Chapter 7

Knights of Astrelm

July 7th, 2019 AE, 9:06 PM

The sun was beating down from above, watching over Death Valley like a burning eye. In this barren wasteland, the Empire had set up a barricade around the Temple of Talus, where they mined for the crystal inside. The structure itself was part of the Forgotten City, the original capital of Astrelm. Tall walls of steel surrounded these unearthed ruins, while Centurion guards surveilled the valley from their watchtowers. Some of them even patrolled the grounds inside armored Titans, twenty-foot tall mechanical cyclops with optic blasters on their foreheads. At the center of it all was the entrance to the Divine Temple.

Jaden arrived at the Astrean base camp, located in the cliffs about a mile away from the ruins. He had appeared through the Stargate built by the Rangers, some of whom had arrived with him through the portal. A war room was set up in a nearby cavern, where most of the fighters waited in the shade for their commander to arrive. The rest were outside looking out at the valley, and Astra was among them, speaking to one of her lieutenants.

"There you are!" beamed Astra. "I was worried you wouldn't come!"

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," said Jaden. "So what's our plan?"

"We're still waiting for everyone else to show up," she answered. "It won't be long now."

Jaden heard the whooshing sound of the Stargate energizing, and saw two more fighters arrive on the scene. The Ark Knight was delighted to see they were his old friends, Jesse and Kaylah.

"Oh my God!" Jesse exclaimed.

When he and his sister saw Jaden standing roughly ten yards away, they ran up to him with joyful excitement.

"Hi, Jaden!" Kaylah added. "It's been forever!"

"Hey guys!" Jaden greeted. "I'm surprised to see you here. I didn't think you'd volunteer for this mission!"

"Are you kidding me?" asked Jesse. "You think I'd sit by and watch you guys have all the fun..." He trailed off when he finally noticed Jaden standing with the Princess of Astrelm herself. Seeing the two of them together for the first time, his mouth opened so wide, he could catch flies in it. "Holy shit."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Jaden. "Astra, these are my friends, Jesse and Kaylah."

"Forgive my brother." Kaylah said, holding out her hand.. "It's an honor to meet you,"

After a moment's hesitation, Astra broke the awkward tension and shook their hands with a dignified response. "The honor's all mine."

To Jaden, standing with Astra in front of them felt so surreal, like they were looking in a mirror. He couldn't help but think of how far Jesse and Kaylah came since they first met.

After separating from Jaden in Newtown, both siblings were among the first who joined the fight against the Empire. The Ark Knight knew he taught Jesse how to use a sword, but he never thought he would become a master swordsman in only two years. He now carried a long, sharp katana over a red leather jacket. He also had dual pistols hanging from his waist with loaded cylinders lining the straps of his holsters. With all that and his orange bandana wrapped around his neck, Jesse looked like one of those desert gunslingers from old movies.

Kaylah was dressed in a turquoise jacket with a white vest underneath. A silver amulet holding a blue diamond hung from her neck, while a silver spear was strapped around her shoulder. Her whole appearance invoked the image of a mermaid inside Jaden's head. Alongside her brother, she became a trained fighter and a proficient healer throughout the war. She used her elixants to heal the wounds of her brother and the rest of the assault team. And with her renowned skills with a spear, Kaylah had become a force to be reckoned with.

Having acknowledged the two of them together, Kaylah finally broke their uncomfortable silence.

"So wait, does this mean you two are..."

"Dating? NO! No!"

"What?! NO! No, no, no, no!" Astra said simultaneously

"I was just going to ask if you were partners, but okay."

In his head, Jaden jammed his foot up his ass for having just stuck it in his mouth.

Why the hell did I say that?! Why was that first thing that entered my brain?!

"Oh...yeah," he said. "I mean yes! Yes, we are partners today."

Real smooth.

Astra's face flushed red with embarrassment until she heard someone teleporting behind them.

From the light of the portal, a tall, muscular man with long, white hair emerged. He was dressed in a thick, gray armor embedded with magic crystals, and the crest of the Royal Family branded on its chest plate. Underneath that, a white and black uniform flowed from his waist down to his iron boots. But even with his armored exterior, his steely gaze already showed that he was a fully-forged knight.

This man was Prince Revan, Astra's older brother and the leader of the Knights of Astrelm. He had appeared with four armored knights, similar to the ones who joined Astra the night before.

"I don't recall you being a part of today's mission, Astra!" he stated, approaching her with his four guards.

"I already told you, Revan! I'm not letting you take me out of this!"

"Hey! Hey! what's going on here?" Jaden asked.

"I was just speaking to the Princess," he responded, "and I don't approve of her being on the front lines without proper protection."

"For the last time, I don't need your guards to protect me! I can take care of myself!" Despite her composed response, Astra was still holding in plenty of rage.

