ARC 7-Cursed Fates-116-Yulia (Patreon)

The James family valued one thing, war.

It didn’t matter how smart, charming, kind, beautiful, insightful, or anything else the children of the family were if it didn’t relate to the war effort. If it didn’t improve the fort’s combat ability, it was worthless. Those who didn’t fight were worthless. Pacifism was a sin, disdained with the same intensity as capital crimes like murder.

Yulia was never a fighter. She didn’t enjoy any part of war. Training was painful. Her teachers told her to embrace the feeling of progress but what was the point of progress if she was miserable all the time? She liked winning and the admiration that came with it, but she hated trampling others to get there. She despised killing, especially the ruthless slaughtering that defined Victorian culture.

But what she hated the most about war was the banality of it. Combat was an exciting experience. Facing an enemy caused the heart to pound, the body to sweat, and the mind to focus. It made one feel alive. Yet, that excitement was false. Hollow.

All a fighter felt while fighting for their life were forced reactions, meant to ensure survival. Once the danger passed, it disappeared, leaving them with nothing but aching wounds and the mess caused by corpses. Those more sensitive to reaping lives came out of fights worse than they went in, even if they won.

A heart pounding in fear couldn’t be compared to one spurred by passion. The sweat produced cutting down enemies felt dirty compared to that worked up while working for others. The focus needed to dance on the fine line between life and death was exhaustive while the focus of an artisan honing their craft was fulfilling and enlightening.

War was not a goal to strive for. It was a means to an end, that end being peace where the people theoretically would use the resources they obtained through the cruel battles to improve themselves and their society. Take away the goal and war became pointless. Even detrimental.

It seemed obvious to her. That didn’t mean anything. A James daughter she may be, but if she dared spread such a blasphemous ideology, her father wouldn’t hesitate to disown her. Ancestors protect her, Yulia was convinced that her husband, as much as he adored and doted on her, would despise her. It might not be enough to ruin his love for her, but he would never look at her the same.

It amazed her that Alana thought her life was easy. It had been hellish waking up everything morning to be beat senseless in the name of training, kill countless beasts, and duel her friends. She was terrified of going beyond the safety of the walls but the thought of not being a James scared her more. Her one and only campaign had been the worst months of her life. Titans didn’t care about her last name or that she’d rather not fight them. Countless James, far more talented and accustomed to war than she, had been buried beneath the snow. She was convinced she’d join them. Her aggressively warm overtures had been a desperate attempt to leave an impression on the people of Victory, as she’d been sure she would live long enough to do it through any other means.

When she made it back to Victory’s walls, she felt as if the heavy chains she’d been wearing her whole life were cast away. Finally, her life was her own and she wanted to spend it giving the people of Victory the same feeling. She wasn’t stupid or arrogant enough to think she could change five centuries of bloodshed in one lifetime, but she believed, or hoped very strongly, that she could at least give them something else. To show them that they could be more than swords.

That’s what she should have been doing.

Instead, she was crammed into a carriage with three children, including her own son, several dames from the Stars, a woman with an unreadable face, and a bunch of golden balls of fluff running away from an unknown threat. Yulia came south for selfish reasons, chief among them to bolster her and the north’s reputation by settling March peacefully. Yet, her good intentions were meaningless. In the end, war was a powerful means. Better, it was simple. Why bang their heads together to come up with an acceptable compromise when they could simply split the heads of their enemies?

Victory didn’t practice diplomacy. Diplomacy was based on foundation that the involved parties had something they valued, something they wouldn’t want to risk losing in conflict. Titans valued nothing, including their lives. They fought to the death without flinching, preferring to take as many lives as possible rather than save themselves in the face of death.

Humans couldn’t be more different. They valued everything. As long as they attached feelings to it, a person could care for a rock more than their own lives. She thought it would be easy to negotiate a peaceful surrender.

Never would she have imagined that people could care too much. The damn guilds attached so much value to their resources and reputations, they equated them to their lives. Alana was just as problematic, with her inflexibility. Yulia would have thought that her sister would be just as disgusted with the James’ traditions, given the way the family treated her, but she was just as stoic and uncompromising as their father. She’d accept peace, but ancestors forbid she do anything to work for it, especially something that made her or the north appear weak.

Lou was the worst of them. The noblewoman had the power to create any ending she wanted but the arrogant woman valued herself, her time and her efforts, more than the future of the whole damn kingdom! Was it wrong? Maybe not. No one was born with the obligation to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. But by the ancestors, it was annoyingly selfish and shortsighted.

With a heavy heart, Yulia accepted that she wouldn’t be able to make a difference in Quest. She just wanted it all to be over with so she could return to Victory and tend to her home devastated by the early storms. Yet now she was running for her life and would probably have to swing a sword for the first time in years.

