Nell stood outside the nurse's office uncertainly. She had a note from her professor and a decent lie prepared but that was not what bothered her. What bothered her was that she had let it get to her. She let out a deep, weary sigh and knocked on the door. There was no answer. She openned the door and peered in. "Excuse me? Is anyone here??"

The room was completely deserted. "Well, I suppose I didn't need the excuse then." She stepped into the room and walked over to the nurse's desk. There was an openned paper back novel lying on the desk as if only temperarily abandoned. When Nell moved closer she could see it was a smut novel, one of her mother's in fact. "Cruel Seduction, huh?" Nell rolled her eyes and dropped her professor's note on the desk then headed over to the bed in the far corner of the office. "What utter garabage!"

She plopped down face first on the bed and sighed again. She hadn't always thought that sort of thing was garabage but Shokushu had changed all that. She had been raped and ravished by all manner of monsters and their "cruel seductions" had been unlike anything her mother had ever dreamed up. Nell had felt the pain of disillusionment quitely acutely. Tears stung her already tired eyes and her buried her face into the pillow. "Gah! Not again!!"

It had been nearly two months since she had come here and in all that time she had managed to hold herself together but over the last few days it was starting to become overwhelming. The fear and abuse was starting to make her jumpy, she could sleep all last night. It was why she'd been sent to the nurse's office, she'd fallen asleep in class. "Pull yourself together, Nell!" She rolled over onto her back, her eyes drooping from exhaustion. The white ceiling tiles did nothing to keep her attention so she closed her eyes. Sleep wasn't far away now but somewhere before she finally dozed of completely she managed to mutter one last sentence. "It wasn't supposed to be like this." And then she was asleep.

Stay.

Had she been awake she would have heard a nearby toilet being flushed. Aegir had been inspired, he actually had an idea which was rare for him as usually ideas came upon him from memories he had stolen by his constant scanning of minds or those that he had devoured. So having an original thought was cause for celebration.

He exited the rest room with the guise of the nurse Janet donned. He had chanced upon the nurse earlier today and implanted the suggestion for her to use the rest room at this precise time whereas he commanded her to stay. You see, he had this idea that if he masqueraded as the school nurse he would have an easier time to acquire potential victims. Plus he would get to work on his acting and illusion skills.

Thus when he entered into the nurse's office he sensed a familiar mind even before he entered into the room. Behind him he closed the door as he looked over at the sleeping Nell. He had vanquished his earlier thoughts on a bit of snatch and grab when he had felt the thoughts weighing on the young girl's mind.

He considered for a moment, options ticking off in his head then he grinned as his eyes settled upon the book on the desk. The nurse read most of it as indicated by the bookmark and Aegir had knowledge of it when he ruffled through Janet's mind.

He was patient and unless they were disturbed then he would have plenty of time to work with. Besides years could pass in seconds ... it was time to get started anyway ...

Trumpets sounded and Nell found herself adorned in jewls and a white flowing gown that had been decorated with such fine material. Elbow length gloves where on her arms and a golden tiara sat upon the crown of her head.

The room had dozens if not hundreds of people in what looked like an audience hall of some sort. She had been seated on a fancy throne on a raised dias to her right was another lavish throne on which sat a plumb man with a magnificent crown atop his gray head. He spotted a beard neatly trimmed and shaved close to his face. In his right hand he held a golden spetre.

"Bring him in," the man said as he gestured to magnificient double doors opposite the throne.

Nell blinked and looked around suddenly confused. What had she just been thinking about? She glanced around at her dress, the opulent throne room and man who was clearly the King seated beside her. She had never seen the man before but she felt certain she knew him, that they were related somehow. Was he her father? "Is something the matter, Your Highness?" A man to her left whispered.

Her head whipped around she stare at the tall, gaunt man she recognized as the King's Stewart. She shook her head in answer to him. "Um, no, Randell. I am quite all right." She knew the man's name was Randell. Slowly her memories began to returned to her and the strange nightmare about the school on the monster infested island began to fade away. She must have dozed off for a moment during the dull court proceedings. These things might be necessary but they did tend to drag on so...

