Immortal Light: Wide Awake (42 page)

As she held them, she felt
her
light
flowing
into each one, though the sensation was nothing compared to what
she felt with her totem, and certainly not the same as the sword in
her
haven
; that
sword was perfectly balanced in her hand, and when she wielded it,
there was no doubt it was a part of her. The swords in the basement
did not have that feeling, but the one in her left hand seemed to
have made more of a comfortable bond.

“
I’ll take this one.” There was a
hint of disappointment in her voice as she had hoped to have a
sword as unique to her as the totem, but it was all she was being
offered.

Jack picked up on her disappointment and
replied, “Oh, don’t worry, Lucy. These are just our practice
swords. I’ll make you your sword eventually, but that time hasn’t
come yet.”

Relief was evident in her face, but there was
still a hint of disappointment that she wouldn’t get her own sword
until some undetermined date.

As Lucy got comfortable with the practice
sword, a question that had plagued her for months finally had the
forum to be answered.

“
Why are the swords gold? I
thought gold was weak as far as metals go.

“
You know how
gold is a conductor of our
light
?” Jack
asked.

“
Yeah.”

“
Well,
our
light
reacts
with the gold in a special way. When you bond with the sword it
becomes indestructible. The metal becomes strong and it will assume
its perfect shape and edge.”

Lucy looked confused. “Okay, so it gets
stronger when you bond with it?”

“
Not only stronger, it becomes
perfect, or as perfect as it can be.” He could see that she was
still a little confused as to what perfect meant in terms of the
sword. “Here, I’ll show you.”

He took the practice sword that she rejected
and laid it on the ground. With one foot, he pinned the blade down.
With the other, he lifted the handle up, bending the metal. Lucy
cringed a little bit at the sight of the beautiful golden sword
being bent so acutely. When he was done, he had effectively folded
the sword in half until the handle met the tip.

Lucy was starting to
understand what he was saying, but it didn’t hit home until he
picked up the sword again by the handle. As he let his
light
flow into it, the
blade began to straighten itself, slowly at first. Then, like a
switchblade, the bent half unfolded and the sword was straight and
perfect once again. Lucy stood amazed at the power of the
light
and its effect on
gold.

“
So how does it know what shape to
go back to?” Lucy asked with widened eyes.

“
Ah, well, that’s all in the
forging. When I make a sword, I don’t form it into what I want it
to be; I let the sword tell me. I communicate with it, and what I
get is what I get.”

Lucy held up her practice
sword and saw it in a completely new light. She noticed how
beautiful it was in its plainness. She appreciated the personality
that it had and realized that with her
light
filling it, it was alive and
was a part of her. She had more respect for the weapon than she had
when she first chose it.

“
Okay, here’s
what I want you to do: you need to become one with your weapon.
This means that you will channel your
light
through it until you have
created a bond with it.” Jack was standing in front of her, holding
the other sword—the one Lucy had rejected—parallel to the ground
out in front of him with his hands roughly two feet
apart.

Lucy copied his stance. The golden sword
didn’t seem to be channeling what Lucy had expected. She didn’t
feel bonded with the sword and started to get
frustrated.

“
I can’t bond to this thing. It
doesn’t feel comfortable.”

Jack responded in a soothing, meditative tone.
“You can bond with anything you wish. You can bond with a tree, an
animal, a car, anything, and it will, if it trusts you, obey your
every wish. You need to let the sword know that it can trust
you.”

“
But how do I do that?”

“
That is between you and the
sword.”

Lucy reassumed her position, cradling the
sword in her hands. Then, she closed her eyes and started directing
her thoughts to the sword.

Okay, Sword, I know we’ve never
met before, but I need you to trust me. My name is Lucy Higgins. I
want you to listen to me. We need to be friends.

As she spoke to the sword in
her head, she felt the sword’s cold metal begin to warm in her
hands. Her
light
flowed into the gold and it felt instantly more balanced,
lighter, and she felt that similar new-friend feeling she had
experienced with the first totem.

A smile spread across her face. With eyes
still closed, she held the sword off to the side of her. Swishing
it in the air, she felt it communicating with her. She felt the
desire to salute, so she did, followed by advancing and retreating
footwork. Lunges came next, followed by parries and more advancing
footwork. Finally, she finished with a feint, a parry, and a
forceful thrust. Holding the thrusting position for a moment, she
stood back upright, saluted once again and opened her
eyes.

The room was silent and still. The first
person she saw was Kat, whose eyes were saucers and whose mouth
hung slightly open in what appeared to be shock. Looking round the
room, both Benjamin and Jack had similar expressions.

“
Was that wrong?” she asked,
placing the sword sheepishly at her side.

Benjamin and Jack looked to each other with
confused expressions on their faces.

“
Have you ever taken fencing
classes?” Benjamin asked.

“
No.”

“
Well, what you just did was a
basic fencing routine and you did it flawlessly. How did you know
how to do that?”

Lucy felt the eyes of everyone in the room on
her. “I don’t know. I bonded with the sword, and it all came from
the sword, or at least that’s what it felt like. Isn’t that what’s
supposed to happen?”

Benjamin looked to Jack, who was stone faced,
and then back to Lucy. He was obviously thinking, seemingly trying
to make sense of what he had just seen.

“
Is that wrong?” Lucy asked,
feeling fearful that she had broken some rule of swordplay
etiquette.

Benjamin walked over to the wall and grabbed
his own sword. He fastened it to his waist and pulled it from its
scabbard.

“
I want you to put your sword up
and whatever I do, I want you to react to it, okay?”

