An Oath to Forgive

Sir Luke Morrow looks up at the sky and whisper’s to himself “God forgive me, for I am about to sin, again.”

Some would say this is the perfect spring morning, with a clear blue sky, warm yellow sun and song birds chirping in the open meadow, but not Luke Morrow. His all black leather armor with silver trimmings a stark contrast to the vibrant colors surrounding him and his target, a small pale young man wearing a large green cloak and typical brown traveler’s clothes from the Kingdom of Weiss. Their two kingdoms are on the brink of war. All they need is a reason to tear each other apart. Luke has been ordered to stoke this fire.

Luke’s vision fixed on his target who has stumbled over in fear as soon as he saw who was approaching him. Luke draws a curved dagger with intricate engravings all down the blade and an onyx stone in the hilt meant for holy ceremonies, but there was nothing holy about Luke’s duty. He has to leave it on the body as a message to the Kingdom of Weiss.

The terrified young traveler whimpers and trembles on the ground. His hands desperately trying to draw his short sword. When it finally unsheathes he shakily points it up at Luke whose face is shrouded by his large black hood. Luke walks up and kicks the short sword out of the young traveler’s hands in one swift, blurry motion. He reaches down and grabs the young traveler by the collar and pulls him up until the dagger’s sharp edge is on his throat.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! Please, I was just scared! I have a message for your ki...” The young traveler’s words are cut off harshly by the cold steel of Luke’s blade. Warm, wet, thick blood oozes out from the traveler’s stomach as it coats the dagger and Luke’s sleeve. Luke twists the dagger a good quarter turn before drawing it back out. He was ordered to make it a slow painful death.

The young traveler’s body twitches and twists the last few moments of life. His eyes a mixture of melancholy and confusion. He reaches into his shirt and pulls out his hand clutching something attached to a silver chain around his neck.

He whispers his final prayer “My heart is my guiding light to salvation. Please let my light be the guide to those that have strayed to the darkness. When this dark soul seeks out forgiveness please grant it to him, All Mighty God.”

Luke hears this and laughs at the sheer ridiculousness of the prayer said for him. He leans in and says to the young traveler “There is no forgiveness for people like me. God cast me and my people out to the darkness a long time ago, young prince. Even if I want to be forgiven for all my sins, no one, not even God would shine his light on people like me”

The young prince of Weiss life drains from his face with a look of pity. Luke takes the dagger and drives it into the ground beside the body then walks away.

“There is only one way God could forgive someone like me. And I don’t plan on joining the Devil in Hell anytime soon.”

---

The Kingdom of Weiss hears the news of their precious prince being brutally murdered, but to everyone’s surprise they did not retaliate. This frustrated the king of Schwartz and so he once again calls upon his most loyal man, Luke Morrow.

This time he ordered Luke to kill Princess Blackman, who has for quite some time been outspoken against her step-father’s policies and leadership. He tells Luke to make it look like the Kingdom of Weiss took an eye for an eye, a prince for a princess.

Again, Luke loyally bows his head and forms a plan to fulfill his duty.

He speaks to himself on the eve of his plan. “God forgive me for I am about to sin again.”

Not a fortnight has passed since the murder of the Prince of Weiss when assassins dressed in all white besiege the Kingdom of Schwartz’s castle. The princess taken from her bed and viciously executed in the town square for all to see. The soldiers of the keep rush to apprehend the assassins, but by the time they get there they all have already taken their own lives. The town square filled with the blood of citizens, assassins, and the princess. Luke made sure there were no survivors. No witnesses except God and himself.

Luke falls to his knees and wretches at the sight of his dark deed. His sins crawl on his back as he heaves and gasps.

He speaks to himself “I was ordered to do it. Please forgive me, God. I had to fulfill my duty. I had to..”

---

The ensuing war made services like his precious and necessary. The king of Schwartz kept Luke close by, but never out in the open. He would always tell Luke to skulk somewhere in the shadows and protect him at all costs.

Luke loyally kept his vow to the king and God. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before anyone could find a peaceful resolution the country of Aigynny lost ten whole years to the war. History books will call it The Black and White war.

Luke Morrow continued to serve his king throughout the entirety of the Black and White war. He stained his hands with the blood of both soldiers and civilians until he lost track of which he killed more of during his missions. Every time he killed, Luke could feel the pang of guilt and trepidation. Like someone was watching his every move with disdain in their heart, but every time Luke searched for his stalker no one was to be found.

