Chương 38: Chapter 37: Sir Sebastian Little

We arrived at the top of what could generously be called the stairs what felt like hours later, though the sky never changed color or hue even by a degree. We climbed out the top of the swirling vortex, and once we were free of it, it became as a staircase, flagstones forming up to take a more solid shape than had been the case for the entire ascent. The Stormhawks had not struck since that first encounter with them, their point clearly made.

We'd seen them of course - they flew towards us, and Torch held his crossbow at the ready, but they stayed outside his reach. Then again, we didn't stop for another break, and Fel was increasingly certain that this was why.

"That must be the puzzle, and the test." Fel said.

"They attacked... only once we'd stopped to rest. While we were moving, they didn't attack, though they'd had many chances. Up here, at the pinnacle, they're not even looking at us anymore." the wizard said.

"I hate it when dungeons get metaphorical" Roxala said"The elemental ones are always the ones that do it, and they all have these metaphorical challenges to do with some ancient teaching or secret of sagecraft." Our leader grumbled, and Torch was smiling as he crested the top. The pinnacle of the 'stairway' was a huge... ceiling, I suppose. It spanned in every direction as far as I could possibly see, and far far below I could see where we'd come in on this floor originally.

The ceiling looming above us hung over our heads by the same sort of means that the steps on the stairway had, really - solid, immovable, and yet, gently undulating and moving on their own regardless of our own presence or weight. The tip top was much more like a stairwell though, instead of being made of tables and chairs, bricks, and flagstones seemingly at random.

"Hazard of the craft, I'm afraid. You should try BEING a sage if you think that is difficult." Fel said, and Gelidia smiled a bit.

"No thank you. I break things for a living. That's hard enough for me." the Orcmaiden said, her jaw set firmly as she led the way to topside. One by one, we crested that final step and when I did, I could see that we were among clouds here, huge rolling banks of misty cloudscapes obstructed the view of the generally flat floor that spanned for what had to be miles in all directions. The only thing visible apart from that was a phantasmal man.

He was tall - he was easily ten feet tall, and made of the same green light that all the other shades in the dungeon had been made from, with wispy long hair that blew sideways from his head in a breeze that simply wasn't present for anyone else. His eyes were white and featureless, like Gelidia's were, and though his hawkish features were hard, they were creased in a gentle expression as he stared directly at my friend the Shade.

For her part, Gelidia seemed to straighten up to look up at him with interest and recognition! Folding his arm over his chest, he elegantly sketched a bow to her, his long mane of wispy hair shifting across his face as he did before straightening up, teasing it from his eyes as anyone might. Gelidia returned the bow politely, not as low as he'd bent but still with great respect.

"Lady Gelidia, it's been too long." he said"I have been in contemplation of orders received to bring you in, but now I see they were not in error." he said. Shade of Sir Sebastian Little, Guard Commander of Lambstock, level 8 💀"Hello, old friend. You've been given orders?" She asked, clearly confused. The man nodded sadly.

"I have. To detain you for interview at your Lord Father's leisure." he replied.

"We're dead, man." Gelidia said, blinking at him, her confusion only growing.

"Indeed we are, Lady. I think for truth, he wishes me to give you a final test of mettle, but I would not presume to know his mind. For the crimes of distension of the crown, objection to the natural order, rabblerousing, and not only consorting with a known Lycanthrope but actually employing her, you are to be arrested. These were his orders, and those are our laws." Sir Little said calmly.

"And the beast is to be destroyed, at once." My blood froze! Destroyed? But I wasn't unstable - I wasn't a danger to Gelidia, to the town, or anyone else. Gelidia balled her fists, and then relaxed them again. Sir Little had not moved against her, or done more than smile gently at her. Roxala moved to stand between him and me, and behind her back, Fel and Torch put a hand each on my shoulders - a statement of support, of 'yeah thats not happening'.

"He also told me that you would object to this on all counts, and though my personal feelings are conflicted, and though you have promoted the good Captain - an excellent choice for the post, I might add, he was on track to take my post in due course in any case - to my position... you are not yet the Duchess, and I yet owe him fealty, and the Guard... is mine to command." he said.

"My avenues of defiance are unfortunately limited, and my duty is quite clear." he said and sighed.

"So it's going to come to a fight." Gelidia said, her voice hard.

