Waverly yelled as she broke through the water surface, the pressure under her propelling her a thousand feet into the air. Ceta had blown water out of her blowhole again which had sent her flying out of the ocean like a geyser. She caught the sound of panicked yelps as she landed roughly against the hard ground. It was strewn with wet leaves and sticks but it did not make Waverly's fall any less uncomfortable.

"Many thanks, Ceta." She whimpered quietly whilst trying to sit up but her back felt like it had been used to hammer a metal board.

She heard the rustling of leaves and the scampering of feet from behind and laid flat on her back, tilting her neck to take a look. From her upside down vision, she saw Judson approaching carefully. He hastened his steps when he realized it was Waverly.

"She is back." He announced joyously and ran straight to Waverly to help her up. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? What was that?"

It seemed the whale had known to drop her off at the exact spot where her friends made camp.

Judson bombarded Waverly with questions as he led her through the forest and into a clearing not far from the ocean. She spotted the dark figure of Brijjet standing waist high in the water, peering down into it. He peeled his gaze and turned to them.

"Did you ride a bloody whale all the way here or was i only hallucinating?" He asked looking so astonished that Waverly feared his hair might burst into flames.

Waverly waved her hand trying to explain but her mouth refused to open. Judson helped her sit as Brijjet waddled out of the water. He looked different as he approached and when he finally came closer, she realized why.

All the black in his hair was gone.

"What happened to you? To you both?" She asked looking from Brijjet to Judson. They looked like they had been in a fight with eagles. Scratches and injuries were visible across their skin and clothes. They looked so raggedy that if Waverly had seen them from a large distance, she would have mistaken them for a pair of poor, homeless people.

"I think the proper question is - what happened to you? You've been gone for five days. Today is the winter solstice and we only have a few hours til dawn." Brijjet said. He handed her a blanket and began to put together some food.

The camp was small and had no tent but they had enough supplies to sustain three. Waverly realized that they had included her despite her absence.

She turned to Judson. He looked a lot less tattered than Brijjet did. His eyes had bags under them which indicated that he had not been sleeping. Brijjet was the same way. Waverly pointed this out.

"We thought you could not find the way back from where you had gone and so we went looking for you wherever we could. We even searched back in Dakriton but the city was in ruins. Nobody would even speak to us." Judson said.

"The fires." Waverly recalled.

Brijjet nodded glumly. "Leveled half the city. A lot of citizens are going downtown seeking refuge. They'll find it, i'm sure. Those folks downtown have a lot of protection. We came back when we couldn't find you. A couple of Hags attacked us on our way here."

"Hags?" Waverly frowned. She did not know what those were.

Judson growled. "Wicked, feisty old ladies. They almost scratched my eyes out."

Brijjet chuckled. "They're a pain and it's incredibly difficult to get them off when their claws are on you but anyway, we managed to fend them off. Last night, a man came to us."

"A god." Judson corrected.

Brijjet hastily agreed. "Whatever. He told us he put you on The Trials and while on the seventh Trial, you didn't make it back. He never knew where you went. We thought you were dead, honestly."

Waverly turned to look at Judson who now looked at her like she was covered in gold.

"You took on The Trials. That is amazing, Waverly." Judson said. His skin, even in the dark, became visibly pink.

"Yeah. You're tougher than i thought. I heard those tasks could kill you the moment you began." Brijjet said tilting his head then his face brightened. "How was it?"

"I will tell you both later but now we have to do something." Waverly said shrugging off her blanket.

"What? Still travel to Enton? I told you it's useless because we're not invited. The gods won't take pity on us and just let us through, you know. It's all a big waste of time." Brijjet said. The sleeved jacket of his armor was gone and so was his mask. Waverly thought he might have taken them off but as she looked around the camp briefly, she caught sight of neither.

"Yes. I realize that now but i have an idea. What if we do not go to them? What if we called one of them to us? That way, we could get an invitation." Waverly said looking up at the sky. It was still a bit dark because it was not yet dawn but there was a dull violet light about, bright enough for them to see around. And also, being near the ocean made the weather very cold and misty. Waverly had realized that the moment she shook off her blanket.

Brijjet and Judson shared a short glance then gazed at Waverly. Brijjet spoke first.

