The hall beams with light. A massive chamber, filled with people of all colours. In the middle, a grand stage, decorated in gems and silks, with a godly aura brimming throughout the air, making everything sparkle. Atop the stage is a crowned woman, draped in royal robes and jewels, projecting the image of a queen. In her left hand, a box filled with little shards of sapphire. In her right, a thin blade, gray and light. People watch silently as Owin kneels before his orderly leader. Petals are thrown onto the stage, each a different colour. Above them, the crystalline dome made of glass begins to glow. On it are dozens of custom-coloured windows depicting each current member of the Order. Though 4 windows are larger and framed in gold and silver, one of them takes its place in the middle of the dome, the other 3 surrounding it. The middle one depicts the original founder, Master Diamond.
The surrounding ones are the famed reformers of the order, still alive in Owins time, Gem knights Pearl, Crystal and Phantom Quartz. There is one open slot where a window used to be, now void and empty.
As the dome glows, each window casts a brilliant light onto the stage, with all of them merging into a constantly changing shimmering rainbow.
“The fate of the sapphire is in your hands. By its will, and its will alone, you have been chosen. By our blessing and our blessing alone, you have been knighted. Now, combined, you will serve your duty, become the embodiment of sapphire, and spread the cause of the order. Speak its cause.”
She raises the blade in the air.
“To protect the innocent. To give hope. To strengthen the gem and to continue our legacy”
She lowers the blade, touching his chest with the tip.
“Feel the gems' will and tell us its ambition, cause, and its strength in you.”
She raises the box of sapphire shards in the air.
Owin closes his eyes. A wave of warmth falls onto him. He can feel the distant melody of a lonely violin. There is a more present trumpet that blares more loudly and boldly in his ears. A shallow cello repeats the same note again and again getting deeper each time. Drums begin to beat to their own rhythm, but then start to slow down and separate, one of them synchronizing with the trumpet, the other with the violin, another with the cello. When taken as a whole, it's not a pleasant sound. Owin tries to find peace in them individually and begins to pry open the gems' meaning.
“Ambition”
“To discover my father”
“Cause”
“To preserve life”
“Strength”
“My will”
“Let the energy of the gem flow through you”
She places the box on his head and lets go of both objects. They levitate in the position they were left and begin to shine a brilliant blue. The sapphire shards float out of the box and begin to expand into full pieces of sapphire. Some press themselves against his armour, the rest against the blade. Both his light armour and his light blade begin to widen and morph into heavier pieces, adapting to his preferred form. A magnificent glow beams around Owin. The rainbow light merges with him, then he rises to his feet, pointing his arms at the empty slot in the dome. Blue light flies off his body toward the open slot a flash of blue blinds everyone in the room. Once vision returns, Owin stands proudly in his sapphire armour, holding his sapphire blade. Everyone, including Owin and the queenly figure, look up to the dome. A new window depicting Owin is present, made of different colours of blue and a little green and yellow. Everyone places their hands on their hearts and the other on their weapons.
“Gha!..” Owin shoots up from the bed and is immediately struck with chest pain. “Nghg!” He slowly lies back down, gripping his chest. His body is bandaged all over, this time professionally done. He’s been stripped down to his bodysuit under the armour. He looks around. He’s in a little but comfortable room on a small bed. There is a desk and bookshelf as well as a half-wardrobe, together taking up 3/5th of the space in the little room. To his relief, his armour and sword are resting untouched on the wardrobe. The door is reinforced with metal and there is a secondary gate made of steel bars with a heavy lock. To his left and to his surprise, there is a pretty large window, barred with metal poles, with Nialuc sitting lazily on the windowsill, arms and legs crossed, looking outside.
“You…you stayed with me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve only been here for a couple hours.”
“Hours!? Cough”
“The healers tried their best. You’ve been out for a total of 34 hours”
“Holy crap… You screwed me up like hell then. More than I thought”
“Yup.”
“Mad at me still?”
