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From the middle of the afternoon and well into the night the feast continued, even as many taking part became increasingly inebriated. Both Viconia and I were floating by the time we retired as midnight beckoned and surprisingly enough it was already dying off of natural causes. The Knights of the White Stallion may h... |
Morning came as it always did, filling the world with light that some particularly didn’t care much for depending on the amount that they drank during the feast. By the time Viconia and I rose it was well after the eighth hour, the Lodge was filling with sound and movement and it appeared that it was indeed little mor... |
For the first time in weeks, if not longer we again found ourselves with no clear goal or purpose. The journey to Blackmarsh had been exhausting and more than what we had expected. A single night sleeping in a bed that didn’t rock and sway or had consisted of our bedrolls had only served to reveal just how tired, sore... |
A large portion of the Order were still sleeping off their inevitable hangovers but for most it was a day like any other. Servants and craftsmen performed their duties, Knights, Squires and Men-at-Arms trained and many seemed off practicing manoeuvres on their enormous warhorses. As a footsoldier I preferred my own tr... |
Falid of course was one of the few as evident by the hovering collection of amazed onlookers as he went through his own routines. Somewhere he had acquired a millstone and a collection of varied weights that ranged from the equivalent of his enormous sword to those that would have easily been more than my total bodywe... |
I watched for a few minutes as he lifted an iron counterweight made for assisting in opening the Lodge’s gatehouse doors one handed. His face was contorted with the strain as he raised it straight armed over his head and carefully and precisely lunged forward and back a couple of times before swapping arms. Sweat was ... |
My own training beckoned and I wandered off and found a small duelling square set aside for no more than two or three combatants at a time. At that point I had no interest in weights or callisthenics, but rather my own personal training to ease the tension in my limbs and body from the weeks of travelling by ship, boa... |
Sunchild whispered through the air as I wove it around myself in slow but steady patterns, using the weight of the sword and the rolling motions to twist and turn me about. The strokes were lazily easy and had been drilled into me for months during my Legion training as a way to stretch and limber up my muscles. Withi... |
The familiarity of the patterns and rhythms was also instilled into us to allow us to regain a measure of calm and to control our senses. Even in the heat of battle the simplest roll of a shoulder or twist of a wrist could bring instinctive and immediate composure just from something as simple as muscle memory. During... |
After the events of the previous day I was in desperate need of calm as even the slightest glimpse of the expensive signet ring that had replaced the White Stallion one on my hand was enough to make my heart race as though I was about to a take a life. It was proof and evidence that not only was the whole situation re... |
The fact that I was also a damned individual with toxic, corrupted blood infusing my flesh to the last hair was somehow laughable and borderline insane. I didn’t know whether to burst into hysterical laughter, break down and cry from terror or shout to the world how utterly, inconceivably wrong they were in their choi... |
Instead I focused on the old routines that had been drilled into me through a lifetime in service to the Legion and the Empire. Cut, twist, roll, stab, slice. Slightly awkward with a four-thousand-year old elven sword made of unbreakable skymetal instead of a short, leaf bladed gladius but still familiar enough to con... |
While not as familiar as Viconia’s, the footsteps my vampiric hearing picked up approaching from the direction of the Lodge was enough for me to identify the source. There was only one being who walked with such grace without the gift of vampirism or hailing from the Underdark and I turned to see Alexi’s grinning face... |
"That’s got to be some of the worst techniques for that sword I could think of." He said, moving over and leaning over the wooden fence running around the dirt of the duelling square. |
"It is, but it is useful for warming up." I made a show of looking over his shoulder with a series of exaggerated movements. "No pretty noblewoman hanging off your arm?" |
"Ugh, no, but the Baronetess is definitely smitten with me. I didn’t believe that Mara and Dibella were gods in favour of cursing mortals." |
"One man’s curse is a woman’s blessing." Rolling my shoulders in one last motion, I returned Sunchild to its sheath. "Did you come out here to escape?" |
