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Content warning:
The following episode includes scenes of Self-harm and suicide which some viewers may find troubling. Reader discretion is advised.
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Marli acted immediately. She took Ero into her arms first, then Nala, to get both children out of reach of the fury. Then she jumped back towards the stairs. With quick steps, she descended from the stage where she could finally stretch. And also placed her little princess out of reach of her aunt on the floor. The coat fluttered wildly, revealing the sword on her left side.
"Nerre, you're insane," Judge Beldor exclaimed. His voice trembled at the thought of losing this treasure again. His fear tormented him even more. "It's an innocent child. What will your mother say when she finds out?"
"Nette stands for resistance against King Teron, just like her daughter. I won't allow my victory over the Amazons to be undone by this brat!"
"You know I can't simply hand over this child to an executioner," he expressed his fear. He didn't want Nala to suffer such a fate.
"For me, this child is just a stepping stone. And you can be sure that I will personally crush it if my sister doesn't comply."
So Nerre never intended to let her sister be executed. She should pay for her guilt alongside the king, who already bore the guilt of Nala's father's death. She couldn't impose a greater punishment on her stubborn sister. And she would resist it until the end. But there was a way. If it were her own daughter, with whom she forced the potential queen into blind obedience.
"I'm sorry," were the last words Marli directed to Judge Beldor. Contrary to her calm demeanor, the tall Amazon seized her sword. And before anyone could intervene, it lay close to Ero's neck.
With widened eyes, the child looked first at Nerre, then at his father. The people around them had now completely lost interest in the soldiers' entry with their prisoners. Now they watched the spectacle, just like Nette, in whose beautiful eyes stood pure fear for the life of her only daughter.
"If you follow me, I will kill the boy," the Amazon warned.
"Just flee wherever you want!" snarled Nerre. "I will find you and the child! There is no place where you can hide from me!"
Marli took a step back, followed by Nala. The child briefly glanced at her mother, into whose arms she would have liked to flee. Hoping that her mother would protect her above all else.
She didn't yet understand that this would be exactly what Nerre would find most beautiful at this moment. Mother and child in her hand.
He worried least about his own son. Marli loved children. She wouldn't harm the boy. Not even if Nerre pressured her.
The soldier didn't understand this, but her sister did.
Later, no one could say exactly how it happened. Who cut the bonds of some of the captured Amazons, including Nette's. Or where their swords came from, with which they killed the soldiers and cleared a path for their queen to rush to her daughter.
But she stood here, right in front of her sister.
"I won't allow you to harm my daughter," the woman shouted with all the fury of a loving mother.
Nala's cries rang out as one of the nearby farmers dragged her away. Someone had driven one of the horses to Marli, on whose back she now sat. The farmer handed her both children.
Then she urged the animal towards the gate with her thighs. Behind her, three more mounted Amazons who would fight their way out.
"You wouldn't harm your own sister, would you?" Nerre sneered.
"You're right, dear sister!" A smile appeared on the lips of the Amazon queen. "I'm not such a snake as you, attacking from ambush."
Her gaze turned back to where Marli disappeared with her daughter. Then she looked around.
The Amazons were hopelessly outnumbered by the soldiers. There was only this one hope that Nala would escape. So she decided on a diversion maneuver unexpected from all sides.
Nette raised her sword.
"Farewell, little sister!" the proud Amazon queen called out before plunging the sword into her own abdomen.
Some of the soldiers immediately set off in pursuit, but most of them stayed here, with the injured Amazon queen, who even so close to death, kept her smile. It was the mother's last desperate act to divert the pursuit of the fugitives. With her death, she believed, Nerre's interest in her daughter would cease.
And so Nette, the proud queen of the Amazons, died here before the eyes of all nobles, soldiers, and farmers. As a link between worlds.
A noblewoman who was at home in her childhood in their houses. As the daughter of a respected family from Saron who was supposed to become their queen. Instead, she chose to fight for the citizens in resistance.
Taking the secret of why she did this there instead of from the throne to her grave.
Lying in the dust, with a battered face, without looking defeated. In the arms of the judge who still tried to stop the bleeding.
Nerre let out a loud scream. No one dared to say whether it was out of grief for her sister or because her death thwarted her plan.