The "Family"
A sharp rap on the lavatory door broke my train of thought and brought an end to the tennis match of ideas between Sun and Judgment.
Sun stood up and beamed. I glanced at Judgment who was looking at Sun curiously which suggested that it was the bright-eyed bastard who had arranged for an interruption. Sun almost skipped to the door and said, "Twelve heads are better than three, right?"
The two of us stared at him darkly. He cheerfully opened the door and let the rest of our colleges file in. Judging from Judgment's demeanor, I suspected that he also hadn't heard of this arrangement. Just as it was impolite for Aalekzander Frost, Erastos Metal, Kleitos Stone, and Esteve Moon to go over Judgment's head to receive orders; it was very rude of Sun to call them in to a meeting without going to Judgment first. However, given the circumstances everyone was obliged to ignore that tiny detail. I could see that the slight had gotten under Judgment's skin a little, though.
Lonzo Earth, Adelmar Leaf, Niels Cloud, Benedict Storm, Lucan Blaze also filed in. Everyone who didn't already have a stool sat on the floor in a circle.
I only half listened to Sun fill in the rest of the Holy Knights on the grave matter at hand. I wasn't feeling particularly inspired since it would be sometime before new information could be gathered from my various agents. Contrary to popular portrayals of spy work, I spent quite a bit of my time just waiting for something to happen. To keep myself from going crazy I would drill with my platoon between reviewing all of the data again looking for something we could have missed.
I'd always been under the impression that the main reason most of my colleges had signed up to be knights was so that they could drop their very odd first names. The most obvious case was Theologian. Sun had not only adopted Sun as his surname, but dropped more than half of the letters in his first name. Since then he has been called Theo Sun. I agreed that it was an improvement.
My first assignment as a Hell Knight in training had been to compile intelligence reports on each of my fellow knights and look for anything habits or history that could be "problematic" in the future. I enviously noted that Theologian had probably gotten his name from a quaint little woman who had already settled down into the quaint village life style. Any dreams she had of seeing the big city and living her dreams had to be passed on to her child, hence the name.
After I finished the report I had to scrap it entirely because even in my ten year old mind I had already deduced that using the word "quaint" five times in a report wasn't acceptable.
I had resigned myself to my fate of reviewing and re-reviewing reports when I hear Sun say the words:
"…and so it is Sun's deepest hope that Sun's fellow knight brothers can shed some light on a solution to the problem at hand." (Blah blah blah, was my mental translation) "...Oh, and Hell's a girl."
...Wait. What did he just say?
"That's not a nice thing to say, Sun." Leaf admonished after a brief moment of unanimous silence.
"Yeah," Storm agreed. "You don't like it when somebody calls you effeminate."
"Actually," Earth, aka 'Sun's designated translator', spoke his words very slowly. "I don't think he was joking about that."
Eleven pairs of eyes all suddenly turned to look at me, my chest, and finally my fist that I had firmly clasped onto my sword. The unspoken words, "Oh really? Want to test it?" were written in every line of my body. Several unsure glances danced between being directed at me (or rather my sword) and then back at our fearless (swordless) leader. I was trying hard to remember if my teacher had taught me any assassination techniques that would work in a room full of Holy Knights. Sadly he had neglected that part of my education.
Frost broke the stalemate. "Give it up, Glo." He said casually. "They were bound to find out eventually."
"Yes, but I was hoping to save it for a surprise party or something," I grumbled sarcastically. Having nothing else to do I lowered my mask and crossed my arms irritably.
"It's true?!" Blaze was already backing up towards the door. This was an understandable reaction from him because he had a "mild fear" of anything not of the male persuasion.
Everyone else looked understandably surprised (except for Frost and Judgment) and were trying to decide if there was anything particularly feminine about me or looking to see if I would suddenly undergo some kind of metamorphous. Sun appeared wickedly entertained by the whole fiasco.
