"Don't worry, I trust the royal guard will be able to hold off the enemy army long enough, you should go now", says a man.
"But what about you?", says another woman.
"Don't worry about me, I need to stay here, a captain always goes down with his ship. Besides, what kind of king would I be if I were to escape and leave my soldiers to die defending their home country?".
This man is the king of the Gaeran kingdom, the palace in which he resides in is currently being besieged by the army of an alliance of human kingdoms.
"General Vircaran, how is the situation outside?" A man clad in armor bows in front of the king and says: "My liege, our forces are able to hold off the enemy army outside the walls, however we don't know how long our defenses will last."
Outside the walls of the palace, a fierce battle is going on between the attacking human army and the Gaerans, a race capable of flight and with great magical capabilities. This fact had allowed them to invade other countries and occupy them easily, however some countries have allied together and vowed to stop this warmongering country and liberate the occupied countries. Years of fierce battles and warfare have led to their current predicament.
Although the Gaerans easily outmatch the humans in terms of battle prowess, the sheer number and the technological capabilities, that humans have relied on for centuries to secure their survivability in this hostile world, allows them to overcome their disadvantage against the Gaerans.
The woman, who is the queen of the Gaerans, follows the wishes of the king against her will and escapes from the palace, but not empty-handed. She's holding what seems to be a large basket, inside it appears to be a bundle of cloths. She goes into one of the many hallways of the palace and stops in the middle. She looks to her right and presses a brick in the wall below a particular painting, this opened a secret passage along the hallway. Upon entering she makes sure to also close the passage again.
At this point, the attacking forces managed to break through the gates of the walls. Battering rams have destroyed the gates, catapults lunging explosives wreak havoc upon the defending forces. Though the Gaerans put up a decent fight, they got overwhelmed and killed by the dozens. The Gaeran soldiers knew their effort was futile and that the attackers will inevitably reach the palace and when that happens, they fear the worst…
The queen was running as quick as she could through a system of tunnels holding the large basket. The width of the tunnels are just big enough to fit one person. The walls are also damp and moldy. The tunnel system was built many decades ago, but this is the first time it has been used. The royal family hoped to never need to use the tunnels, but alas it has come to this. After a moment, she sees a faint light and continues in that direction.
Once she reaches it, she finds herself at the exit of the secret passages blocked by bushes, leading beneath the hill that the palace is built on. She pushed aside the bushes to exit the passageway. She turned around to look at the palace in the distance and could hear the fierce battle going on. She hoped to have gotten away without anybody noticing her, but the enemies were smart enough to also have troops patrolling the surrounding areas, to look for people trying to escape.
She knew she wouldn't be able to escape without getting spotted, but she heard the flow of a river in the vicinity. She approaches the river and crouches down to get closer.
She then places the basket on the river and says: "My dear, I'm going to have to leave you. I would have loved to see you grow up and for us to become a happy family, but faith has decided that that day will never come. With this I hope at least you will be able to grow up and live a happy life. This is my last-ditch effort, so please…"
She couldn't finish her sentence and tears started to flow. She released the basket, which has a baby inside it. The river flow drags the basket downstream, to an unknown destination far away from the palace.
The queen stands up and looks back to the palace, "…Sorry dear, I know I promised you I would escape with our child, but I just can't leave you to die on your own."
So, she returns to the palace, ready to die beside her husband defending what is important to them. She returns through the same way she escaped from and goes through the secret passages. She enters the hallway again and it doesn't seem like the enemy has breached the palace itself just yet. She runs toward the throne room, but before she could reach it, she was met with a bunch of soldiers. Enemy soldiers.
She prepares herself to fight them and readies what seems to be a magic incantation. A bright red light flashes and two soldiers get thrown back with what seem like burn marks. She was wielding fire magic and throwing it at her enemies, she managed to bring down a good number of the soldiers, but she grimaced when more soldiers started to approach from around the corner. One of the soldiers walking among them looked to be dressed better than the others.
She assumes he is the commander, the man said: "Well, well, well, … if it isn't the queen herself. How hospitable of you to greet us like this."
"It's only fit when receiving a foreign delegation. The delegation in question being an invading army."
"I'm surprised you still have the courage to fight on, but would you still be able to when learning that the king has already perished?"
The queen then started to tremble upon hearing the news.
"Oh, look at you now, huh? Your husband was a very stubborn one, you know? We gave him the option to surrender, but all he did was ready his sword and scream 'You won't take the throne from the Taurcaran family without a fight!'. However, before he could even get a hit on me, I managed to cut his ugly head off from his shoulders. He really wasn't anything special."
With that the queen started to emit a large aura of magic and went on a rampage, "You fuckers will pay for this!"
She utilized not only fire magic, but also wind magic, creating a fire tornado, killing dozens of the soldiers blocking the hallway.
"Kill that bitch!" ordered the commander. More soldiers started to appear and she realized that she would get overrun, but that doesn't mean she would not give it her all in a final stand.
When she was preparing another volley of magic, she suddenly got hit with a wave of exhaustion, indicating that she had reached her limit.
Upon noticing this, the soldiers approached her, ready to end her life. She knew her end was nigh and all she could think of at the moment, was how she wished she could have seen her husband one last time...