A Mystery of Light

by Brian Fuller

Finny scratched his head. “You going to tell them we’re the hunters or the prey?”

  Their hike took them through the tangle of ruined woods created by Whirlwind during the Foundry attack. The sun, thankfully, had emerged, steaming the air. The mud sucked at their boots. They were wet and filthy by the time they caught their first glimpse of the farmhouse sitting invitingly by the river, flanked by two barns and burgeoning trees. It was an awful lie to Helo’s eyes, a false promise of rest and peace. Avadan knew where this place was. It had to be next on his extermination list since the first clownish attempt had failed.

  The kids stayed asleep in his and Melody’s arms, snoring softly. Helo tried talking to Jeremy, whom he cradled against his shoulder, gently rubbing his face and telling him to wake up. He seemed listless, sometimes stirring like he might come out of it, but he never did. Maybe it was for the best. What would the kids remember about getting kidnapped, crammed into Avadan’s wagon, and then hauled into the middle of nowhere? Hopefully they wouldn’t have any memory of their time as Shedim going from Ash Angel to Ash Angel and burning hearts out.

  Camp Zion was a loss. To Helo, it felt like a chapter in the Ash Angel Organization had been closed. At best, by defeating the two Shedim, he and his team had made Avadan’s work of dragging Ash Angels to the water a very time-consuming experience he would have to undertake himself—unless he had caught the other girl, converted her into a Sheid, then forced her to do the work. Helo held out hope that she had escaped, but he doubted it. The snow made it impossible to hide her tracks, and Avadan was too driven and powerful just to let her go.

  They slanted down the hill toward the river and hooked into the trail running along it. So peaceful and serene. But not for long. Mars looked lost in thought, and Helo could only imagine the dilemma that raged in his head. It seemed guaranteed that Avadan’s Traveling Surprises—now minus one wagon—would find its way to the Foundry before long. Should they make a stand there, see if they could put Avadan down, or was it time to retreat and regroup somewhere else? The Ash Angels had hiding places all over, but Ramis had apparently compromised them all. They’d left the disgraced Archus lying in the snow back at Camp Zion, and Avadan seemed the type who would force Ramis to live a long, miserable existence.

  They crossed the wooden bridge over the river single file. Spade stood on the wraparound porch by the front door with a BBSR in his hand. He was still dressed like a rancher, hat on and squinty eyes scanning the perimeter. Helo caught sight of a couple other auras positioned discreetly around the place, Michaels watching the road and the river.

  Spade waved them around back, and there they found Magdelene, Ebenezer, and Martha sipping lemonade. Martha stood and straightened her apron around her billowy flower-print skirt and white blouse. But she stopped when she noticed the two kids and cocked her head.

  “What’s this?”

  Helo explained what had happened at the camp, what Avadan could do.

  “Heaven help the poor dears,” Martha said. “Bring them inside.” She turned to Shujaa, who still carried an insensate Scarlet over his shoulder. “Put her in a chair.”

  “Maggie and I need to make some calls,” Mars said.

  “Of course, of course,” Martha said, wringing her hands. “Come in. The rest of you sit tight. I’ll bring out some lemonade in a minute.”

  Helo followed Martha in, Melody behind him. Martha pointed to an office for Mars and Magdelene to use, then led Helo and Melody upstairs. The old wooden floor popped and creaked enough to wake the dead, but the sleeping children still didn’t stir. All along the upstairs hallway hung framed Bible quotes and pictures of ducks. Martha led them to a room at the end of the hall with an old wooden four-poster bed with a billowy white comforter and a wooden keepsake chest at the end. Two bedside tables painted white held ceramic ducks and pictures of a little boy and girl all dressed up and holding hands.

  Martha pulled back the comforter. “Put them here.”

  “They’re dirty,” Melody warned. “So are we.”

  “This isn’t the time to be worrying about soiled bedsheets, dear. Lay them down. Anyone tried Healing or Inspire on them yet?”

  “No,” Helo said. “I’ll give it a shot.”

  He laid his hand on the girl’s head and let Healing flow into her. Besides a few scrapes closing and bruises disappearing, she didn’t wake. Inspire was next, but all it seemed to do was help her sleep more comfortably.

