Dacian followed close behind Armida as she weaved in and out of the forest, coming closer and closer to the riots in the city. Her adrenaline pumped through her ferociously. She had never seen such a thing, had only heard about wars and battles of revolutions through the books and oral teachings of the elders who schooled her as a child. The sound of screams and roars went through her body, stilling her once she emerged from the trees.

    "Your maj-Armida, please.." Dacian had finally caught up with her and just as she stopped in amazement; his hand hovered over his weapon for the moment he may have to defend Armida.

    There was a cloud of dust looming over the streets as the townspeople ran with weapons drawn, waving them in the air as they chanted for the removal of the king.

    "Change is now! Change is now!" Armida curled away from the crazed man who nearly spat in her face as he chanted his cry of rebellion. Blood covered his face, spit dribbled down his chin as he came to a gurgling stop just before her.

     "The King has wronged us! Stand up now, join the movement or be left on the wrong side." His hands gripped her arms as he began shaking violently. Armida was too stunned by the allegations against her father. Her father had done nothing but great things for the kingdom! Since he was a young boy he had made the best decisions ever seen in the land, what could they be upset about?

     "Leave her!" Dacian pried at the blunt fingers around her flesh, throwing the man off to the side. He began convulsing as dark blood flowed from his mouth. During his last moments, Armida couldn't take her eyes off of the sight of the dying man.

    "Change..is now..." He stuttered before gasping for the last time.

    "These people, they are...they are insane. " She said to herself as she began backing away from the corpse at her feet.

   "Armida, you have seen enough. Please do not subject yourself to more." Dacian pleaded with her just before pushing her out of the way of a sprinting crowd. They never seemed to let up as faces of horror passed by them instead of anger.

    "Murder! They are murdering us!"  They whizzed past the cowering woman whose knees knocked together as she watched bodies fall to the ground, trampled by the others without a second thought. Armida found herself being tossed back and forth as she stood in the way of their escape.

     "Armida!" She could hear Dacian calling her as she fought her way through the stampede without ending up as the poor soul she had just trampled on. Looking around wildly, she found Dacian being pushed back further and further as a pair of citizens recognized his military uniform, and began delivering heavy blows with their impromptu weapons.

    "Dacian!" She screamed." Dacian, no!" As she tried her best to twist in the opposite direction, she was hit hard by wailing hands as a body collided into her own, throwing her to the side of the road. Bright spots shone behind her eyes as she blinked them away. The body against her never moved, it remained still, and became heavier with each passing second.

    "Gods, no!" She shoved the body away upon seeing the arrow which protruded from the victim's back.

    His blood spilled all over her, seeping into the royal fabric.

     Common hands had given it its color, and now common blood soaked it.

     "Get back! Get back or I'll have your head!" She watched as soldiers wielded their swords with ease, slashing them through the air and claiming the necks of those who had the misfortune of being too close, so Armida remained on the ground instinctually. She recognized Allona's voice as she sped past on her horse. Armida nearly lost her lunch when she saw the splashes of blood which covered Allona's face, and the back of her hand wipe it off as if it were nothing.

     Shock filled her when she watched the blade held in her sister's hand severe the head of a woman who tried her best to run away from the assault.

    That was when she lost it.

     As she heaved up the contents from the pit of her stomach, she could hear the sound of large crashes fast approaching. It was a deep rattling noise that shook the windows of nearby shops, and brought on even more blood curdling screams.

    Dark smoke filled the air, rising higher and higher as screams of agony deafened her. Crawling on her hands and knees, she was able to ignore the sharp pain of broken glass and rocks that broke the skin of her palms and knees as she tried to find shelter somewhere else, out of the open.

     Hearing the sound again, she realized that it had to be coming from the canons she had read about in her warfare studies. Debris rained on her head, hurrying her movements along.

