When they left their makeshift lair deep underneath the wall, they were forced to squish together on the stone platform Klein had created. Despite their pleas for a wider platform, it quickly became apparent that there were limitations to Klein’s powers. Though he was a C-ranker, just as Vlad had been, Terry began to realize that there were levels within a given rank. Vlad had been particularly powerful for a C-ranker, while Klein appeared to be, if not below average, then firmly middle-of-the-pack. Still, they made do with the limited space.
Katie and Peter huddled in a corner, talking quietly amongst themselves. Alan and Tania pulled out a pack of cards to whittle away the time. Tristan and Sol occupied another corner, continuing their lesson on Light manipulation, while Klein stood at the head of the platform, propelling them through the earth towards Terraform’s Market.
Terry surveyed the group, feeling drawn toward the card game but realizing that the next few hours would be better spent practicing his abilities. An idea had been niggling at his brain, but he’d been too busy to chase it down. Now, with the forced boredom and an expert Light Elementalist at hand, it seemed like the perfect time to see if the idea had merit.
As he walked over to Tristan and Sol, he pulled out the Artifact he had taken from Wichita all those months ago, colloquially referred to as a Lamp. He hoped that utilizing this powerful, magically enhanced device could help him unlock the full capabilities of his Light manipulation.
“Hey guys, mind if I join you?” Terry asked.
Tristan and Sol gladly made space for him to sit cross-legged nearby.
“Join us, my boy,” Sol said eagerly. “We were just discussing wavelength manipulation.”
“Oh, sounds interesting,” Terry replied. “I did have a question for you though, Sol.”
Sol’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” Terry said hesitantly. “I don’t know if I told you, but I was a pretty big fan growing up.”
“No, you didn’t tell me.”
Terry felt his face flush. “Yeah, I might have had your poster on my wall,” he said with a chuckle.
“Ooh, how’d I look?” Sol asked with a wry smile.
“Like a golden god.”
Tristan and Sol laughed at that.
“But the reason I bring it up is, I’ve seen a lot of what you can do with your powers, and I was wondering if…”
“Yes? Don’t be coy. I’m an open book.”
For some reason, Terry felt silly asking the question, leaning into this idle fantasy. “Well, I guess I was wondering if you were able to create lasers with your powers?”
A smile split Sol’s face. “Oh, yes, Terry. I’m not just a walking nuke, you know.”
A chagrined expression crossed Terry’s face, and he quickly tried to backtrack. “No, no, I’m not saying that—”
Sol waved away his concern. “I’m just kidding. And to answer your question, yes, I can create lasers. It’s a difficult process, though—finicky, requires supreme control. Although, now that I think about your use of portals, there are some interesting applications.”
Terry shot Tristan an embarrassed look. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hijack your training session. It’s just—”
“No, no, no,” Tristan interrupted. “Lasers are freaking cool. If Sol can teach us to make lasers, I’m all about it.”
Terry turned back to Sol. “Do you think…we could learn to create lasers?”
Sol put a thoughtful finger to his lip. “Hmm, that depends on you. I think it’s possible, but not all lasers are created equal. You could easily create a laser to judge ranges or mark targets, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be cutting through metal or finding practical use in combat.”
“I’m willing to try,” Terry said, “if you’re willing to teach me.”
Sol turned to Tristan with a questioning look. “You sure? I feel like you’re close to a breakthrough. Don’t want to lose your momentum.”
Tristan nodded enthusiastically. “My brain was fried anyway. I could use a mental break. Plus, I want to see this.”
Sol chuckled lightly. “Okay.” His eyes trailed down to the Lamp artifact on Terry’s hip. “And I see you came prepared.”
Terry rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a second wave of red touch his face. “I don’t know if it’ll work or be helpful in any way, but I figured we needed some sort of energy source since I’m not an Infuser.”
Sol held out his hand. “Can I take a look?”
“Oh, sure.” Terry detached the Lamp and handed it over. Sol studied the Artifact for a minute, then flicked the switch, turning it on. Blinding bright light shot out in a wave, and cries of pain and surprise echoed from the others, unprepared for the sudden brilliance.
