The sounds changed from that of an open field to the closeness of a forest. Birds sang around him and twigs broke underfoot. After a while, they stopped and Noir could hear Captain Grandel somewhere in front of him talking to a new voice. Then Noir was nudged forward again from behind. The grass and twigs underfoot changed to hard dirt. The sounds changed again, this time from wilderness to the sounds of a town. People greeted the soldiers around Noir as he walked blindly by. A hammer clanging against metal rang out to his right.
Finally, Noir was told to stop. He felt the blindfold lifted off of his face. He blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the sudden light then looked around. He was in a very small room that was closed in on all sides with no windows. The walls and ceiling were made of hardened clay and dirt. He turned around to see one wall was made of vertical bars going from the ceiling to the floor, with a metal door hinged on them. A man in armor closed the door and turned a key. Then he sat down in a chair across the hall from the prison cell.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” thought Noir. “I’m in prison?!” He looked around the room again and noticed another young man who was sitting in the corner leaning against the wall. He looked to be a couple years older than Noir and had light blond hair with dark, tan skin. The shade of his hair was actually lighter than his skin and gave the boy an odd, foreign look. He was looking at Noir with a questioning look.
“Uh, hi,” said Noir. The young man looked even more confused. “Where am I?”
“In a prison, dummy.”
Noir shook his head in frustration. “I can see that.” He sighed. “What town is this? Who are you?”
“My name? I’m Ratt,” the other boy said very cautiously. “You must be from Chiron with those clothes.”
Noir replied, “I don’t even know what Chiron is.”
Ratt stuck his head out from his shoulders, furrowing his brow looking even more confused than before. “You have got to be kidding me. Where are you from? How do you not know about one of the two kingdoms in the entire world?”
Noir thought, “What does that even mean? Only two kingdoms? What have I gotten myself into? And even more, what have I gotten Aimee and Steven into?”
Noir said, “So you never said where this is.”
Ratt said mockingly, “Do you know anything, bud?”
Noir replied, “Hey, you’re in a prison cell too you know. You can’t be that well off either.”
Ratt let out a laugh at that. He finally looked like he was loosening up. “It is a long story.” Ratt stood up from where he was sitting and walked over to Noir. He held out his hand and said, “Ratt Delloview.”
Odd name, but Noir took his hand and shook it. Ratt smiled warmly. Noir smiled back, but it felt forced. He was too scared of what would become of him and his family.
Chapter 6
The captain
As they shook hands, the cell door creaked and swung open. “Hey new kid.” A man in armor pointed at Noir. “Come with me.”
Noir looked at Ratt and said, “Well, that didn’t last long. Nice meeting you.”
Ratt brushed his hand through the air and said, “Don’t sweat it, kid. They’re just going to see if you are attuned to one of the three vigors. They do it to everyone. They’ll have you back in our wonderful jail cell in no time.”
That stuff about three vigors made no sense to Noir, but the man beckoned him sharply so he followed. Another armored warrior followed up behind Noir.
They led Noir down a short hall to which a couple other rooms connected, then out the door of the structure. He saw the town for the first time. The small structure with the prison cells seemed to be on the edge of the town. Behind the prison was a small stone wall and a dense forest. Looking the other way, Noir saw a village made mostly of very small clay structures stretched before him. The road was dirt and it dodged between tree stumps.
The soldiers led him across the dirt road to a larger structure built of roughly made bricks. The front door had a glowing sphere on either side like the ones he had seen at the structure that was outside of the cave. He stared at them as he walked past, wondering how they worked. The men led him inside and down a short hall to a door. The man who led opened the door and motioned Noir inside.
Noir walked to the center of the room and the door closed behind him. Captain Grandel and the soldier who had had the glowing white device earlier were sitting at a wooden table to one side. The device that he had from earlier was sitting on the table not glowing as it was before. “Cairn, let’s see if he is as we suspect.”
The second man, whom Grandel had referred to as Cairn, stood up. He picked up the device from the table and walked to Noir. He held the device up in front of Noir and manipulated it. It slowly started to glow with a dull yellow. It grew brighter and brighter until all three of them were squinting and averting their eyes.
“My word!” exclaimed the Captain.
Cairn said, “This must be a mistake. Let me reset the luxsyedin and do it again.” He squinted at the device and manipulated it until it again became dark. He then repeated the process which resulted in the same blinding result. “This is amazing,” said Grandel.
Noir spoke up. “Sirs, if I may ask. What does this all mean?”
Cairn walked back to the table, twisting and poking at the device so it again became dark. Grandel said, “Well son, you are quite special. You are attuned to lux; and very strongly might I add.”
“What is lux?”
Both men looked at Noir with the same confused look that Ratt had given him earlier. “You lived in a hole all your life, son?” Noir did not answer so he continued, “Lux is the defensive side of the three vigors. I am amazed that you have lived as long as you have without anyone discovering your power until now.”
The other man with the device said, “I think he’s the strongest I have ever seen, save Fafnir herself.”
Noir shook his head and said, “I don’t understand any of this. You’re saying I have some sort of powers?”
