You are great, the voice whispered. Gabriel saw nothing except the black spiral of death. Some who came through said it was a coma, others said a deep sleep, yet he could not rest. They came to him and would speak of the chance of survival and the chance of ever living a normal life. He hear them all, but could not respond. Not a single person had faith.

  You will live, the voice whispered. You will be strong.

  Yesterday a new healer had spent hours at his bedside, sending all manner of healing spells into his body. ‘Even if he does wake, he will wear a mask and hide in shame for the rest of his days,’ one had said. ‘If I were him, I’d prefer a clean death.’ Yet Gabriel did not die, nor did he wake. Trapped in suspended death, asleep yet awake, stuck in limbo. A true Purgatory. Three days ago, Elizabeth had visited. She seemed to be crying. He felt something then, he almost felt he could open his eyes, but like always his body refused.

  No one will ever stop you again, the voice whispered. You will be the one true knight. An aspiring image for those beneath you, a curse to those against you, a beautiful sight to behold.

  ‘He will never wake. There is damage to the brain,’ the healer said. ‘Maybe if you had called me within a day of the incident… but now it is too late. The healing spells used on him were too weak. They covered the wounds, but they healed broken and wrong. There is nothing more I can do, I must go.’

  You will have everything you ever want, Saleos whispered. Your revenge, your peace, your love. Accept me into your heart and I will make you the prince of Purgatory.

  Gabriel’s eyes opened for the first time in a week. He was in a shabby green tent with a dirt floor. Birds chirped and men squabbled outside. The bed squeaked as he rolled onto his side and climbed to his feet. He could move, not just that, he did not feel an ounce pain in his body. His joints were stiff, but otherwise he was healed and awake. Awake, that was the most important part. He never wanted to sleep again. The energy coursing through his veins would not let him. Looking down he was naked except for bloody bandages and a wooden cross that hung around his neck. Gabriel felt the coarse grain under his fingers. The cross was terribly made; it was a disgusting thing really. Who had put this around his neck? He felt the urge to rip it off and throw it away when he remembered; Elizabeth, it was hers. Maybe I could wear it a little longer. He suddenly did not know why it repulsed him so greatly. On the table was a note from Elizabeth, it read: This is goodbye Gabriel. By the time you wake, I will have returned to Earth. I will miss you so please live a good second life. Gabriel’s heart ached. Elizabeth had been an annoying brat at times, but other times her belligerence had been charming. He had grown fond of her at the end, and now she was gone.

  By his bed was his suit of armor and his shattered blade. He equipped himself, but left his helmet off and set out of the tent. The sun was warm on his face and the breeze was fresh in his hair. He had been still for too long; it was time to find either the captain of the guard or the holy knight who had attacked him. Gabriel felt oddly optimistic with a pep in his step. Last time he was awake he was fighting for his life, but that was the past. He would ask them for a task, perhaps a monster to slay or a post to manage. A fresh start with the city of Capernaum as the only knight of honor in the country. He would turn his luck around. As he walked through the medical camp, nurses and doctors gave him quizzical looks; others chose to avoid looking at him all together. It must be strange to see someone left for dead walking around, but Gabriel would not let it get him down. Seeing a pretty nurse with soft brown hair pass, he decided to ask her for directions.

  Standing in front of her, she seemed to look everywhere but Gabriel’s face. The ground seemed particularly interesting to her. ‘Excuse me miss,’ Gabriel said, but his voice came out wrong. His tongue seemed to get in the way of his throat and his lips did not move how he wanted them to. It must just be from the coma, it will pass soon and my voice will return, he was certain, ‘I’m looking for the holy knight in this city. Do you know where I would find him?’

  ‘I don’t- I don’t know,’ she stuttered out. Poor girl is terrified; maybe she is an anxious person. Gabriel had experience with girls being scared of him; intimidated by his attractiveness.

  He smirked, ‘Surely you do. You know; the big, fat ash-knight with the belly of a cauldron. The only holy knight in the city.’

  The girl etched backwards, ‘Oh ye- yes. How could I forget? The forge in the center of the city, you should find him there,’ she walked further back, still watching the ground. ‘I have to go,’ and the girl hurried away, keeping her eyes low. Gabriel reached out, but she was already gone. I should have asked her name, she was cute.

