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All right. I suppose it's about time I started thinking about writing again. I'm just a little uncertain about this chapter. Thanks for all the help on eye colors, by the way. Enlightened me a lot on many things.
I know that Borus' punishment might have been a little too much, but it had to happen. For one thing, it would finally get the story moving. Borus has to leave Vinay del Zexay. How else will there be a happy ending?
For another, who wouldn't be angry if someone chased Percival off? Normally, it would be a milder punishment, yes, but you can say that the new Council members are iffy about their position, and empty between the ears where it counts in the usual politician way. (The environment, damn it! THE ENVIRONMENT!!!)
Whatever. Just make up your own excuse. Fate, lack of sleep, bad morning attitude, Percy owed them mucho dinero, you name it. It happened, I uploaded, too lazy to change it and don't wanna.
This chapter begins the day after Borus leaves, which means, the next day. It also starts off with major conscience trouble—this chapter is in Chris' point of view (third person, of course). I don't know if it would be very funny. I mean, Chris has next to no humor, but then again, whatever sense of the ridiculous she possesses is definitely more than Borus', so things might work out.
It might be a little boring—it's mostly Chris' contemplation. But it sheds some light on things, and I think it's pretty fine to read, but I'm biased here. It's an important part of the story which would help make sense of things eventually.
If everything goes as planned. Which it normally doesn't.
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Taking a look around her, Chris saw that everyone was gathered in the spare room at the Guild Hall. Well, everyone but Percival and Borus.
Borus…no. She must not think of him. He was gone now, which was good.
Right?
Chris couldn't' help feeling uncertain. Borus couldn't have done anything like that. He was Percival's friend. But all the evidence pointed to him, especially with the revelation that he was in love with Chris.
Which she seriously doubted. There were many times where her fellow knights made such advances to her, but never Borus. Percival, the Goddess knew, flirted with her so continuously that it was practically a habit, one which both of them completely ignored and one which irritated all of the other knights. Not just Borus.
She didn't know what to think.
He was a friend. He saved all of their lives one time or another during their time, as they did his. He placed his life in their hands without a moment's worry, as they did his. He was their comrade during their schooling and training years, always the one they turned to for algebraic explanations (Salome was no good at algebra, but he excelled at nearly everything else). He was a fellow knight.
But he was a traitor. He broke the union which bonded the Six Knights together, a selfish fool only thinking of himself. How did they go back to trusting him, after what he had done in Karaya? He deserved to be sent away. If not for Percival's sake, then for those dead Karayans.
Of course, doubt niggled persistently in the back of her mind about that. He was not completely guilty of everything that had happened then.
His handsome face flashed again in her memory and she remembered that morning the day before.
'I do not know what is really going on,' Chris had said to him in a cold, cold voice. 'I do not know whether anyone's theory has any true ring to it as well.'
She could remember narrowing her eyes and setting her expression. Her eyes had grown flinty. 'But I know that I would be a fool to believe a liar.'
The instant those words had left her mouth, she felt hollow inside. Her eyes slid from his darkened ones in shame for a moment. She knew she had taken the spirit out of him. Whether he was in love with her or not, she knew that he was always zealously loyal to whoever bore the Captain's title. She had seen in before, before she had been given the Captain's title.
But even so, she had his trust and loyalty—now broken by her words, most likely.
Chris had forced her eyes back to his—and wished she hadn't.
Borus had always had remarkable eyes—at least, she had always thought so. They were a peculiarly fascinating shade of brown with a bit of honey in the mix. In a fight, his eyes turned an unnerving shade of golden amber, whether he was in battle fury or simply focusing on defeating his opponent. When he laughed, they were a warm light caramel color.
They were always so expressive—he wasn't very good at hiding his emotions, since they were usually rather too strong for him to even hold in. She never had minded before; it comforted her to be able to read the thoughts of one of her comrades.
Roland, as all who knew him knew, was as expressive as a brick. Salome wasn't as bad, but he came close. Percival was very expressive, certainly, but his eyes only showed what he wanted them to, which never really counted much, since everything that came from Percival was either meant in jest or sardonically infuriating mocking.
Now she wished that he had learned to better conceal the emotions from his eyes. Her words had affected him in far too many ways to count. His eyes told them all.
