Age of Destruction: Fire Emblem CYOA

Lily stares Zenia dead in the eyes.  "It.  Was.  Someone.  Else."

Zenia shrugs.  "One of you is lying.  And, one way or another, I'm going to figure out which one."

Lily jerks towards the formerly-unconscious guard.  "How could Isana have poisoned his water, huh?  Or did your guards let her wander around yesterday?"

Zenia looks like Lily just slapped her in the face.

"Lily!" Isana blurts out.

"...Maybe he wasn't poisoned.  Maybe he just fell asleep," Zenia suggests.

"So then Isana snuck out of here without waking me-"

"-or you're lying-" Zenia adds.

"-then poisoned the water without being seen, waltzed back in, locked herself in chains, and hung herself back up?"

"Where do you think she could escape to?" Zenia growls.  "We're on a boat!"

Some of the pirates mutter amongst themselves.  They seem to be discussing the possibility of a traitor.  A few are eyeing Zenia suspiciously after that comment.  One of the tougher-looking pirates steps forward.  "There's one way to figure this out.  There's some water still in 'is flagon."  He shoves one of the other pirates towards it.  "Go try it, mutton-head!  If ya pass out in an hour, we'll know she's speakin' true."

"Heh!"  The pirate walks over and chugs what's left of the guard's water.  "Tastes fine t' me.  Actually, maybe a bit funny..."

"Well, we'll know soon enough!" the first pirate laughs.

Zenia shrugs.  "If you're done?"

"Actually, I wanted to ask why you're being so gentle with that traitor," another pirate asks.  He's smart enough to hide near the back of the crowd, well out of Zenia's reach.

"What are you implying?" Zenia spits.  She looks ready to dive through their ranks and strangle him with her bare hands.

"Er...  You seem to be... letting them stall quite a bit..." he says defensively.  "You're not... ah... going soft, are you?"

Zenia closes her eyes and sighs.  "Perhaps I am."  Her eyes snap open.  She gestures to three of the pirates.  Lily notices one's holding a whip.  "No more stalling.  We'll begin their punishment before we search the ship again.  Start with fifteen lashes for the traitor.  Five for the princess."

"No!" Isana yells.  "You... can't!  Zenia!  She didn't do anything!"

Zenia glares.  "I know damn well that she smuggled that lockpick in here.  Make it twenty.  Each."

"Zenia!  Damn you!"  Isana's repeated protests are ignored.

The pirates bring the pair down.  Lily's thankful she at least gets a brief chance to stretch her arms before they tie her face-first around a post.  She can hear them doing the same to Isana somewhere behind her.  Lily maintains her poise, keeping herself composed even as she hears fabric tearing as they ready Isana.  She winces a bit at the sound of the first crack of the whip and Isana's inevitable yelp.  By the tenth, Isana's panting heavily.

"Enough," Zenia cuts in.  "Switch."

Lily takes a deep breath as subtly as she can as Zenia stomps over.  She half expects her to just rip her tunic off, but Zenia pulls out a knife and cuts the back open.  Lily's going to be damned before she thanks her for that small mercy, though.

Lily grits her teeth and braces herself for the first strike.  She's been stabbed, burned, electrocuted, bitten...  After all the things she's suffered in combat, surely this can't be that bad.

Lily realizes how wrong she is as the first lash rips right through her skin.  She lets out a pained shout in spite of herself.  The second is even worse and she shrieks again.  By the third, she clenches her teeth and refuses to give these bastards the pleasure of hearing her again.  The blows keep coming until she loses count.  It feels like they're coming faster and faster, each worse than the last, all too fast for her to recover from the one before.  By the tenth, Lily's struggling to keep herself calm.

---

Lily temporarily loses 1 max HP.

---

"Switch," Zenia orders again.

Lily can't help but feel relieved when they go back to whipping Isana.  She feels terrible for even thinking that.  But her brief rest is... cut far too short.  Isana is gasping and choking behind her.  Without warning, the eleventh lash is a fresh Hell.  By the last five, Lily can't stop herself from crying out.  By the twentieth, she wouldn't be able keep her feet if not for the pole holding her up.  Tears sting her eyes, and she can feel fresh, warm blood running down her back.

