Knights Apocalyptica

Midnight.

I have had several requests come to me on this very day, to meet them at midnight, of all things. What about these outsiders makes them so desperate for hushed conversations at this Goddess-forsaken hour?

I yearn for the days before we knew people existed outside the walls.

-Knight Lieutenant Drask, Quick Note To Verdant Oak Commander 3rd Era, 308)

For Erec and his friends, the day after the gate opening was a day of rest. There needed to be time to recover as for at least two of them, the flurry of meetings had all but ransacked their social batteries.

The first couple of games would not be played for another five days. This would continue for three weeks leading up to the tournament, with people coming and going—most likely coming more than going—as more and more arrived leading up to the actual main event, which was what Erec went the most forward for.

That meant that as people were adjusting to the new atmosphere within the walls of Cindrus, many would wander around the surface, just as many of the more important among them who had come to attend the tournament would now be conducting the secret and essential meetings that people of their status were bound to arrange. Undoubtedly, it would be a flurry of diplomatic activity—the sort of activity that saw Boldwick and Dame Robin strained to their limits.

After the night they had, this strain meant that the debrief was the morning after… And even with that change in norm, they didn't even summon all of them for the debrief. Only Garin, since he was the only one they really wanted to meet with, and Erec couldn't tell if that was a good or a bad sign.

If he truly messed up, if his errors were too grievous for correction, he assumed that Dame Robin and Sir Boldwick would call him for discussion and no doubt ream him out over his many failures. Given that that wasn't the case, then he could rightfully assume maybe that any mistakes he made—if it was a mistake—came from the drinking contest. That part he had been debating with Val all morning.

Yeah, very convincing, for sure.

Still, as Erec lay on the couch with the sunlight slipping into their room, he couldn’t help but go over the event.

It had been like when they were in Vega. Seeing his friend flex his power in such a way was always fascinating.

He looked near his dorm window, seeing the wall of plants catch those rays of light. Here, right now, a warm, profound ease seeped into him. Things hadn't gone catastrophically. He had gotten more information about supposedly one of his greatest foes, but there would likely be more. He knew that Bedwyr was somewhere out there training, and the last time they had fought. It had been months, and things still felt unresolved. Though Bedwyr had claimed victory, nobody won.

Since then, he’d barely seen Bedwyr either. His brother was upset with him for dealing with the news about their mother in his own way. The fact that he'd missed out on Yule had left a sore spot in Erec's heart, despite the sweetness of spending his first Christmas with Enide.

Still, life was good, right? He felt tension with how the kingdom was going and did not know what direction it would take, but that was the nature of life. You couldn't have all the answers; even if you did, it would drive you crazy. The joy of it was living it moment to moment. And this moment, as he reclined on the couch with a cold glass of water next to him, watching the sun rise not far away and recovering from his hangover, it would be a pleasant day.

There was a knock on his door.

Erec scrabbled to his feet, going over rather quickly and opening it to see a sorely missed face, beaming at him. Enide. She vanished and reappeared behind him, an arm wrapped around him as she whispered in his ear, "Happy to see me?"

Erec responded, his insides burning with warmth and fluttering as he embraced her: "I thought you were going to be busy. You were supposed to be working outside the walls for at least another week.”

"Well, I got off a little early. I may have, uh, asked a favor from my father. I figure with everything going on in here, it'd be pretty boring to go and stay outside, don't you think?" She winked at him and then looked around the dorm. "Where is everyone?"

"Garin got summoned for a debrief this morning for our mission last night, and Colin's still snoozing. Olivia went and did something else, I don't know what. I'm sorry—Olivia never even came home last night. I don't believe that she was with us."

Enide shook her head. "That girl's usually busy with something. I don't think she's fully separated from that one noble family she worked for. If I had to guess, she's probably doing something for them in all this chaos."

Erec shrugged. "That much is obvious. I knew that since I first laid eyes on her. I thought she was a spy."

She shook her head. "You know that could be the case, but she's loyal to you. It's just that she also has that loyalty to her old pack. I know what that’s like. Well, except for it being a noble house... You know, I don't understand how your whole nobility system functions. It seems so bloated and confusing."

