Breaking Light

Chapter 12

The inside of her room had not changed a bit. A small cozy place enchanted with spatial magic so that it was much larger than it appeared on the outside.
They walked in, warm sunlight coming through a large window illuminated the living space. A small wooden dining table with four chairs set neatly. A ceramic vase was placed at the center of the table with a bunch of bio-luminescent flowers that glowed with a variety of colors. At the corner of the room, there was a small bookshelf that housed a few books of different genres neatly sorted.

She had a frame on one of the shelves with a picture of herself and Wilson. They were happy together but life had different plans for the two. Five years ago Aria left the Academy after completing her trials and she graduated as a mage of the third-order while Wilson was called upon by the council and enlisted for Arcane defense initiative, an elite group formed by the Order to train mages with the required aptitude to serve in the shadows. They had parted ways and had not been able to contact each other since. Aria went out in the world taking the occasional sanctioned contract from the Order and as their official agent, she had a few impressive cases under her belt that earned her a fair amount of respect among her peers. Some looked up to her and even came to her for support while others were plain disdainful since she was the daughter of the Legendary Michael Redstone and Melissa Elen Claire.
Her father looked at the frame and picked it up.
"Hey isn't this the lonely boy you once told me about who got bullied by those rich kids?"
"Wilson Garrow" She replied and took the frame to put it back. "you were listening to me then?"
He smiled at her "Always"

A small basket next to the bookshelf started to vibrate as soon as Aria was close to it. Suddenly the lid of the basket shot upwards and there was a small puff of brown cloud. Multiple colored rocks rose and coalesced into a tiny earth elemental that made a noise resembling a bark. The elemental rushed towards Aria who picked it up with joy
"WHAT IS THAT??" Stag had his claws extended and ready to strike
"Guys, meet Pebble. My pet elemental." Pebble made a joyous rumble in Aria's embrace
"An earth elemental... voluntarily associating itself with you..." Michael looked at it and then he focused his sight, the elemental shifted and floated in the air, each rock separate and rotating about its axis above Aria's hands
"Intricate piece of magic there Aria. I can see it's linked with you. Quite lovely I must say. Impressive." Michael waved his hand and the elemental coalesced back to its original clunky form and happily snuggled with Aria.
"I was working on a case a few years ago. The land was desecrated with foul magic and corruption was everywhere. It was irradiated to the point where it was difficult to maintain focus. While cleaning up the mess, I accidentally infused a tiny bit of my will into this pile of rocks next to where I was standing and the next thing I know, an elemental formed sustaining its magic on its own but linked itself to me. So I took it with me. A little washing and a little tweaking. And Voila! I had this colorful adorable mess of rocks following me around." Aria said while playing with the elemental.
Michael lightly tapped on Pebble and it suddenly jumped up and started running in circles around his feet. Stag pointed his claw at it and Pebble grew in size to two feet, gathering dust and dirt from around it and growled at Stag who withdrew immediately.
"WOAH DOWN BOY!!" He yelled. Aria waved her hand and Pebble quickly went back into the basket after reducing in size and expelling the gathered dust immediately all over Stag.
"I swear I could feel that little piece of rock stare at me." Stag dusted himself.

Michael was simply walking about, hands behind his back, He came across an old picture in a frame. Him, Melissa, and a little three-year-old Aria. All three of them were huddled together laughing a peal of completely pure and joyous laughter. He picked it up.
"I miss your mother. She used to be a different person back then. But then again I suppose we were all different people back then." He set the picture back.
"I guess grief changes you... losing little Jack..." Michael's voice started to break down and Aria approached him and took his hand.
"Dad, You couldn't have known."
Michael straightened up regaining his usual posture and radiance

"Well enough of that. We have work to do." He made an arc around him with his hand and the air shifted inside the house. He lifted his palm,

"For the trials that lie ahead of us, we need to teach you a few things, Aria." An energy sphere of pure silver light concentrated above his palm. It danced like a white flame and Aria fixated her gaze.

"The veil is not just a piece of old magic, it is an intricate network of a collective essence of the Guardian's strength." He enclosed the sphere in both palms so that the light was obscured.
"Fortified each time by the life force of a guardian when he passes on into the void. Once you can understand the true nature of the veil..." He spread his fingers slightly so that light escaped in beams. Aria's eyes glinted with fascination.
"It is not so difficult to see what lies beyond. And you can manipulate certain aspects of the barrier at will." He opened his hands, the sphere grew in size, and then exploded in a small burst of energy that pulsed inside the room rattling the windows.

Aria took a step back. She was able to understand what her father meant.
"The veil is being tampered with. Weakened at places by someone. And there are always hungry powers that linger beyond, waiting for some fool to try something." Aria said in a hushed voice and Michael looked at her.
"Not just by any fool Aria. Only the old ones had enough power to interfere with the veil since they existed before its creation. The first Shadow. We dealt with the Old ones a long time ago and I can be certain that none of them exist now. That only leaves the Guardians with the necessary knowledge to manipulate the veil." His expression was grim.
"And I've personally trained the Guardians that are currently present."
Stag suddenly came between Aria and Michael, facing him with four glowing eyes,
"Mike, we dealt with him a long time ago. I personally made sure of it."
Michael looked back at Stag, he made a quick gesture with his fingers and a small black cube manifested, floating in the air between his fingers. It had small runes carved that glowed a dull red. It floated, rotating on its axis. The cube felt wrong. Corrupt, reminding her of one of the cases she had taken. It seemed to radiate shadows around it and Aria had trouble looking at it for long and turned her gaze away.

"What is that?" She asked but got no answer. Stag floated about, looking at the cube with absolute concentration.

"Mike... It can not be," he said.

"I found this in the Limbo a few days ago. I'm afraid he isn't as dead as we thought him to be." Michael made another gesture and the cube disappeared into reality itself through a self-generated vortex.

"Who are you two talking about? What is going on? Care to explain? Someone?" Aria walked between Stag and Michael and pulled them away by the shoulder but she couldn't move her father though.
"Stephan Ford... Melissa's eldest step-brother... My first apprentice..." Michael materialized his smoke pipe in his right hand, lit it with a flame from his thumb, and inhaled deep, blowing out a thick grey cloud of tobacco smoke.