The Paladin Archives Book Two The Withering Falseblade

by Jason Psilopoulos

  “So why not just leave. I can protect you as well as Marcus can.” Rebekah shook her head.

  “No offense, but I doubt that. Besides, last time I tried to leave the campus, I kinda . . . broke Grant’s Foundry.” Darius blinked.

  “You doubt me? Or you doubt Dragoons?” Rebekah shrugged.

  “I doubt that you're a match for Marcus." Darius got an offended look on his face. “Look Darius. Marcus is a special case. You can probably hold your own against a dozen Paladins. But not Marcus.”

  “What’s so special about the boy then?” Rebekah looked up at the sky and smiled.

  “First, he's no boy. He’s got more discipline than any Dragoon. He’s wiser than any oracle. And he cares more than anyone I know. But more than that, he truly believes in what he does. And that makes up for a lot of things.” Darius didn’t look convinced.

  “I don’t see it.” Rebekah smiled.

  “And that's exactly why I'm sitting here talking to you. The Dreads didn't see it either.” Darius tilted his head a little. “Look, I promised after the foundry incident that I’d stay put. We’re still trying to figure out how I’m going to pay for that one.” Darius gave her an incredulous look. “Story for another time.”

  Sage walked into the engine room and smiled wistfully. This was his altar. This was where he felt the most comfortable. Let Donavan have the bridge. Let Marcus have all things that were spiritual. But so long as Sage had his machines, he was happy.

  The engine room was massive. It was the only deck on the ship that did not shift. The rest of the ship was built to move around this one area. Sage walked past all the technicians and engineers that were about, repairing and checking over the systems and went straight for the diagnostics console at the base of the core.

  The room throbbed with energy. The core before Sage was a free-floating sphere of spinning crystal. Streams of light danced off the blue white sphere, seeming to tether the entire thing in place. Sage began pressing keys on the board before him. After a few computations, the dull thrumming began to subside and the room became very quiet.

  All the engineers turned to see what it was he’d done. Sage looked around and smirked. He knew this ship and how it worked better than anyone else. There was a trick to it. And no matter what he told them, they didn’t get it. He didn’t imagine they ever would.

  “Sage to Communications,” he said into an intercom on the wall. The line came through with the sharpest clarity he’d heard in quite some time.

  “Communications. Lieutenant Vargas.” Sage smirked.

  “I think that handles your comm channel static.” Sage could hear a few keystrokes over the line and waited.

  “Seems so. I'll report this to Captain Dirk. Thank you very much.” The tone that statement carried wasn’t too friendly, but Sage was used to that. He and Freya didn't get along all that well. She was just a little antagonistic with him.

  “No problem. Cortez out.” With that, he started for the door. It was then that one of his subordinates decided to follow him.

  “Chief?” the young, red-haired ensign asked. Sage glanced at him but didn’t say anything. He hated being called Chief. “I was wondering if you could explain why it is that the combined minds of the entire engineering crew can’t figure out what it is you’re doing when you fix the core like that?” Sage stopped, turning to face the young engineer. The kid couldn’t be any older than twenty.

  “Ensign . . . Prius?” The boy nodded. Sage tried to remember what he’d been told about him. Some kind of engineering whiz kid. “What I’ve tried to explain to all of you is that the machine needs to be fine-tuned. This is a new form of energy that I have managed to harness. It is complicated only because it’s never been done before. All of you need to get your head around a new idea, all right?” The entire of the engineering crew nodded. Sage took that as a positive and started again for the door. But Prius stepped in front of him. Sage came up short, an annoyed look on his face.

  “I’m sorry sir, but I really don’t see how this is supposed to work. All the physics I’ve ever studied say that this is impossible. And yet, you keep telling us that what is happening here is the very thing that we cannot do. Your computations don't make sense and your explanations are indefensible by any logic that we know.” Sage continued for the door, then turned as it opened.

