Witch and Blackguard (for Wizard9876)
 

The sun rose over the Kingdom of Talanar. The golden rays pierced the morning gloom, as the squirrels and birds began to go about their morning business. The bird-song and the babbling of the gentle streams could be heard throughout the ancient forest, and over the sounds of the forest came the heavy hoof-falls of a war-steed.

Through the mist came a pale steed, and upon it was a rider clad in dark armor. He was a young man, with short silver hair and green eyes. Around his neck was a ruined and broken symbol: it had once been a silver sigil identifying him as a member of the Order of the Star, but now it was only a beaten and bent half-star. At his hip was a short sword, but those who had faced this knight in battle knew that it could extend to any length he needed it to be.

Cato appreciated the sunrise as he rode through the forest. He saw a carriage, pulled by two horses approaching from the other side of the road. But it wasn't an issue, they would have passed each other.

"Blessings upon the king." said the commoner, a frequent greeting.

"Blessings to you as well, fellow servant of the crown. May I ask you a question? Which way to Greenwood?"

The peasant pointed to the right.

"That way. Wait, that armor. Are you a blackguard?"

Cato nodded.

"Yes. The enforcement of the Accord is my responsibility. There's a witch in Greenwood I've been sent to acquire. She'll be under my protection from now on."

The commoner looked concerned.

"Then you may be too late, sir knight. When I passed through the village, the witch was barricaded into the church convent. She's under their protection now, but a group of witch-hunters is gathered outside and is threatening to attack the convent if they don't hand her over."

Cato's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed.

"Thanks for letting me know."

With that, the pale steed thundered through the forest, leaving a crowd of disturbed leaves in it's wake.

****

An unruly mob had indeed descended on the local convent in Greenwood. A dozen of them with torches, sickles, and pitchforks.

"Burn the witch!" one of them said.

"All those who allow witches to exist in our kingdom are heretics!" shouted another.

Inside, the clergy had bolted the doors and shuttered the windows.

"How long until they try to batter their way in?" asked a nun.

"It won't be long. If they break through the doors, we won't be able to protect her." replied a priest.

"We should hand her over! It's the only way the church survives!" said another priest.

"No, we must abide by the accord!" replied the first priest. "By royal law, witches may live in the kingdom under the protection and authority of a blackguard. One of them is on his way now!"

While the light of the sun shone outside to greet the earth and its creatures, the dark gloom of a certain witch’s room cast a shadow over everything inside of it. The room was filled with an assortment of many different potions, charms, and books that were each magical in nature. The green glow of a cauldron lit up a corner of the room and illuminated the face of a rather young looking witch.

The witch appeared to be no older than 15 but age didn’t matter when it came to witches. She had dark hair that covered her eyes though it only reached to the tops of her shoulders. Her eyes were the color of a night sky and would glow white when she was performing magic, which is what was currently happening. She wore a giant witches hat atop of her head that threatened to fall off of her head if she moved too much. She also wore a black cloak which hid the purple shirt and black skirt she wore underneath. Her boots reached up to her knees and was speckled with tiny amethysts all over. Bracelets covered in magic infused jewels were on both of her wrists and an amulet was kept in her pocket, the purpose of it unknown.

Silvia wasn’t too keen on being interrupted during her practices and had sent her familiar to investigate earlier. The black cat had returned five minutes after to tell her of the news and now she was working on something to stall those who were trying to capture her. If they wanted her to burn then they’d have to try much harder than simply demanding the church to hand her over. The nuns and priests of the church honored the accords with their life and would protect her until she was assigned a Knight. If the people who wanted her dead couldn’t see that they were only following the King’s will, well they weren’t really people of the Kingdom now were they?

Cato and his horse thundered into the village, causing several surprised villagers to jump out of the way of the charging stead. Cato saw a dozen men armed with torches and pitchforks; a true mob.

He dismounted his steed and gave it's fur a gentle caress.

"It's okay, Apollyon. Stay here."

Cato marched forward, with purpose and conviction, towards the church. As if that was his only concern and the mob didn't even exist. But he got their attention, and their eyes were drawn to the dark-armored knight almost immediately. When they surrounded him, Cato came to a stop.

"I am Cato of Greyfall, Blackguard of the Holy Kingdom. I have come to take the witch sheltering in that church under my authority."

The crowd didn't budge, and began shouting at at cursing him. But one of them stepped forward. A man older than him, who wielded an actual sword instead of a farming implement.

"We have no need of your kind here, knight. We have the situation under control. Stand back and let us solve our witch problem as we see fit."

Cato got a bit closer to him, maintaining direct eye contact.

"Well, let me take her off your hands; and she won't be your problem."

The man laughed.