"I'm sorry, but if you won't follow orders, then I'm taking you back to base myself!"

He grabbed Astra's wrist and started pulling her towards the Stargate. She turned her head towards Jaden, and her eyes secretly cried for help like they did the night before. He was hesitant to intervene and cause trouble, but seeing Astra in that moment, he couldn't ignore her. Jaden instinctively grabbed her other wrist, holding her and Revan back.

"I'm sorry, your Highness," said Jaden. "But the Princess is under my protection!"

"Stand down!" Revan ordered, still holding Astra's wrist. "This is none of your concern!"

"Actually it is, because today, I'm her partner!"

Astra was stunned by his persistence, since he was reluctant to join her just yesterday. Revan was also surprised by Jaden, as he had rarely encounter a commoner who refused his demands. He forced Astra to stand behind him as he confronted this unruly swordsman head-on.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Revan asked him.

"Jaden Kaladin. I'm the one who brought you the Star of Valon."

Some of the other fighters overheard Jaden and rallied around him and the royal siblings. But the three of them were so locked on each other's gaze that they failed to notice them.

"Oh...yes, Astra told me about you," Revan said, inching closer to Jaden. "Well...I appreciate everything you've done for us, but Astra is my responsibility. The front lines are too dangerous for her to go without proper protection. I'm afraid I just can't take any chances. Not even with you."

"It's dangerous enough out there as it is!" replied Jaden. "Besides, I'll do a better job at protecting her than you ever did."

Revan did not like hearing this. He expended every possible resource to guarantee his sister's safety. But to have this disrespectful outsider question his authority, he refused to let this stand.

Revan's fake smile quickly faded, and his entire demeanor changed. He now stood in front of Jaden with this tall, hardened posture. The kind a military leader has when they're addressing their subordinates. The Prince scowled at the Ark Knight with his sharp, emerald eyes, throwing him back with his disdainful expression. It was like he had taken a mask off and instantly switched to another face. His true face.

"Don't make this harder on yourself," said Revan. "I know what's best for my sister."

"I don't think you do," Jaden argued. "Astra's one of the best fighters in the entire kingdom, and she clearly wants to fight for it."

"You've got some nerve lecturing me on what's right. Considering you're a bounty hunter whose only concern seems to be profiting from war while the rest of us die fighting for our country."

"I guess you never learned not to judge a book by its cover."

"Believe me, I have. It's just that my kingdom has a bad history with men dressed in black."

That line struck a nerve that Jaden struggled to repress. The amount of contempt they had for each other was enough to spark a storm between them. This was one of those moments when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. But Jaden wasn't sure which one he was in this situation. Revan's guards started closing in on him, and with his enchanted armor powering him, even Jaden thought this wouldn't be a fair fight.

"Okay," Jesse said nervously, "it looks like we're in the middle of something private, so..."

Having had enough of this annoying quarrel, Astra finally stepped in between Jaden and Revan. Staring up at her brother, she looked him straight in the eye and made her stand.

"That's enough, Revan!" she shouted.

"Astra!" he said. "As commander of the Knights of Astrelm, I order you come with me!"

"Well, as the Princess of Astrelm, I order you to stand down!"

Both siblings stared at each other angrily, for they had reached a terrible stalemate. Jaden could sense a tremendous fire burning in within her eyes; a spark running down the fuse to a momentous explosion.

Revan noticed the other fighters had gathered outside and were all staring at him. Just like his sister, the people of Astrelm looked to him as their hero. They looked to him for guidance in their fight against the Empire as their noble leader. He spent years trying to preserve that image for everyone's sake, forging a kind and righteous mask for their eyes to see. But at times like this, he led his true face slip through the cracks.

"Okay, Astra. You win." Revan turned away from her and directed his menacing gaze towards Jaden. "But just know...that if something goes wrong, if something terrible happens to my sister, her blood will be on your hands. And I will not hesitate to make you pay the price for it."

Jaden was not fazed by Revan's threat, to which he responded by saying:

"Spoken like a true leader."

Revan walked away in a huff, his four knights following him. The crowd around them dispersed as well, leaving Jaden and his friends alone with each other. He and Astra sighed with relief after nearly escaping what could've been a ugly confrontation.

"Boy, that was intense!" Jesse exclaimed.

"Ughh! I can't believe my brother!" said Astra. "He can be so selfish sometimes!"

"Man, how do you put up with him?" Jesse asked.

"It's never easy, but trust me. He means well. It's just that...ever since our mother died, Revan's been very protective of me. He wasn't always like this, though."

Astra trailed off as she became consumed by her memories. She recalled the time before her untimely demise, when their family was still whole. She longed for those perfect days filled with warm holidays and beach vacations. But with their mother gone, those days were lost with her. Like their father, they both tried to fill the pit she left behind with their royal duties. In a way, they were burying their memories of her within themselves. But neither of them could ever forget her. Especially not Astra.

