A Knight Without Fear Or Blame, A story about a knight. But you don't find out he becomes a knight Options

[TheBrume]

The topic description was supposed to say: But you don't find out he becomes a knight until about a quarter of the way through.
And I was most disappointed to discover these forums do not cater to my favorite font. Plantagenet Cherokee

Well, I've decided to try my hand at fan fiction. I shall start my fan fiction career (the size of which will depend entirely on your first impressions of my first chapter) with a story which I've been playing around with in my head a while now.

'A Knight Without Fear or Blame' is the title. I think it was Khalid ibn al-Walid first said that or maybe it was Saladin. It was one of them, but I'm rambling now.
Anyway, this story will be about an Imperial from a certain village and he… well, I don't want to spoil the story for you. I plan on stretching it out for as long as possible without killing any entertainment value it has (I'll let you decide if it has any or not) across multiple paragraphs, chapters and acts (though I think 'act' is more of a term used in drama, rather than stories but I digress).
Also, the main character 'Lucius Andronicu' (kudos if you get the referance) originally started out as 'Titus Saepio.'

Oh, and I pride myself on my grammar, spelling. But, my keyboard seems to live in order to spite me so please point out any typos.

P.S Please bear in mind I am a complete amateur at writing anything creative, poetry, prose or whatever. So be kind. But not too kind. Just don't be merciless.

At that, let's get this show on the road.
I present to you, a poor excuse of a prologue and a better (I hope) excuse for a first chapter.

A Knight Without Fear Or Blame

Prologue:

It was a clear and cold evening. The last of the suns rays had long since disappeared in the west and the people of Grimdale Moor slept soundly in their beds, blissfully unaware of the approaching threat. From the west, an Orcish war band approached, their war chief was hungry for blood and loot. To a larger, better defended town, such a band would pose no threat whatsoever. But although Grimdale Moor was town of reasonable size, the local Knights of the Hour had left their chapterhouse and gone to fight in the King's Army, leaving only a small band of the weak, incompetent or those disliked by the chapter master behind to defend the town. Grimdale Moor was an easy target to any marauding warband.


Chapter One: A Night of Grief

Lucius Andronicus awoke with a start to the sound of steel clanging on steel, wood splintering, horses whinnying, fire roaring and people screaming. Orange flames illuminated his bedroom and smoke from his neighbours burning house seeped in through the window. He quickly rose from his bed and got himself dressed, fear overtook his nine year old mind, as he did so he could hear the clash of steel grow louder, accompanied by savage cries.
As the boy pulled on his dark green cloak, the noise stopped and a broad shouldered figure burst into his room, wielding a sword. Fear quickly overtook the boy, only for that fear to be washed away as orange flames illuminated his father's face. Lucius recognised the sword, it was a long, hand and a half sword. Steel, made from Wrothgarian iron, the best in Tamriel Father had always said. He had been mending the hilt for some Knight from Wayrest who didn't trust the smiths of that city. The pommel was the head of a bear, the seal of the untrusting knight's family.

"Lucius." He said simply, a look of relief on his face, the body of a great big green Orc lay behind him, it's face covered by Father's cloak. Lucius had seen dead bodies before, despite his young age of nine. Orcs often raided the village, but never in such great numbers, and there had always been soldiers of Wayrest garrisoning the village. But now the soldiers were no more, the King had drawn them away to fight some war with Daggerfall over some distant island. But boys of nine did not concern themselves with such things, boys of nine busied themselves with climbing trees, fishing, playing tricks on the local mages and playing games with other boys of nine.
"Come, we have to leave." He said, suddenly growing more anxious as more vicious war cries were heard.
"But where?" Lucius asked as he grabbed his sling and a small bag of smooth pebbles he had collected from the nearby stream.
"Chorrol." Father said sharply as he grabbed Titus' arm and dragged him from his room. "My brother stays there, he will take us in and I'm sure they have need of blacksmiths there." The house was a blur to Lucius as he was pulled through it. It was all he could do to keep his short legs moving at a pace that would not have him dragged along the hard wooden floors. From what he did see however, Father had killed at least two other Orcs judging from the large green hunks of flesh found by the door of the kitchen.