"That's not an entirely great idea but it's also not an entirely stupid one."

Judson walked forward. "Which god do you think we should call to?"

Waverly turned to face her friends. She could clearly remember her mother mentioning the name of a particular god when they had last seen each other atop a rock plateau. She had not really bothered about who the god was back then but now she knew.

"Thern." She stated firmly.

Brijjet gave a short gasp. "Are you kidding us right now? You're going to invoke the god of sunrise? He's one of the most powerful Entonians next to Cret herself."

"Exactly why we need him. He can grant us passage into Enton because he will be there when the Veil opens. He is the rising sun after all."

"But what if he refuses to?" Judson added. His tone sounded worried.

"He cannot because we will be appeasing him as well." Waverly said shooting a glance at Brijjet.

He chuckled nervously. "Why are you looking at me? Hold on, you two aren't gonna use me as the sacrifice of appeasement, are you? I mean, i would make a really splendid sacrifice but at the same time, i'm not ready to die just yet."

Waverly rolled her eyes. "No, Brijjet. You are not the sacrifice but you will catch the sacrifices for us."

"What exactly are we about to do?" Judson asked staring hard at Waverly.

Waverly shrugged. "We. . . are about to make the world's largest bonfire."

The trio worked quickly as the dark clouds seemed to be brightening even quicker. Judson and Waverly gathered huge logs of wood while Brijjet hunted for deer. While they piled the wood as high as they could, he would run to them at intervals to drop off a dead deer or a doe and leave comments about the animals as he did.

"That's four, tough catch."

"That's five, she had a family. I feel terrible."

"That's six, that one was limping. I think i broke his hind leg."

"That's seven, his mom is already on the pile."

"That's eight, watch out he might just be playing dead cause he kicked me in the shin."

By the time Brijjet was done hunting, they had twenty deers ready to go.

"How do we start a fire?" Judson asked as he helped Brijjet heft a deer onto the log. They had built a place like a table in the middle of the logs so that they could pile the animals.

"Leave that bit to me." Waverly muttered. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small blue tinderbox. It felt icy cold like the depths of the ocean. It used to be her old one and she had used the last stick on Gruggun but Gayl had modified it. The matchsticks inside were made of hard redwood and on the box were the symbols of wind and water. Waverly quickly blocked them with her thumb when she caught Brijjet trying to look.

"How were you soaking wet but it isn't?" He inquired with a small frown.

"We have to do this right." Waverly said inhaling deeply. She watched the clouds, waiting for the right moment. The darkness disappeared and was slowly replaced by the reddish pink tint of the morning sky.

Waverly struck a tinder and the stick caught fire immediately. "Lord Thern, come forth! We beseech you with our humble sacrifice."

She threw the stick into the pile and an unnatural roaring flame erupted, engulfing the deers and the logs. The fire grew so high that Waverly feared it would touch some of the trees and start a fire but when nothing happened, she relaxed.

"How long do we have to wait?" Brijjet asked coming over to stand near Waverly as she stared into the flames.

"I have no idea." She mumbled still staring into the fire.

Judson came to stand on her other side and together they watched the animals burn, filling the air with the smell of roast meat. Then when they least expected it, the smell turned from tangy to sweet.

"Can you smell that?" Brijjet asked, turning around to pinpoint where the sweet odor came from.

"By Juniper. Look over there." Judson gasped and pointed at the sky.

A few thousand miles up, a shape had begun to form in the clouds. It was rather very large and shone a bright yellow. At first, Waverly thought it was just a cloud illuminated by the sun but the sun had not come out yet. The figure suddenly dropped right in front of them, a few walks away from the burning pile.

". . . here? Why must i come now?" A masculine voice became audible as the figure began to shimmer into existence.

Waverly could see the golden outline of a face, hair, arms and robes but the god was not yet fully formed. The silent hum of what she recognized as powerful godly aura surrounded the form making her feel slightly unsettled.

"You came." She breathed in awe, nonetheless. She had initially feared her plan would not work but now she was much too scared and too excited to speak.

"Yes. I came because you called to me just now, Selene." The god said sounding rather confused.

Waverly shot perplexed glances at Brijjet and Judson. She wondered if they heard what the god had said. He had mistaken her for her mother but nobody dared to say a word.

