TBC: Chapter Five

Gyan breathed the salty air in as he strolled toward the chinálei with Aderes. He was happy that Aderes had made amends with Tarak. He knew Aderes struggled with thoughts of avenging his parents' death, and Tarak served as a reminder of that for him on a daily basis. By acknowledging Tarak's assistance in the last battle, Aderes had taken a step closer to freeing himself from the binds of his past.

The two joined their teammates and formed a semi-circle around Elder Master Faelán—a brown-haired, strong-statured light warrior with a deep scar across his right cheek. The elder master stood in the middle of the chinálei with his back to a black, elongated triangular ship.

"Good to see you all," said Faelán after the warriors bowed. "In light of the tragedy behind us and the danger before us, I'm sure you are eager to have a sword that holds an extension of your power at your grasp. Therefore, our next step in training is to forge your Gladaé a Uri. All the tools you will need to get started are stored in the bunkers beneath the Ceiabré Forest."

"So, that's where they keep the ships in Yevani," said Brogan. "I knew there had to be more besides the one in Solara."

"Yes, San Brogan. They are beneath a field, south of the Tran Ceiabré. The bunkers are smaller than those at the Ira Aug Cliffs, but some of the Order's best are here working on improvements, repairs, and other new equipment.

"I will be working alongside Sir Fane Ronar in guiding each of you throughout the process of forging your sword. Sir Fane is one of the best as noted by the creations you have already witnessed. If you follow his guidance, I guarantee you will not be disappointed with the weapon you produce."

"Is that the new Xita?" Brogan asked, looking past Faelán to the ship.

Faelán nodded. "The Xita-8is the easiest ship of this size to maneuver around the forest. Come along and see it for yourself. We'll use it to travel to the bunkers."

The warriors followed Faelán into the ship.

"I like the new adjustments," Brogan stated as he gazed fondly at the ship's internal structure.

"You can hardly hear it!" Hoshi exclaimed. Her navy, red-haloed eyes widened in surprise as Faelán fired up the ship.

"Fane outdoes himself every time," Faelán stated.

A short ride later Faelán lowered the ship into a dense section of the Ceiabré Forest. The ship hovered above the forest floor until the ground opened to reveal a passage beneath it. It descended into a large tunnel leading to the bunkers. Faelán landed the Xita-8 gently down on the bunker floor in a space marked with a large Lumsigne.

Gyan looked around in amazement at the vastness of the bunkers as the warriors filed out of the ship. Everywhere, mechanics dressed in dark coveralls marked with a Lumsigne on the sleeve bustled about. Green, yellow, red, and blue lights brightened the bunker walls as welders repaired ships or guided large machinery in creating new ones.

"Watch it, warrior." A tall, brown-haired female carrying a heavy tool pushed past Brogan. "Over here!" She called to a man driving a large machine pulling a trailer stocked with ship parts.

"Come this way," Faelán shouted over the noise.

He led the warriors through the maze of machinery, blueprints, and loud bangs down a dark hallway and into a separate room where rows of various weapons were stored against the walls. Swords, daggers, and shields hung alongside weapons Gyan had never seen before. Shelves stocked with a variety of tools sat below the weapons. Large chunks of a silver rock riddled with specks of brown and black rested on tables against the back wall of the room. Several forges were placed strategically throughout the room amid the array of tools.

Hoshi, who was the best on the team in using weaponry, widened her eyes as soon as she saw the multitude of weapons. She flipped her long silver and black hair over her shoulder and hurried to the wall to inspect them. Brogan and Jarek quickly joined her side.

"I wouldn't touch that, Master Brogan."

Brogan's hand stopped midair in front of a short rod with a large grappling hook at the end.

Gyan and the others turned to see a tall, thin male with an unshaven face and disheveled dark hair enter the room.

He grinned as he approached the warriors. "It is only a prototype, but it's infused with an electrical current meant to shock whatever it comes into contact with, so it must be gripped properly if you don't want to drop to the floor in pain."

"Sir Fane Ronar," Faelán said as he bowed with the traditional gesture of a light warrior—bent arms out before him with hands grasped. "I bring you the soon-to-be new masters."

