Immortal Light: Wide Awake

Chapter 20

Lucy spent days in the basement practicing with Benjamin's alternate sword, and at the end of each day she would walk over to her votive, place her hand on it as Jack had instructed her, and seemingly empty her light into it. She told Kat that it was like blowing out a lung-full of air as long as you could. Then each day before practice, she would reverse the process and extract everything she could, like taking a deep breath.

As she worked with Benjamin and Jack, she could feel the techniques and the movements of sword fighting become clearer. It wasn't just a series of movements that would mathematically counteract movements by an opponent; it was more like a conversation between two people in which a point begat a counterpoint until one was caught off guard. Lucy had learned to attack when appropriate and retreat when appropriate and, after a few weeks, she no longer depended on the practice sword for its knowledge. She had learned it well enough to challenge Benjamin on most days. While he was yet her superior in the ring, she had shown so much progress that one duel in ten she could beat him.

Kat told Lucy that her arm muscles and leg muscles were a little more defined, and Lucy realized she was benefiting in more than one way from her self-imposed rigorous workouts.

Lucy had spent every day doing one other thing. She would go to the hospital and visit her father. It wasn't long before she had come to terms with the fact that her father might never recover from his coma, so she decided to make what she could of it. In his sleep-like state she would talk to him. She told him everything about her life and how it had changed. She talked about Benjamin and her new found prowess with a sword.

Most importantly, however, she told him that she would never let her mother's killer get away with what he had done. She was training to get revenge on the faceless extractor that had turned her mother into a helpless captive inside of him. She was training to kill.

The days had gotten significantly colder. The Oregon coast was known for brutal winter punishment. The wind was bitingly harsh and the air was thick and wet. Citizens of Coos Bay were seen with jackets and windbreakers zipped up around their ears as they walked around the town. They would tolerate the conditions even without the satisfaction of snow.

It was those days that Lucy was grateful for Kat's parents' generosity in allowing her a place to live, and especially Kat's father's skills as an attorney in taking care of the Higgins family estate, free of charge.

After visiting her father on a particularly damp day, Lucy had picked Kat up from school. She had decided to take a break from public education and do correspondence home schooling for the rest of the year. She chalked it up to bereavement, when in actuality she was getting a completely different kind of education.

Driving up the hill to the Raven home, Kat was jabbering on about how glad she was that she was free of school for two weeks due to Christmas break, and could finally spend more time with Lucy. It was obvious that Kat had taken a serious liking to Jack. She never forced the subject on Lucy, but it was plain to see where her affections lay. Benjamin had assured her that Jack didn't harbor romantic feelings for Kat, and as long as everything stayed innocent, Lucy wasn't going to butt in.

"So, do you think my folks would let me stay up here for New Year's Eve?" The question was a little absurd to Lucy.

"You spend most of your time up here anyway, why would they care on New Year's Eve?"

"I don't know, I was just wondering if they trust me up here with all these boys late at night."

Lucy could see that it wasn't a question of Kat's parents allowing it, she was trying to gauge whether or not Lucy knew anything about Kat's chances of getting kissed that night.