Kingsley Family/Erik/The Covenant

Camel

Erik rode a camel across the deserts of Irdalni, He knew he had to get back to Oritolon and fast, and not just because of the desert sun. The Republic was counting on him, the gold in his pockets had been stolen by the desert highwaymen as he crossed through the badlands, but they didn't search the camel's pockets. Or rather the camel's saddlebags. 2000 gold could pay for a lot of repairs and soldiers for the army, and he knew it needed to get in the hands of Aveline and the other knights to help defend the realm from whatever came after Arak Castle.

The heat bore down on him and the camel which he had named Humpus, after the large hump on the creature's back which Erik had learned carried water for several weeks. Erik himself was nearly delirious from his own lack of water, as he had already drank what he had, forgetting that "Carrying a week's worth of water" only applied to the camel. Humpus carried along without issue while Erik lay draped over his back panting heavily, sunburned and blistered from the heat.

As he managed to lift his head up he saw across the horizon a small structure in the distance. He could only barely make it out a small primitive structure.

"Huh." He muttered to himself as he collapsed from exhaustion into Humpus's fur. "Probably just a mirage... Just... ignore it... Humpo..." Erik trailed as he faded out.

Erik awoke to a sharp thud against his whole body as something huge hit him. He was wrong about that however, as it was him that was being pulled to ground. He spit out a mouthful of dust as he came to, having fallen from Humpus's back into the desert dust. The camel merely stood there idly, disinterested in the entire affair.

As Erik looked around drearily he found himself surprised to be at the front steps of a small structure hewn of gray stone, sandswept steps leading up to and open entrance. A sign with some words Erik was too delirious to read marked one of the outer walls.

"Wait fer me here Humphrey..." He mumbled as he began to crawl his way up the steps towards the structure in the hopes of escaping the damnable sun. He collapsed about halfway up to catch his breath, and as he looked to his right he jolted at the sight of a skeleton collapsed on the steps, hand outstretched towards the top of the stairs where the structure's entrance lay. As he jolted back the other way he crashed directly into another skeleton in a similar pose. Erik shouted and a sudden rush of fear struck him as he gathered the extra strength to get to his feet and stumble up the stairs, falling into the entrance, bursting open a black oak door as he collapsed inside.

The light from outside showed a simple rough hewn room with rotted wooden benches set up down the center of the floor. The rest of the room was cast in eerie shadow, and the room was cold as if the sun could not penetrate the stone walls of this bizarre structure. But the light from the sun outside did reveal something. Erik shouted as he saw the benches were filled with more human skeletons. He fell backwards onto the cold stone floor and buried his aching and spinning head into knees. "It's just a mirage..." he muttered.

And then somewhere in the darkness, Erik heard the voice speak out clear as day.

"Is it someone new?"

Candle

"Wake up mortal."

Erik groaned as he lifted his head up into the ground, his head pounding and flesh singed from the desert sun. Everywhere hurt. And it was dark, Erik could not see anything.

"Oh dang!" Erik exclaimed feeling around on the cold stone floor frantically. "I'm blind! Someone help I'm blind! The desert blinded me!"

A candle lit a few feet in front of him, and was set gently on the floor by robed hand which retracted from the radius of the tiny light. "You're not blind, idiot. You're just made of living tissue. Those two squishy balls in your skull are so rudimentary, it's amazing people have survived as long as they have."

"Who are you!" Erik called out, hesitant to press forward through the darkness toward the candle light.

"I should be the one asking you that, mortal. You're the one who barged in on our services. You really caused a scene you know, some of the parishioners in hysterics. A real revival if you know what I mean!"

Erik didn't.

"I don't." Erik admitted.

"Of course not," the voice in the darkness replied in a somewhat resigned tone. "I guess your brain is rudimentary too."

Erik reflexively frowned and crawled across the floor towards the light.

"You know mortal, you're the first living thing I've seen in a while. Putting your gross overly-limiting biology aside, what are you doing here?"

"Uh..." Erik replied unsure how to answer. "I kinda just walked in here. I guess I crawled more than walked. It's hot outside?"

"See mortal, you've got to get rid of that body. Look what it's doing to you. You don't even have control over your own actions because your skin peels just from existing. I can help you with that if you want."

Erik shrunk in the light of the candle. "Actually I like my body and skin and stuff. I'd like to keep it if possible."

