WW Chapter 105: Days Pass (Patreon)

After reuniting with the delegation, the days passed surprisingly quickly. As far as Ezra could tell, there were no more of the goblinoids that had been able to come so far, so, from then on, the days passed in a boring fashion. The first day, he, Luna, and Telemachus were allowed to rest alongside Dirk in the wagon, but the days after that, they were put back to work patrolling beside the delegation as they traveled. Dirk got another day of recovery, something that Jhas had explained as a result of having spent as long deeply wounded as he had.

Even as the days passed quickly, they also felt slow. The stark change in the treatment that he received had Ezra slightly frustrated, but also understanding. Instead of being in a position of leadership, he wasn’t quite shunned by everybody, but especially the veteran soldiers obviously treated him more coldly. He continued to be taught by Jhas, and Adonis made conversation when he could, but Ezra, Luna, Telemachus, and Dirk were no longer as welcome among the others as they had been before.

“I’m sorry,” Patrice explained. “Your disobedience was too much for career soldiers. They’ve spent their lives doing exactly what they were told when they were told without complaint, and to have some snot-nosed kid come in and flout protocol only to be welcomed back because of necessity… It’s not a good look.”

“None of them fucking care that we saved a hundred people?” Telemachus demanded. “I can guarantee that some of them are from towns like that. A bunch of fucking hypocrites if they’re going to try to ice us out for saving people like their families.”

“I agree, but I also understand why they’re treating us like this,” Ezra said. Honestly, he was mostly parroting what Jormun had said to him, because in reality, he was pretty firmly on Telemachus’s side. These guys were being assholes. “The most important thing for a soldier to have is trust with his fellows. More than anything else, you gotta know that you trust the guy standing next to you. If you can’t trust the people nearby, even if they’re being disobedient for a good reason, then you don’t wanna be around them.”

“It’s still bullshit.”

“Yeah,” Ezra agreed. “But there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“We could just leave,” Telemachus said. “If we’re gonna be treated like garbage, there’s no reason for us to help. Maybe then they’ll stop being pricks if we just leave them alone.”

“If you really want to go, you can,” Ezra shrugged. “But I won’t. Yes, I made a decision that’s going to lose me the position I have, but sticking around for the rest of this journey is going to help save thousands of lives. I’m not selfish enough to possibly sentence all those people to death because my feelings got hurt.”

“I don’t get what the problem is,” Telemachus answered. “It’s not like any of us are important enough to really matter for this. The journey’ll go on without us, and should be just fine.”

“I don’t know for sure, but I know that, very specifically, Adonis needs to have a strong personal guard. There are no better options, so it’s gonna be me. I don’t think that I’m wonderfully qualified, but I don’t think there’s anybody else around here who has a better chance. Plus, even if it feels a little bit like a betrayal to have everybody push us away now, I keep my word.”

That ended up being the end of the conversation, and Telemachus didn’t bring it up again. Then, the days were spent with Ezra meditating while he marched and learning little tidbits from Jhas. Luna spent most of her days with the illiar and was apparently making great progress towards actually being able to cast a spell. Everything she said about it was gibberish to Ezra, though.

A week after reuniting, a storm started to blow overhead and, with permission, Ezra spent the entire day meditating as the aura of the storm swept through him. It lasted all day, and he continued to gain a surprising amount of insight into how his aura worked while he lost his sense of self in the storm continually beating down on him. Those brief flashes of electricity within his inner world were becoming easier to understand. He couldn’t, with any real confidence, say that his inner world had lightning in it, but he was coming to understand how he might be able to make that happen.

As his mind followed a familiar path towards a greater understanding of his inner world, a sudden agony spiked inside of him. The storm, which had continually overfilled his limits and was no summer picnic, went from painful to agonizing. In just a short moment, all of his focus disappeared, and Ezra groaned in pain where he sat on the roof of the carriage.

Instead of flowing through the winds overhead, Ezra’s mind smashed down into his body, and he looked around in a panic. Had he been hit by an arrow, or stabbed? There was nothing out of the ordinary nearby, and as the confusion faded, Ezra quickly realized what the issue had been. It wasn’t that he’d been attacked, and, in fact, he was familiar with this latest “wound” he’d sustained.

“I guess this won’t do me much more good,” he said to himself as he stretched and then hopped down from the carriage.

“Too tired to keep going?” Telemachus asked. He had pulled the hood of his cloak over his head and continued moving. He was putting a small amount of effort into warming his breastplate with his flaming aura, and the steel was glowing with radiant heat.

