FFT fic The King's Man

Chapter 2 St.Konoe's artifacts

Heavy drops of rain pelted the grounds below, enormous water bullets smashing against the iron helmets worn by the church guards, making them into an ideal steel drum played by the force of nature itself. Early in the morning, 1:27am to be exact when last confirmed by the time mage, the guard grumbled and yawned. "What is the importance of guarding this late? There's nothing to steal in the temple is there?"

The older soldier, most assumably over 30 judging by his neck length beard, reminded the young soldier about the vault. "Aye! it's a boooring task me lad! but inside the vaults are artifacts of St. Konoe in his era."

"Pots and vases!" exclaimed the youth in sarcasm. A black humor.

A shadow lingered, as if taking interest in the conversation.

"Not a souls been in there since almost 600 years now. We may well better guess what's really inside." The youngman's empty look bade him to continue. "I heard tales lad, blizzard barnacles boy! The most common one ye hear all the time in taverns is that St Konoe came from a different dimension!"

The younger guard let out a snortish laugh. "Ha! Certainly you jest old man! Everyone knows St Konoe came from Goug and that's general knowledge. You're talking lunacies Torres!"

"It's possible Kaplan, Besrodio Bunanza a lead engineer has proven so by presenting a contraption he dug in the mine in the presence of his majesty king Delita, last week in the royal capitol." Torres squeezed rainwater out of his beard, he hated the pouring weather and began cursing both his rotten luck of being chosen to stand guard on such damned weather and his comrades who were lucky enough to patrol the interior of the monastery.

"Who goes there?!" Kaplan hurriedly drew his broadsword as a tall, dark stranger emerged from the shadows. Torres readied his mace though he found little reason to be afraid of the, cloaked figure. Judging by the look of his equipment, he seemed to be a mage of some sort.

Torres brushed past the reckless youth and addressed the stranger "State your business mage!"

Instead, without a warning the cloaked figure chanted a dark spell under his breath in the harsh forgotten tongue of demons before time. "Aurora, exhale bloody air! Dark Holy!" Kaplan barely had time to react. Unholy lights engulfed both his physical body and soul in dark fire, burning through him completely with no mercy. His grotesque remains scattered across the church yard as Kaplan's body blew up in pieces, his head lying few feet away from Torres standing in awed shock at Kaplan's sudden yet cruel death. Words were unnecessary as explanations of his enemy's motives were obvious, reduced to the rudimentary fundamentals of swordsmanship: Kill him before he kills you.

Torres had not recovered from the shock, but nonetheless charged the mage with fearless swings, his mace moving in motion with his arms as one whole. In response, the mage struck the mace in collision with his staff channeling it's momentum off course. "Die!" cried Torres as he brought down his mace at the least expected moment, bashing the mage across his abdomen. Or... so he thought as his weapon went through the hollow image, the mage had teleported behind him, brewing up another spell. "Death gods craving life, take their souls! Death!" as words left his mouth, Torres instantly fell to his knees and to the hard earth, feeling his soul escaping his grasp, leaving him behind as he fell lifeless on the mud strewn pathway now clean with Kaplan's remains and blood.

The mage not so even glanced a darting stare at his victims as he advanced towards the inner chambers of Narredwen Monastery. He dashed deeper into the chambers, his dark cloak trailing behind him as a shadow, concealing his master from head to toe and exposing only the slightly tanned hands of the mage as he constantly opened locks with a magical wave of his hand in practiced patterns. He progressed fast until confronted by a squire in his 4th chamber. The nameless mage met the Konoe squire's furious rush, arms extended to jab his blade into the mage.

Forced to a corner, the mage abandoned ideas of using magic to kill the squire and instead, sparing no time the mage struck the boy with few consecutive blows to the shoulder and his head, two of the less armored parts of his body. The boy drew his breath and managed a snapped yelp before the death blow silenced him forever.

The mage cursed as his expectations were soon met. He watched, while raising his staff, a half a dozen of St Konoe knights entered through the south where the mage had just came through. Formidable... he thought until from the north a quick paced footsteps were apparent, "Agrias, Leonard! Get him!" ordered the priest dressed in the heavy white robes of the feared pagan examiners. The Holy Knights accompanying him obeyed the commands, immediately drawing out their blessed swords emitting holy aura only noticed by the most faithful and those skillfully practiced in the art of magic.

