Saints Cross

Darious dodged left and entered into a controlled roll ending with him on the balls of his feet ‘Wow, she’s fast and in full plate how does she do it!’. He readied himself for the next volley of blows, and his opponent didn’t disappoint as the lady they all called the “Angel Knight” quickly descended on him weaving her signature angel wing spear in intricate attack patterns. It was all he could do to keep the spear’ s wicked point from scoring a hit on him ‘Grrr dammit one hit and she will win this match and I’ll be her file second forever!’
“Come now Dare you can’t be tiring yet can you?” And sure enough his parry’s were coming slower and he was starting to feel the vibration of there exchange’s a bit more acutely.‘
Oh man she sense’s the kill dammit I’m done for, unless….’ At the last moment he feinted a forward stab and she fell for it moving the butt of her spear to parry the blow only to find that his sword wasn’t there. Quickly looking up she was able the see her demise coming as he leapt into the air spinning and delivering a downward angled slash at her head! With nowhere to go Angel cursed her carelessness as the blow connected with her helm a lot harder than either of them expected cleaving one of the wings cleanly from her helm.
“Enough!” That was the voice of Sky Marshall Galleon “Vorpal Knight Darious why are you and my daugh-, ahem, Angel Knight Chastity sparring without blade guards? I’ll have your rank for showing such recklessness!”
Chastity brought her hand up to head rubbing the spot where her missing wing use to be, “Father it was I who challenged Dare to this duel, I needed to know how I would fare against a naked blade and someone with the skill and guts to wield it against me. Dare’s the only one that doesn’t treat me like im the Sky Marshall’s daughter. Father I am a lieutenant in this realm’s defense and a knight in my own right!”
Darious scanned the ground with his eyes hoping to avoid the Marshall’s gaze. Eventually his eye’s fell on the severed wing from Chastity’s helm. He immediately glanced in Marshal Galleon’s direction to find that he too was looking at the piece of his beloved daughter’s helm lying on the practice floor. He then shot Darious a look that made his lunch turn to stone in his stomach.
Galleon held his hands out before himself in surrender, “Chastity dear, I’m merely trying to say that we can scarcely loose a knight of your caliber or Darious for that matter, especially on the eve of your first mission.”
Chastity’s eyes lit up, “Daddy, ahem, excuse me, Marshal a real mission?” her face soured, “Not another patrol of our borders?” She eyed her father her face full of controlled excitement.
Galleon reached in the breast pocket of his jerkin and pulled out a parchment with the kingdom’s official seal in wax, he then looked apon his daughter with a measure of pride dancing in his eyes. “Well are you ready for your orders Angel Knight Chastity?” She snapped to attention and faced her father.
Darious knelt over and picked up the metal wing then ambled over to Chastity’s side to better hear what was to come next.
Galleon cleared his throat loudly, “By order of his royal majesty King Vargus, Knight Commander Chastity you are to investigate Baron Zellus’s estate for suspicious activity. Reports of shipments failing to make it to there destination’s have people worried. Several caravans use the roads through Zellus’s land to bring trade goods not only to this Kingdom, but to Lady Trista’s lands as well. I here by order you to investigate this problem and bring the culprits to justice. Any and all stolen materials are to be brought to the guards courtyard to be sorted and sent to their rightful owners. Baron Zellus was one of my fathers most trusted adviser’s, a scholar as well as a talented Wizard before he retired and was awarded his land. I trust that you and your men are up to this task, represent me and the kingdom well. Sincerely King Vargus.” Galleon handed the parchment over to his daughter and saluted which Chastity returned crisply. With his business done, Galleon turned on his heel and left his only daughter to plan her mission.
Chastity sucked in a deep breath as the magnitude of what she was being asked to do set in, “Ok, Dare gather the men and I’ll start setting up for our briefing.”
Darious gave a quick nod and headed for the giant oak doors that lead out into one of the castles many stone work halls. He nearly leveled a poor serving maid carrying a cask of purplish looking wine that he guessed was headed for the officers ready room.
“Lushes,” he chuckled, then quicker than his mind could think it he steadied the girl with one hand and kept moving toward the courtyard. Opening the door he squinted as the sunlight assaulted his eyes. He waited for his vision to adapt to the sunlight and begin to scan the courtyard.
The first person to come into view was pointy eared, and clearly Elvin ,Vever up to his usual fem chasing. Vever turned his thousand watt smile on the star struck milk maid and leaned his tall slender frame on his unstrung bow.
