After I’d learned of my new life, I’d had the sneaking suspicion that this bed was so large for a certain reason. But I’d just as quickly shelved that thought for sake of my own sanity. That being said, it has come in handy for moments such as this as there’s enough room that each sleeper could have their own side with plenty of room to spare.
A dozen or so minutes had passed since we’d both laid down to sleep. While Justice continues to hold her sword close to her body, I could tell that she was still wide awake. Her vigilance likely keeping her awake and on pins and needles. I think to leave her be so she’ll have a better chance of drifting off, and yet…
“You’d sounded so much like him.” Her voice sounds much more soft than it had been any time before.
“I’d sounded like him? Isn’t he me to begin with?”
“You’re right, but… there are some differences.”
“What kind of differences?”
“That’s classified.” She says with a hefty exhale.
“I’d expected that I’d be hearing a term like that from you eventually.”
“…He would have said something just like that. I would have be told that my idea was pointless. He would have refused to go along with it just like you had.”
“It’s a relief to hear that I have common sense there as well.”
“You were always watching out for others. There were times when you’d had to be rougher and give tougher love, but you did it because you were really loving.”
“Give me an example” I can hear her shift about as I continue staring up at the ceiling.
“You’d… trained me in sword fighting.”
“I did? Then I suppose you’d have Vestil to thank for whatever techniques I’d passed onto you. That is if she had been my sparring partner there as well.”
“She was. Besides Lady Juna, she was your best friend. I’d wanted to be trained by you, the Celestial Knight. There weren’t many times that I’d trained with Captain Vestil.” The chirping crickets sound between the momentary pauses in her reminiscence. “There was this one time when I was acting like an idiot. I’d wanted to prove a point so much that I’d attempted to sword fight you to show you that I was worthy. I’d wanted to go with you into the dungeons but you’d kept rejecting my wishes.”
“I was worried about your safety, wasn’t I?”
“You… were.” Another sigh for the night. “You’d put an end to that fit quickly and I remember how angry and frustrated I was. I didn’t want to be seen as some weak child; I’d wanted to be respected as a knight… And yet… you were right. I wasn’t ready.”
I listen to her words carefully and feel them, attempt to imagine myself there in that moment she recalls. Picturing just how it could have developed.
“The day when you’d finally allowed me to join you was one of the happiest days of my life. To be accepted by you, the Celestial Knight himself. I’d grown up because of your protection and your tough love in the times I’d needed it. It had all helped me realize how right you were. I’d learned so many valuable life lessons from you. You were always teaching me.”
“You were very unfair to yourself and I can see that’s a habit that you still haven’t outgrown.” I respond to her with my most earnest thoughts. “In my eyes, you’re still nearly a child. But you’ve put the weight of the world on your shoulders. I suppose we have that in common. I chose to become the Celestial Knight because I’d wanted to take that weight on myself.”
I hear another stirring as she moves about, likely in a bout of discomfort. Knowing that I have her ear, I tell her my honest feelings.
“If it was in my power, I would wish away all of that stress you’re carrying and take it all from you. But I can tell that something went wrong. Something I’m not allowed to know. That thought comes to me whenever I look you in the eyes.
“But you’re here now and I’ll do whatever I can to protect you. I don’t care what you say; you deserve so much more than a mind filled with stress and burdens. My greatest failure in that world you’d come from was that I’d let you feel the way that you do now.”
That serves as the ending point to our conversation. Despite that both of us lay awake, the convoluted thoughts and feelings we feel continue to stir within us. And in a gradual descent, I find myself drawn to sleep.
✩ ✩ ✩
She’d waited until he was sound asleep. Even if sleep was so alluring to her, she couldn’t find herself able to rest so long as he was awake. All of the temptation roused within her from the very second she’d found him in Pride had reached a fever pitch.
And so as he sleeps, she quietly, gently places her sword behind her and draws near to him. Up on her hands, staring at his resting face so still. His measured breaths restful, proof that he lives. His fingers are laced and laid on his body which is so neatly uniform, so in character for him. She swoons at the sight.
“It’s really him. It’s really, really him.”
As subtly as she can manage, utilizing all of the stealth she’d learned to wield from her training, she goes to him. Close to his side and then closer until she touches him. Near enough to share his pillow, she timidly reaches out. Clinging gently to his shirt, holding her body fast to his, the tears began to flow.
Though she wishes to sob and whine, she keeps it all under lock and key. The joy that dances in her heart is so overwhelming that it threatens to dismantle her poise if she would so much as lose an ounce of control.
Her prayers had been answered.
But all of that joy and elation comes joined with painful memory.
★ ★ ★
There at his grave her cries had been heard.
A sweeping of wind announced his presence. The singing leaves of the tree filled the air as a spectral figure had appeared from behind its body. Its bleached white form was given silhouette by a pitch black shadow that ran like dripping ink. Its glowing, inhuman eyes were fast on her as it made its slow, methodical approach while its footfalls landed without a sound. When it was before her, towering over her, it nodded its head, signaling now was her chance to plead her case.
And plead she did. With all of conviction she had in her body, she reiterated her promise for a contract.
“You are aware that this world you wish to enter is unlike any other world you have ever seen in all of your journeying? It was brave of you to venture out into these realms on nothing but a flight of passion, but there are many men who would judge your bravery as nothing but foolishness.”
