Knights Apocalyptica
Chapter 245: Exocommunicate

“Documentation of Official Excommunication,” Erec stated, reading off the second letter he’d received today. It was a new sheet of paper, freshly pressed and with the official stamp of the church in the corner. A silver fire.

Erec reread the document in front of him, feeling the collective weight of the three senior Knights watching him: Grandmaster Oak, who was nervously rubbing his beard and chuckling; Boldwick, who looked like he had just swallowed a bitter pill and wanted to beat someone's head in; and Dame Robin, who was giving him an apologetic smile as Erec carefully reread each letter.

—————

Let it be known to the Kingdom of Cindrus the following:

Count Erec of House Audax is officially excommunicated from us, the Church of Her Holy Lady, the Goddess Lavinia, for his many transgressions against our holy doctrine.

He has engaged in heretic behavior, including courting an outsider, assaulting a priest, and founding a business branch that violates the agreement to limit old-world technological restoration in blatant disregard of his duties to consult the Church. This is inappropriate, unlawful, and unethical behavior that cannot be allowed to go unpunished in a just and holy society.

For this reason, amongst others, including the lack of faith, inability to attend Church sermons, and disregard for Her Holy Majesty the Goddess, Sir Erec of House Audax receives the Church’s full condemnation and disapproval for his ongoing businesses and acts. We wish for him to repent and live a more holy life, and we hope this serves as a warning to all potential supporters that his acts are blasphemy of the Church and its values. Those who fall under his employment or management should heed that they’ve been warned of these grievous sins.

Should he wish to seek repentance, the Cardinal is willing to listen to his confession and offer solace in an attempt to reconcile the immediate concerns presented by our Goddess.

-Cardinal Veronus, In This The Year of Her Holy Authority, February 308.

Erec re-read the letter, then leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. This wasn't exactly new, considering how his Kingdom treated him and his family after the betrayal their mother had wrought on everyone. Long had the church had it out for him, even before he’d gone to Vega… But to think they would act so openly?

And now this, and official excommunication? He wasn’t even sure what that entailed.

"Who was the last person excommunicated?" Erec asked, looking at the paperwork before him that basically said he was now an outsider and outcast from the Kingdom's Church and religious system. Not that he cared anyway. They didn’t represent the real Goddess, and that woman was likely not to care about them. Now that Erec knew what he knew.

"Ahhh… There was a count not long ago, about four years back," Grandmaster Oak said, shaking his head, "who had been collecting banned technology—you know the sort of thing. A fondness for the unexplainable in the wasteland, and then he flaunted it to the nobility. They excommunicated him, and a lot of businesses cut off their ties with his cavern, plunging them into poverty. In the end, he submitted his collection to the Church and ‘repented.’ They’re still recovering now. And that was after he donated about half his house to convince them to lift his status. They got a… ‘soft power’” this last bit the Grandmaster emphasized with two fingers.

"It can be a real pain to live out your life in the actual caverns," he added, "but it doesn't matter for a knight. At least not with this Order." Sir Boldwick stated, arms crossed as his scowl deepened.

Grandmaster Oak sighed, "Aye, he’s got the right of it. I'm not about to go and kick you out from our knighthood because you pissed off a bunch of red robes who’re trying to start a fight with you. Aint doing nothing wrong lad.”

"Well, not exactly doing nothing," Dame Robin interjected. "It is true he's dating an outsider, but I think the official kingdom stance on that is that it's acceptable, if not encouraged. The assault on a priest was after they tried to ambush him forcibly… And his personal business ventures, I don’t know much about." She looked between the two of them, her eyes slitted as she gave a polite cough.

There was reasoning there. Enough for others to care about, even if those reasons were misrepresented to make him look bad.

Erec could have laughed then and there at its absurdity, especially the fact that they were calling out his relationship with Enide.

Sure, he was the first one to have bridged that particular gap, maybe the highest-ranked noble to be doing it before. But after the tournament started, who was to say what people had met and what connections had formed? The people of the Kingdom were eager to meet those outside of their walls. And inevitably, when anyone came together for a party—celebrating, listening to music, drinking, and singing contests—there were bound to be things starting. He hadn't been there personally to participate since he'd been stuck in the Academy since the first day, but if he were a betting man, then that was a sure win.

