Chapter IV: Fulfilling a Prophecy

We trained every night for a month and a half. I had not realized the castle was so far away. Lady Carmella refused to give me any information until I defeated her in combat. Which was impossible, by the way. Every improvement that I made was dwarfed by her skill. There was nothing I could do to stop her. I almost had her once when I threw the dagger and came up behind it with a slash. I actually hit her with the second attack, but it was not enough to take her down and she spent the rest of the night teaching me that lesson.

After a few nights, she taught me how to take care of the horses. She got out her brush and showed me the proper technique. "You have to brush out their fur and mane. Make sure it doesn't get tangled." She was pretty gentle with the animals as she did so. She had me take over as she pet the beast's nose. I watched her and she gave me one of her rare smiles. Maybe it was for the horse. Most nights, she'd take care of them alone and I'd prepare dinner. Which I got better at as we traveled. I wasn't used to cooking without a stove. She didn't cook at all.

About five weeks into our journey, we were surrounded by bandits who demanded we give over all of our money. That was when I saw the clearest cut difference in our skill levels. There were eight of them and she took on six of the men. All flowing through combat from one stance to another and men fell before her. The two that I fought also went down, but not without cost. I batted away one sword only to have the other try to slide between my ribs. I took down the first man by accident. He over-swung and out of instinct I plunged a dagger into his back and he collapsed. Before I knew what I was doing I had deflected the next three blows from the other in quick succession and struck him down.

I watched the blade sever the muscles in his neck. Blood sprayed out over the ground. Not ridiculously. There was somehow more and less blood than I thought there would be. From both of them. The sword dropped from my hands and I stood there and watched them die and for a while longer after. Violence is a curse of its own. I had killed a man. I had killed two men. I didn't mean to. I did not want to hurt them. It was never something that I wanted.

Some time later, it could have been minutes or hours or even days for all I was paying attention, Lady Carmella put her hand on my shoulder and I jumped and tried to run. Her gauntleted hand gripped my shoulder tighter and kept me in place. It was only then that I realized she was speaking. "You did well. It's a good thing you took on both of these fools. I don't think I could've taken all of them myself. Johann."

I blinked. It took me a few moments to process what she said. "Y-you called me Johann."

"You're not a blacksmith anymore." She said simply. As though that explained anything at all. She set towards retrieving the horses and cooing at them. She got up in the saddle of her horse and started off slowly. "Don't forget your weapons."

I looked around. My dagger was still in the back of the first bandit I had taken down. I swallowed and closed my eyes as my hands closed around the hilt. With a tug that required more force than I would have thought, I pulled it out. I picked up my sword and looked at it. I wiped it down on the clothes of one of my fallen foes and gagged. It took all of my will to not vomit. I got on the horse and urged it to catch up. To leave them behind. She made dinner that night and watched me with those sharp green eyes. We did not talk a lot. We never did. She watched me over her bowl of stew, though.

"You didn't do anything wrong," she said, setting her bowl down.

"What? I know that. I-I was ju-st defending myself." My voice caught in the sentence.

"Exactly, Johann," she used my name again. Almost familiarly. "You did what you must."

"Violence is a curse of its own," I muttered almost inaudibly to myself.

"It can be," she said almost as softly. "But this curse lets you live another day sometimes. This curse you took on today let me live."

"You could have taken them all." I muttered bitterly.

"Maybe. Or maybe they would have gotten me and I would have died. We don't know. What I do know is that you prevented that by taking them on yourself. Tomorrow we will arrive at the castle. Focus on that."

"How are you related to Morgana?"

"Who?"

"Morgana. The woman that commissioned these weapons." I clarified, staring into the fire. "You have the same eyes. Kind of. They're the same color. They're intense. You're both intense. But in different ways. Hers are predatory, like a cat chasing a mouse. Yours are... I don't know. Determined. Wary."

"Morgana... Of course she would choose that name."

"What?"

"Morgana is a character from a story. A powerful witch who falls in love and dooms her kingdom. She always liked that story. The fool."

"Uh..."

"You'll see her tomorrow. Ask her, then. Your first watch tonight. Don't let us get killed." She laid down in her plate mail and started snoring softly almost immediately. How can anyone do that? I can't even fall asleep like that outside without seventy pounds of metal. I took out my sword and cleaned it again. I had watched the First Knight clean hers, and recreated the motions. When my shift was over, I ended up staring at the stars for a long time. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw those men. Their blood. Their bodies. Then I saw the man I had watched die all those years ago. Lady Carmella sat next to me and took off her gauntlet to stroke my hair. She actually cooed at me too. "It's okay. Get some rest. It'll be okay."

This was comforting. Until I remembered that this is exactly what she said when she was wrangling the horses back after the bandits had scared them off. Well, she's trying her best.

