Just Julio (Consonance, no rhyme)

Rulio III, son of the king, grew up seeing a war that he was unable to do anything to change. Insulated from the world, he could only hide behind the walls of his home and watch his grandfather succumb to the pressure of the worldwide cataclysm, and then see his father do his best to pick up the pieces, then and now.

All he could do was wait and grow up, and when the minimum number was hit, the cajoling and debating with the king finally allowed him to put in a minuscule contribution by joining the Spirit Knights.

He still remembered Gottfried, the one who was celebrated the most here in Forness. Even now, he was the ideal Spirit Knight of today. His stern devotion to protecting others was worthy of renown, immortalized in poem and song, and sometimes it still surprised Rulio to recall how he would demur to the Beacon. Nonetheless, the Spirit-blessed armor and shield he wielded were unforgettable – he, along with so many others, dreamed of joining his order to take up the flag he raised with his death.

Rulio had no illusion about it being difficult work. It was just shocking how close to home his assignments would be.

“We will be investigating the ruins below Forness Heart to root out potential Malevolence corruption festering beneath us. Despite our best efforts, smuggling is common down there, and our inability to secure the deepest waterways could lead to Malevolence spreading through those passages,” Commanding Officer Zeder briefed the rows of men and women where Rulio filed in with.

There were no complaints, but the wide eyes and surreptitious meeting of darting gazes said plenty from Rulio and the others. Was the situation truly so bad that Forness couldn’t even keep its own basement clean? How could they do their jobs in the lands beyond if they were tied up here?

Yet obediently they marched downwards into a buried waterway the Spirit Knights did control, and then joined the dead of the catacombs rather literally.

Rulio didn’t catch what happened – only that something roared, and that immediately after something hot and wet splashed against his face, and despite his shouting to build a defensive line where their armor would serve best, something slammed into his unit with enough force to make flesh burst within their armor, like soft meat under a pressing fork.

He was certain he had died when the encompassing pain made him black out, but instead, he woke up deep underground.

“And of course, you give him due hospitality, while I was dumped in a pitch-black room, Vel. I’m pleased. As punch, in fact, which I’d like to give you several of.”

“Jane, look, the situation is different.”

“That’s the only thing stopping me from biting your head off—figuratively, ugh, I’m just annoyed, I’m not gonna eat anyone, stop scooting back like that, it’s an expression.”

That was how Rulio woke, with a sore back as his bare body, dressed to cover his wounds, lay on cold stone, while a ragged man and a very strange-looking syhee argued above him. It was the cat-earred, horned woman who heard his quiet sigh of wakefulness first and looked down with smirking distrust.

“So, what’s your name, mister knight? Since we bailed you out, we could at least get paid with a story,” the strange woman asked.

She didn’t trust him, and it was warranted, since Rulio knew that the first thing he had to do with unknowns was lie like hell.

“I am … Julio, a member of the Spirit Knights. My thanks, citizens, for aiding me,” he politely answered.

The ragged man, Velstrik, insisted to the other, Jane (strange name), that they introduce each other in turn, only so that he could ask more questions, such as “your name sounds so much like Rulio”.

“I get told that far too much,” Julio faux complained, but it didn’t seem to cheer Jane much.

“Could you tell us why our place is now gummed up with your friends?”

The prince felt his breath shrivel and die in his throat, eyes widening, and his aching frame fell slack against his resting place.

“No others survived?”

Jane gave a silent affirming shake of her head.

“What the hell were you guys doing down here?”

“There’s a monster down here,” Rulio explained, even as he tried to rise from his position with much agony, trying to impress the enormity of his failure. “No one here is safe. You need to find somewhere to hide.”

“...What sort of monster?” Velstrik murmured with growing unease.

“It was difficult to see, but you saw all the deaths it left in its wake. I’m amazed you haven’t heard of anything on your end,” Julio murmured, wondering.

Were Velstrik and Jane smugglers? Or did they know someone who could have been responsible for bringing something Malevolence-tainted here? For all their kindness, Julio knew he was still in enemy territory – but he also couldn’t abandon people to their fate if he could do something about it.

“I’ll need to ask the others if they know anything,” the vagrant man said, before looking over at Jane. “Could you look after him for a while?”

The horned syhee gave a nonchalant shrug, seemingly unconcerned about the looming threat. “Eh, sure.”

Julio, still unable to do much than brace himself on his elbows, watched Velstrik climb over the ledge where the three of them were resting, and descend out of sight, leaving Jane to throw stray kindling onto a small campfire that kept the underground cliff illuminated.

“How long have I been unconscious?” the knight asked, continuing to find his bearings.

“Not long,”the syhee answered. “It’s basically the same day as when we scooped you out of that mess. You’re a tough guy…well. That, and lucky.”

“I’ve never seen a syhee with horns and ears…” Julio mused, unable to find anything else to comment upon in the sparse underground.

“Who knows what’s up with me,” Jane replied with a huff of subdued, almost playful laughter, seemingly entertaining her own private joke.”Maybe I am a monster.”

For a moment, Julio felt his blood freeze, and distantly feared that his father would never see him again. The unnatural features of her head made sense with that pronouncement, and Julio’s wild imaginings conjured up all manner of horrible truths squirming under the woman’s cloak – perhaps it was not even a human shape at all, but a head atop something worse.

But those fantasies disappeared in an instant, because Julio remembered what monsters were really like.

“If you were, you’d have killed me and your friend long ago,” the knight answered with a firm shake of his head. His sincerity was enough to make Jane bark another laugh, though Julio could see the prick of embarrassment in the upright ears and the way she looked away from him.

“Are they really so mindless, huh…” Jane huffed, annoyed at the idea of the creature ruining the quiet of her home, “…and one’s just bumbling around here while I’m trying to get my feet under me, the jerk.”

Though Julio was confident in his assessment of his temporary ally, he still felt fresh fear when the woman turned her head back at him, and something white and sharp glinted in her smile as she seemed to consider a fresh idea.

“Hey, Jules, if your beastie and I got into a fight, who’d you think would win?”