The puckered scar tissue from the arrow twisted in his smile but somehow didn’t affect the humour in it. "Yeah. That and to ease a few of these kinks out of my spine. I granted her Ladyship my quarters for the night, but managed to find a space in the stables." |
"Glad to see that you slum it with the rest of us low-born. What would the gossipmongers say if they heard the dashing Sword-Champion of Cyrodiil woke up smelling of manure?" |
"I made sure it was clean before I laid down, and just for that I think you need a bit of a lesson in the manners of your betters." |
Gracefully he gripped the fence with both hands and hopped over it without any effort at all. |
"Betters? Unless that I’m mistaken I do believe that it was I who received a promotion yesterday." |
"Please forgive me commander, I was remiss with my tongue." He said, bowing deeply at the waist with an exaggerated wave of his hands. His broadsword was already in one as he held it out to his side in almost the perfect mimicry of a travelling performer. |
Both of us were chuckling as I drew Sunchild, returning his bow with one just as mocking as his own with the same lack of venom. Immediately the two of us were wary of our opponent as it had become a routine for us to practice together. |
"I didn’t get the chance to yesterday, but you have my congratulations on the promotion." In one smooth movement, he swung his blade upwards, bringing the crossguard in line with his eyes in salute before adopting a fighting stance. |
Despite the seemingly casual way he rested the flat of his blade over his bare forearm as though it was the lip of a towershield, I could see the deadly gracefulness that infused every fibre of his being. I adopted a stance of my own, feet resting lightly on the ground and ready to jump or move either forwards or back... |
The sudden ringing of steel echoed around us as our blades met. In one second he was standing solidly, almost flat-footedly so and the next he was as quick as a viper. On instinct alone his blade was slapped aside with Sunchild as I flicked it away but rather than following on with another blow he danced away, content... |
"Do you really think that I would have taken the oath, let alone followed you into Blackmarsh if I didn’t think you weren't a decent sort?" |
"I thought you were bored?" I said with only mild sarcasm as we quickly traded a handful of blows in less time it took to think of them. As effortlessly as I would have killed a caged rabbit with my bow he had managed to open my defences and leave the point of his sword hovering a few centimetres from my throat. |
"There was that. Don’t tell anyone though, but I actually respect you Kaius." Sliding away like a spring breeze, he gave me space and we both adopted our stances again. "You have come a long way since we first met." |
"I hope you realise that was only a few months ago?" Our conversation was paused for a moment as we again launched into a blistering combination of attacks, parries and dodges that still resulted with his blade piercing my defences and leaving the bout firmly in his grasp. |
"I know. You have still come a long way." |
By now both of us were beginning to concentrate, eyes narrowing slightly and care was taken to control our breathing. Even the greatest of fighters and swordsmen could be worn down with exhaustion and no skill in the world could keep death at bay if you had no breath to fight. |
"I still have a long way to go with the sword it seems." |
"Not as far as you think." We circled each other warily and Alexi’s grin was no longer being mirrored in his eyes. It was an expression he wore whenever he fought and I was beginning to know it well. "You are a good swordsman, and with more practice you could be excellent." |
"I am glad you are going to be with us Alexi, the gods know that I need all the help." |
"Between myself, Viconia and Falid I think you have all the intimidating warriors in the land at your back." |
"What about Detane and Mazoga? Or Thedret?" |
There was no mistaking the way he paused at the names. Our blades flashed but again he managed to disarm me in less than six moves. "To be perfectly honest I nearly fell over when you offered Detane a Knighthood. Mazoga I can understand because she has more than earned it. Hells, she’s more noble and knightly than hal... |
Judging my next attacks and trying to work out a strategy to breach the wall of Alexi’s defence I thought hard about Detane and the interactions we all had with him over the weeks of journeying. He was overwhelmingly divisive and he was extremely apt at driving others away but there was something about him that was of... |
"There is something about him." I said carefully to Alexi, trying me best not to show any hint of my next attacks or strategies. "I can’t explain it but my gut isn’t sitting right." |
"Maybe its indigestion." Another blow was redirected away and again I found a blade to my throat. "I have to be honest though, I trust your gut almost as much as mine and I too think there’s something off about him." |
"More than his personality?" |
