----------------------------------------
We again reached the inner courtyard, only to find King Saulus had left the party early after a prolonged fit of hacking and rage. We were told that he had sequestered himself in his room with Chamberlain Reginald, leaving Duke Chadwick to manage the remnants of the busted banquet. Although food had been brought out somewhat haphazardly to the garden tables, most of the nobles ignored it, instead focusing on retelling their harrowing account of the evening’s events to each other, trying to one-up each other’s spinning of yarn. Their versions involved much more blood and hellfire than I saw, though I couldn’t quite rule out if Anhinga had used illusions that I might have been immune to.
“I’m not leaving until someone can guarantee my safety!” a richly decorated older woman declared, snapping her ornate fan shut in her open palm. “There might be a whole demon army out there, ready to waylay my carriage!”
I seriously doubted it, but she had a fairly reasonable point. “Are there any other holy knights around that could comb the surrounding area and offer an escort home after that?” I asked Prince Mito.
“I’ve already taken care of it,” he replied. “My father didn’t send all of his private army to Chairo.”
I frowned suspiciously, unable to discern anyone’s aura shining in the darkness save for the King’s himself. “For some reason, I was under the impression that only the four Orders had holy knights in them…”
Prince Mito shrugged. “Not everyone with offensive amity skills is automatically recruited by the church. There’s a whole private sector devoted to protecting others from demons. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have traveling merchants, for example.”
“Are they still technically called holy knights, then?” I asked, struggling with the concept of a holy knight who was neither considered holy nor a knight. Not that being self-employed was a sin, of course! It’s just that you don’t have that religious and military endorsement.
“No.” He shook his head. “They’re called Lightwielders, and they come in all shapes, attitudes, and strengths.”
“I see…”
Oh, he called me that on the burning stage once. Interesting!
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of privatizing!” Prince Mito smirked.
“I seriously don’t have the capital right now to start my own business…” I said a little more seriously than I meant to.
Prince Mito stared at me momentarily, then sadly shook his head. “I think it will be impossible for you to break your contract with her.”
I suppressed a flinch and attempted to brush off his unintentionally piercing remark with a laugh, but it sounded more like a nervous cackle.
----------------------------------------
“I sympathize, Your Highness, but His Majesty was quite insistent,” Reginald nervously explained to Prince Mito as he blocked the doors to the King’s private chambers. “He said he will only speak with the Chosen One and her lady-in-waiting.”
“I would have preferred the term sidekick,” Nora muttered to me under her breath. “Even accomplice…”
“Associate?” I whispered back, watching the two men exchange flowery but frustrated words in front of us. “Wingwoman?”
Nora finally grinned. “That one.”
Prince Mito let out a long-suffering sigh and finally gestured for us to go on in without him. “Attempting to reason with him now would yield no harvest. Just be sure to keep me informed of any of his revelations and planned activities. I am sure he is devising something unscrupulous.”
I nodded in complete agreement with his assessment. Reginald bowed apologetically to the prince and led us inside, where King Saulus sat at a large wooden desk, scribbling angrily on a parchment.
“About Count Matthis,” I began awkwardly, hoping to get the ball rolling with a nice, warm handoff to Nora. “We just spoke—”
“I already know he’s innocent,” the King replied, still scribbling. “I’m just keeping him safe until the other nobles get their heads back on straight.”
“Oh...” I hadn’t given him enough credit, had I?
He stopped writing and fanned at the parchment. “Reginald!” he barked hoarsely. “Take this to Duke Chadwick. Be careful; the ink is still wet, so hold it open with both hands. Then bring Celestia here.”
“Your Majesty!” Reginald balked. “Surely, you’re not planning on—”
King Saulus fixed Reginald with a glare so intense that I wanted to find this woman on his behalf. Reginald shuddered, carefully took hold of the parchment, and ran off without a word.
“Who’s Celestia?” Nora asked, sitting across from him in the one chair while I claimed the other.
His Majesty turned his stark glare on her for a long moment, forcing me to realize the two hadn’t interacted much previously. Nora, undeterred, returned his stare somewhat vapidly until he cracked a wane smile. “You’ll see, dark mage, you’ll see.”