Instantly realizing that the tables have turned with the arrival of more foes, the mage abandoned all hopes of defeating the 6 knights and two hard fighting Holy Knights and along with the lot, a dreaded addition of a Pagan Examiner who answered directly to the current leader of Ivalice, king Delita. Before any actions made, the mage escaped in a flash, as he employed the dark powers to immediately vanish from the scene. Although the encounter had been brief, barely enough to fully analyze the mysterious mage, it was however enough for the pagan examiner Egre Pen Rakshu to notice the familiar stench of blood magic hanging strongly about the stranger. Egre's cool azure eyes studied the surrounding, hearing, feeling, sensing the presence of that dark aura emitted from the fallen mage. His calm, serene voice spoke with powerful tone. "Search the corridors! And alert other knights!" he turned to the Holy Knights and gave brief orders before he dashed off with the lower knights into the search of the intruder. "Guard the artifact at all cost." Agrias could've sworn the order sounded as mighty as even the God's Ten Commandments. "Yes sir!" they replied in unison and set off towards the vault.

It was unnecessary search knowing that the mage had already fled to safety, well away from the church. Still... Egre found it all too proper as he couldn't bear to face the king should he fail him. Even worse, lives of Ivalice demanded him to keep the sacred artifact away from the hands reach of those who are willing to exploit its powers. He couldn't possibly even begin to imagine what horrors his own flesh and blood would bring, should the artifact fell into the hands of his own brother. "Keep searching!" he cried, immediately dismissing the thought.

Guards were far alert than usual as the sleepless hours progressed and morning had been announced by the crow of the church yard cock. The weather had been improving considerably since the departure of the lone shadow. One could have easily believed that the lone mage had even summoned the dark weather with him and later took it with him. The foul stench of rotting corpses dipped in mud and rain defiled the church yard close to the rear entrance of the monastery. If smell was indeed enough to kill, it deemed true as the horrid stink was enough to put 3 passing priests gasping for clean air all the while reminding any others what they had in their mornings fast. Smell of decay was however considered nothing compared to the brutally murdered soldiers of St Konoe. Nuns were forbidden access to the outside of the monastery by padre Gabrio. Only until the bodies had been removed and their churchyard purified of demonic spells he'd agree to lift the restriction. Padre Gabrio himself remained inside the church ever since the morning when he unfortunately sighted the demented corpses.

Egre had received long protests from Father Gabrio to leave the three corpses to be buried, rest in peace. It took equally long to convince the padre that he must inspect the corpses in minute detail as the duty of a pagan examiner. The padre's white skin had turned paler than usual as Egre mentioned the dead. "God, punish the wicked..." was all he said before retreating to his quarters, leaving Egre in charge of the corpses.

Accompanied by the Holy Knight, Leonard, Egre led him downstairs and into the stinking outdoors of the churchyard. Agrias voluntarily offered her hand in helping Egre's pursuit. He knew that Agrias felt the guilt of not being able to save Simon, his father from death. It wasn't her fault, but the fault of the infamous heresy Ramza who had been lifted of all crimes before the King's court months ago. In his silent prayers every morning, he secretly thanked the Lord high mighty for putting an end to the heretic's tainted soul.

"Should I start the inspection your Excellency?" asked Leonard, his gaze shifting from the 3 corpses to his charge. Leonard on the other hand had been specifically assigned to help him in his pursuit in the order of the king himself. It was already a known fact that Leonard was among Delita's most trusted house knight and rumors held him as closest to being called his friend. Egre wondered what the king saw in the boy. Once a farmer's lad who had lost his family due to a plague ,now a trained Holy Knight working from direct commands of the king. It had been a belief since the rule of king Denamunda that being assigned with the king's personal knight meant the king trusts you, and having Leonard assigned to him meant that that Delita trusted him enough. A great honor he thought, knowing that king Delita was renowned for his lack of trust in anyone whether that be his friends if he had any left, his grand advisors, his personal knights, or even his own wife, Queen Ovelia. But then Egre doubted his previous opinions on Ovelia. True, the king even went to the extent where he plunged a dagger into her heart. Had the royal chemists arrived a second late, she may well be dead. Strangely enough, Delita had softened up to his wife when she bore him an heir to his throne, prince Eurious. From his own close analysis of Delita, he was no exception to Delita's list of distrusts and concluded that the reason for Delita to assign his best knight to him was probably to keep an eye on him. Of course there was the possibly that his guess could have been far fetched though Egre doubted the possibility. Although he was known as the few people acknowledged as the king's men. It was natural for Delita to distrust him. Especially when the very person who chants in the demon tongue and plans to wield the sacred artifact is your very own brother. There is no mistake, Delita must have known his brother from the start or at least were informed by his right hand man, Olan the astrologist. A brilliant man with widely spread field of abilities in the power of politics.

