The Lightwielder Files

Chapter 10

Max ran past another Lightwielders milling about the halls and he of all the looks that he received in the dining hall. All of them no matter how tame or intense they were said the same thing, that he didn’t belong there and he never would. He came to a  wooden door which looking at it closely he saw that it was the library that he, Mona, and Adam were researching in yesterday. He looked from the door to the hallway from which he came from. Taking the risk, he stepped inside. While inside he put both hands on the door as he was trying to barricade the door from some malevolent monsters on the other side of the door. He could have laughed at how ironically fitting that comparison was. The monsters couldn’t get in here as Mna had told him yesterday but it wasn’t monsters inside the Order but the fear of not belonging that manifested itself that morning. 

He closed his eyes and bit back the sour feeling in his stomach. Was staying here a mistake?

Should he have just been brave and gone home, it wasn’t like he was completely weak and powerless no matter how “untrained” he was. 

“Young man, I don’t think that standing behind a door in the safest position even for one as powerful as yourself.”

Max jumped, turning around his back now to the door. 

He stood face to face with Lucian Boyne from yesterday and that morning.

Max moved away from the door next to a bookcase filled with magical-looking artifacts.

“Uhm, sorry”, Max replied, “I got lost.”

Boyne just smiled, not annoyed at all at the intrusion but rather he had a knowing look in his eyes.

“Well, this place is easy to get lost in," Boyne replied, mirth dancing across his face and through his voice. “I just got lost in this here library in the magical artifacts section only yesterday morning. My assistant had to come looking for me.”

Max chuckled in spite of himself. “I can totally see that happening.” Then he decided to take another risk with Boyne right here in front of him. 

“Mr. Boyne, you said that you knew my father well, is that correct?”

Boyne's smile brightened, a hint of mischief weaving in and out of his light blue eyes. 

“Well enough. I’ve worked here for some time  you know, and he and Algar had many of their rendezvous here.”

So his dad and Algar were really that close, max thought sadly but then he thought about the accusations against his dad for murdering Algar in cold blood.

“There’s something I don’t understand about what happened at the trial.”

Boyne scoffed placing both hands on his very narrow hips. 

“There’s a lot no one understands about what happened at the trial.”

Max had to fight the urge to look down at his feet in despondency. No one around here seemed to have a clear idea of what happened during the Breaking. It was a mystery to them all. After what he had learned he wasn't sure he could trust his father’s testimony and it was obvious that there were some Lightwielders who had the same opinion as him.

“But what was bugging was why everyone was so mad at my dad for killing Algar even if it was an accident. Didn’t Algar try to open a portal for monsters to come onto the earth? Didn't my dad do the right thing to try and stop that from happening?”

Boyne nodded in understanding then began walking in the direction of one of the shelves. He gestured behind him for Max to follow which he did wordlessly.

“You are so right on both accounts my boy”, he said as they went further into the library past more artifacts and some study rooms with whiteboards and cushioned chairs round wicker desks. “Algar was planning to open a portal to bring monsters through so he could control the magic world and he nearly succeeded.”

He went silent for a minute almost grave as they came to a corner of the library that was covered in a large helping of dust and had low hanging lights that flickered irregularly creating a strange effect on Max’s senses. 

“A great deal of very brave Lightwielders died trying to hold back the hordes. Mona’s mother Marian was one of them.”

His face was cast in the light and he looked heartbroken while Max’s stood there in though sad on behalf of Mona. What an awful way to lose a parent. He thought about the conversation they had in the training room. He wondered if she knew the real circumstances of her mother’s death and then thought that perhaps she did. Maybe that was why she seemed to apply herself to being a Lightwielder so hard. She wanted to honor her mother and make her proud. Max could understand that completely. 

“And your father was right in after trying and failing to reason with Algar to kill him when he saw no other option of dealing with him.”

Max winced at how easily Lucian Boyne was able to agree with killing a fellow Lightwielder but then he thought of the threat Algar Fray’s actions would cause if they were left unchecked. 

He remembered the attack on the Fado pub yesterday and those beasts were only shadows. He hated to think of what a full corporal beast could do. 

“But the thing you have to understand about that situation, in particular, was that Algar Fray was a sacred cow of some sort around here, in fact, most of the Frays were, come to think of it.”

Max was familiar with the term sacred cow and wondered how it applied to Algar Fray. 

“You see the Frays were a powerful family of Lightweiders each and every one of them.”

“Did they all have the same primal light source?” Mas asked, setting his elbows on a stack of boxes. 

“No, but now that you mention it, there were a lot of Burners and Electras in their ranks. At least until a mysterious illness started to target the Frays and each of them died.”

Max shuddered. That sounded horrifying. 

“Do they know what caused it?” he asked curiously.

Boyne nodded and took out a book from one of the crates in the darkest corner of where they were.

He opened it to a page that had a picture of some monstrous-looking being with hoofs and claws with matted black hair and one dead eye. 

Beside that picture was one of a normal-looking man, or not so normal he thought on closer inspection. 

The man had some yellow aura around him and Max firmly believed that he was supposed to be a Lightwielder. There was an odd sensation that came over him when he thought that must be the same thing that is happening to his body right now.

“It came to my attention that EleenFray, this was her diary given to the library by her grandson Raymond Fray, Algar’s late father. It lists various experiments her husband did on her while she was pregnant and on his grandson.”Max’s horror intensified. How could someone do that to a member of their own family? A bitter part of him thought that was something these Lightwielders would do but the sort of sensible part of him knew that that wasn’t the case. He had a classmate Maya whose mum made her test all her verbal vitamin products even while they were making her sick. He supposed it was a human thing to experiment for better or worse or whether the human in question was magical or not.

