After yoga, Theseus led Pearl on a run through the woods. Back in New Bethlehem, Pearl could outrun all of the trainees and most of the adults, but Theseus often left her behind, marking a trail for her. During one run, Pearl took a shortcut back to the house. How Theseus found out, Pearl didn’t know, but he waited for her when she got back, and made her run the full path again, the only time he ran with her until she became fast enough to keep pace with him. Sweat-sheened and out of breath, they returned to the Gymnasium for acrobatics and combat training.
“Fighting is movement. Whether it’s pressing an advantage or recovering from an attack, you’re constantly moving, so you’ll need to learn how to move effectively while staying conscious of your enemies’ locations.” As much as Pearl liked yoga, she loved acrobatics practice. Where Theseus possessed strength, experience, and magical prowess, Pearl excelled at jumping, flipping, diving, cartwheeling, and tumbling around him. Compared to her nimble movements, Theseus appeared to stand still. Pearl would win every time if fighting depended on movement alone. However, as Theseus added, “Fighting is knowledge, precision, and directed power, as well.”
He made this clear when teaching her how to fight with and without weapons. He punished her for every opening she presented. In swordplay, this meant a quick thwack. When grappling, it meant being tossed and slammed onto the ground. And in hand-to-hand combat, it led to a strike on her body. Her training clothes, a thin shirt and pair of pants with arms and legs cut short to help her stay cool, provided no protection or padding, so she felt the severity of every blow and learned from every mistake.
After a light lunch break, which consisted of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and cold refreshing glasses of water, they would sit outside and meditate in silence.
“Why are we doing this?” Pearl asked on the first day of training, not long after they started.
“Because…” Theseus grumbled. “Meditation is the best way to increase the amount of mana your body can hold. And to be most effective, it should be done in silence.”
“But how do I do it? What do I think about?”
“Sit in silence and think about nothing. Let your mind be free, and your mana flow will become receptive to the mana in the air. Since your body’s mana stores are full, the mana entering your body causes them to become more potent, more concentrated. Your body adjusts to this potency over time, and it becomes your natural level, the point you’ll recover to when resting.”
“Wait, there’s mana in the air?” Pearl studied the air around her, looking for any sign of mana.
“There’s mana everywhere. That’s why you’re not still exhausted from throwing that fireball at me yesterday.”
“Sorry about that again.”
“You can make it up to me by shutting the hell up.”
A second, less rigorous session of yoga warmed their bodies in preparation for sparring. Armed with wooden swords, the two fought holding little back and relied on their Forewarn to avoid any grievous injuries. Theseus encouraged Pearl to use what she had learned during training as they sparred, though she suffered for every error and misstep she made. Sparring would end when Pearl struggled to lift her arms, then they’d go to the Magic room to practice her casting until her mana flow weakened. During the first week, this never took long, a single spell pulling her close to fainting, and once she mastered the basic spells, she graduated to more complicated ones that drained her just like the early days. Drained and amazed at the things she could now do.
Magic practice gave her body a break, but not enough for their return to the Gymnasium for another warmup session of yoga and a series of weight exercises. Theseus reveled in strength training, just as Pearl loved doing acrobatics, smiling while throwing around weights heavier than her. She imagined him judging her for using weights so much lighter than him, and her rage burned as she refused to let him win. Pearl pushed her already tired body to exhaustion as she lifted, pressed, pulled, and curled the heavy stones connected by metal bars.
A second wind would come to her just when she wanted to quit, and drive her through the final hour of her physical training. For dinner, a heartier meal, they ate roasted meats and vegetables, cheeses, and stews, though at this point in the day, Pearl craved water the most. As with every meal they consumed dinner in silence.
Pearl’s days didn’t end at dinner, only the physical training. In the study, Theseus would teach Pearl anything he considered useful for their mission, such as the medical properties of plants and flower and finding the structural weaknesses in caves and tunnels. She never knew what she would learn in the next lesson, but it never failed to intrigue.
On occasion, Theseus would conduct lessons in one of the sublevel rooms he had skipped over in his initial tour. In the dark garden rooms in the lower levels of the house, Pearl learned about the variety of poisonous plants she could mill and coat her weapons with, and in the alchemy room she concocted elixirs capable of bringing a man back from the edge of death and vials of chemicals which would burst into flames when the glass shattered. “Knowledge is your most powerful weapon,” Theseus told her. “Strength and speed are nothing if you don’t know how to use them. If you know how to make use of the resources around you in any situation, you’ll have the advantage every time. But stay sharp. Acting on erroneous information or ignoring obvious truths can be as fatal as any misstep. Ignorance and arrogance are your greatest weapons against yourself, so keep them sheathed.”
Pearl’s daily training ended there, as Theseus would disappear to some other part of the house, leaving Pearl to do whatever she wanted before bed. She never followed him or asked what he planned to do, because she imagined he enjoyed his time alone at the end of the day as much as she did. Beside the occasional trip to the privy and sleeping at night, she had no other time to herself. More often than not, she chose to read one of the study’s many books, grabbing one off the shelves and sitting in one of the big leather chairs next to the fireplace.
