Axle sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the tallest building in the city, waiting for night to fall. He watched the people no bigger than insects down on the streets below going about their lives, and as he watched all he could thing about was how boring they all were.
Wrapped up in their own dreary lives, never looking up, Axle had to wonder if they even knew there were things out there bigger than they were. Or he would have, if he cared about them. But he didn't. To him, they were no more than the insects they resembled from that height, worthy of no more than a few minutes of idle observation.
A breeze blew past, and for once Axle savored the feel of it as it blew his silver hair into his eyes. Unlike where he came from, the wind was pleasant here. Warm. Everything was warm, and bright too. The sun never got as bright in the mountains as it did down in the flat lands. Without the thick layer of furs he used to wear, his newly-revealed skin had taken on a pleasant golden tint.
And the best part, there was no snow in sight. He could definitely get used to that.
He adjusted the chains wrapped around his stomach before laying back, eyes closed against the sun. The sun had already set by the time he opened them again, but that was fine with him. He didn't have anything to do until midnight anyway.
After dark the city turned into a ghost town. The once-busy streets were deserted, occupied only by the thin streaks of light that seeped out from underneath doors and window shutters. Other people may have found those silent alleyways creepy, but not Axle. He leapt from his rooftop perch, landing silently on the cobbled street with only the quiet jangling of the chains around his waist. He hopped like a small child, dancing back and forth so as not to step on the spaces between the stones.
It was a childish game normally, a symbol of innocence. But nothing about Axle was innocent. He may have been young at only seventeen, but anyone looking at him could see that there was something dark lurking in the depths of his coal gray eyes. It was why he preferred being out at night rather than during the day, why he'd left the mountains in the first place.
It was why he went down the smallest, dirtiest dead end in the city and knocked exactly four times on the door at the end. It was wooden, and so old it had practically rotted off of its hinges. Its black paint had long since peeled away only to be replaced by a thick layer of grime the exact same color.
Ten seconds passed before the eye slot in the middle of the door slid open, revealing a pair of bloodshot green eyes. “Who knocks on my door so late?” the man on the far side of the door asked.
Axle scratched his head, trying to remember the correct answer. “One who wants to witness the sunrise.”
The man on the far side of the door narrowed his eyes. “Go away. Come back during the day.”
It didn't bother Axle that the man had told him to go away. After all, that was part of the script. “But without the night, no new day can dawn,” he said calmly, trying to remember the rest of what he was supposed to say. “The sun cannot rise again unless it first sets.”
“A wise observation for one so young,” the man on the far side of the door said, sounding less impressed than his comment would have indicated.
“I've been shown the light.” Axle had to fight back a chuckle as he said that. Just how long ago were these pass codes written? They were completely ridiculous.
The man behind the door thought for a minute. “What's your name?”
Axle hesitated. That wasn't one of the questions he was supposed to answer. “Axle,” he said at last, jutting out his chin.
“Well Axle,” the man on the far side of the door said, accompanied by the sound of several different kinds of locks being undone. After a few seconds the door swung open, revealing the man with pale green eyes dressed in a full-length black robe. “Welcome to the Dark Order.”
* * *
“There,” Simon yelled, pointing at a rocky outcropping just a dozen or so yards in front of them. It was small but sturdy and looked like it would afford the two of them the protection they needed.
“Go,” Trace shouted, swinging his sword to intercept a bolt of lightning just a few inches from Simon's back. “I'll hold them off.”
Simon looked back at him and was about to say something when Trace gave him a push toward the outcropping and out of the way of a second bolt of lightning. “I'll cover you once I'm clear,” Simon said, scurrying toward the safety of the rocks.
Trace watched Simon go out of the corner of his eye as he turned his sword back toward their attackers. Jaden was standing in plain sight at the top of the hill, while his partner had the good sense to stay hidden.
It wasn't Jaden's lightning Trace was worried about. It was attracted to the metallic blade of Trace sword so he didn't even need to be that accurate blocking it. The problem was Zephyr, hidden somewhere out of sight. Not only was her magic more powerful than Jaden's, but she was also much smarter about how she used it.
The other four trainees were around somewhere in the rocky landscape, but once Jaden and Zephyr teamed up all of them had tried to get as far away as they could. Only Trace and Simon hadn’t been quick enough to get away.
As Jaden unleashed another bolt of lightning, no less than twenty fireballs rose from behind the rocky horizon of the hill. Unlike Jaden, she didn't aim for Trace. She knew he could nullify her magic with just a sweep of his sword if she tried to hit him directly, so instead she aimed at the ground around him.
