"Stop that! You'll do yourself serious harm like that!" Asa suddenly said. Asathen wondered why she had not spoken before, but when he heard several pairs of feet approaching, he suspected they had been out the tent, and just returned. "You should be lucky you did not get that open, in your condition." She then slowly and gently returned Asathen's arm to his side.

"You hungry old chap?" came the low boom of Montgomery's voice. "You haven't eaten in a few days, and you still owe me that fight you promised me" This was going back several years, but Asathen could tell Montgomery was just trying to be friendly. "Don't try to speak, groan for yes, grunt for no"

Asathen thought about this for a minute. Yes he was hungry, but he wasn't sure he could keep any food down, and he definitely didn't want to throw up in front of Asa.
So he grunted. Montgomery suggested a drink. He groaned. He'd only just realised how dry he felt inside, and he was relatively confident he could keep a bit of liquid down.

"Close the back of your mouth so you don't choke," The low rumble of Montgomery said, "and be ready to swallow" Asathen then felt the splash of some liquid being pored out, and when it was dropped in his mouth he recognised the taste of his own home whiskey. As this happened, he could also see the unmistakable face of a wizard, giving him his drink. He allowed the whiskey to moisten him mouth for a second, then swallowed. He opened his mouth for some more.

"No, no, we don't want you either drunk or throwing up" This voice was Asa's. "If you want any more, it will have to be water" Asathen shut his mouth. Water was fine normally, but the water at these events tended to be stored, and had an old stale taste to it. Most of the knights went to the nearest spring instead.

The whiskey had strengthened Asathen from the inside, and so he tried to speak. "Talk to me Asa, how am I?" it was only a whisper, but it was clear enough in the complete silence.

"That blow to your skull was not a normal blow," Asa started "Vannick had an illegal, magical blade. It was cursed, and the officials think it was cursed just before the match.

"We do not think Vannick knew his sword was cursed. He holds too much honour, and too high a status to risk bringing a magical weapon to a small-scale match. We, well the officials anyway, are still not sure who cursed the blade, but they suspect it was either to harm you, or to harm Vannick.

"Anyway, when Vannick hit you over the head, one of the mages saw the sword drawing magical energy, and discharging it as it hit you. The combined force of Vannick's strength, and the magic in the sword caused your head to split, even through your helm. Due to the magical energy of the blow, none of the mages here can heal it. The best they could do was to put a helmet on you, and seal it so nothing can get into the hole."

Asathen knew immediately what this meant. He was going to die, and was dying because of an illegal blade in the joust. Asa must have seen this realisation on Asathen's face, because she stopped.

"Talk to me until I die" said Asathen. "I want yours to be the last voice I hear."

And so Asa started to talk, but not after Ricold, and Montgomery, paid their respects to Asathen, both as a man, and as a knight. They then both together gave him a prayer so he might find the happiness in death. Asathen listened, and watched. Asa talked about many things, her younger life, and her travels. After a while, Asathen shut his eyes, quite content to just listen. Asa must have taken this as him slipping away, as she next said "I followed you on your errantry quest, I persuaded those dwarves to give you the flail, I had 50 wood elves killing goblins to make sure you both got home."

Asathen summoned the energy to make three last words "I… never… knew…" the last thing he felt was a soft kiss before all feeling left him.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

And so it was that Asathen died. Asathen had had a very nice career though, Montgomery had set his errantry, and he had gone on his errantry quest with Ricold. They were the only two of the five to survive, and Ricold had forfeited the right to the land in order to go adventuring. And so Asathen had gained a nice patch of land, a town called Setta, on the edge of Loren. It had a population of 5000 in the actual town, of which about 500 were elven. It had a lot of land, but a lot of it was forested, and much was unpopulated.

Asathen had not been completely unprepared for his death though. He, like all Knights of the land, had prepared what was to be done in the case of his death, either accidental, murder, or in competition or war. Asathen had been good friends with Ricold since their errantry quest together, and Ricold had kept the town on the map, as well as providing Asathen and the town with some very nice magic items, and money. Due to this, Asathen had declared that upon his death all his belongings and rights went to Ricold, including the title "Lord of Setta". On the possibility of Ricold not being alive long enough to write his own will of the land. It was declared that all the rights and belongings of both men would go to the knight of the major grail shrine outside Setta.

Ricold knew about, and stood by the agreement, and when Asathen had died, Ricold knew his title was now "Ricold, Lord of the Tournament, Lord of Setta, Friend of Athel Loren", Boy was that a big title. And so it was decried that after the tournament that killed Asathen, Ricold would return to Setta. Montgomery would, on the other hand, investigate who killed Asathen and why. Asa could go and do as she pleased. As it was, Asa pleased to help Montgomery for the moment, but would go with Ricold when he left.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"What do you mean, 'I'm not allowed'?" Bellowed Montgomery "I have been blessed by the Lady, and have drunk from the grail, and you are telling me I'm not allowed! This is ludicrous!"

"I also must agree here, I see is no reason why we should not be allowed to investigate the death a good friend of ours" This was the calm collected voice of Asa.

"You may do as you please around tournament grounds providing you leave official business to officials, and contests to the fighters. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do" The official speaking then sat down, behind her desk and started working. Asa and Montgomery left her tent, picking up their weapons from the guards on the way out.

"I never worked this out," Asa commented to Montgomery, "Who is higher in the pecking order, a grail knight, or a sorceress?"

"The grail knight usually, but this is a tournament, and all competitors must obey the rules of the owner of the tournament, even Grail knights. As she was enforcing the wishes of the owner, even I must follow her rules. I don't have to like them, and I can argue, but I must live with the conclusion."

"But I presume that only stands for knights and entrants?"

"No, it stands for those visiting as well. Actually I believe it stands for everyone on the designated land."

As they were talking, Asa and Montgomery had been walking down towards the visitor's tents. The approached Ricold's tent, and knocked on the post Ricold had by the door exactly for that purpose. There was no answer. Asa stuck her head round the flap, and came back out with a scrap of paper.

"Ricold says he's on a fight now," Asa read out, "could we meet him outside the secondary arena when it is over. He will wait only 10 minutes after it finishes."

"I suspect we just missed him then, so far as I know the last one finished as we entered the officials tenting area" reasoned Montgomery "If we are quick, we might see the whole fight.

And so Asa and Montgomery started to walk towards the arenas. They were not very far off from the competitor tents, and they reached then quite quickly. The approached, and entered the stalls. It was a Black Knight friendly. The Black Knight had challenged Ricold, because of Ricold's notoriety. Both Montgomery and Ricold knew this Black Knight out of the arena, and, without letting on that he knew this, Ricold was quite happy to fight him.

The fight was going well for Ricold; he had driven the Black Knight off his horse, and was taking a final pass before dismounting. Ricold set his horse quite fast, and caught the Black Knight squarely with his practice sword. Asa wandered over to the mount stand.

"Well, I see you got the message then" said the hollow voice of Ricold through his helm "Pass me my drink would you, thanks" As Asa obliged "I need to talk to you two after this, I've found something out about the late Lord Vannick"

Asa was lost for words, and Ricold strode off before any came to her mind. She returned to Montgomery, and relayed what Ricold had said.

"The *late* Lord Vannick?" Queried Montgomery, "I thought he had been in a fight this morning."