"Well suit yourself. You'll grow out of it eventually." replied the voice in the darkness. "Since you're here..." The voice trailed off further into the black. "Might as well make yourself useful. Pick up that candle, mortal."

Not knowing what else to do, Erik obeyed, wrapping shaking fingers around the red wax of the candlestick. "Come on then." Said the voice in the darkness. "Please tell me those legs aren't for show." Erik picked himself up and limped forward feeling his way to a wall which he leaned on as he followed the distant voice which kept chattering away.

"Now you'll need to keep up for this next part. And I don't just mean physically. As a living human, you actually present an interesting opportunity. That is if your brain is actually worth anything. In here."

Erik followed the voice into another dark room and as he approached he saw the figure the voice belonged to, obscured by a black robe and the shadows surrounding them. In their hand he held out an open book which Erik leaned over curiously.

"There are great secrets in the world, mortal. Hidden, lost, or buried in the mountains, sands, and dark forests of this world. What if you were to be granted some of this knowledge, what if you sought it out?"

"Baked fish casserole?" Erik said quizzically as he inspected the recipe displayed on the page.

"What?" The voice in the darkness said confused as they flipped the book around and looked at it. "Oh damn it all. That's the wrong book." The figure snapped the book closed and Erik saw a boney hand set the book down on a nearby shelf and pulled another book this one older looking and dust spilled out as the figure opened it. "No, fool, mysterious symbols of unholy power!"

"Their secret power could be yours mortal, but first you must seek it out and spread this dark knowledge of the Unholy Lord across the Continent."

"Oh I don't really like... do quests."

Erik heard the clatter of bone against bone as the figure moved their skeletal hand up to their hooded head.

Covenant

"So..." Said the Voice in the Darkness. "What do you think?"

"I dunno..." Erik answered hesitantly after an explanation of the unholy covenant (and a handful of insults about human biology and anatomy). "I mean some extra knowledge about everything that's going on seems pretty good but... I don't know. An Unholy Covenant sounds pretty like... bad I think."

"That's because the humans have told lies to you for years about the undead being evil monsters! Of course it's going to sound bad when you look at it that way!" the Voice in the Darkness replied exasperatedly.

"Well yeah but... Don't a lot of undead eat the flesh of the living and stuff?" Erik said rubbing his chin in contemplation.

"Yes and? Don't you humans do that too? I've heard about your 'Outer Tilog', they even make a sport of it! Besides, undead don't just have to eat living flesh. We can eat other things you know. Some of us are even vegetarian!"

"Hm... those are good points." Erik replied considering the Voice's argument seriously.

"So you'll help recover lost knowledge and secrets of the human realms?"

"Hm... Let me think on it."

"Gah! If you must." the Voice in the Darkness said snapping the book closed. "But his Unholy Plan will continue with or without you. If you wish to gain the powerful rewards of service to his Unholiness, you will act! With all haste!"

"Hm... alright! Well I guess I'm going to head off now, thanks for talking to me. It was nice to make a new friend at least." Erik stood up and dusted himself off. He already felt better from some rest. He took a step backwards towards the door.

"Technically, I don't speak, I don't have vocal chords and my voice is projected through dark unholy magick. Also we're not friends and you're a moron."

"Oh uh. Alright then. Okay bye!"

Erik backed away quickly and when he had left the candle radius he turned and ran out the door back to where Humphrey was waiting patiently. Erik rushed down the steps to get away from whatever spooky magic was at home in that strange place, but tripped on a skeleton halfway down the stairs and tumbled into the sand, hurting even more as he fell upon raw sunburned skin. He spit out the dust in his mouth and climbed to his feet, jumping on the camel and hurrying off towards the Citadel in the distance.

Coin

Erik leaned forward and felt the wind rush across his face.  He clicked Humpus's reins again and gave a "hyah" as he rode through the streets of the town of Oritolon, as he made his way to the Citadel.  He knew he had an important duty to accomplish, and he would make all the haste he could.

The camel, however, was not in a particular hurry, and Erik found them going at a modest pace, despite his attempts to the contrary.  Erik sighed and continued leisurely along the city road to the Citadel.

The door to the Governor's Hall burst open as Erik, huffing and wheezing from running as fast as he could up the many flights of stairs in the Citadel's halls. Sparkling waxed marble tiles reflected bright sunlight from the large windows at the tower's top.

