Knights of Anathaeum Arrival at the Fabled Knights' Domain

[Selene]

The two young men did not end up waiting all that long.

Lucky them, that Captain Selene, keeper of the Dusk Sanctum, was in town running some errands. The squire Lemock found her quickly, and spilled out his story in ragged breaths. Darkness surrounded the area that Lemock pointed her towards. Selene placed a hand on the young squire's shoulder, and urged him to stay put.

She approached the place alone.

"Ah ha, here's the source of all this ill will," Selene said as she came to stop in front of Hector and the stranger he stood vigil over. The burning sword didn't draw her attention. She looked instead at the tall young lad, her cool black eyes absorbing much. "Strange, that you were able to get past the barrier. I do rather pride myself in keeping Astenvale scourge-free."

Calm, fearless steps took Selene in a circle round the boy. As she moved, that darkness that surrounded him seemed to pool at her feet, stirring like silt in water. With a wave of her hand, she churned up that silt even more. The air began to clear. Darkness soaked into her palm, drained, until the day was balmy and bright again.

Above, the eyeless crows stopped cawing. The shadowy figure of the dog crumbled mid-lunge. The last thing to go was a flash of dark teeth, so close to catching the cat's tail. Then it all turned to smoke and shadow, and disappeared into Selene's grasp.

Satisfied with the cleanup, she tilted her head towards the young Sworn. "Hector," she said in simple greeting. "You called?"

Nacht Hector

 

[Hector]

Hector blinked, at the sound of his name.

The grim expression he had warn, suddenly wide with unspoken worry. "Captain Selene!" he sounded equal parts surprised as he was relieved. "Yes, Captain, I, well," he cleared his throat, and with a flick of his hand, a dash from left to right, the sword of flame broke into embers and sparks. Trailed through the air, as if a banner pulled across the way, tail snapping through the wind as it waned and not but smoke remained.

He straightened up again, and fixed his eyes on the stranger. "This boy," his eyes did not flinch. "He," Hector thought on it a moment. "It is as you said, Captain, he is the source of the ill will that darkened the area, spoke in a second voice, and," he stared intensely at the youth. "Either he pretends to be unaware, or has no idea of what rests within him,"

Selene Nacht

 

[Nacht]

"Here's the- I don't mean to upset you guys! I just want to talk to someone about my magic." Nacht protested, holding out his hands and waving them defensively. He stepped away from the burning sword, hands in the air now. His legs were less brave than his voice, evidently, given they wobbled like a leaf in fall winds. "Dammit, stop shaking." he said to himself, managing to cease his lower half's vibrating with a look of determination. "Wait, what barrier? It all just....seems like a forest to me." he asked curiously, touching the air as though that would suddenly make the obstacle they seemed to be talking about appear. Safe to say, he stopped that with a slight yelp as this mysterious woman came towards him. Would she drop a burning sword on him as well? Why did everyone seem to want to kill him?

The darkness all around them faded, sucked into the palm of the strange woman, the weird animals and in slightly sadder news his new dog going as well. However, that did not mean it wasn't SUPER AWESOME. The eyeless crows were creepy anyway. OH, wait...this was like one of the stories he loved to read, wasn't it. Apparently there was some kind of threat he couldn't risk moving around in the forest with it running amok, and obviously since Hector couldn't guarantee beating it he had called his commander or captain or queen or something? "Ha! This is so cool! Little sad about the dog, but you're like the captain or something of this place? That's neat! I would have went with queen but that doesn't seem like a knight thing." he'd ramble.

He shut up as Hector began speaking, realizing he was blabbing. "Captain Selene and Sir Hector...what pretty names." he muttered, wondering if a smooth sounding name was a requirement for joining. No, that was ridiculous...he hoped. All his life he had been aware his name was half word half throat sound, but it was pretty cool either way. Suddenly, something strange happened. Hector began speaking and a screeching sound came out of his mouth instead, the screams sounding very human. "Ok, that's fucking creepy." Nacht said, covering his ears. It got a little better before it got worse, the sound piercing through his hands and flooding his ears. Constant and crazy noises drowned out everything, his sense of balance and self thoroughly disrupted. "STOP, STOP, WHATEVER YOU'RE SAYING, IT'S FUCKING WITH ME!" he said, pleading.

Finally, his eyes went blank for a moment and then he fell back into his own body, feeling a strange sort of calm. All he could remember was their names. "Selene and...Selene and...Selene and Hector! What pretty names." he said, fully unaware he had just spoken that line seconds before. He pet his cat and tried to calm down, obviously scared for some reason he himself didn't know. Damn, his legs were shaking again.

 

[Selene]

The boy behaved oddly, but not so oddly that Selene rushed into action.

Instead, Selene placed a hand upon Hector's shoulder, preemptively steadying the young knight against reacting as the boy stumbled away from them, screaming.

"Hmm," she hummed, tilting her head to one side and looking at the boy. Speaking low, Selene kept her words close to Hector, as the stranger's expression went blank and unseeing. "Looks like a conditional curse. A nasty one, at that."

Curses with conditions were difficult to pin down, as the bearer appeared unaffected until certain circumstances were met. But Selene was learned about such things, and she could already observe one condition: discussion of the curse seemed to be prohibited. The boy's hazy repetition, and what Hector had said, showed that. A common affliction for patrons to give to their warlock charges. But that didn't seem like the whole story...

Squinting out a smile, she let go of Hector and took another step towards the young man. "And what is your name, dear?" Selene asked.