Fane inclined his head. "Elder Master." He turned to the others. "Nice to see you all again…I think."

The warriors each bowed in greeting.

"Before we begin to discuss what we are going to do here, follow me. I want to show you some of what we have finished in the past month."

Fane led the warriors further down the hallway.

"San Gyan, I know that urgent matters prevented you from testing out the lumray bike thoroughly, but from what your father, Eamonn, has told me, it worked well for you?"

"In more ways than one," Jarek mumbled into his fist from behind Gyan.

Lorcan smiled as Brogan laughed.

Gyan's ears reddened as he relived a mental image of Jalena on the bike behind him with her arms around his waist.

Hoshi pushed Jarek hard in the back of the head, causing his violet hair to flip out. "Don't say that, Jarek!" she whispered fiercely.

Jarek smiled and turned to face her while walking backward. "What? Why? It did," he finished in a low voice. He wiggled his eyebrows. "You know you'd love it."

Hoshi rolled her eyes.

Gyan cleared his throat. "Yes, sir. It ran smoothly without any problems."

Fane smiled. "Well I knew it would work, so I went ahead and made the rest. But, I thought I would ask your opinion anyway."

He stopped before a door that led into a large dark room. Lights running along the ceiling of the room flickered on as the group entered.

The warriors gasped as they observed the scene before them. A colorful variety of lumray bikes were parked neatly in two long rows. A circular track aligned the walls of the huge room.

Jarek turned his light brown gaze to Lorcan's face. Lorcan placed a hand on the back of his own head in a gesture of delighted awe. The two grinned at each other. They rushed toward the bikes but halted and glanced back in search of Fane's approval.

"Go on," Fane said as he gazed at the bikes admiringly. "No secret shocks to concern yourselves with." He scratched his short beard in thought. "Not that I'm aware of yet anyway. Remember that the bike runs on the power you give to it. To start it, you will grab the handles and send light into the bike. It will increase speed as you send more of your energy into it. The sensors embedded in the handles and at your feet will regenerate the power you provide so that your energy is not drained. You can practice riding in here."

Brogan straddled a large, dark green bike and grabbed the handles. He smiled as his eyes lit up with a blue-white glow. The bike came to life as his energy flowed quietly through it. A light with the same brightness of his eyes traveled down each side of the bike frame and swirled around the rims of both tires.

Lorcan ran his hand along the seat of a gold and black bike. "When can we take them out?"

"After master ceremony," Fane replied. "They are to be used by the Order as needed so they will be packed in the ship's storage when you go on assignments."

The warriors whispered murmurs of excitement as they followed Fane and Faelán back to the room of munitions.

Faelán addressed the group. "It is here that I leave you with your new instructor until tomorrow. Sir Fane will guide you through the beginning stages in creating your gladaé. Then, I will lead you in the last stages of your design. We will complete and seal your sword at master ceremony."

After Faelán departed ways with the warriors, Fane led the group over to the tables buried beneath pieces of the silver rocks. He lifted a small piece of the rock. "This is alneil. It is what your gladaé is made from. It is a type of rock discovered on the planet Suál and is the only substance we have discovered that can withstand the vibrational frequency of a light warrior's energy for an extended period."

"Sir, I thought the reason the ships and weapons were able to merge with our energy was due to spells that Sir Malik used on the metal," said Danika with a thoughtful look.

"Malik uses spells on the ship?" asked Jarek.

Fane nodded. "The answer is yes to the both of you. Malik must protect the ship's metal with a spell for the ship to remain intact in case a warrior needs to activate light energy while inside the ship. Otherwise, the ship would explode because it would not be able to withstand the frequency of light emitted. Alneil absorbs the light frequency, and Malik's magic helps to transport it through the metal and away from the structure. It is what held your ship together when you activated the Lumfáinne inside the Tritum during your trip to Solara."

Fane was referring to the warriors' initial journey to the Celestine Temple. The warriors had been attacked while in flight, and Elder Master Syam led the warriors through the process of creating their first Lumfáinne to protect the ship.

