The Dread Knight's Rage

Yari only awoke when the last vestiges of Solomon’s warmth left their bedsheets.

Her eyelids gently fluttered open. In place of her young lover, there was only a small notecard that had a sweet note written on it.

It was a simple apology for having to leave after the rather intimate night they had just shared together, along with a promise to do things over properly upon returning home.

Truthfully, Yari didn’t need the apology. That said, she was more than just a little happy that her beloved had thought to give it.

The desire to squeal and obsessively cover her face with the note was almost too great to ignore.

No longer tired, Yari climbed out of bed and began to get dressed.

With a simple robe covering up her nightgown, Yari left the room quietly to go and search for everyone else. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Her light footsteps glided across the floor with the grace of a fawn. The spire was quiet. She was the only sound anyone could hear.

That, and the combined sounds of groaning coming from somewhere upstairs.

Naturally drawn to the sound, Yari made her way toward the noise with a healthy amount of suspicion on her face.

Her suspicion changed to blatant confusion when she found the young people she had travelled with all lying on the floor.

They were facedown in a circle, groaning in pain as her sister drew some kind of symbols on each of their backs.

"I-I said that I was sorry! I tried to be as gentle as I could!"

"You didn’t... try hard enough!" Everett had blood running from his nose and was dangerously pale.

Dakota was just plain unresponsive. She lay facedown on the ground, her arms outstretched and completely unmoving.

Nila was a bit less concerning. She was lying down, her chin against the ground, and her eyes watery as a lake.

"T-This.... this is nothing, my wimpy little brother..! A warrior should at least be prepared for this kind of pain in pursuit of greater power!"

"Say that without tears in your eyes, why don’t cha!"

"These are not tears, my eyes are irritated from the dust on this damned floor!"

Truthfully, Yari nearly started to turn around and head back to bed. Clearly, whatever was going on here was outside the range of her ability to solve.

The only thing that stopped her was seeing her sister about to touch her young lover’s muscular back.

Admittedly, she may have overreacted just a tad.

"KYAAA!!! WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Giselle let out a shrill screech as a blast of ice water knocked her clear off her knees. Her head cracked against an orichalcum slab over fifteen feet away, giving her a small fit of delerium.

Solomon glanced up in surprise with the rest of his siblings. Until he saw Yari stomping toward him with her lips pursed and her arms folded.

"After everything we discussed just last night... Are you already showing your disloyalty in such a blatant manner..?"

Amusement dripped from Solomon’s grin.

"I don’t know what you believe you saw... but if you recall, I was quite unmoved just now."

"So?" Yari loomed above him menacingly.

Solomon playfully swept her legs out from under the elf and caught her before she could hit the ground.

"Really now, my ruin... Have you already forgotten what I am like when I’m properly invested in someone...? Perhaps you need a reminder."

Yari’s cheeks became hot enough to fry an egg on.

She grabbed Solomon by his ear stubbornly. "Perhaps you should be more mindful of letting other women close to you."

"If that is your desire." Solomon kissed her neck gently before moving to her cheeks.

"It is undeniable..." Nila groaned. "I am trapped within the jaws of the ferocious tormenter beast from the Black Depths... This deeply disturbing vision it shows me is my punishment for not properly eating my vegetables as a child...!"

Everett wasn’t as dramatic as Nila, but that didn’t mean he was unaffected either.

He pulled back the waistband of his pants and stared inside.

"Don’t worry, little buddy... We’re going to get you some action when we get back."

Giselle got to her feet, rubbing the back of her head. She spat a stream of water from between her lips. "You could have just asked me to move aside..."

"Would’ve taken too long." Yari yawned as she rested her head in the crook of Solomon’s neck.

Giselle wrung her dress free of water, trying her best to swallow her anger.

"I... see." She said through gritted teeth. "Well, if you don’t mind, I actually do need to work on your little boy-toy’s back for a moment."

"I do mind."

"Yari!"

The elf lifted her head, clearly annoyed. "I’ll thank you to keep your hands to yourself. Or else you may very well find yourself dead for real."

Solomon was 100% certain that he had never been more attracted to Yari than he was in that moment.

"You overprotective little..." Evidently, Giselle didn’t feel like arguing with her little sister, especially not after not seeing her in over two decades. "Fine, paint him yourself then."

Her words finally made Yari look up. "Paint?"

In response, Giselle hurled a book at her face. Solomon caught it before it could even tap her nose.

"Ever so gallant." She kissed his cheek.

"Calm down, cradle robber." Giselle sneered. "Let’s just get this part over with..."

Yari cracked open the book, hoping to understand.

Apparently, the symbols Giselle had been drawing on the backs of the horsemen were something like brands.

Made of very particular medicinal herbs and animal blood, the paint she used was supposedly the first step in the ceremony to awaken will.

The brands on the back were traditionally supposed to be given by an elder. They symbolized that the giver had watched the bestowed through every stage of life, and they were making the claim before the cosmos that their actions were their own.

After the ceremony had started, it would be up to them to prove that their minds were their own.

"Okay.... What now?" Yari sat back on her knees after she finished painting Solomon’s back. His hand sat comfortably on her thigh as he seemed to be catching up on rest.

Giselle frowned deeply as she looked back and forth between the pages of her book.

It was an expression that Yari recognized from their childhood. Before that moment, she hadn’t thought of just how much she was relieved to see her sister’s funny little faces.

"Let me see that, foolish elder sister..." Yari sighed.

If Giselle felt some sort of way about being referred to as foolish, she did not say anything in her own defense.

With only a glance at the page, Yari found the cause of the issue.

Once the ritual was back on track, there was a noticeable reaction.

All four of the horsemen yelled out in pain as their backs began to sound like steaks on cast iron.

But just as quickly as the horsemen screamed, they went deadly silent. Their bodies became completely still, and their eyes rolled back into their heads.

If that weren’t strange enough... Their very skin started to peel away.

Yari had heard Solomon and the others talk about their ’true’ faces. The horned apparitions that toed the line between monster and smoky apparition.

However, this was her first time seeing the transformation for herself. Her scientific brain nearly burned itself out thinking up new quandaries.

"...What are you doing?"

"Shaving a bit of his horn." Yari filed down the material into a waiting cloth.

"...Why?"

"Curiosity mostly."

Yari finished gathering the powder and sat back on her knees.

"So... Exactly how long are they going to be in this state for?"

Giselle shrugged. "That... really depends on them."

She sat beside her sister quietly. Watching the pair side-by-side like this, the resemblance was extremely easy to spot.

"I guess that’ll give us some time to catch up and stuff. If you promise not to hit me anymore, that is."

The moment worked it’s magic on Yari, and she found herself resting her head against her sister’s shoulder.

Daringly, she took her hand and held it close like she did when they were children.... Only this time, she did not attempt to put her in any sort of submission hold.

"....So. Where should we start with-"

A deep, shrill gasp came from one of the four, startling the elven women. They stood up in alarm, watching as the first of the soon-to-be-infamous horsemen underwent a surprising metamorphosis.