Chapter 6

It had been days since Hush was brought to this castle. He was locked in a cell with a simply key lock, no way for his ghost to hack it open for him. So he was left to wait. On the third day he had heard gunfire in the distance. The fight lasted for a couple hours but the sounds eventually died out. The fifth and sixth days were also riddled with the sounds of gun fight. Finally on the 9th day his cell door opened and Shaxx entered.

"Have my people been feeding you?" he asked. Hush nodded. Two or three times a day an individual would stop by his cell and pass a tray of food under the gap at the bottom of the cell door. "Good," Shaxx continued. He walked over to the bed and sat on the mattress across from Hush who was sitting on the floor leaning against the wall.

"I don't think you're an Iron Lord. My men told me about how they took you down in the woods. Iron Lords never travel alone and are certainly much harder to sneak up on. So that leaves Warlord. You obviously killed Mindan. Was it to take her land?" Shaxx's voice was soft but still gruff and stern like a father telling a child why the dumb thing they did was dangerous.

"No," said Hush. He went on to tell Shaxx about the village, the harsh punishments that her people endured, and the young couple. Shaxx was quiet as Hush explained everything to him in great detail, including his attack on the village thereafter. He was hesitant at first, unsure how Shaxx would react. As Hush told about the innocents that fell in the village during his attack tears welled up in his eyes.

When he was finished Shaxx was quiet for a moment. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking beneath that helmet. Finally Shaxx asked just one question, "When were you raised?"

"About a month or two ago." Shaxx's body posture changed at this. It was impossible to tell without facial expressions but Hush guessed it was surprise.

"You are newly raised and you managed to take down one of the strongest warlords in the area, that's impressive."

"To be fair, she was on her own travelling with just a few people."

"Even then, in a one on one fight she should have decimated you. So you either got lucky, or there is something powerful within you."

"I don't feel very powerful. At least not until the light comes out."

"Light is a tool to be used by us. It doesn't make us. Just as an anvil cannot forge a hammer, the light cannot do great things without us wielding it. You are fresh light. I'm going to teach you how to use it. You're gear will be given back to you at the gate. I need your help with something.

…

As they approached the gate Hush noticed that his weapons and armor was all laid out on a table near the gate but as he got closer he saw that it wasn't his armor. The armor that he had was black with a dark green inlaid throughout. This armor was actually a white with gold accents. "This isn't my armor," he said to Shaxx.

"It is now."

"But where's my armor? That's what I want to use."

"You're armor is right over there," Shaxx said, pointing behind Hush. Hush turned and saw his breastplate on a stand on the other end of the gate. He started toward it when a bolt of blue light flew past his head. He hit the ground as the gunshot echoed around him. He looked up at saw that the bolt had hit the center of the armor and burned straight through. It was ruined. "You're armor is from a time when the only thing you had to worry about was kinetic rounds. That is not the case any longer. It had been so damaged that it is completely useless."

Hush was livid for having his armor destroyed but Shaxx wasn't wrong. The number of rounds that made it through was staggering and there were more patches then original armor left. He turned back and walked back to the table. He looked over the armor. It was light, flexible, and comfortable. He picked up the helmet, the visor inlaid in the shape of a "T" going from his eyes down to the bottom of the face plates. He turned it around to put it on and saw that the name plate had been removed from his previous helmet and laid into the back of this one. The only thing that wasn't white. He put the armor on and was surprised and how much better it felt. This brought up some concerns.

"This armor doesn't feel very thick, how is it better than my previous set?"

"This armor is made of a combination of Hadronic Essence, Plasteel Plating, and Sapphire Wire. The result is armor just as strong against kinetic rounds as the armor you had used previously. But the added benefit is it's much more highly mobile. You can move in ways you couldn't in the old set which for a hunter is good. And if you are hit by a blast from an energy weapon, the armor can dissipate the blast allowing for you to survive longer once your light shield drops which could be just long enough to get to cover so your ghost can restore it. This could be the difference between life and death."

"What do you mean hunter?"

"There are three types of risen. Titans, such as me, are heavy hitters. We can take a punch and keep on going. Warlocks use light over standard weapons. They are much more aligned with the light and focus on restoration and healing. Not many of them become warlords. The last are the Hunters, like you. Your abilities lie more in guerilla tactics rather than head on combat and when you do engage in combat directly you use your mobility to your advantage, hence the lighter armor. My armor can survive more damage than yours, but I can't move like you can."

