Knightly Letters: Ileas 24 pt 6

Now the day of the tournament and the feast finally arrived. We were greeted by loud trumpets in the morning and saw that the fair ground was emptied and replaced with a tournament ground. The city itself was now fully decorated and people were celebrating in the streets, so that when we went out we quickly gathered a small following of extatic fey that were following us to the grounds.
 
At the grounds we were escorted to a tent and supplies that the High King provided, among which was Starmane (Lil was kind enough to ask for his name), a magnificent and ambitious warhorse that was mine to ride, Gael also had a horse named Mirage. We both spent an hour practicing before a horn went off and we all gathered around the archery range for the first event. Liliana and Gael took their place next to a line of Fey and round after round the archers fell off until only Gael and an Eladrin remained, the Eladrin tried to enchant Gael when they shook hands but a quick look at Gael made it clear the magic had no effect and in an act of multiversal karmic justice Gael won over the Eladrin who smashed his bow in fury at the result. Gael received his prize, a silver coin that could be traded as a small favor with the Fey nobility. I was doing my best repressing the urge to sing a verse of "The Young Stag" in celebration as a tournament assistant appeared next to me and said the first round of the joust would commence.
 
I was not prepared for the intensity of jousting, when you duel it's you and your opponent furiously attacking each other until one relents, but here thanks to the charging power of the horses all that intensity would be condensed into one pass. And your power with the lance is only small part of your success, it's how you work together with your horse and how you sit in the saddle that makes you last in a joust. And of course dozens of people were around to see it expecting a good match. All that's to say that when I saddled up and looked at the other rider, and elf, I felt the pressure mount, winning was one thing, but making it a good match is another, but I calmed myself knowing the other knight, who bowed courteously, would appreciate me giving him all I had. As the pleasantries ended we charged and to my surprise my hit was too much to handle for him and he went off at the first pass, not even getting a chance to hit me. Hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy as it's clearly a case of the nerves getting to the Knight as I'm sure he can do so much more.
 
But we had to quickly make way for the next joust as Gael took to the field. And despite a good first pass he sadly fell to a nasty bodyblow from a young Elf knight in the second pass. The collective groan of compassion as Gael thumped the ground went through all of us as a pixie landed next to Luke and handed him a piece of paper: the start of the Battle of Wits which turned out to be a series of riddles that would stump many lesser minds. Safe to say Luke went through the riddles at a prodigious rate and the pixies awarded him with the prize of winning the battle of wits: another silver coin, now both Gael and Luke could ask for a small favor of the fey. It was then time for my second joust.
 
The next knight looked a lot less courteous and mean, and any regret I felt unhorsing him at the first pass evaporated as I saw him draw his sword and run to his horse looking to kill it for 'failing' him. But guess his better judgement got to him as a froze halfway and stormed off the field. When I exited the field I saw Wolf took to the field, apparently he was jousting too, and from his form he looked to be at least a finalist in this tournament. His friend, Deer, was also in the stands when Wolf was out jousting.
 
After a short breather, it was time for the grand melee. Lil and I were joined by four others in a small ring, the rules were simple: last one standing inside the ring won. Lil and I agreed to work together, which my sister seemed to interpret as goading everyone to attack us, which lead to two of the others rushing us. Luckily I saw an opening in the remaining two's defenses and quickly pushed them out of the ring, taking them out fo the melee, leaving it a 2v2. And when Lil knocked out one and moved to the edge I finally noticed what she clearly noticed: a giant fog cloud was summoned by Hayley to cover them since apparently our friends were under attack from assassins. Noticing the urgency I quickly pushed the last guy out and left the ring, crowning my sister as the champion of the Melee as she was the last person standing. The fight was almost over though as one assassin ran away after Luke transformed himself into a big ape and we knocked out the other one. As Gael came limping from behind a tent a guard ran up to me to hand a silver coin, apparently my sister had convinced them that Hayley healed her when she walked to the edge of the ring which should disqualify her. Now, technically her healing had no impact on my decision to walk out of the ring and since nothing came after I doubt it would have any impact on the outcome. But the rules are the rules so I was legally the winner, though I doubt the best fighter won that one.
 
During the small break I had until the next joust I had a closer look at Wolf. My brother claimed that an experienced fighter could know everything about a person by seeing them fight, or even just observing them in their daily life. But while my brother could tell if you skipped breakfast two weeks ago by the way you held your sword I could discern only a few things from Wolf: like his resistance to fire, his immunity to fear and getting charmed by magic and a vulnerability to direct damage done to his psyche. You might wonder how I can tell, but the way they sit in their horse, how they tilt their lance or even how they look at someone can tell you a lot. But after he unhorsed his opponent with ease it was time for the semi finals of the tournament, and I had to face a dragonborn knight from Latebra Velora.
 