Really, she wanted to smack those idiotic guildmasters. Was stupidity an illness? Had the hunters thinking of making a quick bit of coin in the north caught it from the northerners and brought it back to Quest? They were making the exact same mistake as Victorians, fighting an unwinnable war. They marched against Lou, they died, they marched again. It was utterly ridiculous.

She could guess what they wanted targeting her and the others, to control Lou, either through fear or taking them as bargaining chips. All they were doing was dooming themselves. Maybe such a strategy would work on Lou, for a while, but never on Kierra.

Yulia hadn’t been around the elf much but from the conversations she had with the foreign woman, she had a mind the hunters couldn’t hope to understand. She thought of love, war, and life in completely different terms. The elf was as bad as a Victorian. And Talia was special to her. Amazingly, Lou was able to keep the elf civil but if anything happened to her flower, Yulia was absolutely convinced the city would be razed to the ground. Even if Kierra had to make a quick trip back home to enlist help. Kierra may not be a princess, but it would be stupid to think she didn’t have connections as a royal. Or her own merit. She was a pure physical affinity caster. She could trade on her potential to raise an army with no effort. If she wanted, she could turn the king against the city with her magic if she wanted.

It wasn’t just for their sakes that they had to survive whatever ambush was targeting them. Yulia had to make sure they escaped untouched for everyone’s sake. It was ironic. She wanted to save everyone from the fighting but in order to do that, she had to fight.

Her grip tightened on her son as everyone in the carriage was thrown to the side, the balls of fluff squeaking as they were sent flying by the sharp turn.

“We are surrounded by hostile entities,” Talia said without opening her eyes, drawing the attention of the lady knights.

“How many?” one of the Stars asked.

“Too many.”

“Cheh. This is too organized. We’re not going to be able to cut our away out.” The woman frowned. Yulia knew the knights wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice their lives, but they had a mission. They came to Quest to ensure the safety of the James family. Throwing their lives away wouldn’t serve that.

“Our only hope is to hide,” another of the women spat. It was clear that the idea of running from a fight annoyed her.

“This group draws too much attention,” a third woman said. “We should split up. Force—" She was cut off as the carriage took another sharp turn. “Force them to divide their attention.”

“May I make a suggestion?” The carriage turned to Earl. She knew Lou’s steward wasn’t an ordinary boy but once again he proved himself extraordinary. A normal child in this situation would be scared stiff. They certainly wouldn’t have the guts to speak up amongst professionals. “No matter why they’re targeting us, some of us are more valuable than others. They have priority targets.”

Yulia grimaced as the boy’s disturbingly sharp eyes turned to her. “They may be willing to let some of us go but others they’ll chase to the end of the continent.”

“…you’re talking about me,” Yulia said bitterly.

“And me,” Talia added.

Earl nodded. “I’m sure if they’ve gone through this much trouble, there’s no way they’ll allow you and Miss Talia to escape. However, I doubt they’d be eager to hunt down children.”

“I agree with boy,” one of the Stars said while narrowing her eyes. “You may have a better chance of escaping, but you are also the weakest combatants.” Yulia had some doubts about that. She had a strong feeling that Earl would wipe the floor with her. “I would hope that these hunters aren’t the kind of bastards to harm children but if they are, you’ll be defenseless.”

“Me and my sister can’t fight master casters, but we are quick. Much quicker than you think,” Earl countered. “More importantly, we know how to disappear in a large city. As long as we can break out of this encirclement, I am confident that we can remain out of their hands until my lady settles her debt with the hunters. I’m also confident that I can keep Allen safe.”

Yulia’s grip on her son tightened as Earl’s eyes moved to her son. All of her instincts screamed not to let her son out of her sight with danger closing in, but she wasn’t stupid. It’d be a hundred times harder to fight with him in her arms.

“Lady Yulia—"

“I know!” she snapped. She might be soft but if her life as a James taught her anything, it was how to face hard circumstances. She glared at Earl. “You swear you’ll keep him safe?”

“I swear on my honor as my lady’s steward that I will do everything in my power.”

Yulia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It did nothing to calm her nerves.

“It’s the best decision,” one of the Stars said in a gentle voice. Northerners were crazy but that didn’t mean they were apathetic. The lady knights understood how hard it was for a mother to entrust the fate of her child to someone else and looked at her with sympathy.

“That doesn’t make it any easier, but there aren’t any good options.” Yulia nodded jerkily. “Alright.”

The Star sitting next to her clapped Yulia on the shoulder. “Then we’ll split up.”

“I am strong enough to move on my own,” Talia said.

“Two of us will go with you anyway,” the same woman said. “We’ll break through their encirclement first, make sure they see us in the carriage. We’ll find a dark corner to drop off the kids and keep going, making sure we show off our faces. Then we’ll drop off Talia with two escorts. Lastly, Yulia with leave with the rest of us, except for the driver who will use the carriage as far away as possible. We all go our separate ways.”

Everyone in the carriage nodded with grim expressions, except Allen, too young to understand the reasons behind their tension as he clung to his mother fearfully.