  The forge sat atop a grassy hill with a winding gravel path. It was made of oddly shaped stones, pressed into a tight cube with a brick chimney, puffing away. Gabriel knocked on the red door twice. Behind it, he could hear the banging of hammers and the hiss of hot iron plunged into water. The door swung open to reveal a potbellied man with a trailing grey beard that reached down to his knees. He stunk of sweat, smoke and soot. His head was bald and tattooed all over, his eyes were skeptical and his mouth was pursed. ‘What do you want?’ Sanya asked.

  ‘I want to work, learn to fight and lead.’

  Sanya grumbled, something close to a growl. ‘That was the deal wasn’t it.’

  ‘I believe it was.’

  ‘You weren’t supposed to wake up.’

  Gabriel would not let anything knock him down so he smiled. ‘Here I am.’

  Sanya grimace. Even he seemed to struggle to look at Gabriel’s face. Was it that strange he woke up or was it something else he wasn’t aware of; making everyone struggle to look at him? ‘I guess we could always use another pair of hands. I’ll get you down at the docks; you can learn to scrub the deck of a ship.’

  ‘Scrub the deck of a ship?’ Gabriel asked, trying not to sound too outraged. ‘I am a full knight of honor.’ He touched the bronze shackles to confirm their existence.

  ‘And you’ll be a dead or exiled knight of honor, should you refuse.’

  ‘Surely there must be something better to make use of my skills.’

  ‘Oh sorry my good knight. Do you find that type of work demeaning?’ Sanya asked.

  Gabriel felt like the question was a trap, but there was only one-way to answer it, ‘I do, it’s not kind of the labor I should be tasked with.’

  ‘Well guess what, you’re a foreigner, honor sword bastard whom no one in the city wants to follow. You want to lead? You need to learn what it is like at the bottom of the food chain first. Do you want people to follow you? You need to earn their respect first.’

  ‘Earn respect,’ Gabriel asked, ‘by cleaning?’

  Sanya nodded, but Gabriel continued, ‘I have valuable skills, I am a strong fighter.’

  ‘You know what is valuable?’ Sanya asked, and pointed inside the forge where fire steamed and iron lay in heaps. ‘Those two bags of snow drake scales your master gave me that I am going to make a set of armor out of. That is valuable, not some green boy who is not even old enough to grow a beard. I would gladly trade you for another bag.’ Gabriel went to reply, but Sanya went on. ‘You know who is valuable, a true fighter and I don’t mean someone who knows how to swing a sword like you. I mean a true fighter with a blazing spirit like that girl Beth. I would have taken one of her over ten of you. You're worthless, but you have two hands and you can damn well scrub a deck.’

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  ‘I’m stronger than Elizabeth.’

  ‘I fucking doubt it,’ Sanya said. A flick of spit flew from his mouth and landed on Gabriel’s cheek. ‘Now you can head over to the docks and start cleaning or you can get the fuck out of my city.’

  Gabriel’s hand twitched, it would take him a mere second to draw his blade and strike a man down, but then he remembered what happened last time. His paralysis, the impending death that Sanya delivered. The coma. Gabriel turned around and stormed away.

  Sanya wanted him to clean ships. Fine he would clean ships. He would not let this keep him down; he would prove himself and rise through the ranks. He would survive the docks; he had survived worse. Before he knew it he would be the chief cleaning officer, then in the barracks and the armory and he would find a way to show his strength and skill. Once they see him for who he is, they will have no choice but to invite him to fight beside them. He was strong, he was great. He knew he was great, destined for greatness. Someone had told him. Someone…

  Who had told me I was great? Gabriel knew someone thought highly of him. Someone out there, it didn’t even feel that long ago, but who was it?

  * * * *

  The docks of Capernaum had more ships than Gabriel had seen in his entire life. From grand naval vessels, decked with cannons from bow to stern, to humble fishing fleets and crown jewel was a prized warship, twice as large as the second with a dragon’s figurehead. It would take thousands of sailors to man and maintain this fleet. Now Gabriel was one of them. There was something of a naval headquarters by the bay. It was a stout castle flying three flags; the first showed a man with wings instead of arms, the next had Nordic runes with a battle-axe in the center and the final displayed a drowned man. The image of a man suffocating beneath the waves was not the most reassuring image for someone joining the navy’s ranks.

  Walking inside he found a pristine room with a long desk. A young sailor with half-faded eyes slept there with his head on his elbow. Gabriel explained woke him to find someone who really did not care who he was. After explaining the situation to him, he assigned Gabriel to Crow’s foot, a frigate that was at the top of his list for understaffed vessels. At least it is a warship, and not a fishing boat. Crow’s foot was a small thing, fifteen meters long, five from port to starboard and underneath the afternoon sun were two boys hunched over scrubbing. Gabriel stepped onto the deck, it swayed under his weight and he struggled to stay upright. The ground moving beneath his feet was something he would need to get used to, but he would get used to it. The two boys looked up at him; they were about thirteen with faces of grime and pimples.