"Study the cause of deaths. Look for any marks to indicate the use of which weapon and note it down. I'll deal with the use of magic." he said. He studied Leonard as the knight began to inspect the dead squire. Making accurate and precise decision on what weapon was used and how it was used. Too much in detail that it was almost enough to visualize the scene of battle easily. On top of that, Egre witnessed what dangerous tasks Leonard was capable of as they once passed sweegy woods. 2 against 7, Leonard made quick work of the bandits with Egre's supportive spells backing him. Perhaps not as dangerous as Delita, but nevertheless a dangerous man indeed.

Egre chose to investigate the cleanest corpse of the lot. Torres, a veteran of Lion wars would have looked almost as if he was asleep if it wasn't for his rolled eyes and purple lips. Interestingly, there were neither marks of weapon nor any sign of magical harm visible. Instead Egre reached a decision that magic was involved, Death spell in particular seemed obvious which ever angle he viewed. Death would have been the most logical choice for Egre as well, had he encountered two enemies alone.

"Milord, I have heard a vague rumor about our fugitive." Leonard spoke with clarity.

Rumors... this too was difficult to interpret as the word held double meaning to it. To Egre who had served Delita for 6 years since his crowning knew what rumors in political world meant. A disguised form of confronting the victim with evident truth to test their reaction and loyalty or to amuse oneself by observing the victim's response. Without waiting for his charge to respond he continued. "Some claiming the identity of our Dark Mage." Mind games were often played among those with certain extent of power. Rules are simple. Each participant must stay calm and talk only if necessary as to not allowing your opponent to gain any leverage over you. Leverages normally resulted as shocking scandals. Murder, gambling, whoring were often and rarely do they catch a holy man committing rapes. Egre, despite his hatred towards such games, he was used to it and it will take more than this knight to beat him to it. Egre asked in a very casual tone. "The identity of the mage you say... speak up man!"

Leonard took his eyes off his inspections and turned towards Egre in a wolf like manner. "I've heard our fugitive is none other than your own brother milord." his swift eyes darted a piercing gaze at his charge and never looked away. "I must say Leonard, your rumors may prove to be close to the truth. My brother had meddled with darkness since he was a boy, I'd not be surprised if I had to bring him in for his execution." a convincing answer and as far as Delita's trust is at stake, it is the right answer he thought. Disappointed with his answer, Leonard asked him no further questions and continued his inspections of the dead until Egre was satisfied. Brothers of Narredwen Monastery rushed out to perform their tasks immediately. Some carried the dead remains to the graveyard, while rest of the brothers started to spray salt on the bloodstained land, cleansing away the evil be soiled there with their soft chantings.

-Evening-

It had almost been a restless day from early morning to now, both soldiers and priests. Padre Gabrio sat across the table from Egre, next to him sat brother Hermann and Brother Joyce two of the higher ranking priest under the padre. 'Ironic' Egre watched both brothers who must've once sworn to the holy book to abandon power and authority to become a priest, yet sat next to the padre with some sense of authority in their minds, surely one may think even a mere moogle can become a better priest than them. Next to Egre, the two Holy Knights were seated either side of him, both wearing simple robes rather than their usual armors. Egre watched his companions dine. His eyes diverted occasionally to Leonard who seemed to be a completely different man in front of the fine wine and cuisines served. Indeed judging by his eating habits, he is or rather was a bandit of some sort at one stage of his life, or perhaps had to lead a mercenary life. A high possible chance indeed. He ate and drank making noises which captured the stares of dismay from the three priests sitting across the table. Agrias on the other hand could've easily passed for a fellow nun among the sisters in Narredwen. She dined quietly using fork and knife to snip small pieces from her share of the roast unlike Leonard who cared little for his barbaric table manner in front of the priests. By every angle Egre looked at her, she was calm and beautiful considering the fact that she was an exceptional soldier and once ranked second in command of the St Konoe Knights. It would have been an easy task to fool anyone that Agrias was either a nun or a lady of some noble house. Every bit about her today was convincing enough, except for her sword hanging loosely at her sides blew her cover instantly. As for himself? He didn't bother. He wore his usual attire, holy robe blessed by the arch bishop Grantas at the king's court and the cloak of authority.