"I'll have to fight you, my friend, after all this, after you taught me the Laws and Ordinances? I'm going to become Duchess. I'm going to take the post, and lead Lambstock out of the grave itself." she said.

"I'd rather have you at my side than standing here against me!" That last was almost a plea, and to my shock I could see tears in Gelidia's eyes. She wouldn't beg him - I somehow just... knew that about my best friend, about my mate. She wouldn't. It wouldn't have worked anyhow.

"I know, dear Lady, I know. I wish it could be so. You know I love you dearly, as if you were my own daughter, but this... has to stop. The World will decide. The World will judge, whether your course is Just and Righteous, or if it is an abomination. Are you prepared?" he said. Gelidia took a steadying breath, and her fists clenched tight again. I stepped forward, and took her shoulder in mine. She glanced back at me, but Sir Little focused on me fully at last.

The temperature dropped a little around me, and my breath misted in the air with his disapproval, his rejection.

"This is the strangest thing of all - You, miss Goldtail." Little said, and his expression hardened a little.

"Our laws, the laws of Stormwrack and of the House of Windbinder, they mark you as a danger to society in general, and life as a whole. The kindest thing, by our laws, would be to end you here and now, to end your suffering. And yet you have professed that the World made you this, that all of this, everything you've endured, stands an improvement to your past situation in lands beyond the rift." he said.

"That the world herself should give you such a curse does not speak well of your character to me." he said.

"And yet the Lady cares for you. And yet you are kind. And yet this life does not burden you." he said, and I felt judged.

"I find this remarkable, and envy your positive outlook, if not your condition." His knuckles popped, but his voice remained calm and steady as he continued. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"Your hold on the hand of the young Lady Windbinder is also on trial here today. As is your title as Hound of the House." Little went on, and as he spoke... armor seemed to form around him. His armor consisted of a phantasmal breastplate and tabard, armored greaves, and bracers over leather and gambeson. It was, I realized with a shock, the same armor that the Guard in Lambstock had, if more ornate and a bit heavier.

Unlike them, a cloak swept behind him with a high collar, and upon his head, a broad-brimmed hat instead of a helmet.

"I will face the two of you together, and you, Goldtail Twice-Cursed, in your True Aspect. Not this paltry human seeming." he said, as he lifted his glove upward, manifesting in full color before us as a dungeon monster as... a power formed in the world around us. The world itself seemed to lurch inside me. The twilight sun set at last as red-gold light radiated from his hand, and the battlefield plunged into silvery, source-less moonlight. What a wonderful night to have a curse...

I slipped out of my tunic-dress thing as quickly as I could, and felt the change start to take me. My friends swayed away from me a little, but Gelidia didn't even turn. She crossed her arms.

"So be it." she said. Panting, thick breaths escaped my lips, and the change rapidly began to take hold. I could feel my skin stretching, could feel as I began to grow. The pain was intense, shocks of sensation rushing through me as heat built and built in my bones and blood. The Wolf, in my mind's eye, stepped out of the mirror... or perhaps I stepped into it. Both happened at the same time, and I didn't fight it as my breaths came deeper...

and deeper, and deeper, as golden fur blossomed over my body and bones creaked, crackled under the force of the change. Sir Little looked directly at me the whole while, made no move to strike or engage with us while I changed. He just... took it in, watched me change, his eyes widening a little at the horror of what he clearly was seeing. I could barely spare his expression a moment's thought, wracked as I was in the throes of the change.

"This is a monstrous fate that she embraced, Gelidia. Look at her. Look what she is." he pleaded with her, as if trying to convince her she was mad, and Gelidia reached down. Though it was agony for her to touch my head in this moment, it was a balm to my soul as well. I wouldn't push away from her hand for all the jewels and gold in the world, even if it lit my nerves aflame! I whined, and it sounded hoarse, pained, stressed out in my own ears.

"I've seen this before. We all have. And I know what she is: A Good Girl." she said, and I rose at last to my feet, struggling to my hindpaws to stand at a height with sir Little. He put his hand on the hilt of the sword at his hip.

"Are you prepared, Beast?" he asked, and I shook my head. I held up a single digit in a 'one moment please' gesture and walked around a bit, shaking off a couple times. The Guard Commander blinked at that, and... just let me do it, lowering his hand from his blade. Ow ow ow... that always hurt a lot and taking a few steps around and shaking out my pelt always seemed to dispel the army of tinglies that came with a transformation.

