Warden's Path

by Heath Pfaff

  “He’ll be at the tent in the center of the camp right now. He’s handling most of the organization for our actions, and that means he has to work with everyone; students, Wardens, and the common folk.” She explained, pointing back out of the tent and further away into the field.

  “The common folk are here as well?” I knew this from what Gaveech had told me when I first arrived, but it was still unusual. As far as I knew we didn’t let people from Black Mark into the school.

  “It was deemed an emergency . Those who fled here were let inside. There are a few thousand people taking refuge right now. I don’t think the Forge has ever been quite this busy. There are a few guardsmen, but for the most part the Wardens are having to play the part. People are scared and acting foolishly, so we’re wasting time policing them and keeping them in order.” She sighed and shook her head. “It’s just one more problem on top of everything else, but the strong have to protect the weak. It’s the natural order. Those with Will must control those without.”

  “I’ll head over and see Shaw then. I’ll talk to you again soon.” I said, bowing my head. “I’m glad you made it here alive.”

  She smiled warmly at me. “I am equally glad, Lillin.”

  We parted ways then, and I slipped back out amongst the tents.

  There was a general chaos to the area beyond the Warden’s section of tents. The students were housed next, and they seemed lost with the break in order. Many of them were clearly frightened and confused. They looked at me as I passed amongst them, whispering quietly to one another. I recognized a few faces, though it was strange seeing them now. I was a Warden, and they were still students. I’d never thought to encounter them again. A few bowed and scurried out of the way as I passed. It made me uncomfortable, even more than it had to get the same differential treatment in Evelsmoth. In Evelsmoth it had felt like a natural outcropping of their expectations, but here it felt like a facade put on because of my uniform. I remembered how I’d seen the Wardens that walked amongst us while I was a student, but I didn’t think these ones saw me the same. They knew me, or knew of me, all but the latest year. They also knew what it meant to be a deady. I was the first to have worn the skull and become a full Warden. There was distinction and separation in that. I wasn’t like the others, and I never would be.

  In many ways I didn’t yet feel like a full Warden. Of course, unlike the students, I could bring my Will to bare, and it was a power that made for a massive difference between us. With my Will I could jump over a building, or run twice as fast as without it. I could force a man to his knees, and if I could ever learn finesse, I could command a man to his knees by pressing on his Will with mine. I still wasn’t great at finesse. Being a Warden, and the strength that came with it, changed the fundamentals of who I was. I had to remember that being powerful didn’t make me right, and it didn’t mean I could do as I wanted. Will was easy to abuse, and those who taught us how to use it certainly didn’t do a good job of teaching us the importance of restraint. I’d almost forgotten that when faced with Kavack.

  It didn’t take long to find Shaw. He was giving orders to two other Wardens that I didn't recognize when I walked in. He finished with them before turning to me, though his surprise at seeing me there was quite short lived.

  “It’s good to see you alive, but I can’t say I’m entirely taken aback. Nothing here has been normal in a long while, and I had a feeling that you wouldn't go missing so easily. You want to be placed for a shift?” He asked.

  I nodded, that seemed like the best course of action for the moment. “I’ve spoken with Korva and she says you’re handling the organization of things right now.”

  “Yes, Korva . . . “ He paused for a moment. “Do you know why we sent you with Korva last time?”

  “Because Arthos was busy, and you needed someone to look after me for my training.” I answered, though there was a hint of uncertainty in my voice.

  “That was part of it, yes, but we could have chosen others. Arthos insisted that we send you with someone who could train a knight, but his report indicated you had an aptitude for scout work, or would if you could master your abilities. He said it was what you wanted, but he didn’t believe it was what you should do. Some of us saw training you as a scout as a good way to get you far away from us, and that felt like the easiest way to deal with your differences. We sent you with Korva because she is very good at training scouts, at training independent Wardens, but the truth is we don’t need anymore scouts right now. We needs knights. We need men and women who can fight above all else.” He looked consideringly at me. “We typically don’t even allow people to train for scouting right out of school. It’s difficult and it takes a strength that has to be proven over several years, but we’ve been making exceptions for you because of the way you passed the water test, because some of us would prefer you to be as far from the rest of us as possible.” This made him laugh for a moment. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were afraid of you.”

  I was surprised to be hearing all of this from him. I wasn’t that surprised to hear Arthos had recommended me to the Knights. I’d known that, though I hadn’t known he’d originally thought I’d make a good scout. The end of our time together had been strange and I wasn’t certain what he’d thought of me.

  “I wish to continue my training to become a scout.” I said, trying to keep my voice confident. I hadn’t even known that was what was happening, but I liked Korva, and I liked the way she taught me. I felt like I was actually improving myself under her teaching. “I can learn to scout and to fight at the same time. In fact, Korva’s style of teaching has improved my skills a great deal. My control over my Will has never been stronger, and my fighting skills are growing with every training session. I’ve also developed a bond of trust with her. I have confidence in our ability to work well together.”

