Priests plagued the crowd like a disease spotting skin. Their burned crimson robes and hooded visage marked the abrupt end to this otherwise ordinary social gathering. Already people were splitting away from them and excitedly asking one another what was happening. anwhile the searching priests fanned out and began their search.
Upset that they dared to invade his ho, Erec strode forward and revealed himself.
It took a second for them to begin to circle him and Garin. Forming themselves into a living curtain of crimson that sealed him off from the rest of the manor.
Erec slowly turned as they crowded around, counting their numbers. Inside, a fire burned from how the rchants played him—was this coordinated with the Church? What corrupt farce would it be for them to organize a raid in conjunction with the rchants? He’d minded his business after the Stag, as well he could, and certainly avoided mixing with the clergy.
But here they were, ruining this expensive gathering and interrupting a vital mont in his negotiations.
“What the hell do you want?” Erec asked, failing to stem the rising fire inside of him.
He needed to be careful, but the stress was crashing down on his shoulders. These priests were the last thing he needed today.
“You’re to submit yourself to us and attend to the Cardinal. He’s deed it ti for you to repent for your wicked ways,” one of the n snarled; his silver eyes exposed as the cowl of his hood shifted about. Below those viscious eyes were yellow teeth, as if rotting out of his skull. There was nothing but pure hate for the man as he glared at Erec.
“On what grounds?” Erec growled back.
Inside, the fire churned brighter. If this man hated him, then he’d hate him back.
“Blasphemy. You are without the goddess blessing!” The man yelled out, greeted by a chorus of whispering. “We’ve been looking into you and your affairs, and upon the Cardinals evaluation, you are to present yourself for judgnt.”
“And I take it you have the Kings blessing regarding this?”
“Affairs of the heaven are paramount to this Kingdom’s stability.” The priest gestured to his n, and they moved closer like a tightening noose around a neck. Erec turned in place with Garin by his side, feeling the anger co to a storm inside of him. All of this was bullshit.
The Church, the rchants, and this entire party.
One of the priests reached their grubby little hand out toward him.
Erec grabbed the invading hand by the wrist, yanking the man forward with a quick jerk. It didn’t take much application of force to slip behind his back and use the twisted arm to control him. Within a second, Erec had a human shield between him and the rest of the closing zealots. There were gasps from the crowd, soone dropped a glass of wine.
The thoughts in Erec’s head began to flicker away as red colored his vision.
They thought themselves worthy to challenge him? He tired of playing gas. And there was another group of people he had to teach their lesson. Erec barreled forward with the priest, turning his human shield into a fleshy battering ram. He slamd the man into the rest of the priests, trying to close him in.
Poor bastards couldn’t imagine him fighting back; pushing through their barrier was easy. All it cost was a few bruises to the fool who’d tried to grab him.
Like that, Erec broke past their line.
As soon as he was free, Erec slamd his foot into the back of his shield’s knee, causing the man to let out another yell as he fell face first onto the ground.
Fire roared inside, and his heart went wild. Excitent. How had he let his life slip into such dullness for so long? That anxiety of questioning his every decision, of living in the future. It was folly. If those rchants sought to take advantage of them, it was ti for them to learn.
Erec ran hard towards the hall leading away.
“Cowards!’
He slid to a stop, turning his head and looking at the lead priest behind him. The man’s eyes burned.
Coward?
“Do you want to die?” Erec asked, the words tumbling free from the beast inside. Gasps from the crowd. But this man had challenged him to a fight. Maybe these worms needed to learn their place before the rchants. Now that the beast was free, it wouldn’t return to its cage soon.
Erec cracked his knuckles and grinned.
[This is bad, isn’t it?]
“Submit yourself for judgnt, Mad Knight!” the priest scread.
He wasn’t mad. These people were. For the first ti in months, Erec saw with perfect clarity what this situation was. Again and again, the people around him tried to use him as a piece on their board, a new noble to manipulate and wring from whatever they wanted. They wouldn’t respect him until he showed them they had no choice but to. With Strength like his, he shouldn’t be subject to the whims of the weak.
This ballroom was as fine of a fighting arena as any he’d been in. It was ti to christen it in blood.
“No!” Was that Boldwick? A storm of fire burned from the far end of the ballroom; a river of fire flowed between Erec and the priests before exploding into a massive wall of flas.
Erec snarled and took a step closer to them. His skin burned from the proximity, even if it didn’t catch his furniture on fire. Why or how that was, it didn’t matter. As if sothing like a fla was enough to stop him now. Acting civil and conforming to what people expected was the way of these people. He’d played by their gas and lived by their rules. Where had it gotten him? Let the beast take control and let it all fall apart. If these priests were to exile him anyway, he’d face it on his own terms.