"How can you tell a Titan from a Warlock from a Hunter?"

"Combat style mostly but if you can't see them in combat look at their armor. That usually helps. Titans will always have big bulky armor, warlocks usually have long robes or dresses with several ornaments connected to the light, and hunters will be slender and thin. Anyone can typically be anything but if a hunter was wearing titan armor they would be slow. And if a titan was wearing hunter armor they would be shot down too quick. So they usually find one discipline and stick with it. Your original armor was designed in much the same way as this set so I assumed you had to be a hunter."

Hush was trying to find faults with the armor but was having a hard time coming up with one. Finally he just said, "Well it's not very good camouflage."

Shaxx laughed heartily, his white armor glistening in the sun. "That's true, but risen aren't supposed to hide. We make it our point to be known. To strike fear in those that we are hunting, so they know we are coming."

"That's not typically my way."

"No but it will be." Shaxx nodded to the individuals standing on either side of the gate. The gate was lifted and Hush was able to see out past the castle and found a field littered with debris of broken machines and rotting bodies of the fallen that had died there. Through the middle a lone path descended from the castle to the main road.

"What happened here?" Hush asked.

"The House of Black, they attacked us several times of the past few days. We've repelled them back but they are reuniting. That's what I need your help with. We're going to finish them off while they are licking their wounds." He reached out toward Hush and in his hands he held a sniper rifle that was sleek and beautiful. "Take this. It fires arc rounds, should help punch through any captains shields that we come across."

Hush took the weapon and as they walked down the path asked, "What's the House of Black?"

"The Fallen are broken into houses. These houses are their own little hierarchies. They usually fight against other houses for dominance over one region or another. This used to belong to the House of Misery but then we started to see more and more of the House of Black and less of the Misery until all that was left was Black. House of Misery was destroyed, absorbed, or moved."

"How do you tell them apart?" Shaxx stopped and walked over to one of the dead dregs lining the path. He grabbed the creatures arm and pulled it up, showing Hush the chest. There, it had a long black smear covering the center of the chest. In the middle, as though scratched out of the paint or whatever it was, were three odd alien symbols. He then dropped the body and walked over to a vandal. He pulled the cape up to show it to Hush, it too was black and had the same three symbols.

"The houses all have their own unique colors and markings. You get to recognize them after a while."

"So do you give the houses their nicknames based on the symbols and colors or what?"

"No, they tell us. Some of the Fallen have learned to speak our common tongue after having heard so much of it from their raids but it's broken. Understandable though."

This was blowing Hush's mind. Not only did these creatures have hierarchy but they also had a grasp of their language. He never would have thought as he's only ever heard them speak their own language. They got to the road and Shaxx stopped. "Before we go any further," he said. "We need to get you used to your light so you don't have another event like the one in that village. You know your light as a defense but do you know it as a weapon?"

"I know it builds up in me and then I can let it out."

"That's like setting a fire in a forest and walking away. Nothing might happen, or you might destroy everything. When you let it out, you need to control it. The light will shape to your imagination. You can tell it what to do or what to make and it will obey you. If you just let it out it will do what it wants which can lead to mass devastation against both enemies and allies.

"There was a hunter I heard about once who summoned solar light into his gun and used that to destroy a dark warlord known as Dredgen Yor when regular bullets couldn't do it. You can try that, or you can try something else. For example," he said as he held out his hand. Purple light emanated from Shaxx as a purple shield of light appeared on his forearm. "With this shield I can defend," he said while taking a defensive stance. The purple light blasted out from him in both directions creating a wall of void energy that protected him and anyone standing next to him. He continued, "or attack," as he swung his arm. The shield flew from his arm like a Frisbee blaring towards the tree line on the opposite side of the road with insane speed. The disc slammed into one tree after another as it bounced around before returning to his arm. The trees that it hit were instantly cut through and as they fell the void energy consumed them and they were nothing more before they even hit the ground.

"You two can use your light to create both defensive and offensive weapons."

"I used it to create a staff of arc energy when I fought against Mindan."

"Perfect. As long as you channel it into something you can do whatever you would like, that is the power of the light and the gift that we have. Now summon your staff, let's see what you got!" Shaxx yelled as he threw the shield at Hush.