“She was debating whether to throw the horrible thing out but then thought that the Lightwielders in the lab could find a way to undo the effects of the experiments.”

“What were these experiments?” Max asked partly still horrified, partly intrigued as he looked through the pictures of the different types of monsters the Lightwielders fought and corresponding human bodies beside them. 

“He would inject monster blood into himself and his family members.” A weird sort of smile came across his features. “Because of this no one really accepted invitations the Frays gave to their cookouts.”

Then in an instant, his tone returned back to its seriousness. 

“And that was what was making them sick?” Max asked, starting to get a clearer picture of Algar Fray’s family but still desperate to learn more about them. 

“Yes and no," Boyne pointed out. “It did make them sick at times but the powers they wielded it was unlike any they had seen before. It was like a case of what kills you makes you stronger. “

“Uhm”, Max hummed awkwardly. “I think it’s what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Boyne frowned derisively. “Well, that doesn't exactly fit my purpose now does it, boy? So I shook it up a little.”

Max couldn’t help but smile a little at that. It sounded like something his dad would do. 

Boyne continued with his story of the Frays. “They were some of the strongest Lightwielders there ever were but their powers made them weak and they died off except Algar who the lab found just in time for him a solution that could keep him alive and his powers at their full peak. He was for all intents and purpose a hybrid guinea pig. Made for testing which they did a lot of.”

“That must have sucked," Max said thinking about what it would be like to have people prodding needles in you and doing regular tests. 

“Indeed it totally sucked, but that was how he met your father and they became the best of friends.”

Boyne sighed his hand hovering over a comparison chart, comparing blood and urine samples. 

“That was why everyone was so shocked to hear that Malcolm had killed Algar they were almost like brothers.”

Something in Max ached for his father having to lose someone he thought of so highly and having to be the one to kill him as well. He made a silent vow to himself that he would ask his father more about Algar. He seemed to be an extremely important part of his life before as a Lightwielder. 

“I know what you mean about Algar being a sacred cow”, Max mused out loud. “He was a guinea pig for the Lightwielders.”

Boyne nodded. “That’s right. I couldn’t put it any better myself. It was a way for them to test new ways to fight any monsters that get through the breaches, now they lost that when Algar died.”

Mas sighed heavily through his nose.

“Thank you for talking to me about my dad and Algar”, he said with a small smile. “But I think I should be getting back to training.”

“Do you know where the training rooms are?” Boyne asked closing the book and placing it back on the top shelf. 

“Only one," Max replied sheepishly. “But I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.”

Boyne led them both back to the main desk at the library. He spoke to someone new at the desk and gestured for Max to leave the library with him. 

“I won’t tell you that I know where you’re supposed to be but I will show you where the training lessons are held.”

“Thanks a lot”, Max replied as Boyne led him down two twisty corridors that looked like they were going to a reanimation room instead of a training room until they came to a series of rooms with glass rooms like the one he and Mona were in yesterday.

He was simultaneously keeping his head down and kept looking into each of the training rooms. 

Some people were throwing knives and axes while others were climbing up walls and jumping in and out of different obstacle courses. 

“Do you think that it’s safe to throw axes inside?” Max asked warily as someone missed the target by a hair's breadth.

“Of course, it’s not safe to throw axes inside," Boyne replied with a wry smile and pointed to the glass in question. “Look closer, Max.”

So Max did and saw that there was a shimmery effect on the glass. There were slight knicks in the glass which with the number of nicks in the glass it was impossible for it to be standing.

“Is there magic in the glass?” Max asked entranced with the glass all of a sudden as if something in it was calling to him. 

“It’s a type of glamour," Boyne explained. “ A very rare type of magic that can be used to reinforce a protective ward or to change the appearance of an object at will. Your father had an exceptional talent with that.”

Max was shocked and began to wonder if there were things that his father had hidden from him with his glamour. Maybe now that his powers were activated he’d be able to see anything his father had hidden from him. 

“Can only Lightwielders and other magical creatures see-through glamorous or can humans do that too?”

“It depends on how powerful the glamour is but usually humans can not see through glamorous.”

Then he pointed out another room where someone was waving rapidly back and forth at them. 

“It would appear that you have been found”, Boyne said, stopping at the entrance. 

“Thank’s for bringing me here”, Max said.

“No problem.” Then Boyne leaned close to his ears and whispered, “I hope you find your father soon. I believe you will.”

He then smiled and walked back down the hallway they came from just as soon as Adam came out to meet him.

“Max, we didn’t know where you were”, he exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine," he replied, “I just had to get out.”

“Simon Wilkes was way out of line”, Adam said, his face angrier than he ever thought he did. “Dad told him that and Mona had to be held back from decking him.”

“Thanks for that," Max muttered, the worse feeling passed but he still was shaken a little.

“Mona’s gone on patrol with the others but she told me to tell you to shine like the sun in training.”

Max chuckled lightly. 

“So os this it”, he asked pointing to the room.

“Yeah. Are you ready?” he asked. 

Max sighed, his face and his entire body falling into a neverending slouch.

“I guess so," he replied warily eyeing the room which was covered in various walls full of weapons. “Or is it too late to back out?”

“It’s never too late to back out except when you’re dead”, Adam said sounding sage-like an old professor in the Middle Ages talking to a knight off to his first battle. 

Why a professor would be talking to a knight about battle Max didn’t know, but he listened intently to his friend anyway. 

“So the way I see it," Adam continued, “is that you shouldn’t back out until you’re dead. “

“You could put that on a t-shirt”, Max said his voice full of a tight sort of humor as he tried to psyche himself for the coming training. 

Adam chuckled and helped open the door for him to go into the training room.