Knights Apocalyptica

The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger. You begin.” So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.

Kindness effects more than severity

-Aesop, The Wind And The Sun; The Fables of Aesop, (Unknown, 1st Era)

Once more, Boldwick surprised Erec. He didn’t put up any resistance and in fact, offered his support for them to proceed. Taking a keen interest in the map locations; making a second copy of it and storing it away.

In his words, getting answers to the relationship between Erec’s mother and Seven-Snakes, and the nature of this map was a new mission priority.

If nothing else, he saw it as a good way to set his Knights to task. Particularly Garin and Olivia, who’d been holed up at the hotel all day.

Garin was keener than anyone to get going. Truthfully, even if Boldwick hadn’t approved the plan, he and Erec would’ve still searched for Seven-Snakes. Because Garin saw the opportunity to do something with his ability. Actually executing it turned out to be a different reality entirely.

On the first day of trying this tactic, Garin revealed he had to see an animal to get its attention, then he might make a deal.

Which presented a problem. They spent about an hour looking for rats—and came up with a handful. The issue was that they didn’t want to be seen, let alone deal with humans. Doing their absolute best to avoid both Garin and Erec as they tried to encounter them. And then, the Casino was relatively free of the vermin—using glyphs to limit their ability to make homes in their Casinos.

Then, they ran across a second problem. Throughout the day, as Garin used his ability, he grew more and more fatigued. His voice turned raspy, and after around twenty birds, he lost the ability to speak altogether.

Not much made sense. And Erec feared they might’ve broken past some kind of threshold, or that the animals would lose sight of their goal. Olivia came over to the hotel and looked after Garin until the night. By the next day, his friend was feeling a lot better, and more than anything rearing to go.

So, on the second day, they changed focus and tested the extent of Garin’s ability.

They assigned a certain number of birds to return to a spot outside of the hotel on the next day and took careful note of how many he could task before his Talent wore him away. Interestingly, Garin got through more than before.

The next day, every single one of them returned.

Enthused with this, Garin went and used his Talent to get these birds to find Seven-Snakes. He got through a little over half before getting wobbly and going mute once more.

The day after, he got through even fewer birds, but Garin received a notification that his Cognition Virtue advanced.

The most concrete of conclusions they could draw was that Garin’s talent was likely tied to Cognition, based on that. And that by using his Talent he was relying more firmly on that Virtue than anything else—similar to Fury and Strength. But, past that, they could only guess. Did the taxation of the ability depend on what Garin wanted the animals to do? Why was there a difference in getting the birds that returned to look for Seven-Snakes, instead of the random birds with a longer gap between them?

Regardless, Garin pressed ahead, tearing apart himself every day to get as many animals searching for Seven-Snakes as he could.

It was a race to find the man, and the stress of it drove Erec wild.

Still, seeing Garin try so hard drove him to push as far as possible, roaming the streets in the downtime, until the night. Where he forced himself to take a break and try to enjoy his time with Enide. She didn’t know exactly what he was planning, since he was almost afraid to voice it.

But, after another day of fruitless searching and planting seeds of hope, he found himself alone in the hotel bar with Enide.

She sipped her glass of whiskey on ice—neat, as she liked it. Leaning on him as he drank a beer. The cold was a welcome relief after the hot day in the sun. This search made him appreciate the temperature regulation of his Armor more than anything.

“Have you thought about it?” she asked quietly, her head a welcome companion on his shoulder. He buzzed with heat in the pit of his stomach, every point of contact with her like an inferno. Even in this room with other drunks and gamblers, they were alone in his mind.

Or would be, if the constant tug of knowing he was so close to answers about his mother.

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” Erec replied, knowing what she was talking about. Her offer. He took her hand and held it in his own, fingers shaky.

“Awfully agitated the last couple of days; haven’t found him yet, have you? You know, we’ve been looking too. Afraid he might’ve bounced from Vega again, as frustrating as fuck as it is. Means we’ll be following him back out on the wasteland since those bastards are refusing to honor their deal. Come with us when we do, and you’ll find him. If you’re worried we won’t take you, don’t be silly.”

