Amendments

“The Lumin Prophecies” by Andrew Ryan Henke

Book 2,
Amendments

Copyright © 2016 by Andrew Ryan Henke

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author at:

[email protected]

First Edition

For my best friend, Rachel Catherine:

Thank you for giving me the confidence to be me,

and for making me excited to spend my life with you.

Andrew Ryan Henke is an independent author who is also a

public high school teacher. Unlike professionally published

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Prologue

              Aimee sat alone in darkness and tried to ignore the wrenching pain coming from her bowels.  It had been two days since she had heard the sound of a metal food plate slide under her cage door.  She detested the mixture of corn and soup that was always on it, but it made the pain of hunger go away for a while.  Now she longed for the mush and hated herself for needing
them
for anything.  That was almost worse than the cell
or
the din slave collar around her neck.

              Moans from the prisoners in the cells adjacent to Aimee's signaled that she was not the only one they had forgotten to feed.  However, she didn't care about their hunger.  She didn't care how they got their black iron collars.  They could writhe in the agony of starvation for all she cared.  All that mattered was her own hunger, her own collar, and how she had received it.  “I’m such an idiot for trusting them.  Everything they ever told me was a lie to manipulate me into doing what they wanted.”  She didn't care for the moaning idiots in the least!  They weren't even real!

              The rage that Aimee felt inside her suddenly felt infuriatingly contrary to her slumped, motionless form.  Impulsively, Aimee leapt from where she was sitting and flung herself against the iron bars that she knew were present even in the darkness.  “It's not real!” she bellowed.  “None of this is real!  Those lying devils!”  She flung herself against the bars again and again and pain shot through her head and side.

              A man's soft voice came from the cell next to her.  “Stop it, girl.  You will hurt yourself.”

              Aimee screamed, “Shut up!” and flung herself against the bars again.

              “If you're damaged, you will be more of a burden to them than what you're worth.  Then, they’ll simply kill you.”

              “Shut up!” Aimee shrieked again.  However, this time, the quiver of oncoming tears made her words weak.

              “Our time will come, child.  You will want to be well rested and in good health when it does.”

              Aimee sank to her knees.  “Stop it.  You aren't real,” she sobbed.  “You don't matter.”

              The man ignored her words as if lost in his own thoughts.  “Yes, our time will come when
he
comes.  It is the year of the Lumin.  He will set us all free when he comes.”

              Aimee suddenly felt laughter piercing through her tears.  It was bitter, painful laughter, and she hated herself for not controlling it.  “The Lumin?” she asked mockingly.  “The Lumin's dead, you idiot.”

              The man seemed shaken out of his thoughts.  “What?”

              “That’s right!  She’s dead!  And I killed her!  I killed her with my own two hands!”

              The man fell silent.  Aimee was unsure if it was because of the shock of what she had said, or the belief that she was insane, but the man said nothing more the rest of the night.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Memories

              It had been two months since Noir witnessed the slaying of his friend Asiada.  The image of The Lumin's angelic form with Aimee's yellow enchant blade protruding from her chest haunted Noir every time he closed his eyes.  He tried everything he could to push it from his mind, but everything he saw in this world forced his thoughts back to that event.  The Lumin was dead and it was his fault.

              Noir pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders.  It covered his Luxin armor and helped somewhat against the cold wind.  He usually did not wear the white cloak that signified him as a Luxin.  It drew attention to him too easily.  However, the armor's Luxin decorations were not noticeable until you drew near, so he always kept it on in the wilderness.  Noir was losing track of how many times he had been ambushed by straghs in the mountains above New Talik in the previous two months.  Several times, the armor had helped him defend against the beasts' claws.

              Noir often wandered the wilderness despite how dangerous it was.  Grandel, Luxin Adeel, and Elrid cautioned him each time they saw him leaving, but he always gave them some excuse and went anyway.  Noir tried to justify the walks to himself by pretending that he needed to practice and maintain his Luxin skills in the wilderness, but truthfully Noir knew he just had to get away from people.  Their questions, patronizing sympathy, and despair weighed on him too heavily.  He had no answers for them and he did not wish to relay the stories about the Lumin.  It pained Noir too much.  He already relived the moment in his nightmares many times, so he avoided reliving it in his waking moments as much as possible.  Noir had nothing to give them, so he wandered.

              Jarring Noir out of his daydreaming, he noticed some fresh stragh tracks in the thin layer of snow that had fallen that morning.  He instantly embraced the lux inside him and put up a barrier of light all around him.  Straghs were amazingly silent when they were stalking a target.  Noir would not give them any openings in his defenses for them to exploit.  He drew his golden hilted sword and held it in front of him.

