Wizard's House

[wizardseason]

"Hey"

The Wizard greets the evil-allured knights the same way every night, with the same word, while casually sitting on the steps of the porch outside of her little home. The building looks handmade, like it was built by people who cared about the place they were going to live. Surrounding it on all sides are fields as far as the eye can see. Vegetables of all kinds, with fruit trees and bushes placed throughout the landscape. Closer to the home are bigger trees, willows and others, providing shade from the strange three suns above. Wherever this is, it isn't the world that the knights know.

Plunged into the ground a mere few feet away from the steps leading up to the home is a handwritten sign that states the following:

Knight Rules:
- Tell others if you want
- You can't reveal others
- The world ends this year

Comments

Day 2: Evening, Animal Companions

[wizardseason]

Is your knight going to pester their animal companion? Do that here.

[sustainer]

Sometime after the festivities of the evening, after he's started a fire for the night, Gyre sighs. He has to do this. He's about to sleep and he knows he promised to have animal information for his fellow knights tonight.

Much as he doesn't want to deal with Fen... he calls out, "Fen! Can we talk?" and then returns to sullenly poke at the fire. Please be low energy tonight, Fen?

[wizardseason]

As if they were there all along, Fen steps out of the darkness and practically beams high energy right towards Gyre.

"Hello, my knight, how can I help! Do you have questions I can answer?" If there could be excited bubbles around them right now, they would have them.

[sustainer]

Ugh, he's already squinting against the implied light of their energy. This is going to be a nightmare, he's certain.

"I dunno. How much are you able to tell me about the wizard and the protector?"

[wizardseason]

It's only going to get more bright, they're incredibly excited that Gyre's asking them for answers! They give an immediate hop up and down when he asks and they have to decide where to start!!

"Oh! One of them is bad, and one of them is good! What do you want to know? They don't like each other, not at all! But they've never been mean to me, you know? It's the others that say those things, I hear it from them!

[sustainer]

"What things do they say...?" he asks, latching on to anything weird in the way they talk about these two. He feels like he's going to have to pry information from them about this so he's pouncing as quickly as possible on this bit.

"Do you know what happened the first year they got here?"

[wizardseason]

"They shouted at each other the first year! Everyone was talking about that, they must not have liked each other before that. But we didn't know them before that, so maybe they always shouted? But the others say that sometimes they pick targets they don't like, like they deliberately try to defeat knights! Did you know that Sucecq said the Protector killed their knight one year? I think that sounds like a lie don't you? But I don't think Sucecq is a liar."

Astonishingly, it doesn't seem like Fen took even a single breath that entire time.

Not that they need to breathe.

[sustainer]

Well. At least he knows to only ask one question at a time now. He sighs in deep frustration already, trying to figure out which thread to pull first.

"What does that mean, 'targets they don't like'? The wizard says she wants us all to get to the end so she can win, so why would she try to defeat us?"

[wizardseason]

Fen is immediately hopping up and down, little puffs of anime smoke rising off of their head.

"Because she's bad obviously! She's always trying to get more knights onto her side! If she gets all twelve knights on her side she'll win! She has that hammer that breaks everything!"

They pause after a hop, though, seeming thoughtful and oddly silent for a few moments.

"I don't know if I've ever talked to her."

[tropicalstorm]

That night, just before she passes out, she remembers the plan to get information from the companions. Fumicq has been vague before, but maybe it's worth a shot to ask them anyway?

"Fumicq? You there?"

[wizardseason]

As if they'd always been there, Fumicq's head rises up from where it had been set against their clawed feet on the ceiling. Their form slowly unfolds from the ceiling, they'd been resting against it like they were a cat on the floor but now they're needed.

"Yes?"

[tropicalstorm]

She thinks for a moment. What exactly does she want to know? Honestly, nothing. She doesn't really care about the history of this whole situation, she only cares about beating the monsters and getting home. But she had helped to convince Gyre not to confront Luka in part by advocating that they talk to their companions, so... Might as well ask about something that directly affects HER, at least to start.

"Do you and the other companions know who the knights that were chosen for the Wizard are?"

[wizardseason]

"I wish it were that easy." They answer, slowly starting to float down in a circle around Haizea.

"Have you begun to suspect that some of your allies do not have your best interests in mind?"

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea pauses. If the companions don't know who's getting wizard dreams... then Fumicq doesn't know about her. What would they do if they knew? Would they tell the other companions? Would the companions tell their knights? Would the knights tell Luka? Would Luka tell the Protector? She can't have that, better play it cool for now.

"No, nothing like that, everyone's been cool. I'm just curious, I guess. You know I didn't pay much attention to all this before, and it's starting to get to me how little I know." She shifts her position in bed and looks concerned. The best lies are based in truth.

"In earlier years, if a companion found out their knight was Wizard allied, would they tell anyone else? Or did the knights themselves just end up telling everyone? Was there ever a year where no one ever found out who was with the Wizard?"

