Falselight - Part 1

Four gruff men in dark woolen cloaks stood on the beach in a pool of saltwater and human blood. Their small outpost was surrounded with Torches and scattered crates. Two of the men were pushing metal beams into the sand constructing the skeleton of a tower. The other two were dragging bodies into a pile. Fresh bodies, innocent bodies. Screams could be heard from the colorful buildings just inland, followed by cracks of bright red, lighting the night sky. Callum hid in the dunes not thirty feet away from the sullen soldiers. He had light blue eyes and deep black hair. His height made it difficult to fully conceal himself without being completely prone.

Someone behind him let out a faint cough. The boats had only been there a day, yet smog and steam filled the once crystal-clear skies of the island city. There were 3 of them, one massive brigadier and two smaller but more menacing escorts. All made of the same dark steel and all filling the skies with copious amounts of foreign chemicals.

Callum had lived in Admare all twenty-seven years of his life. He enjoyed a childhood of beautiful beaches, warm clear water, delicious food, kind hearts, and no Falselight. That being said, today was not the first time he’d seen a man die. It wasn’t a nice death, certainly not a death Callum wanted. Having your neck wrapped in barbed wire to be dragged by soldiers across a beach couldn’t have been a fun experience. The mental image of a violently screaming bloodied man being pulled through sand ran again through Callum’s head. He starting to think of his sister… his father. No, he had to focus. Four soldiers, many bodies… to many. Couldn’t look.

“You think they heard us?” A younger man crawled up beside Callum and spoke with an easy but nervous tone. They were shrouded in darkness, but Callum could make out his light brown hair and prying green eyes. He was shorter than Callum, not to mention thinner too.

“Doesn’t look like it.” Callum whispered back; returning his gaze to the men standing in crimson puddles a few yards before him. He dared not let his eyes wander from the soldiers’ movements, best not to know who’s died.

The man turned to look at Callum. “Well, upon further review… there’s only one way we get on that ship.”

“How’s that?” Callum replied.

The man pointed towards the sea. “When that patrol boat lands, they’ll be distracted.We make a run for the water and...”

“No.” Callum responded without hesitation.

“You have a better idea?” The man let out a smirk. Callum hated how Nolan was always so pleased with himself.Callum spoke reluctantly, “I do not.”

“It’s settled then. We swim.” Nolan quietly announced.

“I’m surprised you know how.” Callum shot back.

“Funny.” Nolan said, as his smirk turned into a grin. Callum almost found himself smiling as well but a streak of moonlight briefly passed through the smog-filled skies highlighting

Nolan’s face, Callum could see his eyes told a different story than his jeering.

“You, uh. Alright then?” Callum asked.

Nolan’s smile went stiff, “Never better. Let’s be going, that patrol boat is about to hit the sand. It’s a rough surf tonight so the waves will make more noise than us as long as we’re careful. And Callum...” Nolan put his hand on Callum’s shoulder, the grin returning to his face.

“Thank you for asking, that is very unlike you! Have you been getting therapy?”

Callum sighed and shook his head. He couldn’t stand Nolan sometimes… most of the times. “We’ll have to go under for a while once we’re close, at least a minute.”

The patrol boat pulled ashore, and the four men rushed from their bloody beachfront campgrounds to help pull it in. “Well, there’s a first time for everything.” Nolan broke out into a run down the beach.

“Bastard!” Callum swore under his breath, sprinting after him as light-footed as was possible on a sandy beach.

The water was cold, Callum let that distract him while they swam towards the ironclad troop-carrier. He had to get to Ellie, she was ok. She had to be ok. They would have killed her like they did with… Callum let himself feel the cold water. He had to keep his head straight.

The swim was brutal. From the dunes it seemed a much shorter distance than it did once they jumped in. The surf didn’t make it any easier. It seemed that no matter how far from the beach they swam they continued to get pounded by wave after wave of freezing cold saltwater.

By the time they got within sight of the menacing steel ship they were completely winded but had no choice but to hold their breath and go under. Otherwise, they risked being spiked by Falselight, a better way to go than a neck full of metal, Callum thought. They paused for a moment to catch their breath. Callum could just barely make out two men leaning on the railing atop the deck of their target. Gods it was dark, now that they were closer to ship the smoke it produced made the sky all but non-existent.

Nolan swam over to Callum and pointed at the ship. There were several small openings on its side for patrol boats to launch from, that was their way in. The approach seemed clear for the time being, but it was hard to see anything with the lack of light and no lack of waves splashing in their faces.

