Michael

“How did you know where I was, by the way?” Michael asked as he and his uncle walked back to the camp.

“Oh, that? I returned to the camp after most had left to look for you and heard what happened. The only thing powerful enough that I could think of that could make someone vanish from between a group of strong augmenters and a mage was Nayk and her strange place of residence,” Duncan explained. “I honestly didn’t have a better idea.”

“Do you have an idea what that forest of hers is?”

“No idea. I am not a mage, but I always had to step through some kind of gateway to get to her so if I had to guess I would say another realm.”

Michael frowned at that; making a hole into the fabric that separated different realms was incredibly hard if your only goal was to converse with something on the other side but to make a gateway to enter was something that shouldn’t be possible for a single human mage at the moment.

No wait, that would be for a human mage from our realm. If you live in a mana-rich realm then the possibilities could be much grander, he concluded.

“What would you have done if I wasn’t there?” he asked his uncle.

“I didn’t think about that. As I said I had that one idea and if that proved to have been wrong, I would have come up with another idea,” Duncan said with a shrug.

“Lucky me then,” Michael replied and looked at the unconscious Dittrich hanging over Duncan’s shoulder.

“So that man with the scar? What do you know about him,” Duncan asked.

“Not much. I saw a sketch of him once, I know that he has connections in the royal palace, and I am pretty sure that he was also the assassin that made an attempt on me in Lionsgate two years ago.”

“Hmm, either a personal assassin or a mercenary then. If you can provide me the sketch I can see if any of my adventurer contacts know more about him,” his uncle suggested.

Michael nodded but his mind was elsewhere. They walked for a few minutes in silence until Duncan finally said, “Out with it.”

This startled Michael out of his thoughts, but he understood what Duncan meant. “How can you forgive me so easily?” Michael wanted to elaborate further but he knew that there was no need for that.

Duncan smiled again and replied, “Because I know what I was like at your age, and you handled all this much better than I have even with the years I have on you. If I were in your situation one of us would have been dead by now.”

Michael didn’t share his uncle’s humor so the man added, “You will feel guilt for what happened, maybe for a week, a month, a year, or the rest of your life, but that is something you will have to deal with on your own. Guilt always comes from oneself, and I have forgiven you a long time ago.”

“I see,” Michael replied but, in his mind, he was cursing. Another thing he had to do alone, he knew that his uncle was right, but it would have been so much simpler if he could just receive forgiveness and leave these feelings behind.

They arrived at the camp a while later and found it mostly empty with only two knights having stayed behind to guard the place. Duncan quickly sent them out to share the word that Lord Rowan had been found and for the rest of the expedition to return.

It took over three hours for everyone to be found and brought back, but as the sun set, they were all sitting around the fire. Michael had explained roughly where he had vanished to and made up a lie about Dittrich being hurt while fighting off some monsters. His treachery would become public but not yet. Sir Zeke and Pan were informed about it though. Zeke because he needed to know and Pan because she would have to concoct something to keep the knight knocked out for a while.

Now they were gathered around the fire at Michael’s request waiting for what he had to say. The lord of Reen and Emall stepped in front of them with a solemn expression.

“I have made a grave mistake which I need to share with you,” he started. “For over two years now I have been blaming my uncle Duncan Grim for the death of my family, but I was wrong. I clung to the one theory that had even the faintest amount of evidence and because of that, I gave a man a stigma that he didn’t deserve.

“I am not trying to shift the blame on my despair or my age, so I am gonna say it clearly, I made a mistake. Lord Duncan Grim had nothing to do with the death of my family, on the contrary, he was rushing to save them just as he had claimed.”

Silence surrounded the campsite as everyone took in what they had heard. The knights of House Grim had expressions of surprise and triumph, while the knights of Rowan looked more empathetic and resigned.

“My accusation has done much damage, and I promise to support Grent with whatever I am able to, not only in this crisis but also in the time after that. I do hope that we can mend the damage I have caused and return to the bonds we once shared,” Michael finished his announcement.