Each fireball moved independently from the rest, flying at different speeds and in intricate twists and turns that Trace couldn't even try to predict. Trace could only retreat, sweeping wildly at those that got close enough as one by one Zephyr's fireball slammed into the ground at his feet, sending up blasts of dirt and fire that Trace's sword couldn't defend against.
One of the fireballs landed just a few inches from Trace's foot. The resulting explosion triggered a small landslide which took his balance completely. He lost his sword in the fall, and Zephyr still had five fireballs left hanging in the air to hurl at him.
Before she could, Trace caught the faint sound of a flute and watched as a flurry of blades made entirely of condensed air shot over him from behind. The fireballs tried to dodge the wind, but there was too much of it and one by one they all exploded harmlessly in midair.
“Come on,” Simon said, kicking Trace lightly in the back. He held his ocarina in one hand, Trace’s sword in the other. Trace scrambled back to his feet, took his sword from Simon and the two of them ran back to the cover of the outcropping. They made it just as Simon's wind spell ran out and the rock behind them exploded beneath a blast of lightning. Chips of rock rained down on them along with the combined smells of ozone and cordite, but their shelter held.
“Who put those two on the same team?” Simon asked between heavy pants.
Trace shrugged, also panting though not as heavily. “It had to happen sooner or later.”
“I guess, but why are they only after us?”
“Because they both hate me. Sorry I got you into this.”
Simon shook his head. “It's not your fault. You ready to counter?”
Trace smiled. “I'll clear a path, you hit them with everything you've got.”
Simon mirrored his smile. “Exactly what I was thinking. Let's do it.”
Just as they were about to stand, the clear, sharp sound of a whistle pierced the air. Both Trace and Simon looked at one another, then at their bandannas. Simon wore his around his forehead, Trace around his arm. Before the whistle both of them had been yellow, but as they watched the two pieces of fabric changed colors. Simon's turned red while Trace's went green.
“Sorry about this,” Simon said, lifting his ocarina to his lips and playing a quick melody. Trace had his sword up and ready for the blast of wind that would follow, but just like Zephyr Simon was smart enough not to direct his magic right at Trace. Instead he summoned a gust which hurled dust, rocks and anything else it could pick up at Trace. Even if he could cut through the wind, he couldn't stop all of the projectiles it had picked up.
He leapt over the outcropping, using it as a barrier to protect himself from the sandstorm Simon had whipped up. Once he was clear he ran away as fast as he could. Even if they weren't on the same team anymore Trace didn't want to fight Simon. He had to find his new teammate, and if it came to it he would much rather fight Jaden than his friend.
Trace heard another blast of lightning come from the far side of the hill and ran even faster. Once he reached the top, he saw Jaden preparing another blast, his once-red bandanna now blue. He was aiming at Zephyr, her bandanna now the same green as Trace's. She was his new teammate, and she was under attack.
Zephyr had managed to curl up behind a rock, which was made easier by how small she was. She had already spread her silver dust in front of her, which was roiling and darkening under the weight of the spell it was brewing.
But while her spells were certainly powerful, they took a long time to charge. Jaden would be able to fire two, maybe three more blasts by the time her spell was ready, and by the looks of it the rock she was hiding behind could hardly withstand one more bolt of lightning.
Trace ran as fast as he could down the hill to reach them. He was too far away to make it in time, and the rock Zephyr was hiding behind was already starting to crumble. Right before Jaden released his lightning, Trace threw his sword. Its blade stuck into the ground in between the two of them just as Jaden released his spell.
The sword didn't nullify magic when Trace wasn't holding it, but even so it was made of steel, and thus made a decent lightning rod. Jaden's lightning bolt twisted, flowing directly into the exposed hilt of Trace's sword and down through the blade into the ground. Jaden cursed and started to prepare another, but Trace had already reclaimed his sword by then.
His hands tingle with residual electricity, but Trace held the hilt as tight as he could and charged straight at Jaden. Jaden had nearly completed the series of hand signs he needed to make to summon a lightning bolt, but Trace swung his sword at him and he had to abandon the spell to dive out of the way. Trace had anticipated his dodge, and as soon as Jaden pulled out of his roll the heel of Trace's shoe connected to the underside of his jaw.
