"Jake! You serious about this man. You know what will happen to us if we get caught?"
A young middle-aged man looked back, still in his seventies, a small beard, leathery clothes, and rope? "You worry too much, it has been about ten years, and not a single monster has appeared out of these parts."
A man slightly older, with the same clothes, but no facial hair yet, spoke with a steady voice with subtle hints of urgency, "There might be a guard posted somewhere close, bumping into one might lead to us losing our spots. It might even be worse; we could face serious punishment."
Jack took a slow breath and without looking back said; "just help me fetch this and we're golden."
They kept looking for a while longer, then they found it, at the corner of a buildings second floor. "We can go now." They had travelled through the staircase to get to the top of this building, but to save time they used the rope to leave. They could not see anything, they moved from memory, and to save time he tied the rope to an end of a pole and let it out the window.
Their sense of direction and distance has been severed. The rope dangled off the building, even if they could not tell how high they were, they just knew that the rope and the building were the same height. This showed their preparedness, and urgency. They needed to leave the darkness as quick as possible, that is also why they had planned this too, instead of taking the stairs down.
They were cautiously retreating, avoiding the patrol routes. The area around them was pitch black, so all they had to go with was memory of the map and their honed senses. They could have come during the day, but they would risk being spotted through a high tower.
Bringing a light into this darkness is forbidden, so they were just as blind as those on patrol. If not for other senses, they could probably just walk past them, unfortunately though there was risk with being that close. Once they reached the other half of the city, the half that does not have pure darkness in it, they could turn on their torch, even if it is dangerous, but it would make moving around easier.
The city really changed for the worst a decade ago. When the darkness came, the half of the city was evacuated, through a drill no-one thought they would have to do, following the sound of the horn waiting for a knight might take longer, light was useless.
The world had no moon, so waves were not a particularly popular saying. This is because things described as waves were minor, as such whenever someone mentioned waves, all people thought of is the rushing tide of darkness from the dungeons. That night, the rushing tide of darkness surged, making it a dreadful scene. It looked like the flood waters from a storm, bringing even more dread.
It came suddenly and without warning, an unprecedented disaster that was predicted but not fully anticipated. Over a hundred years ago a nearby village reported the fiasco with the dungeon, on their way through the city. The calculations had been made about how far the darkness might reach; there was even a splash zone for safety.
Then ten years ago it happened, passing the predicted line, the safety line, the error line, soon passing through the walls of the city, and then stopped after half the city was covered. The soldiers on the wall watched as the pitch-black inky waves appeared in the distance, then they came even closer than was supposed to. Even all the extra distance put during the preparation of the city was passed, eventually washing half of the city in darkness making those in it miss the night star light, as faint as it was.
After the evacuation, the Knight brigade posted in this city took to the border ready to defend of the citizens. Everyone knew that the destroyers (what they think void creatures are) would soon appear, maybe after a year at most. Then nothing happened. The city was evacuated, with some choosing to leave the city. Luckily, most facilities were on the other half, closer to the main gate, this is because this was the direction that goods arrived in, so the city planners put them closer to the merchant caravans.
The last ten years have been strange. After the destroyers no show, the knights made a strict regimen for dealing with this strange case. One of the Knight Bannerets even relocated here. That was when life continued, albeit in a more mentally draining way. People usually live with the fear of the destroyers, even less so when the Knight Bannerets were present, but living so close to an inactive darkness, filled the nights with a sense of dread, fearing that impending doom had come.
Jack used to live on this side too, but after the hasty evacuation he had never dared enter this site. There was something he needed from here, his mother's ring, his sister was about to start school, and he wanted to pay for her things. Their parents were long gone, in fact this place is an orphanage, and in a small wooden box was their family ring. He had hoped to use it when getting married, but with him becoming a trainee, he had to find a way to provide for his sister. He did not want to steal and since the training takes the entire day, there was little chance to earn value points.
'If I can become a full knight, then she will be fine.'
The problem was that becoming a knight is usually a long, time-consuming process, and he could not sacrifice his sister's education. He could let the orphanage handle it, but due to the recent state of the city she might not get enrolled. The ring could provide for her for the whole schooling process, and even other necessities.
He had studied this terrain for a while, by now they should probably be turning the last corner before they reach the normal night sky, where their vision was not as pacified. He knew everything by head, otherwise they would be lost because they would not be able to view the maps anyway, and this level of preparation, is why when they heard the clanging of metal, they were sent into a panic.
Dart spoke first, "Did you hear that?"
"Yes. Its armour."
If they ran now, they would not make it, even in this pitch darkness, where you cannot see what is in front of you, outrunning a knight was impossible. They could explain themselves, but it would be useless, there is no explaining this situation.
'I just hope they won't revoke our spots at the academy.'