"The accords were a mistake. The toleration of witches in our kingdom brings the judgement of the gods on us, and all those who tolerate them are heretics. Witches are an abomination before Heaven, and they are all destined for the pyre."

Cato sighed.

"That was a moving speech, but you have no authority here. I, on the other hand, am directly empowered to act by the king himself. I don't want any violence. If you step aside and order your mob to stand down, no one needs to die."

The mob leader came closer to him, putting a hand on his sword.

"You blackguards really are the worst heretics of all. Protecting witches with your own lives, giving them legitimacy, letting them seduce you...and what's with that that broken sigil around your neck? Could you not handle being a real knight, and decided to serve a witch instead?"

Cato's eyes narrowed. The mob leader had actually gotten under his skin. But he couldn't let it register on an emotional level.

"If you insist on bloodshed, then I'd rather we have as little blood shed as possible. A duel. You against me." said Cato, drawing his sword.

"A reasonable offer" said the mob leader. "But I'd rather you just die. ATTACK!"

With that, the mob surged forward, attacking Cato with all manner of farming tools. The knight acted quickly, blocking several of the incoming attacks with his sword and dodging out of the way of others. He knew he was outnumbered, so he tried to keep all of his enemies on one side of him; and moving fast so they couldn't surround him.

"Fortinbras, we have your back! Let's kill him!"

"Death to the false knight!"

Fortinbras. So that was his name.

Fortinbras wasn't staying on the sidelines, per se. He was definitely keeping several of his minions between him and Cato, but every so often he charged forward and made two or three strikes with his sword. He had two men who never seemed to leave his side, and looked the most well-trained out of the mob. They would charge forward and attack and the same time he did, and raise their weapons to counter whenever Cato tried to strike at at Fortinbras.

For what if was worth, Cato was holding his own very well, and the mob seemed shocked that one knight could stand against a dozen attackers.

"Don't be intimidated, men. Blackguards can bleed just like anyone else. We are the true saviors of the kingdom! Stand firm!" yelled Fortinbras.

One of the townspeople charged forward in a vicious, aggressive attack. Cato saw his opening. Using his blessing to turn his sword back into a knife, and ducked under the man's pitchfork. Then he turned it back into a sword...extending it directly into the thug's heart. The man fell and died in a bloody heap, causing the rest of them to shrink back.

"One of your men just died because you declined a duel, Fortinbras. Is this the loyalty you inspire in your troops, or are you just a coward?"

"Fool!" Fortinbras spat. "I'd sacrifice a THOUSAND men for the good of the kingdom! Charge!"

The thugs attacked again, putting Cato on the defensive. One down, eleven to go.

****

"A blackguard is fighting the mob outside!"

"A blackguard has come! We're saved!"

"What if they kill him? Then we're as good as dead!"

"He's badly outnumbered! If he falls, we all die with the witch!"

"None of us are trained to fight! We can't help him!"

At this moment, a young nun by the name of Sister Margaret ran to Silvia's quarters. She spoke through the door.

"Silvia. A blackguard has come to save you. He's fighting the mob outside. If he sur..." she caught herself "After he disperses the mob outside, he'll come in here to retrieve you. P-please stay here, he's going to come and get you soon!"

Margaret was trying to be honorable to the letter of the Accord, but Silvia could hear the fear and desperation in her voice.

Silvia hummed to herself as the commotion outside grew much much louder. She paused her work inside the cauldron and motioned for her familiar to come over to her. Once the cat had she bent down to place a hand on its head and both of them closed their eyes. The young witch muttered several words in a language that was getting increasingly smaller with each passing day. Her body began to go limp and she fell to the floor while the eyes of her familiar opened. Instead of the piercing green eyes it always had, its eyes were now glowing a bright white.

Silvia had transferred her own consciousness to her familiar so that she could see through his eyes, control his body, and communicate through it as well. The only downside to this was that it left her own body completely defenseless which would be terrible if the spell was performed in another situation. She quickly hopped out of the window in her room and snuck around the front of the church to see what was going on now. She gasped as she saw the mob’s size and considered that she might have been wrong to not have taken off when her familiar had warned her of the danger. Well the potion she was working on could slow them down so for now she had almost nothing to fear.

She hurried back to her room and handed control over to her familiar once again while she returned to her own body. How long would the potion take to make and how much time before those idiots broke into the church. Silvia muttered a curse under her breath as she knew she wouldn’t have enough time and began working frantically on the potion. A few moments later the door to her quarters was given a knock before a familiar voice was heard through it. It was one of the nuns, Sister Margaret. Had the situation been solved already? Unlikely given what the nun was telling her. At the end of the speech Silvia simply shook her head at her familiar and continued work on the potion.

“Thank you for the news Sister,” Silvia responded cheerily. “I’ll stay here and wait to be saved.” That was a lie as she had no intention of waiting just for the knight to die. The potion was almost done and would soon be able to use it.

