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 Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:27 am
Reims let out a breath, letting everything settle around him. It wasn’t exactly silence — not with the faint hum of the organ, or the shift in the air that filled open space, or the slow breathing of the lion behind him. When he glanced over, the lion had lifted his head, watching him with those dark, amber eyes. Not crowding. Not pushing. Just… there. Like a silent reassurance. Or maybe a silent apology.
“I’m okay,” Reims breathed, although he wasn’t sure which of them he was trying to convince.
The lion huffed softly, as if unconvinced, then lowered its gaze toward the Code. The motion was almost pointed. Like he was reminding Reims he hadn’t gone there just to think himself in circles.
“Yeah. I know,” he let out another breath of a sigh. He swallowed and faced the glowing sphere again. His throat felt too tight. Like it was too small for the words he was trying to speak.
“Look, I know you’ve got… like, more important things to worry about. Big destiny things. Bigger than me.”
The Code pulsed once, gentle but attentive.
“But Yvoire was almost killed,” he said quietly. “Amarynthos too. Our other friends were badly injured. And I—” His voice cracked before he could catch it. He sucked in a breath to steady himself and tried again. “I didn’t have the strength to stop it. I couldn’t protect any of them.”
He took a step closer, desperation leaking through, despite his best effort to keep his voice even.
“What do I do?” he whispered. “Just tell me how to keep them safe. I was once almost convinced to join the Negaverse to do just that — to protect them from the inside. I’m not— I can’t leave them now. But I don’t know what else to do. If they die and I’m not able to protect them, then who cares if I’m— I don’t know… an agent of Chaos as long as they’re alive?”
His friends wouldn’t want that, he knew. He was just desperate. But how was he supposed to be okay with them dying when he could have done something to prevent it?
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:28 am
“Don’t you think they would care?” the Code prompted suddenly. Its voice was hollow, not devoid of emotion, but rather as if constructed by echoes.
“You could not protect them with Chaos in your heart. Whatever feelings you have for them would twist, well out of your control. Chaos poisons your thoughts. Think too much of your friends, and they might as well be your first target.”
The Code swirled amiably, despite the lack of such friendliness in its voice.
“You let Chaos linger in your heart even now. Stop it. You cannot fight fire with fire.”
Stern, but not cruel. Demanding, because it held Reims to a higher standard than he held himself.
“Do not think you are not worth my time. You, and this Wonder, are the most important things to me. Tell me what happened,” it instructed, almost softer. Eerie in the echoes. “Tell me what you really want. And I will tell you if I can help.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:28 am
Reims went very still.
Chaos in your heart.
The words settled like a weight in his chest. It wasn’t sharp, wasn’t dramatic — just heavy. Like something that had always been there and was only now being identified. He didn’t argue. Didn’t flinch. He just stood there, staring at the soft gold glow, feeling suddenly exposed.
“So that’s it,” he said quietly. Not accusing. Just… tired. “I let it happen.”
He pressed his fingers between his eyebrows, rubbing absently at his forehead, but then let his hand fall back to his side. If Chaos had found a home in him, didn’t that mean he’d failed already? That something dark had slipped in while he was too busy trying to be useful, too busy trying to hold everyone else together?
“I didn’t mean to,” he added, voice softer.
The lion shifted behind him, claws clicking faintly against the marble. Reims didn’t turn. He needed to stay focused in the face of the truth of everything.
“Northpoint,” he began. The word alone made his ribs ache in phantom memory. “We went there because of some odd rumors. Maybe just a prank or… urban legend. Instead, it was a youma den. Not just one or two — dozens. Like they’d been nesting there, waiting.”
His jaw tightened.
“We fought them off, but it wasn’t clean. Some of us got hurt. We used up nearly all our magic trying to get rid of what we thought was the only threat. And then this General showed up. He didn’t even act like there was any risk to him. He toyed with us. Like he already knew how it would end.”
Images flickered behind his eyes — Yvoire on the ground, blood everywhere. Amarynthos also covered in blood, barely conscious.
“He almost killed them,” Reims said flatly. “Would have, if we hadn’t been lucky. And after… it didn’t stop. Every time we powered up, more youma found us. Like we were being hunted.”
His hands curled into fists at his sides.
“And then he pulled starseeds,” he said, voice rougher now. “Ripped them right out. He tried to make Dering eat them. Tried to break him that way.”
He let out a shaky breath. “But Dering — he’s smarter than anyone gives him credit for. Himself included. He put them in subspace. Used his jaw, made it sound like he was chewing glass. Fooled a General of the Negaverse.”
Reims shook his head slowly. “No one should have had to think that fast. No one should have to be that clever just to stay alive.”
