Chapter 3: The Turned Knight

"I thank you for coming, both of you," King Cornelia began. "White Mage, you may not know this, but my eldest daughter, Sarah, has been captured by a treacherous knight by the name of Garland." He pointed his scepter to Gordon. "You are his brother. Have you noticed any oddities in his behavior before now?"

"N-No, sire!" Gordon answered. "I was just as ignorant as anyone else! I don't know why he took Princess Sarah." A look of concern flashed across the youth's face. "He hasn't done anything to her, has he?"

"Our men returned from pursuing him with this," the chancellor said as he held up Sarah's tiara. "Garland also told them his condition for the princess' safe return."

"Does he want money?" Arin asked. "What could he gain from abducting royalty?"

"He wants my position," the king answered. "He told my soldiers that he would not release my daughter unless I abdicate the throne to him. Even now, he is at the old shrine in the north, awaiting my answer."

"We need not deal with that criminal," the chancellor added, "but as it stands, none of us are a match for him, and as long as the princess is in danger, we can't send an army at him."

"You need people who can both get close to him and stand against him in a fight," Arin reasoned. "Is that why you sought for us?"

"Indeed," the king replied. "I have been told that the two of you have crystals. Is this true?"

"It is." Arin took his green crystal out of his robe and presented it to the king.

"I have one too." Gordon pulled his yellow crystal out of his pocket and showed it off.

"Sire, you can't be serious. One of them is a stranger, and the other is Garland's brother! We can't trust them. Besides, those crystals may just be forgeries." The chancellor glared at Gordon periodically as he spoke.

"But who else can we turn to?" the king asked. "You two, bearers of the crystals; as King of Cornelia- no- as a worried father, I beg of you to help my daughter return home safely."

"We'll do it!" Gordon answered quickly. "I can sneak into the shrine and try to talk sense into my brother."

"I do not think it would be wise to send us, sire," Arin interjected. "Our mission is of the utmost importance, and there are those suffering at the hands of the Fiends even now."

"Wait," Gordon said as he turned to Arin. "Are you refusing His Majesty the king? If something happens to Sa- to the princess..."

"Will the earth cease to rot if we go? Will the destruction of the world pause for us?" Arin asked, ignoring Gordon's aggravation. "No. My duty as a Warrior of Light is clear. I cannot waste time on other concerns."

For a time, the room was silent. The pause was broken by Gordon, who uttered a question in response. "What point is there to saving the world if you are the only person left to live in it?" Without waiting for an answer, he returned his attention to the king. "As I said, I will go to the northern shrine and attempt to negotiate with Garland."

"And if he won't listen?" the chancellor spoke up. "Will you have the resolve to raise a weapon against him?"

"I will do what must be done," Gordon answered. He looked at Arin and shook his head in disgust. "Some Warrior of Light you are." The thief stormed out the door and left to pursue the turned knight.

"Garland, please don't do this!" Sarah pleaded, her hands bound behind her by a sturdy rope. "You can still atone for this." By her side was the Cornelian heirloom, a beautiful lute that was said to have a mysterious power. As fear started to claim her, the touch of the instrument brought a sense of calm that kept her spirits up.

"It's too late, Princess," Garland grunted, keeping himself away from the black orb in the center of the shrine. "What's done is done. When this is over, I will be either a king or a corpse." The knight put a hand on his helmet and groaned, as if in pain. "I will give them a week to respond to my demand. If they do not answer, or if they send another band of rabble, I will have to prove how serious the matter has become."

"Garland, this isn't you," Princess Sarah said as she reached for her lute. "Don't you remember your brother? What will Gordon have to say about this? You know it's wrong."

"It must be done!" Garland shouted, driving back Sarah's pleas. "It-It must. You'll see that this is for the best." Garland glanced out the window towards Cornelia. "It's for the best."

"Please reconsider," a Cornelian soldier asked Arin as he left the king's chamber. "We understand the world needs you, but our princess means the world to us."

"That may be, but the Fiends are capable of tragedies far greater than this in much less time," Arin replied solemnly. As the white mage began to leave, he felt a light tug on his robe. "Hey!" He turned to find a little girl, her hands grasping his robe. Tears were streaming down her face. "Can I help you, little one?"

"Please! My s-s-sister! I want my sister!" the girl cried. Suddenly, memories of the mage's own family flooded his mind, family he knew was long gone.

"That's enough," a nearby guard said as he parted the two. "This traveler has made his position clear."

"Actually," Arin interjected, against his own judgment. "I would like to hear a bit more about the situation."

"Y-You would?" Both the guard and the little princess almost leaped for joy. "The queen is in that room there. She can explain, if she would see you."

"I see." Arin cautiously walked to the door and knocked. "Your Highness? I was told to speak to you concerning your daughter. May I enter?"

