Seersucker

Penitent Ch 54: Blessings

Michael awoke in an unfamiliar bed. It was dim, with the room being lit only by a small handful of candles scattered around. He sat up slowly, rubbing his face and looking around. He was on the top bunk, along with all of his things, and he could hear snoring from the bunk below him. He found his canteen in his pack and drank deeply from it, clearing the cobwebs in his head as he did so. He’d pushed himself to the point of losing consciousne...

Bonus chapter

I accidentally posted 2 chapters on RR the other day so to keep the Patreon at 30 chapters ahead I posted 2 today. Enjoy

Penitent Ch 53: Limit

Bayle took them down a short hall, and onto a narrow staircase. On the second floor of the tower were five narrow bunk beds, and on the third were five more. The ceilings were low and Ollie was forced to hunch over as they stepped out onto the third floor. The floors were dirty and rickety, the beds more like pallets filled with hay and covered in thin fabric, and five other men were sitting in the center of it rolling dice. They were wearing ...

Penitent Ch 52: The Fort

They arrived in the camp later than anyone would’ve liked, and roused the knight that had fallen asleep keeping watch. Michael couldn’t blame him much, they were still well inside Stent from what he understood, but Tain gave him some choice criticism before they made their way into the sleeping camp.

Michael muffled his movements with a quick spell, and the others followed suit, not wanting to wake everyone with their clanging as the...

Penitent Ch 51: Catching Up

Michael bit into the meat of the King of the Forest carefully at first, not sure if the meat would prove as tough as its hide had, but he was pleased to find it perfectly tender. Even without spices, the meat itself had a rich savory quality to it. It was so good that he found himself quickly finishing his plate and asking for another. The entire village was gathered in the square where they’d built a massive fire and were slowly roasting pi...

Penitent Ch 50: Celebration

Tain, a hand over the brand on his arm that matched the ones on their necks, stepped forward, grabbing Pyotr and shoving him to the side away from the struggling stag.

“The kill is mine,” he said, the pain in the Penitent’s necks fading as he stepped toward the beast with his spear. “Back away so I can finish it.”

Davi clenched his own spear and started to move toward Tain, but Pyotr grabbed his arm and shook his head. Th...

Penitent Ch 49: Hunt

The next morning they all woke before the sunrise. Their routine from the academy was too ingrained in them to allow them to sleep in. All except for Marcus who snored loudly enough to fill the entire barn with the sound of it until Davi chucked a boot at him. A little over an hour later, when the sun was rising, Durn appeared along with several other villagers with fresh food prepared in a basket. There was bread, cooked eggs, bacon, and some...

Penitent Ch 48: Rundling

Rundling was a small village, but Michael noticed immediately that it had paved roads and a number of the strange street lights he’d seen in the town he was born in. The buildings themselves were made of wood, stone, or brick and all seemed to have been built at different times and maintained at different rates. The entire town was surrounded by a well constructed wooden fence that seemed more to keep livestock from wandering out than to kee...

Penitent Ch 47: Start

The march out of the academy was a grand affair with the blowing of horns, cheers from proud instructors, and even small fireworks shot up into the sky above them as they walked out of the gates and onto the main road. This celebration was not for the Penitents, but Michael appreciated the pageantry of it anyway. They, he noticed, were all positioned to march in the center of the regulars. This hid them from view of anyone they passed while ma...

Penitent Ch 46: Soldier

Everyone about to leave the academy stood in a sea of gray uniformed bodies in a large field. Michael and the other Penitents were all in the back corner, far from the podium in front of everyone on which stood General Achen. The sky was overcast and a light breeze with the final chill of a long spring made a few of the recruits shiver as it blew through their orderly rows.

The general took a deep breath and when he spoke his voice carri...

Penitent Ch 45: A Gift

Training in full armor was miserable at first, but everyone eventually got the hang of it. Michael adjusted to the weight more quickly than most, and Marcus’s lighter set meant he didn’t really need to adjust much at all to begin with, but Pyotr struggled with the reduced mobility. Davi was one of the only people with a newer suit of armor than Michael was wearing, as there were no repaired suits that could be sized up for him. He had the ...

Penitent Ch 44: Armor

The first hour was the easiest. He was full of righteous anger and a desire to help his friend with his pain. The strength of those emotions distracted him, shielding him from the agony he was feeling. By the second hour, those thoughts weren’t enough, and he was left with only the pain. He was barely able to keep himself from writhing on the bed like Ollie had been doing earlier, and he was very swiftly gnawing through the rope that he’d ...

Penitent Ch 43: Pain

Michael and Lance stood on opposite sides of the arena. Fresh planks had been placed in areas that had started to take a lot of damage, and the crowd was excited, but tense. Michael tightened his grip on his sword handle as he got low. In spite of what he’d told the general, he had no intention of throwing the fight. He’d just figured, if he was going to lose anyway, he may as well make sure he and his friends all benefited from it.

...

Penitent Ch 42: Deals

Cohle and Jakub made their way to the center of the arena and clasped one another’s hands for a moment before moving to their respective corners. Both had opted for bastard swords for this fight, a reckless choice, and one that fit Cohle better from what he’d seen. Once they were in their corners and had taken their stances, the horn blew and they charged toward one another.

Cohle opened with a dramatic leap into an overhead swing, a...

Penitent Ch 41: Masks

Jakub and Leana won their own fights handily, and once they were cleared off the arena platform the announcer himself stepped onto the top of the observation box.

“Congratulations to Lance’s team for being the victors of the Festival of Blade’s tournament!”

A cheer went out from the crowd, their hatred of Michael dulled by their enthusiasm for Lance.

“We will have a brief break and then the final fights to determine...