He finally looked away from the Code, glancing across the pipes of the organ, the stained glass, the quiet serenity of the Wonder that had survived centuries of ruin.
“I’m tired,” he admitted. “I’m tired of knowing they’re stronger than us. That they can take everything we love and we just — react. Patch wounds. Bury the fear. Move on.”
His voice dropped, raw and unguarded now.
“I want to fight. I want to protect them. Not by becoming something twisted —” He glanced back at the Code, his eyes searching for something he doubted he would find. “—but because if I don’t, they’ll keep getting hurt. And I don’t know how to live with that.”
He squared his shoulders, even as doubt lingered in his heart like a bruise.
“So yeah,” he said quietly. “Maybe Chaos is there. Maybe it’s just fear that never learned how to leave. But what I really want—” He paused, choosing his words carefully. “—is the strength to stand between my friends and the Negaverse and not be brushed aside like I’m nothing.”
His gaze held steady now.
“Tell me if that’s something I can become. Or if I’m already too late.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:29 am
At first, the Code listened.
Then, the Code judged.
Not Reims. Not his story. Not the sincerity of his words.
Just the options.
“Do you think that often? That doors are closed for you? No. Come closer. You are young. There are many things you need to hear. I don’t always have the energy to convey them. But I will tell you this: as long as you have hope, it is never too late.”
The echo of its voice was strange. It didn’t speak loudly enough to warrant the whispering echoes, ricocheting off stone and metal, swallowed up in hidden alcoves.
“I cannot give you the strength you ask for.”
More whispers, like ghosts in the distance.
The Code’s voice broke through all of them.
“You already have it. What you need is a tool to wield it. Give me your sword.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:30 am
Reims didn’t move right away.
Give me your sword.
The request settled into him slowly, like he needed time to try to decipher what it meant. Or maybe he was just overthinking things. His gaze dropped to his hands instead. They were empty, slightly trembling if he paid too much attention.
“My sword,” he repeated, quieter. It wasn’t a question. Just making sure he’d heard correctly.
The lion behind him had stilled completely. Reims could feel its attention sharpen.
The sword wasn’t just a weapon. It was… proof. Proof that the Wonder had trusted him with something fragile and sturdy and dangerous. Proof that even glass, if wielded correctly, could still hold its own against those intending to hurt him. Hurt his friends.
The cut at his neck no longer hurt, but it had left a scar. Without his sword, he might not even be there. Yvoire might not.
It hadn’t failed him yet.
He exhaled slowly and reached inward, toward the familiar pull of subspace. Light flickered as the stained glass broadsword materialized in his grasp — panels of deep red and purple catching the glow of the Code, with seams of lead gleaming like veins. Solid. Beautiful. Heavy with responsibility.
Reims held it with both hands, blade angled downward, careful. Respectful.
“I know how to use it,” he said, almost defensively. Then hesitated and amended softly, “I mean—I know… um… I know knowing isn’t the same as being… good enough.”
He glanced at the blade, at the way the light fractured through it onto the cobbled floor.
He used it as a bat most of the time. Definitely not how a sword should be used. Maybe that was the issue.
“A sword means getting close,” he continued. “It means committing. And the Negaverse—” His jaw tightened. “They can teleport. They hit fast. They don’t stay where you expect them to be.”
Getting close meant being a target. Meant putting himself between danger and everyone else and hoping he didn’t blink at the wrong moment.
“I can stand in front of things,” Reims said quietly. “I’ve done that. But I’m not fast enough to—... Not before someone else gets hurt. And I can only be a shield for so long.”
He lifted his gaze back to the Code, uncertainty written plain across his face.
“If this isn’t about making me stronger—” His grip tightened, just a fraction. The Code said he already had the strength, but he needed a tool… A tool that wasn’t a sword?
“I don’t want to be reckless. I don’t want to turn my friends into collateral just because I was brave for half a second too long.”
Still… he stepped forward.
Carefully, deliberately, Reims extended the sword toward the glowing sphere, offering it hilt-first. A gesture of trust. Or surrender. Maybe both.
“But this came from here,” he said. “From you. From Reims. So if you’re asking for it…” He paused, then finished — steady, despite the fear now blossoming in his chest. “Then I’ll trust that you know what you’re doing. More than I do.”
The lion let out a low, quiet sound behind him — not a protest, nor approval. Just a reminder that he was there.
Reims loosened his grip.
“Take it,” he said. “Just… please don’t take away the part of me that wants to protect them.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:30 am
“I’m not taking anything from you,” the Code said matter-of-factly. “I’m giving you something. Do you think I would try to sabotage you?”