"How did you find out, Frost?" Stone asked when he had decided that I wasn't going to do anything out of the ordinary.
"Did you accidentally walk in on her in the bath or something?" Storm asked curiously optimistic.
"I doubt he'd still be alive if he did," Moon whispered quietly and the rest of the "cold-hearted" fraction nodded.
"Hardly," I scoffed.
"Is there a point to all this?" Judgment interrupted and everyone thankfully went silent.
"Sun hoped-" Sun began to say but was cut off.
"In plain speak please," Judgment ordered.
Sun shrugged, "Does it change anything?"
"No."
"Then I don't see why it needs to be a secret," Sun declared. "We've enough problems as it is and I expect a certain level of trust from everybody."
This was met with mutual agreement. I suddenly realized some tension had actually been lifted from my demeanor. This meant I didn't have to creep around the temple anymore. Sun was indeed a sneaky bastard, but I began to feel some appreciation for it. Fortunately the feeling didn't last long.
"Hell, Frost, "Sun ordered. "I believe we'll be relying on your expertise for this problem."
"History might yield something useful," I admitted.
Frost agreed and suggested, "I suggest we take a nationalist's approach."
"Ah! Of course!" I grinned. I could always count on Kal- I mean Knight-Captain Frost. "Nationalism will cut down on foreign imports and it'll be easier to manipulate parliament-"
"I could whip up a little propaganda," Frost whistled a sample tune and I clapped enthusiastically.
"I'll have my agents disburse any songs you come up with." I realized everyone was staring at us. "What is it now?"
"Frost," Metal asked calmly. "You… sing?"
"No, I collect ballads to watch them collect dust." Frost replied strait faced. "Of course I sing."
"Does anybody else have anything else shocking they want to come out about?"Storm asked lazily.
"I, um, also sing." Cloud said quietly. "Not very good though."
"At least you have the technique down," Frost complemented. "Most people just open their mouths and hope sound comes out."
"I knit," someone else confessed in a bored tone.
"I collect stamps."
"Oh, well then I-"
"We already know about your habits Storm," Someone else interrupted. Storm lowered his hand.
Judgment had given up on maintaining any kind of order to the meeting at all and settled for giving us unsavory stares. Frost promised to give a formal demonstration later in a private spot because the last thing we needed was word getting out that we were a generation of musical knights.
The planning process proved to be very productive. It would take a lot of hard work, but the overall outcome would greatly benefit the church. That was our ultimate goal after all. My part of the plan was "just a mite dangerous" which why Sun had insisted on providing me with back up.
"If I wanted to," I warned my cloaked companion. "I could lose you in the crowd and you wouldn't be the wiser."
"Do it and I'll see that they dock your pay for a month." my companion replied unperturbed. "You could have brought someone from your own platoon."
I wisely chose to remain with silent in response. I was in enough trouble already mixing my work with "personal business". Even if the Knight-Captains knew about my secret that didn't mean my men needed to be privy to it or my history with the the Court of Miracles. To make my life easier I had ensured from the very beginning that my platoon could run itself if need be and we used codes to keep speech to a minimum. Although my men were skillful with the quill, they weren't shy with a sword either. Six of the Temple's best swordsmen were mine, but all of my men were quick and quiet as church mice.
Plainly speaking, due to its long and enduring history, the Church of the God of Light was in no danger of going extinct anytime soon, but it wasn't a good fit for everyone. One of our minor downfalls was the amount of prestige associated with the Temple. Everyone put on their best clothes before attending and tried to appear noble even though the actual nobles only attended once or twice a year. Even the Twelve Holy Knights were house hold names. There was something prestigious about just breathing the same air as one of the twelve. If we wanted to gain an edge in our current problem we will need to win the support of those who wouldn't be caught dead setting foot in the temple.
It's a little embarrassing to say, but I'm a bit of a black sheep in my family. I reflected.
"What sort of person is this 'king'?" my companion whispered as we crossed deeper into the slums.
