Welcome to Gaia! ::

Silas finally had one free day before college started up again. He had been busy with volunteer work and various preparations for events that had been scheduled for the month, but he had not forgotten what had happened nearly a month ago. The youma attack, his mysterious transformation, the man who called himself Babylon, the name Glitnir… those strange events felt as if they had just happened. How could he forget something like that? Nearly every day, he had studied the letter from Babylon that had just floated down in front of him the day after the incident. He was getting the sense that he had been thrust into something big, to put it mildly.

That afternoon, he had excused himself to go “visit some friends” and walked out to find a place where he wouldn’t draw much attention, which ended up being an abandoned-looking alleyway. Ordinarily, he would question the wisdom of going into an alleyway period, but this situation was far from ordinary. After some cautious glances over his shoulder, he did as Babylon had told him and tried to “reach” for his weapon. The first two times were unsuccessful, but the third time was a charm. He closed his fingers around the chain of his scales, and he was Glitnir Page once again.

The words had been buzzing around in his head before, but now that he had transformed, they were clearer than ever. He said them out loud: “I pledge my life and loyalty to Mars, and to Glitnir. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.”

Except nothing happened. He looked from his scales to the wall and then back to the scales. What did he do wrong? He noticed that his failures all had something in common: a lack of focus. He had not focused on the idea of “grabbing” his weapon, and he had not really focused on going to his Wonder just now. The only option, of course, was to try again.

He uttered his oath a second time, concentrating on the idea of going to his planet and feeling for the tug that Babylon had mentioned. Sure enough, after a moment, he felt it, and the world blurred around him. He felt his feet leave the ground, but only briefly; after about two seconds, he touched ground once more, and soon the world in front of him regained stability. The scene in front of him was certainly unearthly; what place on Earth had dirt this red, and grass that yellow? Indeed, the grass was yellow and sparse. It sprouted up in little patches here and there, as though it had to make way for the impressive building in front of Glitnir and each blade of grass had decided to group up with its friends.

That building was indeed quite impressive, though it had clearly seen better days. The front had golden pillars lining it, and the roof appeared silvery, though Glitnir had to guess that the structures were originally gold and silver due to the sheer amount of tarnish on them. There had been double doors guarding the entrance at some point, but they had been yanked off their hinges and were haphazardly leaning against the pillars closest to the gaping hole where they once were. Realizing that this must be the Wonder on Mars that Babylon had alluded to, he walked forward into the building, gripping the chain of his scales tightly.

[Word count: 581]

[Glitnir visited his Wonder on August 26th. He will not be able to visit again till September 16th.]

When Glitnir finally hit the floor, he was surrounded by darkness. He didn’t lie to me about there being something down here, did he? He hoped that Cornelius had not dragged the door back into place and locked him down there, but surely he could just go directly home if he did find it was locked. Following the memetic rule of “put your hand on the wall and go to the left,” Glitnir cautiously moved forward, ready to whack something with his scales if he needed to. As he did so, he felt something depress under his hand, and with a flicker, a few lights on the walls turned on.

Well, that was lucky, Glitnir quipped to himself as he appraised what the light revealed. This floor seemed to be some sort of library or archive, if the numerous rows of bookshelves were anything to go by. He groaned aloud as it occurred to him that he was going to possibly search through every single shelf, no, every single book in order to find his signet ring. For a moment, he entertained the idea of just going home and never coming back to this place or this whole Knight business in general, but he shook it out of his head. He had already been attacked by a youma and met another Knight. He knew too much to just reject it all now, even if he was about to experience hours of tedium as he combed every square inch of the archives to find his signet ring.

He walked down the aisles, scanning the bookshelves. The titles on many were too faded for him to make out, but lots of them seemed to be about interplanetary law, with some books dedicated to law on Mars and the other planets and others dedicated to overarching general law. Two laps of the bookshelves revealed nothing, meaning that he had to start on the actual books now. After doing a open-examine-flip-shut routine on every book for about ten books, he sighed heavily and contemplated going home once more. He figured that maybe he should zoom out a bit, see if there was anything unusual anywhere that might point to the signet ring’s location.

This time, he closely studied the titles of the books that he could make out. Everything seemed mundane and boring till about five rows down, when he found a book that seemed suspiciously legible upon closer inspection. Bizarre Laws of the Inner Planets, it read. He took it out and he heard something rattle in it, as though it were hollow, which was particularly strange but also particularly telling. Once he opened it, he heard something clatter to the floor and a loud slamming noise. Cursing under his breath, he scouted the floor for whatever had fallen out for a good minute before happening upon a thick red ring. The insignia upon it was a three-arrowed Mars symbol, with what appeared to be baskets hanging from the arrows on the side. Glitnir had done it. He had finally found his signet ring. Just in case, he took the book with him along with the ring.

“I found it, Cornelius!” Glitnir called out, and ran to the entrance, only to find a wall with a carved torch on it in place of the entrance. He pushed on the flame like he did on the hidden door on the floor above, only for nothing to happen. He pushed on the handle and nearly every other place on the wall until he got frustrated and just started banging on the wall. “The hell? This isn’t funny! Let me out!” His hands began to chafe after a bit, at which point he took a deep breath and stepped back. “Come on, just one more hint,” he muttered to himself, and studied the wall more closely to see if anything stuck out. Indeed, this wall had a Mars symbol carved on the handle of the torch, while the first one did not. The circle of the Mars symbol had a small divot in it, and that gave him an idea. When sticking his finger in the divot didn’t work, he put on his signet ring and pressed the round part into the divot. He heard something click into place, and the wall rose up. With a fist-pump of victory, he ran up the stairs to show off his new acquisition.