              A breeze fluttered Noir's cloak around him.  The fast winds that had pushed the dark clouds to the east that morning also took away any sounds that sneaking straghs would make.  Noir stood completely still and reached out with his senses, though he knew he would hear nothing until the creatures were already pouncing.  He was tense, waiting for the sudden attacks that he would have to counter.

              “Do not be alarmed, Luxin Noir.”  Noir was confused to hear the elegant words of a woman instead of seeing pouncing, claw-riddled beasts.  “I destroyed the straghs about an hour ago, if that is what you fear.”

              Noir located where the strong but gentle voice was coming from.  From behind a patch of snow-dusted brush, a tall, slender woman stepped forward.  The yellow accents on her long white dress stood out in the snow.  The woman's eyes looked youthful, but Noir knew thousands of years of wisdom dwelt beneath.

              “Fafnir!” Noir exclaimed with joy and surprise.  It had been many months since Noir had seen her.  During his past two months of wandering, he had often thought about visiting her at her lair, but was always stopped when he realized he would have to explain what happened with the Lumin.

              She smiled, “You look years older, Noir, though I last saw you not five months ago.  The boy is becoming a man.”  Then her smile faded as she studied him further.  “But I sense that this maturing has come about through harsh trials and grief.”

              Noir was not sure what to say.  Her manner of speaking often made him unsure of what to say and when to speak.  Instead, he said nothing, replaced his sword in its scabbard, released his light barrier, and walked in the snow toward Fafnir.  Noir stood beside the elegant woman and turned and looked at the valley below them.

              Fafnir finally added, “I have a guess as to why you despair, though I do not know why you would be so troubled by the loss of the Lumin since you are not from this world.”

              Noir turned toward her with surprise.  “So you know!”

              “Yes.  I know of the Lumin's fate and the circumstances of her death.”  A brief, painful look flashed through Fafnir's eyes.  “It is a sad thing, though I do not know what part in history she was supposed to play.”

              Noir was surprised.  “How did you find out?”  He was relieved that he did not have to relay the story to her.

              “I have been to the Azurite Tower.  I felt it time to put aside ages old differences and speak to my brother Jotunar.”

              “Did you see Steven, my uncle?”

              She looked at Noir as though she suddenly understood more about him, though Noir was not sure what she was learning.  “No, Noir.  I did not.  I was barred entrance.”

              Noir was confused and shocked.  “You were?  Who are they to deny
you
entrance?”

              She chuckled and continued her lilting slow tone.  “It is their tower, not mine.  I, Fafnir, have no more right to enter a place in which I am not wanted than you, Noir.”  She smiled and looked into Noir's eyes.  “Plus, lux is easily conquered by sye, as I am sure you have learned in your time in this world.”

              The memories of the scarred man flashed back to Noir.  He responded with a shiver, “I certainly have.”

              “Anyway,” she continued, “that sye circle is a secretive bunch.  I will be honest in saying I was a bit relieved to not see them.  Leave them in peace to do their scheming.”  She paused and studied him again.  “However, I still do not understand why you are so saddened by the passing of the Lumin.”

              Noir shook his head and looked down at his boots.  So she
didn’t
know the whole story.  Fafnir was a powerful ally and friend, so resigned to tell the dragon.  “Fafnir, I
knew
her,” he howled with absolute despair.  “She was my
friend
.  I was by her side for months and never knew who she really was.  Because of me, she is dead.”  He looked up into Fafnir's eyes and she said nothing.  “Because of me, all of my friends will die,” he repeated the scarred man’s omen from months before.

              Fafnir turned from Noir and strode gracefully down the side of the hill for a few paces.  She stopped and looked out at the rolling hills and forests below them.  Fafnir commanded with a surprisingly stern tone, “That is a foolish thing to say.”  She paused.  “All hope is not lost.  While you and I still walk and breathe, are we not able to protect these lands from the evils that threaten them?”  Noir didn't know what to say.  After a long moment, she continued, “It is
easy
and foolish to lay all hope at the feet of someone else.  It is
difficult
and brave to rise up and fight for yourself.”  Suddenly, Noir felt a bit foolish.

              Noir started to say, “But she was the--”

              “The easy way is gone, Noir.  I hope you are ready for the hard way.”  Fafnir turned and looked at him again.  Noir felt odd as though her eyes peered deep into his heart and mind.  “Are you willing to lay down your life in defense of a world you don't even belong in?”

              Noir thought for a long moment.  The chill, sharp wind whipped his cloak around him.  Eventually, Noir said somberly, “Fafnir, I have spent these past two months in despair.  Everything I tried to build before came crumbling down.  My friends have either left or died.  Also, I am
no
closer to finding my way home.”  He stopped.  There were hundreds of other things that he wanted to say, but he wasn’t sure where to start.  “However,” he finally continued, “If I have done nothing else these past two months, I have realized this, Fafnir.  As long as Aimee and Steven are in this world, it
is
my world.  It is as much my world right now as it is yours.  So yes, I am ready to....”  He trailed off, unable to finish what he had started to say.