"If a substance or cloth is touching you when you activate your light energy, it will be free of harm because your skin serves as a protection for it. However, if a building or ship happens to be in the vicinity when you release the Lumfáinne, then the combination of alneil and Malik's magic is what prevents it from being destroyed upon coming into contact with your light. Therefore, you will find alneil embedded in the temples, the Order's ships, tools, weapons, and buildings. Lucky for us, there is an abundance of it on the planet Suál, and the leader of the Mandopa people, Aeolus, offers it freely."

The door to the room opened and the brown-haired female had spoken to Brogan earlier and a short, wiry male entered the room.

"Sorry we're late, sir," the woman said to Fane.

"Just in time," Fane replied. "Warriors, meet two of my best blacksmiths, Suni Raliel and Ronúl Bard. They are here to assist you in this process, so follow their lead."

Suni smiled at the group and gave a small wave. Ronúl nodded his head at the warriors in greeting.

"Now that we're all here, let's begin." Fane said. He moved to the back of the room and stopped before a rectangular metal bin in the corner. He shuffled some loose metal pieces around and pulled two silver swords out of the bin, both different in size and style. He held them out before the warriors. "You have all had training with a variety of weapons, including the sword. However, a warrior's gladaé is intertwined with personal skill and power. Therefore, the pattern of your gladaé will be unique for each of you, so one sword will look different from any others on your team. Suni and Ronúl will help you gather what you will need, and then, I will demonstrate the first steps."

By the next morning, some of the warriors' prior enthusiasm for forging their own gladaé had subsided. Gyan felt that although they were blanketed in grease and grime by the end of the prior day, they had not made very much progress in creating anything close to the magnificent gladaés he had seen the other master warriors carry.

Fane, taking note of the warriors' worn faces when they stood before him in the bunker again, gave them a reassuring smile. "A quality weapon takes time to create. We are on schedule and you all are doing well. Thanks to Elder Master Faelán's expertise and the malleable properties of alneil, you will have your gladaé only a short time from now."

The warriors welcomed the end of the week with relief. The group gathered around Faelán, inspecting their finished creation and discussing the differences between each warrior's hilt and blade. Where one blade curved, another was straight. The design of each hilt was uniquely suited to the warrior's grip.

Brogan frowned as he gazed down at the dull, speckled metal that shaped his long, thick blade. He looked at Lorcan, who shrugged and raised his eyebrows as he studied his own sword.

"I think there is something wrong with mine," Brogan said.

"Mine, too," Hoshi added. She stared at her sword with a scowl, clearly unsatisfied with its lack of gleam.

"What makes you say that, San Brogan?" Faelán replied. "It is an exceptional weapon. I have inspected it myself."

"It doesn't look like the other gladaés I've seen the warriors carry," said Brogan. "It's too dull looking."

His teammates nodded in agreement.

Gyan recalled the violet gleam of Jalena's gladaé that complimented the deep silver shine of the blade each time she grabbed the hilt. He frowned as he noted the dullness in his own sword.

Faelán smiled. "The process isn't complete yet. Your gladaé must be saturated in moonfire."

"Moonfire?" Valora questioned.

"It is a fire that Malik creates during the Aléise a Estel. Although the mysterious power of the Tran Ceiabré amplifies during the Aléise, Malik's star magic creates a space for the power within the water to bond with the power of light. This bond helps to seal your transformation into a master and assists in imprinting the united power of the moon and the stars into your gladaé.

"Moonfire has many values. It can be used in potions and other things to bind and seal magic." Faelán pointed to the scar that ran across his cheek. "Years ago, I received this injury from an old blade that had been sealed in moonfire. I was engaging a group of rebels near the Sprite River when I was cut by a dagger someone had retrieved from a cave used to store weapons during the Elsarian Wars. Had Sir Malik been detained or failed to realize the type of wound it was and had not reversed the effects of the curse, I would have lost my life."

"When will our swords be sealed in the fire, Elder Master?" asked Danika.

"Tomorrow night, during ceremony."

The warriors exchanged smiles.

Faelán raised his eyebrows. "Then, we can officially address you by your new status as masters, and you can all get back to work."