Far above the continent of Skaldr, the sunny heavens expanded over the northern reaches of the Raudmark Kingdom, where nice looking green valleys, faraway forests, and little groups of buildings became tiny marks beneath the clouds.
A singular griffon crossed that expanse of blue, its wings beating with such breadth that every downward sweep seemed to push the surrounding air aside, while its gold and white feathers glowed beneath the sun.
The beast was enormous, easily large enough to carry a dozen people, with the forequarters of a powerful eagle and the body, hind legs, and tail of a great mountain lion, its hooked beak catching every current of wind as it sailed toward the horizon.
Twelve Paladin recruits had been packed onto its broad back, gripping straps, feathers, or whatever piece of harness they could find while the creature carried them toward their destination with the indifference of something that had probably transported hundreds of nervous idiots before them.
The recruits themselves were an assorted collection of young men and women who had spent most of the journey talking about the same thing, which was understandable considering they were being carried toward the Sanctuary of the Paladin Order for the ceremony that could determine the rest of their lives.
One boy with a shaved head and a collection of little silver earrings kept checking the ceremonial sword hanging from his belt, while another recruit with freckles scattered across her cheeks had spent nearly half an hour explaining that she intended to become a Paladin of Mercy because she wanted to heal people rather than spend her life putting holes through them.
A broad-shouldered young man had announced his intention to take the Oath of Law because, according to him, “someone has to keep all you lunatics from burning down villages,” which earned him several offended looks and one person asking why he was talking as though he had already been appointed their commander.
Across from them, a thin girl with short black hair insisted that the Oath of Revelation sounded the most prestigious, while another recruit declared that the Oath of Sacrifice sounded noble enough to make her parents cry at the ceremony, causing the others to immediately accuse her of choosing an Oath solely for dramatic funeral speeches.
Among all of them, nineteen-year-old Lennox stood out for a completely different reason, although he desperately wished it were the sort of reason people admired.
His messy blonde hair had been gathered into two twin braided ponytails at the back of his head, with loose strands repeatedly whipping across his forehead whenever the griffon’s wings disturbed the air around them, and his dark green eyes remained looking upon the distant sky beneath a burn mark that ran across one side of his face.
His clothes were ragged enough to make several of the other recruits occasionally look at him with sympathy, though Lennox had decided early in the journey that sympathy was something he absolutely did not need, especially when he was attempting to cultivate the mysterious reputation of a hardened warrior.
At the moment he was leaning against one of the griffon’s massive forelimbs, using the creature’s enormous body for support while everyone else argued over which Paladin Oath would suit them best.
“I’ve already decided,” a man declared, putting one hand against his chest like he was addressing a cheering crow, “The Oath of Law. It represents discipline, order, responsibility, and authority. Being a Paladin of Law would please my family a great deal.”
A freckled girl stared at him for several seconds before rubbing her forehead.
“Sounds kinda…boring?”
“I hope you get forced into being one, you know we can’t really choose what kind of Paladin we’ll be. It’s up to those higher up people or whatever.”
Another recruit, a girl with a long braid and a collection of bronze rings around her fingers, lifted her hand and announced that she wanted the Oath of Mercy because…
“I hate violence.” She said, only for the boy beside her to point out that she had spent the last three days describing seventeen different ways she planned to break the nose of the instructor who had failed her during training.
“You forgot we’re from the same village.”
“Stop telling my business!”
The group laughed, and the girl immediately corrected herself and said she was considering War instead, which prompted another round of arguments about the seven Oaths, their responsibilities, and which one would grant them the most impressive armor.
“I want the Oath of Faith,” said a quiet boy near the griffon’s neck. “My family has served the temples for generations, and I think being a Paladin of Faith would be something worth carrying.”
“War,” another recruit answered immediately. “Easy. War gets the best weapons.”
“That’s your reason?”
“Have you seen the weapons they pull from their ass?”
“Fair enough.”
The conversation continued around Lennox while he remained with his arms folded, his face arranged into what he hoped looked like someone who had seen too much of the world to waste time on childish discussions.
In reality, his stomach had been twisting since they left the ground, and he had already checked the straps beneath him six times because the griffon was flying several thousand feet above the earth and Lennox had absolutely no intention of discovering whether the fall would kill him before the Paladin ceremony could.
Eventually, after everyone else had finished boasting about their preferred Oaths, the attention of the group wandered toward him, and a boy sitting nearby nudged another recruit with his elbow before pointing toward Lennox.
“Hey, what about you? You haven’t said much at all.”
Lennox kept his arms folded and stared toward the distance, refusing to look at anyone because he had spent considerable time constructing this particular “edgy” persona in his head during the journey.
