Lumen

by Joseph Eastwood

  “Oh, and Daniel, please can you return the plates to the kitchen, I know you must be building a bit of a nest in your room with all the clutter,” Reuben said, “okay, now off you go.”

  Daniel’s eyes widened, it made him sound like Carlie had some weird disease and he needed some help getting it off him. He almost debated on whether he wanted to go and see Marianne after leaving Reuben’s room. He stood at the bottom of the third floor steps and glanced around the doors.

  “Daniel, you have a look in your eyes,” Marianne said, glancing up from her chair in one of the rooms.

  “I was just about to come and see you,” he said, furrowing his brow in thought.

  “I knew something was up. Come in then,” she said, gesturing him in with her hand.

  Daniel pulled a seat from the lined formation they had all been in for her next class and took a seat across from her.

  “So, what is it?”

  “Reuben sent me down because Carlie kissed me,” he said with a black expression on his face, still slightly confused.

  It began as a hum and then she chuckled. “I bet he told you that you had the plague, didn’t he.” She rolled her eyes. “My husband also sources from people, syphoning energy through touch because their receptors, the sixth one, is disabled so they can’t get their energy in any other way. That’s all it is.”

  “Don’t you worry he’ll take all of your energy?”

  “No,” she grinned. “Now, I’d like to ask you a question. How do you explain that you can do things other people can’t, like the advanced stuff?”

  Daniel had an answer for that question, it might not have been all that true, but it sure pointed to it. He was doing exactly what Carlie was doing, but only this time he was tapping into the source of a Luminary.

  “It’s all I ever did, while everyone’s lives here have been cushy, I went to work with my dad. He works at the library in Faber and all I did was read books. I guess that’s what everyone should do; the library’s big enough for everyone.”

  “It’s also a vault,” Marianne said, nodding. She pulled up her sleeve to look at her watch. “And we’re going to have to cut this short. I have a class in ten minutes. So, don’t go near Carlie, but don’t push her away either, you touching her has as much intent as her touching you.”

  “Okay,” he said standing and pushing his chair back in line.

  “If you have any more questions we’ve always got tomorrow’s lesson.”

  Daniel found himself standing in the foyer. He could smell lunch being dished out. “I’m hungry,” Jac winged, almost as if he could smell what Daniel smelt. He grabbed two plates, and filled them with sausages and eggs and toast and fried mushrooms. Nobody asked him why he was having two plates, and as soon as he was done, he teleported back to Jac.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Today was the day when there was no unsettling breezes or scorching heats, no windswept looks or clouds in the sky. Karsar shivered in a corner of an alley, hiding beneath a cardboard box, rubbing his hands together and then holding them up to blow into them. His pallid white skin was almost perfect with sickness and he had one single purple bruise beneath his right eye.

  He’d spent the past few hours trying to piece the picture of events and stop shaking, but he couldn’t. He told himself over and over, first in thought and then as incoherent mumbling, he didn’t want anyone to find out what had happened, what would they think, what they say about his power. Laugh, they’ll laugh. It’s all—all his fault. D—Daniel’s fault! He covered his face with his hands and wiped away the tears, flinching as he brushed against the bruise. “Daniel,” he mumbled.

  “Satoria,” a surprised voice said. Karsar’s ears pricked as the voice trailed off passed the alley. He cocked his head to the entrance and saw a woman pass with pinks and blues in her hair, and like rain drumming down on a window it washed over him, the twang in the voice was too familiar.

  “Hey!” he shouted feebly. “Who are you?” he asked, pushing himself up from the ground. “I know you!” he shouted after her, his knees buckling as he tried to run after her.

  “Dammit!” she growled, rushing down the empty street.

  “I know you! Wait!” Karsar ran after her, trying to fix the clothes he was wearing to make himself look a bit more presentable in front of a girl.

  She stood still and turned. “Listen! You need to stop doing whatever it is that you’re doing!”