Lucy looked around the room. Jack looked
inquisitive and Kat’s attention was riveted to the action on the
blue mat.

“
Okay,” was all Lucy could
respond.

She put her sword up and again she felt the
urge to salute. Benjamin responded and before she could lower her
sword, he struck without warning. Instinctively, Lucy parried his
blow to the right. He advanced again, and she evaded him. He
advanced with more blows, but she somehow managed to defend against
all of it. He began to move faster. She could feel her heart rate
going up and she was suddenly grateful for Kat including her on all
of her long distance training runs for cross country.

With each maneuver, Lucy had an instinctive
response and it became easier to anticipate his movements. She felt
herself get into a rhythm until finally she defended once and
advanced on him. He was on the defensive for the first time, and
she could feel herself gaining the advantage. She struck and he
defended. Back and forth they went in a dance that took them around
the mat over and over until finally Lucy struck and Benjamin caught
her blade in a bind. The two faced each other closely, and Benjamin
relaxed his sword and stepped backward, saluting once more. Lucy
followed suit as they stared into each other’s eyes.

Jack’s clapping broke the silence of the
moment, and Lucy dropped her sword to one side. Kat was shaking her
head in awe.

“
That was impressive, Lucy,” said
Jack, walking onto the mat. “Are you sure you’ve never fenced
before? Because, the only other person that I’ve ever seen that
good is, well, the guy you just fought.”

“
No, I swear. I’ve never even
touched a sword before today, at least not in real
life.”

Jack raised his eyebrows to Benjamin, who
looked as though Christmas had come early.

“
I don’t get
it,” Lucy said. “Isn’t this what’s supposed to happen? I thought
the sword or the
light
was supposed to teach me this stuff.”

Benjamin re-sheathed his sword. “No, we were
supposed to teach you that, and it was supposed to take a long
time.”

“
Then what just happened?” Lucy
was starting to get impatient with the lack of answers to her
questions and it was evident in her voice.

“
It’s exactly what you said,
Lucy,” Jack interjected. “The sword was communicating with
you.”

“
But, why is that weird to you
guys?”

“
Because that’s not how it’s
supposed to work,” replied Benjamin in a calm tone. “You’re holding
my practice sword. That sword is full of everything I know about
how to fight. Somehow you bonded with it, and it gave you my
knowledge of fencing.”

Lucy’s eyes widened as she
understood what he was saying. “You mean, this sword just sort of
…
”
she shook her
head, searching for the right comparison,
“
uploaded your knowledge into my
brain?
”

“
Something like that.”

“
So, will I remember it when I
don’t have the sword in my hands?”

Benjamin looked at Jack, who shrugged his
shoulders, not knowing the answer to the question.

“
Well,” said Benjamin, “there’s
only one way to find out.”

He walked over to a rack of what looked like
wooden swords and handed one to Lucy. He took another.

Lucy held it apprehensively, feeling almost
nothing by way of a bond. Benjamin attacked and Lucy raised her
sword to parry, but there wasn’t as much confidence behind it. He
advanced and she retreated. Though she knew how to retreat, she
lost her footing and stumbled. He attacked and she parried a little
more forcefully. It was taking her a lot longer to recall which
tactics she needed to employ, but she did have them all in her
head, and it was evident to Jack and Benjamin that the knowledge
was there, just not as available as it had been.

“
That’s pretty good for one day. I
think you actually absorbed a good deal of what you used on me the
first time.”

Jack walked over to Lucy, shaking his head and
grinning. “This is totally new, Lucy. You have a new gift that
we’ve never seen before.”

“
You seem to be
able to access things that we can’t,” said Benjamin, “You made it
to my
haven
, you
gleaned my ability from my practice sword—it
’
s truly
remarkable.
”

“
I don’t know.” Jack had a curious
look on his face. He walked over to a far wall and took down a
long, curved blade that looked like the Katana sword that Peter
carried. “This is Peter’s old practice sword. It was a gift to him
a long time ago, and he used to use it all the time. See what you
can do with that.”

Lucy took the heavy sword
and held it with both hands. She felt her
light
flowing into it and she could
sense the blade getting stronger, but she couldn’t quite bond with
it. She tried her other technique of talking to it, but the bond
never happened.

“
Try swinging it around,” Jack
suggested.

Lucy raised the sword over her head but the
weight was too much compared to the other practice sword, and her
first swing turned into a flail that sliced a hole right through
the mat.

Jack looked at Benjamin, the curious look
still on his face.

“
I don’t think she can do it with
everything.” He paused and smirked at Benjamin. “I think it’s just
you, Bro.”

Chapter
20

Lucy spent days in the
basement practicing with Benjamin’s alternate sword, and at the end
of each day she would walk over to her totem, place her hand on it
as Jack had instructed her, and seemingly empty her
light
into it. She told
Kat that it was like blowing out a lung-full of air as long as you
could. Then each day before practice, she would reverse the process
and extract everything she could, like taking a deep
breath.

As she worked with Benjamin and Jack, she
could feel the techniques and the movements of sword fighting
become clearer. It wasn’t just a series of movements that would
mathematically counteract movements by an opponent; it was more
like a conversation between two people in which a point begat a
counterpoint until one was caught off guard. Lucy had learned to
attack when appropriate and retreat when appropriate and, after a
few weeks, she no longer depended on the practice sword for its
knowledge. She had learned it well enough to challenge Benjamin on
most days. While he was yet her superior in the ring, she had shown
so much progress that one duel in ten she could beat
him.