"They just want him to submit to the Church and the Cardinal so they can kill him; it’s easy to see their real objectives. We will not be doing that," Boldwick grumbled.

"I agree that seems like a poor idea for the lad," the Grandmaster said.

“It’s easy for us to see, but not the citizens,” Dame Robin said, emphasizing the full reality of the situation.

At this, Grandmaster Oak looked uncomfortable and added, “Not just the citizens. The Order of the Silver Flames has been giving me pushback. I’ve had to give some long talks to Grandmaster Flames, who didn’t seem to accept that meeting the Cardinal with her as accompaniment would be a safe venture. That Order has close ties to the Church… And certain information hasn’t been given to all of the Grandmasters.”

We all know. Erec perked up as he saw it in the Grandmaster’s eyes. He knew the truth about the Goddess as well. So too, likely did the King.

The question then was who had that information in the Kingdom and what they were doing with it.

Erec rubbed at his eyes, the helpless feeling in him burning and starting to piss him off. He glanced at the ceiling once more, then stopped to take in the strange oddity that was Grandmaster Oak's office. It hadn't been a place he'd been before and contrasted against Boldwick's, which was often either disorganized or extremely organized. This felt more like some sort of cave that a bear hibernated in, with simple rocks making an appearance here and there as if they were decorations.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Still, what do I do?" Erec said, looking at all of them.

"You ignore the excommunication and let things go as they are," Sir Boldwick shrugged and looked at Erec. "This is just a way for them to publicly pressure you and lay on an even more compelling argument against what the King is doing. Such a public condemnation of you is a way to target your character and reduce the number of people cheering you on. It also serves as an example, telling their followers not to engage with the tournament.”

"People are cheering me on?" Erec said, confused.

"You're participating in the tournament as a former hero of the kingdom, a count who has risen from landless nobility to owning a whole cavern that by all metrics has been doing well before now," Dame Robin interrupted, then gave Erec a reassuring smile. "And don’t think you’re going to be alone in this. However, it's not necessarily in the Orders’ business to go and look after the business interests of their Knights acting in the role of their nobility. Certain concessions have been made given the unique circumstances. Considering you're being targeted for your Knighthood rather than your functioning as a count. Grandmaster Oak has given us some leeway to make sure that your cavern and the people therein don’t suffer after this development.”

Grandmaster Oak nodded. "I have an unofficial sanction from the King allowing a distribution of some of our treasury to discretionary aid funds, along with a rather large donation from the King to attribute to whatever funds we wish." He looked between them all. "This is to say that a fund to make sure that a certain Kingdom cavern is maintained in stability for the coming days during the tournament to deal with the backlash from excommunication may or may not be approved for those extraordinary funds.”

Erec took in the information and appreciated the help. It still pissed him off. Part of him wanted to go and meet the Cardinal, then bash in his face for all of this.

Another part wanted to go and yell at the King, who was finding roundabout ways to help him instead of directly standing up to the Church that was targeting him to erode the King’s power—at least so the people under his charge would not suffer as some people would be withdrawing business contracts from Cavern Seven due to his excommunicated status.

“I just want to fight,” Erec said after a long silence, staring at the ground. A simple tournament, that’s all he’d wanted. A couple of good fights; his friends were there with him.

Well, except for Garin. In the chaos of the Melee, his friend didn’t have as much of an advantage and had been hunted down. Still, his friend was content with the fact that he got through the capture of the flag anyway and was more looking forward to doing the work around the tournament than participating in the tournament himself.

The walls felt like they were closing in. Though he was in this Academy, safe for now, the Church was doing whatever it could to draw him out. Day by day, the temptation to step out of here and confront them with the brewing anger and storm in him was only rising like a fiery phoenix inside his soul.

Just the thought of the Cardinal writing this public condemnation for him under such a false pretense—when he was being a hypocrisy-driven asshole—was driving Erec to the brink of anger. For a second, he clenched his fist, and it shook. Knuckles were going white as his fingernails dug into his skin.

Dame Robin moved over and set a hand on his shoulder, lowering herself to his height to look into his eyes. "Calm, Erec. Calm. I understand your frustration, but keep aware that you are just one of many targets that the Church is going for right now, searching out easy targets as they paint a picture of the Kingdom and gather those to their cause."