"I made it!" He proclaimed, as all the courtiers in the room stopped and stared at him. Erik took a few quick steps forward to cross the room, pulling out a large sack of gold coins.  "Governor Caravanthian!  I have brought forth additional funds from Alowca to help ward off the-"  Erik was cut off when his foot slipped on the newly cleaned floor of the chamber, he fell to the ground, dropping the sack which spilled a thousand coins out over the floor.

"Ah beans."  Erik said quickly trying to pick up coins one by one and put them back into the bag while a crowd of confused courtiers looked on.

"I think I got all of them." Erik said after 25 minutes had passed, awkwardly handing the bag over to a chamberlain who shook his head.  "Uh if anyone finds any more here just like, on the floor or something, it's part of the like money from Alowca that's supposed to help pay for the defense or something.  I'm not sure what it's supposed to be used for I think that's up to the Governor.  Unless the coins you find were actually here before I spilled them in which case I guess they wouldn't be a part of that money.  Maybe someone had a hole in their pocket or something?  If that happens I guess maybe it's best if you try to find who it belongs to.  Or I guess you could give it to the Governor to help pay to defend the city considering there's a horde of undead outside the walls trying to kill everyone.  But I guess you can do what you want with it."

Erik glanced around and saw the rest of the chamber was still staring at him confusedly.

"Um okay well I guess that's it.  I think I'll go anywhere else but here!"  He quickly departed the chamber and closed the door behind him, putting his head in his hands over the embarrassing delivery of the money.  "Well, at least I got it here I guess." He reminded himself.

Erik sighed as he mad his way back to his quarters.  He was exhausted.  His travel from Alowca had left him burned, exhausted, and with several falls.  All he wanted at this point was to take a long deep nap.

​​​​​​​Which he did upon his arrival at his quarters, though not so restful perhaps, as dark dreams invaded his sleep.

Case

Erik grumbled quietly to himself as he opened the door to the library.  It was earlier than he usually got up, some noise from out in the streets outside the Citadel woke up him.  He had thought he had gotten used to the hustle and bustle of Oritolon's streets compared to his previous quiet life in Naan Forest, but he supposed the commotion proved otherwise.  Erik never had been a morning person, but today he was feeling extra irritable on account of the early rise and the noise from outside.

He stumbled into the library, a cramped and labyrinthine set of rooms covered in loose books and scrolls.  The window blinds had not been opened for the morning so Erik grabbed one of the lanterns on the wall by the door and lit it.  He once made the mistake of using a regular candle, but was quickly corrected by the curmudgeonly librarian Harald, a barrel-chested man whose hairline had receded so far that all that remained was the braided ponytail hanging from the back of his head.

"This whole place will go up like a light!" Harald had said while snatching the candle from Erik's hand and whacking him with a nearby scroll case.  Erik was pretty sure Harald wasn't supposed to hit knights, but the man had been right after all.  Better a closed light like a lantern than an open flame in a place like this.

Erik glanced around surprised to see a few figures shuffling through the library aisles, but then became confused as to why he would be shocked to see people this early.  After all, he himself had never been here this early, and he had no idea truly how busy or popular a destination the Citadel library might be at this hour.  He watched them for a moment noticing their lethargic demeanor.  Erik couldn't blame them.  He was certainly lethargic this morning too.  He shuffled past the circulation desk and the old grump of a librarian Harald behind it.

"Good Morning Harald." Erik muttered.  The man answered with a long guttural groan.  Harald could be like that sometimes, he was kind of a jerk, Erik thought.

Erik walked through the dim aisles himself, trying to find a free table.  He did pass one that had someone passed out limp over the table, and someone was even sleeping in the floor.  That's definitely a mood I understand. Erik thought to himself rubbing his eyes again.

It was then he stepped on something soft, he looked down to see a long shape.  Glancing around he saw another person wandering around aimlessly nearby.  "Ah.  Excuse me, I think you dropped your scroll."  Erik called out.  The figure turned and tilted its head to the side as if it had barely heard him.

