A terrible ringing in the ear came to Theodor. With that pain in his lungs and the taste of blood in his mouth. He opened his eyes and looked around. Soldiers being slaughtered in the camp. He tried to remember why was he here. A few days ago he and other three paladins were tasked to lead a task force inside the Arctic Wizards territory. Mostly to scout and do some harm to the villages. In the first day they learned about the lack of defences at the border and raided a few villages. During the night they camped on a hill with a river close to them. He tried to convince the other paladins to set up a perimeter around the camp, but they did not listen. Now it looked that they were attacked, and they were caught off-guard. He figured that the attack started with a barrage of cannons and magic. He felt the magic around him. He grabbed his longsword, still in his night clothes, and tried to lead his men to victory. Again and again, after mustering a few soldiers, a fireball or a cannon ball hit his group and killed everyone. Three times he tried and three times he failed. Screams of agony filled the atmosphere, the scent of burning flesh and blood overwhelmed Theodor. The snow was either melting from the heat or red with the blood of the soldiers. Finally Theodor saw at the horizon, the enemy camp. With proper defences, artillery positions and wizards at the front. Theodor closed his eyes and calmed himself, then his armour started latching on his body fully covering him. Instead of his longsword he had now a spear. The spear and his armour started shining with bright light, covering most of the hill. With his voice he shouted “Men, I order you to fight for your faith and kill these monsters in the name of our beloved Sun and in the name of humanity!”, the shout could be heard even at the enemy camp and the soldiers started cheering and shouting. Then he aimed with his spear at the enemy camp, and threw it. It travelled at great speed, lightning coming out of it. It hit right in the middle of the camp, sending a big explosion with lightning that hit most of the wizards. The enemy, seeing his camp destroyed started retreating and Theodor’s forces started winning. They chased the enemy back to a local forest where they lost track. The men cheered and lifted Theodor for their victory. They gave him a title “Golden Saviour”. During morning he learned that the rest of the paladins died during the initial attack and he ordered a return to Bishopry. Going back home was not easy, they were endlessly harassed by the enemy. Eventually when they arrived at Impetu Solis, from the ten thousand troops, only a few hundred arrived back home. Ceremonies were held for the dead, burning their bodies and putting the ash in a mausoleum. Then as revenge, elves were dragged out of a prison and tortured publicly. As a finishing touch, Theodor got to execute them.
“Any last words creature?” he asked proudly
“See you in hell monster!” shouted the elf with great anger and then looked at the crowd “See you all in hell!” his words being cut short by Theodor’s longsword
That day he executed 10 elves, it was like a show to the people. Some even got lucky and were themselves the executioner. Indeed it was gruesome as the normal peasant could not cut the head of an elf with a single strike, causing more suffering. After a day of rest, Theodor was summoned to the capital to reveal the results of the campaign. On his travel back to the capital, he met a lot of people, “Saviour”, “Hero”, “Elf Slayer”, “Golden Spear”, “True Saint”, every village had a new name for him. It felt a bit unnatural that after a battle he was this famous, but he did do some other type of missions. He brushed off this thought and decided to just enjoy it. Arriving at the capital he got into a meeting with the heads of the Bishopry.
The meeting was inside a large room with a dark wood table in the middle. The walls were painted red or yellow, windows were letting a lot of light inside the room. The chairs were made of the same wood as the table, at the front the table was Lucius, on his left there were paladins and clerics with one free chair right next to him and on the left there were administrators, priests and a diplomat from Nothoria. It looked like the meeting already started without Theodor. His entrance did stop the talks for a second, but they resumed right after.
“Ah, welcome Theodor. Have a seat please. We were just listening to minister Jacques of Zalmoxia war report. Please continue minister.” Lucius said without taking a glance at Theodor.
The minister coughed a bit and then started to talk again. His voice was shaking a bit and after each sentence was looking around the room to see their reaction. Theodor seated himself and started listening.
“Um, yes. Our forces are slowly moving towards Frozen Wind. We have met sparse resistance. Only a few groups of Arctic’s soldiers tried to slow us, but they were killed with ease. Our emperor leads the forces there. In summary we are winning.”
“Expected of this fools. They can’t even defend themselves.” said one of the priests with a snarky voice.
“Father Paul, please. These fools killed three paladins and most of our southern army. Theodor here can explain what happened.”
Lucius’s voice always attracted attention, everyone was looking at Theodor waiting, ready to intervene if he slipped. Theodor looked back at them, then with a bit of annoyance said:
“Father, I think we are the fools. My brethren were killed simply by their incompetence, not because the wizards did some sort of trickery. Indeed, what I understand is that they are focusing on defending the core territory, not the outlying cities, so far away. I remind you, Arctic Wizards are not always welcomed in Rexalia or Honoria. So they are completely landlocked and they decided to just simply count on our own stupidity. The first day was easy, we scouted the border and raided a few villages. During the night, because we did not set proper defences and relaxed, we got ambushed and totally destroyed.”