  “Aryna?” he said softly, stopping in front of her. They went back a while, in fact Aryna found Karsar sitting in a gutter afraid of himself, just before Richard took him under his wing. “Where are you here?”

  “The same reason you are,” she replied.

  “I live in the city now.”

  “No, for Daniel!” she said, whacking him on his chest. “Don’t play stupid.”

  Karsar took a step back and scrunched up his face. He put a hand over his chest, trying not to show that she’d hurt him. “You, you’re here for him?” he asked, almost grinning.

  “He needs to make a decision; he’ll need to know both sides. You know that.”

  “Well you can’t tell him. You know that.” Karsar rolled his eyes. “It has to be someone in his bloodline, or his guardian.”

  “So let them and stop interfering!” she pushed through her thinning lips. She took a deep breath and then looked Karsar up and down. “Is it still bleeding?” she raised an eyebrow.

  He took a deep breath and pulled the bottom of his shirt up, there was a clean white piece of cloth covering something, he pulled at it and a bit of blood dribbled down his finger and pants. He didn’t look at it. The warmth of the blood had his throat constricted; he gulped hard at a knot inside and then pressed the cloth hard against his skin. “I’ve slowed the rate that it bleeds, but it won’t heal.”

  “You’re lucky, some people have bled out. And if that happened the title would go to your next living relative.”

  “How do you even know that?”

  “I read, and I’m in tune to the generations of knowledge from my great-great-great grandmother. That’s how I knew something was going on down here, that and the books in my mom’s library. There, that’s how I know Daniel went through the second stage.”

  “I don’t have any living relatives, and that palace in Greece, wherever it is won’t reveal itself. All of this is your fault.”

  “You were the one fearing for your safety because things kept on happening around you. I was only 13 at the time and I travelled across the world because of what I felt.”

  Karsar shook his head. “You shouldn’t even be here.”

  “I’m staying here because this is the only other place that Daniel knows.”

  “I’m sure I can send you a postcard to Australia when he comes back.”

  “I’ll go back if you tell me why Daniel was here in the first place.”

  “You’re wasting your time, Aryna. I don’t think you should be here, there’s already a lot of tension and you’re just going to be making it worse.”

  “Me? You’re the one keeping secrets, and you would have never told us about the seventh. But you tried to anyway. Orlana knows now, so let’s play fair, even though he’ll join us. I know that.”

  “You know that? Really.”

  “So you think he’s going to want to destroy the island where he grew up. You’re stupid in thinking that.”

  “Just go, Aryna.”

  “Don’t die on us now,” she said, smacking his stomach where the white bandages covered his cut. He started coughing and pushing at the pain. “I’ll go, when I’m sure that Daniel knows.”

  “When Elisa knows you’re in the city it’s only a matter of time before Richard invokes the ruling that forbids unwanted Luminary.”

  “Shut up. Daniel will find out that there is a good side to this, and you’re not it.” She turned and teleported.

  A couple of moments later and before Karsar is even aware of it, he’s on the floor, clutching at the cut on his side,
and the blood leaking from beneath his bandages.

  Jac woke the next morning groaning at the sound of Daniel’s alarm. He flailed his arms in the air and stretched his legs, twisting in the sheets Daniel had got him from linen closest at the end of the hall.

  Daniel hadn’t slept all night. He’d cleaned his room, fixed both the window and the mirror and was now in the washroom, taking a shower. He did try to go find the building where Mia was staying but the internet on the laptop was blocked, and all the calls he tried to make from his phone were being diverted. He couldn’t sleep, not knowing if Mia was okay or if Karsar had got to her, and he wasn’t chancing both their safety by teleporting.

  “Daniel!” Jac groaned.

  Daniel appeared, wrapped in a towel with his clothes bunched up in his arms. He turned the alarm off. “What?” he asked, shivering as the cold air bubbled his skin in a thin layer of goose pimples.

