I was reluctant to tear myself away from my sweet, sweet laser gun, but alas. All good times had to come to an end, no matter how much I wanted to effortlessly atomize monsters at range. Some of the notation in the design documents was confusing the hell out of me, anyway. I think I was going to have to go searching for some kind of paper that could explain some of the inner workings of the pistol. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t quite brute force the creation of some of the broken focusing arrays inside the enclosure with Aetherial Melding. I actually had to understand what I was doing to create it.

  Too bad. Aetherial Melding might have been cheating bullshit, but even it had limits.

  So, I reluctantly packed my bags, secured the tome of our notations, and ventured over to the chest full of Flux Cores Grey had moved into his lab. Opening the lid with one foot, I idly grabbed one of the orbs of condensed, swirling black energy and inserted it into the charging enclosure that we had so painstakingly fabricated. With my closing errands finished, I left the lab and raised a hand idly in farewell to Angela, the woman who watched the desk in the lower labs. I was fully intending to leave it at that, but she stopped me by speaking.

  “Ah, Mr. Hart?” The older woman piped up, stopping me in my tracks. When I raised an eyebrow in question at her, she smiled at me and nodded off to the side. “You have someone waiting for you.”

  What? Who could…

  When I followed the nod of her head, I found someone I hadn’t spoken to in months. They were slumped over in one of the wooden chairs that sat off to the side of the entrance, sleeping quietly.

  Walter.

  My fellow former slave had seemingly been avoiding me for a while now, honestly. I’d caught glimpses of him over my time in Blutstein, but he had always hurried away whenever I tried to approach him. At first, I’d been a little hurt, honestly. I’d wondered if I did or said something that had put him off the last time we’d had lunch together. Eventually, I had decided to leave the young man be, and that if he wanted to see me, he knew where I was. Evidently, that time had come. Only…long enough past that he’d fallen asleep waiting for me.

  I considered the surprisingly muscled form of the younger man quietly for a moment. It looked like he’d been training pretty hard, from what I could tell. He was not only visibly stronger to me, but registered with a more significant presence to my Aetherial senses. “How long has he been here?” I asked Angela in a low voice, not taking my eyes from him.

  “Oh, only about four hours,” She replied, the patience of a kindly, amused grandmother evident in her voice.

  “So, he just missed me before I went into the labs,” I shook my head. “And he doesn’t have permission to go in?”

  “No, Mr. Hart,” Angela replied. “Apprentices are not allowed into the labs. Do you mind…?”

  “Not at all. I’ll take it from here, Angela. You can head home for the night, if you’d like,” I smiled at her.

  “Oh, I’ll be here for a few more hours,” She said airily, looking back down at her desk. “I’m nearly done with this book. You and your friend run along now, Mr. Hart.”

  I just shook my head and approached the snoozing teenager. When I was within arm's reach of him, I set a hand on one of his shoulders and gently shook it. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting. Maybe for him to continue sleeping through the gentle ministration? I know I had been hard to wake when I was that age.

  It sure as hell wasn’t for his eyes to pop open immediately and seize my arm in a surprisingly strong grip. Barely awake, it felt like he was about to lunge at me, to my mild surprise.

  But, for all of his apparent new power…

  He was still far below me.

  “Walter,” I said sharply, strengthening my grip enough to halt him in place. “Wake up.”

  It could have been the increased pressure on his collarbone, or it could have been my tone. Whatever the case, the young man did as I commanded. I saw his eyes focus through his apparent exhaustion as he came to full awareness, and followed my arm up to my face. “Mr…Hart…?” He questioned, sleepiness still evident in his voice, for a moment.

  Then he snapped to full awareness.

  “Oh!” Walter said in a startled tone, sitting up straighter. Seeing this, I released my firm grip on him and transitioned it to a hand held out before him. He took it almost sheepishly, using it to stand up. “I’m…sorry, Mr. H-Nathan,” He corrected himself hurriedly at my raised eyebrow. When my smile returned to my face, he continued. “I’ve just been…really busy lately. It’s hard to find time for a nap.”

  I just shrugged at him. “No harm, no foul. We’re all busy these days,” I dismissed. “So! Walter, were you looking for me? You know you don’t have to wait outside the lab if you were.”