“I felt the same way when I was young. Now, as an adult, I guess I've just started to accept it." Erec sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

With that, she laughed and popped out of existence, only to reappear on the couch, one arm hanging on the back as she stretched out, looking at the sunlight. "What do you say we go for a hike today?"

"Hike?" he asked.

"You know, I know you love nature, but balancing just how much you're training with everything else is good. And considering you don't have anything else to do today..." She laughed. "Well, I assume, do you have classes?"

"No," Erec responded. "Some of the Academy is going to assist with setting up for some of the games coming up soon, so for the most part, they've suspended classes most days this month. There will be some lessons here and there specifically to try to give us an edge, but..." He trailed off.

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It seemed that with this grand event that the King was pulling, it was sort of an all-hands-on-deck situation, and they would take whatever help they could get from whatever knights they could get. Initiate to Grandmaster. Erec wasn't sure what the Kingdom had been expecting by opening their walls, but he doubted it was quite this much work. Either way, they were locked in, and it was the way it was.

"You know, a hike sounds really nice," Erec agreed, and Enide gave him a sharp grin as he stalked over to the couch. She scooched to give him room next to her, and he claimed his throne, throwing an arm over her shoulder and pulling her into an embrace.

“Promise you won’t regret it.”

They spent the rest of their morning cuddled up like that, relaxing on the couch, enjoying one another's company. Her warmth was a welcome fire next to his own heart. He was finding that every day without her now was just becoming tougher to get by, thinking of her often, even while busy training. Somehow, this girl from the wasteland—this wild, fresh breath of air in his life—had become a full-force gale blowing around and enrapturing his entire being with her presence.

So being able to spend a morning with her, relaxed, trying to set any troubles from his mind as best he could, was one of the most relaxing mornings he'd had in a while. Sooner than later, Colin got up and grumbled about them making too much noise in the shared common room. To which Enide threw a book at him and told him to go read and bury his head in it if he was going to be grumpy.

Colin ignored it and then sat next to them.

After about ten minutes, Enide invited him along for their hike.

It wasn't that much longer before Garin finally returned from his debrief, weirdly in tow with Gwen.

"Hey guys," Garin said. "I hope you weren't all busy. Uh, I brought Gwen with me. She was also at the debrief and, um, she kind of wanted to talk to you."

Erec looked up, confused. What was true was that they were all students under Sir Boldwick. The girl had always been something of an older inspiration, but he didn't feel too close to her, not like Dame Robin. Considering they were all taken under Boldwick’s wing, she was at least an ally.

That said, her ties to his brother and whether or not the two were still dating made him feel a little confused about everything.

She cleared her throat. "It's about Bedwyr."

Ah, so it was about his brother.

Erec rubbed out his eyes. "I haven't seen him lately. I haven't talked to him lately, if you're asking about that. I've tried, but he just doesn't want to. When he gets like this, sometimes you have to let him do what he wants, and right now I think he just wants peace."

That much was true. He had made several efforts to reach out to Bedwyr to see what was going on, but his brother wanted nothing to do with it. You couldn’t go around forcing others to do what they didn’t want.

"Today we're going on a hike," Enide said, shooting up and putting an arm on Erec's shoulder. "You can come along if you want. Maybe it’ll get your mind off it.”

Gwen shook her head. "No… But if you’re going into the wasteland anyway… Will you follow me somewhere? I have something to show you; it’s where Bedwyr has been training."

Colin rolled his eyes. "As if we care where that man is training. You’ve just listened to Erec—he doesn't want anything to do with any of us. It would be rather rude, don't you think? To go harass him."

"When do you care about being rude, Colin?" Garin laughed.

Colin scoffed. "I have a refined and regal attitude, as you know. It is a faux pas to go commit an act of rudeness when you know it's going to be insulting. Leaving someone to their private studies is something that should be respected."

Gwen shook her head. "It's not that I'm worried about him. He doesn't leave. He barely sleeps. I've talked to his dorm mates, and he only comes back every few days covered in dust and blood. I don't know what training he's been doing. Every time I go there, he stops and tells me everything's fine, and I... I just don't know."

