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angemediaFinally. This chapter, Renaud gets a true Knight Captains welcome as not one but two people threaten to kill him.
8
The other Captains took to sweet, lovable Renaud in no time. Gerhard and Giovanni quickly became his constant playmates. I would not have thought Eugene capable of showing affection for anyone but Lord Leviath, but Renaud brought out a genuinely tender side to him; he doted on the boy as he would his own brother. Cain himself began hinting that it might be a good idea for me to train Renaud as a Knight Captain as he had trained me.
Lord Leviath even took it upon himself to give Renaud personal lessons in the fundamentals of magecraft. His demeanor was cold as ever even with a child as his student, but even the most halting exchange of words made Renaud happy.
As you can imagine, I spent long hours alone. That was to be expected; anyone would prefer to fuss over darling little Renaud to the company of a strangely sullen, unsociable child like myself. And so I discovered an emotion I had never before felt - of which I had never believed myself capable. I was greatly disturbed when I realized it.
I was jealous of Renaud. And deep inside, I wished just a little that I could be like him.
Renaud, ever oblivious, looked up to me.
"You're only two years old than me, Sionna, but you're so mature! You're smart, and you look just like an angel, and you're so strong... I wish I were like you, Sionna!..."
I'm not strong. And I'm not pretty. I forsook all that long ago. On top of it all, I have this petty jealousy toward you. I know you're far more beautiful than I...
Renaud was assigned a room in the southwest corner, next to my own, and so he would take his pillow and come and sleep in mine.
I thought of Kelly. Suspecting nothing, sound asleep on a bed of straw...
I held my breath and watched his face, so sweet and innocent in its peaceful slumber.
Poor little Renaud. Before long, I'll want to kill you, too.
And so I had to tell him - tell him that it bothered me have him come in my room at night. Tell him that he had to sleep alone. It was an effort, but it was for his own good.
"B, but, we can still play together when it's daylight, can't we? O, or would that not be OK?"
I couldn't say no to his pleading eyes. I had to distance myself from him - but, in the end, I didn't have the heart.
"All right...when we both have time after our studies." It was difficult even for me to be alone for so long - even though I didn't realize this until long after.
We fought several small recurring skirmishes in Shiva. They were all guerrilla raids, surprise attacks by several squadrons at night that swept in and out like the wind. It was a good opportunity for me to put what Cain had been teaching me into practice: to position the troops was to position life and death themselves. The outcomes of our battles did not always correspond with the numbers of the dead, however, so I placed an emphasis on balance in my tactics. As bait for victory, I calculated the appropriate number of deaths for each battle and threw them into the maw of the beast of war. Timing - when to reel in the line - was also of utmost importance.
And my methods seemed to pay off. Before I realized it, Cain's squadron of archers was mine alone to command - given the name of "Fallen Angels" by an unknown source. Like angels descended from heaven in armor of shining white, drawing their bows to bring certain death upon the enemy...something like that, supposedly. But I knew "Fallen Angel" was a nickname the other soldiers had given me behind my back.
Cain retained a handpicked few of his old troops, who became his new unit - "Darkcrown." Like Kiefar's Iceblade, it was an emergency unit under the chief of staff's personal command. Eugene, meanwhile, had pulled himself away from Lord Leviath's side to form a new unit for Renaud; its nature was as of yet undetermined but seemed to be shaping up as a unit of talented mages. Renaud still struggled with taking lives, even on the battlefield, but he soldiered on, determined to do his very best for Lord Leviath, and Eugene supported him with the utmost compassion.
Neither Renaud nor I were thrown out, which I took to mean that we were being permitted to remain on as Knight Captains on a provisional basis - until the time came to prove ourselves, that is.
~*~
The incident occurred about six weeks after we had moved into the old fortress.
Cain and I were poring over maps together in the first-floor study on the west wing, reviewing a battle that had taken place several days prior, when suddenly a giant "BOOM" shook the ground beneath our feet.
