The Year of the Lumin

by Andrew Ryan Henke

  Seeing that which Noir had thought was unconquerable so easily beaten, Noir suddenly feared for his life. Noir quickly created a barrier around his entire body as the cloaked figure turned to face him. In an instant, fire lashed at Noir's shielded back and the Din Mage sprinted toward him with impressive dexterity. Noir noticed the blade had a yellow glow around it, no doubt with an infinitely sharp flow of air around the enchant blade. Noir let his lux barrier dissipate and flowed solid air around the attacker's weapon. It stopped a few feet from his own blade.

  Then Noir noticed. The face at the end of the arm clutching the blade was frighteningly familiar. “Aimee! What are you doi--”

  “You have to die, Noir! You're the Lumin!” She did not look into his eyes, but instead at his chest as though that was her desired attack point. “I have to kill you!”

  Noir's mind quickly churned through the meaning behind what she said. “Is that what they told you? If you kill me... the Lumin, that you'll get to go home?”

  She screamed at him through her tears, “What do you know of anything, Noir? Just die!”

  Another attack came, shaking the ground beneath his feet. Noir made a second flow of lux to quell the earth as Aimee flung a bladed star that she drew from under her cloak. Two flows of lux were a strain already, so Noir brought his sword up in the path of the star. He was ready to deflect it when a blast of fire came in behind it, leaving him no option but to release the hold on Aimee's enchant sword and put up a parrying light barrier. The star and flames buffeted his shield. Her sword now freed, Aimee launched herself through the dissipating fire and came down to meet Noir's sword.

  Her attacks were ferociously quick. He felt like he was just barely keeping pace with her. They were precise and lightening fast. “Like an assassin,” he thought with deep fright. He narrowly avoided or deflected her attacks. The cries of men around Noir made up his mind for him. He had to finish this fight or more men would die around him. Their lives were more important than Aimee at that moment.

  “Aimee, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, but it must be done. I won't give up on you. We will go home together!” Noir put his efforts into creating a sphere shield around Aimee. He had never before done anything like what he was about to do and hoped it would work.

  Noir lifted the sphere into the air. Aimee slashed furiously at the barrier. “You coward! You jerk! I hate you!”

  Noir said, “I'm sorry,” again then flung the sphere and Aimee away over the heads of the Tierian forces. He heard her screaming as she flew. He felt her land out of sight and released the barriers. She was free, but she would be way behind the Tierian forces. If she attacked him again, it would be after the battle was mostly over.

  Noir quickly gathered himself mentally. He could not give up on Aimee, but he couldn't deal with her at that moment. Soldiers around him were falling. He again started placing shields between weapons and flesh, but he could not contain such chaos. Within any second he was processing and diverting dozens of offensive maneuvers. His mind was strained, his lux was stretched thin, and the situation was obviously completely out of control.

  “This can't be it! I won't let the lives of so many be destroyed. There has to be a way!” But even as he thought those words, he knew he was lying to himself. His mind, body, and lux were strained to the breaking point. He knew it was futile.

  ~~~

  Asiada stood behind but did not watch the battling men. She watched Noir's every move. She saw his yellow light burst forth from him each time he deflected another vicious attack. Just like when she was creating Ratt's enchant armor with Steven and Noir, she saw his every manipulation of lux and was amazed by the deftness of his usage of it. She certainly did not have control over din like he did with lux. She also remembered watching Steven winding the blue sye around each piece of armor. She truly was untalented with the use of her vigor, though she always thought her unique ability to see usage of the other vigors was always beneficial.

  Then she saw the red glow signaling someone drawing a large amount of din nearby. Since she knew Noir could not see the red light from din, she tried to call out to him, but the mass of fire was already hurtling toward him. He deflected the fire with an angled shield so it blew up into the air and dissipated. The amount of din used would have made Asiada pass out immediately. The dizzying flurry of events that happened next made Asiada step backwards. She looked in horror as the two Azurite Knights fell.

  Asiada panicked and turned to run but was met by a trio of Tierian soldiers closing in on her. They each had their weapons drawn menacingly. However, the three did not seem to be looking at her at all. They were staring at Noir behind her. Asiada darted to the side and let them pass. But as soon as she did, she felt a sinking feeling. Noir was preoccupied with that Din Mage and had no idea the soldiers were coming. A flash of memory went through her mind of Noir telling her not to come.

  Asiada stood and gathered all the din that she could into her hands and thrust it at the soldier's feet. Small flames leapt up at the soldiers and they jumped, but no harm from the attack could be seen. They spun around and stared at Asiada with hatred. She gathered din again but could feel it draining her energy, but there was a separate glimmer somewhere that she had never felt before. She reached for it inwardly, but she had no idea what she was reaching for.

  Suddenly, a bluish-green blur swept across her vision and a blade quickly went through the abdomens of her three attackers. Before they had fallen, Osarik stopped and stood before them, his blood-covered blade at his side.

  Osarik nodded quickly at her, but she felt a sickness at the death of those three Tierians. Then Osarik was gone. He moved so fast, she did not know where he went.

  Asiada turned her attention back to Noir. He was now alone again, the Din Mage nowhere to be seen. He was again scanning the area around him deflecting attacks where he could, but his efforts were obviously fruitless. Men cried out in horror as weapons passed through their flesh or smashed bones through their armor. And Noir looked increasingly tired. His shoulders now slumped and the torment shown on his face. She couldn't imagine the burden she knew he was feeling for every soldier that fell. Asiada had to help him.

  What was that glimmer that she felt earlier? That light? Another soldier screamed and fell near Noir. She searched deep inside her for that... something that she had felt before. Then she felt something new: a small glimmer like a pearl. At first she thought it may be lux inside her which she had searched for all her life, but she quickly dismissed that idea. A small source of fresh energy shined that she had never felt before. In desperation, she reached for it internally. But like trying to catch a fly floating on water, it slipped through her grasp.

  As she searched inwardly, the line of soldiers around her and Noir broke and Tierian soldiers started charging toward them. Noir grunted and fell to one knee, his Luxin cloak dirtied by the muddy ground at his feet. This glimmer, whatever it was, was her only hope. She strained for it internally again.

  And grasped it.

