Apologies and Stories

“I got this!”

Kyr watched as Roy summoned a fiery spell that sent three fireballs in the direction of the boar. 

It was a massive creature half the size of their caravan, with jagged tusks and a rock-like armor. It was probably the twentieth time they've encountered such beasts since leaving Esmerand a week ago. Cinza wasn’t joking when he said they were lucky to encounter no monsters after leaving Serenti Prison.

The boar burned against Roy’s flames, but it was determined to ram its tusks at the sorcerer. It sped towards him, propelled solely by mana, until Nowe swooped between the man and the beast and caught its tusks with her bare hands.

Well, not quite bare.

Nowe wore a pair of thick, leather gloves with metallic knuckles on them. She channeled mana into her arms, then lifted the boar using its own momentum, spun it in the air, then slammed it hard on the ground in a thunderous splash of dirt and stone.

The princess never fought when she pretended to be a scholar seven years ago, but clearly she knew how to fight. Her ability to wield mana was no different than any trained sorcerer, but her style of combat was unusual in this part of the continent. She apparently learned it far west in her many travels abroad.

Leatrix ended the fight by stabbing the beast in its exposed belly. The mana from the creature's body dissipated in the air.

“Thank you, dear warriors,” the distraught merchant said to them. “I’m glad you were able to… avenge… my friend…”

Behind the grieving man was another fellow in bloodied clothing. They were lucky to have found the merchants, but it wasn’t soon enough to save both of them.

Leatrix offered to escort the man back to his village, but he refused. It wasn’t very far so they let him go.

“That man,” Roy said quietly. "I get it, but... it’s like he’s given up.”

“Despair would do that,” Cinza said as he stepped up to examine the boar for parts they could take. “Not just for his loss, but the looming apocalypse.”

The world had truly changed for the worst. Each fight they encountered, each person they saved, had no happy ending. The sky was still shattered, and the numbers counted to seventy-two days. 

“See?" Nowe said when she walked up to Kyr. "You don’t have to take care of everything.”

The boar wasn’t alone. Past the clearing where they fought, four others of its kind lay dead, all torn apart and burned by Kyr’s magic.

“You’re clearly the strongest of us,” Nowe continued, “but we can all fight too.”

“But not as fiercely that we can still salvage meat,” Cinza added sarcastically. “Monsters as they are, they provide food. And we’re running out of it. Roy, come help me, please.”

*

On their first night on the road, the group made space for Kyr and Nowe to talk. 

They lingered near a cliffside overlooking the great forest between the capital and the second spire. Esmerand dotted the horizon, while half the trees around them had changed from green to a pale grey. The flora was either withering or straight up dead.

“Kyr,” Nowe started, “I—”

“A lot’s happened,” Kyr interrupted. “The king is dead, same way as Aven. Morick, poisoned after refusing to join as a new guardian. There’s a missing codex that’s apparently important, and all heroes in the past have your blood flowing in their veins. Which is funny because I think Aven was infatuated with you. Not that it ever stopped the nobility from—”

Nowe suddenly jumped in Kyr’s arms and held him in a tight embrace. Kyr raised his head in surprise, fearing the woman would slam into his horn.

“Leatrix wanted to wait for you," he said. "Before we discussed whatever conspiracy put me in prison."

“I’m sorry,” the princess whispered.

“For what? Leaving me to rot? We barely knew each other for less than a year. You owe me no—”

“For thinking you actually did it.”

Kyr felt a stab of pain in his chest.

“You really think I’d kill my friend?”

“I thought you weren’t who you said you were.”

What did that mean?

He asked.

“I don’t know. I thought maybe you were the Specter disguised as a guardian. Or maybe an assassin. The magistrates speculated many things, and the other guardians swore you turned on them.”

Specter.

“You think its real?”

“I know some things as a member of the royal family," the princess confessed. "Ugly things Vastille had done over the centuries.”

Nowe let go of him.

She stayed silent for a while, then turned around in the direction of Esmerand. She talked about times Vastille had interfered with the nations of Feonas. Political assassinations, restrictions on trade, instigation of war. They were ruthless when it came to punishing those who crossed them. The fallen empire could easily attest to that. It all happened over a long period of history, but it’s what made the princess travel the world in the first place; to see the evil her country had wrought upon it.

Its relevance to the apocalypse was probably tangential at best, but one word always stuck out.

‘The Ring’.

“Right before the new hero was finally prophesied,” Nowe explained, “my father considered telling me why Vastille was at the center of everything. Of mana, of the towers, of the fate of the world. Why us of royal blood needed to take the role of ‘hero’. I think he wanted me to take it.”

The princess tried to hide it, but she was still grieving. Whoever the king was, he was still her father. No matter how much how Kyr hated and blamed King Rewald for his imprisonment, he was still someone else’s family. Irenea loved him.

Nowe turned to Kyr. “But ‘the ring won’t let me’, he said.”

“They won’t let the king?” Kyr repeated in question. “Who’s more powerful than the bloody king?”

Nowe shook her head. “I don’t know for sure, except… this 'Ring' had been around for ages. They bear the mark of a howling wolf.”

“They originated from a time before magic,” a voice suddenly said, joining their conversation. It was Leatrix, lit by the campfire from behind. “I apologize if I interrupted your reunion. I was supposed to tell you that supper will be ready soon.”

“It’s alright,” Nowe said. “The stew smells lovely and sweet.”

“Roy added some dried flowers to it,” Leatrix replied. “Alchemical trick, he said. Though I worry they're using too much of our stock. We might need to hunt for food sooner than expected.”

The inquisitor looked awkwardly between the princess and Kyr as if unsure if she should stay.

“This ring organization was from the time of the great evil?” Kyr asked.

Leatrix nodded sharply. “Remember when I told you that the Specter could be an individual, but could also be a group of people?”

"Right..." Kyr said. "I remember a version of the legend where a dead king was summoned back to life by his loyal followers. That's the only group I know from history that fits. Could it be them?"

"We've actually considered that too," Nowe said. "But we haven't found a connection with the wolf motif yet. Or if its relevant at all."

“Radon used to wear wolf-like armor,” Kyr said.

“He still does from what I hear,” Leatrix replied. “But I’m not sure if a member would openly parade the symbol.”

“I wouldn’t put it past that man.” Kyr sighed in resignation.

“Regardless, information about the Ring is incredibly scarce,” Nowe said. “You should’ve seen Leatrix when she’s scouring for information. She practically lived in the libraries of Esmerand! And when that wasn’t enough, we traveled all the way to Serami. Even Duhalin to the east! She was dead set on unlocking the secret of the apocalypse!”

Leatrix turned red as a tomato. “As would any other academic!” she said. “But... I don't think there's any information left to find in Vastille other than the spires themselves."

“Perhaps Aven’s murder is tied to it,” Kyr said. “ Though I’m not sure why this ‘Ring’ would want him killed. The way Nowe spoke about them, it seemed as if they wanted Vastille to stay as the world’s leader by undermining other nations. Sabotaging the sacred rites go directly against that.”

They argued many different possibilities until Cinza and Roy yelled at them about supper. They chuckled, then turned to leave.

“I have something else I’m curious about,” Nowe said, walking between Kyr and Leatrix. She raised her hand to his forehead. “This. You still haven’t told me about—”

The moment her finger touched his horn, a strong spark of mana zapped between them, pushing Nowe’s hand away so hard she fell back on her bum.

Pain crawled across Kyr’s forehead as the three of them stared at each other in bewilderment.

What the hell just happened?