Tilly stared down at the still body and began to notice several stretches of pale skin near the edges of his armor showing black veins frozen in their insidious advance.
Level 71 Sanguine Knight
His Identify pinged helpfully.
“So he was one of the Knights who went on the ‘Excursion’?” Tilly asked.
“Yes, the name they chose for the venture was slightly more light-hearted than I would have liked, but the mission was serious. Several smaller roving bands of Strigoi were forming from the recent successful campaigns they had waged on other borders. We sent fifty Knights on a scouting campaign with orders to disrupt and destroy any leadership they could find without getting caught in a full engagement. You have yet to see it, but a full contingent of armored Knights on Mounts is truly awesome to behold.”
“What happened?” Tilly asked as Hilbert took out the extractor which still glowed with active runes, its connections to the vessel seemingly unaffected by distance. The Wizard’s Apprentice handled it carefully as he knelt beside the coffin, considering the body frozen in its near-Corrupted state.
“Upon contact with the enemy, they found the Horde's numbers had grown far beyond our estimates. Somehow the average Consumer's level had jumped significantly in the space of two months. So even against a smaller Horde, we lost five Knights in a fighting retreat, and only ten in the entire force returned free of the Blood Sickness. We tried everything we could to cure it, but nothing worked, and while we do have a small temple of light based in our city, the holy magic and our natures do not mix well… When it was discovered that a cure was not available to our people yet, they volunteered to come down here and the Queen put them into stasis one by one to hold until the day we found a solution.” He said, easing the tip of the device against Constantine’s neck and looking back up at Tilly.
“Are you ready? The Stasis will break when I administer a blood ration, and while I hope this is enough, perhaps for the first one you should add your active Ability to the one latent in the blood.”
Tilly nodded and shot a glance up at Sir Michael, “Can you be on Sludge duty? I don't know what form the manifestation will take in this situation, but hopefully, it's one you can smash with your mace.” The faceless Knight nodded easily and pulled his mace free from the latch on his thigh.
“Ready,” Tilly answered, churning his mana, and kneeling opposite Hilbert over the lip of the coffin.
“Administering now,” Hilbert said with quiet focus, as he clicked something on the side of the device and the glowing light sunk from its silvery surface into the Knights neck.
Steam started to hiss out from under its armor and the sleeping figure slowly bared its fangs in unconscious agony. Tilly took that to mean it was working and released his Ability, exhaling over the body. Once the second stack of the ability took hold, the knight's body started to shake violently, and thick black worms started to crawl out from under his armor, fleeing the newly hostile environment.
“Ah, Sir Michael, it looks like these will fall more into my purview.” Hilbert breathed, lifting his hands and flicking them through several arcane gestures before whispering, “Abod’s Gathering Hand” At those words a large pink hand formed over the shivering body and began a slow pass down its length. Every place it went, the worms were sucked up into its form until it the construct was packed with the black wriggling creatures. Eventually, the Vampire’s seizing stopped, his eyes flicked open, and his grip on the hilt of his weapon redoubled. Tilly could hear the leather of the finely-made handle creaking.
“Sir Constantine! It is good to see you alive and well! … Or just well-” Hilbert greeted brightly, accenting his greeting with a clenched fist. The motion was reminiscent of how the Queen had dispatched the last manifestation of Corruption, and the black worms caught in his mage hand all disappeared with a pop, along with the construct.
In a much deeper voice than Tilly had expected from such an elegant-looking man, the Knight asked, “It is done?” The words came out semi-garbled in a groan of pain as he slowly moved his head to examine the faces above him before groggily looking back down at his body.
“I believe so, but best query your Character Sheet to check,” Hilbert answered.
The Knight’s eyes immediately glazed over as he took a few seconds to do just that. Then the urgency in his expression drained away, leaving him looking haggard, his skin drawn slightly too tight across his sharp cheekbones.
“I was never told you could dream in stasis…” He mumbled distantly, as he slowly sat up. “However long it has been, my time has been fraught with horrors. I believe the Sickness they carry is much more than it seems.“ He concluded gravely as he came fully to his senses. “Nonetheless, thank you, Gentlemen. You have my sincere gratitude.” He added, taking another turn to look at the trio, and lingering on Tilly the longest.
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“You are correct in your conclusions, Sir Knight, it is much more. But a solution has been found for our people. Now how does your status read? We have many more of your brethren to awaken and a strict timeline to get it done.” Hilbert answered solemnly, some of the cheer bleeding from his tone.
…
They persisted in that room for hours, re-awakening and cleansing 34 Knights in total. Tragically two were too deeply infected for even the double stack of imbued blood and Tilly’s Ability to cure. In a horrifying turn of events, the exhausted group had to put down the two warriors as they began to sprout tentacles and scream in fury, attacking with abandon. The experience left even the most seasoned of the Knights shaken and by the time they reemerged from the catacomb, few looked much better than walking dead they were.