One evening, Luke had that same feeling creep into the back of his mind. He got out of bed and searched his room. Nothing. Then from up high in the king’s castle he heard a scream wrought with fear.

Luke races towards the king’s chambers. Along the way he sees the bodies scattered throughout the castle, but not a drop of blood.

No time to investigate. I must reach his majesty before it’s too late!

When he arrives outside of the king’s chambers he hears an argument, and to his initial relief the king’s voice.

The king pleads “Please! Spare my life and I’ll give you the man responsible for murdering Prince Lightwell!”

Luke freezes in place. He quickly shrouds himself in shadow magic to mask his presence and very gingerly puts his ear to the door.

A woman’s booming voice steeped in righteous indignation speaks “What right do you have to bargain for your life?! No assassin can make up for the atrocities you have committed during the war! Crimes that will be revered in infamy for the rest of time so long as God’s light shines on this world!”

“BUT I DIDN’T DO ANY OF THOSE DEEDS! HE DID! HIS NAME IS SIR MORROW! TAKE HIM AND NOT ME! BRING HIS HEAD TO YOUR QUEEN NOT MINE!”

The intruder throws a beautiful slender silver dagger and it pierces into the king’s right shoulder. He howls in agony.

“God’s divine judgement will come for Sir Morrow in due time, but no assassin in this disgusting country does anything of their own volition. They get their orders from someone and that someone is you according to our intelligence. Now enough of your sniveling. It is time for you to face your divine judgement!” The intruder’s light footsteps begin to walk towards the king.

Luke hears the king scramble to his feet knocking over what is assuredly the chest that contains his family’s treasures. Loud clanging sounds of precious metals and jewels reverberates in Luke’s ears.

The king begs “Please! Please! Take all that you want for yourself! No one has to know I was here! You missed me but a few moments ago! And you know how hard it is to track my men in the dark!”

The intruder spits on the ground and then says “You cannot buy me, King Blackman! No one can buy the light that God has granted me and my people. Now, stand up and face your divine judgement with your dignity in tact! I grant you this curtesy that you so cruelly denied our prince.”

The king’s heavy and clumsy footsteps dash towards the door. Instinctively, Luke opens the door as he hears the king approach. The king falls to Luke’s feet whimpering like a hurt pup.

He snivels and says “SIR MORROW! SAVE ME! KILL THE INTRUDER! I COMMAND IT!”

Luke looks down and sees not a king. For the first time Luke sees just how small this whining man is that for some reason has the power to throw a whole country into a decade long war. A man that he gave his undying loyalty to and what did he get in return? Sold out at the first sign of danger, and now this man has the audacity to ask for his aid yet again? Is this man capable of doing anything on his own?

He has been doing this man’s dark deeds for so long he can’t remember a time where he was truly free. Free from the darkness that this man bounded him to at birth. Stripped from his parents the moment he was born and inducted into a house that trained the kingdom’s assassins.

---

Luke’s first memory is the day he turned five and had to fight his new classmates. Their blood and tears dripping from his tiny, innocent-stripped fist. They were pitted against each other like some twisted game for thirteen years. Always trying to climb the leader board to be the best in the class, and if you weren’t in the top five then you were subjugated to more brutal training and starvation punishments. Luke had to eat the mice that dared to enter his room for a month when he was just twelve years old after he failed to kill his very first target.

“God forgive me for I am about to sin.” Luke whispers to himself as he stashes away his silver cross hidden in his black robes. It was the only thing he had that belonged to his parents.

He remembers feeling the pang of guilt as he snuck up on the unsuspecting serial pickpocket, or so he was told, and going for his ankles to incapacitate him. He covered the man’s mouth to muffle his screams as he brought his dagger to his throat, but the man’s desperate and sad eyes made him hesitate. In that moment the man used his superior strength to disarm Luke. The man then tried to crawl away but Luke’s teacher stepped out of the shadows and finished him off.

Luke will never forget the words his teacher spoke to him that day.

He said “It is not your place to question the morality of killing your targets. Leave your morality dead in the ground with this one. It will only bring you pain and anguish.”

Luke took those words to heart and carried them with him all the way to adulthood.

---

Luke looks again to the former king now just a man that was directly responsible for robbing him of his youth, his innocence. The man that has ordered him to do countless dark deeds. Each one blackening Luke’s soul a little more until killing young princes, princesses and other innocent people was just another day to him.

The former king’s long, soft hair, hair that has never been steeped in sweat from hard work, drapes over his face without the crown keeping out. Not a regal looking man at all. Just a man.