Jaden went flying back, stunned and angry. Before he could get up, Zephyr's spell finished charging and a massive hand stretched out of the ground to grab the fallen boy, pinning him with thick bars of rock so tightly he couldn't even move his hands.
“I had it under control,” Zephyr said, standing up from behind her crumbling barricade to glare at Trace.
“Not from where I was standing,” Trace said. “If I hadn't stepped in you'd be a bit more fried right now.”
“I can handle someone like him myself,” she said, as if Jaden wasn't still trapped in the ground at her feet.
“Can't you just say 'thank you' like a normal person? There's nothing wrong with getting helped every now and then.”
“Except I don't need any help,” she insisted, folding her arms in front of her in a gesture much too mature for her body. “Especially not from you.”
Shaw's whistle blew again, and this time all of the bandannas turned back to white, meaning training was done for the day. Zephyr snapped her fingers and her stone grip on Jaden vanished. She walked away without looking back at either him or Trace.
* * *
My Beloved,
We reached the outpost, but too late. The death and destruction we found here defies description. It's... horrible. Not one soul was spared. Who could do something like this?
Rand searched the town after I couldn't bear to look anymore. The artifact we were sent to claim was nowhere to be found. Whoever or whatever destroyed the town must have taken it. Is anything worth killing this many people over? If it is, we cannot let it fall into these monsters hands. We must reclaim it.
We found a trail leading away from the town. It could belong to survivors, but considering the number of people already dead that doesn't seem likely. We'll follow it, wherever it leads. These unspeakable deeds cannot go unpunished.
Missing your embrace,
Katalyn
* * *
A lot had changed for Trace since he'd started doing combat training with the other new recruits. For the first time he actually felt like he was one of them, not just pushed off to the side cleaning the stables while everyone else trained. He had even started to grow on the other recruits, though Jaden and Zephyr still refused to acknowledge him.
But most of all, through combat exercises and talks with Captain Shaw, he was finally starting to learn what he could do even without magic. As Shaw explained during one of his lectures, mage-knights always worked in pairs. That was ideal for Trace. His ability to nullify magic allowed him to protect his partner from enemies while his partner countered with magic of his or her own.
But that fact brought up a question, one Trace had wanted to ask for a while. “Do mage-knights always work in pairs?” he asked once Shaw ended his lecture and the other recruits begrudgingly set out to start their next training exercise.
“I'm not sending you out by yourself no matter how unique your abilities may be,” Shaw answered with a disapproving scowl. “Whatever differences you have with your fellow recruits you cannot allow them to get in the way of doing your job.”
“That's not what I meant,” Trace said. He didn't have any problem being paired with one of the other recruits, provided that recruit wasn't Jaden or Zephyr. “When I was younger my parents were killed by bandits. I only survived because a mage-knight stopped them before they could kill me too, but he was by himself.”
“Oh.” There was no emotion behind that one word, no sympathy or understanding. Just a cold statement of fact. “It's rare to see knights operating on their own, but not unheard of.”
“Then he was something special?” Trace asked, hopeful. The mage-knight who had saved his life had always been a hero to him, but he was more than that. He was an ideal, the embodiment of everything Trace hoped to one day become.
Shaw nodded. “He would have to be, to be sent out without a partner.”
A thought occurred to Trace that made his heart quicken even as he recognized how improbable it was. “You wouldn't know him, would you?” he asked the captain. He had only seen the mage-knight who saved him once nine years ago, and even then half of his face had been covered, but Trace thought he was around the same age as Shaw. “He had silver eyes and wore a red muffler that covered the lower part of his face.”
“Fought using magic fist?”
“I think so.”
“I knew him,” Shaw said with a nod, “or heard of him at least. Everyone knew Deelan. Joined a few years before I did. He was one of the best.”
“Was?” Even if it had only been for a second, Trace had allowed himself to think that he might actually be able to meet the man he'd looked up to for the past nine years, the reason he was still alive. But with one word that feeble hope had grown heavy and collapsed in around him. “What happened to him?”
“No one knows,” Shaw said, oblivious to the pain such a blunt statement caused Trace. “He disappeared about five years ago, a few months after the uprising in Cessia.” He cringed when he said that last word but Trace didn't notice.
“Do you think he's...”
“Dead?” Shaw finished for him. “It's hard to imagine someone killing Deelan. He was definitely strong.”
“But if he's still alive, where is he?”
“Who knows? The things you see on those kinds of battlefields... they change people. It wouldn't surprise me if he just found somewhere quiet to spend the rest of his days.”