It appeared that his earlier conclusive analysis were near truth. Leonard must've been told the so called rumor by Delita who in turn learned of this from Olan. Otherwise the padre would have interrogated the Pagan Examiner, had he listened to any tavern rumor of such. The padre finally broke the silence. "So... what is to become of the sacred item?" Piece of flesh flew across the room. "That will be taken by my charge to a safer place your lordship." Leonard swung his drumstick as he spoke with a tone familiar only in taverns operating late hours. Half embarrassed and half disgusted at Leonard's drunken stupor, Agrias intervened. "Milord, we will be taking the artifact to somewhere safer where no hands can reach them. Great pardons Padre, but we must leave early tomorrow with the artifact in our possession." The Padre frowned, possibly for having no control over the matters concerning the king. Brother Hermann whispered into his ear and the padre began. "Your request shall be met early morning, but we'd like to know what the king seeks among the artifacts?" the padre asked politely but even such manner was detected by Egre's penetrating look. Egre answered "We know not why and what it is. Only that it looks like a black crystal of sorts and that the king ordered us to retrieve it." It was a closed answer an indirect way of communicating the message "I will answer nothing." Information is or can be a powerful weapon. Brother Hermann must've known that...

"I see... I will have the artifact ready for you before your departure." the padre pursued the matter no longer, realizing that he was dealing with an expert. To sway away from the issue brother Joyce asked. "How are your defenses doing today sirs?" Leonard replied with confidence in his voice. "My men are stationed near the vault. Not even an ant can't get inside that vault!" Small hope they received from Leonard's confidence were immediately vanished as the door slid open and a figure stepped inside. A priest pushed aside the door with what once were his hands. Brother Joyce vomited at the sight of the priest's bloody stumps. "Dear Lord..." began the padre, his stare fixed on the priest. His white robes revealed deep cuts, blood seeping through the white material as if eating through it. "Father... Gab...Gabrio... the vault..is..." the bloody priest managed two struggling steps towards the padre before losing his breath and collapsing into a dead mass. Horrified with the shocking encounter the three priests lost their speech, unable to respond as if they met Death in person. "Padre! Padre!" Egre yelled at the stunned priest being aware of what kind of enemies his brother has with him. He immediately assumed command of both the soldiers and the church priests seeing how the priest was unable to respond. "Agrias, protect the padre and do not engage combat." she started to protest. "I will not stay here while my knights are in jeopardy." Egre threatened "Be out of sight! That's an order!" He ran outside with Leonard trailing behind him until he found his lodging to suit up for battle. Egre himself ran towards the death cries, towards the vault. Armed with a staff and holy magic, he prepared to engage darkness... his brother.

-Author's Note-

Hello dear readers, I'm back and this time with a new story. I have some odd twists which will be revealed more as the story progresses. I know, some twists are way out of hand. Delita being nice to Ovelia speaking of which is alive and well with Delita's son and Simon's sons featuring as my two main characters in this story.

-The usuals...-

Characters-

Egre Pen Rakshu

Age: 26

Job: Rune Priest

Simon's second son. Like his father before him, Egre Pen Rakshu became a powerful Pagan Examiner to the church. A former Pagan Examiner of Glabados Church, he has captured many interests from different lords, and among them the king of Ivalice. With the fall of the church, Egre pledged his loyalty to king Delita as the king's man. Currently he is on a mission by the king's order to protect and bring the sacred artifact from the sealed chamber vault of St Konoe.

Nameless Mage (yet...)

Age: Unknown

Job: Dark Mage

Simon's first born and Egre's older brother. More will be learned later.

Leonard Oric

Age: 23

Job: Holy Knight

King Delita's most trusted knight and closest knight to being called his friend. As much as the king likes him, he is loyal only to the king's words and will also die if the king wishes it. Fiercely loyal to Delita since the day he was taken from the slums by Delita to raise him to become a knight.

Agrias Oaks

Age: 27

Job: Holy Knight

She returned from the final battle in Murond. Before returning to St Konoe, she had been questioned several times by the king himself of what had happened to Ramza. Convinced that he is dead, king Delita did not question her any further and let her go. Although she insisted to once again claim the duty of Ovelia's protection, she has been rejected by king Delita and now helps Egre to protect the sacred stone of St Konoe.

Gabrio Woolsack

Age: 58

Job: Padre (Priest)

The head priest of Narredwen Monastery. Though he had been titled Padre, he had not seen bloodshed ever before in his life and went into shock since the first night of deaths.

-New Things-

Rune Priest- Powerful priest who has the ability to punish the wicked in the name of God. They are the only priests able to commit violence in the name of god.

Dark Mage- Mage able to speak the language of Demons and furthermore even able to master their arcane magic which is known to have existed before god's time. Very little is known about them. (Rare)

Padre- Chaplain to the armed forces.

.:[ thread·clo§ed ]

Please refer to [this notice]. Recommending you just open up a new thread in the Writer's Lounge about it and I can index it in that thread.

[ PM Snowfox ]