Chapter 24 The Knight Councilman

❄️Snow❄️

Sir Harper’s manor wasn’t just a boastful shell on the outside, it was just as luxurious within. Everything from the furniture to the lighting, to the flooring was of the highest quality. Not even the castle living hall was this luxurious. Even Lussuria gave a nod of approval of the place.

The steward stopped just before the central stairs as they watched a lady descending its steps. The lady wore a green ribbon around her neck with a blue dress that had many misaligned cuts down the center which revealed her legs masked in detailed stockings. Arthur coughed and looked away. The steward turned towards them.

“Princess Snow, Princess Lussuria I would like to introduce you to Lady Grace, Lady of this household.

“Are you girls from Regalia?” She asked with an innocent voice as she reached the bottom landing.

Snow nodded, “yes we are.”

“I knew it, You girls are way too cute to be some lowborn nobodies.” Her eyes scanned over to Arthur looking him over questionably as if assessing him. “Why aren’t you a cute one yourself, seems the stories about the attractiveness of the Lotus even extends to its guardsmen.” She raised her eyebrow in an aggressive fixture as she inflicted a stare upon him that asserted tense aggression, Arthur maintained face before a reddish tint bloomed on his face causing him to look away. The woman smiled, returning her attention back to Snow and Lussuria, putting her hands together. “oh my, where are my manners? As my husband’s steward said, my name is Grace, Julius is my husband. Forgive me but I have never spoken to a Regalian royal before, so I am terribly excited. I have so many questions, but I know you must be dreadfully busy! Please don’t let me bother you, my husband is upstairs.” She was excited but clearly disappointed by the fact that she couldn’t speak more.

“That’s okay, Lussuria, I can handle this on my own, do you want to stay and spend some time with Lady Grace?” Snow motioned to Lussuria.

“Why of course it will be my pleasure.” Lussuria flicked her hair and put up her chin. “Miss Grace, Do you have a tea room we can relax in? The walk here was quite long.”

Grace and Lussuria started trailing off to a separate part of the house. Before stopping midway Lady Grace appeared to whisper something in Lussuria’s ear. Lussuria gave a silent giggle before shaking her head. Grace looked at Arthur. “If her highness Princess Snow has business with my husband, I’m sure she would like to converse with him alone.” Grace said while resuming the intense gaze at Arthur. Arthur gave Snow a fearfully silent look...

“I will be quick. Just go with them Arthur.” Snow quickly said.

“Very well.” Arthur followed them as they resumed walking.

“Oh goodie where shall I start, first what perfume is that? You smell lovely, and what food do you eat? What kind of holidays do you celebrate? Isn’t Frostblood supposed to have white hair?” She really did have a million questions she kept asking while they were on route to the tearoom.

The steward led Snow upstairs to Sir Harper’s office. He knocked on the office door and took a step back as they waited. The only indication of someone inside was the subtle movement of furniture, maybe the councilor was preparing the room? Snow thought nothing of it until an elven slave opened the door. The elf had pretty hair with green ribbons but it appeared that one of them was missing, leading to half of her hair being unfastened. The elven maid gave a quick bow before quickly proceeding down the hall.

Sir Harper's office had a set of couches in the center surrounding a wide table, and near the windows there were weapon racks and armored dummies of various kinds each equipped with a special unique looking armor. It looked like a quartermaster’s collection.

“Thank you, Harold, you may leave us.” Sir Harper was sitting on the front of his desk towards the back of the room. After Harold left, Sir Harper rose and approached Snow. Sir Harper was a tall man who wore a regal red and black coat with an insignia of the mountaineer coat of arms weaved on the chest. His short hair was slightly gray and neatly kept just like his beard which was short and sharply shaped. He gave her a slow bow.

“Her majesty Snow Regalia, to what I owe the grace of this visitation, princess?”

“I didn’t even introduce myself. How do you know it’s me?”

