The Green Angel

by LordOfCringe

Chapter 10 - Callum

I look back at the two children one last time before leaving the Observation area, I can feel their wonder drip off them like water from the walls of a sauna. It is a reminder of my mission, the burden that I and all Lightbearers share. The need to protect the innocent and preserve their right to choose.

In all my many millennia of life, I have tried to fulfil that mission, with a smile on my face of course. Someone had to laugh when no one else could. But sometimes the work got to me. I couldn’t save everyone or protect everything, not even the Hooded Knight himself could do that. But it was sad when it did happen, and these refugees were a living reminder of my most recent failure.

Why the Shadeling Master leading the horde I smashed against their world thought it was better to die than surrender is probably something I will never understand, but it happened. And billions of people were dead because of it. I can’t smile in the face of such numbers.
These thoughts continue to course through my mind as I make my way towards the bridge of the Navigator. I had asked for a temporary leave from my Legion to deal with this relocation personally.

Thankfully my superior, Grand Arbiter Aurelian, was more than sympathetic to my request. And with the Great Raid crushed and things more or less returned to normal along the Outer Reaches, he happily granted it, along with this top of the line Passenger Ship to see the matter done.

I’ll probably buy the man a drink when I return to the Warhost.

Return to the Warhost. That might not be for a while. I had planned to do exactly that right after this mission, but another unforeseen event has made it more complicated then I anticipated.

One of the refugees had awakened her Spark.

Newversers becoming Lightbearers wasn’t unusual, but the awakening of someone so young certainly was, despite the massive increase in Awakenings recently.

I need to approach this carefully and subtly. She had already discovered her new powers, so demonstrated when she Cast enough strength to punch a heavy punching bag off its chain. An impressive feat for someone who had only been a Lightbearer for a few days.

Despite that, I didn’t want to just come right out and tell her everything, she has already gone through so much so fast, it would be too much for her right now.

With that thought, I reach the bridge. For a civilian ship, its design was remarkably similar to the bridge on my flagship, the Tempest Wind. It had the large front-facing viewing window, the circular Holotable and the grey walls that were so familiar to me.

The Captain, a slender man in the uniform of the Storm Armada, stands around the Holotable and greets me with a firm salute when he sees me enter.

“How far out are we from our destination Captain.”

“Lord High Arbiter,” he says using the former address for my rank. I hold back a scoff at the title. Even after all this time I hate being called a lord “we are about a week’s Drive Travel from Albion. Right on schedule.”

“Good to hear, good to hear indeed. Reduce staff rotations and put some of the double shifters on break. They’ve earned a rest.”

“Yes, Lord High Arbiter,” He salutes me again and walks off, a slight barley susceptible skip in his step.

A week. Good, just enough time to make arrangements. The Brittanic Government had already agreed to settle the refugees in a new section of Greater London, but now I knew how to approach my Lightbearer problem.

It would be better to observe her from a distance for now and wait until she was settled into her new life before I approached her again.

Yes. Let her grow into her powers. Let her find her own path to the Light, as the ancient Arbiters of the Liberation once did.

Only then would she find out what she was.

End of Part One

Comments

[Matthewthawes]

10151283
or fuse them all into one "crusaders unite green angle yay" sounds ten times cooler hell throw in a giant mech robot just for the fun of it