Deep aftershocks continued to rock the earth from the rubble toppling from the walls into piles upon the floor. Cain dove over me to protect me, his long silver hair against my cheeks; it was the first time anyone had ever put himself at risk for my sake. It was a strange feeling.
Nearby soldiers flew in to give us status reports. Cain left me in their care and departed.
We appeared to be under a surprise attack. From the monarchists we were opposing, it seemed - though these weren't their usual tactics: the east wing of the castle had been demolished by a long-range flame-based magecraft attack. Fortunately, it had been midday, so hardly anyone had been inside; the damage had been held to a minimum.
Gerhard's troops flooded the area for the relief and repair effort; they were dependable in times of crisis. As a precaution, the Knight Captains were split up and evacuated to scattered posts in the mountains behind the fort. But there was no follow-up attack. We returned come nightfall.
But who was responsible, and what were their goals...?
If they had wanted to hamper our effectiveness as a fighting unit, wouldn't it make more sense to aim several high-level magecraft attacks at the barracks? And how were they able to pinpoint Lord Leviath's location so precisely?
Lord Leviath was supposed to have erected a powerful magic barrier to protect against detection by magecraft... Did it fail? Or were our lodgings discovered by other methods? The event was unprecedented, at any rate.
The chiefs of staff could only exchange snatches of words in hushed tones with blanched faces. Fear crept among us like an inky stain.
~*~
"I'm so glad that the chapel's all right!!"
I had accompanied Renaud to the chapel inside the castle walls. It had grown blackened and reeked of mildew, as the castle itself had been abandoned for a long time before our presence. Nevertheless, Renaud knelt before the statue on the altar and began earnestly reciting his prayers.
Renaud loved church. He told me that even when he lived in town, he would make the trek to the village church regularly to pray to meet his dead brother again - to pray for God to bring his brother back to life, and to take his own life for his. He was probably giving thanks at that very moment to God for leading him to Lord Leviath... I stood behind him, looking at the filthy ceiling and sculpted pillars, the little windows high above us through which light from outside streamed down from above.
If the chapel was left intact, that meant that Lord Leviath's chamber directly opposite - the chamber where I witnessed that dreadful secret of which I dared not speak - was untouched as well. A strange sense of relief washed over me at the thought. Needless to say, Lord Leviath was indispensible to the army - without him, it would not exist. And without the army, I myself would have no reason to exist - no desire even to see the end of the day. At least while here, as per my promise to Cain, I had to keep myself busy and productive to earn my keep.
"Hey.....Sionna? What...what's this picture of?"
His prayers finished, Renaud pointed to a dingy mural on the wall.
"Ahh - that's a mural praising God for his great works and miracles. It's of our god Rygius in his earthly form as our First Emperor and Subjugator of the Universe, causing a great volcanic eruption with his magecraft...so it says."
"I, I know that story! Mother told it to me when I was little."
"Here are depicted the Emperor's five sons."
"Hmmm..."
"The current Emperor is said to be the descendant of Rygius's fourth son. It's a legend at best - probably not fact."
"So this person here...is the son of God...and his descendant is our Emperor?"
"Correct."
"So the Emperor's a god...a descendant of God?"
"So they say."
"They're wrong." A voice like a curse came from a black shadow behind us. He stabbed the mural with his sheathed sword, eyes on Renaud all the while.
"Aah! L...Lord Leviath......?"
The point of his scabbard pierced the face of the first Emperor's fourth son, cracking the plaster and sending it fluttering to the floor. Leviath's face darkened; I had never seen him so angry.
"The Emperor a god - what a joke. He's nothing more than human. And that fourth son stole his position from his elder brothers. They're nothing but a gang of usurpers...!!"
Such violent rage and hate - what compelled him to stab the image? I could only stare, dumbfounded.
Suddenly, Renaud began crying. "Lord Leviath...Lord Leviath, your eye - your right eye...it's glowing...I'm scared!!"
