David hesitated and sighed as he gripped the brass handle to the office of the High Lord of Justice. For nearly a week, he’d been coming to this same small room trying, unsuccessfully, to make an appointment with the High Lord. He hoped that Miguel was having a better time convincing the Elder Brother or Sister of the clergy that their cause was righteous enough to send their aid.
The High Lord’s assistant was, as usual, seated at a large wooden desk facing the door.
“Good afternoon, Mathandiel,” David tried to be polite as he approached the desk.
“Paladin,” Mathandiel’s quill continued scratching across his parchment as he greeted David, not bothering to look up.
David rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms over his breastplate.“Is the High Lord in today?” he said with an exasperated sigh.
“As I have told you, twice a day for six days now,” Mathandiel gently laid his quill down, pushed his square rimmed glasses back up his nose, and placed both of his hands on his desk. “The High Lord is a very busy woman, she does not wait around in her office to speak with every brother or sister who may have questions of her. You are, as I have said, more than welcome to leave a message, and I will pass it along.”
“And I’ve done that,” he glowered at the man sitting in front of him. “Every time I’ve come in here, I’ve left the same message with you. I need to see the High Lord as soon as possible.”
“Brother David,” Mathandiel pushed himself out of his chair and leaned over the table. “The High Lord will see you when she has a chance. Until that time-“
“But-“ David raised his hand, attempting to interrupt his dismissal.
“Until that time,” the assistant continued. “You may pray, train or meditate on your responsibilities as a Paladin in service of our Mother and Father.”
“Can you at least tell me when she will be back?” He tried pleading one last time. It didn’t matter how long it took, David would be coming back to this office everyday until he’d spoken to the High Lord.
“She will return when the Mother and Father see fit,” Mathandiel scowled back at David over the rims of his glasses.
Fucking bureaucrats! David swore to himself as he slammed the door behind him. A pair of monks in the same colored robes Miguel wore looked up at him as he stepped out from under the arched walkway and into a tranquil courtyard.
“I’m sorry, er, brothers,” he apologized and bowed his head towards them.
The monks shook their heads in disapproval and continued on their business.
What the hell am I going to do? David lamented as he walked in the covered walkway. I’m being slowed down by an old guy who wants to be a gatekeeper for the most respected person in our order. I can’t meet back up with everyone else with no part to contribute to our forces.
As beautiful as the city of Sitifus was, David had not been enjoying his time there. He didn’t usually pay much attention to the role play aspects of the game, not for lack of interest, getting home was just more important.
Clara was more important.
Being in the city of the Paladins and Clerics, the pressure to be the person he pretended he was was higher. He could ignore some of the more rigorous tenets of the religion in places like Startesgarde, but in Sitifus it was expected that he would act like a Paladin of the Order. That meant church services three times a day, meager meals and sleeping in a communal barracks. Piety was important in the Faith of the Mother and the Father. If he wanted a meeting with the High Lord of Justice, he didn’t have a choice. He had to act the part.
David made his way to an open park that he’d found outside of the immediate perimeter of the church’s influence. Of course, the entire city of Sitifus was populated with brothers and sisters of the faith, but the park was at least an area he didn’t have to pretend as rigorously.
He sat down on a granite bench facing a colossal fountain and took out a red covered journal and pencil. It didn’t take him long to find the first blank page, and as he set pencil to paper he looked up at the fountain and sighed.
Hey kid, I love you and I miss you.
David wrote the same nine words that he started every page with.
When he’d realized he wouldn’t be going home, going back to his daughter, he’d started writing a journal addressed to Clara. He wanted a way to keep the memories of his little girl present, a reminder that this wasn’t where he was supposed to be. By writing letters to her, he kept the memories of what he’d done fresh so that when he did get home, he could regale her with everything that had happened when he’d been absent. If nothing else, they could be bedtime stories to her, and eventually his grandkids.
Your Uncle Ethan seems to be doing better. He’s at least speaking to people again. I’m still worried about him, but I think he’s going to be able to keep it together long enough to actually get to a point where he’s stable.
He paused and looked up at the fountain. A group of children were playing beside it, some war type game where they went back and forth swinging sticks wildly at each other.
David smiled. Since Clara was born, he’d come to appreciate kids more than he had in the past. These may just be NPCs, but they acted just like children he’d seen in the real world.
You know those old movies I like to make you watch? The ones with a small group of heroes going against a much bigger evil army? That’s what I’m doing right now.
