Nighteye Journal

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Urgh, a five day weekend and spending a lot of it out of town...totally forget about habits I hardly have anyway...


Tower of the Knight Crescent


It was so early in the morning that the sun had not even begun its trek even toward the horizon when I woke. The whispers in my heart urged me on, despite the meager three or four hours of sleep I had received. I completely geared up--because I felt the need to--and headed out.

Cyrus was in the stables, fully armored and armed. He was readying a horse.

Although I had entered completely noiselessly, he noticed. It really was a difficult thing to swallow, that an assassin could manage to penetrate the palace defenses when they had someone who just sensed your presence. Probably why he felt so terrible about it as well--how this sense had failed him. He simply motioned to one of the other horses and I wordlessly began to ready it for a ride.

We took to the streets slowly; without the sunlight it was difficult for the horses to see. Both of us trotted at a safe pace, though still outdoing the brisk walk of a bipedal creature. First down the main city street, then to the east, angling around a part of the cliffside the city had been partially carved out of. A grove existed between a deep recess in the cliff face with a walled off portion blocking the city from trespassing beyond into an area where the trees grew wild. The wall looked aged and unkempt, but sturdy, and the gate towered above us as we approached.

Cyrus drew his blade--still sheathed safely--and simply extended his arm and tapped the gate with the pommel of his weapon. As if made of paper, the gate gave way to his simple push. He dismounted and I followed suit.
"Spectres within," he said. "Only a holy touch will turn them."

He fully drew his blade and I pulled the bow from its hook on my quiver and nocked an arrow. We stepped into the grove and the gates closed behind us on their own accord.

It was only a dozen steps or so when Cyrus suddenly lashed out with his blade-arm, cutting through a barely visible ghost-like apparition of a knightly figure to his right. Not a meter away from us.

I blinked. I whipped up my bow and let the arrow fly.

Another apparition dissipated before it had a chance to strike at us from above. I had to bite back my annoyance at having completely missed the one right next to us. Cyrus started to up his pace, hopping over logs and various bushes as the ghosts of some twisted past began to make their presence known further.

Three more swipes of a blade and two arrows later, I caught myself before crashing headlong into Cyrus' back as he paused. I glanced over his shoulder to see a wall of eight or nine spectres before us, blocking the way. Despite the situation, I did take a moment to regard them carefully; all looked to be wearing Aerowlyn-styled armor.

Cyrus finally turned to actually take me in for the first time today. Despite the pain I saw there, I also saw an unwavering trust--which he somehow gave to me despite the fact that I had yet to do anything to earn it. "Every two cuts."

I nodded in understanding.

He turned back and faster than expected in chainmail armor, he darted into the barricade of enemies and struck. Then struck again.

I fired.

He fell prone as the apparition about to spoon itself around Cyrus’ body dissipated like fog in the wind before my arrow. Cyrus rolled up with a slash, another, then duplicated his fall as I shot again.

When none remained, he returned to his running and I followed.

Two more cuts and two arrows later, we found ourselves before a tower.

Although it clearly stood above the canopy of the trees, I had not seen it from the entrance to the grove and found it peculiar. Cyrus did not--and like the gate, tapped the entrance with the pommel of his blade and the door gave way.

Like the rock of the mountain, this tower was a powder-white and gray. The interior was additionally decorated with a glowing bluish and goldish stonework on the floor that wove an interlacing pattern around the main room. A staircase began at either side of the entry door--the left shallower than the right and leading to a set of doors directly before and above us. The right stairs wound continuously up the tower with a door punctuating each time it passed the eastmost and westmost points of the circle.

Cyrus sheathed his weapon and looked over his shoulder at me. "Nothing on the inside. You can relax."

I smirked at him, hopeful to lighten the mood. "But everything just seems to be so interesting with you. I can't wait for the next bit." I replaced my bow however on its hook and then removed my quiver and placed it at the foot of the right stairway. "Going up?"

He nodded and started up my correct guess--the right stairway. His hand touched the stonework on the wall and I saw a rune underneath his fingertips. It glowed faintly--blue and gold as well--and similar runes then began to glow along the staircase, illuminating our way.

Also as expected, he led me right up to the top of the tower--which must have stood at least fourteen levels high. Modest compared to many wizardry towers, but impressive to think of when comparing it to the three-to-five level high trees of the grove.

We exited at a door facing southward at the very top of the stairs and came to an observation balcony at the highest point of the tower before it simply rounded off as a ceiling above the central area. The sun was just now starting to warm the sky from indigo to the cool blue that always evoked the smell of morning dew and the soft chirping of birds to me. It was just enough to see the city by in a vague, blue-toned sort of way.

I looked to Cyrus and for just a fraction of a second he looked overwhelmed by the sight--a little boy lost amidst the responsibilities of a lord. I sighed.

He surprised me by asking, "What?"

Shaking my head, I just leaned forward against the railing and looked out over the city. "I sometimes forget that you're only eighteen. You sound, act, and appear older most of the time."

I felt his gaze on me. "I suppose the same could be said of you. Twenty-two, correct?"

"Yes."

Silence prevailed for a while and we both watched as the sky grew warmer and warmer, approaching the azure that would signify a new day. A cock began crooning off in the distance and he finally let pretenses fall and leaned on the railing next to me.

"She mentioned my father," he began, reluctant but clearly ready to get this off his chest. "Said that she was glad it did not work out between them. They once loved each other," he stated.