“Well no,” Grandel replied. “Not yet, at least. You just have great potential to learn.” He then called loudly, “Gojen, Ryojek!” The room’s door swung open and the two warriors who had escorted Noir to the room appeared outside. “Take this young man back to his cell.”
Noir had so many questions to ask and it seemed like Captain Grandel was a pleasant enough man. So Noir said, “Please sir, do not make me go yet. You seem to be a reasonable man. May I please stay for a few moments more and ask you a few questions.”
Grandel looked at Cairn, then back to Noir. “All right, but make it fast. Do not waste my time.” He motioned for the two men outside the door to return to their posts.
The first question he wanted to ask was a simple one. “Where are my uncle and cousin?”
Grandel shifted in his chair as if made uncomfortable by the topic. “The bandits that attacked our scouting group seemed to target your uncle and cousin. We were also wondering if you had any answers about that.”
Noir said, “Why should I know. I don’t know anything about bandits, or battles, or anything.”
Captain Grandel squinted his eyes as if studying Noir’s words. “I think you speak the truth. Then we are left with as many questions as before. The only theory we have is that the bandits may have seen how strongly the luxsyedin reacted when we found you and wanted to pawn your powers off to the highest bidders.”
“Pawn? They want to sell Aimee and Steven to someone? But they don’t have the powers, right? I do.”
“Actually, the luxsyedin reacted the first time to all three vigors. It glowed white showing that all three were present. Just now it glowed yellow for you since you are attuned to lux.
“They have powers too?” Noir thought that none of this could be real. It was stupid. No one had special powers. Lux? Vigors? Questions about that he could save for later. “So what actually happened to them?”
“They both were carried off by the bandits.” Even though Noir had guessed at th
is, hearing it as a fact made his heart sink. “I am sorry. We could not risk any of our men to follow and recapture them. After all, we don’t even know who….”
Noir cut him off, “You lost them?”
Grandel stood up so sharply that the chair he was sitting in fell backwards. He slammed his hands on the table and leaned forward. The Captain’s presence in the room was suddenly so huge and powerful that Noir unintentionally took a step back and looked at the ground. “Do not speak to me in such a way, boy! Unless you desire to feel the blades of my men!”
A few moments of silence went by until Noir said, “My apologies, sir. I did not mean….” Noir trailed off.
Grandel then barked, “Gojen!” Again the room’s door opened. “Take him back to his cell.” He came into the room and motioned Noir out the door.
As Noir was leaving Grandel said, “Maybe when you learn a little respect, I will let you speak to me again.”
With the guards behind and in front, Noir walked down the hall and then outside. His heart beat in his chest because of the confrontation. As he walked back through the town, he thought, “If Aimee and Uncle Steven have been captured, will I ever see them again?”
Once Noir got back to his cell, he started asking Ratt about all that he had been told.
Ratt responded to one of many questions, “So, he said they were taken by bandits because they can use vigors? That’s pretty crazy. That means one is attuned to sye. They will probably take whichever one can use din to Tier and try to sell him or her as a Din Mage slave.”
“What is din?”
Ratt shook his head. “You really are clueless, aren’t you? It is the destructive side of the three vigors. They can manipulate fire, ice, the ground. Stuff like that. Sye is like mind control and mental combat. The most powerful Syeters are said to be able to read minds and control thoughts. I’ve heard that they can also use their minds to move things. They’ll probably try to sell the sye user to someone in Chrion. There are other powerful Syeters there.”
Noir could hardly believe this. “This is impossible! People actually can use these powers?!”
Ratt furrowed his brow and gave a wry look. “Yeah, duh! It is pretty much what the world works on. There are even a couple Luxins in this very group of people.”
“So that’s what I am,” Noir said out loud. “A Luxin.” Noir spoke slowly over these words as if trying them on, “I can use the lux vigor.”
“You can?” Ratt said excitedly.
“That is what they said.”
“No way! You’ll probably be taken to see Fafnir, then.”
“Who is Fafnir? Someone else said that name when I was being tested.”
“Heh,” Ratt laughed throatily. “You’ll have to see for yourself.” Ratt waved his hand as if brushing away the topic. “These people will probably want you to work for them now.”
Ratt then asked one of the questions that he wanted to ask Captain Grandel. “Who are these people anyway?”
“They are a group of people who live outside the two kingdoms of this area. I’ve heard rumors of them existing, but no one knows exactly where their hideout is.” Ratt motioned toward the walls of their cell. “Although we seemed to be able to find it easily enough.” He shook his head as if putting aside the joke. “I heard that their numbers are only a few hundred. I also heard that they have a secret ally. She is the lord of lux and awakens lux within people. Most who can use lux have met her at some point.”
“This Fafnir person?”
“Right. Anyway, this group seems harmless enough. They stand for good things. I got sick of how the people are treated in Tier, so I left. That’s how I ended up here. I was hiding in the woods and they found me and brought me here. I agreed to join them a couple days ago.”
“So why are you in prison?”