Upon reaching the small, two storied house's door, Father set Lucius down and drew his knightly honoured user sword again. "Stay close to me Titus. Don't run off and stay away from the flames, we make for the stables." The village had a stables on it's outskirts. Or rather, the Knight of the Hour chapterhouse had a stables and their Altmeri commander was good enough to allow the people of the village to stable their horses. For a small fee. So kind-hearted of him, particularly after the village's own stables had burned down in a suspicious fire and the stable hand had been murdered. Lucius had often heard such talk as the village women washed their clothing and linens at the lake while he and his friends played Kick the Mudcrab.

Father cautiously pulled the heavy Wrothgarian Pine door open and peered outside, Lucius caught a glimpse of a Legion Destrier, a man in bronze coloured Armour mounted atop it, slashing his sword at the Orcs who surrounded him and his steed, armed with swords, one or two with spears. They were kept at bay by the horseman's sword and the horse's hooves, it looked like more than one Orc had been foolish enough to move to the rear of the animal. The man was Samuel deBrume, the second in command of the Legion garrison at Oxvale Borough, to the south west. A kind man who was visiting the town for unknown reasons. He had often saved the villagers from extortion by the corrupt Order of the Hour, much to the chagrin of that order.

"Stay here, Lucius." His Father rushed to help the man, he slashed his sword across the back of the nearest Orc, attracting the attention of two others.
Lucius placed a smooth white stone in his sling and swung it around his head for a few moments before releasing it and sending the projectile hurtling towards a bulky Orc armed with a long halberd. The stone struck the Orc in the side of the head and sent the beast down to the ground, dead. An excellent shot.
Father said nothing about not using my sling.
He had never killed an Orc, though it didn't feel any different to killing a rabbit or that hawk.
All animals are the same anyway I suppose.

By the time Lucius had downed another two Orcs, the small skirmish was over and a total of twelve bodies lay at the feet of the warhorse. Thankfully, neither Titus' father nor Samuel deBrume was one of them.
"You have my thanks, Caius," Lucius had rarely heard his father called by his first name. Most called him 'Andronicus' or 'blacksmith'. Even Mother had called him 'darling' rather than Caius, "You should leave this village," the soldier looked to Lucius and smiled, though it was difficult to see in the dim light. "I shall escort you to the-" he was interrupted by war cries sounding the approach of yet more Orcs. "Go Caius, take your son, I shall deal with these beasts." At that, he was off, charging his bay Destrier into the green mass. Father wasted no time in heeding the man's words.
"Come Lucius!" He called, Lucius ran after him. Not even looking to see if the Legionary was still alive.

"You did well, son." He puffed as they approached the gates of the corral. The stable itself was burning and the horses were frightened by the flames, several had jumped over the fence and fled into the distance. Lysa, Father's white mare was still there however, being saddled by another villager.
"Hey! Stop! That's my horse," Father drew his sword and entered the pen.
"Try and stop me fool. I was here first." He in turn picked an axe from the ground and moved towards Father, crossing the corral and passing near the stable itself, there was a tremendous crash and part of the stable building came down on top of the man and those horses who were still stood too close. Lysa, thankfully was not one of them.
Wordlessly, Father mounted the horse and pulled Lucius up to sit in front of him. They galloped off on the road leading south-west. The flames of their former home illuminating their path.

Lucius said nothing, sobbing silently for all he had lost. He even thought he heard his father crying on a few occasions. But that was impossible, Father never cried, not when he hit his hand with a hammer while repairing the Chapel roof, not when he cut himself while working. Never.
But they had nothing. No clothes, no home, no food. Nothing but the shirts on their back, Lucius' sling, Father's sword and their horse. They would never reach Chorrol with what they had with them. They had to go to Wayrest

*******

Addendum (well, I think this is what an addendum is anyway): The story starts in the year 412 of the third era, late Sun's Dusk (November). There will be a date in every update from chapter eight onwards.


This post has been edited by TheBrume: Jan 31 2012, 09:43 PM

[TheBrume]

Acadian
Thanks, though you might not like what happens to her in the next two chapters.