Nolan turned to look at Callum, gave him a wink and went under. Callum took a deep breath and followed. As soon as he was beneath the surface of the water Callum realized that while it was difficult to see above, it was impossible to see below. He couldn’t bear to keep swimming with the cold saltwater stinging his eyes and it wasn’t like keeping them open was going to be helpful so he closed them and hoped his immaculate sense of direction would guide him to the ship.

It did not. After what felt like an eternity, he couldn’t stay under any longer and resurfaced. He opened his eyes and tried to clear the water from his face, but everything was still blurry. He could just make out the nearest patrol boat opening as another wave splashed him. He had only missed it by a few yards.

Just then, a quick succession of cracking red light came from his planned destination. Callum didn’t know a lot about Falselight, but he did know that red was bad. Nolan, he thought. Without hesitation, or consideration for his own safety he swam directly for the opening. If he was going to be noticed, he would have been by now, so he didn’t bother going under again. The one benefit the unruly surf provided was concealment, even if it did mean a bit of water up the nose.

As Callum swam into the opening, the thrashing of water on his face stopped as he was protected by the massive steel vessel. He spotted a bar to grab hold of and pulled himself up onto the ship. As he did, he saw three bodies and a bloodied but still standing Nolan. To the other side of Callum were two soldiers, one now running at him and the other spiking streaks of light towards Nolan.

Nolan was battered and beaten but for a moment, Callum watched in awe as Nolan deflected and redirected light back at his aggressor.

Callum was able to get his footing, but he wasn’t fast enough. His assailant was prepared and cracked him in the side of the head with the brunt of his staff as he struggled to clear the saltwater from his eyes. He saw flashing lights as he fell, red, blue, red… green? No, red… The lights went out.

~

A week earlier Callum was standing in his rented apartment staring out the third story window at the open ocean.

“Of course, it’s you.” Callum said looking at Nolan who was occupied writing something down in a journal. Nolan replied without looking up, “How do you mean?”

Callum shook his head, “It’s just funny, of everyone I could be in this situation with… of course it’s you.”

“You know.” Nolan closed his journal and set the silver pen down on the tiny desk he was sitting at. “I actually take offense to that thank you very much.”

Callum turned, staring out the window at the rolling white sands and dark blue swells of ocean water. A girl in a yellow dress was pacing up and down the beach holding some kind of device above her head. “Yea… sure… you’re welcome.”

Nolan got up from his chair and walked to join Callum at the window. “You really can be unpleasant, Ellie was right.”

“Oh, come on don’t say that.” Callum said, eyes now drawn to the girl in yellow. Nolan turned to look at Callum, a slight smile on his face, “And why the hell shouldn’t I? I mean if we consider the pleasantries of life and compare you to those, I would say there is quite a disparity between…”

“Alright, yes. Point taken.” Callum sighed, sat back in the dark leather armchair behind him, and put his head between his hands.

Nolan continued to stand at the window, observing the girl on the beach. “So how are things with Ellie anyways?” he asked cautiously.

“Not the time.” Callum quickly responded. He hated having this conversation.

“Nor the place.” Nolan said, turning back to Callum, “but the question remains.”

Callum looked up from his hands and sighed. He had far too many thoughts running through his head. His father’s unit hadn’t come back from their patrol, his sister’s heart was in no better condition now than it was the day she was spiked, and now he was harboring a fugitive in his brand-new apartment. Not just any fugitive too, Nolan, fucking Nolan. The skinny bastard that caused all his problems back in school. The day he was sent off to join the Dark Cloaks and learn the ways of Falselight was a great fucking day as far as Callum was concerned.

“You still haven’t explained how you got out.” Callum ignored Nolan’s comment.

“Isn’t it ironic how they decided to stop sending students to the cloaks only a year after I was chosen.” Nolan said.

Callum smiled, “Seems the Admari government really did know what was right for this city, get rid of you and save the rest to be slaughtered later.”

Nolan had a worried look in his eyes and frowned, “Yea, the Dark Cloaks weren’t too pleased with that.”

“You really think they’ll attack then?” Callum shared his concern. He slouched farther back into his armchair and Nolan continued to stare out the window.

“Callum, get up.” Nolan quickly pulled Callum’s shoulder, nudging him to look out the window. The girl in the yellow dress seemed in a panic, the device in her hand was spinning and glowing blue. Callum could see the faintest streaks of black smoke on the very distant horizon and a much closer Admari patrol ship pulling into shore.

“Only one ship?” Callum said sounding worried.

A few men dressed in blue and gold jackets jumped off the sides of the Admari patrol ship and started pulling it to the beach. His father’s unit? Once they got onto dry land the men started unloading something from the boat. Bodies, red and blue spiked veins visible underneath their now translucent skin. The girl put her hands over her mouth and dropped to her knees, she was looking at one of the bodies. Her father… Callum’s father.

