The Year of the Lumin

by Andrew Ryan Henke

Noir's fall

  The ninety men pressed themselves against the town’s outer rock wall. Noir was on the right side of the gate with half of the soldiers. The other half were on the left side. Noir stood next to Gonn Holdark, the town’s blacksmith. It was the first time Noir had seen him since he first left Talik. He held a huge, man-sized sword in front of him, its tip resting on the ground. His face was stern and his eyes seemed to be looking into nothingness. Noir had his own sword in his hand ready for the order from Grandel to charge. Ratt was behind him with his axe and Adeel was on the other side of the gate. She would protect the left half of the forces, and he the right. That notion send his stomach churning. Lives were depending on him. He wanted to go home.

  Captain Grandel stood in front of Adeel’s group behind the wall by the gate. It had previously been flung open and broken. They were waiting on a younger man who had been sent past the gate to view the situation inside. He had slowly crawled on his belly through the tall grass a few minutes ago. Then he came into view crouching low. He moved quickly to Grandel’s side and stood up beside him, now protected from view by the wall. He spoke to Grandel quickly and too quietly for Noir’s ears to pick up. Grandel nodded a few times, then looked at the men facing him in Noir’s group. He gave a stern face and nodded in approval. He did the same toward his own men behind him.

  Grandel made several quick hand signs to the other group and then did the same back at his own. The front three men from both sides came forward with large, man-sized shields. The six stood ready to go whenever word was given. Grandel then broke the silence with a loud voice, “Fight well, men. In honor of those who died defending our ideals, our land, and our freedom, we will reclaim what is rightfully ours.” His voice rose to a climax. “The Lumin guides your swords. Life without freedom is death!”

  Then, the battle began. The six shielded men came together to form a line as wide as the gate. They walked swiftly and confidently forward. Both groups of men filed in after them protected by the front six’s large shields. Noir moved forward around the corner of the wall and climbed over the broken gate.

  Noir was not ready for the sight that lay before him. Hundreds of straghs swarmed the destroyed town. Many were crouched over lifeless bodies. Corpses were strewn about haphazardly. The dead bodies looked unnaturally thin as though they had been drained of their liquids.

  Finally, the straghs noticed the approaching force, though Noir did not know how they saw with pale skin covering where their eyes should have been. They sprung up and turned to meet their attackers. Noir saw with horror Straghs withdrawing long spikes that protruded from their wrists from the bodies of the fallen.

  A series of thumps came from behind Noir and a barrage of arrows sailed over his head. When landed, straghs stumbled and fell.

  The men marched forward as the straghs started to fling themselves toward them. Some ran on all fours while others ran upright. The beasts looked plump like the others that they had killed earlier. Noir feared he now knew the reason.

  Another volley of arrows were fired from behind. Many straghs were slain by the archers’ arrows, but the ones who fell were replaced by more blank faces scrambling over the bodies.

  The men around Noir had started yelling loudly and defiantly. They started to move faster and Noir was soon jogging. The groups neared each other and Noir suddenly had an idea. Fafnir had told him that new and innovative ways to use lux would come to him the more he used it. He knew he could harden air into hard, invisible objects in order to hold weapons in place. He had done it to Ratt many times in their sparring matches.

  Noir embraced a large portion of lux. He forced it into a long line of air in front of the charging feet of the enemies. He pushed it forwards toward the straghs. Nothing could be seen of his efforts directly, but the effect was obvious. The front line of charging straghs all suddenly tripped over the invisible line of hardened air. They were flung into the dirt and tumbled wildly. Then the next line did as well. It took extra effort for Noir to keep the air solid each time it struck something. After a few rows of tripped straghs, Noir could feel his use of lux draining him. He remembered what Adeel had told him about overusing his lux and released it.

  The men yelled even louder, emboldened by this new sudden advantage and within moments were upon the writhing, pale-skinned creatures. Many were immediately slain by swinging weapons where they lay on the ground. The ones that were still stampeding leapt over their fallen counterparts and pounced the charging men.

