In another part of the continent Jack's recent encounter had stirred up the rage of an unknown entity.
Inside a dimly lit hall sat a mysterious entity with dark aura dancing around him like it was alive.The room had no windows.
It didn't need them. Light was an insult to Lord Darko. It was a vault of black stone, cut deep under a mountain that no maps remembered. The walls sweated cold. Chains thicker than a man's waist hung from the ceiling, but they held nothing now. They used to. The floor was carved with old sigils, worn smooth by bare feet that bled when they walked it.
The only light came from braziers set low to the ground. Blue flame. It didn't warm the air. It ate it. Shadows didn't flicker here. They crawled. They clung to the corners like they were afraid of being seen.
At the center, on a throne made from fused helms and broken spears, sat Lord Darko.
He was not large. He was worse. Thin-robes that looked sewn from smoke and night. His face was mostly hidden, but his eyes caught the blue fire and threw nothing back. Then he suddenly turned his head to his right.
"What news do you bring." His voiced boomed with power.
Standing to his right was Lupus.
Lupus was everything Darko wasn't. Broad, armored in black iron, a line mark of purple energy across his face. He did not sit. Right hands don't sit when their Lord is watching, rather he went on one knee and delivered his message.But he was cut short even before he started.
Darko's voice came low, like stone grinding under water.
"I felt it."
Lupus didn't ask what. He knew better.
"Three nights ago. A pulse. Small. Weak. Like a candle being cupped in a fist and then let go." Darko's fingers drummed once on the arm of his throne. "The Pendant of the Old Shadow King."
Lupus went still. "That was thought lost. But it appears the boy and his human mother are still alive and has triggered its power." Lupus voiced.
"Hmmm." Darko leaned forward. The blue fire reflected in his eyes and died there. "the activation was not fully done. A fraction like a child's grip on a god's weapon."
The name didn't need to be said. But Darko said it anyway.
"Sylvia. And my niece huh"
Lupus' jaw tightened. "You were told they burned with the palace."
"I was lied to," Darko said softly. Too softly. "If the pendant wakes, even a little, then blood lives. And if blood lives, it remembers."
He stood. The chains above him rattled though no wind moved.
"Send him out," he said. "The dark hound. The whisper. The onebwho does not ask questions."
Lupus bowed his head and said. "very well my lord but it may take some weeks to reach him."
"Whatever, just make sure he retrieve the pendant. We have more years ahead until the dark moons finally awakens he needs to be freed." Darko voiced out as his voice trailed off at the end.
_ _ _
It has been almost two weeks since the incident at the market took place and Jack since that day had been training extra hard to become strong. It was as if an unquenchable fire had been lit inside him ever since the fight with the general's hier.
Standing not far from the training grounds were his mother and Minny who looked exhausted from training.
"Gosh, doesn't he feel tired from these endless training." Minny suddenly said feeling the pressure coming off Jack's spot.
"Am not actually sure what really happened on that day you children were attacked but I think it served a great purpose, he must really be thinking he is quite the weakling right now which makes him wanting to try harder. But unknown to him he has gotten alot stronger since that day." Mary Jack's mother said with a smile on her face.
Just as they were watching Jack train something unexpected happened, Jack was going in for another punch but suddenly he stopped in his tracks it was as if his muscles weren't listening to his brain.
'What the fu**k is wrong with me now.' Jack thought in a confused state.
Every muscle screamed at once. Ribs. Shoulder. Thigh. It was like Stanter was still on top of him, pressing down. His fist stopped an inch from the leather. Shaking.
"Come on,... what's wrong with him."Minny muttered under her breath.
Jack's teeth clenched. He tried to push through. The doll didn't move. He didn't move.
Sweat cut down his face. The yard went quiet except for his breathing. Ragged. Desperate.
Suddenly inside him, something tightened.
He had never felt it before. He could feel a warm knot low in his gut. The QI pool. The thing every knight was told to find, then guard, then fill. His had been full of cracks since the alley. Strained from the necklace. Strained from refusing to fall.
Now it felt like glass.
He tried to punch again. His body refused.
So he stopped trying to move his fist. He tried to move something deeper.
"Jack," his mother voiced out with a worried expression.
He didn't hear her.
The QI pool cracked.
Not broke. Shattered. The pressure that had been building for weeks, for years, had nowhere to go except out. It tore through the cracks in his ribs, his shoulder, his lungs, and put itself back together on the other side.
Heat flooded him. This time the sensation was not the necklace's. But his own.
His fist shot forward.
The doll exploded off the rope. Straw and leather tore across the yard. The rope snapped and whipped against the wall.
Jack stood there, arm out, staring at his hand like it belonged to someone else.
The pain was gone. Not all of it. But the screaming stopped. In its place was something steady. Something ordered.
Minny stood up fast. "What was that?"
His mother pushed off the wall. For the first time in days, her eyes weren't just watching. They were measuring.
Jack lowered his arm. His voice came out hoarse. "It… clicked."
She walked to him, put two fingers under his chin, and looked at him. Really looked.
"You broke your QI pool," she said quietly. "You're a Knight now. First stage. First rank."
Jack blinked. "That's it?"
"That's everything," she said. "Before, you had strength. Now you have rank. The world will feel different to you."
Minny exhaled like she'd been holding it. "So you're not dead. Good. Because I'm not dragging you again."
Jack almost laughed. It hurt. So he didn't.
He looked at the wreckage of the doll, then at his hands. Bruised and Shaking.
The necklace at his chest was cold. Dead quiet,this time It hadn't done this. He had.