#sirwalter

Fire. That was all she could see in every direction she looked. Fire and the shadows of crumbling homes and businesses. She spotted a destroyed bell tower in the middle of the buildings and knew where she was.

Bowerstone Old Quarter.

In the distance she could see the silhouette of the Castle looming over the town.

She began to walk, then jog, then broke into a run as she tried to reach the castle.

Yet the town seemed to stretch forever, and the castle came no closer.

Yet she kept running, running, running for what felt like forever before the landscape began to change and she started to slow back down to a walk. At first it was ashes, blowing on gusts of wind, but soon they changed to grains of sand.

The fire and burning buildings and cratered cobblestone roads soon changed to a bright, blinding sky and endless seas and dunes of sand, with bits of ruins scattered here and there.

She looked around, finding herself on a large stone staircase, the desert ahead of her, and behind her a doorway, leading into nothing but darkness and a haunting chill down her spine as she gazed into it, eventually forcing herself to turn around as the feeling of dread creeped into her body.

Then she heard a familiar voice calling out for her.

Walter…

She began to move, making out his form just ahead in the sandy winds. She approached then stopped, noticing something was wrong.

He was hunched over slightly, hands outstretched and the sound of his voice…he sounded terrified, tired.

With a sinking feeling she realized what was happening, and where they must have just come out from.

“Walter…?” She hesitantly called out and saw him turn to her and he came closer, calling her name again. Now facing her she saw his eyes, cloudy and red.

He was blind.

No…no no not this again please I can't do this again.

She began to approach him again, but stopped in her tracks as he began to speak, in a voice that didn't quite sound like his own.

“Why…why did you leave me to die here…?” The older man rasped, arms outstretched trying to grab her as he staggered forward, while she stepped back.

As he neared her she could see an inky blackness beginning to seep from his eyes and mouth, quickly staining his face and beard and mustache, dripping onto his clothing and forming puddles of blackness in the shifting sands beneath their feet.

An invisible force blocked her from moving back anymore and she stared ahead at the old man, trembling and shaking trying to wake herself up because she had to be dreaming, this wasn't real, he didn't die in Aurora…she shut her eyes, still trying to wake up, and soon realized she could only hear the wind through the sand.

She began to slowly open her eyes only to see him still there, staring and mouth wide open.

Suddenly he screamed, clutching his head and doubling over in pain.

She tried to move towards him now, an instinct taking over to care for him, but she couldn't.

She looked down to see the same darkness encasing her feet and slowly creeping up her legs.

Looking around she saw strands of the same darkness seemingly frozen in mid air, as well as sand and pieces of ruins floating frozen as well, like what had become of the Sanctuary during the war.

With nothing else she could do she turned her attention back to Walter, who was still screaming and now seemed to be trying to plead with something that wasn't there.

But it is there, of course.

Hiding in his soul, in his mind, trying to make him hurt you…

Suddenly the man tried to reach for her again just before he fell at her feet, his hand mere inches away from her leg, fingers twitching slightly as the darkness quickly pooled under him and started to drag him down.

“No…no! Walter! Let him go, give him back…! Walter!” She shouted, the darkness creeping further up her body and keeping her back, watching as Walter's body sank into the inky nothingness, slowly bubbling still like he was still alive in there.

She shook more, still trying to get to him even with tears pouring down her face and the darkness growing around her arms now.

Soon enough she began to think…’why am I trying? What good would it do, he's already dead…dead because of you. If you had just obeyed Logan Walter would not have wanted to leave with you. You'd still be at the castle, cozied up after training without a care in the world…and yet you made him come along on this journey, dragged him into that Auroran cave. You unleashed the darkness. Now you will suffer its curse forever!’

A disembodied voice cackled all around her, shadows forming from the black puddles, forming and growing out into giant, bone-like hands reaching and closing around her like a cage.

And she thought he's right.

This all started because I couldn't just be happy at the castle, because I had to be the righteous, good one. And what did it get me…? Logan's problems, the kingdom's problems and losing Walter…the fight began to leave her body the more she thought about it, the more she believed what the Crawler told her, whispering in her ear every negative thought she'd had since leaving the castle- why couldn't I just stay ignorant? Why did Elise have to tell me what was happening? Why…why did it have to be Walter?

She became…not quite frozen, but stuck. She couldn't move, nor did she want to. The blackness spread beneath her, beginning to leak from her eyes and mouth as it took her body over, consuming her as the raspy, low voice kept whispering, then shouting and screaming.

The whole war was her fault, Walter's blood was on her hands- the ink that had reached her palms turned red, as well as other patches staining her clothes from black to red- and so was the blood of many innocent townsfolk, Elise's blood…she had killed so many more than she had saved…how could they ever think she was anymore fit for the throne than Logan was…?

“-lla! Willa, wake up!”