  “Then you’re gonna have to change your logic,” Sage countered. “There are things in this world that you will never understand. Things that you cannot explain. And since it is useless to try, it is better to just learn of it, and explain it later.” And with that, he walked out. The rest of the crew just stared at the door for a second. Prius pushed his oversized glasses up on his face and frowned.

  “Everything has an explanation.”

  That next day, Marcus walked into the classroom and set his notes down on the desk. His class was sitting impatiently, having arrived a little early to talk about something they had decided was important, but not important enough to share. Marcus didn’t want to push them to tell him, but he was curious.

  Ellis was holding down the back of the room, as he always did. His dour expression seemed deeper than usual. Jack was talking to Ian about something. Mary was neck deep in a book before her. And Uther was seated on the floor, which was something that Marcus had not seen.

  “Okay. Well, today’s class is going to be a little short, since tomorrow is the Cotillion. I'm sure you all want to be rested so you can dance, so no simulator today." The room didn't react much to that. They all seemed subdued because of the day before. Jack's frown deepened slightly. Apparently, he'd been looking forward to the exercise. But then, Marcus had noted that Sydney wasn’t standing in the hallway waiting for class to end. "We’re not going to talk about Dreads, or weapons, or exercises, or anything else that seems to have created controversy with certain members of this class." Marcus looked right at Ellis. "Instead, we’re going to talk about faith.” The only one who didn’t look up was Ellis. Marcus could tell from the changes of expression that Ellis was intrigued, despite his need to keep his somber face.

  “Faith is the most basic principle of life. We exercise faith every day. But it is what we exercise our faith in that determines what strength we gain, and how strong we become.” Marcus paused for a moment, trying to give his thoughts a moment to order themselves. This lesson was a little off-the-cuff, so he wasn’t quite sure where he was headed.

  “As a Paladin, faith is our watchword. We operate by it. We strive for it. We seek to understand it. What occurs to me is that you five do not have the firmest grasp of what it truly means to have faith.” Ian looked up, surprised. Not that he didn’t have a lot to learn, but Marcus had referred to him as a member of the class.

  “But we have faith,” Mary said in a small voice. Marcus nodded.

  “Yes, but do you understand what that means?” A quiet fell over the room. “What do the mandates say about faith?” Uther raised his hand.

  “Faith is a belief in things that you cannot see.” Marcus shrugged.

  “True, but faith is more than believing in what you can’t see. I can’t see the back of my head. Doesn’t mean I have to have faith in it.” That got a chuckle out of Jack at least, who was hanging his head back once again. Marcus walked over, took Jack’s head and set it back facing forward. Jack frowned as Marcus patted his hair a little. “The class is this way.” The door pushed inward and Rebekah snuck into the room, trying not to interrupt. Marcus breathed a little easier as she tiptoed in, taking her usual place along the wall.

  “But that’s what it says in the book,” Mary said simply. “I can show you exactly where it says it.” Marcus could see her checking it in one of her books. Mary was certain to find it in a book, if nothing else. Marcus stepped over and took the book in hand and closed it.

  “Yes, that’s what it says. But one of the things I’ve been trying to teach you guys is that you have to think about what the book means. Not just what it says.” Mary looked at her book as Marcus
set it down on her desk and frowned a little. “I’m not saying that the books are bad or diminished in some way. On the contrary. They are the unswerving knowledge, history and testimony that came before us. They are beyond fact. Beyond simple information. But taken the way you assimilate knowledge, they are matters of ONLY fact. ONLY information, to be inhaled and exhaled as needed. What I’m saying is that the truth is inside the words you read. You have to see what is being said, beyond just the words. It can’t be just rote recitation.” Mary looked at her books again, not sure what to think of them all of the sudden.

  “But how do we do that?” Uther asked. He knew the Paladin Mandates almost as well as Marcus did. “You said that we have to be like water. Flexible, but fitting into the mold of the mandates. How do we fit into something like that, and flex at the same time?” Marcus took a deep breath, setting himself for the explanation he had promised a week before.

