A grin flashed across Vol’kesh’s face, “Hedge Knight? It suits you,” the larger man readied his weapons, “Well then Hedge Knight… show me your worth!”

The two men charged at one another, steel clashing against steel as they collided. Vol’kesh took the offense at the first clash, the lack of one arm made up with a battle-crazed enthusiasm that pressed Helbram to the backfoot. The armored man tucked himself behind his shield, the pain from his shoulder regressed to a dull ache as the rush of battle started to come over him.

He knew these movements, he’d replayed them time and time again in the dream.

A strike from the right, followed by a sword from above and another from below.

He caught the first two attacks with his sword and shield and absorbed the third with his breastplate. Their weapons briefly locked, he shifted his stance and slammed against Vol’kesh’s chest with his uninjured shoulder. The blow barely made the Quetali budge, but it gave him enough of any opening to bring his sword across the bandit’s chest, leaving a scratch against the hardened skin. The commander, unfazed, resumed his assault.

A flurry of his blades, followed by a straight kick to Helbram’s torso

The armored man intercepted the swords with his shield, twisting to deflect the final, hardest blow off to the side. Again, the disturbance to the Quetali’s stance was only slight, but it was enough to give Helbram the time to catch the larger man’s leg mid kick. He slammed the pommel of his sword into Vol’kesh’s knee, knocking the Ether infused leg off course. Helbram twisted his body to avoid the blow entirely and followed the dodge with a slash across the Quetali’s abdomen. The blade bit deeper this time, forcing a wince across the larger man’s face. Still, Vol’kesh did not halt his attacks, and instead his pace quickened further.

His pattern changed, switching from its hacking motions to a mix of slashes and stabs.

Helbram fell in rhythm to the commander’s movements, tanking the slashes with his armor and shield and using his sword both deflect and counter the stabs that were slipped in between attacks. His defense was not perfect, and though he avoided any major injuries the occasional strike would slip past his guard and armor, leaving cuts at his joints and exposed flesh. Darkness crept further into the center of his vision, but he kept his eyes on the bandit’s movements and left cuts of his own across Vol’kesh’s flesh as their melee continued. He could only guess before, but he now knew that the Quealti’s defenses weakened whenever an attack infused with Ether was performed. It was then that he could strike, leaving wounds that dyed the man’s red skin a deeper shade.

Vol’kesh was strong, there was no denying that, but Helbram had seen stronger. He could do this, he could win.

Roars erupted from both men, growing in intensity and drowning the sounds of battle that rang around them. The fighting started to slow as men looked to the source of such fury, bearing witness to a storm of steel that dashed itself against a monument of flesh and iron.

Blood splashed and streaked on the ground around them, but neither of them moved as their weapons clashed. Helbram could feel his limbs grow heavier, his vision grow darker with each swing, but he pressed on. Vol’kesh’s movements were slowing, and as they did Helbram’s sword bit deeper and deeper every time he landed a blow. His blade was warped, and his shield reduced to a piece of broken and bent metal as they deflected the blades that were growing more suffused with Ether with each blow.

What felt like an eternity passed before their flurries degraded into a slug fest of weapon against weapon. Still, neither man would move.

Helbram caught Vol’kesh’s swords with his own, but fatigue had worn away his strength and he stumbled forward as he pushed the attack away. The Quetali recovered before Helbram could regain his footing and blood red energy surged from his weapons as he brought them down on the armored man. Helbram grit his teeth and flipped his sword to cover his forearm. He brought his arms up and shifted his feet, catching the swords at the crests of their swings. Shock rattled his body and his shoulder broke through his adrenaline fueled numbness with a burst of pain that drew a scream from his lips. Vol’kesh drew his head back as Helbram kept his blades at bay and the armored man mimicked his movements. They struck their heads against one another, again and again until Helbram’s vision went white. Then, he felt the Quetali falter.

His vision returned as his body granted him one last surge of strength. The tattered remnants of his shield hung from his wrist as he wrapped both of his hands around the handle of his sword. He was falling forward, but his gaze remained fixed on Vol’kesh’s now exposed chest as the larger man stumbled back. Helbram drove his sword forward, its length warped but ready to strike true through the Quetali’s heart, and watched as its tip faltered against the glyph that formed over his opponent’s skin.

Fire followed, a burst of flame that washed across the side of his head and lifted him from his feet. Sound left him as he heard the beginnings of a woman’s scream. He tumbled through the air, feeling it brush against his face as his helmet was torn from head. He felt nothing when he hit the ground, vision tumbling as he rolled and ended up face down. A distant ringing filled his ears, growing steadily until sound returned to him.

“MARLIIIIIIIIIIIIN!” Vol’kesh roared, a noise so loud that it washed away the clash of the battle in the distance.

