Lasting Repercussions

Chapter 5

"Where is the Amulet?"

Intent stares became anxious as Jim looked around the room. Blinky glanced over at Vendel in a suspicious way that reminded Jim of how Toby and Claire had exchanged looks before dropping their news of Kanjigar upon him. There was something they weren't telling him.

"What?" he asked, "What is it?"

An answer came to him with less apprehension than the one from his human companions.

"The Amulet of Daylight has not been put under as much burden as thus since the time of Deya" said Vendel. The old goat reached to a small pouch at his hip and produced a familiar disk of gleaming metal and placed it carefully into Jim's palm. Jim sighed at its familiar weight and the soft blue light that shined past its quietly spinning arms and ever-whirring gears. Old friend. His fingers ran over its round edges, turning it gently over in his hand.

But they stopped when he saw the crack.

At its back, the normally smooth seams of the gemstone cavities gaped open as a gnarled fracture ran down the Amulet's middle. Its jagged edge split the little hollows so far as to barely reveal the glittering Triumbric Stones that rested inside. It bent and tore at the metal to the point of nearly disfiguring the trollish glyphs elegantly etched on its surface. It was the mark of something dark. That much Jim knew. And it was ugly.

"Does it... still work?" he asked.

"That," Vendel said, staring pointedly at Jim with his glassy gaze, "remains to be seen."

Jim sucked in a breath. Only one way to find out.

"For the doom of..." he began, but then stopped, shaking his head. No. This wasn't the Darklands. He didn't need Eclipse here. He had gotten a little tired of the black anyway.

He started again. "For the Glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command."

Wisps of bright light flooded from the Amulet and flocked around Jim in a brilliant swarm of magic. Magic, which took form and mass. Pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves, shining silver and blue, hovered in the air around him and he closed his eyes as he was pulled from the ground with them. The wisps converged. Plates joined other plates and became one. And when the light faded and Jim's feet returned to the floor, he stood garbed in the Armor of Daylight. He stretched, bending his still aching arms and legs. Man, did it feel good to have this back

But something wasn't right. Both by the gazes of his friends and an odd feeling in the armor, Jim felt a vulnerability, an exposure, like a draft through an hole in the wall. His eyes wandered down to the armor, as they would search for a stain of spilled guacamole on his shirt.

It wasn't guacamole.

Jim always knew that harm done to the armor always took a toll on the Amulet and vice-versa. But this was way beyond anything he had ever seen. The breastplate was ripped down it's middle, the metal shredded in one ragged, feral tear, the likes of which Jim had only seen on the sides of trees mangled by bears or deer in the woods.

He lifted his chin as he scanned over the grim, worried expressions of his company. His gaze settled on Blinky, who stood wringing all four of his hands. Jim's throat clenched painfully, but he spoke nonetheless.

"What happened?"

Blinky gave a shuddering sigh.

"You were separated from us during our egress from the Darklands. When we found you, you had already fallen and the damage to Merlin's Armor had already been done. We were hoping you would be able to shed some light on matters when you awakened. You were gravely wounded and we feared the worst."