  “One of the things you have to understand is that, unlike what most of your teachers around here think, the paladin mandates don’t tell you everything. They can’t. And they shouldn’t. It’s no good to you if you have to be told everything. The rules are a framework. Important, and they have to be obeyed. But when push comes to shove, and a situation arises that requires more than what the rules dictate, you’re gonna have to think on your feet, and make decisions that will have to be within the paladin mandates, as well as wise.” Marcus paused, making sure he gave his mouth time to catch up with his thoughts.

  “There is not a rule for everything. There is not a list of actions for all situations. There’s not enough paper in the world to carry it all. That’s what I mean by being like water. You have to adapt to situations as they come. But water doesn't change either. It adapts to every environment, but it is always water. Whether it is vapor or ice, its basic components are the same. They don't change. We adapt, but we don't change. Water cannot be wood. It can soak into a log or fill a bowl, but is neither a log, nor is it a bowl. You have to adapt, but remain true to what you are. Not what you think you are.” Ellis looked up a little as the conversation continued. Marcus noticed his attention and made sure not to look directly at him. He didn’t want to distract him.

  “When I first started training with Sir Raven, I was doing my best to follow the rules as closely as I could. Noble as that is, it is also wrong. My instructors here at the campus said that I would be a great paladin if I just followed the rules by the letters.” Marcus smiled a bit as he said it. Rebekah smirked also, knowing what he was about to say.

  “A wise little girl, who shall remain nameless but is in this room," Rebekah blushed a little, "told me that I was going to be standing around watching people get killed if I followed the rules like that. She said, no amount of rule following will ever make up for doing what’s right. She even punched a man out last year for the same reason. You have to do what’s right, not what’s written.” Rebekah blushed as Marcus glanced at her. She had been a precocious little girl.

  “So, what does that have to do with faith then?” Ian asked. Marcus nodded.

  “It has everything to do with it. All of you are training and learning to exercise your faith in things that you have yet to see. Faith is believing in things you cannot see. But it is also believing in things you know are true.” Marcus waited a moment. “Mister Burke.” Ellis roused for a moment. But he didn’t look annoyed.

  “Yes?” he said, quieter than Marcus had heard him.

  “Have you seen Uther heal someone before?” Ellis nodded slowly. “So, you know he can heal then?” Ellis opened his mouth to give his opinion of healing, thought better of it and shut it abruptly. He didn’t have an argument suddenly. He nodded instead.

  “He healed Mary’s paper cut,” he said slowly.

  “Then you know for a fact that Uther can heal at least paper cuts, right?” Again, Ellis only nodded. “Have you seen any others of his kind do the same?” Ellis shook his head. “So then how do you know they can?” Ellis shrugged.

  “Someone told me once.” Marcus accepted that.

  “And you believed them?” Ellis shrugged his shoulders again. “Why?”

  “I assumed they knew.” Marcus smiled.

  “And that simple statement gets you about halfway there.” Marcus began to pace. “The words that are written in our mandates were written by the wise among us. They wrote down what they knew, knowing that we would need it. We trust them to have been inspired to have written what was right. But we don’t just take their word for it. Faith is not just blindly following what we’ve been told. It’s taking the truths that others have discovered and making them a part of ourselves. It’s learning to have the rules be more than just dogma. It’s having those rules be a part of who we are.” Ellis sat back and looked forward in class for the first time since Marcus had been assigned to him. Rebekah watched the moment as Ellis went from confrontational to introspective. It was something she had not thought she would see.

  “If faith is what you say it is, then how do we do that?” Jack asked, breaking the silence that had fallen. Marcus nodded.

  “By not just following the rules, but by learning why they are. Faith is not rules. Faith is action unto wisdom. Faith is believing in something so fully that you HAVE to act on that belief. Faith is holding onto something that the world tells you is unreal, because you know inside that the world is wrong.” Ellis raised his hand, and got the attention of the entire class. “Yes.”