The door had not been moved back into place, and Cornelius was standing around waiting for Glitnir when he arrived. “It took you long enough! I was about to come down there and start throwing books at you till you finally figured it out. And don’t think I didn’t hear you at the door, either! If you didn’t figure out how to remove it within an hour or so, I would have thrown a book at you for sure.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t,” Glitnir said, running a finger over the new ring on his finger. “So, how did I do?”

“This is just a simple pass-fail test. Since you made it out with your signet ring, you passed! Good work.” Cornelius cocked his head to the side. “That’s the Bizarre Laws of the Inner Planets book, isn’t it? Did you know you’re not allowed to walk cattle down a certain street in the capital of Venus? Always a great read, that one. Shame I chose to hollow it out instead of the one about the outer planets.” He chuckled and tapped Glitnir’s right arm. “How about we test that signet ring right now? Write a letter to another Knight you know, push your ring into it very hard, and then watch it go off! There should be a piece of paper and a writing utensil in the compartment you found the ring in.”

Glitnir considered himself lucky to have met Babylon, for that meant avoiding the awkwardness and explanations that would have come from him knowing no other Knights. Sure enough, there was a single small slip of paper in the hollowed-out book, along with what appeared to be a small, thin pen. Putting the paper on the book, he wrote:

To Babylon

Hi, Babylon! This is Glitnir (the guy you saved from that monster). I found my signet ring and my ancestor wanted me to test it out, so I’m sending you a note. Thanks a lot for the information- it’s been very helpful. Hope to see you again! Write me back.

- Glitnir

When Glitnir finished writing, Cornelius snatched up the paper from him and studied it. “Babylon? Isn’t that on Mercury? How peculiar that you would become friends with a Knight of Mercury… ah, a lot must have changed in a thousand years. Don’t mind me. Press your ring into that paper!”

Glitnir did as he was told, and suddenly the paper disappeared from under the ring. “Wow,” he said, then added, “How will I know if he got it?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cornelius said. “Unless you make a spelling error, the message will always arrive to the person it’s supposed to.” He gave Glitnir a pat on the shoulder. “How much longer do you intend to stay here? I’m afraid there’s nothing for you to eat here anymore. Perhaps you should go home and rest.”

Glitnir nodded. All that mucking around in the archives had tired him out, and he really wanted to shower off all the dust he had accumulated. “I think that sounds good. Maybe we can hang out in a few days? I’m busy getting ready for college this week, so…”

“Wait,” Cornelius said, holding one hand up. “You are a Page. If I recall correctly, the time between Wonder visits for a Page that is still training to be one with their Wonder is three weeks. If you try to come here before three weeks have passed, you simply won’t be able to. The Wonder will not pull you here like it did today.”

“Three weeks, huh?” Glitnir frowned. He would have hoped to learn more sooner. “Well, if that’s how it’s got to be. See you in three weeks, then?”

“Yes,” said Cornelius with a smile and a nod.

[Word Count: 1,364]

Silas had gone to sleep early tonight with the intent of being well-rested for class tomorrow, but the night had other plans in store for him. The dream began almost immediately after he’d lost consciousness. The Negaverse's influence slowly crept up on the entirety of Destiny City, and when Order was shoved into a mere resistance, he knew what he had to do. He had never been one of the best fighters, but he was in position to be a damn good informant, and so he became a Watcher for the resistance. He finished up his schooling and became a teacher at Meadowview, filtering every relevant fragment of gossip from students or colleagues he could to the resistance. He had urged his parents to move out of the city, and they did, wary of the new rules the Negaverse was putting into effect. In the five years that transpired, he did not hear from them at all. He received nothing to confirm their fate for the better or the worse.

Alia awoke as a Page of Uranus and began resistance efforts of her own, using her company position to acquire goods and money for the resistance. He remembered talking to her frequently about being a Knight, showing her the tutorial that Babylon had written him years ago. He remembered being asked to ID her body when she was ambushed and killed at a supply point. They’d kept her mostly covered, of course, but she had a big nasty wound on the side of her face. It stood to reason that the rest of her body had been similarly mangled. It was the first time that Silas had ever really felt grief, and the loss of his beloved big sister nearly crippled him. But his students needed him, especially the ones that would someday become senshi or Knights, and so he tried to remain strong for them.

Between Alia’s awakening and death, Laura had begun slipping out of the house at night. One night, she left and never came back. Silas waited and waited for her to return, but after months passed with no word, he stopped. He never found out anything about her; it seemed that she had just completely disappeared without a trace. The slipping out at night seemed to point to a certain conclusion: perhaps Laura had become a senshi or Knight herself. Conjecture became useless, however, and soon Silas was left an only child.

He became the king of brave faces. To his students, colleagues, and just about everyone else, he seemed bright and cheerful, with a humorous quip at the ready. When he was alone, he was considerably emptier. He had come to hate being alone for precisely that reason; he spent most of his time in communal places like libraries and certain parks, and of course his favorite bar, the Golden Dream. As the situation became direr, he became more anxious, irritable, paranoid, all the hallmark side-effects of stress.