Hector Nacht

 

[Nacht]

"Me...I-I'm Nacht, Miss Selene!" He said, looking strangely relieved at the act of him remembering his own name. "Uh, why do you ask?" He wondered curiously, still feeling a bit weird. Given his previous reception, this could just be another way to get close enough to kill him, even though deep down he knew she could probably do so with less than a breath. Still, there was no reason to suspect that. So far it seemed as though the lady in front of him was actually rather nice. His body posture changed, his stance becoming a bit more relaxed. GET CLOSER! GET CLOSER, he thought randomly, and noticed how random it was too. Personally, the farther away she was, the less instant the kill would be if it came to that. "Huh?" he accidentally stuttered out. The thoughts continued unnaturally, like a child's chant playing jump the rope, and it eventually became too much to handle.

SHUT UP.

It was as simple as that, a serious thought that momentarily quelled everything. Finally, it was quiet once again. "Pardon, you were saying?"

 

[Selene]

"Pardon, you were saying?"

Present awareness seemed to wash over the young man once more.

"Actually, I was curious about what you were saying. You mentioned earlier, wanting to study magic?" Selene didn't put away the light smile she wore. The expression fit poorly on her face, but it wasn't out of deception. She was just the sort of person who preferred quiet conversation and solemn introspection. Still, she gave it her best effort.

"Don't be shy, now. It's not uncommon for travelers to seek knowledge within the halls of our Order." She pointed her staff off into the distance, at a large outcropping of bedrock that rose above the surrounding landscape. The flat grey stone stood out amongst the greenery of the forest, cutting across the sky like a sword. "See that lookout stone over yonder? Beneath it lies Astenvale Monastery, mine and Hector's home. It is a place which welcomes all -- though our hospitality does have its limits. For example, there is a ward upon the gates that won't let you through, lest you answer mine three questions true."

Now, that was a deception. There were plenty of wards and glyphics between here and the monastery, but Selene was making the rest up.

"The first question: Do you intend any harm to us?"

Hector Nacht

 

[Nacht]

“N-No! I don’t want to harm anybody!” He said, his tone genuine. If anything, it seemed like they wanted to harm him for some reason. He wanted help to learn how to control the dark, and not go crazy or whatever threat was so grievous Miss Emilee suggested he go find a fairytale for help. Well, he had found them, and for some reason everyone was suspicious. “I want to learn to control my power so I don’t hurt anyone around me. Besides, the drawback from my magic makes it hard for me to interact much with normal people.” He explained, once again truthfully.

“Not too much of a traveler, though. I’m just a kid from Astenvale. The town, obviously. Pretty nearby, I think.” He said, making a pathetic attempt at humor in a stressing time. “Wait, you’re serious? You’d take me on as an apprentice or something?” He asked excitedly. Just then, something weird happened. He had been telling the truth when he said HE did not want to harm anyone, but at this point energy from the little remaining darkness multiplied in size.

All of the sudden, a dark skeleton had their arms wrapped around him protectively. The boy was frozen, completely unaware. “Don’t. Take. My. Friend. Away. From. Me.” The skeleton warned, his voice halting but stern, jaw clacking into a gape as socketless eyes stared. “Or. Else. You. Will. Regret. It.” The corpse finished, sighing. It hung there and remained as Nacht slipped back into consciousness, faint whispers making him on edge. Could it really be going this well?

“All. They. Want. Is. You. Dead.” Nacht did not hear this, but looked visibly less comfortable. Everyone else would have, though. “Right, what’s the second question?” He asked, audibly a little less enthusiastic.

Selene

 

[Selene]

A grim hand wrapped around the young boy protectively, and Selene had to take a step back. Then another peeled its bony fingers across the boy's shoulders, and a skeletal figure appeared in the air behind him. Like charcoal, the bones of the skeleton were blackened and smoky.

And like charcoal, those dark bones crumbled away to dust when Selene tapped her staff against the packed earth. The glassy black stone that dangled from the end of Selene's staff glinted with a cold light. She turned her palm upwards, and soaked up the crumbling darkness, as she had done before.

"Now now, I'm trying to have a conversation with your host," Selene said, as the skeleton fell apart piece by piece, his grip on the boy decaying. "Please do not interrupt."

“All. They. Want. Is. You. Dead." Came the last words of the skeleton, before its jaw crumbled and finally stopped clattering.

Selene sighed, her head falling as her shoulders hunched wearily. "Helena is going to give me a hard time, for this one..." she said to herself.

It was unusual. That skeleton just now, and the crows and wolf from before... there was such a great variety, and in such a short span of time. Could it be possible that this young man was host to multiple malcontents at the same time? Now, that was a rare condition.

A dark and sanguine thought crossed Selene's mind. It surfaced as a peculiar smile. She wanted to study this child, like one of Edelbert's pet blight beetles.

"Right, what's the second question?"

"The second question," Selene repeated mildly, lifting her gaze back up to look at the young man. "If you learned the magic of our monastery, what would you do with that knowledge?"

Nacht Hector

 

[Nacht]

As Selene tapped her staff, he suddenly felt less tense and suspicious. Well, that was good, right? It almost felt as though a weight had literally been lifted off of him. Then, Selene started talking about perhaps a party or something and oh there it was that painful shriek that he had so recently come to passionately despise.

Finally, they got back to the point after all, and Selene inquired why he was so curious about learning magic. Nacht could finally relax, for this answer was simple, and one he had given Hector to no avail. Well, perhaps now that everything was settled, that truth could be more readily accepted.

“Thank you for asking, Miss Selene, but you might have overestimated my purpose. Learning about my magic so it doesn’t go out of control is my top priority as of now and even that goal seems far off. Everything else will simply have to wait.” he explained in a reasonable tone.

“I just don’t want people to get hurt because of me, Y’know?” He finished with a slightly tense grin, hoping that his explanation would be enough to mollify the very scary lady questioning him.

Selene Hector