The Glass Blade

by Ryan Wieser

  “Or the what?”

  He smiled at her brightly. “Nothing.”

  Jessop knew not to press him. He had been open with her; she felt he would continue to be if she didn’t push him. It would be a topic for another time. Instead, she found herself, once again, meditating over his star scar.

  He arched a brow at her. “What?”

  She shrugged slowly. “Was he always so—” she began, but he cut her off.

  “Terrifying?” he finished.

  She said nothing. It wasn’t the word she would have used for Bane. But she remained silent.

  “I grew up with Falco, until we were just about fourteen. And yes, he was always that way.” Kohl began, his gaze locked on the crimson skyline.

  “We were close… for a time. But Falco was different. He felt nothing, no pain was too great, no wound too deep, nothing could hurt him… nothing could break him. Not even… Well, you’ve seen the scars. He had all of these ideas about changing anything, changing everything, and it was so easy to want to follow him… until you realized that he was bound by nothing, loyal to no one, entirely uncontrollable. He was born dangerous,” Kohl sighed, turning to her. “But surely you already knew that.”

  Jessop nodded. Talking about him was too hard. “I shouldn’t have said anything—it’s too many memories for both of us.”

  She looked out over the Red City, at the Soar-Craft that zoomed past and the levitating engineer blocks and buildings that rested a thousand feet up in the sky on slender foundations, like giant heads on sinewy scrap-metal bodies that wove down to the ground below. She smiled as she noticed, from this view, that all the buildings that had foundation on the ground, in the Red City skyline, looked somewhat like humans. Compiled of rusted metals, additions haphazardly added here and there, odd offshoots with Levi-Hubs connected to them… and all about them, more buildings, and ship-docks, levitating in the sky.

  “I know why you’re here, you know.” Kohl’s voice broke her concentration.

  She turned slowly, her eyes trailing over the steep thousand-mile drop below them, before reaching his dark eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “The Council thinks you’re here for your safety, but I know you’re here because you know you could be a Hunter—that you’re the only one who could possibly hunt down Bane, show us a way into Aranthol.”

  Jessop shook her head slowly, taking in his words, his interpretation of her. “There are no female Hunters, Kohl.”

  Even as she said the words, she could feel the brand on the back of her neck tingling.

  Before she could say anything further, Kohl had leaned in to her, his eyes narrowing on her. “I’m pretty sure I’m looking at one.”

  She smiled under his compliment. “I’m not one of the Hunters of Infinity. I am a fighter because I spent my life thus far needing to fight a trained Hunter.”

  He shook his head at her. “Titles are titles. I’ve been in the Hollow with over a dozen men who couldn’t do what you did in there today.”

  “And what’s that?”

  He smiled, surprised at her. “Beat me.”

  His words were so comfortable, even in admitting defeat.

  She looked over his calm face slowly. “You were undefeated?”

  He nodded. Jessop didn’t know men like Kohl O’Hanlon. He was unassuming and humble, a bizarre combination for the truly capable, and yet, he was kind. He had no qualms admitting she had bested him and no reservations in offering her praise.

  She thought of his scars, his marred body and the star carved into his cheekbone. She pictured his skilled fighting abilities and the way he wielded Sentio. Kohl O’Hanlon was both nothing, and everything, like the infamous Falco Bane.

  * * * *

  “It’s getting dark,” Kohl’s voice carried over the icy air. Jessop had been watching the horizon for nearly an hour but she hadn’t noticed that it was beginning to darken. The red sky was beginning to turn not into a night sky, but a hazy crimson one.

  “It never seems to be truly dark here,” Jessop sighed, but got to her feet nonetheless. She turned to find Kohl staring at her pensively. She shrugged. “What?”

  He shook his head, as though dismissing a thought. “They say it’s a perpetual night in the Shadow City.”

  At his words she grew concerned at her own comments—she should not criticize his home. “What they say is true… it is a forever night. Your Red City has much more to offer in terms of skies,” she added quickly.

