Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 262: Marital Spat

“O Love! Love! Love! What times were those,

Long ere the age of belles and beaux,

And Brussels lace and silken hose,

When, in the green Arcadian close,

You married Psyche under the rose,

With only the grass for bedding!

Heart to heart, and hand to hand,

You followed Nature's sweet command,

Roaming lovingly through the land,

Nor sighed for a Diamond Wedding.”- Edmund Clarence Stedman, The Diamond Wedding (1859, 2nd Era)

Colin lay on the ground, drunk off his ass, and barely functioning.

Erec held up three fingers and flashed them in front of Colin; in his other hand was some kind of ‘energy drink’ the Pendragons swore by to perk a person up. It smelled slightly like gasoline, but that could’ve been because everything here had that same vague scent. They swore it would help. Colin blearily stared at his fingers. Since they were crouched behind a massive car with an odd welded-on metal cage, this little pep-talk was as private as it got in the middle of the party.

"Sh-two. I see two," Colin slurred.

Erec looked at his fingers, then back at Colin, who kept slipping away from eye contact. Garin let out a quick little laugh.

"Close enough, but could be better." He sighed and shoved the energy drink into Colin's hands. Goddess could only hope it worked as they said.

“What do you expect after so many drinks? It’s all good,” Garin insisted, even as Erec ignored his friend. Garin wasn’t quite as badly off, but that didn’t mean he was in a state to be in charge either. Not with the coming confrontation with the bridal party; if Erec didn't know any better, he'd have thought Garin was taking the chance to drink to forget something, too.

Down it went, just like all the other drinks Colin had downed without questioning this entire day.

After a minute of sitting there, his expression sharpened. Colin frowned as he took in the three held fingers. Erec gave them a small wave.

“Try again?”

"It is three, Tin Can. I am not a child," he said, pushing himself up from the ground, though not all that successfully. Garin grabbed him by the shoulder and helped hoist him, giving him a pat on the back as he steadied on his feet.

Not perfect, but then… it was close enough, and it’d have to do.

Erec cut straight to the issue now that Colin had seemingly sobered up enough to understand him: "Your fiancée just arrived."

Colin’s jaw tightened. “She can do whatever she wishes—if she wishes to attend this gathering, then that is on her. I don't know why it would be any of my business about her whereabouts, nor is hers mine.”

"Did Olivia come with?" Garin asked, staring at the bottle in his hand.

Erec looked between the two of them, watching the tremor mounting in Colin as whatever was in that drink hit harder. “Probably, at least I hope so. Goddess knows we could use the help. And Alexandria doing whatever she wants isn't the issue here. Colin, this is the first time you’ll be talking to your bride-to-be, since the two of you had this wedding forced on you. Don’t you think you should be a bit more on your game?”

"You're right, Tin Can. I need a bit more for this." Colin stared at him for a long moment, then, as if a light switch flipped, he snatched Garin's beer and downed it.

[Well, that’s problematic. Stimulants increase awareness during intoxication, but it’s a masking effect. Sometimes, it has the odd result of instilling false confidence. I’m predicting something appropriately stupid is going to occur.] VAL buzzed in Erec’s head.

As if spurred on by words he couldn’t hear, Colin puffed out his chest and scanned the rest of the party. “To think that we haven’t had a moment to talk; fine, if she has come seeking an audience with me, then I shall grant it.”

"I don't think that's why she—" Erec began, but Colin gave him no space for logic or reason.

The Duke's son took off at a speed that hadn't been possible before. It was all Erec could do to keep pace with him as they wove through the crowd. Trailing behind was Garin, who at this point had decided to just be a witness to the show. Either he was too intoxicated to help smooth over the social situation, or maybe he thought this was for the best. Erec couldn’t tell and kept glancing at him as they moved.

Odd to see him acting like that; so passive and focused on getting drunk. This type of social smoothing over was far more his wheelhouse than Erec’s.

Colin’s warpath brought them to the increasingly loud music, straight towards the main dance floor.

Then, he came to an abrupt stop; it wasn’t a question of why.

Ahead, surrounded by a gaggle of girls doing shots at the outskirts of the party, was a woman with deep red hair. Alexandria. Colin’s betrothed. Next to her stood both Enide and Olivia, also with their own shots in hand and smiles on their faces. At a brief glance, Erec had some idea of who the other women were; all with ties to house Nitidus or Doctus. And based on their awkward postures and the way they held the shot glasses, they were far out of their comfort zone, and far too sober for whatever chaos Colin was about to introduce. He did not want rumors from them spreading out to their families.