There was anger and sadness to their hurtful words. Pain and distress at their lack of faith and trust in him. Guilt and shame at the mention of Karaya. Confusion and grief at their anger and apparent hatred.
But worst of all was the betrayal lancing through all of it. At that moment, the doubt that had been nagging more persistently at the back of her head. She didn't truly believe that Borus had sent Percival away.
When Salome, Roland and Leo arrived at her manor that morning with news of Percival's exodus, she didn't understand why they were blaming Borus. Certainly, Percival and Borus always considered each other as rivals in sword and fighting technique, but most of the time, they were close friends, if not for their frequent arguments over the littlest things.
Occasionally, there would be typical, old-fashioned brawls between them, not infrequently induced by excessive amounts of alcohol, but they would eventually clear up and forgive each other for the things they had no memory of, their only evidence being the colored bruises and the sporadic lingering pain.
Thus deciding that the joyous occasion required a celebration, which included an evening of tavern carousing and, inevitably, more drink. After which, they would stagger to their separate homes to either brace themselves for the hangover in the morning or pass out immediately upon arrival.
Or, during the merrymaking, one would inadvertently make a comment about the other and receive a physical blow to a body part—the sensation amplified by too much drink—which would inevitably have to be avenged.
Thus repeating the cycle anew.
All throughout the whole of this, though, they would maintain a certain level of grudging respect for each other, never stooping to low blows (figurative ones, of course—in physical brawls, you take what opening you get) and always keeping their separate honors.
So Chris had understood nothing of their accusations that Borus had reason to drive Percival away. Maybe Percival just decided to go home. Borus couldn't have anything to do with that. Of course, he'd do his best to help his friend out.
Then they dropped the ton on her.
At first, she didn't react much. Fully half of the Knights of the Vinay del Zexay had professed their undying love for her in the past, other unarmored individuals doing the same at one time or another. Then, eventually, they'd get over it and find some other girl to woo, of course. It still hadn't settled in that Borus was in love with her.
And then it did and she was surprised. Of all the people in her acquaintance, she couldn't imagine Borus to be in love with her, surprisingly enough. Certainly, he was protective, but she always reasoned that it was because he seemed to consider her honor as important as his own—sometimes even more important, for some reason.
Maybe love was that reason.
As that occurred to her, a strange yet giddy feeling had shot through her. Borus was in love with her! Something about it felt right, she decided then. Always, she had a certain place in her heart for the Swordsman of Rage, first earned a long time ago, when they were still trainees.
Female knights weren't common back then and they still weren't, even now, although the number of little girls training to become knights had increased significantly.
Chris, back then, was frequently given a hard time, being one of the few female trainees working to become a Knight of Zexen. To make things worse, the news had gone around about how she completely messed up her manners lessons and choir practices, thus giving the rowdier boys more ammo to shoot her down.
Chris had few friends before she met her present companions. There was Trent, the boy who had earned the antagonism of all the other boys merely because he was—to put it mildly—vertically challenged and physically inadequate. She had the friendship of another lad who also gained the contempt of the others because he actually wanted to become a priest and made the mistake of telling them on his first day.
The other girl who had been training for Knighthood had been friendly to her, but she had become a squire to some knight, so they never had much time to associate with each other.
Chris was still a page back then. It was nearing the end of her first year in the Guild Hall and, despite all the jeering and occasional pranks bestowed upon her for being female, she had begun to hone her already exceptional sword skills after getting used to all the hard training. The sword court fascinated her, and she spent every minute of her free time sparring with anyone who wouldn't mind to be defeated by a mere slip of a girl.
That year, a group of squires from another chapter were visiting Vinay del Zexay. They didn't like the idea of a girl training to become one of the most respected positions in the society and had openly challenged her about it. She took up their challenge eventually, and easily defeated their chosen champions—all of them.
They liked her even less after that.
She had been going through her sword routine when the squires, who had been on a survival expedition for the past few months, arrived to continue their training. Since they had been away for quite some time, the squires were surprised to see a girl on the courts, training as vigorously—perhaps even more so—than the other lads aiming for Knighthood.