“So you see my dear I made corporal in merely six months, next stop sergeant then who knows,” he rubbed his iron wood bow lovingly and sighed, “Yes this work of art use to belong to my dearly departed mother.” he wiped the only tear he could muster off his cheek in mock sorrow and looked sadly at the ground. The milkmaid almost dropped her pail, setting it carefully aside she reached to wipe the tear from his cheek.
In the blink of an eye he had her hand in both of his and raised it to his lips kissing it lightly, “Your beauty eases the pain so much and your touch sates my anguish.“ ‘Heh, I’ve got her she’s totally entranced.’ Just as he was leaning in for the kiss he was startled to attention by a familiar voice.
“Corporal Vever!” Vever snapped to attention dropping the poor lady right on her half full bucket spilling its valuable contents all over the ground.
“Sir!” Vever tried to look dignified given the mess behind him.
Darious tried to keep a straight face as he looked at the now milk muddied milk lady struggling to stand. “Well corporal, don’t just stand there help the lady up! Oh and pay her for the milk you bought,” Darious nearly lost his composure when he saw the look on Vev’s face.
“Sir?” Vev’s reply clearly in the form of a question not a answer. Then Vev cursed his luck as he turned to help the now flustered lady to her feet. “I am truly sorry m’lady”, Vever said as he attempted to clean the mud from her blouse, paying particular attention to the middle section of her mud smeared top.
“Bastard!” the lady shrieked and slapped him hard across the face before sauntering away.
Vever rubbed the red mark on his face thoughtfully and then smiled, ‘Well at least she forgot about the coin I owed her.’ He turned to find Darious still standing there his arms folded across his chest.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Darious asked a stern look on his face, though it was quite an effort not to double over laughing.
Vever’s slight grin turned to a frown when he realized what Darious meant, “But sir! You can’t mean for me to not only find the woman but then to pay her as well!” Darious merely pointed in the direction the lady had stormed off in then looked sternly at Vever.
With a sigh Vever walked off in the direction he was bade to go he barely heard Darious yell after him, “Strat meeting in one hour I hope to see you there!”
Darious waited until Vever was out of sight be for falling to his knees laughing. Regaining his composure Darious stood and dusted himself off then headed for the cadet trainning fields, as he neared the four foot cobble walls that cordoned off the training area he could already hear her
“Grr that cant be it! Is that all our fine fighting men can do against a wee girl such as myself where’s your pride!” Darious cringed at the way she said men in that sentence shaking his head as he entered the combat area to find Ferada surrounded by the last four able knight candidates. A quick shoulder charge sent one of them tumbling away landing at Darious’s feet. ‘Uhp make that three’ he thought as he surveyed the arena. Lying all about where soldiers moaning in pain various bumps and bruises adorning their bodies.
Ferada was a berserker, a rare breed of humanlike cats that live far east in the mist wood region. Normally the women of their kind were not permitted to learn combat and she was cast from her tribe for saving her betrothed’s life during a raid. She has a deep seeded anger toward men and a drive beyond compare to prove herself to be the best blade master to walk the face of Djoria.
“That’s enough Ferada,” Darious said stepping into her line of sight with his arms folded and a wry smile on his face.
Breathing heavy her eyes ablaze she practically growled her response, “I’m not done here.” She faked a high slash at one of the remaining cadets helm, a stocky boy wielding a two handed blade as if it where a toothpick. With great form he brought his blade up to parry her move only to see her inhuman agility spin and dip low to sweep his leg’s from under him.
The next thing she did made Darious’s decision for him. Ferada, now fully lost to the dance, rose to the balls of her feet, launched herself into the air, and before the poor cadet could hit the ground from the previous leg sweep, he received a spinning heel kick to the mid section sending him flying across the trainning grounds to land in a heap unmoving.
“You two get outta here!” Darious barked to the two stunned cadets as he stepped in front of Ferada his arms still folded across his chest. The two cadets shook as if jolted from a nightmare and bolted as fast as they could from the arena.
Ferada seeing her enemy flee in such cowardly esteem turned her crimson eyes on Darius. “I said I wasn’t done with them, but since you want to be the savior of obviously inferior men,” she spat that last word as if it where a bug that had mistakenly flown into her mouth, “Perhaps you would like to take there beating then.”
He smirked and then mentally kicked himself for it as she took the half smile for the slight it was never meant to be and launched herself at him her blades weaving a intricate dance of jabs and slashes. He gave ground dodging her blades only by a hairs breadth. ‘Hmm her speed has improved I wouldn’t have thought that possible,’ he thought as he had lost sight of her several times during her charge the only thing saving him from the bite of her blades was his innate ability to sense the shifts in the wind around him.