It took a moment but then Sir Helbrect scoffed, “So we are supposed to just go back to being happy comrades after all the chaos and death that you caused? Are you going to compensate us for the men we lost against the monsters you pushed into our land? Are you going to compensate the people who lost everything?”

Several of the knights of House Rowan wanted to protest but Michael silenced them with a hand and a stern gaze. Duncan didn’t make any attempt to reign in his knight captain either.

“Your anger is understandable and the answer to your questions is yes,” Michael simply replied stunning the veteran knight.

“Yes?”

“Of course. It is my mess so I will clean it up. How exactly that will look like is a subject for the future, but I will honor this promise.”

The knight didn’t seem convinced, but he didn’t voice his objections further.

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“I for one would like it if our Houses and realms would return to the way they were,” Duncan announced for everyone to hear. “But for that to happen we will need to survive the coming crisis first.”

- Hours later in the middle of the night –

Michael didn’t sleep well. Every time he did, he was plagued by dreams of his family calling for justice and for him to find their killer. The calls were bad enough but their contorted faces and the disappointment he felt was worse. His father’s last words haunted him, he had to make them come true one way or another.

He nearly jumped out of bed when he woke up again and finally decided to give up. Michael didn’t strictly need to sleep for another day or two as long as he circulated his mana, but it would have been better to.

With a sigh, he rose from his bedroll and threw over a thicker coat before leaving his tent. The moon was high in the sky, it would be at least five to six hours before the sun would chase away the night.

The camp was filled with the noises of sleeping men and Michael tried to escape it by walking over to the edge where one of his knights was sitting on the fallen tree keeping watch. His name was Sir Blane Highrup, the fourth son of a minor noble in the north of Reen.

“Anything to report,” Michael asked after the knight noticed him approach.

He shook his head. “Everything quiet, milord. … Uh, Erhen went out a while ago. He should be a few dozen meters in that direction I can hear him.” The knight pointed into the forest and Michael focused more mana into his ears until he heard a thump of something piercing into something else.

“Alright, I will take a look,” Michael replied. The knight wanted to rise to accompany him, but Michael waved him off. He clearly didn’t like it, especially after Michael had vanished once already earlier but there was little he could do to stop him.

Michael followed the sound of thumps until he found the young knight. He was standing straight, his arm raised and an arrow lying calmly on his hand holding a bow. He looked steady and confident as he put the arrow right next to the first few in a grouping that would make most hunters jealous.

“You make a great archer, Erhen,” Michael said and caused the young knight to nearly throw away his bow.

He took a moment to steady himself and his uncertain personality was back. “Thank you, milord,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck.

Michael watched him out of the corner of his eye while he walked over and sat on a rock beside him.

“So, what is wrong?”

“N-nothing. Everything is perfect,” Erhen stuttered his answer making it less than believable.

“You are standing in the forest well past midnight, ruining arrows by shooting them at a tree. If that is totally normal for you then I will gladly leave you to it,” Michael said with an audible smirk.

Michael inspected the youngest of his guards while he squirmed for an answer, he could guess what this was about but if the knight didn’t want to talk then that was his right.

“It clears my head, milord. After today I couldn’t really sleep,” Erhen finally managed to explain himself.

“I vanished from right in front of you and I doubt that the others were happy with you about that,” Michael nodded. “I assume you got the worst from Silas. He is outspoken on the best of days; I can’t imagine that he took what happened with a calm and professional demeanor.”

“He did calm down after you returned and explained what happened,” Erhen quickly jumped in to protect his senior.

“Did he apologize to you?”

“Well, not exactly.”

“That’s what I thought,” Michael said not surprised in the least. “The world is a hard place, Erhen. My father never took to coddling his children so I have experience with this, and I have to tell you that just taking it will never solve the problem. I won't get involved as long as everything stays civil; Silas is a good knight even if his character is sometimes questionable, but he is not as bad as my brothers were. You too are a good knight, but as long as you just stand there accepting the bullying, nothing will ever change.”