“Turn it off!” Tania yelled.
“My eyes!” Alan cried dramatically. “Oh, my eyes!”
Rather than turn the Lamp off, Sol simply flexed his aura. The light shifted, turning into a thin strand that pooled into his palm like a ball of liquid magma. To Terry’s eye, it almost seemed as if the Lamp was off, the way all the brilliance had gathered into Sol’s hand. But as he reached out with his senses, he realized that Sol was continuously drawing energy from the Artifact, increasing the intensity of the ball of light cupped idly before them.
Terry watched in fascination, using his aura to try and map exactly what Sol was doing. After a few moments, Sol flicked the Lamp off, but the ball of light remained cupped in his hand.
“Open your senses, boys. Follow along.” With the light in his right hand, he reached out with his left. Terry opened his aura senses as wide as he could.
“There are a few specific requirements to take simple, diffuse light and turn it into a directed beam capable of cutting through metal or flesh.” They watched as Sol’s aura kneaded the light, shaping it like dough, drawing the ball out into a thin strand in the center. As he created that thin strand, the excess material formed at the ends, creating an almost dumbbell shape with the light.
“The first thing you need to understand about lasers,” Sol continued, “is the concept of directionality, otherwise known as collimation. The waves of light need to be parallel to each other, moving in the direction you want your laser to point. Do you see what I’m doing with my aura here?”
Terry leaned in close, letting his senses range over the thin strand of light. He felt Sol’s aura creating a structure, almost like a thin tunnel corralling the light, funneling it in a straight line. He said as much, and Sol nodded in agreement.
“The next thing you need to take into account is wavelength. All the photons in a laser must be of the same wavelength, otherwise known as monochromaticity.” Sol grinned at the long word. “Basically, it just means the light needs to be the same color.”
A second stream of aura traced along his finger, shifting the light’s color from yellow to green to blue to red, then invisible, then back to cycling through the gamut of the rainbow before settling on a bright red color inside the thin tunnel.
“The third piece is coherence. The phase of the waves needs to be in sync.” He suddenly pointed towards Tristan. “Can you expound upon that, Tristan?”
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Tristan flinched at being called out, his eyes flashing wide for a moment before he looked off in thought. “Well,” he started to say, “even if the wavelengths are the same size and shape, if they’re not in alignment, they actually have a…destructive influence on each other, canceling each other out in a way, lowering the intensity.”
Sol nodded. “Good, good.” Then he waved his hand for Tristan to continue.
“But if the wavelengths are in phase, as in they match up with each other, they actually have an amplification effect, increasing the intensity.”
Sol snapped his fingers and pointed at Tristan once more. “Exactly. How do we get our light to align into an amplification phase?” He pointed at Terry now. “Terry, any thoughts?”
“Um,” Terry felt his pulse elevate, a spike of anxiety at being asked a question well outside his wheelhouse. “To be honest, I don’t know much about light phases or coherence.”
“That’s fine, that’s fine,” Sol said quickly. “Just throw out an idea. There’s no wrong responses. We’re just brainstorming here.”
Terry thought back to what little he knew about lasers. Of course, he had done some research when the idea had begun to form, but he hadn’t exactly had ready access to the internet. And pestering Whipvine or his father to do research for him over System chat wasn’t something that sat right with him.
“Well,” he started. “I know that mirrors are used in lasers sometimes. And there’s something in between the mirrors…” He tried to remember the name. “Something about a gain?”
Sol nodded enthusiastically. Whatever Terry’s opinion of Sol the hero had been, he had to admit that Sol the teacher was an eager and interested educator—the type of teacher that could make a boring subject seem exciting and novel with his own energy.
