Corruption

Jin

On the fifth day of my journey back home I reached the kingdom’s walls. During my trip I considered how to talk to Fyor about my new knowledge of magic, as well as asking about what he knew of Ebiron.

I arrived at the barracks at the foot of the city's walls. The soldiers stationed here recognized me from my year of training and let me enter without so much as a question. They wanted to ask me how the fated combat had gone and congratulated me for returning, but I told them I couldn’t chat for now, as I had important matters to discuss with Fyor Eaglecrest. Promising to tell them about it when I was free, I continued to go to Fyor’s training room, the very same he tutored me in for a year. I thought it best to get his opinion on everything before I talked to other soldiers. 

Arriving before the training room, I noticed it was locked. This heavy, metallic door could only be opened by using the Eaglecrest. Fyor usually spent every waking moment in this room, it was odd to see the door not only closed but locked. I took the crest attached to my chestplate and inserted it into the door. A series of locking mechanisms clicked as I pushed the door open. Reattaching the Eaglecrest to my armor, I closed the door behind me. A memory popped up in my head of my very first day training under Eaglecrest. Back then I wasn’t able to make the door so much as budge even using all of my strength. Fyor did find my attempt of tackling it amusing at least.

Various objects were scattered about the room in a chaotic manner. It didn’t look like a fight, more so as if someone simply ransacked the place. But nobody could get into here apart from Fyor and myself. I began investigating my surroundings. The mess of books, maps and weapons strewn across the floor and table appeared completely random. I was just about to leave the training room and ask any guardsman if they knew what happened here, but then something caught my eye.
“Wasn’t that painting usually hung over of the desk?”, I thought to myself.
The painting in question was a portrait of Fyor Eaglecrest back when he returned from the war and was hailed as one of the seven legendary heroes of the kingdom. In the painting, he held a sword that pointed directly ahead of the canvas. Instead of its usual location, the painting hung at a wall, with the sword aiming towards the obstacle course I used to train with. Surely this couldn’t be a coincidence, the portrait was too neatly hung, away from all the chaos. I examined the traps but couldn’t discern anything out of the ordinary. They were set up in a way that made them automatically reload and reset, so that there was no downtime between training runs.
“Maybe”, I mumbled to myself, going to the starting point. I rushed through the obstacles that felt even easier than before my fight with the simulacrum, almost as if they were in slow motion. During my run, I noticed something abnormal hidden directly behind one of the traps. Going through the course a second time, I confirmed it to be a piece of paper. To reach it, I would need to effectively throw myself through an extremely unsafe route, while perfectly avoiding swinging blades and arrows midjump, only to then grab the paper lying behind a sawblade. The most dangerous parts seemed to be reaching over the sawblade to get the paper, as well as avoiding to land on any spring traps after the jump. Just to prove my suspicions, I looked at the painting again. The sword pointed directly at the sawblade. This had to be the key to solving the mystery at hand. Although the course did seem easier in comparison to previously, I never tried this route before, as it was all but made to be a death trap. Every move had to be perfect on the very first attempt or I’d have some real problems. I focused on everything around me as if it were a real battle.

“Here goes nothing.”
I dashed into the obstacle course. Only one route was possible to get to the paper’s location. Unfortunately there were no safe spots, so I didn’t have time to rethink my strategy and just had to have faith that the idea I drew up would work. I had equipped one of my swords in my left hand which I used to continuously parry swinging blades and even some arrows. Although some traps got dangerously close to hitting me, I kept going without straying to a simpler path. By doing a summersault I reached over the sawblade, grabbed the paper and used the spinning momentum to safely keep my arm from being shredded by a variety of traps. Mid rotation I tossed my sword out of my left hand to the side of the obstacle course, using my now freed arm to do a one-handed flip to clear myself into safety.

The paper I worked so hard to acquire turned out to be a letter written by none other than Fyor himself. A singular grey feather nestled inside it. It read as follows:
“Jin, you are the only person who is capable of receiving this letter. I pray that I can talk to you in person, but in case that won’t be possible, please heed these words. If you have managed to return from battle and read this, it is time that you learned the truth. The council is not your friend. They aren’t even an ally to their own kingdom. They will do anything to remain in power, including silencing any forces opposing them before they can act. I am certain they will try to take me prisoner, exile me, or, if they could have their way, execute me. None of that will have been your fault, my boy, you have done the right thing. The council plans and schemes in the long term. I could not stand idly by as they sent a man with an honorable soul to a dishonorable end. Even the ‘battles’ we have with the land of warlocks are setups by the council, remnants of a war that should be a ghost of the past. The war has ended, my boy. It already had when the seven heroes, me included, returned. Only the malevolence of the royal lineages remains, trying to gain ever so slight advantages over the land of warlocks. A truce was found on the battlefield, between the most powerful of the warlocks, the executives, and the heroes. And yet, unwilling to give up their position of power, the royal lineages feigned a continuing war, sacrificing comfort and lives of their people for themselves. Four of the ‘heroes’ even joined their side, unwilling to part with their status. The three named Crests that aren’t part of the royal ones are the last defenders of the people. Hold the name Eaglecrest in pride, for it is your inherited right. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you falter, let your heart guide you. It will strike true. Should fate decree it, we shall meet again, Jin Eaglecrest.”

I folded the letter into itself, hiding it with the feather under my chestplate.
This couldn’t be. The council wouldn’t… They are royalty, it was their duty to protect their land! No. I trusted Fyor’s words more than them. This undoubtedly was the writing of my master, he was the only person I knew who could have placed the letter in the obstacle course in the first place. My world was spinning out of control with fear and worry. What happened to Fyor? Could I find him? He was an elite combatant, surely they wouldn’t be able to subdue him if it came to battle right?
Someone knocked at the door.
“Yo, Jin! Some people from the council are looking for you, they’re in the upper level”, I recognized the voice as Gawir, a friend who entered the military at the same as me. My mind snapped into action, forcing all my negative thoughts to the side. Grabbing my discarded sword from the ground, I sprinted to the door, ripped it open and rushed past him.
“Thank you, Gawir. You have saved me.”
“Uh sure? They’re at the upper level though?”, he said confused.
I ran toward the exit of the barracks with all my might, barreling into the wilderness.

A whistling sound surged through the air. I barely managed to get to the forest in time to get cover from the arrows.
“Henceforth anyone carrying the name Eaglecrest is a traitor to this kingdom, and shall be executed on sight. So edict the royal members of the council of crests”, I heard someone yell from behind me.
More arrows flew toward me, from all directions of the forest. I hardly managed to avoid all of them.
“Round two, little hero.”
Forty men stepped out from the foliage at varying distances, heights and angles. Nowhere I could go was safe.
“You did get further than we planned, I’ll give you that. We are the last line, you got so close. Isn’t that just sick irony? I will enjoy this”, the enforcer laughed maniacally.
Arrows hailed from all sides. I wouldn’t be able to avoid them all. Time seemed to slow down.

Familiar voices ran through my head.

“If you ever find yourself in a situation where you falter, let your heart guide you.”

“Allow me to reinstate that I do not see you as an enemy.”

“Just don’t give this knowledge to evil people.”

“Goodbye, knight.”

“It will strike true.”

I leapt into the air with all my strength. Multiple arrows struck my legs, where my torso had been a second ago. The jump managed to clear my upper body from the projectiles' trajectory. I grabbed the orb dangling from my belt, slamming my hands together on it as quickly as they could move.