Volume 1: [Perseverance š]
Chapter 1: Purple Soul
Act 3: The Knight
The knocks echo through the little stone house, and then everything goes silent.
Synn moves first. She sets her cup down without a sound and stands up. When she turns back to Paige, her voice is barely a whisper.
Synn: Get up. Quickly.
Paige tries. Her legs wobble, but this time they hold. Synn takes her by the wrist with one hand and grabs Paige's cup from the table with the other, pressing it into her hands.
Synn: Take this. Don't spill it.
There's no time to ask why. Synn pulls her across the living room and down the short hallway, past the bedroom where Paige woke up, all the way to the closed door at the end.
The one Paige noticed earlier. The one that looked like it hadn't been opened in a long time.
Synn stops with her hand on the handle. It's only for a second, but Paige sees it. Then Synn pushes the door open, and the hinges let out a long, tired creak.
Synn: In here. Don't make a sound. No matter what you hear, don't come out until I come get you.
Paige: B-but whoā
Synn: Please, Paige.
The way Synn says her name makes Paige close her mouth and nod.
The door closes behind her, and the room goes dark.
Paige stands very still, holding the cup with both hands. The tea inside still glows faintly, just enough to light the space around her. Little by little, the room comes out of the shadows.
It's a bedroom, smaller than the one she woke up in. There's a bed with a gray blanket folded at the foot, a wooden chair, and a small table with nothing on it. Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust, so thick that Paige can taste it in the air. Nobody has slept here in a very long time.
Then the soft light from her cup reaches the far side of the room, and Paige's breath catches.
In the corner, a suit of armor hangs on a wooden stand.
For one terrible second, she thinks someone is inside it. But it doesn't move. It's empty, and it's old, older than anything she has ever seen in a museum. The metal is dull and scratched all over. The chest plate has a long crack running down the middle, and one of the shoulder pieces is bent so badly that it hangs crooked.
She remembers what Synn told her. He came back badly wounded.
This is his room. This is his armor.
Paige holds the cup a little closer to her chest. She feels like she's standing somewhere she shouldn't be, as if she walked into the middle of someone else's sadness.
Out in the living room, another knock sounds at the front door.
And that's when Paige remembers.
Her notebook.
She left it on the table. Open. Right next to Synn's cup.
Her whole body goes cold. She looks at the door, then down at the glowing tea in her hands. Synn told her not to come out, no matter what.
So Paige doesn't move. She only kneels down, as quietly as she can, and presses her eye to the narrow gap between the door and its frame.
Through the gap, she can see a thin slice of the living room: the table, the candle, the edge of the front door.
Synn walks to the door and stops in front of it. Paige watches her take one slow breath, even though she isn't sure skeletons need to breathe. Then Synn opens it.
A figure fills the doorway.
He's tall, so tall that he has to bend down to look inside. Armor covers him from head to toe, dark gray and dented in a dozen places, and a long cape hangs from his shoulders, its edges torn and dusty. His helmet hides his face completely. Paige can't see any eyes behind the visor. Only shadow.
???: Good evening, ma'am. I'm sorry to bother you so late.
His voice is deep, and it echoes a little inside the helmet. But it isn't scary. It just sounds tired, like someone who has been walking for a very long time and still has a long way to go.
Synn: It's fine. What do you need?
???: There was an irregularity today. The king's irregularity detector went off a few hours ago. Someone came into the Underground.
Synn: Someone?
???: You know what that means as well as I do. Only one kind of someone can get in.
Paige's fingers tighten around the cup.
???: The problem is, the detector only tells the king that someone came in. It doesn't tell him where. So we're checking every house, one by one.
He lets out a long breath that rattles inside his armor.
???: Yours is the last one on this side. I've been walking since it went off.
Synn: That sounds exhausting.
???: It is.
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, and his armor creaks.
???: May I come in? Just for a moment. It's procedure.
Synn steps aside without a word.
The knight ducks through the doorway, and the floor seems to tremble a little under his weight. He looks around the living room slowly: the shelves, the jars, the stove, the candle on the table.
Then he stops.
Paige's heart stops with him.
He's looking at the table. At Synn's cup. At the notebook lying open beside it, right where Paige left it, the rabbit facing up.
And right above the rabbit, at the top of the page, are the words she wrote in the forest: The forest behind the school and in front of a mountain.
Paige's stomach drops. If he reads that line, he'll know. Nobody down here would write something like that.
???: Tea at this hour?
Synn: I couldn't sleep.
The knight nods slowly. Then he reaches down and picks up the notebook.
Paige presses her hand over her mouth so hard it hurts.
He holds it up close to his helmet. In his huge metal hands, it looks tiny, like a toy. For a long moment, he just stares at the open page.
Paige can't breathe.