Now these squires were more open-minded than most, having visited the other Knight chapters of Highland and others and meeting several exemplary female warriors along the way. Striking up a conversation with Chris (albeit a wary one on her side), they agreed to test her skills with their own.
Chris' first opponent went down almost immediately. It had irritated her that they intended to go easy on her, sending the least trained squire against her. Likewise, the boy she had trounced had disliked her instantly and consequently became a rather irritating thorn in her side.
Startled at the sudden defeat of their first candidate, they brought out another one of their number to duel with her. After a minute or less of smooth parrying on her side, the lad was eating dust, glaring at her sullenly. The squires suddenly got serious. Maybe there was something to this girl.
Several fallen sparring partners and dirty looks later, Chris' priestly-ambitioned friend had then spoken rather extravagantly on Chris' abilities and told the squires that only their best could stand his ground against her for a few minutes.
Deciding to humor the boy, they called on Borus to spar with Chris, intending for him to put the girl in her place. Even as a young squire, Borus had already been one of the Knights' preeminent swordsmen.
The battle had taken quite a remarkable amount of time but soon ended with a draw. Surprisingly, and for the very first time, her defeated opponent neither chose to insult her or to undermine her abilities. Instead, Borus, who was in fact rather pleased with the outcome, had congratulated her, even going as far as to suggest a future rematch.
Eventually, the shock of seeing a first-year page draw out a long battle with an acknowledged swordsman squire wore off and the training court went back to normal, with pained grunts and flying swords (and occasionally bodies) everywhere.
Then the visiting squires, who had taken it upon themselves to let her know how little she was appreciated by them, surrounded her to enlighten her more on how they thought she would never make it and proceeded on in this thread, ergo infuriating the young page.
Of course, she could do nothing in retaliation, since they outnumbered her rather significantly, even with her excellent sword hand. The only thing she could do was stand there, gripping her sword so tightly that it dug imprints into her palm, and wait for them to finish insulting her in front of everyone so she could go away to plot her revenge.
Borus, however, had other ideas.
Percival had told her several months later that it surprised him that Borus had reacted at all.
For one thing, Borus never really noticed much about his fellow trainees. He wasn't a people person. He was pretty oblivious to everything whenever he was training. It was just him, the sword, and his foe. And it was rather humiliating to be defeated by a first-year page, no matter how good she was with the sword.
Certainly, Borus managed to have it at a draw, but the fact still stood that Chris was a superb swordsman (woman?) and single-handedly dispatched of opponents who had several more years of experience than she.
Also, these squires had come from a respectable chapter, and opposing them was strictly disapproved. So it was odd for Borus to demur them like that, since he had always followed his orders down to the letter, being as fastidious a knight as he was.
Out of battle, at least.
But anyway, Borus had reacted, darkly coming to her defense.
This infuriated the obnoxious squires, and the swords were in their hands before anyone else could shake off the surprise of Borus' speaking against them. Chris herself was dumbfounded, since she didn't expect anyone she sparred with to ever regard her with anything more than intense dislike.
Not that she had much time to fully comprehend what had happened, since things got nasty rather quickly.
The visiting squires had charged at her, swords raised, and she had to focus all of her concentration on fending off the raging trainees. She had a bit of trouble there, since, although she was more adept at wielding a blade, their physical strength surpassed hers. All she could rely on was speed.
Then Borus stepped in and began to methodically disarm and incapacitate the incensed foreigners, startling the young page. No one ever stepped up to defend her before.
Then Percival, being his usual animated self, decided to join in, dragging Leo and Salome along behind him.
And everyone else in the training yard, whether they liked Chris or not, eventually joined the battle, later excusing themselves by saying that they were merely defending the honor of a Zexen trainee, with no regard (or at least, not much) to what gender.
Of course, they all got into loads of trouble for the destruction of the training grounds pretty soon after that.
But that didn't really matter to them, because it somehow began the slow reconciliation of the future knights to the first female page to lay her enemies about her like wheat. Eventually, their relations cemented and she gained their trust and, most important of all, friendship.
All thanks to Borus.
So when they informed her that Borus' regard toward her may have been a bit more than what it seemed, for one peculiar moment, her pulse had gone off unevenly to the rhythm of her erratic heartbeat. Something inside her bubbled gleefully at the revelation, and for the first time since she had witnessed the death of her Karayan-disguised father, she was happy.
