Theurgy: The Journey's Dawn (Book One)

Chapter 6 Contest of Knights

"Of course," he sighed, no longer looking at Lyse but the slight haze that was around them now, staring off into the distance. "You're pretty nasty with that. I might just go with a mace, something meaty."

"Yeah, you can sure hit," Lyse told him. Then, silence took a strict hold, as both became trapped within themselves for the moment. The silence was unlike anything they had experienced before, and a deep tension lay thick in the air. Edlund was thinking too. He has worked even more challenging to be here. Lyse had his mother and father, his father teaching him some small things, and his mother teaching him reading. Both he used in training and finding strategies. His tasks always supported him. However, Edlund was alone. Edlund didn't prove himself with his fine swordsmanship, but with his rugged brutality and resolve, his tremendous physical prowess that Lyse mostly lacked. And so far, these sets of skills are what kept them going and hopeful. However, the nerves were overwhelming. They had no idea what to expect the next day. What challenge lies ahead. He has heard many tails of men and women dying during these trials-some kind of famous warriors and champions meeting a demise in trying to become a knight. Only the most stubborn survive these trials.

"So, what do you think awaits us for these trials?" Edlund asked after a long while of self-inquiry.

Lyse sighed and sunk even deeper into the creamy bathwater. "Monsters, most likely. Or perhaps we have to fight someone. If we're lucky, we get an obstacle course."

"I don't think we're that providential just yet," Edlund told him. "But hey, we will be invincible as long as we're together."

"And what if we're not?" Lyse asked him. "What if we separated."

Edlund shrugged at this worry. "Then we will have to stick to our guts and faith. Cause I have no clue how else we are going to get through this."

"Fate has it we be ready," Lyse squirmed somehow, surrounded by the still-warm waters that soothed as he tried to fold into himself. "What if . . . we don't make it. What if we die?"

"Die," Edlund said the word as if it was foreign. He stood directly under one of the bronze lions, allowing the water to spill over his head and shoulders. "What's with you thinking about that now? Even when we faced literal assassins and we were a few steps from death, you did not let it weigh on you. So I didn't let it weigh on me."

"That's the thing," Lyse sighed. "We were lucky. Two farmhands trained in the sword and of aura, and we nearly lost to an assassin each. If they sent anymore or used another strategy, we would be dead for sure, and we can not forget that. It was a curious gamble for them, taking on the sage four versus one. If I were their priority, two would, or three should have been the bare minimum. I surely could not handle more than one, and we could handle four together. Perhaps. . . "

He caught himself rambling. He was rambling like an air-headed librarian or child ranting on his favorite stories. Edlund had an airy quality to his stare as if focused on anything else, yet keen on what he was saying all the same. He shook his head in confusion. He never rambled like that before. Usually, he kept his comments quick and precise, and thinking of a strategy like this was not his way of thinking. It felt like some outside force was momentarily using his mouth, speaking on things he held within like an aged tactician seeing a battle map. He almost pictured the methods they could have used but didn't. How they could also end up dead perhaps, or him captured. He even considered letting them capture him to see his sister and play from there.

He sighed under the thoughts and let them seep away into the void of his mind. "Anyway, we will have to bring our best, won't we?"

Edlund gave him that confident smile. "Of course. At least I will. You can ramble battle strategy while I bash the head in of whatever beast they throw at us. I much prefer my methods, I suppose."