Illumination

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

To better understand just how it was I'd ended up in such a situation, in which I prepared to kill a man of the most unholy sort in crowded restaurant, one would have to go back a great many years to the founding of the Order of Illumination itself. Created in the wake of humanity's first large scale encounter with the denizens of that nightmarish unreality known as the Outer Darkness, the Order of Illumination was charged with safeguarding mankind, heart, mind and soul, from whatever might slip forth from that bleak realm and those who would play host to them.

Unconcerned with the power struggles of the mortal realm, Beholden to none, bound to all, would become the creed of the newly-found Order, a creed that has endured for almost two centuries. It is this creed of separation that allows the Order's ships to move unmolested across nation borders, even in the midst of war. After all, when demons prowl the night outside your window, what distant rival can still seem so threatening? It is this separation that also allows for the Order to recruit promising candidates from wherever it pleases to join its war against the Dark. Twenty years prior, at the age of twelve, I was one such candidate.

While my gifts as a Manifester did give me an edge over many of the other candidates, that alone would not be enough to warrant my becoming one of the vaunted Illuminators, those legendary hunters of unnatural, sworn to bring light to the dark parts of the galaxy. I would spend the next two decades under the watchful eye of Order operatives, all the while I was tested and trained, my body and mind shaped to better serve the cause. Upon the completion of my training, a requisite years of fieldwork alongside an assigned mentor and a number of dangerous assignments, I was at last judged worthy by a council of elder Illuminators. 

I can still recall the voice Master Lindus as he spoke down on my from his lectern, words thundering out of his large beard out as if it were some great cloud in a storm. "Illuminator Cortez, we not only grant you the title of Illuminator, but that of a lord as well. We have placed great trust in you and no small amount of resource into making you who you are today. In return, we ask only for your continued service for the Light. To ensure your success, you must gather a following of like-minded crusaders to help you stem the tide of darkness. Have you prepared for this task ahead and can you complete it in the time allotted to you under Davlamin's Muster?" 

"Of course, High Illuminator Lindus." I had replied, "In fact, I'm confident that I can gather a team in half that time." 

He had smiled then, evidently pleased with my lie.

In truth, I had been so focused on ensuring I'd survive my tasks, that I hadn't given any thought on who I'd select if I did. 

At the conclusion of this council, I was given two gifts. The first was the sub-dermal badge of office given to each Illuminator that allowed me to identify myself as an agent of the Light; the Sigil Sanctus. Second, I was granted a six week sabbatical to assemble a worthy team, the same amount of time it was said to have taken Saint Davlamin to rally a golden army to retake a world swallowed by demons. My task would be only a little less difficult. At the conclusion of this time I was expected to return to active service upon the council's approval, or prove myself unfit and be forced to retake the trial. I swore to myself that I would work to live up to my earlier boast to High Illuminator Lindus. 

In this, I would fail. 

It would take until the fifth week for me to acquire a team I felt were worthy, two of whom, Inspector Solomon Cromwell and Opus Quinn, I recruited the same day they were introduced to me. Dimitri Armand, the well-connected aristocrat and heir to the Armandian Firearms corporation that introduced me to Solomon and Opus, was the next to join my ranks, though it was more to avoid retribution from the Court Unforgiving then out of a desire to safeguard mankind. After him came Valencia Specter, a skilled assassin and inhuman Nightchild, gifted to me by the enigmatic Mascherari as token of thanks for services rendered some thirteen years prior.