Shadow Knight Saga: The Shadowlands

Chapter One

Jaryn's knee bounced up and down wildly as the plane broke through the clouds, making its final decent over the bright lights of New York City. He's never been across the pond before. The youngest of four sons, he always felt left out of everything. Each of his brothers graduated with top honors from the Academy of Light, otherwise known simply as the Fraternity. Jaryn followed in their footsteps, for the most part, graduating with top honors from the academy's Athenaeum, typically a female's station. It didn't bother him in the end. Initially his brothers gave him much grief about it, but eventually they showed him some respect-he graduated at only fourteen years of age, almost three years earlier than most. He excelled at his studies. He is proficient in more than two hundred languages, but he knows very little of the actual world and nothing of the Shadowlands.

This is the first time he's been away from home. Oxford is all he knows. Growing up with two parents in the Guild and three older brothers at the Fraternity meant that the negative influences of the Shadowlands were never an issue; no television, computers, internet, music, movies and no emphasis on fashion. This is the first time Jaryn's even been in an airplane, and it's the first time in his life that he's been around so many worldlies.

And he doesn't like it, at all.

When the Guild voted unanimously to send him to the Sanctuary in New York, he was confused. It's well known that the Sanctuary is the dumping ground for the rejects, those that are not fit to be White Knights but are still Nephilim. Jaryn questioned his parents as to why they voted to send their youngest away, but they didn't have an answer.

And that's why he's on a flight from London to the Big Apple via a one-way ticket.

Jaryn looked out the window as the plane made its final decent. The New York skyline was beautiful and memorizing. He's never seen anything like it! The lights of the city look like a million twinkling stars that fell from the heavens but didn't quite reach the earth and somehow got stuck, suspended in mid-air so close that it appears as if he could reach out and touch them, but they're teasingly just out of reach. The sapphire sky slowly lightened to cobalt as it wrapped around each building and bridge that canvas the metropolitan wonder. The dark waters of the Hudson and Atlantic reflected the green and red skyline, a perfect mirror to the glowing city: 'Twin cities,' Jaryn thought with a small smile. He's read books, endless books, about the area and its history, but no pictures could prepare him for seeing it firsthand. His heart pounded in his ears when the city disappeared and the plane jostled its passengers in their seats. The smell of rubber filled the cabin and the screaming protest of tires on concrete drowned out all other sounds.

"PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum," Jaryn whispered under his breath, his thumb caressing over the silver crucifix dangling from the end of his onyx and red jasper stone rosary. "Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen," he said, kissing the crucifix and wrapped the rosary around his wrist, pulling the sleeve of his dress shirt down over it.

Once the fasten seatbelt sign turned off, Jaryn scrambled to pull his blazer back on in the cramped space before retrieving his two carry-on bags from under his seat and the overhead storage compartment. Jaryn has heard many stories of Master Omniel Ravenclaw, the head master of sorts at the Sanctuary. Rumor is that he defied the Guild and lost his seat on the Ministry of Light, resulting in him being sent to the Sanctuary as punishment for his indiscretions. Jaryn could only picture him in his mind as a weak and frail, antediluvian even, man.

Jaryn's mother arranged for him to get picked up at the airport since he is young and inexperienced. At first Jaryn was upset over his mother's view of him, but he quickly agreed with her once he had flown over the city. It's massive! Jaryn was one of the last to exit the plane, and it didn't take long to clear customs. He stood on his toes to see over the heads of the hurrying crowd, his head moving from side to side looking for Omniel or someone that looked ancient and weak waiting for him.