It didn’t wait for an answer.A bright glow spread across Reims’ sword–glass, kissed by a sun too far to see. The reflection was brilliant–an explosion of colorful pinpricks of light, cast wide across the room.
“Have faith in me. Have faith in yourself.”
A request, not a command, spoken with the weight of its importance.
The Code was more radiant than ever, but slowly its light faded and returned to normal.
Reims’ weapon did not.
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:31 am
Reims stood there for a moment longer than was necessary. The light had faded. The Code had gone quiet again, settled back into its steady, patient presence like it hadn’t just upended everything he thought he understood. The cathedral felt the same. The organ hummed softly.
And yet—
He looked down.
The sword wasn’t in his hands.
His stomach twisted before he could stop the reaction. He flexed his fingers, half expecting the familiar weight to fill his palm again. Instead, something else was there.
An armored gauntlet encased his forearm and hand, black as obsidian, etched with patterns he recognized immediately. The lines were the same as the leadwork from his blade, the same geometry, the same intentional symmetry. Red gems were set into it like fragments of stained glass, glowing faintly with inner light.
“...Oh,” Reims breathed.
That was all he had in response at first.
A gauntlet meant closer. Closer than a sword ever would. No reach. No space to retreat behind a swing. Just proximity. And decisive commitment.
His shoulders tensed before he could consciously relax them.
This was what he’d been afraid of. Too close to danger. Unable to keep a better eye on things. And yet… somehow it was exactly what he’d needed.
He lifted his arm slowly, turning it, watching how the light caught in the facets of the gems. The magic felt different. Not heavier or sharper, but deeper. He could feel it under his skin, like something answering him.
And beneath that—
There it was.
Familiar and steady. His sword.
It wasn’t gone. He could feel it. Its energy wove through the gauntlet and relief eased the tension in his shoulders and chest. He could switch back. He knew he could, even if he didn’t know how just yet.
The lion shifted behind him, stepping closer this time. Reims didn’t look, but he could sense the warmth of its presence and it helped ground him all the same.
“I don’t really… get it,” he admitted quietly, glancing toward the Code again. There was no accusation in his voice. Just honesty. “I thought you’d need the sword to… I don’t know. Fix it. Or take something from it first.”
He huffed a small, awkward breath. “I guess that says more about me than you.”
Have faith in yourself.
He let the words settle, and while he didn’t wince, it was pretty close. Faith in the Code was easier. The Wonder had proven itself over and over again. Faith in himself was still questionable.
But he was trying.
Reims curled his gauntleted hand into a fist. The gems seemed to pulse in response. He felt the reach of the magic then. Not as a swing or a strike, but something else.
“...Thank you,” he said, the words coming out softer than he’d meant them to. He swallowed and added, more firmly, “I don’t know what I’m doing yet. But I’ll figure it out. I promise I won’t waste this.”
He lowered his arm and let out a breath. “And I’ll try,” he continued, quieter still, “to be kinder to the person you thought was worth trusting.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:31 am
The silence from the Code was brief, but its light dimmed–noticably a bit less vibrant than it had been. It swirled at the same, steady pace it had since he arrived.
“You will try,” it insisted. “And you will succeed. With practice.”
Its voice was softer. Not sick, not tired. Just spent.
And, notably, proud.
“There will be many things in your life you don’t ‘get’. Don’t give up. You’ve put a great deal of work into this Wonder already. Did you think I wouldn’t repay you when I could?” It was rhetorical, obviously. The Code paused only for effect.
“Your weapon is a manifestation of you, and all that you are capable of. You cannot see your potential yet, but it is there. Find your strengths. Hone them. Practice. I will not always be here to guide you. But I will always watch over you. I will do all that I can,” it promised, “as long as you do the same.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:32 am
Reims let out a slow breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
The Code’s light had dimmed, but it was still there. Watching. Waiting. To Reims, that alone felt heavier than spoken reassurance.
“I’ll practice,” he said quietly. There was no bravado in it. Just acceptance. “I can do that.”
He glanced down at the gauntlet, to the unfamiliar shape of what used to be his sword. The magic felt deeper. Like it didn’t stop at the edge of what he understood about magic anymore. A manifestation of himself. The thought made his chest tighten. If that was true, then this wasn’t just a tool. It was more like a mirror.
“But—” He hesitated, fingers flexing once more as if to ground himself. “You said there was Chaos in my heart.”
There was no accusation, just the need to understand.
“I don’t want that,” Reims said softly. “I don’t want power that hurts people. I don’t want fear turning into something that makes my friends unsafe.” He clenched his jaw, then let out a breath. “I don’t care about winning. I just want them alive. I want them to be able to go home.”
