Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 16: Summons

“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:

Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;

Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;

Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;

Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;

Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;

Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.”

- Marcus Tullius Cicero, (Unknown, 1st Era)

Erec dreamt of a sea of ruby red eyes. Every single one of them stared at him as their sheer weight suffocated him. His fingers clawed at the lens, finding no purchase as they slipped on tears. Inch by inch, he sunk further into the depths, dragged under as they slid aside, and made way for him to fall deeper in their embrace.

Hammering at the door woke him up with a start. Erec’s head slammed up as the wooden doors shook—his heart racing, and a pool of sweat coated his bed sheets.

[Ah. You’re awake at long last.]

There was a pause at the door, followed by a muffled command on the opposite side.

[You’ve had eleven hours of rest. Typical for an Intern. I take it you’re ready and willing to take the day into your hand and pursue further personal development?]

The knocking began again. Erec groaned and pulled himself out of bed, doing his best to regain composure from the nightmare. He tossed on a beige linen shirt and stalked toward the door. “Stay in your bag, alright?”

[Of course, I wouldn’t dream of revealing myself. Observation yields better data.]

Erec cracked the door open to reveal a squished face of a man armored by mail. He wore a tabard displaying the black silhouette of a hippogriff with its hooves reared. House Nitidus. In truth, he’d expected something like this. As the house guard took his stock, Erec raised his hands up in a sign of peace. “I’ll go get Colin’s helmet; you can have it. I didn’t intend to keep it.”

“Aye, then you’re Erec?” the man asked.

“Sure am; I left the helmet in my workshop along with my busted Armor, and I should be able to retrieve it in about fifteen minutes. If you want to come back a little later—“

“Aye, No, you’d best be bringing it yourself.” The man reached into a pouch and withdrew a letter. The envelope was sealed by a dollop of wax and stamped with the same hippogriff on the man’s tabard. That’s not good.

He wasn’t sure how House Nitidus was going to react to what he’d done to Colin in front of the whole of the nobility. The best he’d hoped was they’d delay their response for a few days. If he were in the Academy, he’d have the backing of an Order, and any repercussions would take that into account; instead, he was damn near defenseless. His house had functionally no power.

“Best to ya,” the man nodded his head and then cleared his throat. “For what it’s worth, I think ya gave him somethin’ that was a long time coming, and me and none of the guards find fault in what ya did to’em.”

He’s talking about Colin. That confirmed it. That’s why he’d come; House Nitidus was already providing their official response over what happened during the trial.

With that, the guard left. Erec stared at the letter in his hand, the weight of which felt like the world.

He walked over to the table, set the letter on the worn wooden surface, and stared at the red wax. Why did the hue fall too close to the haunting ruby of his nightmares? He broke the seal and opened the letter.

Attention House Audentia,

  Per the power bestowed upon the Duchy Of Nitidus, and permissed by the Royal Court, Erec of House Audentia is officially mandated to appear at the court of the Duchy of Nitidus. This audience is intended to resolve lingering inquiries and misappropriated property owing to the events that came to pass over the last several days during the Academy Trial.

  Time is of the essence, and if Erec of House Audentia fails to report to the Duchy of Nitidus by May 23rd, 307, a force of several Knights will be permitted for dispatch to ensure compliance. Failure to comply will result in censure and fines totaling up to 1050 Silver Denarii to the House Audentia.

  Additionally, Erec of House Audentia is to bring the (1) misappropriated helmet belonging to Cserula IV grade Armor. Whose proper ownership is Colin of House Nitidus, last seen in possession of the party as mentioned earlier after the conflict outside of our Kingdom’s Walls on May 22nd, 307.

  Once at the court of the Duchy of Nitidus on the second cavern floor zone 2-A, Erec of House Audentia will officially present himself to the station guards and thus will fulfill the mandate issued in this document.

From the court of the Duchy of Nitidus, writ at the behest of Duke Alfon Nitidus,

Authorized by the House Crisimus, sovereign House to the Kingdom Of Cindrus.

The bottom of the document ended in the official stamp of both the Royal Family and the Duchy of Nitidus.