“Please, a little hair color change may work for commoners, but you wear your mother’s face. Sad that we have grown into a time where disguises are necessary, but please, have a seat. He motioned her to the set of sofas that surrounded the table in the center of the room. Would you like some tea?”

Snow nodded.

Sir Harper gave a sharp whistle and a small girl came in. Snow thought it might have been his daughter, until she saw the silver collar nearly hidden underneath her clothing, she was a slave. She was also half-elf given away by her ears but lack of the typical elongated elf neck.

“Girl, fetch us some tea.”

“Of course sir!” The girl scurried off.

“So tell me, do you like the manor?” His hands rose in a gesture of boast. Awaiting her response.

“Very luxurious, not an expense spared. In fact, you could give our living hall a run for its money.” Snow has seen her fair share of expensive décor, and this was pretty much over the top as she looked over his exotically furnished room again.

“That’s right, You never know when your last day on earth will be. So, I don’t cut corners.” He seemed very proud of his home.

Snow didn't want to get straight into negotiations yet, like Lussuria said, she needs to take this slow and try to find the best approach, she saw the four unique armors that were on display behind him.

“Sir Harper do you mind if I take a look at your armor sets, they look interesting.”

Sir harper’s eyes glowed at that inquiry

“Why of course! I’ll even explain each one to you!” He seemed to be eager to show it off.

Snow got up and took a few steps up to the first armor set nearest to the door. It was made of scales and green skin.

“Fortunately, and unfortunately these armor sets are mainly decoration now, as there is no current use for them since the end of the war. That dragon skin armor you are looking at is what I would use if we were up against beasts, it is fire resistant, pierce resistant and good against teeth and tails. I remember this one battle where it saved me from a wave of sting sharks.”

“We were actually attacked by a few on the road here in the middle of the night, they moved so fast they were keeping up with our carriage.”

“Glad your safety was ensured then. They are much faster than people expect them to be. Some people even call them cute, cute until they are devouring you with their countless rows of underside teeth.”

Snow moved on to the next one. It was a white robe that looked tougher than normal clothing, with long hanging sleeves and a neck wrap.

“Can you guess what this one is used for?”

“It’s light so I can only assume it's not meant for beasts, Holy operations?”

“It is poison resistant, its inside layer is coated in a slow dissolving anti venom. Expensive to maintain but there is no better poison resistant armor! I swear I’ve spent more money on anti-venom for this suit than I have for this manor, ha! I remember trekking through miles of insect swampland only to be the sole survivor for many battles. You don’t play with insect poison, vile stuff.”

They moved on to the next one, It was a fat suit of armor that had rounded points all around it.

“This one looks silly. I wonder what’s its purpose.”

“This suit, as silly as it looks, I’ve saved the most lives with this one. It is anti-explosive and very sturdy against a giant’s crushing force. I’ve cleared more minefields and killed more giants than even the frost queen herself with this suit.”

“Based on the stories I’ve heard, that would be an impressive feat.” Snow raised her eyebrows.

He laughed.

“Perhaps I’m tooting my own horn but it was heavily used!”

They moved to the last suit. It was a sleek knight armor, it looked similar to the Lotus guard armor Arthur, Crow and Ares wore. She took a closer look, and could see the faint glowing of golden lines that spread around the armor like a grid.

“This one is my best suit. It is Anti-Magic, Binding spells don’t work on it, lightning gets grounded, magical fire snuffs itself out, and artificial ice melts. Ideally you wouldn’t send a knight off to fight a mage but if it ever came to that, I would wear this. Mage’s get so cocky until you negate a few of their spells then they usually surrender.”

“Really now? I’ve never heard of an armor that could do that. How is that possible?”

“Funny enough, not even I know. It was a suit worn by an old comrade of mine.”

“Who made it for him?”

“An angel.”

“I didn’t know that angels made armor? Especially for humans.”

“They don’t, it was one of a kind. The story goes that they fell in love during the war and the angel made him the armor for protection.”

“Humans were at war with the angels though, how could they fall in love?”

