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Thalia gazed though the crack of the wooden door. Her beautiful, little blue kobold sat at a desk inside. Elaine's face was clutched in her small, scaled hands. Her pretty scales were still cracked and marred. Her gaze was blank, uncomprehending. Oh, poor Elaine.

A book lay open the desk, but she hadn't turned the page since Thalia had cracked the door open to spy on her many minutes ago. What plagued her thoughts? What horrible memories bubbled to the surface to haunt the brave little woman?

Thalia rapped lightly on the door.

Elaine jerked. Then she stilled, breathing heavily. She closed the book and wiped her eyes. When she stood, an unconscious hand rested on her round, scaly belly. She wobbled and winced in pain.

“Thalia?" Elaine asked. Her voice was low for a kobold, resonant and lovely.

“It's me," Thalia said softly, pushing open the door.

Elaine didn't startle well anymore. Thalia did her best to catch the kobold's attention gently whenever she could. It was hard. Any light touch to her shoulder might cause the poor woman to jerk back with wide eyes, cowering away from her. Then, shame would creep into her scaly face, and Thalia would feel even worse.

Thalia knelt to wrap the kobold in a gentle hug, then guided her over to sit on the bed. She knew the proud kobold hated being treated as infirm, but Thalia hated seeing the terror and panicked flashes of memory in her eyes even more.

Elaine spoke first. “The executions were this morning," she said. She stared forward with a hard, cold glare.

Thalia nodded. “It's over. May they burn in The Sun's fire for eternity."

Three men had been sentenced to death for their crimes against the knight-banneret: the merchant Jesper, the squire Antony, and the guardsman Tolis. Sir Roderik had additionally been shamed and stripped of his knighthood for breaking his oath and willfully turning his back on a knight in need.

Thalia would never tell Elaine about her screaming matches with the city's high judge and her father as she demanded justice. The kobold didn't need to know how close her rapists had come to escaping any consequence.

“Good," Elaine said quietly.

“Are you okay?" Thalia asked.

Elaine's voice dropped to a whisper. “I wish to try again. I know it will not work. I wish so badly to try."

Thalia shivered. She knew exactly what Elaine meant.

A month ago, Elaine's screaming had woken up the entire wing of the castle. Guards and servants rushed to help. Two knights in nightclothes barged in with thrown-on mail and short swords drawn. Thalia herself had sprinted down the corridors for her love, expecting the worst.

They found Elaine curled up on the floor in her nightgown in a macabre display. Blood drenched the fabric around her crotch and pooled on the floor. It stained the scales of her good hand crimson.

That image had plagued Thalia's nightmares as well. The worst of it was the horrifying clump of viscera, disgusting flesh shorn apart with claws, clutched in Elaine's bloody fist. The room reeked of death and suffering.

The bloodied kobold gazed up at her horror-struck audience. Tears spilled down her cheeks, but her stony expression barely twitched. She croaked, “I need a healing potion."

Thalia held Elaine while they waited. The kobold was unnervingly calm, despite the intense pain she was clearly in. Thalia couldn't ever truly know how the poor woman must have felt in that moment. She could only try to understand.

But it hadn't worked. Elaine was bedridden for days as her insides knit slowly back together with the help of the alchemical tincture. Once she could walk, Thalia helped her down to the orrery for a thorough examination. Even the court wizards were shocked to find that the bastard fetus had regrown inside Elaine as well.

The wizards had discussed, debated, and argued over all sorts of magic that might disentangle Ranulf's enchantment from her womb. Elaine had just stared blankly at the wall. Thalia hugged her tight.

Now, Thalia rubbed the kobold's back as they sat together on the bed. Her fingers glided gently over cracked scales and raw patches where smooth, brilliant blue scales had started to regrow. “When it comes out," she said, swallowing. “I can end it for you."

Elaine just nodded blankly.

“Elaine?"

“I should do it," the kobold said. Finally, she choked up. Thalia guided Elaine's head to her chest to cry.

“You don't have to," Thalia said. “You've been through enough."

***

Thalia stared down from the royal seats of the Nefelihold amphitheater, concerned. She hadn't wanted Elaine to enter. Almost a year had passed, but Elaine still woke up shaking and crying in bed with Thalia. The kobold no longer cowered when startled, but she still flinched with a wild look in her fierce, amber eyes.