That fateful knock at his door that one day turned everything upside down. He gleefully rushed towards his end, fighting at Order’s last stand. When he was the first one on stage for sentencing, he made his choice by making no choice at all. A General-Queen slid her hand into his chest, and there was nothing left to remember after that.

When the visions faded, Silas spent a good ten minutes staring at his ceiling, trying to internalize what had just happened. He had experienced the loss of almost everything, even his self. He looked over at his clock: 11:42. Alia, the night owl that she was, would probably be awake at this time. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed her number, hoping she would pick up, and she did. “Hey, Sy! ‘Sup, li’l bro? You never call this late. Something happen?”

“Mm, yeah. Nothing too big, I guess. Just wanted to know how you were doing. Gonna call Mom and Dad and Laura tomorrow, too.” It was kind of an understatement, but just hearing his big sister’s voice and knowing she was alive was immensely helpful.

“I’m fine! Why would you think otherwise? Maybe I’m up a little later than I should be, but after a while it kind of stops mattering. But really, what happened?”

Silas sighed. “Just a weird dream. You died, Laura vanished, Mom and Dad had to leave the city and I never found out what happened to them… lots of stuff happened.” He had to gloss over most of the pertinent details, because she definitely wouldn’t buy that she had awoken to supernatural powers and gotten killed for it.

“Well, that sounds like an amazingly shitty dream, not a weird one. I wouldn’t worry about it much, okay? I’m fine, Mom and Dad are fine, Laura’s truckin’ along. I took her out shopping just the other day, I should know!”

His sister’s relentless cheer was contagious. “Alright, good. Just wanted to make sure everyone was okay.”

“Everyone is okay. You probably just need a break or something. Maybe you should play hooky for a day and sleep in.” For someone who was ostensibly a successful adult, Alia had a habit of making suggestions that favored not doing actual work.

“Huh, maybe.” Prior to this point, Silas had not considered himself particularly stressed, but this vision was certainly something he’d be chewing on for a while. A day to think it over might not be so bad. “I’m gonna try and go back to sleep. You should get some sleep, too.”

“Gotcha. Talk to you later, Sy.”

“Bye.” When Alia hung up the phone, Silas shifted his gaze to the ring on his dresser. He really owed Cornelius a visit, didn’t he? The three-week waiting period was more than over. Perhaps he could shed some insight on what had happened and what to do next.

With Winter Break going on, Silas had time on his hands to do as he pleased. There had been a lurking anxiety creeping around his mind for the past few weeks, and now he finally had some time to address it. That night, he slipped out and, once he found a place where he felt he wouldn’t be found, reached for the scales. They phased into existence right on cue, and the rest of his Mars Page uniform came with it. He uttered those magic words and put all his focus into going to his Wonder: “I pledge my life and loyalty to Mars, and to Glitnir. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.”

Sure enough, he felt the somewhat stomach-turning sensation of being pulled through the universe, and when his vision stabilized again, he was in front of the familiar tarnished gold and silver courthouse. Tensing up and putting himself on guard, he walked into the courthouse, ready to swing his scales if needed.

He still wasn’t ready for what hit him when he got to the middle of the lobby. Something yanked on his ponytail with great force, sending him flying to the ground. A familiar voice boomed above him, and Cornelius shimmered into existence. “Where have you been?!”

Glitnir was still reeling as he tried to find a suitable response. He knew Cornelius was not going to be happy with him for only coming once and then vanishing. “Uhh, busy. Busy with school and work.”

“Intellectual pursuits. I see. Get up, boy.”

Grumbling, Glitnir pulled himself up to lock eyes with his spectral ancestor. “I didn’t forget about you, I swear. I just didn’t have time to come up here, or I was tired or my friends pulled me out.”

“Being busy with schooling and work I can understand. Feeling tired on the weekends and letting your friends pull you away like that? Those sounds like excuses to me.” Cornelius folded his arms and tapped one boot soundlessly on the ground.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I don’t think there’s any way I could have let you know I wasn’t coming up, though. Can the signet rings send to… people like you?” Glitnir hesitated, as he wasn’t sure if calling Cornelius a ghost would offend him or not.

Cornelius shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t tried it. I suppose that, since I am technically dead, it wouldn’t work.”

“Mm. Well. I guess there’s not much I can do, then. I’ll just have to come up when I can.” Glitnir paused, then dived into his point. “Anyway, I didn’t just come up to apologize for being gone for so long. There’s something I want to ask you for advice about.”

“And what would that be?” Cornelius quirked one eyebrow up, curious.

“While patrolling where I live, I met this lady Knight… a Saturn Knight. She was covered in blood, and she said she had just killed someone… so since that night, I’ve been going around, asking people’s opinions of the situation. Like, have they killed? Would they kill? What circumstances would make them kill? I just wasn’t sure what to think, so I went on a little quest for answers.”

“Seeing what others have to say in order to reach a conclusion of your own… that’s very wise,” Cornelius said, nodding. “Is that what you intend to ask me? Whether I have killed, and what would make me kill?” Glitnir nodded in turn, and the ancestor continued. “In my time, I was asked to perform some important executions, and I did so as was my duty. However, there was never any cause for me to kill anyone else. I’m afraid those executions were the only kills I ever made.”