Helbram tried to move, but his strength had left him. His arms would not respond to his thoughts, and he could only watch as the halfling appeared before the bandit commander as if materializing out of thin air. No arrows protruded out of his body like before, and composure had returned to his expression as he regarded the larger man.

“Spare me,” Marlin said in an impassive tone, “If anything you should thank me for saving your life.”

“This was not your fight!” the Quetali snarled. He stepped towards the halfling, but stopped once he bumped into the barrier that appeared around the smaller man.

“I’ve no time for your petty honor. I paid you to do a job, one that you are failing spectacularly,” He regarded the battle by the building’s entrance, “Or shall I set your men on fire with the townsfolk?”

“Pray that you do not live through this day wizard, for we will have words when this is over.”

Vol’kesh turned away from Marlin, readying his blades as he marched towards the men holding the bandits back. He spared a quick glance at Helbram, and in that brief look he saw regret on the Quetali’s face.

Helbram put all his effort into his arms, producing only a twitch from his fingers. His vision began to darken, the sounds of battle fading from his ears. His eyes started to close and resignation once again took hold of his heart.

This was all he could do. This was as far as he could go…

…

…

…

Fury swelled within his chest, an anger that flooded every inch of his being, fueling his vision, his hands, and the roar that he let loose from his lungs.

“Vol’kesh!”

The Quetali stopped and turned his head, eyes widening at the sight of Helbram staggering to his feet. The armored man’s arms hung loosely at his sides, blood dripped from his hand and from the brown hair that matted against his face. Still, through all of that weariness his blue eyes were alight with resolution.

“Our fight is not finished,” he said, his voice iron.

Marlin laughed, “What? When you can barely stand? Truly you are a fool.”

“Silence mage,” Vol’kesh said, “You’ve earned no right to say such slander.”

The halfling rolled his eyes, “Enough of this delay. You wish to be a hero young man? I’m afraid you’ll just have to settle for dying with your face in the dirt,” His hand snapped up, a spell forming within his palm. One that was never released as an arrow pierced his wrist.

Marlin yelled in pain, a sound that was drowned by the furious cry of a woman. Jahora stood above, eyes a pure white as Aether surged around her, ruffling her robes and lifting her hair. The pillar of light next to Helbram flickered before the Ruhian artifact began to spark. It was bleeding Aether, right into the gnome above.

The halfling’s eyes widened in fear and he raised his hands, the three rings appearing around his head as he too began to pull magic from the device. A flow that was cut off as Leaf peppered the wizard with arrows, forcing him to focus on deflecting the projectiles as he retreated back.

In this chaos Vol’kesh walked towards Helbram, his swords at his side. No battle-crazed joy was within the Quetali’s eyes, but as the two men stared at one another Helbram could see the larger man was regarding him with a mix of respect and resignation.

“I had thought it to be an orc or an elf under that helmet, but a human? That is quite the surprise…” he said, swords raised, “It truly was a good fight, and for that I will grant you a warrior’s death.”

The words washed over Helbram, his arms still limp at his side. He closed his eyes and took in a breath. The air was dense, the Aether bleeding from the Ruhian artifact settling over his shoulders, and he felt for that presence at the back of his mind once again. He raised his hands in front of him and opened his eyes.

Time slowed down and he felt an awareness come over him. Vol’kesh was running towards him, his swords primed to strike as he drew closer. Marlin stood off to the distance behind the Quetali, fending off both spell and bow as Aether continued to bleed into Jahora. Battle continued to rage around them, the cries of men and the cadence of Garuf’s orders filling the night sky. He pushed it all aside; his hearing, his vision, his pain… and that is when he felt it, the small crumb of Ether that sat at his core.

He reached out to both it and the presence at the back of his mind simultaneously. His skin tingled as the Ether began to move to his hand, and he felt Aether condense at his palm as the spell in his head grew all the more prominent, releasing the moment Ether reached his fingers.

Aether and Ether mixed as the claymore appeared in his hands with a surge of power that threatened to shake the weapon from his grip. He clenched his hands and brought the weapon back. He did not need to see where Vol’kesh would strike, for he knew where to place his blade. He brought the sword up, and only felt a brief resistance as his senses flooded back to him.

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Vol’kesh stood in front of Helbram, his weapons dropped at his side and with a new, fresh cut across both his abdomen and chest. Blood poured from the wound and drained from the Quetali’s mouth, but the larger man looked down at Helbram with no trace of shock or regret in his eyes.

“Do not forget this moment. For this is the moment that you felled Vol’kesh tok Orgrima. You… have shown your worth.”

Vol’kesh fell to the ground, weapons clattering against the dirt as he lay unmoving. The claymore fell from Helbram’s hands and strength left his legs. He fell back, and by the time he hit the ground his vision was black.