  “That sounds really hard.” Marcus nodded.

  “Faith makes anything possible Ellis. No one ever said it made things easy. The easy way is to just follow the rules without any kind of wisdom at all. The hard way is hard for a reason. Having faith is not simple. And it does make things difficult at times. But it is not being blind. My job in this class is to try to keep you all from becoming the automatons that so many paladins have become lately.” Marcus slowed himself, knowing he needed to close things up.

  “All the simulations and exercises in the world are not going to tell you what is right in front of your face every day. And I cannot teach you to be faithful if you don’t want to believe. But when it all comes around, each and every one of you has to find the truth, learn it for what it is, and then choose to follow it to the end of your days or go some other way. I can’t give that to you. You’re just going to have to look inside and see if you can find it in yourself. All I can do is show you where to look.” Marcus took up his notes and started for the door. Rebekah met him at the door and followed him outside. The rest of the class just sat there in quiet contemplation.

  Chapter 8

  The Herald

  Ian sat alone in Nikko Park later that day, still wondering about what Marcus had said. The others had all headed off in their separate directions. No doubt Mary was face deep in a book and Uther was meditating in some shady spot. Jack had said something about scrounging up a date. That left Ian wondering, since Jack had announced his date almost three weeks ago. Ian had met Sydney Bair just once officially. That meant he had actually heard her speak in his direction. But with all the making out she and Jack had been doing, the only thing he'd ever really seen of her was the back of her head. Not that the back of her blonde head wasn’t interesting. But it was only after Mary had told him that he had learned her name. A smattering of sightings of her with Jack was all the contact he’d really had with her.

  The only one that Ian wasn’t sure about was Ellis. From the moment Marcus had left the classroom, Ellis had been withdrawn. But more than that, he didn’t come off as angry anymore. In fact, he seemed almost docile. Uther had used the term, contemplative. Ian wasn’t sure if that’s what he was feeling from the kid, but he was sure that something Marcus had said had gotten to him.

  Something about it had affected Ian as well. His thoughts were very clear, but he wasn’t sure where they were leading him. He kept thinking about his training. The steps he’d taken over the last year had been so large. He was sure that he had grown to believe in the paladins and what they
stood for. But after what Marcus had said a few hours ago, Ian just wasn’t certain.

  I have to believe in what I do, he thought. It was something he had heard Marcus say before. In fact, Marcus had said it on more than one occasion. Sometimes, more than once a conversation. But Ian hadn’t really let it sit with him. He’d assumed it would just hit him one day.

  “The Paladins are more than powers and authority. Faith is a living, breathing thing for us. We aren’t police. This is our life, not just our job. It is nothing so trivial as employment. It is more than duty. More than honor. More than commitment. It is who we are at the very core of ourselves. And without that faith, it’s just a set of rules and a fancy suit.” Marcus said it in some form at least once a day. Ian hadn't stopped listening, but it had started to get monotonous. It was a few weeks before that Marcus had made it a point just once to say it that clearly. But Ian hadn’t heard it the way Marcus had meant it until now. He’d gotten in a habit of hearing the words, but not the meanings.

  “Deep thoughts,” a small voice said from the side. Ian almost didn’t respond. He wasn’t sure if he wanted his thoughts interrupted just yet. He took a breath and smirked.

  “Shallow musings," he muttered. "My thoughts don’t run that deep.” Ian looked over and saw her. She stood with a practiced ease, her body language giving no evidence of cowardice or anxiety. Her raven black hair was pulled away from her face in a simple ponytail, allowing a full view of her slender features. Ian had seen her before. “Hello,” he said weakly, trying not to show his stunned reaction. He did his best not to stare. She smiled, and Ian felt his heart jump. Her jade green eyes twinkled at him.

  “My name is Aiko Satoko Maeda.” She bowed slightly. “I am here with the Samurai of Eriko Province for the Peace Games.” Ian stood as easily as he could. He didn’t want to look clumsy. He offered his hand to her.