~

“Wake up you sorry sod!”

Callum could feel the splashing of cold water on his face. He groaned, everything hurt. His whole body was sore from the swim and his head… gods his head felt like a piece of shattered glass that hasn’t let gravity tear it down just yet.

“Ok Callum, I know you’re in pain, but we really do need to be going.”

Callum opened his eyes to see Nolan standing over him dressed in one of the Dark Cloaks’… well, dark cloaks. Callum reluctantly sat up and looked around, vision still blurry and full of motion. Five limp bodies surrounded Nolan, two of them missing their clothes. Four of them were covered in the red and blue markings caused only by a spike of red Falselight. The other had a blunt staff, presumably the one used to knock Callum on his unconscious ass, speared through his chest.

“Good gods, did you do this?” Callum said looking at Nolan in utter shock.

“You wanted to know, how I got out… this is how.” Nolan said as he looked directly into Callum’s eyes. There was not a hint of sarcasm or jeering left in him now. Something about that was unsettling to Callum. Nolan reached out his hand and pulled Callum up to his feet.

Nolan pointed to a neatly folded Dark Cloak uniform, “Put that on.”

Callum obliged and got to work redressing himself.

“You should take that too.” Nolan pointed to the staff sticking out of the soldiers chest.

“You’re not serious…” Callum gave Nolan a dumbfounded stare.

“Look if we get in there and shit hits the fan, at least you’ll have a big stick so you can pretend to be like the wizards.” The jeering returned to Nolan’s voice.

Callum walked over the dead man; half dressed. “It’s going to be covered in blood! That’s not great if the plan is to attract less attention.”

“Just relieve the man of his skewer and take the damn staff.”

“Fine. You’re the boss…” Callum muttered under his breath, “One killer boss that’s for sure.”

“You making jokes over there? I’ve just killed five men and you’re making jokes about it?”

Callum yanked the weapon from the dead man’s chest. His body slumped down the staff to the floor leaving a dense streak of blood in its wake. “Gods this is disgusting. I mean this is a blunt staff Nolan, there is not a sharp edge to be found and you just decided ‘You know what? I’m a fucking wizard… but why use light magic when you can shove a staff through a man’s torso.’ But I’m not unreasonable… I’ll give credit where credit’s due. This is creative. Nice work. Modern art.”

Nolan smiled. “Technically I did use Falselight to do that, if you haven’t noticed I’m not a very strong man…” he pulled up his left sleeve revealing a nearly bone-thin arm “…though I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

“Wonderful, and which color of the rainbow did you use to achieve this masterwork in brutality?” Callum asked as he tried to shake the blood from the staff.

A faint blue wisp of light glided from Nolan’s hand to the staff cleaning off all the blood. “Orange.” He replied.

Callum stared down at the pristine staff, less surprised than he would have been had he not seen what else Nolan could do.” I always liked oranges.”

“Outstanding, after we get Ellie, we can go find you some oranges.” Nolan started tying the bodies to a metal cargo container as Callum finished changing. Once he was done, he pushed it into the dark water below, and it sank straight down along with all 5 of the bodies.

“Gods, man.” Callum stared at Nolan as he pushed the metallic crate off the edge of the landing platform. Nolan looked back at him but said nothing.

Callum was in awe as they made their way through the sprawling corridors of the massive Ironclad ship. Each hallway was ornately decorated with red and black tapestries surrounded by fine metalwork. This was in stark contrast to the bleak and soulless exterior of the vessel. The hallways were spacious too, they easily made their way around the ship turning corner after corner, going up and down various flights of stairs that seemed to have no real purpose at all. They passed numerous Dark Cloak’s making their way around.

Callum followed in step behind Nolan, he trusted that Nolan knew what he was doing so he mimicked his movements as best he could.

Nolan glanced behind at Callum and whispered just after a pair of Dark Cloaks walked past, giving them a weird look. “What the hell are you doing!” Nolan, whispered. “Uh... walking like a dark cloak?” Callum replied quietly.

Nolan quickly shot back, still whispering, “You look stiff as wood board, now’s not the time to forget how to walk! It’s just around the corner.”

“Excuse me soldier.” A deep voiced, tall, burly man with a thick black mustache stopped Callum and Nolan as they argued under their breath. “Might I ask where it is you two are heading?”

Callum could feel small beads of sweat start to drip down his face. He had to force down the wave of panic from taking over his body. If he had to fight, he would be ready.

