[b]The Fall of the Dragon Knight[/b]

The holy city of Jerusalem is governed by many rituals and many laws. The pious pilgrim might find divine revelation in accordance with these rituals. The impious pilgrim, however, may find just the opposite...

Selzi Ikaros, the glorious Dragon Knight of Antioch, had been sent on pilgrimage by her devout mother in despair at her daughter's behaviour. Sent in the company of a retinue of priests, monks, and with the assistance of the most sober-minded of her companions Felii Instansi, this journey was sure to bring some measure of divine calm to the hot-headed warrior. But the mother underestimated. Selzi had the aspect of the boar to her - she desired to feast, to fight, and to revel. She was a mighty warrior with muscles like steel cables cables and without parallel in the jousting lists and she had no respect for these soft religious creatures that surrounded her like sheep. 

As soon as she reached the holy city she prevailed over Felii and spirited her away from the procession. They instead went through the bars and back streets of the city like a whirlwind, Selzi corrupting the naive Felii with drink and vice, engaging in brawls and robberies and behaviour entirely unbecoming of two young knights. After many nights of hard drinking the two of them walked from the city, laughing and carrying each other. Selzi walked ahead, and then turned to face Felii to show off the goblet she had stolen from a church. Walking backwards, she stepped into the centre of a crossroads.

Walking backwards, away from Jerusalem, into a crossroads - this is one of the many ritual taboos that a more attentive soul would know to avoid. 

It isn't clear who the woman they met there was - a djinn, perhaps, or a wizard, or even the devil herself. But she sat atop the lamp post and smiled at the drunk and tarnished knights and offered them wishes three. She had not even had time to raise the topic of the price before Sir Selzi interrupted her with the same thoughtless arrogance that governed her whole life.

"I wish," said Ser Selzi, as confidently as the horns of war, "for the strength of a hundred knights. I wish for the glory of a hundred kings. I wish for the wealth of a hundred lords."

And so she of the crossroads smiled and shrugged. She hang down from the burning lamp-post by her feet like a bat and plucked the icon of the dragon from Selzi's shield, and with a symphony of fire, the knight and the dragon were one. Roaring in fury and horror, the wyrm clawed at itself, causing scales to fall as rain before flying away into the night.

"And for your wish, little dove?" asked she of the crossroads with a smile like ice.

"Turn her back!" blurted Ser Felii, aghast at the terrible curse that had befallen her friend. "Release Selzi at once, I command you!"

"Ah," said she of the crossroads. "[i]That[/i] will carry a heavy price indeed. She had three wishes, so you must do three tasks for me to undo them."

"Name them," said Ser Felii.

"Firstly, you must cleanse yourself in a cathedral not of Rome," said she of the crossroads. "Then you must hear a king weep and beg for mercy. Finally, you must walk through Ser Selzi's own fire without being burned. When these terms are met then I will return Ser Selzi Ikaros to human shape."

But, said she of the crossroads in her malicious mind, even then Ser Selzi will not be free of the price of her [i]own[/i] wish.