"You don't have to whisper," I told him. There was something about two shady looking cloaked figures that made pedestrians keep their distance.
I thought for a moment before saying, "I'm not sure actually."
"What do you mean you don't know?" My companion began to fuss. "Aren't you supposed to know everything?"
"Well, I only just met his predecessor the other day," I growled. "That's all I have to go on."
"Your uncle?!"
"It was a very short reign," I admitted. "The king before him lasted something like fourteen years."
I was very grateful that my companion had decided to shut his trap and stew for a bit. I wasn't sure how to feel about the whole matter myself.
My parents were still alive and to the best of my knowledge most of my siblings were also still alive. However, they were no longer living in the capital. Last I heard my family had moved to Kissinger to be closer to my mother's extended family shortly after I was knighted. While I was a spy in service to the church I wasn't allowed to have any weaknesses that would compromise my ability to do my duty. As a result I had cut off all contact with my relatives. It was by chance that I heard about my uncle. I asked my agents to find a suitable test subject, but by the time I realized the drugs' effects it was too late to save him. Providing financial compensation was the only thing I could do.
"Request'n te spake in yer majesty's comp'ny," I said somewhat tartly to the 'king's guard'. A group of fake-bandaged, soot covered kids pointed the way to an abandoned building. The building looked like it had been burned several years prior and the occupants had decided to move rather than rebuild. Considering the neighborhood I didn't blame them.
"Remember to be polite," I warned my companion.
"I'm always polite," my companion hissed back.
The black hallway opened to a brightly lit room with no roof. The noon sun shined down on colorful rugs and blankets that served in a childish attempt to make the room look grand. If one used their imagination to picture the room without the dirt and soot it would have made a very elegant royal hall. Given the choice between having to be in real royal company and the company at hand I would have to say I preferred neither. The royal court had stuffy nobles prancing around like pheasants. The Court of Miracles had stuffed pheasants prancing around as if they had quite forgotten that they were dead.
The look on my companion's face was priceless.
The skeletons of cats chasing the dead birds made the entire hall laugh with dark merriment. The older children clapped their hands and sang old rebels from the time of the revolution while their young charges danced and twirled. A few of the youngsters were getting dressed up in red bandages to go back and beg money on the streets. When the children were too old to get decent coin they switched from begging to playing music and vying for money in other ways.
"Catchy tune," my companion commented as a coping method while he processed the scene.
The room must have been especially horrific for him. I ignored the mess of animated corpses and children and scanned for anything that could give me a hint. According to my sources the most recent king liked to be surrounded by children. That made sense once I realized who I was looking for. Near the center of the room the only living animal, a gray cat, was demanding the attention of a person sitting on pile of collapsed wall.
I marched forward and reached out an inviting hand to the cat. The beast instantly rolled on its backside and began mutilating my arm with its claws as I played with its soft belly fur. Once I was tired of that I began massaging the cat's spine. I had been taught the technique by a snake charmer, actually. The poor creature stretched out and looked distressed by the amount of pleasure it was receiving from a human. It decided to take out its frustration on its owner's shoe.
"That's a neat trick!" the girl exclaimed and the cat fled.
"Beggin' yer pardon-" I began.
"I can speak properly, same as you," the girl scoffed. "Or are you allowed to talk like that at home?"
"Are you Gianne?" I lowered my mask. Looking suggestively at the zombie animals I commented lightly, "You've got some pretty neat tricks yourself."
The girl grinned and nodded. Gianne was my sixteen year old cousin. Her hair was much redder than mine and her delicate skin was almost bone white. I could tell that her light colored eyes were partly blinded by the sun light so I moved over to a shady spot.
Gianne's linage was the same as mine; a few notable sailors, one or two knights thrown in and a long, long ancestry tracing back to a bastard of Kissinger nobility. In every generation of our family someone was born the natural knack for manipulating the dark element. In my father's generation is was my uncle who had the gift. He never used it for anything more than making animal puppets for his children to play with so I wondered if Gianne was this generation's ace.