  Kohl led the way back from the ledge, pushing aside the glass window for her to crawl indoors. “Some people prefer the darkness, I suppose.”

  Jessop couldn’t fault his astute mind. She had made one comment and he had leapt on it—he didn’t need Sentio when he paid this level of attention to others. “I suppose some do,” she answered, standing upright and stretching out in the warm indoors. She watched as the young Hunter followed in her stead, crawling through the window and latching it shut behind him.

  “You’ve figured me out then,” she stared up to him.

  At her words, his smile faded and she watched the growing concern creep through his warm eyes. She had unnerved him.

  “I prefer a black sky to your red one,” she smiled at him sheepishly. She touched his arm and he immediately relaxed, smiling back at her.

  “Promise you’ll keep my secret? I wouldn’t want to offend anyone else in the Red City,” she pressed, brushing a strand of dark hair out of her eyes.

  He watched her keenly, his amber eyes darting over her lips.

  “I would keep all your secrets, if you let me,” he whispered, leaning closer to her.

  His hand found the back of her head softly, and she could feel his thumb brushing against her affectionately as he tilted her face up to him. The intensity of his golden stare nearly made her forget… everything.

  Just before his lips found hers, she remembered herself. She rested a firm hand against his chest, stopping him from kissing her.

  “Maybe one day you will,” she whispered.

  * * * *

  Jessop rolled over, pulling the blankets tight around her. She was restless, too warm and then too cold, unable to sleep despite having spent hours trying. She couldn’t get the image of Kohl leaning in to kiss her, out of her mind. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought this would be a possible eventuation of her entering the Glass Blade. She had thought out every scenario and that had definitely been one of them.

  But not the way it had come about with Kohl. He was handsome and kind, but he wasn’t… he was too… it was too soon. She had been the object of an Infinity Hunter’s attraction before, she knew that life and she wasn’t going to simply forget it now that she was in the Blade. Every time she closed her eyes she could see Bane’s face and her life outside of the Blade would come rushing back to her.

  So she kept her eyes open.

  * * * *

  Jessop pulled the blinds to the side and cursed the red sky. She had been raised in the dark—in the perpetual night, as Kohl had so aptly put it. She was certain she wouldn’t grow accustomed to the angry scarlet glare of Azgul. She knew she hadn’t slept; maybe she had gotten an hour in, but it felt like less. She turned from the window, pushing the covers off of her as she reached for the silver control panel beside the bed. She fiddled with several metallic knobs and switches before she found the right button to command her bedroom lights on.

  She stepped out of her bed, hissing at the cold floor beneath her feet. She quickly crossed the room, pushing her hand against a silver panel, and opening her bathing room door. She was thankful for the heated floors that welcomed her as she made her way to the washing stall. With a flick of her hand, the glass doors slid open and a waterfall of scalding water erupted from the roof.

  She undressed quickly and stepped under the water, closing her eyes and fighting off the sickening fe
eling of utter exhaustion. She cleaned her long hair and stared at the slate floor beneath her feet. She could feel Kohl’s hand on her still… and then, to her surprise, she could see the look in his eyes as he watched her from the bathing room doorway.

  An apology was already hanging on his lips. Kohl was standing, his eyes wide as he tried to look away, his hands outstretched in an apology. But she had already reacted to his presence in the room, frightening her. She swung her hand, and with a force she didn’t intend, she sent Kohl flying out of the doorway. The sound of his head cracking against the floor startled her further and Jessop leapt from the water.

  She grabbed a robe and pulled it over her wet body, rushing across the room. “Kohl, Kohl, are you alright?”

  She had no idea what he had been doing in her room but she hadn’t meant to hurt him—she absolutely hadn’t meant to use Sentio in front of him, let alone on him. She fell to her knees and pulled his face into her lap. He was unconscious. “Kohl…” she whispered. She was as mad at him as she was at herself.

