The Camp of the Dawn (IC)

Commander Renault observed the other Dawn knights who had gathered intently. And, as they spoke, his watchful gaze flashed with amusement, and as he continued listening the lips hidden beneath his greying whiskers broke into a smile. Finally, he turned to Aranor after they had finished.

"No disrespect to you Grandmaster, but if all men in your order are so eager to insult those who are not your enemies, and pick fights where they wouldn't be found otherwise, I can see why your Order is in the state that it is."

After he finished speaking, his eyes lost their glint of amusement, and he gave Merzinas and Blaze a hard stare.

"This is a Dawn matter, one which I personally side with you on. However, we have orders from the king himself on this matter. We shall have to show him proof that his subjects are in danger under the Red Dawn occupation. What do you suggest then? Disobey king Mordred? I'd sooner remove my own head. The heads of my sons too, had they not died placing our Lord on his throne!"

He slammed his hand on the table once more, only this time the emphasis was clear. When he had taken a moment to calm down, he continued once more.

"Take your words and your swords to your true enemies. Or else I fear you may make too many to handle. We're all warriors here, battle is what we do. It is what I would be doing now were this not an internal affair of yours, but it is. As such, I have my orders. I'll be damned if I don't follow them."

Merzinas held his ground, and his temper, and spoke again in his quiet voice:

"An insult is felt by one who feels the remark is not true ... or is true and shamefull."

"You may not be our enemies, you may be here on the kings orders. These orders however, do not seem to be well stated... but if what you have said is true, and you are here to protect the kings subjects and gather evidence on the corruption of the red dawn, perhaps you should consider travelling thier lands and doing it."

A vicious anger now entered his voice, and fire burnt in his eyes

"Perhaps you should talk to the stream, of pale faced refugees, fleeing Javiksholm, whipped, branded and homeless. Perhaps you should travel to Kavaraid, and see the body of a child, burnt, mutilated and stuck atop a pike. Perhaps you should go to Ironoak, and see the rotten pile of decapitated corpses, festering at the bottom of the mountain. If you are here to save the innocent, as you so strongly proclaim, perhaps you should help save them, instead of giving justice to the dead."

The hint of amusement returned to Renaults eyes once more. Was it that he thrilled a battle of words and wits as much as he did the clash of swords? Was it because he had grown used to his students at the acedemy challenging him?

Who knew, but he was not backing down from the quarrel. That much was certain.

"Insulted? I said that I was no such thing, rather that you are hurling insults. I know my duty, and am proud to do it. As for these men and women, I rest you assured my men are working this very moment across the Fierdsvain countryside to bring enough evidence to the king. Turn your anger towards your former comrads, for it is them that caused this mess."

He spit, as if to show distaste for the Red Dawn, before resting his hand on his sword.

"I know my role. If you are to ask a cripple to mount up and ride across the countryside to speak to the people at a slower pace than that of a healthy knight, than I hope for the sake of your men that your judgement in battle is better than your judgement outside of it."

Renault rested against the table to steady himself while he good foot dug into the ground where he spit. It was anyone's guess what the action actually meant. When he was finished, he turned to Aranor, now ignoring Merzinas.

"Grandmaster Aranor, I see my presence here is both unwelcome by the men under your command, and counter productive to the preparation of your battle plans. I invite you to the Griffon and Dragon's camp if you wish to speak further."

With that said, Renault turned and departed from the tent. Boar looked to the departing Griffon, before turning to the Dawn knights.

"Mastifus'll not enjoy hearing that the men he sent are thought so little of in the West."

Although he himself did not seem offended, Boar still took after Renault's lead, stopping at the entrance to the tent before nodding in a similar fashion to Renault.

"Aranor.. Knights."

And then the men were gone, and the Dawn were free to discuss their plans in peace once more.

Sir Aranor had remained quiet during the affair, for he had been completely sunk into the maps on the table with Sir Fabien.



It then struck him, what had exactly happened....

Sir Aranor, slightly infuriated at what had just occurred,

He then looked towards Sir Fabien, and said "You were right, Fabien."

Sir Aranor then called in two Dawn knights.

"Guards, restrain Sir Blaze."

As they went off to do that, Sir Aranor grabbed Merzinas by the collar, and pressed his face close to his

"Give me a reason why I should not have you whipped Squire." the last word he said with a sense of disgust.

"You are under my command, as a squire, you are not a full knight, and you are not a member of the Circle. You have disrespected our guests, and made the entire Dawn look bad. Commander Renault is above you, Squire Merzinas, he is a respectable commander, and he has proved himself a good man. You will treat our guests with respect and courtesy. Do you understand?"

he let go.

