Paladins of the Crest

When I was fifteen my parents let go from work. We lost our house and had to move in with my grandfather. He had a two-story house with a basement that smelled like mothballs and books. Yes, books have a smell. Grandpa’s house had plenty of room for everyone. However, people needed to eat and other bills paid, so my parents went out to find a job every day. For reasons unknown, grandpa always forbid us from going into the basement.

When we snuck down there, we found nothing but a bunch of old books everywhere. Who would want to be down there with a bunch of dusty old books? The next time we planned to sneak down to the basement to see if we could find anything that could help our family out. We thought grandpa may have interesting things we could sell and raise money.

The day finally came. Both parents were out looking for jobs. Grandpa had fallen asleep on his sofa. We snuck down into the basement and turned on the light. I saw something move in the shadows that spooked me, however it had to be my imagination. In an old rocking chair sat a simple, black, leather cover notebook with the emblem of two hearts intertwined on it. The book was in a good condition from the care by my grandfather. I ran my fingers over the emblem of the old black notebook removing dust over hidden words. The words were gold and silver mixed, with some blue shiny metal intertwined, in an impressive calligraphy form was “Paladins of the Crest”.

I called my siblings thinking it may have had some important investment or other riches written inside of it that could help our family. It looked fancy and old. They thought it was probably some useless religious text. I thought that was silly. So, I kept the book and the four of us went through grandpa’s stuff. Nothing but books and some of them written in some weird text. A few books looked like some art drawings. My nerdy brother told me it looked like ancient Greek or Sumerian, not that we’d ever be able to read it. Nothing of value except the books. We left the basement upset and feeling worse than ever. I felt attached to this little black book. It felt like it belonged to me, the eldest child. We found a book to each of us. My sister Megan took a red book, Joseph took a green book, Leslie took the purple book, from eldest to youngest. Irony, the three primary colors, except my shirt, which was black and unique. But as my brother Joseph told me, if you can not see the color, it will appear as black. I liked his positive viewpoint. I thought black was evil, representing darkness, but again, I later discovered that was not true either.

Grandpa woke up later and asked if anyone had been in the basement. We all denied the question. The next day, he gave us each a shirt. I got a rainbow shirt that also had a black streak as one of the eight colors. My sister Megan got a red shirt, Joseph got a green shirt, Leslie got a purple shirt. Oddly, each matching the books we took. He knew. We asked what they were for and he told us, “I had a dream that these matched you four. That I would be proud of you all.”

We all looked at each other but kept our mouths shut. Later we talked about it, argued was more correct. We felt he knew about it, but would not accuse us. The odd part is where he said he was proud of us. Was this a test on our honor or did he see something we did not? Our parents came home later that night, looking defeated, but as we were wearing our shirts, requested by grandpa.

Dad said, “Nice shirts, matches you all well.”

Mom then said, “Eight colors in the rainbow. Is it not seven colors?”

My dad replied, “Actually love, there are seven in light, then black. You can not have light without dark, must be balanced.”

Mom asked, “Is not dark considered evil and light as good?”

Dad replied, as if they were having a debate without telling us, “Light nor dark are evil, they exist. Actions are good and evil, although perspective.”

Mom replied, “I believe I see your point. We should accept and love everyone and everything. Only judge them by their actions. I agree. Don’t judge a simple book by its cover, thinking it is invaluable.” Then they looked at me and smiled. It made me nervous. I seriously felt like admitting everything, but my brother nudged me to remind me to be strong.

It seems my grandfather did a lot of research on the Paladin Order and how Charlemagne was not the first to form the Paladin Order, but inherited part of them for his court and guards. According to my grandfather at dinner tonight, Annunaki formed the first paladin order. They ended up forming a court of the twelve most powerful beings at the time to serve the King and Queen of the universe and gods and goddesses. Even the super-powerful king and queen served a higher master. Their master had a name only they could pronounce. Later adopted by the Egyptians as the holy guards or gods of the pharaoh, then by other great rulers.

The first twelve were called holy or royal paladins. Later their order served the Greeks, the Hindu, and many societies as paladins of that religion or order. Even the mythical King Arthur, based on an actual king and queen, formed the nights of the round table, known as the twelve royal paladins.