The god's face finally became visible. He was very handsome in a youthful way. He was golden haired and his hair looked like a spongy curtain, held in place by a bunch of brown woven twigs. His eyes were also golden but not in the terrifying way Waverly had come to recognize because his solemn face made them look absolutely normal and beautiful. His vibrant robes were the color of lemon clover and they shimmered in the budding daylight. Despite his robes, Waverly could tell he was powerfully built but he was only as tall as Brijjet.

Waverly thought it was finally time to speak to him. The god did not seem to have noticed the trio at all.

"Lord Thern. . ." She began, bending in curtsey when something whistled past her ear. Waverly's head snapped to the forest. Thern looked in the same direction.

"Cruels!" Brijjet yelled and whipped out his bow as fast as lightning. Waverly turned to the god but his form had already begun to fade.

"Selene, i cannot be in the presence of darkness and you know that." Thern's voice thinned out in complaint as the golden shimmer around him dulled to nothing but the light of the rising sun.

"No!" Waverly gasped trying to reach for the god but he was gone.

Brijjet went into battle mode, firing arrows like rainfall on his enemies - enemies, that Waverly could not yet see. Even though she could not see it, she felt the sickly familiar sense of unnatural emptiness that signified darkness. The enemy, she suspected, were all creatures of the dark side.

She pulled Calaire free and it curved into a crescent once again.

Just then, a nasty looking creature zipped out of the trees as fast as Brijjet could run but Waverly was half expecting a surprise attack so she cut it in half before it could touch her. Before she could fully register what ugly the creature even was, a hundred more emerged from the forest. The top of the trees shook violently and a big ugly head - Waverly blinked in shock - four big ugly heads came into view.

"Giants!" She gasped. They took only a few strides before their entire body became visible. Each one was dressed tatterdemalion, carrying a club the size of a house and a pair of shears so large that it could cut two trees in half with only one snap. Around the feet of the giants, several other strange creatures flooded about.

Waverly recalled the names of a few - Hags, Wrays, Quagmire beasts, Gibbers (stone men), Outcasts and Ogres, amongst others. They invaded the forest, cheering as they felled trees and trampled them to sticks of wood, throwing large boulders and brandishing the strange weapons they brought with them.

Waverly fended off about thirty but more kept pouring in. From where she fought, she could see the blue and silver blur that was Brijjet, sprinting faster than the eyes could follow, leaving dead bodies behind. He had even taken Karya off Waverly and she did not realize it until she saw a flash of green drive through the stomach of a Hag.

"Jud." Waverly gasped in realization. She spun a full circle looking for Judson. He had been standing at her right side, near the ocean, when the attack had started but now he was nowhere to be seen.

"Brijjet? Where is Jud?" She yelled as she ducked out of the way of a swinging chain whip.

"Dunn. . . ." Brijjet half replied and half yelled before he was again lost in the crowd.

Waverly tried to look for an escape route but the creatures were everywhere. The only other option was the ocean itself but her friends were not very good swimmers. Also, the creatures would catch them before they made twenty strokes through the water.

Waverly fought and fought, switching Calaire between her left and right hand. The Outcasts did nothing but give orders and the creatures obeyed them. They knocked down the bonfire Waverly had made and stamped the flames out but some of the ashes caught on dry leaves and a new wildfire began to spread.

"Jud!" Waverly yelled frantically looking about for him.

Then she spotted him, encircled by a large number of Wrays, creatures known as secret suckers. They looked like Humans but they were much uglier and had no mouth. This was because when they sucked out secrets from any living creature, they never told them again. They were grabbing Judson who had seemingly gone half unconscious. His black wing smoked fervently but the Wrays ignored it. Waverly doubted that they felt the heat from his skin since Wrays were also void of senses.

Waverly's path was blocked by a number of smaller Gibbers (the bigger ones were ogre sized) and a few Hags so she could not get to Judson. A Hag suddenly grabbed hold of her collar. The old lady's wings flapped violently behind her but they sounded more to Waverly like bones rattling. She swung Calaire and severed the Hag's wings. The old creature screeched and let go.