              Fafnir looked at him.  “Ready to what, Luxin Noir?  You stand on the edge of a mountain with your feet in the snow with no destination or purpose in mind.”  Fafnir’s insight startled Noir.  He looked down at the thin layer of snow on the ground.  The sun had started to come out and the white flakes beneath their feet twinkled.  Fafnir added, “Why do you dawdle when you
know
what you have to do, Noir.”

              She was right.  “I have to go find Aimee.  I have to go to Tier and search for her.”

              Fafnir smiled again and, while walking toward Noir, said, “I hope there are more like you, Luxin Noir.  More who are ready to shed their past cowardly lives and fight for what they know they must.”  She stopped and stood next to Noir and looked off over the landscape again.  “If not, this world will not be able to withstand the darkness that I sense is on the horizon.”

              They stood looking at the view in silence for a long while.  Talik lay below them folded between two cliffs.  Rolling hills with sparse trees stretched out into the distance.  There was a darker line far off on the horizon that Noir knew to be the forest that used to hide Talik.  As they stood side-by-side, the last words Fafnir said about darkness on the horizon bothered him.

Noir looked at her and broke the silence.  “What darkness?  What do you mean?”

              She looked down and sighed.  “First, I am very worried about the increase of straghs in the wild.  I don’t know if anyone has ever told you this before, but straghs are
made
, Noir.  They are not natural creatures.  They've only been showing up for the past fifty years or so.  No one is sure of the process in which humans are defiled to make them, or where it is taking place.”

              “I’ve heard,” Noir said with a shudder.  The beasts were horrifying.  It made it all the worse to have to slay them knowing that they were once human.

              “We have searched for decades and never found where they are made.  Whoever is making them has also never been found.”  Fafnir looked at Noir and suggested, “Let’s walk back to town.  We can talk on the way.”

              “All right.”

Noir started back down the path.  Fafnir walked gracefully next to him.  Her dress seemed to glide over the snow without picking up any moisture or dirt.

              “The second dark thing I am sensing and fearing is that too much of what has happened seems to be part of some kind of plan.  The death of the Lumin, the straghs, the destruction of Talik—”

              Noir said almost to himself, “The scarred man.”

              Fafnir continued walking.  “Yes, and that is another worry.  Luxin Adeel has told me much about you.”  She responded to Noir’s surprised look.  “Yes, I have spoken with her several times in the past months.”

              Noir climbed over a large, overturned log.  Fafnir seemed to glide over it.  “She never said anything to me about talking to you.” 

              “I asked her not to.  I wanted to study you without you knowing.”

              That was odd to Noir, but a new thought came to him.  “Adeel didn’t tell you about me knowing the Lumin?”

              “She did not.  Perhaps she knew you should be the one to tell me.”

              “Perhaps….”

Noir and Fafnir walked in silence for a couple minutes.  Noir’s mind churned on the decision that he had made a short while earlier.  He said he was going to go search for Aimee, but he wasn’t sure how to start.  Tier was a kingdom with multiple towns, large cities, and dozens of small settlements.  He also realized he would have to travel alone for the first time since he'd come this world.  Ratt was gone.  Grandel was busy dealing with Talik and the refugees from Chiron.  Adeel was also needed in Talik.  Ratt, Asiada, Grandel, or someone had always been there for him to rely on before.

              “Where do I start, Fafnir?”

              She seemed to naturally understand what he was referring to.  “That brings me to my next point, Noir.  There have been odd stories coming from Talik’s Tierian informants.  Adeel mentioned it to me last time we met.  There is a ‘Savior of Tier’ they are speaking of.  Your friends in Talik have not mentioned it to you because they made the incorrect assumption that you would have no need of the information.”

              Noir looked at her with confusion.  She smiled at him and continued, “The savior of Tier is said to wear unique Azurite Knight armor.”

              “Unique Azurite armor?  Do you think it could be Ratt?”

              Fafnir stopped walking.  Noir stopped a few paces ahead and turned to look at her.  She was smiling at him.  “I am not certain it is him.  Many Azurite Knights disappeared from Chiron when they were exiled from the Azurite Tower.  However, I felt you would be appreciative of the information.”  She paused.  “I will leave you now, Noir.  I have said what I wanted you to know.  Good luck on your journey.  I will do my best to help you and your friends when I can.”  She turned as if to leave.
              “Fafnir, I need to thank you.”  He had wanted to tell her this for months.  “Without all you have taught me, I would have been dead many times over.”