Inquisitor's Promise (Act Two, Chapter Twenty-Four)

Aeneas has to keep his promises. His father's mission will be completed. And while he's at it, he will become Galatea's lord and Inquisitor. But love and politics are an explosive combination.

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Chapter Twenty-Four: Land of the Wyvern Knights

Before long, the Lepanto had crossed from the Eurasia Region into the Aseania Region. As the ship reached the territory of the San Felipe Fiefdoms, Aeneas saw the castles, villages, and forests that dotted the lands.

The Inquisitor knew that the lands of San Felipe were perched atop a series of Dark Age buildings that jutted out throughout the surrounding areas. These buildings were of uneven heights, giving San Felipe a mountainous terrain. To add to the landscape, a series of rivers and waterfalls could be spotted from above.

As the Lepanto moved ever closer to its destination, Aeneas saw wyverns flying about. Some wyverns had riders, but others were wild ones. Seeing these flying reptiles made Aeneas thought of Sancho Panza and its mistress.

Aeneas shook his head, he needed to focus if he was to find his beloved.

Finally, the Lepanto had landed. The main sky port for San Felipe’s capital La Manila was located quite a distance away from the town. It was as if the Knights of San Felipe did not wish to sully their beautiful skies with mechanized air traffic.

As Aeneas and his party stepped out of the Lepanto, they could feel the heat and humidity of the place.

“This place is hot,” Giulia complained.

“And humid too,” Omaha added.

“Really?” Lavinia said in confusion. “I think the humidity is just fine.”

“Says the fish girl,” Omaha responded sarcastically.

Aeneas did not pay attention to the chatter as he looked around for the man whom the Grand Knight said would escort him to Castle La Mancha, the current location of the Grand Knight’s Court.

Thankfully, it did not take long for Aeneas to find him.

“Lord Aeneas Aquilanus?” the man asked. He was dressed in the heavy armor of a San Felipe wyvern knight. The Knight and the Inquisitor were of the same height.

“That’s me,” Aeneas answered. He studied the man in front of him. A handsome man with a dark complexion; he had Galatea’s nose and eyes. They hadn’t met before, but Aeneas recognized this knight.

“My name is Antonio de la Mancha,” the knight introduced himself. “Eldest son of Grand Knight Juan Carlos.”

Aeneas nodded and extended his hand towards Antonio. “Nice to meet you, Sir Antonio.”

The two shook hands. “I’m glad to finally see my future cousin-in-law,” Antonio joked.

But the mention of Galatea brought a frown to Aeneas’ face. Realizing his mistake, Antonio gently tapped the Inquisitor’s shoulders.

“We’ll find her, Lord Aeneas,” the knight assured.

Aeneas gave Antonio a genuine smile in return. The Inquisitor then introduced the other members of his party to the wyvern knight.

Afterwards, the group was escorted to Castle La Mancha by a squad of wyvern knights. If Aeneas had arrived under better circumstances, he would have enjoyed the landscape.

Castle La Mancha stood atop one of the hills that overlooked La Manila. Made out of stone, the large structure complemented the beautiful skyline of San Felipe’s capital. The castle had long served as the home of the La Mancha family. For the moment, it also served as the Grand Knight’s court.

Upon landing on the castle’s front yard, Aeneas’ party were escorted through the castle’s grand hallways by the castle guards.

They were then welcomed to the spacious Hall of the Great Knight by the Grand Knight of San Felipe, Sir Juan Carlos de la Mancha. The Grand Knight was surrounded by a group of wyvern knights in full armor, including his eldest son. The only exception was a light skinned woman wearing a jeweled dress, a traditional clothing of San Felipe. She was an exceedingly beautiful woman. Aeneas recognized her as Isabella de Bacolod, Galatea’s mother.

Isabella was also a short woman; it was clear that Galatea had gotten her height from her maternal side of the family. But Aeneas was more concerned with how Isabella was currently giving him the stink eye.

Aeneas looked at the Grand Knight. It had been a while since they had fought side by side against Sir Raul de Cambrai. He was glad that Sir Juan Carlos still looked the same as ever: tall, dark, and handsome.

“You look on edge, Sir Aeneas,” Juan Carlos said calmly. “Therefore, I will skip the pleasantries. We need your help.”

“On the rebellion?” Aeneas asked. He remembered the rebellion of the knights that Juan Carlos had told him.

The Grand Knight shook his head. “Not the rebellion. I have the knights necessary to put an end to that. I want you to find Lady Galatea for me.”

“I understand,” Aeneas said excitedly.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Aeneas was flabbergasted. It was Galatea’s mother who had said that; she even stepped forward. The angry woman looked ready to slap the man who had offended her.