  Martha harrumphed. “I’ve been around a good long while and never seen anything like this mess. Let me get some water, and we’ll clean them up a bit. Wish I had some clean clothes for them. Where will you take them?”

  “To the police,” Helo said. “They’ve got to be on a missing-persons list or something.”

  Martha pursed her lips and shook her head. “Well, poor things. I’ll be back.”

  Melody sidled up next to him. “Well, that also sucked.”

  “That’s the price you pay for hanging around me,” he said.

  She bumped him with her shoulder. “Then I’ll pay it. Still sucked.”

  “Yes. Yes, it did. Any ideas on how we beat him?”

  She shrugged. “Sanctified weapon? He seems to be part Sheid. Maybe he has their weakness.”

  The blessed katana did seem to affect him more than anything else they had tried. Maybe the sanctified weapons could do even more. “That’s a good thought, though getting close enough to him to use one won’t be easy. I hope the sanctified weapons are not all back at the camp.”

  “I think they moved most of them here for safekeeping,” Melody said. “I also wonder about the evil spirit he’s packing. Can it be Exorcised?”

  Helo had thought the same thing. “Maybe, but getting Avadan to sit still long enough will be tough. What does he gain from having an evil spirit along for the ride, anyway?”

  Martha entered with some washcloths and towels. “For shame,” she censured. “Don’t talk of such things around the children, bless their hearts. I’ll be back with the water in a minute.”

  Helo wanted to point out that they were unconscious, but he let it ride; it wasn’t wise to upset the woman who made killer lemonade and brownies.

  “Wouldn’t this be great?” Melody said, smiling at the room. “Nice and secluded. River running by. Trees and sunshine. It’s almost like a dream.”

  “Ducks on the walls . . .” Helo added.

  “Well,” Melody lowered her voice and checked the door. “I could do with fewer ducks and more, say, dogs. You like dogs, right?”

  “Sure,” he said. “We had one for two years during one of my dad’s deployments, but we gave him away when we moved. Never got one again. My brother named him Arrow, but my Dad called him Dammit, which is why we got rid of him. Couldn’t get them to take in the strays I found.”

  Melody smiled wistfully. “Yeah, I never had one. Dolorem and I were always on the road. I’d pet the dogs people had at rest stops and beg him to let me keep one in the truck. Never worked. As a singer I was always on the road, and I couldn’t buy a dog just to have her sit at home by herself for days.”

  “Dogs?” Martha said, coming in with a basin of steaming water. “You dog people? Can’t stand them. Always chasing the ducks around. Melody, could you help me, dear?”

  There was a single wooden chair at a small desk on the side of the room, and Helo took it, eyes out the window while the women washed the faces and arms and legs of the kids. Martha would cluck out a “poor dears” every minute or so while they worked. As they finished up, Spade wandered in, hat off, and looked the two children over.

  “Damndest thing I ever saw,” he said, face sober.

  “Watch your language around the children, dear,” Martha admonished. “You take the basin, and I’ll get the towels. We’ve done all we can for now. If they don’t wake up soon, we may have to take them to a hospital and report them to the police. But I don’t think they’re sick with any natural illness. Poor dears.”

  “It’ll be all right, Martha,
” he said.

  The two shuffled out of the room. Melody looked down at them, an unvocalized “poor dears” expression on her face.

  “They’re so cute,” she said, rubbing each of their faces in turn. “I wish there was something I could do.”

  “Do what you do best,” Helo said. “Sing them a song.”

  Melody stroked their faces a few moments more and then performed the most beautiful version of “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” that had probably ever been sung. Helo closed his eyes and let the melody wash over him. Like Rapture, her voice seemed to wash the muck of the day off him.

  “Helo,” she said quietly when she had finished. “Come here.”

  He popped out of the chair and came over. Both kids were awake, though their eyes seemed distant, their expressions blank.

  “Sing it again,” Helo said.

  Melody sat on the bed, and again she performed the song. Slowly, blank eyes and blank faces cleared, awareness returning. Helo had expected nervousness and crying, but they only looked at Melody worshipfully and listened, perfectly calm.