"But, I know you are a good man too Merzinas, you have a good head on your shoulders, and a good heart in your chest. But you must learn your place. I understand that you are shaken from what you have seen while scouting. But do not take it out in camp, you must show the dignity and honor that a true Dawn knight would if you ever expect my sword to tap your shoulder.

Understand that Commander Renault does personally support our cause, and wants to help us, but can't because of his leader's orders. Learn a lesson from him. Think about it this way, the King grew up knowing that the Dawn likes holding grudges and acting upon them, he remembers how we used to make accusations against our enemies with no backing. They have men accumulating evidence, they need proof of what the Red Dawn is doing before they are allowed to help us.

Now you are going to come with me, and you are going to apologize to the kings's men, on your knees. Then you are to ask if there's anything that you can do to repair your mistake. Whatever it is, from shoveling horse dung to sharpening his sword, you will do it, and if I detect one single scent of resentment, or of any negativity, I will ask the Dragons to put you through the Gauntlet."

Now Sir Aranor turned towards Blaze, and with a balled fist punched him in the face.

"Don't you ever dare insinuate that someone in this camp has betrayed us. You are in no position to do that. You, on the other hand, have betrayed me, you deserted me, and you left to join the New Dawn. Then you betrayed the New Dawn by deserting them and going on a foolhardy expedition to try and attack Javiksholm. I expect better from you Blaze, you are a knight, I expect you to show respect towards the king's men. Don't you say I let that squire off easy, you have caused us no end of trouble. The only thing that's stopping me from having you publicly whipped is that you are Sir Rodrick's man. How do I know you havn't betrayed us? You did come here several days before us, who knows what you were doing. You are barred from entering this tent again. Do you understand? Oh, and muttering and complaining isn't an attractive trait. Knights, escort this berserker out."

(Blaze now exits)

"Fabien, send a letter to Rodrick on what his man Blaze did, tell him that I request for Blaze to be taught a lesson in the stocks. Now excuse me while I go after Renault and Boar."

(This is moving to the Dragon/griffon camp thread, and Merzinas is going to follow me.)

Blaze took the blow from Aranor like a man. He isn't a coward, and he is brave to be direct to the point. Sadly, Aranor didn't think that he should be like that. His faith towards Aranor was decreasing rapidly by the second. The two Dawn Knights that restrained him couldn't help but scowl at Blaze. They wouldn't understand. Blaze allowed them to escort him out of the tent. The moment he was out however, he used his brute strength and sent both of them to the ground.

What a bunch of weaklings. Obviously they had underestimated Blaze's strength. Every one of the Berzerkers was capable of doing that, so it wasn't surprising. However, Blaze did not proceeded to doing anything but just stare at them. If the Berzerkers showed the same weakness, they would have been severely punished. Due to their small numbers, Blaze promoted superior individual fighting skills and communication above all else. He said to the two knights, "I have lost faith in Aranor ever since Lord Roland died. I can see freedom of speech isn't practiced by Aranor. If you want to fully restrain me, go home and train up on your strength. You have as much as a twig. Tell him all that, and also that this force was given blessing by many of the New Dawn. If I did ever betray the Dawn, no one will follow me. However, they followed me because they knew I was right, and they knew that actions speak louder than words."

Blaze calmly walked away after that. He went back to his forces tent. He didn't mobilize his forces, but however, fortified his camp. Additional patrols and sentries, also including building of a few watchtowers. They were ordered not to allow anyone in, unless it is of utmost importance. Sir Thaddeus would be the only exception to this, however, given what they experienced together in Veccavia. Blaze would wait until the time is right, to strike Javiksholm.

"Such shame," said a frail voice behind the grandmaster. A pale, sunken-eyed Varis hobbled in the sights of the grandmaster, pitifully hanging on the arms of his attendants with every step.
Before Aranor can move to help him the Judicator held his hand up politely, "I'm not that infirm that I will have my lord attend to me, especially now that must suffer the shame to ask my brothers to hold my weak body," motioning to his meekly Vindicators beside him.
As he lowered himself into the chair the grandmaster stared at the Judicator's trademark facial scar, the healed tissue turned dark, with it's poison spreading like a web across his face.
"By the Goddess," the Lightbringer exclaimed.
Varis bent his head down in contriteness. "We must all pay a price to do what must be done," he said. "This is mine."
He looked up, "but this will pass, as it always has. A period of sickness on the anniversary of each year, worth bearing if it means one less heretic on Pendor."

"So tell me your grace, what bears down upon you?"

