“The debate of honor in warfare is a long and complicated one. Some claim honor is for the dead while others claim honor is necessary for the living in order to stave off the barbarous cruelty that lurks in the hearts of man. I myself do not have an answer. Do we win at any cost? Or does the way we win matter?”
- Sir Lindren Beige, private letters between him and Lord Andrew Blackstone, 466 AB
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Enoch- Saturday, September 14th, 564 AB
Hannah sat in front of me side-saddle as we rode through the mostly empty early morning streets of Mistwall. While the jostling of a horse wasn’t comfortable for someone so far in her term, she’d spent a good number of her attribute points on increasing her Endurance to help protect the baby.
We got to the stables, and I dismounted, lifting Hannah off the saddle and setting her gently on the ground. She kissed my cheek, and I smiled down at her. She turned to leave but I held her hands tight.
“Take it easy today,” I said. “You can’t go running after your friends for a while. You don’t want to give my mother another scare like when you tripped and fell last week.”
“I’m fine,” Hannah insisted, but her hand went to her belly.
We’d all been worried, but the midwife had checked her and said that she and the baby were fine.
“Just be careful,” I cautioned her, then let go of her hands.
“A nice girl,” a gruff man’s voice said behind me.
I turned and saw a lanky man leaned against the wall crunching into an apple.
“She’s not the fairest lass I’ve ever laid eyes on. But she seems well tempered and respectful and that’s worth more than golden locks,” he said.
“Do I know you?” I asked my voice hard as I pushed down some annoyance as he eyed my wife’s backside while she moved off.
“More likely you know of me,” he said, stepping out of the shadows.
His walk was smooth as a hunting cat but with an odd gait. It took me a second to see the prosthetic leg, it was made of dark polished wood set with gold the faint hum of ether about it.
“You’re Solomon Heldaro,” I said. “The one who's been training Cain.”
“One and the same,” Solomon agreed.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “You’re a rogue Warden, this is sacred ground.”
“This land belongs to the crown, not the Church,” Solomon said, tossing the core of his apple aside. “I’m just here to see how well the apprentice your father pushed on me does.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t in charge, so I didn’t particularly care if he was here or not; that was someone else’s responsibility. “Do you think he’ll do well?”
“Depends on what you mean by well,” Solomon said. “But I think he will be surprising.”
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Cain
All the Wardens, from the teachers to the first-fourth years students were assembled in the mustering ground. My knee bounced with nervousness as I waited.
“Greetings students,” Lord Scarisen said. “It has been almost two weeks since your last test, I hope to see that all of you have improved in some way. For those of you who failed to meet expectations last time, now is the time to prove yourself. This is just an assessment so you won’t be dueling with those from other years this time.”
I paired up randomly with another of my classmates who had also been assigned to mandatory training with me. We squared off in the dueling circle. I’d worn my best armor for this, and the targe the Voice had given me. My opponent, Sir Daniel Jofkay, had a large round shield and a longsword he crouched low behind his shield.
The referee raised a handkerchief and dropped it. The handkerchief drifted, then hit the ground and I sprung into motion. I charged forwards and Daniel stabbed towards my stomach. I knocked aside his sword with my targe. He knocked aside my dagger with his shield, but my real goal was accomplished as I hit his left ankle with both feet, most of his weight had been on that foot and he went down. The longsword swung at me in a wild panic, but I was on him knocking aside the slash with my shield.
My knee dropped hard on his sword arm, and I placed my dagger against his throat. He struggled for only one more second before dropping his sword and slapping the ground. I stepped up and held out my hand, but he stood up on his own without taking it.
“That wasn’t how a duel is fought,” he said, glaring at me and looking to the referee.
“It was within the rules,” the other Warden said but he did give me a side glance that spoke of his disapproval. “Go sit down and wait for the next rounds of duels.”
Enoch sat down and passed me a waterskin.
“Thanks,” I said.
“They’ll be prepared for something like that next round,” he said. “You know kicks, punches and other body contact are frowned on in duels.”
“The only thing that matters is winning,” I said, passing back his waterskin. “I’m just tired of being looked down on.”
“So, you’d rather be hated for being a cheater?” Enoch asked.