  Jessop took a deep breath and rested her small hand over his cheek, her thumb atop his scar. She closed her eyes and concentrated. The sensation was similar to running—sprinting through someone’s mind. She saw thousands of images and heard millions of sounds, but she needed to find the exact image and pair it with the exact sound in order to find the exact moment she was looking for.

  She tried to be quick with it, she tried to work whilst ignoring as much of the content as she could, but she couldn’t help but see that within the flashes there was a girl, with long blonde hair and hazel eyes… she was crying… Jessop pushed on, intentionally ducking away from images of Hanson or the Council. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t betray his trust like that.

  And then she saw her own body, naked in the washing stall. She saw herself turn, wave her hand, the look of sudden anger in her eyes… Jessop concentrated on the image, and, then watched it disintegrate. The sounds were the first to fall away, and then the colors—they began to fade out, until she saw a silent, black and white of the memory. Then the image became distorted, shattering, and then, it disappeared entirely.

  Jessop opened her eyes. He was beginning to stir, turning his head in her lap. “Kohl,” she spoke, stroking his temple to help him wake. Slowly, his eyelids began to flutter, and he glanced around calmly—until he realized where he was. He rushed to sit up, but she restrained him, urging him to remain still.

  “Jessop—what happened?” He asked, raising a hand to his head, noting his injury.

  She looked him over closely. “You tell me—what do you remember?”

  He looked from her, to the bathing room, and sat up slowly. “I don’t know. I came to see if you were awake and wanted to get an early morning training session in… I couldn’t sleep. I came in and—”

  Jessop waited but he seemed stumped.

  He looked up at her with a perplexed expression. “I don’t know what happened after that.” he admitted, his voice tense with confusion.

  She nodded, smiling softly down at him. “You accidentally saw me bathing, you slipped on my clothes and hit your head pretty hard.”

  He ran his hand over his head once more, as if trying to recall her story. He nodded slowly. “Jessop, I’m sorry. If I saw you… I’m an idiot. Forgive me?”

  She smiled at him, nodding. “Don’t be ridiculous, there’s nothing to forgive.” She stood and extended a hand to him, helping him get to his feet slowly. “Do you forgive me?” She asked, watching him as he steadied himself.

  He looked down at her, confused. “For what?”

  She kicked her tunic out from under her foot, demonstrating to him that her clothes were strewn all about the floor dangerously. “It’s my fault you’re hurt.”

  “Of course, that’s not your fault… I should have never been in here,” he shook his head at her. He looked around the room, as though the entire situation were a mess he was responsible for.

  He leaned against the wall, rubbing his head, and looked her over with his golden eyes. “Can we… can we just forget this ever happened?”

  She took his hand in hers and nodded slowly, “I’d like that very much.”

  CHAPTER 5

  It had been a fortnight and still Hydo Jesuin hadn’t returned. Word of Jessop’s presence in the Blade had gotten out and her training sessions with Kohl had begun to draw quite a crowd. Kohl hadn’t mentioned the incident in her bathing room since that morning, and she had followed suit, pleased that he only remembered what she needed him to. She felt bad for what had happened, but he had given her no choice.

  “On your left, O’Hanlon!”

  The warning had come from one of the captivated young Hunters above. Jessop had grown used to it—they came in throngs to see her best Kohl twice a day. She sighed, dropping to the ground, extending a leg and spiraling, kicking Kohl’s legs out from underneath him. She leapt up and flipped, executing a backward somersault through the air and landing on a levitating platform. She extended her blade and waited.

  But Kohl did not move. He normally would have leapt to his feet and been midway through his next attack. Had he struck his head too forcefully?

  She leapt down from the platform and slowly approached him where he lay still and silent. “Kohl?”

  He didn’t stir. The audience of young men quieted down, concerned for their friend. She took another step, coming up on his side. “Kohl—”

  “Ah ha!”

