Nightlights: Guardians of the Edge

4.5: A Simple Test

Ajax finally cornered Kwan in the Portalry, surrounded by newspapers. "Ah, there you are," said the teacher, like it was Kwan who had been looking for Ajax.

"You're right," said Ajax. "It'd be no good to send me out alone. But I could be apprenticed or whatever it's called, couldn't I? I thought the main requirement of that was a Stage 2 weapon."

Kwan regarded him with more pity than Ajax liked to see on somebody's face when it was pointed at him. He flushed. "I guess I sound pretty desperate."

"There's a bit more to it than a Stage 2 weapon. But let's go for a walk, and maybe you can demonstrate what you can do for me. It's a bit harder on Earth, you know."

"Yeah? I wondered. But that's okay. It's easier for me when there's something real to fight." He followed Kwan to one of the portal frames, noticed the newspapers on the shelf next to the portal, and stopped dead. "Not here, though."

"You don't want to go back to your hometown?" Kwan's voice was mild.

"My dad told the cops I murdered his business partner, remember?" Ajax's fists clenched. "He just assumed the worst. If you're trying to arrange some kind of reconciliation or something, I'm just going to head back to the nursery and get my babysit on."

Kwan gave him a steady look. "Has it always been bad?"

Ajax laughed. "Oh no, not always bad. I was always happy when he found somebody to send me away to. First it was his druggie little brother. I got a real education watching him with his string of girlfriends. Then it was Cousin Madeline." He hesitated, until Kwan's attentive silence sucked the words out of him. "She was okay, until she married an asshole who didn't want a kid around."

"And she sent you back to your father?"

Ajax shrugged. "There were others willing to help out my dad with his troubled kid. He's really good at getting sympathy." Guilt stabbed at him, and he added, "I think my grandmother—my mom's mom—was on my side. She didn't seem to like my dad very much. But she died less than a year after I moved in with her." He tried not to sound bitter. He knew it wasn't fair to the old lady who'd tried so hard to reform him. Then again, was it fair of her to have a heart failure when he was just starting to think he had a future? "Anyhow, it doesn't matter. My dad never wanted me around, except as something he could use. I'm not going to talk to him again." But he knew, he knew, that if somebody like Kwan showed up at his dad's place, his dad would charm them, wrap them around his finger, convince them it was all a misunderstanding, these teenagers are hard work, haha. And somehow, Ajax would lose everything again.

But Kwan nodded slowly. "How about Athens, then?"

"Athens, Georgia?" said Ajax, bewildered by the subject change.

"Athens, Greece." Kwan moved to another portal. "It's actually a little outside our criteria for a permanent portal these days, between its location and its population, but there's a historic attachment to the place..." The portal activated. "And there's been unusual activity there, probably as a result."

Ajax followed Kwan through the portal and onto the streets of Athens. The transition was much smoother when he wasn't trying to ride the portal's tail. The afternoon Mediterranean sunlight flooding the city dazzled him, and Kwan caught his shoulder as he stumbled. "It's too early in the day to be drunk, kid, even for two tourists like ourselves."

Ajax smiled, lifting his face to the sun. It was unreal how much he'd missed it. For a moment he could do nothing but revel in the light beating on his closed eyelids, and the salty-sweet scent of the air. Finally, he gave in to Kwan's tugging and walked along beside him.