XVII

Yoreno and Dell were admitted into Dantera’s chambers, both wondering why they were told to come here together. Sela gestured for them to come in and Yoreno nodded to her. Dantera was sitting at her desk, going through what looked like a lot of papers.

She looked up, smiled. “Ah,” she said, “my adventurers. Come, sit down.” She moved her papers aside.

“What is all that?” Yoreno asked as he sat down in one of the high-backed upholstered chair..

Dantera breathed in deeply. “Letter writing. I’m informing his majesty the king that we have indeed captured a prisoner during our adventure to the Isle of Morr.”

“Do we know anything about his company?” Dell asked curiously.

“Hmm,” she noised, looking between them. “Yes. And I’m quite concerned actually.”

“Is something wrong?” Yoreno asked.

“Oh,” she nodded emphatically, “something is indeed wrong, Yoreno. That man claims that the group he was with is a Schuarist cult.”

“Schuarists?” Yoreno asked. He frowned. He really needed to pay more attention to history. “Do you mean that group during the time of king Kandrion and your ancestor Arlian Brennovo?”

She smiled. “Precisely.”

“Nonsense,” Dell said.

“I hope so,” Dantera said, a worried looking passing across her face, but only for a moment. “In any event, they were drawing dark magic from the tear in the dungeon there—something that we cannot allow to continue. Further investigation is required.”

“Another quest?” Yoreno asked, his heart beating faster with anticipation.

She shrugged. “Perhaps. But we must wait until after the Age of Readventure ceremony. I have far too much to do during the festivities.”

“Like what?” Yoreno asked.

“Functions,” she said with a smile. “I am both greatly looking forward to it and silently dreading that time. The knighting ceremony is what I’m most looking forward to.” Her eyes locked with Yoreno’s.

“Mistress?” Dell asked.

“Yes?”

“May I ask why you summoned me here?”

“Ah,” she said. “I had almost forgotten. I just wanted to tell you to prepare for the knighting ceremony.”

Dell nodded. “Of course I intend to be present, but you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll dress with all proper decorum. Did you want anything specific? A color scheme perhaps?”

Dantera chuckled. “No, Dellwyn. I meant that you should prepare to be within the ceremony—to be knighted with Yoreno and the others.”

Yoreno’s eyes widened and he glanced from Dantera to Dell who looked at him with complete shock on his face, then they both turned back to Dantera and in unison said, “What?!”

She frowned, her hands going up in surprise on her desk. “Is that really so hard to believe?”

“Didn’t we just go to the Isle of Morr so Yoreno could prove himself?”

“Yes, we did,” she said. “But you”—she pointed a finger at Dell—“are not my protégé, Dellwyn Blackridge.”

“I understand that, but…”

“No buts,” she said. “I saw you fighting in the forest. You comported yourself well in our fight against those…”—Yoreno thought she was going to say Schuarists, but—“…whatever they are.” She waved a dismissive hand. “And so I will knight you.”

Dell nodded jerkily. “Yes, Mistress. Thank you, Mistress.”

She chuckled. “Now you may leave us, Dellwyn. I wish to speak with my protégé alone for a few minutes before I let you both escape to do whatever frivolities you wish to partake in while I write letters.”

Dell nodded and got up, then took a small bow and left the chamber. Yoreno turned back toward Dantera to find her peering at him over her hands. Her elbows were on the desk and her fingers interlaced.

“What?”

She breathed in deeply. “This matter of these ‘Schuarists’ as they so call themselves… I am worried.”

“Why?”

“They have already destroyed the world once, Yoreno. I just wonder why the king has called for this Age of Readventure, now. Is he aware of something—some threat we don’t yet know about, and he is using this as a means to combat that threat?”

“It seems like an odd way to go about it,” Yoreno said, his eyes leaving Dantera’s face as he glanced at Aevalin Castle through the windows. “Why not just tell the truth?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps I am simply being jumpy.” She leaned back into her chair. It was fit for a queen, the back climbing half a pace above where her head rested, the arms thick and the ends carved in rich hardwoods with lion’s heads, their manes aggressive in their depiction.