It wasn’t Alexandria, Enide, or Olivia that worried Erec; they’d adapt to this. It was the rest of that group and the endlessly spiraling gossip that would cause issues. The meeting needed to be blunted.

Buy time.

Erec kicked off with his foot, putting an ounce of his vast strength into the muscle; he shot forward as if propelled by a spring. He reached Colin just before the man broke his stupor at finding his target and moved to head toward Alexandria.

Erec held his friend, fingers like iron on his shoulder.

The women downed the shot, and then a man began to pour another round. Colin tried to step forward and failed, wholly prevented by Erec’s grip.

"Tin Can, what in the name of the Goddess do you think that you're doing? You deign to restrict me? I am a duke, you are but a Count." His words were slightly slurred, more than before, and he turned from the women, having no choice but to face Erec since Erec had stopped him entirely.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Wait,” Erec commanded.

"Why does putting this off for another moment matter? I've been putting it off for days already. Better to confront it," Colin insisted, yanking on his shoulder. But then, well, the vast difference in strength between them brooked no argument. Erec barely had to tense his muscles; he'd punched a being on the verge of divinity. Compared to that, a scrawny duke's spawn didn't quite take the same amount of effort.

Past Colin, he saw Olivia notice what was going on.

The girl gave a start, then her eyes traveled to Garin, then Colin, and she frowned.

Then, by the grace of all her training in House Luculentus, she knew exactly what to do. Olivia rushed the second round of shots, taking hold of the whiskey glass from the sloppy Pendragon and pouring it herself. She moved at least twice as fast as he did, juggling multiple glasses in a single hand as amber liquid poured into them, stopping right at the lip.

A little more time. Erec thanked the heavens for her.

He was jostled out of watching them as Colin once more tried to yank his arm free. The man squatted, digging in his heels to leverage the strength of his legs in the escape attempt. In the process, he slipped, and Erec pulled him back to his feet, straining his shoulder to do so with one arm. Still, it was possible, and as Colin steadied, his expression grew darker.

“I insist you unhand me.”

“I’m doing this for your own good. Trust me.”

“You are going to force my hand.” Colin threatened; he stepped up to Erec. He was a couple of inches shorter and carried a lot less muscle; he wore the same face he put on before taking on a monster in the wasteland.

Erec didn’t budge.

“You and everyone else insist that it’s for my own good; all these people trying to make decisions for me. I’m done with it. I’ll be making my own decisions. The first of which is this—I will not be controlled by you, and I will seek an answer to the question I've held for months now. Which is stronger, a tin can, your fist, or my magic?”

Erec’s eyes widened. A fire ignited in his chest, Fury burst from its cage with a silvery inferno, the fire seared into his veins in an instant. It came at the beck and call of the challenge. He leaned forward, veins strained as the power screamed in him to throw the first blow. This was not just Colin, but also Kay. When a Knight of the Round brought a challenge to another Knight of the Round, it could not be denied. Honor and, more importantly, the thrill made it impossible to do so.

Erec couldn’t help it. His fingers tightened on that shoulder. Colin grimaced, and a flicker of electricity sparked in his eyes.

Truly? Kay was deep there. Coming to the surface. He wished to test his mettle, right now? At a party?

Hardly a good place, nor a good time, but then again… If it had a chance of bringing Kay closer to the surface, to letting his friend embrace who he was… And the fight… It would be glorious…

Erec tensed his legs; Colin’s fingers stretched, ready to summon a spell glyph.

“Colly-wolly!” A loud voice said, shattering the mounting tension. Colin went beet-red and froze. The flickering lightning went out of his eyes; Garin slid up to the side, a big grin on his face to greet the group of approaching noble women, with a particularly keen eye towards Olivia, who was observing him like one might a problem.

Colin didn’t respond; his jaw dropped as his bride used his pet name in all its embarrassing glory in front of not only all of his friends again, but also all the people at the party.

A couple of Pendragons snickered, and most definitely the women who had come with the bride began to whisper and laugh to one another.

“Colly?” she said again, tilting her head, a bit of flush in her cheeks.

