WW Chapter 77: Reporting In (Patreon)

Today was my oldest's birthday. HAve a PW chapter coming in a minute, should be two AR chapters tomorrow.

“So you do know how to be on time,” Dominick said as Ezra strode up to the door of the same audience chamber he had been brought to the night before.

“Permission to speak honestly?” Ezra asked, eyeing the older man.

“Now is the time to say whatever’s on your mind and hold nothing back,” Dominick laughed. “Can’t wait to hear what it is.”

“Are you always going to be ball busting me? I suppose it isn’t really a problem, cause there’s nothing I can do about it, but if you’re always going to be riding my ass, can I at least snap back at you every once in a while?”

“So long as it’s just the two of us and I’m not in the process of giving you orders, I’d love to hear it.”

“Sounds good, old man.” Ezra couldn’t help but smile as he got explicit permission to talk back to the Knight. It was a weak consolation, compared to getting the actual puke beaten out of him, but he was gonna take what he could get. “Does this count as being just us?”

“Hell no, use your eyes, son,” Dominick shook his head as he pointed at the guards who stood nearby. “Be that as it may, they know me well enough to know what kind of person I am.”

“All right,” Ezra replied, a little disappointed he didn’t get to just smack talk Dominick right away. “Do I need somebody to announce me? Or should I announce myself before I go in?” Ezra asked, his stomach suddenly twisting as he was reminded that he was about to announce to the Duke and the seemingly lighthearted man beside him that there might be a world-ending threat brewing on the other side of the mountains and within the Dragon Wilds.

“Looks like you’ve actually listened to some of Chloe’s training. Good.” Dominick stepped forward as he said it, rapping twice on the door with a closed fist as he called out, “Ezra Soldier, reporting at the summons of Duke Brayton.”

Dominick held for a few seconds before pushing open the door and leading the way for Ezra to enter.

This time, the Duke sat in his chair again, and a woman that Ezra had to assume was the Duchess sat at his side. Where the Duke had a thick, dark beard and lightly curled, almost black hair, the Duchess had seemingly straight hair that was, as far as Ezra could tell, going prematurely gray. Her face wasn’t lined at all, except for the faint hint of smile lines at the corner of each eye. Light auburn hair, carefully styled to be held within a pearl-studded net, was almost entirely silver at each temple and in streaks where Ezra could see it. Her face wasn’t unkind, but serious.

“Ezra, I’m glad you’re here,” the Duke said, smiling and gesturing for him to approach. “Dominick tells me you had a difficult morning.”

“Difficult, but rewarding,” Ezra replied, smiling softly as he stepped forward and bowed just as he was supposed to. Just another remnant of the many lessons from Chloe, he supposed, since he understood the difference in bowing to his liege lord as opposed to a different noble. “Tonight begins my assignment to guard Master Adonis, does it not?”

“Indeed it does. Before I summon him, though, I present to you my lovely wife, Duchess Adriana Brayton.”

The way that the Duke, the Duchess, and Dominick all looked at him, Ezra knew that he was being tested. He wanted to curse under his breath as he tried to remember the correct response, but he knew that was certainly not the right thing to do. Instead, he gritted his teeth and smiled at her.

“My apologies, Lady Adriana. If my memory serves me correctly, to be introduced to the lady of the realm and the wife of the man to whom I am swearing my loyalty dictates that I should... offer to kiss your hand? However, I would rather betray my ignorance verbally than risk offending you by approaching when it was inappropriate. Please, enlighten me. Should I approach?”

“In this case, you would bow over my hand, pressing your forehead against the knuckles of my right hand while going down to your right knee,” the Duchess said, offering her right hand with a gentle smile.

He stepped forward, bowed over her hand, and did just as she said. Then, he stepped back and bowed his head to her and the Duke.

“It’s just as well that I clarified before I made a fool out of myself, then. Thank you for your patience, Lady Adriana.”

A bead of sweat trickled down Ezra’s spine, almost making him shiver in discomfort. How the ever-loving hell was he going to learn how to do this? Just as he started to question himself, the lady’s face softened from a demure, stately expression to a more casual one.

“My apologies, Sir Ezra. You were correct in seeing that this was a test for you, and your willingness to ask for further guidance is a testament to your character. I wanted to meet the man who will help to protect my son, and while Dominick is confident you will quickly join the ranks of our Pseudo-Knights, it is unfortunate, but a Duke’s son must be protected socially and politically just as much as physically. I needed to see if you had any chance of succeeding in the latter cases.”

Ezra nodded, his head low and slow, taking the time to make sure he hid his face correctly. He hated being tested like this. He thought it was stupid, but he also recognized that causing some fight with the Duchess because she wanted to make sure that he was competent was a pretty good way of getting himself thrown out of the city, if not worse. Plus, she didn’t insult him or anything, so he might as well not make an ass out of himself.

“No apologies necessary,” he said.

“And you’re only sixteen? At least, that’s what I’ve been told,” the lady continued.

“I am about a month past my seventeenth birthday, my lady,” he corrected.

“A true adult, according to the old traditions of the Watcher. I suppose the Beast would have already decreed you an adult, though, considering your combat record,” she said. “Again, my apologies for the task and my appreciation for your skill. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other obligations I must fulfill tonight.”

“Of course, my lady. Am I to bow over your hand once again? My recollection is, in this case, simply that I need to bid you farewell and then not sit down until you have left. Considering the situation, I don’t think I’m going to be doing much sitting tonight either way, but I suspect that you will be an extremely capable tutor in all things to do with polite society.”

