The dangerous sea and the fallen nation of Itxaro

I helped Julia push the old sailboat in the water and jumped in. Before we started sailing Julia told me the basics of how to sail and what to do in emergencies. And then we were off into the large vast and dangerous sea.

But before we got into the sea we had to go through a small cave that would lead us into the ocean. It was barely enough space so small in fact that I could hear the sailboat touching the cave's roof. It was quite scary but nothing like what was to come. In moments we started to see light at the end of the cave, but it was not exactly sunshine, but one of the worst storms I had ever seen.

The waves were humongous and the winds like a hurricane, it was by far one of the worst experiences of my life. The sailboat felt like it was going to break into millions of pieces and the mast started to shatter. But in that moment of terror, God calmed the sea enough to let us pass without danger or alarming Sol about it. We were saved.

After 10 long hours of nothing but storm after storm, we started to see land and Julia shouted “There it is! The fallen nation of Itxaro!”. We were finally free from the horror of the sea. It took us so long but we had arrived, but there was a problem.

We were too obviously a part of the prophecy, after all I was wearing the Armor of God and the Sword of the Spirit. And Julia had clothes on with a symbol of the protectors. But that didn’t stop us from being happy that we were finally on land.

We continued walking by foot hoping to find civilization. We walked and walked and then I realized something “I have been using the Armor of God and the Sword of the Spirit in certain situations without prior knowledge! How did this happen?” I said out loud. Julia answered and said “I don’t know everything about the Armor of God and the Sword of the spirit, but what I do know is that it has holy power, after all they were sent by God”

We continued walking and finally, a village in the distance. We ran to see who lived there, but it would not end like how we hoped. The village was empty. No signs of fighting at all we both said out loud. We looked at each other and both knew what had happened here. Arygyros had been here. It was like a ghost town, no signs of life except a sheep. It very quickly hit us that we need to be careful when walking around. And then in a mere second without having a moment to even think, there was a sword in my neck and a voice coming from behind me saying in the most serious voice “Don’t move, turn around or do anything other than what I say!”

We were shocked, was this an attack from Amets and his minions? or was it someone else. The voice asked me “Who do you serve, knight? Why would you, clearly not just any knight, come from a good and calm place to this fallen land. The only answers to that is one of two either you are a idiot that would chose to fight Amets or you are on of his servants”

I asked the voice “Can I answer your questions?”. And the voice answered and said yes and so I told him. “I am Matthew and I am a servant of God, not Amets. He has told me to help you in fighting the evils of this world. We just arrived from the island of Ember after running from Sol.” The mysterious voice laughed and said “Well at least you are not a follower of Amets, you're just crazy.”

“You may turn around now” the voice said. I turned around and saw a man slightly older than me in the armor of a knight. He said “My name is John, I know what just happened might seem very rude and odd, but it is completely normal here. We can’t take any risks with strangers; they might be servants of Amets. The reason why you convinced me that you're not one of his servants is that not one of them would ever dare say out the name of the name of the Lord God. I am a knight in the army of the resistance that fights against Amets. Now come with me and tell me what you want to say when we are safe, if you don’t want to stay here and die of course. I answered him and said “I am quite tired with these do or die scenarios, of course we will join you”, but Julia was unsure she pointed out “This man just attacked us, we should be careful who we trust”. John said “That is fair, but do you have a choice?”

Julia couldn’t answer. So we joined John in safety.

John led us into a bunker deep into strange woods on a rocky hill. And jumped in and we went in moments after. There we were in the middle of an armory with many swords and armors on stands. John said “This is a hideout for emergencies, not our headquarters. Now would you like to properly sit down and talk about why you are here, and if you are going to be trouble or not”

I could tell that John was a good man, but he felt like he had seen things man shouldn’t have ever seen. And so I explained to him that I am the knight that God would send to help. And how everything went down from God choosing me, to Julia finding me, to me learning to know Egil, to seeing and putting on the Armor of God and the Sword of the Spirit, to the attack of Sol, and to the Sea we had to traverse all the way to now.

John was speechless “I don’t know what to say, I expected total waffle but you gave me a very compact story unlike anyone, you didn’t seem like a liar. But I still don’t believe you, there are a few things why. One nobody ever survives an attack from a dark knight, two why would the knight of God be you if I can beat you before you even have time to react and finally the third and last reason why would God send you now. This is what works against you”

But before I had a chance to speak God gave me a revelation in which he said “Matthew, John has made his mind up on you not being my knight so tell him I heard his every cry and every prayer. I was there through all the loss. Tell him that I told you this”. And so I told him in the exact same words God used to tell me. The room went dead silent, John stared into my eyes and didn’t say a word. “I believe you now, Matthew, but I don’t know what to do. This is not some everyday problem, this is a promise from God! I don’t know what to do with this information” But I reminded him “Why are you asking me and not God, he isn’t some far off in the distance God! He is right here, right now”

And so John went into another room to pray and got his revelation.

“Matthew, I am to join you on your journey as a brother in Christ and to help you with training so that you can fight the five dark knights and Satan” said John in a surprised tone.