March, 908 E.C.

A year. It had been a year since first Nalista had been outwitted by Prince Rickard. A year they had spent dancing around one another. A year of both victory and defeat. In that year they had never faced one another on the field of battle. They had never come within a mile of each other. Something that ended today. This was the day Nalista would pluck the Black Rose from the dirt and hold it between her fingers no matter how many thorns cut her. 

She had sailed with well over 15,000 soldiers to break the siege of Elnead. A further 15,000 had marched from the south. Once they linked up they had taken to hot pursuit of the Albar army. The Prince rode his troops hard toward Albar, indeed they were close to it when it was clear that there was no way to avoid conflict. He had chosen rather uneven terrain to set up. Very hilly. Plenty of places to set up archers and mages. Both of which he had deployed as well evidently. 

Nalista had once more taken to the field in her unicorn mount, sitting high above the army upon a hill. Her formations were picked out and ready. Her numbers were better than his. She had gone over plans and countered those own plans with what he might well do. She was prepared for this battle. 

What she hadn’t expected was a lone rider coming bearing a flag of parlay. That was almost unheard of. Indeed the archers almost shot the rider. Dalia looked at her incredulously however a smirk crossed Nalista’s lips. “It's fine. Respond in affirmation. I think it's time we finally meet our enemy face to face.” 

So it was that Nalista herself rode to the center of the field along with Dalia and a pair of her battlemages. They were well out of range of any weapons. She then spied a few riders from the enemy army. One was indeed an armored warrior bearing black armor with a red plume upon his helm. The two parties looked upon one another for the first time. Nalista wore fine and immaculate white and gold armor, a circlet of gold upon her elegant brow. She looked like a warrior out of some old legend stepped forth from the pages. She dismounted and watched the Prince do the same. It was then she noted he was easily two feet shorter than her. Something that drew a smirk to her lips. It wasn’t that he was short. It was that Nalista stood at a towering 8 feet tall.

He removed his helm and… the stories were true. A Black Rose indeed. Nalista found her breath taken that a human of all species could look so pretty. A cascade of black hair fell about his face and framed its soft and elegant features. Womanly was indeed correct. Yet this same soft and lovely creature had managed to humiliate and outmaneuver her across a year. She realized for a moment she was gawking. 

“So we meet at last, Prince Rickard.” The blonde started, speaking in common. “I have wanted to meet you for some time across this past year.” 

The man lifted a brow. “I do hope you aren’t disappointed.” He replied in flawless elven.

Her smile widened. “On the contrary, you’ve my compliments for your flawless execution in the theater of war. You have handed me a number of defeats. Snatched victory and its joy from my fingers. That has not happened in… many many years. I had long forgotten what it felt like.” The Grand General said. 

The Prince looked up at her, having to crane his neck back to meet her blue eyes with his own dark eyes. “You know. In another time. I would have been overjoyed at this meeting as well, Grand General. To simply stand before you and speak of matters of war and philosophy. To soak in your presence. To put a face and person to one of my longtime heroines.” He chuckled, essaying a wintery smirk. “A pity that such a time is not the one we live in.” 

Nalista sighed. “I myself would enjoy the chance for us to put aside the matters of nation and race and simply speak of such matters as well. Alas, that shall never be so.” 

“Did my brother suffer long?” He asked outright. 

The blonde paused for a moment before managing a wry little smirk. “I never had a chance to partake of the taste of that victory. Word of your offensive reached me right at the moment. I suspect he died as soon as he hit the floor. So it was rather instant.” 

Rickard managed to let out a breath of almost relief. “I see. Perhaps my actions had some mercy toward him in the end at least. In any event. I would like for us to avoid conflict this day if possible, Grand General and spare many lives. Is such a thing impossible?” 

“Quite impossible.” The blonde said almost immediately. He lived up to the moral rumors it seemed. An almost innocent notion that she could simply allow him to leave when across the field from her. “The fate of humanity is beneath their natural superiors. All of humanity. As you know, I am not in the habit of stopping with the enemy in my sights. You have no chance in the field now that I have forced the conflict. Your mages are few and mine many and battle trained. I have the numbers, as well as vastly better supplied and trained soldiers. To allow you to leave would be stupid.” 

“I figured. Still, can’t blame me for asking I suppose. I am curious. Do you hate humanity that much that you are willing to do all of this? Willing to crush all humans that stand against you? Willing to enslave all humans and render them non-entities? Do you think this is right? I ask you, personally, Grand General. Not what Elsira believes but what you believe.” He asked. 