Nolan seemed unphased, “The brig sir.”

“What do you need at the brig?” The man seemed skeptical, he was now looking both Callum and Nolan up and down, a few more Dark Cloaks started to congregate around him.

“Uh… well it’s funny you ask really.” Faster than a crack of Falselight Nolan takes stance and fires off a streak of red from his hands at the man ahead of him. The soldier’s skin turns translucent and red streaks faintly glow across his face and hands. Before the other men could react, Nolan fires off blue and then purple streaks of lights creating a barrier around himself and launching the other two Dark Cloaks down the hallway.

“Callum! The brig, go!” Nolan yelled not looking back.

Callum didn’t need to be told twice, he bolted around the corner and found himself in a corridor filled with cages on either side. He heard shouts and saw flashes of red and blue light coming from behind him as he frantically scanned each cage looking for a short black-haired girl in a thick brown over coat. At least that’s what she was wearing before they got separated. He saw face after miserable face, some giving him confused glances through the iron bars, others with a vengeful hate in their eyes, but most of them didn’t even look conscious. Another dark cloak came running down the corridor from the opposite end to Callum. Callum quickly put on his best limp and tried to look as disheveled as possible which wasn’t hard given how injured he felt and probably was. Time for a show, he thought.

“There’s a rogue!” Callum shouted at the man. “Just there!” He pointed behind him. The man gave him a glance but kept running towards the sounds of chaos down the hall. Callum gripped the staff he pulled from the dead man earlier and as the dark cloak passed, he whipped the man in the side of the head, blood spluttered from his mouth into one of the cells. The man fell unconscious to the floor. A few of the prisoners who were giving him angry glances before now joined the confused crowd.

Callum had lost it. “Ellie!” He shouted. He started running up and down the corridor frantically looking in each cell. Red streaks of light flashed around the corner behind him; they sounded like they were getting closer. No time. “Ellie!”

“Over here.” An unknown raspy voice called from one of the cells.

Callum rushed over towards the sound. It was an old man he recognized from town. “She’s there.” He pointed to a sleeping girl in his cell wearing a brown overcoat.

Callum wasted no time and started smashing the lock with his metal staff. The pain in his body became all too real as he swung down, hit after hit on the lock. It didn’t matter, his sister was in there and all he had to do was break a lock. He’d done far more difficult things today than break a damn lock. At least that's what he told himself.

His arms were getting tired. Callum inhaled and raised his arms for one final swing. SLAM! The lock broke free from the cell door. He rushed in, pushing the other prisoners out of his way, and picked up his sister. She wasn’t awake, but she wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be dead. He spent no time thinking about it.

Callum carefully brought her over his shoulder and started to make his way down the corridor back towards Nolan. The fighting seemed to have ended and given that no one was trying to spike him with colorful light he assumed Nolan had prevailed.

As Callum turned the corner, he saw Nolan standing in a circle of what looked to be at least seven bodies. Some looked to have been spiked by red light, others just completely maimed.

“Let’s go.” Callum said to Nolan.

“Yea. Alright.” Nolan spoke with a strange tone back to Callum. His face was masked in blood and ash.

No alarms had been raised yet but it was only a matter of time Callum thought. Nolan led them back through the brig and out the opposite side. As they approached the end of the corridor, they heard shouting and the thumping sound of angry footsteps coming down a staircase to their right.

“In there!” Nolan hissed at Callum, leading them into what looked to be a lounge of some sort. They pulled the ornately engraved metal door open and found themselves surrounded by comfortable furniture and various snacks.

“A bunch of magic light people have break rooms on their death ships?” Callum asked Nolan as he laid his sister down on a sofa and hesitantly started to check her pulse.

“Yea, slaughtering the innocents takes a toll on your hunger.” Nolan slid the door closed behind him and went to grab an apple from a wire basket with small lion ornaments built into the sides.

“You don’t say.” Callum jeered.

“Yea, yea. You’re welcome by the way.” Nolan took a bite from the apple then looked over at Callum who was still checking Ellie for a pulse. “She alright?” He asked, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice.

“I can feel a pulse, and to best of my knowledge in the fine arts of medicine that’s a good thing.” Callum stood up and started browsing the dark cloak longue. “So, what now?”

“If she needs medical attention, she’s not going to get it here, there are four patrol boat launches on either side of the ship. That staircase just outside should lead us straight to one. I say we wait for it quiet down and then steal a boat.” Nolan took a final bite from his apple and threw it across the room.

“There are so many things wrong with that plan.”

“If you’re going to shit on my plans, you should back that up with a counter proposal of some sort. This is actually something they teach you in rhetoric class, being an educated man, I expect more from you.”