Erec asked the question that had been brewing in his mind for the last week, which he knew was coming and had asked before, but never got a conclusive answer. “Well, why don't we just go to war with them? That’s what they want, right?”

He let it spill out—all of the preparation, this tournament, the boiling over of anger, the growing boldness of the Church as it blasphemed the crown and radicalized others against them and the Kingdom. It was frustrating. He couldn't deal with it any longer. The more he was cooped up, the more he heard these rumors and interacted with the way they were touching the kingdom and ruining the peace and prosperity, the more invigorated he became. Now this personally targeting him…

"Why are we waiting?" Erec asked.

All three of the senior light knights exchanged looks. Both Boldwick and Robin deferred to the Grandmaster.”

"Well, really, are you just gonna say it out like that, lad? Guess it's true that you ain't one for too much subtlety, but you know neither was I. Truth is, if I could, I would order my entire knighthood to go down and then kick those red robes' sons of bitches out of this kingdom." His voice got louder and louder, and then he realized it was getting a little too loud. He gave an unsteady laugh, then dropped his volume, "But ah, the thing is, we're a knighthood, Sir Erec. We don't get to make those decisions on our own. If we did, we would just be the ruling body of the entire kingdom. The one we submit to and whose logic we're following right now is the King, who has his own aims. When he says that we can go and hunt down those red robes, I'll be the first one in line laughing as I kick them in the ass on their way out.”

He looked at the other two and asked, "How much do you trust this one?"

Sir Boldwick shrugged, "I don't think you have to worry about Sir Erec saying anything to anyone you don't want him to, considering the Church has turned him into an exile. I feel like he has a right to know, right?"

The Grandmaster nodded and went over to one of the many casks in the room, which Erec had picked up immediately upon walking in, not sure if the man had a drinking problem or was just simply a fan of alcohol, and poured two mugs. When he returned, he gave it over to Erec.

“Yer gonna wanna drink that,” he said, and brought his cups to his lips. Erec followed suit and downed it in a single gulp with the grandmaster. It tasted like citrus and sunshine; a warmth in him he didn’t expect from the amber liquid. The flavor eased him even as a numbness spread from his gut.

The Grandmaster set a hand on Erec's shoulder, which rocked the whole floor for a second and made Erec, for a brief instant, fear for his life with the unconscious gesture, as if a giant had just set a hand on him. But it didn't seem to disturb the man at all. Grandmaster Oak had just used a little too much power. A reminder that the man in front of him was a deadly being in skin; the rumors of him being able to lift a mountain weren’t far from his mind as he stared at those dull brown eyes.

"The truth is, and I think that you deserve the truth, lad, being that you're suffering under the consequence of the crown, is that the actions they make are not ones taken lightly. What we're talking about here—a civil war—is the most likely conclusion to this whole thing. But the crown wants time. They want to reinforce their alliances with the outside, which is the whole point of this tournament, and they want time on the inside as well. You've been working with Dame Robin, and you've seen some of her information-gathering efforts. The idea is that they want a grasp of all the nobility who aint loyal and purge them all at once with this damned church. But rats take time to join a ship; for that, they must have time." He lifted his hand and sighed, "Though it looks like that time is rapidly approaching. Soon, there can be no more. I'm sure you feel it—that change is in the air and that trouble is brewing. I cannot say personally when it will happen," he shrugged and looked at the other two knights who had gone quiet, "but... Well, we’re a family, aint we? That’s what this Order is. We’ll look after ours, that is to be part of a Knighthood."

With that, he returned to his cask and began to fill other mugs for Sir Boldwick and Dame Robin.

Erec stared at the dregs of his booze in his hand, contemplating the condemning words of the Grandmaster—a certainty that war was just around the corner. It put things in perspective. His need to compete in the tournament and the advancements it was bringing him were just one part of the game. The real challenge and real danger that had hung over his future could come at any moment now. The fact that the Grandmaster confirmed it made it even more real.

Despite knowing that it was coming, Erec could only stare at his drink, look down at the letter officially excommunicating him, and wonder just how much longer they still had before the fires of war burned everything around them down. And just what would be left in those ashes?