I tilted my head in acknowledgement. Not really important at the moment.

"She said that she was glad that...glad that I was there. Her last words were 'take care of my daughters.'"

I nodded. Astra and Luna had told me as much. He was still hiding something--which sounded a little disjointed...even for a dying woman. At least for a dying woman who seemed intent on leaving enchanted letters for her heirs.

"You saw her light die," I probed.

He finally turned to look at me carefully. "How do you know about that?"

I shook my head gently and gave him a wry look. "Cyrus, I come from the world's most ancient order. I recognize the signs."

Cyrus shook his head back at me. "I do not have any ancient lineage like that of the princesses."

"It might be old enough that records are lost or destroyed."

"This is one of the reasons I wanted to be a scholar," he muttered. "I do not think it is that. Neither does Astra or Luna. Darcia is one of the world's foremost minds on the topic and we've asked her of anything similar. She never heard of such a manifestation."

I shrugged. "Then something else. It doesn't really matter."

Sunlight was clearly beginning to peek out, although none reached us as the cliff of the mountain still shielded us and probably would continue to do so for another few hours. Cyrus looked down toward the treetops. "Yeah, I saw it flicker out."

And that was that. I knew he would not tell me yet about everything she said, but to admit that was probably hard enough. He probably had never said anything like that to anyone--just the thought was depressing enough, to see a soul actually leave the body.

I thought of the spectres and how he had seen them so clearly. It brought up the note I had made about his fight with the assassins.

"The mercenaries, in your report, you mentioned that they just lined up to fight you when you charged?"

He nodded immediately. His report dictated that upon the discovery of their base, the knights of Aerowlyn and the Twilight Knights had charged in on horseback. The mercenaries alerted to their presence had lined up to meet them in a counter-cavalry formation, despite having considerably fewer numbers. "It is one thing that has bothered me. For mercenaries, they seemed rather fanatical for their cause to be purely monetary. Not disciplined so much as...headstrong about it. From what I hear from other soldiers, mercenaries tend to cut and run at the sign of a situation that will not benefit them."

I thought about it. "And what did you see?"

He paused to think over his answer for a moment. "It...It's complicated. It was...well, okay, when you go outside at night, you can see all the stars clearly, correct? You see pinpoints of light that are clearly defined. Well, looking at them, it was more like looking at stars in a dream. When you dream about looking at the stars, you don't see the lights clearly defined; you feel the general status and existence of stars, but you do not actually recall identifying each one. I knew they were there. I knew what they were doing. But I never clearly saw them." He sighed. "I thought at the time it was just my inexperience with unknown quantities--first time leading a charge into enemies. And I...well, I was angry about her...her death."

Even I'm not exactly sure when my hand came out to take his--despite still being covered in a steel gauntlet. He seemed to appreciate the sentiment at least, his hand very carefully squeezing mine. "I'll make sure to look into their history." I squeezed back. "You can't blame yourself though. You had every reason to be angry."

He sighed again and stood up to full height. "I know. I'm not blaming myself, it's just that...." he thought over his words again, "I feel a bit disappointed. Frustrated, mostly."

I couldn't manage to clamp down on the snort that escaped me. "Welcome to adulthood. I maintain that people only develop the drive for intimacy at this age because they simply need to vent." Teasing, at this point, and his lip ends did quirk a bit at that, though clearly his mind was wrongly elsewhere than that of a normal young adult male. "Speaking of venting, do those things attack on the way back out?"

"Unfortunately, yes. They only just appeared this last age....I think it had to do with those lost to the war and then the sudden truce everything came upon....left the fallen uneasy." Explaining the Aerowlyn soldier garb.

"Fine then," I said. I started to rearm myself once we reached the foot of the stairs.

"I am surprised you have not asked about the tower," he said.

"I don't need any kind of explanation," I said. "It's the Tower of the Knight Crescent, the man who created the Heithai Valis."

He looked at me funny. "Most people do not even know its name."

I shrugged as we stepped out back into the grove. "Most people do not know the founder," I whispered, although he did not hear me over the sound of his blade being drawn and the banshee-like cry from an enemy spectre.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Day Go By


Upon returning to the palace I left a note for Jaya to take a look at some of the gear recovered from the mercenaries that had been responsible for the assassination. I told her to give me any kind of lead she could.

The remainder of the day was spent with Cyrus as he recounted the battle, briefly touched his father's death, and his chase with the actual assassin who had poisoned the Queen. Although vague about specific details of the latter two, he was opening up and that was a good sign. He did admit that although the man was armed, Cyrus had played a bit with him before cutting him down, and that it weighed on him enough that he never intended to do it again. Maybe a little afraid to admit that, he looked at me warily for a reaction, but I had simply shrugged.

"What's done is done." I'd looked him strait in the eye at that point. "You believed you had failed the Queen. You had just lost your father. Nobody can blame you for feeling vindictive."

He moved on from that, clearly with the desire to find a new topic of discussion. He told me about Luna giving him and Astra the letters from Stella and how Astra had yet to leave her room since then. They had spent most of that time together and he only just now was out and about to simply give her space. "She will be fine," he said, "My guess is tomorrow she will be ready to face everything like normal."

I reported Darman's activities--or lack thereof--to Cyrus and he nodded in acknowledgement. "I will speak with him in the next few days...I just want to be sure I will be completely fine when I do. No more retribution."

Fine and good to wait, although ultimately, the decision was not left to him.