Alexander the Great’s paladin order saved people very close to him after his death. They escorted his wife and children away, then created the rumor that they had died. One of Alexander’s descendants became Jesus himself, as we knew from Christianity and created his own twelve paladins.

Grandpa said General Tariq Bin Ziyad, Sultan Saladin, and King Richard the Lionheart are historic Paladins. Saladin and Richard even recognized each other as paladins despite their way because of each’s honor and noble actions towards all life. They made peace and decided to sharing the sacred land of Jerusalem together in peace, trade, and prosperity. Charlemagne made their order public. Grandpa seemed very knowledgeable about this and went on for hours, captivating us at dinner with his many great stories.

I looked at my siblings and it looks like they had the same dream, to be Paladins and fight the evil to protect this world and others, whether on the forefront or behind the scenes. Mages, clerics, mystics, warriors, kings and queens, strategist, rogues and thieves, and many more from a variety of religions and walks of life, all defending the world from evil and those who wished evil upon Earth. This was a long history; however, this history is much better and more alive than anything I read or dealt with in school.

Leslie asked, “Could we be paladins papa?”

He smiled and said, “Why could you not be? Paladins can be anyone, from any religion, any walk of life, any ethnicity, and so on. Even atheist can be paladins. There is much to the universe and this world we do not know. Angels and demons are both dangerous to humanity, despite what religions say. They can help or harm, as their nature isn’t good or evil as that is judged by actions and perspective. Just like any being.” He looked at me and winked. At least I thought I saw him wink at me.

Then my dad said it was time for us to go to bed. My brother and I slept in one room, my sisters in the room next to us. There was a bathroom between my parent’s room and ours, while my grandpa liked to sleep in the bedroom down stairs. We talked through the walls and the things we could or would do if we were paladins with abilities ourselves.

That night, I had opened the black book and read it, where I read similar stories in it as well, including all forms of evil, such as liches, evil demigods, most undead, many ghost, quite a few demons and archdemons, as with some angels we once thought were good. I thought that was scary, but what I found out is when I did that, I accidentally freed an ancient trapped lich. About an hour after I started reading the book tonight, my siblings and I were teleported to the basement and were all in shock. Standing there was a powerful lich which undead mage.

The lich had red balls of energy where its eyes should have been, wearing a pure white tattered cloak all the down. The lich smelled of rot as well.

We were all stunned, each holding our books. I suppose my siblings were reading from their own books as well.

The lich spoke in a silky, deep voice, “Finally, you children have released me. I am Eldar the Great. You shall die and become my first sacrifices to my dark goddess.”

I could not tolerate my siblings being hurt. I saw my entire life flash before my eyes. In this moment found the strength and courage to break free when I screamed out, “No!”

My siblings, still frozen, connected to my mind. I unified our family’s bond mentally and the knowledge of the four books. I awakened my dormant power, as a Paladin, Battlemage superclass. I could now control water, wind, lightning, fire, earth, and void because I unlocked true love. I took on the lich as if a real-life chess match. Then took on the lich with magic and cunning. I will spare you the details of the battle, but in the end the lich lost to me when I summoned “Final Judgement”. Final Judgement is when I asked Uriel the loving in the north, Gabriel the wise in the south, Michaela the faithful in the east, and Raphael the hopeful in the west to open their gates. Then asked God to cast “Final Judgement” in a weird voice on the lich.

My grandpa, mom, and dad busted down the door to find my siblings and I talking about the dead lich. My grandpa was so happy, he hugged and said delightfully, “I was afraid I would be the last of our noble order of the Paladins of the Crest. The lich could not be defeated by your predecessors”, he paused, “So how did you defeat him when others could not, including your father and I?”

We recounted the finding of the books, the unity of our actions and thoughts based on the stories grandpa had told us and what we had read in the books. My dad went to make sure the lich was dead. The next morning there was a package for us. We opened it to find a letter asking us to lead and unite the paladin order, with the first payment of twenty thousand dollars.

We did not know, but this was the first of many battles we fought to defend the world and oddly, they were all rewarding. Now our paladin order has thousands in it, but the core are my family and the twelve serving God and protecting humanity. Recruits, this is our history. Will you sign up to defend the world from beings who wish it harm? Will you become a paladin?