She scratched her chin at the question. “A complicated question, one of different clashing morals across two different species. Let us work backward there. Do I think this is right? Just? I do not know the answer to that. The pretext of Elsira’s war against the human race is revenge for the centuries of slavery. A pretext which one might say has long been fulfilled. We have reduced most of your species to playthings, food, pests, lesser beings in all things. We have gone to extremes not even the humans that enslaved us so long ago did. Yet still we march on, unable to be satisfied until everything is under our thumb. I believe therefore, in a sense of our culture. What we do is right and justice through the lens of surface level. Below that however, the war was long since won. The revenge was long since had. This is simply fueled by greed and ambition now, the ambitions of the Empress and the Empire itself.” 

He frowned. “So you would argue it is right under the context of an Empire simply seeking to claim all it can? That the imperialism of a regime simply seeking to extend its rule is what grants your cause its legitimacy?” He asked. 

“I would. From my view as well, what humans see as right and wrong is a bit like… concerning yourselves with what animals think. Do you bother to ask for the consent of a boar before setting it out on a table? It is the same here. Humans are not elves. They are shorter lived, weaker, generally shorter physically as well. However I would not say I particularly hate humans. I do not harbor the same zeal for the enslavement and punishment of your race as many of my fellows do. I recognize and subscribe to the idea of a natural order. A way the world will work best. That way is very ethnocentric of course. A world united under an elven race, with humans scurrying beneath.” She answered, setting a hand on her hip. 

He seemed to digest that particular viewpoint before nodding. “I see, so from your perspective, we aren’t people and therefore you are free to do as you please. Since that is the natural world view. I would point out that an animal rather gave you some trouble over the course of a year.” He remarked. 

Dalia’s face turned red at that insult and she could already see sparks forming around her fingers. “You filthy animal, you dare to contradict the Grand General? I’ll show you just what the world order is-” 

Nalista lifted a hand to forestall that tirade on her behalf. “A fair point. You must however acknowledge that one such as yourself is exceptionally rare. A single golden egg does not stop one from eating all eggs. There are exceptions to every rule, that is simply the nature of things. Even as an exception you are damned by your humanity. If I truly wished to not deal with you, all I’d need to do is wait. In sixty years perhaps you would be dead of age. I would be the same as you see before you. How can one compare the two and argue one is equal to the other?” She responded. 

Rickard seemed to pause at that and consider that for a moment as well. “Maybe you have a point. Maybe humans are lesser. Maybe there is a natural order that exists as you describe it and we are simply fighting against the inevitable. However there was a natural order many many centuries ago and it was the order of elves in chains under humans. A natural order that was overturned.” 

“A fair point. However, simply because you failed to maintain it does not mean we will do the same. I would also counter with the fact that your people were sloppy in establishing their world order. We have rather perfected the dehumanization of our enemies into something else. I’ll be pleased to give you a demonstration. A first hand one.” Nalista said, crossing her arms. 

There were two different ideologies at play here and it was evident for the groups of onlookers. A clash of the worlds they represented really. There was a moment longer that they regarded one another before Nalista spoke and placed her foot forward in the snow. There was a crunch of the white substance as she shifted her weight there. Rickard looked down at the mirror polish upon the metallic boot. 

“I am not without some mercy, Prince Rickard. I recognize you as a worthy opponent and one that has granted me feelings I’ve not had in centuries. Kneel, place a kiss along my boot, and I will grant you a place as my pet. Your soldiers will survive another day to die or serve their betters as is the place of humanity. Resist, and I will ensure you know true despair and make it my mission that you break under the weight of the new world order.” Nalista said. 

Rickard regarded the boot offered to him for a moment. Then she saw the gleam of something in his sleeve. As did Dalia. The dark haired mage was about to throw out her hands, but another look from Nalista stopped her. 

“Ahhh… now I see. You are a delight. Truly, a man unlike most humans. You kill me, and it would absolutely shatter much of the elven war effort. One of our greatest heroes, dead. I’m curious, Prince Rickard. Are you capable of that? Sticking a blade into the heart of a woman offering you more mercy than others would?” Her brow arched elegantly. 

“Guess we’ll find out.” He lunged for her. 

