by Katie Pottle
“Why would anyone want to live on a fringe-land? Aren’t there no schools or Town Halls or things like that?”
“Well some people don’t like the hustle and bustle of the main lands and some don’t like the way the Core runs things. They either peacefully move to the fringe and live a common life, or they rebel against the Core by either trying to live the life of a Guardian Angel without the proper training—which as you can imagine can really mess up our relations with humans, or they actively attack any angels that live within the Core. That is what happened several years before you were born. Luckily the Core was able to deal with them, allowing you to grow up in a time of peace.”
“Can you tell me about that time?” Cadin asked hungrily. He had been thinking about Instructor Kade’s comment to Instructor Zephran the first day of school when they didn’t know that he was listening to them. He had implied that Cadin’s dad was instrumental in the Core during the war.
“It is important to understand the past, though I’m sure you will hear about this in school at some point.”
Cadin just smiled, indicating that he still wanted to hear about it from Master Emilio.
“Fringe warfare,” Master Emilio started dramatically, waving his hands out to the far reaches of the sky, “is where angels on the outskirts of the main Cloud Systems attack fliers, transports, angels near the edges of cloud-lands and even humans. Twenty years ago, this started to happen with more frequency and by an organized group. They were like the human pirates and later became known as the Cloud-Raiders. At first it was to steal the goods that an angel would carry—swords, cloud-stones—anything of value. Eventually things turned violent and instead of just robbing angels, they would slay them. Soon they started traveling to Earth and abducting humans just to lure in Guardians so that they could rob them too. As you can imagine, top-notch Guardian equipment is worth a great deal on the black market. The Core removed all public access to Earth and acted against the Cloud-Raiders and the war began.
“The Cloud-Raiders fought dirty and the battles built in severity. The war was young and looking like it was just starting out and building up to be a fifty-year long war. About seven years in, it took a turn for the worse and a small, vicious group known as the Tlalocs joined the Cloud-Raiders, led by a strong, cunning angel named Tiberius. Many citizens don’t know this, but when the Cloud-Raiders joined forces with the Tlalocs, the Core came close to losing control of the Calvarian System. At that time the Core landed a counter-attack that was quick, precise and completely effective. All I can tell you is that this plan was extremely well thought out and executed. Everyone in the Core at the time of victory was counted as heroes. Those that were actually in the combat were all given Medals of Honor.”
A memory of a dusty velvet box flashed through Cadin’s mind. He opened it once to find an undisturbed medal. His dad found him looking at it and didn’t say anything, but took it away. Cadin hadn’t seen it since.
“That counter won the war and anyone that was involved in the planning of it made a huge difference in the quality of life for angels in the Calvarian Cloud System,” Master Emilio finished.
“What happened to the angels of the war?”
“Unfortunately, the head group of Tlalocs eluded capture. However, nearly all the Cloud-Raiders were either captured and sent to the Core Chambers or fell during battle. As angels in Heaven, they will have to serve penitence for the wrong that they did in their lives. Unlike humans, most angels have a choice as to how long we remain in our physical bodies. Once the choice is made to leave, our spiritual essence ascends and our bodies are reabsorbed into the clouds. There are still jobs that can be done as a spiritual angel, but they are different than when we have a physical body. For those angels that did not live a life of service in the physical realm, life as a spiritual angel is much more demanding. Otherwise, when you choose to rise, life in Heaven is quite wonderful, and the work that you do is on a voluntary basis.”
“What about the ones in the Core Chambers?”
“They have a choice to repent and serve some of their sentence in their physical bodies, or they can rise and serve in Heaven. Either way—there is no getting out of facing the wrong that they have done. Many angels in the Core Chambers from wars past are afraid to rise, and rightly so. Some have chosen to remain in their physical bodies for hundreds of years, working in the Chambers in hope that their required work in Heaven will be less severe. Some never repent before rising and I do not think that their time as a spiritual angel is much enjoyed.”
“If the bad guys can live as long as they want in the physical world, if they are never captured, can’t they just continue to hurt people forever and never have to pay for what they have done here or in Heaven?”
“Well, we can stay in our bodies for a very long time, but we are in the physical world and our bodies do age. It is our soul and spark of life that keeps our physical bodies anchored to the Earth System, but it becomes very difficult to do much after a hundred years. If you have good intentions and your soul is pure, your body does not disintegrate as quickly as if you are full of hatred and have intentionally done harm to another angel or human. Those that are old and in the Core Chambers do not look good. Many past two hundred years old have had their wings fall off and their bodies are shriveled to the point that they cannot even stand up.”
Cadin shuttered at the thought of being one of those angels wasting away in a corner, refusing to rise for fear of having to pay for what they chose to be in this life.
“Don’t worry, young Cadin,” Master Emilio said as he watched Cadin’s reaction. “You have a pure heart and will not be reduced to that as long as your choices in this life reflect that heart.”