  To my surprise, the younger man narrowed his eyes at me. “Oh really? I’m not so sure about that,” He said in a displeased tone. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for weeks, Nathan. I haven’t been able to find you after class, and I’ve been turned away whenever I visited your fort. I don’t know where you live either, so…”

  Ah…that might actually be partly my fault. I’d been so busy lately with all of my responsibilities that I could easily imagine it being hard to find me. I rarely stuck around on campus, considering I could head over to the Bastion to help coordinate matters. When I wasn’t doing that, I was stuck in the labs trawling through the repository, either alone or with Grey. Even then, I typically went straight home after either of those to work on independent crafting or to hang out with my friends and family. But one thing stuck out to me about what he’d said.

  My eyebrows shot up at that. “You were turned away at the Bastion? Did you tell the guards you knew me?”

  Walter threw up his hands in frustration. “Yes! They just laughed at me. Said there was no way a ‘skinny little twig like me knew the Marshal’.”

  I sighed at that, reaching up to massage my brow. “I’ll have a talk with them,” I said tiredly. “They’re not supposed to be making decisions like that. Did you…catch their names?”

  If any of the guards I’d posted outside the Bastion’s gates were turning people away, I had to know about it. There was no telling who else they’d turned away.

  “No,” Walter shook his head. “And it doesn’t matter. They’re not why I’m here.” He stopped, then, and took a deep breath, his chest puffing out as he did so. “I…didn’t tell you what I was doing, last time we spoke. Nathan, I-”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  I held up a hand to stop him. When he did, I smiled at his slightly hurt look. “This isn’t really the place, Walter. I get the feeling you have something to say. Let’s get out of here and stop bothering Angela, yeah?”

  Walter blinked and looked over at the elderly woman. I saw him flush under the weight of her amused eyebrow, before nodding. “Ah…yeah, I suppose. It’s...better if I say this under the open air.” He muttered his next words under his breath as the two of us walked side by side out of the laboratory hallway. “It counts more, anyway.”

  ……………………………

  Walter and I didn’t stop once we had exited out into the fading daylight cast by Tarus above. Instead, I led him to a small park I knew on the grounds, not far from the Aetherology building. I’d often taken a moment to stop by here after my own classes with Professor Voss. It was a tough subject at times, I think the staff were aware of that. Hence, a nice, open park where you were free to flop onto soft grass and stare off into space as you absorbed the mysteries of the universe you were just given knowledge of. It was far past even the latest class time, though, so it was mostly deserted this late in the day. The small covered pavilion was free for our use, as we stopped and leaned against the banister together.

  “So,” I said after a time, breaking the silence with an expectant, raised eyebrow.

  The younger man was silent for a moment, looking like he was gathering his words. “Yeah,” He finally breathed. “Right. Uh, I’d…like to start by saying sorry. I know it seemed like I was avoiding you, and I…kinda was. But I had a reason for that,” He hastily added.

  “It’s alright, Walter,” I said, a bit confused by how he was acting. “It’s not like our lives revolve around each other. I was mostly trying to find you so I could extend an invitation to join the Polaris Reach. I…thought you might want to join, considering our shared history.”

  He winced in response. “I do want to join your Order. I really do. It’s just…I wanted to join in a certain way. Which…gets back to what I’ve been doing. I told you that I had signed up with Church as a Novice, right? That I had been getting…pretty involved with Gyreism?” At my nod, he continued. “Um, and…I think I told you that about the Knights Palatine? How there’s a permanent complement of them, here in Blutstein?”

  I just gazed blankly at him for a moment. Knights Palatine? I…think I’d heard him mention that last time we spoke, but I hadn’t followed up on it. “Sorry, Walter. I…don’t know what those are.”

  “It’s fine,” He replied, shaking his head and seemingly calming down a bit. “Most people aren’t really aware of them. The Knights Palatine are essentially the combat arm of the Church. They mostly act as guards to traveling Preceptors in need, and operate as something similar to a Martial Order down in Roricia. Monster culling, patrolling the roads, and some ceremonial duties mainly. They don’t really fulfill an outright military role. And, um…I enrolled in the training program they have up here, for interested Novices.”

  “Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “So, you already signed up with another Martial Order, then?”

  I did my best to hide it from my voice, but I was a touch disappointed. I’d kind of been hoping to rope the young man into the Polaris Reach.

  Maybe Walter heard the letdown in my voice, or maybe he was just sensitive to the possibility of it. But he rapidly shook his head, outright holding up his hands to ward it off. “NO! No, I haven’t. It doesn’t work that way. They’re not actually a Martial Order. They’re a religious group. They have a specific training path meant to instill certain Skills and Talents from the System for their trainees, for those with the right devotion. It’s a kind of…branching path, from the actual Preceptor Class. There’s an actual Class you aim for, named Palatine. You join a group of fellow Novices to be trained under an instructor, who sets everyone on the path. Once you pass the course, you essentially know what you have to do to progress, and you’re expected to choose a Knight to Squire for. You…aren’t actually required to choose another Palatine to Squire for, though.”

