Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 113: Enide

The girl held Erec’s helmet with a rare sort of reverence that left him feeling conflicted. From the moment he set it in her hands, she’d been turning it about and running her hands over every little joint and screw. All the while, she wore an expression of pure admiration and gratitude. It was oddly endearing.

“What’s your name anyway?” Erec asked, settling onto the rock. The moon in the sky was beautiful, fully out and giving off its mysterious aura. After delivering his report to Boldwick, including his reporting on the presence of this girl, he was given leave to return to his own devices. Other than telling him to mind himself, the Master Knight sounded unconcerned over how the mission went other than it was ‘handled.’

Erec didn’t even know why he cared about her name. They’d be back on the road tomorrow and leave these mercenaries to their own devices. It was weird, considering these were the first friendly people he’d ever met outside the walls, but this was how it would be.

“Mhmm? I’m Enide.” She paused, her eyes flashing to him as she stopped looking at his helmet for the first time since winning the game. “Erec, right? Heard you drinking with pa, was why I decided to follow you out. Didn’t trust you to behave alone.”

“Behave? You act like there’s any trouble to get into in the wasteland by myself.”

“Wasn’t just you I was worried about.” She shrugged. “Coulda called on secret allies, then before we knew, boom, ambush. Had someone try pulling that on us once, so when somebody wanders off… Best keep an eye. Considering you lot are kinda like the boogymen of the waste—“

“Boogymen?”

She let out a little chuckle and sat beside him, her hand running along his chin. The sudden shock of the action and the feeling of her cold fingers against his skin left him mindless. After too long, he flinched away, only met by a small laugh from her.

“So pale. Guess the rumors were true. You must spend all your time in the steel. So you need them to breathe!? I saw some piping for ventilation—“

“No. That’s wrong.” Erec sighed in relief as she retracted her hand and busied herself by toying with his helmet again. “Most of my life was spent underground; only recently been above it, and even then, I spend a lot of time in the Academy taking classes and training. When I’m not doing that? I suppose I am in my Armor.”

“Academy? What’s that?”

“It’s a building… Full of Knight Initiates where we learn to…” Erec trailed off as it was clear that her attention to him talking about ‘school’ had already slipped. Her eyes grew wide as she brought the helmet to her head and plopped it over it.

“You can’t even see with this thing!”

“The visor is down and requires a manual disengagement. It’s sealed for environmental safety.”

“Oooh, could you go into the yellow fog with it, then?!”

“…Maybe?”

“So when’d you vault dive and find the crazy old-world tech in this thing?” Enide asked while removing the helmet and setting it down beside her. Instantly, she went from distracted to full-on evaluating Erec’s every movement.

“…We’ve had Armor since before I was born.”

“Not the steel—the Vortex Industries stuff; I thought I felt it when I was following you, but looking closer, it’s for sure there. You even have their logo on your chest—though, you got a Stag on it too. Which is weird. None of the others had any feel of it on them—“

[Feel?]

“—There it was again, that little buzz. Haven’t felt anything like it for a long time! Not since we were doing that dive near the ocean.” Enide leaned in closer, her eyes wide. “Would you please step out of that Armor, let me take a little peak!?”

[Wait a moment.]

Erec cleared his throat as she once more invaded his personal space, her face as close to his as she could get, with that insane intensity to her eyes he didn’t know how to react to; and… Did she sense VAL? How was such a thing possible?

[This woman is dangerous. Get away from her! Wait—Ocean?]

Every time VAL spoke, her eyes ran down his Armor as if trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from, but she didn’t let on that she knew what it said. If anything, Erec was almost sure she didn’t… Aside from Boldwick, she’d been the only one to pick up on anything odd with VAL. But how? This was dangerous, and he couldn’t risk letting anything slip—what if they found out about VAL and decided they needed it, and it turned this diplomatic mission into a fight?

“We should be getting back,” Erec said after way too long of a pause. He looked down and noticed one of her hands exploring his Armor—testing the screws and plating, and over-eager to examine the mystery of his relationship to Vortex Industries.

She pouted. “Truly? Night just started. They’ll be drinking until the sun comes up. I think we have plenty of time. We can spend it together, right? Talk tech—“

[No.]

“No way.”

“Shoot!” Enide finally retracted herself from him, standing up and stretching. “Aw, well. Too pushy, maybe?. Guess we all gotta keep our secrets out here, but wouldn’t it be much better if we didn’t have to?”

