I'm back at home. The smell of my mom's sun-fruit cake drifts into my nose, drawing me into the kitchen of our estate. We laugh and laugh as she tickles me to the ground, and then we both eat a slice.
Now I'm on the top deck of the Ivory Marauder. Whitecoat smiles at me as she dumps cold water on me. I never forgot how beautiful she was. The whole crew is there. Mickey, Chump, Nickers, all the guys. They're all throwing water balloons at each other or splashing buckets around. All around us is the ocean, as far as the eye can see.
Everything jerks around me, and I'm suddenly inside the Leaky Leak tavern. I look around in a panic, trying to find Whitcoat. I spot her on the other side of the bar. A man with short brown hair in a suit is trying to slip his hand inside her pants. I see her mouth the word no to the man, but he doesn't stop. Before I know it, I'm on top of the guy, beating his head in with my shield. I look up at Whitecoat and see her horrified face.
Now I'm in the royal courtroom, at my public trial.
"For the crime of vigilantism, the murder of 7 government officials, the destruction of an entire city ward, and the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians, with the power vested in me, I hereby sentence you, Renald Black of House Black, former White Knight of Ardent, to execution by beheading." King Tomias concludes.
I look over at Whitecoat, who avoids eye contact with me and gets up to leave. The Wardens chain my hands and escort me to a holding cell. I don't fight them.
Now I'm inside the Vertalara Prisons, looking up at Whisperclaw, who is shaking my arm.
"Renald? Are you awake?" The dreams fade as Whisperclaw knocks on my door, waking me.
"I..I'm up." I rise from my bed, still in my armor, and exit the room, making sure to close the door behind me quickly so nobody sees the mutilated body of the bandit. I grab my bag on the way out. We won't be coming back here again.
"We're getting ready to meet Liaz." She looks at the door behind me. "What's in the room?"
"You want to know?" I raise my eyebrow at her.
"Never mind. Don't tell me." She places her paw on my cheek. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine." I look away.
"No. How are you?" Whisperclaw turns my face back towards her and stares into my eyes. If I lied now, she would know.
"I…I'll be ok." I grab her wrist and gently remove her paw from my face. "Did Glimmer come back yet?"
"Not yet…" She gives me a once-over. "...You should put back on your leather armor; we don't need to make it any easier for people to recognize you."
"Right…" I spend a few moments removing my White Knight armor.
The latch gets stuck on my chest plate, and Whisperclaw has to help me remove it. Then I strap into my leather chest plate, gauntlets, and leather greaves, putting my White Knight armor into my bag.
"Y'all ready to go?" Ironvine knocks on the door to our suite. "We don't need to keep Liaz waiting."
"Let's go." I open the door, and we all head downstairs.
As we approach the bottom of the staircase, I hear voices in hushed conversation.
"... I'm sorry." Says one of the voices, who sounds like Liaz. "Make sure you lock up after I'm gone."
"Why?" Another voice, who sounds like Ice, responds. "Why do you have to run? You didn't do anything!"
"Ice…" Liaz sounds tired. "...I broke out of prison, and at the same time, the First Knight of Amacedia was murdered. The people will want to blame someone, and I'm the only one with a motive."
I look down at my feet as he speaks. It's my fault Liaz is in this situation. That's why I'll do what I must to repay him for his kindness towards our group. I feel a paw on my back, and a reassuring feeling floods my body.
"Don't worry. We can do this." Whisperclaw whispers into my ear.
I hadn't noticed that I wasn't moving until she said something. I instinctively jerk away from her and proceed into the tavern area.
"Renald! Good." Liaz, sitting at one of the tables with a crying Ice, stands to greet us. "Where's your other friend? Glimmer, right?"
"We're not sure." Ironvine answers, a worried look on his face. "At this point, we just have to trust that he's ok."
"I'm worried," I say. "He should've come back by now."
"Me too." Whisperclaw looks as worried as I feel.
"Like Ironvine said, we're just going to have to have faith." Liaz walks up to me and places his hand on my shoulder. "Before we do anything else, I just wanted to apologize for earlier."
"For what?" I'm confused. I don't think he did anything uncalled for or undeserved.
"I..." Liaz pauses with a puzzled look. "...I feel like I was being ungrateful. You and your party saved me from my fate and did something I could not bring myself to do. You truly are heroes."
I am completely taken aback. Not once has anyone told me thank you for the things I've done. Being a White Knight for so long, I'd become accustomed to moving in the shadows, the public never knowing who saved them from certain doom. Tears fill my eyes, and I whip around to wipe my face.
"D-don't mention it." I stutter. "Is everyone ready to leave?"
"Not quite," Whisperclaw says. "We still don't have an actual plan."
"Yeah, and we still don't know where Sir Carvallen is," Ironvine adds.
"I know." Ice jumps in, causing us all to turn and look at her, "I…Sir Joel told me his father was meeting with an important business associate tonight at the town hall."
"Blackthorn no doubt." I say, "That makes things easy for us, then."
"No more unnecessary killing, Renald." Ironvine looks at me sternly, "From now on, we only fight if we have to, or else I'm leaving this group. I signed up to save people, not play accessory to murder."
"Fine." I glare back. "But there's gonna come a day when you're going to have to make a choice, and when that day comes, I hope you can make the same decision I would."
He looks away, saying nothing.
"Alright." Liaz breaks the tension. "I have a cart that I use to travel now and then, parked at the stables. I have some horses too. The owner owes me a few favors, so I should be able to get us a ride out of here if word hasn't spread too far yet. The only problem is, they'll likely put the city on lockdown, so we can't leave through any of the gates."
"If we can get the cart outside the gate, I can shadowstep with everyone else." Whisperclaw notes.
"That could work." Liaz smiles, "I can convince the Stableman to meet us. They have permission to go into the northern farmlands to gather food for the animals, so there shouldn't be a problem."
"Perfect." I grin. I can see the plan unfolding in my mind. "Liaz, you secure us a ride out of the city while Ironvine, Whisper, and I drop in on Carvallen and Blackthorn."
"What about Glimmer?" Whisperclaw asks, pointing out the one hole in my plans. We can't proceed to the next floor without a full party, and it's only three of us.
The door to the tavern, which had been fixed while I was asleep, suddenly unlocks and flies open. Glimmer spills onto the floor. In his hands is a scroll covered in glowing purple runes, neatly tied with a purple bow.