He swallowed, glancing up at the Code again, earnest and unsure. “Please… tell me what I’m supposed to do about it. If I have to face it, I will. If I have to learn how to keep it from taking root—... or learn how to carry it without letting it decide who I become…”
The words felt heavy, but necessary.
“I don’t want to let you down,” Reims said quietly. “And I don’t want to let them down either. If protecting people is what drew this out of me… then help me make sure it doesn’t twist into something that hurts them.”
Behind him, the lion shifted, a quiet presence at his back. Reims didn’t move. He stayed where he was. Listening, uncertain, but willing to do whatever it took.
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:32 am
“What is ‘Chaos’ to you? Do you think it is only some evil force that pushes its will into you?” the Code asked. Softer, but the echos were more plentiful, whispering its words long after they were spoken.
“It’s not so simple. Not all Chaos is born from a seed. Sometimes, darkness festers. Sometimes it gives strength to itself, if left unchecked. Even now, you come to me with thoughts of Chaos as a crutch. As if it could ever be something to protect anyone.”
There was not ever truly silence, not as long as the echoes continued to whisper. “You carry a shadow of what they offered you. Let it stay there, and you may find one day that it has grown beyond your control. Purge it from your heart. Meditate, if you must. Find time to look inward. You already know you don’t want power that hurts people. Stop feeding any thought that suggests sacrificing yourself as a viable answer. I need you as you are. Reims needs you as you are. Your friends need you, as you are.”
The Code had brightened again, impassioned.
“You will grow stronger on your own. But start by being good to yourself. You deserve that.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:38 am
Reims’s breath caught in his chest.
For a moment, he couldn’t quite look at the Code. The words hit a little too close to something raw, something he’d spent most of his life carefully stepping around. A shadow of what was offered. Sacrificing yourself as an answer.
He lowered his head instead, shoulders curling in slightly. Not in defiance, but in shame.
“I—...” His voice faltered, and he had to pause and try again. “I didn’t think of it as a crutch,” he said quietly. Honest. “I thought it was just… what you do when you’re expendable.”
The admission tasted bitter and too familiar.
“I know that’s not what you’re saying,” he added quickly, as if afraid the thought alone was proof of failure. “I know that isn’t what my friends want from me. I’m just—” He let out a shaky breath. “I’m still unlearning things. It’s taking longer than I want it to.”
Frustrating. Annoying. One step closer to being too much. What would be too much?
“I don’t want Chaos,” Reims said, firmer now. “I’ll look inward. I’ll practice. I’ll meditate, if that’s what it takes. And I’ll work on… being kinder to myself. Even when it doesn’t feel deserved.”
He hadn’t noticed the lion moving closer, but nearly jumped when it pressed its head against his back. He reached around to gently press his ungauntleted hand against the soft black mane, grateful for something to help ground him.
“I’ll do the work,” he said. “I won’t let that shadow decide who I become.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:39 am
Another moment of quiet judgment passed, like the Code was weighing his words with the weight they deserved.
In the end, it was pleased.
“It isn’t easy,” the Code said, speaking of tribulations it had seen but never endured. “But you are the Knight of Reims for more reasons than you know. You are not expendable.”
It said it only once, firmly, but the echoes carried the message in whispers throughout the room.
“Do not blame yourself for what time it takes to unlearn. To heal. You will overcome this, as you have all things in life. You will be stronger, in the end. I know you’ll do the work. You always have. No matter how hard things have been. When you have learned to be kind to yourself, I want you to learn to be proud of yourself, too.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:40 am
Reims stayed very still as the echoes faded.
Not expendable.
He didn’t know what to do with those words yet. They felt like they were stuck in his chest and refused to move. Like it was too big to accept all at once, or like he was trying to hold onto something meant for both hands instead of in just one. So he didn’t argue with it. He just let it stay there. Heavy and uncomfortable, but it was real.
“I don’t know how to do that,” he admitted quietly. There was no shame in his voice now, just sincerity. “Being proud, I mean. I’m not there yet.”
The lion’s weight at his back was steady and grounding. Reims leaned into it just slightly, drawing a slow breath as his fingers threaded through its mane.
“But… I believe you’re not saying it just to make me feel better. So… I’ll start with kindness. And when that gets easier, I’ll try to work on the rest.”
He lifted his eyes to the Code again, the gold light reflecting faintly against red.
“Thank you,” Reims said. “For trusting me. For not giving up on me when I keep messing up. I’ll keep going. I’ll take care of this place. I’ll take care of my friends and my family and anyone who needs help. And… I’ll try to take care of myself, too.”
With that, he took a step back, but not to turn away immediately. He didn’t know everything, and maybe he never would. But he wanted to hold onto feeling like he wasn’t a failure.
Fin!
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