The first failed cleansing had happened after only a few Knights were revived. So for the rest of the attempts, Tilly couldn’t help but be stressed to unbelievable levels, as each Knight whose eyes flicked open had a small chance of immediately attacking. This was doubly true for the growing body of revived Knights, who had to watch in tense readiness as each of their number was cleansed and awoken.
But as they filed into the chamber of the High Table, something about the sight of the pillars and the seven virtues inscribed into the central floor of the room revived them. Many had lingering Debuffs from injuries and Stasis that would fade in the next few hours, but as they crossed through the stone door, into the hall that enshrined their highest ideals, some of the shadowy doubt faded from their countenances and they stood a little taller.
Tilly was one of the last through the door, and he found the Queen back in her chair, still speaking with Ichiro, who was now seated and flanked by Gorock. Franklin and Amelia were absent, and there was a line of injured soldiers stretching out of the main doors. It ended at the Vessel which glowed much less brightly than it had when Tilly left, and Villers stood at its side, carefully administering Ability-embued rations to each one, before waving to the next.
The Knights who filtered into the room were diverse in their states of readiness, having been put in stasis from different posts. Some had been in full plate, and some half undressed, but all looked drawn, like they could have used another couple weeks of sleep. The Queen looked up from her conversation at their procession and allowed herself a grim smile.
“Report?” She asked, her tone somewhat more gentle than Tilly had heard it at any point previously.
An Elderly Level 82 Knight stepped forward, the one who had apparently led the doomed expedition in the first place.
“We lost two men completely to the Sic- Corruption. Seven more were cleansed but did not awaken when the ration was administered. There is a chance they just need more time, or they could have passed through to the final rest. At this point, we do not know.” He announced solemnly.
The Queen nodded, “Thank you, Sir Kay. I feared it would be much worse. I know from your perspective you returned from the field only a day or two ago, but a campaign is being organized and Sir Cador is gathering all of the Cavalry and Knights the border forts can spare…” She took time to look at the Knights before continuing, paying homage to their strength as they stood before before her unbroken.
“We have good information that the bulk of the Strigoi forces are committed on two fronts. We will be hitting the smaller of these armies with the intent to annihilate them before they overtake our new allies. I must ask you to be prepared to leave in a matter of hours. Do whatever you must, but be ready when the Horn sounds at the gates..."
"The Sanguine Order rides to war.” She finished, not trying for any sort of inspiring speech. Each of the men she addressed knew their duty, and even shaken, not one of them would hesitate to fulfill it.
Sir Kay saluted sharply, despite his clear exhaustion, and the Knights behind him all did the same. After a moment of holding the Queen’s gaze, they turned and started moving for different exits to the chamber. Some were met by servants, others had squires rush up and greet them enthusiastically. Yet the vast majority of the Knights did not reply to greetings or inquiries. To a man, they wore an expression of budding wrath.
Brothers had been lost, their sacred hall had been defiled… They were furious.
Tilly himself was exhausted. Even with his ridiculous Endurance, the last day and a half had pushed him for all he was worth. On top of that, his Blood Loss Debuff was still active, adding its weight to the boulder of weariness that rested on his shoulders. He hoped that wherever Amelia and Franklin had gone, they were taking what rest they could.
The Queen’s eyes lingered on her exiting Knights, concern breaking up the otherwise perfectly smooth porcelain skin around her eyes. As they all left, she made the come-hither motion, and Tilly along with Hilbert and Sir Michael approached the small conference area that had been set up for Ichiro and the Queen.
Her eyes moved over to Tilly and did not miss his wrung-out state. The lines around her eyes eased up into a faint expression of gratitude. “You do not know, nor do I have time to tell you the heroic and tragic history of our Order. But suffice to say,” she muttered, leaning in and lowering her voice, “We knew when we took on this new class, the power would come with a price. Each of our Knights is irreplaceable, and our population can only support so many turned warriors before it collapses into… something else. I can not let that happen. So each year our strength fades, and still, we do our duty, holding back the baser members of our dark heritage. With my husband gone and Merllyn off seeking a solution to some esoteric problem, it is easy to take on a level of fatalism.” She admitted in a low voice. Her eyes, however, took on an intensity that belayed her dour words.
“But you have given us something today… Despite the traitorous blow leveled right at the heart of our Order, the fire in our hearts burns again with renewed purpose. I will see this gift repaid. On my honor.” She swore, before leaning back and assuming the more impassive expression of royalty.
Just for that moment, Tilly saw the woman behind the mask. She was just as passionate as any of the Knights about their place in the world and would do everything in her power to give them a chance to continue to achieve their noble goals.