Glitnir tried not to let any disappointment show on his face. “But what would make you kill?”

“The obvious answer is a threat to my family or a threat to my world that I can eliminate. A threat to myself… it would depend on the nature of the threat. I would prefer to incapacitate unless absolutely necessary. And if I were a soldier in a war, I would kill if I had to as a part of my duties.” Cornelius paused. “These weren’t the answers you were looking for, were they?”

“No, that’s not it. I wasn’t looking for any answers in particular. I’m trying to gather as many perspectives as possible so I understand the full picture of the war.” Glitnir wasn’t sure what he was expecting from Cornelius in the first place. He had killed, though not under anywhere near the same circumstances as what the war on Chaos provided. The war was its own beast. The conditions of a thousand years ago would be no match for the conditions of now.

“If you say so,” Cornelius said, shifting his spectral weight from one foot to the other. “You look like you have something else on your mind. Tell me, what is it?” Cornelius tilted his head and gave Glitnir an interrogative look.

It was true that Glitnir had something else on his mind, though it was wildly different from what they had just discussed and was going to inflict some serious mood whiplash. “Uh… well… it’s about something completely different from what we just talked about.” He pursed his lips, thinking. While he figured that Cornelius would be as good a person to ask about this other topic as any, it didn’t make him feel any more comfortable about bringing it up.

Cornelius tapped his foot once to indicate his impatience. “So? What is it? If it’s exam stress, I am afraid I will not be much help to you there, especially with whatever newfangled inventions are bound to have sprung up over the thousand years since my passing.”

With a nervous swallow and a heavy exhale, Glitnir spilled the beans. “I met this girl… a Cosmos Knight. She was gorgeous. White hair, golden eyes… stunning.”

“And?” Cornelius said. “You’re leaving out some very important parts. Don’t try to tell me you were just looking at her face the whole time.”

“What?” Glitnir was taken aback at Cornelius’s sudden shades of dirty old man (or he was just trolling again). “What do you mean?! What else was there to look at on her?”

“Don’t play dumb, boy. You know what I’m talking about.”

Glitnir dragged one hand down his face in exasperation. He knew what his ancestor was getting at and it was going to kill him. “She had a nice dress? Nice white dress with gold at the top, strapless, long slits on the sides for her legs?”

Cornelius just shook his head and sighed. “If you were looking at her dress that intently, surely you saw more than just her face. Unless… well, pardon me for asking, but do you prefer the menfolk? Does a beautiful woman’s body not please you? Feel free to speak the truth. I will think no less of you. Really.”

“Oh my god.” Glitnir put both hands on his face now, dragging them down slowly to maximize the dramatics. “I can’t believe you think I’m gay just because I didn’t stare at a woman’s boobs. Unbelievable. That’s an a*****e thing to do, Corny.”

“‘Corny?!’” Cornelius pulled his head back, apparently appalled. “It is ‘Cornelius’ to you, boy, and don’t you forget it. And I was joking. Mostly.”

“Well, it wasn’t funny. Maybe that was acceptable in your day, but it’s not in my day.”

“Fine, fine… my apologies.” Then Cornelius proceeded to get right back to trolling. “But really, how was she? You described her dress in detail. I can tell you gave her a good looking-over.”

“If you weren’t already dead, I’d kill you.” Glitnir heaved a massive, overwrought sigh. “She was beautiful. Nice legs, um… she looked kind of soft up here,” he said, gesturing to his chest, “in a good way. Are you happy now?” Earlier he had felt his mind drift to thoughts of how nice it would be to rest his head on that chest or that lap while she stroked his hair gently… and then he literally slapped himself in the face to pull himself out of it. There was no way any of that was going to happen any time soon. He felt kind of rude, thinking those things about Hvergelmir.

Cornelius nodded approvingly. “She sounds quite lovely. And now, you are going to learn how to romance a woman.” Glitnir barely even had time to mumble a “wait, what?” before Cornelius swept him up into a promenade waltzing position, the position of his hands indicating that he (Cornelius) was the lady in this dance. “Please tell me you know how to dance.”

In between confused sputtering, Glitnir was able to spit out, “Well, it’s been years since that silly after-school class I was forced to take in junior high, but I think I get the gist?”

“‘Getting the gist’ is not enough. You will learn how to dance today, or you will never be worthy of courting that woman.” Cornelius took one waltz-step forward. “Now, listen carefully.”

Glitnir wanted to object, but Cornelius proved to be a rather patient and overall good teacher. He made sure Glitnir’s hands were in the right place and gently guided him through the precise steps of a waltz. Right when Glitnir felt he was most in the swing and rhythm of the dance, Cornelius proceeded to twirl him right into the reception counter. “Good work. You’re a fast learner.”

“Shoulda seen that coming,” Glitnir grumbled as he rubbed the sore spot from crashing into the counter. “Uh. Well, thanks.”

“There is one more thing you must do before you go out and seek that woman,” Cornelius said. “How much do you know about her?” Glitnir opened his mouth, then closed it as he realized the answer was “not much.” “Well, now you’re going to get to know her. Do you remember where we put that special book you found your signet ring in? It had paper and a writing utensil in it, and it still does.”