The sand, inky blackness, blood and raspy voice faded away quickly, dissolving into a low lit room, a red and gold embroidered canopy across four bed posts above her, and a face…hold on, she knew that face…the voice stopped, grey-blue eyes watching her with concern as she slowly sat up, looking around the room almost as if she didn't know where she was, but she did know, though it took her a minute to think of it.

The royal monarch's bedroom of Albion Castle.

She started to come more to her senses now, coming to the realization that what she experienced was nothing more than a…very frightening nightmare.

Finally she looked back, feeling a hand on her arm and hearing him speak again.

“Willa? You there, my girl?”

She studied his face, trying to catch her still sleepy brain up to being suddenly awake- grey blue eyes, wrinkles on his face, a few freckles and a scar on his cheek, half hidden by his salt and pepper beard.

Walter.

She reached for him, touching his beard and face, still so very shaken by her nightmare she almost believed he was really dead.

But as she felt he was warm, breathing and moving- alive.

As it started to suddenly weigh on her what happened she threw herself into his arms, clinging to him as she began to sob into his shoulder.

Big arms came around to hold and comfort her, and it helped. His hugs always felt like safety and home…he held her for a good thirty minutes, maybe an hour, she didn't know but they stayed there, her sobbing and him stroking her hair and back, shushing her and murmuring words of comfort to her and rocking her side to side just as he had done for her as a child.

Once her crying eased down to hiccups and short gasps to get her breathing back on track she sat back some, still holding onto him. He brought a hand up to her face, cupping her cheek and brushing tears away with a calloused thumb.

“What did you see this time, my girl?”

She leaned into his hand, closing her eyes and scrunched her face a bit before opening them again, and she felt herself trembling now- had she been before? “…I started in Bowerstone, in the old quarter surrounded by nothing but fire and ruined buildings. I began to move, I think I was trying to reach the castle but it was like I got nowhere. But I kept running anyway and eventually we…we were in the Shifting Sands in Aurora…it was like when we came out of that cave. You were blind and couldn't find me even though I was just out of reach. The darkness was leaking from your eyes and mouth. You said I had left you to die but I didn't. Then you just froze, like you were silently screaming. Then you were actually screaming, fell to your knees like you were in pain and…you were. I tried to go to you but I couldn't move. The Crawler's darkness had me trapped. Then you…collapsed and didn't move again. I think…I think it killed you, and your body sank into the darkness. Then the desert changed and I could hear him. He said…he said everything was my fault, that you were hurt…dead, because I couldn't just sit by for what Logan was doing. I couldn't just ignore what was happening to the people. And then I was covered in blood, the darkness was taking me over and he just kept whispering then shouting about how it was all my fault, that I started the war and that I'm not…I'm not meant for this, that I'll be just as bad as Logan was…” she leaned into him, closing her eyes and taking a deep, shaky breath trying not to cry again.

Walter just listened, let her speak as he stroked her hair again. When she finished he took a deep breath himself. He didn't like thinking about their time in Aurora anymore than she did.

“Listen to me, Wilhelmina. What happened there was not your fault. None of this was your fault. Logan needed to be stopped. If not then we would all be dead. You did what had to be done. And what would that centipede from hell know anyway? He's dead and gone now, and how could you be like Logan? You spared his life despite everything. You kept your word to Brightwall, Mourningwood, Paige. You're far better than Logan was even before you took the crown. You spared Saker, helped Sabine and his Dwellers. I know getting this far wasn't easy. I wish we could have changed things without putting you through so much and…I suppose so much at stake on your shoulders. And me going with you at all? That was my decision. Jasper and I would give our lives for you no matter what.” He hugged her warm and tight.

“I'll always be proud of what you've accomplished, all the good you've done as a rebel princess and a wonderful queen. No matter what. You're every bit the hero I always knew you could be.” He kissed her head, while she sniffled and buried her face against him, smiling a little.

“Thank you, Walter. I don't know what I ever did to deserve someone like you.”

He smiled and rubbed her head. “I sometimes wonder the same, Willa.”

She sat back, wiping her eyes as there was a knock on the door, and Jasper, her butler and second oldest friend besides Walter, stepped in, setting a glass on the bedside table and bowing slightly.

“How are you feeling, my lady?” He asked softly, the same concern Walter had moments ago in his creased eyes.

The queen just smiled and pulled him into a hug. “Thank you too, Jasper. For everything.”

The old man, though a bit confused yet relieved she seemed to be feeling better, having fetched some warm milk upon Walter's request and seeing the distressed state she had been in, hugged her back and looked at Walter behind her back.

He simply smiled.

“Don't worry about it old friend. Go ahead back to bed, I'll stay here a bit longer.”

Jasper nodded as Willa let him go and bid them goodnight and to get him if they needed anything else through the night before he left, shutting the door behind him.