Colin turned to her. "I told you not to say that in public," he asserted, folding his arms; he went from a light red face to one as deep a red as wine.

She pouted. "I'm afraid that's just what you'll have to put up with. If you're going to be mine, if I'm going to be Alexandria Nitidus, I do insist that I have some luxuries out of the deal," she slid up closer to him, and Colin stiffened all the more. The rest of the women followed, with Olivia taking Garin by the hand and leading him off for a hushed conversation. Enide wiggled her eyebrows at Erec; she still held the bottle of whiskey and was pouring more shots. Olivia had handed off her responsibility.

Erec rolled his shoulders. So it had begun.

Colin tensed.

“I’m going to be yours?”

“Is that not what a marriage is? Are you ready? Do you want to walk down the aisle with me, Colly?” Alexandria said it not with the sweet singsong tone her normal teasing took, but rather with a dangerous cast to it. A challenge. Her eyes scanned Colin’s face, and a frown appeared as whatever she was looking at was lacking.

“I am my own person. I belong to no one but myself—not to you, not to House Nitidus; if that is your belief, then I do wonder if this marriage will work out.” Colin said, tear barely forming in the corners of his eyes, and his fists balling up.

Oh. Shit. Erec moved to get in between them; the words might as well have been the same as if Colin blasted his wife-to-be with a spell.

Instead of crying, or getting angry… Alexandria grinned. A wide, evil grin.

She moved before Erec could; her body split into two. An overlapping vision of the woman before them appeared, one that stood still, smiling at Colin. The moving version's hand whipped out and slapped him across the cheek; the duplicate images vanished, replaced with the singular version of her, hand still stretched out from the slap. Colin flew onto his ass, a deep red print on his cheek.

Alexandria stepped over him, glaring down but with a smile still on her face.

“What is it that I said to you so long ago at the start of this betrothal, my dear? Do not disrespect me. I think I was clear on that, and I think deep down, you know what I said doesn’t mean that I own you. Not in that way. I love you, you damn, stubborn fool, and I’m not going to drag you down.”

"You say that, yet you slapped me. Calling me yours," Colin complained, returning every ounce of intensity in his fiancée's gaze.

“How can I not, when you so willfully disrespect me? That was my rule, Colly. From the start. I understand you, my dear. Your wish to be great, your desire to honor your family. Do so. But you can do it with me; I feel disrespected because you are not seeing who I am. I am not going to be a petty little noble wife who tends to your estate while you gallivant across the Wasteland. I am a Knight too. And I will have you treat me like a Knight. So stand up, Colly. It is not you who is going to decide if this works out or not. Prove to me you’re a strong enough man to take my hand in marriage, or let us end this engagement and call off the wedding.”

Colin stared at her, jaw wide.

“That—our families.”

“I don’t care if we piss them off. I don’t care if we piss the King off. I care about you, and I need to know, before our lives are forever tied together, that you’re worth the love I feel in my heart and worth giving the rest of my life to. That you’re the kind of man I can stand next to every day, and trust you in life and in battle. I am a Knight. Let us act like Knights rather than nobles. That is the type of man I deserve. That is, if you can even hold a candle to me in a fight.”

Colin rubbed the red mark on his cheek, staring up at the woman. His eyes dilated, and the spark once more appeared there. Kay’s mantle was close at hand; Erec’s internal fire sparked, but he subdued it.

This was not, sadly, his battle to fight.

“You do not think me capable of besting you?” Colin asked.

“We are equals. Both of us were raised with the best instructors; only I had to fight for my right to be a Knight. My family wanted me to stay home, tending to my studies, but I insisted on my rights. And now you’ve skipped out on being an Initiate, everyone’s talking about what you did in Cavern Seven. Show me. Show me, my darling, if you are worthy of a fight. Prove it.” Each word came out louder; Alexandria's smile faded away as she yelled, looming over him as an indomitable statue.

Colin climbed to his feet, sparks running off his fingertips, a dangerous light in his eyes. The Pendragons and partygoers stepped back as the two lovers faced off.

They stood, their lips barely a finger's width apart, as this time it was Colin who loomed over her. Yet the woman didn’t back down, but that mad grin did come back to her face. This time, not dangerous, but truly genuine.

"Fine then. You wish for a fight, I'll give you a fight," Colin said, and then lashed out with a fist right toward his bride-to-be’s face.