  Shaw considered me for a moment, his cool dead eyes searching mine. Finally he simply shrugged. “I might reconsider this later, but for now you can continue with Korva. I will be watching her evaluations, though. If you falter we will change your training and get you on a more appropriate course. There is no glory in scouting, Lillin. When they do something incredible, very few ever hear about it. It’s hard work, and the payoff is only what you can make out of it. Keep that in mind.”

  “Thank you, sir.” I answered, offering a formal bow. The truth was I didn’t care about the payoff that might come from my work. Ghoul had first told me to follow this course, but now it felt like the only way forward. Firmly gripping this endeavor felt like taking a step from the dark and into the light. It was difficult to explain any of it, and I thought it might have just been a case of me setting my mind on something and refusing to let go of the goal. In any case, this was the way things were going to be now. There was no going back for me.

  “Korva has her orders already. Report back to her and . . . “ A loud horn sounded outside the tent, a single, crisp note that seemed to crack through the air like a snap of thunder. Shaw’s expression turned cool. “Well, you can report back to her later. It appears that the King wishes to speak to us. That was his call to the Wardens. Come with me. We don’t keep the King waiting.”

  With that he headed out of the tent and I rushed after to keep up with him. I was going to see the King. This realization sent a gale’s worth of gusting worry and fear tumbling through me, a rising storm of panic that felt like it might overwhelm my senses. I needed to remain calm. Something important was about to happen. Whatever the King had to say, it would decide our future course.

  Other Wardens were already on the move. We all walked quietly together, more of us than I’d ever seen together in one place. It was like a march of the dead, all of us in our similar uniforms, an army of men and women with fire clad fists emblazoned upon us. I thought it was just me who was fighting with fear at first, but I could see the same feelings etched upon the faces of the others. We were all worried. None of us wanted to go meet with the King. What kind of man was
it that could command such fear from the Wardens?

  I wasn’t certain, but I was about to find out.

  Chapter 15

  Awakening

  15.1

  It was strangely quiet in the group of Wardens. No one spoke, whispered, or otherwise made any noise at all. There were maybe a hundred of us or more gathered in the clearing near the King’s tent, and it looked to me like the dead had risen from their graves to attend the meeting with the Iron Will. There were a few of the Wardens from Second there, sprinkled in amidst the others. They stood out for looking more alive than the rest, their appearance closer to my own.

  From what I understood of our order, there were more of the Second Wardens then of the Black Mark variety, but most of the Second Wardens were sent to the front line to fight. Very few of them ever came to Black Mark at all. That I was seeing so many of them now was another indication of just how precarious our current situation was. They’d called in everyone they could spare, and now here we all were, about to meet with the King. This was almost exactly how I’d pictured the Wardens before actually joining the school. An order of stalwart fighting men and women who had private meetings with the King where they were given orders. It was almost enough of a parody of that original vision to be amusing, but my concerns pushed any amusement from taking hold.

  Distantly I could see that there was a massive fire burning far to one end of the Forge. Where it was positioned looked almost uninhabited, and that made it quite strange to see a pillar of smoke rising up into the air. The smoke was black and sooty, strange to see. I wondered why it burned, and what it was being used for, though I only had time to consider it passingly.

  I felt a keen tension as we all stood waiting for the arrival of the King. This was it. I was going to meet the man responsible for making the Wardens what they were. He was going to come here and talk to us. In my mind he was a tower, ten feet tall and massive across the shoulders. He glowed with golden light, and his voice boomed, rumbling so low it made your guts turn when he spoke. I realized that this was all impossible, just the fancies of an overactive imagination, but it was difficult not to think of him as some kind of demigod when all of these very powerful people respected him, looked up to him. Blackened, most of them feared him. I feared him.

  A small wooden platform had been constructed in front of his tent, and as the flap opened and he emerged, he stepped up onto this so that everyone could see him. He both was and wasn’t what I had expected. He wasn’t ten feet tall, but he had to be nearly seven, and he was dressed in incredible armor, the kind used by warriors who didn’t have the Will to protect them. It was scalemail, but the links of the scale were so fine that they shimmered like fish scales in shades of blue and purple. I wasn’t sure by looking alone if it was delicate or indestructible. He wore a cloak with the hood back, and on the cloak was the depiction of Everburn clenched in a fist, but the detail on his symbol was much more intricate than those we wore. The hand clenching the flame was charred and skeletal, the flame was stitched in purple and black, just like the actual fire.

  He had long black hair that was loosely tied back with a gray ribbon, and deep blue eyes that almost seemed to glow. He didn’t look like a Warden, and that fact surprised me. He was somehow more impressive than my imaginings, and at the same time he was more human as well. At least he looked more human, but perhaps that was what made him spectacular.