“I’m tired, but that’s not it,” Ezra said as he stretched his hands out towards his friend’s chest. His fingers were stiff from the wet and cold, and warming them up had the aches get worse before they would get better. Even so, it wouldn’t be long before he was back to normal, and he continued explaining, “I’m pretty sure that I am touching the boundary between Adept and Pseudo-Knight.”

Telemachus blinked twice, then shook his head as he grinned. “You bastard. Here I was, thinking I might catch up, and you’re this far ahead? Congratulations.”

Luna, who had been walking nearby, perked up at the conversation. “Why was he congratulating you? I couldn’t quite hear. I was lost in thought.”

“I think I’m at the border of Adept and Pseudo-Knight,” he repeated.

Luna’s face, barely visible behind the rain and her helmet, rose, and a smile spread across it as she raised her head and offered a hand to shake. “Congratulations. Now, when we lose our place among the leadership of Brayton, we will have somebody to follow.”

Ezra didn’t respond to that. It was something that, when they realized he felt bad about, she, Telemachus, and Dirk all needled him about. Instead, he shrugged. “I guess I can’t argue with that, so long as I figure out how to actually ascend.”

“Ezra, come here,” Basil said, interrupting any further discussion. Dirk, who had been a little bit further down the line, had been walking to join the others but was cut off by the Pseudo-Knight commander’s summons.

Given that Ezra had taken Basil’s post for the entire day, Basil had spent his time instead focused on scouting around. With the constant rainfall and thickening mist, he probably wouldn’t have been able to stay in that one spot anyways, but somehow he seemed to have noticed the exact moment when Ezra stopped meditating.

“How sure are you that you can’t build your inner world any more?” Basil asked without any preamble.

“I can’t say I’m sure about anything,” Ezra shrugged back honestly. “However, it feels pretty much the same as it did when I was ready to ascend to Adept. Pulling any more into it will be painful.”

“Okay. Since you filled your inner world with the ambient aura, go ahead and fill it with what you’ve claimed as your own. That way, it won’t drain out. Then, compress everything while thinking about what the shroud will be for you. Think about what you’ve seen it do, especially on Dominick. He’s the only Knight you’ve met, so his shroud is a true shroud, not a pseudo-shroud. Mine, as an example, is primarily focused on my bow when I use it. For now, though—”

“Stop there,” Ezra requested, holding up a hand to interrupt the strangely talkative and demanding man. “If it isn’t something that I need to know to be able to even get closer, I want to be able to do it by myself.”

Basil let out a long breath, his lips flapping as he did so. Then, he cracked his neck as he gestured for Ezra to follow him. He squinted, but did as the older man commanded. They didn’t get more than a half dozen meters away from everybody else before Basil relaxed ever so slightly.

“It’s true that that’s better for an individual, but the reality is that, now that people know that that’s where you are, Hector is going to start pushing hard to get you to ascend as fast as possible. I’m your friend, but also, your future is a lot less important to the Duchy now that it’s determined that you’re not going to stick around. Learn as much as you can on your own as fast as you can. Because the command that’s going to come my way soon is going to be to push you to be ready as soon as possible.”

“This is a street that goes both ways,” Ezra narrowed his eyes. “If I’m not sticking around, why would I let you all damage my future? I’m here helping you out, but we’re in a situation where you can’t really tell me what to do and I can’t really do what I want.”

Basil nodded for a moment at that. “Like I said, he was going to pressure you. He can’t command you to do anything without really pissing you off, but it’s going to be in his best interests to make sure you ascend really soon.”

“Everyone’s been dancing around this, and it’s time for me to understand what you’re all getting me into,” Ezra shook his head. “What’s so important to have Adonis’s guard be a Pseudo-Knight? It doesn’t make sense, if you don’t tell me anything.”

Basil’s face scrunched up, but he didn’t argue. Instead, after a handful of moments, he nodded. “More than anything,” he said, keeping his voice low, “the biggest issue is that we can guarantee that Duke Ember will challenge the request we make, and that will inevitably end in a series of duels. Anyone who isn’t at least a Pseudo-Knight can still duel, but the lowest tier of duels is Pseudo-Knight.”

“So even if we field an Adept, they can send out a Pseudo-Knight?” Ezra confirmed.

“Yes.”

“That’s some bullshit.”

“Yes. And if we’re forced to do that for one of the Duke’s sons’ guards, it’ll be a bad look. But not having a guard is worse, so that’s the decision.”

Basil didn’t have much more to say, and he nodded as he walked away, leaving Ezra to think about what kind of journey he was actually trapped in right now.