“Not really. Honestly, I went a little too far. In hindsight, I’m back at home thanks to you and Hiterito, for whatever reason, isn't coming, or at least isn’t close. I don’t sense him at all”
“Isn't that nice.”
“You’re a criminal now. The city has charged you with assault against the state, property damage and conspiring with criminals”
“...Isn't that… nice?”
Nialuc turns to Owin with an exasperated look.
“You really, REALLY, get on my nerves”
Owin smiles, “Isn't…”
“Dont”
“That…”
“Owin”
“Nice,”
“I fucking hate you”
“Sorry. So…” His head sinks, his lighthearted smile turning to a grieving frown. “I'm never getting home then… am I?”
“...”
“... either way, I’ve probably done irreversible damage already… I can't even imagine what-”
“I spoke to the city council and the head guard. They’re willing to cut you a deal. Captain Ayla Inabell will come over later to negotiate with you. Be on your best behaviour.”
Owin smiles a little, but it fades away quickly, His worry lies on what he’s already done and possibly destroyed with his reality-breaking teleporting.
“Look Owin.” the lancer stands up straight, taking a more serious approach.
“Wherever you come from, whether it be the future or some other place. If you got here, then you can get back. Additionally, if you did in fact jump in time, there is no way that the gods in your time haven’t been able to deal with whatever repercussions that may have come. It's stupid to worry about something you can no longer change. Now, you can only do your best”
“... Yeah. You’re right about that… I'm happy that you came here on your own volition. You’re a better hero than I thought”
“Right… sure…”
Nialuc turns away to the gate, unlocks it with a key, and then locks it behind him.
“Wait for the captain, I'll visit again later. Oh, and they agreed to let you have your weapons and armour only out of goodwill. Don’t try anything stupid. You won’t be able to fight the whole city guard much less me or the higher-ups”
“I am well aware. Thank you Nialuc.”
He closes the wooden door with another loud click. Owin is left alone to ponder and reflect. He gets out of bed for a moment to look at his armour and sword to find the ancient tablet sitting beneath his stuff. His hand glides over it softly, wondering if his impulses have gone too far.
A couple hours pass. Eventually, the door is opened. Guards come to collect the knight, along with all his things. They lead him quietly to a fully metal room, locked behind multiple steel doors. There is a single wooden table and two steel chairs welded into the floor. Owin is sat down and his cuffs are strapped to the back of the chair with leather strips. His things are set out on the table in front of him. The guards leave. There is an elf woman occupying the chair across from him. She has long black hair tied into a bun, wearing chainmail armour with a light blade strapped to her waist. There is a silver-looking longbow hanging off the back of her chair. She has a calm expression and emanates an air of authority. Prying green eyes and quite small ears relative to most elfs Owin’s seen, especially since one of them seems to have a chunk of it missing, outlined with a bite mark. Owin also spends a little too long looking at her cheeks which look unusually soft. She places both her hands on the table, leaning foreward to get a closer look.
“Owin. And your last name is?”
“Apologies but is that necessary? I have no living ancestors or descendants who share my family name and no one but my order knows it.”
“You are part of an order?”
“Yes, the order of the Gem-Knights”
She looks down at the table and begins to trace her finger across its surface. She writes on the table with the tip of her finger as her touch produces some sort of magical ink which is left on the wood. Though shortly after she finishes writing a sentence, it disappears, making room for her to write the next. While she writes, she grumbles “Nialuc could’ve mentioned that… What else does he know about you?”
“Well. He is aware of my magical abilities, general fighting capability, my order, roughly where I come from, but that's really it.”
“Not much then”
“I’ve known him for about 3 days at most. Closer to 2”
She finishes writing. “Let’s get some things clear then. You understand why you’re here yes?”
“Roughly”
“Specifically, you’ve been charged with assaulting the state, 3 major counts of destruction of property, conspiring and acting with outlaws, resisting arrest, public endangerment and breaking city code.”
“Would that be a life sentence or execution?”
