The Bathrobe Knight (46 page)

“Qasin, my dear King, you must learn to be a little happier. You don’t want your men to see you lugubrious on the day of their victory.” She slinked up beside him. “That’s rather poor form for a commander.”

“Then what? Should I lie a smile across my face?” he took off his Crown and twirled it in his hands. “Return to the camps, give another rousing speech, bolster their post-battle spirits?”

“Mmhmmm,” she agreed, resting her chin on his shoulder as she leaned against his back. “But what shall this
rousing
speech be about?”

Qasin stopped twirling the Crown for a moment, “The speech should be about reassuring the men of the importance of what we gained, not what we lost. I likely need mention the sacrifices some made, and the glory all gained.”

“That’s good, Qasin,” Eve whispered as she stood draped across his back. “You are becoming quite the leader. Now tell me what you’ll do after.”

Qasin glanced at the blade half buried in sand, “after that I’ll return to my throne where I will have to appoint new advisors. Then comes the annoying politics, judgements, and constant bickering of men who assume rights that aren’t theirs.”

“Ah!” Eve said, leaning her head against Qasin’s, “No wonder you are scowling.”

“What do you mean?” Qasin turned his head to face hers.

“Just that your plan is the wrong one,” she responded, “You are sulking because you know it’s a terrible future to pursue.”

“Well, what other choice do I have?” he stepped forward and turned around to face her.  “As King, it is the only path to take. It is a sacred duty that I am tasked by the Crown to complete.”

“You may be King, but you don’t have to be a slave to these people too,” Eve stepped back and pulled his Crown out of what seemed like thin air. “This is only a shackle if you keep thinking of it as one.”

“Then what do you suggest I do?” Qasin asked, his attention back on the Sword in the sand.

“Well . . . If you’re a good King, you’ll go out and conquer new lands for your people,” Eve said, motioning to the waters behind her. “You already have someone perfect for keeping them in line while you’re gone, someone who will never betray you again.”

“Again?” he wondered, not sure who she was referring to.

“Yes, the Messenger boy. He can keep the peace fine while you’re gone, and you can travel the world to conquer and expand your Kingdom,” her voice always had a way of creeping across his ears like a slithering snake, “to chase the greatest foes and fight the greatest battles.”

The more he listened to her, the more he wanted it. It was all he wanted, all he longed for, and she was giving him the excuse he needed. He didn’t have to stay. She was right. If he could just get someone trustworthy to handle things while he was gone, then all would be well with the world. He could travel, but was the Messenger trustworthy? Could the Messenger handle things while he was away?

“Oh, you are wondering if the man can actually manage the Kingdom while you’re gone? He’s just a Messenger after all, so what qualifications does he have?” she voiced his concerns. “How can you leave the fate of your people, the White-Horns and the Black-Wings in the hands of a glorified carrier pigeon?”

“Yes, yes, that was my concern,” Qasin admitted, “I don’t want to stay. You’re right, but I also don’t want to leave the people I fought so hard for in the hands of incompetent men or some delivery boy.”

“Well, what if I told you that I knew for certain he would do a better job than you? Would you let him try?” Eve asked, reaching out her hand for a handshake.

Qasin hesitated before answering, as much as he didn’t want the tedium of day to day activities, he also didn’t want his people to be in danger because of his apathy.
How can she be sure of the boy’s credentials?
He didn’t understand.

“Qasin, my dear King,” she turned around and started walking away, “I’m leaving on a boat at the first light in the morning. I must undo your failure to separate my brother from that woman before his destiny spirals out of my control. You will give your speech tonight, rouse your men, hand the keys to the Messenger to be warden over the Kingdom, and then you will join me on an adventure.”

“Do I not have a say in this?” he asked after her as she walked further away.

“It was not me that took away your choice and bound you to this path, Qasin. It was you,” she finished one last sentence before disappearing like a mirage fading into the distance.  

Qasin stared for a moment at the place where Eve had once stood, and then back at the Sword he had thrust in the sand earlier.
I’m bound to this path, am I?
he thought, his eyes not leaving the blade for even a moment.
Why do I wish so strongly that I could believe even for a moment that what she said might have been a lie.

He walked towards the Sword, knelt over and pulled it out of the beach.
Come, my steel brother: our time together is apparently not over.

Kass
:

Kass had to admit that the idea of a boat ride didn’t calm her stomach much. Her dad had taken her on the waters once or twice as a kid, and both times had resulted in the type of nausea one only gets from eating raw eggs, chugging spoiled milk and then spinning in place while listening to bad country music. She had only ever considered riding on a boat again if she needed to lose weight bulimic style, yet here she was standing in front of a giant glass ship.

It was a long galleon made entirely of transparent glass, save for the cabins and quarters, which were gray-tinted. Other than the fact that the deck was much larger and longer than she had anticipated, and the ship didn’t stand nearly as high in the water as she had expected of a galleon, it had all the standard boat properties that made one feel like they were on the set of a
Pirates of the Caribbean
movie. Even looking at the central mast with its hanging sails tempted her to plant a Jolly Roger. For all the horrible things the White-Wings had set out to do, they had done at least one good thing: they created masterpieces like this. Apparently, this was one of many boats Darwin was confiscating for the Stormguard Alliance.

