Glint's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

Far from the swamp where Glint slept against Anu's warm flank, a second light burned. It filled a glass dome packed with strange plants. Blue vines curled around flowers that glowed from inside. Among them stood Mother Kajra, the druid who had raised Glint since he was small. Her monocle flickered. In the air before her hung a wide, round image of the boy and the wolf spirit, asleep beneath the old tree. She watched them breathe. Beside her, a tall device shimmered. Golden light spun up from its frame and formed the shape of a man. His outline stayed blurred, like a figure seen through smoke. The runes along the device pulsed with each word he spoke. "You've found him, Matron," the golden figure said. "Good. The Augury does not wait." Kajra did not look away from the sleeping goblin. Her hand tightened on her staff. "He's just a wee thing, Aurelius. Nae even six cycles yet." Her voice cracked on the last word. "Look at him. He near shot his own guardian two nights past." "Old enough," the figure answered. "You knew this day would come when you took the boy in." "I took him in tae raise him, nae tae spend him." She turned at last. The glowing flowers lit the hard line of her jaw. "I didnae pull him from that mud as a bairn sae ye could feed him tae the dark." The figure's light did not waver. "The Probability Augury is clear. I have run it a thousand times. Every path where Detrus survives, the goblin stands at the center. He is our best chance. The only one above a whisper." Kajra closed her eyes. She had defeated the Necroswarm once. She knew what it cost to send the young ahead of the old. For a long moment she said nothing. The dome hummed. The image of the sleeping boy turned slowly in the air between them. "Then he reaches the Academy nae knowin," she said. "He thinks he goes for fame. Let him keep that a wee while longer." "As you wish." The golden figure bent its blurred head. "But he must reach it. See that he does." The light folded in on itself and went out. The device dimmed to a faint pulse. Kajra stood alone among the glowing plants. She reached into her coat and drew out a small carved token shaped like a wolf. She pressed it to the communicator's warm base. "Anu," she whispered. "Ye'll nae stop at Scraptown after all. Ye'll see him tae the gates." The token flared once and sent her command south. Kajra waved her hand, and the image of the sleeping boy faded. She had chosen. Glint would walk into the Academy as his guardian's final charge, carrying a purpose he did not know he bore.