Thalia had confidence in the brave kobold knight. She'd watched her training in the grounds, day in, day out. The woman had worked herself to physical and mental exhaustion, especially during her pregnancy, much to the horror of the castle's healers.

They didn't understand.

Elaine had sat down with a kindly old healer who told her every food and behavior to avoid while pregnant. She thanked the man for his advice, then turned around and spited every last word.

She devoured the foods she was meant to avoid. She drank a full, human-sized glass of wine with every dinner. Elaine was no drunkard, but one night she locked herself in a room with Thalia to watch over her, then forced down enough whiskey to lay her out on the floor. She woke up dazed, vomited, and then tried again.

She demanded boxing matches with other knights and let them beat her. She spat out blood and demanded a rematch.

And, of course, she trained herself relentlessly. Knights, guards, and even squires knew when to avoid the training grounds for fear of being asked to spar. The unfortunate souls who hadn't known better would limp away, nursing broken limbs to the apothecary.

Thalia had to sit Elaine down and tell her to take it easier, not just out of concern for her, but also because of the sudden costs incurred by the treasury for the hellishly expensive healing potions. The treasurer had begged her to calm Elaine down. He was petrified of asking her himself.

The kobold had grown hard towards the other castle residents. In the past, she had earned a grudging respect by exceeding every expectation set for her. Now, a terrifying reputation built out of the kobold's cold glares and brutal lethality.

It was only in quiet, in Thalia's warm arms, that Elaine admitted how alone she felt, how afraid she was of everyone around her. The poor thing so desperately wanted the other knights to like her. Yet, the betrayal of Antony and Sir Roderik felt like a betrayal by every single knight of the castle.

Thalia bit her lip. She scanned the floor of the dusty amphitheater.

She watched with worry as Elaine's squire, Pacey, buckled the straps of her armor in preparation for the melee. It couldn't be healthy for her to keep that dull young man around. She knew everything he had done to her. Over the course of months, Elaine had admitted the whole horrifying story of her hellish experience.

Once, she cautiously asked Elaine why she had let that blasted, dim-wit rapist stay around her. Elaine just told her, “I will not allow him to hurt anyone else."

Thalia didn't believe her, but she also dreaded making it worse for Elaine. The kobold needed support from her right now, not pushback. Even if it seemed like she was punishing herself by babysitting a constant reminder of her rapes.

The squires finished preparing their knights. The other combatants threw nervous looks towards the small figure whose horns, both whole and broken, jutted from the back of her helmet. An armored tail dragged behind her.

Then, the melee started.

Thalia knew how it would play out. She had from the minute after Elaine gave birth.

Tears had poured down the kobold's cheeks. She'd gripped the dagger in trembling fingers until Thalia gently took it from her.

Thalia's own heart pounded as she lined the blade up to the crying kobold babe's throat. Just a quick, clean cut, and the little girl's life would be over as soon as it began.

“Don't," Elaine gasped.

“Ranulf will come for her," Thalia said quietly.

“He won't," Elaine hissed. “Not from his grave."

Sir Elaine, The Sapphire General, Knight-Banneret of Nefelihold, was ruthless. Armor crunched under her blunted sword. There was no decorum to her fighting. A bestial savagery combined with precise swordsmanship to rend through her opponents.

Elaine's competition dropped like flies. They groaned on the packed earth floor, beaten down by the kobold's brutal blows. Squires rushed in to drag them free, so they could shed their armor and treat their wounds.

It was like watching a slaughter. To the end, Elaine faced no real competition. The crowd looked on in stunned silence as Elaine dispatched the last remaining knight with a momentous blow of her hand-and-a-half sword that caved in her opponent's pauldron. Thalia could almost hear the crunch. Elaine simply sheathed her sword and walked quietly back to Pacey as the second-place winner screamed and writhed on the ground.

She accepted the laurel wreath placed on her head. She bowed respectfully to the audience.

That night, Thalia held her kobold lover close. She hugged and congratulated her. She kissed her passionately. But then, Elaine told her the news that she knew was coming. It made her weep anyway. But she understood.

The next morning, Pacey buckled the kobold's armor and hooked Eaglescreech onto her belt.

Elaine wouldn't return without Ranulf's severed head.