[Ryine]Ryine and Knighthood

[Oath]

[Info]If you'd like to participate in this thread, feel free, Either during or after the Knighting.[/info]
[Spoiler=Click for Music!]http://youtube.com/v/rDc96BpTN_s&autoplay=1[/spoiler]

Ryine was doing what he did best lately, hunting creatures of the night. He had heard rumours that there were demons cropping up around town, and outside of it, so he grabbed Eclipse and went on the prowl. He was glad that he didn't have to stray too far from town, his adventures often seemed to take far too long, and the guild was his home. The warrior had been at his activities for about a week, thinning the herd of demons and other creatures that would seek to harm those he wanted to protect.

His mission let him meet all sorts of people, high born nobles, low born pickpockets, bastards of great families. The city really was a big place. As the numbers of demons dwindled, their boldness seemed to increase. One night, as evening was falling, the last of the sun disappearing behind the horizon, Ryine was walking back to town, after a couple days of travel. Ahead of him, he heard shouts and steel, and rushed to the scene. A wagon was overturned, a few men lay crushed on the ground, and three Balban were causing chaos amidst the ranks of the dozen or so men that were left standing.

Ryine sprung into action, charging the distance while drawing Eclipse from its sheath and slashing viciously at the calf of one of the giant demons, hoping to bring it down.The demon bellowed in pain, pounding its giant grey chest. It turned towards Ryine, pounding the ground with its massive fists. The man leapt out of the way of the massive fist, ground shattering beneath the force of the blow, and countered with a thrust into the forearm of the creature. Eclipse became lodged in the arm of the beast, as it raised its arm for another slam, Ryine went with it. Dangling nearly twenty feet in the air, Ryine struggled to free Eclipse from the arm of the Balban. As its arms reached their peak, Eclipse pulled free with a sickening fountain of blood following. As he fell, Ryine stabbed into the demon's back with as much force as he could muster, the force of gravity carrying him and his blade to the ground with a solid thud, and the monster being left with a massive wound.

The Balban he had been fighting looked at Ryine, with an expression full of rage, as the man laid on the ground in a heap. It raised its leg and went to stomp on the man. Ryine rolled out of the way, getting to his knees after the foot shook the ground around him. He slashed at the Balban's leg once more, striking true and bringing the monster to its knees. With a shout, he used all the force he could muster to drive Eclipse into the shoulder of the demon, carrying the blade down through its stomach and out near its hip. The Balban fell forward, spraying blood all over Ryine. After it hit the ground, he thrust his blade into its head for good measure, and turned to check how the others were faring. The other two Balban were in fairly decent shape still, a few more of the men had fallen. They were not too far away, so Ryine rushed over to help. With a leap and a ferocious slash, Ryine caught the second Balban unaware. It lurched forward after the force of the blow, and stumbled to the ground, the men around plunged their blades into the fallen demon, ending it with little trouble.
The final demon was crushing the soldiers around him with his massive arms, slamming them into the ground, or picking them up and tossing them aside, only for a sickening thud to be heard in the distance. The dozen had dwindled to five, plus Ryine. The men fanned out around the monster as it swung its arms, hoping to minimize the damage it could do. They took turns approaching the Balban, swinging blades, axes, and hammers. Most of the blows hardly broke the skin of the beast, caution winning over brute force in their approach. Another man was crushed, and Ryine took that opening to slash with all his strength. The Balban turned towards him, and the others took advantage of that opening, four weapons assaulted the vulnerable sides of the demon and it fell, Ryine dove out of the way and all of the men continued to beat it, to ensure its demise.

One of the surviving soldiers ran towards the overturned wagon. "My Lord! Are you alright?" Ryine hadn't even noticed a body wedged under the wagon. A man lay with his legs crushed under the weight of the wagon, yet he had not made any cries of agony. He spoke, with a quiet yet pained tone. "Yes, Isaac, I'm alright. My legs might not be, though." he flashed a weak smile. Ryine approached the survivors. "Let's get this wagon off of him. The five of them lifted the wagon and moved it only a few feet, but it was enough. The man's legs were free, but it was clear they were both broken. He spoke again, this time to Ryine. "Who are you? Why would you risk so much to help strangers on the road?"

I'm Ryine. I'm with the Guild of Galas'nor. Helping people is what we do, and I have a personal reason to fight demons as well." He brandished his giant sword. "And this is Eclipse, my trusty blade. Haven't been together for too long but we've slain a lot of evil." Ryine put the blade back into the sheath. "The men here called you Lord, but who are you?" his lack of courtesy took the soldiers by surprise.