  Noir deflected the attacks that were aimed for exposed flesh. It was hard to see and react so quickly with so much going on. He saw Adeel’s light barriers being flung up on her side of the men. Noir made attack after attack rebound back at its attacker. Metal sliced and pierced the straghs’ pale flesh.

  Then Noir made his first mistake. A stragh brutally pulled a soldier's shield away and buried its other claw in his face. Noir did not catch it in time and the man screamed and fell. He wanted to stop and curse himself, but the attacks kept coming.

  As he fought, Noir made a mental note of every injury that occurred to the fighting men. He swore to himself to heal them as soon as possible.

  Despite a few wounded, the men were progressing effectively. The straghs were being pushed back and their numbers thinned. It seemed to be going well. Most straghs were dispatched by the men in front of Noir, but he still had to slay a few with his own sword.

  Noir was in the middle of thinking that he was going to make it through his first large battle successfully when the ground beneath them started to shake. Under a group of men near to Noir, the soil suddenly shot upwards in fragmented pillars. The men went flying in different directions. Noir nearly lost his balance from the nearby force.

  The men looked stunned, though the front few kept fighting. Noir knew what the earth upheaval meant. There was a Din Mage with the band of straghs. He had never encountered a Din Mage before and a shiver of fear ran through him.

  Another tremor went through the ground and another patch of men started upwards. This time, however, it did not go more than a foot before it was stopped by something. Noir saw a trail of yellow light going from Adeel’s hand to the disrupted ground. The ground glowed yellow and Noir could tell how Adeel was using lux to hold the ground in place. She looked strained, so he funneled some of his own lux into holding the ground steady. It became calm and the energy pressing against his lux faded.

  The ground had just settled when a ball of fire arced from behind one of the destroyed homes. Its bright orange glow caused long shadows to extend behind every man on the battlefield. Noir quickly drew upon as much lux as he could handle and formed a large light barrier in the path of the fireball. He saw Adeel’s barrier form at the same time as his. Hers was as wide as Noir’s barrier, but it was much less thick.

  As Noir watched the fire hurl through the air toward his barrier, he wondered if the smaller barrier was all that Adeel could create. Was she just making a backup barrier if his failed? No, because they went up at the same time.

  The fireball hit his barrier and spread out along its flat surface. Noir could feel his lux strained even further as its energy and heat beat upon his barrier. Adeel’s would not have possibly held back that attack. He couldn’t be more powerful than her, could he?

  Noir kicked the thought from his head and focused on the Din Mage. He could not counter many of these powerful attacks before he would be exhausted physically from the overuse of lux. The fireball had come from behind a small house past the straghs. Noir thought if he could get past a few straghs to his right, he might be able to get to where the Din Mage was.

  As if Elrid could read his thoughts, he was suddenly before him, sword flashing through the straghs in his way. The path was made, and Elrid then turned on another group. He looked at Noir and gave him a quick nod as if knowing what he was about to do, then proceeded to battle.

  Noir burst into a run and leapt over the still dying stragh bodies. He ran around the side of the group of remaining
straghs. They were too focused on the battle in front of them to notice. Noir ran toward the house at a full sprint.

  The first thing that Noir saw of the man was his dark cloak blowing gently in the wind as he stepped out from behind the house. His cloak was mostly black, but flecks of red and blue in decorative sinuous lines caught the light. The man stepped out and Noir was suddenly standing still, though he never remembered stopping. The image that confronted him was chillingly familiar.

  The man’s face was shrouded in shadows under the hood of the dark cloak. On its breast, the symbols for sye and din shown in their respective colors. The dream that he had had a month earlier flashed through his mind. He remembered Adeel’s desperate face crying out to him as the blade plunged toward her throat.