Erec paused; the secret of his mother had a heavy weight on his chest. It felt like it was dragging him down, his friend knew, and Enide was aware they were looking for Seven-Snakes. But she didn’t know why he was so bothered about it.

“Hey, Enide,” Erec said, squeezing her hand. She leaned in, sensing something was coming. The way she’d grown more in tune with him… “This isn’t just about Seven-Snakes, for me.”

“It isn’t for me either, but I could see something was in your head, way more than it had a right to be. Didn’t wanna pry. So, what is it? I’ll take it to my grave if it’s that dire of a secret.”

“No…” he looked into her eyes. The care there. The pure honesty in them he had found little else of in his life, aside from his best friend. Even then, sometimes Garin had his own priorities, Enide did too, but she laid them out cleanly, and…

“You don’t gotta say anything you don’t wanna, hero,” she whispered, coming in close. Close enough to feel her hot breath against his neck.

“I thought my mother was dead. Thought my goal in leaving our Kingdom was to find her corpse and figure out what happened. Now, thanks to that girl, we let go. I know she isn’t. She showed me her memory, and it included my mother in it. I hoped, but now I know that she’s out there alive, working with Seven-Snakes for some Goddess-only-knows reason. I wanna track her down and make her answer me. Then, I want to drag her home and make our family whole again…” Erec spilled it out, feeling like his soul drained out of his voice. Everything that he’d carried in him, that secret hope that he could fix what was broken, was thrown out into the world and into the lap of a woman who was rapidly climbing to the top of his heart.

In Enide, he saw understanding. Her thumb traced his palm, as she turned it up to see, not replying, but the physical comfort of her subsided the fear of judgment after laying his soul bare.

“My ma taught me that a person’s fate could be seen in their palm,” she said, that thumb of hers tracing the line in his. “When a monster got her, I thought my life would never be the same; and I was right, it never was quite the same. The space a person leaves when they leave you… Can’t quite fill it. Same thing when my Uncle and the rest of our family got locked up in our vault. Rochester feels it, too. We tell ourselves that if we can open up those enormous steel doors, life’ll go back to the way it was before, like time aint passed, like they’re gonna fit back neat as can be in that space they left.”

Erec stared at her, a tear trickling down the side of her face—he couldn’t help it. The words were a sorrowful pain that jabbed into his own heart.

Because he knew what was coming next.

“She aint never going to be the same. That’s the truth of it, if you find her.”

“I gotta try.”

“We all do, yeah. And you know what? You’re not trying alone, not a chance in this fucking world. What I see in your palm, best I can remember how to read it is this: you’re gonna take what you want from life, and if it doesn’t agree with what you want, you’re going to fight it til it does.” She stopped, her hand letting go of his hand, and moving to rest on his cheek. She moved in, her eyes blazing with their own heat; like miniature suns, as she bore into him. “But it also says something else, hero. The fight you got on your hands isn’t one you’re gonna do solo; you’re gonna need a partner on this warpath.”

At that, she closed her eyes, and he closed his—and then her lips pressed against his… Hot, as she pressed in, her whole body next to his, the fire within burning away as they sealed their fates together in a blaze of glory.

Together, they would fly, as free as the wind, and faster than anyone could pursue.

Together, they would burn in a pyre that pillared into the sky, a beacon of Strength and might.

Together, they rose up that elevator back to Erec’s room—Garin long gone, to recover and nurse his wounds with Olivia. Not that the thought of him missing went through either of their heads, as they pushed in and failed to untangle from one another for more than a breath of seconds at any time.

With one another, they would burn their way through the world, fire, and its wind, carrying it across the wasteland to scorch the earth and burn anyone who might challenge their dominance to ash. Erec saw it in her eyes, the way she moved, the way she felt; the way their breath and sweat mingled together in a moment of pure ecstasy. This was fate, this was life, and this was freedom in its purest form. Together, they could conquer the world.

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