---

Lily temporarily loses 1 max HP.

---

A pair of pirates turn Lily around and again tie her to the pole - loosely enough she can collapse to her knees, struggling to catch her breath.  Lily winces as she looks over at Isana.  She seems to be in slightly better condition.

"Prin...cess...  Lily...  I'm so... sorry..." she chokes out.

Zenia opens her mouth, but pauses as a pair of crewmen arrive, one nursing a bloody nose.  "What happened?" she barks.

"That... crazy rabbit *****!  She just suddenly started gnawing on her ropes and-"

"Probably because she heard what was going on up here," Zenia suggests.

Gale's here, too, then...  And Zenia said 'up here,' so she must be down below... somewhere...  Lily can't decide whether to be overjoyed or horrified.

"What should we do with her!?" the pirate demands.

"Nothing.  Replace her restraints."  Zenia fixes him with a cold smirk.  "If you let yourself get injured by a bound prisoner, you deserved it, you weakling."

"But-"

"Look at you whining about some little boo-boo while some fragile little hoity-toity princess has the balls to keep her composure after a savage beating!  Gods above, you pathetic, sniveling vermin!  She and Isana are worth ten of you!" Zenia spits on him.  "This is such a disgusting waste.  Get out of my face."  She turns to her prisoners.  "Stop their bleeding and get them ready for the next round."

---

While they're being treated, the pirate who drank the water collapses.  Zenia's forced to admit the guard was probably poisoned, and that Isana shouldn't have been able to do it on her own. organizes her crew to begin searching the ship again.  This time, they're going to look through everyone's belongings for any evidence they could be a traitor.

"Don't think this means you get to stall any longer," she warns Isana.  The dancer's feet are soon lashed to the floor.  A pair of ropes are tied around an empty barrel, tossed over a ceiling beam, and bound around her wrists.  Lily realizes what's going on when Zenia picks two of her crew to start filling it from another barrel full of sea water.  As the barrel gets heavier, it starts to stretch and strain Isana worse and worse.  Isana keeps a brave face, even giving Lily a forced smile, though it's clear she's soon in pain.

"Enough," Zenia says again.  "No more.  For now.  Leave her like that while we search.  You two, keep guard.  Everyone else, let's begin."  As she leaves the room, Zenia stops to stare at Lily.  "If I find out you were lying, Princess...  Pray we find something to support your claim.  Otherwise, you'll be taking her place when we're done."

---

"This... isn't so bad, Lily..." Isana assures her.  "But... please... when she comes back, just..."

Not five minutes after the search begins, a familiar-looking pirate skulks into the room.  He's got a large bruise on his face, probably from being slammed into a wooden wall.  Multiple times.

The two guards Zenia assigned turn to him.  "What's going on?" one asks.

"Take her down."  He motions to Isana, then stares at Lily.  "We're going to be torturing that one, instead."

"What?  ...Zenia's orders?" one of the guards asks.

"No.  We're done listening to her," the bruised one answers.

"You... can't..." Isana says.  "Do you... realize what Zenia's... going to do to you... when she finds out!?"

"Methinks Zenia's going to be joining you," Bruise-face fells her.

The two guards look at each other, then hesitantly start emptying Isana's barrel.  Bruise-face sneers as they take her down and tie her, struggling violently, back to her pole.  Lily fights, helpless as they start rigging her up in Isana's place.  Once she's fully bound, she realizes the barrel's already almost as heavy as Isana.  As they start filling it, her muscles soon start to ache from the weight.

The bruised man waits until Lily's starting to wince with pain.  His smugness is almost unbearable.  "Now... I've got some questions for you.  You say there's a traitor among us, hm?  Helping you?  Tell me.  That wouldn't happen to be Zenia, would it?"

What...?

"What...?" Isana echoes Lily's thoughts.  "That's... ridiculous."

