"Have you lost your mind?" Duke Frederic snapped, and even Clementine couldn't help but falter.
"The Emperor requested a male, a male heir from each house. Do you suppose he'll take kindly to us disobeying him, Clementine? Besides-" the Duke scoffed, running a hand through his white hair. "You've never held a sharp object in your life, and now you want to go gallivanting off to some battlefield to die? Don't fool yourself, child, you'd not last a day." The Duke's voice seethed low, shaking his head as if he could be driven to fury by the mere thought. Something clawed at Clementine to keep her head down - but for once, she ignored it and stepped forward, crossing into her father's space. The man was surprised enough to step back.
"Do you think I'm unaware of the nature of war, Father? No- I know war, I know what happens in it - and I know you will die fighting in it. You are too frail to survive what it'll require of you. I'm younger, faster - I will disguise myself. No one will discover me."
Duke Frederic sputtered, his eyes widening before silent fury overtook them once more. "Do you think the bloodshed of such conflict can be captured between the pages of a sanitized history book, Clementine? Because it can't be. You may think you know war simply because you've heard of it- but it's as if saying you know a dragon's scales despite only having seen them in the illustrations of an encyclopedia. It's like saying you speak the tongues and know the streets of a city despite only having seen its name in an atlas - you cannot possibly comprehend it. A war will eat you, child, no matter who you are - and even if you were a son, I'd not have let it consume you!"
"I can't let you go off to die, Father!" Clementine shouted back. "Don't you see? The plot the Emperor is setting into motion, asking for a man from every house? He knows there aren't any left in our house but you! And he knows about my blood!"
"What on earth are you saying, Clementine?" her father asked, and she pointed her finger into his chest, the desperation clawing back her restraint. "My blood! The Levici curse! Don't you see? The power our house holds over the Emperor - a safeguard against Death itself? Do you think the Emperor would overlook something like that? Do you think he'd have let me be without you to protect me?"
The Duke hesitated at that, blinking at her as she glared up at him, clenching her fists. Did he see her, then? The wraith that she had become in those dungeons, peeking through his unmarred daughter? That it seemed she would become again if Fate repeated itself? No, she couldn't - she wouldn't. She would never be that weak again.
"Emperor Belindo would never be that cruel, child.." her father breathed. "Not to us. You forget- you forget that he is your blood. He would never commit such a thing - especially not against his kin."
"You are so blind…" Clementine muttered, "- to think that something like that would matter to a man on his deathbed…"
"Do you honestly think it would come to that?" the duke asked. "You, a mere ingredient in medicine? Even if it did-"
"I know it would, Father…" she replied. "And I think you know too. You are just deluding yourself into thinking I'd be safe without you because you have no faith in me, and see no other choice.."
The Duke hesitated, frowning down at her. "Then tell me what other choice I have, Clementine. Sending you to die in my stead? No, child, if you had little chance to survive here, what chance do you have on a battlefield?"
"A chance…" she said softly. "If I stay here without you I will have no chance at all, Father. At least on a battlefield - I could fight. I could defend myself. I could survive. If I stay here - and the Emperor - if the Emperor sends his men-"
She hesitated. The silence hung between them, thick and heavy as the Duke considered her words, not able to refute her when even he knew on some level that she spoke the truth. He had seen firsthand the depravity of the Emperor - depravity not even Clementine knew of, in her five years in his castle, she had mercifully only seen the walls of a dungeon.
"Tell me your plan, then." he said softly. "If you think you will have a chance out there. You have only a few months to prepare. And then it's off to the mud with you, if you so dare to go in my place."
"I'll disguise myself as a man. I will cut my hair short, and bind my chest. I will train to my utmost." Clementine said. "I can say - I can say that I'm sickly, to excuse my scrawniness in comparison to the other men.."
Her father just stood and looked at her, his blue gaze filled with so much scrutiny and concern. Clementine felt small under his gaze, like a child that had broken a vase, but she kept her back straight. No - she had seen what was to come, what would happen if her father let his pride and values overshadow his judgment.
The Levici Manor in flames, and she, a deserted waif in the depths of Emperor Belindo's dungeons.
The Duke hesitated, he could see something in her, a look in her eyes that hadn't been there yesterday.
But he walked over to her.
"Father-" she started, shaking her head. "I swear to you that I will keep myself alive - just let me go in your stead - I will fight-"
He hugged her close, holding her to him like she was still a child.
"I know you will…" he muttered softly. "But that does not make me worry any less…"
He pulled back and closed his eyes with a sigh.
"I… will train you. I will have you run and ride until your hands are callous and your body strengthens. If - and only if - I deem you to be strong enough… I-"
She hugged him in turn, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I will be strong enough. I promise…"
"You won't be…" his voice was almost mournful. "Even as much as you or I will hope you to be… you won't be… but - I will train you nonetheless. Prove to me that you will survive, and perhaps…
Perhaps I will have more than just one choice…"