[Your heart is hammering awful quick, are you planning on using Fury on her?]

Erec didn’t bother to respond to either of them. He only got to his feet and trekked after her towards the group, glad to have his helmet back over his head. His Armor was a protective shell, and the point of stability he had going back to his people. After this, he’d drag Boldwick away and tell him that…

Well, he still couldn’t speak about VAL. If he tried, he’d be muted. Or so he was confident an ornery rogue machine in his head would argue. So, he’d have to talk around the topic and reveal that she’d… figured something out. Anything she said to him could lead to danger if not adequately addressed—

“Awful quiet there, now. Thought we had fun. Hope I didn’t spoil it by prying, Er-ec?” She said his name with an odd flare, even turning as she walked to take a look at him. “Or… Are you nervous? Don’t worry, pa wouldn’t care that I was out here alone with a boy; probably be more concerned about me setting a bad impression than anything else.”

“I—no, just thinking.”

“About what?”

“I don’t want to mess things up for anyone; you’re the first group of friendly people I’ve met. I’m afraid that things aren’t like they appear or of doing something to mess this up.” Erec found the words spewing too freely. With all the conversations tonight, and the stress, it was impossible to keep himself together. He was exhausted and coming apart at the edges.

And she… There was something to her that took the edge off that made him want to confide.

“Mhmm. I know how that can be. Lotta people in the wasteland either wanna shoot you or talk like old friends, not much between. If you lot spend all your lives underground…” she opened her palm up and frowned. “Think bringing you back to everyone else right now might be a bad idea, yeah? Seem a little out of it. I know I might’ve turned you away, but how about we walk around for some time? Think I get why you came out here alone to scout now. If it helps, I can keep it quiet too. Let you do your thinkin’. There’s still a bit of scouting to be done, so don’t think we’re rushed for timing, but if you have me at your back, if anything goes wrong, it’s safer. Rule of two, gunslinger.”

It… Didn’t sound bad; he felt way too on edge, so without seeing the harm in it, Erec nodded. And they kept walking.

Enide was true to her word, providing quiet support as they focused on scouting. There was a pleasant silence as they worked together, and though they didn’t spot much, it put him more at ease.

An unspoken respect began to brew, and Erec couldn’t help but think of how Garin was to him. His best friend always gave him space when he needed it—but more than that, she’d still found a way to be around without intruding, despite being a total stranger. The girl effortlessly slipped around the wasteland beside him, almost like a ghost.

And she was buzzing with happiness to be out, an infectious feeling that led Erec to break the silence and talk nonsense with her.

As pleasant and odd as the scouting was, it eventually ended. The two slunk back to the bonfire much later than expected and split their separate ways. Erec rushed to find Boldwick, knowing he had to deliver a report. The Master Knight was around the bonfire—with everyone else left of the Pendragons that hadn’t gotten drunk enough to pass out in a messy heap. And the rest of the Knights. At some point, they’d centralized the party.

Erec tried to grab his attention, only for Boldwick to greet him happily; before saying he had an announcement.

Boldwick formed a glyph; and projected his voice for all. “My Dear Knights, we’ve been fortunate indeed to run into these people—they’re well versed with the wastes, and I dare to say, appear to be exactly the sort of wastelanders we need to fulfill this mission. And more then, we share a commonality.”

Erec stepped back—Garin slung an arm around his shoulder as Boldwick continued.

“They’re tracking a man named Seven-Snakes, a real bastard if you’ve heard the stories. Since we’ve dealt with him before and have bad blood, the Pendragons and I have come to an agreement. We’ll find him together, capture him alive, and then return him to Vega together.” There was clapping and hollering of approval from the Pendragons, but the man with all the tattoos rose a hand in the air to quiet them down. “I’ll spare you all the details for now, but their vehicles are quicker, and I believe this mission will embrace the spirit of our expedition. We’re here to embrace change, for our perceptions of those outside of the wall on a personal level, and for the Kingdom as a whole. To the future and our new friends!” Boldwick raised a beer into the sky.

Their leader—the man with the tattoos clanked his glass against Boldwicks. This once more was met with a cheer from the Pendragons. But also the Knights, who’d spent the entire night getting to know these people. It seemed they approved.

Gwen—Robin, even Dame Juliana roared in hearty agreement.

Conflicted but trusting of his fellow's assessment of these people, Erec joined Garin's cheer. All the while, his eyes tracked Boldwick, trying to find the right moment to pull him aside.

At long last, he found it.