FOREVER KNIGHTS: #2 Rise of the King of Assassins
RAESE - Who Am I?

Inner Forestway outside Innercircle City, Mane Country

RAESE

Rodger Barnes was the first face in the first memory Raese could recall. It was a chilly, foggy late September day when he woke on grassy dirt and stumbled to the nearest town.

His body aching and his head feeling like a stone on his shoulders that weighed nearly too much to lift.

He woke on a pile of leaves. With twigs and branches crisscrossing in a heaped pile over him. Dizzy and disoriented, he threw them off and climbed to his feet on shaking limbs.

Somewhere close by he could hear screaming that sounded like thrumming in his ears. Shrill screams and long echoing yells.

Too much sound for my pounding head. He pressed his palms to both his temples and grimaced. Needing further from the sound he set out.

Walking on legs that trembled like a new foal's.

Rodger Barnes told him later that he was driving his chariot after purchasing pastries for his mistress. He recognized Raese teetering next to the road. Naked with a pounding head and only twigs and mud for clothes.

Looking like some sickened tree sprite. At least that's what Rodger had told him.

“What happened to you man?” Rodger expostulated. Stopping the chariot to stare at him in horror. "You look as though a carriage ran you over!"

“I’ve…Not…I don’t-my head.” He swayed as he pressed a palm to his aching forehead.

Who is he? Raese tried to focus his blurred gaze on the man but could only make out the features of dark hair and dark eyes standing on the base drug by horses.

“Must’ve been thieves.” Rodger announced. “Get in my chariot. We'll get you home.”

Home? Raese wondered. Where's that?

Do I even have one?

Raese mindlessly obeyed. Despite not knowing who this was. Having no idea what he should or shouldn’t do. Knowing as much as a new babe.

Raese remembered nothing. He pieced his history together from his friend. It’s fortunate he found me.

“You’re Raese, Lord Whiting of WhiteHall. Do you not recall any of it?” Rodger had peered at him, frowning. "This is more serious then I thought."

"I don't know who I am."

"Ah, hell." Rodger spat. "Do you know me?" Rodger grabbed his shoulders urgently. "Do I not look familiar to you?"

Raese shook his head and immediately regretted it. Growing dizzied he slid down the inside of the chariot to huddle in the corner of the curved metal. Shivering though he wasn’t cold.

He felt immense loss. As if something precious was stolen from him though he couldn't define what it was.

Other then my memory.

Rodger took him to his Town Manor. Explaining their friendship along the way.

Raese was hesitant to trust him because he seemed so unfamiliar. But the kindness in Rodger's face demanded an instinctive trust. Something bone deep in Raese told him he could trust this man.

Raese muttered often about a woman but when people asked what he was saying he couldn't remember.

He dreamt of her more often then not.

When he told Rodger, the man looked pained. "You don't know who she is?"

"I can't...I don't-" Raese put his hand to his bruised temple. "It hurts when I try."

After a long while, Rodger eventually introduced him to the Widow Parker. Reminding him of their acquaintance.

"You were courting her."

Raese didn’t know her face but had to trust what his friend told him, as it was his only guiding force.

That was until the first time he saw her…

The wraith.