "All for the good of the north."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"We have an offer to your brother," said the noble calmly. "Let's hope that he accepts it shall we? Otherwise…"

The princess chuckled at the noble's words. "You are making a mistake. This is Kovir, not Redania, not Temeria, not Nilfgaard. We do it differently here."

The noble hummed as he walked back towards the door. "We'll see about that princess."

As he exited the room, he closed the door, leaving Princess Heloiza alone, pondering what had just happened to her.

—

[minutes before the bloom]

As Heloiza was writing in a book the nobles had given her for entertainment, the door of her 'room' was slammed open, revealing a disgruntled noble that brought her here in the first place.

"Why? Why won't he come?!" shouted the noble as he rushed towards the princess, grabbing her collar. "Are you even worth anything to the king?!"

Heloiza smirked. "I told you, you are making a mistake. In the eyes of royalty, you are dead."

The noble then threw Heloiza to the bed roughly, making her wince in pain.

"Those black ones are traitorous as well! They told us they would support us! Yet nothing!"

"You… this isn't about the north…" murmured Heloiza. "You just wanted to take the kingdom for yourselves…"

"Of course this isn't about the north! The north is doomed!" roared the noble. "Redania is ruled by a madman, while Kaedwen was acting like the target practice of the Nilfgaardians!"

"You are refugees! Why don't you just be one?!"

"We may be a noble princess, but we have no money." the noble gritted his teeth. "The war sucked us dry, and we are just ordinary peasants in Kovir if we have no money."

Heloiza laughed in the noble's suffering. "So you want power after all…"

"Well it's all doomed now." said the noble coldly. "Tankred clearly has shown no interest in saving you. Might as well use you for my own pleasure."

"W-What?"

The noble walked slowly to Heloiza. He touched her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "You're quite old for a virgin princess… not married for so long…"

"Do not touch me." Heloiza slapped the noble's hand, which made the noble sneered.

"Oh how will I enjoy this… I will let out all my frustrations towards you…"

Heloiza looked at the noble with disgust as he slowly undressed himself in front of her. "There is nothing noble about you."

As the noble took one step forward, suddenly, he heard a shout from the outside.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The man turned around, and frowned. He rushed towards the door, accidentally dropping a keychain to the floor. The noble slammed the door, and rushed towards the entrance of their cavern.

Heloiza quickly grabbed the key, and rushed towards the door. It opened, he looked around, no one's there. But then, sounds of screams came from the entrance, which made her gulp.

"Run! A monster!" a voice echoed throughout the cavern. The wailing and screaming continued as it scared the princess. She goes back to her room, while locking herself up with the key she just got.

She could still hear the screams from her shabby room. People were shouting for help before being cut abruptly by something, and she could smell rotting from the place, which made her want to puke.

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Suddenly, someone tried to open the door, to no avail, as the princess locked it.

"Princess! O-Open the door!" said someone desperately, banging the door. It was the noble from before.

The princess didn't say anything. She just sat against the door, covering her ears, trying to stop the screams from coming.

"P-Princess! OPEN THE DOOR! P-PLEASE!!!"the noble roared once more, sounding more and more desperate. The princess won't budge, she just sat there, did nothing.

"PRINCE—" the noble screamed once more, but it was cut abruptly by something, and it turned into wails of pain from the noble. The noble kept banging the door, but it got weaker and weaker, and finally, it stopped.

The wails and screams stopped. The princess opened her ears, and gulped. She slowly unlocked her door with trembling hands, and once she opened it, she saw something horrifying.

She made a loud shriek as a literal skeleton fell to her body. She quickly took a step back, and the skeleton dropped to the ground. She took a deep breath, trying to fight her fear, and looked around. She saw the stones have turned to something else in front of her, only her room and beyond wasn't touched, but her room was practically at the end of the cavern, so there's not much left.

She was half curious, half scared when she saw the scarlet moss that plagued the cavern. She wanted to step on it, but something in her heart tells her not to.

Soon, she saw the scarlet moss slowly retreating from the cavern, staining the previous gray rocks into yellowish rock that looked quite nasty.

"W-What is this…" she murmured to herself as the moss kept retreating. As the moss retreated, she saw skeletons laying around everywhere. Steel swords rusted as it touched the moss, wood simply rotted.

Against all sense, the princess followed the retreating moss. On the way, she found more skeletons, all unrecognizable, the smell of decay still lingers in the cavern, to the point that it was almost unbearable to her. As she saw a little bit of light from the outside, a reddish light, she gulped, what would she find outside? Her savior? Her killer? Or simply nothing at all?

She slowly sneaked to the entrance, and what she saw was a magnificent sight.

A strange scarlet blossom in the middle of the forest, its surroundings defestated, she used to see the green grass of Kovir, but now, only desolate waste of dirt, dead trees everywhere, skeletons of humans and animals littered the ground in front of her.

But what cougar her eyes the most is the fire barrier between the dead trees, who are practically untouched by whatever the blossom is. The blossom moved a bit, making Heloiza flinched. The scarlet moss finally came to the blossom once more, the rot vanished from the surroundings.

Then, the scarlet flower slowly turned into butterflies. It was a truly strange yet beautiful sight. Thousands of red, gray, and black winged butterflies flew away from the flower, and the flower slowly disappeared.

The flower then simply vanished, turned to the butterflies from before, and from the flower, came a man, a red haired man, kneeling, with his sword as his only support.

The man coughed blood, which the blood quickly turned to smoke.

"Fuck…" the man groaned. "Not pleasant at all…."

The fire barrier in the middle of the forest then quickly disappeared, and the ones inside it rushed towards the red haired man.

"What did you do?!" a man wearing Koviri armor shouted at the man, but a trace of fear in his expression. "What about the princess?!"

"The princess?" the red haired man chuckled as he laid himself on the ground. He then pointed at the princess, which made her flinch. "There she is…"

The big man realized that the princess was there. He knelt in front of her. "Princess! Are you fine?!"

"Y-Yes… I-I'm fine… are you… Guldalm?"

"Yes Princess, I am honored that you know my name." nodded Guldalm. "Then our mission is successful."

Another man walked towards them, he bowed politely to the princess, and offered a hand. "Please, let me check your condition Princess."

"No need…" murmured the princess. "But… is that man… alright?"

She looked at the lying red-haired man, who looked exhausted.

"He will be fine…" said the mage. "Probably…"

"Probably?"

"Well… we just knew him… so…"

"Ah…"

Meanwhile, the princess saw a red-haired woman, trying to touch the man.

"Let me heal you." she said in worry.

"Nope, don't touch me." said the man weakly. "I'm fine, I'll recover for a bit…"

The princess then looked at the knight and the mage again. "You're here to rescue me?"

"We were sent by the king." nodded the knight.

The mage then looked at the cavern, and frowned. "Forgive me princess, I'll leave you to Guldalm for a bit, I need to check cavern…"

It was a strange day for the princess, she had seen horror for a few minutes, and she never wanted to see it again. She stared at the red-haired man, and vowed to either stay away from him, or make him Kovir's ally in the future.

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