At the end of the day, Master Emilio walked Cadin back to the natural cloud-gate and told him ‘good job’ before taking off in flight. Cadin followed the loud buzz until he came upon the school group. He found everyone playing in the big pit and looked for Lep and Sun. He found them with Bart.
“Hey guys, how’d it go?” Cadin asked, seeing that they were obviously done and now just had open time to mess around as he watched Vincent doing a flying front flip into the big pit.
Sun turned around and smiled. “It went great! The cloud-shifting felt so much more natural this time around.”
“Did you all earn a badge then?” Cadin wondered as he looked around at everyone’s arm guards.
“Well, most of us did,” Sun said, faltering a bit. She glanced sideways at Lep who was sitting a little slumped.
“I didn’t get mine,” he said sourly. “I was doing pretty good with most of it, but I wasn’t able to make a proper cloud-trap. I kept getting shocked by lightning every time I connected with the cloud.”
“Lep, you did great with everything else,” Sun said as she went and sat by him. “You just got all flustered during the trap practice because Instructor Nightan kept using you to demonstrate on, and then he was the one testing you. I think you just got a little thrown off is all.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Cadin added. “There is still another chance to get your Cloud-Shifting badge before the end of the year and Sun and I can help you. We can even go to the back side of Mist Lake where some natural clouds build up,” Cadin said, trying to catch Lep’s eye.
Lep smiled a bit, and Cadin knew that he was going to be alright. In an attempt to take his mind off the cloud-shifting, Cadin began to tell Lep and Sun about his day with Master Emilio.
“I wanna try fusing some gins,” Lep said. “They sound awesome!”
“Yes, they do sound useful, though I think I will stick with my bow. However, what I am the most interested in is this war. We started studying the Cloud-Raiders War when I was on Lance, though they did not talk much about the details of the final battle.”
“Maybe the leaders want to keep their battle strategy as secret as possible so they can use it on the next ridiculous angel that comes along and thinks that he can take on the Core!” Lep suggested with a shr
ug.
Cadin had conflicting feelings as he walked home. He was excited about his training, worried about not having his Aura, but more than anything he felt a stirring when Master Emilio talked about the war.
“Hi Cadin. Are you up for dinner and maybe a swim after?” Sara asked with a big smile which faltered a bit at seeing her son’s hard and determined look.
“I have to talk to dad tonight and I don’t know how long it will take.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine I guess; I just need to talk to him.” Cadin made his way through the tunnel and into his dad’s work valley.
Tal was concentrating on shaping a large breastplate when Cadin emerged. Knowing that he couldn’t be interrupted at this stage, Cadin took a seat and waited, gathering his thoughts. Gur was acting restless, so Cadin pulled out his tang-gin, filled it with water and let the dragon play in it.
“Hi, son,” Tal said when he finished. He flipped over a bucket nearby and sat it across from Cadin.
“Dad, can you tell me about when you were in the Core?”
Tal looked shocked at the subject but recovered quickly. “I guess we can’t avoid the topic forever; however, you must understand that there are some things that I am forbidden to talk about.”
Cadin nodded, too excited to talk. His dad had always brushed off his questions about the Core in the past.
“Where would you like to begin?” Tal asked.
“I want…no, I need to know more about the Cloud-Raiders War.”
“An interesting topic and my time in the Core that I am the most restricted in talking about. What would you like to know?”
Cadin didn’t hesitate. “I want to know about the final battle.”
“The final battle—you go right for the heart of things,” Tal said, shaking his head. “First of all, let’s start with what it is like to be in the Core. Cadin, it is important to get as complete a picture as you can about certain things, and for this war you need to understand about the Core and the fringe-lands,” Tal spoke with a very serious face. Cadin thought about it for a moment and then smiled, knowing that his dad was trying to tell him the full story.
“Thanks, Dad. Go ahead.”
“The Cloud-Raiders War was known throughout the Calvarian System when I was in school. The Raiders started out as mostly just thugs that you had to be careful of when flying around the fringe-lands. By the time that I got into the Academy, the war was widespread and the general quality of living was poor. Everyone feared being captured or killed. My parents were killed in a raid the same month that I was accepted into the Core.” Cadin watched as his dad’s face fell in a tortured expression. Cadin knew that his grandparents had died, but no one ever told him how. Tal returned his gaze to Cadin and continued.
“I was enraged at the Raiders, not only the ones that killed my parents, but at all of them for causing such destruction. During my basic training, I learned that the reason that we were having such a difficult time containing them was their type of guerilla warfare where they would refuse to outright battle the Core, and instead target civilians quickly and quietly and retreat to the fringes.
“I was one of the few selected to go live on one of the fringe-lands and gather as much information about the Cloud-Raiders as possible. Through pure luck, I was posted on one of the Cloud-Raiders resource lands. Living there, I learned much more about the full extent and true impact of the war. The people on the fringe-lands were more affected by the war than any of us on the main cloud-lands could imagine.”
“Weren’t the people on the fringe-lands the ones that became the Raiders in the first place?” Cadin asked.