Glitnir jumped over the reception counter, grabbed the hollowed-out book, and jumped back. “Right here. I guess you’re going to tell me to write a letter to her?”

“That’s right. Our signet rings exist for a reason. You know her name, therefore you can write her a letter. Now, what do you plan to write? No horribly cheesy romantic poetry, I hope?”

“Uh, no. I was just going to ask her where her usual patrol paths were and if we could meet up and patrol together sometime.”

“That sounds good. Write her your invitation, and I’ll take a look at it when you’re done.” Cornelius stared at Glitnir’s hands as he wrote:

To Hvergelmir

Hi! This is Glitnir. Remember me from Avalon? I hope you’re healing up well. Those monsters really did a number on you. Anyway, if you’re up for it, would you mind patrolling with me sometime? Let me know your usual route and I’ll come meet you, if you’d like. Hope to see you again sometime soon!

- Glitnir

When the Page finished, Cornelius took the paper out of his hands and read it over. “I suppose it’s innocuous enough. You show some concern for her and allow her choice in the matter, though you do seem a bit eager. Go ahead, send it.” Glitnir did as he was told, pressing his ring into the paper. It then disappeared into the mysterious ring-mail pipeline to hopefully make it to Hvergelmir. Cornelius then added, “Now, all you have to do is wait. Hopefully she will respond soon, and if she doesn’t, try one more time. And if she doesn’t respond then… you may just have to let her go.”

Glitnir nodded grimly. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.” He cast a glance towards the door of the lobby. “My parents are going to want me back soon… I’m staying with them for the holidays. See you in three weeks? And I’ll try not to stretch it into three months this time.”

“Ah, familial duties. Well, we have accomplished a fair amount of things today. You’ve gotten my perspective on love and war. I do hope that, next time we meet, you’ll stay around for a bit longer and I can show you more of the Wonder.”

“Sounds like a deal,” Glitnir said. “See you soon, I hope.”

“Yes, hopefully. And happy holidays to you.”

Glitnir visited his Wonder on December 26th. He will not be able to return till January 17th.

[Backdated to the 27th of February because oops, slowness.]

This time, Glitnir would be timelier with his next visit to his Wonder. The three-week time limit had elapsed, and he had quite a bit to tell his ancestor about: specifically, the New Year’s debacles. It had been a mess for everyone, and he was fairly sure that the majority of the people who had been captured were not still in working condition. The rescuers, he wasn’t so sure about, but he hoped that they fared better. Megrez had taken her lumps and was out and about, but she might be a special circumstance for all he knew.

Glitnir had come a long way from those first days when he had trouble calling his scales to hand. Now, he was able to do it in one go, and the magic words flowed effortlessly from him. “I pledge my life and loyalty to Mars, and to Glitnir. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.” The feeling of being thrown through space was still something of a doozy, but it no longer felt quite so foreign. The sight of the tarnished courthouse brought a new warmth to him, mostly because while he had no idea what Cornelius would have planned for him, it was bound to be interesting.

Sure enough, his ancestor was sitting on an old bench in the lobby when Glitnir entered. “Ah, so you’ve gotten slightly more prompt in returning! Good job. Good to see you again.”

“Sorry. Stuff happened. Lots of it. Most of it around the turn of the new year.” Glitnir looked around the lobby; the book with the makeshift pen and note paper was sitting on the reception counter where it had been left before.

“Really now? Do explain.” Cornelius folded his arms and nodded, waiting for Glitnir to go on.

“The short version is that a New Year’s Eve party was a Negaverse trap and a lot of Order people were captured and tortured. We were able to rescue the ones they didn’t kill, but the ones that died died awfully.” Glitnir was specifically thinking of the senshi that had been turned into a youma and had to be mercy-dusted by a full troop of fighters.

Cornelius’s face registered shock. “The enemy is torturing your people now, and they ruined a celebration to do it? The situation is worse than I thought. Clearly, this means that I need to show you more of what it means to be a Knight of Glitnir.”

“More? Not that I’m objecting, I mean, if there’s more to see, please go right ahead.” If Cornelius could show him the path to power, Glitnir would follow every step of the way.

“There is always more to see,” Cornelius said as he got up and headed for the corridor of courtrooms. "Follow me.” Glitnir did so, and he was lead to a larger courtroom towards the center of the hallway. Behind the judge’s podium, a golden statue of Lady Justice loomed imperiously. “That statue is the key to your next step towards becoming a true Knight, boy. I’ll give you this hint, and only this hint: get very familiar with her. You will be seeing a lot of her in visits to come.”

“Get familiar?” Glitnir scratched his head and sighed. His ancestor was being cryptic, which could only have meant that he was being set up for some potential spectacular trolling. He walked up one of the staircases on the side of the statue, getting on its level. How did one get familiar with a statue? Perhaps it responded to a password? “Hello, how are you?” he said to Lady Justice, since simple conversation was a way to get familiar with someone. “I’m the newest Knight of Glitnir. I, uh… so… how have things been with Cornelius for the past thousand years?” Predictably, the statue failed to respond.

“Is that how you get ‘very familiar’ with a woman these days? You’re a gentleman, but being a gentleman doesn’t get you everywhere.” Cornelius followed Glitnir up the stairs and went to grab his wrist.