With a gasp, Lord Leviath snapped back to reality, touching his face beneath his eyepatch.
"L...Lord Leviath...your...your eye--it's go--"
"Not a word." Out came a voice that sounded like it was booming from the depths of hell. His green eye shone hard as steel. "Not a word, or I'll kill you."
A chill went up my spine. This was no joke.
Lord Leviath...kill Renaud...?
Renaud was shaking - so badly that he couldn't make another sound. Lord Leviath turned and left for the hall that led to his chamber.
~*~
Renaud wouldn't stop crying. He was beside himself, but not at the thought of death - at the thought that Lord Leviath hated him. Eugene refused to leave his side, and with his comforting presence, he eventually calmed.
That night, I couldn't sleep. The day's events wouldn't leave my mind. The shutters on my window rattled in the strong wind. A strange restlessness in my heart, I walked to the window.
The shutters opened with a squeak - and I couldn't believe my eyes. In the corner of the castle - in front of the room where Renaud slept, upon the weathered carving that jutted out beneath his window - stood a figure. A tall man, clad entirely in black. The wind whipped at his dark cape, but he looked up at the night sky utterly unconcerned - as if he were utterly weightless. Dark curls of hair beneath an equally dark wide-brimmed hat danced disheveled in the wind - and beneath, two eyes ablaze with light fixed themselves upon me - and I could swear he laughed!
With a grin, the man leapt off his perch - and was swallowed up by the yawning abyss below.
Why.........? He had no hope for survival at that height.
I stared for a while at the pitch blackness below, and then I saw again that the shutters to the window of the nearby room were half-open. For the first time, I thought of Renaud.
"Renaud--!!" Sheet white, I ran from my room and flew into Renaud's.
Renaud lay in his own bed, sound asleep. Wind blew in from the open shutters; I could make out the starry vault of the night sky between them. It was a peaceful sight.
Drained, I sat down on the edge of the bed. And hoped from the bottom of my heart that what I had just seen was a bad dream...
8
A Shadow Clad in Black
The other Captains took to sweet, lovable Renaud in no time. Gerhard and Giovanni quickly became his constant playmates. I would not have thought Eugene capable of showing affection for anyone but Lord Leviath, but Renaud brought out a genuinely tender side to him; he doted on the boy as he would his own brother. Cain himself began hinting that it might be a good idea for me to train Renaud as a Knight Captain as he had trained me.
Lord Leviath even took it upon himself to give Renaud personal lessons in the fundamentals of magecraft. His demeanor was cold as ever even with a child as his student, but even the most halting exchange of words made Renaud happy.
As you can imagine, I spent long hours alone. That was to be expected; anyone would prefer to fuss over darling little Renaud to the company of a strangely sullen, unsociable child like myself. And so I discovered an emotion I had never before felt - of which I had never believed myself capable. I was greatly disturbed when I realized it.
I was jealous of Renaud. And deep inside, I wished just a little that I could be like him.
Renaud, ever oblivious, looked up to me.
"You're only two years old than me, Sionna, but you're so mature! You're smart, and you look just like an angel, and you're so strong... I wish I were like you, Sionna!..."
I'm not strong. And I'm not pretty. I forsook all that long ago. On top of it all, I have this petty jealousy toward you. I know you're far more beautiful than I...
Renaud was assigned a room in the southwest corner, next to my own, and so he would take his pillow and come and sleep in mine.
I thought of Kelly. Suspecting nothing, sound asleep on a bed of straw...
I held my breath and watched his face, so sweet and innocent in its peaceful slumber.
Poor little Renaud. Before long, I'll want to kill you, too.
And so I had to tell him - tell him that it bothered me have him come in my room at night. Tell him that he had to sleep alone. It was an effort, but it was for his own good.
"B, but, we can still play together when it's daylight, can't we? O, or would that not be OK?"
I couldn't say no to his pleading eyes. I had to distance myself from him - but, in the end, I didn't have the heart.
