Nightlights: Guardians of the Edge

1.5: Smash Up Against The Wall

The gymnasium where the afternoon session took place was almost normal. There was a balcony around the upper wall rather than bleachers, and the flooring that wasn’t covered by mats was the same material as the walls. But the presence of gymnastics equipment, an obstacle course and a basketball hoop, and a lingering smell of sweat and liniment all combined to make it feel like a bit of home.

Ajax lingered near the entrance as the other students filed in and started doing warm-ups. At first, it seemed like an ordinary gym class. But then, some of the kids held out their hands and pulled glowing weapons out of thin air. Natalie and Seth’s magic weapons had been convincingly realistic, but the glowing weapons held by these other kids seemed like lightsabers drawn by an enthusiastic six year old.

Kwan nodded at Ajax as he joined the students. “Glad to see you. Give me a minute to get the others started and then I’ll get you started on your foundational weapon skills.”

That was sufficiently interesting to make Ajax bite back his snarky response. He watched as Kwan paired off some of the kids, and set others to running the obstacle course, which included climbing over piled mats, jumping a vault, speeding along a high balance beam and catching themselves on a bar. Natalie, he set to coaching some of the paired off students, and Seth was set to timing and encouraging the obstacle course runners. He admonished them both to not even consider working out themselves until they’d had a few days to heal. As soon as Kwan had his back turned, Seth started changing the rules of the obstacle course, but Natalie moved among her students deftly correcting a grip here, a stance there. Even injured, she was graceful.

Kwan eclipsed the view. “All right. Weapon skills. Anima weapons are the core of a Guardian’s abilities. In general, we see three stages of anima weapon summoning.” He handed Ajax a light wooden sword that clacked when he swung it. “Stage 1 is very simple: just your anima, borrowing the frame of a real weapon. Stage 2 is our everyday training level; that’s what those students are using. You probably noticed Stage 3 weapons when you met Natalie the other night: advanced students have mastered their anima enough to manifest almost entirely real weapons.”

“Only almost? They seemed pretty real to me,” said Ajax.

Kwan smiled. “Natalie couldn’t hand you her katana; it would vanish as soon as she tried. But yes, it slices, it dices. Mastery of a Stage 3 weapon is required before a Guardian is allowed to act as a Nightlight on Earth, and acquiring that mastery can be dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

“The anima is a powerful reflection of a person. Mastering it can sometimes require tapping into parts of themselves they may not want to admit to. That can make a weapon unpredictable. ” Ajax opened his mouth to demand a less oblique answer, but Kwan raised a hand. “Don’t worry about it for now. Very few of my students have mastered Stage 3, and some of them never will. Stage 1 and 2 are relatively straightforward, in comparison. From what you told me in our interview, you manifested Stage 1 when you pulled an Awakened away from its victim.”

Ajax brightened. “Yeah? All right!”

Kwan nodded. “I’d like to see it, though. Go ahead and push your anima out around the practice sword. You’ll know when you succeed, because the sword should glow.”

Ajax frowned. “My hands didn’t glow.” But Kwan just crossed his arms, watching him with calm interest.

Scowling, Ajax looked down at his hand, trying to once again see the layers of self. He thought he could see them, but if so, they weren’t responding to his will.

Quietly, Kwan said, “Visualize a field of energy around yourself, and then envision the field flowing down your arm and through your hand to wrap around the sword.”