Out of reflex, Glitnir pulled away from the spectral grasp and ended up with his hand right against Lady Justice’s cleavage. His eyes went stupendously wide and he pulled his hand away like the statue woman’s breasts were on fire. “Oh s**t, sorry!” he said, despite it already having been established that the statue didn’t respond to talking.

A snort came from Cornelius’s direction, which transformed into a chuckle which then metamorphosed into rollicking laughter. “Boy, are you allergic to the female bosom? The look on your face was worth an infinite amount of words!”

At first, all that came out of Glitnir was confused, incoherent sputtering, which then turned into angry but still incoherent sputtering. “Are- are you kidding me? You wanted me to grope Lady Justice for your own sick amusement? Screw you, Corny! If you weren’t already dead, I’d kill you again for that!”

Cornelius’s laughter continued for another few seconds, ending in a deep breath. “That wasn’t quite what I was guiding you to, but that would have been hilarious!”

“I can’t believe it! What is it with you and boobs? I mean, yeah, I get it, women with great boobs are great and all, but what is with you? First you try to get me to tell you about Hver’s boobs, and now this!” Glitnir gesticulated wildly as he popped off, thoroughly indignant.

“Never you mind,” Cornelius said in the most dismissive manner he could muster. “Let’s start at the beginning. What do you do when you’re introducing yourself to a person, be they a woman or a man? Go through each step in your head. If this custom has somehow faded out of fashion over a thousand years, then social propriety has changed quite a bit since my time.”

Glitnir was unsure whether he was glad for the subject change or whether he wanted to rant at his ancestor some more, but decided not to pursue the subject any further. Huffing, he eyed the statue warily. “Well, first you introduce yourself. I already did that. Then you… oh, huh.” The Mars Page took Lady Justice’s free left hand with his right and gave her a handshake. “How do you do?” As he spoke, he heard a click, and a wall behind Lady Justice began to slide away. “All I had to do was shake her hand,” he mumbled.

“That’s right! You overcomplicated it grossly, if comically,” Cornelius said. “I’m glad to see that a good old-fashioned handshake still exists as a social nicety.”

“Glad to hear you found that funny,” Glitnir grumbled as a tingling feeling spread up the hand holding Lady Justice’s and then through the rest of his body. “Uh, is it normal to feel tingly after shaking hands with Lady Justice?”

“Well, no more or less normal than a tingling feeling after shaking hands with any other beautiful woman, but…” There was something in Cornelius’s expression that made Glitnir think he was hiding something under the joke. “Hold still for a moment.”

A glow traveled up Glitnir’s hands, spreading to where the tingling was. Where the glow went, he noticed changes; his bracers got an upgrade, now covering the back of his hand, and his undershirt changed into true Roman-style armor. The glow reached his scales last, changing them to a silvery shade and making them more ornate, before a bright flash cemented the transformation. Astounded, he stared at his scales, his free hand touching the new armor on his body (now that he had a moment to take it in, he was immensely thankful for the protection).

Cornelius nodded approvingly. “Welcome to the Squire stage, boy,” he said, placing one hand on Glitnir’s shoulder. “You’re ready to see the courthouse’s secrets and not-quite-secrets. However, I would like you to wait on those till the next visit. There is a lot to cover.”

Glitnir continued to examine the new flourishes on his uniform. “So I guess I’m dismissed now?”

“I suppose so,” Cornelius said. “You do, however, have one assignment. I would like you to experiment with your new Squire magic in the field, if you can. When you come back to me next, I want you to tell me what you think it does.”

“Fair enough. I’ll keep that in mind.” Glitnir cast a glance towards the door of the courtroom. “See you next time.”

[Glitnir visited his wonder on February 27th. He became able to return to his Wonder on March 13th. Oops.]

With school wrapped up and graduation done with (geez, he was going to be a graduate student, how weird was that), Silas finally found himself with some time to spare to do more consistent Knight duties. He knew he had kept Cornelius waiting for a good while, and he really wanted to find out what was in the courthouse’s basement. Furthermore, there was another issue that had been sitting in the back of his mind for a while: the strange blueprint that had appeared after he had transformed for the second time. It seemed to have something to do with his ring, but the other parts were something of a mystery. Perhaps Cornelius could help him parse it out.

After finding a good corner to transform in, he reached for his scales to become Glitnir and uttered the usual worldhopping words. “I pledge my life and loyalty to Mars, and to Glitnir. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.” The world blurred around him, and soon he found himself in front of the tarnished courthouse that shared his name.

When he entered, Cornelius was sitting on top of the reception counter. “I’ve been waiting for you, boy. What’s your excuse this time?” He tilted his head to get a better look at something on Glitnir’s person. “You’re wounded,” he said, some of the sharpness going out of his voice.

Glitnir sighed. “End of the semester. All the papers and tests were around the same time. Also, graduation. I’m going to be a graduate student next year. And yes, I am wounded. A huge monster attacked a concert venue, and then I had to dive into a rescue mission practically the day after.”

Cornelius nodded, apparently somewhat impressed. “Well, congratulations on your academic achievements, then. Did you have success fighting off the monster and completing the rescue mission, too?” At Glitnir’s nodding, he added, “Good job on that, too. The wound on your arm is an honorable one.” He got off the counter and started walking towards the hallway. “Are you ready to see what lurks beneath the courthouse?”