  “You’re an angel,” the girl said.

  Melody looked like she didn’t know what to say, so Helo jumped in. “She is. What’s your name?”

  “Yoletzi Maria de La Cruz,” she said proudly with just the hint of an accent.

  “Jason!” Jeremy said, sitting up groggily. “You found me!”

  “I did,” he said. “You’re safe now. We’ll get you home.”

  Yoletzi looked pleadingly at Melody. “Can I live with you in your angel house? This room is so pretty. Prettier than my room at home.”

  “I wish you could,” Melody said. “What do you remember about how you got here?”

  Yoletzi stared at the ceiling. “My mom had these guys over and they took me. She always has weird guys over. They drink and yell and get mean. I want to live with the angels instead.”

  Helo’s heart sank. “Does either of you remember anything that happened in the last few days?”

  Jeremy rubbed his eyes and looked at Yoletzi. “The hat man kept us and a bunch of other kids in this place. They kept us there for a while. Then he put us in the wagon with the pretty horses. It was snowing . . .” Then his face seemed to get troubled. “I don’t remember after that.”

  “Me either,” Yoletzi agreed.

  Helo nodded. “That’s fine.” It was better that way. He hoped they really couldn’t remember and weren’t too scared to talk about the terror of the last hour.

  “Melody,” Helo said. “Why don’t you stay with them. I’ll see if Martha has some food.”

  Melody nodded and sat on Yoletzi’s bed. “Should I sing another song?”

  “Yes!” they said in unison.

  As soon as Martha found out they were awake, Helo knew he’d best stay out of the way. She practically fell all over herself gathering food and ordering Spade to get bowls and napkins—fast.

  Melody came down shortly after they went up, her green eyes bright. Magdelene, Mars, and Ebenezer waved them over into the office. Time to get down to business, and Helo was curious what their next move was.

  “Are the kids awake?” Magdelene asked.

  “Yep,” Helo said, taking a seat, Melody sitting to his right. “Looks like they’ll be okay. Martha will see to that.”

  “Good,” Mars said. “We’ve sent some Michaels back toward Camp Zion to see if they could help any stragglers who managed to escape. I’ve warned them about the black desecration. Now, we’ve got some information you Angel Borns will want to hear. You’ll want your second in here for this, too, Helo.”

  Helo fetched Sparks from the back porch, where he lounged enjoying a chocolate chip cookie. They grabbed an extra chair from the kitchen for him.

  After they were settled, Mars leaned his elbows on the desk. “Now, before we get to what’s next for Sicarius Nox, Ebenezer and his team have been going through all of Avadan’s books, but especially Micah’s A Mystery of Light.”

  “Did you get all the books from Camp Zion?” Helo asked. There had been a mountain of them.

  “Not all,” Magdelene said. “Most of them. Oh, I should mention that Lear helped us evacuate the materials. He’s here. He’s safe.”

  Relief flooded Helo’s heart. “Thank you.”

  Ebenezer held Micah’s book, and he delicately opened it. “There’s a whole section in there on being Angel Born, which Micah apparently was. It talks about the gifts you already know about, but there are a couple more that will come in handy. One of the most useful is that you can give any Bestowal that you know to another Ash Angel.”

  Helo’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  Sparks grabbed his shoulder. “Angel Fire, Helo,” he said. “Right now.”

  “There’s a catch,” Ebenezer said. “You can only do it once a day, and once the Bestowal is given, the giver himself cannot use it until Rapture.”

  Sparks nodded. “All right, then, we wait until, like, one minute before Rapture and then do it. I called it first.”

  “What else?” Helo asked.

  Ebenezer shuffled some papers, perhaps the translation of the book. “Well, there was something Micah called the Quaking Word and Still Heart. It’s tied to the ability actual angels have to essentially scare people or bring them peace through their voice. He gives no clue as to how you do it, but they might be useful.

  “I might suggest, however, that if you are to give anyone Angel Fire you give it to Melody first. That way the two of you could gift Angel Fire to two Ash Angels each day.”

  “Starting tomorrow,” Sparks jumped in. “Already claimed Angel Fire.”

