Even in the midst of her fury, she sounded as if she was on the verge of tears. Queen wanted to run over and see if she was all right, but her defenses and the pike prevented him from getting any closer.
A duel... He had likewise challenged her to a duel upon their very first meeting. (Not that she ever took him up on the offer.)
Nevertheless, Queen steeled his resolve. He dodged the next thrust from the pike and broke out into a run as if the chain on his leg wasn’t weighing on him in the slightest. There wasn’t a place to stand without a trap or a fence in the way, so Queen leaped on top of the fences, running along them with an animal-like balance and hurtling over any traps in his path.
A set of weights on strings—weapons called bolas, yet another of Fie’s proficiencies—flew at him. Queen caught them with his sword, and the bolas wrapped themselves around the blade. Perfectly timed, Fie jabbed at him with the pike just as he was about to hit the ground. He tried to deflect it with his sword, but the bola weights made it too heavy and unwieldy for him to maneuver properly. Realizing that the pike would hit, he twisted in midair to buy himself an extra second. The pike hit only air, and in that moment, Queen landed and yanked the bolas off his sword.
Finally, he squared off against Fie. The battle was still not over, and Fie switched her weapon to her trusty practice sword. Then she came at him, yelling again, “It’s not fair!”
The two had faced off against one another countless times in training, and thus Queen knew how to dodge her familiar attacks.
“You have all the talent!” she howled. “You have all the skill! Everyone expects you to do great things! And after we’re married, you’re just going to leave me behind and run off to be a knight!”
She continued to buffet him with blows as he twisted and dodged. This, too, was very much like their usual sparring matches, Fie pouring everything into her one-sided offense with Queen easily dodging each of her attacks. The fact that Queen never fought back infuriated her. He was not an opponent she could defeat in open combat, hence why she challenged him with all the traps and know-how she had at her disposal. And yet, no matter what she did, she was little match for him.
She had spent enough time with Queen to know that this wasn’t a totally effortless battle for him. But it was only a typical amount of exertion; Queen could be working harder if he wanted to. And Fie was making an effort as well. She knew she could never defeat him in sheer physical strength, so she tried and tried and tried to think up ways to compensate for her shortcomings, but she still couldn’t bridge this gap between them.
The reason for Queen’s strength was evident; he possessed a brilliant natural talent. He was strong just by virtue of being Queen. And Fie, by virtue of being Fie, was no match for him.
“I’ve worked so hard!” she yelled. “For a whole year, I put in so much effort, and yet!”
Suddenly, the moonlight illuminated her face, and Queen could see the tears in her eyes.
“And yet I can’t be a knight! Even though I worked just as hard as any one of you, I can’t be a knight!”
Finally, Queen understood.
Once they married, the two of them would begin to walk down their respective paths in life together, but the path of the knighthood would remain open only to Queen. Here, Fie’s life would diverge and go in a different direction. Queen had witnessed all the hard work she had put into becoming a knight, but her whole year of effort now came to nothing.
How could he possibly respond to this? He opened his mouth, hoping to give her some words of comfort, and then closed it once more when the answer came to him. Fie was no damsel in distress needing a brave knight’s rescue.
Instead, Queen lifted his sword and swung at her with all his strength to turn her blade. Her sword was swept from her hand and sent wheeling through the air. She tried to grab another weapon, but before she could retaliate, he slapped her forearm down with as much strength as he could, and she lost her grip. The pain brought fresh tears to her eyes, and she hesitated, unsure whether to reach for a different weapon with her other hand. Then she looked once more at Queen, bearing down on her with everything he had, and sighed in defeat. She knew that no matter what she tried, she stood little chance of winning. She had known that going into this battle; still, wasn’t it a victory of a sort if she managed to make Queen fight back for the first time? And yet...it was to be the first and last time.
“I guess our last match is another loss...” she whispered.
Then Queen pulled her into his arms and hugged her with all his might. At the top of his lungs, he vowed, “Fie, I swear that I will make you happy! Even if you don’t become a knight, I swear I will make you so happy that you won’t ever regret this! I swear! I swear that I won’t leave you alone! I promise!”
She looked down at the hand he had injured and smiled slightly. She nodded and said, “I’ll hold you to that, mister.” Then she kissed him under the moonlight.