Finally Wolfarmin arrived at the Dawn camp with a plain look on his face. Wolfarmin was extrmely tired and bored but once he heard what had happen while he was away he was dissapointed in the way the Balze and Merzinas acted and even more in the fact he wasn't present to give his two cents. Wolfarmin tiredly walk to a squire and told him to tell Aranor he had arrived at camp and well be resting in his own tent and to call upon him if he needed Wolfarmins counsel in disciplinary (not sure if i spelled that right [fixed it so it makes sense ~Iskar]) action for the Dawn squire.

Finally alone in his tent Wolfarmin quickly unequiped his armour and weapons and fell on the comfy looking straw bed waiting for him. While he lay there Wolfarmin couldn't help but think if he had truly saw a camp for the Order of the Griffen/Dragon or if that was just his imagenation.

The squire tells Wolfarmin about how Aranor dragged off the squire for a lesson in humility.

Then, the radiant circle member Sir Fabien walked over to Wolf.


"Greetings Sir Wolfarmin, as you can see, the Dawn has settled in relatively well. As you can see over there, the Griffons and the Dragons have arrived as spectators. They will remain spectators until they see enough proof that the people are truly threatened."

"Ah, greetings Sir Fabien I had a feeling I saw a camp of the Griffons and Dragons. Spectators until they get more proof eh, well it wont take long for them to become apart of the fray then. Hell, all they need to do is visit any village that the Red Dawn has passed by, then they will have there proof. It doesn't matter if they help or not the Dawn can handle them selves with out the crowns help, we have lasted this long my friend and we will continue to last until the Dawns enemies are no more and these lands have been purged of corruption."

"Spoken like a true knight of the Dawn Wolf."

"So, since the esteemed Grandmaster is over by the other camp. How about we go talk to Blaze."

"That would be great, I have'nt had the company of Blaze in a long time."

With a faint smile on his face Wolfarmin's begins walking with Sir Fabien, unaware with what had took place while he was away.

Fabien came towards the camp of the Berzerkers.

"Blaze! Come on out!"

Blaze sighed when his name is called. Some upstart knight is now trying to challenge him? His suspicions where confirm when one of his men informed him that Sir Fabien and Lord Wolfarmin are asking for his audience. Shrugging, Blaze went out and saw that some of his men are already facing the newcomers, weapons not drawn, but alert for anything. Blaze folded his arms at both men.

"What do you want? Sir Fabien and Lord Wolfarmin?" Emphasizing on their titles, in slight sarcasm.

By now, most of Blaze's force had heard of the newcomers, some coming out to see what is happening.

"Why have you not joined your forces with your master Sir Rodrick? Why do you insist on staying here brooding with our cohorts?"

Passing knights started to stop, forming a crowd around Sir Fabien and Sir Wolfarmin.

Sir Fabien balled his armored hands into fists.

"I regret the day that the Grandmaster let your filthy hide into the order. This is a brotherhood of noble men, not of tavern rats! You besmirch the order's name with your every action! The Grandmaster's intents are noble, but this is enough!"

A large group of knights and peasants have arrived, each watching the herald as he spoke.

Fabien turned to the group and pointed at Blaze.

"This man, insulted our allies, he even told them to their faces that they are hear for nefarious purposes. He told them that they were traitors, and whined on and on. He is just a simple knight, but he condescended to the commander of the Griffons.

But who is he, to point fingers at anyone? He betrayed Sir Aranor, to go with the New Dawn. Yet now that we are allies, he still treats our leader with discontent and insolence. He still has not joined up with Roland's successor, and he sits in his own tent all day.

Then, to add insult to injury, as I left the tent, I saw two knights groaning in pain, the same two knights that we sent to escort Blaze away. Blaze laid his hands on his own brothers! He doesn't see any of us as his companions and comrades except for his fellow drunken tavern-crawling Berzerkers! These 'warriors' of his, they can't even fight as well as we do! They are reckless and a liability."

Fabien turns to Blaze, now having an angry crowd behind him.

"And the worst part Blaze, is that you show no remorse for any action you have ever taken. You have never said sorry, for anything.


Tell us Blaze, why did you leave us all and rushed over to Kulum, with such a small force? Any sane man knows that he can't take a city with so few men. Is it because, you have in fact, turned your white banner to red? Have you shut yourself away from all that is good and righteous?"

Fabien draws his sword.

"Well Blaze, what say you? How do you feel we should think about you, after all that you have done?"

Shocked Wolfarmin immediatley draws his sword to protect Sir Fabien from any Berserker that may try to strike.
Wolfarmin still had no clue what had took place but he learned something from Sir Fabien's speech and wanted to learn more

"What is going on, I only came to talk to Blaze?

