TWENTY-EIGHT
The Squires arrived a few days later. Marie led the small group into Benny’s spacious quarters, looking around with her warm brown eyes as she took in the massive amounts of space. Her lips quirked upward just a bit at it all as she let her duffel bag down to the ground gently. Mathis was right behind her, a full head taller, and still seemed to be in a lesser position than the smaller woman.
“SIR!” Marie barked and all the former Squires snapped to attention as Benny came into the room. Kon had to suppress the smile that wanted to break out on his face as Benny stared at them, the moment stretched out further and further as the Squires began to squirm under his gaze.
“Not exactly our speed,” Benny said after a moment and they slowly deflated down and looked around at him.
“In a minute a few other people will be showing up for our first meeting as a Chapterhouse. You’ll all be on probation for a few months, but if you survive, I’ll make sure you get the chance to be tested as Knights,” Benny said. There was at first wide smiles, but at the word survive they all slowly stilled.
“Yes, I said survive. We are in the midst of creating something…different. If you’re strong enough, then I’ll give you the chance to prove yourself. There will be danger. Rifts to subjugate, cultivators to fight, goblins to cleanse, and more that you can’t begin to imagine. If you survive, you’ll be powerful. I can’t promise riches or happiness or security, but I can assure you of power,” Benny looked at the cluster of recruits for a minute. Not a single one of them moved.
“Good, now come and socialize for a bit. My name is Benny, not Knight Benny, or Sir Benny. Just Benny. We’re fairly informal around here,” Benny assured them.
“Where’s Knight Roose, my apologies, Alice?” Marie asked as she snagged her bag and closed the distance.
“Training the other recruits. They should be in recovery right now and headed back this way over the next few minutes,” Benny said.
“I’m Kon, which I’m sure you all know,” Kon said, stepping forward and shaking Marie and Mathis’s hands as they both repeated their names.
The remaining two candidates came forward and offered their hands. Both were men, fairly tall, fit and with brown eyes and similar enough looks they could have passed as brothers.
“Ahmed and Mustafa,” the slightly older one said as he pumped Kon’s had with a brisk shake.
“You two related?” Kon asked.
“Cousins. Mothers are sisters,” Ahmed said while Mustafa just watched him. Ahmed caught the direction of Kon’s gaze and smiled apologetically.
“My cousin doesn’t talk much, I’m sorry,” he apologized.
“Kon will talk more than enough for him,” Benny said from the side. Mathis snorted but the other three just stared at him while Kon turned an acidic look at his mentor.
“We have three more members on their way and then we can proceed,” Kon said.
“Four!” Benny corrected him. Kon frowned as he thought over just who it was who was joining on top of who they had.
“Eight is a good number to start with. Much better than seven. You and Alice can each take a four man fire team to support yourselves,” Benny said.
“That’s great, but who’s the eighth?” Kon asked.
“Nacho. It’s part of Bob’s payment.”
“An armorer is joining?” Kon asked, incredulous. While a hard job to get into, once you were in, you were virtually untouchable. Benny just smiled and didn’t say anything further.
Stolen story; please report.
“Why would he want his grandson in a position to possibly eaten?” Kon didn’t say anything outloud, certain that they had already had too much banter between the two of them to impress the four new candidates. Instead Kon got up and started showing people to their own rooms, which impressed all of them back into silence.
By the time they had all gotten settled in and back out into the common room, Alice had arrived with her three charges, and Ignacio right behind them. The slight boy looked lost compared to the much larger and in shape forms around him, but Kon didn’t really care as Ignacio was carrying a familiar holopad in his hand.
“Everyone, greet each other and get to know one another. You’ll all know each other well enough over the next few months,” Alice said, shoving the groups together.
All three of the mages looked miserable, drenched in sweat to the point their clothes were sodden, faces flushed and slick as they looked about with wide eyes at the clean cut recruits. Alexandra looked over toward Benny, but when she saw there was nothing to read off of him, she turned back to look over the group.
“I’m Alexandra.” Her brusque if simple greeting didn’t deter any of the former Squires who all quickly shook the woman’s hand. Beto and Loras stood behind her and didn’t say a word.
“Oh, look at them, already posturing. It’s cute. Listen, you’ll all be best friends after a few conditioning sessions,” Alice said as she slapped the two mute mages on the back. Both of them paled as they looked over their shoulders at her.
“See, that’s the appropriate response,” Alice said with pleasure in her voice. Marie and the other Squires looked over at her with a mix of awe and horror, Alice nearly visibly preened under it. Kon had to hide his own smile, but Ignacio’s next words completely shattered that attempt.
“You ready to work on your armor?” the smaller man asked, his eyes sparkled with excitement, infectious excitement that had Kon ready to retreat to his rooms to work with him.
“Yes, but I have to get this sorted. Why don’t you introduce yourself to speed it along?” Kon offered, trying to be a responsible leader.
“Hello, I am Ignacio and I am a trained armorer.” That stopped the brewing ego contest as seven sets of eyes got very big and locked onto Nacho. He turned away from them and back to Kon with a pleased expression.
“All done. Let’s get to work.” Kon shook his head and wondered how he ended up with another obsessive person.
“It has to be a trait for excellence, that’s all I can think of,” Kon muttered which drew eyes briefly to him. Marie was the first to make a move, breaking away from her small lump of fellows to sidle up next to Ignacio.
“Hello, I’m Marie. You said you’re an armorer. A legitimate one that can work with treasure-alloys?”
“Yes. Though I am only an apprentice armorer, I can make good knives and handle basic field repairs for right now. My grandfather thought I could learn here though, so he sent me over. Oh, Benny, I have a message for you,” Ignacio said in a long rambling sentence as he reached inside of his jumpsuit and pulled out a small device and started playing it. Bob’s voice came out instantly in a booming blast that filled the headquarters rooms.
“Benny you ingrate! If my grandson doesn’t learn something I’m going to fill your ship's engines with sewer water! The deal is struck and agreed upon, up to ten suits of armor for those who wear your Chapterhouse sigil in the next year!”
“I’ve never seen such greed before.” Kon didn’t laugh at the hunger in the former squires eyes or even in the mages, because he could feel it in his own body. A want that threatened to twist him with desire. Kon’s lips twisted upward as he clapped Ignacio’s shoulder and pulled him after him, heading toward what would be Igancio’s room.
“You know that you just set off the equivalent of a bomb in there?” Kon couldn’t help but wonder if Ignacio was socially inept or just enjoyed watching the reactions of armor hungry people.
“I know what I’m doing,” Ignacio whispered with a sly smile as he played with his holopad.
“Now that you have your rune, we’ll have to take some measurements, but the final adjustments needed for the inner-suit shouldn’t take long. The sleeve will take longer if what Benny has told my grandfather is accurate. Conductive metals that can also withstand both heavy rift empowered attacks and conventional weaponry is hard. It is a challenge grandfather is appreciating,” Ignacio informed him. Kon’s own anticipatory anxiety skyrocketed.
“You’re here for the training though? Not just to work on our suits and weapons?” Kon asked, just to ensure that he was correct. He felt the other boy’s thin shoulders where there was so little muscle.
“Yes. I do not expect to reach your levels of course, but to have firsthand data on how your experimental workings will impact future armorers is vital information to have. The training is payment for grandfather. He says it’ll help me in the long run. If I don’t die.”
“No promises, but I think if they all know you’re their ticket to getting Knight armor they’d rather feed themselves to rift beasts than seeing you eaten,” Kon said with a laugh as they closed the door behind them, even as the plaintive voices began to rise as Kon skillfully took first crack at their new armorer.
“Being in charge does have its perks.”