Ignite the Sun

The journey to Mountainfall was truly a one of a kind experience – few people ever travelled at those speeds, much less for such a long time.

It was quite rough at the beginning due to the air pushing against them, but after a few minutes Calen managed to conjure a barrier which shielded them from the wind – once they solved that problem the travel became rather pleasant.

"Damien looks like he's having quite a lot of fun running like that." Isara commented.

"People like him don't get many chances to use their full power for extended period of times." Greg explained. "It's like he's been walking with weights on his ankles for most of his life and suddenly he gets to move without them."

Talking about full power got Calen thinking:

"If you were to rank the people of the Order in terms of power, who would be in the top five?"

The devil rubbed his chin with a thoughtful expression.

"Nickolas is the strongest, but Damien isn't far behind – next peot would be probably Leon, Oswald and me, considering we've lost almost all the oldest members."

"Who's Oswald?"

"My current superior." Alfred answered. "The commander in charge of all the recruits – he's the same age as Leon and Damien, and came from the same training camp. The three of them are all that remains from their generation now that Rudolph and David disappeared."

"Speaking of people who disappeared – what happened to Ben?"

"Who?" Alfred blinked in confusion.

"Sir Harold's squire? You know, the guy you've been interrogating before you started flirting with Morgan...?"

"Oh, him!" Recognition sparked in Alfred's eyes. "Well after sir Harold, or his mimic, died the boy was devastated but I believe one of Harold's friends took pity on the lad and took him as his squire. At least I haven't seen him among the recruits so I assume something like that happened."

"And sir Harold? Did Nickolas reveal the truth about what happened to him?"

"Yes, but the information spread without much buzz – I think witnessing Arthur mutate live made a lot of people kinda disinterested in smaller stuff like that."

"Really? I would have thought that the implication that they've been interacting with an imposter for gods know how long would make people extremely paranoid about others."

"There are a few corrupted creatures with similar abilities, the concept of people being replaced isn't enough of a novelty to cause panic." Greg said.

Alfred nodded.

"Something like this already happened a three times, and a magic creature just spying for a human is nowhere near as terrifying as a vile beast which intentions you can't even begin to comprehend."

"I guess it makes sense." Calen admitted. "Changing the topic, is either of you going to take part in the tournament?"

"Only commanders, remember?" Alfred shook his head. "I'm not even going to ask Nickolas for a chance to compete, every other person there could whoop my ass blindfolded and with tied hands."

"What about you?" Calen turned to Greg.

"Well, I'm also not a commander."

"You've been part of the Order for two centuries and you're not a commander? How is that possible?"

"That's because I'm technically just an honorary member, I've never been knighted."

"Why not?"

"I'm not quite sure if I'm being honest – maybe it's the fact that I've always felt like an outsider, I'm not one of your kind and wouldn't feel quite right becoming a part of something meant to protect humanity. Like I didn't deserve the spot, you know?"

"But you've been doing it for the past two hundred years anyway – knighted or not."

"Master told me this once." Alfred began. "Titles are just that, titles – what truly matters are the person's actions. Just being a knight doesn't make you inherently righteous, nor does not being one forbid you from acting with virtue."

Calen and Cassian looked at each other almost instinctively; they heard those exact words from sir Vandrel so many times that there could be no doubt where Nickolas took them from. Honestly it was sort of jarring to hear from someone else than him, but it was kinda nice that this lesson survived even an apocalypse.

Greg looked rather pensive.

"Perhaps you're right – but if it's true, then what's the point of knighthood at all?"

"Originally people became knights to pursue their ideals with the help of brands." Cassian stated. "Later on people gradually stopped taking brands and the knighthood became something of a status symbol – a relatively simple way to become a noble."

"Nickolas has a brand, doesn't he?" Greg remembered. "I understand that it has something to do with his oath, but I don't think I ever actually asked him how it works."

"Brands are sacred seals made to match one's oath, they are meant to help you enforce your own vows while giving you a substantial boost in power for following them."

"Where do they get the power from? Are they magical?"

"Actually, they work on divine power." Calen clarified. "The brand on a knight is burned with the divine flame, establishing their source of power and authority that enforces the vows."

"I thought only Flamebearers like you could control the flames."

"That's true – but you don't need to actually control the flame for the ceremony. The pattern of the brand is painted on the knight's body with holy oil and then someone simply ignites it with a special torch."

"Aside from how painful that sounds, I fail to see why a knight would decide to not get branded – they swore the oath anyway, and they can get a help in keeping it along with additional power, why would anyone pass on that? Am I missing something?"

"Well there's one legitimate thing – if you manage to somehow break your oath despite the brand, you die – no ifs, no buts, you just die instantly."

"...So you're telling me that essentially all knights are liars who never intended to keep their oath?"

"At least most of them before the invasion – now the Order isn't branded because you guys didn't have divine flame and the round table wasn't allowing Nickolas to search for alternatives."

"Well, neither of those things are a problem now, maybe we should consider doing something about it." Alfred pointed out.

"Maybe we should."