“It’s not just a flight of passion. I need to bring him back. The world depends on it…”
“You depend on it. The world has been saved. You now would need to do nothing else but live. You could put away your blade forevermore. Would that not be what he would desire for you?” His words were cold, matter of fact.
“No. The world isn’t saved. He’d promised that he’d at last stop Eclipse, but…”
“It’s curious. Your love for this man is so pure that it has forsaken the fear of death within you. And that is what has made your adventures in this realm possible. Yet a young girl like you has no place in this gateway nor traveling through its many doors. Though it has not been without its toll. Seeking after this man, you have forsaken all of those who love you and now you yourself are forsaken by life. You’ve become a slave to a new master. No longer a fear for your own life as you’d once knew, you are now conquered by the fear of something beyond your control.”
“Why do you treat him like a stranger? You knew him too. You know who he is.” Justice rose to her feet with a fire burning in her eyes, a defiant stance taken before the spectral man.
“…You were never born in this world you seek to enter.”
“I know. I know that.”
Against her greatest strength, she yet squirmed beneath that cold gaze that cut her through to her core. She could feel his eyes boring into her very soul. Holding her sword close to her body in an embrace, she’d bravely continued.
“That’s why I can’t enter into it. That’s why I need your help. That’s why I’m willing to forge this contract with you.”
“…I understand and I will honor this strength of yours. I’ve seen your future in your eyes and this unyielding defiance you carry is an uncommon sight. But I have more reason than your strength of will to indulge you in your pleas.”
Another whistling of wind ran through their meeting place there at the hero’s grave. The leaves played their melancholic tone while the sun bore down on the Demon of the Plains’ ethereal body. The inky shadows that slithered down his white form wafted away from him but for a second’s time before it regathered.
“The Celestial Knight has his obligations to our agreement. Before his choice to have found his grave, he had vowed his own contract with me. Yet he has not fulfilled it to its fullest. This mercy I extend to you will be for both of our sake.”
With a glimmering of hope she looked up to the Demon of the Plains and met his eyes without flinching. Despite how their gaze cut through her and into her heart. There was no fear to be found there at its bottom. No insecurity. She was ready to do whatever it would take to finally free that otherworldly man before her.
“I’d been told that you could tell your contract partners whatever they would request to hear; past, present or future. If I’m going to save him, I’m going to need to know more about this world. And I’m prepared to fight until the end, even if I have to forfeit my own life.”
“Very admirable, but I must give you fair warning that if you wish to save him, there are truths that you cannot divulge to him. Should he know the truth, he will fall beyond the possibility of your salvation.”
“I… understand.”
“I will tell you the most important of this information and I will advise you to listen to well. Let none of it escape you, commit it to your memory, engrave it into your heart and soul if you truly seek to save the Celestial Knight.”
Though a mite of fear, a single doubt came to bite her, she’d slaughtered it before nodding her head to the Demon.
“The man you wish to rescue has been marked with death. He has always been marked with death yet now his time is due and in this world that you will enter, that time is coming. You are fighting fate, you are facing against destiny.”
For the first time in the entire conversation, Astaroth had tolted his head down to face her. With all emphasis, he spoke a most dire reality.
“You do not seem to understand that the Celestial Knight must die.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care what anything, anyone, any force says; I’ll save the Celestial Knight, no matter what.”
“I have seen many attempt to resurrect those marked with death before. All had been delivered to the same end. For my own sake I would wish to see hope. My contract to you will be that you will give me hope with your success. You will clear my name with the hope that you display. Yet there is one final warning I give to you as grace before I can allow you the choice to accept this contract.”
He stood as deathly still as all of the infinite headstones in that otherworldly cemetery. As dead as the world around him, hollow and cold, his words became the sharpest blade Justice had ever known.
“The Angel of Death approaches. This is your final chance. Should you fail, there will be no hope for saving the Celestial Knight you so love and adore. The man you knew will have died for all eternity.”
★ ★ ★
Surfacing from the ocean of her remembrance, she looks up to Khiron’s sleeping face through the filter of her flowing tears. She brings herself closer, holds him more tightly. Taking in every sensation she’d so missed as she’d wandered that endless cemetery, she gluts herself on the feeling of his warmth. His life.
“I’ll save you. I’ll save you no matter what.” Her promise is sworn on her very heart and soul.
And if it would ever be broken, she knows that she would be shattered. Yet she takes that risk.
All for him.
† † †
So ends the next major section of Forsaken kNight. And so begins the true struggle of the story.
I adore Justice so much. Hahaha. I've long looked forward to when I can add her to the series proper. Regrettably, by the first volume of the novel series, she has but a single chapter dedicated to her appearance and isn't a major player until around the third volume. So this story likewise is another little treat for myself as I get to write all about her. This story is, in effect, very much about her and she is doubtlessly its secondary protagonist from here forward.
As I've been busy working on a variety of projects, including editing the first novel for the series, the writing for this story has taken a pause. I'll be refocusing on writing the next part and updates should come very soon.
There will be a new chapter uploaded next week, don't worry over that. But this is a small heads up in case I'd might need to place the story on hiatus as I fill the next chapters and prepare them for release.
Until next time!
