FINIS TANTUM PRINCIPIUM

[AndrewTech 2811]

✵ FINIS TANTUM PRINCIPIUM ✵

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The Wilds of the Cragenmarch

c. 1870

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It had been nearly three years since the Princess Imperial had disappeared to almost all that had known her. Doubtless, many by now likely thought that she was dead. Perhaps, she thought to herself, it was for the best.

 

“Whoa, Eden!” She cried out to her stallion, an white warhorse which she had adopted several years prior. As a private in the Imperial Legion, she had adopted the finely bred creature after the passing of her own spotted horse in the midst of battle, also incidentally named Eden. It was a name which she used for all of her horses, to honor those which had come before and which were yet to come.

 

Dismounting as they emerged from the forest, the lost princess hardly looked like a princess at all. She wore unassuming garments that not a soul would bat an eye at. A plain blouse, a pair of sturdy traveling boots, a hooded cape, and trousers. In lieu of a tiara she wore her trusty adventurer’s beret, an odd headpiece which she had found in the attic of the Augustine Palace decades prior.

 

Catherine had always enjoyed the wilderness. During the war, she would seek to slip out of the city during rare moments of peace to see the beauty of nature. As a naturalist and an artist, she enjoyed sketching the animals of the wild and collecting specimens for her own personal collection.

 

Not a week before, she had visited this very peak to sketch a live condor. For nearly a month prior, she had dedicated herself to speaking to, and earning the trust of, the local tribes in the Cragenmarch to locate the nest in question. It was a sacred bird to the people of the mountains. The trained physician had to spend ages healing the sick and the wounded through botanical and alchemical means before they would tell her of this place.

 

Of course, the condors were gone now. Summer had come, and they had likely set out for the rigid hills of the Haeseni Lowlands until the next migration season. But the ruins she had previously explored still stood proudly nearby, a monument to a civilization long since extinct.

 

It was here, in this most majestic of places, where the Princess Imperial had decided to seek solace. For having witnessed so much death and destruction, she found herself without the will to go on.

 

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In less than five years, she had lost almost everyone she had ever cared about. Her husband. Both of her parents. Arthur and Darya of Caermad. Laurentina…

 

Laurentina.

 

News of her suicide had been the breaking point. With her best friend’s departure from the world, everyone she had relied upon for support in her life had now since passed.

 

The collapse of the Penton Ministry and her failure to save the Empire as Vice Chancellor had driven her into a shameful exile, but these successive deaths had also pummeled her once proud spirit into the depths of depression and hopelessness. Once an optimistic and cheerful woman, the Princess Imperial was now oftentimes a gloomy and dreary individual.

 

To survive on the frontier, she had taken to trapping furs and playing ballands on her guitar for money. Occasionally, she would dispatch a monster or a restless spirit through means taught to her by Arthur of Caermad. And, of course, she continued to practice medicine, alchemy, and botany in her self-imposed exile.

 

Many straps and pouches adorned Catherine’s person, most of which she took a good deal of time removing as she ascended the ruined cliffside tower. However, she did take a moment to retrieve her pipe and a parcel of herbs after securing Eden’s reins to a nearby tree.

 

Ascending to the top, she sat with her legs crossed, staring out at the sunset. Night would fall soon but she felt no urgency to light a fire. Lighting her pipe, she began to partake of the herb. It was a relaxant which many of the natives used, one which she intended to try this night.

Hours passed as she stared at the sunset quietly. When she had finished with her smoke, she rose to her feet, taking a deep breath as she extended her arms outward.

 

For a moment, the lost princess considered jumping. The pain which she bore was too great. Her people, having splintered. Her closest friends, having perished. Perhaps Laury had the right idea…

 

…Perhaps ending it all would just be for the best. A short tumble down the cliff, and the nightmare that was her life would be over.

 

But Catherine never had the chance. Now thoroughly overcome by the herb’s effects, she simply fell onto her back, passing out in a blissful sleep which had eluded her for weeks.

 

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In her vision, Catherine found herself lying beneath an oak tree. Acorns were scattered about on the ground around herself, but the wood was bloodstained. 

 

It was the Lonely Tree, situated at the crossroads between Providence and Redenford. The site of a great battle where she had fought when she was naught but eighteen. 

 

“Rest well?” A figure next to her asked. He was a well toned man, a bearded fellow clad in armor characterized by dark steel with golden undertones. 

 

“I- Arthur?” She asked all of a sudden, her eyes widening with shock. “H-How…”

 

“Don’t fool yourself, kid,” The Hexer, who had fallen over a decade prior, replied to Catherine in a simple yet stoic manner. “I’m still dead, so don’t get too excited.”

“...Yes, I know that,” The princess, renown for her dedication to the empirical sciences, knew that this must be a dream. There was no other way to explain it. “Doubtless, you are a manifestation of some sort, a subconscious echo dwelling inside of my mind.”

“Always the egghead,” Arthur chuckled, crossing her arms as he looked over to her. “I must say though, princess. I am disappointed that you would even consider ending it all. I thought you were stronger than that.”

“I simply see no alternative,” Catherine replied with a sigh of defeat, staring out at the horizon. It was a familiar scene to her, the crossroads being a place she had traveled past many times prior. “They are all dead, Arthur. The country I once knew, the Empire, is gone. I am without a purpose or direction, caught in the duality of my own existence.”