[wizardseason]

Fumicq would tell the others literally in a heartbeat. What they did with that information wasn't their business.

"I see." They answer, flatly, watching the way Haizea considers the situation.

"Every year has been different, but secrets such as those are not easy to keep. Wizard knights have typically revealed themselves in a bid of desperation to prove their trustworthiness. Turning themselves in, you would say."

[tropicalstorm]

Fumicq you snitch!!!!!! Good thing she didn't assume they knew already.

"Makes sense, but I bet it didn't always go well for them. People probably figured it was a trick or something, huh?" She keeps her tone light, the same way you would talk about a topic that was interesting but didn't concern you at all. "Do you remember how long any Wizard knight managed to keep the secret?"

[wizardseason]

"Of course. Once it is known that there is a risk, it cannot be forgotten." They answer immediately, watching Haizea.

"Some lasted the entire time, they were not known at all. You are certain you do not suspect someone is keeping a secret?"

[daddykong]

Garrot's retreated to the basement of his house. Far from prying eyes and ears, and insulated enough to muffle any sound. The light in the master bedroom is on, but the shades are drawn. He's used to subterfuge and hiding stupid, trivial things from his kids, and that practice has served him very well tonight.

"Hey Xaljim, question for you." He's leaning against a wall, enjoying the nice, cold stone in an otherwise hot and humid island "If the companions don't know who's connected to the Protector or the Wizard, whose side are you actually on?" Blending common knowledge with a question raised by his dream the night before. If they all knew something about where the Knights fell, they'd be clearly on the Protector's side. But they aren't, even though they supply the weapons to let the Knights fight!

It's fishy.

[wizardseason]

Xaljim appears as if on command, hanging from the ceiling as if it's a net he can grip hold of. Somehow he's dangling, watching Garrot now that he's been called on.

"Yours." He answers immediately, eyes locked on Garrot.

"Why?"

[daddykong]

He's pensive for a moment, balancing the vague answer against his own tense situation. Garrot's not sure if he can trust Xaljim with this, or anyone. The only reason he can trust the other Wizard knights is because they can't rat him out. He'd take all this to the grave, if he could.

"Three years ago, when the Monkey Knight was with the Wizard, you didn't know." He gestures his head to the skies, and his tone turns a bit sullen. "When my father was with the Princess, you didn't know." Garrot's hands halfway enter his pants pockets. "You've never known, not in forty years. If you're on my side, and the side of every other Monkey Knight, shouldn't you know?" He narrows his eyes and furrows his brow, not in apprehension but as if he's trying to run calculations in his head.

"So why can't you know?" A beat. "Or do you just not want to?"

[wizardseason]

"Both the Wizard and the Protector don't tell us because we're not on their sides." He really wishes he had something he could throw at Garrot right now to make him stop asking so many questions. But there's an important bit that Garrot's assuming here and he wants to set it straight.

"You don't know what happens on this island. Not every monkey knight was like you."

[daddykong]

That just raises so many questions, and Garrot finds himself responding without much of a moment to think.

"I don't know?!" He's calling bullshit on that, Xaljim, and it doesn't help that it sounds condescending. "What don't I know, when I've been here multiple times?!" Tell him, Garrot is all ears, buddy! Xaljim definitely knows something he doesn't, but what? Is it about what makes him different? And what could that even be?!

Just give him the straight facts, Xaljim.

[wizardseason]

"Every knight chooses a side. There's no such thing as a neutral knight." He answers, bristling with annoyance at how annoyed Garrot is getting. His temper's going to get the better of him here and he doesn't care.

"Even if they're Wizard or Protector at the start, they can be whatever they want by the end. I don't care what my knights decide, I'll help them do whatever they're going to do. They'll die or they'll live but it won't be on me." And suddenly he's got a balled up piece of paper that he plinks off of Garrot's face.

[daddykong]

The moment that balled up piece of paper starts to fly, Garrot is already growling. He doesn't care what they do and he's completely detached from whether they live or die. Whether his father lived or died.

"You don't care, even if someone wants to end the world! That'd kill you, you realize that?!" And he's breathing deeper, trying to calm himself down, to stop his claws from cutting into his palms. "Are you like this every year, or am I getting special treatment because I'm different?"

Hell of a way to bring things back around, but okay Garrot. At least he's got his head on straight enough that he's still trying to make progress.

[wizardseason]

Why did he have to get the frustrating knight!!! Everything Garrot was was frustration! He wishes he had more paper! More ways to vent his own frustration! But he notices when Garrot tries to switch himself, and he can't keep the frustration out of his voice but at least he doesn't throw more paper.

"I didn't ask to exist. I'm here. I do my job. I come back next year. I can't change any of it. I can't change any of it!" He lets out a deep exhale from getting himself riled up, shaking his head.

"I'd help you end the world if you wanted. Fighting or not, I'm on your side."