The armour stopped in front of them, they still could not see anything, with how sharp the darkness of both the void and the armour was, there was barely a difference. Then once it was close enough, they felt this oppressive feeling, telling them, not really telling them, it was begging them to run, almost as if they were faced with a monster, a deadly one.
Contrastingly though, this feeling made them want to stay more instead of running. Even worse the inhumane voice that came out a second later was even more chilling, but somehow, they were convinced that it's the most humane thing they have ever heard.
"You two! Where can I find the knights?"
They felt confused and then another contradiction came, that made them sure that there was nothing wrong with that question, even more so, it made them want to answer.
What does it matter that a knight is looking for the other knights? It even played in their favour, it meant that they had a better chance of not getting reported, and they were certain that this was the best outcome.
"It's this way sir, we were headed that way ourselves."
Then all three left the darkness, the two were suspicious of the knight but for some reason or another, they were more certain that nothing was wrong, almost as if something was playing with their senses.
It was night, and even with the relative safety of the city, at this hour the town was dead. They then reached the barracks, this is where the trainees stayed, they put their stuff and headed for the main gate of the academy, this is on the left side of the north facing gate, the main gate.
The two of them left the knight there, telling him (as they assumed) to wait for the knights coming from patrol, it was already dawn so they would be coming back to switch for patrol duties, actually the Knight would most likely bump into those about to leave first, but they won't have the luxury of taking the time to direct the Knight though.
Soon after they left the knight by the gate, they seemed to regain control of their senses, not yet realising how truly strange it all was due to a lasting effect, but not that they could make full observations of what their senses were telling them anyway. "You ever seen armour so dark?"
"No. but have you ever seen a knight like that?"
"The feather gave me the creeps, and where was his sword, its knight protocol to always keep it ready."
"There were multiple broken protocols though."
"I guess he might be a knight Bachelor, coming from the side of the darkness and not going around it."
"Even though it has been reported that the darkness is still in-active, it is still pretty dangerous to go through the darkness, must be brave, or just a fool."
"Have you heard anything about a new knight Bachelor coming? And why is he alone? Why did the patrollers not meet him on his way in?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say he was supposed to enter secretively, maybe he has orders for the Banneret, reporting something in the darkness?"
"I may not know much, but Dart, I don't think me and you were supposed to see that, after all the route he was on was empty, we were not supposed to be there."
With a relieved sigh, "I told you that it was a bad idea. Let's just keep it to ourselves then. On a better note, it might have been a little creepy, and strange, but that was one heck of an armour."
"I was thinking that too, must have been custom made, if this city did not have a Banneret already, I'd think he was one."
A worried expression found its way to Dart's face, "The Bannerets are not known to be friendly to each other, so are you sure we did not just help a Banneret infiltrate the academy, do you?"
"That'd be crazy, and after all, unless if the Banneret came with its knight Bachelors, then this is just a messenger."
"I hope so."
They then made it back to the barracks, making sure not to alarm anyone. After they got onto their beds, a noise resounded from the dark, this time they were not in the darkness so they could see clearly who it was.
"What were you two up to this night?"
Jack ignored the voice and Dart answered, "Noree, its none of your business. Secondly what are you doing in the barracks, aren't you supposed to be at the orphanage and not following your brother around? School starts in a week or so."
"For your information, I was just here to ask my brother if I should pack up the rest of his stuff and bring it to him, and when I came here, to my surprise he wasn't here."
"So, you waited here the whole night?"
Looking away with a scoff, "to be fair, I did not think that you guys would take so long, it's not like you're knights who have patrol duty or anything… I fell asleep on the chair, and now it's already morning, so if you don't mind, can you two explain yourselves."
Jack finally raised his head and with a grin said, "We just helped the Banneret with some stuff."
Both of them looked at him, their gazes were piecing holes in his head. For Dart, it was because it was almost true, they were still not sure if that was a Banneret or not, but also, he felt it was too early to joke about it, what if one of the knights heard them. Noree was just angry that his brother would lie to her so blatantly, she was worried sick the whole night, he is her only family after all.
Jack ignored their stares and put his face back into the pillow, and asked, "What about the madam, won't she realise that you stayed out all night?"
"Redan is covering for me… don't distract me, now answer my question."
They did not explain anything to her, and after the first hours of the day, she went back to the house being used by the orphanage now. She had to explain herself to Redan though. She was also expecting her to sneak back earlier in the night, not early in the morning.
Jack put the ring underneath his mattress and went off to training with barely an hour of sleep, but after the excitement of the night he wasn't feeling too bad, he did manage to get the ring for his sister.
"She should know that I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the worrying, I am her older brother."
This would be the day Jack and Dart would never repeat. It did not happen this time, but the next he would be kicked out of training and then his sister would have more to worry about.