  He lurched up and grabbed her around the thighs, wrenching her off her feet. She fell on top of him, and rolled to the side, laughing.

  He leapt to his feet, sword ready, and stood above her, laughing at his own ploy. “Admit defeat,” he laughed.

  Jessop laughed as she rolled to her knees, brushing her sword off on her tunic. “The Hunter cheats!”

  He patted her on the shoulder, “Of course—I had to. You kept beating me in front of my friends,” he teased, gesturing up to their spectators. Jessop laughed, glancing up to the amused group.

  It was obvious to them both that she was the more advanced fighter. Training with her was making Kohl an excellent fighter; he was already better than his friends and working with her gave him practice with a faster, more experienced opponent. But she didn’t feel as though she was training him—she was enjoying working with him.

  Jessop had become a skilled fighter for all of the grotesque reasons that violence came about in nature. It had been a survival skill and she, living with the most violent of them all, had become most adept at survival. No matter how jovial their sparring sessions were, she did not tell Kohl that with every move she made, she heard Bane’s voice correcting it, with every errant foot, she felt Bane’s anger. He didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know there were worse things than being reminded of Bane. Like being reminded of the others still in Aranthol. Like being reminded of Jeco.

  * * * *

  It was unsurprising to Jessop that Hydo Jesuin moved so quietly. He was, after all, the Lord of the Hunters of Infinity. She saw him step out onto the docking bay. She watched as he slowly closed the door to his obsidian Soar-Craft, as he tightened his black vest and glanced about the dimly lit docking zone. There were no engineers or techs on duty at this late hour, and he wouldn’t see her at her vantage point, so high above, in the darkest of the few shadows.

  With a silent step, she crouched farther out onto the ceiling beam. Like a spider, she kept to the scarce shadows that the remarkably well-lit Glass Blade offered, keeping a hidden eye on the Hunter Lord. She scurried down the dark beam, following him as he began to cross the abandoned docking bay. She wondered why he would return at such a time, to no welcome reception. She wondered where he had been for so long—although she had a vague idea of what that answer might be. The Hunter Lord looked less than pleased—he almost looked afraid, watching his back as he moved.

  Which told Je
ssop all she needed to know.

  She leant far over the beam, keeping her narrow eyes on Hydo Jesuin as he stepped into the glass bullet. As the bullet began to travel up the transparent chute, she retracted, ducking back into the safety of the shadows. She studied his slow-approaching gray form. And then he looked up, as if he could sense her.

  She wondered if what she had heard about the Hunter Lord was true. His mind was strong—she had felt that much already. Her abilities—the ones she had used to fix the situation with Kohl—they might not work like that on Hydo Jesuin. Not if he was as strong as she had been told. But she would need to rely on more than herself to prevent her situation from unraveling. She closed her eyes and saw Bane’s face.

  She needed to do this. She wouldn’t fail—she wouldn’t be hurt by him again. She rocked back on her haunches, and with a low hiss, she leapt from the beam, flying through the air—landing silently on the roof of the transparent chute Hydo traveled in, watching him fall to the ground, afraid.

  * * * *

  Jessop pounded on the silver door for the third time, banging her small hand against the cool metal. She could hear the automated voice announcing her presence quietly on the inside of the room. Nothing happened. Slowly, she let her hand fall from the door. She could return in the morning… or not at all. She turned on her heel, ready to leave, to return to her own quarters. But then she spun back around, facing the door again.

  She thought of Hydo, and what tomorrow would bring, and she continued to convince herself that she was making a necessary decision. She was about to turn back, for a third time, when the smooth shhhh of the metal door sliding open froze her. Kohl stood in the doorway, running a hand through his loose golden locks. She couldn’t help but look him over, as he stood before her in nothing more than breeches. His scarred, muscular form filled up the doorway. His golden eyes readjusting in the light, pulling a confused look across his face as he eyed her up slowly.