"Come in," came the reply. Arin entered the room and saw the condition of the queen. It might have been possible to call her beautiful once, but sorrow and worry quickly wore on the queen. "I'm sorry. I haven't been able to eat or sleep since my daughter..."

"The bond this family shares is strong," Arin noted. "It must be nice, at less trying times."

"What about you, sir mage?" the queen asked. "Do you have any loved ones?"

"No. Any I would have are surely deceased. All I have left is my mission." Arin paused for a moment. "That man, Gordon. Do you know much about him?"

"Yes," the queen answered. "He's a kind soul. He and Sarah grew up as close friends. When they were little, they- they-" The subject of Sarah made the queen fret again. "I'm sorry, when I think of her, I can't help but worry."

"I understand," Arin said as he took his leave of the queen. "Father. Arielle. Was that how you felt?" The pain of losing family seemed too familiar to the white mage; the more he learned, the less he could keep from getting involved.

"Tch. These wolves..." Gordon hissed as he tried to outrun the wild beasts. As a wolf drew near, he drew his rapier and stabbed at the animal, all the while maintaining his distance from the other wolves. He repeated his dash and slash tactic until only three remained. The wolves grew wise, however, and moved instead to block the man's escape. Gordon halted as the first wolf lunged forward.

"Protect!" a voice shouted. Almost instantly, a golden aura surrounded the thief, reducing the animal's bite into a minor scratch on the neck. As the wolf growled in shock and frustration, a wooden hammer struck the beast in the side, tossing it to the ground. "Are you alright?" Gordon caught a glimpse of his rescuer, the very same man he scorned earlier.

"I'll heal." The two healthy wolves circled the pair as the wounded wolf lunged for Arin. "Watch out!" One of the wolves dove at the thief, only to fall on his sword as he rose. He glanced back at the wounded wolf, unable to see the white mage. "Arin!"

"I am fine, Arin answered behind Gordon. "I had cast Blink before getting involved. The beast attacked a double." The two men charged at the injured wolf, finishing it off quickly with hammer and blade. The last wolf glared at the two, then fled to hunt another day. "We won!"

"I thought you said this was a waste of your time," Gordon grunted as he searched his bag for a potion.

"I was wrong," Arin replied abruptly. "I still believe that restoring the crystals is our most important duty, but that is not our only responsibility."

"Right," Gordon said as he surveyed the area. "We're almost there."

"At the shrine?" Arin asked.

"No, that's still a ways ahead. We're close to an old camp that we can use to rest in." The two heroes walked in silence until an opening in the forest came into view. There were a few tents and a fire pit in the clearing, almost waiting just for them. "It's still in good condition. I think we can rest here. The area near the shrine is dangerous, especially at night. Rumors abound among scouting parties that the living dead roam there."

"Living dead?" Arin repeated. "I see... Perhaps I should have learned the Dia spell before leaving Cornelia. It would have made dealing with the undead a bit easier."

"Oh, that reminds me," Gordon said as he gathered some wood for a fire. "I wanted to ask why you chose your particular profession. When most people think of white mages, their mental image is nothing like you. Are you some sort of convict trying to redeem himself? Maybe you have a family member suffering from some kind of sickness?"

"I am cursed," Arin answered plainly. "Without the protection of this robe, every breath I take poisons me."

"Whoa." Gordon recoiled in shock at the white mage's blunt answer. "So, you're dying? Wait. What if the robe gets torn up in a fight?"

"It has been magically altered to be indestructible," Arin replied. "So long as I wear it, I can breathe cleanly, though it also dampens my physical strength, so much so that I was nearly unable to walk when I first wore it." He picked up his hammer and swung it around a couple of times, quite visibly exerting himself in the process. "It took me several years of constant training to be able to use a weapon in battle, despite my weakness."

"That's intense." Gordon struck a flint stone to the wood pile until the sparks set. "I never was cut out for all that training. You, my brother, Pierre: I don't think I could handle half as much as you guys."

"I feared as much. That is why I decided to learn the Protect spell, since neither of us are durable in combat. I can only hope we will not need it for the ordeal to come."

"You mean when we face my brother?" Gordon didn't take his eyes off the fire he started. "If we can reason with him peacefully, then maybe the king will be lenient. But I just can't shake this feeling that something terrible is going to happen. That things will never be the same again."

"Gordon?" Arin thought it wise to steer the conversation away from the possibility of the thief being forced to fight his own brother. "I learned from the queen of Cornelia that you and the princess share a special bond."

"Sarah," Gordon sighed as he looked to the sky. "We were friends growing up. Close friends. But that was in the past. We're way too different now. I mean, she's royalty, and me? I'm just a guy whose talents include foul play, picking locks, and drawing hatred from half the kingdom. I-I don't really want to talk about it anymore." The two adventurers sat in silence until the flames began to wither and the heroes chose some vacant tents to use for the night.