Michael could see Erhen’s knuckles whiten as he gripped his bow tighter. “Am I a coward, milord?”

That question surprised Michael, and he didn’t answer immediately. It was too weighty of a question to just answer out of his gut, so he began to think back.

After a few moments, he finally shook his head and said, “No. Whenever you are forced into a confrontation you move with purpose and without fear. You are not a coward in my opinion, but I do feel like that you do not enjoy confrontations like most of my other knights do.”

Erhen brooded over his words and then suddenly raised his bow to show Michael. “My grandfather showed me how to use a bow when I was a kid. He loved to go hunting and said that ‘the bow and arrow are a weapon for the skilled in a way that people who swing around metal could never understand’.”

Michael got a little bit of whiplash from the sudden change of topic, but he was sure that Erhen would get to the point of it if he just listened.

“He took me hunting with him for years until he died when I was around twelve. It was just a few days later that my father took away my bow and handed me a sword. ‘The sword is the weapon of knights and nobles, boy. Even a peasant can shoot an arrow’ he said. I was forced to train with the sword day in and day out, but I never enjoyed it much. I still miss going out into the woods with my grandfather even if I was too small to hunt something myself. I just wish he could have been there when I killed my first stag.” Erhen’s eyes glimmered with a mix of joy and sadness.

His story had been a little bit roundabout, but Michael had gotten the point.

“So why are you not using your bow now?” Michael asked him.

Erhen looked at him confused. “A bow is not a knight's weapon.”

“Why not?”

“It just isn’t.”

“Erhen, use whatever suits you best. What your father said ‘that the sword is the knight's weapon’ is just plain wrong. Do you know why most knights of House Rowan and Grim wield swords instead of maces and hammers like Sir Zeke? It is not because they are better weapons.”

“Because your Lord Father and Lord Grim use them,” Erhen answered.

“Right, also Sir Godfrey, he trained most of the knights. The thing all of them had in common was that they all had artifact swords and the strength to plow through armor. You guys didn’t have that until recently and once magical armor becomes more commonplace, which it will, swords will become worse again.

“The main advantage a sword has over other weapons for an augmenter is that it is easier to use the mana blade with it, most of the rest comes down to tradition and the wish to imitate the idols,” Michael explained. Erhen probably knew all that, he was a trained knight after all, but Michael had seen a lot of young knights clinging to the blade just because his father had wielded one without even considering other weapons.

“But you are also using a sword. I have of course seen you train with other weapons, but you always carry a sword around,” Erhen argued.

“It’s hypocritical, isn’t it?” Michael laughed. “I already told you the main reason though, imitate the idols. Even if I wanted to, I could never put my father’s sword down for another weapon. It is the only way I can still feel close to him, to all of them.” He fiddled with the hilt of the weapon for a few quiet moments before he added, “It does help that it cuts through most mundane armor like though thick cloth.”

It wasn’t the full truth, he also harmonized best with a sword for its versatility which was mirrored in his special type of magic but that was beside the point in this conversation.

“I see,” Erhen mumbled and looked down at his bow.

“So, you see, I am also not using the best possible weapon just because I feel a connection to it. I personally think that should count as something.”

Michael slapped his hands on his thighs and got up. “Just think about that.”

He began walking away before he turned around for just a last thing, “Oh, I don’t know if anyone told you yet. There was nothing you could have done or seen. I understand that you felt guilty at that moment, but it was never your fault, and lingering on it will not help you. If you want to do something, then become strong enough that you could actually do something about a situation like this.”

With those words, he walked away. His continuous hypocrisy didn’t escape him as he told his knight to not dwell on the past while it was exactly what had kept him awake. The good thing was that even if his reasoning might not help him sleep, it might help Erhen with his crisis.