The Mirror Guard

This is a story that I wrote for my expanded "Gardener Universe." It's one of my favorite short stories from a compelation that I had been making. I love it so much that it's easily going to be turned into a full novel, which this story will serve as the backbone. So enjoy.

THE QUAD WAS PACKED! Eva had never seen it so full of people! In the center stood the tall proud statue of Rainiar la Jaguar, Goddess. The mile-high wall of ice and crystal that wrapped around the city of Crystalis could be seen almost on all sides, except where tall crystalline skyscrapers blocked the view. Rainiar built that wall. The wall was the first protection Crystalis had from what was on the other side. Aside from planning out the crystal towers that made up many of the buildings and structures within the walls — Rainiar also formed the Mirror Guard. Which was Crystalis’ second defense against the things that lived on the other side of the wall.

“The chances of them actually showing is about 65%, highness. …And dropping.”

“Thank you, Benjamin.” Eva snapped. “Always happy to report such good news.”

“Highness, I don’t report either good or bad news. I simply report facts.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Eva gestured at the artificial as if to get him to shut up. She knew it wouldn’t stop him. She needed to lose him! She dipped through a cluster of on-lookers. Her ridiculously over-sized starka, making it hard for her to weave through the crowd like she’d like to. However, if it weren’t for the starka, Eva would have frozen quickly in the Nasalasan frigid — even in the middle of the day.

“Ness! Ness, you’re going to lose me.” Eva could hear Benjamin calling.

There was an anxiousness that bled through the gathered crowd. Eva stopped to get a better look. There was a stage set up before Rainiar’s statue. Eva couldn’t see the entire stage, but it didn’t look like the Mirror Guard had come.

Eva had been in the Mirror Guard’s barracks several times — but she’d never seen a Guardian so close. They were always sleeping, training in the Stark, or up on the top of the wall keeping watch. She felt pitiful, that as a voluntary Guardian reserve, she had never even spoken to a real Mirror Guardian herself.

“Whew! Highness, this crowd is absolutely unsafe. There are not enough exits — nor are they big enough if there were to be an attack. The chances of an attack are…”

“Benjamin!” Eva snapped. Benjamin mdl:1985 stopped dead in his tracks. He was an artificial butler with dark hair so that he’d stick out in a crowd of Crystalissians — though if someone couldn’t tell an artificial from a real person, they had bigger problems. Artificials moved with a rigid grace that could only come from a machine. There was no fluidity to their balance. “There hasn’t been an attack in months. Which is why they agreed to put on this demonstration.”

“But the exits…”

“Benjamin,” Eva was frustrated, “The wall has never been breeched since Ness Rainiar la Jaguar was alive. Relax!”

“…According to my calculations there is a…”

“I don’t care about your calculations.” Eva said as she disappeared into the crowd again — away from Benjamin. There weren’t any Guardians on the stage. She was safe to keep moving closer. Rainiar la Jaguar stood so proud. Her hair was short cut and her giant mirrorblade was superiorly more impressive than the technikalblade that Benjamin could transform into. Benjamin was a standard hand-me-down passed through various Guardian reserves.

From the corner of her eye Eva could see a disturbance in the crowd. A flash of a man wearing the baby blue starka of the Mirror Guard. They all had them, coats made of thick norwotter fur — though Eva had heard that the men of the Guard didn’t actually need starkas. Their Cavaman heritage made their skin impervious to the killing cold.

Eva’s own starka was made in the woman’s fashion. It was fur, not norwotter — Eva couldn’t afford that type of fur. But it was cut long, like a trench coat, just shy of scuffing the ground. It was white, the best color that a woman’s starka came in. Eva refused to wear pink or lavender. Crystalis was full of too much pink and lavender.

Eva reached stairs that led to the makeshift stage just as the matrons appeared. The air of power that leaked from just their posture was enough to make Eva awe-struck. She couldn’t take her eyes off of them. They were perfect in scarlet starkas; probably dyed bear pelts. Their hair color matched, but one Guardian. Her hair was pink and worn straight and long. They all looked so serious.

The crowd began to cheer. Eva anchored herself next to a posh woman dressed in one of the most expensive-looking starkas that Eva had ever seen. The woman even had the antlers growing out of her forehead fashioned into a corona. The woman gave Eva a snobby glare and scoffed. She maneuvered herself within the limited space away from Eva, as if touching her would cause the woman’s status to drop.

Eva didn’t care. Her eyes were all for the Mirror Guard. They stood in a line upon the stage. Each matron stood next to her blade, one of the norwotter-clad men. It was a strange process: Becoming a Guardian. First of all, it seemed that only Cavamen boys could be “blades”. Over the hundreds of years that the walled city of Crystalis has existed, it has become tradition for friendly Cavamen tribes to offer their orphaned boys to the Guard. How a Crystalissian woman became a matron was a heavily guarded secret that one only found out once it was decided that she would be going through the process.