The knight greeted me by name, as he had heard a lot about our group and was wondering if the rumors about our prowess were true. As the pleasantries died down, we charged. As I aimed my lance at his shield he used magic to create a fiery barrier. Now in my many fights I learned the secret of fighting people that mixed training in martial and magic skills is that, unless you're called Liliana, you tend to leave a gap in your martial skills. And that gap can be exploited, in this case the knight didn't sit well in his saddle so I knew that if I pushed through the fire he'd lose. The resulting thump when he hit the ground disoriented him as I reached over a hand thanking him for the joust, when he got his senses back he admitted the rumors of our abilities are at least based on some kernel of truth. And like that I had reached the finals of the joust.
 
I barely left the field as Wolf had already won his spot in the finals and we were given a break of a few minutes. Later I'd learn Gael sneaked about and learned that this tournament was only the 'People's tournament' as the 'Real Tournament' was being held and our participation here was intended as an insult. In the meantime I decided that a conversation with the assassin was in order to partially take my mind off the absolute onslaught Wolf would bring on me in a few minutes.
 
He repeated what we already knew, that he was hired by a man in a Wolf Mask but we learned a bit more: there were six assassins hired (which leaves 4 out at large) and they had written orders on them. The note had a black wolf mark on it and described Gael was to be killed for being Vincent's heir, the note also highlighted Luke and Liliana as people to keep alive as they played a part in their plans. The others: Hayley, Dadroz and myself were unimportant. So, while Deer claimed their group was out for us all, Wolf at least had eyes only for Gael. And again Vincent appeared, a man who has been out of Fey matters for decades now, his enemies now hunting Gael for events he doesn't know about. I couldn't help but worry about what 'use' they have of my sister though.
 
I also can't help but notice some differences between the goals of the assassins through Wolf and what Deer claimed. They weren't out for us but just Gael, they might not even want all of us gone from Keralon as Liliana and Luke still had some use to them. Maybe the members of this little club were even less aligned than we thought, a weakness perhaps?
 
The conversation then moved to these assassins being knights, and I could not help myself as I could not reconcile my views on what knights should be with these assassins. While knights can be many things, I doubt any of those things include taking money from masked strangers to assassinate other knights and landed vassals of the King of Keralon, without even questioning why they would do this. Not that spies or even assassins can't do their part for the betterment of Keralon, it just looks incompatible with the chivalry expected of knights. I can't help but think the ban on guilds and organizations in the wake of the Leper revolt has corrupted knighthood by making them absorb organizations that were better off being their own thing.
 
We handed the assassin over the guards as the horn sounded and I got ready for the finals. And in the few minutes we were in the tent the organizers went all out for this final joust. They had prepared a special lance plated in copper with a small dragon's head at the top while Starmane was given a special tabbard with the copper dragon displayed on it. On the other hand Wolf was dressed similarly, in black, with the black wolf emblem that I had just seen on the assassin's note glaring at me. The crowd had gotten their hands on little flags that flashed copper and black as they got excited for this final match, and hope it was a spectacle worth coming for.
 
We bowed and then we charged: Once, twice, thrice our lances crossed and every time we seemed to lose some reserve of strength keeping us astride our horses. But after that third clash Wolf did away with the lance and pulled out an ashen black longsword, excited by finishing this with the better weapon I pulled out my sword, the weight of it bringing some much needed calm and confidence, preparing for a last clash. And switching to his blacde might have proven to be Wolf's undoing as while I'm new to jousting, I have seen many swings of a sword and ducked under his sword while mine struck through and knocked him off his horse. Whatever sound my focus had blocked came crashing back as the crowd cheered and celebrated as every flag turned to copper. When I rode over to pull Wolf up he admitted he was impressed, that he didn't know many knights that could unhorse him but said we'd see each other at the feast. After a few rounds to appease the crowd and giving Starmane a few chances to show off I dismounted and an organizer gave me the prize, which was not a coin but a small trophy that could be exchanged for a big favor in contrast with a small favor with the coins. A lot of options ran through my mind: helping Galiene, getting Wolf and his club off our back, uncovering their identity, getting prosperity for the people of Keralon, getting my family out of the deal with Ulther, protection from the hags for Tommel's unborn child,... But if there's one thing I've learned from Fey is that just like how you can bring a horse to a river but can't force it to drink, you can make a Fey listen to your request but can't make them understand what you meant. Especially when not understanding you is in their favor. But with the right request, and the right powerful fey, we had quite some prizes in our possession.
 
As the tournament winded down Hayley came back from a trip inside Wolf's tent as he was out jousting, she found a teleportation circle and a lot of fine clothing straight from Keralon. The type only the richest could buy, so a powerful knight from presumably Keralon with the ability to cast spells (unless Deer cast them for him) who is incredibly rich and has the ability to hire moonblossom assassins and according to Deer has a strong influence in the Neverhold court. You'd think there's not a lot of people like that in Keralon but I doubt he would be that easy to find.
 
Now the actual reason we came all the way here had arrived: the feast and our apologies to Davozan.