"You going to keep that up all night? I'm sure whatever horrible thing that dummy said to you, it's got to have learned its lesson by now. Or are you waiting for a verbal apology? That might take a while."
"Knight-Captain Denam, ser."
The young man finally stopped his assault on the inanimate target he had been attacking for what had to be at least the last hour or two, judging by the color of the sky above. As far as he was aware, Kevlar, the young man, hadn't been assigned any shifts until later that night. So, either plans had changed and the Knight-Captain was coming to personally call him for an important task, or maybe Knight-Captain Denam was simply coming over to check up on Kevlar. The two were rather close- or at least as close to being like brothers as the Order would allow with its policy on fraternization.
"There I go with the joking again. I keep forgetting the Order doesn't have a sense of humor. Anyway, I was wondering how you've been, Kev. I haven't seen you around too much lately, and my duty as the new Knight-Captain keeps me away from checking in on you to stay on top of how you've been doing. I think it's intentional and they don't want us talking too much. Well, at least being Knight-Captain of Markham means I don't have to worry so much about our co-workers picking on me anymore. I hope they haven't been giving you trouble, either."
"No, ser." Kevlar responded shortly, fully aware that he was lying through his teeth while memories of jeers from the other templars in Markham echoed through his head. Still, Kevlar was fairly sure Knight-Captain Denam fully trusted him, always having been the believing-to-the-point-of-naivety sort, or at least for as long as the two had known each other. There was always the chance that he was wrong and Markham's Knight-Captain wasn't as easily fooled as he often seemed, but Kevlar had the distinct impression that Knight-Captain Denam had always believed Kevlar's words to the letter. It did, however, pain Kevlar to lie to his closest brother-in-arms, but the truth regarding the brutal mockery the other templars had recently given Kevlar for his so-called friendship with the Knight-Captain would surely be too much for the Knight-Captain to handle.
"I'm glad to hear that, Kevlar," the Knight-Captain responded in a greatly relieved tone that made Kevlar's heart sink. Still, the young templar told himself, his superior would be simply crushed if he knew about the insults the recruits had thrown Kevlar about the pair of them behind Knight-Captain Denam's back.
"Anyway, Knight-Commander Conroy wants to see us in his office in the next fifteen minutes. He told us to have a quick supper and then report to him directly after. It's probably got to do with the mage-templar tensions going on around Thedas. As much as I want to believe in the Chantry's goodwill, I've never really been too comfortable about how the mages get treated. I feel like they're not really all that different from all the other people in Thedas. I mean, I'm just as horrified as the next guy about the prospect of fires and abominations, but kicking people when they're already down? Sounds crazy coming from a templar, but I just don't know. Maybe it's for saying stuff like this that all the other templars hate me, I've never quite figured that one out past the fact I'm 'stupid' and 'weird'."
The Knight-Captain sighed heavily, stared down at the ground for a few moments, and then finally straightened up and gestured for Kevlar to follow.
"It's not just you, Kevlar. I've been up at night thinking about this whole thing, too. The tension's been mounting ever since that catastrophe we witnessed back at Kirkwall, and right now we're surely reaching a breaking point. At first I just mostly figured we were lucky to be alive and that we weren't in the right place for the Chantry to fall in on our heads. Now everything's crumbling around us again and I'm starting to wonder again if we're going to survive to the end of the week."
Kevlar nodded at the Knight-Captain over the duck wing on his plate. He had been losing rest over the impending conflict himself, though he was an expert at faking sound sleep.
"All this mage vs templar bullshit... I mean, I guess if we lived in a world where mages didn't have to worry about using magic for dangerous purposes I'd be out of a job and there's not really anything else I could really do for a living, but... I'm tired of all the conflict and hate. I had a dream again last night where I was a Seeker. I got all of the corrupt templars here punished for their actions, and then... I got kicked out of the Seekers, and ended up back here. It was mostly a nightmare after that. Or would that be a 'knightmare'? Anyway, I wonder what that meant. Well, other than that fade spirits were messing with me. Maybe I should stop drinking so much lyrium right before I go to bed. Helps me sleep, though."
Once again, Kevlar nodded his head politely, and continued on his dinner while his superior talked. Soon, however, a young templar scribe dashed into the room and over to where Denam and Kevlar were sitting.
"Knight-Captain Denam, ser! Knight-Commander Conroy wants you in his office right now. It's urgent, ser."
"I'll go now. Thanks for bringing the message, Scott. Let's go, Kevlar."
With that, Knight-Captain Denam and Kevlar abandoned their half-finished supper plates and began speed-walking out of the dining hall and towards the Knight-Commander's office.
Kevlar could feel the tension in the air as the pair of templars neared their superior's office. The mages standing in the hall looked highly apprehensive, and a few were talking to each other in hushed whispers. They stopped whatever discussion they were carrying on as The Knight-Captain and Kevlar walked by, though. The body language of the templars they passed looked even stiffer than usual, but it was impossible to tell their expressions due to the fact that they, like Denam and Kevlar, were currently wearing their helmets.
Soon enough, the two templars reached the Knight-Commander's office and entered. Knight-Commander Conroy was sitting at his desk looking thoroughly stressed out, with an elven communication stone lying on the surface in front of him.
"It's war. There isn't time to prepare the troops, some of the mages in this tower got word somehow around an hour ago, probably through some spirit in the fade. Our First Enchanter is to be locked up in the White Spire back in Orlais, and circle mages are soon to rebel all over Thedas. Right now, I think some of the mages are just waiting for the right-"
Before the Knight-Commander could continue, a loud explosion sounded from the floor below.
"That's our signal. Be careful with that key, Denam- I know you have a habit of getting reckless under pressure. If I get taken down, you're going to be the only thing in-between our mages and the phylactery chamber."
Since Markham's First Enchanter had gone to Val Royeaux for a peace talk, Knight-Captain Denam had been tasked with keeping the phylactery chamber's second key. This meant that if both the Knight-Commander and Knight-Captain went down in the fight, the mages would be free to destroy their phylacteries. If that happened, it would be impossible to track them down, and make it easier for the apostates to harm others without worrying about answering for their actions or being re-captured.
"Ser," both Kevlar and the Knight-Captain answered at once before heading out the door with the Knight-Commander and towards the mage-templar clash that was now taking place in Markham's Circle of Magi building.
"You know what, Kevlar? I'm actually feeling pretty good right now. I feel like we were chosen for something, and this is just the beginning of our calling. It's weird, I didn't feel this way until now."
The young templar nodded at the Knight-Captain's words, feeling the same way. Somehow, somewhere, Kevlar had a strong feeling that the Maker Himself was smiling upon the both of them.
"May the Maker watch over us." Kevlar stated.
"I think he is, Kevlar," Denam responded.
"May He watch over you both. I'll wait up here for a short while to let the two of you charge in first. If we enter the fray as a group, we're too much of a target" The Knight-Commander let Denam and Kevlar go ahead of him and towards what Kevlar was sure had to be their destiny.
That ends chapter 1, next chapter we get into some fighting and intense scenes. Chapter 2 will be told from the perspective of a mage from the Markham circle, because I didn't want this to be just templar views, even if the templar perspectives in this story don't exactly convey a pro-Chantry opinion what with most of the other templars being jerks to Kevlar and Denam.
You'll like Megan. I mean, I really like Megan, and I hope you guys will, too.