Alexi shrugged. "There’s that, and there’s the fact that I have never encountered someone as good as a sword as he is. Men of that skill don’t simply appear out of thin air and yet I have never heard or seen his like in any of the tournaments." |
"You could take him though... right?" |
Worryingly Alexi shrugged again and his expression was grim. "I could and would, but it would be a much closer fight than I have had in a while." |
"You need to fight Viconia more often then." |
We both laughed at that. "Vicky is dangerous in her own right." His sword flashed and there was a dusty rattle as Sunchild was twisted out of my hand and skittered across the dirt. The blow had been almost too fast for me to see even with my vampiric enhanced sight and reflexes. "My sword against hers I would win ever... |
"Good luck dealing with her magicka as well." |
"Yeah... there’s that too." |
For another handful of moments our swords rung through the air with a quality of their own until our breathing was becoming more and more ragged. Alexi won again, still showing the same effortlessness that he did with all things related to his blade. |
"What about the others?" |
Both his eyebrows raised. "Thedret? Easy. Although it would be interesting dealing that glaive of his. The Knights Mentor have always been a bit of a weird bunch." |
Before we had left the Fort, Thedret had managed to retrieve some of his equipment and that of his slain comrades and Viconia and I were possibly the only ones not to be surprised at his personal choice of weaponry. Like Sir Henrik who had gifted me with a scar up the back of a leg from his ghostly weapon, Thedret use... |
"What about Falid?" |
Alexi and I shared a mutual look of concern before bursting out laughing. "I’d have to get one or two good hits in and hope he’d bleed to death quickly. How would you take him?" |
"With a ballista." I replied half-jokingly. "And at least three hundred metres between us." |
We traded several dozen more blows, our concentration increasing and our breath soon robbing us of our ability to converse or tease each other. For the most part we reduced our spoken words to acknowledgements of skill and mutual praise, discussing techniques and how I could improve. |
Both of us were quickly sweating in the increasing heat and Alexi’s tabard was soon patchy despite the fact that it was sleeveless and allowed all to see just how muscular he was. Unlike legionaries or some of our companions there was no overwhelming bulk or size about him, but there was no doubting that underneath th... |
I was much less elegant and had exerted myself much more than he had in my vain attempts to best him and as a result sweat was dripping down my forehead and soaking every inch of my flesh. The heat of the southern provinces was much stickier and the air was a lot closer than that of the north that I was more accustome... |
We continued to train however and with every failure I was learning from a combination of watching and being directly taught by Alexi. There were few betters that I could learn to improve my abilities from and he seemed to take great joy in teaching those with the skill and desire to match him. I still had a long way ... |
The blows rang through the metal of our weapons and through the meat and bone of our forearms and despite the casual flicks and parries he made appear oh-so-effortless there was incredible strength behind them. It had taken me less than the first thirty seconds of our first ever fight to know that without the full mig... |
Rolling my wrist as Sunchild met his broadsword I could feel the tremor course through the Ayleid blade from the impact and I felt rather than saw the way that he rolled his own sword to compensate. In less than a blink of an eye he had rolled the hilt of his weapon to minimise the amount of time Sunchild’s edge had o... |
For the first time it was the point of my sword that had managed to come to rest close to his chest, in the hollow where his throat met his ribcage and we both stood there, stilled and both trying to work out what had just happened. I was blinking, staring with my mouth falling open in amazement at how for the first t... |
His own shock was just as brief as the opportunity that I had grasped and his habitual smile returned in full force. "I keep telling you that you’re getting better." |
"Yeah..." Slowly, and feeling shocked I lowered Sunchild and took a step back as my mind caught up to where my body was. Creeping realisation set in as he too took a step back and I frowned at him. "Alright, what’s going on?" |
"You won, it’s been quite a long time since anyone managed to get one on me." |
Ignoring the way that he laughed I stopped in place and made another point at his chest with Sunchild as though it was an extension of my hand. "No, it’s definitely not that. What in oblivion was that? That’s got to be the sloppiest technique I have ever seen from you." |
"I am human. I’m allowed to make mistakes." |
