Her mouth fell open but she dropped to her armoured knee so hard and so fast that I and some of the nearby servants winced at the anticipation of repairing broken tiles from the impact. Slowly I cast my gaze over the other Knights who had proclaimed their desire to join the Order of the Nine and in a shuffling mass they too knelt.
During the months since our pilgrimage along the wayshrines from Anvil to Cloud Ruler I had read extensively about the Knights of the Nine and as I stood in the Stallion Lodge a particular collection of words entered my mind. It was a collection that had featured heavily through all the books and treatise regarding the failed Order, and the last I had seen the words was etched into the tiny chapel in the Priory of the Nine before meeting those who had sworn it themselves.
“I give my body, heart and soul to the covenant of the Nine.” I began, standing before Mazoga’s kneeling form and trying my best to force the nervous tremor from my voice. Any potential issues with such a statement with Mazoga was non-existent as she had proven that unlike most orcs, she was not a follower of Malacath. In fact, she was possibly the least devout being I had ever encountered but it didn’t make the oath any less powerful to her.
“No plea of help shall find me wanting.” Raising my voice so that it carried through the entire hall, I couldn’t help but feel a tingling surge of excitement as I spoke the oath of the Nine. Possibly the last time the Oath was spoken aloud was when Sir Amiel and the original Knights still lived and breathed. “No obstacle will stand before me. No evil will taint the lands of Tamriel and beyond while I draw breath. As the Eight and One are my witnesses; that which is sacrament; I shall preserve… That which is sublime; I will protect… That which threatens; I will destroy…”
“This is your oath.” Mazoga’s eyes rose up to meet mine from where she was kneeling as I drew Sunchild, tapping it on one shoulder and then the other before lightly drawing it across her cheek. In comparison to the dozens of other scars, including the enormous one from eyebrow to behind the ear it would have been unnoticeable but the expression on her face told me this was going to be the most memorable scar of her entire life. “And this is so you remember it.”
The entire weight of every stone within the Lodge’s construction seemed to weigh down on me as I looked over the kneeling Knights, trying my best not to smirk at the way that Alexi winked at me when I looked at where he was waiting on one knee. “Rise as Knights of the Nine!”
My exclamation elicited an enormous, ground shaking roar from ever man, mer, woman and beastfolk within the great hall as the ancient Order was reborn but only Mazoga remained on one knee. She was too shocked, too stunned to do anything and for a moment I feared that the situation might make her fall over; something that blood loss had failed to do.
Offering the stunned Orc my hand, she looked at it questioningly while still looking faint. “Rise a Knight… Madame Mazoga.”
Taking my offered hand with an enormous green paw that fully encompassed everything below my wrist, she rose to her full impressive height as the cheering once again dwindled away. “I think that I’d prefer ‘Sir’ instead of Madame.” She said to a rolling wave of honest laughter.
With the formalities aside and the full weight of realisation and the exhaustion of our quest into Blackmarsh began eating into our flesh. Even as the hall roared in appreciation and Sir Ramauld ordered the laying of a feast that appeared to have been weeks in the making the members of our party splintered away for what time we could. Viconia and I retreated to our allocated room, as did Alexi, Detane and Falid while the others went about their own business. Mazoga and Thedret were assisted in acquiring their own temporary accommodation within the Stallion Lodge and after paying the rest of what we owed them Weebam-Na and Bejeen made their own hasty retreats as the celebration began to grow. Our thanks for their help couldn’t be summed up with simply paying them the septims we owed them and a considerable bonus but neither of them were the types to dwell on such matters and returned to their less excitement filled lives without hesitation.
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When Viconia and I finally returned from our room, now dressed in our spare travelling clothes and the dust and muck of the week long return journey from Blackmarsh scrubbed from our flesh the feast was in full swing. A handful of squires, Men-at-Arms and servants with the appropriate talent had managed to procure a motley collection of musical instruments that throbbed and bounced in the hall and there was no direction to turn away from the sheer amount of alcohol that was being brought out. Our companions had also joined in the festivities in their own ways, those who had chosen to do so in any case.
Detane was the first to vanish, disappearing like smoke in the breeze and without anyone other than ourselves to take note. The hulking form of Mazoga had also vanished but in a different way, as her sheer size and personality ensured that she could be found without the need for eyes. Judging by the cheers and chanting from the far side of the hall she had somehow managed to find worthy opponents to challenge to arm wrestling and other competitions of strength. It had been a source of some amusement that no matter how hard she tried on our journey she seemed entirely unable to test herself against Falid who would refuse on every occasion.
As for the gigantic Black Knight, he had temporarily situated himself on a table nearest the kitchens after removing a majority of his armour. In quantities that in any normal being would have appeared gluttonous, if not weighing a third or half of their bodyweight he was consuming the food needed to restore his physique from the journey. No matter how capable he was, or how precise and effective his training, our quest into Black Marsh had put a huge constraint on his diet and for all intents and purposes he had been starving for those weeks. To those unfamiliar with him, the way had he devoured the food put before him was almost daedric in intensity but for those of us who had journeyed alongside him we could tell that every bite was purposely calculated and controlled.
Alexi was barely visible in the crush of nobility and courtiers that had followed the Count and Countess to the Lodge, his expression as his eyes met mine was almost pleading in an amused way. Unsurprisingly the young Baronettess Fulcalius was also present despite his best attempts to send her on her way back to her father. As soon as the ship had docked he had begun trying to make the arrangements for her journey the several days north to Blankenmarch but in the chaos and confusion of making our way to the Stallion Lodge she and the other women we had rescued had followed. From what I could hear over the pandemonium of noise in the Hall, she and the others were regaling anyone who would listen all of Alexi’s knightly qualities and tales of heroism against the Black Bows. Judging by his expression it was something that he was becoming more and more uncomfortable and embarrassed about and both Viconia and I were amused that the master swordsman of Tamriel was so impossibly inept with receiving praise.
From the middle of the afternoon and well into the night the feast continued, even as many taking part became increasingly inebriated. Both Viconia and I were floating by the time we retired as midnight beckoned and surprisingly enough it was already dying off of natural causes. The Knights of the White Stallion may have been one of the most chaotic Orders within Tamriel but there was still enough discipline instilled within its members for the feast to end shortly after midnight. In varying degrees of sobriety, the men and women of the Order staggered off to their rooms, either alone or with company and for the most part the Lodge fell silent.
