Erik's Journey | The Fall

The Golden Soldiers

Footsteps receded, and I figured my old teammates must've left. The priest knelt down next to me and carefully placed his hand on my back. I managed to find the strength to shrug him off, and he removed his hand.

"Erik, I am sorry," he apologized. "I'm sorry I did not help you and your sister escape from those awful-"

He quickly shut up and I heard him back away. There was loud clattering and clanking and suddenly three hands pulled me to my feet and began dragging me away. When I found the strength to look up, I noticed that they were the golden soldiers on the boat that I had seen before.

I didn't try to resist. I didn't have the strength to fight them off, anyways. After a few moments, we boarded their boat and they tied me to the mast of the ship with some rope. I just sat there, not knowing what to do. Should I shout for help? Try to fight them? I just ended up sitting there staring at the golden statues of townspeople surrounding me, feeling guilty for some reason.

Eventually, the ship left the dock, and we sailed out into the ocean. We didn't go very far though; the ship just sailed around some cliffs, then we came to a cave opening and disembarked.

The soldiers took me inside the cave, threw me in a dungeon cell, then locked me up. For some reason, this place felt familiar...

My head began hurting again, so I stopped thinking about it the best I could and sat down, watching the golden soldiers celebrate to distract myself from the memories.

One of the soldiers laughed. He looked a little different than the others, with a golden knight's helmet covering his head. I figured he was the leader of the small group.

"Feast and be merry, boys!" he exclaimed. "We got a good haul today— Gyldygga's sure to reward us!"

The soldiers surrounding him lifted their swords into the air and shouted, "Hurrah! Hurrah!"

I turned my head towards the floor and closed my eyes. 

"We did especially well to bag this one," the leader said, his voice sounding right outside my cell gate. "The boss has been after him for a long time."

He laughed and I looked up as he clanked away from my cell. He began chatting with the other soldiers and they abruptly stopped as the doors flew open and my teammates rushed in, holding their weapons up and ready to fight.

The leader of the golden soldiers studied them for a moment before shouting, "Hey! What the heck are you doing here!?" He paused for a moment, then he continued in a quieter voice. "Wait... I know you... You're that rotten Luminary!"

A soldier that was standing next to him said, "You're dead right, Chief. He looks just like the picture on the wanted poster! He's the Luminary alright!"

A different soldier abruptly spoke up. "I'll run up to the Gyldenhal and let the boss know he's here!"

The soldier quickly ran off down a side hall in the cave. Sylvando put one hand on his hip and held the other out. "Seems you're quite the celebrity, darling. I can't say I'm not jealous."

Jade glanced over at him, looking fed-up with him. "This is no time for jokes, Sylvando. We're here to rescue Erik, remember?"

The Chief laughed. "You think you're going to plunder our plunder? Just try it— we'll beat you blacker and bluer than the Lord of Shadows did!"

Another soldier next to him said, "Hey Chief— just imagine the reward you'd get if you took him the Luminary's head on a platter! One of those empty Spectral Sentinel seats could be yours!"

The Chief glanced over at him, and if he could grin, I bet he would have. "Hey, that's not a bad idea! Come on then boys— let's swipe ourselves a skull that's worth its weight in gold!"