"Yeah, give her a minute." Gelidia said, smiling a little after me.

"Changing shape seems to hurt a lot." she said, with sympathy. The floor boss blinked.

"... She truly is in control, still." It wasn't a question.

"It is so peculiar to see. I have fought and slain many Lycanthropes, and they were ravening beasts to a man once they'd changed shape, once their true colors were flown." He frowned, watching Gelidia walk calmly towards my discarded dress." Is this her prize, for failing to reject the curse? For embracing it?" He asked, and his disdain was clear in his voice.

"Yes, so it would seem. I am Felorikaan, Sage and Wizard of Dungeons and Monsterkind." Fel said, and at last the dungeon boss seemed to acknowledge him.

"Well met, Felorikaan. A Wizard, hm? What is your assessment then so far of the beast Goldtail Twice-Cursed." Sir Little said, the dramatic moment thoroughly baffled as Gelidia folded up my tunic and tucked it into my discarded bag carefully before following after me. If our host, the floor boss, was going to be talkative and polite, nobody clearly wanted to push the issue. He was giving me a minute, for whatever reason, and I felt gratitude to Gelidia's teacher.

"She has been a kind host to us, and we have tested her thoroughly, both in combat and in peace." he said.

"We have even slept in her presence. She is stable - even changed as she is, she retains full faculties." Fel said. Sir Little's frown softened a little, and I felt his gaze on me.

"I see. There is no precedent or exception allowed for this in our laws. To the best of my recollection, no exception has yet been required - a Monster has always simply been a Monster. Even a tragic one like a Lycanthrope, cursed by a bite. If they could not be cured, they were to be killed out of mercy, or exiled out of punishment."

"That's how it is in the Republic as well." Fel said "But I do believe... that the Mark is going to turn on this one's account. She is a Riftwalker, as you seem to know already, and the World herself told her that it was unstable to have three cores. In Ignorance of the conventions of this world, she embraced it, forsook her Destiny core for the Legacy of Peasant, subsuming her other.

She is Peasant and Lycanthrope" Fel explained as Gelidia played with my ears and made my tail wag behind me, briefly overcome by happiness as my tender nerves were pleasantly stimulated by pleasurable contact! I licked Gelidia's face, and she laughed.

"... and seems quite whole." Fel said, and a smile colored his voice.

"I see." Sir Little said softly, almost sadly. He watched us, and for a moment, he looked... ancient. Tired, in my Wolf-Ren. Smaller than he'd been. Then, he seemed to think of something, and smile. The Commander straightened, and called to us"Lady Windbinder, Miss Goldtail. If you are quite prepared, we will Duel, the three of us." he said, and held out a hand to the others, to stay them.

"Just us - your companions, and the Wizard here, may watch but I beg that they not interfere - this is an internal matter of the House of Windbinder, and our own affair." Sir Little said.

"Like hell! Like hell we'll let you-" Roxala snarled, rolling a step forward before I put a massive paw on her shoulder, and gently pushed her backward. Sir Little's eyebrows rose a bit as he watched. Gelidia nodded at me, and the Orc-Maiden looked up at me with a frown.

"You don't have to do this! He's higher level than you and he's a floor boss!" Roxala said, almost pleading the case.

"Roxala... I think we do as they ask." Fel said. Torch nodded, though more reluctantly.

"The Lady Windbinder is stronger than any of us, and Goldtail... Well, she's Goldtail. They'll be fine, World willing."

"And if they're not?" Roxala countered"What if they die? What happens to us, huh?"

"You leave. the House of Windbinder holds no ill will towards you, Wayfinder. We are not barbarians." the boss said"I suspect your Wizard was correct - this is indeed a special instance of the dungeon. I, a servant of the House of Windbinder and the World herself as a... dungeon creature now, I suppose, do so swear."

"We'll be fine. I need to settle this. We... need to settle this. Nobody's going to put down my Hound. Not you, my old friend, not my father, not the world herself. Not if I have ANYTHING To say on the matter! I accept your duel." Gelidia said, and I nodded as well, moving beside her in support. DUEL? Gelidia and us are gonna take this guy on. SO MANY WORDS FOR SOMETHING SO SIMPLE! Wolf complained, and I felt my tail wagging.

"On your guard then, My Lady!" Sir Sebastian Little said, and drew his long blade. Well, things are about to become a lot simpler.