When All You Have are Embers

IV

Sam

When he was a boy he wanted to be a knight, but being born into a family who lived on the lesser side, his dream was nothing more than that, a dream. His aunt would send him to beg near the castle everyday and he would usually get lost in the maze of people crowding the whole of the courtyard.
       He'd come home everyday with a piece of bread or a loaf if he got lucky. When his twentieth birthday came around he was accepted into an apprenticeship of a medic who worked in the castle, talk of war had reached the Kingdom, and they wanted as many helping hands as possible.

Sam saved his first soldier when he was twenty four, but the life of a medic was not always easy. He lost more people than he could count in those forty years, and each took its toll. 

       Sam and Sin were watching the throne room on a busy Sunday. Wholeheartedly entertained just observing people come and go, Sin was smiling as he leaned over the banister. Sam noticed Sin standing on his tip-toes, and tried to keep himself from chuckling. 

Sin, out of the corner of his eye, saw a woman glide towards the two of them. Taller than both of them, she smiled with what could only be described as ethereal grace. Golden from head to toe, and covered with a pure white dress, hugging but not clinging to her body. Polished gold pins on her shoulders held up her fur cape which flowed down her back and draped across the floor. 

Sin looked up at her and noticed her crown; flowers, all braided into her hair, like her mother.
He turned to greet her just as he saw Sam bend at the waist. 
Sin clumsily bends down as well, remembering his manners.

"Hello Sam." She said. Her words were so refined and silky when spoken. "Who is the small one you have with you?" She turned her head.

"This is Sin, Your Highness." He said. "Sin this is Annely Solar, soon to be... Thornpath's Princess." He said. 

Sin's eyes lit up. In all his years, he never even dreamed of being in the same room as such a beautiful being. 

"Your Highness." He bowed once more. She smiled at him kindly, before Sam took her by the hand to speak with her. 

"Are you quite prepared?" He asked her.

"If I'm being completely honest, I've never felt more unsure in my life. I've never been in battle before." She answered. Sin watched them leave as they stepped down the winding staircase. 

"You will be our true saviour My Princess. I am so sorry we have to ask you to even do such a thing." Sam reassured her.

"It is my honour to fight alongside such brave soldiers." She said. "My father trained me for this moment. I will not let you, nor them down." She said, Sam nodded his head towards her and he bent at the waist slowly as a means of farewell. 

Sin kept his eyes on the two of them from up on the balcony as they said goodbye. He felt at peace after just seeing her smile. Sin sighed and leaned on the railing as he looked around the throne room. Sunlight peered through the red stained windows illuminating the specs of dust floating around the still, calm air. 
        Distant conversations could be heard from every corner of the room, and as Sin looked around and watched every person he felt a wave of serenity wash over him. He rested his head on his arms as he finally breathed a sigh of relief. 

    Just as he closed his eyes to rest for a moment, the ground began to shake beneath him. What followed the rumble was a screech so loud it pierced through Sin's ears and invaded every thought in his mind. 
   The blonde boy fell to his knees as he clutched his head in pain unable to hear his own screams of agony.