“Sergeant Ferada! Calm yourself you don’t wanna fight me!” She kept coming at him darting this way and that. It took his full concentration to keep from her blades as she chased him all about the arena.
“Silence Vorpal Knight! Show me! Damnit! Show me what makes you a knight! Show me!” She slashed hard at his sword arm, “Show me!“ A tear slid down her cheek as she finished her sentence with a shriek.
“Show me what makes you better than me!” Darious spun left letting her charge by in that same motion he freed his famed vorpal blade from his back sheath turning to face her. Adrenalin now fueling him, Darious made a bold statement, “Fine Ferada, you want it that bad huh?! Let’s do this knight candidate! Final test begins now, you win I’ll give you my knight’s crest you will be promoted to full knight status”. With that Darious dug deep within himself and tapped that thing hidden in his core and felt its energy happily almost eagerly leap into his muscles giving him speed to nearly match his opponent and strength far surpassing hers.
Ferada seething at this point stopped turning on her heel to face him, “Finally a man worth fighting!” She started forward at a dead run. Darious readied himself and to his amazement she disappeared. ‘Oh what the hell!’ Darious thought as he felt a slight shift in the wind to he left side, ‘There you are.’ He turned and threw a hard punch where he knew she would be and felt a crushing impact on his back sending him sprawling forward. On the wind he heard her voice “I have always held back afraid to hurt, afraid to destroy, afraid of my full potential, but you, you can take it can’t ‘cha? Vorpal Knight. I have sensed in you a power, you reek of it, let us see it Darious.”
Fueled with more adrenaline than he had ever felt before, instead of falling from the blow to his back Darious did a front flip spin and charged back at the sound of her voice. By now a crowd had formed, though they kept a safe distance behind the four foot wall.
Those who witnessed the fight recite is a blue blur and a red blur flitting about and colliding with one another, the thunderous clanging was enough to make teeth clatter. Now both bruised, sweaty, and heaving they faced each other.
“Your all that I expected Darious, but now I’m afraid I’ll have to take that crest,” Ferada jumped back a few times and disappeared again.
‘What? I cant sense her anywhere,‘ with a start Darious realized she was coming at him from above. With no time to ponder how she managed to get above him he ran hard at one of the sword dummies and jumped on it launching himself at her. Ramming his shoulder into her chest with more power than he meant to use, he felt a few of her ribs give under the power of his attack. Cursing his poor control of his own strength, he grabbed her hurling body and shielded her as they crashed through the cobble stone wall and came to a stop at the crowd’s feet.
Fearing for Ferada’s condition the adrenaline quickly drained away. Balled up in his arms unconscious lay Ferada the finest fighter he had ever seen, she seemed so peaceful, no one to prove herself to, no façade to have to keep up.
Darious held her close whispering in her ear, “Oh what have I done! Please be ok, Ferada please!” she began to stir in his arms and looked up at him the anger gone from her eyes, replaced with something else he couldn’t quite understand.
“D-Darious I…I… Failed didn’t I?” she buried her head in his chest and began to sob.
“Hey now Ferada, that was the finest blade work I’ve ever seen, there’s no need to feel shame,” he raised her head so she could see his eyes and he was shaken to his core by what he saw in there. Her eyes held such need, such softness that he’d never seen in her. Before another word could be uttered between them, they came together in a kiss.
It was at that moment Chastity walked up to witness this “First Knight Darious what is the meaning of this!” Chastity had already been told of the contest and the statement Dare had made but she didn’t quite know what to make of the scene before her now.
Darious, startled by his commanding officer’s voice, jolted and cocked his head to look at her, “Angel I-I am sorry ma’am please forgive Ferada I take full responsibility for this incident.”
Chastity, the picture of controlled anger, spoke softly, “You’re damn right you will, you have shown a severe lack of good judgment today Darious Saint!” He cringed at the use of his full name, “I need cool heads on this mission therefore you will not be accompanying us tomorrow in your place will be Rage Knight Ferada.” Chastity stepped to Ferada’s side and helped her up, Ferada did her best to conceal her injured ribs. Ferada attached her new crest to her jerkin.
Darious leapt to his feet, “Angel you cant be serious! Ferada’s injured and in no condition to attend this mission.”
Chastity looked her up and down Ferada bit her lip and straightened to attention. “Rage knight Ferada are you fit for duty?” Chastity asked in a stern voice.
“I am fit ma’am!“ Ferada turned a hard gaze on Darious as he started to protest he simply hung his head knowing he couldn’t take this honor from her and he returned to his quarters