  ‘What’re you lookin’ fer?’ the first boy asked, his accent thick and muddy.

  ‘Is this Crow’s foot?’ Gabriel asked with a slobbering voice to match. His speech still had not returned to normal. His tongue just always seemed to get in the way.

  ‘Tis, what of it?’

  ‘My name is Gabriel, knight of honor,’ Gabriel said, then watched the two waiting for them to return the courtesy.

  ‘Pip,’ the first boy said, he was the smaller one, but clearly the bolder.

  The second boy was about a foot taller and wider than his companion was, but he needed an elbow from Pip to get the hint. ‘My name is Bren, Mr sir knight.’

  ‘Just Gabriel is fine,’ Gabriel said. ‘From today, I’m cleaning this ship with you both.’

  Pip laughed, ‘You are mistah tin can? Where’d a cleanin boy get a set o’ armor?’

  ‘I told you I am a knight.’

  ‘And I’m the capten of this here ship!’ Pip said jumping to his feet and pointing to the sky.

  Bren giggled at this, but not for long.

  ‘Don’t mock me boy.’

  ‘Or what? What’s a cleanin boy gonna do? Don’t think of hittin me, I’ll squeal. Every man in the yard’ll come runnin.’

  Gabriel squeezed his fist, he needed to remember his place. Right now he wasn’t a knight, he was a fucking deck boy, ‘Sorry, I won't hit you. I am a knight, but I’ve been tasked to clean as a punishment. I’ll be working with you Pip and Bren. I don’t know how long I will be here so let's be friends okay?’

  Pip has a mischievous grin and a twinkle in his eye, like troubled child who caught a poor helpless animal he plans to torture. Bren meanwhile seemed utterly repulsed. He would glance at Gabriel then cover his mouth and look away, but as if watching a disaster, his eyes always came back. Is an honor knight so strange in these parts?

  ‘Sure, sure, mistah knight o’ honor. You can start with the captain’s cabin in there,’ Pip pointed to a doorway that sat below the helm, ‘there's a mop and bucket already in there.’

  Gabriel nodded; trying to maintain the tiniest shred of dignity he had remaining. It did not matter what some deck boys thought of him, he still was who he was. Nothing would change that.

  ‘Don’t take too long,’ Pip called out as Gabriel walked into the lamp-lit room. Bren tried to tell Pip to stop between his giggling fits. Gabriel could hear them pushing each other and trying to speak in a hush, but failing miserably. Gabriel grabbed the mop and dunked it in the bucket. ‘Did ya hear him Bren? A fookin knight o’ honor sent to scrub the boat with us.’

  The wet mop smacked the wooden floorboards.

  ‘I dunno about this Pip. I don’t like him.’

  He swiped the mop side to side, spreading its murky slop. ‘What’s not to like? We got some lordy boy with us and he has to do what we say. If I was a knight, I would never clean a deck.’

  The mop went dry and Gabriel dunked it again.

  ‘Pip, do you think all knights of honor look like… that?’

  Gabriel could feel them watching him, spying through the doorway.

  ‘Like what? Ugly?’

  Ugly? Gabriel wondered. He was not ugly. The girls all flocked to him, even abck on Earth he was popular for his looks.

  ‘Well yeah,’ Bren said. ‘Do you reckon their training is awful hard or something? Like they gotta get run over by a hundred carriages to toughen them up?’

  Pip laughed. ‘I guess it's possible.’

  ‘I don’t think I can work with him Pip, he scares me.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it; he’s just some freak.’

  Gabriel peered down into the bucket and saw someone else’s face. It was a hideous thing, difficult to even call human. His head was caved in on the left side and cuts lined his face where the skin was being pulled together by stitches. Some of his teeth were missing and his left nostril had entirely collapsed. His skin was all grey with splotches of pink.

  Who is that? What kind of trick or foul demon would change a man’s reflection. Maybe this boat was cursed.

  Each breath the image took was in painful gasps and Gabriel saw they were perfectly timed with his own. He touched his face, it was all wrong. This couldn’t be real. How was this fair? He had not chosen to come here. Gabriel never attacked Sanya; it was Elizabeth who attacked him, yet he reaped the consequences of her actions.

  He was a monster.

  Don’t you want to change this unjust world Gabriel? a voice whispered.