Chapter 5: Royal Decree
Court of Stones
Left wing of the Palace of the Grand Duke.
“Keep your mouth shut when the King is speaking!” one of the King’s retainers roared down at him.
Fionn submitted to the bellowing voice and kept his words to himself. He has been explaining for almost an hour his side of the story to no avail.
The tribunal hall was nothing more than a cold and lifeless gray-stone are, but at the time, was occupied with extravagantly dressed nobles and ladies. Their talks and whispers filled the room with gossips and speculations.
He tried to move his arms from time to time before it gets entirely numb as it was tied behind his back with a metal chain.
Immediately, after their arrival, seven knights immediately rush at him, bounding his hands with steel manacles. He did not know General Alaric’s last words to him after the fight was something serious.
‘We would need to face the tribunal and an audience with the King’ Noahrd said.
And now, here they are, not even given the time to rest. Fionn standing with his torn attire, along with Alaric, also bloodied and battered who remained silent the whole trial.
King Degan Thouard held the intricately carved ivory-lion armrest of his throne as he contemplated both of them with intense regard. He closes his eyes, breathing in before he spoke “Our renown Paladins seems to be starting to lack discipline Alaric”
Fionn looked at the general, who remained looking at the floor as if in shame. He turns his head back to the King whose now stormy-blue eyes bore on him.
“Do you know much destruction you have invited at our doorstep Theos?”
“Why are you terrified when you have the means to stop it?” Fionn retorted aggressively.
The guard holding his shackles brusquely slaps his face hard enough to make his vision blurry and blood drip instantly from his mouth.
“Such insolence!” the voice of the retainer beside Degan boomed again, “You will address his Majesty with utmost respect. Never again you shall use a condescending tone, or I shall cut off your tongue from your disrespectful mouth”
Thouard raises a hand to calm the tension. Silence flowed inside the room with the single gesture. He stood and started to walk down the steps of his dais. As he reaches ground floor he evenly speaks, “Fionn, did you say stop them? You have no idea how powerful the Erysthrina Empire is. They will turn everything to ruins once their Emperor set his eyes on it. Not even the whole might of Nexus Eos could defend our land if it comes be an all-out war”.
Fionn controlled the trembling in his voice, calming his nerves before he answered, “How could you say that? How can you be so sure that there is no hope when you haven’t even tried?”
The king shakes his head, “No one know the whole extent of the Sanguine’s force, but history is witness that it took nine nations to subdue them in an impasse that alone is enough reason to fear them. And you know how ruthless they are kid. You saw it with those two eyes of yours” regret filled his last phrase.
Fionn’s eyes widened as he stood there, still and silent—surprised that the king suddenly brought up the past. His silence gave way for the king to continue.
“I, on behalf of the whole Avilyon, signed an agreement with Erysthrina, that our kingdom will not interfere with the Empire’s conquest. Everything outside our walls will no longer be in our jurisdiction nor protection, hence come the empire will need to something from its land. I have taken a firm neutral stand in exchange that no blood shall reached our walls”.
“Are you just going to watched everyone get massacred from here? If all you care about is what matters inside these walls, then it is nothing more than a fortified cage for you”.
He thought for a moment that he has push too far as the king’s lips whitened into a thin line.
But the ruler composedly answered, stopping again his retainer advancing toward, “All I ever wanted was tranquility for the motherland. For everyone to sleep at night without any fear”
“It is nothing but a false peace to buy time. A temporary shelter before death looms at your doorstep”.
“Then I will do everything in my power to stretch whatever small thread of moment to retain order and life here at Avilyon, be it minutes or seconds” Degan leveled his eyes to him.
Fionn drops his head down. Admitting defeat. He thought that what they did at the battle, with a little reasoning would stir morale and raised the valor of knights so they would stand up against the empire. But he could not see it happening now as the king have already fully decided on his stance.
He’s a coward… Don’t listen to him… a voice whispered again to him.
“Your father was a friend of mine, Fionn” Thouard said which catches his attention now. He continued, “The time I heard the news of the Sanguine’s sudden incursion which started on your land Danube, I knew your father would never try to escape. It is either him or his enemies dead. He was such a strong warrior kid… and also a good person”
Tears uncontrollably fall from Fionn’s eyes. “I… I… just---” he sobs.
“When I learned that you survive and manage to arrive here by foot, I took pity on you and informed the Tribunal of Avilyon to let you join the Paladins even though only pure citizens of Avilyon are allowed to join. But now…” The king pauses, looking at him with almost teary eyes “But now that you almost click a trigger for an impending doom, I will do nothing but impose judgement upon you”
You have doomed us all. Alaric’s words now echoed on his mind again.
Degan closes his eyes before saying, “You shall be-“
“Your Majesty!” Alaric now spoke for a first. “As the spearhead and caretaker of this reckless boy, I shall be the one to be deemed punished for my negligence of training the squires more effectively”
Noahrd is defending me? Fionn thought. He could not believe what he is hearing.
“No general. As you have reported, you warned him of dire consequences if he disobeyed my royal order. Then this punishment might serve him a lesson for life”
Fionn braces himself for whatever is to come next.
“You shall be banished from the whole of Avilyon. I strip your coat as a Paladin of Nexus Eos. This land will no longer welcome you as its own. For the sake of our kingdom, everyone present here are witness, I, Degan Thouard, one-hundred fifth king of Avilyon, hereby declare upon someone who have defied the four-hundred-fifth royal creed, that you, Fionn Belle Theos is now exiled from our lands”
No home… Again…
“Then I also, Artemia Ludhulain shall also be banished for associating with Fionn Theos in disobeying a direct order from the king!”