“Hmph. You are good at this Theodor, moving the blame on the dead.”
“Again, father, I am grateful to our Sun to grant us these victories, but I do not think he can help us when we simply behave like we are fighting children.”
Another priest, dressed in red with white clothing, looked at Theodor with suspicious eyes. Some of the paladins agreed with Theodor, while the statesmen tried to criticize Theodor. A loud debate started, but lived shortly, ended with the voice of Lucius.
“My children, no need to fight. I can still feel that the Sun has still not abandoned us and His grace is upon us. But, we do must listen to Theodor. Our proudness can be our downfall, which will mean the fall of humanity. Indeed Theodor’s mission was more of a failure, but the people love him. Doesn’t that mean that he was blessed by our Lord’s touch? Doesn’t that mean that we were blessed at the same time. Our Lord felt how our arrogance is blocking us to finish this war once and for all. Theodor, with our guidance we can reform our armies and crush our enemies forever.”
All of them started to agree, the meeting lasted for another hour, talks about the next actions and the events in the middle of the continent and how Nothoria is funding the quest for the adventurers. When they finished, everyone left in a group except Theodor who went on a separate way and Lucius that remained to finish some business. Theodor was followed by the red priest in the courtyard.
“It will be short Theodor, a small talk.” he said while having one of his hands on Theodor’s shoulder.
The way he walked concerned Theodor a bit, like he was avoiding some tiles to not set up some kind of traps. It did looked naturally, but his pace was longer than normal.
“What is it, Inquisitor Thomas?” he said still looking at how Thomas was walking
“Your declarations today were a bit, let’s say unorthodox. I know you have your best in mind, but please, do try to refrain to talk so openly minded during meetings. Next time, say them to me or Lucius privately.”
Theodor stopped walking, annoyed again that someone lower than him tries to interfere
“So what, you want me to just swallow?”
“Hah, yes! Swallow your pride, because you can see it from the other side of the continent.” Thomas approached Theodor with a serious look and this time, with a normal walk, really close that you can see every detail of his face. Theodor moved back a little
“Or not even the Pope can help you. Have a great day.”
After that Thomas started moving away from Theodor resuming his weird walk. Theodor was shocked that someone from the Bishopry threatened him. He did not know how to react. He tried to read Thomas, to understand him, but it looked that there were two different persons. The next day it started raining, but in the hallways and at the library he felt like he was watched, but when turning or pausing from reading, everyone was just doing their things, cleaning, reading or writing. Everything started to feel normal and strange at the same time and it drove him mad because he couldn’t figure it out. Eventually another mission came. Search and destroy a possessed knight close to the border with Arctic Wizards. Glad that he could leave the capital he went without telling anyone. He later learned that the knight moved to a friendly orc tribe close to the border. It was new to him, fighting in a desert. He was used with the green fields or with the snowy hills. His search was hard, the knight was always ahead of him, never leaving a track that could lead Theodor to him. A week passed with no result and the tracks stopped appearing. Thinking that the knight died, he decided to go back to Bishopry. Hell begun, nightmares of being killed time and time again. And the desert felt infinite. Without breath, he collapsed close to a dune in the shadow. Lapsing in and out of conscience, he felt a presence close to him and then being dragged to a oasis. It was night when he woke up, breathing heavily and with sweaty. He was naked, with his armour thrown aside. Looking around he could see the mountains from Arctic Wizards. Theodor tried to move, but could not. His body was not responding, then he finally saw the knight, headless, dirty armour, most of it with marks of combat. Bent and broken in some places, some arrows still stuck in it. The legs and arms were part whole, part rotten. It was moving sluggishly, but well enough. It looked more like it was tired. Out of the neck a shadow started coming out, firstly a head, then arms and body. Bright white eyes, orc mouth but an elf face and ears. The body looked muscular, the arms ending in claws, no legs. It slowly moved towards Theodor then started entering his eyes and mouth. Pain and fear took a hold of him and his conscience started fading. He managed to say one word: “No.”. then his longsword moved on its own piercing both of his cheeks burning the shadow. It started screaming and try to get out but couldn’t. Theodor felt the flames as well, but what hurt him the most was the shadow moving inside him. After a long agony, the shadow disappeared and Theodor was free. He ran towards the water and started bathing. He took a flask of holy water from his baggage and drank it. Shacking in the water, he put his hands in a praying position and started praying. All night he prayed for forgiveness and strength. In the morning he calmed himself, burned the body of the knight and cleaned his wounds. For his “victory” he was rewarded with praise by the pope and a week of rest. He started to behave like everyone else, if he had any concern, he talked to Lucius or Thomas in private. And eventually, the sensation of being watched went away. From now on, Theodor vowed to not be taken by pride ever again and respect Bishopry’s rules with all his might