“You… knew?” Nora chirped, tilting her head in surprise.
“I’m sure Relias has his reasons for keeping quiet about you,” he replied, narrowing his gaze at her. “But don’t think for a moment you’re fooling someone like me. I may be old, but I’m trained to sniff your kind out.” His expression softened, and a smirk touched his lips. “I was married to one, you know. After a while, you start to pick up on some of their habits. My thanks for saving us earlier, by the way.”
“So, the Queen was—” I gasped. “Wait. Does your son know?” I asked, recalling his distrust of them.
“Yes, she was, and no, he does not,” he grunted, his eyes returning to the parchment before him. “And there is no need to tell him of such things now. Just know while I loved them both equally, she was quite the contrast to my first wife; may they both rest in peace.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“I’m… sorry for your loss… losses,” I whispered awkwardly, not sure why he was hitting me with family secrets that I wasn’t allowed to share.
The King cleared his throat and sat up, becoming all business. “I did not mention them merely to invoke your condolences, Chosen One. My first wife was a priestess. We married not long after she had been captured and possessed by the very demon you fought this evening.”
Nora and I both inhaled sharply. I straightened considerably in my chair while she leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with intent. “Can you tell us more about that?” she asked.
King Saulus leaned back in his chair. “In my distant youth, I was a simple holy knight with no ambition to increase my rank,” he began with a sigh. “Never did I foresee myself in a position of power. Hah… but on to Flamina… She was our top resident healer. Never one to pry, always ready to mend wounds with nary a fuss. She would turn a blind eye to our rougher sparring sessions.”
He paused, a soft chuckle escaping him. “I must admit, I became quite inventive with my excuses to linger in her healing tent.” He coughed fitfully then, a rather boyish blush crossing his cheeks. “I must clarify, though,” he hastened to add, “Our interactions were purely chaste! She, a devoted priestess, and I, a mere knight.”
“Of course. I’m sure you were quite the saint back then,” Nora murmured absently. “Go on, continue.”
“We were en route to meet with the newly appointed Captain Garvith of Silver,” he resumed, casting a sidelong glance as I flinched in my seat. “My Captain, having vouched for his promotion, had heard rumors of unrest among his ranks. It seemed he was kowtowing to his bitter subordinates, apologizing for newfound authority while being the youngest and most inexperienced Captain in history—ah, aside from you and your illustrious past lives, of course…” He paused, a wry smile tugging at his lips before he took a sip of water.
“Of course,” I murmured, doubting they were truly as illustrious as he believed.
After clearing his throat, he briefly closed his eyes. “We never reached Fort Turri,” he recounted somberly. “We were ambushed in Western Turri by a regiment of Demon Fighters, all under the command of a psychotic sergeant. If memory serves, she had eyes ablaze with fire and a pair of deer antlers adorning her head. Quite the ear-splitting laugh she had,” he added disdainfully.
Nora’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Yes. We’ve met that one.”
The King grimaced. “Wretched wench slipped through my fingers…” He sighed heavily. “Even with my blessed sword, I couldn’t strike her down cleanly because of the speed at which she moved. But mark my words, I exorcised my fair share of those sinful shades that day!”
I bit my lip before asking, “And Anhinga was there, too?”
“Yes, though he was nowhere to be found at the time. After the battle, we sent for healers from the camp, but none answered our plea. Our tents were in disarray, and Flamina and her aides vanished without a trace. Our journey to Fort Turri was abruptly halted, and we redirected our efforts to finding them. Thankfully, a nearby contingent of Silver came to our aid, equipped with their own cadre of priests. After I begged permission from my Captain, I enlisted one of them and organized a squad that scoured the countryside for weeks until, at last, we discovered Flamina standing before a cave, disheveled and dehydrated.”
“Oh no! What had he done to her?!” I sprung from my seat, although I had no idea why. Flustered, I hastily sat back down.
“Complete possession,” he growled before coughing again. “It took ten of us to subdue her while the priest performed a purification ritual.” He spoke through clenched teeth, his knuckles turning white. “Though we managed to rescue her, whatever he inflicted upon her and the others had stripped them of their abilities.”
