The Foolhardies 157 Tale Of Tales

"You sure you want to know about that ghost story?" he asked me again. "Don't want to put too much pressure on your underdeveloped shoulders."

"I… I need to know what all the fuss is about," I answered.

Luca, sitting next to me on the couch, had accepted a bowl of fruit from the pixie that had stood up from her chair to place elf tea on the table in front of us. I didn't touch it. My attention was focused entirely on the Lord of Star's amused face.

I've heard rumors about you, kiddo… unsubstantiated rumors about you wielding a sense gift," he said, his eyebrow arching. "I guess those rumors are true if you're so desperate to hear about the old knights."

I nodded. There was no point hiding it. Being a wielder of a sense gift himself, Chris Pint could probably tell if I was lying.

He proved me right by sniffing the air in front of him and then saying, "I smell the truth on you."

Chris Pint tapped on his nose with a finger.

"My gift is called Starry Savvy. It's the power of the sense of smell," he revealed.

"Last night, in the fight against those other two generals, you took a whiff of scents from your vials," I remembered.

Chris Pint nodded. Then he pulled out a vial from his pocket and showed it to me and Luca.

The tiny vial contained black powder inside it.

"Ever heard of the influence of fragrance to the brain?" he asked.

"Fragrance can affect brain activity and cognitive function. What a person smells can affect mood, stress, and even physical capabilities," I answered quickly.

Chris Pint raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you some kind of a nerd, Dean?"

"You have no idea," Luca answered between gulps of berries and grapes.

Chris Pint laughed while my face flushed red.

"You're right," he answered after he was done laughing at my expense. "Scents have the power to affect brain chemistry, and that is exactly how my gift works. Different scents have different effects on me."

He dangled the vial of black powder in front of me.

"The scent of boom dust jumps my brain into overdrive, helping me to predict my enemy's actions like I can smell their intentions," he explained. "Flight or fight responses give off their own scent… fear, anger, killing fervor, I can smell all of it."

He pulled out another vial from his pockets, and I recognized it as the red vial from last night's fight.

"This is ogre's blood," he revealed. "A whiff of this temporarily removes my physical limiter, giving me a hundred percent control over my body's physical strength."

"How does that work?" Luca asked.

"The brain puts a natural limit on the body so we don't overstress it and it doesn't break down," I answered almost automatically.

"Nerd," Luca said at the same time as Chris Pint replied with, "Nerd!"

I blushed again. Chris Pint laughed again.

"Your gift doesn't function in the same way mine does," I said in an effort to change topics.

"You have the gift of sight, don't you?" he guessed.

"How'd you figure that out?" I wondered aloud.

He picked up the pipe on the table and lit it. Then he took a long puff before answering my question.

A blue-tinged smoke billowed out of his mouth when he said, "Easy. I'm smell. That prude, Dany, is taste, and that b.a.s.t.a.r.d whose name I refuse to speak less he hears it is obviously hearing. And everyone knows that the boy who could touch is dead and gone. So it just makes sense that you'd be sight."

"You've met the other sense wielders?" I asked curiously.

"Met them. Fought them. Sipped cups of friends.h.i.+p with them and then beat them up," he said with a guffaw. "We tend to run each other a lot. You'll meet them soon enough so don't ask me about those idiots. I'd rather not spoil the surprise."

"Why are we such a big deal, though?" I pressed. "Why do people speak about sense knights with such awe and reverence?"

"Besides the fact that we can trounce anyone who picks a fight with us, you mean?" he reminded me.

"Y-yeah," I replied with a sheepish grin of my own. "Besides that."

"Well, it all harkens back to the empty throne and the story of the lost monarch and his five sense knights, protectors and keepers of the five keys," Chris Pint began in a voice that reminiscent of old movie narrators.

Chris Pint explained that the story of the lost monarch and his sense knights was scattered in bits and pieces throughout the Fayne. No single clan had the complete set, but conquer enough cities and you'd get to collect more facts about the time before the warring states period.