“Good, Terry. Lasers do use mirrors and what’s called a gain medium. Tristan, I know you know this, but let’s get Terry up to speed. A gain medium is a particular substance, could be gas, liquid, type of rare earth element, and so on. When photons are introduced into the gain medium, there’s a reaction that forms additional photons of the same wavelength and phase—clones of the originator photon. Now, these photons are in phase and they reflect off of a mirror, sending them back through the gain medium. More photons in phase are created, bouncing off a second mirror, and so on. As these photons are formed in phase, the intensity of the light increases. And eventually, these in-phase photons will exit and form what we call a laser.”
Sol looked at Tristan. “Now the question is, can we bring photons in phase with one another? Tristan, what do you think?”
Tristan pursed his lips in thought. “There’s a couple of ways I could think of,” he started.
“Please,” Sol said. “The floor is yours.”
Tristan glanced at Terry nervously. “Well, my first thought was a filter, like a lens, where only photons in phase can pass through.”
“Mm-hmm,” Sol said. “It sounds like you’re on the right track. Keep going.”
“So if we had a way of filtering out the light so that only the in-phase photons can propagate, then we should be able to create a coherent beam, although I don’t know if it’ll be a laser per se.”
“Okay, yeah.” Sol turned to Terry. The way he said it, Terry wasn’t sure if Tristan had said something stupid or genius. “Any other thoughts, Terry?”
“We can shift the wavelength, right? So, who’s to say we can’t shift the timing of the wavelength as well?”
Sol smiled, and Terry felt emboldened, like he might be on the right track. He looked at the thin stream of light, still cupped between Sol’s palms. It was strange, now that he really examined it. To the naked eye, the light didn’t course back and forth through the tunnel Sol had created with his aura, but at the same time, he knew the light wasn’t static. By its very underlying foundation, it had to be constantly in motion.
He reached out with his aura, and tried to sense the physical light being contained within Sol’s aura. He tried to feel the movement of the photons, to gauge their speed and trajectory. But as soon as his aura touched the light, there seemed to be conflicting sensations. He felt the energy transmitted by the light but couldn’t sense any motion, even though he knew the light must be moving—it was reflecting to his eyes, after all.
On a whim, he began to form a small portal, no bigger than the fingernail on his pinky. He noticed Sol narrowing his eyes, but the man didn’t interrupt. The small, thumbnail-sized exit portal pointed ahead of them at head level, aiming down the direction of the tunnel that Klein was actively creating as he ferried them further towards the Market. Then Terry began to form the entrance portal, equally as small, right in the center of that thin strand of light connecting the two balls that made up either side of the dumbbell.
As soon as the portal formed, that sharp line of brilliant light shot through the exit portal but quickly diffused as it left Sol’s control. The entire tunnel was cast in a wave of brilliant light, and the others grumbled once more as they were temporarily blinded. But Terry didn’t let the portal go. Instead, he released the exit portal and formed a new one back in between that thin strand of light, such that the entrance and exit of his two thumbnail-sized portals were facing each other.
Sol leaned in with interest while Tristan narrowed his eyes. The strand of light Terry had intercepted became trapped in the loop, entering his portal, exiting in the same line, entering again, and so on. Sol’s aura maintained that thin tunnel, corralling the light into that directional beam.
“Interesting idea,” Sol said quietly. “We have the directionality and we have the monochromaticity, but we’re still missing that coherence piece.”
With the light all in the same wavelength and direction, the only step left was to figure out how to alter the photons to be within the same phase.
When Terry activated his Master of Light skill, there was an element of autopilot to it, as with all System skills. Part of it was conscious control of his aura, but a significant piece was the System guiding his hand, almost listening to his intentions. He knew from past experience that System Skills were guidelines that could be altered. In fact, altering those guidelines was how he had discovered his Master of Light Skill in the first place.
However, he also knew that progress essentially came down to trial and error. So, with Sol’s guidance and Tristan’s assistance, he settled in for a multi-hour session to find the limits of his Master of Light ability. Terry lost track of the hours, absorbed in the task, and was surprised when Klein finally called out that they were approaching the Market.
Though he felt like he had made little progress, Sol ended the session with an enthusiastic clap and a genuine smile.
“Excellent work, boys. Excellent. We’ve made serious ground here.”