Grits
I have no idea how I came up with the names of those books. I think I just rattled off a couple of magic sounding words and stuck then together,

Here is a map fo the voyage. The blue dot just north-west of Wayrest is Grimdale Moor. The red line west of Sentinel is where we are now, roughly. The green line is the rest of the voyage. I'll probably deviate from it more than once though.
The 'voyage' section of the story (everything in the green line on the map) will take up maybe 12-15 chapters. Perhaps more.
Map

Now, speaking of magic...

Chapter Five: Arcane

"No, no, no, no, no, no! Your stance is all wrong. You must stand straight Lucius, straight as an arrow, not bent like a bow." He calmed down for a few moments before his voice rose in tone once again as he noticed another fault.

"And your hand makes the wrong shape. Concave not convex. This is alteration Lucius, not destruction. You are trying to make Xutheel lighter, not set him aflame." Argentil had grown more and more irritated as the day wore on.

They advanced quickly at first, the schools of illusion, destruction and thaumaturgy came easily to them. According to Argentil, only the High Rock, Hammerfell and Black Marsh branches of the Mage's Guild considered the latter as a school of it's own and not simply a part of Mysticism.
Zoot could make himself invisible with ease, Lucius enjoyed freezing the sailors rum before they could drink it and Karrod could walk through walls as if he were born with the ability.
But Captin Fervala had grown tired of the boys playing tricks on the crew by pretending they were ghosts. Morale on the ship had plummeted due to the lack of rum and the sailors were afraid to enter the cargo hold.

So they had been forced to move on to another school. Argentil had chosen alteration, he said it was one of the simpler schools, easy to use once one got their head around the theory behind it.

Mysticism was far beyond their comprehension or the limits of their patience, Argentil felt uneasy about having the boys summon Daedra while in such an enclosed space and even the powerful mage had difficulty with restoration. By the standards of the Mage's Guild, Argentil was not even a journeyman in the art of healing.

"Okay, I shall explain it once more to you three." He sighed and stood up from his stool. "The Schools of Magicka, according to the Mage's Guild, are split not according to their effects, but by the means of casting the spells belonging to any particular school." He rubbed the bridge of his slender nose.

"Light and invisibility spells are dissimilar in their effects, but they are cast in the same way." He thrust his hand out, the tips of his fingers pinched together, his wrist was straight and his hand formed a sort of '7' shape. "You must set make your hand like this in order to cast both spell. Whether on touch, target or upon yourself." He opened up his hand and a spell was released at Zoot, turning him invisible for a few seconds. The Argonian released a raspy giggle, Argentil smiled.

"Now, I hope you remember this from now on." He dispelled the invisibility (his hand was in a completely different shape now, looking more like a backwards "E" from the side. "Try again Lucius."
Lucius focused, he thought about what he was going to do and willed the magicka through him. He felt a strange sensation in his stomach and it rushed through his body and down his arm. His hand glowed and a translucent sphere shot from his hand. It struck Zoot square in the chest to no apparent effect.

"How do you feel Xuthaleel?" It amazed Lucius that Argentil could pronounce Zoot's real name so well.

"I feel, lighter." To illustrate his point, he jumped, he seemed to fall at the normal speed.

"That won't work Xuthaleel. You will fall at the same speed as you would normally. But I shall take your word for it." He turned to Lucius, "Well done. Next, I will teach you both to open locks."

After two hours of opening simple chests and magically sealed crates, the lesson ended and the boys were let loose on the ship. They knew exactly what they were going to do.

"Open it." Lucius whispered. Zoot looked at him, his take scratched across the wooden floor.

"No. You do it. I don't even want to go in." Zoot stood up, lifting his tail from the ground.

"Get down." Karrod yanked him back into a crouched position.

"Why are we crouching, it does not make any sense. Why can't I stand?" Zoot moaned.

"Fine. I'll do it." He unlocked the door to the Captain's quarters and slowly opened it. The trio crept through the doorway

"There is nothing here." Zoot complained as he stood up.

Lucius stood also, followed by Karrod.

"Well, lets look around." He walked over to a chest and opened it with a spell.