The man leans in closer, whispers so only Lily can hear.  "It doesn't matter if it's true or not, y'know?  You just have to point the finger at her and I can turn the crew on that *****.  We can help each other here."  They keep adding more weight to the barrel as he speaks.  The pain is becoming intense.  Lily can feel the pain all the way to her joints.  Just focusing on this bastard's words is starting to become difficult.  "Wouldn't it be nice if she were the one in here instead of you?  Heh...  Better than the alternative, isn't it?  Or... don't tell me you feel any kind of... fondness for her?  You aren't going to sacrifice yourself for her, are you?  Come on.  Just say the word."

Lily feels like she's being torn apart...

(A) ...Yes.  It's Zenia.  She's the traitor.
(B) I was lying.  There's no traitor.  It was all Isana...
(C) I was lying. There's no traitor. It was all me...
(D) ...
(E) Call Zenia for help
(F) Call Hawke for help
(G) Call Gale for help
(H) Call Bruise-face's mom a *****.

You mean what he's offering or why he's being a dick?

"...A deal...?  I'm... listening..." Lily answers.  Bruise-face signals the others to pause.  "What... do you... get out of this?  What... do you want?"

The pirate answers immediately.  "Payback.  I want to pay back every insult and injury ten-fold.  I'm sick and tired of her attitude, and I know I'm not the only one.  I want to see her strung up.  Bruised.  Broken.  Begging for mercy."  He spreads his arms wide.  "Plus, someone has to take over after she's deposed."

Isana stares at him, mouth agape. "You're... just as bad as she is...!"

"And what... will you do... for me...?" Lily asks.

The pirate narrows his eyes.  "For one..."  He signals the others.  They throw another bucketful of water in the barrel.  Lily groans as she feels some of he whip-wounds tear open.  She can tell her body can't take much more.  "...We'll stop doing that.  Even let you down, once we capture Zenia.  Besides... you want revenge, too... right?"  He walks around behind Lily and whispers in her ear while running a finger along one of the fresh wounds.  "If you want, I'll even let you join in on the fun..."

"Ah...  GAH!" Lily screams when he touches the exposed flesh.  "Ha...  Haaaah...  Wh-what... about... her...?"

He looks to Isana.  "...The traitor?  I don't care.  We'll be far too busy torturing Zenia.  You want us to leave her alone?  Fine.  You want us to chain her up in your room as your personal plaything?  No questions asked."

"And when... we reach land...?"

"Hm.  I don't suppose I'll have a use for you or your friends at that point.  Maybe you pull off some grand escape and go missing.  Maybe that's also Zenia's fault.  You're welcome to accompany us to the Great Khan, if you want to help sell our story about the champion's betrayal."

"Isana...?"

The pirate crosses his arms.  "...I'll think about it.  I could certainly earn more of the Great Khan's favor by bringing her in, but she may be more trouble than she's worth."  He waves his hand again, and the pirates scoop up another bucketful of water.  They hold it threateningly over Lily's barrel.  "It's your choice, of course, but remember we've still got plenty of seawater."


(choices unchanged)

(A) ...Yes. It's Zenia. She's the traitor.
(B) I was lying. There's no traitor. It was all Isana...
(C) I was lying. There's no traitor. It was all me...
(D) ...
(E) Call Zenia for help
(F) Call Hawke for help
(G) Call Gale for help
(H) Call Bruise-face's mom a *****.

I kinda of want Zenia to pay for everything she did. Plus its about time she pays for what she did.

But........ I don't know will calling Zenia really help anything at all or make things worse. Shes the ***** who started all this in the first place because gotta please daddy.

I don't know. I only know how to kill people and seduce people. This is beyond my capabilities. I throw my vote down for Emppy because angry revenge stuff is always the wrong choice, X.

She's not. She's the champion.

It could also explain why she is so protective and blindly loyal to a war hungry ruler. Don't believe how long did it take Xander to see his dad was a war hungry ruler back when it was soooooooo obvious to everyone.

People, not kit-cats.


I will straight-up say she's not his daughter.

Oh. I mean, there's no reason to think she isn't his daughter, other than me just saying she isn't.