Seeing some of the Berserkers draw there weapons Wolfarmin grips his sword tightly.

"Stay back or I swear to you, I will kill you all where you stand."

Sick of being in the dark on the situation Wolfarmin tries to pull the answers from Fabien, but to no avail. Fabien seems to be bent on waiting for the right moment to strike Blaze.

"Fabien please calm your self, I would rather kill the Red Dawn than our allies, you must tell me of what has happened while i was away."

Sensing the tension building and no way out of the situation that didn't invole harming both parties Wolfarmin readies himself for a battle he never thought he would fight nor wanted to fight .

"Do not worry, Wulf, I only drew my sword in order to repel any immediate responses. And enough words have been said, let us here what he has to say."

Blaze laughed, much to the confusion of the other knights.

"You really do want to twist the story to your own advantage, do you? I did not state that they are betrayers, I just claimed that they are here for their own purposes, and not without reason too, seeing as they revealed little so far."

He looked around, trying to make eye contact with every knight and retainer present.

"Yes. I may be only one of low rank in the order. No, I am not in the Circle of the Radiant Light, like SIR Fabien here. So what are you trying to say is, we common knights and retainers have no right to question one superiors? If we find anything suspicious. Are you saying we should not attempt to think beyond our leaders?"

"As for why have I not joined with Sir Roderick, because I felt that we specialize in different areas, than the ones commanded by Sir Roderick. I did not want to mix all of our training up because of it. Besides, you're speaking that the New Dawn are traitors. Do you mean the great, late Lord Roland is one also? All of us here are the New Dawn, are you trying to say we are all traitors?"
Wrong move, Fabien. Blaze thought to himself. He could see many of the gathered knights starting to get angry.

"We felt that we have differences in opinion with Lord Aranor. We have THE right to question Lord Aranor when in doubt. We follow the same principles as the New Dawn. So, clearly because of that we joined the New Dawn. I was fine with walking to my tent on my own accord. I merely just pushed them off of me, I did not think they would complain because of a small push."

Several of the knights chuckled, finding it funny.

"Sir Fabien, you insult us as you may. You insult every one of the 160 men gathered in this tent. You talk as you may. The Berzerkers have fought much more than you will ever will. We did not rely on our 'noble blood' to do the job for us. We started out as peasants, recruits. We accomplished much more, than you will ever will, SIR Fabien. Drunken or not, Berzerkers had never faltered in battle. If I didn't see my fellow knights as comrades, why did I even bothered to speak, and talk to them as brothers? Not all of the 160 men here are the Berzerkers, and certainly not all of them aren't of noble blood. In fact, I treat everyone equally. Retainers or Knights."

The fact is, you challenged us, insulted and denounced us. You accuse us of joining the Red Dawn, and seeing that my men made up a part of the New Dawn, you're trying to say the same to everyone else in the New Dawn. We won't sit here listening to your rant. This calls for a blood duel. Common among Huscarls, when they find themselves insulted. A fight to the death. Winner takes bragging rights."

Blaze glanced at Wolfarmin. "Lord Wolfarmin, you see what your fellow knight have been trying to say. Do forgive us for anything that we'll inflict on him."

He drew his double headed axe, and immediately placed himself at an offensive stance. He smirked at Sir Fabien.

"Don't worry. I'll go easy on you. Maybe you will live through this after all."

"It is one thing to question your leadership, with thoughtful questions, of your concerns, but it is another to outright insult the people who have come to help us. Commander Renault was not one of our order, and you had no right to question him, if you had any concerns, you should of brought them up privately. I mean, even that squire behaved better than you!

And you admit that you are a low knight, yet you don't join up with your commander? Did you ask Roderick if it was ok to go off on this fool's errand? Or if you could stay separated when he came? No, you repeatedly fail to recognize your place.

And Roland was not a traitor, neither are any of these knights. Sir Aranor knew that these knights were part of the New Dawn. He thought you were on his side, he thought that we could count on you. Instead, you take your drunken rabble and run off to Roland.

And you do not have the right to question the Champion of light when you are in doubt, take it up with your superiors, don't go and disrespect him openly! And I did not think a simple 'push' was needed! Both of those knights were following orders, something you have forgotten how to do!"

Retainers and knights in the crowd have drawn their weapons.