"Bring him in!" The King's voice boomed from beside drawing her attention back to the main part of the throne room. Two gigantic double doors began to open and Nell found herself watching with great curiosity. Something told her this was going to be interesting.

Aegir had implanted mecessary memories into her mind, little facts that she needed to know or wanted to know such as the steward's name for instnce though he kept her wondering about others especially those that would be revealed to her in time.

Her assumptions were correct in knowing that the other man was a king, and the fact that they were related in somewhere was simple deduction. He seemed vastly older then she and while it was not uncommon in that a young woman would enter a marriage with an older or widowed man she had not gotten that vibe. Furthermore there were only the gaudy rings on her hand from her station, not from marriage.

So what? A daughter? But her thoughts were interupted as the doors to the chamber opened up and in came a young man dressed in green. He wore a breast plate and no other armor and though a sword remained sheathed in it's scabbard it remained undrawn.

He bowed. "My liege."

"What news from the front?"

"The forces of Sparth have proved more formidable then initially believed and will over run troops there soon if they are not reinforced yet another division moves to the castle though unless they are planning on sieging the place that will do little good."

"Wher is the ambassador to Gerron?"

"When last I was aware he was preparing to embark on his journey before Spath forces arrive and cut him off."

"Fetch him," the king added then turned towards her. "Tere is nothing to fear with Gerron as our ally we can easily shrug off Sparth's advancements, daughter."

Nell gripped the arms of her throne and her heart rate quickened at the news from the front. She had known that they had been at war with the Sparthians but until just recently the war had been a far away thing that didn't seem to concern her. Now all the sudden it was on her doorstep threatening to lay seige to her childhood home. The castle was suppose to be a place of safety but Gerron's reenforcements didn't arrive quickly then it would soon become a prison. She wondered if this fear was what had inspired her nightmare a moment ago. "What if the ambassador cannot reach Gerron in time to help us, Father? Will our defenses be able to hold until reenforcements can get to us?"

"Our defenses shall hold," the King answered plainly. He patted the back of her hand reassuringly. Gerron will arrive in time. The Sparthians are too far out to delay their ambassador and he's aware of the situation save for the most recent updates but he was going to reinforce us. Even if he doesn't we have enough personnel here to hold off a siege for sometime."

But Geoff was wrong. The Sparthians were closer then he was aware making a force march. Already the ambassador had been captured so there was no assistance coming from them in the nick of time so to speak. This became apparent a few days later, everything in those days being a vague memory since they were unimportant to the story Aegir skipped over them in the way that dreams sometimes jumped or made little sense upon wakening to get to certain places.

But the Sparthians avoided the walls altogether some how aware of the secret passages that provided an escape route for the royal family should they need it. An inside job? Few even knew those passages existed but men errupted from them launching a surprise attack as they cut a bloody path through the defenders present in route towards the throne room.

Nell paced nervously in front of a side window of the throne room, pausing every so often to peer out at the battlements below. She cringed as she witnessed an arrow peirce the neck of a soldier on the wall and he felt to his agonizing death and she quickly turned her back on the action. "Please come away from the window, Highness. It is not safe..." The steward called to her from his position, cowaring behind her father's throne.

"Have you looked outside, Randell?! No where is safe anymore." She replied curtly, wringing her hands as she spoke. "Besides, we are too high for their arrows to reach us anyway. But are men are dying done there. We have to do something to help them." She turned back to the window unable to think of anything that might aide them. She feared the worst though she was still blissfully unaware that "the worst" was closing in on their thronerrom as she spoke.

A small force battled it's way through the castle swathing a path of destruction in their wake as others dealt with the soldiers below. Then a few minutes later there was a loud boom against the locked throne room door, repeated by another then another.

Something was hitting it with enough force that the doors shook each time they were struck until final the top of a statue pierced through the door, a make shift battering ram it would seem.

Royal guards rushed to the doors but they were too few in numbers as Spathians swarmed the chamber cutting them down until only the royal line, her and her father, plus dignitaries like Randell remainded. No one that would place up any resistance, or so the black armored Sparthians believed as another man, a taller one, entered into the chamber.

He was cased in full black armor that had iron spikes coming off of it. His head turned around the room taking in everything before he strode closer to the king who had been seized by each arm, he reached towards his head removing the older man's crown.