Penitent Ch 40: The Edge

Michael was woken by a harsh smell that forced his eyes open. He inhaled with a dreadful intake of air as the scent made his eyes water and his nose burn. He heard a voice through a flurry of sudden and uncomfortable sensations.

“Heal yourself.”

He moved his hand onto his chest, a sudden burst of pain reminding him that his shoulder was dislocated. He felt heat in his hand and pain across his broken and battered body f...

Penitent Ch 39: Outclassed

The arena had undergone yet another change overnight, though the work had likely started while the games were occurring. There was now a wide, circular wooden platform assembled in the center of the bleachers. There were no obstacles on it, no cover that could be used to one's advantage. The one on one fights were meant to be clean, with clear victors. If someone was going to win by guile they’d need to be exceptionally clever. 

M...

Penitent Ch 38: Team Player

Michael dragged himself to the infirmary to get himself a restorative draught. By the time he finished drinking it he was starting to feel like he was recovering, but he’d need a good night’s rest to get back to a hundred percent. The games were the end of the tournament for the day, and after one more bout of healing he doled out to everyone, the team had made plans to meet again the next morning after breakfast. The individual fights bet...

Penitent Ch 37: Run

After a brief break for food and drink, they moved on to the field that had been set up for the games. There was a massive track in a circle inside which there was a massive rock wall, and a series of what looked like boulders set down in a large pit. There was an archery range outside of the circle, and on the other end was what looked like an obstacle course with pounds of dirt, scaffolding, rope ladders, and a number of other structures. Al...

Penitent Ch 36: First Victory

Michael stood with his team in the pit. He was wearing a breastplate and helmet, with a sword and shield in his hands. The rest of his team was behind him a short ways, going over final plans, though his own guidelines were simple, keep everyone from going down. The arena had been changed to accommodate the team melee. There were now more of the large pillars to block line of sight and a trench had been dug in the center with a few rickety woo...

Penitent Ch 35: Riot

There was an uproar as the announcer declared the melee over. Michael pushed his way to the edge of the seating and leaped down, rolling forward to keep the fall from hurting him.

A few moderators closed on him quickly, but he held up his hand, willing it to heal so that it would glow gold.

“I’m a healer, I just wanted to treat them quickly so you can get them out of here!” he yelled.

The moderators nodded, and moved to...

Penitent Ch 34: Melee

After a few more sparring matches in which Michael fared much better than his fight against Lance, they made their way to watch the melee. Over the last two days a series of bleachers had been built around a wide open field toward the center of the academy grounds. It was well crowded as people tried to press in and find seats. Michael considered sitting with his new teammates, but wary of what a crowd might do with a penitent in their midst h...

Penitent Ch 33: Team

Lance held up a hand at the girl who was brandishing her staff. “I’ve already gotten the permission of Knight Lieutenant Kline, and he’s agreed. To take back the offer now would dishonor the festival.”

“It’s a worse dishonor to include a taker,” she spat the word like a slur, which Michael supposed was what it was.

The bald recruit looked up at Michael. “You healed me when I was in the infirmary. You looked...

Penitent Ch 32: Festival of Blades

The energy around the Academy had changed from subdued from the murder, to excited overnight. The Festival of Blades holiday occurred less than once a year, and many of the academy’s students had been concerned that it wouldn’t occur during their time there, forcing them to lose out on a chance for glory or even earning a deed and title.

“They really seem to like beating the shit of each other,” said Ollie at breakfast as he shov...

Penitent Ch 31: Reconciliation

The next day Michael was sent straight to Dugan after breakfast. He found that he was nervous seeing the dwarf after all that had happened. He and Meera were the only two natives whose opinion actually mattered to him. He approached the quartermaster’s office and went to the desk, knocking on it twice to get the old dwarf’s attention.

There was the sound of movement inside and the scrape of a stool being dragged across the ground, th...

Penitent Ch 30: Guilty

Meera stared at him for a moment with silver eyes that bore into his soul. He was sitting in an interrogation room in the disciplinary section of the academy. He had only just that morning been released from the tomb less than twenty yards from it.

Meera’s eyes returned to their usual warm brown and she stumbled a little. She looked wan and pale. He remembered her mentioning how much it took out of her, and now she’d used it three ti...

Penitent Ch 29: Dig Two Graves, Maybe Three

Michael was awoken at dawn by the cell door opening. A normal guard was standing there, stifling a yawn as he clipped his keys back to his belt.

“Head to the infirmary. Get your shot and then you can return to your barracks.”

The soldier left and Michael pulled himself up to his feet, slipping his jacket on and patting down the creases from it being folded before climbing up out of the tomb and heading to the infirmary. There w...

Penitent Ch 28: General Favors

Michael spent an uninterrupted week in the tomb. He very quickly realized that the reason that the sun was able to shine through the top was to give those trapped inside an exact idea of how much time was passing. If there’d been no sunlight, no way to tell how much time had passed, then it would’ve passed much more quickly. With sunlight he was acutely aware of exactly how long he had been there. He would shiver his way thro...

Penitent Ch 27: Entombed

Michael sat on the cold stone for a long while, cooling off. He’d never been that angry, at least not in his old life. A lot of it was because of Marcus, but he knew it was mostly something that had been simmering under the surface for him for a while. He didn’t want to be there. He wanted to live, that’s why he fought against the pull of whatever it was he saw when he died, but not on these terms. He wanted his wife, he wanted his child...

Penitent Ch 26: Murder

Michael’s recovery ability was working overtime as he made his way toward the camp, and by the time he’d reached it, everything seemed to be resolved. He saw a number of men in red still groaning on the ground, with far fewer in black scattered among them. Lance was barking orders to people that could be heard from a ways off and Davi and Pyotr were standing with Marcus, who had a rough looking bruise over his eye, and chatting.

Lanc...