This gave Waverly a little space to maneuver from the reach of her attackers. Her eyes clocked to Judson again. The Wrays had begun to pull him with them but it seemed he was too heavy even for their number. Far off, leaning against the foot of an unmoving giant, was a man. He was not fighting. He wore old handwoven clothes that was heavily belted across his chest and a sword hung from his belt. He looked to be enjoying the chaos. He was an Outcast but he was not as bulky as his kind. He was graceful and slender like an Elf.

Waverly stole glances at him as often as she could in between strikes from her blade and those of her attackers. The man was looking in the direction of the Wrays with a small smile on his face. When Judson was brought before him, he pulled out a conch shell and blew into it. The fighting suddenly stopped.

The Quagmire beast Waverly was fighting growled at her, huffed then placed his club against his shoulder. Dirt and mud dropped off him as he walked back to the line that was slowly forming behind the man with the conch.

Brijjet appeared next to her. He was breathing heavily and his injuries had doubled but a stupid grin decorated his dirty face. These combined with his sharp white hair made him look rather wild and handsomer. He twirled his bow and took aim, two arrows materialized in between his fingers as soon as he pulled the bowstring.

"Ah ah ah!" The man with the conch warned ticking his fingers sideways. He strolled leisurely toward Waverly and Brijjet with one hand resting on the sheath of his sword.

"You have a strange fascination with cutting down your enemies, you should be with my army." He said flashing a grin at Brijjet.

"Your army?" Waverly growled. "You could not lead an army of ants if you were given the chance."

The man's green eyes narrowed. "And who might you be?"

"I am the one who will separate your wrist from your arm if you do not ask those things to let go of Jud." Waverly said. Her multicolored eyes seemed to blaze for a minute.

"Tough, are you eh, girl?" The man chuckled. Waverly noticed how his eyeballs were mismatched in such a way that it looked as though he was looking up and sideways at once. HalfHyde told Waverly once that such people were usually born under the strangest magical circumstances. She hated to find out what this man's was.

The man spoke over his shoulder to his very restless army. "Remember why we're here. No funny business. We have the boy and now we can go in peace."

"You will go in pieces if you dare try to take him with you." Waverly barked. The creatures in the front row flinched.

"Yeah." Brijjet added indignantly and stretched the bowstring further, two more arrows appeared in it but he was not pulling them. "You will lose more than your wrist if you take the boy. Be reasonable and walk away while these arrows haven't left my bow yet."

"I see you two do not want to go about this peacefully." The man said looking thoughtfully at them.

"You attacked us first. What's peaceful about that?" Brijjet asked.

"Alright, i admit it but you are on the losing side so i do not care. We came for the boy and now that we have him, our work here is done." The man said and turned to signal the Wrays. They began to move Judson.

"Ours isn't." Brijjet snapped and let go of his arrows. It impaled four Cruels instantly. He wasted no time in running to the Wrays, killed six of them within a flash and was already climbing up a giant.

"Hey." The giant complained as he tried to swat Brijjet away but before he could lift his hand a second time, Brijjet had decorated his head with arrows so that he looked like he wore a crown. The giant's eyes rolled back but Brijjet did not stop shooting at him. He ran off before the giant fell down with a loud rumble. The wind from his fall put out some of the forest fire.

"Oh dear!" The man with the conch muttered peevishly. He did nothing but watch Brijjet as he singlehandedly cut down half of his army.

Waverly was too dumbstruck to move. She watched Brijjet as well. He seemed to run three times faster than he usually did. She guessed that he did so because he was agitated. None of the creatures could catch him and none saw him coming.

"I can see that one's very valuable." The man chuckled and pointed to Brijjet from over his shoulder.

Waverly was about to say something when in a flash, the man had intercepted Brijjet. He had just run past the ocean before the man caught him in the neck. His fingers dug into Brijjet's skin such that he drew blood.

Brijjet suddenly went stiff, his eyes bulged in shock.

"Very fast, you are, but i see your destination long before you get there. Pathetic." He said pitifully. Then he turned to one of the Cruels and said in a very evil tone. "Kill it."

Before Waverly's brain could comprehend what was happening, she heard a faint thud and a sharp gasp. When she was finally able to focus on what was in front of her, Brijjet had already dropping to his knees with blood dribbling out of his mouth and his face twisting in pain.

Waverly watched in cold horror.

