Time stopped flowing at that moment, or that was Randulfr's perception, for time doesn't come to a halt with such ease.
"Rema? What's that?"
These words came from the mouth of one who should have been a princess—the princess of the nation she herself was asking about.
"Giulia… Is this a joke?…" Randulfr wanted to ask, but he gave up before his lips could part, for deep down, he'd had his doubts for a while.
Instead of speaking, the man suddenly rushed out of the tent, dashing past the girl who held tight to her food.
He didn't stop when his feet reached the freezing water, and he didn't stop even when he was submerged up to the waist, having to fight to take every step.
In fact, he soon lay on his belly and started swimming. He swam towards the vast nothing that stretched before him, leaving the fjord behind.
Randulfr knows nothing of Rema, 'he' thought.
"Giulia knows nothing of Rema," he pointed out.
She couldn't even read the Reman that I engraved into the sky.
All of those things pointed to one thing—they pointed to a reality that should make no sense.
Once he was far enough, Randulfr's body turned into lightning, and he zapped towards the clouds high above him.
Now running through the clouds instead of swimming in the ocean, Randulfr quickly checked every corner of the sky, looking way past the horizon in search of a certain mass of land.
It was a futile search, for that piece of land was too far for him to see it, but at least he could confirm other landmasses.
"This is still Earth." He was at least sure of that.
A little over a hundred years ago, a war had taken place on the high plains of Inyankara. In that war, a certain general was killed together with his lieutenant, and for some reason, that drastic battle must have reshaped the way the world progressed.
"I've changed the world…"
It was 'him' who had pulled it off. It was 'him' who had altered the course of history, and for that reason…
"Rema is no more."
A whole nation had come crumbling.
"Rema is no more!" he shouted with joy.
"Rema is no more!" he shouted in relief!
"Rema is no more?" he repeated in doubt.
"Rema is no more…" he affirmed with worry.
"And if Rema is no more…" he concluded one more time.
"Then how is Giulia here now?"
*****
The first to welcome her into this world was snow. A snowflake fell on the warm, bloodied face of the newborn princess of a fallen nation. As cold as that snowflake was, it melted kindly on the girl's face.
That might as well had been the kindest touch she would ever feel for the rest of her life, for she hadn't even had enough time to scream, and a rough hand already lifted her up by the head.
"No! My Giulia!"
If the baby would have understood speech, that would have been her first and last encounter with Reman—a language that died not long after that day.
"Give her back!" a manly voice resounded, and with that voice, tens of ice spikes rose from the frozen ground.
The baby who had been named on a whim between screams finally started screaming herself. It was a sign she was alive, and that sign at least brought a smile to her father's face.
Her father was a man who should have been the king of a powerful nation, were that nation not to start collapsing many years ago, leaving him with nothing to rule but a small village hidden in the mountains, away from the many usurpers that pillaged the grounds around.
However, what that man should have been was now of little importance, for that man was now drawing his last breath.
His act of rebellion served to pierce a couple of Fjordheim's vikings, but a couple of soldiers were nothing to the horde that had kidnapped them.
At the corner of that man's smile, a drop of blood formed, reflecting a wife's desperate expression like a mirror together with her screams. That drop soon grew in size and painted the tip of a spear that stood between a father and the ground.
What that man should have been mattered not, for that landless king now had a spear going through him as revenge for attacking the Fjordheimen troops.
Of course, the loud, desperate screams that his wife let out were also soon to fade, for in a fit of agony, she used her own magic in the same way her husband had done. Only, her targets weren't Fjordheimers this time. Instead, she aimed for the last two ladies of the Conti family.
With her father pierced by a spear and her mother pierced by her own spell, there was nothing Giulia had in this world. Of course, for somebody with such a bad start in life, the best option was to give up early.
That's what her mother had decided, but fate would not favor the baby that much.
Maybe it was out of desperation, but the mother had miscalculated her attack. While the spike with which she had pierced herself had been successful, the one that aimed for her daughter first passed through a soldier, never reaching the baby.
The first to touch the warm newborn was a snowflake. The second to touch her was a stranger's hand. Now, the third thing that touched her was that same stranger's blood, painting the girl's face red before she even knew what red looked like.
When the man holding her let go, the baby's death once again seemed like the only sweet release left for her, but for what it's worth, somebody stepped in to save her life.
"Now… we've already lost your parents. Wouldn't it be a waste to lose you too?"
Those were the words spoken by the man who had led the final charge on Rema—the man who had taken the last survivors to Fjordheim—the man who had sealed her fate as a slave wandering the nation with nothing to her name.
*****
During her early childhood, Giulia grew up in the barn, having learned to communicate with the pigs long before she learned Fjord.
Every morning she would wake up in mud, tend to the animals, and feed on what they ate. It was only when a rich visitor would come about that she was bathed and brought in to the long house. It was also during those times that other slaves of many species would try to teach her how to speak. It took her many years, but one day on her 11th summer, she finally trusted her abilities enough to start a conversation herself.
"Hello," she said to a well-dressed man walking through the long house.
Soon enough, a slave—also called a thrall—passing by pulled her to the side and apologized fervently to that man.
"I'm so sorry! She's still young! She doesn't know any better!"
"Oh… I don't mind! Not at all, actually! On the contrary, such a pretty young lady should learn to be bold. In a couple more years, that will be a weapon she ought to learn how to wield—"
The look the man had as he spoke made Giulia's skin crawl. It was the first time she'd had somebody look at her like that. She recognized the expression as being a smile, but what the eyes spoke to her was closer to danger. She felt that she should stay away from that man at any cost.
"I've decided. I would like her."
Coming from the other side of the large hall was the man who had kidnaped Giulia and made her a thrall. He was the man who had taken away her modest future, and turned it in for one of servitude.
No matter how you look at it, that man should have been the one person Giulia hated the most. If she knew what life should have been like, that is, but for a girl who had grown among pigs and sheep, this man meant almost nothing. He was just someone who would walk past her at times with a disgusted look.
Still, at this moment, that man looked like a savior to her. In that situation, that man—her owner—was the only one who could save her from the much scarier man.
Knowing he was the one to make the final decision, the usurper smiled. No, that wasn't a genuine smile either. While different from the one the creepy man was displaying, his smile was also scary.
"Of course! But as you've said, for one with such potential, I would hope you have come prepared."
"Worry not, dear friend. However much she may cost, I'll pay. Let's call it a long-term investment. Just imagine how much use I can get out of her later on, haha!"
As such, Giulia was sold for the first time in her life, leaving with the creepy man to move far away from everything she knew.
On her way out, the girl couldn't take her eyes away from the barn and from the many animals she had lived with. A ruckus was resounding from inside there. It was a ruckus only Giulia understood well enough—a ruckus meant as a cry for the girl.
Once again, Giulia lost even the little she felt close to.
"Don't worry, girl. Where we are going, you'll have it much better than this shithole," the creepy man proclaimed, his big hand grabbing on to her little one.
"What was your name again?"
"Giulia…" the girl answered, her soft voice reaching the man's ears and widening his smile.
"Giulia… what an exotic name…" he added.
"That gives me all the more hope~"