  ~~~

  Noir saw the line of soldiers fighting around him break. He could do no more. His chakra had been drained to its maximum point by the battle with Aimee, but the Tierian soldiers' blood-coated blades spurred him to try one last time. He grasped lux and he felt his legs go out from under him. His vision blurred and he knew he could go on no longer. He wished for Ratt to be there. He would have had energy to keep fighting. Or Steven. He would be able to figure out something. And he missed his parents and friends from the other world. They would never know what became of Noir, the gimped boy from Nebraska.

  Then he thought of Asiada. He had lost track of her during the battle. His stomach churned with fear and his vision weakly returned. He stood and spun to look where he had last seen her before the battle had begun.

  There Asiada was a short distance behind him. She stood straight, tall, and unmoving before the onslaught of Tierian soldiers. He imagined what she could be thinking. But he didn't have the chakra to save her!
Or perhaps she just didn't realize that her death really was charging toward her. Noir felt goosebumps develop on his arms. He suddenly felt sickly and cold.

  Noir closed his eyes, not able to watch the weapons that would plunge into his friend's body. He wanted his last vision of Asiada to be her standing tall and beautiful, not skewered and broken on the ground. Eyes closed, he gritted his teeth and again fell to the ground. He didn't care that weapons would probably be piercing his flesh in moments as well.

  Suddenly, light poured through his closed eyelids and his vision was filled with orange. Instinctively he turned his head away from the blinding light and put a hand up toward it. The sound of battle stopped around him and was replaced with gasps and shouts. Noir opened his eyes and saw downcast faces painted white from the light behind him.

  “What? I don't understand.” The soldiers had stopped in their tracks. Most shielded their eyes. Some squinted and had mouths agape in awe.

  “No,” Noir said to himself. “It can't be.” He shook his head. A thousand thoughts raced through his head. Dozens of new connections took root in his mind that, once made, seemed to make such perfect sense he couldn't understand how he hadn't figured it out before. “It's her!” He turned and squinted at the blinding figure before him. The light slowly died down, and Asiada glowed pure yellow with lux. He imagined she was probably glowing red and blue as well if he could have seen it. “She's it! She's the Lumin!” She had turned her back on the attacking soldiers and faced Noir.

  Asiada had a look of incredible peacefulness as though she was truly comfortable with herself for the first time in her life. She looked on Noir and smiled lovingly. “Your impossible task I will do. For you, Noir, these lives, all lives, I will save. For you.”

  Asiada bent down toward the ground and light gathered to two points on her back. A crackle of energy ripped through the air as she focused the lux up and behind her back. Two long pillars of light sprung forth and bent in the middle. Then she focused the light down from the pillars in multiple feather-like spikes. The light from the wings illuminated the entire battlefield and cast long, dark shadows behind soldiers, trees, and everything.

  Noir understood how the lux apparition worked, but the amount of chakra required to do something like that was staggering. Asiada spread the wings up and out, leapt into the air, and forced the wings down, careening her into the sky.

  Soldiers from each army dropped their weapons and some took off their helmets to get a better view. Many were kneeling in a sort of prayer-like state.

  With surprising ease and agility, the glowing feminine figure soared up above the field of bloodied soldiers. Noir saw her embrace an even greater amount of lux, then create thousands of separate flows of it. They focused on every weapon on the battlefield and forced energy into each one. The swords, axes, bows, and other instruments of war glowed with light. She forced the weapons upwards out of the hands of the soldiers and into the air. The multitude of glowing weapons rose to the height of the glowing, winged figure. They hovered there for a moment and then with a deafening crack, exploded into millions of fragments of light.