We finally found Tae-Won and Ethan came up with a plan to rescue him. All of us: Ethan, Leah, Miguel and Alera are trying to recruit our allies. Your dad is literally being a hero. When I get home, I’m going to tell you the entire story.
But don’t worry, I promise I’ll stay safe. I have you to come home to.
Tears ran down his cheeks as he thought about how he wasn’t home with his little girl.
I love you Clara, and I am so sorry that I’m not there. I will make it up to you when I get home.
David paused again and sighed before continuing.
I’m going to try to make it up to your mom too. I shouldn’t have ever left her. When I get home, I’m going to make that right. Your mom and dad will be together again. I promise.
For years, he’d regretted how he’d treated Michelle after Clara had been born. He’d rationalized to himself that he’d been young and scared and stupid. Only the last part was ever true.
Even though they’d been young, Michelle had been the best person he’d ever met and he treated her like garbage. His time in game had finally given him the clarity to realize how badly he’d screwed up.
That was part of the reason he’d insisted Alera go with Ethan. He didn’t want his best friend to give up so quickly on what looked to be a promising relationship with someone who obviously cared for him.
“‘Scuse me, ser,” a small voice interrupted his reflections.
David looked down and saw a small girl with jet black hair and brown eyes looking at him from a few feet away. She nervously twisted her foot into the dirt as she clenched a stick in her hands behind her back. A group of six or seven children behind her watched expectantly.
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“Yes, um, little sister?” He answered, trying to act like the Paladin he was supposed to be.
“Well, it’s just that,” she looked at him with dark brown eyes, “you’re, um, sitting in our castle.”
David looked around at the stone bench he was sitting in before comprehension dawned on him.
“My apologies, little one,” he smiled and stood up.
The group of children all grinned and resumed playing. The girl, however, did not move.
“Is there anything else, little sister?” David asked as he stowed his journal in his pack.
“You’re a Paladin, aren’t you?” She looked up at him in awe as she recognized the symbol on his armor.
“Indeed, I am,” as annoying as the immersion experience had been earlier in the day, there was something about the awe that this tiny girl was staring at him with that was melting David’s heart. She reminded him of Clara.
“I’m going to be a Paladin when I get bigger,” she grinned up at him and put her hands on her hips.
“Is that so?”
“Uh-Huh,” she nodded vigorously. “Just like my mother.”
“We are all family in the eyes of our Father and Mother,” David recited the words he’d heard countless times as both as Paladin and Cleric.
“No, not like that,” she scoffed and waved her hand in the air. “My mother is a Paladin.”
“Who is your mother? I might know her,” he asked. He’d run into most of the order in his time in Sitifus, but he didn’t know that many had families here.
“Tanaquil,” the girl smirked and crossed her arms over her chest, shifting her weight to one leg.
“Wait, your mother is the High Lord of Justice?” David was astounded by what may have been blind luck. Did I just stumble into exactly what I needed to by interrupting a kids game?
“Yep,” she said, still smirking.
“What’s your name, little sister?” David knelt down to get on her eye level.
“Mya.”
“Well, Mya,” he began. “I am actually here in Sitifus because I desperately need to speak to your mother. Is there any way you could help me?”
Mya shuffled her feet nervously and looked around.
“I’m not really supposed to tell anyone where she is…”
“I understand,” David nodded patiently, a wave of guilt washing over him. “But I need your mother’s help. Some very bad people are doing very bad things, and I need her to help me stop them.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Mya took a step back from him and stared at his face.
David pushed himself back to his feet, his legs protesting at the sudden strain of lifting his heavy armor.
“I swear,” he placed his right hand over the holy symbol on his breastplate. “By the holy light of the Mother and Father, that I’m telling you no falsehoods. On my honor as a Paladin, I do not mean harm to you, or your mother, and am merely seeking aid.”
Light exploded from the symbol on his armor as he spoke. He hadn’t meant to make his words so flowery, but as he went on, the phrases just came out of him.
***System Notification*** you have sworn an oath before your God. If you break your oath, either through treachery or inaction, you will suffer consequences, including but not limited to: loss of divine blessing, loss of abilities, loss of reputation.***
What the shit? David panicked. He’d only meant to assure the girl he wasn’t going to hurt her sister or get her in trouble. He certainly hadn’t meant to swear a divine oath.
“Okay,” Mya smiled and took his hand. “I’ll lead you there.” Apparently, his oath had at least succeed in convincing her to help him.
David had to walk quickly as she dragged him down streets and back alleys of the town.
“Mya…” he huffed, trying to catch his breath as they entered a shadowed alley. “Can you slow down, maybe just a little?”