“Yes, that’s true; however, not all people on the fringes were Raiders. They were just groups of unsatisfied or angry individuals that eventually joined forces to become the Raiders. Many others live on the fringes for other peaceful reasons. But once the war came into full swing, they were hit the hardest because the Core could only extend protection to Core-System cloud-lands, leaving the fringe-lands completely vulnerable to attack.
“The families on the fringe-lands were torn apart; young children were orphaned, the work opportunities were scarce, and so many teenagers joined the Cloud-Raiders as a means of survival.”
“But why would someone join the group that killed their family?” Cadin shook his head.
Tal could see the look of concern and confusion on his son’s face. “I saw firsthand the lies that came from the Raiders—especially once they were led by the Tlalocs. They were not obvious lies so they were not so easy to detect; especially to a young angel that has just lost his or her family. They were desperate to survive and looking for someone to blame for their loss. The Cloud-Raiders gave them a twisted solution to all their problems. They would feed them, offer them protection and a community, and they made it seem like the reason that their families had died was because of the Core.
“The only thing the Core could do at the time was to isolate and restrict access to Earth—protecting the humans, and do their best to protect angels on the recognized cloud-lands. With their twisted recruiting, the Cloud-Raiders were gaining rapidly in fighters. Even with their larger numbers, the main body of Cloud-Raiders remained elusive. The Core was not getting very far—just capturing a few raiding parties here and there. I knew that we needed to get more inside information to really prevail. After talking to people on the fringe-lands, I learned a dangerous way to get close to the Cloud-Raiders.”
“What was it?” Cadin asked, leaning forward.
“I had to join them,” Tal said with a shrug.
“You what?!”
“Other members from the Core had tried to go undercover to join them, but they were found out and killed. After living on the fringes, I had found another way to get in, and I was young enough that I did not raise too many eyebrows when I went to join. You see, the other members from the Core had just pretended to be lone angels and asked the first Raider they could find to join them. I learned that they did not recruit that way.
"There was a family on the fringe-land I was on that had just lost their parents and had an uncle who had lost a leg, both wings and an eye. The teenage son was trying to take care of his younger sister and uncle when I found them. I knew the Raiders were due on a recruiting mission to this area soon, and so I posed as the teenage son when they came around.
“They brought me right into the heart of their headquarters to be inducted.”
“What happened? Where was it?” Cadin asked excitedly.
“These are the details that are classified, but it is not the important part for you. You must understand, Cadin, that to be an effective leader in anything, including war, knowledge is the key. It is what I learned about the Cloud-Raiders that allowed me to lead the Core to victory over our enemies. I have shared this story with you because I understand that you are searching and trying to find your place in this world.”
Cadin had one more question that he had been wanting to ask for months. "Dad, who is Tiberius?"
Tal's eyes furrowed. "Where did you hear that name?"
Cadin took a deep breath. "Master Emilio.” He could tell his dad was shocked to hear the name at first, but now was working out how much to tell him.
"Tiberius was and still is the leader of the Tlalocs." His dad looked sad, as if remembering something, but said no more.
Master Emilio had said as much, but Cadin could tell by the look on his dad’s face that he should not push for more.
Gur had stopped playing in the water and had his forearms propped up on the edge of the gin to watch such an intense moment. When Cadin hugged his dad, Gur jumped from the gin and scrambled all around their shoulders, shaking his wet wings on them.
“It’s alright, Gur, calm down,” Cadin said as he grabbed him and dried him off with the corner of his shirt.
“Do you have any other concerns that I can help with now?” Tal asked.
Cadin thought for a moment. It seemed like such a triv
ial worry after hearing his dad’s story but he told him anyway.
“I don’t have my Aura yet. I know that it seems like a stupid thing to worry about right now, but I feel that if I don’t have my Aura soon, I will fall behind in school and ..." He did not finish his thought out loud. He was also hoping that having his Aura would help direct him to his Path.
“Hmm. Well, I know that training is something that promotes Aura growth, which you have been doing non-stop. However…oh your mother may smirk at me if this is the case…you may have a blue Aura.”
Cadin cocked his head to the side to think about it.
“Blue?”
“Well, you have been training on a green Aura cloud-land, in a green school. Your Aura may not be shining through because you may not have a green Aura. Perhaps your mom and I can think of some blue training drills for you. Oh, and on a side note, I received a package from Mira today, and she gave you something."
Cadin felt a mental vertigo as he tried to process all the information his dad had managed to pack into a single moment. "Mira, the old cloud-stone angel on air?"
"She's the one."
"Why would she send something for me?"
"I like to share correspondence with her when I can. She is notoriously difficult to get a hold of when she mines a cloud that has drifted to the fringe. Anyway, in my last note I told her more about you, and she seemed to think that she had something that you might like."
Cadin raised his eyebrows.
"I don't know what it is, so don't give me that look. I don't open your mail."
Cadin laughed as he followed his dad inside.
"You are looking better," his mom noted as they passed inside.
