[i]Get up, Ashley. [color=#ff39d6]...Leave me.[/color] Lord Clive is here to see you. [color=#ff39d6]Clive..? ...I know nobody by that name. Send him away.[/color] Hmph. As you wish. [color=#ff39d6]...[/color] How long do you intend to mourn? It's high time you put the past behind you. [color=#ff39d6]What does the word 'past' mean to you?[/color] I won't spend the rest of my life looking after a useless girl who does nothing but sleep. Even if she only eats once in a blue moon. [color=#ff39d6]Then, leave me. Like mother, like father... like the Goddess.[/color] You speak as though you've learned something no one else has, but you've only just now learned what everyone else knows already. [color=#ff39d6]...What?[/color] Life is cruel. People are cruel. You are the only one who has your own best interests at heart. The only person you can count on is yourself. [color=#ff39d6]...What are you selling?[/color] If you cannot put the past behind you, then put it beneath you. Grow, evolve, transform. So much so that the you of today wouldn't recognize her own self on the street. As though you were reborn from the ashes. [color=#ff39d6]I have... no talents.[/color] You have one. Do not deny it. Even so—if you're not good at anything, find something no one else is willing to do, and do that. [color=#ff39d6]Like standing up for justice?[/color] Like standing up for justice. ...If it pleases you. Though, the image of knighthood hardly suits you. [color=#ff39d6]No. I'll do it my way.[/color][/i] [hr] [color=#ff39d6]"Uncle..."[/color] Ashley mumbled as she lay on a wooden crate, which was being used as a makeshift operating table for Aleria. As Ashley drifted in and out of consciousness, she picked up a few key pieces of information. The first being that, at some point, she had lost consciousness. The second being that, at some point, Aleria had removed the arrow from her shoulder and closed up the wound. Thirdly, that her mouth was full of the taste of iron. [color=#ff39d6][i]For someone who had drunken relations with a barbarian woman she'd just met, she's surprisingly reliable...[/i][/color] [i]BANG.[/i] Ashley's cycle of resting and waking was ended by the sound of an explosion. She jolted to an upright position, which made her feel as though her head had just flown right off her shoulders and into the stratosphere—a predictable result of the inevitable anemia she'd just received along with her injury. If she hadn't been expecting it, perhaps she'd have really thought she'd lost her head for a moment. [color=#ff39d6]"What in the seven hells... was that..?"[/color] Ashley couldn't quite understand what Aleria said in response, but it did register—eventually—that she'd been handed a vulnerary, and was most likely expected to finish it. She'd probably be tasting iron for the next day and a half, but that was a small price to pay to get back into the battle quickly. [color=#ff39d6]"Disgusting. ...Give me another,"[/color] Ashley demanded, as though she were a problem customer at a bar. By the time Ashley decided that the room had in fact stopped spinning, and only the ocean's movement remained, the sounds of battle had dimmed significantly. That was either a sign that a miracle had happened and it was time to press their advantage—or, as was much more likely, that their loss was inevitable and it was time to accept their defeat. With this dichotomy in mind, she slowly rose to her feet and threw her cloak back on, a bad attitude plain on her face for all to see. [color=#ff39d6][i]I won't wait here to be claimed like some spoils of war,[/i][/color] she thought bitterly. [hr] As Ashley slowly climbed the stairs that had nearly sent her through the very crust of the earth and straight into the underworld, she took stock of the situation above. There were no longer any archers, and while there were indeed weapons on the ground, Mikhail's spear and Tonka's axe were still firmly in their owners' hands. Even more unbelievably, there were no heads missing from Ashley's Allies. [color=#ff39d6][i]Perhaps the Goddess hasn't abandoned me just yet,[/i][/color] she thought, without the slightest flicker of emotion on her face. [color=#ff39d6]"Oi, Mikhail. Are you not finished yet?"[/color] she demanded, as though this miraculous victory were somehow utterly [i]pedestrian[/i] to her. The dripping condescension did not go unnoticed among their enemies, who were utterly terrified now. None of them had caught a glimpse of the moment Ashley had been hit, and they had no idea that she had been flirting with the reaper only moments ago—thus far, their only impression of her was that she was all but entirely immune to magic, and had apparently been so confident in her crew's victory against such an overwhelming disadvantage of numbers that she didn't even feel the need to provide her support. No, their leader had only revealed herself in order to complain that their crushing victory had [i]taken a few minutes[/i]. Perhaps it was the slow, dramatic way she walked, letting her boots hit the deck loudly to announce her presence—as she did while walking on stage—that gave it away, but Mikhail could clearly tell that she was in no position to be oozing this level of confidence. She was bluffing. Indeed, at this very moment, Ashley was doing her best to keep a stable footing and posture, and the intimidation factor was almost accidental. "We surrender!" "Please, spare us!" the pirates pleaded. [color=#ff39d6]"Pirates, pleading to a woman for mercy... what irony,"[/color] Ashley replied with no emotion whatsoever—not even a fake one. "But we're not pirates! We're mercenaries, just like you!" [color=#ff39d6]"You became pirates the moment you fired your first shot. And this knight—who is not a mercenary, for those keeping score—has no mercy to offer to pirates."[/color] "What kind of knight degrades herself to witchhood?! Or what kind of vile Lord knights a witch?! Is that allowed in our country?!" In a moment, Ashley reached past her sword, deeper into her cloak, and drew another sword. This one announced itself not with the typical sound of a sword being drawn, but rather a flash of violet light, with some fragments of it flying off the sword like sparks and dancing through the air like pieces of broken glass. In an instant, the man who had pleaded with her for mercy had lost both his head and his defensively raised hands. As his decapitated, de-limbed corpse crumpled to the ground in a heap and quickly formed a pool of blood at her feet, Ashley gave the man who insulted her and Clive a moment to contemplate his fate before taking his head as well. She then returned the devilish-looking sword to the unseen sheath from whence it came. [color=#ff39d6]"Sorry, but I'm not taking any more questions today,"[/color] she said calmly, slowly rising from her stance back to standing upright. [color=#ff39d6]"...Kill them all,"[/color] she ordered, completely checked out—trying to sound bored, rather than tired. Ashley could feel wet spots forming beneath the bandages on her arms. Her cursed sword had reopened old wounds—literally. She'd made a bad move, and she knew it, but thankfully it wouldn't end up hurting her too much this time around.