"Still trying your hand at being a cleric?" Gianne asked spiritedly.
"I'm a knight." I replied coldly.
"Sad waste if you ask me," Gianne smirked. "Your father must be proud."
I said nothing and my companion conspicuously cleared his throat.
Gianne looked up. "Who's your friend? He's all bright and shiny."
"A cleric." I lied.
If she could sense his holy light then she wasn't a raw beginner in the dark arts. I quickly introduced Gianne to my companion as the king of the Court of Miracles. Gianne tilted her head and tapped her chin mischievously as I explained what we wanted. She agreed to help out cause, not because the toxic combination had killed her father, but because the opium/nightshade mix "didn't leave pretty corpses." I could sense that my companion was becoming anxious. Since we had gotten verbal confirmation of the court's cooperation I politely bid farewell before an interdisciplinary incident broke out.
Gianne called out just as we returned to the hallway, "Oh, but there is one other thing..."
I turned around very cautiously, "Yes?"
My cousin crossed her arms and legs looking very displeased. If I could sense the dark element, I imagine I would have seen it gather all around her body because she had a very ominous look about her.
"What's this I hear about you promising your afterlife to another necromancer?" Gianne demanded.
There was some unexpected cloud cover blocking out the sun and the floor tiles began to shake and buckle. I resisted the urge to take a step backwards. All the other children in the room instantly stopped playing and scattered.
"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about," I told her and reached down for my sword. Not that my skills would do much good.
I'm a holy knight. I'm a holy knight. I had to reassure myself.
"Liar!" my blood relation accused.
Gianne's voice went from youthful to hypnotic muttering as she began using her necromantic ability. Most people associate necromancy with armies of undead creatures burning cities and evil wizards tying to turn the whole world into one big graveyard. I was worried my cloaked companion also believed this and moved to shield him from doing anything that would complicate the situation. There was an eerie feel about the room, but we were in no danger.
Real necromancy is used for divination. It had several practical applications, like having victims solve their own murders for example. Gianne's specialty, I suspected, was calling on the souls of our dearly departed relations to gain insight into what is, was, and what could be. Our great-grandmother was rumored to be particularly skilled in this. If you ever visit an old woman in an incense filled tent looking into a glass ball- well first of all it's clearly a sham, but it's a diluted copy of what my family has done since generations long forgotten.
"We know," Gianne spoke not with one voice, but many. "You gambled with your soul!"
"I'm a holy knight," I told her sternly. "My fate belongs to the God of Light."
My companion gripped my arm and hissed, "What's going on?"
"Um, well, I come from a long line of necromancers." I confessed. "I suspect my great-grandmother is a little upset about my choice of occupation."
"Don't make me call her," Gianne threatened. "Promise me that your soul belongs to the family!"
"I think I'll keep it, thanks." I smiled brightly. "I know you're the new matriarch and everything, but feel free to disown me."
Much to my surprise Gianne's face began turning red with pent up rage.
"Idiot!" She pointed at me and shouted, "The one with all the talent is you!"
"Huh?"
"I can only talk to ghosts, but you!" She screamed at me. "Y-You can control the undead! And without even trying?! How dare you become a holy knight! The one who should have become the matriarch was you!"
"EHHH?!"
I'm a necromancer? This was news to me. I had never casted necromancy. I had never even thought about necromancy as anything more than fantasy. I made it a point not to associate with my necromantically inclined family and even if I had a latent talent as a child the chances of me retaining those abilities as an adult (especially after years of training to be a holy knight) didn't seem plausible. I was probably be the last person anyone wanted to confer with about magic and yet I found the idea to be utterly preposterous. Remembering there was nothing that could have supported my cousin's claim I looked helplessly at companion and then tried to pacify the raging girl.
"Gianne," I asked calmly. "Are you sure you aren't mistaken? The last time we met, you were just a baby."