“That sure sounds ominous,” Glitnir said. “But yes, I’m ready. I’ve set this whole day aside.”

“Good. Follow me.”

Glitnir followed his ancestor down the hall into the courtroom where he had shaken hands with Lady Justice before. The wall behind her had slid away, revealing a secret passage. As they stepped into the passage, the hallway lit up, just as the archives had done when Glitnir first visited. The passage sloped downward for a while, then emerged into what appeared to be a foyer with several hallways branching off of it.

Cornelius went down the closest one to the left, and after some more walking, he opened a door. “Welcome to the workshop,” he announced, gesturing to the room beyond the door. “It’s time you learned what else goes on in this courthouse aside from trials.”

Glitnir stepped into the room and saw the numerous workbenches placed around the room, along with the large table in the center. There were mysterious machine parts scattered all over, and on the table in the center was a boxy device with a heap of mystery parts next to it. “A workshop? What are you making down here?”

“In this dark underbelly of the courthouse, we built devices for testing people. We tested not just their bodies, but their minds, hearts, and wills, too. Most of the devices have gone defunct, but now that you’re here, I think we can fix some of them.” Cornelius went over to the central table, pulled the box-device closer to him, and rearranged some of the parts. “This particular device allowed for visualization and confrontation of a person’s ‘true self,’ the aspects they keep hidden from the world.”

“Wow, really?” Glitnir said, genuinely impressed. “That’s more high-tech than I was expecting. More magical, too.”

“We did have some help,” Cornelius said. “We had ambassadors from Mercury and some other places assist us with the technology. I’m afraid I can’t remember them all.” He gestured to the spot next to him. “Come on over. I think living hands may make for more precision on the repairs.”

“Actually, while I’m here, I have something I want to show you.” As he approached Cornelius at the table, he called the strange blueprint to hand. “This thing appeared when I transformed for the second time. It’s some sort of blueprint to something involving my ring, I think.”

Cornelius took the blueprint and looked it over. “What have we got here?” He paused contemplatively, then added, “This is really something. This part here is a sort of recorder, while this one transmits. Holograms, yes, I’m familiar with them.”

“So… it sends holograms?” Glitnir asked.

“Yes, that should be the case, and it should be able to receive holograms from similar devices as well. In fact, I think I have some leftover transmitters around here somewhere.” Cornelius began digging around in a different pile of parts. “There should be recorders as well, especially since we needed them for the Shadow Box here. Check over there; they look like mirrored pieces.”

The pun was not lost on Glitnir. “Shadow Box… good name.”

It took a good deal of picking through piles of parts, but soon the proper pieces were assembled. Cornelius slid Glitnir’s signet ring off his finger and began sliding parts into place with rhythmic clicks. Soon, it was finished, and Cornelius slid the ring back on Glitnir’s finger. “And we’re done.”

Glitnir eyed the ring’s modification, a simple metallic ring around the signet portion of the ring with the techy bits under it. “Thanks for helping me with this. It’s one mystery solved, at least.”

“Do you want to test it out?” Cornelius asked.

“I think I should do it with someone else later,” Glitnir said. “I don’t want someone’s ring activating with my hologram at an inconvenient time.”

“I suppose that’s a reasonable concern, though I do wonder if there are safeguards in place against that,” Cornelius said. “Now that we’re done with that, I’m going to start training you in how to repair the basic parts for the devices. First, I’m going to teach you what these parts are all around the room. That alone will be a lot to cover, so I will let you go after the introduction to the repairs.”

Glitnir spent the rest of the day paying careful attention to Cornelius’s instructions and assembling various subcomponents. By the end, it was decided that he had a new quest: restore the devices in the courthouse’s basement to working order, starting with the Shadow Box. Though he was tired at the end, he was also satisfied with the time spent with his ancestor learning ways that were effectively now his. He was excited at the prospect of rebuilding pieces of his Wonder with his ancestor, and he looked forward to seeing the devices in action.

Glitnir visited his Wonder on June 1st. He can visit again on June 15th.

Two weeks had passed, which meant that Glitnir could return to his Wonder and continue fixing the Shadow Box with Cornelius. He had even located his father’s toolkit, in case any of that would help the assembly at all. The routine for going up was the same as usual. He grabbed his scales somewhere in the city, said his magic words, and braced himself for the feeling of being slung through space.

When he arrived at the courthouse, Cornelius wasn’t waiting in the lobby as usual. For a moment, he panicked, unsure of where his ancestor would be, but then he remembered: right, the workshop. The question was, could he remember where it was without Cornelius’s guidance.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to. Cornelius was waiting in the basement foyer. “Ah, you’re being timely for once. Do you want to keep working on the Shadow Box?”

“Yes, of course. I really want to see what it’s like when it’s done.” Glitnir looked around. “Which way was it to the workshop again?”

“This way,” Cornelius said, gesturing to the closest hallway on the left. “Fifth door down.” He started walking, and Glitnir followed. “What is that box you brought?”

“A toolkit. Screwdrivers and wrenches and things. It might help with putting things together,” Glitnir said.

