Untarnished, She Shines With Honour // Arthur Maxson x F!Sole Survivor

Chapter Eight

Arthur hasn't had very many opportunities to go out in the field since he was appointed Elder. His job requires him to stay near the Prydwen, to be available at a moment's notice. His trip to the Castle had been the first time he'd had gone somewhere of his own volition for a long time. Hell, his power armour hasn't seen daylight in a long, long time. He used to feel at home aboard the Prydwen, but ever since arriving in the Commonwealth, the Prydwen's been nothing but suffocating.

And Ridley is like a breath of fresh air.

He braces his head in his hands, staring down at the surface of the table, through his fingers he sees that Ridley's wedding band sits on his nightstand where he used to keep Sarah's brooch. The General and Paladin Danse have been gone for nearly a week, and their radio has been completely silent the entire time. He had briefly considered sending a rescue team after them, but within hours of the thought crossing his mind, he had received a message from Ridley's Pip-Boy. The message had been pretty clear.

Don't know when we will be back. Probably not for a while. Progress is substantial. Will update in person. The Minutemen thank the Brotherhood for their help.

– R

The words sound so stiff and unfamiliar that they might as well have been written by someone else. Had she not signed her initial, he might have thought it had been a report from Danse. Short, succinct, and to the point is his style, not Ridley's. She rarely ever speaks in anything but long, winded tangents.

He does not know if she would even receive his response, should he send one, but he does not dare do such a thing. He had been a fool to have let the night of her return from the Fort to go so far. Sometimes, he forgets his own youth. He forgets that his childhood is a dream that had never come to pass, filled instead with drills meant for boys twice his age, and that his toys had been cobbled together from pieces of scrap. He forgets that he spent the first half of his life locked within the walls of the Citadel, forbidden from stepping one foot out into the wastelands without armed escorts accompanying him.

And sometimes, he forgets that he cannot remember his parents' faces.

The Salisbury steak a squire had delivered him hours ago has long since gone cold, dark gravy long since congealed. He pokes at it unenthusiastically with his knife, pushing it around the metal plate. If Ingram finds out that he hasn't been eating, he knows she'll storm into his rooms with the grace of a dozen Deathclaws. He doesn't need her to remind him that the Brotherhood is nothing without him. This chapter will fail without him, and what will happen to the rest of the Brotherhood? Should the last Maxson fall, will it all soon follow? The Codex says nothing of his potential to fail, but there are verses that have been in the Codex since the days of Roger Maxson—verses not even the Scribes know the true meaning of. Arthur had memorized every line of the damn thing, forced to endure countless lessons as a child in a classroom all by himself, as the Head Scribe personally tutored him.

"In the heat of the hottest fire, the last son's soul is forged from eternal steel. He will unite the Forgotten with the Remembered, and the Remembered with the Forgotten. With gold and steel, under a banner of a sword lit by lightning, he will usher in a new dawn," Head Scribe Rothchild recited without as much as a glance towards his notes. His piercing eyes meet Arthur's. "That means you, child."

He wonders sometimes what it would be like to not carry the Maxson name. He could be a knight, or perhaps even a scribe, and they would know him as Arthur. In the past month, only two people have used his name, and one of them is Ingram. The other... The other, he remembers with a grimace, is Ridley.

Maxson tells himself that that's the only reason he's grown close to her so quickly. She has little care for his rank, respecting him for his beliefs, rather than because he's her superior. That isn't to say that there aren't those in the Brotherhood who don't respect his values, but she hasn't sworn the Oath of Fraternity. For all intents and purposes, she owes him no loyalty beyond that which she wishes to give. His men are bound to him, and while his alliance with the Minutemen have created somewhat of a bond, Ridley will not be constrained by such simple things.