Chapter Text
“Why do I keep getting roped into things like this?” Lloyd complained, trudging down the cave behind Javier. The knight paused briefly to send him a sharp look over his shoulder, lips pulled into a deep frown.
“Were you not the one that agreed to this?”
“Well yeah , but I wasn’t the one that went looking for it this time!”
“You can’t complain when you were nearly salivating at the idea of requiring more favors from Count Cremo.”
“If I can get my hands on more allies then who am I to deny the opportunity?” The knight rolled his eyes and focused back on the task at hand, his shoulders a tight line of tension. As with their first run-in with a mage, Javier was extending out his mana field to find any traps and lead them safely through.
The request had come down from Count Cremo which had been fairly surprising in itself. They had found a dark magic user hiding within the cave systems near the border of Cremo and Frontera. They had taken the man down and attempted to go through his lair yet it was added in the letter that many had been injured due to mana traps being placed and Javier winced with sympathy. He understood the risk when it had been his master that had kept him from activating them the time they had stumbled into a necromancer’s cave. However, the man had said in his letter that he trusted Lloyd Frontera to take care of this problem faster than the crown and Lloyd had puffed up so big the knight was sure he’d burst with pride. Though he may agree somewhat, his master still wasn’t an expert on magic regardless of how he acted. No one, as far as Javier was concerned, was a master of the true knowledge of magic and mana. Perhaps some of the grand sages within the castle, but no one could ever hope to understand it fully. Though… he risked a look back at Lloyd, the other man sweeping his gaze around the tunnel boredly. Ever since his change, his master seemed privy to information that no one else should know. He played it off each time, some excuses more far fetched than others, yet Javier was sure he had some sort of future sight or gift he was not willing to share. He certainly had some sort of power with his new ability to summon creatures and wield a shovel like a weapon. Javier snorted and flicked his gaze forward once more. He would say the man was full of surprises.
Some were not as helpful as others…
“If Count Cremo cleared out this dude’s place I don’t know why he wants us in here.” Javier sighed through his nose and plucked from the last dredges of his patience.
“He believes you will have further insight on whether or not something is hidden within here. Weren’t you the one to do the same in the ant cave?”
“Yeah, but I doubt that I’ll find any hidden enclaves here unless that mage had some serious time on his hands to blow up portions of the cave.”
“Then why accept at all?” Javier ground out. “If you don’t think there’s anything here, you could have said so and saved us the trip.”
“Well, I could be wrong–not likely, but possible–and I wouldn’t want to take the chance of missing any magical items when I went and gave most of those other ones to the Baron.”
“ Most? ” Javier hissed, stopping to fully face him, a glare on his face.
“I meant all! Obviously I gave all of the dark magic things we found in that murder mage’s cave to the Baron!” Javier glowered at the man, the last strings of his patience snapping. Surely he didn’t have any of that man’s magical items when it had been used in an effort to bring back the dead. When it held the blood of innocents on them. Lloyd merely held his gaze and Javier felt his anger spike. Who was he kidding? Of course his master would hold onto anything he found even if it did come from an evil man. He made a note to himself to dig through his belongings once they returned to the Barony and dispose of them himself. While he respected Lloyd, and would even admit to himself that he trusted the man, there were some things he was beginning to do that worried him. He was beginning to totter more towards a gangster than he was comfortable with and there were times Javier felt as if Lloyd was using his strength as another tool at achieving his goals. He had given his devotion to his master, and he meant that, but he didn’t appreciate being used as a sword for a cruel man like Lloyd sometimes acted as. He was getting more bold, more open to using whatever means were at his disposal which at times meant utilizing Javier in a way he wasn’t comfortable with.
“Are you going to keep walking or do you just want to stare at me some more?” Javier shook himself out of his thoughts roughly, Lloyd still looking up at him blandly.
“Anything we find is going to Count Cremo to be disposed of,” he stated firmly. Lloyd gave a non-commital shrug and Javier was one step away from strangling the man.
You promised to protect him, he reminded himself. The Baron would be sad to lose him. The always familiar chant that had saved Lloyd throughout their lives. He couldn’t make the Baron or the Baroness upset when they had done so much for him.
He couldn’t lose everything again.
Javier breathed in deeply then turned and once more began marching through the cavern, keeping his focus on the task at hand. Once they were safely through this, he would force himself to have a conversation with Lloyd about his feelings. Lloyd may merely brush them aside as unimportant, but he had to try. He wanted to make sure his view on all this was well recorded. He wouldn’t abandon Lloyd–he made a vow–yet he would surely start pushing back if he had to continue to bully others at Lloyd’s demands.
His trust in the man would only go so far.
“Hey, stop here,” Lloyd spoke and he paused automatically, hand dropping to his sword. Lloyd breezed past him, hand on his shoulder comfortingly before he stood in front of a stone wall. “Well damn. He had more time on his hands than I thought. There’s a room through here.” He glanced back at Javier expectedly. “Sense anything?” Javier closed his eyes to focus, stretching his senses outward. There was a tremble in the air, mana locked in place like a taut net beyond the rock. The moment this passage was revealed, the trap would spring and encase whoever was unlucky enough to have activated it in an excruciating level of mana.
“There’s a trap behind the door, much like a spring lock.”
“Does it extend all the way from wall to wall?”
“It seems to only encompass the door.” He opened his eyes and Lloyd had already moved away from him, running his hands along the rock. He muttered to himself then suddenly stopped and rapped at a spot with his knuckles.
“Alright, right here isn’t solid. If we break through here, it’ll open up into that clearing and still keep the integrity of the cavern.” When Javier reached for his blade, Lloyd waved him away. “I think your mana blast will be too strong. I’ll just dig through. Give me a couple minutes.” He nodded, trusting his judgment and stepped back as Lloyd tugged his shovel from his backpack.
It was still strange to see his master wielding a shovel. The only thing he had ever put effort into lifting was another tankard of mead… One day perhaps he would finally stop being surprised by the changes in his master and simply accept them.
For now, he crossed his arms and watched his master start chipping away at the rock with a speed that should concern him. But, the man seemed to know more about anything to do with the earth than anyone else. He was more like a mole every day… He still needed to tease him about that.
A sharp pull of mana caught his attention and he stiffened as it lanced through his senses the second Lloyd’s shovel broke through the wall. The spell had suddenly launched towards the opening and Javier was moving before he registered it. How had he made such a foolish mistake? The spell must have been set to move towards any opening in case someone tried to do what they were attempting. He should have known that! Javier grabbed hold of Lloyd and yanked him roughly out of the way, throwing him to the ground a second before the spell lashed out and wrapped him in its clutches. The pain was immediate, spearing through him like red-hot pokers. He could feel his own mana trying to combat it, unfurling to act like a shield against it. However, that only served to cause the spell to increase in power and he felt as if his blood was turning to lava, scorching him from the inside out.
There was a sound of screaming and he distantly realized it was coming from him, torn from his throat like jagged glass.
Everything was pain, pain, pain far worse than he had ever experienced before. His bones felt like they were shattering, his skin tightening until he was sure it would split open. The area was caving in on him, his vision blurring as the pain suddenly reached a crescendo.
Then everything went blissfully dark.