"You won't be needing this," he said in a rather deep voice as he grasped the crown in his hands and put it atop his armored head.

Nell had been frozen in terror up until the point when the Spathians soldiers seized her father's arms and held him helplessly before their black armored leader. Suddenly concern for her father became her only priority. Without consideration for her own well being she picked up a tall candelabra nearby and swung it at the nearest soldier like a polearm. "Let him go!" She screamed at the black knight and attempted to fight her way to her father's side.

The first soldier had been smashed falling to the ground, taken by surprise he had no chance though the others sprang into action. Leveling their swords at her they had been about to close in on her when the soldier in the full plate armor spoke in his deep voice as he turned in that direction to see what all the commotion was.

"No, I want her alive," he spoke the other men standing in a ring about her as they watched her every action. The larger man approached, the ring opening then closing for him as he approached. "Foolish girl. What do you hope to accomplish?"

He paused, his eyes gazing over her as he studied her stance or rather lack of one before closing in with her ...

Nell pointed the pronged end of her chosen weapon at the jet-clad warrior in a fashion she hoped communicated seriousness though she was aware of how untrained her stance must look. She had not studied with a weapon before and even if she had the candelabra had not been weighted for battle. Already her arms were shaking from the effort of holding it, or perhaps her arms were shaking with fear. She couldn't be sure but whatever it was she tried to ignore it and instead focus all her energy on glaring at the enemy before her.

She took a deep breath and answered his question with a steady voice. "My death with my father if nothing else. If you intend to harm him I swear I will spend the last of my life's blood defending him." She sparred a glance for the soldiers surrounding them, their swords still stayed at their leader's command. A chill ran down her spine at the knowledge that he wanted her alive. She swallowed hard and locked her eyes back on the leader before continuing her speech. "Believe me when I say that death is the less terrifying option left to me at the moment."

"Princess, please ..." the words from Randell though the man before her paused for a moment. He looked her over as if he were calculating the timing necessary to strike. But he did not, at least not yet.

Looking at her his gaze did not brake away even as hers diverted from him after a moment to check the status of the others.

"That weapon is inferior ... you might have taken him by surprise," his gaze flickered to the downed soldier, "but you were able to strike him when he was vulnerable. Your no match for those that are aware, especially with that ..."

He glanced to her makeshift weapon, then, as if getting the timing right, he pounced in, his left arm in the lead to ward off any incoming blow, his right snaking out towards the base of the candelabra just above her grip on it in an effort to knock it aside.

"Noooo!" She panicked when the warrior sprang towards her and moved as he had predicted she would. She swung blindly towards his head but was blocked by his left arm leaving his right hand free to wrench the weapon from her hands. She did not fight to hold onto the candelabra but inside retreated back away from the man and towards where she knew the window was. There were still more soldiers in her path but with their weapons still leveled at her they would be forced to move and give her access to the sill or risk impaling her on their swords.

"This is rather pointless ..." his words echoing inside his helmet as he took a few steps closer to her as she retreated. The soldiers there filed back and he saw what could happen and made a gesture towards some of the men that she could not see.

These men moved towards the window to block her path there least she do something foolish like throw herself out of it. "Come here, princess," the man extended his opened gauntleted hand before her as he gazed at her. "Geoff must pay for it's crimes, do not make this any harder on yourself than it must."

Nell backed into the soldiers the black knight had sent to block the window and recoiled. She glanced back at them and then to the knight and his outstretched hand. She did not know what crimes he was referring to though she was certain that they had been made. She moved slightly to one side so she could catch a glimpse of her father. He was a king but also a man. What sins had he made during the course of events that had led the war to this place?

Her eyes traveled back to the knight with her father's crown atop his helmeted head. He seemed monsterous in his pitch-black armor but underneath all that their stood another man, just as fallible as her father. She frowned and made no move to comply with his command. "Has Sparth commited no crimes during this conflict? Have you spilled no innocent blood getting here?" She shook her head. "You may punish because you have won but you cannot ask me to accept it willingly. If you wish to take me alive then you will have to work for it because I will not be taken without a fight."