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Wall Sina…
Deep in the chambers of the forever knights, the torches were deeming with each passing minute. Sir Aldric sat in his obsidian chair while his sword rested across his knees, his golden eyes fixed on the map of Paradis across him.
He had been waiting for hours.
Patience was a virtue the Order prized above many others. Impatience led to mistakes, rushed judgments and flawed executions. It was the enemy of purpose; be it ordinary or divine.
And yet the forever Knight Lord found his mind drifting to darker places. Enoch should have returned by now. The mission to retrieve the changeling boy was straightforward: follow the beast's trail, observe from a distance and if possible, acquire. Enoch had his orders, his equipment, his knights. He was competent, more than competent; he was brilliant in his own terrible way. If anyone could succeed where others had failed, it was him.
So where was he?
Aldric's fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on the hilt of his sword. He thought of the changeling boy, no more than ten to eleven years old by the reports, yet capable of transforming into a crystal giant, a winged predator, and a kin of that demon dog apparently. The device on his wrist was the key; Enoch was certain of it. A piece of technology so far beyond anything in this world that it might as well be magic. If they could capture it, study it, understand it...
The door did not open.
Aldric closed his eyes. Just for a moment. Just to rest them. He would hear the door when it opened; he always did. A lifetime of vigilance had honed his senses to a razor's edge. No one entered his presence without his knowledge.
He would wait. He would be patient. He would—
Click.
His eyes snapped open, golden and alert, fixed on the door as it swung inward.
"Report," he commanded, the word sharp as a blade. "What news from—"
He stopped.
The figures who entered were not Enoch nor any of the knights sent with him. They were three men, walking with the careful tread of those who knew they were highly unwelcomed.
Aldric's eyes narrowed. "Valerius."
Ser Valerius stepped forward, his ruined eye still hidden beneath its bandage while his remaining eye fixed on the floor in proper deference. Behind him, Agil followed, his bandaged side making him move with a slight hitch. And bringing up the rear was Gideon, who looked...
Aldric stared.
Gideon looked like a man who had been stuffed into a sausage casing and then left in the sun to swell. His civilian clothes (if they could be called that) were a catastrophe of ill-fitting fabric. The shirt strained across his massive chest with the buttons gaping, threatening to launch across the room at any moment. At least his boots and trousers fit.
"What," Aldric said flatly, "are you wearing?"
The three knights dropped to their knees in unison, foreheads touching the cold stone.
"My Lord," Valerius began, "we apologize for the intrusion. We know you are awaiting Sir Enoch's return, but we have matters of equal urgency to discuss."
Aldric's gaze did not move from Gideon's trousers. "I asked what he was wearing."
Gideon's face, already red from the tight collar, deepened to an alarming shade of purple. "My Lord, I... that is to say, the MP uniforms you assigned us for the penance detail were... somewhat... restrictive."
"Restrictive."
"Yes, my Lord. Very... very tight." Gideon shifted uncomfortably, and the sound of straining fabric filled the chamber. "I could not breathe, my Lord. I could not move or even sit. The trousers in particular were... were..."
"Were what?"
Gideon's voice dropped to a mortified whisper. "They were cutting off circulation to vital areas, my Lord."
A long, terrible silence filled the chamber. Aldric's expression did not change, but something flickered in his golden eyes; something very close between tiredness and amusement, yet still unreadable.
"So you changed."
"I had no choice, my Lord! The alternative was castration by uniform!" Gideon's voice rose in desperate plea. "I found these in a merchant's stall near the dig site. They were the largest he had. I paid him triple! But as you can see..." He gestured helplessly at his own body. "They are not large enough."
Aldric looked at Agil. Agil, wisely, kept his eyes fixed on the floor and his mouth firmly shut.
"Rise," Aldric said finally with a sigh. "All of you."
They rose simultaneously.
"You come to me before Enoch's return," Aldric said, his voice returning to its usual cold authority. "Explain yourselves."
Valerius stepped forward. "My Lord, we come because we have found something. Something that may prove more valuable than whatever Sir Enoch retrieves from the forest."
Aldric's eyebrow rose fractionally. "More valuable than a confirmed shapeshifter and the retrieval of the demon dog?"
"Potentially, my Lord. Yes."
The chamber fell silent. Aldric studied Valerius with those unreadable golden eyes, weighing his words, his conviction and palpable desperation. Valerius had failed. Spectacularly failed. His eye was gone, his mission was compromised, his honor was in tatters. For him to come here, to interrupt his vigil and make this kind of claim...
"Speak," Aldric commanded.
Valerius reached behind him and produced a sack.
"We found this at the 103rd site," Valerius said. "Buried beneath rubble, overlooked by the MPs and their 'investigation.'" He reached into the sack and withdrew its contents.
The crystal head caught the surrounding light and threw it back in a thousand fractured rainbows. The knight's face within was frozen in an expression of eternal, silent horror; eyes wide, mouth open in a scream that would never be heard. The green crystal encasing him was near flawless, a perfect tomb of alien origin.
Agil, despite having seen it before, took an involuntary step back. Gideon's face went from purple to pale, and he made a sound that might have been a swallowed curse.
Aldric rose from his throne.
He walked toward the head slowly. When he reached it, he knelt; actually knelt, something his knights had never seen him do; and studied it with an intensity that made the air itself feel heavy.
"This is one of ours," he said quietly. It was not a question.