The berserkers have fought more than me? Tell me how! I have fought in more campaigns than you can probably count in the army of Ravenstern, I earned my place as a kiersguard knight, I was born a commoner, I'm sorry if I uphold my actions more nobly than you. The Berserkers have only been around for several years. They have fought with us in maybe a few battles. And I have accomplished more in several years than you have in your entire life Blaze, I am a herald of the Dawn, I am almost ready to begin my paladinship. And you may treat your own men equal, but don't you dare treat Sir Aranor or Commander Renault as your equal.
Also, may I remind you of the Battle in Veccavia, where almost half of the Berserkers were slain? My unit was in the heat of the fighting as well, and we only lost 6, out of our 30."

Several knights in the crowd nodded, Fabien's unit.

I am not saying the entire New Dawn has joined the Red Dawn. You may have only yourself became a Red Dawn, and led these men unknowingly. You turned your back on Aranor, and left without Roderick's knowing, you alone are the traitor here Blaze."

Fabien turned and started to walk.

"As much as I would love to separate your head from your shoulders, Sir Aranor decided to spare you, and I shall not go against his word. Plus, your stance is weak, your left side is exposed to a riposte when you make your overhead strike, which I can tell from the tensing of your muscles."

Fabien stops.

"Also, huscarls are house-knights, sworn to protect their masters, no matter what, against any threat. You could say that I myself am the huscarl to Sir Aranor. Who are you huscarl to? You have left your old master, and your new master got killed. I don't see you near Roderick, so I can't consider you a huscarl."

The knights around Fabien draw their swords and prepare their shields, waiting for the berserker's response.

"We are the knights of the Dawn. The servents of Astraea. We are the custodians of this world, we are the masters of the final sentance, we carry the fires of judgement.

And they have destroyed us.

We are now but a broken and fractured order. Even now, we fight amongst ourselves, on the eve of battle with ourselves. We have let that fire consume and destroy us, just like the fire destroyed my shield. That fire ruined everything it touched, and broke it in half. The black charcoal was hardened by its sickness, and stays whole through its rotten core. What was left could not contain the blaze, and engulfed itself in flames, annihilating it. It fractured apart, and was scattered to the wind

The fire is our sin

We have failed the goddess, for so long, and so atrociously

And unless we save ourselves now, she will never return to this realm

We are her angels of law, we balance the scales when no other men can, we are the unblemishable jury, the flawless judge. The justicars of the right. The harbringers of the final verdict

No longer can we indulge in our excess, no longer can we place meaningless vows. We must transcend what we once where, and become what we have to be.

No more hate.
No more anger.
No more zealotry.
No more honour.

We must kill without bias.
We must act without emotion.
We must worship without war.
We must live without vanity."

Then Merzinas bent down and gathered the ash of the fractured shield, and held it in his palm. Then he placed the blackened rotten second half to the ground and drew his sword.

"Let all the servants of Astraea rub apon thier heraldry the ash of our flawed past, and embrace our proper future."

He then violently hacked down onto the rotten shield with his grey sword

"And let all Knights of Justice, strike at the corrupt."

"This is the New Dawn that Roland envisioned. The vision that now rests in Sir Aranor. Knights, lower your weapons."

The crowd lowers their weapons.

"Old and New, we are the ones that are left. We are the ones who have stayed true. Let us fight as one, let us not separate ourselves in camps, let us be comrades. When we take down those damned Red Dawn we will fight as one!"

The knights repeated "As one!"

Fabien continued "How Sir Roland would of wanted it!"

The knights echoed "How Sir Roland would of wanted it!"

"How the grandmaster wants it now!"

The knights repeated "How the grandmaster wants it now!"

near the door of one building close to them, Aranor stood. He smiled, he didn't want to interrupt. He looked upon his knights, as a father looks upon his children, with pride.

Confused, Wolfarmin walked away from the crowd with his arms folded pondering what had just took placed, once at a distance to see the entire crowd Wolfarmin turned facing towards them and in a low voice said to himself

"How strange.... yet necesary"

With that Wolfarmin walked to the horse stables and began cleaning his horse, with a puzzeled smile on his face.

Sir Aranor walked over to Wolfarmin

"We are quite an interesting bunch arn't we?"

Sir Aranor leaned against a wooden pillar.

"There's something about that Merzinas. The way he looked, you would of thought he got a vision from Astraea."

"What do you think?"

Wolfarmin thought for a while and then looked up to Aranor.

"You know if I didnt know better I would think Asteria has sent him to help change this order for the better. Merzinas has strange way with words and a unique ability to spot flaws in a flawless defence.

Wolfarmin looked of in the direction of the crowd.

"You know what Aranor, we have open seats in the Radiant Circle and if you think of allowing any to fill them I would strongly recommend Merzinas to take a spot."