"I said you dropped your scroll." Erik repeated, leaning over to pick the item up.  It was when he did this that he realized that the soft object was not in fact a scroll and was actually a human arm.  He yelped and dropped the arm immediately, his heartbeat livening as fear began to set in.  As the figure approached him he got a better look and realized that this person had indeed dropped the object, as they had only one arm now reaching out towards Erik.  Torn lips on a pale, sunken face let out a deep groan as Erik bolted, running through the aisles trying to escape and avoiding any other terrifying figures.  "Help!  Help!" he cried several times, gaining the attention of more shambling people Erik realized then were walking dead.  Aw dang that was a bad idea, I can't even call for help!

He ran to the outside wall and ripped open the blinds on one of the windows in a panicked effort to escape before realizing that the library was on one of the Citadel's upper floors.  He stared down into the city below, once his eyes had recovered from the blast of morning sunlight.

He understood now what the noise that had woken him that morning was.

Hundreds and hundreds of undead mindlessly wandering the streets and devouring any hopeless soul that passed by them.  Erik heard a chorus of moans from deep within the dark corners of the library.

"Ah beans."

Corvid

Corvid

Erik was trapped. He was able to escape the main chambers of the cramped library but now found himself in an even more enclosed space; a private study within the library.  Set aside for noble use, the study room was quite big for a room of its purpose, though still held no way out except a large window at the top which led twelve floors below, and the front door to the room which was barricaded by all the furniture Erik was strong enough to push in front of it (which was not very much).  Bangs came on the door from the other side, alongside undead groans and grunts as the knocking became more furious and desperate

At least I can see in here.  Erik thought to himself as he huddled up in a corner in fear.  That way I can see when I'm horribly killed by mindless undead. Father did always say don't take small things for granted. Erik knew that his father was speaking in a cultural sense, as a man whose home had sunk beneath the waves long ago, but Erik didn't see why the words couldn't fit into other contexts as well, such as being devoured alive by a horde of walking dead.

A tapping on the window above brought Erik from his thought.  He sighed as he looked up, defeated, fully expecting to see more zombies trying to break through the window but was a little surprised to see a bird tapping upon the window with its beak.  The bird was large, and black, and by Erik's estimation seemed to be some sort of raven.  Then he thought about it some more and wondered if it was maybe a crow.  He had read a book about birds at one point a long time ago when he was a priest of the Order but didn't remember much of it as it was somewhat boring.  He considered what exactly the difference between a crow and a raven was, and which of the two the bird was when the tapping became more insistent, almost as if the bird was annoyed at being stuck outside.

"Maybe you want in?" Erik asked the ambiguous bird.  He stood upon a nearby desk and reached up to open the window.  Maybe it's a jackdaw. Erik didn't know exactly what a jackdaw looked like, but it was a type of bird with an interesting name, so he wondered if this might be one.

As the window latch opened the bird dashed inside and immediately landed on a lectern across the room.  It stared at Erik coldly and began pecking by its feet onto the lectern.  Erik then noticed the strip of paper attached to the big bird's leg.  His eyes lit up.  I'm saved maybe! 

"Thank you bird!" Erik said as he hopped off the desk, slipping on a book and stumbling and nearly falling on his face while the book fell to the ground with a clatter.  He crossed the room and took the slip of paper, it had no words on it, but an ominous symbol drawn in thick black ink.  The lines were stiff and sharp, and the geometric pattern seemed indescribable. For a moment, Erik felt himself lost in the lines until the bird squawking took him out of it.  The bird gave a peck on his hand and took off again towards the window, flying out into the day and out of sight.

"Okay bye!" Erik said meekly as he turned his attention back to the symbol.  It looked strangely familiar though Erik tried desperately to remember where he had seen it.  A dream? He considered.  Then it clicked. It was one of the symbols he had seen in the book at that strange church in Irdalni.  A book?  Erik thought, and as the banging grew louder on the door to the library proper he rushed over to a nearby bookshelf and began desperately searching for a similar symbol.  He knew that had to be the way out.

Then he heard another tapping on the window.  The big black bird had returned, its head cocked to the side as it perched on the open window.  Erik blinked and cautiously climbed on the desk to peek out the window.

There was a balcony that wrapped around just below the window.  Erik blinked at the black bird who just stared at him and squawked. "Oh.  I think this makes more sense than the book. But what if I fall!  I think the chance I survive that are pretty low!"  The bird merely squawked again in response as the pounding on the door grew louder and the makeshift barricade Erik had created began to buckle.  He gulped and looked back out the window.  The bird squawked louder, and closing his eyes and feeling the wind against his face, Erik crawled through the window and out onto the balcony below.