____

He heard the chirping of birds. It was a far off noise, caressing his ears as darkness remained in his vision. There was a brief spike of panic where he thought himself blinded, but he realized that it was just that his eyelids felt as if they were the weight of the Golden Peak itself.

“Shite, a bleedin’ twitch and my arse feels like it's about to fall off…”

Helbram snorted, his eyes closed but knowing full well who was muttering next to him. The shifting of cloth followed, followed by a small window of silence as he felt eyes leering at him.

“Oh so he’s awake now is he? Here I’d thought I’d have to give you a kiss to wake you for your slumber.”

“Good morning Leaf.”

“I’ll have you know it’s the afternoon thank you very much.”

“Well it certainly feels like morning…”

“For you maybe, you’ve been out cold for the past few days.”

Helbram’s eyes snapped open, “Days?!”

He found himself staring at a wooden ceiling. He was in a bed, unclothed but wrapped in bandages. Leaf was in the bed next to him, sitting upright with a blanket covering his legs. He wore a white linen shirt, freshly cleaned from the look of it, and was halfway through finishing an apple. The fruit brought a rumbling from Helbram’s stomach, but he ignored it for the moment.

“What? You thought bleeding out on the ground was just something you walked off the next day?” Leaf took another bite of his apple, “You’d best kiss the feet of the healers who tended to ya, took them all night before you were breathin’ normal,” he looked over Helbram again, “How’re you feelin’?”

“Like I have been trampled by a herd of Aurocs,” Helbram moved his wrapped shoulder carefully. It was heavy from the fatigue that sat over his body, but felt only the slightest twinge of pain from movement, “they certainly did good work.”

They sat in silence for a moment and Helbram looked around the room some more. It was clean, but the desk, cushioned chairs and portraits of an elderly orc couple told him that he wasn’t in an infirmary.

“Where are we?”

“The Mayor’s house. Infirmary’s a bit jammed at the moment so the man offered to keep us here while we recovered. It was a bit much giving us his quarters though…” he shrugged and took another bite of his apple, the crisp crunch bringing another rumble from Helbram’s stomach.

“Wait… where is Jahora?”

As if responding to his question, he heard a loud snore from the opposite end of the room. Helbram peered past Leaf, ignoring the pain in his neck as he craned it to see a third bed in the mayor’s chambers. There the gnome lay, dressed in a white gown and sprawled out in a position that managed to be both the most uncomfortable and comfortable position he could think of. Aside from the small bandages on her face, she looked relatively unharmed.

“Out cold,” Leaf said with a snort, “she’ll get up like once a day to eat and what not but then it's right back to bed. Aether sickness or something like that…”

The image of Jahora taking in the Aether from the Ruhian artifact flashed through Helbram’s mind. He sighed in relief, “Oh good, I was afraid something else happened… channeling Aether from ancient technology is pretty reckless all things considered.”

Leaf scoffed, “You’re one to talk. Oh sure, let’s just tackle a bloody Quetali off of a building and engage in a bit of swordplay. That’s the actions of a sane man.”

Helbram chuckled, wincing as he did so, “More like a desperate man…” He rolled his neck, feeling both pain and relief spread across his back as he did so, “I am going to assume since we are safe in here that we ended up winning the battle.”

“You would be correct. After their commander fell, let’s just say the bandits were no longer so confident in their strength. Especially when they saw a gnome lit up like the South Star hovering over them.”

“And Marlin?”

“Oh, well… he’s no longer with us. I’m sure the wind’s carried away his ashes by now…”

“Ah, so she destroyed the artifact.”

“Well that and our little mage hit the man with the sun. He was an easy target being pinned down and all, courtesy of me, of course,” he thumped his chest and grinned, “Though when that artifact blew… well, the blast was enough to send the bandits and the townsfolk running. It’s actually kind of funny, since it had the rest of the town peeking out their windows. When they saw the bandits running, they decided to give them a kick in the arse on the way out,” his smile faltered, “Though I wish I could say that we didn’t lose anyone…”

Helbram’s heart sank, “How many?”

“I can’t say, been cooped up in this room with you two all this time. Garuf’s gone with the townsfolk to give the fallen a burial today.”

“I see…” Helbram closed his eyes and placed a fist to his forehead.

“I never took you for the religious type,” Leaf said.

“I’m not, just paying respects as they return to the Cycle.”

“Ah… well, I can join you in that.”

They shared a moment of silence and opened their eyes, nodding at each other as they looked at one another.

“By the way… what injuries are keeping you confined here?”

Leaf looked away abruptly, “Oh you know, just some broken ribs and some serious bruising, those Quetali have quite the kick as I’m sure you’re aware,” he chuckled, a broken, nervous sound.

“Yes, but that’s hardly enough to keep you sitting down for a few days… now that I think about it, you were mentioning something about your rear earlier.”

“Me? You must of be hearin’ things.”

