A Heavy Burden

"Here. Take care of my son."

The tall servant with grizzly hair wanted to protest, but he himself wasn't as confident in his battle skills as Mirild was, so he complied without questioning.

Thomas held the baby in his arms and before the soldiers could advance, Mirild quickly grabbed a short sword from the stash behind her. It was a beautifully curved sword with the blade made of shimmering silver metal, with a dark red colored hilt.

"A level 42? Could this be Mirild, the early spouse candidate of Eneris?" The high ranked soldier exclaimed with a serious expression. He followed the sentence with a louder order:

"Get her! Before she draws more of them!"

One of the soldiers advanced immediately, carrying two of his blades on the hands. Nothing in the vision of the baby Josiah hinted Mirild could withstand a charge like that, but one clash with that simple shiny sword and the guy got thrown back, his body falling with the back to the floor.

Another soldier started an attempt on his own.

"Idiots! Attack at the same time! She's going to best you all!" The high ranked officer yelled angrily.

Josiah could not understand the physics all behind that:

'Did mom just beat an armored guy with that skinny scrap of metal? Since she actually put on a decided face and went for it, I thought she was going to outfight them with accuracy somehow, but it looks like the sword was far stronger in her hands. A single clash and the guy was down… Did the other one mention level 42? What is that? Some sort of quantification I don't know?'

The other soldier who was still a few steps behind threw a dagger towards Mirild, which she defended with the bracelet she had around her arms. The dagger fell to the floor with a strong impact, causing the stone tile to crack.

'What are those weapons made of?' Josiah observed in awe.

Mirild started advancing with slow steps towards the high ranked officer and the other soldier who wasted the last attack. It was visible on their faces they were reluctant.

The soldier was the first one to try a swing, but not only Mirild's weapon seemed otherwordly strong, but the speed which she could use for her swings outclassed his, probably because of the light weight of the short sword.

The last soldier fell to the floor, leaving only their boss standing.

Josiah was observing all the events under the arms of Thomas, who couldn't help at all, as he was stuck taking care of him. He was sort of in the way since the passage was very narrow. He was currently only a few steps behind Mirild, leaning aside one of the walls.

The officer manifested himself:

"So this is the power of the great Mirild? Hah hah. But I know your weak point."

He jumped suddenly with a lethal swing against the undefended servant, carrying the baby in his hands.

"Thomas, watch out!" Mirild screamed.

She couldn't help but move her body in front of the attack, letting herself be cut instead of her son.

"Madam!" Thomas shouted.

'You dirty old bastard!' Josiah tried to scream, letting an angry noise out.

"Now I got you!" The enemy's right-hand sword was still recovering from the blow, so he swung the other one with all the might he could gather, carrying the most decided face he could get; the eyebrows merging into one and the veins popping up on his forehead.

But Mirild parried that second swing with the bracelet she had on the wrist of her non-sword arm.

After the officer's failed attempt, his eyes had admitted defeat. Mirild finished him off with another swing, bringing his body down like the others'.

"Come on, let's go! More might be coming!" She shouted. Her voice sounded hoarser than normal.

He obeyed and started running to the end of the passage. Mirild ran right after, but after a while, it was clear her speed wasn't matching the pace, as she kept letting herself lag more and more behind.

The secret passage opened up to an open under a bridge. Josiah cared to look back once they were outside, and as the kitchen secret door under the wall, the fissure couldn't be seen even from a close distance. As Mirild had said earlier, they were close to the farmlands. They climbed up the marsh, then a small hillock, and then they could see the farmlands right in front of them. Josiah didn't exactly understand much about plants but he was pretty sure he never saw those before.

It was then that Thomas stopped to pay attention to Mirild:

"Madam…?"

"I…"

In the pressure of the moment, Thomas forgot about the blow she had to endure in order to protect him and the child. The bloodstain was now visible even under the clothes, in the area of her chest.

"Madam! We need to find a doctor! Wait a second, I believe we have some healing medication here…"

Mirild let her hurt body lower in a curved position, trying to withstand the pain the best she could.

"The box… Where is the box?"

"It's no use, Thomas…"

Mirild's voice was decisive.

"I… I know my body better than anyone else. Plus… we let the box on the floor during the confront anyway."

Josiah kept staring at his mother in disbelief. Thomas also couldn't think of what to say.

"Let me… Speak to my child… Let me carry him in my arms one last time."

Thomas handled Josiah to her, and she sat down on the grass, holding him on her lap.

"Josiah… My dear Josiah…" She approached her face to his. He could see the tender light green of her eyes. Josiah fell a moment of connection like she was his biological mother… For an instant, it felt like Dirtswamp Point never happened.

"If it was not by the enemy outside, it would have been the enemy inside. Either way, this all happened because of him. Josiah… Please… Avenge your mother. Take the throne that belongs to you. And put some sense back into your father's head."

Josiah let out a baby noise of understanding. His mother caressed his head.

"Thomas…" She asked. "I leave him to you. Never let him forget… Who he really is."

"U…Understood, madam." Thomas' words came out stammered as he wiped his eyes.

And thus, the one-day-old Josiah witnessed his mother go away right under his eyes.