“Didn’t cheat,” I said. “I went to the library with Aranea a for few days and read the entire rulebook.”
“But societally, it won’t be viewed that way,” Enoch said, taking his own drink.
“Then I guess society is going to lose,” I said.
“Next round beginning in one minute,” Lord Scarisen called out. “
I paired up with another Warden. He wasn’t one I was familiar with but he carried a spear and broad rectangular shield. The referee held up the handkerchief and dropped it, the handkerchief hit the ground and the other Warden charged forwards.
The tip of the spear drew closer as I stood still as a statue, the muscles on my legs growing taut. I slid to the side and the spear scraped past my chest piece. He snapped his shield around, his movements all cautious and defensive. He moved back to get space, but I moved in close to keep him from having full use of his spear’s length.
The shield slammed forward but I grabbed it with the hand of my shield and yanked it taut. He pulled back, but I twisted on the shield, and he yelled as his arm twisted in its socket. The force from his movement and my movement pulled his muscle in opposite directions. The tip of his spear lashed out and scraped along the leather guard of my thigh as he stumbled back.
His shield arm drooped now, and he shook it, wincing until his shield dropped free from his arm. He used his injured arm on his spear.I could see that it hurt but he had a two-handed grip now. I blocked the spear on my shield and moved in close. The spear spun, blocking my dagger with its shaft. The other Warden had about a hundred pounds and several inches on me.
The shaft of the spear went behind my leg, hooking my ankle and he yanked it forward unbalancing me for a moment. He used the spear like a quarterstaff hitting me and knocking me off my feet. I hit the ground and rolled to stay in the circle. The tip of the spear stabbed down again but I rolled and came up throwing my left hand. He brought up his arm but he didn’t have a shield anymore, the handful of dust and sand went into his face and he staggered back blinking.
My feet hit him in the chest, and he went stumbling stepping outside of the circle. The referee nodded to me confirming my victory. I went and sat down. I passed Enoch my waterskin when he came and sat down. We didn’t talk this much around; the next duel came around and I was paired against another one of my classmates, this time with a two-handed greatsword.
The duel started and he stepped forward, swinging his sword in a fast horizontal cut. I tried to duck low and go under but he snapped it around and the sword dug into my shoulder and collarbone, spraying blood across the dirt and sand. The duel was over and I was immediately healed by the referee and went and sat down.
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“Didn’t win this time?” Enoch asked, sitting down again.
I looked over, seeing his tunic around his stomach was stained with blood.
“You don’t look like you fared much better,” I said.
“Yeah, it was a tough one, but I managed to kick him out of the ring before I lost too much blood,” Enoch said. “It helps to typically be the biggest man in the room.”
“How did your father make a son almost twice his size?” I asked. “Your mom’s not that big either.”
Enoch shrugged. “Just lucky I guess. Does make me a bigger target though. You're deflecting, did you win your last fight?”
“No,” I admitted.
Enoch shrugged. “So you’ve done a lot better already.”
“Aranea wants me to keep training in dueling,” I said. “She wants me to be more impressive.”
“All women want their husbands to be impressive,” Enoch said with a shrug.
“She said…she wanted to be proud of me,” I said.
“And from your tone that’s bad?” Enoch asked me.
“It means she’s not proud of me now,” I said rubbing my shoulder, there wasn’t any pain but there was an itch from where my mind still thought there should be a wound.
“You're reading too much into it,” Enoch said. “She just wants you to push yourself and not give up. Have you given any more thought to continuing your training with Solomon.”
“Aranea suggested I keep doing that too,” I said.
“Then you should,” Enoch said, clapping me on the shoulder. “You need to learn from a real knife fighter. I don’t know much about Solomon; he’s more infamous than famous. But I’ve heard stories about the duels he participated in before the war.”
“I’ll decide at the end of the assessment,” I said.
We sat in silence until the next round of duels. I didn’t do any better and came back with a leg stained with blood this time. I was out now, but I had at least one two duels this time around. Enoch won his next duel but lost the next two. We watched the rest of the duels as more and more participants were eliminated and finally the assessment was over.
