"You took your time, boy. Where have you been?" Sir Burns was almost angry, as he saw Ace finally arriving on horseback. They were waiting for him in the audience hall of Crypthin Castle. Even the Queen herself was here, along with five of her elite guardsmen. All around were corpses dressed in blue, the fallen soldiers of the false king. They were no match for these seven people.
"Forgive me, sir, Your Grace, gentlemen." Ace jumped off his black warhorse.
They moved right away. There was never a time to be wasted. The catapults were both a distraction and a proof that they absolutely meant their intention of destroying this kingdom. But above all that, was the fact that they need to put a stop to King Guinn before the man could reach his secret weapon, like how their queen the Witch would describe it.
Sir Burns saw the young man's armor was drenched and covered with blood. The steel he wore bruised and dented, his face pale and tired. "Were you in a difficult fight, Ace?" the old man asked. "Did they finally force you to use your sword?"
Ace looked at him in the eye. "Yes, sir." he uttered. "There was indeed a problem." a pause. "We've lost one good man."
Hearing that, even the Queen had given him a stare. But she kept her silence. They took the staircase down, following the steps of King Guinn and his families.
"Do not let it trouble you, boy." the old knight advised him. "Taking the enemy's lives and seeing them took one of ours… Such is the way of war."
You do not understand, sir. Ace thought. The fight that I was in was not the way wars commonly go.
"It wasn't like that, sir." he decided that he should at least say something.
The Witch finally took a look at Ace and spoke. "What had happened, Ace?" her voice was soft, almost kind. "When I gave you the ownership of that sword, I meant for you to use it whenever you need to. Instead, you promised me you would only wield it in my presence and with my permission."
"My queen, I am sorry." Ace shook his head. "I just broke that promise of mine myself."
Sir Burns and the elite guardsmen came to a stop, as a black wooden door appeared before them. They had reached the bottom of the long staircase. One man tried to push it open, to no avail. It was locked from the inside.
"Then, what had happened?" the Witch repeated her question.
Ace fell into silence.
"Locked, sir." said one of the men. Sir Burns walked to it and took a look at the keyhole. "Futile efforts, Guinn..." he mumbled to himself. "Does any of you able to pick this? It is a simple lock. We do not need to waste our energy by burning every single thing down."
One of them raised a hand, and the old knight gave him a nod as he approached the door. The man started working intently. "Ace," Sir Burns spoke. "Didn't you say that we lost one good man?"
"Who was it, Ace?" asked their Queen as well.
"The Axe, Your Grace." Ace said in grief. His queen frowned hearing that. "Wha–, How? How could this even happen? Who did it?"
There was silence for a while until finally Ace looked up and stared at the Witch's golden eyes.
"I did."
They were all looking at him now. Even the man trying to pick the lock stopped when he heard that. Sir Burns coughed on his words.
"You? You… You slew Sir Mo?"
Ace nodded. "I took his life." both his expression and voice were stern, even when he actually grieved for the man inside. "He had defected." the young man explained.
This, of course, had taken them all by surprise. Defected? Sir Mo was a knight unlike any other. He was a strong and reliable warrior. To them, he was an essential asset for the army. They wouldn't even believe the man could be felled in combat while fighting the enemy tonight. Yet instead, for him to defect… It was simply implausible.
"His squire Rajunga can vouch for my words." Ace continued. "Although he is still under fatal wounds as of now, after fighting the knight he served. I had him sent back to his tent."
The Witch watched him closely for a while, before nodding her head. "I trust you, Ace." she turned to the others. "Let this be a lesson," she began.
"When we finally meet with my uncle, I will kill him and his family. All of them." said their queen, without mincing any of her words. "But you will then understand, that they do not deserve a single second of their lives here in this castle of mine. All the time while my father, King Lancelot and I lived in suffering outside the wall, in the wilds and in the countrysides."
They all listened carefully to her. "My uncle Guinn, never truly deserve this throne and the title of a king. He was younger than my father and only able to defeat him in an unfair war."
Ace knew it. An unfair war. Yet how could a war even be unfair? What could Guinn had possibly done in the past?
"He had relied on something else," said the Witch. "A secret weapon, here under this very castle. A power of an unknown being. Stronger than mere swords or magic."
Now they all understood one thing. That this power their Queen described was a power beyond logic, and if she herself admitted it, that would mean even her own powers, the magic of the Witch, wouldn't be enough to defeat it. These men in front of her, however, would never flinch to any of these facts. For as long as they could support her, they would do anything and give everything they could possibly give.
They all slowly knelt before her in unison. "My Queen," said Sir Burns. "We pledge to you our lives and offer you our stainless loyalty. In your name, we will take up our swords, and in your name, our chants of spells are blessed. For you are the only rightful queen of this Kingdom. A kingdom we all hope to build in the future. Free of the usurpers, and this disheartening power that they held, which they had used in injustice. To rob you of your home, O Queen. Never again will this happen. And these men and I will make sure of it."
Ace and the rest shouted their ayes of approval.