During his early days as the Lord of Stars, Chris Pint was obsessed with the legend, and he scoured the Starfall clan's repository of knowledge for whatever information he could find.

"The sense knights were humans handpicked by the lost monarch to serve two purposes," Chris revealed. "Their overwhelming strength earned them a place as his royal guard as well as the keepers of the five keys."

"Overwhelming strength… the royal guard," I repeated.

"Keepers of the five keys…" Luca said again.

"Don't mistake me, Dean," Chris Pint warned. "These five knights didn't gain overwhelming strength from their gifts. According to the legend, they were incredible already. That's why they were chosen. The five sense gifts only made their individual talents s.h.i.+ne out more. So the story goes."

"What are the five keys?" Luca asked.

"That's where the tale gets a little wonky," Chris Pint sighed.

He went on to tell us that the five keys were special keys that could open doors to places beyond the Fayne. What those places were, where these doors could be found, and what happened to these keys, Chris Pint couldn't tell us as that information was lost to time.

"All I can tell you was that these keys were such important relics that each knight was sworn to protect them and keep them apart. In fact, each knight was given an army of tens of thousands to ensure these relics would never be brought together," he revealed.

"Why?" My eyes were glued to him.

"Apparently, if all five keys were in the same place, it would herald the coming of Ragnarok," he answered in an ominous tone.

"Ragna… rok?" Luca repeated the word that was foreign to his tongue.

"It's the Norse word for the end of days," I answered, once more bringing my knowledge of random things to the forefront of our conversation. "There are some similarities to Norse myths and fairy lore… I mean, they even call their golden moon Idunn, which is also the name of the Norse G.o.ddess of Spring."

"My G.o.d… you are a nerd," Chris Pint joked.

"Told you," Luca added.

After they finished laughing at my expense—the two of them were really hitting it off—Chris Pint continued with his tale.

When the lost monarch vanished from his throne, he took his five sense knights with him, and with them went all knowledge of these secret keys and their purposes. Hundreds of years later, the first human to wield a sense gift was born among the slaves of the Moon clan. This meant that at least the sense knight of touch was dead.

The rise of a new sense knight brought about the fracturing of the Moon clan and the rising of the Scarlet Moon. That was part of the reason why so many living fairies both feared and revered the powers of those who wielded sense gifts.

"Within the last thirty years, the three of us who wield the gift of senses managed to do some pretty amazing stuff," he boasted. "The old man's now the most feared creature in the entire Fayne. No one even wants to speak his name aloud. I rule one of the wealthiest clans in the south. And that girl who came before you was recently elevated to the rank of Inquisitor by that nosy group of Justiciars."

Chris Pint took another puff of his pipe and then let out a cloud of blue smoke from his nostrils.

"You've got a lot to live up to, kiddo," he finished.

---

Later that night, after our conversation with the Lord of Stars was over and I'd gathered my troops at the southern edge of his camp standing by a wagon he'd sold us. I found myself lost in thought, wondering just what kind of legacy fate had pushed me into.

I wondered inwardly if I would I be as successful as those who came before me. Or would I fail to live up to the expectations that Chris Pint shoved onto my shoulders?

As I pondered these questions in my head, Aura stood watch over me. Of course, I'd told her everything Chris Pint had shared with me, even the part about my mom. I didn't blame her though as I knew she was trying her best on that front.

Aura hadn't said anything about the sense knights. It was possibly because she didn't know about them, or if she did, she wasn't willing to tell me right then and there. I suspected it was the latter as she seemed nervous throughout my telling as if I'd stumbled onto a secret she didn't think I was ready to hear. But I didn't press her for answers. I trusted she would tell me once she thought I should know more.

Minutes of rumination later, and the convoy we'd been waiting for had finally arrived.

Azuma, along with several centaur riders from Xanthor's unit had arrived to escort us out of the Westersand Desert.

And as we readied to depart, I glanced behind me one last time and found the Lord of Stars standing in front of the last tent. He waved his hand at me in farewell, his face almost sad as if he thought that we would never see each other again.