Lord Scarisen and Sergeant Acheron marched out before us looking us over. “I’m glad to see most of you improved, however…” his eyes landed on me. “Some of you have clearly still fallen short of our standards.”
I opened my mouth, about to speak when another voice spoke up.
“He won didn’t he?” Solomon seemed to appear out of nowhere but leaned against a post casually as if he’d always been there.
“Solomon Heldaro, what brings you out of your lair?” Scarisen said.
“Just here to see how my apprentice did in his first assessment,” he said, a brilliant white smile flashing.
“Your apprentice? Cain?” Scarisen asked disbelievingly. “You’ve never taken an apprentice.”
“It was a favor,” Solomon said. “But I’ve found he does have something the rest of your pupils lack. Don’t ask what it is, you wouldn’t understand.”
“As interesting as this is, you are not a member of the Church or this academy and I am in the middle of…” Scarisen said but Solomon interrupted him again.
“Moralizing about seizing defeat from the jaws of victory,” Solomon said. “Giving a sermon on the honor of a noble death? He won; he didn’t break any rules. Last time he was here he won zero duels, now he’s won two, that's a two hundred percent increase.”
“But he didn’t win the right way,” Sergeant Acheron said.
“You think djinn care how we fight them?” Solomon scoffed. “You're supposed to be an academy to train Wardens to safeguard humanity, not how to squabble with each other in a safe and legal manner.”
“Mind your tone!” Scarisen asked.
“Or what?” Solomon asked. “You’ll challenge me to a duel, I’ll accept of course but…”
Acheron stepped forward but Scarisen put out a hand holding him back. “Don’t, he’d kill you,” he said flatly.
Acheron looked at Solomon’s wooden leg with doubt but stepped back into line.
“What do you want, Solomon?” Scarisen asked flatly, turning his attention back to him.
“You to stop training Cain like crap,” Solomon said. “There isn’t a single member of your faculty who uses a dagger, you can’t teach him what he needs to know.”
“Are you offering to join the academy?” Scarisen asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Hardly,” Solomon scoffed. “But if you still think Cain needs further instruction in dueling I’ll take over one of your students. You may not like me, Scarisen but you know my reputation in the dueling ring.”
Scarisen was silent, his eyes flicking from me to Solomon.
“Fine,” he said. “He trains with you three times a week but is released from mandatory extra training here. He will be expected to beat three times the number of opponents next assessment however, or he will be assigned back to his previous training and be banned from seeing you.” He looked at me and Solomon again.
“Do both of you agree to this?”
I hesitated for a moment, I’d have to beat six opponents if I agreed. On the other hand, if I didn’t, things would just stay as they were. I nodded and Solomon did the same.
“I had other things to say but I think you’ve all been here long enough,” Lord Scarisen said. “Dismissed.”
We all left, and Solomon clapped me on the shoulder, appearing at my back without me ever seeing or hearing him move.
“You did all right,” he said.
“Not well though,” I said.
“You’ll get there,” Solomon said, staring out across the muster ground.
I followed his gaze to where the Storm school was congratulating their winner. It was of course the prince. Solomon’s jaw flexed as a muscle twitched in his neck. It was the most I’d ever seen him suppress an emotion. He always had this cool façade of nonchalance, but now I could see a raging inferno behind his eyes, though it was gone as soon as I glimpsed it.
“Do you know the prince?” I asked.
“Him? No. But I knew his mother,” Solomon said then changed the subject.
“Your instructions were to train three days a week, but that only leaves me six days to train you before your next assessment. I suggest if you want to win your next round of duels you make that at least five times a week. You might want to skip a few classes and go on a few less quests till you get this sorted.”
“Alright,” I agreed, I had no desire to go back to the hell that was mandatory extra dueling.
Enoch walked up to me as Solomon disappeared from sight.
“What’s your plan?” he asked.
“I’m not going to be able to go on many quests for the next two weeks,” I apologized.
“You do what you need to,” Enoch said. “Getting to Knight tier isn’t a race.”
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Aranea- Wednesday, September 18th, 564 AB
I sat back with satisfaction as I looked over my new ward. I’d finished copying all the wards from the grimoire Lady Constence had loaned me and they had sparked a new idea in me. I’d taken some inspiration from Lady Constence’s own wards for the ether generator. My new ward wasn’t nearly so complicated but would do something similar.
