Axel Light Trilogy: Wands and Shield

Chapter 32-B

Axel's memory was failing him.

Every time he tried to think or put a sequence to his memory, his head would throb, and his brain would feel like a sponge being squeezed dry. He would need to fill it up again to think. And repeat.

'Hey, Ax, it's OK,' said Elliot, 'It's OK if you can't remember.'

Elliot was looking worriedly at him from his bed. Axel had been trying to remember some random snippets from his memory that seemed to have gone missing. Like when he went to Million Wands to exchange his Ash wand – he had no recollection of that – Elliot had told him about it. Or the memories that Cyrus Veldor had forced into his head. Or the reason he had asked to see Linden and Mintridge before he was abducted by Johnson.

Axel nodded at Elliot and sighed, stretching in his own bed. They were now back at Stirling in their own bedroom. It was three weeks since they got back from Xeliq. Elliot massaged his stump as he had taken out his prosthetic which was leaning right next to his bed. Elliot had been getting used to it, but Axel's heart would clench each time he caught sight of it.

'It will just come back when you least expected it,' said Elliot, 'like when you misplace something, it will appear when you don't look for it.'

Axel felt for his wands for the millionth time. Since he came back from his encounter with Cyrus Veldor, Axel would not let anyone touch his wands nor would he part with them. He brought his wands to the toilet with him and everywhere and hugged them tightly while he slept. Any slight action or movement around him would make him draw his wands.

'It's time for your training, isn't it?' said Elliot, looking at his phone and fitting his earpieces, 'I'll listen to some music,' and he hit his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.

Axel went to the tent at the backyard and found Mintridge already inside. And to his surprise, Linden was there too.

'Hi Axel!' greeted Mintridge chirpily and gave him a wink, 'Come, let's have some tea.'

There was a table set right in the middle of the tent – complete with chairs, tea sets and a plate of pastries.

Axel sat on one of the chairs, looking at them suspiciously.

Unusual, thought Axel, I wonder what they want from me.

'The last time I had tea here, I nearly died,' said Axel smiling at them.

Mintridge nearly choke as she was eating a blueberry muffin. Linden grinned back at Axel.

'I knew you would remember,' said Linden, 'Did you wonder what I did with your key when I brought it back to Xeliq?'

Why was Linden bringing this up now? So, the whole setup was for them to discuss about his key? They knew that Axel did not like to talk about it, it was like a taboo. Surprisingly, he did not feel defensive or angry, listening about his key. He would play along this time.

'You wanted to use it to open the door to my mother's house, you had told me that. And you had also said that you couldn't use it to open anything,' Axel took a sip of tea from his cup.

'Yes, and I realized that it is not a key to open a physical door. To us, it is just a key. But you could feel the key, don't you?' said Linden, trying his luck to get Axel to talk about his attachment to the key.

Axel grabbed a cinnamon roll, took a bite and nodded. He felt surprisingly calm and did not mind talking about his key now.

'Yeah, I can feel it, it seems alive to me. Sometimes it is warm or cold, sometimes it glows. Sometimes I could feel it throb like a heartbeat, sometimes I could hear it – not talking, just... sounds...,' said Axel, his voice getting softer as he spoke.