The woman leans back in her chair. “So you’re aware of your actions and admit to wrongdoing?”
“Of course. Though I do question the validity of assaulting the state and breaking city code”
“Assaulting or attacking city guards in any way is considered an attack on the state. You broke the city code when you attempted to disrupt an officer from fulfilling their dutiful obligations to the state”
“Which dutiful obligations? Doesn’t that count under resisting arrest?”
“No not that. Witnesses testified you attempted to stop Nialuc from performing his duty”
“His duty involved murder”
“Upon a criminal who was issued the death sentence. Nialuc has expressed permission in this city to perform both arrests and executions under specific circumstances.”
“By trying to stop him I interfered with City code?”
“Precisely”
“City code is not something I'm familiar with.”
“You have the right to request a practitioner of law on your behalf”
“No, I don’t deny what I did”
“Very well. The only thing stopping us from assigning you a sentence would be depending on your legal status or habitation in other cities or your privileges granted by your order.”
“I’m not a citizen of any state and my order doesn’t exist yet”
“Right… that's not something I wanted to get into. But I’m afraid I have to ask.”
She once again leans in, seriously considering the ramifications of her question and Owin's possible answer. She raises her hand, taking off her leather glove and revealing a tattoo on her palm which she directs Owin to look at. It looks like a pattern one would find on a snail's shell. It glows a dim purple. Owin begins to feel something like an itch on his head, an urge to look away and scratch his head as well as an urge to open his mouth and let his tongue move by itself.
“Do you come from the future?”
As the words leave her mouth, he begins to mimic words with his lips but stops himself from speaking anything vocally, not understanding the situation.
“Do not resist. Answer the question”
Owin once again opens his mouth, his tongue moves by itself. This time he lets his vocal chords do their thing.
“Yes. I come from the year 1211.529 years from now ” Owin is surprised as the itch fades and his lips become his own again, mainly the fact that he performed the math on the difference in years so quickly off the top of his head.
“... At least this is good news for me”
“It is?”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Legally speaking you’re less than a lowborn. You’re barely one legal step above being declared officially dead. Technically I don’t have to issue you any mortal rights and don’t have to worry about recognizing your title of knight”
“Ah… Well if that's how you see it then I must humbly ask you to give me a merciful death…”
Owin tries to bend down into a bow but only makes it about halfway before his awkward restraints stop him from moving any farther.
The woman doesn't respond, simply content to stare at the prisoner attempting to make amends. Owin, feeling slightly awkward himself after a good minute of silence, starts to fear she is considering his death sentence to be less than merciful.
“S-so.. you believe I'm actually from the future?” He asks, trying to distract her from thought.
“Well you certainly aren’t lying and our healers didn’t detect any magical curses, head injuries or anything really that would cause you to be so delusional.”
“...you…you are taking this surprisingly well…”
She shrugs, “I don’t think it's such a big deal. Gods work in mysterious ways and it's not too farfetched to think one of them intervened on your behalf, sending you here. In any case, it's not my problem”
“Well… isn't that nice?”
She tilts her head at Owin. He immediately backpedals, “Sorry sorry… I have a problem with taking things seriously.”
“Do you now? Even as you’re talking to the person who will decide your fate?”
“Yes, it's a serious issue. I beg for mercy”
“Well calm down. Lucky for you, multiple people, including some of the guards and Nialuc, testified in your defence.”
“R-really?”
“Particularly, the guards noticed that you were without a shred of doubt holding back on them based on how your attacks on them compared with those on Nialuc.”
“I… tried my best not to harm anyone”
“I'm inclined to believe you there. If you have enough strength to hold Nialuc back, then you could’ve certainly done much, much more damage. Additionally, some of the spectators testified that as absurd as it seemed, you were fighting for a good cause, at least so it seemed to them. Some of the people agreed with your little speech, one person was savvy enough to write it down for us.”
“Good to know I'm not alone in thinking so”
“If anything, it has caused a bit of an uproar on the authority of the state which has caused me a headache. Also, Nialuc specially requested me to speak with you personally to work something out. Even though you seem to be really good at annoying him”
“How so?”