Grabbing my basket I hurried out of the library to Lady Constence’s workshop to show her. I arrived at her workshop and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Lady Constence called.
I walked in and Constence looked up from her desk.
“Oh it’s you Aranea, I don’t need your help until tomorrow,” she said.
“I wanted to show you something,” I said, shifting on my feet, somewhat nervous now.
Constence gestured for me to come forwards and I walked over and showed her my journal with the Ward I had just finished designing.
“Do you think it will work?” I asked.
“The lines look right. You really are a prodigy, but there is only one way to know for sure,” Lady Constence said. “You should give something with it inscribed on it for your boyfriend to test.”
“I’m married,” I corrected her.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were a provin…traditionalist,” Lady Constence said correcting her last word mid-sentence. “I think I heard of your husband, Sir Le’meer. I didn’t connect the two of you before now, be careful of him.”
“Careful?” I asked.
“No good can come from studying under Solomon Heldaro,” she said.
“What’s wrong with him,” I said. “I heard he was a good duelist.”
“Good is an understatement if the stories about him are true from before he lost his leg,” Lady Constence said, taking my journal and making a few notes with a pencil. “But there are other stories about him, war profiteering, blood sport, being a duelist for hire. There is also his current role as the owner of a brothel for Wardens. Not the sort of person a young Warden should associate themselves with. Especially one who's married; his reputation will affect your life.”
“He’s my husband,” I said. “All I can do is support him.”
“You can also push him to be better than he is,” Lady Constence said. “Solomon Heldaro is a dangerous man to be friends with, he tried to duel the king a few decades ago during the war.”
“He tried to duel the king? Why? To humiliate him?” I asked in stunned amazement.
“From what I heard he wanted a duel to the death, I don’t know what the duel was about, don’t tell people I told you about it either, not many people even know that bit of information,” Constence warned me.
“Yes ma’am,” I said. “I’ll try to help Cain steer clear of him as much as possible.”
“Be subtle about it,” Constence said. “Men typically don’t like help, even if it its for their own good.”
I left and went to the workshop to start work on what I needed. I took the pieces of skitter carapace Cain had gotten me, along with some thick leather that I started soaking in water to make it pliable. Taking a diamond tipped drill I started cranking it to create holes in the carapace for thread and rivets.
I took out the leather and cut out the pattern, laying it on a pair of wooden feet and tacking it into place as it dried. I placed it in front of a heat source to dry faster. I started engraving the carapace pieces, finishing them all by the time the leather was dry. I took out some stain and a sealant then dyed the leather a dark black. Next, I used some copper rivets to fasten the carapace pieces to it.
Taking out my ether thread I began to embroider the design for the ward. It took about two hours to get the last part done and I only stopped when I heard the bell striking eleven. I hurried down the dark halls of the academy up the residential wing. Cain was pacing around when I got back, and his face eased with relief when he saw me.
“I’ve been worried for an hour, where have you been?” he asked.
“Sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t realize how late it was, I was working on these.”
I pulled out the leather and carapace shin guards I had created and showed them to him.
“I need you to try another ward I created, this one will absorb the excess ether from killing djinn in an area around you,” I explained. “It will charge these djinn cores set into it.”
“Why?” Cain asked.
“It will let you passively charge cores while in combat,” I said excitedly. “It could let even base humans regularly charge their cores.”
Cain took the shin guards and turned them over in his hands. “Have you thought about what these will do to the world?”
“They’ll let us fight against the djinn better,” I said.
“And each other,” Cain said looking me in the eyes with an intensity I had never seen before. “I’ll test this for you, but you need to think about what your creations will be used for. You can’t just create stuff like this and expect those you give it to use them for good.”
“But…it could improve so many people’s lives,” I said, now uncertain of my creation.
“It will,” Cain agreed. “You aren’t responsible for what other people do with your wards. But once you put them out there you can’t determine how people will use them.”
He set them by his armor and I snuggled up beside him on the couch. Cain let the fire die out then kissed me on the forehead.
“We should go to bed, we have training and classes tomorrow,” he said.