“I was cursed, you see, to wear what was called in human tongue, the ebony knight’s armor. Named after its color and frightening edges. A curse I had earned almost as a right of passage. Or, more properly put, the price for loving someone.

  “The ornate armor dressed me head to toe, its fine filigree showcased patterns of winding streams and moving hills. Its color was pitch-black, threatening to plunge the soul of any mortal onlooker deeper into darkness. The cursed armor's purpose was to change the nature of a creature until it truly faded away inside. This, in turn, would leave a suit of armor standing, beckoning any hero or adventurer as its next victim.

  “The matter of why I was cursed is not the nature of this story, as it would leave many of you with a dissatisfied taste in your mouth. Nor will you get to hear the story of how that armor adorned my beautiful, masculine form. Like I said before, it was for love. A love for someone who had long since passed from this world.

  “The story was mostly about her and the actions taken. It was for her; she was the why and how of that story. Why would I sentence myself knowingly to that curse?

  To describe her would be like trying to describe a thousand sunsets. To hold breath to the tale of how beautiful she was, is to try to hold the color of strawberries between your tongue. To remember her is to teach a blind man how to see color. No. No. I will not tell you about her. But for her, I'd kill a thousand more kings if she had only asked.

  “But as with all things worth such beauty, a price had to be paid, and so I did.

  “The armor taught me a lesson in patience. In the end, like with most things, I grew accustomed to it and even accepted it after a fashion. The armor was mine to bear, and the curse tried and failed to overtake me. The mantle of Summer Warden was more powerful than the curse could manage. It was like a giant man-eating leech for a war horse. A tough matchup for sure, but the belly of a leech is very finite. Good curses, however, aren't the ones that try to kill you but the ones that linger to make you suffer as long as possible.

  “So the curse ruined most of my good days, and I, in return, ruined the curse by not ever fading into it. In a way, we were suited to each other, like bitter roommates. To keep my lady from suffering the fate to which I was consigned, I finished my plan by fleeing to the Faye wild, where I spent the majority of my days in the court of Jezebel.

  “To give you some context, Jezebel's court, like many of the courts in Faye, was based around the mental aptitude of those given in Faye lords and ladies. Jezebel was a particularly nasty and wicked spellcaster. Once a cunning and conniving threat to the other Faye courts, she based her magics in imprisonment spells, weaving creatures' souls out of their bodies and forming gemstones. That kind of power can be addictive, and once she ran out of enemies, she turned on her friends. Weaving more and more beautiful gemstones out of the people who had trusted her. The more that they trusted and loved her, the more intricate and beautiful the design. She lost all her supporters, left to wander in and out of the lands of mortal men and Faye, gathering more and more souls to add to her collection.

  “The landscape was ruinous, riddled with marbled stone pillars and open fairways. It is organized chaos in a controlled, rigid, sharp way that makes the brain hurt. It caused all the wildness around to bend and twist in strange ways. A reflection of her own twisted mindscape.

  “It was a dreadfully dreary place. But her ladyship needed protecting, and I needed a job to do. In the meantime, the court I hailed from did not need to see me in this fashion. The scandal would be the death of my reputation for hundreds of years. So, I found clemency with Jezebel's court until I could figure out the curse in my own time.

  “My ‘own time’ turned out to be a very long time. Half a century went by before I finally understood the nature of the blasted armor. To figure myself a way out of the armor was no longer a possibility. My only option was to conquer it, to overload it with the power of the Summer Mantle. To do so, I needed to upset the balance in summer's favor. Even for a moment, that would be enough.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Unfortunately, Jezebel wasn’t too keen on letting me go. I couldn’t break my oath of protection to her willingly. So, I may have let it slip where the location of her court was. Maybe a mortal from there would still be holding a grudge against her. All I needed to be was patient.

  “I waited for an opportunity to present itself. It only took a couple more years, but sure enough, I saw on the horizon a band of trepidatious adventurers. Slowly, they fanned out when they approached my courtyard.

  “‘Four in total. Not bad for a party of heroes,’ I remarked as what looked to be the leader stepped forth.

  “A tall, muscular man approached. He wore nothing truly noticeable, but what caught my attention was his bright amber eyes. I stayed seated on the steps of the broken and overgrown courtyard, smoking my ram’s weed. I had tried quitting the things some time before, but I never quite got the knack of breaking the bad habit. Anyways, this young man and his friends held tremendous amounts of power and even greater potential.

  “‘We've been sent to collect the Bounty of Jezebel,’ the tall man said. “My name is Koluith. These are my companions.” He smiled at me with all the charisma of a well-experienced traveler. The power radiating off him backed up his confidence.

  “‘Hello, gentleman and gentle ladies, I am the ebony knight, I am the protector of Jezebel. You've caught me on my smoke break. I'm only allowed a break every few months,’ I replied with my voice flat, hoping they would catch on. Koluith’s smile fell from his face for a moment.

  ‘I see, so that would make you the cursed knight that guards these lands?’ he asked in a more conversational tone than I think he realized. ‘I hear you’re a tough warrior. I would hate to go up against you.’ His smile returned. I noticed a glint in his eyes.

  “‘We should just attack him; he can’t take us all down,’ one of his party members said.

  “‘And then what? You heard the rumors. He will take at least two down before any of us could get a killing blow,’ a female voice answered in reply.

  “‘It will just be a matter of which one of us dies first, leaving the rest of us depleted and weakened before we even reach Jezebel. Doesn't seem like a great option,’ replied the last one.

  “‘Well, if you attack me, I will have to defend myself,’ I said dryly, lighting up another smoke.

  “‘How about we let this fine knight finish his smoke break,’ Koluith suggested, raising an eyebrow at me.

  “‘Yes, I still have a minute or two before I am finished.’ I smiled back.

  “Koluith nodded at me and stepped aside to let his party through, passing around me before leaving himself.

  “‘Thanks for the hint,’ I heard him whisper.

  “I shrugged and inhaled the ram’s weed. When I exhaled, they were gone. Their footsteps echoed in the courtyard behind me. The sky started to change, and I could almost hear the battle underway. I wouldn’t have let them try if I didn’t think they would be able to kill her. Still, I couldn't stop my leg from bouncing.

  “I could feel her pull on me start to strengthen as her life was put more and more in danger. Looking down, I saw my cigarette was almost burnt through. They had only a few more moments before I would be required to step in.

  “With the sky now churning, I watched as the landscape changed all around me. The identity Jezebel imposed was starting to relinquish its hold in the space. Reality was shifting in and out of focus, unsure of what its next true shape would be without a lady of the land present to exercise her will. Then the land went gray and black. I felt my bindings to this court lift like shackles snapping free from my wrists. They had succeeded. I did not miss my moment. I slipped off what was left of my shackles, stood to my feet, and inhaled deeply before running as fast as I could.

  “The Faye realm is interconnected by a series of stones that hold purchase in the mortal realm just as well as others. The mortal world was anxious for all kinds of people and creators to pop through, and it was my ticket out of there. To be free from my cursed armor, I needed to find my counterpart and tip the scales of power in my favor, overloading the curse. My best bet was to head to the mortal world and let Lady Luck lead me.

  “There are many ways for us to, say, travel across planes, but the easiest way I have found is the moonstones. Pillar-like obelisks jutting out from the ground in random parts of the Faye. I knew of one merely a day's run from where I was. I needed to be careful since it neared the Webbed Woods and Grooming Court. If I hurried, I knew I would make it. Fleeing there, I made sure to stay hidden just in case the other courts got curious and wanted to see for themselves the fall of Jezebel.