“We did?” Tristan asked, glancing questioningly at Terry.
Terry could only shrug back.
“Of course, Tristan. Did you think you’d unlock lasers in a couple of hours? At E-Rank?” Sol’s tone was teasing, and Tristan flushed in embarrassment. “Even at D-Rank, that’s a tall order. But we’re laying the foundation. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all.”
Terry had to admit to himself that he had kind of expected to unlock lasers in a couple of hours. Something about being tutored by the greatest Light Elementalist of all time filled him with perhaps unjustified confidence. Despite the lack of immediate tangible results, they ended the session in good spirits.
Terry stood, stretching his aching back, realizing that his legs had gone numb at some point. As the painful prickles stabbed up and down his body, Terraform’s glass golem materialized on their platform.
“Ah, some old faces and some new,” the golem said. “Be welcome in my Market.” Then the golem turned towards Sol, who inexplicably had begun to slink behind Terry. “Don’t be coy, Sol,” the golem added with a tinkling laugh. “I’m pleased to see you out of Necroton’s dungeon.”
Sol slowly stepped around Terry, his eyes cast to the platform floor. “Ah, thanks,” he stuttered. All his earlier confidence and exuberance seemed to have evaporated with the arrival of Terraform’s golem.
If Terraform noticed Sol’s reticence, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he turned towards Terry. “And you, Terry, well into the D-ranks, it seems. Congratulations. I’ve heard from my sources that you’ve been quite a thorn in the Council’s side as of late.”
Terry shifted his weight uncomfortably, wondering if perhaps Terraform disapproved. As if in answer to his unspoken question, the golem let out a tinkling, glassy laugh. “Oh, don’t be embarrassed. I laud you for your rebellious nature. I never much liked most of the Council, though Tinker has sourced me with the occasional S-ranked artifact. On that note, I’ve heard reports that you were able to escape from the man himself. You’ll have to regale me with that tale after you’ve concluded your business with Marlon.”
“Sure thing, Terraform.”
“Well, like I said, you’re all welcome in my Market. You should hit the Pit in…about thirty seconds. To my Market natives,” he turned to look at Katie, Peter, Tristan, and Alan. “Welcome back. And to the new face, I’m sure your friends will be happy to give you a brief orientation of the Market. I’d do it myself, but I’m afraid I need to speak to Sol and Terry privately.”
Tania nodded, crossing her arms. The golem turned towards Klein and put a glass hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take it from here, Klein. Thank you for your service.”
Terry sensed Klein’s aura relax, retracting into his body. The man’s shoulders slumped with weariness, highlighting the contrast between what Vlad had been capable of and Klein’s capacity.
It wasn’t long before the tunnel opened up into the Pit, the light from the lava below casting the large cavern in a yellow-orange haze.
The platform split in two, seeming to corral Sol and Terry away from the others. Their platform arched toward the series of bridges cutting across the Pit, while Terry and Sol’s platform turned toward Terraform’s office. A strand of glass reached out from his floor-to-ceiling window, connecting to their platform. Behind the glass, Terry spotted the man himself lounging on his liquid stone chair.
Terry waved, smiling at the older man, only to spot the frown on his face and a weariness to his posture.
There was a weight to the man’s expression that was unmissable.
As they neared, the window parted like liquid, ferrying them into the office. Terraform stood from his chair, extending a hand toward Terry, then Sol.
“Good to see you again, Terry. And Sol, pleasure to meet you.”
Sol shook his hand timidly, unable to meet the man’s gaze. Terraform frowned at that, but quickly masked his expression, turning toward Terry.
“Thank you for meeting with me. I know you have pressing matters of your own.”
Now, it was Terry’s turn to frown.
“Of course, Terraform. We’re guests in your home after all.”
The S-ranker nodded absentmindedly, looking past them to survey the Pit.
“Funny you should mention that…” He walked around them, moving right to the edge of his office window. “I’m not sure for how much longer the Market will be my home.” He turned back, his face drawn tight.
“The Market’s under attack…and I’m not sure it’s a fight I can win.”