As Kass stepped onto the boat, she found her eyes constantly drawn to Darwin no matter where he was on the ship. She had simply never been as confused about her feelings for a man as she was with Darwin. She liked him, and she couldn’t lie to herself about that no matter how much a part of her wanted to--and part of her did want to. After all, he was stuck here. No matter what relationship she pursued with him, it would always end with her logging off and him being stuck in Tiqpa. Nothing real could come of it.

“Lady Kass, is everything alright?” Justin had managed to sneak up on her yet again.

“Yeah, Justin, I’m okay. I’ve just had a rough day,” she said, shrugging off whatever look had concerned Justin and forcing herself to smile, “but it’s over now, and we have nothing but blue skies ahead of us for the moment.”

“Excellent. Lady Kass, Darwin is about to give some words of thanks to those who risked their lives on the beach today. I’m going to join them in a moment. Would you like to come as well?” he managed to ask without making eye contact with her once, only staring at the top of her head instead.

“No, I think I’m just going to catch some sleep.” Kass was somewhat curious about what Darwin would say, but she was also starting to reach the end of her rope.

“As you say so, Lady Kass. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to take my leave to join the others,” Justin said as he ran off to the group gathering around Darwin.

While the others excitedly went off to listen to Darwin likely give another speech--apparently he wasn’t half bad at them if people were this excited about the idea of him giving another--she found herself a cabin room below deck in which to log off unnoticed, satisfied she wouldn’t have to lose her lunch like the only kid with glasses in a highschool drama. She knew that a lot of people didn’t ever worry about an NPC seeing them log off, but for some reason it still bothered her, like she was being caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

When she finally finished logging off and walked downstairs, she was surprised to find that her dad wasn’t home from work yet. She was so tired from staying on as many consecutive hours as she had that the only reason she didn’t pass out right when she logged off was that she was also ridiculously hungry. She went into the kitchen and grabbed a yogurt pack to snack on.

Kass almost fell out of her chair as soon as she turned the gamer news station on. There, right in front of her eyes on the overhead screens surrounding the newscaster, were clips of the Stormguard Alliance cutting through the White-Wings from the conflict she had just finished.

“As you can see, Ryan, the events of the day really did take a surprising turn. Going into the battle, we had all taken it to be a guaranteed loss with the only variable card being King Qasin, a wild card as of late,” the newscaster, a short dark-haired girl in a white dress, said as she spoke to the camera and not her co-anchor, “That’s why even though a victory alone should have been surprising, it is the way the victory was achieved that really captured Tiqpa players’ attention.”

“You’ve said that before, Daria, but why don’t you go over why exactly this is important for gamers to pay attention to. What exactly does the average, causal Tiqpa gamer need to notice from the video uploads of the battle?” her co-anchor, a tall blonde-haired, blue-eyed man with an overly pronounced chin, responded.  

“Well, for starters, Ryan, this girl here is indeed a player. We’ve managed to piece together a good, clear image of her from all the replays uploaded, which we won’t show for her privacy’s sake, and check them with sources that were able to confirm she is in fact a player. Now, while that in itself isn’t a big deal, it is when you look at the fact that she’s riding a Hydra and appears to be commanding these monsters on her front lines,” Daria said as she pointed to a circle that appeared around Kass’s image on the screen. “We can’t say for certain if she’s the one in charge, but given her back line position, the fact that we have clip of her interacting with them during the battle, and the fact that she is the only one mounted--it’s a pretty safe bet that she is leading the strike.”

What? That’s me! And they think I’m the one leading the Faction!
Kass watched in wide-eyed bemusement as the newscasters talked about her, explaining why she was such a noteworthy anomaly in the game.

“Now, if I’m not mistaken, you mentioned there was another possible leader in this force that struck from the north and dispersed the White-Wing legions, didn’t you?” Ryan said, his face still ignoring his co-anchor and focused solely on the camera. “I believe you called him ‘that bathrobe dude’?”

“Yes, you’re right. I should also mention that, from the clips we have, the other possible leader is this man,” Daria pointed to a still of Darwin with a blurred-out face, “who is the other significant part of the fight we have to note. From what we gather, he’s likely one of the most unique and crucial characters to appear in Tiqpa. For starters, this our first time across every racial starting area to even see a bathrobe in the game. Next--and here is the real kicker--everything he kills seems to come back to life and fight for him.”

“It comes back to life and fights for him?” Ryan asked, not at all trying to look surprised as he clearly just read the line off the teleprompter.

“Well, as you can see from this clip, his blade clearly kills this diving White-Wing. However, just moments later, we see the same White-Wing reappear, the only difference being that it now has red eyes. It then takes off at the approaching White-Wings and fights the very force it was once on,” Daria, a much better actor than Ryan, managed to talk as much with her hands as she did with her mouth, pointing out every detail she mentioned on the video clip next to her as the events occurred. “Now, there is one final important detail to pay attention to with this one. At one point, he’s engaged by the Commander of the White-Wing forces, a level 70 raid boss.”

“What happened then?” Ryan asked, ignoring the camera and teleprompter as Daria told the story.

“Well, that’s the thing: we don’t know. What we do know is that the Commander failed to kill him in a dive. Then we know that he, King Qasin, and the White-Wing Commander faced off for a few moments, and then we don’t know anything else,” Daria put her hand down. There was nothing to point out on the last image they had of the three standing off.