The intruder from Weiss doesn’t move an inch as she watches the former king and Luke talk. Luke can’t make out any physical features because the intruder is dressed in full shining white armor with a helm covering her face. Her broad great sword plunged into the floor as she grips the hilt with both hands. Luke can tell the intruder is waiting for Luke to make a decision.

The former king cries out again “I SAID KILL THE INTRUDER, SIR MORROW! KILL HIM NOW!”

Luke hears the intruder chuckle as she says “It would appear that your loyal shadow has over heard our previous conversation your majesty. I wonder how he feels knowing that his unyielding loyalty all these years was met with malcontent and cast aside at first sign of danger to yourself. Hardly the actions of a true king.”

The knight from Weiss speaks to Luke “Sir Morrow, or otherwise known as the Shadow of King Blackman, you too must face divine judgement from God. But as with all his subjects that have strayed from the light, he sometimes presents them with an opportunity. An opportunity to redeem their souls and take responsibility for their darkness. This is your moment Sir Morrow. You have seen the true face of your false king. You know the atrocities he has ordered you to commit. And you know what his kingdom made you into and what it took from you in your youth.”

The intruder draws her great sword from its resting position. She raises it in the air and a beam of white light erupts from its tip. It bursts out of the ceiling and illuminates the dark night all around the castle. After a few seconds more beams of light erupt in the darkness. Hundreds of them within the town limits and on the horizon. The Kingdom of Schwartz has been successfully infiltrated by the Kingdom of Weiss for who knows how long. Luke never even got an inkling about this invasion. But this invasion is justified. His kingdom was the wrong side of this war. Luke has known this for quite some time. He just didn’t want to admit it.

His whole life he has known this kingdom is rotten to its core. Led down deep into the darkness by their king. Luke knows what the knight from Weiss wants him to do, but he doesn’t know if he can do it. Can he so easily be forgiven for everything he has done in the name of duty?

Luke takes one step towards his former king. The sniveling man inches away from him, silently trembling. His lips move but no words come out of it. The large platinum ring shines on the Knight’s gauntlet. A silencing spell. Something only light magic can do.

The Knight speaks to Luke “His words have been dark poison in your ear for far too long. No longer heed his words. Think for yourself Sir Morrow. Do you wish to walk the path of redemption? Do you seek forgiveness for your actions? Or will you lay down your life for a Kingdom and a false king that has never once considered you?”

Luke considers for a moment. His brow furrows as more memories of the atrocious acts he has committed in his former king’s name.

Luke trembles as his dagger clinks at his side. He looks at the Knight and says “I seek forgiveness. I want to walk on the path of redemption, but what you ask of me I cannot do. If I am to earn my forgiveness then I need to be better than my former self starting right now. I will never take the life of another human with this hand so long as I breathe!”

Luke raises the same curved dagger he used to murder Prince Lightwell with his left hand as he says “I ask not for redemption! ONLY FORGIVNESS!”

Then brings the blade down in one swift motion, cutting through his flesh like a hot knife through butter. His right hand falls with a wet plop on the cold stone floor.

The Knight rests her great sword on her right shoulder. She walks up to Luke and the former king. She kicks the former king down onto the ground face first. Driving the heel of her greaves into his back.

Luke looks at the Knight who reaches up and removes her helm. Beautiful raven dark hair in two tight braids come tumbling out, snow white skin, and eyes blessed by the light of God to all his knights in the Kingdom of Weiss. Golden eyes of holy righteousness.

Now that the two denizens of Weiss and Schwartz come face to face, guided by fate, this decade long war can come to a close.

The Knight says to Luke “An honorable oath.” She bends down and grabs Luke’s severed hand. “With such a definitive and final act of devotion. I am impressed Sir Luke Morrow. You found the answer that God wanted you to hear. For you see, God despises when his creations fight and kill. It was my mission to only apprehend King Blackman and seize control of Schwartz without spilling a drop of blood. As I’m sure you saw on your way up here, I fulfilled my duty. Had you chosen to kill King Blackman I would have had no choice but to kill you as well. And thus two more damned souls would’ve been whisked away to Hell with no justice served or redemption to seek. But you, Sir Morrow, saw the light and heard God’s plea. No more killing.”

Luke Morrow for the first time can feel the weight of his sins being lifted off his back. Whether it was divine intervention or his own power, Sir Luke Morrow never killed again. He worked tirelessly to seek redemption having already done the hardest part. Forgiving himself. And the two divided kingdoms now born anew. The Kingdom of Einheit.