  I…started to get an inkling of where this was going, and I didn’t know how to feel about it.

  Walter started to look away from me uncomfortably, but forced himself to meet my eyes instead. “I joined the program with a specific goal in mind. I even told this to Sir Kevan when I did. I wanted to be a Palatine, but I wanted to Squire for a specific Knight once I’d passed through the program. He…had no problem with that. Nathan, I…” I saw the young man visibly screw up his courage. “I want to be your Squire. That’s how I want to join your Order.”

  There it was. A request to become my Squire. After all, I was an actual, official Knight of Herztal. It was within my rights to take a Squire, a position with many theoretical responsibilities. They were meant to follow you into battle, for one. They helped to carry your arms and armor, they were meant to learn from you, and they were meant to see to your ‘business’. That was something ill-defined, from what I understood. It seemed like it was just an official, legal way to dump responsibilities on a hapless underling, to me.

  I’d gotten a few of these requests over the last few months from enterprising young men. People who wanted to hitch their wagon to who they saw as a rising star in Herztalian society. I’d even considered a few of them. But ultimately, I had turned them down for a number of reasons. Either they didn’t have the personal values I wanted in a Squire, or they just didn’t fit.

  This, though, I was having a hard time thinking of reasons to turn down.

  “Why?” I asked quietly, in the aftermath of Walter’s announcement. “If this is about how grateful to me you are for Addersfield-”

  Walter cut me off, rapidly shaking his head. “No, that’s not it. Not entirely. Yes, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you for freeing me from the bond, but…that’s not why I want to be your Squire. I…I believe in what you’ve done, Nathan. Sir Nathan. The way you and the Headmaster escorted everyone to safety after freeing us. The work you did in the war. The Calamities you’ve stood against. That was reason enough for me to start the program before you even returned, but in the time since…the Polaris Reach is everything I want to be part of.” He stopped for a moment, clenching his fists. “I want to be part of something like that. The Church helps a lot of people, don’t get me wrong. But they’re not…not active enough for my tastes. I want to be part of something that is actually going out there and trying to solve problems. You’ve…really been making it easy for me to stand by my decision. Please, Nathan. I…want to be your Squire.”

  I let a silence grow between the two of us as I contemplated his reasoning. Eventually, though…

  Eventually, I nodded sharply and reached for the dagger I kept on my person. Walter was startled at the sight of the drawn blade, but even more startled when the small Oninite blade extended out into a full spear. “Then kneel, and swear by the Oaths I took.”

  This…was something Squires did in Herztal, before they became full Knights. They would swear to uphold the Oath of their chosen Knight until it came time for them to make one of their own.

  If Walter was going to be my Squire, he’d have to swear by my Oath.

  The prospective Squire’s eyes lit up before he forced a serious mien. He nodded solemnly and took a knee before me, there in the fading light of the pavilion. I set the haft of my spear on his left shoulder. “Do you swear to the light of knowledge, and the sanctity of freedom? Do you swear to break all chains that lie where you walk, and to oppose the tyrannical?”

  “I do,” Walter said, with a bowed head. “I do so swear.”

  “Do you swear to seek truth, regardless of comfort? Do you swear to uplift the downtrodden and hold truth above advantage?”

  “I do so swear.”

  “Will you swear to hold courage as your watchword and never allow the innocent to be broken in your path?”

  Walter’s breath hitched for a moment, and I saw a tremble pass through his body. “I do so swear.”

  I nodded solemnly and switched the spear over to his right shoulder. “Then rise, Walter Meyers. Rise for the free, as my Squire.”

  He did as I bade, and I didn’t pretend not to see the tears in his eyes. Instead, I set the butt of my spear on the floor of the pavilion and used my free hand to draw a handkerchief from my pocket. Walter took it gratefully as I smiled at him. “There’s more work to be done than you know, Walter. I promise you’re going to like it.”

  In return, he gave me a watery smile. “I never doubted I would for a minute, Sir Nathan.”

  At that exact moment, I felt it as Bait popped himself, sending a sudden flood of memories my way. As I processed them, my smile only grew. “Then let’s get going, Squire. It turns out, the most important part of that work has finally arrived. We’re heading to Bastion.”

  The first wave was finally here, and from what Bait had just shown me…

  We had an unexpected guest.