He thought, ‘This is it! If I can just pretend to be edgy and broody in front of these fools, they’ll all think I’m the real deal! Which will help me become a Paladin of War since those guys are super damn serious! I’m such a genius! I can manipulate the system inti making me a Paladin of War, taking the Oath of War and all that good stuff! I’m a god!’
He let several seconds pass, which felt much longer from inside his own skull, before turning his face away from the group and giving the most intimidating look he could manage.
He had practiced it in a mirror, twice actually, the second attempt had been much better.
He said with a super fake deep voice, “Hmph. It doesn’t matter. As long as I kill. And you all better not get in my way.”
For a brief moment, the recruits stared at him in silence, and Lennox resisted the desperate urge to grin because he thought the edgy performance had surely worked.
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His fingers closed against his sleeves while he maintained the brooding pose, mentally congratulating himself on what he considered a masterful display of dark charisma.
‘Too much? Too dark? Nah, it’s fine. They’ll fall for that. I’m so badass!’
The silence lasted perhaps three seconds before the boy with the earrings burst into laughter so violently that he nearly lost his balance, and the others quickly followed, pointing toward Lennox while someone slapped a hand against the griffon’s feathers for support.
Even the man from earlier, the supposed future Paladin of Law, had bent forward laughing, while the girl who wanted to be a Paladin of Mercy was wiping tears from her eyes and trying to breathe normally again:
“Haha!”
“Seriously?!”
“He’s joking, right?!”
Lennox’s entire face went red as he pointed accusingly at them, his carefully constructed image of terrifying mystery evaporating so quickly that he could practically hear it shattering inside his head like glass.
“S-Shut up! All of you! You’re all beneath me! You’re ruining this for me!”
That only made the laughter worse, particularly when a pretty girl sitting a few feet away turned her head toward him that showed she had discovered the greatest source of entertainment on the entire journey.
She was nineteen as well, with very light brown skin, long brown wavy hair, and dark red eyes, while a white bandage covered her left eye and strips of cloth wrapped around her torso and limbs in a rough arrangement that somehow managed to look more practical.
She had been quiet for much of the trip, although the small knife hanging beside her hip and the collection of scars across her exposed arms had given everyone enough information to avoid asking too many questions.
She mocked with a goofy face, “Ooooh, as long as I kill, it doesn’t matter! I’m so broody! I’m so dangerous!”
Lennox stared at her. “Who even are you?! Die in hell!”
The girl grinned, resting an elbow against her knee like Lennox had personally improved her afternoon.
“Esme, is who I am. I’m the one that kills shit around here.”
She said it with such certainty that others immediately looked away from her, apparently deciding that further conversation with Esme might become a health concern.
They took her seriously, but not Lennox.
Lennox, meanwhile, had recovered enough dignity to squint at her suspiciously, although his attempt at intimidation was undermined by the redness still lingering across his cheeks.
“Sounds like you wanna be a Paladin of War.”
Esme laughed through her nose and scratched beneath the edge of the bandage covering her left eye, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
“You’re right. Every other Oath sounds like a pain in the ass. Faith? Too much praying. Law? Too many rules. Mercy? I’d get bored as hell. Revelation sounds like something a bunch of old bastards invented so they could spend six hours talking about books. War makes sense. I get weapons, I get to kill things, and everyone leaves me the hell alone.”
She leaned back against the griffon’s feathers and grinned toward the clouds, apparently already imagining herself wearing the armor.
“Ahhhh. And if Alpam gives me anything else, I’ll act up. I swear, I’ll act up right there in front of him. They can drag me out afterward.”
Lennox blinked at her. “You’re planning to threaten the god who’s assigning your Oath? You’ll just die.”
“Absolutely.”
“That’s insane.”
“Thanks.”
“I wasn’t complimenting you. Are you insane?”
“Maybe, I don’t know.”
Lennox stared at her for another moment before turning his attention toward the sky ahead of them, although his thoughts had already moved far beyond Esme’s crazy attitude.
‘Alpam… the god of Light, Truth, Revelation, Justice, Divine authority, Knowledge, and Oaths. He’s the one that rules over all Oaths of the Paladins. Each Oath represents a different aspect of his divine authority. That’s where we’re going. This griffon is taking us to the Sanctuary of the Paladin Order to meet him face to face. Kinda. Refusing an oath that’s assigned to you is basically equivalent to jumping off a cliff.’
The thought made his fingers close against his sleeves again. Alpam was not some distant temple statue or name spoken by priests during ceremonies, because the recruits had been told repeatedly that they would stand before the god himself during the assignment.