"Treasure" Lucius said excitedly as he flipped the heavy lid open. His smile disappeared as he saw what was inside. There was a pile of maps, books, navigation equipment and the like. Perfectly boring to a nine year old.

"There is you treasure." He laughed. It was a strange laugh. It sounded like a 'kah, kah, kah,' rather than a 'ha, ha, ha.'

Lucius snatched up one of the sheets of parchment and read it.

6 Barrels of quality Wrothgarian Beer. Bound for Dawnstar and Northpoint. 100 septims per barrel.
90 lbs of Wrothgarian iron ore. To be delivered to Alluc's Arms in Archon. 400 septims in payment expected.
30 sets of the finest Anticleran silver cutlery and crockery. Bound for Leyawiin, to be delivered to the countess. 1,500 septims to be paid upon delivery and at the Countess'
satisfaction.
24 Sentinel Cutlasses, steel. Bound for Camlorn. 800 septims for 12, minimum price.
50 Sentinel Hourglasses. 20 Bound for Sadrith Mora and 30 for Port Telvannis. 50 septims per hourglass (these Telvanni are idiots to pay such a high price for a little sand).

The list went on in a similar manner, at the bottom there was a reminder to buy 200 lbs of ebony ore from Necrom (next to the word "Necrom" there was a curse in brackets, though Lucius was unfamiliar with that particular Dunmeri swear word).

"Damn the Imperial Navy. Damn them all to Oblivion I say." Captain Fervala's voice called out.

"Aye Captain." Replied a sailor. He sounded like a Nord.

"Don't they know that we keep the Empire standing? Us sailors. What would they do without us? And now they think to charge us extortionate taxes so we can make port."
She sounded livid. Lucius quickly ran towards the door and hid behind it, Karrod jumped under the captain's bed while Zoot cast and invisibility spell and ran to the corner.

"Well, captain. It's Daggerfall itself that's chargin' them taxes. The Navy is just collecting the money." He sounded quite bored.

"Spare me your drivel, Jorge. Set course for port."

"Aye, aye captain." Lucius heard the sound of heavy footsteps on wood as the sailor rushed to carry out his orders.
He heard the sound of a key entering it's hole and a noise which sounded like a confused dog. The door swung open. It came to a stop when it hit Lucius' nose. He struggled to hold back a yelp of pain.

"I though I left this door closed." Lucius' mother always used to tell him that talking to oneself was a sign of being tainted by Sheogorath.

Captain Fervala entered her cabin. And looked around.
"If that mage has taught those boys to open locks I'll string him from the crows nest."
She walked over and snatched something from her desk before leaving the room and locking the door behind her.

"See what you've done. We don't know any lock spells! How will we get out?" Karrod was still under the bed as he shouted.
Lucius thought for a moment, and snapped his fingers.
"We can walk through the door!"
He said excitedly as he cast the spell upon himself and passed through the solid oak door. It felt strange. He still felt the door pressing against him, but it was a nice sensation.

He walked through, Karrod and Zoot came through on either side of him. They pretended not to notice the tiny Bosmer stood in front of them.

"I'm telling." A high pitched, nasally voice announced.

"What's that? A voice from nowhere! Ghosts!" Lucius said, ignoring the short Bosmer in front of him. Zoot struggled to suppress a laugh.

"Down here." The voice said again. Lucius let his gaze drop to the floor.

"Ah, Hyna, I see you now. I mistook you for an ant," The other two laughed again.

"I'm telling the captain you were in her room." Hyna said, arms crossed.

"It's called a cabin." Karrod intoned, "And no you won't. Or tomorrow we'll go fishing for slaughter fish and use you as bait." He had a stern look on his face, Lucius wasn't quite sure if he was serious or not.

Hyna pouted her lips and looked at the three of them with narrow eyes, a strand of hair fell across her face yet she ignored it.
"Fine." She said moodily before storming off.

Karrod looked pleased with himself. "In Sentinel. Me and my friends used to play Hunt the Bosmer. Maybe I should teach you the game one day."




This post has been edited by TheBrume: Oct 25 2011, 06:11 PM