Brothers and Sisters of the Flame had authored most of the books in the study. While some recorded the Brotherhood’s history and activities over the past thousands of years, a majority covered topics unrelated to the Brotherhood. With these books, she educated herself on the cities of the worlds and their secrets, the recovered, unreplicable ancient technologies from civilizations long dead, and the strange beasts and monsters that lived in the dark corners of the world. Each printed word revealed the truth of mysteries she didn’t know existed, unraveling her world one page at a time. She enjoyed this fantastic new information, but it made her old life, the life she had with her father in New Bethlehem, seem more and more unreal.
“Pearl.” Light from inside the house broke the dark of night around her, and Theseus’s shadow stretched over her own. Pearl didn’t want to look at him and stared at the hills glowing with the sun behind them. Her raw, shapeless emotions searched for an outlet, and anger directed at Theseus came easy, but she bottled it up, choosing silence instead. Theseus sat beside her and watched the sunset. “Nightfall is coming.”
“As it does every day,” she snarled. She cringed on the inside, realizing too late the harshness of her words.
“It’s funny,” he chuckled, ignoring her tone. “We’ve spent all this time together, and yet we’re as strange to one another as the day we first met. I know little of you, and have told you nothing of myself. And that…that is my fault. We need to train as hard as we have been, but I hoped it would keep you occupied and distracted. I’m trying to help you with the pain, trying to make it better, but I don’t think it’s working. Problem is, it’s the only way I know. It’s how I chose…actually how I was forced to deal with it.”
“Deal with what?” Pearl asked, still not looking at him. Theseus reminded her of her father, possessing two sides: the stonehearted, educated man who trained her, and the more familiar peer who spoke to her now as an equal. Nostalgia warmed Pearl’s heart and loosened another tear from her eye.
“I know what you’re going thr
ough. Before there was a New Bethlehem, there were three boats full of people, livestock, and supplies. In London, Father Alexander had preached of a new promise land for the faithful where we would welcome the next coming of the Savior. He enlisted any who would join, no matter their degree of faith. Not that it mattered. The whole thing-“ He coughed. “Nevermind that part. My parents had died years before, leaving my sister and me in the charge of my father’s friend, John Russell.”
“I’m…I’m sorry about your parents.” Pearl had been curious of Theseus’s past, but an appropriate time to ask had never arisen.
“I was only two when they passed and all I remember of them is their love of books, my only inheritance.” His parents’ deaths didn’t seem to disturb Theseus, though his tone sadden. Is this how I’ll see my father’s death? A sad note in a long story? “My sister Beatrice was all I had. When Father Alexander enlisted Russell to be New Bethlehem’s quartermaster, we were brought along as apprentices, though that didn’t last long. Russell died during the first night, when the Khaous attacked. My sister and I fell into the care of the village, working for food to eat and a place to sleep.”
He stopped and studied her for a moment. “You remind me of Beatrice. She was also a bit hot-headed and reckless.”
“I’m not reckless,” Pearl insisted, whipping a glare at him.
“Really now?” The way you jump into my attacks when we’re sparring, I think you want to get yourself hurt,” Theseus laughed, and Pearl cracked a smile. “Beatrice always got the two of us in trouble. She worked hard most of the time, but there were some days when we would have gone hungry if not for Father Alexander’s charity. She loved exploring and would bring me berries from deep in the forest while I toiled away doing both of our chores.”
Theseus fell silent and looked up. Nightfall had brought out a sky full of stars. “Then one day…I was chopping wood and Beatrice dragged me away to go exploring in the forest. We went further than we had ever gone before, Beatrice running through the trees and me chasing after her, until we found the Black Hill. Of course we didn’t know that at the time. All we saw was a large hill in the middle of a shallow lake. Ignorant of the danger we were in, we played along the water’s edge, sword-fighting with sticks until they broke. As we jumped around, swinging at one another, we fell through a weak spot in the roof of a tunnel beneath us.”
“A tunnel?” Pearl touched the ground, wary it would drop away any second.
“The Black Hill and the area around it sit on top of a network of tunnels. I can’t say for what purpose, though I would guess they’re meant for subterranean ambushes. I do know they don’t reach far beyond the hill. In fact, Beatrice and I fell into the tunnel at its end. With the opening above us out of reach and nowhere else to go, we followed the tunnel down under the hill. It grew darker as we went deeper, so we had to run our hands along the walls to find our way. That we didn’t lose each other was a miracle. Hours passed before we saw light again, though it wasn’t sunlight or moonlight, but an indigo glow. In our wanderings, we had arrived in the deepest cavern, the chamber of the Black Heart.”
“You’ve seen the Black Heart before? You know where it is?”