  Though Noir had no idea how to combat this foe, he raised his sword and took a step forward. He had no idea where this bravery had come from. The darkly clad man raised his hand and Noir watched long spears of ice form out of the moisture in the air. Noir embraced lux and prepared to create a shield while still moving forward. As the ice spikes hardened and took form, the ground beneath Noir’s feet moved sharply. He used the lux that he had prepared for the shield and channeled it into the ground to keep it steady. As soon as he did, the ice spikes flung forward.

  Noir had never attempted to channel lux into two different actions at once before. He mentally panicked as he watched the long, transparent spikes fly toward him. Panicked, he tried splitting the lux that was already holding the ground in place. As soon as he did, the ground started to shake violently, so he abandoned the effort. Instead, he quickly dug inside himself and embraced lux again, as if repeating the original process over again. He had a new flow of lux that he could control independently of the other, though he could tell his chakra was being drained at an alarming rate.

  He used the second flow of lux to put up the light barrier in the path of the ice projectiles. The majority of them shattered on impact, though Noir could feel the extent of his lux stretching. More ice pounded on the barrier and Noir could not hold it. Two arm’s length ice spears pushed through. One flew past him harmlessly while the other hit Noir’s right shoulder pauldron. It showered ice splinters on him and sent him spinning to the right from the force. Noir was immediately aware that his shoulder felt numb from the blow. It throbbed with sharp pain. He inwardly thanked Fafnir for the armor. If he had not had it, he would probably have been run through.

  Noir turned back toward his assailant. He still felt the pressure against his lux that was holding the earth still. Noir walked forward deliberately. He stepped off of the area that was afflicted by the din ground attack and released his lux hold on it. The ground immediately heaved up in tall chunks behind Noir.

  As Noir approached, he could see the bottom portion of the man’s face under the hood. He had the same large, eerie smile that he remembered from his dream.

  “Young Noir,” a voice boomed in his head. “Come to me, my pet.” But it was impossible for one person to be able to use two vigors! Noir put his obviously flawed learning aside and braced himself for the mental onslaught that he was sure would come. He braced and readied his lux in preparation. In a desperate effort, Noir focused lux on his mind, encasing it in lux energy. He had no idea if it would work.

  Then the attack came. Noir could feel his mental barrier furiously pounded at by an unseen force. The amount of lux that it required to keep this assailant out was incredible. His lux pulled and was stretched thin. He knew that he could not withstand this for more than a few moments before he would be passing out from exhaustion.

  Noir gripped his sword hilt tightly and sprang forward. The dark form was only a few strides away. The mental assault continued and Noir raised his sword to strike at the figure.

  The man’s smile grew even larger. He tossed his head back to flip the cloak hood off. Noir looked on his face for the first time. The man was completely hairless. His skin was stretched in odd ways from what looked like large burn scars. The scars covered his face and contorted his features.

  The scarred man drew out a long silver sword from inside his cloak. As soon as it was in view, it started to glow red with heat. Noir knew the man must have been channeling din into the blade to create heat. This meant for sure that the man was wielding din and sye at the same time; something that he had been taught was entirely impossible.

  Noir swung his sword at the scarred man and the two metals collided together. The red heat from the opponent’s blade shot red sparks to the ground. Noir fought quickly for fear of his lux giving way to the mental attack. He flowed between the different sword forms that Fafnir had taught him. He struck at his foe time after time meeting the glowing blade. While they fought, the man kept his smile and stared directly into Noir’s eyes. Noir had a sense that he was not using his full swordplay potential, skipping attack openings in Noir’s defensive form.

  The man’s voice pounded in Noir’s head, “I’ve had fun, but it is time to end this, worm.” The man parried an attack and twisted his sword artfully to slip Noir’s sword from his hand. He changed his stance and thrust at the opening in Noir’s stance. Noir put up a light barrier to block it, but the sword pressed against the barrier instead of rebounding. It quickly pressed through the barrier. In a panic, Noir used lux to harden the air around the blade. It stayed in position, though the heat was quickly burning through the air holding the weapon.

