Bismarck's (attempts at) Dailies

The mountains were pleasantly cool as they descended. The snows of last night had already cleared, it seemed, and with spring looming on the horizon all the old pathways would likely be open again soon. Streams of water trickled down icicles hanging from outcroppings and trees as Hel and Aaja made their way down the path. Aaja paused for a moment and turned her face skyward.

"Spring comes yet again, in all her radiance." she said with a small smile. Hel paused next to her. "Isn't she beautiful?" Hel merely grunted in response, and Aaja gave her a bemused smile. "All the beauty in the world and you would merely grunt and give a stoic nod."
"Beauty does not keep us alive."
"It makes life worth living." said Aaja. "To merely survive is to be as a beast, a creature of low intellect. We walk a higher path than that, Hel."
"Yes, mother." said Hel, having heard this many times before. Aaja arched a brow.
"Were I to die today, my chief regret is raising such a child so stoic she cannot even appreciate that which I have tried to teach her." Aaja continued on, but Hel lingered behind. She took a moment to assess her surroundings and noticed something: a frostbloom had broken through the snow. A delicate flower with pale white petals that bloomed in the spring when the snows had started to melt and faded away in the summer, they were rather rare, even in the highest peaks of the Shadows. With a gentle hand, Hel plucked the flower and went after her mother-mentor.
"Aaja." she called. Aaja paused.
"Yes, my nightlily?" Hel presented her with the frostbloom. "Ah, a frostbloom. You found this?"
"Yes. For you." said Hel. Aaja smiled and took the flower.
"Are you trying to apologize?" she said. Hel said nothing for a moment.
"...Yes. It is a beautiful flower."
"Do you know why I call you my nightlily?"
"Yes." said Hel. Aaja raised a brow again.
"Do you?"
"...Are you going to tell me why?"
"Because nightlilies bloom in adversity. They bloom in high mountains with thin soil and cold air, they bloom on rocky, storm-swept shores, and on the site of those fallen in battle. The world can be cruel, the world can be deadly, but the nightlily will bloom, and the nightlily is beautiful." Aaja reached out and brushed her thumb over Hel's cheek. "You are my nightlily." Hel's face softened and she reached up to touch Aaja's hand.

The warm smile on Aaja's face only lasted a moment, before she let out a hiss and staggered slightly, eyes wide. An arrow had lodged in her back.

"Aaja!" Hel cried.
"Seize them!" From the drifts around burst a quintet of Orridian soldiers. Down the path Hel could see a pair of archers. How had they not-?!
There was no time for questions before a lance swept her feet out from under her and knocked her off her feet. Aaja staggered and drew her axe, parrying the strike of the nearest soldier with a furious roar. Another lunged and his spear tore across the back of her leg and Aaja cried out and fell to one knee.
"Aaja!" Hel screamed. A lance bit into the earth next to her head and one of the soldiers pressed his knee into her back, stripping her of her axe. The archers and their centurion approached, a hard-faced Orridian with a long scar running along his jaw and a cluster of scales on his chin. Aaja took another swing and it bit into the leg of one of the soldiers, and he cried out and staggered. The centurion hefted his glaive. Hel screamed wordlessly, a wave of red terror lashing out, the soldier on her back stumbling off of her. She tried to stand, but another soldier slammed the butt of his lance into the side of her head and sent her rolling onto her side in a daze. Her vision swam, but she could see Aaja had regained her footing and buried her axe in the wounded soldier's chest. She withdrew it and looked back at Hel.
"Nightlily!"
The centurion barked something and Aaja turned. He lunged. She moved to dodge, but her wounded leg failed her and she lost her footing. The glaive met her axe and knocked it from her hands, arced around, and tore across her chest.

Hel screamed and reached forward as Aaja fell to the snow. Her white eyes were wide. The frostbloom Hel had given her had fallen to the earth in the struggle.

The centurion's boot crushed it a moment later, and Hel let out one last roar of anguish before his boot met her face and all turned to blackness.