  “I just wanted you to turn the alarm off.”

  “Okay, I’m gonna get changed and then get breakfast,” Daniel said, pushing his head through a t-shirt.

  “I’ll have to get up then, won’t I?” Jac said, huffing.

  “No, but you will if you want some breakfast.”

  Jac sighed and then lifted his head from the pile of sheets he’d used as a pillow. “Should I come down with you?”

  “I’m sorry to say this, but you’re going to be confined to these four walls until you leave,” Daniel said.

  Jac glanced around the room and sighed harder. He had so much that he needed to tell Daniel but there was never the right moment, or feeling, he was waiting for a feeling inside to tell him when it was right for Daniel to know.

  Daniel was usually let in early so that he could have the first pick of the food, but this morning everyone seemed to be going in early. He glanced up at the clock on the wall inside the cafeteria. At this rate he wouldn’t be able to take Jac any food back and go and see Marianne before lessons started, although he only had one question left to ask, he wanted to know if there was any way he could repel himself from Carlie.

  Daniel grabbed a tray from the pile and queued with everyone else. People were still making sly comments about him and the staff behind the counter. He shared sympathetic glances with the workers; they were a long way away from home and probably have been since taking the job, the highest paying job they’ll ever get. Daniel pushed away the thoughts of other people as his stomach rumbled. He started to pile food on a plate, sausages, a couple of buns, some strips of bacon and two poached eggs. He took two sets of cutlery from the knife and fork stand at the end of the aisle and then turned, barging into Taner.

  “Watch it!” Taner shouted, his tray wobbling in his hands.

  Daniel took a deep breath and backed away, not wanting to start anything.

  “Scum,” Taner muttered, his lips curling.

  Daniel shook his head and tried to forget. He grinned, he couldn’t forget and he pushed into Taner, flicking his tray up with a little energy. Taner started to yelp as hot milk from the cereal doused him, leaving tiny welts forming up his torso.

  Daniel smiled as he watched Taner drop his tray and the rest of the milk splattered up his pants. Taner glanced up at Daniel, gritting his teeth and trying not to cry, not in front of the now quiet cafeteria.

  “Oi!” Jasper shouted.

  Daniel turned and teleported before it could escalate.

  “Did you hear them?” he asked, placing the tray on his bed.

  “Who?” Jac asked, folding the sheets up.

  “The people from the cafeteria, but I got my own back, although I doubt it will stop them speaking about me.”

  “I can guarantee that they’ll always speak about you, you have left an impression,” Jac said, tucking into the food.

  “Sometimes I think I should have stayed at home and just gone to the library with my dad,” Daniel sighed, putting a sausage and a few bacon strips on a bun. “I’ll eat this and then I best get to class. You best be listening in.”

  “It’s not that easy y’know. I have to concentrate,” Jac said, chewing on a sausage.

  “You don’t have anything better to do,” Daniel said, before taking a huge bite out of his sandwich. He nodded at Jac and then turned and disappeared.

  There were a few people standing around outside the Mythics classroom. Daniel walked through everyone huddling close to the door, he tried not to push but sometimes it’s the only thing you can do. He sat in the front row and finished eating the rest of his sandwich, and slowly the snide comments ambled in and sat around him. It was comforting knowing that Jac was listening and Jac had a temper when he wanted.

  Marianne walked into the room; she smiled and nodded at Daniel. “Today we’re going to be talking about legends,” she said, taking a seat and facing the class.

  There was excited chatter coming from the first two rows, nothing about Daniel, it was about the lesson, how they’d looked forward to this lesson since they started. The rumour was that this lesson had been the one when teachers entrusted information that the rest of the island didn’t know.

  Marianne talked for some time, telling the class what they’d already learnt until something caught Daniel’s ear and he started to pay more attention.

  “People used to deal in Luminary blood, sometimes it was normal blood and other times it was animal blood. It killed a lot of people; they thought that a little bit of it would allow them to soar just like the Luminary. There was a bit of real Luminary blood in circulation though. That killed people as well,” she explained, captivating everyone.