"All right...when we both have time after our studies." It was difficult even for me to be alone for so long - even though I didn't realize this until long after.
We fought several small recurring skirmishes in Shiva. They were all guerrilla raids, surprise attacks by several squadrons at night that swept in and out like the wind. It was a good opportunity for me to put what Cain had been teaching me into practice: to position the troops was to position life and death themselves. The outcomes of our battles did not always correspond with the numbers of the dead, however, so I placed an emphasis on balance in my tactics. As bait for victory, I calculated the appropriate number of deaths for each battle and threw them into the maw of the beast of war. Timing - when to reel in the line - was also of utmost importance.
And my methods seemed to pay off. Before I realized it, Cain's squadron of archers was mine alone to command - given the name of "Fallen Angels" by an unknown source. Like angels descended from heaven in armor of shining white, drawing their bows to bring certain death upon the enemy...something like that, supposedly. But I knew "Fallen Angel" was a nickname the other soldiers had given me behind my back.
Cain retained a handpicked few of his old troops, who became his new unit - "Darkcrown." Like Kiefar's Iceblade, it was an emergency unit under the chief of staff's personal command. Eugene, meanwhile, had pulled himself away from Lord Leviath's side to form a new unit for Renaud; its nature was as of yet undetermined but seemed to be shaping up as a unit of talented mages. Renaud still struggled with taking lives, even on the battlefield, but he soldiered on, determined to do his very best for Lord Leviath, and Eugene supported him with the utmost compassion.
Neither Renaud nor I were thrown out, which I took to mean that we were being permitted to remain on as Knight Captains on a provisional basis - until the time came to prove ourselves, that is.
~*~
The incident occurred about six weeks after we had moved into the old fortress.
Cain and I were poring over maps together in the first-floor study on the west wing, reviewing a battle that had taken place several days prior, when suddenly a giant "BOOM" shook the ground beneath our feet.
Deep aftershocks continued to rock the earth from the rubble toppling from the walls into piles upon the floor. Cain dove over me to protect me, his long silver hair against my cheeks; it was the first time anyone had ever put himself at risk for my sake. It was a strange feeling.
Nearby soldiers flew in to give us status reports. Cain left me in their care and departed.
We appeared to be under a surprise attack. From the monarchists we were opposing, it seemed - though these weren't their usual tactics: the east wing of the castle had been demolished by a long-range flame-based magecraft attack. Fortunately, it had been midday, so hardly anyone had been inside; the damage had been held to a minimum.
Gerhard's troops flooded the area for the relief and repair effort; they were dependable in times of crisis. As a precaution, the Knight Captains were split up and evacuated to scattered posts in the mountains behind the fort. But there was no follow-up attack. We returned come nightfall.
But who was responsible, and what were their goals...?
If they had wanted to hamper our effectiveness as a fighting unit, wouldn't it make more sense to aim several high-level magecraft attacks at the barracks? And how were they able to pinpoint Lord Leviath's location so precisely?
Lord Leviath was supposed to have erected a powerful magic barrier to protect against detection by magecraft... Did it fail? Or were our lodgings discovered by other methods? The event was unprecedented, at any rate.
The chiefs of staff could only exchange snatches of words in hushed tones with blanched faces. Fear crept among us like an inky stain.
~*~
"I'm so glad that the chapel's all right!!"
I had accompanied Renaud to the chapel inside the castle walls. It had grown blackened and reeked of mildew, as the castle itself had been abandoned for a long time before our presence. Nevertheless, Renaud knelt before the statue on the altar and began earnestly reciting his prayers.
Renaud loved church. He told me that even when he lived in town, he would make the trek to the village church regularly to pray to meet his dead brother again - to pray for God to bring his brother back to life, and to take his own life for his. He was probably giving thanks at that very moment to God for leading him to Lord Leviath... I stood behind him, looking at the filthy ceiling and sculpted pillars, the little windows high above us through which light from outside streamed down from above.