“I spoke with him shortly after you recovered. He spoke with you for less than five minutes and I already sensed frustration in him. It’s not hard to piss him off but even I’m impressed with this.”
“... well… isn't that nice”
“... Yeah… I'm starting to feel it too actually…”
“Sorry sorry! Please don't kill me…”
The woman sighs. “No, you aren’t going to be executed. Instead, I have an offer for you.”
Owin perks up, only now beginning to remember Nialuc's advice about being on his best behaviour.
“We are willing to drop the charges for assault considering the testimonies and since none of the victims want to press any further. For us to drop your other charges, we will need compensation. We’ve searched your things and assuming this is all you have, you won’t have enough to pay the fine for the destruction of property. You also helped a criminal escape justice. So, we need three things from you. You will be hired by the Emba guard as a private contractor for your services, those being your fighting capabilities. You will work our assignments and do missions as asked until you have made up enough pay to afford the fines. Secondly, we need the Kenku you helped escape, captive. Thirdly, you must read and pledge to follow the city code.”
Owin takes in the information piece by piece, considering every demand carefully. His face has turned from his usual relaxed into something more serious and thoughtful.
“I cannot accept under these conditions”
“Excuse me?”
“From my understanding, the city code will force me to accept that the state, including its extensions, such as your guard or Nialuc, can at will, kill those weaker than them. Also, I have nothing against bringing the Kenku in, but if his fate is to die, then I cannot”
The woman taps her finger rhythmically on the table.
“Nialuc warned me of your, as he called it, stupid ideology.”
She leans back, crossing her arms and letting her eyes wander Owins body from head to toe. “You dont kill. Ever?”
“I dont let anyone be killed. Ever”
“You’ve never had someone die around you?”
“I have, plenty. Natural and/or other. But never willingly and never without an effort to prevent it”
“Even those who try to kill you?”
“Especially not.”
“What if two people were trying to kill each other”
“I will help the weaker side.”
“What if the two are equal and fight to the death?.”
“I will fight them both until they calm down”
“What if one man fights equally against 5 to the death”
“Same answer. I will do my best to prevent any death.”
“What if I gave you some context on this Kenku.”
“Please do.”
“The Kenku is only a half-Kenku and also half-human. His name is Kani Roou. His father was a gang leader in his youth. Eventually, his gang became an organised group spread across multiple different cities in the region. They formed the Red Feathers, known for their racist bias toward Kenkus and their commonly red feathers, which are usually a rare colour but common in the group because their members would bathe themselves in the blood of their enemies which eventually gave them their artificial red colour. They would extort every merchant on the workable roads into paying up, in some cases, half of their profit and rob them blind if they wouldn’t comply. It got so bad that some smaller cities began paying them to keep the crime rate down because so much of the crime was connected to their gang. Here in Emba, there was no tolerance for such negotiation, so a war on crime began. This all happened 10 years ago and only ended 5 years ago. In those in-between 5 years, war was waged. The gang took over entire settlements and militarized themselves. They became so infamous that the whole nation had to get involved. It ended only when Nialuc and Skaha managed to raid the Red Feathers’ home city and kill Kani’s father, whose name we still don’t know to this day. From there, leadership fell apart and the war which caused thousands upon thousands in damages and killed hundreds upon hundreds of innocents ended.”
“And what role did Kani play in this war?”
“Kani grew up in a military camp. His father had many children with many different slaves, one of them was Kani’s mother. She was eventually killed off when she grew older and was no longer fit to please Kani’s father. Kani and his many brothers and sisters would compete for their father's attention. Some deserted, some tried to oppose the family's action but they were made a brutal example of what happened to Rooue opposers. Kani gathered his own following of around 1200 people. On multiple occasions, he started riots and tried to flame chaos in Emba. One especially noteworthy event was when his insiders managed to bribe officials and capture our former president of Emba. A ransom was set up but when Nialuc and Skaha arrived Kani got cold feet, murdered the hostages…and the president…”, She chokes up a little at the words but quickly straightens herself again, “...and escaped while his men burned their safehouse to the ground causing a massive fire.”