"My name is Taillefer Gilbert. A nobleman, who's life you just saved. Clearly without your assistance, my men and myself would all be dead. You're a brave fighter, and you ought to be rewarded for your valor." The men standing around him looked surprised. "My Lord, surely you can't be serious. This man is no more than a sellsword..." Before the man could even finish his thought, Taillefer Gilbert cut him off. "Saving the life of a noble is sufficient reason to be knighted." He smiled at Ryine. "I ask that you can travel to my keep, in a week's time. We will hold the ceremony there." He was out of his element, but Ryine could hardly refuse the honor. Lord Gilbert, I'm just a common man, never in my life had I dreamed of becoming a Ser." Lord Gilbert would have no arguing, and they made arrangements for Ryine to be knighted.

A week later

[Spoiler=Click for More Music!]http://youtube.com/v/xFxjizGRCY0&autoplay=1[/spoiler]

Ryine had traveled to Lord Gilbert's keep as requested, to be knighted. He was out of his element and unsure how to handle the situation. He was wearing his best clothes, and a bit nervous as he waited for the ceremony to start. He heard a voice inside his head. "I do all of the work and you're the one that gets the honor? Well, I'm nice so I don't mind helping. I can't swing myself at any rate. You sure seem hopeless outside of combat, it's painful." the voice laughed inside his head, as Ryine sat there, far more perplexed than usual. He looked around, he was alone in the room. Surely it must be some sort of trick. Ryine called out. "Who goes there?!" The laughing continued. "On your back, you idiot. You might have dressed in your sunday best, but you still brought me." Ryine reached back shocked, and pulled Eclipse out of the sheath. "Eclipse... You can talk?"

"Sure can! I probably know more words than you too! I can help you not make a fool of yourself during the ceremony, you know, tell you what to say and all you need to do is repeat it." Before Ryine could respond, an attendant entered the room. "The ceremony is about to start, please come this way." Ryine followed the attendant out towards the hall. It was packed with people, most of them not familar. At the end of the massive room, Lord Gilbert sat on a throne, the surviving guards from the encounter with the Balbons attending to him.

He walked down the path of scarlet carpet that had been laid on the stone floor, each step making him more nervous than the last. After a minute or two, he arrived in front of the throne, and stood there looking like an oaf. A voice in his head. "Kneel you fool!" Ryine did as he was instructed, kneeling and lowering his head. A booming voice spoke from the throne. "Ryine Schaefer! For your honour and valor against the servants of Chaos and Evil, and slaying three Balbon demons, I give you the only reward I am able. I name you Ser Ryine Schaefer." The voice in his head. Okay now say "Thank you my Lord, for bestowing this honor on a man as simple as I." Ryine followed orders. "Thank you my Lord, for bestowing this honor on a man as simple as I."

Lord Gilbert accepted his blade from one of the men attending him and proceeded to tap Ryine on each shoulder. "It is done. Next, we shall have a feast in your honor!" Before Eclipse could even begin to speak, Ryine was overcome by excitement. "A FEAST YOU SAY? MY LORD, I THANK YOU! WHERE CAN I GO TO EAT??" In his head.Ryine could hear Eclipse mocking him. "By the Gods, how can you be so simple? Can you not hold your composure for a few second after the mere mention of food? I can't believe you're my master. The hall went quiet, as the onlookers stared at Ryine in shock. Lord Gilbert simply laughed. Well, you won't have to go far, Ser Schaefer."

With that, he clapped, and trays of food began to be carried in by a large number of servants. They escorted Ryine to the table that Lord Gilbert was eating at, and he was given a seat of honor. High born people came and went, while Ryine shoveled as much food as he could into his mouth, some seemed to wonder if his mouth was going to unhinge itself. This is your big chance Ryine, to mingle with some Lords and Ladies, and here you are quiet as can be, doing nothing but eating." Ryine did his best to ignore Eclipse, and continued to eat, making comments to the nobles around him when he found it appropriate, which was rare. He was a simple man and didn't care for the intrigue of political affairs. The food was great, no doubt, but he yearned the company of some of his own. He was all smiles to everyone at the table, and made sure to compliment the taste of each dish, but that was about the extent of what he felt comfortable with.

[Info] Feel free to be at the feast for whatever reason! Come have fun![/info]

[Linwelin]

"BAHAHAHAHA!" A familiar voice laughs loudly from behind you as it approaches. "Gods, Ryine, your situational awareness is still top notch." Kin says with a heaping amount of sarcasm. After allowing Ryine to semi-squirm under the words, Kin walks up and pats the outside of Ryine's thigh in congratulations, taking a serious and warm tone. "Great work, Ryine. You definitely earned it. Just try not to make a fool of yourself as a knight, ya oaf." Kin looked up to the warrior with a large grin.