    "Armida!"  Dacian found her small figure on the ground with the one eye he could see out of. As he was dragged away, the rebels were able to deliver brutal blows, promising that Dacian would be unrecognizable once they were finished with him. They had plans to impale him on the nearest tree as a message to the army from which they were fleeing.

     Before she could even put together everything that swarmed around her, she felt her body being dragged and thrown behind a wall that had become the remains of an old shop.

     "Get down!" He ordered as he forced her head into her lap, throwing his body over hers as a canon hit the building just beside their hideout.  At this point, she was more than certain that she had relieved herself from fright as her ears rang. She watched Dacian's lips move, him urging her to get up, but she couldn't force herself to do it.

    It was then that she noticed the bulging skin around his eye and the deep gash on his face. Her hands went to them quickly, assessing the damage even though he pushed them away.

    "There's no time for that, Armida. We must leave immediately." Slowly her hearing began to return as she listened to his command. Her body trembled as he led her away carefully. She cursed herself for having a name that spoke of strength when she obviously had none.

    She had been ready to see rallying in the streets, experience what she thought would be a peaceful protest.

    She never expected the violence. The slander against her father. The death of men at the hands of people she was taught served in the name of the same people that they mowed down.

    Nothing made sense anymore.

   On her lips, she tried to deny everything that rushed at her now as her world turned to black. Dacian being the only support there to keep her from falling to the ground, looking like one of the hundreds dead in the streets already

Ooo

      Dacian laid Armida's limp body down by the stream as he finally found a resting place. By the time that they had emerged from the wall, the city had become silent as the army had managed to move the rioters out of bounds, locking it down behind them. He moved quick over expired bodies, and those just moments away who grabbed at his ankles for help.

     He was to return Armida back to her apartment in the same shape she left in, and now looking at her disheveled and dirtied face, he just knew that wouldn't be possible.

   Cupping his hands in the running water, he tried his best to clean of her face, his mind warring with his heart to not lay a finger on a member of the royal family when he knew she needed help.

    Carefully grabbing her chin, and tilting her head from side to side, he prayed that she would come to soon enough.

    "Armida..." he called out softly.

     Behind her dark lids, images of the chaotic scene replayed over and over. She found herself frozen in the midst of the hate and anger that ran rapid in the streets, unable to move out of the way of danger as it charged forth. Before she gasped awake in surprise, the last thing she saw was the vicious look upon Allona's face as she wielded her sword, coming down in a swoop for Armida's head...

    "Are you okay?" Armida rolled to her side, coughing as she regained consciousness. There was a burning sensation in her throat that showed as her eyes watered. Reaching over the embankment, she began scooping handfuls of water into her dry mouth.

    "No...Dacian, I am not. How could I be?" Her hands dug into the skin at her knees as her body began to shake. "Why?" She turned to him now, large brown eyes overflowing with tears as she looked to him for answers to questions she never had to ask until today.

     "Why do they destroy their own home like that? Why must they cause so much havoc, Dacian?" Her arm extended to the place beyond the trees. She was too weak to hold it for long as it fell back into the dirt by her side.

    "My father-he-he does all that he can for them. He says he has made it so that everyone has a fair chance." Now as Dacian looked to her confused expression, he knew that her questions were more for herself than for him. The more she mumbled to herself, the more he realized that she had been fed knowledge that was twisted and turned into a grand story.

     It had been at least five years now since the troubles had begun within Noveen.  First it began with unheard of restrictions to natural resources: water, land, everything that the Novidas needed in order to sustain a life and survive. Boundaries were imposed upon the people, dictating areas in which they were allowed to travel and areas where they were allowed access to the limited resources given to them. Increased taxes that were well beyond the majorities' means made it difficult to afford anything that had once posed no problem. Everyone had felt the pinch as the changes started, but most kept quiet and went on to find a way to adjust to the new lives forced upon them.