Corridors

Corridors

Erik dropped down from the window onto the balcony rail, making the terrible mistake of looking down 12 floors below.  He felt his head begin to spin and he closed his eyes huddling close to the balcony floor in an attempt to center himself.  The bird landed on the doorframe that connected the balcony back to the Citadel and squawked and Erik looked up to meet its eyes.

They were cold, and held no spark of life, just watchful primal eyes that looked past him, uncaring.  Erik shuddered and rose to his feet, stumbling across the balcony and towards the door.  He realized he had sprained his ankle from the fall from the window and limped his way across, grabbing the door handle and pulling it open.  The big, black bird cawed again and dashed inside, taking flight through the corridor within.  Erik followed, now convinced this bird was leading him somewhere.  He wasn't sure where, but was happy at least to be away from the monsters that were in the library.

He limped through the hallways trying to keep up with the bird as it soared through the citadel's corridors.  At once he lost sight of it and panic began to set in.  He immediately started checking doors, having forgotten that birds do not have hands or arms to open them with.  Flinging them open he revealed mostly empty chambers or storage spaces, though he did open the door to a meeting room with a large table, but quickly closed the door after spotting a feminine figure straddling and hunched over another figure, her face buried in his neck as she groaned a low growl.  Erik blushed and muttered an instinctive apology before closing the door.

She must have been mad about the interruption because as Erik limped further down the hallway he heard a loud banging on the door behind him followed by intense grunts.  Erik didn't look back but hurried his pace as best he could, pain shooting through his sprained ankle as he put any weight on it.  Eventually a squawk from down the hallway pointed him back into the right direction, and he spotted the big black bird upon another doorframe.

Following the bird, Erik opened the door and entered a darkened meeting room, a single dim lantern sat on a table in the center.  The bird flew into the room and through the light emanating from the lantern, and into the darkness on the other side. Its eyes leered at him, as the flame sparkled in its eyes. And then the voice called out to him.

"Hello again mortal."

"Woah." Erik replied, taken aback.  "You sound like that voice in the darkness in the temple."

"Yes." Sighed the Voice in the Darkness. "Your powers of deduction once again prove themselves to be flawless."

"Thanks!" Erik said proudly.

The Voice in the Darkness sighed.  "Do you want a way out of this place?"

Communion

"A way out of the citadel, and a place to keep safe."  Said the Voice in the Darkness.  "It's what you need isn't it?  Since you seem so insistent that your skin and organs and things are so important.  They aren't by the way, but since you're so attached I'm happy to make a trade."

Erik wasn't really in a position to bargain.  Oritolon was totally covered in zombies and skeletons, and other undeads that Erik probably didn't know anything about.  He didn't know a lot of things, he understood, but especially not about unholy magic that bound soul to an animated body.  He decided not thinking about that and instead think about getting the heck out of here if possible.

"Okay." He stuttered.  "What do you want to trade for.  I have some gold." he continued, pulling out a sack of money and gesturing it vaguely in the direction where the voice was coming from, somewhere out of the little circle of light in the boarded up meeting room they were presently discussing his fate.  "Do you need gold?  I mean, you probably wouldn't be able to spend it in Oritolon on account of the shopkeepers are probably either dead or running away.  You can always go to Alowca though, except I think you're a skeleton person so they might not let you in."

"Shut up." The voice said with a bored tone.  " I want a promise."

"Oh.  Um sure?"  Erik said cautiously.  An old musty tome held by a skeletal hand protruded into the little circle of light.  It was open to a musty page with some arcane brown scribbling on it, the text arranged in even rows down the side of the page.  A simple quill sat between the pages.

"Just sign here, mortal."  Erik looked at the quill worryingly and then up at the darkness where the book had come from.  I need to get out of here. He grimaced and picked up the quill, signing his name below.  When he set the quill down the hand pulled the book around.

"Alright mortal, your unholy communion begins!"

"Wait what?" Erik said incredulously, looking back down on the book. "Oh god what does that do."

"Hm?" Said the Voice in the Darkness.  "Oh no nothing like that!  The book is just for record purposes.  Welcome to the Covenant!  An associate will be with you in the coming days to discuss your future unholy deeds!"