Looking at him, Kin was actually dressed in a fitting amount of finery. He wore a green doublet, with a smaller cravat tied around his neck. He wore his usual ring and amulet, but they seemed fitting and completely different in this setting. The shoes and pants were fine but simpler, though being darker colors, it did not at all look shoddy.

"Now come on, let's get a drink! All you've been doing is shoveling food, I'm betting your mouth is beyond dry from it!"

[Oath]

Ryine was glad to see a familiar face, though the outfit that accompanied it was anything but familiar. "You look like a little Lord yourself, Kin!" He felt himself a little embarrassed at Kin's compliments, but tried not to show it on his face. He raised a glass of a fine wine, completely out of place, towards Kin. "Cheers, my friend!" he emptied the cup in the manner of a cheap ale in the guild hall, and slammed it down to the table with a smile on his face. Kin was right, he did need a drink. The nobles at the table, looked at him appalled at his lack of manners when it comes to fine wines but he didn't notice. He refilled his cup and emptied it once more, offering Kin some of the drink as well.

[Linwelin]

Kin looked side to side, and sighed at Ryine's actions. "My friend, have you ever drank wine before? You're not making a good name for yourself by doing that. Idiot." Kin raises his glass in cheers for the second round of Ryine embarrassing himself, and took a sip from his glass. "You're going to get drunk before the party even starts. The goal was to quench your thirst, not kill your senses." Kin was beginning to regret recommending that drink.

"So how did you manage to win favor with the lord here? What actually happened? All I've heard is you did some 'feat of bravery'."

[Oath]

"Oh Kin, you know me. Drinks are drinks, and I was thirsty! I have a hearty constitution so it will take more than a couple glasses of this stuff to take me down." Ryine sat pondering for a moment. Had he really not told the fellow members about the battle? No matter, it was a great story and he could retell it.

"Well, Kin, this is what happened. I was on my way back to town, after hunting down some demons that had popped up not too far away. Well wouldn't you know it, there were three giant Balbans attacking Lord Gilbert here. I can never resist a good fight, so I charged in to help out, ended up doing a lot of the killing myself." Ryine was interrupted. "We." Even in a seat of honor, Ryine didn't leave his sword behind, and now he would pay for it. "Right.. We. Eclipse and Me. We killed the demons together". He paused, embarrassed wondering what Kin would think about a talking sword. Surely he didn't just imagine the talking, because of the alcohol.

[Linwelin]

"It's not about constitution, it's about upholding your image as a knight. You have a duty to be presentable as a man of courtly honor, now. I never thought I'd see the day a knight had worse manners than me." Kin retorted, smirking at his friend's obliviousness. He was upsetting all the attendants at his own feast. Truly, he was the oafiest of oafs.

Kin stood silent, staring with a hard gaze at Ryine for a moment. "I'm not nearly drunk enough to be hearing voices. Your sword just talked. Did your sword just talk? It's sentient!? Kin was astounded. He'd not come across a sentient weapon before. Interesting. "Huh, so your sword is sharper than you in more than one way." Kin joked, letting loose a hearty chuckle.

[Oath]

Ryine chuckled at Kin's comments about honor. "I never thought I'd be a Ser. You can put a man in fancy clothes but you can't change his spirit in a day!" Ryine was glad that someone else HAD heard Eclipse, and that he was not just imagining things. "I didn't find out until today, Eclipse tried to help me with the ceremony." "It worked so well." "Eclipse, a man has to follow his stomach's desires." Ryine took another bite of food and turned back to Kin. "Well, Eclipse has been around a while, of course it knows more than I do! I'm as surprised as you are I've been swinging the blade around for a while now, and it never made a sound. Well, a sound besides ones a sword would normally make."

[Linwelin]

It all started making more sense to the halfling now, "So that's how you managed the ceremony so well. You'd usually not have that kind of focus." Kin still found it a stretch to call him a 'Ser' with how rough he was. But, it was what it was, and it's not like the man would change from a single title. "So, are you going to be taught by a senior knight on knighthood now, or are they just letting you roam free. If you're not being taught, they're risking their reputation." Kin takes another drink, "Having you run around impulsively when in their name could cause all sorts of trouble."

Then the halfling looks up at Ryine with a smirk, "And you're definitely no stranger to trouble."

Then Kin addresses the sword, "So, 'Eclipse', is it? Did you start speaking because you realized this oaf needed guidance before something turned for the worse, or what?"

