The boy stopped at forty-two press-ups. Far from an impressive feat.
"Why do you struggle, boy?" Dominus called out, unable to hide his curiosity.
"To get better. So my family don't have to worry about me," Beam said back, showing no signs of surprise, as though he'd known Dominus was there all along.
"And yet you don't progress. Forty-two pushups was a struggle for you," Dominus said.
Beam shrugged. "I had forty yesterday and I got forty-two today. That's the most I've managed to progress in a very long time."
Dominus frowned at that. How had the boy managed to break through the Second Boundary at all? Had he done it entirely on suffering? As a peasant, he will have had hardly any responsibility to speak of, so that certainly didn't carry him forward… And yet, even then, he needed at least a whiff of progress to be able to push forward and he had what was effectively zero.
He thought he knew why.
"You've been cursed by Ingolsol," Dominus said, just to gauge a reaction. "Progress will eternally escape you and despair will take its place. The curse you were afflicted with – a curse that only reaches the weak and the innocent – worms its way into your soul."
Beam's eyes widened in surprise for just a moment but then he merely shrugged again. "Even if what you say is true, it doesn't change what I need to do."
"All who are afflicted with Ingolsol's curse die within six months. You have lasted years by the look of you – a feat which I commend. But resisting Ingolsol's curse takes its toll. In constantly fighting against it, you cannot open your soul up to progress. Indeed, to do so would be to allow yourself to be overrun," Dominus said.
Beam smiled. "That doesn't sound right, old man. I was promoted today at work, after all. And years ago, I could only do fifteen pushups. I've still made progress."
It was Dominus' turn to be surprised. He put a finger on his chin and murmured. Indeed, what the boy had said must have been true – even if it was minimal progress, to reach through to the Second Boundary, you had to have at least some. And yet how? Resisting the curse was one thing, but to have enough leeway to force some pitiful progress as well on top of it? It was unnatural.
And now that very same boy, cursed by Ingolsol's despair, now had Claudia's blessing and had broken through the Second Boundary. He was like a bomb now – a bomb covered in a fresh layer of oil. When he finally did break, it would hurt a great many people.
Dominus drew his sword grimly. "Whilst I feel sorry for your plight, I cannot allow you to go on living. This means nothing to you, I imagine, since the peasantry are unaware of it – but today, it would seem, you broke through to the Second Boundary.
It will grow only harder to resist the curse from here, and when you do finally give in to it, the monster that you become would be a threat to an entire village."
"It's my duty as a knight to see that such a future does not come to pass. On my name Dominus Patrick, I sentence you to die."
Beam looked at the sword, fear absent from his grey eyes – were they grey? Or were they blue and green? It was hard to tell. He looked at the point of the sword as though he had been on the end of it more than once and he stared at Dominus, a false smile on his lips.
"My life is not my own, old man. Knight or not, I will struggle against you," Beam said. His eyes lit up with a ferocity that took even Dominus by surprise. Golden flecks span around them, as a fierce determination was projected forth. Dominus felt a shiver, despite his strength.
Slowly, he lowered his sword. "I understand now," he mused. "So that is why Claudia blessed you."
Seeing Beam staring back at him in confusion, Dominus sighed and explained.
"Before, without Claudia's blessing, it was your soul resisting against Ingolsol's curse. And now, with her blessing, your soul becomes the joint in the seesaw between light and dark. A precarious situation – an intensely dangerous one. There is a path forward for you, but it is dependent on the tightest balance," Dominus said.
"Then I will take it and live regardless," Beam said firmly.
Dominus looked at him with icy eyes. "You have spirit boy, far beyond your strength. For a peasant to speak to a noble as such – already, your neck would be bared on the block. And yet you stand against me, of all people, as though you stand a chance."
"It doesn't matter whether I stand a chance or not. I swore an oath to struggle for my life regardless," Beam said.
"Then struggle," Dominus intoned. His sword flashed out of its scabbard for half a second and a short distance away, a boulder crumbled. "That is the power of the third boundary. I exist within the fifth. I am he who wounded the Pandora Goblin. I am the scorned knight, Dominus Patrick.
Now you know of me, you will know your place."
Beam looked from Dominus back to the shattered boulder and then back to Dominus again. Never before had he seen such a feat of overwhelming strength. Never before had he even met a knight. Beam merely nodded, realizing that his life was entirely in Dominus' hands from the start.