“I see. Good foresight on your part. They are most likely to be in better condition than what I’ve been using,” Cornelius said. He opened the door to the workshop, where some of the tools and pieces seemed to have been moved around. Glitnir decided that Cornelius had probably been working on his own while he was absent. “Are you ready to get some work done? We may come close to getting the Shadow Box in working order today.”

“That’s exciting,” Glitnir said. “Really! I want to see what comes out of this.” He set his toolkit by the boxy device and opened it. “So… where do I start?”

The two men got to work, screwing reflectors and other components into place and replacing pieces that had burnt out long ago. After a while of work, Cornelius broke the industrious silence. “Have you been experimenting with your magic like I told you to?”

Glitnir nodded. “Yes! I’ve found more willing subjects than I thought I would. And also some unwilling ones, but they kind of had it coming.”

“Good! What do you think it does?” Cornelius asked.

“It puts pressure on people, literally. And it also makes them think of things that they’ve done wrong, I think. Am I close?” Glitnir’s eye contact shifted from the device to Cornelius.

“Close enough,” Cornelius said. “Specificially, it brings major sins to mind and inflicts the feeling of pressure you mentioned. If a person does not considered themselves to have sinned, they experience a general feeling of guilt and having done something wrong.” After peering at something on the machine, he added, “There is another Knight trick you ought to know about.”

“What’s that?” Glitnir asked, setting his screwdriver down for a moment.

“It’s called an aspect. It’s a special power that is unique depending on the order of the Knight using it. You’ll have to ask the others what their aspect does, but Knights of Mars gain the ability to turn mild damage into energy. While major injuries are as dangerous as they always are, small hits will give you a surge of energy and motivation. Does that make sense?” Cornelius reached over and tapped Glitnir’s signet ring. “To use it, you touch your ring and focus on the energy of Mars. You’ll feel it when it’s active.”

“That would have come in handy a little while ago,” Glitnir said, thinking of all the battles he could have used the aspect in. “But what do you mean, ‘focus on the energy?’”

Cornelius waved dismissively. “When you look for it, you’ll feel it so you can focus on it. It’s really quite simple.”

“For you, maybe.”

“I’ve already been through all the training. It’s your turn to learn, boy,” Cornelius said, sliding a metallic connector towards Glitnir. “Attach that right there.” After a few more minutes of tinkering, Cornelius spoke once more. “You know, I think I’m getting tired of calling you ‘boy.’ I know you as the new Knight of Glitnir, but I think I deserve to know your true name. Would you mind telling me?”

The request seemed fair enough. There was no risk in Glitnir revealing his name to his ancestor, who was definitely on his side. “Silas Bright is my name.”

“Silas… it’s a strong name. I think it suits you well.” Cornelius put one hand on the Shadow Box and leaned forward to look at it more closely. “I think we might be just about done with the repairs. We can go install it now.” He picked up the Shadow Box. “Follow me.”

The duo continued down the corridor till it ended in a large room that the door had been torn off of. “What a shame,” Cornelius said. “We ought to repair that door when we can. It needs to be strong to keep things in.”

“Keep what kinds of things in?” Glitnir asked.

“Nothing too dangerous. Consider it potentially very active spiritual phenomena,” Cornelius said. He entered the room and walked to a pedestal in the center, placing the Shadow Box on top of it when he got there. “Bring your toolbox. This is where we install the device.”

“You say that like that makes any sense. And I had the toolbox this entire time.” Glitnir went to the pedestal and placed the toolbox on it next to the Shadow Box. “So, what next?”

Cornelius reached down and opened a cabinet on the body of the pedestal. “We’re going to adjust the connections and get this device running again. We will not use it today, but activating it will be a milestone.” He began to pull cords out of the cabinet. “One device down, some more to go.”

“Why can’t we use it today? Does it have to do with the ‘active spiritual phenomena?’” Glitnir watched the cords come out, trying to figure out where they all connected to.

“You could say that. Let’s just say that it’s not a good idea to open the box unless you are truly ready to face yourself and deal with some unpleasant matters. If you’re not ready, you’ll be in for a terrible shock.” Cornelius gave some of the cords a tug to make sure that he had reached the ends of them. “Come down here and help me connect these wires to the base of the box. It’s color coded, so it should be simple enough.”

After some plugging in of cords and screwing in of connectors, a light on top of the device lit green, and Cornelius let out a cheerful cry of victory. “It’s ready! A thousand years later and it works like a charm.”

“We did it?” Glitnir stood up and looked at the top of the machine. “Oh, wow, it really is lit up! This is great!” He ran his finger along the seam where the top and bottom of the box met.

Cornelius grabbed Glitnir’s hand. “Don’t touch it! If you open it, you’ll activate it, and I don’t think you’re ready for that just yet.” He released Glitnir and pretended to wipe sweat off his ghostly forehead. “Our work is done for today. Now, what I want you to do is go home and prepare yourself for a confrontation. Prepare to have your mind and will tested. It will be very trying on you, even distressing, but you will certainly emerge from it a stronger person.”

Glitnir felt some concern as to what kind of device he had just rebuilt that could inflict a distressing confrontation on him, but if he were to be tested in the style of his predecessors, he would grin and bear it. It was both worrisome and intriguing, but the intrigue was winning out, and he would do his best to get psyched for his trial.

Glitnir went to his Wonder on June 28th. He will be able to return on July 12th.