“One at a time! Please, one at a time, we will take everyone right out of here in no time!”

 

The few guards lucky enough to stay behind during Caen’s siege were up to their head in work to do: from spreading the word of evacuation to everywhere in the City to making sure people didn’t trample each other to death while accessing the many, many ships docked in the pier. It was madness, really! All in such short notice! But at least they had the good luck of having several boats arrive just recently to the city.

 

Among all the people nervously waiting for entrance on the next ship out of the city, there was a certain blonde bounty huntress. Walking slowly, dodging the pushing and shoving of so many people, she was doing her best to stay calm during the whole situation. Because of the general feeling of impending doom and the danger of being eviscerated alive by one of the hungering bog bodies? No, of course not.

 

Lucrece’s mind couldn’t stop thinking of Gabrielle.

 

“Why do I care!? She wants to throw her life off the board, well let her!” She repeated to herself as she walked with the mob, clinging to the pole of her halberd. “I owe her  nothing anymore, she’s just a stranger I picked up somewhere and nothing more!”

 

Oh but to remember that dumb bumpkin’s innocent smile, her clumsy way of fighting and her absolute recklessness… she couldn’t help but feel worried about her. Killing a few bog walkers at a time was one thing, but an entire Horde!? She would be shredded to smiling pieces in no time! And for some reason Lucrece couldn’t help but feel responsible for it all.

 

The reason became more and more obvious the more she thought about it.

 

“God, please no. I don’t need more attachments, not again…”

 

Lucy groaned, taking a full stop and turning right around. In a whim she decided that, damn it, if she was going to die, she better die doing something reckless and stupid! For reasons! But then she heard a voice. One she had never heard before, but that somehow rang loudly In her ears.

 

“Please! I need your help! Has anyone seen this girl!?”

 

Turning around, Lucrece saw a woman. A black haired, thin and small woman dressed in a black nun’s habit, holding a piece of paper with a drawing on it. 

 

A drawing of a little girl with red hair.

 

Seeing that no one else was really paying attention to the poor bastard, Lucy immediately rushed over to the woman and raised her hand, trying to call for her attention. The nun could barely see her, but she was so desperate that her eyes immediately locked on to the one response she had gotten since she arrived in Caen.

 

“Oi! Oi you!” Lucy yelled. “You are looking for Gabrielle, aren’t you!?”

 

Finally getting some hope in her heart, Arianna pushed her way over to the blonde. Lucrece really didn’t think that little woman had so much strength in her.

 

“You know her! Oh thanks the Saints, where is she!? What is happening!?”

 

“Well… err, I have some good news and some bad news. Which ones do you want first?”

 

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

From a hill nearby the plains surrounding Caen, the first Battalion of the Church was soon joined by several others. It was the rendezvous point, after all! Slowly, progressively, the once small group now comprised at least a hundred people. Twenty Eight Battalions, each leaded by a Coronel and their Lieutenant, observed how the city THEY intended to storm was already being assailed by a Horde the size of which they hadn’t see in years.

 

“Could this be a punishment from the Creator…?” One of the lieutenants, a heavily armoured man, stood off from his horse to look at the city from a bit closer. “Perhaps He has decided this city is to fall…?”

 

“But what about the heretics!?” A very eager Coronel dressed in long white robes grumbled, shaking his head. “We can’t simply let them escape.”

 

“Not to mention the casualties.” Ignatius politely reminded the inquisitors of the human lives at stake. “What do you think, my lady?”

 

Esperanza was standing a big far from the rest of the Coronels, helping herself with a huge pair of binoculars to see the battle at the gates. She could already see bodies, which was distressing… but she could also see a wild set of red hairs sometimes peeking from within the madness of bog walkers and bloody action. She gasped, it was easy to discern what was happening.

 

“She’s trying to help…” 

 

“What was that, my lady?” Ignatius tilted his head.

 

“I said that we must help.” She turned around and, without paying the other Coronels any mind, mounted her horse. “First Battalion, and anyone brave enough, follow me. We wont allow more bloodshed in the lands of the Saints!”

 

“Hold your horse, Saint Esperanza!” The armoured lieutenant raised a hand. “Are you really sure this is wise? Even with all of us here, we are outnumbered.”

 

“And!? Do you not strive to reach the light like I’ve done? Like many have done before me?” The Dame turned around on her horse to face the man. “If so, you cannot let cowardice or conceit cloud your judgement. The Church exists for the Good of the People, our people! The same who are being slaughtered while we stand here twiddling our thumbs.”

 

The soldiers looked at each other, unsure if to feel inspired or insulted by Esperanza’s words, as she once again turned towards the battlefield.

 

“I have been there, fearful, alone, wishing for the light of our Saints to reach me. And I know that I am not the only one who has suffered here! All of you have, in some moment, wanted and reached for help. Have you received it!?” The people looked at each other again. “I have. And I will be forever thankful for it. There is no greater happiness than the feeling of a helping hand reaching back at you… Today, it is our chance to be that helping hand!”

 

Esperanza took a moment to breathe, before continuing.

 

“Our people need us right now, and I will not stand here and watch them suffer. And neither should you, brave men and women of the Church of the Saints! If we die, we die in glory and we return to the embrace of our proud Saints! Let us make them look at our deeds and smile with jubilation!”

 

The girl raised her lance, and some of the members of the assembled army immediately reacted by raising their arms as well. It wasn’t all of them… but she didn’t need all of them, at least she felt she didn’t.

 

“For the Saints!”

 

As the brave few decided to take the first charge along with Esperanza, the rest could see how the clouds above Caen slowly parted, beams of holy light raining down on the Dame.