       Soon, all males who were of at least thirteen years old were called to mandatory enlistment with the military. Some families had even seen sons who were but barely ten years old whisked away from their homes because their bodies were deemed more than valuable. The call for more soldiers had become so urgent, that they had even opened up certain positions to women that fell outside of just the medical realm of duty. As time passed and concern coupled with fear grew, the citizens watched the soldiers numbers triple weekly, creating a massive force of man power before they even knew it.

        Dacian was now a part of that group, and had been for 3 years now.

        Few, if any enlistments were voluntary. Many had been forced to serve whether they wanted to or not. That had been the case for him.

      His father had been one of the major crop producers before regulations began. For his work, their family of six young girls, and one son never went without a meal. Even though his father had standing within the community, he was never able to snag a secret deal to ensure that their family's rations be far greater than those around them. The only thing that they could promise him was that he, an old man well into his sixties, would be useless as a soldier and would never have to worry about being called to duty. They even spared Dacian from immediate enlistment after seeing that he was well fed and more than fit to join due to their comfortable life. They would wait for him until he turned sixteen, and at this point in time, that meant he had three years of dreading the unavoidable command.

       Three years that he never even got a chance to live.

       It hadn't gone unnoticed that even though the family of nine should have been scrounging by on scraps, their meals never left them with an empty feeling of hunger, though they were never as grand as before. Anyone in their right mind would never speak up about this, knowing that to do so would mean less food in their mouths. But when their front door was torn down as they slept one night, their secret about never experiencing the resounding pang of hunger felt throughout the Noveen, his father was dragged from the house and forced to show the soldiers where he was keeping the illegal contraband.

    The rest of the family had stood and watched as he was beaten into submission and finally agreed to lead them all to where he had kept the food that he had not only been feeding to his family, but had been selling on the black market for profit.

      Dacian knew hurt and he knew pain.

      The last he had seen of his family was his father's decapitated body lying on the cold ground as his mother cradled him to her chest. His small sisters' shrieks of terror could be heard miles away as he was bound and thrown into a carriage that carried him away to begin his life as a soldier.

     He had screamed and screamed for mercy, asked for them to allow him to honor his family and not leave his mother and sisters alone in such a way.

    His pleads went unheard and now here he sat guarding the youngest member of the royal family.

    Dusting his hands off on his pants, he stood to his feet and walked past Armida to the running water. He doused it on his own face as he tended to blood that could have been his or another's on all the visible parts of his body.

    "I can guarantee, that everything you know about your father is a complete lie." He told her bluntly. Shock flooded her face as she began to defend him.

     "My father is a noble man, and has been for a very long time."

     "And who told you that?" Dacian calmly interrupted her, looking her squarely in the eyes." Your teachers, right? The same teachers that are only approved by his majesty? The same teachers who must only teach you what his majesty wants you to know? Armida, those same teachers would tell you that everything you have seen here today was not real. That the blood caked on your hands was just something you imagined. The death, the rebellion, they would claim it was all a farce." Dacian became heated as he stalked around her.

     Armida began to feel uneasy in her own skin as the words she planned to use to defend her father once again fell back to the pit of her stomach.

    She remembered all of the teachers who would visit her in her apartment. They were always so stoic and demanded she never question anything they said. Her curiosity was always thwarted with a little you should learn to listen and not speak advice. And that's how she had always lived.

     She would burn with questions, but once she learned that it was worthless to ask for answers, she kept them bottled inside. There had only been one occurrence where she came close to breaking the strict façade many showed before her.

    "That's not true. I had a teacher once. He was a lovely and intelligent man and he-" He disappeared one day.

    His name had been Master Anuk.

    He was introduced as her new instructor on the history of the Noveen military and its many great successes and heroic battles that gave way to a free nation that was built on the premise that all men were one.

     "Though we celebrate a very important sentiment that all are created equal in this great land, we do not necessarily do as we say, young miss."