------------------------------------------------------

The moment he had rode out into the middle of the field, the Prince had known there would be no going back to the army. There was only really one way to buy Albar more time or at the least buy the army enough time to run. It was to kill Grand General Nalista. Her interest in him had given him the necessary excuse to lure her out under a banner of parlay. It was dishonorable to the extreme. It was also something that he knew she’d probably condone herself given her doctrine was anything but honorable. 

Meeting her… it had been like standing before an ancient being of ages past. Her sheer presence was overwhelming. It was almost like a physical force that demanded those beneath her bow to her presence. Her blue eyes were sharp and it took everything in him when she slid her boot forward to fight the almost automatic muscle response to do what she said. When she spoke it was with such surety that one was almost able to believe what she said. This was more than he had expected. So much more. 

It didn’t change what he had to do as he lunged forward. She was two steps from him. Within reach. The gaps in her armor were easy to see and even with her larger size she would fall like any elf did when stabbed. He didn’t pay attention to what his bodyguards were doing. Franz had orders to kill the others with the Grand General fast.

He made it one step, his dagger out and gleaming in the daylight. Then there was a flash of light from the hand of the General. He continued taking that second step and thrust his blade out even without the ability to see. He was running on pure adrenaline. Pure impulse and drive to end this leader of the elven armies. To drive that dagger up into her heart and save his country the only way he could. 

*CLANK*

He felt his arm jerk from the impact of his dagger against a hard surface. Like he had thrust it right into a wall. As the blindness faded from his eyes he saw what he had just stabbed. A vast wall of gleaming and flawless metal. His dagger had bent from the impact with it, not so much as leaving a scratch. Not a single scratch for the effort. He swallowed and felt ice water fill his veins as he dared to look up. 

Above a pair of large blue eyes gazed down at him in amusement, flawless lips turned up into a smirk. The wall of metal in front of him was Nalista’s boot. His fingers loosened upon the dagger and sent it tumbling down to the snow he found himself standing in. His own soldiers were dispatched with laughable ease. Franz incinerated with a flick of the dark haired elven woman that appeared to be Nalista’s right hand. All in the span of an instant. 

“Ah… it was a good attempt. Really, logically speaking you didn’t have another choice. Which was rather what damned you there, Prince Rickard. You didn’t strike me as a man to want to simply speak to me at the end. There was a motive here behind it. If anything, I’m impressed you were willing to go so far.” She boomed from on high. 

Dalia ran over to the side of the Grand General, the battlemage’s booming steps shaking the ground and spraying snow over the shrunken prince. The young man let out a cry as he was buried up to his head in the snow. The elven woman was checking the General, concern and worry clear in her eyes. 

“Are you injured, your grace? Oh that worthless little shit. I’m going to stomp him into a red paste-” She turned a furious glare upon the prince and lifted her boot up over him. 

The vast shadow of the elven woman’s boot was cast over him and he felt his eyes widen. This was the view of many, many humans in the world to hear it told. It was one thing to hear it and it was another thing to see it. To gaze up and see the woman’s foot coming down toward him, moving to squash him like he was a mere insect. Rickard let out a scream as he felt her boot sole pressing him into the snow, burying him between her dusty metallic sole and the icey cold all around him. 

“Dalia, enough. I am fine.” Came the booming words of the Grand General, halting the step of the other elf. 

Just like that the descending boot sole was stopped. Rickard was gasping and panting, his little puffs of breath visible as he breathed directly upon the boot above him. Animal fear had filled his veins as the woman slowly lifted her foot back up and glared down at him for a moment before turning her attention to the General. The fear had numbed his body and he almost couldn’t feel anything. 

“Understood your grace. We should get moving before the other army mobilizes. Won’t take them long.” Dalia said. 

“Of course. Store him away for later, my dear, I will not be robbed of my fun so early.” The blonde commanded idly as she turned on her heel and started to walk away toward her towering mount. 

The dark haired battlemage lowered her head in a bow. “Yes your grace.” She said before the shadow of her hand came down over Rickard. 

He tried to get up and run, purely on instinct. His mind was running fast and hard as he tried to adjust to this new state of being. It was useless of course as Dalia’s pale fingers grabbed him between them. Roughly. Roughly enough that his lips opened in a soundless scream and he felt his ribs groan as his armor bent. The half inch tall human squirmed between her fingers as he was brought up to her scowling face. 

“You should be honored, you worthless ape. Her grace considers you worthy of serving as her plaything. It is more than you deserve for humiliating her.” She hissed as she pulled out what appeared to be an empty vial. She dropped him inside before slamming the cork in with her thumb, sealing him inside. For now.