Lennox had spent years training for this moment, imagining the ceremony, imagining the armor, imagining himself walking away as a Paladin of War with everyone finally taking him seriously, and now that the actual sanctuary was somewhere ahead of them, his stomach seemed to twist itself into a knot.
He had also been warned about the rule everyone whispered about when instructors weren’t nearby, that once Alpam assigned an Oath, the chosen recruit could not reject it, and attempting to refuse the divine authority of the ceremony carried a punishment severe enough that nobody had ever spoken about the details.
‘I’m so nervous….what if I don’t get what I want? There’s a reason I want the Oath of War…’
His heart thumped hard against his ribs, and Lennox gulped before muttering so quietly that he thought nobody could hear him.
“I got this. I think.”
Esme’s head immediately appeared beside his, her face suddenly far too close to his own. Lennox turned and found her staring at him with open curiosity, apparently having leaned across the space between them without him noticing, and the moment their eyes met she recoiled with almost comical speed before rising to her feet and pointing at him.
“Guys! He’s talking to himself! He might really be crazy! He wants to kill us all!” She mocked and pointed at him.
The recruits exploded into laughter again, and Lennox’s face became hot enough that he could have sworn the burn mark on his cheek was the least embarrassing thing about him.
He grabbed Esme around the neck and pulled her against his side, dragging her into a headlock while she immediately began laughing instead of showing the slightest concern.
“I don’t even know her and she’s trying to make me seem like I’m some psycho!”
Esme twisted around beneath his arm, grabbed him by the wrist, and began wrestling backward with considerably more enthusiasm than the situation deserved.
Her long hair whipped across Lennox’s face while she tried to pry his arm away, and the other recruits scattered around them as though two idiots wrestling several thousand feet above the ground had suddenly become an unavoidable natural disaster.
“That’s because you are some psycho!”
“Guess I’ll throw us both off this Griffon! I’ll show you a psycho!”
‘I’ve changed my goal, I’m gonna end us all.’
The griffon gave a powerful beat of its wings as the two recruits wrestled across its back, and the giant creature suddenly angled its body to compensate for their ridiculous movements.
Everyone else grabbed harnesses and feathers, shouting over one another while Lennox struggled to keep hold of Esme without accidentally sending either of them toward the edge.
“Sit down!”
“You’re going to make us fall!”
“Why are you two fighting up here?!”
The griffon tried flying beside the next wind current while keeping its body level, although Lennox and Esme continued their struggle long enough to make every other recruit question whether surviving the trip was actually possible.
Lennox eventually managed to get Esme beneath him, one hand grabbing her wrist while she squirmed beneath him and laughed like the entire situation was the funniest thing she had ever experienced.
The recruits around them were shouting increasingly frantic instructions when the griffon suddenly turned its giant head toward them, it’s eyes laid upon the pair, and the griffon screeched.
“SCREEEEEEE!”
The sound tore through the sky with enough sound to make every recruit freeze, and something about the beast’s facial expression communicated a command so unmistakable that even Lennox understood it immediately.
It was like a mother commanding her children to sit the hell down.
Lennox released as fast as possible Esme, scrambled back into his place, and sat with his hands resting neatly in his lap.
Esme followed a heartbeat later, smoothing her hair down and sitting beside him with the obedient posture of a child who had suddenly realized that the teacher had entered the classroom, while every other recruit became equally well behaved without requiring a second warning.
For several moments, nobody said anything. The griffon watched them all with immense satisfaction before turning its head toward the clouds ahead again.
Lennox kept his eyes forward, his hands folded over his knees, and Esme sat beside him with an irritating little grin that almost looked like she was already planning to cause trouble again as soon as the creature stopped watching them.
Lennox whispered, “Touch me, I dare you.”
Esme replied, “Haha, you got yelled at by a bird-cat.”
Far ahead, however, something massive had begun to emerge among the clouds, and even Lennox forgot about their argument when he saw it.
“Whoa…”
The Sanctuary of the Paladin Order sat stationary impossibly high above the distant mountains, a massive complex of white marble structures and golden architecture suspended among the clouds like an entire holy city had been built upon the heavens.
Towers rose from the sanctuary with large bridges connecting them, their surfaces gleaming beneath the sun while terraces disappeared into the surrounding clouds, and the structure was so vast that Lennox could barely understand how anyone had managed to build something of that scale.
Other griffons were already making their approach from different directions, each carrying another group of recruits toward the sanctuary, and dozens of tiny figures could be seen moving across the distant platforms as banners bearing the symbols of the seven Paladin Oaths fluttered from the highest towers.
Lennox stared at the sight with his mouth slightly open, all his carefully prepared bravado forgotten for the moment as the griffon carried them closer and closer toward the place where Alpam awaited them.
‘Here we go….’