  With the second flow of lux going, he felt his mental defense weaken. Noir knew that he was beaten. He had to let one of the two attacks go through. There was a chance that he could still fight the mental assault with sheer willpower as Fafnir had taught him. But a blade piercing his flesh could not be fought.

  Noir released the flow of lux to his head and was immediately bombarded with sye attacks. Though the glowing blade was now securely held, Noir fought for control over his mind. He focused on himself, on his mind, his body. He felt the man’s mind probing his own, attacking it in dozens of different places and ways every second. Attacks got through, and Noir started to lose control. He felt his internal body functions pass over to the scarred man’s control. Then his muscles were no longer his. Noir felt his mind flooded with another’s thoughts and could do nothing against it.

  His mind returned to the men who had been wounded. With regret, he hoped Adeel had enough chakra left to heal them after the battle. The last thing he thought about while his mind was still his own was his uncle and cousin. Hopefully they could find their way back to their world without him.

  Chapter 20

  Sinister Mind

  Elrid put down the last stragh of a group and turned expecting to see more. Around him were mostly his fellow warriors. Stragh bodies littered the area.

  Elrid looked in the direction that he had seen Noir go. He knew that Noir would be the only one with a chance against a Din Mage, but now he was worried. He had not seen him since he ran off in that direction.

  Elrid looked at the people around him. Adeel was fairly close. A warrior was holding her, helping her walk. She was exhausted from the battle. The men near Elrid were obviously tired and needed rest. The least tired soldiers had gone off to dispatch any remaining straghs in the town. Elrid saw Ratt walking quickly from soldier to soldier talking about something. He envied the young man’s youth. He walked up to Ratt and said, “I am worried about Noir.”

  Ratt looked at Elrid with a worried expression and said, “That’s what I was asking the other men about. Have you seen him?”

  “He went to battle the Din Mage who attacked us and I haven’t seen him since. Come with me to find him, Ratt. I fear these men are too tired and would only slow us down.”

  Ratt looked around him and said, “I agree. Which way did he go?”

  Elrid led Ratt to where he had last seen Noir going toward the burnt house. As they approached, Ratt saw something familiar on the ground reflecting the sun. He ran up to it and his heart sank when he realized what it was.

  The golden hilted sword on the gr
ound was beautifully ornate yet still looked sturdy and effective. They both recognized it as Noir’s. Ratt picked up the sword by the hilt. As he raised it, he got a quick glimpse of something far behind them in the blade's reflection. He spun around to see the last part of a white cloak flapping in the breeze moving past the town walls out of view.

  Ratt pointed and said, “I think I just saw him.”

  Elrid spun around toward the direction Ratt was pointing. “What? Where?”

  “I just saw him leave town past the wall. I know it was him.”

  Ratt started to run toward what he saw, but Elrid caught his arm before he could. The older man said, “Wait, Ratt. Something doesn’t seem right here. We should proceed with caution.” He motioned for Ratt to follow him. “Come on.”

  ~~~

  Noir’s body walked along as it was willed to. He followed behind the man clad in black. His dark cloak drifted in the wind behind him, shimmering red and blue in the fading light. Against his will, Noir’s brain had been replaying memories from all different parts of his life. He knew the man was forcing these memories to surface and watching them with sye. Noir tried to protect the more important or dangerous subjects as they came up, but there was not much he could do.

  Had it been corporeal, the voice that boomed in Noir’s head would have blown trees over with its volume. “You have an interesting childhood, Luxin Noir.” The face of his mother flashed in his head, hovered there, then passed on to something else. “There’s mummy,” the man said in a mocking tone. “There’s daddy. No brothers or sisters, Noir? Hmm. Now let’s try to find out where you come from.”

  Noir had feared that something like this would happen at some point. He blocked as much as he could of things that wouldn’t fit into this world such as modern buildings, cars, TVs, and other electronics.

  A horrible laugh came to Noir's mind again. “You try to block me. I must thank you. Your efforts are like beacons that guide me for my search.”