A light voice sounded from the sofa, “You give him too much credit, he dropped out after a year.” Ellie coughed a few times and sat up, her hand over her heart.

Callum rushed over and pulled her into an embrace. He could feel her heart pounding but there was no time to worry about that now. “I thought you were dead.” Tears started to form beneath his eyes as he held her.

“Nice cloak.” She said as Callum finally let go of her.

“Thanks, got it custom tailored.”

Ellie smiled, “Right… bloodstains and all?”

“Hello, Ellie!” Nolan waved to her.

“Hello, Nolan! Been keeping Callum here out of trouble?” Ellie asked.

“Uhh… yeah, I suppose you could say that.”

“Is that your blood?” She gestured to her face.

“Ah… yea… no… no it’s not actually.” As if he were only then realizing what his appearance must have been, Nolan filled his left hand with light blue wispy light and cleared his face of grime.

“Better.” Ellie replied.

Callum heard more footsteps outside the room. A few moments later a horn sounded from deep within the ship, it reverberated throughout the entire vessel.

Callum looked to Nolan, “We should go.”

Nolan dusted off his cloak, “Yes, we should.”

Callum watched as Nolan made his way to the door and listened for a few moments. What was once a quiet and menacing warship now sounded like a bustling war-engine of one of the Rathan Hordes. Every half minute that horn would sound, shaking the ship to its core. Running and shouting could be heard above and below them.

Nolan was hunched up against the door making a strange gesture with his left hand. A thin white light radiated in his palm as he moved it up and down the seam where the door connected with the wall.

“It’s clear, let’s go.” Nolan announced a few moments later. He carefully slid open the door and Callum and Ellie followed him as he led them through another short corridor anddown a few flights of stairs. They heard movement on all sides but Nolan seemed to be frequently checking his hand then perfectly timing every turn, so they weren’t seen. At least until they made it to the bottom floor. Just as they were stepping out of the staircase and into the boat launch, Callum could hear voices shouting from a maintenance room just to the side of the staircase entrance. This was quickly followed up by another blast of the horn but this time it sounded different, much closer than before.

Nolan shot a burst of violent orange light at the men in the maintenance room. The doorframe was nearly torn off and everything inside that room was shredded, including the two maintenance officers.

“Get one of those boats in the water!” Nolan shouted at Callum and Ellie.

Callum sprung into action and Ellie quickly followed. There were several patrol boats lined up along the side of the boat launch. They had soft black metal hull and no cover from the elements. The two pushed the nearest boat into the water and hopped in. As they got into the boat, Callum could hear a horde of Dark Cloaks rushing down the stairs they had just come from. Nolan was busy creating various walls of light and seemingly laying some kind of trap on the floor with black light.

“Nolan let’s go!” Callum yelled.

Nolan pointed at the lever which controlled the direction of the boat’s motor. “Pull that back and go! I’ll be right there” He shouted at Callum.

Callum shook his head, always making a show of it he thought. He situated himself at the helm, pulled the lever and the boat kicked into motion.

Just before they left the boat launch Nolan shot a streak of orange light at the other two patrol boats, shattering their hull, causing them to erupt into flames. He then cast a silver trail along the floor and slid along it faster than Callum had ever seen a man run. At the end of it jumped right into the boat.

The horde of men started pouring streaks of red, blue, and orange light at blue wall of light Nolan had put between them. It didn’t hold long but as soon as they broke through the trap of black light erupted into a harsh cloud of mist. Callum tried not to listen to the screams. Nolan’s work gave them enough time to create some distance between them and the massive warship, but not without protest.

More streaks of light flew from the deck of the ship at their tiny stolen patrol boat. Nolan stood at the back deflecting each blast with his own streaks of purple and green. A few of the blasts rocked to boat but Nolan was able to escort them safely out into open water.

Nolan deflected a final streak of orange with his own shield of green. “I think we’re out of reach now. They’ll send boats after us, but we’ve got a pretty good lead.” “I’ll take us to the Eastern Isles, they’re not far and should be safe enough for now.” Callum replied.

“Good plan. Callum…” Nolan looked back from the ironclad ship at Callum. “I’m sorry you had to see- “A long streak of golden yellow light cracked through the skies from one of the warships striking Nolan in back. Callum watched as Nolan’s expression went blank and he fell, paralyzed, back into the boat.

“SHIT!” Callum screamed. His head was pounding. He looked at Ellie, she was already hovering over Nolan’s limp body checking for a pulse. More streaks of red and orange continued to land in the water around them. No time, he thought. She had to live.