  Then he spoke. It wasn’t deep and resonant like the voice I’d imagined for him, but it was sharp and clear, and the words struck at me like hammers. I winced as every word he spoke wove his Will into the air. It was like power flowed from him on the back of his breath. He wasn’t using his Will. He didn’t need to. His Will was a miasma that spread as spoke, a weapon that swam in the air and cut through the world around him assailing everyone close enough to hear it projected. In that moment I understood why no one would speak up against him, why no one dared to challenge him. As he spoke to us, I could think of no avenue to resist the Iron Will. There was desperation in this realization, panic like I’d felt when water had flooded into the chamber during the water test.

  “Good Wardens, I have deliberated long on what must be done to assure our way of life going forward.” He began. “I have spoken with many of you, listened to your concerns and warnings, and considered them all before coming to a conclusion. The truth is, however, that this threat is the greatest we have faced since the skolbala, and if left to persist it might even surpass that dark time in our history. We face an enemy that fights not with arms and shield, but with fear and shadow. We have no weapon with us that can turn back such an assault.”

  I knew where his words were going, but I could hardly believe it was really happening. I wanted to say something, to scream that it was a mistake, but I couldn’t do anything. I could only listen. That was all any of us could manage. How had he gotten so powerful? How could any one man have so much Will?

  “I will go and commune with Everburn, and I will bring back a portion of the eternal flame to burn away this darkness that is taking hold in our land.” The King continued, confirming what I’d suspected. I knew the truth of the old stories. I knew what Golem had told me, and this was a mistake. We would be fighting one terror with another, and no matter which one won, we’d be left to deal with the other. “I do not do this lightly. Everburn is powerful. There is a reason we keep it far away from us, but if ever we needed the strength of the eternal fire, it is now.”

  I clenched my fists at my side. We would all be destroyed, and there would be nothing we could do to stop it. It was like being crushed between two mountains.

  “I’ll be leaving in the morning. I must make preparations to open the great door and it will . . . “ He was still speaking, but a voice broke through his, a single, small voice.

  “No.” It said, and it was so shocking to hear that all of my spinning thoughts came to a halt and I found myself looking around. Everyone else was as well, but their eyes were falling on me. Why were they looking at me? It took me a moment to realize that I was the one who’d spoken. It was my voice that had broken in on the King’s. Fear jumped up my spine and my legs shook.

  “Who was that?” The King’s voice cracked, and suddenly the group of Wardens was spreading, their attention all turned to me. All of the world’s focus was on me.

  How had this happened? I hadn’t planned on speaking. The King strode towards me, cutting through the Wardens as easily as a keen blade parts flesh. He stopped in front of me, his icy blue eyes falling on me. “You have reservations about my choice, Warden?” He asked. “I don’t recognize you.” His words had weight, and each additional one he spoke sat heavier and heavier upon my shoulders.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but a small breath was all that I could manage. It felt like I was laying on the ground and he was pushing on my chest, pressing the air from me. Panic was rising up inside of me. Would I die? It felt like I might.

  “It is a mistake.” I said, my voice small at first, but getting louder by the word. I took a deep breath, and in the calm moment of that breath I could feel my Will surge around me, a thrashing storm of power whirling to life, pressing back against the constant pressure of energy coming from the King. I hadn’t even noticed it before. It was like being so surrounded by noise that you stopped noticing how loud it was. His Will was so great, that I’d stopped seeing it, feeling it moving about me, but now, in this shell created by my own Will, I could gather my senses again. “Introducing Everburn to this world will just put us between two forces that we can’t hope to control. There will be nowhere for us to escape.”

  “Who are you?” The King asked, his voice surging against the my Will, causing it to flicker for a moment, making me stagger.

  “I am Warden Lillin, Your Majesty.” I answered, struggling to get a grip on the situation I’d forced myself into.

  “I’ve never met you before, Lillin. Why is that?” The King asked, and I was speaking before I could even think about the answer.

>   “I’ve only just become a Warden.” His Will was compelling my answers, cutting at the resistance mine had woven between us.

  He laughed, though it wasn’t a sound that held any mirth. “You are a fledgling, girl. You know little of what we face, or what we must do to stand against this threat. I have lived so long that I was ancient when your grandparents were on the cusp of conceiving your parents. I have seen Everburn’s effect. I know what I’m doing.” A frowned creased his features as he seemed to take in the tattoo on my face for the first time. “Your kind don’t often come so far.” Then, after he’d spoke his part, his Will hit me hard. My meager resistance broke, shattering as his will suddenly roared to life with an impossible surge of strength. I collapsed and clutched the sides of my head, and then I was lost. It was like my mind was broken from my body. Pain and darkness welled up around me, creating walls that I couldn’t hope to climb over, and there was no getting back to myself.

  I couldn’t be certain how long I was like that, but when my body finally came back into focus I was cold, shivering, and my hands hurt. I felt a hand on my arm and looked over to see someone staring at me, his eyes concerned. I didn't recognize those eyes at all at first. I looked around instead, trying to figure out where I was. There were people around me, staring and laughing, though the man with me turned on them and roared “Leave!” in a voice that shook the air, and the onlookers went slack jawed and left.