"Anyway, I'm sorry you got caught up in that." Astra said, forcing herself back to the present.

"It's alright," said Jaden. "He may talk a big game, but even with that magic armor of his, he's not all that tough."

In reality, Revan was still incredibly powerful, and Jaden was well aware of that. His magic armor was a Divine Weapon passed down by the Royal Family for generations. Typically, the King of Astrelm would wearing this sacred garb. But with advanced age and his troubles with the war, Revan's father choose to pass it on to him.

"Still, that was totally uncalled for," Kaylah argued, turning to Jade. "You actually handled it pretty well."

"Thanks," he responded. "I've dealt with people like him before."

* * *

Revan had reminded Jaden of his hometown bully, Rex. Almost every day at school, Rex would tease him or slap the books out of his hands whenever he saw him. Like a punch in the face, Jaden was thrown back to that one time in the schoolyard. Rex had a hard day in class after failing his history exam, and he wanted to take it out on someone. But he wasn't looking for an easy target. Rex wanted to prove just how great he really was, both to his friends and to himself. He always found comfort in knowing he could beat up anyone who dared cross his path. And after hearing about Jaden's training sessions with his uncle, he wanted to see the results for himself.

Knowing Rex, Jaden always tried to steer clear of him while at school. But trying to ignore him as he walked past him that day only made Rex want to pummel him even more. With a single punch, he had Jaden pinned against the school's brick wall outside. All the other kids gathered around them as Rex tried to get him to fight back. Jaden remembered everything about this hulking giant, the burning redness of his face as he stood over him like a volcano, yelling at him.

"Ya think you're so tough, huh? Ya freak?!" Hearing Rex spout all this vitriol on him, Jaden struggled to hold all his newfound strength back. The soon-to-be Ark Knight clenched his fist as he tried to bottle up all his rage towards his schoolhouse tormentor. But knowing he could pound his opponent into dust in the blink of an eye, he finally decided to use some of that strength to put him in his place.

But before Jaden could shatter Rex's face, his Uncle Aeron had arrived on the scene to scare everyone off. He already knew his nephew wasn't hurt. A punch from someone like Rex merely hit Jaden like a leaf to a rock. But just by looking at his sunken face, he knew he was hurting beneath his iron-hard skin.

"I wanted to hit him so bad! You know I could've beaten him.

"And what if you did?" his uncle asked him. "Would that make you any different than him?"

This question left Jaden stunned and ashamed, for he knew his uncle was right.

"Listen, you may think you're better than them now with all your powers, but knowing how to not use them, that's what makes you stronger. That's the kind of man you ought to be.

* * *

Those words continued to echo back to Jaden after all those years, even as he stood with Astra and his friends.

"Hey, Jaden!" Jesse asked him.

"Yeah?" he asked, his mind now thrust back to the present.

"It looks like the rally's about to begin."

Jaden turned to see all the other fighters started crowding the inside of the cavern. Following his friends inside, he entered the war room where about a hundred soldiers from many different guilds surrounded the table in the center. A map of the valley was laid out on the surface, depicting the Forgotten City, the Divine Temple, and the Imperial barricade surrounding it. Astra and Revan stood over this map with all eyes fixed on them. A beam of sunlight shined through the roof of the cave, illuminating both siblings as the rally began.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice!" Revan announced. "Today, we will attack the Imperial base and seize the Divine Temple! The assault team will be split into two groups. First, Astra and a select few will take out the snipers surrounding the city. They'll then open the gate into the city, after which my team will engage in a frontal assault on the base. With the guards distracted, Astra's team will infiltrate the temple and take the treasure from inside the vault. As soon as they do, we'll all use our Rings to teleport out of the valley."

As Revan spoke, Astra stood frowning next to him. During their raids, she was usually so strong and confident. But that was when she led the assault team. Now, with her older brother leading them that day, and with such an important battle ahead of them, she had become distant and uncertain, like she was buried deep within herself.

"It is crucial that we claim the temple and the crystal inside," Revan continued. "I know that you have doubts about this mission. The Empire has gotten stronger, and despite our best efforts, we have lost many good soldiers. But we must continue fighting...for them, and for those whom they gave their lives to protect. While we are still standing, while we are still alive to fight against our enemies, there is still a chance of victory. And while we still have a chance, we still have hope. There is still hope for our people! There is still hope for our survival, and there is still hope for our kingdom! May the gods guide us to victory."

Everyone thrust their fists towards the heavens, proudly chanting out the call for revolution. Jaden thus remembered why Revan was so beloved by the people of Astrelm. He stood as a beacon of hope that this war would someday end, and that they could all put their faith in him. If only Revan could do the same with him.