It tilts, as though I’ve been completely uprooted and yanked from the soil below.
The air releases all at once, and suddenly the gardens were gone. Stone replaces the grass beneath my feet. The sounds of striking steel replace the once peaceful silence.
Voices and the sharp bark of commands ring out in the air.
Completely frozen, I look around me.
I’m standing in the middle of a wide stone yard.
A wall of armoured bodies stretches out in every direction.
And behind them, a stone castle rises from the ground, narrow towers climbing toward the sky.
I’m surrounded by a sea of steel armour, dozens of knights, each armed with a weapon.
They seem to be engaged in some form of training before they halt, mid-motion, with lowered blades and every face turned toward me.
My breath catches, shallow and fast.
The crowd of knights in front of me parts slowly as someone steps forward.
Tall, broad shoulders.
Green eyes, sharp and focused through his helmet.
Clearly a leader of some sort, he pauses in front of me, looking me up and down.
My heart pumps wildly in my chest. Fear, confusion, and uncertainty each pushing through my thoughts. Neither of us says a word until he breaks the silence with one word that sends me into a full panic.
“Fuck.”
Chapter 2
The Knight
I wake before the bell, a habit so ingrained in me it feels older than the stones of this castle.
The hours before dawn belong to me.
The silence, the peace that comes with watching the sun rise and working my body hard before I have even started the day, helps distract me from my own mind. A place I have found myself lost in far too often lately.
I head over to the lower yard, rarely used by the other knights. I suppose it’s because they all know that I’m here every morning, though no one questions me on it. Setting my sights on the armoury lined along the wall, I grab my sword.
Steel meets my palm, familiar as breath.
Strike. Turn. Reset.
My body knows this sequence, even when my thoughts drift away. I was trained young, shaped by structure and expectation. Without a blood family to call home, they took me in when I was younger than most. Many of the elders have thrown the word ‘remarkable’ at me, whispering amongst themselves of my power and greatness.
I would say it’s more reliable than remarkable.
I am who I am because of determination, discipline, and endurance.
I rose through the ranks by showing up every single day, without fail. Not by favour or borrowed glory.
The rhythm of my body and the sword settles my thoughts.
This is where I am most useful.
