Austeria was a vast empire, snuggled in the heart of the world, with great rolling green hills, drenched in the warm sunlight that bathed the land, as a loving mother might bathe her newborn child, and every feature of the landscape thrived as if Austeria was the Garden of Eden itself. But things were not well in the land, as the empire warred with its neighbor to the east, their opponents had shown that although their nation was smaller than the empire, their cunning and strategy proved that they would not be overcome easily. The spirit of the Austerian soldiers sagged, and a gloom descended upon the whole of the empire. Austeria it seemed, needed a hero.
Kellen was tired. His shoulders heaved as each ragged breath escaped his bruised and battered body. But he had done it. He had won. He looked down once, his gaze sweeping over the form of his unconscious foe, before deliberately stepping over the man, trying not to step in the quickly pooling blood beneath him. He walked to his chambers, leaving behind and awe-stuck crowd as he left in silence, with a burning in his wounds, but a greater blaze in his mind.
The knight thought as he walked. While it was still mock combat, the injuries both of the combatants sustained were all too real, Kellen reflected to himself. While the damage done to his own body was more than a few mere scratches, the damages done to Tright, his opponent, were much more serious. The man would be bed-ridden for months, and would most likely be left with a nasty limp at least.
His melancholy brooding was abruptly ended however, when he rounded another corner in the cold stone hall, and found a hooded figure leaning against his dimly lit doorway. The figure stirred, and the faint outline of the body beneath the cloak allowed for no mystery as to the gender of the person that now made their way towards the powerful knight. The woman revealed herself to Kellen, and he found himself only half surprised to find Areyen waiting for him. Wordlessly the beautiful woman placed her hand upon warrior's huge arm, tracing her way tenderly down his broad shoulders and chest, letting her fingers delight as they played their way down his chiseled stomach, and coming to rest on the revolver and falcata in her would-be lovers belt.
"You've been playing with your toys again," the raven haired girl murmured, as her ample chest heaved from the lack of breath Kellen always seemed to bring about in her.
"It is not play, woman." The knight responded to the infamous seductress of the castle, whose attention he seemed to have unwillingly captured, "what I do and how I train is for the glory of the empire, so that it may benefit from my strength in battle, when I am finally sent to the front." He swept passed Areyen, and once again made for his chambers, just through the doorway. She neglected to respond immediately, as she considered the simple words of the man that continued to reject her increasingly more obvious advances.
"And what will your little bitch do, the one that clings to you in the depths of the night, when her savior is no longer here to protect her from the oh-so cruel realities of life in this castle?" the woman asked, knowing full well that the fate of Kate, and all the others in the castle, rested in her hands, because of the influence she had with the Master of the keep, who so was carefully wound around her finger. Kellen stopped, knowing in truth the influence the woman had in the castle, before proceeding through the weathered doorway, feeling as if the troubles of the world lay squarely on his shoulders.
Kellen sat down in his favorite chair, and gazed out of the wide window in his chambers, looking at the vast world that lay beyond his own dreary castle walls. He watched the beautiful colors of the setting sun pierce the sky, and as he observed the oncoming night, he knew that Kate would join him before long. As if summoned by his very thoughts, the knight heard a soft tapping at his bedroom door. He stood, and hastened to answer the door, when it flew open and a small figure wrapped itself in the knight's warm embrace. Kate pulled away momentarily, before bestowing kiss after kiss upon her love, acting as if she had been apart from Kellen for weeks, not the paltry few hours it had been since she last saw him.
"I was so worried!" Kate sobbed, as a few glistening tears began to roll freely down her face, "you know much I hate it when you participate in those dreadful trials, I saw what Tright looked like, and I feared that you might be the same or even worse!" And with this, she buried her head in his chest, her silent crying wracking her whole body, as she shook in the great knight's arms. Kellen felt a twinge of guilt, for he knew that Tright was Kate's own brother, whom she loved almost as dearly as Kellen himself.
"Despair not, sweet love" the knight said, as he guided the still crying Kate to his bed, "you know that no one in this castle can put me in any real danger, the only reason I was forced to hurt your brother so is because he refused to yield in combat. His pride is a far greater danger to his health than any bullet or cut from me."
Kellen's conscience reprimanded him at this half truth, for while Tright may not have yielded, the ancient blood that pulsed through the strong warriors veins caused Kellen to pay no mind to whether or not he hurt or even killed his opponent in the heat of battle. Kate's sadness eventually subsided, and very different emotions began to form, and as she pictured the knights' powerful body struggling in the mock combat, it caused a new stirring of passion in the young maids' body. Kellen found himself being guided by firm hands to lay back upon the bed, and as night swiftly descended upon the castle, so did the willing maid, upon the waiting champion beneath her.
Day broke through the window in Kellen's chambers, and bright sunlight washed over the young sleeping couple. Just as the suns rays seemed to be considering them, by not crossing over their eyes and waking the lovers, so did the master of the keep consider them, high above in his lofty tower, coolly gazing at the same sun that did so warm Kellen's bed below. Orin was by nature a warm and kindly master, but as of late his subjects noticed a distinct hardening in the mans heart, a powerful cold that gripped at Orin as if the frigid Austerian Winter was already upon him.
Few people really knew what was gripping their leader; they did not know what power a certain cruel seductress had over Orin. Day by day, little by little, Areyen was taking control at castle Deep. Orin looked over at the countless scrolls littering his desk, all asking for his support, for his best warrior to be sent to the front, and wondered why he was so loathe to send Kellen into battle. As quickly as Areyens' honeyed words poured into Orin's ears, asking for Kellen's continued presence at castle Deep, they disappeared again when he tried to recall who said them. With this simple effort, Areyen managed to keep Kellen trapped in the castle, for as long as it took get what she truly desired from the knight, whose companionship she so longed for.
Kellen rose from bed groggily, his years of training prevented him from sleeping very much past sunrise. Kate stirred in his bed, but did not wake, content to remain in whatever dream was occurring while she slumbered. The knight put on a pair of short fitting trousers and an open, loose fitting tunic. Over his tunic Kellen put on a pair of stiff leather arm guards and gloves, and then proceeded out to the courtyard with his silver revolver and falcata in hand, placing a soft kiss on Kate's pale forehead before he left.