  Helo was going to have to get Sparks to wait just one more day—Ebenezer was right, tactically speaking. Angel Fire was a Bestowal everyone would want, and he and Melody could spread it faster together.

  “There’s one thing more,” Ebenezer continued, “something Micah said little about to his contemporaries but that his book is replete with. It is what he calls the principle of Parity Plus One. It was, I believe, the reason he entitled the book A Mystery of Light.”

  “What is it?” Melody said.

  Ebenezer leaned back and rubbed his white goatee. “Well, it is simply that light and dark, spiritually speaking, are near equals, but that light has the strength of the divine behind it and always has the advantage. So if light and dark are both rated at, say, a ten, light would functionally operate at an eleven. Do you see what I mean? Light is superior, always edging ahead of darkness no matter what.”

  Helo thought about that for a moment. Was it always true? Avadan’s abilities seemed like evidence that dark could gain the upper hand.

  Mars shot a challenging look in Ebenezer’s direction. “The Scholus loves its mysteries, but what practical use is that knowledge?”

  Ebenezer raised a finger. “Well, that is what Micah sought to discover. Avadan’s clearly found some new knowledge and put it to use. Micah sought the same. For instance, it bothered Micah a great deal that Shedim could form weapons out of the Vexus from which they were created.

  “You see, for him, that ruined the Parity Plus One principle he firmly believed in. He asserted all unique abilities of the dark should be balanced out by analogous Ash Angel abilities. But as far as we know, they aren’t. We can’t collect light and shape it. One might argue that Rapture is the gift that balances the equation, but he didn’t believe Rapture counted. For him, Vexus and its use constituted a Parity Minus One where darkness was superior.”

  “Still not seeing the point,” Mars said.

  Mars wasn’t, but an idea was growing in Helo’s head, and he wondered if Ebenezer had come to the same conclusion.

  “Here’s the point, Mars,” Ebenezer said a little acidly. “Right now you are dealing with persistent, torching desecration fields only the strongest of us can even stand up in. Avadan can torch with such power it staggers even the Angel Born. You’ve got him creating Shedim out of children with an infusion of Vexus. And to top it all off, he’s so
me sort of Sheid-Possessed-Dread hybrid no one knows how to kill.”

  “The point, Ebenezer,” Mars reminded him.

  Magdelene, who’d been sitting thoughtfully the whole time, spoke up before Ebenezer could. “The point, Mars, is that we’re not going to win this by using the same weapons we’ve used for the last two thousand years. We’re behind. We’re missing something about light—about what we can do. If we don’t figure it out, Avadan’s going to roll right over us.”

  Helo agreed. If Micah was right about parity, there had to be an Ash Angel equivalent to Avadan’s super desecration. There had to be some ability to shape light or blast Dreads with a Glorious Presence so severe there was no hope of brushing it off. But the big question was . . .

  “How?” Mars said, crossing his beefy arms over his chest. “How do we figure any of it out?”

  Ebenezer crossed his significantly less-beefy arms too. “The first step is simply accepting the challenge to figure it out, to put effort into it.”

  “And we need to talk to the Old Masters,” Magdelene added. “They have lore we don’t. They may have ideas that can help us.”

  Mars looked skeptical. “Maybe. What we need is more Angel Born fighters. Can you two help us? How is it done?”

  Helo and Melody glanced at each other. “Neither one of us asked for it,” Helo said. “The angels chose us.”

  Ebenezer nodded. “And that’s another big question it would be nice to have answered. Why these two? What’s special about them?”

  “You chew on that,” Mars said. “But there’s work to do. We’re sending Sicarius Nox off to Saint Louis. We’ve already sent a team of Blanks led by Corinth. The Dreads and Possessed are pouring into the city. Our teams have already started eliminating them when they can, but many of the Possessed are Legion, and no one’s even come close to exorcising them. Helo, we want you to give it a shot.” He slid an enormous diamond across the table. “Put Legion in this if you can.”

  Helo took it and slid it into his pocket. “I’ll try, though I should do a practice run on a regular Possessed or two just so I know what I’m doing. What else are you looking for us to do? Don’t you want us here? Avadan’s got to be coming to wipe this place off the map sooner or later.”