At this point the men were shapeshifting into their blade-forms. Eva stood on her tippy-toes, leaning as far as she could, to get a good view. Apparently, she’d pushed the personal space of the snobby woman and she snorted and pressed her way through the crowd despite disturbing all of the spectators she bumped into or stood in front of. Eva’s eyes were glued, mouth agape, as the blades became actual mirrorblades.

Eva had seen drawings and paintings of hundreds of mirroblades. Shards, she’s read everything she could find about Rainiar and her mirrorblade. But nothing matched seeing them there right before her. Their hilts were made from petrified or frozen wood. Their blades were made from a swirl of mana and ice in a way that made the flats of their blades perfect mirrors. Each matron’s blade was shaped different, though they were all predominantly longer than the wielding matron was tall.

Being this close to so many mirrorblades, Eva could swear that she could feel the energy vibrating around her. She bathed in it, closing her eyes for a moment. Those blades were the most respected and revered symbols in Crystalis, other than the Goddess herself, of course.

Once all of the mirrorblades were all formed, the Guardians raised their swords, a simple gesture, that was followed by a thunderous cheer. This time the crowd was louder than when the Guardians initially walked on stage. Eva felt herself hooting and clapping herself. Then she sheepishly stopped. Goddess was watching. Mirror Guardians didn’t loose themselves in excitement.

Eva wanted nothing more out of life than to be a Mirror Guardian herself — like Rainiar la Jaguar. Like the group of matrons standing before her.

“Found you.” Eva rolled her eyes.

“Hello Benjamin.” She grumbled. “See, they made it.”

“Right you are.” Benjamin said. “Oh look! Ono’s on stage.”

Eva tried not to draw Ono’s attention. He had arrived late, and judging by all of the matrons’ faces, they’d all noticed. Ono didn’t have a matron bond yet. It was no easy task finding the right chemistry to form the bond needed to complete a matron-blade pair and create a mirrorblade. However, as a blade in training, Ono practiced and followed all of the traditions of a full-blown Guardian.

Which meant, he stepped right into synchronization in the kata that the other Mirror Guardians had already begun. Though he was not in blade-form and didn’t have a blade to hold, he matched each of the steps that the matrons were taking.

Most of the kata was in lurestance, a stance used to attract your enemy closer. It was more a trick move that took some finesse to land, but it was pretty to see. Definitely not a stance you wanted to use against giant snow wyrms. Ono fumbled a little through the fancy footwork. Eva pretended not to notice.

“Don’t say anything stupid.” Eva grumbled.

“Stupid?” Benjamin asked. “Highness, I am full of proven facts. Stupid would imply that what I’d say is unintelligent. Nothing can be unintelligent if it is indeed, fact.”

“Ugh. Just stop talking.” Eva said.

“I will enter power saving mode.” Benjamin closed his eyes.

Ono taught Eva everything she knew about the Mirror Guard that she probably wasn’t supposed to know. It was strictly forbidden for Guardians the fraternize with “regular” Crystalissians. Ono caught Eva’s eye and he stuttered in his next move. Eva cowered back. Ono wouldn’t have been too happy for Eva to be here — and this close. He was very afraid of the matrons catching on to them. Eva being there made him nervous.

Eva ducked back into the throng. She didn’t want to freak Ono out in front of the other matrons.

“There you go again… Ness, ness!” Benjamin was calling through the crowd. The cheering and hooting thundered after the Guardians completed their kata. Eva eventually couldn’t hear Benjamin calling after her. Her puffy starka making it truly impossible to move through the throng. She desperately tried to squeeze between everyone else’s starka.

Everyone was moving towards the stage. Eva was forcing her way, away. Nearing the end of the mass, Eva heard the loudest crash that she’d ever heard. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked towards the stage and the Mirror Guardians doing their kata. Even though that was where she looked first she knew instinctively that that wasn’t where the crash had come from. She hesitantly looked towards the wall.

Hundreds of feet in the air the wall of crystal and ice stood as guard against the dangers of the Stark. People began pointing and screaming. There, just above the highest point of the wall — was a figure. Something was moving, bashing itself against the solid ice! The Mirror Guardians quit their kata and jumped into the thick crowd, forcing their way to various access points in the wall. One of the Guardians was particularly powerful with manipulating ice and made a pathway that she was able to skate upon, angled straight towards the closest point in the wall.

Eva could see Guardians already on the wall. They looked like moth larvae for how far away they were. Panic began to seep through the crowd. Suddenly the alarms started to blare and holler, warning everyone to take shelter. There had never been a breech, but for safety, every so often the wyrms took a beating out on the wall and the Crystalissians would be sheltered for a day or two.

And then — an equally as thunderous bang sounded from another point in the wall. This one came from the opposite side. Eva looked where people were screaming and pointing. Another snow wyrm’s head peeked over the wall, looking hungrily down at all the delicious prey. People were running around her frantic. Eva could only think of her brother. He was alone back at their hotel — and she knew he would not hunker down without her.

A third roaring crash sounded from a different part in the wall. The snow wyrms, though often very solitary, except for mating, seemed to be working together. Eva began running for home. For a moment — she wished Benjamin was with her.