Chapter 184: Chapter 183 – Battlement

Halfway through our journey and we were making good time.

Adelbern wanted to move even faster – but I correctly pointed out that we, and the horses, could only go for so long before needing to rest. It would become more and more difficult for us to continue at that pace until it made the trip slower overall. We pitched a camp by the road and settled down after a long day. We were already over the border and moving south of Blackwake. The fort was another day’s travel from our position.

It was a cold evening. Adelbern peeled away from the fire to look out across the nearby lake. He didn’t hear me approach from behind until I spoke up.

“Don’t you think it’s about time for some honesty? I get the feeling this is going to be our last ride.”

“I have no intention of this being a suicide mission.”

“That’s too bad – you know just as well as I do that anybody attacking that fort has a deathwish.”

I approached the rock he was sitting on and looked out across the moon-touched water, reflecting the full body that hung in the sky above us. The stars were plain to see on such a clear night.

“I already told you everything there was to know.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true. I don’t know the Absolver’s true motivations, nor do I know what will await us when we arrive at the fort. I can only offer you tales from my past life, and perhaps a scant justification for my participation in this Inquisition.”

I grumbled, “Don’t you have a problem with all of the horrible things they’ve done?”

“I do. For every just and capable knight in the order, there is another who stands only to enrich themselves and abuse their authority. When I first joined I was blinded by the promise of adventure. I believed that the righteous path was the one I had to take thanks to my reincarnation. Surely, I’d become a hero worthy of taking the lead position in this story, I thought. I quickly learned just how misguided I really was.”

“How?”

Adel took a deep breath and explained, “During one of my first external jobs as a squire – the man I was tasked with attending to came across a man being robbed by the side of the road. We rescued him from the bandits, but as I turned to continue on our way, he knocked him to the floor and took his money anyway. He said that people didn’t appreciate the hard work that we did, so it was fine for him to take his due compensation.”

“Bloody hell.”

“And that was only the beginning. In comparison to the evil that some of them do, he is a saint. Merely a symptom of a rotten system. Free from accountability, drugged on his own authority and power, and taught from the moment of his enlistment that the innocent were not to be protected. They were just another faction for us to be wary of.”

Adelbern stood from the rock and knelt down by the water.

“And then what?”

“The Absolver promised me that we’d see a change in the organisation, that he needed my ability to do so. I was nothing more than a passive observer, a cog in that great corrupting machine. I could do nothing alone to change the nature of a beast so large and unwieldy. I agreed to his terms and became a pawn in this game if only to seek my own forgiveness for becoming trapped by the lifestyle they offered.”

I laughed, “You don’t need forgiveness from the likes of me. I get it.”

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“You may not believe it, but the only thing I have harmed directly is my own ego. But perhaps inaction is a sin all its own. Where would I be now if I had stopped that knight while he robbed that man? We certainly wouldn’t be standing here having this discussion.”

“You’d be a more just man, but maybe a dead one.”

“That’s it, isn’t it? Everything in life is guided by that decision. I couldn’t leave the order without finding myself on the streets as an orphan, and I needn’t say to you how difficult that is.”

“Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” I nodded.

“That’s the terror of money. You need it – and the people in charge will ensure that you can’t live without the job they give you. All it takes is necessity to turn a man into a monster.”

“I’m pretty familiar with being a monster, if not through what I’ve done, but from the way my body’s been changing lately. I’ve got horns hiding under my hair.”

“Yet that is the same reason you no longer need be one. You have the power and the ability to break free from the past that defines you. The only thing you need is the courage to take that final step.”

To me, admitting that Cali and Tahar were important was that final step, but consuming the rest of the cursed relics and potentially breaking my curse would go one further in protecting us from any future threats. It was going to be a difficult task even with my superhuman abilities. The Inquisitors weren’t mere bandits or town watchmen given a few hours of training. They spent their entire lives training for combat and there were thousands of them waiting in the wings.

“What I wanted to know was what you’d do if you couldn’t hold your place at the Inquisition anymore, Would we be willing to fight back and protect yourself?”

He shrugged, “I honestly don’t know, which is why you shouldn’t rely on me to protect you this time. We may stand toe-to-toe with someone I care about and I might hesitate. Allow me to suffer the consequences of my own mistakes alone. You have two people who are waiting for you to emerge from the wilderness.”

Adel nodded towards the light that bled out between the trees. It was where the campfire was burning, and where Cali and Tahar were getting everything ready.

“It’s not like you’ll listen to me – but you shouldn’t take them for granted. You have a chance to start a new life right there if you manage to pull this off and get the rest of the relics from the Absolver.”

I sighed, “I won’t take them for granted. This is the first time I’ve felt like I could make something of myself since I came here. Every other rogue would do the same thing, it’s just that having something to lose isn’t a sensation I’m familiar with.”

That was what I was worried about the most. Adelbern was right. I had the power to protect them from whatever tried to get in our way. It had been so long since I had people who made me feel that way that I’d almost forgotten the benefits of being connected with others. Not to sound too sentimental, but they helped me rediscover a piece of myself that was lost in the transition, the human side which sought out affection and held high hopes for the future.

Adel stood from his place and stretched out his arms, “If the Inquisition dissolves because of this there isn’t much I can do about it. I am only one man with limited influence. I will worry about what the next step is once that happens.”

“I’m sure a lot of mercenary companies would be happy to take you on, given your experience.”

“That depends if I feel like putting myself into the line of duty once more. I have a feeling that I may sour on wielding a blade by the time we are through.”

We returned to the camp and enjoyed a meal cooked by Tahar. I briefly considered spending some cash on high-quality ingredients before we entered the fort and tried to find the Absolver. They could provide us with temporary buffs, but I realised that pushing my own stats even further than where they already were was of limited utility. I checked my stats.

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