“Who knows, angels are the most prideful creatures by far. The fact that one fell in love with a human is still a mystery to me. They look upon us like animals, lesser beings even. The fact that they extended a peace offering to the high queen was very shocking. But, your mother was a fearsome woman.”

“She still is.”

“With the pressure of ruling over the majority of Lucredia, I would assume so.”

Snow began reaching out to touch the grid-like lines that patterned over this special armor, she didn't know why but looking at the lines of light were so mesmerizing. Her hand got closer and closer, before it came to a stop about an inch away from contact. She retraced her hand and turned to Sir Harper.

“So what happened to your comrade and the angel?”

“The story goes, his group stumbled across an angel detachment that his angelic lover was in. The angel needed to make a choice, kill the human she fell in love with, or turn against her own kind.”

“What did she choose?”

Sir Harper looked up as if remembering that day.

“The latter. The two of them took down the entire detachment of angels, about half a dozen.”

“Six is a detachment?”

“A single angel can match the strength of 100 men, so fighting six at once was unheard of. This was before your mother’s infamous frostblood army came along and changed those values. I stumbled across the remains of that battle. The angel was holding his corpse. I will never forget that image; her invisible wings were revealed by the blood coating them, they were so long and arced around his body while she cradled him on the ground. Not only did I see what their wings look like, I also learned that their tears glisten. The sight was like a painting of a terrible tragedy but strangely beautiful. I noticed at the last second that my men were preparing to strike. I stopped them, ordered them to stand down, the angel in response gave me one judgmental gaze and decided to leave his armor with me, explaining that it was not enough to protect him and asked me to put it to good use. She then flew away with his corpse and I never saw her again.”

“That’s so… sad.”

“War is not a fight to stand on the mound of victory, it is the process of creating that mound with death and suffering.”

“I wouldn't call that a mound of victory then, that's a mound of mistakes.”

“That's certainly one way to look at it.”

Suddenly, the sharp sound of whooshing fire was heard.

“Fire?” The smell of smoke filled Snow’s nose, the smell was coming from the nearby window.

They both rushed to the window to see what was happening behind the house. Harper’s office window had a view of the fort's training yard. Grace was down there cheering as Arthur’s fist was smoking. The training dummy at the end of the yard was on fire.

“Grace, you are going to burn the house down!” Harper called loudly out of the window with a tone of annoyance.

“He’s a Lotus dear! He knows how to aim!” She turned back to Arthur, “That was exciting, can you shoot a bigger one?”

“How about a flaming whip?”

“Oh even better!” she excitedly nodded.

Sir Harper shook his head before looking back at Snow.

“Don’t worry Sir Harper, I will cover any damages, Arthur is very precise, he won’t burn your house.” Snow gave him assurance.

“I’ll hold you to that. Now how about we take a walk.”

They were walking around the estate building. Snow noticed throughout the tour of lavish walkways, gardens and side buildings that there were a multitude of slaves, some were elven, some insect and others human. All either young women or children. The women were cleaning for the most part while the children were seen picking fruit and carrying small buckets of water around. Snow also noticed that all of the children were half breeds: half-elves, half-mothian, even one was an elf-sect. Each child looked wildly different with diverse and unique features like: neck marks, pointed ears, bone horns, partial bone-plated bodies, developing wings and more. However, they all shared one thing in common, and that was a collar brandishing a knight symbol.

“It is to my understanding you’re not just here for sightseeing.” He noticed her looking at his slaves.

“This place must take a lot of upkeep.” Snow answered his misdirecting inquiry.

“It does, but honestly I just like having them around. You can call me a very charitable man.”

Snow and Sir Harper continued the stroll before crossing a glass paned door. Looking through the door Snow saw a room inside that caught her interest; The room had a checkered floor and a game table in the center. Snow stopped as she stared into the room.

“Do you like my praefectus chess room?” He noticed her interest.

“I play, it’s fun.”

“Praefectus is a good judge of character. I typically play it to judge knights who are trying to reach officer ranks.”