Of all the women Borus had fallen in love with—and make no mistake, many beautiful women had thrown themselves at him in the past only to be met with his profound confusion and, sometimes, even fear—he had fallen in love with her!
But her happiness lasted shortly, for reason in the form of her strategist told her that Borus indeed could have wanted Percival out of the way. She argued, even though it was clear that Borus was in the wrong, but in the end, an order was issued by the Council to bring the Knight in for questioning.
Thus it was that Chris came to meet with the profound betrayal in Borus' riveting eyes in Redrum manor.
She hated herself then, for crushing his spirit like that. She knew he took the Code very seriously, and this was a terrible thing to do to him, telling him that he basically didn't deserve to be a Knight. But it happened.
Seeing the expression in his eyes, she had begun to doubt that Borus could do such a thing at all. He was truly hurt, and seeing this, Chris began to falter. It was a good thing that Leo had stepped in at that moment. Figuratively, for speaking up and continuing the interrogation, and literally, blocking her view of Borus' pain.
Guilt.
During his trial, Borus had not looked at her once, but she had seen his internal struggle with himself. When the Council proclaimed his suspension, ending the trial, she saw that his expression had settled into an impenetrable mix of calm thoughtfulness and weary determination.
She didn't know what to think. Chris had expected Borus to be angry, to battle the Council with words and fury. But he simply sat there with a hollow sadness to his eyes as everyone accused him of driving his best friend away.
He's gone now.
Shaking her head, deciding to ignore the mixed feelings that accompanied the thought, she fixed her gaze on the Knights assembled in the room. Leo's face resembled a thundercloud—he and Percival were close friends.
She ignored the inner voice speaking inside her head that reminded her that they were close friends with Borus as well. Said inner voice told her to go jump in a lake.
Chris ignored that as well.
Salome's expression was unreadable, as well as Roland's (which was no surprise—Roland could face the end of the world without a single eye twitch).
Surprisingly, Louis' face was sad. His usual optimistic smile was gone. He had believed that Borus was innocent.
Well, she thought grimly. He was alone in that. No one else is willing to give Borus the benefit of a doubt.
'Not even you,' whispered her conscience. 'So much for the open-minded judgment of the Zexens' Commander.'
She blinked with surprise and anger but before she could retaliate against her sardonic inner voice, Salome queried: "So what is this about, Lady Chris? Why did you call this meeting?"
Chris decided to save the revenge on her conscience for later, answering, "I wanted to inform you that Borus has filed for his leave. He left early this morning."
Again, a hollow feeling inhabited her stomach at the thought. She pushed it aside.
"Good riddance to him," Leo grunted. "Here's to his never coming back." He raised his ever-present tankard half-heartedly. Louis' face tightening but he said nothing.
With some surprise, Chris noticed that doubt was flitting on the edges of Leo's countenance. Maybe his anger wasn't as real as he pretended. After all, she thought with hope rising inside her, Leo was fond of Borus as well.
Taking a quick look around at the faces of her companions, she noticed that there were faint flickerings of guilt on their faces that they were desperately trying to hide. The hope inside her grew.
Salome cleared his throat. "That may be cause for some celebration, but I doubt the Council would call the Captain in merely to tell her to start celebrating." He looked at Chris curiously. "Why did they call you in last evening? What are their orders?"
She answered, forcing a grin, "We're going to get Percival back."
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All right. I'm not too proud of this chapter either. I kinda got hasty toward the end of the chapter, since I keep feeling guilty about Borus. I want to skip ahead to the happy part. Silly, huh?
Well, I hope that people will still continue reading this. Everything turns out happy in the end. Even Percival gets his girl, but that's still a bit far off.
I like the part about Chris' early days. I don't know, it just seems fun to write about that. Maybe I will, but I'd prefer to be further along this story before starting any others.
I'm warning you now, all right? Borus is going to become something different on his journey. Nothing unusual or supernatural. He just takes something up on his travels.
A bit of insight on this chapter: Basically, Chris is having second thoughts about Borus' "crime", and is confused. Nothing new there, I think. The others don't exactly hate Borus; they're just mad for now. Guiltiness comes some time soon.
And so it starts.