“Maybe, but the more I think about it, I really should not have lived if the artifact exploded. I was right next to it.”

“Well you were in armor, maybe that absorbed some of the impact,” Leaf still didn’t look him in the eye, “by the way, I figured you were a human but I always imagined you a bit older under that helmet of yours. What are you in your early twenties?”

“Twenty-five, but back to the blast… were you the one to carry me away from it?”

“Bah, I’m telling you it was just pure luck.”

“I mean, if you did I can hardly imagine why you would be embarrassed about it, unless…” he snorted, “you got hit in the arse while pulling me back.”

Leaf sagged, “It bloody hurt, and let me tell you it’s hard to look heroic when your bum is hanging out of your drawers.”

Helbram started to laugh.

“It’s not that funny.”

“Oh it is. I for one cannot wait to hear the tale of Leaf the Chaffed pulling his friend from danger, arse so gracefully displayed for all the world to see,” he continued to laugh, ignoring the pain he felt as his body shook.

“Laugh it up, you owe me a pint… make that two pints if you’re gonna laugh at your savior like that.”

Helbram fell back on his pillow, feeling fatigue wash over him once again, “Deal, I suppose that is a fair trade. I shall have to pay respects to the fallen first, however… in person.”

“We’ll join ya,” Leaf said, “for now get some rest. You did good, Hedge Knight.”

Helbram groaned, but said nothing as sleep washed over him again.

___

He was once again in the void, though this time he was no longer in his armor and instead wore only a simple linen shirt with pants. He could feel soft grass beneath his soles, but could not see it. No weapons were in his hands, and he could not feel the same oppressive air that he’d felt from the void before.

The Figure once again materialized in its larger, faceless form. It too wielded no weapons, and as it looked at Helbram it started to shift into a different shape. One that he was very familiar with, for it himself, just adorned in his usual armor.

“What, am I supposed to fist fight myself now?”

“That depends on what you want.”

Helbram stepped back as the figure spoke, with his own voice of all things.

“I cannot say I saw that one coming…” he muttered, “what do you mean? And who are you?”

“Don’t play ignorant, you know full well who I am,” his armored self said.

Helbram sighed, “Yes, yes I suppose I do.”

“So, you’ve managed to strike down a Quetali. Talentless, powerless you.”

“When you put it like that it almost sounds impossible.”

“Because it is, do you really think that you accomplished that through skill alone, that all your hopeless plodding for the past decade and a half brought you to the level that allowed you to slay a warrior from the Broken Lands?”

Helbram frowned, “Saying it like that does not change the fact that it happened.”

“Ah, but not by your will alone. You had help did you not? Leaf, Jahora, Garuf, the townsfolk. You know that the night was only won because they were there. We know of people who could have saved this town without drawing others into the fray, people who would not have told others to go to their deaths because we were too weak to fight for them.”

Helbram bit his lip and clenched his hands.

His armored self continued, “So what if a Quetali fell by your hand, what of those that died to lead you to that moment? Will they be part of your tale of valor, or will they just be a silent reminder of your weakness for you alone? Tell me, Hedge Knight, what say you to the weakness that plagues you so? The frailty, the feebleness that is steeped into your very being, letting others die so you may take some measure of glory for dreams unfulfilled.”

Helbram clenched his jaw and looked to the ground. There was not much that he could say to his armored self, for the man merely voiced the thoughts that were already plaguing him. He did not deserve glory, and he would not be alive were it not for the actions of others that put themselves in harm's way because of him. He was still weak, and for all of his actions days ago that fact about him did not change. But… he was now aware of something else.

This was not as far as he could go.

He could continue to move forward still.

He looked up at himself, “I would say that you are correct, that my weakness has been to the detriment of others. I would say that I am still frail, nothing more than a frog that has seen the outside of the well but has yet to leave its boundaries.”’

His armored self said nothing.

“But I would also say that it shall not remain this way, that I shall remember those that have gotten me this far and move forwards. I shall accept that I am weak, but I will not accept remaining so. I will become stronger, for the sake of those who suffer because of my weakness, but also for me, because my journey has not ended this day. It has only begun.”

His armored self turned away from him, but when he looked back, he was grinning.

“It will not be an easy journey,” he said, “it will break you time and time again and like any man doubt will forever be by your side. You do not possess the blessings of Chosen, the talents of legends past. You have no tools to take to the heights that you have in your sight. And so, I ask you, for what reason do you seek to move forward? To be a hero? To create a tale for yourself for all the world to remember? What is it that you truly want, Helbram?”

He locked eyes with himself, smiled, then closed them.

“I simply wish to see if I can climb to the top, but I know more than anyone that I do not have the wings that will bear me to that great peak that I see before me…”

When he opened his eyes he was alone.

“Therefore, I shall walk.”

Hedge Knight Arc One: The Knight from Nothing

End