 

“So you wanna join us to get out of it, huh?” The slayer of monsters frowned a bit, his gaze unwavering.

“It’s a shame that I didn’t have the option to run from my problems as you have from yours,” A female voice came from before her. “I died, in pursuit of my duty. For my obligations to my family. I did my best to bring them honor.”

 

Snapping her head to the side, Catherine saw Laurentina standing before her. Her eyes widened, but the scientist knew that she was only a manifestation of her innermost thoughts.

 

“We crossed an ocean in the pursuit of fulfilling ours,” The voice of the late Emperor, her father, came from another direction. She saw her mother standing nearby, who offered her daughter a stoic nod.

 

“And I dedicated mine to the Hexer Creed, that you might aspire to a higher purpose,” Darya added, now found sitting beside Arthur on the grass.

 

“I died a soldier’s death to protect the ones I loved,” Joseph, her late husband, stood dutifully near the deceased monarchs.

 

Catherine’s eyes fluttered about the orchard. Everyone was there… For a moment, she forgot her rationality, tears filling her eyes. “I just d-don’t know if I can carry on…” She murmured. “...I- I have to run. You must understand, I have to! I might as well die otherwise!”

 

“Then at least run in the right direction,” The Hexer spoke firmly, yet stoically. “Do you not remember the Gauntlet, princess?”

 

Slowly, Catherine nodded.

 

“You cannot simply give in every time you have been knocked prone,” Arthur grunted, continuing to stare at her. 

 

“I recall that you didn’t give up so easily then. You got straight up, and continued trying to cross it until you succeeded. I know that you have it in you to go on.”

 

At this, she was silent.

 

“And you must go on,” The manifestation of her swordsmanship instructor continued. 

 

“You still have a purpose in this world, Catherine. Ours have been realized, but your destiny is not yet at its end.”

“We’ll be with you until it is,” Darya said quietly.

“We promise, Cat. Forever and always…” Laurentina smiled in affirmation, extending her pinky finger forth in a manner characteristic of what her personality had been like in life.

 

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At that moment, Catherine awoke. Now lying beneath the starry sky of the Cragenmarch, her eyes fluttered open as she contemplated her existence.

 

She considered the words that had come from within. It was true that all of her family, all of her friends, that had perished had died in the line of duty. Their ends had come prematurely, yet hers had not. She had chosen to run away instead.

 

Finally, she sat upward. Catherine thought of her children, and as the faces of her son and daughters came to mind, the princess realized that she missed them. She wondered if Franz had become a promising young soldier yet, or if Anastasia had continued to finely hone her gift of artistry. Catherine wondered if her daughter Laurentina was still so energetic, or if Irene had grown any whittier and smarter.

 

And then she thought of her siblings. The very thought of her brothers quarreling over the throne, and of Peter dying at Frederick’s hand, still continued to haunt her. She had raised each and every one of them, she loved them, and it was a pain which continuously tortured her very soul. Doubtless, the civil war had shattered her surviving family, and she was nowhere to be found to mend it back together. Catherine could only pray that Victoria had been able to pick up the pieces. 

 

Her disparate family would need her. Catherine knew now that this was her duty, her purpose. To be a light unto them, and unto her people. She was the last Princess Imperial of a fallen empire, and she stood for something.

 

Rising once more, Catherine felt the grief and pain that she had been overcome by in recent weeks slowly fading away. She knew now that she wanted to go on. That although today was dreary, tomorrow would be better.

 

At the coming of the morning sun, she would ride for civilization. If she was to die, she would do so with pride and dignity at God’s chosen time, preserving the tattered Tapestry of Mankind. And she would do it in the same spirit as those she held most dear.

 

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Spoiler

I felt inspired to write this narrative from my character's POV to explain my OOC absence for finishing up my final projects over the last eventful few weeks. I'm soon to be done though and am excited to start RPing on the server again. Hope y'all enjoyed reading! Special credit to everyone's deceased characters mentioned in the vision section.

[Azie 657]

Her beloved eldest sister Catherine shone a light upon love--allowing the peaceful yet striking times to cast over Lorena. The disappearance of Catherine caused disparity and utter loss to overcome herself, the yearning and search commenced for a multitude of years, yet to no avail. The light was breached yet the search did not waiver as she continued the trek with tumultuous steps.  

[Taketheshot 3834]

11 minutes ago, Azie said:

Her beloved eldest sister Catherine shone a light upon love--allowing the peaceful yet striking times to cast over Lorena. The disappearance of Catherine caused disparity and utter loss to overcome herself, the yearning and search commenced for a multitude of years, yet to no avail. The light was breached yet the search did not waiver as she continued the trek with tumultuous steps.  

 

Leopold Edwin bounded after his older cousin as she did her usual pacing and brooding before departing on one of her trips. "Is the Cat coming back? Is the Cat coming back? Is the Cat coming back?" The Novellen youth jumped up and down as he assailed the Princess with questions regarding the whereabouts of Cat. 

[Fie 2519]

Laurentina smiles from within her husband's warm grasp, having been reunited with the man she so dearly loved. "She will make us proud," commented the woman to those dear to the Princess Imperial.