After a while longer the potion was finally finished and she placed it in a vial before motioning for her familiar to follow her. If the blackguard was out there defending her and himself alone then she had to help him despite the fact that it just may lead to her own doom. Well if the potion worked everything should be fine and the two would be able to leave this place. Silvia hurried out of her room and through the Church until she could sneak around to the front. She didn’t go through the front doors as that would be suicidal, and instead went out do another entrance. She moved around to the front of the church where she would be behind the mob and the blackguard. Well here’s her moment. She took the potion she had and tossed it into the mob. Once the glass shattered and the liquid touched the ground, a red mist began to completely engulf the mob. It wouldn’t kill anyone but it would place those who inhaled it into a deep long sleep.

The mob of fanatics pressed their assault against Cato. Fortinbras may have been far weaker than Cato alone, and if it had been one on one Cato would have taken him handily. But with the whole mob, along with his two loyal bodyguards who guarded his every move, it was getting hard for Cato to deal with. He took a blow from a woodsman's axe on his leg. His armor guarded his flesh from it's blade, but not from it's impact. He was forced to one knee, and had to raise his sword to block a savage attack from a scythe. He rolled sideways, a pitchfork nearly missing his throat as it slammed into the dirt. He got back to his feet, but Fortinbras leapt forward and kicked him square in the chest, sending him reeling back into a wooden fence. Another fanatic armed with a fishing spear ran forward, ready to impale him. But Cato dropped down and extended his own sword into a spear, piercing his chest. He fell to the ground, wheezing and bleeding out.

"You're far too weak, knight. You're already getting tired. We're going to kill you before you can kill all of us. We only need to get lucky once!"

The mob cheered at that statement. Cato looked around their ranks, trying to find some kind of a weakness. Past them, his eyes fell upon a black cat, which went unnoticed to the mob. Strangely, it's eyes were completely white.

"A familiar..." he thought. The witch knew he was here.

Before he could dwell on it further, the crowd rushed forward again. He swung his spear in a wide arc, forcing them all to jump back. Seeing one of them had strayed further from the others, Cato charged forward, sword pointed, and ran him through. The others closed the gap, however, and soon Cato was being mobbed. He was forced into full defensive stance, not able to attack he struggled to deflect blow after blow from from farming implements and Fortinbras' sword.

"Die, traitor!" Fortinbras howled. He was right, they only needed to get lucky once.

***

"H-hey, wait! You can't go out there! It's not safe!" a nun begged as she saw Silvia running outside.

It was because of the mob's ferocity towards Cato that none of them saw the young witch emerge from the church and throw her potion. But they did notice the shattering of glass, and the red mist which sprang forth in every direction.

"What is that!?"

"It's m-magic! Dark witchcraft!"

They scattered like insects, and several of them inhaled the mist. They slowed down, severely fatigued, and then quickly fell to the ground as they were rendered asleep almost immediately. Cato looked through the red mist and saw the witch: a teenage girl in a large black hat and cloak. She was unquestionably the one he had been sent to protect. He saw what the mist was doing and held his breath, covering his mouth.

Fortinbras had done the same, the thick red mist separating him from Cato. He looked upon the witch, the true target of his hatred. As much as he hated Blackguards, Cato wasn't the target of his rage. The witch was. Despite her magic, she was still just a delicate young girl. A sword through the heart would be just as fatal to her as it would be to any mortal. Hatred brimming in his heart, he charged towards Silvia, quickly closing the gap between them. One blow from his sword would have slain her. One more moment, and she would be no more. Silvia could see the wild, vicious anger in his hateful eyes. She saw the glint of his sword against the sun as he raised it.

And then she saw the tip of Cato's sword as it pierced Fortinbras' throat. His mouth opened to scream, but no sound came out. Blood spewed forth from his lips as the light left his eyes. Cato's withdrew his sword and Fortinbras fell to the ground lifelessly. Cato's green eyes now locked with Silvia's intently. He was tall, had radiant silver hair, and most importantly wore jet-black armor.

"I am Cato of Greyfall, Blackguard of the Kingdom. As per the terms of the Accord, you, Silvia of Greenwood, you are under my authority and protection. I will prevent any other subject of the kingdom from harming you, even if it means giving my life. I will prevent you from using your magic in any way that violates the Accord, and I will discipline you as I see fit."

After his formal declaration, he looked down at Fortinbras' corpse and back at her, his expression softened.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. No one needed to die today. But those men care more about taking your life than they did keeping their own. It looks like you found a way to spare them."

Cato beckoned Apollyon over.

"Gather your things. We need to leave soon. I'm going to bury the dead men and tie up the ones you put to sleep. They will be transferred to the local jail for violating the accords."