“Surely praefectus knowledge can’t be the sole indicator of a good leader.”

“You would be surprised. Even if you are bad at the game, you can get a good judge of character. How about we discuss your business over a game of praefectus chess, Princess Snow?”

🛡️ Ares 🛡️

Ares was investigating the inside of the old mage guild building. The only things out of place were all the incapacitated or dead mercenaries whose bodies littered the halls in his wake. He stopped upon discovering a tunnel that had been dug near the rear of the school. There was a crow sitting on his shoulder. Its feathers rippled with his every move, causing the bird to look more like a shadow in the shape of a crow more than anything else...

“Looks like there is some excavation happening here. The question is, for what?”

Ares began to descend into the tunnel, but before he could get too deep, the crow on his shoulder started to caw aggressively at him.

“What? Are you scared of tunnels or something?”

Ares continued on his way, ignoring the uncooperative bird and it wasn’t long before he stepped into a new underground structure.

“Woah, talk about a cliché hideout.”

There were various magical instruments on the walls and in glass boxes in rows, spanning down the room.

Ares took a closer look at some of the items enclosed in glass cases before he took a second look around.

“On second thought, this isn’t a hideout, it’s a vault. Maybe the vault of the old mage guild?”

Ares looked around until he reached the end of the room and saw a huge obsidian door that had cracks and scorches all over it. There was a tunnel right in the floor underneath the door and when Ares went to inspect it, he saw that he could barely fit in it.

The bird on his shoulder became agitated again and started pecking the side of his face when he attempted to go in.

“Stop pecking me damnit! Arthur can’t help us! He’s on babysitting duty! If we leave now, they will send backup. This might be our only chance.”

Ares ripped the axeblade out of his leg armor as it transformed back into its proper form before fusing it with the armor on his left arm, causing it to change shape again.

“Instead of squeezing through that hole, I’ll just bust the whole door down!”

The axeblade started to glow in its new place on his arm as he pulled it back in preparation for a punch. The crow started to flap its wings and caw, taking to the air to get away.

“Crow... Relax. You're being ridiculous right now. I got this!”

There was a subtle click as the glow coming from his arm seemed to peak before he lunged forward and struck the door with full force. The door shook and cracked but didn’t break. Instead, the walls and ceiling holding the door in place gave in, allowing it to fall into the pitch-black room it had been protecting. His bird companion returned to his shoulder as the dust settled.

Ares entered the room and green magical lights activated, lighting the place up and revealing a small throne with a skeleton seated on it. There were ten other skeletons on the ground in the room, all in kneeling positions towards the throne. Ares examined the enthroned one and noticed it had a black ring on its finger.

Some of the green light in the room reflected off the ring and into Ares’ eyes giving him a sudden and splitting headache. The surprise pain was so intense he fell to one knee. He could feel his body slowly being forced to match the same position the rest of the skeletons were in, no matter how hard he fought against it. The crow on his shoulder flew at the ring and opened its wings around it, blocking vision of it, thereby breaking Ares free from its spell.

“What the hell kind of magic is that?” Ares rumbled as he rubbed at his head. “Thanks Crow.” But instead of silence, or any of the sounds a bird would make, a voice he didn’t know responded to him.

“I feel like I must thank you for I was just about to do the same and break down that door, but you saved me the hassle.” A man took one step into the light of the room and out of the shadows that had concealed him.

Ares didn’t know the voice or the face, but he recognized the eye patch, and the clothing.

“Based on the report, you are that runic bastard that attacked her majesty’s kids in Regalia.”

Ares ripped the Axeblade from his armor, transforming it into its proper weapon form again as he got into position, his body radiating a desire to do violence.

“I’ll bring your head straight to her majesty.”

The man with the eyepatch sized him up calmly before replying.

“I’ve heard stories about that weapon of yours. Let’s see how strong it really is.” He replied as he began reaching for his eyepatch.

Ares charged right at him.