  Is that why Reuben was trying to get Karsar? I bet Karsar thinks it was my idea. Shit. I think I should tell him that it wasn’t…I should probably go to sleep and call him, or get him to call me.

  “With the Luminary blood people would try to take down the pillars of power by summoning them through prayer or a group invocation,” she sighed, “they’d try to get them to will all their power away. However, only the most foolish people would try and get the attention of a Luminary, because it would never end well.”

  Daniel turned, hoping to see somebody that had been with him in Reuben’s class yesterday. He was the only first year that had been there, so he wore the sickly pale face alone.

  “Who would our prayers go to?” a girl from the second row asked.

  “We pray to the planet, not the planetary person. Each Luminary has a planet to which they are tied to, so when we pray it’s like our calls are being diverted first,” Marianne replied, combing the end of her plait. “Nobody knows the name of a Luminary, if you did it would be easier to call to them. They’re probably living in some fancy castle somewhere, somewhere off the island.”

  Daniel frowned as Karsar’s face flashed before his eyes. He could see his face clearly in his mind, the horror on his face when he thought he was going to be trapped forever.

  “So they don’t listen to our prayers?” she asked.

  “Of course they listen to our prayers. It’s our need for energy that gives them the power that they have, so of course they listen to our prayers.”

  “Oh, but what if we—” the girl began.

  Marianne held her hand up and the girl fell quiet. “I have something interesting to tell you about Luminary blood. It’s still sold today in the markets, and there are poor sods who will barter for a vile of it, although it’s almost certainly poisoned so that you’re susceptible to being controlled.”

  “People do that?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes, every day in fact. It happens in the City mainly, where money is money and everyone wants it,” she replied. “Besides, you can’t take the blood of a Luminary, they have guardians, born with them and they’ll die for them. They are ruthless people, but you’ll never come across one in your life. You might in a dream after you’ve prayed for something big, like love, a saviour, or prosperity.”

  It wasn’t long before the lesson was over, a few students had stayed back to ask Marianne some more questions. Daniel had stayed
back as well, but teleported back to his room when he realised that he couldn’t talk privately with a queue behind him.

  Jac was laid in Daniel’s bed, his eyes closed and his arms folded over his chest.

  “She’s right you know,” Jac said.

  “Who?” Daniel asked.

  “Your teacher.”

  “Oh,” Daniel nodded, “why do have my phone?” he asked, looking at the phone clutched in Jac’s hand.

  “Mia called, she seems nice.”

  “You answered my phone?”

  “Yeah, it kept ringing so I pressed one of the buttons and hoped for the best, then her voice came through,” he said, passing Daniel his phone.

  “I tried to call her last night,” Daniel said, pressing buttons on his phone to call her. He pressed the phone to his ear, listening to the dialling tone.

  The dial tone rung once before Mia answered. “Daniel?” she said.

  “Hi,” Daniel said, slowly, biting his teeth together. “I tried calling you last night, but my calls kept on bleeping out.”

  “You probably have crap signal,” she said, “I had fun talking with your friend—” she trailed on.

  Daniel creased his brow and scratched the top of his head. “How come I didn’t hear anything?” he asked, looking at Jac.

  They both answered him. Jac shrugged. “I did try to tell you that the phone was ringing,” he said.

  “—I don’t know,” Mia giggled. “Is your friend like you? He said you spoke about me, telepathically. Can he do the same things you can?”

  “Yeah, we all can. Everyone on this island is full of energy and power and, I don’t know why you can’t do it,” he said.

  “What did she say?” Jac whispered and Daniel raised his hand to shush him.

  “I wish we could too! Then I could fly,” she giggled. “Oh my—your friend said you summoned some god, guy, person.”

  “It wasn’t as big as he made it out to be. In fact, it was nothing.”