Silvia was thankful when she managed to put everyone to sleep and let out a sigh of relief to know that her new guard was no longer in danger. Now that that was dealt with she could finally finish her work before she had to leave with the guard. As she thought about this she noticed a man coming towards her with a look of vengeance. So she hadn’t gotten everyone in the mob it seemed. The young witch prepared to cast another spell that would have protected from a fatal blow, though she would’ve still been injured by the sword strike. Before she could even get the words the man’s body went still and a sword stuck out from his throat.

She covered her own throat as if she had been stabbed and watched as the man fell to the ground, watching as his spirit left his body. Silvia’s eyes returned to their dark shade as the spirit vanished and she looked up into the eyes of her new guardian and listened to what he said. When it turned out to be the same rubbish every other blackguard said she ignored him and went to see if her familiar was okay. The cat had fallen asleep along with the others in the mob so she’d have to clear the potion from his system later. For now she gingerly picked him up and carried him in her arms.

“I’m sorry I had to see that too,” she muttered rather coldly while starting to head back to the church. “I would’ve been fine, there was no need to kill him.” After saying that she pushed past the nuns who checked to see if she was okay and went to her room to grab her things.

"Well, witch...I'm sorry I don't know any spells like you, or else I could have turned him into a frog or something. We mortals have to rely on our weapons and instincts to protect ourselves and others; not magic. I saw him threatening you and decided to act. For what it's worth, I offered them the chance to surrender. They chose violence."

Cato approached the convent, tossing one of the nuns a bag of gold coin.

"For your trouble. I apologize for taking as long as I did. Your congregation was placed in mortal danger because of it."

The nun promptly tossed it back at him.

"We're in mortal danger because of the Accord, you fool! Were witches simply imprisoned or exiled, there would not be such strife! And you Blackguards are what allows that strife to continue! Now begone from this town, traitor!"

Cato picked up the bag of gold.

"Very well then."

The knight mounted Apollyon, and rather bluntly grabbed Silvia, lifting her onto the horse and draping her over the saddle. A little bag on the horse's side allowed her cat to jump in and ride it.

"We're leaving." Cato said, with seemingly no intention to argue. He beckoned for Apollyon to charge off, out of the village and into the forest beyond.

Silvia ignored him as she went to collect her things. Thankfully most of everything she had could be turned smaller since they were all magic based so she was able to carry almost a whole room in one bag. Once she had everything she tapped her familiar’s head twice and watched as its eyes opened and it began spewing out red liquid from its mouth. When he had emptied his stomach of the potion he shot a cat’s equivalent to a glare at the witch, to which she gave a apologetic smile.

“Sorry,” Silvia responded, making her way back to the Knight. “You knew what I was making. Not my fault you got caught up in the radius of the potion. I’ll be sure to turn you into a bird next time so you can fly away.”

When she was given another nasty look she would chuckle lightly, though her smile faded once she was back with Cato. The witch was about to board the horse before she was lifted up and placed over the saddle, blinking as she stared down at the ground. Her cat gave her a smirk and she rolled her eyes. “Hush you, or I might actually turn you into a chicken.”

She sat up on the saddle as they headed into the forest and looked out into the scenery. “Cato was it? I know well that you are my guardian from now on but I assure you, you don’t have to bother with me. Give me a room to myself and you’ll never have to worry about me.”

"I'm afraid that's not quite how it works." Cato said, as they rode along. "I DO have to bother with you. It's my obligation as a Blackguard. I'm going to keep you under close observation. If you use your magic in an illegal way, or act recklessly and disobediently, I will warn you once. If you do anything after that warning, I'll put you across my knee and punish you as I deem necessary. I'm sure a self-respecting young girl such as yourself would wish to avoid that."

"So in case you were wondering," Cato added. "Yes, the rumors are true. Blackguards do indeed spank witches. Very frequently, in fact. It's more or less the most commonplace punishment we use for witches; and it's turned out to be one of the most effective. I guess spankings are just how men prefer to deal with young girls such as yourself."

Silvia gave a roll of her eyes as his duties were explained to her, and she rolled them even harder at the prospect of him spanking sure. Only stupid, bratty, children got spanked, and she was neither of those things. “Good luck with that Sir Cato. I’m not too fond of people touching me, especially not a man who I just met today. I’ll tell you again, there’s no need for you to watch over me. If you place me inside of a room you won’t even know I’m here. It doesn’t even have to be a very big room.”

Perhaps you do need to go over his knee. “Quiet you or I’ll turn into a frog,” she blurted out and then would look back at Cato. “Sorry, I don’t mean you. I was speaking to my familiar. Anyway how far are we from our destination? I’ll need to rest in a bed or something seeing as all of my energy went into making that potion.”