We still had most of a day's ride before we got to the city proper, but I spotted the walls from more than an hour's ride out. Bayfield, I thought. It was huge. There were farms around it and just like back in my village, people watched the passersby with idle curiosity. I nodded at them and they nodded back, but their eyes always seemed to drift back to Carmella. The roads were paved with cobblestone this close to the city and the horses' footfalls were loud, announcing our presence.

The First Knight stopped us just before we got into the line to enter the city and had dressed me in the nicest clothes that she had packed for me before we got into the city. She'd also pushed a stone in my hand the size of a bar of soap. I'd held it aloft, confused and she pushed it into my chest and a weird sensation of wind swept over my body, through my clothes and suddenly I smelled of fresh lilac. The city walls were huge, imposing things. They stretched up at least three stories. And astoundingly, there were buildings that towered over these huge walls. Behind them, there were so many people milling about. Everywhere. The streets were filled. And paved. Everything was stone as far as the eye could see. Cobblestone lined the streets. Buildings were made of carved bricks and decorative glass. Many of the buildings had several stories. The only building like that in the village was the inn. Here in Bayfield, everything was bigger than the inn.

I'd heard that everything in the city would be dirty, but that wasn't the case. The stone streets were clean, despite horses and thousands of people trampling over them constantly. People were doing trade and children were navigating through crowds running and screaming. People spoke fast and everyone was bustling around. It was dizzying. I'd never seen so many people. Amazingly, people just gave us space. They split around us like a river around a rock, even though we were the ones moving. I smelled food and new smells abound and wanted to stop, but the First Knight never gave anything a second look. Some salesmen and women would call out, offering a thousand things I'd never heard of before. She did have to physically drag me from a bookstore that I found. There were hundreds of books and I wanted all of them.

The shopkeeper laughed as Carmella lifted me bodily and put me back on my horse. I haven't been picked up like that since I was a child, I thought. I saw my parents' faces for a moment and sighed, refocusing. I hadn't seen them since before I became an apprentice. They'd died of a sickness. No one was there to help them. We were too far out to get a proper cleric. Carmella pulled me out of my malaise.

"Focus up, blacksmith. We're here for a reason. You can buy your dirty periodicals later." Then she muttered something that sounded like "Though, I'd suggest the Blessed Sanctuary for that."

I didn't know what the Blessed Sanctuary was, but I was going to find out. Several miles into the city, we finally arrived at a gate. I glanced back down the road we had come from. It went on for what seemed like ever, twisting slightly. My entire village could fit in a few buildings here. Two other knights looked up at Carmella and her horse and nodded as the ornate gate opened, seemingly by itself. When we got into the grounds, which were well kept and already lush and green despite spring just starting, I noticed a theme. There were tables with swords. Hundreds of swords of all different types and sizes. They were just lining every walkway. I stopped to examine some of them. I recognized a lot of the more basic ones, but there were some made of every material I'd ever seen before. There was even a glowing, crystalline one. I was about to pick it up when the First Knight realized I wasn't following her again and dragged me behind her.

When we got inside, there were more swords. No two looked like they were made by the same hand. We followed the tables to the largest room I had ever seen. It was lavishly decorated. White marble with silver intricately ran through the floor. Thick red carpets. There were two statues in the back. Seats for at least a hundred people on either side with still more room to fit maybe two hundred and fifty more. At first, I thought this felt weird and impersonal; cold somehow, but that wasn't the case. The lighting was warm and people smiled and nodded at me, just like people did back home. There were servants in black clothes milling about and cleaning things and their clothes were all nicer than anything I owned. Even after Lady Carmella had me dressed in my Festival's Finest. Near the back wall, there was a single throne with a woman sitting in it. A woman with large, piercing green eyes, black hair, a small nose and pouty lips that started to pull up in a smile before returning to a neutral mask.

Lady Carmella went to one knee and bowed her head. She glanced up at me and motioned for me to do the same. I did so, mirroring her as best as I could. "Queen Meryl, I have retrieved the blacksmith, as you requested."

I looked up and Morgana... Meryl, I mentally corrected myself, was staring at me, the skin around her eyes wrinkling slightly. I stood not thirty paces from the queen. And said queen had seen me naked. "Rise, First Knight Lady Carmella. Rise and come to me. And bring me his gifts."

I started to rise but stopped when I saw both Lady Carmella and the noblewoman look at me. Carmella, for her part, stripped me of the sword and the two daggers that I had grown accustomed to wearing on a belt. She walked up to the queen and presented them with a bow. The queen took the weapons and set them immediately to the side and raised her knight's head. They met eyes and she smiled. I think Carmella was smiling, too, but I could not see her face. It was just a feeling I got. Queen Meryl touched her face gently and kept her eyes on the woman for a long time. I did not understand what was going on between them, but it seemed important.