Owin leans back in his seat, closing his eyes, face toward the ceiling. He remains like this for several minutes. The woman is content to give him time.
“You’re captain Ayla Inabell right?”
“I am”
“Did you ever face him? Kani I mean”
“Not personally”
“But you know everything about him”
“I’m informed, yes.”
“How old is he?”
“As far as I’m aware, 25”
“Gods… Poor boy had a terrible upbringing” Owin comments, eyes shut tight, not moving.
Ayla winces at this comment.
“You can’t seriously defend him. He’s a terrorist, killed dozens, maybe hundreds of people.”
“Was there any criminal activity related to him since 5 years ago?”
“...Not anything guaranteed. One instance of a robbery where witnesses described a red feathered Kenku.”
“All those terrible things he did. For his father. How horrible of a life he must have. It must have been terrifying.”
Ayla’s fists subtly begin to clench as her eyes narrow.
“You would actually protect this man? There’s no way that-”
“Gotten cold feet you said? He was 20, probably younger. Barely a man much less a hardened criminal. He was just beginning life. Indoctrinated, led on and manipulated. A child lashing out of fear for affection he never got”
“Nonsense! He murdered people! No child can go that far just by empty promises from a father he barely saw”
“And yet he’s not managed any crime since. Last I saw him he wanted only Nialuc, specifically to avenge his father. It was all he had”
“You would protect a terrorist who’s killed hundreds just because he was doing it for his father?!”
“There’s more to it than just that. Lives are more than numbers”
“So where were you when he killed all those innocent people?! You can do and did nothing for them but now that he’s on the backfoot you dare protect him?!”
“He still has hope to turn his life around. A whole life to repent and improve, to do some good for all the bad he can’t take back”
“And where were you when he committed all of it? Where were you when he killed my father?!” She slams her fist into the table, punching a hole through it.
Owins eyes shoot open as he looks at the captain. Her eyes a trained onto his, fury burning in them with a hint of water shallowing around the edges. Her face has gotten redder. Owin bends foreward, breaking his cuffs with a small force blast, quickly reaching over and taking her hands into his across the table. Putting two and two together he asks, “The president was your father?”
Ayla, surprised, slowly calms herself, taking a breath. “He was one of the officials with the president on that day”
Owin bows his head into his and her hands. “I wasn’t there for my father either. I became a Gem-knight to make sure I would never be missing when a loved one needed me. I’m sorry. If I had been there, I would’ve done anything in my power to save your father”
She looks at his head as he bows into her hands.
“But you wouldn’t have done anything. You wouldn’t have killed Kani.”
“Killing isn’t a power, it's a weakness. I need to stay strong so that no one ever needs to lose a loved one like you or I. No one, not even the people who we think don’t deserve it.”
She pulls her hands back after sitting quietly for several minutes. Slowly, Ayla gets up, taking her bow and hoisting it over her shoulder. Looking down at Owin, she asks, “And what was that thing I heard about threatening Nialuc with harming civilians.”
“A bluff. I only attacked when he rushed me with no intent to dodge.”
The captain stands completely still, eyes locked with the knights, neither blinking nor showing a single shred of deceit or disrespect.
“You can use your magic trick if you don’t believe me”
“... No. No need.” Ayla reaches out to shake Owins hand.
“Forget Kani and anything in the city code that has to do with killing. Follow everything else and we have a deal.”
Owin takes her hand and they shake. She walks around him toward the door as Owin stays put, only adding one more thing before she leaves, “I’m adding the cuffs you broke to your fine”
Owin turns around to glance at her, “And the hole in the table too I imagine?” He chuckles.
Owin catches the slightest hint of a smirk tugging at Ayla’s cheek.
“No. That one’s on me.”