Ezra didn’t know if this would ingratiate him further to her or would make her angry, but he figured he’d do what seemed to have made a good impression on her already. It seemed he succeeded in doing something right, because she stood up, walked towards him, and smiled in a very motherly way.

“You’re a good boy, Ezra. No, man. You’re a good man, and I look forward to seeing you flourish under my husband’s men’s attentions. You’ll be a great example to Adonis, I’m sure.”

Then, she nodded, turned on her heel, and swished out of the room. Her dress trailed just above the ground, and her movement seemed to rustle a handful of kilos worth of satin as she moved. A servant from behind her throne that Ezra hadn’t noticed followed as the lady left. The maid’s face was impassive, simply following the movement of her mistress as they walked out of a door on the side of the room.

“As fierce as a winter storm, that woman is,” the Duke said, smiling after his wife. “I’m glad you got on her good side, because if you’d managed to offend her tonight, you’d have lost the position even before Adonis had the opportunity to meet you.”

“I’m no stranger to women with strong opinions and the ability to see them become fact,” Ezra replied.

“I suppose you’re not,” the Duke said, his gaze inscrutable. “Shall we send for Adonis?”

Ezra’s mouth went dry as he tried to think of a good way to broach the topic, and finally, he just interrupted and asked, “Is it all right if I tell you something?”

His words were poorly chosen, he realized, as soon as they came out of his mouth, and immediately changed the relaxed air he, Dominick, and the Duke had been experiencing until then. Ezra immediately raised both hands and attempted to clarify.

“This isn’t to drop any news about who I am or anything else on you. Instead, it’s something that I’ve learned that I think might be important to you.”

Both men didn’t relax at that, but went from wary to interested. Dominick gestured for him to continue, and Ezra nodded slowly.

“You know that I became an Initiate even before anybody in Villy taught me. I’m sure that Chloe has reported as much. What she doesn’t know, and in fact nobody knows, is how I became aware of what aura was and how to sense it.”

As Ezra talked about it, both men seemed to relax somewhat, and Ezra realized that, with how he had amended his initial statement, it might have come across that he was trying to give them information about things that were happening here in the city. Regardless, neither man asked him to hurry or to stop talking as they realized he wasn’t talking about threats, but about himself.

“I first learned about what aura was when I had a vision of a man called a Weaponmaster in the beginning of winter. I can describe the vision that I saw if you would like, but sometimes, to this day, I receive visions from him. These visions have taught me how to use aura, weapons, and train myself. Part of why I’ve been able to progress as quickly as I have is because of the visits from this man.”

“What’s his name?” Dominick asked. “I haven’t heard of any records of a Weaponmaster, but I can see what I can find out.”

“His name is Jormun, sir. I don’t think that you’ll be able to find anything about him, though. The part... well, the part about my visions and about him that made me feel like I needed to talk to you is that I don’t think he was from this world.” Ezra winced as he said it, finally getting to the part that would make or break this story he was telling. “The vision I saw was of his world being destroyed by things that could only be called demons. Flying stone monsters, six-legged beasts the size of your manor, Lord, and horned people who could use magic to corrupt aura. He was killed, and the demons took over the world.”

“Son,” Dominick said, his voice firm but not unkind, “I genuinely believe you’ve had these visions. I believe that they’ve helped you grow stronger faster. That said, I don’t know why this matters. Are you saying that these demons were like the goblinoids that we deal with? Because, while we don’t go into the Dragon Wilds, everything is pretty firmly under control.”

“It’s not the goblinoids,” Ezra shook his head. “It’s what I saw on that extermination mission. The aberrants, as you call them. I saw those in the vision from the dead Weaponmaster. What if the Dragon Wilds have been infiltrated by these demons, and now they’re going to use the fact that there’s no people there to start to build an incursion force?”

Dominick started to dismiss his words again, but then he stopped, scratched his chin, and looked at the Duke.

“I think it’s probably a dream, if he actually has seen this. Even so, it’s not a bad point he’s making. Aberrants are relatively new, at least around here. Not all of the border territories are great at sharing information, as you know.”

The huffed sigh from the Duke was enough to let Ezra know that the ruler of the city and Duchy had plenty of people he didn’t get along with. Looking with narrowed eyes at Ezra, the Duke said, “Yes, they are new. And they seem to be getting stronger, with more varieties.”

Then Dominick continued, “Since they’re an unknown variable, it might not be a bad idea to see what we can learn from Ezra about these demons. Maybe spread around some information, see what the King might want to do. See if this is a sign of something changing that we need to deal with immediately.”

Ezra blinked rapidly, looking between the two men. Was it really going to be this easy?

The Duke laughed as he saw Ezra’s reaction.

“You didn’t think I was going to believe you?”

“No,” Ezra said, unable to bring himself to say anything less honest.

“Honestly, we don’t really,” the Duke repaid Ezra’s honesty with some of his own. “The chances that you have some divine being giving you visions is lower than your natural affinity with aura simply showing you dreams. That isn’t too uncommon, to have someone’s connection with the natural or divine worlds resulting in semi-prophetic dreams. It doesn’t often happen to people on the path of Knighthood, but isn’t unheard of. But the aberrants are a concern, and if you happen to be correct by design or coincidence, we want to know about it. 

“For now,” the Duke said, snapping his fingers at a servant in the corner of the room. The man nodded and went off to fulfill the man’s unspoken command as the Duke smiled at Ezra. “It’s time to meet Adonis.”