Erik stared frightened.

"Now.  Follow our friend here." The Voice in the darkness said as the raven that led Erik to this dark room fluttered down and perched on the table by the candle.  Cocking its head to the side.  It cawed once and took flight towards the door.

"Run along now mortal."  The Voice in the Darkness said.

Collar

Erik awoke in the basement safehouse as the light shined through the open, upper window. He squinted as the high sun intruded upon him. He scratched his messy brown hair and stood up, inspecting the room he had stowed away in for a week or more. He thought it was a week. He had stopped counting as the days had blurred together rather quickly in the boredom that had been his most recent days in Oritolon.

With the zombies roaming the streets outside and Erik barely escaping the Citadel Tower, something which made him feel uneasy each time he remembered, boredom was a small price to pay for safety and his life.

Erik dug through a bag near the barred door that led up and out to a hidden back alley in the city street. He pulled out an orange and began peeling it, digging his nails into the rind and tearing the skin off piece by piece nibbling a little on the orange peel as he did. He knew you weren't supposed to eat the peel, but he always thought it tasted interesting so long as you didn't try to chomp it in one bite so he tore off tiny pieces with his teeth as he peeled the rest of it off and took a smell of it before tearing a slice off the fruit relishing in the juicy refreshing breakfast.

He had just finished the orange and was looking around for something to wipe the sticky juice off his hand with when he heard a rap on the door. Erik jolted up at the sound and he stood deathly still. The knock came again a bit louder, and then the voice. "Open up! I heard you in there!" Erik scrunched his face in confusion. If a zombie was trying to break in like they had been when he first snuck into this safe room they probably would just be moaning quietly and banging aggressively.

The bang became aggressive. "Open up I said! It be the Oritolon Guard!" Then the door was kicked in and a wave of dust from outside billowed in Erik's face. He coughed and looked at the Oritolon Guard that now stared at him. "I knew I heard some trespasser down here. Another damn looter just as like." The guard grumbled as they stepped into the room and grabbed him by the back of the collar.

"Wait what?" Erik said as he was dragged up the stairs into the alleyway. "I promise I didn't loot anyone! There was this crow and this weird book, and walking dead everywhere I'm from the Citadel!"

"Alright, save it fer your trial. I'm just here to round you looters and deserters up."

Erik continued to protest as he was carried out into the street. He saw many more guardsmen, soldiers, knights crowding the city. Some of them were rounding up the fallen corpses of zombies, once people that had been stabbed, burned, shot, or otherwise dispatched into piles and burning them in the squares.

"Wait we're saved!" Erik said with a nervous laugh. "You saved us!"

"Not really. The undead just... sort of left. Most of em' at least. Damnedest thing." Erik grimaced as they turned the corner, but saw a familiar sight, a lovely young white-haired woman, short blue lines painted on her face.

"Oh! Aveline!" Erik called out. "Aveline over here!" He tried waving his arms at her boisterously, which earned him a shove for his captor. "I'm being falsely imprisoned again, will you tell them this is all just a misunderstanding?! Aveline!"

She had stood up for him before, and even came all the way back with Oritolon with army to help save the city (and him).  If anyone could help him out, it would be her.

And so Erik continued to call out to her as he was dragged through the streets on his way to a Citadel dungeon.

Calder

by Calder

Aveline walked the streets of Oritolon while her scribes prattled on about unrest in the market square and empty food stores. She could not help but be impressed by the damage that the undead did in such a short amount of time. Her men took their new responsibility as royal guards seriously as they marched in formation about her. Aveline held up her hand to silence the chittering advisor when she saw Captain Wulfreda's attention be drawn to a side street ahead of her. She could hear the rabble now too. Just then several men dressed in the colors of the Oritolon Guard turned onto the main street dragging an urchin by the collar of his ragged jacket. Knights rushed in front of Aveline to stand between her and this unexpected force. Aveline paused when she saw the prisoner's face. He face was thin and caked with grime. His brown hair was shabby and disheveled. Still, she felt like she knew him.

"Oh! Aveline!" Erik called out. "Aveline over here!"

That voice- that peasant is Erik!

"I'm being falsely imprisoned again, will you tell them this is all just a misunderstanding?! Aveline!"

Aveline pushed the men in front of her aside and strode to the guardsman with Captain Wulfreda rushing to stand beside her. "What is the meaning of this?" Aveline demanded in a harsh voice.

