Sceptremass VIII - The Punishment

Before dawn of the 2nd Skyday of Petals - The Standing Stones

Referee

It is cold and dark and mist rises from the ground as your are lead to the sacred dolmen by guards carrying torches. You hear their boots sloshing through the mud and the hooting of an owl in the distance. The seconds shake hands with Lady Margaret and each other in the middle of the standing stones before returning to their side. The guards position themselves in a circle and raise their torches. Lady Bianca wears the uniform of the Marshall of Kranach, white and gold. She is watched by Sir Ulrich as she gracefully swings her cleaving blade in testing motions. Zoltan pale and shivering in his thin tunic forces himself to smile. He mumbles something through clattering teeth and upon realizing that you can't understand him he just bows and steps back. "Approach!” The Sheriff calls. "Combat will decide who is favoured by fate as is tradition since time immemorial. We will not mourn the dead but they will not die in vain as their blood will give strength to the Realm.” As you come together Bianca musters you with her beautiful cold eyes. She removes her gloves and extends her hand. "May honour guide our hands, and may fate judge rightly between us." Her unreadable smile slightly undercuts the nobility of her words. Or is she serious for once?

Before Dawn

Anastaz The Salt Knight

Anastaz wears humble garb barely befitting a Knight, but the Round Shield, and the sapphire in Zuraw's pommel, glint in the torchlight. The Salt Knight shakes her hand. He does not smile, only gazes into her eyes.

Referee

Her hand is surprisingly warm and when you shake she briefly passes her index finger over yours almost caressing it. Then she moves into position and the Sheriff gives the signal.

Bianca casually approaches her sword lowered. “Come closer Salt Knight. I want to....”Her first blow comes out of nowhere more quickly than you had anticipated and striking low trying to hit your right arm.

Anastaz The Salt Knight

Anastaz dodges out of the way. He delivers a wide swing which the Iron Knight easily parries, followed by a more precise thrust which almost strikes home.

Referee

Your blades meet with a clanking sound as she parries your blow. With a grunt she pushes you back, trying to catch her breath. Her smile is gone.

Anastaz The Salt Knight

The two knights size each other up with a few cavalier strikes, all easily defended against. Then Anastaz feints, but the Iron Knight anticipates his maneuver and he sees her blade swinging down where his shoulder meets his arm. He spins and ducks down, catching her leg with Zuraw, but he feels a twinge of pain and a wet sensation on his shoulderblade.

Referee

Bianca moans as the Kranach steel cuts her and she move back gingerly favouring her other leg. The faintest gray can be seen in the east and a black bird starts to sing.

“You cannot win.” she says out of breath as she comes closer, still with her sword lowered. She clinches her grip and raises her sword with all her strength trying to cut through your defence with might rather than grace.

Anastaz The Salt Knight

The Salt Knight catches her weapon, the iron slicing through his ungloved hand. Bianca has only a moment to register her shock before the Crane flies into her stomach and out the other side. Anastaz withdraws the blade.

Referee

As you step back you realize the pain when her blade glides out of you. Blood is trickling from a deep cut in your side. She looks up at you, her face pale and never more beautiful. “I had hoped … we could have … more time together.” Her parted lips turn red as she whispers something else that you can't hear over the blackbird's song.

Anastaz The Salt Knight

Softly, Anastaz says "We needn't have been enemies, my lady," before he delivers the killing blow.

Referee

You stand alone for a moment in the grey of dawn pressing your hand against the wound. Father and son rush forward and kneel at Lady Bianca's side. Sir Ulrich closes her eyes and kisses her on the forehead while Lady Margaret places her hand on the Iron Knight's stomach. After she finished praying she gets up, her hand dripping from blood. “Fate judged Bianca to be guilty of crimes unworthy of a Knight. She is stripped off her titles. Her body will be burned and her ashes scattered.” She places her hand on a slanted dolmen that shows faint outlines of dozens of handprints. “May her example strengthen the oath of those who uphold it.”

~ Epilogue ~

The Sheriff concludes her investigation into the Bat's escape. After the captain had repeated Ser Perilake's story and no wine was mentioned it was determined that the creature had used foul magic to pass through bars and doors and overwhelm the brave guards. At noon the body of Lady Bianca is burned on the pyre and the delegations from Kranach and Karpat leave before Sceptremass. 

Noon of the 2nd Kinsday of Petals - Sceptremass

The Great Hall is almost empty when the King and his Council accept the vows of Sir Adalbert and the remaining Knights. In the corridors of the castle there are whispers of the coming war ...