Gwen trailed off. With every word, Erec felt a little more alarm rising. In many ways, he and Bedwyr were related—not just by blood but by attitude—that much he had come to appreciate since his time as a Knight.

The fact that Bedwyr had thrown himself into some sort of rigorous training exercise without any personal care, well, it wasn't a far-fetched thing. If Erec were in his position, and without the friends that he had, he would’ve done the same. And likely ground himself into dust doing it…

"Goddess damn it," Erec muttered, shaking his head, getting up and then grabbing his silver axe, which rested on the wall. "I think my brother needs someone to beat some sense into him.”

“Always quick to violence,” Colin shot back and turned a page in the book he’d been reading.

"Sometimes there are lessons that must be learned with brute force. And when someone refuses to take a break, the best way to show them it’s making them lose their edge is to show them how blunt their edge is..." Like him, his brother could be hard-headed, and like him, sometimes he needed a reminder on when to relax. But he didn't think that Bedwyr would take too kindly to such a suggestion, so that meant he needed to arrive armed. If that was to be the way this was going to go, then so be it.

"All right, we can start our hike with this, I suppose. Everyone's ready?" Garin looked around. "Where's Liv?"

"Still not here. But fine, I will attend this event if nothing more than to gauge the strength of two of my competitors at this damned tournament. It will be a thought-provoking opportunity for that alone," Colin replied.

Erec ignored it, feeling Enide rush next to him. She set a hand in his and looked at his face with a curious eye. "Big guy, you okay?"

“Yeah. Things are fine," Erec muttered shakily, not quite feeling it all the way. These sorts of issues were harder to deal with than simply letting Fury loose and wrecking some monsters. “Let's figure out what's going on with my brother."

It took a few minutes for everyone to gather their things, including Garin scarfing down a quick bit of toast and eggs with Munchy, since he’d skipped breakfast for his meeting. Understandable, but Erec felt rather annoyed having to wait.

Patience when dealing with family issues had never been a virtue for him.

Still, they managed to get out of the dorm room and follow Gwen into the delight of the day. The outside of the Verdant Oak grounds was always a sight to behold, with its lush vegetation and multiple gardens arranged and dotted with enough colors and scents to lull any passersby to stay and enjoy the day. Walking through it in the morning like this, as the sun kissed all the plants, was an enchanting miracle, despite everything else.

It was still peaceful as they stepped further away from the Academy and into the grasslands surrounding it. Just a different kind. A plain, but lively place that welcomed them… But it didn’t last long.

Inevitably, their trek led to the wastelands past the farms and grasslands. Much of the land sealed away by the Steel Curtain was still like this. One day, Erec imagined the entirety of the place would be filled with the same sort of grass that they had beneath their feet back near the Academy and in the city itself. But out here, past the farms, were the wastelands, with soil being remediated so people could use it again.

Pretty much immediately, Gwen broke off from the dirt path and took them deeper into the wastelands, treading carefully with a practiced look as they wandered into essentially nothing except for hilly crags, stone, sand, rock, and the occasional cactus or dried-out plant.

They finally reached their destination about three miles away. They could tell because he saw his brother there, shirtless, drenched in sweat, and deep within a crater, one of many that surrounded him. It was as if the very land and earth had been torn up, broken, and spread around by a giant. Boulders, craters, and gravel were scattered in a confusing array of mismanaged land.

If he hadn’t known from Gwen that Bedwyr had been training here, Erec would’ve assumed he was looking at the remains of a battlefield. A grand fight that had left the landscape around it in utter devastation.

As he saw Bedwyr, his brother wiped at his eyes and looked at them with a frown. Erec knew the truth: someone had been fighting here for months and months, but they'd been fighting against themselves.

Bedwyr squinted at them. "Leave!" he called, his voice loud and demanding. He must not be able to see very well with the sun at their back and in the pit.

"No can do, brother. What's going on?" Erec trailed off as he walked closer, shifting the axe on his back. Knowing that whatever he said, this was more likely to end up in a fight than anything else.