"Trying to drink me under the table now?" Elena asked as she sat across from Lyse. "I will have to warn you, you will pass out before that will ever happen, I've drunk my father under stools before."
"Never been much for drinking anyway," Lyse told her in a low voice, almost embarrassed to even say it. "Funny, I was about to buy you a drink. I can't be any more grateful to you."
"Oh please," she waved her hand aside. "We all agreed that you were pretty essential. I doubt we would have been able to complete two of those challenges if not for you."
"Then at least grant me this toast perhaps," Lyse lifted his mug up, and immediately there was a noticeable shuffle as everyone lifted the nearest container in the air. He had not meant for his movements to be so noticeable, but now he was once again the center of attention, as every eye and ear was pointed to him. Elena let out a small chuckle as his worried eyes momentarily zipped across the room, and once again found purchase on her face. She gave him an encouraging smile. So he sighed and stood, carrying the most confident smirk he could muster, and lifting his wooden mug above his head.
"To the future then?" he shouted, more of a question to himself than others. "To our collective knighthood. May our days be as noble as our past has been honorable."
Lyse was a little proud that he could speak words that seemed so wise, and with confidence sludged down every drop of the bitter air as the air became brittle with cheers and hollers. As he fell back into his seat, the cup clamping against the table wood, he looked down at his hands with a furrowed brow. The ale was not very strong, but for some reason, he already felt so inebriated it was hard to focus his thoughts anymore. Elena drunk the last of her drink, finishing it with a satisfying sigh.
"Man, they sure did bring out the good stuff didn't they," she said, waving for the barmaid to bring another round, then looked to see Lyse clutching both hands around the cup and his balance sway. "Was I speaking too soon when I said you could handle a drink."
"I . . ." he tried to formulate a thought, but it wasn't coming. His speech was in small bursts as if a single sentence could send him toppling. "I . . . I had drinks . . . before . . . I"
Suddenly, his hand drifted to his necklace, which was now burning against the inside of his armor, the heat making his tense clench a bit. It was as if the effects of the drink was being forcefully intensified, the maddening state of drunkenness swallowing him whole. However, a moment later a cooler, temperate feel radiated, drowning out the buzzing in his head to calmness, and stillness. Two opposing forces battled in his mind, but ultimately the sober finally came to him. He finally settled and took a long breath while Elena watched him curiously.
"Some drink," he said as he accepted another from the barmaid. The words were a mix of embarrassment and frustration. He wishes to understand the limits of this pendant because its effects seemed so random and opposing. Elena read this mention written on his face as pointed to something else. "I bet you are pretty well known around these circles. A small-town guy like myself surely can not measure to the likes of you."
She swirled the ale in her cup, of what remained really as if the answer could be found in the light yellow liquid. "Everyone knows of my father," she submitted. "As the general of the tenth legion, probably the most respected regimen of Liontari, his kin are seen with wary, even as a child. There were a lot of arranged marriages because of this. If my father could be so powerful, then surely his child shall be even more incredible if he married correctly. My mother was a shieldmaiden and Paladin of her own legion in later years. And I now stand to inherit their throne of swords and songs."
"I dream of such things," Lyse sighed to this admittance, looking sadly down at his sword laying against his chair now. "At the very least did. Growing up in a village, a herder and farmer, you really don't get to have ambitions outside the acre of the lord who governs us. Who else to tend to the crops? I always dreamed of what the capital would be like at those naive ages."
"And did we deliver?" she asked with a cocked smile.
The barmaid refilled their drinks, and he immediately drunk a little more out of nervousness. "Most certainly. Almost outshining to some point. But I never thought that this was what will be the test that sent me on this path, that I would really be called a knight by those who are even ignorant of my name. And to meet someone like you-"
Lyse did not know why, but those last words made him feel that he had made a grave mistake. He nervously glanced back down at his cup and back up, expecting an offended and blushed to look, but she didn't seem to react at all to this awkwardness. Whether by will or not, he did not know or cared to find out. She did nod to this, taking in all he had said.
"I'm glad to of met someone like you as well," she told him. "I can tell you are very bright and earnest, two things crucial of knighthood. And I do wish our paths will cross more and more." She paused as if shocked by a sudden happening in the distance. Then she said, with curious interest. "What cohort will you be joining then?"
At first, the question appeared easy to answer but wasn't somehow. Like his answer would sway the entirety of his life. But he did answer in careful tones.
"I'm joining the Rangers," he told her, and there was a noticeable shift in her stature as if being relieved of some burden that Lyse had not noticed before. She got up from the table, reaching into a pouch at her side and placing a silver coin on the table, an inch square silver piece with the symbol of the empire stamped on both sides. Payment for the meal, and then she grabbed her sword.
"We should rest for the morning," she told him. "I'm itching to feel an actual bed now."
Lyse smiled and nodded, standing up as well, unfortunately, unable to take the appropriate tip necessary. He strode around the table, while Elena was motionless watching him move, like a rabbit caught in a hawk's shadow. Then her face turned puzzled when he held out his hand with a gracious expression on his face.
"Thanks for everything," he told her, shaking her hand, her hand squeezing upon his grip a bit more out of challenge.
"And thank you as well," she nodded and then headed to the stairs that lead to her chambers. Lyse sighed, picking up his sword and securing the scabbard back at his side. His armor was becoming a bit heavy now, and sweaty. He longed for that bath once more, the hot steamy water exciting his skin. But sleep was almost the complete center of his mind as he lumbered up the stairs, only glancing ever so often when someone would congratulate him or comment on rumors that seemed to of spread already. He knew the source of course. Even in an entirely new social climate, Edlund could make chat. But he did not have the energy to worry or be inclined to chastise him later. He remembered where his room was, the first room he had to himself, he realized then. For as long as he could remember, he has shared his room with either sister or Edlunf who moved in with him when they were ten years old. And for as much thought as his dull mind could bring, this saddened him. The thought finely of those times in the field hearing the sheep around the land along with the cows. Gathering firewood for his father to destroy into smaller pieces to stack alongside the house. The harsher winters and steamy summers. The festivals. The harvest festival, which would occur within a month or two, held many memories. That is where he first met her, Lidia. Of course, he was unaware then who she was, especially when he shared his first kiss with her.
These thoughts swam his mind like a tumultuous lake as he took off all of his clothes. Leaving only the slightly worn brown cloth pants he owned on as he cuddled onto the bed. The bed was not overly comfortable, but compared to hard-packed cave floors, he might as well fell upon gathered clouds. He fell asleep in that instant, and he has whisked away in dreamless darkness for what would come the next day."