"Yes, my Lord. From the engagement at the training grounds. The crystal Titan... Obsidian... did this." Valerius's voice was steady, but there was an undercurrent of something else beneath it. "His body may have perished in the fire, but the head is perfectly preserved. A testament to the monster's cruelty."
Aldric reached out, his fingers hovered inches from the crystal's surface. He did not touch it but studied It, tracing its small cracks with his eyes that was absorbing every detail of the horror frozen within.
"The papers have not yet published the events at the 103rd," Valerius continued. "The government is still deciding how to spin it. Bandits, they'll say. A tragic misunderstanding. The MPs will bury it, and the people will never know the truth."
He paused, letting the weight of his words settle.
"But what if they did?"
Aldric's head turned slowly, his golden eyes fixing on Valerius with renewed interest. "Go on."
Valerius straightened, his remaining eye gleaming with something that might have been the ghost of his old confidence. "The government speaks of making Obsidian a symbol, my Lord. A protector of the Walls, blessed by the King. They think they can control the narrative, turn the people's fear into loyalty."
He gestured at the crystal head.
"But what if we controlled it another way round instead? What if we showed the people what Obsidian truly is? Not a protector, but a monster. A killer. A creature that traps its victims in eternal, screaming agony." He knelt beside the head, one hand resting on its crystalline surface. "Imagine this displayed in the capital. In Stohess. In every district where whispers of the 'Crystal Titan' have taken root. Imagine the people seeing, with their own eyes, what their would-be savior does to those who cross it."
Aldric was silent for a long moment. "You want to turn Obsidian into a villain." He said with consideration.
"I want to turn Obsidian into a weapon, my Lord. A weapon aimed at the people's hearts." Valerius's voice grew more passionate. "The demon dog, the flying creature, the crystal Titan; they are all connected. The people know this. They whisper about it in the streets, in the taverns, in their own homes. They are afraid. And fear, my Lord, is a blade that can cut in any direction."
He rose, meeting Aldric's gaze directly for the first time.
"The government wants to use Obsidian to calm the people. To make them feel safe, protected, grateful to the crown. But what if we used him to do the opposite? What if we made the people demand action? Demand protection? Demand that their leaders do something about the monsters in their midst?"
Aldric's expression did not change, but something shifted behind his eyes as he weighed the possibilities.
"You speak of turning public opinion," he said slowly. "Of using fear as a tool."
"I speak of attacking our enemies where they are weakest, my Lord. Not in battle, where they have proven they can match us, outmatch us even. But in the hearts and minds of the people they claim to protect." Valerius gestured at the crystal head. "This is proof. Irrefutable and undeniable proof of what Obsidian truly is. The demon dog and the flying creature; we have witnesses, testimony, the scars on the land itself. We can weave them together into a story. A story of monsters hiding among us, with ulterior motives."
Agil, who had been silent throughout, finally spoke. "My Lord, if I may? Technically, I was the one who found the head. Valerius just—"
Valerius's glare cut him off mid-sentence making Agil's mouth snap shut.
"Fair enough," he muttered.
Aldric's gaze flicked to Agil, then back to Valerius. "I take it the discovery was not solely yours."
Valerius's jaw tightened, but he inclined his head in acknowledgment. "My Lord is correct. Agil's sharp eyes spotted the crystal beneath the rubble. Gideon's strength helped excavate it. The credit is shared among us."
Clever, Aldric thought. Very clever. Valerius was learning, as he should. The failure had humbled him, but it had also sharpened him.
Aldric leaned back in his throne, steepling his fingers before his face. "The government," he said slowly, "won't take the sudden change too well. But they wouldn't mind for a quick minute change..."
"I failed you once, my Lord. I will not fail you again. This... this is how I make amends." Valerius whispered as he knelt on the ground, prompting Agil and Gideon to follow suit.
Heavy and expectant silence stretched.
"Valerius."
"Yes, my Lord?"
"You have spent the past hours on penance duty. Digging through ash and rubble, recovering the remains of our fallen." Aldric's voice was quiet, but it carried. "You have had time to think. To reflect. To plan."
He turned, facing the three knights.
"And now you bring me this."
Valerius held his breath.
Aldric's golden eyes swept over them; Valerius's bandaged face, down to Agil and Gideon's nervous stance. Then, slowly, his lips curved into a smirk.
"Perhaps," he said, "there is hope for you yet."
Valerius's shoulders sagged with relief so profound it was almost audible. The two forever knights beside Aldric's squire let out breathes they hadn't realized they'd been holding.
"Go, then. Begin your preparations. And when Enoch returns with whatever he has found, we will weave it all together into a tapestry they cannot ignore."
The three knights bowed deeply and began to back toward the door.
"Oh, and Gideon?"
Gideon froze mid-step. "Yes, my Lord?"
Aldric looked at Gideon's clothing one last time, especially the button that is threatening to rip off at any moment. "Get better clothes. Those are an insult to the Order's dignity."
Gideon's face cycled through several shades of red before settling on a deep, mortified crimson. "Ye-Yes, my Lord. Immediately, my Lord."
The door closed behind them, and Aldric was alone again with the crystal head and his thoughts.
He looked at the frozen face set on the table now.
"Let them call you a protector," he murmured to the silent chamber. "Let them weave their lies about saviors and guardians. When we are done, the people will see you for what you truly are."
He leaned back, closing his eyes.
"A monster."
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