I took the opportunity to take them both in. The First Knight and the Queen were different. That much could be seen clearly from this painting-worthy moment alone. Carmella was almost as tall kneeling as the queen was sitting in her throne. Her short, carefully manicured blonde hair compared to the queen's long, black locks that framed her face. Her polished, almost white armor contrasted heavily with the the tight, deep purple, silk dress that the queen was wearing, hugging her curves and her chest. I could guess what Meryl looked like under it, but I really had no idea what to expect under Lady Carmella's armor. Why am I thinking about this? Do I care what's under her plate mail? I asked myself. And immediately, a voice answered. Yes, of course you do. Carmella is gorgeous and strong. My mind flashed back to last night, when she was comforting me. And caring, I thought, pursing my lips.

After a few moments, they broke apart and the queen picked up the daggers and examined them. She spent a lot of time doing this, admiring them. She did the same with the sword, but she had seen it before and took less time doing it. She then took one of the daggers and the sword and made her way over to me. Carmella stood in the back watching. There was red coloring her pale cheeks. The queen of the land stood tall before me and held the two weapons in front of her. My breath caught. If you had asked me before seeing her again, I would have sworn on my soul and everything I have that I hadn't forgotten any details about her in the months I hadn't seen her. But there were things I hadn't memorized yet. The subtle way she lined her eyes with makeup; the way her lips curve when she smiles, the slight tilt in her head when she's amused. There were a thousand details I hadn't taken in enough. And while I was trying to, she spoke, "I never asked you to make daggers. Why did you?"

"Technically you never asked me to do anything." I said before I could stop myself. I choked and looked up at her. "I'm sorry, my queen. I mean. I just..."

She started laughing. She was laughing at me. I started to rise and she stopped and looked at me, mirth still coloring her features. "That's true. But why did you make the daggers?"

"I... Well... I don't know, honestly." I stopped and thought about it. "I... It wasn't a complete set. The sword... The swords needed something extra. I guess I could have made them bigger, but that wouldn't have felt right. And I had the material."

"Why two daggers?"

"Because it was a pair of swords. A dagger for each sword. A sword for each dagger." I responded immediately. She just watched me for a while, the smile returning to her face slowly. She bent down and raised me gently, carefully avoiding stabbing me with either weapon. She stared into my eyes for a moment, her hands resting on my shoulders.

"Long ago, there was a prophecy written. There would be a queen with no king. It was said that her mother and father would die young and she would have to navigate life with little guidance. It was also said that she would marry. She would not marry royalty. She would marry a commoner. She would marry a blacksmith. Those who know the prophecy know that he would give her a blade. And she would give two in return."

"O-okay. But w-what does this have to do wi-"

"This queen will go on to do many things that are very important. Her husband would be by her side throughout all of it. He would give her counsel. He would do some things himself. When I was three, I satisfied parts of the prophecy."

"B-but I'm not that important."

"You're not. And you are."

"What does that mean?" I said, deflating some.

"Any blacksmith could have been the one I chose. As you can see, I have been receiving swords of different sizes and shapes widely since I hit puberty. From lords and blacksmiths and everyone in between." She sighed. "But out of the thousands of swords I've received, none of them felt right. So I started looking into how they're made. I'm actually something of a blacksmith myself. A hobbyist, sure, but I've watched dozens, maybe hundreds at their trade. And I chose you."

"Y-you bought those. I didn't give them as a gift." I stammered. I was going to present the daggers as a gift, but she didn't have to know that, I thought. She smiled, as though she could read my thoughts.

"I bought a sword. You made another. And the two daggers."

"You told me to make the other sword!" I said, triumphantly.

"And you made the daggers by yourself. You thought of me when you made the daggers, my betrothed."

"W-what? N-no." I stuttered.

"Yes." She kissed me. It was not deep, but it was long. And it felt strangely right. She broke it after a moment or two. "You fulfilled the prophecy without knowing it. In the earliest version, it says that he would make her these gifts with her in mind."

Carmella stifled a laugh in the background. "Tell him the rest, Meryl."

"Th-there's more?"

The queen, Meryl apparently, glared at her accusingly, but there was more play in it than anything. "Yes, well. It's said that this queen of prophecy would marry twice and love thrice. And that she would be shared between those people."

There was an odd emphasis on the last word that I did not understand. "So, not only am I marrying you, I also have to share you with someone else. This is insane."

Carmella had closed the distance between us and took the dagger from Meryl's hand and slid it into my belt carefully, leaving her arm around my hip. And her other arm around the queen's. "It's not as bad as you might think."

"What do you mean? What am I missing?"

"There are lots of benefits to being roped into prophecy," Meryl said, looking at her First Knight with a familiar fondness. "I'm sure you'll learn to enjoy all of them."

"You realize this is insane, right?"

"She knows," The First Knight responded, staring at her with the same look.