A particularly cruel guardsman stepped forward and looked down at Aveline. He stood head and shoulders taller than her. "And who be doing the asking?" he snarled in reply.

Aveline's hand shot to the side to stop her Captain as he stepped forward, sword halfway out of his scabbard. "Is that really the tone you wish to take with your counselor, boy?" Aveline's glare bored into the guard as he took a half step back, uncertain. Whispers passed through his fellow guardsmen.

"Counsela?" "I did hear they choosed a lady" "Can it be?"

Aveline's gaze shot past the man into the rest of her guards. She sighed and put a hand on her hip. "Kneel?" she suggested in an impatient tone. At once the guards all dropped to their knees.

The bully before Aveline looked up and stammered, "Your ladyship, if I had known I wou-"

His voice was cut off as Aveline pushed his head down so he once again stare at the ground. "I'm glad you did not know. If you had, I would not have seen how you truly behaved." Aveline continued speaking as she walked forward and helped Erik back up from where he had been pulled down. "I'm sure you also failed to recognize my friend, Sir Erik here, hm? I think you will be of greater service to Oritolon in the stables than on the streets. Captain- take these men into your custody. See they are stripped of rank and given a job more appropriate to their.... lack of decency. Make sure it is known that cruelty will not be tolerated in this city."

As Aveline guided Erik away from the guardsmen, she now addressed him. "I'm glad to have finally found you. You are a uniquely skilled man to have survived all this. You'll have to tell me all about it after we find you a bath, clean clothing, and hot food."

Consul

Kingsley

Erik put his best clothes on, because they were the first ones he found when he had finished his bath. Apparently the undead had made it through most parts of the Citadel, including the nobles' quarters because they had ransacked Erik's room and many of the other lesser nobles' as well. The staff had mostly cleaned up before he had gotten there, but Erik's things were all misplaced and he to search to find clothes after his bath, so now the floor was wet too, which Erik recognized very cogently as a potential fall waiting to happen. So he got dressed very carefully and avoided that end of the room as he finished dressing himself.

While his hair had settled into its usual messy shape, his tunic was green and embroidered with an elaborate pattern, with black trousers and shiny brown shoes. A fine leather belt around his waist held a little bag that was empty. Erik never knew what to put in that.

Erik thought to himself as he glanced in the mirror now scuffed and cracked from the damage the walking dead had done. He didn't think about his clothes but he was thinking. About several things like birds, or that time his cart got stuck in the mud on the way to Wetham, and whether there were any birds there. Maybe a jackdaw?

Coming back to reality, he took another glance in the mirror and shrugged before setting off back out into the Citadel for a stroll.

Erik didn't much like to walk around the Citadel general, mostly because of the large amount of stair climbing that typically was involved in such a task. So he mostly kept his strolls to the walls and balconies of the floor he was on. He had become rather familiar with most of the rooms on this level of the apartments and with the occupants of the tower still slowly trickling back into the city he had most of the floor to himself. He stepped over rubble and items damaged from the undead invasion thinking idly as he wandered around.

Without thinking he stepped into a meeting room where he was surprised to see Aveline sitting at the head of the meeting table with a patient expression.

"Erik." She said as he walked in. "Right as expected, hello."

Erik looked a little confused for a moment until everything came back to him. "Oh!" He blurted out awkwardly. "Um. Yes! We had a meeting scheduled. For... right now. That I am definitely here for, at the time we agreed to meet."

Aveline nodded in confirmation.

"Um..." He mumbled quickly stumbling over to the chair to her right. He pulled it from under the table, a bit too hard which bumped the chair next to it, falling to the ground with a thud. "Sorry..." He muttered picking up the chair and then taking his seat at her side. He gave her a smile as he sat, he was glad to see her after all like he always was. He waited patiently for her to begin and watched her attentively.

She merely looked at him for a moment as the silence became awkward. "What... was it that you wanted to speak to me about?"

Erik hesitated for a moment while he processed her question. "Oh! Yes. I asked to meet with you! That's right." He laughed nervously. "I think I got... you know, got it mixed up with a different meeting. Lots of meetings I have to go to... Important people."

He coughed awkwardly. "So. Uh... I may have accidentally infiltrated a death cult meant to take over the continent."