A larger-than-normal fish hook protruded from his stomach and blood gushed out of the wound staining his silver vest. A Cruel had hauled the hook at him as if waiting for the exact moment to do so. One of the Hags flew over and picked him up by the shoulder, flapped unsteadily towards the ocean and dropped him. He fell in with a loud splash.

"No." Waverly screamed and tried to move but two Outcasts grabbed her. She struggled against the men as they binded her roughly with strong ropes. A thick material was stuffed into her mouth to prevent her from making a sound.

She wriggled in an attempt to free herself from the men's grip but when they finally let go, she fell sideways - hard. She had been bundled up tightly such that she could not move even in the slightest.

The man with the conch walked over to Waverly. He held Karya in his hands and turned the blade about as if examining it.

"A Cultivator's Weapon can only do so much but it's completely useless against an army of darkness." He said. With that, he lifted his thigh and snapped the blade against it, breaking it into two. He threw the remains and walked away.

"Have a lovely day." His voice rang from within the trees as he led his evil army back into the forest, taking Judson with them.

Waverly's moans and shrieks were muffled as she wriggled and flipped over in an attempt to get her hands free but they were bound tightly to her side. The ropes burned against her skin and caused itching across her body. Her eyes stung with hot, angry tears as she strained to sit up. She maneuvered her tongue delicately around the material in her mouth and pushed it out. Her eyes lingered on where Brijjet had been thrown into the sea. She knew he had no chance of swimming out and she feared he was already dead. The possibility of this pulled out all the threads that held down her temperamental constraint.

An idea suddenly surfaced amidst all the turbulence in her mind. She laid back down on the ground and moved the hand where Calaire rested around her wrist. Looking the other way, she willed the band to elongate into a sword. It happened so briskly that Waverly acquired a large, deep cut across her arm. She winced in pain as the ropes fell off.

Without wasting a moment, she sprinted toward the ocean and plunged into the coldness. It took her a while as her own injuries burned but she finally spotted Brijjet. The weight of the fish hook in his body had caused him to descend deeper into the water. Waverly came out for air then quickly returned back into the water. It was a long swim but at last, she got to him and managed to pull him out. It was the most tedious thing Waverly had ever done and she considered it even more difficult than half the Trials she had undergone.

Brijjet lay sprawled out on the ocean bed as Waverly fussed over his injury. She knew that the hook would be impossible to get out and Brijjet had already lost too much blood. It seemed hopeless to save him now.

In her befuddled and angry state of mind, she began to sob.

"You said you were not ready to die yet." She yelled at Brijjet and stamped a fist against the ground.

Brijjet looked swollen and had gone paper white. Waverly gently lifted his head and placed it ontop of her lap. Her eyes rummaged the surrounding in search of anything at all that would prove helpful. Then she caught sight of the green pouch hanging from Brijjet's belt. It was bulging strangely next to his dagger and this was the first time it had ever looked that way. Waverly had always assumed that it was empty save for the invisible rope.

Nonetheless, she reached for it and pulled out whatever was inside. It was the hard skin horn of a sea unicorn. A very rare sea animal. Waverly wondered how the horn had found its way into Brijjet's pouch but then again, she always suspected that items could materialize out of it whenever he wished. The horn was beautifully carved and looked like it had been cut into two halves.

Waverly examined it. She had seen horns like that in her lessons. They were musical horns but they released a different kind of song.

"Songs of distress." She muttered and quickly blew into the horn. The music that came out of it was the saddest most beautiful one Waverly had ever heard and it moved her to tears as it rang across the forest, over the ocean and into the sky.

She checked her arm and winced. The injury had swollen and was bleeding profusely. Her arm seemed to weigh twice its usual size and the pain made her become very light-headed. She waited for whomever the horn had called out to but nothing happened. Her mind raced back to Judson and her eyes filled with tears again. She could not bring herself to believe he had been taken right before her eyes. A pang of dread, pain and anger nestled in her chest threatening to explode but her body was much too exhausted to comply.

I will bring him back. Waverly vowed silently.

She laid flat next to Brijjet, her breathing shallow and forced. The sound of galloping hooves suddenly filled Waverly's ears as she battled with her heavy eyelids. She half saw the blurry brilliant armor of two horses and succumbing to their soft neighs at last, she fell into deep unconsciousness.

The Honor of Light|
Book 02