Erec reread the letter and paused at the mention of a fine. It almost seemed like an additional spiteful threat. Which, he supposed, was the purpose. And right there, the name of the duke. Alfon Nitidus. The Unbroken General. A man who single-handedly led the Cindrus army to repel a cataclysm-ranked threat from the wall; A war hero, and not the sort of man who played games.

This was the consequence of his actions. Losing control led to this.

Erec folded the paper up and stared at the doorway, letting the time slip away while he tried to consider what he’d say, how he might explain himself, and what the Unbroken General might choose to do in response to his actions. Was there a way to spare his House? If he renounced his name, maybe it would lead to sparing his brother and father from this.

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

As ordered, Erec readied himself for his mandated audience at the Duchy of Nitidus. He put on the best formals he could—sharp slacks. He wore a clean dress shirt with a collar, with one of the heavily buttoned jackets that fell out of style in the kingdom about ten years ago. If he understood it right, the jacket belonged to his father, then his brother, and now it was his.

Ironic that this same jacket was likely worn on the day his mother was officially exiled.

He took the shaft elevator; it felt like ages for the ancient thing to crawl its way up to the second layer of caverns.

Once he reached the second layer, he saw a massive gate. Armed guards checked him over for weapons and purpose—this was the layer where the wealthy and higher nobility made their homes. Even if he was nobility, they had to ensure his paperwork and check for unallowed weapons.

After they discovered that no, he didn’t have a damned sword, he managed to hand them his summons, their affable mood banished. The checkpoint guard called for an escort to send Erec on his way.

The road was long and left him with conflicted feelings. On the one hand, the beauty around him made for a visual of a long-forgotten earth scene. The curated bio-cavern provided great insight into the people who got to live out their lives on this layer.

First to start with was the excessive size. The cavern roof extended high into the sky, yet not a single building likely extended over four stories. Yet it stretched far enough for ten. The cavern ceiling was unique to the second floor, inlaid with stacking enhancements and spell-work that transformed the rocks above into a replica of the sky outside.

At the middle and ceiling of the cavern was a glowing orb—almost as strong as a sun. It provided enough light for plant life to flourish, much like a regular biocavern.

But the plant life here was utterly ornamental. Mostly wasteful varieties of grass were meticulously cut on square-like yards of lawn that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Erec held a particular grudge against the insane value nobles put in grass. With the resources it took to grow spent on sunlight and water, they could’ve just as easily grown more beneficial plant life: fruits, vegetables, and any root plant to supplement the kingdom’s supplies.

But no. This layer contained only flowers and grass—though, at least, they did allow natural pollinators.

Aside from his grudge over their choice in biodiversity, or lack thereof, he had to admit the pristine architecture and sculptures were breathtaking. He took a long look at a silver depiction of the First King. The man shattered the uneasy treatise of the ancient layers and forced them together. At the time they claimed he was a conquerer; a warmonger. But two hundred years later the consolidation of humanity’s resources showed their fruit, and people proclaimed him a great king.

Would their ancestors have pictured living on the surface once more?

The escort gradually led Erec deeper into the layer. The cavern stretched out just as large as the city above, providing vast swaths of space to noble holdings and estates. Within some of those holdings would be small villages. Populated by specialized artisans and servants attending to the noble family who owned the lands.

As much as the nobles treated this as the center of the Kingdom, they were wrong. Fifty percent of their population lived on the third and fourth layers. Both layers connected a bustling city triple the size of this curated space. A maze of confusing corridors and smaller caverns that defined the Kingdom in a way a place like this never would.

At the end of their stroll, they approached what looked to be a small castle—complete with stone walls. Was it a measure of status or privilege that had allowed the Nitidus family to defend themselves from the rest of the Kingdom openly? Or was it remains of a time before the Kingdom? Erec couldn’t say; his grasp of history regarding the nobility was painfully limited. Ironically, the Academy didn’t place much importance on it either, despite its primary composition of the nobility. Aside from the Silver Flames.

At the gates, the house guards of the Duchy took over supervision of Erec, so he followed them to his fate, sky-blue helmet held in hand.