If the chapel was left intact, that meant that Lord Leviath's chamber directly opposite - the chamber where I witnessed that dreadful secret of which I dared not speak - was untouched as well. A strange sense of relief washed over me at the thought. Needless to say, Lord Leviath was indispensible to the army - without him, it would not exist. And without the army, I myself would have no reason to exist - no desire even to see the end of the day. At least while here, as per my promise to Cain, I had to keep myself busy and productive to earn my keep.
"Hey.....Sionna? What...what's this picture of?"
His prayers finished, Renaud pointed to a dingy mural on the wall.
"Ahh - that's a mural praising God for his great works and miracles. It's of our god Rygius in his earthly form as our First Emperor and Subjugator of the Universe, causing a great volcanic eruption with his magecraft...so it says."
"I, I know that story! Mother told it to me when I was little."
"Here are depicted the Emperor's five sons."
"Hmmm..."
"The current Emperor is said to be the descendant of Rygius's fourth son. It's a legend at best - probably not fact."
"So this person here...is the son of God...and his descendant is our Emperor?"
"Correct."
"So the Emperor's a god...a descendant of God?"
"So they say."
"They're wrong." A voice like a curse came from a black shadow behind us. He stabbed the mural with his sheathed sword, eyes on Renaud all the while.
"Aah! L...Lord Leviath......?"
The point of his scabbard pierced the face of the first Emperor's fourth son, cracking the plaster and sending it fluttering to the floor. Leviath's face darkened; I had never seen him so angry.
"The Emperor a god - what a joke. He's nothing more than human. And that fourth son stole his position from his elder brothers. They're nothing but a gang of usurpers...!!"
Such violent rage and hate - what compelled him to stab the image? I could only stare, dumbfounded.
Suddenly, Renaud began crying. "Lord Leviath...Lord Leviath, your eye - your right eye...it's glowing...I'm scared!!"
With a gasp, Lord Leviath snapped back to reality, touching his face beneath his eyepatch.
"L...Lord Leviath...your...your eye--it's go--"
"Not a word." Out came a voice that sounded like it was booming from the depths of hell. His green eye shone hard as steel. "Not a word, or I'll kill you."
A chill went up my spine. This was no joke.
Lord Leviath...kill Renaud...?
Renaud was shaking - so badly that he couldn't make another sound. Lord Leviath turned and left for the hall that led to his chamber.
~*~
Renaud wouldn't stop crying. He was beside himself, but not at the thought of death - at the thought that Lord Leviath hated him. Eugene refused to leave his side, and with his comforting presence, he eventually calmed.
That night, I couldn't sleep. The day's events wouldn't leave my mind. The shutters on my window rattled in the strong wind. A strange restlessness in my heart, I walked to the window.
The shutters opened with a squeak - and I couldn't believe my eyes. In the corner of the castle - in front of the room where Renaud slept, upon the weathered carving that jutted out beneath his window - stood a figure. A tall man, clad entirely in black. The wind whipped at his dark cape, but he looked up at the night sky utterly unconcerned - as if he were utterly weightless. Dark curls of hair beneath an equally dark wide-brimmed hat danced disheveled in the wind - and beneath, two eyes ablaze with light fixed themselves upon me - and I could swear he laughed!
With a grin, the man leapt off his perch - and was swallowed up by the yawning abyss below.
Why.........? He had no hope for survival at that height.
I stared for a while at the pitch blackness below, and then I saw again that the shutters to the window of the nearby room were half-open. For the first time, I thought of Renaud.
"Renaud--!!" Sheet white, I ran from my room and flew into Renaud's.
Renaud lay in his own bed, sound asleep. Wind blew in from the open shutters; I could make out the starry vault of the night sky between them. It was a peaceful sight.
Drained, I sat down on the edge of the bed. And hoped from the bottom of my heart that what I had just seen was a bad dream...
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