“They caught me stealing from the town blacksmith… which is wonderfully smart of me because they told me later that anyone living in Talik is free to have anything they want from the smithy if they truly need it.” Ratt laughed half-heartedly. “So how’d you end up here?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I was at some holy shrine. They called it a Lumin shrine, whatever that means. What is a Lumin, anyway?”
“Oh it’s religious junk.” He made a sarcastic noise and said, “Just old stories taken out of context if you ask me. No all-powerful being will ever come to save us. We are in control over our own destinies. If we mess up, no one can bail us out but ourselves.”
The two continued to talk. Noir found out more about each of the two kingdoms and also about how this world worked. Noir stretched and massaged his sore leg.
Ratt asked about Noir’s leg. Then he asked where he had come from. For some reason, Noir felt afraid to talk about where he had come from. Noir had to choose his words carefully for the ones that would seem to fit into this world. He made sure not to mention anything about what happened in the cave.
As they talked, Noir kept getting distracted thinking about Aimee and Steven. Could they adapt to this world, whatever this world was? Where were they now? Were they alright?
They talked for a long while until Noir felt himself growing tired. He asked the guard for something to sleep on and he threw in a cloth sack. It was better than nothing. Even though his mind was racing with all that had happened to him today, Noir laid down and tried to sleep. Ratt's deep breathing at the other side of the room was the last thing he remembered hearing.
Chapter 7
A new path
Noir woke up to the cell door creaking open. “Captain Grandel wants to see you again,” the man spoke to Noir. Unlike before, he was unarmored and in simple clothing. He had a short sword in his belt.
“Alright,” Noir said as he sat up and stretched his back. “If he’ll let me, I want to ask him more questions anyway.”
The man led him outside and across the road to the larger building again. The afternoon air brought sounds of a town at work. Noir studied the glowing orbs again as he passed into Grandel's building. Once inside, the guard led him to a different room in the building instead of the one he had been taken to the day before. The man leading him stood at the door and motioned Noir inside.
Captain Grandel sat at a large table that took up the majority of the room. About a dozen chairs were around it and a large hand-drawn map was laid upon it. One man and one woman sat at his sides each wearing shining armor and white cloaks. They were all studying the map until they looked up at Noir as he entered. When Grandel saw Noir, he said to the two with him, “Thank you Adeel and Kit. We will talk more on this later.”
Adeel and Kit walked around the table and passed Noir while going out the door. They both looked at him as they passed. Curiously, the man gave Noir a sharp look. It was over too quickly for Noir to process and understand the emotion behind it. Grandel put out a hand toward a chair near him. “Come and sit. We have much to discuss.”
Noir walked forward hesitantly and sat in the chair that he motioned toward. Grandel rolled up the map and placed it on a wooden pedestal behind him. As he turned he said, “I heard your name from your uncle for the short time that I had to talk to him. Noir, right?”
Noir was annoyed that the captain mentioned his uncle, since he had let them be captured. But he kept his cool since he needed to ask the man questions. “Yes, that's my name.”
Grandel sat down on the opposite side of the table from Noir, facing him. “I am not sure where you came from Noir, but it doesn't matter now. You are here and I believe it is fate that brought you here. I have some important things to discuss with you, but first I believe you have a few questions for me. That is, if you have learned a bit of respect over the night.”
Noir suppressed a scowl and said, “Yes. I am sorry for how I acted yesterday. I was angry about you not following the bandits to try to get Aimee and Steven back.” Noir grunted. “Quite honestly, I still am.” Grandel nodded apprehensively. Noir sighed, trying to put that behind him. “Can you tell me what you think will happen
to them?”
The large man bent forward in his chair and rested his elbows on the table. “Well, people with their potential are highly desired. The test that we did to you, we did to your uncle and cousin as well. We did it in the time that we were walking shortly before we were attacked. We found that your uncle is attuned to sye, and your cousin is attuned to din.”
Noir filled in the rest, “So that means Steven is going to probably be sold to Chiron and Aimee to Tier.”
Grandel leaned back in his chair, and clasped his hands behind his head. “You catch on fast. Unfortunately, we cannot jeopardize our whereabouts or risk the men to go find them.” Again, Noir controlled a grimace. Grandel continued, “Bandits are people who need money desperately but do not kill needlessly. They will look for any way to make money off of them. Your family members will be all right as long as they aren’t sold to someone with more sinister plans.” He paused then said, “Do you have more questions for me?”
Noir responded, “Yes if that is alright.” Grandel nodded and put his hands down on the table again. “I want to know who all of you are. What do you do?”
“Ah yes. A good question that I am proud to answer.” Grandel stood up and began pacing the open part of the room while talking. He put his hand in his side pouch and rolled something rectangular around in his hand as he spoke. “We are a resistance of the two major kingdoms of this area, Chiron and Tier. While attempts have been made in the past to start new towns separate from the kingdoms, they were always fought over and eventually controlled by one of the two kingdoms. We strive to create a new, free lifestyle with powerful self defense to prevent takeover. Almost every man living in Talik is a trained warrior. If they aren't, they do some sort of job to aid the warriors. We have undercover people in each town and city in both kingdoms trying to recruit brave or wary souls to come join us.”
The Year of the Lumin Page 4