Gianne shook her head. "But I saw you! Daddy didn't believe me because you looked like a knight."
But I am a knight.
"And you were with several other knights-" Gianne insisted, "But I saw it!"
My companion drew back his hood. The simple effect of sunlight reflecting of his long golden hair was enough to shock Gianne and make her stop fussing. She openly stared at Sun with the exact expression I had worn when I met his processor for the first time. The room even stopped trembling with him lifting a finger.
And Gianne thinks I'm the one with talent, I thought enviously. I was just grateful that, even though I was technically the "weakest", I was still a holy knight.
"Little sister," Sun began to say and I braced for the blitz of vernacular that was doomed to follow.
"Sun does not believe such a person as yourself would lie in the face of your long lost relative whom you had not met in quite some time. The God of Light has allowed for this fortuitous meeting to occur under his watch so Sun believes you carry a very important message for you precious older cousin. Sun knows your cousin, who is Sun's near dear companion by the will of the God of Light, is a very chivalrous and serious person and does not doubt your story, but is merely confused by the context to which you refer. Perhaps you could start your story from the beginning and with the aid of the God of Light we might be able to have the truth illuminated."
Sun smiled at her and I could picture an display of ?'s circling around Gianne's head.
"A-are you…asking me to…calm down?" Gianne trailed off.
Sun nodded although the one he had really wanted to calm down was me.
"Okay, just don't mention the God of Light again." She then added quietly, "Please?"
The terms were accepted so Gianne explained that quite some time ago, years in fact, there had been a disturbance near the downtown outskirts. Since the disturbance was related to necromancy she went to observe out of curiosity. Much to her surprise she found a group of holy knights trying to subdue an undead creature. This wasn't terribly unusual, but it was strictly regulated to certain times of the year. As far as the citizens knew the powers of chaos and darkness spiked on certain days and it wasn't unusual for an undead creature to sneak in. What they didn't know was that the church actually requested these creatures for "training exercises".
"What were you thinking running around in the middle the night?" I scolded. "You're a girl!"
"You're a girl, too!" Gianne stuck out her tongue.
"The story?" Sun smoothly brought us back on track.
"Oh right." Gianne explained that she had come to the conclusion that the creature had been summoned by a high level necromancer, but no one in the family had that level of ability. As far as she knew, no one other than "the family" (our blood relations and gang leaders) openly used necromancy in the capital. The family, however, only used necromancy for divination.
"Not even Gloria can summon a creature of that size," Gianne nodded affirmatively. "Not without practice anyway-"
"I can't summon at all!"
Gianne ignored my protests, "But she can still boss them about. It's not fair!"
"How?"Sun asked and I could mentally picture his eyes narrowing.
I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but I wanted to hurry up and leave. The obvious conclusion was Gianne wasn't getting the message that I was a holy knight. I didn't use necromancy in any capacity. There was another necromancer in town that she was too weak to detect, but because she was a child she could only assume it was me. I was fairly certain that the "other necromancer" probably wouldn't be detected my ancestors' ghosts either.
Gianne pointed to her temple. "She controls them with her thoughts. All she has to do is think at it and the creature will do watch she wants. I mean how fair is that?"
"I still don't see-" My denial was cut short.
Gianne interrupted and pointed at me accusingly, "You're shameless! After you were cut off from the other knights you still had a good lead on it even with that useless scrap of metal!"
Hey, I inherited that 'scrap of metal' from my teacher…
"Why did you have to go and tell the stupid thing 'kill me'?!" Gianne asked irritably.
"Could it be," Sun asked coolly. "That our very brave and brash Hell Knight was taunting the creature because she was full of faith that with the protection of the God of Light that she and her companions would have surely succeeded against such an unnatural and vile creature?"
What he really meant was something along the lines of: "I don't recall you ever helping with the dispatch of an undead creature."
And then he realized it. The one and only time I had.
And we all felt a sudden chill.