In Search of the Dawnbringers

"Very well," The four men bowed their heads and the three generals left while Reynold remained in the room, much to the Dawn Lady's confusion.

"Yes, Reynold?" She turned to him as she stacked the papers and awaited his announcement or question.

"About your daughter."

"My daughter, yes?"

"Well, she has confessed to me that she is in love with me," The Dawn Lady stopped, papers in her hand about to be tapped to the right level, frozen by his comment, "And I, in turn, confessed what I felt for her."

"Very well, so what am I to conclude from all of this?" She seemed not very pleased with what had been told to her, "When did you find out she was my daughter anyways?"

"After all of this happened earlier today."

"Am I right to believe that you didn't coerce her?" Reynold nodded, "Am I right to believe that you actually love her?" He nodded once more, "So be it, I expect you to conduct yourself with behavior in line with your sentiments."

"I am sorry, Dawn Lady," He felt stupid, "What exactly did you mean with that?"

"Act as you say you feel," She replied, "I will have a discussion with my daughter to hear about it."

"I will act as best I can," The Dawn Lady nodded and dismissed him with a flick of her hand, "Good evening, Dawn Lady."

"Good Evening, Reynold," She didn't seem very invested in his newly formed relationship with her daughter but she still seemed to allow him to go forwards with it and didn't dismiss it right away. That was a good start for Reynold.

He entered his quarters and hung up his formal uniform that had been made for him as an official advisor of the Dawn Lady, "So Lady Holi is also the Dawn Lady then," He mumbled to himself as a candle gently flickered on his desk, "I wonder if I made a good impression on the generals with my ideas," Insecurities coursed through his mind as his life had been doing nothing but peak higher and higher and he wasn't used to being in such a position. In his head, he was still a soldier, fresh faced and out of his element in a planning role but here he was, an advisor to the second most powerful person in the kingdom after the King. He moved to the window of his room and overlooked the darkness outside and sighed, he wanted to be on the frontlines, not waiting in the capital safe and sound as other men risked their lives to execute his part of the strategic planning. Guilt was nearly overwhelming as he clenched his fist and wished to have just been a simple legionnaire, not some sort of hero. He heard a knock come to his door, "Come in!" He turned to see a smiling maid walk in with a letter, "What is this?"

"A letter from Ravenwood, sir," He smiled and took the letter before nodding his head as a farewell. He was left alone once more as he opened the letter and held his parent's letter in his hand.

"It has been a while," Reybold began reading to himself, "All these things that have happened that we were unable to be there to witness it," He sat down and began to cry as he continued to read, "We are proud of you, son, we heard of your valor and your bravery from a legionnaire that was nice enough to tell us who the man the dark lands feared was in his stories," He smiled, "I love you too, mother, I love you too, father," It had been a while since he had left his home to come to the Dawn Legion and he had not had a chance to return home and see his parents again. The frontlines were not very far from there but they were the quiet fronts as neither the Dawn Legion and the King's men nor the dark lands seemed to want to invest into that front aside from the already consistent night attacks. Legionnaires would pass through Ravenwood on their way to the frontlines while resting in the field headquarters or in the slightly expanded town as more attention was brought to Ravenwood.

Reynold lost himself in the pages of old books and tales of the legendary fights against evil centuries before. The dark lands was a rather new phenomena but evil attacking good was one as old as time. In the past, those who stood against evil were called 'Dawnbringers', men and women who put their lives in the path of evil and crushed it under the glorious light. Now, that title had faded and those men and women were simply known as legionnaires. Reynold read the book, standing up in the old library as his eyes found a strange detail, "Each Dawnbringer has a patron of light, becoming another patron of light when they in turn die," Reynold had never heard of patrons of light but somehow they were the spirits of the dead that had something to do with the Dawnbringers, "Who would know about this? Hmmm."

He walked out of the library and spotted the Dawn Lady entering the library, "A reader, are we?"

"I have been given a chance so I am reading and writing more," He replied, "This farmboy is the Dawn Lady's advisor."

"Which book is that old, dusty manuscript?" Reynold held it out so she could read it.

"Thus, the Dawnbringers."

"Does the Origin of the Legion interest you?" He nodded, "I know a man capable of calling upon a patron of light, we are not driven by simple good and bad anymore, we are too nuanced."

"Nuanced as in complicated?"

"More or less, we don't just fight for right or wrong, we fight for glory, pride, honor, necessity or a combination of the former, some even just to fight."

"I will study this book and see what I can make of it, Dawn Lady."

"Make sure you keep my daughter in mind when you inevitably try to get your own patron," He nodded and smiled as they continued on their different paths. The library was mostly empty but he had found the perfect font of knowledge just at its mouth, just in the large doorway. Now it was time to see what these Dawnbringers did to be so powerful and if the young, ambitious man could achieve such powers himself.