The fire inside him burned just as bright as the inferno in front of him. Erec stretched a hand towards it; the flas licked his fingers and burned his skin.
Any pain only led to more Strength.
Inside, the hell raged, and deep within it, sothing else burned.
It was neither hot nor cold. Instead, it felt like a natural extension of life, an eternal mont that burned and sparked with an ethereal fire. Within it was sothing new.
Erec let it loose. His fingertips burned silver where they t the flas of Boldwick’s wall. The magic around them bent, and the fires leaped away as if to avoid him. Even it knew that he wasn’t to be stopped. Not now. Not until he’d had his fun.
Boldwick closed the distance, yanking Erec by the shoulder, or tried to at least. Erec stood firm, struggling against the Master Knight’s attempt to control him. People were shouting and fleeing, Erec couldn’t see the priests, but sohow Garin had slipped past the fire and rushed toward them. Erec let out a growl as his arm shook from the effort to resist the Master Knight. He pulled with all of his force.
It wasn’t enough.
Step by step, Boldwick was dragging him away. Erec turned his eyes to the wall of flas, watching it wrap around the priests to stop them from following.
In a desperate bid, Erec clawed at them with his burning hand. The silver flas were bright as they burned away whatever was inside—hoping that it might do sothing to solve this situation. There was sothing there, he was sure. An instinct long forgotten that might get him what he wanted.
Suddenly, the silver fire burned out.
Erec’s vision was spotted black. His head swam like he’d drank a bottle of wine. Boldwick dragged him away with sudden ease as his Strength gave out. Vomit spewed up from his gut. Unable to resist the sudden bile, Erec hunched over on the ground and let it spill. Black. Unlike anything he’d eaten, it reeked a distinct rotten scent as it left him.
After that, Boldwick threw him over a shoulder and fled.
— -☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —
Erec shivered near a fire by the wall. A small outcropping hid them, but if anyone were to look out here, there wasn’t much they could do. Garin sat nearby, as did Munchy, the fat squirrel wasted no ti on feasting on the fresh vegetables that Boldwick brought.
The night sky above glittered with stars, beautiful. Yet Erec felt awful. There was nothing in him that could admire the gorgeous night. Only a profound worry and lingering nausea from whatever the hell happened in his manor. While it was true he wasn’t dead, Erec couldn’t be sure of how much longer he might have. And those rchants… The weight of the mistake he’d made only weighed heavier the more he thought about it. How could he have been so stupid?
Now he was out here, huddled near the wall like a fugitive. Could this have been how his mother felt?
There was one other thing—that which, above all, made him scared.
A notification flashed in the corner of his vision.
But he couldn’t open it. He couldn’t look at his Blessing; every ti he’d tried, it failed, and he received a massive headache like a knife stabbing his brain. When he’d told Boldwick, the Master Knight gave him a worried look and told him to quit ssing with it.
“Go back with him when he shows up next,” Erec said, nearly gagging from his own breath. That bile was still on his lips. Everything around him felt floaty and unnatural. As if this world were a murky falsehood.
“Not happening,” Garin said, grabbing a pepper from Munchy’s stash and stabbing a twig through it. “We’re in this together. For better or worse.”
“You’re not going into exile with . I couldn’t live with that.”
“Nobody said you’re going into exile. You’re being dramatic.”
“Garin, they ca for in my own ho. The last ti that happened was with my mother…” Erec leaned closer to the fire, wrapping his arms around his knees. That’d been the last ti he’d seen her before the church and Kingdom took her for her betrayal.
As he stared at the fire, he saw a flash of her face. His imagination. What was wrong with him? Was he going to die? It was as if whatever was binding him was coming apart.
“…Sorry,” Garin moved closer, the skin on his bell pepper popping and burning with the flas. “We’ll get through this, man. When things are their darkest, you have to rely on the light burning inside. It was the priests, not the Kingdom, who ca for you. I’m sure that’s important.”
“It is,” Boldwick called from the darkness, striding into the light with Da Morgana at his heels. He’d donned his Armor and looked every part of a noble Master Knight. “And for that reason, our tiline has been escalated. I’ve sent soone to fetch your Armor. We’ll be leaving the Kingdom tomorrow.” Boldwick looked at the Iron Walls. “May the Goddess have rcy. It is never a good idea to leave without all your preparations… But a Knight must be ready for anything.”
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