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Pain.
It’s been a constant in my life these past couple of months. Sure I’ve felt all sorts of pain in my century or so of life, but these past few months have been enough for a millennia.
All kinds of pain, too. Getting embarrassed by Gill during the melee, getting struck by a bolt of magical lightning at the wedding, getting his stomach gashed by a possessed King Laurel in Spring, and getting knocked out by the Bonekeeper in summer.
All those fights gave me scars, scars I carry today, but after today, I don’t think I’ll have anymore. After today, I don’t think I’ll have to worry about pain ever again.
I’m protecting the gate to the keep of Cornucoochia. My friends, and the rest of the Autumn Court’s forces have retreated behind the portcullis, leaving me as the last line of defense.
I’m up against an army of Fomorians and Seelie Court soldiers. They were led by Solana, but we had driven her away earlier in the battle.
When we drove her off, we felt good about our chances in the fight, but when we fled, more and more Seelie troops kept flooding the battlefield.
Our forces were quickly overrun, and retreat was the only option. Thankfully, the portcullis of the inner keep was located in a bottleneck.
We all realized that one of us would have to stay behind to stall for as much time as possible so everyone else could make a better escape.
Hrod tried to volunteer, but I shot him down quickly. Juniper needs him, and he’d be there to protect June too.
Before they left, I grabbed June for just a second, and finally told her that I loved her, and I’m sorry our lives had to play out like this. A quick embrace was all we could spare to give each other.
Once the portcullis slammed shut, I was all alone with an oncoming army.
The shape of the terrain around the portcullis made it so it’d be difficult for any of the giants to get too close, but that still left a swarm of Seelie soldiers.
Taking one last deep breath, I donned my shield, and summoned a sword, a sword that looked like the sword I had when we had left Autumn all those months ago.
It couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds before the Seelie soldiers started to pour into the bottleneck.
I think they were taken aback to just see one man standing in their way, but I’d do my damnedest to make sure I was the last man they’d ever see.
I’ve always had a knack for thinking of a better response after a moment has passed, but I think I did okay this time around.
With all the courage of a man living his last few moments, I issued my challenge to my enemies, “Come on you sons of bitches, do you think I want to live forever?”
The first one charged at me, and I cut them down in a couple of chops, but not before they got a swing in on me.
They had barely hit the ground before two more took their place.
Time was hard to keep track of, but after a minute or so, I was bleeding from a few places, and I was covered in blood. The ground around me was littered with corpses, but they kept coming at me.
It couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds later before one of the bastards snuck behind me and stuck a blade through a chink in my armour.
It didn’t hurt at first, but when I fell to my knees, it was a new kind of pain, one I haven’t felt before.
I could feel the blood pouring out from my gut, pooling on the ground.
I looked up, a half-dozen Seelie soldiers were looking down at me.
One of them, maybe a captain, asked me if I wanted to surrender, but I barely heard him.
Through sputtering breaths, I spat blood on his boots before answering him, “I’d rather die kneeling than stand for Tatianna.”
The captain said something but I couldn’t make it out, and then he kicked me over.
My vision was starting to go fuzzy, and the last thing I saw was a Seelie soldier driving his sword into my heart.
With my last few moments of consciousness, I prayed to Naralis, and then it all went black.