“Why? We’re here.”
She stopped abruptly in front of a small staircase, only half a dozen steps down, that led to a door slightly below street level. A second set of stairs led to another domicile above the door she stopped in front of. He could see light coming through the small windows set high above the door, but the outside of the small building was completely nondescript. There was no indication at all that this was where one of the three leaders of the Paladins lived.
“Your mother is here?” David asked, examining the plain entrance incredulously.
“Yeah, is that a problem?” Mya put her hands on her hips again and glared at him.
“Not at all, I thought she was just holed up in her office, or at the Cathedral.”
“Nope, she lives here with me,” the little girl turned and bounded down the stone stairs, but stopped at the door before entering. “You coming or what?”
David followed her down the narrow stone steps to the small landing. In his ceremonial plate armor, it wasn’t easy to fit in the landing with Mya, even though she was a fraction of his size.
“Mom! I’m home!” Mya bellowed as she entered the domicile, gesturing for David to follow her.
“Mya, I hope you took your shoes off!” The voice of Tanaquil Lucinda echoed from the adjoining room, “I just swept in there!”
“Oh right,” Mya immediately kicked off her leather sandals, looked down at David’s boots and then back up at his face. “You probably should too.”
David peered down at his feet. Getting off his boots, while wearing the rest of his armor was going to be a challenge. Usually, boots were the first part of his armor he put on, and the last to be removed. He just wasn’t that flexible in breastplate, pauldrons and leg armor.
“That may be a problem.” He said, looking around for a chair or at least a small table to rest on.
“She’ll be mad if you don’t,” Mya kneeled down and began pulling on his left boot, leaving David to try to balance as she tugged.
“Mya, who are you talking to?” Tanaquil Lucinda, the High Lord of Justice entered the small room. “Brother David?”
David barely had time to notice that her arms were sopping wet and she carried a dish towel as he dropped his leg and almost fell over trying to kneel. Her usual ceremonial armor, which he had never seen her out of, was replaced by a simple frock of rich, royal blue and gold.
“High Lord,” he said, his eyes focused on the soft rug in front of him. “I am sorry for the intrusion.”
“What are you doing here?” Tanaquil’s voice, usually calm and patient, carried a tone of anger and disbelief.
“I brought him,” Mya said quietly. “He said he needed to talk to you.”
“Mya, we will discuss this later, go to your room.”
“You can’t tell me what to do!” Mya shouted. David saw out of the corner of his vision the small girl stomp her foot defiantly. “Just because you’re the High Lord, doesn’t mean you can boss me around! If my father were here-”
“Mya, now!” Tanaquil shouted back at her daughter, sounding more like the High Lord of Justice that he was familiar with, commanding and powerful.
“UGH!” The small girl grunted and stomped her way across the wooden floor to the back of the house. Several moments later, during which neither David nor Tanaquil spoke nor moved, a door slammed behind them.
“High Lord Tanaquil,” David, still kneeling, tried to sound humble and apologetic. Clearly, he’d inserted himself into something he hadn’t meant to. A wave of guilt washed over him for intruding.
“Stand up, David,” she sounded exasperated as she commanded him to rise. “And drop the pretenses, why are you here?”
David tried to discreetly stretch his back as he rose and was able to take in the room he found himself in.
The living room was small, not much bigger than the bedroom Leah and Tae-Won shared back in Startesgarde. But unlike their guild hall, it was lovingly and carefully decorated. An ornate brass symbol of the Mother and Father was displayed prominently on one wall, while the others were covered in paintings and frescoes of the High Lord, her sister and, David assumed, her husband. A large, comfortable looking chair and two smaller couches were the only furniture in the room. As she waited on his answer, Tanaquil sat down on one of the red sofas, looking at him expectantly.
“I need your help,” David wished he was wearing something more comfortable, he didn’t want to risk sitting on one of the delicate looking couches in his armor.
“I assumed as much,” Tanaquil rolled her eyes. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have stalked my little sister to find me. Make an appointment with Mathandiel and I will review it when I return.”
“I’m sorry, but I tried that,” David explained. “I’ve been in your office twice a day for six days now, Mathandiel has been less than helpful.”
“So then he’s been doing his job,” she smirked at him and got up. “I will return in two days, at that time I will see you.”
“Please, High Lord,” David pleaded. “It is a matter of life or death for a friend of mine.”
“Very well,” Tanaquil sighed and shook her head. “Tomorrow, an hour after the first Mass, I will give you one hour.”
“Thank you, High Lord,” David bowed his head in respect and gratitude.