Was she confiding in him? She never did that before. It was new for Yoreno. In fact, their relationship seemed to have changed recently. Now he wasn’t simply a young protégé much the same as every other adventurer in the guild, but a person she could bring up her worries with.

“Only time can tell us the answers to our questions,” he said. Speculation wouldn’t solve the mystery.

She nodded. Then there was a pause between them.

Finally she said, “You fought very well on the isle, you know.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I realized something.”

“What is that?”

“As a mid-tier adventurer, I don’t hold a candle to you.”

She burst out laughing for a moment and Yoreno chuckled along with her. “Well,” she said, “we can change that. Once you are knighted, I think it will be time to begin teaching you more advanced techniques in the fighting arts and some magic too.”

“But I don’t have magical affinity.”

“Neither do I. But it is still possible that we can bring magic to a fight. All the more that we do, as it surprises the enemy when a sword fighter does things that are unexpected.” She tapped her temple. “Always be thinking about how you can outmaneuver your enemy.”

He nodded.

“Overpowering is good,” she added. “But you want to be well-rounded as a fighter and as an adventurer.”

“You must have had a good teacher.”

“Si,” she said in Amalfi. “Many in fact.” Then suddenly she changed the topic. “Yoreno, I want you to be prepared. We don’t know what the future will bring. We must be ready to face our enemies.”

“Are you worried?”

She shook her head. “Not worried. I’m furious, actually. If these men we fought at the Isle of Morr are indeed some Schuarist cult reborn, then we must pursue them, and destroy them. I am thinking on writing a letter to the Order of the Purging Flame, in fact.”

“The Order the Purging Flame?” Yoreno said. He had heard of them before, but didn’t know much concerning their order. “Aren’t they an order of knights sworn to rid the world of evil?”

“Just so,” she said. “The highest order. They are not adventurers.” She shrugged. “Unfortunately they look down on us for that.”

“Really?”

“They believe that going into dungeons with motives other than complete destruction of the evil within—especially if the reason is for loot—then the reason is impure. And… in a way I suppose I agree with that.”

“That doesn’t stop us,” Yoreno said, a slight smile on his lips.

“No,” she said, shaking her head through a chuckle. “I am more practical than all that. Self-gain is an important driving force in this world. Have you noticed king Branlin’s decree is for the ‘Age of Readventure’ and not an ‘age of honor’?”

“I’ve never thought about it like that,” he said, “but now that you mention it, I do see it.”

“That’s not to say that protecting one’s kingdom and the world is not an honorable pursuit, because it is the most honorable pursuit, Yoreno.”

“I know.”

She nodded. “It is a glorious new age.” She sighed heavily. “Some days I wake up feeling excited for no other reason than that we live in such amazing times.”

“I feel the same way,” he said.

“Do you?”

Yoreno nodded. “Truly.”

She smiled. “Good.”

A moment passed between them. Yoreno wasn’t sure what else to say. Usually Dantera ended their conversation quite distinctly.

Now she just stared at him.

Finally she said. “All right,” and shuffled her papers. “Now go enjoy our glorious new age while I suffer here at this desk.”

He got up. “As you command, Mistress.” He proffered a luxuriant bow.

She pointed a finger. “Get out.”

Yoreno laughed and walked to the doors where Sela was patiently waiting, her hands crossed over her waist. Before walking out of Dantera’s chambers, Yoreno glanced back to see Dantera, her pen in one hand as she regarded him with a strange smile on her face.

Gods, she was lovely.

The soon-to-be-knight wondered what the meaning was behind that smile.

After Sela closed the doors, Dantera turned to the blank piece of paper she was about to write a letter upon. She felt her servant’s stare. “Don’t you dare say a word, Sela.”

“No, Mistress.”

As Sela walked across the carpeted chamber to go about some other test, Dantera did not look up to see if she was trying to hold back a knowing look.

She stared at the blank pages and sighed, her mind distracted. “The pen is not mightier than the sword.”