  Not a single eye on the entire field was not turned toward the angelic, nearly blinding figure. The glowing wings spread wide on both sides and flapped steadily. Many men were crying out, “The Lumin comes!” and “Holy one!”

  A voice came to Noir's mind and he knew the source. All three vigors were displayed by Asiada. It settled all doubts. She was the Lumin. “Stop this ignorant fighting and hatred!” The voice boomed in his head. The other warriors near him looked around wildly. She was communicating to all of them through sye. “Your leaders fill your heads with lies. Talk now, as civilized men should, and stop this barbaric fight.” She paused for a moment and the entire battlefield was silent. “There is growing evil in this world over which we will never claim victory if we are divided. Sinister plotting drives your leaders and hidden forces play puppeteer with your kings. Now dawns a new age that will not see divided lands, but people working together for the betterment and protection of mankind. For my first decree, you must lay down arms and have counsel with one another in peace.” Another pause. Wind blew past Noir's ears in the quiet. “So says the prophesied Lumin, uniter of estranged lands and bringer of eternal peace.”

  A long moment of silence passed, then a cheer broke out. Men threw down shields and pieces of armor and fell to the ground in reverence of the winged figure. The din of joyous rapture was deafening. Noir ignored it all and stared at Asiada with awe.

  “My second act of many to come, I do for one whom I love.” Noir wasn't sure, but he thought she looked at him through the distance. “I declare all Chiron slaves be released at once. Every man and woman has a right to be free no matter their past!”

  Men looked at each other's faces, trying to gauge each other's reactions to what had just been said in their minds. Unnoticed by most because of the confusion, a piece of earth heaved up violently behind the winged figure. Vaulted by the pillar of earth, a lone red-cloaked body was flung high above the winged figure. Noir could see the indestructible glowing yellow blade enchant Aimee wielded. She arced down from the peak of her trajectory and the red cloak billowed out above Aimee's figure as she fell toward the Lumin's back. Noir tried to put up a light barrier, but his chakra was entirely drained from the battle. Noir desperately cried out Asiada's name before the infinitely sharp blade plunged through the Lumin's back and jutted out the front of her chest. Asiada feebly reached out a hand in Noir's direction.

  Cries rang out from all around Noir. Soldiers ran toward the Lumin as her lux-fueled wings dissipated and the two women fell. Noir sprang forth as well, screaming and shouting. If he reached her soon enough, he could heal her. But bodies of soldiers pressed together impeding Noir's progress. He cried and screamed for them to move, but he was no louder than any of their own shouts of confusion and despair.

  When Noir finally reached Asiada, she was in the center of a circle of silent men. Three other Luxins were already there. The Lumin was dead.

  Epilogue

  They later told stories of the funeral of two thousand mourners. The forces of Talik, Tier, Chiron, and the Azurite Knights marched to the Lumin shrine a day south of New Talik's location. Noir stayed behind. He could not bear to go, even though it tortured horribly him not to.

  Captain Grandel, Captain Osarik, and the two generals from Tier and Chrion dug the grave at the head of the clear pool of water beneath the massive stone arches of the Lumin shrine near the mouth of the cave. None of them were sure how to meet each others eyes as they finished their work. They each felt that the young girl's – the Lumin's – death was in some way their own. It was Grandel's idea to place the symbol of life and safety in the fertile dirt. That day, the young sapling with white bark was watered with the tears of two thousand warriors.

  The two armies fought no more, though lines were not crossed and tensions still remained high. Many of the soldiers dispersed back to their hometowns or outposts, but most stayed and waited around New Talik. They shared their own stories about what they had witnessed and discussed philosophic ideas about what it all meant.

  Even though hundreds had gone searching immediately after the dust settled, the Lumin's assassin could not be found. The mysterious Din Mage assassin seemed to have disappeared, though later someone did find a discarded din mage cloak trampled in the mud.

  Noir quickly learned to stop talking about his relationship with the Lumin. He was quickly regarded with reverence by those who had been at the battle. By not wearing his Luxin armor and ignoring everyone, Noir eventually faded into the town of New Talik. Adeel, Grandel, and Elrid were the only ones who visited him. He hid from the scholars who came, the officials from both kingdoms, and warriors who wanted to know more about the fleeting angelic sight they had seen. The last thing Noir wanted was to be connected to Asiada's death, though he knew that was impossible. The scarred man's omen constantly pounded in Noir's memory. “Your friends and everyone will die
because you came to this world.”

  Though Noir was deep in despair, he had new-found priorities. He realized the only thing of value he had in this world were his friends and family. He had to find and protect them, starting with Aimee. Ever since seeing Aimee in her room in Wyoming months ago, he had seen the torment she had been in but did nothing about it. He vowed to never again let the scarred man's words ring true. He would travel to Tier, find Aimee and Ratt, and protect them with his life.

  Noir knew that his journey and pain had only just begun.