    Armida's brow cocked behind her veil as she raised her hand to speak. The older man before he paced the ground with a book. He was charming, in his mid-twenties, and more than fond of the young girl before him who so eagerly raised her skinny arm in the best way she could while still remaining as regal as possible.

    "It's just you and I, you may speak." He smiled as he watched her sit on her haunches. She always took that stance when she was very interested in a subject matter, and he never corrected her into a proper position.

    "That's not true." The small lift in her voice hinted at her uncertainty as she had just heard a value that had always been stressed and taught to her from a different perspective. She knew Master Anuk was different than the other men who taught her...he was young for one and handsome.

    "Not true?" He asked with sincere interest as he stooped to her level.

     "You say that all men are equal, but then say that they aren't all the time. My father says that everyone is treated fairly and just. He told me that!"

    Tilting his head to the side he nodded in understanding her confusion." Well, what he thinks is fair and just may not be...fair or just. Those are two very objective words." Rubbing his chin, he looked over his soldier to the guard uniform that peaked just through the crack of the door. He tried his best to get privacy for their lessons. Going against his better judgment, he turned to her in a whisper.

      "Sometimes, in the world, those with power may say that they want what's best for every single citizen, and I believe that there are rulers out there who stay true to this idea. But sometimes...when we place the fate of thousands...millions in the hands of a few people, their idea of equality, fairness, justice, is only seen through a perspective where there are clear lines and boundaries, so that what they want is never impeded on."

    "What does that mean?" Armida asked...grasping on to his every word.

     "Master Anuk. The lesson is over." Before he could say another word, the guard that once stood by the door was now in the room with the teacher and student.

    "It's not time for the lesson to end yet!" Armida said shocked, looking to the clock on the wall.

    "Master Anuk." The guard ignored her cries as Master Anuk stood ashen faced. His once healthy glow seemed to diminish just as the gold in his hair became lifeless and dull.

    Armida stood too, watching his chest rise and fall rapidly.

     "Master Anuk..." She knew what would happen to him. She would never see him again just when she was staring to enjoy their time together. "Don't go Master Anuk." She watched from a distance as he slowly gathered his things, the guard lurking close by like a dog.

    "He is to finish our lesson, and you are to leave us this instant. " Her voce deepened as she stood with her back erect and chest pushed out. The guard looked to her, but didn't obey what she was sure were clear commands. Instead, he simply bowed his head as he took Master Anuk by the arm, forcing him out.

    "No...No! Stop it! Let him go!" She broke all of her training as she ran towards the two men, beating at the leathered arm to release Anuk.

    "Your majesty...please!" Anuk watched as she attempted to free him with all of her might. Her dark eyes spoke volumes as they looked to him in panic. "Please. We-we will finish our lesson another day. I promise you. Just be patient and wait for me, find out new things to share with me! We are both a teacher and a student!" His voice raised as he was moved further and further away from her, his movements becoming more frantic as he fought against the armored man behind him.

    "Armid--!" Silence met her ears the moment that the large wooden doors were slammed shut, severing her ties with Master Anuk.

    The next time their meeting came around, it wasn't he who greeted her with a warm smile and hello when she entered the room, but another round old man who neither bothered to ask how she was, or answer when she said those words to him.

     Dacian looked on as Armida seemed to no longer be in the same place as him. Her eyes glassed over as she teetered from side to side, catching herself against the rough bark of a nearby tree.

     "Armida..." He watched as she slunk back in between the trees towards the place where they had left their horse. When Dacian called to her, she couldn't respond, just kept moving forward with staggered steps. Slowly, she mounted the horse herself, not having the need nor the patience to wait for Dacian to help.

    He began to think that he had gone too far. He had said to much to Armida.

    By the look of her posture, it was as if her spirit had been ripped for her being as she stared ahead blindly.

     Finally, he climbed atop the horse and began guiding it back home. He couldn't even imagine how he would explain their appearance, the reason for their absence, or anything else to Allona. The thought alone made him cringe as the marched on to his sure death.