There was a lot going through Shaw's mind as he said that, but Trace was young and had never seen real combat, so there was no way he could understand why Deelan, the man who had inspired him to become a mage-knight in the first place, would abandon his sworn duty to protect innocents.
“Now go join the other recruits,” Shaw commanded. “Afternoon training begins in five minutes.”
“Are you coming?” Trace asked, looking over his shoulder as he started toward the training grounds.
“I have something else to take care of first,” Shaw said, turning in the opposite direction and heading back into the main headquarters. He walked past the reception desk and the small flock of gray uniformed office staff gathered there. Everyone stopped talking to salute him as he passed, but he didn't pay any attention to them. There was only one thing on his mind.
He turned the corners of the labyrinthine headquarters quickly, leaving gray uniformed clerks carrying tall stacks of paper to scurry out of his way. It wasn't like him to act like that, his nickname Iceman Shaw came as much from his cold and unemotional demeanor as it did from his mastery of ice magic, but everyone knew better than to say anything. And once they knew the reason for it, no one would have said anything even without the threat of being frozen solid.
The dispatch office was empty as usual, but made up for its lone occupant by being filled with mountains of paperwork. And not the neat, complete sheets found in the other offices but notes written on scraps of paper, worn and wrinkled so that they could never stack. But the mess only spoke to the nature of the dispatch office.
Aside from the mounds of paper flanking the door, the room held only a desk covered with even more shards of paper. The only decoration was a map that stretched the length of the back wall behind the desk, with dots representing each of the mage-knight teams out on missions. One glance showed Shaw that the dot he was looking for was still nowhere to be seen.
He turned to the girl behind the desk, who already looked small enough without being eclipsed by the mounds of paperwork surrounding her. She flashed him a quick salute, which he ignored. “Still no word from them?”
“...No,” the girl behind the desk said, looking away. She had the appearance and demeanor of a small woodland creature, and didn't take well to giving bad news. “But you know where they are,” she said, big blue eyes looking up at him hopefully. “It's impossible to get any sort of contact from that region.”
“Except they should be home by now. It was just a simple retrieval mission.”
“Yeah...well...you know what kinds of things can happen in the field.”
Shaw's gaze narrowed. “That's what I'm worried about.”
The girl waved her arms in front of her so vigorously she nearly toppled out of her chair. “That's not what I meant. They're strong, I'm sure they'll be fine. Besides, this isn't their first mission. Any day now they'll walk back in all safe and sound, and then you'll feel silly for getting so worried.”
“I hope you're right.”
“Don't worry,” She flashed Shaw a smile bigger than should have been possible given the size of her face, “I'll tell you as soon as we hear anything.”
“Thanks,” Shaw said, though he didn't smile back. He was still frustrated about not having learned anything, but fortunately he had eight recruits to work that aggression out on.
* * *
“Don't you think he's working us a bit too hard?” Simon said, ducking behind the rock wall rising up in front of him to avoid the flurry of icicles that came raining down like arrows. “Thanks for the cover Garret.”
The boy who had summoned the circle of rocks nodded, his hand still pressed over the circle he'd drawn in the ground.
“We've been training for three weeks,” Jaden said, leaning against the rising stone dome as another flurry of ice attacks bounced harmlessly off its thick walls, “it's only natural that we'd be able to deal with something like this.”
“A hundred ice dummies was hard enough when they couldn't fight back,” Cassie, a girl with long white hair said.
“That's what makes this training,” Jasmin, a tall and rail-thin girl with short black hair said, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Could everyone just stop talking?” Zephyr demanded from the center of the circle. “It's bad enough just being stuck in here with all of you.” The dome was uncomfortably small to hold all eight of the recruits, not even ten feet across.
“I can't hold this up much longer,” Garret said, arms shaking as he kept his hands pressed to the ground. “We're surrounded.”
“We knew that before we walled ourselves up,” Jasmin said with a roll of her eyes.
“I don't see what the big deal is,” Jaden said, “they're just big ice dolls.”
“With big ice spears,” Cassie added.
“Yeah, and for all your tough talk you're still hiding in here with us,” Simon pointed out.
“Enough,” Trace said. “This isn't getting us anywhere.”
“And it's giving me a headache,” Zephyr added.
“We need to work together to get out of this,” Trace continued as though Zephyr hadn't interrupted.
“Who died and made you the leader?” Jaden demanded.
