"This is where we leave you." Both Sellsword knights guiding Renald and me bow respectfully before turning and leaving us in front of a large set of steel double doors with intricate gold inlays throughout, "First Knight should be expecting you."
Renald and I nod to the Knights as they leave, and then turn and nod to each other.
"Let's get this over with." I huff, my voice muffled and metallic under my helmet.
Renald says nothing. He waltzes up to the set of doors and pushes them open, revealing a large office space on the interior. Beige couches line both sides of the room, a direwolf skin rug is in the center of the floor, and a large bookshelf lines the back wall. Directly across the room is a large desk with two or three stacks of paperwork. Sitting in a chair behind the desk is a dark skinned human man. He is wearing a knight's armor made from iron, which covers every part of his body aside from his head. An iron helmet sits on the desk alongside the paperwork. Renald slams the door shut behind us and locks it before approaching the desk.
"Ah!" The man looks up from his stack of papers at Renald and me. "So this is the White Knight who has arrived at my doorstep. Literally."
"I am to assume that you are the First Knight of Amacedia?" Renald's voice sounds darker and heavier, like crashing waves in the ocean.
"You are…" The man goes to stand up from his seat but stops mid-motion as Renald's saber carves through the wall behind him, almost cutting his head off.
"That's good enough for me." Renald doesn't even let First Knight finish his statement. His helmet blocks me from seeing his facial expressions.
Renald hops on the desk and slips his shield off his back. He slams it into First Knight's throat, pinning him to the wall.
"Wait!" First Knight gasps for breath, "Aren't you supposed to question me first?"
"Do you know why I'm here?" Renald gets close to the First Knight's face.
"Y-Yes. I-I know why, I think…" First Knight struggles to answer as Renald's shield pushes harder against his throat.
"Tell me." Seeing this side of Renald is terrifying. I can feel my body urging me to stop him.
"I-I'm paid off dammit!" First Knight wheezes.
"Now, if you knew who I was and why I was here, you should never have let me into your office." Before I can react, Renald pulls his shield back and hits First Knight in the throat. I hear the sound of his windpipe shatter as he slides down to the floor, dying from suffocation. He can't scream, he can't talk, he can't even crawl away.
Renald flips over one of the sheets of paper on the desk and quickly scribbles the words, "I was paid off by a criminal, so I have been sentenced to execution by the White Knights of Ardent." Then he takes a piece of tape from the desk and sticks the paper on the back of the now-dead First Knight.
"Our work here is done." He grabs me by the arm and pulls me out of the room. I'm left speechless, still staring at the dead body of the First Knight.
When we get out of the office, he closes the doors behind us and releases my arm.
"Hey!" Renald yells, grabbing my helmet with his gauntlets, "I know you're in shock, but we need to get out of here! Now! So I'm going to need you to pull it together! Alright?"
All I can do is nod. The image of First Knight gasping on the ground flashes through my mind over and over.
"Ok. You're ok." He assures me, his voice beginning to sound more and more like the Renald I know. "Just stay calm and follow me."
I'm the opposite of calm, but I can't even be upset. All I feel is numbness. I blindly follow Renald as we head out the way we had come in. We make a couple of turns before bursting out of the front doors to the main building of the barracks. Surprisingly, there are no longer any Knights stationed at the front gate, and they are left wide open. Renald grabs me and rushes to the closest alleyway. We take a second and take our helmets off. I can breathe for the first time in what feels like an eternity. Before I can truly catch my breath, the shadows against the far wall bend around and shift.
"What in Celestria's holy name is that!?" I scream the question.
The shadows shape themselves into the figures of a woman and a man before the darkness around them disperses, revealing Whisperclaw and Liaz.
"Holy shit!" Liaz looks shaken to the core. "How in Abell's name did we do that?"
"I would like to know the same thing." Renald takes his helmet off and shakes his black hair out of his face. As he talks, I notice that his canine teeth are sharper than usual.
"You didn't do anything," Whisperclaw says to Liaz. "I opened up a gateway between the shadows in your cell and the shadows out here."
"You can do that?" I ask, shocked at the statement. "I didn't know you could do that."
The quiet night is suddenly broken by the sound of a horn echoing throughout the city streets. I instinctively look to Renald for more instructions.
"Tsk. Dammit." He curses, shoving all of us further into the alley as a line of Knights comes rushing past on the main street. "They found us out quicker than I expected."
"What did you do?" Liaz has true concern in his voice, glancing between me and Renald. I look away, the image of First Knight hitting the floor flashing through my mind again.
"We can talk about it later." Whisperclaw grabs me and Liaz by the hand, "Everybody grab hold."
Without so much as hesitating for even a second, Renald locks hands with Liaz. For a brief moment, everything goes dark. I feel my feet drop from beneath me. I squeeze my eyes shut until the feeling disappears, and when I open them, we are all standing inside Renald and Whisperclaw's suite at the Goblin Pot tavern.
"You killed him, didn't you?" Liaz grabs Renald by the chestplate and slams him into the wall, "You killed First Knight Arathor!"
"I did what had to be done." Renald breaks Liaz's grip on his chestplate and shoves him away.
"Renald…" I stop Whisperclaw from following Renald, who storms into his bedroom and slams the door shut behind him.
"We…" I hear my own voice turn to a whisper, "...we should probably lay low for a few days."
"I'm afraid that's not possible now." Liaz steps forward, frustration written all across his facial expressions. "The Knights will simply track your entry slabs. Even if they don't know who did it right now, they'll know come morning."
"What do you suppose we do then?" Whisperclaw asks, "We can't just leave. We still have to stop Blackthorn."
"None of this would have been of any point otherwise." I agree.
"You're right, but it's not like anyone even knows where the guy is." Liaz pleads with us, "For now, the most we can do is convince Carvallen to sign his position as Lord over to Joel. That might at least start sparking some change around here."
"And then what?" Whisperclaw takes a seat on the couch.
"Then we run." I can see a hint of sadness in Liaz's eyes. "We get as far away from Amacedia as possible and never look back."
"Oh, Celestria. What have we done?" I slump down next to Whisperclaw.
"It's too late to be questioning that now." Whisperclaw wraps her arms around me. "I say we start packing our things. Then we can focus on finding Carvallen."
"Do as you must." Liaz walks over to the door of the suite. "As for myself, I'm going to take a shower and change clothes. I'll meet you all downstairs in 20 minutes."
We nod goodbye to Liaz. Then a worrying thought crosses my mind.
"Where's Glimmer?" I turn to Whisperclaw.
"Oh no." Her eyes go wide. "I haven't seen him since he stormed out earlier."