[Oath]

"It's true. The affairs of Lords and Ladies never really concerned me; I was always just a body guard for those types of events. I don't know what they're going to do with me, but since I don't harm the innocent they're probably not too concerned with what I'm up to. They know I'm a man of Galas'nor, can't change that." Ryine let out a hearty laugh.

Eclipse spoke to Kin. "I was asleep, for a long while. You know, its dreadfully boring to be stuck in the ground for hundreds of years. I just fell asleep and after this man Ryine swung me around enough I woke up again. The worst is usually funnier, but I can't have my name, as poor of a name as he chose, drug through the mud. So I elected to help. He's a proficient fighter, and hates my enemies, so he is a good enough master."

Ryine looked shocked. "What!? Eclipse is a great name!" The blade just sighed.

[Linwelin]

It was Kin's turn to let out a hearty laugh. "True enough, you can't really influence someone from Galas'nor. The force of our personality is more stubborn than a mule. And yes, Eclipse, he's a good fighter, but a reckless one. I don't think you'll be bored any time soon. Oh, little known fact, he's not fond of birds." Kin says with a knowing smile. At Ryine's expected hard stare, Kin responded in a joking, defensive manner, "Whaaaaat? It'd find out eventually! Anyways, why 'Eclipse', Ryine?" Humoring the both of them.

[Oath]

"The next time those turkey show up, Eclipse will cleave all of them. Mark my words!" Ryine did have a grudge against the turkey, they had attacked the guild too many times. "Well, Kin, I named Eclipse such because its a really big blade, and it blocks out the life of demons. Or something like that. You know naming things is hard." Eclipse sighed again. "My master is daft. His naming sense is just unbelievable." Ryine took another drink. "Well, do you have a better suggestion?" "I wouldn't need to suggest anything if you could read. It says my name on the blade." Ryine had seen the inscriptions on the blade before, but they didn't seem to be in common, so he was clueless as to what it could say. It wasn't the time to draw the blade from the sheath though, so he just let the comment slide. "Maybe I'll learn someday. But that wasn't the point, Eclipse. Kin asked why you were named as such!"

[Linwelin]

Kin nearly fell over laughing, "Y-You seriously...hahaha...you renamed a sword for a reason like that!? HAHAHAHAHA!" Then Kin, gasping for a moment, making a bit of a scene unconsciously, "And you LET HIM!?" He continues laughing over what almost seemed on the level of a lovers' spat. "Hahahahaaaaahahaha...haha. Haaaaaa...Whew! Gods, that's incredible." He clears his throat, realizing that he's being stared at, returning an eyebrow to the gazes. "This guy's hilarious, do you really blame me?" They all turn away unsettled.

"Anyways," Kin turns back to the duo. "What's your pre-Eclipse name? It's improper to not know such a blade's history." Kin pauses to glance at Ryine, "Especially as the owner." Kin's work as a blacksmith and training as a swordsage has brought him a certain respect for fine weaponry and their origins, as well as their wielders. Now that Ryine held such a blade, he would be part of its history, which is an important matter.

[Oath]

"Well by the time I woke up he seemed pretty attached to it. Can't break the poor man's heart." Eclipse spoke once more, drawing attention from the people around him. Perhaps they thought that Ryine was putting on a bit of a ventriloquism act. Either way the stares continued. Eclipse continued. "My original name isn't anything special either. The smith who forged me was about as talented of a word smith as Ryine here and simply called me Demon's Bane." Ryine looked at Kin. "I like Eclipse more." He grinned. He was curious what he would be able to add to the history, but only time would tell.

[Linwelin]

"Ah, so that's the kind of sentience you are. Hard to tell if you're a soul in a blade or simply given life. Well met, Eclipse. As this oaf and I are often fighting together, I look forward to working with you." Kin nodded in approval. "Either way, 'Eclipse' certainly has a bit more character to it. Surprisingly enough, I think Ryine did right by this name." Kin smiled at Ryine. "So, do you know if the lord here has anyone else employed that's strong? I've been thinking about have a sparring match while I'm here, but don't want to waste my time." Kin was already scanning the crowd for possible opponents. Kin didn't really care for the courtly setting himself, but he knew that there were always excellent fighters in the employ of men like this.

[Oath]

The blade remained silent, pondering at Kin's words. It was hard to say which name was better. At least Eclipse's current owner was competent in battle, a brave soul, and at least aimed to be righteous, although daft. Ryine spoke. "Can't say for sure. Didn't get a good look at most of the men in his force. Some of them are bound to be decent though. Perhaps we can set up a match for the morning, when everyone has slept off their drink." He grinned. It would be fun to have a sparing match, it had been a while since he had competed in friendly competition.