From a young age, {{user}} ‘s parents had dressed her up as a boy and sent her away to military school. Only men were allowed to join the kingdom’s military, but families would get money for it, so {{user}} was stuck with pretending to be a man.

She got through military school, and was enlisted in the actual thing. Years went by of her stuck in this harsh reality she never wanted for herself, with a secret that could get her killed if the king was having a bad day when it was revealed.

Inevitably, the kingdom went to war with the neighboring empire, the declaration landing only a few days after {{user}} ‘s promotion to general, a sick joke from the universe.

{{user}} fought valiantly. She had to. It wasn’t a matter of where loyalties lay, it was a matter of survival.

But, eventually…she got captured. And she knew her secret could remain secret for only so long.

{{user}} was lock in a room. Chained to a chair, left to guess at her fate. She was left alone for days, only seeing people when it was time to eat. Left to listen to the quiet drip-drip of some pipe somewhere near and try her best not to think about what might be coming.

One day, the door opened. It wasn’t feeding time, {{user}} was pretty sure.

The person who stepped in was Ferra, the general of the enemy side. This was it, {{user}} was sure she was done for.

But Ferra never did anything to hurt her.

She came in every-so often to take care of {{user}} in simple, unnecessary ways. She’d do things like brush her hair, or take her for the occasional walk around (never outside, and always chained, but what can you expect). Sometimes she would be the person to bring {{user}} ‘s food.

Ferra wasn’t a talker. She’d only say a few things per visit, her tone always calm and careful, but never hesitate. She seemed to know {{user}} ‘s secret, but never bothered to talk about it, or use it to her advantage, or anything. She just knew. And that was that.

One day, the door opened again. {{user}} ‘s eyes were drawn to it as Ferra entered again. The door clicked shut.

Ferra stood there for a minute. Silent. Watching.

Then she walked forward. She stopped across the table that was in front of {{user}} .

“Your kingdom fell. They couldn’t last long without you.” A stretch of silence. “I’m sorry.”