Theseus didn’t hear her. “I remember…terror…stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before, as I stared at the Heart. As ignorant as I was of it, I knew to be afraid. Beatrice stabbed the Black Heart with the stick she had been playing with. Just walked up and stabbed it. No fear. Even now, I don’t know why, but the Black Heart bled a black and blue liquid. We stood there, watching for some time, when we heard a low growl above us. The ceiling was covered in Khaous, hanging like bats. They crawled down the walls to gather around the Black Heart, not even noticing us. We reached the edge of the chamber when a roar rose from them, and they chased after us. We ran, not in any direction. Just away from them. Somehow we found our way back to the tunnel we fell in. We tried to reach the hole in the ceiling again, even though we knew it was too high. Beatrice stood me on her shoulders, and I reached for anything to grab, but I wasn’t high enough. And then, I was lifted up and clung to a thick root. I reached back for my sister, but saw the Khaous swarming around her, lifting her off the ground and carrying her away. She reached for me, but…I couldn’t. That was the last time I saw her, her face disappeared among the Khaous as they took her back into the tunnels.”
“I don’t even remember running back. The next thing I can remember is crashing into the church, trying to explain what happened through my sobbing. Somehow Father Alexander understood me and comforted me as best as he could. It was then that he told me about the Brotherhood.” Theseus finished his story with a shudder. She opened her mouth to say something, but he continued. “He offered me justice for my sister, a path I committed myself to, so I could forget about the emptiness of my old life. And that’s what I’m forcing onto your life, a decision I have no right making for you.”
His eyes shimmered as tears threatened to well up, but with a quick wipe and a distracting cough removed any traces of them. “I hope you understand me better than before. Now, tell me a story, so I might know you better.”
She told him every story she could about herself. She told him about the first time the other children had mocked her and how she eventually stood up for herself, making sure no one, save the arrogant and stupid, teased her to her face. The sounds of the Khaous filled the forest and the chill in the air turned cold, as she continued with stories about her vague memories of her mother, and how her father and her would pray for her mother and brother every night, a practice she felt guilty for failing to complete on a regular basis. “And almost every night, I have the same dream. I’m in a strange village. The sky is black and full of stars, like night, but the moon is blue and green. And there’s music coming from one of the houses. It sounds like my mother’s lullaby.”
“You’ve mentioned your mother quite a bit.”
“My father talked about her a lot. Every night, after we prayed for her and my brother, he would tell me how I had her hair or her laugh or something of that sort. I guess he saw more of her in me than he did himself.”
“What was her name?”
“Judith.” Theseus shook his head at the name and looked off into the distance. When Pearl didn’t speak, he snapped, “Well, go on.”
“Uh…well…before all of this, all I wanted to be was a Lamplighter, like my father. I wanted to fight the demons—sorry, Khaous—and to protect the town, just like he did…right until the end…”
“Do you miss him?”
“Every day,” she managed to say before a sob escaped her lips. Tears rolled down her face, but she kept herself from crying any louder. “I miss him so much, Theseus.”
Theseus let her cry, giving her the occasional pat on the shoulder. The worst passed, though tears still fell from her eyes. “You remind me of him. At least what parts of him I did know, which now doesn’t seem like much. He never talked about his life before me,as though I was born and he just showed up to be my father. There were times, especially when he was fighting the serpent Khaous, when he became a completely different person. Not just how he acted, but how he looked. He would grow taller and more muscular. And I never would have suspected he could use magic. Can someone be attuned to ice?”
“Of course. Like lightning, ice is an impure element. Do you think that was his attunement?”
“I would assume so. Every spell he used was ice-based.”
“Well that can’t be right…” Theseus mumbled.
“Why not?” Her question gave Theseus a start and he looked at her with wide eyes, as though she had caught him doing something he didn’t want her to see.
“No reason. Let’s see, your father. George…Chaucer. I’ve only met him a few times, the last being when he arrived in the village. Before that, I had seen him work in Europe. I mentioned on the first night you came here that he relied on magic more than I think he should have, but that came with his duties to the Brotherhood. He was a specialist in demono
logy and containing demonic energy, usually called in for complicated exorcisms and creating powerful wards around people.”
“Really? Did he ever rip a demon out of someone and have to fight it? Was he good?”
“The best. In London, when I first met him, he singlehandedly eradicated a hive of nightmare demons infesting the psyche of an orphanage. Not just the children inside, but the dreams of the building itself. Bottled one up and gave it to a Baroness of the Dreamscape.”
“…Wow,” Pearl could think of nothing else to say. “That’s incredible.”
“It may seem like a fairytale, full of adventures and heroes, but those rewarding moments are seldom and buried in a life of danger.” He stopped with thoughtful hesitation. “Don’t feel as though this is your only option. I know I told you that once you chose to be part of the Brotherhood, you couldn’t leave, but give the word and I will take you back to London. I’ll provide you with the means to start a new life, to follow any path you want.”
“What I want is justice for my father. I want to destroy the Black Heart for taking him from me.” She reached out to the forest, and clenched her fist.
“Ah, that’s not justice. That’s revenge, a short-sighted, unfulfilling, less wholesome motive. I would advise against it. Thinking higher than yourself will serve you better.”
“Don’t you want to avenge your sister?”
“I suppose I do. Doesn’t make it just. Besides…” He rose to return inside, and gave her a pat on her shoulder. “I want you to be better than me.”
The Lamplighter (Lamplighter Saga Book 0) Page 7