“Aunt Isabella, please,” Antonio pleaded. But Isabella ignored her nephew and instead focused her attention on the Inquisitor.

“You’re reason why Galatea had disappeared! If it wasn’t for you, her delusions would have stayed in her mind where it belongs!”

Aeneas blinked. “Excuse me?” The Inquisitor wanted to give a proper response, but he couldn’t find the words.

“Tell me, Lord Inquisitor,” Isabella said with contempt. “Just what do you think a bookish girl like her could do! Or were you bewitched by some sort of sorcery?”

Aeneas desperately tried to find the words to placate the angry woman, but he found nothing.

Seeing the situation unfolding before him, Juan Carlos stepped forward to his sister-in-law. “Enough, Isabella! This is no way to treat a guest.”

But this only turned the angry woman’s attention to the Grand Knight.

“And you encouraged her in all this!” Isabella said accusingly. “You know full well that Galatea was just simply chasing after her dead father, if you would only let it wither…”

“Please, Lady Isabella!” Aeneas interjected. “If I can just explain my reasoning, why I agreed to be Lady Galatea’s inquisitor.”

“Besides the obvious?” Isabella asked snidely.

Aeneas nodded, ignoring the insult. “Yes. Besides the obvious.”

It was true that Aeneas found Galatea to be an exceedingly beautiful woman. It would be amiss to discount that amongst his reasons. However, there were also other qualities in her that drove him to make that decision.

Aeneas took a deep breath. He knew he had to be able to articulate himself well if he was to win over Galatea’s mother.

“Lady Isabella, it is true that I find your daughter to be pleasing to the eyes. But I made this decision not out of lust, but for a noble purpose.”

Upon hearing this, Isabella was stunned. “What did you…”

“A noble purpose, you say?” Juan Carlos asked, clearly intrigued. “Do tell.”

Aeneas nodded and continued his explanation. “I can see from Lady Galatea’s demeanor that she is not the type to let circumstances discourage her. When she told me of this dream of hers, I knew that this was not the whims of a foolish girl. This was something that she had thought of long and hard. I cannot simply ignore it.”

“You want to help her, is that it?” Juan Carlos asked.

“I wish to give her a chance.” Aeneas answered.

“Very good.” Juan Carlos smiled. “But what makes you think she deserves that chance?”

Aeneas paused to consider his words; he knew that what he was about to say would sound outlandish. But he pressed on.

“Her wyvern.”

“Sancho Panza?” Antonio asked in confusion.

“Yes,” Aeneas answered.  “Lady Galatea told me once that Sancho Panza is one of the strongest wyverns in San Felipe. But more importantly, the two are very much in sync with one another. It’s amazing!”

Antonio nodded. “I must agree. Not only is her wyvern the healthiest in San Felipe, but he is also utterly devoted to her. I can’t say that I’ve seen it before. Not like this.”

“It must be because Galatea had hatched the wyvern herself,” Juan Carlos mused.

“She, hatched the wyvern?” Aeneas asked.

“Indeed.” Antonio smirked. “It was funny, seeing my cousin trying to warm up that wyvern egg.”

“All the more reason to admire her, then,” Aeneas said as he put his hand on his chin, deep in thought.

“You have something else on your mind, Lord Aeneas?” Juan Carlos asked.

Aeneas nodded. “I do. Her wyvern. Lady Galatea must know that it was meant for something more than being a glorified house dog. Ultimately, that’s why she desired to be a wyvern knight. She saw in that creature a calling.”

Juan Carlos clapped enthusiastically after he listened to the Inquisitor’s explanation. “Bravo, Lord Aeneas. I couldn’t say it better myself.”

“You knew all this didn’t you, Sir Juan Carlos?” Aeneas asked.

“I do,” the Grand Knight said, nodding. “Remember that I was the one who gave her all those books that fueled her imagination.”

Juan Carlos then turned to his sister-in-law. Isabella had been silent for quite some time but was paying attention to the conversation. The Grand Knight then spoke to her:

“I trust that you find his explanation to be satisfactory.”

“I do,” Isabella said softly. “Godspeed, Lord Inquisitor.”

With that, Isabella returned back to her position next to her nephew Antonio. Aeneas was surprised at how quickly he had managed to win over Galatea’s mother, but he did not complain.

“I will do my best to find Lady Galatea,” Aeneas assured the people in front of him. “The Lepanto has many tools in our disposal.”

“Good to hear.” Juan Carlos smiled. “That being said, there’s something you must know.”

“Go on,” Aeneas said.

“As I had told you over the brick, my Knights Vizier Fernando de Andalusia is the leader of this rebellion of knights. Later on, I learned from a castle servant that Sir Fernando had met privately with Galatea prior to both her disappearance and the beginning of this rebellion,” Juan Carlos explained.