He did not realize that Artemia was already standing among the crowd of onlookers, just a few feet from him. “But… Artemia”
Degan clearly did not bought her statement but nevertheless agreed, “Then as witnesses, this lady has admitted that she also has dishonored a decree which sole intent is for the stability of our kingdom, therefore she also—”
Artemia cuts him off, “I shall also speak for our injured comrade unable to get here, Ajax Thetis, that he also confessed that he has violated your command along with me and Fionn”.
The king cleared his throat, visibly irritated that he was halted, “Then so be it!” Degan’s shouted his eyes flaring with impatience, “all three of you shall be exiled from this land and never to return again. I will hear no more this day of any questions! Dismissed!”
As all began to head out to the door immediately following the king’s command, the steel from Fionn’s manacles clang hard at the ground as the guard removes it. “Hey…” he was at lost for words as he faces the lady who was heading to his direction.
Fortunately, Alaric save him. “There is something important before you go. Meet me at the castle yard later” he gazes also at the lady, “You too, bring also your giant friend” then he left.
Artemia’s eyes were already glassy as she reaches him.
“I… I’m sorry” Fionn did not know what to say. His friends were even drag into the mess he made. “How is Ajax?”
“He’s… actually still unconscious” Selene admitted.
“What?! And you told--”
Artemia raises a hand, tears at the edge of her eyes, “Do you think he’ll just sit by and watched both of us take the punishment? I am sure he’ll say the same if he was awake Fionn”
“Artemia, you didn’t have to do this for me. I---” but his voice trailed off as the lady embraces him tightly.
“I could not just leave you alone. To see you lose yourself by your past and anger pains me. But I know time might heal you, and we just have to help you, like the three of us always did for each other”
Fionn nods. He knew the two would stay with him to the world’s end. He wraps his arms around her tighter. Artemia and Ajax were the only family he had.
------
Late afternoon arrived; the sun was already down to its last rays of light. The castle yard was full with various colors of small flowers from blue, orange, white, blue to violet, all scattered somewhere within the mature green grass neatly trim.
It was patrolled by two guards marching from time to time to the four corners of the lawn at perfect intervals. A small fountain was built in the middle with a lion stone-statue spewing water from its mouth.
Fionn remained standing near the man-made cascade where benches are place for almost half an hour already, waiting for Alaric. Artemia decided to remain at the infirmary since the physician told them that Ajax could be waking at any time now.
He was also glad that they were given until tomorrow afternoon before effectivity of their exile. ‘It seems the king still took pity’.
Soft footfalls rustled the grass on his left, he glances to see Alaric now standing two meters away. Fully-cleaned, dressed in his military uniform and well-rested.
“Well, what do you plan to do now kid?” he asks.
Fionn stared at the darkening sky, letting the wind blow on his face freshly. He let it clear his thoughts. “I also don’t know”
The General sat on the bench and sighs, “You know the moment I have seen you in those ruin houses in Danube, all bloodied and crying, the first thing that came to my mind was to raise you as my own. I have seen the haunt in your eyes which I thought was the same as mine.” He pauses as Theos’s attention was now to him, “But I was wrong. What visited me in my days and nights were the terrifying screams of those I have slain, of those I have watched die. But yours… is entirely different. Your eyes reflected wrath and seeks revenge”
“That day… twelve years ago, I thought it was an untimely death for me” Fionn shared, “I knew I died, but for some reason, maybe magic, maybe luck, or maybe a god, I woke up. And from that moment I vowed for nothing but to avenge my father and the entire land of Danube. As the last heir to the throne, I shall see to it myself that the empire will be nothing more than ruins”
“It will devastate you first Fionn” Alaric grits his teeth. “I failed you as a mentor”
Fionn now look at the general, who seem to have age, lines and creases formed in his temples, and his eyes were tired and sunken with worry. He looks away at the other direction. He can’t believe some people actually cared for him.
General Noahrd stood in full posture all the exhaustion in his face now gone, “Well, what’s done is done there is nothing we can do about it. But we can still control of what is about to happen”
He now looks at Alaric, “What will happen to Avilyon?”
“You need not worry for us now. After the trial, a delegate and ambassador of Erysthrina arirved and formally accepted your punishment as a compensation for the breached contract of the two nations” he stared at Theos with seriousness, “Fionn once you are outside the wall of Avilyon your citizenship ends, which means you are no longer under our protection”
Fionn nods, “So they will be free to target us”
“They will kid. They will hunt you down especially we have taken down the Elder Templar, Kirsch Devian. One of their renown combat instructors at the Empire, and leader of the ninety-eighth platoon”
“Artemia and Ajax” Fionn whispered and bit his lip. He has involved both of them in imminent danger.
“You three should always stick together, protect each other, watch one another. Always remember kid that not every battle has to be won. You should know when to hide. It is not only your life that is in grave danger”
The weight on his shoulder’s seemed to grow heavier. Fionn voice one of his real concerns. “What do you think the Empire is really up to general?”
Alaric did not face him as he spoke, “I don’t know. No one actually knows anything except they are finding something. Our spies theorize it is something lost, a powerful item or weapon”
He remembered the time when the daemons asked his father about the whereabout of something… ‘what could it possibly be’. “And is that not enough reason to prevent it from happening?”
The general regarded him with a tired look, “Remember that we do not have concrete proof that they actually are on a conquest for something that would bring chaos”
“Are all their killings not enough proof already? Are we going to wait until the whole world is thrown to chaos? why not call allies and put a stop to their madness?” Fionn asks for a final time, still baffled by the lack of action.
Alaric sighs, “Fionn, we are not even sure the nations will stand united again against a powerful force like it did before”