Keres

Leitmotif: Final Fantasy XV - Somnus
Art by Hiro


The most hammy backstory ever, in an exercise to include as many cliché things as possible:

Keres is the 13th and last princess, but not because the queen has passed – the king and queen would say she is the perfect child they were waiting for. Her siblings indulge her, although they never stay in the castle for long. There is always a war they have to fight, an army each of them have to lead, another country to liberate and add to their own kingdom.

It is by chance that she meets a general from one of the armies in the garden, his face drawn with fatigue and misery. He wears the saddest smile Keres has ever seen as he bows, and she is compelled to ask, despite their differences in station. The general looks startled, but he only tells her it is not a topic for conversation with a lady. In subsequent months, she watches him come and go in that familiar pattern of presence and absence, his misery prolonged and enduring, until she decides this is something she can mend.

Deimos seems surprised at the abrupt transfer from the army to her side, but there is unspoken gratitude in his gestures and steadfast devotion, and his smile now is as it should be. Keres smiles back, and she knows everything is now in its rightful place.

There is no siege bringing the castle down – Keres only wakes to chaos. Deimos is at her side in moments, throwing a cape around her shoulders, and then they are fleeing. A riderless horse lends them speed past the arrows and the cavalry, but it isn’t until Deimos dismounts in the forest that she understands she will be alone. The briefest brush of lips against the back of her hand, and then he is gone to meet their pursuers.

Already her kingdom’s name is forgotten, the slaughter of her family gone from the people’s memory. Keres doesn’t hesitate when a bodiless voice offers her power, uncaring of the cost. She revives her knight, and though Deimos is encased in black armour and unable to speak, his loyalty is proof enough of his identity. There is nothing she wants now, but to see the kingdom that wronged her brought to its knees, and then she will make it the funeral pyre for her own beloved country.