Nora took a deep breath. “Permanently?”
The King nodded curtly. “I still loved her more than anything. And though it is terrible of me to say, she was blessed with no memories of what transpired during her imprisonment. But to the day she passed, she would often stare at her hands, flexing her fingers while whispering so softly and woefully that I could never quite catch her words…”
Nora and I watched helplessly as King Saulus, Ruler of Amantia, wept quietly, not bothering to wipe the tears that poured down his cheeks. Only Reginald’s reappearance with a large silver sword curtailed his sobs.
“Your Majesty, I have brought you Celestia,” Reginald announced, bowing and offering the sword to him.
“Place it here,” he said, pointing to the desk before waving his hand. “You’re dismissed.”
Reginald set down the sword and looked uncertainly back and forth between the three of us before bowing stiffly again. He then left on silent feet, pulling the door shut behind him with a loud boom.
“Holy Celestia!” the King proclaimed, holding the sword aloft. “This was the instrument I wielded to exorcise Anhinga.” His eyes bore into mine. “Chosen One, I swear to you and the Goddess herself, as soon as he was expelled from her body, I drove this blade through him multiple times! I witnessed his form crumble and dissipate before me. There was no shimmer, no buzz, no escape to his dark Mistress. Relias himself had originally sanctified Celestia—my family’s birthright. I have no doubt I sent him to Naught that day!”
I had desperately hoped that King Saulus was mistaken about Anhinga’s previous demise, that perhaps he misremembered or misunderstood the difference between banishment and exorcism. But as I stared at Celestia, a sacred sword adorned with intricate engravings depicting Euphridia’s divine six-pointed star, I found the thought less and less believable. While I couldn’t sense a blessing upon its blade, I knew, deep down, that he would have never made such a mistake and that Relias’s blessing back then would have almost guaranteed a lethal blow.
“Mistress,” Nora mumbled as she tore her eyes from the weapon. “You said Mistress, and not… General, or Lord. Are you absolutely sure of his allegiance?”
“Yes,” the King hissed before snorting angrily. “In his last moments, he called out to her, saying their experiment had succeeded.”
Right. The Mistress who would soon be inviting me for tea.
I shivered uncontrollably, quite sure their experiments hadn’t ended there.
“Chosen One. I know that tonight, you could only have banished him at best. Your sword…” he paused, gesturing to my blessed but simple steel blade. “I blame you not, for that one was never made to take on a high-level demon. But you must understand… my son. My son will be his target—not I!”
“I will protect him,” I declared, half afraid he might renege on his offer to send him with us to Chairo. “He’s one of us. I promise to do everything possible to see him safely to the Holy City!”
“Of that, I have no doubt,” the King affirmed. “But I would like to increase the odds fully in your favor.” He gestured to the silver sword. “Take Celestia with you. Have Relias bestow upon it his blessings anew, fortifying its holy purpose. Use its divine power to shield my son from harm.”
I wrung my hands. “I couldn’t possibly take your—”
“You are only borrowing it, Captain,” he said with a solemn smile. “Once you reach Chairo and no longer need Prince Mito’s services, give Celestia to him. I am sure he will try to refuse it, but I know you will be victorious, especially if you do it in front of several witnesses. He won’t dare to act up if people are watching. And I’m sure someone there should have a suitable substitute you can use until you reclaim your own symbol of authority.”
Nora blinked several times and then fixed King Saulus with a pointed stare. “Are you sure about all this, Your Majesty?”
The King returned the look, a dusty chuckle escaping his lips. “Oh yes. He’ll do just fine with it.”
“I’m not so sure,” I hedged. “He’s used to a rapier.” Celestia was more of a longsword.
“Ah…” The King sighed, glancing at Nora first but then at me as if he were somewhat disappointed. “…I suppose you’re right in that regard.” Then he shrugged. “Show him a few moves on the way. He’s a fast learner.”
I blinked several times, convinced I was missing something significant. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
“I’ll explain it to her in detail, Your Majesty,” Nora advised. “When the time is right.”
----------------------------------------