A Thousand Lives I've Seen

25 - Fate in Flames

He'd been here before.

Roland felt as if the world had abandoned him as he sat there atop his horse in the midst of the battle against the Aesfrosti army for his life. He gripped as tightly as he could stand at his spear, feeling the hilt of the blade press against his gloves with more force than anything else seemed to have in that moment. Roland didn't think he was there on the street just outside Castle Wolffort, not anymore. He was somewhere else, but at the same time, he was right where he had left himself. Everything was the same, but everything had changed. 

Roland had fought Avlora before. He had faced her there in Wolffort, but there was more to it than that. He remembered fighting her in the courtyard of the castle he had grown up in, using the water that she stood in to ensure she was brought to her knees by powerful lightning magic cast by people Roland could name but didn't know. He remembered fighting her on the bridge soon afterward, the bridge where Maxwell had been left to die in every timeline but the one he found himself in now. He remembered fighting her on a boat too, but when he went for the finishing blow, Cordelia appeared, there was a scream, and suddenly Avlora was gone and Cordelia was on the ground and there was so much blood and Roland was screaming until his throat went raw from tears and exhaustion and it was all his fault--

Maxwell launched himself high into the air before he came down again with his lance prepared for a massive stab against Avlora. She was sent stumbling, but she didn't fully lose her balance, instead digging her sword into the ground to try maintain her balance. Roland blinked a few times, reminding himself where he was as he banished the sensation of cotton from his mind. He was in the streets just outside Castle Wolffort. This was his first encounter with Avlora, and hopefully, it would be the last too. Roland knew hoping for what was foolish, but he could still be a bit optimsitic every once in a while, right?

He shook it off as quickly as he could, though he still felt like the world around him was being distorted somehow by the sudden end of his vision. That was what it had been, right? He hadn't just been imagining other settings for this battle against Avlora. He was imagining the other times he had fought her in the past. Gods above, he had been caught in this cycle for over a century and a half now. How was he only just now remembering?

Avlora raised her blade and slashed it back at Maxwell to try and get her revenge for staggering her before. He held up his spear to deflect the attack, snarling along the way. Avlora was powerful, far stronger than Maxwell was now, and they both knew it. Even so, Avlora allowed herself to be distracted, giving Hughette the chance she needed to strike the general in the back with an arrow. Archibald followed up with an arrow of his own, forcing Avlora and Maxwell to end their stalemate so the former could take care of the others trying to defeat her.

Roland finally seemed to pull himself fully out of his trance at that, and he dashed forward with his spear at the ready. Whispers of hatred in the back of his mind told him to get revenge for what had happened to Frani, Regna, and Maxwell. In every other life, Roland had been certain he had lost everyone he loved at the edge of Avlora's blade. Maxwell may have survived, but Regna and Frani were not so lucky, and Roland had fought the rest of the war with their legacies hanging heavily over his head. Avlora had needed to die in his mind each time. Killing her wouldn't fix the damage she had already done, but it would help Roland to sleep a little bit easier at least. That had to count for something, right?

Roland did his best to fend off the reminders of vengeance that licked against his fingertips like eager flames. Instead, he just stabbed at Avlora with all the force he could muster. She avoided the attack but wasn't prepared for Roland to slash his lance upward, creating a scar deep across her breastplate. Avlora snarled before trying to strike back at Roland, but he avoided her at the last moment. He felt the whistle of the blade near his skin though, and that was enough of a warning to get him out of the way before she could try to take his head from his shoulders.