For a moment I stopped, eyeing him carefully as I returned Sunchild to my side. "Yeah, but you don’t make ones like that. Something’s eating at you." |
Alexi was a master swordsman with a confidence that billowed from him like the bow wave of a caravel but I saw the sudden pause in his motions. I also especially saw the way his eyes shifted away from me for a second. |
"Ha. Thought so. Is it her ladyship?" |
He chuckled and his own sword slid back into its scabbard. "What if I say yes?" |
My own smile wilted somewhat as I saw the way his hand unconsciously lifted itself from his side and appeared to move towards his face. It was becoming a nervous tic and I suddenly had a flash of insight. |
"Then I reckon you’d be lying. It’s that extended grin you have there." |
The way that his eyes suddenly locked to mine with the glimmer of shock and mild horror was more than enough confirmation. "How in Oblivion would you know that?" |
"Come on Alexi, when we train I don’t have a hope at foretelling or predicting your moves, but other times you wouldn’t make it any more obvious if you painted it to a sign and dragged it about behind you." |
"Do you have to be so damn perceptive?" |
"Well, I used to be a forester so... yeah." |
The way he paused and his eyes roamed around us was strangely more telling and for those few seconds I was witness to the first amount of doubt I had even seen in him. |
"Do you know how many battles I have been in?" He finally asked, looking me in the eye as I shrugged. |
Holding up a single hand, he extended his fingers and tucked his thumb into his palm. |
"Four?" I exclaimed. "But what about all the tournaments you have won?" |
Nodding to the disbelief in my voice he smiled but this time there was no humour in it. "I said battles... Not tournaments. A tournament is merely a harder training session with very little risk of drawing blood. In battle you aren’t expected to step away if your opponent trips or the like... In tournaments it is all ... |
"I’m guessing that the one of those times was against the Black Bows?" |
"I was counting the village and the fort as two separate battles...." He trailed off and I suddenly felt uncomfortable. |
"Have... Did you kill anyone before our journey into Blackmarsh?" |
The chuckle this time was dark and sent a chill up my spine. "I’m not a complete virgin Kaius. It wasn’t the first time I have wet my steel but I certainly haven’t experienced anything like that before." |
My head was spinning at the revelations and I struggled to grasp hold of any of my thoughts. "What about the time the Order closed the Oblivion gate?" |
"Fighting daedra isn’t the same as fighting men," As he looked at me I could see the way his expression hardened and it showed me that he had seen my tiny nod of agreement. "That was the second battle I have ever been in and I was leading my Lance from the centre of the third rank. My role in the battle was little mor... |
Again his hand lifted as his eyes moved away from me and this time he didn’t stop it as he pressed his fingers into his injured cheek. "This is first wound I have ever had. The first true one at least." |
In contrast to my own flesh his was almost pristine and unblemished. There were the handful of faded cuts on his forearms that all swordsmen had from their initial years of training but his were very few and testament to his natural skill. It made me all the more conscious of the overwhelming amount that I wore, from ... |
"Forty-two tournaments, thirty-eight of which were victories and not a single scratch to show for it." His tone was mockingly sarcastic but it wasn’t directed at me or anything else in particular. "Then the first time I get injured it’s to some pox-ridden shit-stain with a rotting bow." |
I started laughing, and he stared at me with his eyes burning holes into my soul as I witnessed him become legitimately angry for the first time. "It’s not funny Kaius." |
"Actually, it is." My chuckle was as dark as his was earlier but I was smiling in a way to show that I didn’t meant to offend him. "That’s got to be one of the best, "first-injuries’ I have seen. Do you want to know how I got my first real scar?" |
He shrugged noncommittedly and still smiling I untucked my tunic from my belt and lifted it up to show the bottom rib on my left side. Pointing to the tiny jagged white scar I laughed again at the memory. "I got stabbed by an elderly Dunmer woman with dementia." |
Alexi blinked, scrunched his face slightly and blinked again. "What?" |
"One night while I was on leave, myself and a handful of the foresters spent most of a night in a tavern and on our way back to the fort this little old woman came up shouting abuse. It was after midnight, we were all drunk and so initially we tried to shoo her off home and not make too much of a scene. Instead her ma... |
"How do you deal with it all though?" |
"Which part? The falling over and stabbing yourself in the leg, or the getting injured?" |
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