“Do you have a plan you'd like to share?” Trace asked. Jaden didn't answer, just as Trace expected. “Well I do, so at least hear me out.”
They did. It only took him a minute to explain his idea, while outside Shaw's ice dummies continued to barrage the stone dome around them.
“It's not the worst idea I've ever heard,” Cassie said once Trace was finished.
“I don't see what other choices we have,” Simon agreed.
“Whatever. Can we just hurry up, it's getting hot in here and someone's starting to smell,” Jasmin said.
“Why are you looking at me?” Kain, the spiky-haired boy who hadn't said anything yet, asked.
“Is everyone ready?” Trace asked, drawing his sword and stepping up to the edge of the stone wall. Simon lifted his ocarina to his mouth and nodded while the rest of the recruits assumed fighting stances as well. Trace took one last deep breath. “Here we go.” As he said that, he touched the tip of his sword to the stone wall.
Instantly all of the magic that had held the wall together vanished, leaving just a collection of rocks and dirt with nothing to keep it from falling on the eight recruits. But before the avalanche could come crashing down on them, Simon played a tune on his ocarina and summoned a vortex of whipping winds around them. Instead of falling on the recruits, the rocks were thrown outward into the army of ice men surrounding them though it was impossible to tell if they did any damage through the tornado.
“I'm ready,” Garret said. As soon as Trace had broken his first spell he'd started preparing a new one in the dirt at his feet.
“Me too,” Zephyr said, surrounded by a cloud of silver dust rippling with the opalescent power of a charged spell.
Trace strained his eyes to see through Simon's tornado. He could hardly see three feet on the other side, but even so he could make out dozens of light blue figures trying to fight their way through the winds. “Now.”
All eight of the recruits huddled even closer together as the ground around them rose up under the power of Garret's spell. It lifted like a wave two feet off the ground before speeding out in a perfect circle around them. The shockwave came just as Simon's tornado vanished, so the recruits could see how it threw the approaching ice sculptures back. It didn't break them, but then again it wasn't supposed to. It was just to keep them from being ambushed while they switched from defense to offense.
Once the shockwave had passed, the silver cloud around Zephyr seeped into the ground and eight walls of solid stone nearly a hundred feet high rose up, dividing the field around them into eight evenly-sized wedges. A few of the dummies got caught on the tops of the rising walls, and this time the fall from the top was enough to shatter them.
The recruits didn't need any more instruction from that point. Each one took one of the sections of the field and the ice dummies trapped in it and disposed of them with ease. It was only eleven or twelve each, numbers they had dealt with before. None of them had any problems.
Once the last of the dummies had been shattered, a group of gray uniformed staff members set about repairing the damage to the field while the recruits gathered in front of Shaw.
“Not bad,” he said, which was the closest any of them had come to a compliment from him in the past three weeks. “After a display like that I feel better about giving you your final tests. Pass and you'll be officially inducted into the mage-knights. Fail and redo all of the training we've done up to this point. Understand?”
“Yes sir,” the eight recruits replied.
“The test is simple: beat me. You can use any methods available to you, and you'll be working in pairs. Keep in mind that these teams are final, and your teammate will be your assigned partner once you begin taking missions. The pairs have already been decided and are non-negotiable. They are as follows: Kain and Cassie, Jaden and Garret, Simon and Jasmin, and Zephyr and Trace.”
Chaos broke out for a few seconds following the announcements of the teams. Everyone had something to say, whether they liked their team or not. Jaden and Garret had been hoping to be paired together, while Kain, Cassie, Jasmin and Simon didn't care one way or another. Simon had been hoping to be paired with Trace, but he didn't have anything against Jasmin.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about Trace and Zephyr. Trace didn't particularly dislike Zephyr, but for whatever reason she hated him. Hers was the loudest objection in the group, though it went just as unheeded by Shaw.
“The test will be three days from now,” Shaw said, stifling the recruits without raising his voice. “There will be no more training until then. Use the time to talk with your partner and come up with a strategy. Good luck.”
With that he dismissed the eight recruits. While all of the others immediately sought out their partners to begin planning how they would beat Shaw, before Trace could even start looking Zephyr had already disappeared.
“Great,” he muttered to himself. He knew he couldn't beat Shaw by himself. Even with Zephyr fighting with him it seemed nearly impossible. But instead of coming up with a strategy to beat him over the next three days, it looked like Trace would have to spend that time convincing Zephyr to accept him as her partner.
Next Week- Chapter 5: Iceman Shaw