“You’re telling me that the two events are connected,” Aeneas stated.

“Yes,” Juan Carlos said, his face grim. “Furthermore, don’t let the idyllic landscape fool you. San Felipe had become a dangerous place.”

“Dangerous?” Aeneas raised his eye. “What do you mean?”

“Because of the rebellion, I had to gather up as many knights as I could all around the fiefdoms. This means that the fiefdoms have no knights to protect the people. Beware of roaming bandits and undercity spiders,” Juan Carlos explained.

“Spiders?”

This time, Antonio spoke up. “Giant spiders native to the undercities. At times, they would find their way to the top level in search of food. The knights are trained to deal with these pests. But with the knights gone, there are none to deal with them.”

Aeneas frowned as he heard of Antonio’s explanation. “Sir Juan Carlos. Surely, we can do something to help.”

“Do not worry, Lord Aeneas,” the Grand Knight said calmly. “Once we’ve dealt with Sir Fernando’s revolt, we can deal with the spiders and bandits ourselves. You must concern yourselves with finding my niece.”

After receiving their mission from the Grand Knight, Aeneas’ party exited Castle La Mancha. They were ready to leave for the Lepanto. But to their surprise, they were greeted by Antonio who chased after them.

“Sir Antonio, are you here to escort us back to our ship?” Aeneas asked.

“Do not worry about us,” Nikolai spoke up. “The Lepanto will send us an aircraft to transport us back.”

“No, it’s not that,” Antonio said. “I just want to tell you a story, about Lady Isabella.”

“Galatea’s mama? What about her?” Lavinia asked.

Antonio turned towards the Inquisitor. “Lord Aeneas, I noticed that you were quite puzzled to see how my aunt had such a quick change of heart.”

“Nothing’s odd about that,” Pep spoke up. “That’s just woman being woman.” That joke earned the Lektros a hard elbow from Giulia, causing him to yelp in pain.

“Anyways,” Antonio said. “Galatea’s mother used to be a bandit. She and her father once led a group of men who haunt the jungles of Southern San Felipe.”

“She was a wicked woman, then,” Lavinia said.

“No. These were noble bandits, fighting against the corruption of the knights who abuse their high station. As a result, the people loved them,” Antonio explained.

“I have heard of this story, the Merry Men of Bacolod,” Omaha chimed in.

“Yes,” Antonio said in acknowledgement. “In those days, the Grand Knight of San Felipe was a wicked men. His name was Fidel de Cambrai. He abused the common man and punished anyone who spoke up against his evil deeds. He even burned down a Cathedral because the Archbishop of La Manila had condemned him. Disgusted by what was happening, a knight named Hernan de Bacolod used his estate to oppose Sir Fidel.”

“And where did Galatea’s mother fit into this?” Aeneas asked.

“Aunt Isabella was known as ‘the beautiful bandit’. Her marksmanship with the bow was impeccable. Though she did not have a wyvern of her own, she rode atop her father’s wyvern and terrorized the wicked agents of Sir Fidel from the sky,” Antonio answered.

“I’m guessing that you’re going to get to Lady Galatea’s father next,” Nikolai said.

Antonio nodded. “I am, Lord Nikolai. My late uncle Miguel de la Mancha was a great and faithful man. He was inspired by the example of the Merry Men. With the Pope’s blessing, he rose up against Sir Fidel. Eventually, Uncle Miguel defeated him in single combat, and he became the Grand Knight of San Felipe.”

“I know this story,” Aeneas said impatiently. “How did he meet Galatea’s mother?”

“I suppose I can see why you’re in a rush,” Antonio said sheepishly. “Very well, I’ll get on with it.”

The Inquisitor inwardly kicked himself. That was very rude of him. He wanted to look for Galatea as soon as possible, but that was no excuse.

And Antonio continued on: “Uncle Miguel and Lady Isabella had been acquainted with one another during the uprising. One day, my uncle asked my aunt to marry him. But this union was met with opposition. Many of the knights still saw the Bacolod with suspicion because of their history as outlaws. And so, Uncle Miguel had to justify his choice of bride before the Knights Council. Did you know what Uncle Miguel told them? I’ll give you three guesses.”

“I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose,” Aeneas answered.

“Very good,” Antonio said, clapping his hands. “I see someone’s been doing his research.”

Aeneas shook his head. “That was just a guess. I can tell that I struck a nerve with her when I said that very same thing.”

“Also, a great reference,” Pep added.

Aeneas then took Antonio and embraced him. “Thank you, for telling me all this.”

“Anything for my future cousin-in-law. Now, go find her.”

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