???: Huh. A rabbit. It's been a long time since I've seen one of those.
He doesn't say anything about the words. Paige isn't even sure he noticed them. He's only looking at the drawing.
Then he starts flipping through the rest of the notebook, one page at a time. A tree she drew last spring. A cat sleeping on a windowsill. A flower she saw on the way to school. Every time he reaches a drawing, he stops and looks at it for a while. But every time he reaches a page full of writing, he turns it without slowing down, as if the words were nothing but scribbles.
He doesn't stop on Synn's story either. All those pages about the war and the church, and he flips right past them.
Then he closes the notebook and holds it out to Synn.
???: Nice drawings.
Synn takes it from him. Her hands don't shake at all. Paige doesn't understand how.
???: So. You haven't seen anyone strange around here? Heard anything unusual?
Synn: No. Nothing. Nobody comes out this far.
The knight is quiet for a moment. Paige holds her breath. Behind the visor, there's nothing to read, no expression at all, and somehow that's the scariest part.
Then he nods.
???: That's what I thought. If you do see anything, report it to the knights right away. The king wants them found quickly.
Synn: I will.
???: Thank you for your time, ma'am. And sorry again for the trouble. Enjoy your tea.
He ducks back through the doorway, and the door closes behind him. His heavy footsteps crunch away from the house, slower and slower, fainter and fainter, until Paige can't hear them at all.
For a long moment, Synn doesn't move. Through the gap, Paige can see her standing with her back to the front door, perfectly still, listening.
Then Synn's shoulders drop. She leans her skull against the door and lets out a long, shaky breath.
She was scared too, Paige realizes. She was scared the whole time, and she didn't let it show even once.
Synn pushes herself away from the door and walks down the hallway. A second later, the door to her father's room opens, and the light from the living room spills in.
Paige is still kneeling on the floor, both hands wrapped around her cup. The tea has gone cold, but it's still glowing. She tries to stand, and her legs shake so badly that she almost drops it.
Synn catches her by the arm before she falls.
Synn: Easy. Easy. He's gone.
Paige: H-he... he had my notebook. He was holding it. If he'd read it... if he had seen what I wrote...
Synn: He didn't.
Synn holds out the notebook. Paige takes it with trembling fingers and hugs it to her chest, the same way she did when she was falling, as if it could still keep her safe.
Then she looks down at the cup in her other hand. Not a single drop is missing.
Paige: That's why you gave me my cup. So he'd only see one.
Synn: Two cups means two people.
Paige: But I forgot the notebook.
Synn: We both did.
Paige: Who was he?
Synn: One of the undying knights. They serve the king. When someone comes into the Underground, they're the ones who go looking.
Paige: Looking for... me.
Synn doesn't answer. She doesn't have to.
Paige: What would they have done if they found me?
Synn: I don't know. And I don't want to find out.
Paige swallows. Then she asks the question that has been sitting in her chest since the door closed.
Paige: Why did you lie for me?
Synn is quiet for a moment.
Synn: I don't know yet.
She says it honestly, like it's a question she's still asking herself.
She looks down at the notebook in Paige's arms.
Synn: Maybe because you wanted to write my father's story down.
Paige looks past Synn, into the room behind her. The light from the hallway catches the edge of the cracked armor in the corner.
Paige: This was his room, wasn't it?
Synn follows her gaze. For a moment, she just looks at the armor without saying anything.
Synn: Yes. I haven't opened that door in a long time.
She gently pulls it closed. The click of the latch sounds very loud in the quiet house.
Synn: Come on. You should sit down before your legs give out again.
She helps Paige back to the living room and into the same chair as before. Synn's cup is still sitting on the table, untouched. Paige stares at the empty spot where her notebook was, and she can't stop shaking.
Synn notices. Without a word, she pours what's left in the kettle into Paige's cup. Paige drinks it slowly, and little by little, the shaking fades.
Synn sits down across from her. She's quiet for a long time, turning her cold cup slowly in her hands, the same way she did when she told Paige about the war. When she finally speaks, her voice is calm, but firm.
Synn: They might come back. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not the same knight. But if they do, you can't be hiding behind a door with a cup of tea.
Paige: Then what do I do?
Synn: Tomorrow, I'll show you the caves. The tunnels around the house, and the places where you can hide if anyone comes looking.
She looks at Paige, and her voice softens.
Synn: But that's tomorrow. You've had a long day. Get some rest. You're safe tonight.
Paige nods. She holds her notebook a little tighter. She doesn't think she'll be able to sleep at all.
The candle burns low, and the kettle ticks softly as it cools. Outside, the Underground is quiet again. But it isn't the soft kind of quiet anymore. Somewhere out there, a tired knight is still walking, still looking.
And now Paige knows exactly who he's looking for.