Haunted Funeral

They got lucky with the weather. Saturday morning was the only sunny one in Felix’s hometown this week, surrounded by a string of rainy days on either side.

Even knowing that his family was just a thought away, the fact that Felix was at their funeral was harder to face than he’d expected. The multitude of neighbors and family friends offering condolences only made him feel worse. Kendra gave him a small, reassuring smile whenever he glanced at her, but she couldn’t entirely hide the sadness in her gaze.

Felix had chosen to wear one of the suits from his house to the funeral, but as he looked around the cemetery, he recognized a few Bright Guardians in their formal attire. How many Guardians had his parents been friends with? Some of them looked familiar, but he couldn’t name a single one.

Do you recognize any of these people? He sent the thought off to his family, wondering if anyone would respond. Hoping someone would respond.

To Felix’s relief, Helena entered his mind. Only a couple.

Where are Mom and Dad? Felix asked.

Talking. After a moment’s hesitation, Helena added, I think there’s some stuff they’re not telling the rest of us.

Do you think you could stick around for a while? Felix asked.

I’ll do my best, Helena promised. It takes a lot of energy to come up here. We still get tired. Though I think it’s your magical energy we’re burning through now, rather than ours.

Felix wanted to ask what it was like being bound to his soul, but Kendra spoke before he got the chance. “Felix,” she said. “Is that one of your friends?”

Felix turned as Jace approached them. “Jace,” he greeted, flooded with relief at the sight of his friend. “Sorry I didn’t get back to you, I had a busy day yesterday—”

“Hey, man, I completely understand,” Jace said. “I’m so sorry. I just can’t believe—” He trailed off and shook his head.

Felix wished he could explain to Jace that his family was still with him. Maybe one day he’d be able to. But Kendra had warned that even if Jace did believe the real story, getting too involved with the magical community could put him in danger. If Felix wanted to keep hanging out with him, he needed to avoid mixing in his new life with the Guardians.

Jace rested a hand on Felix’s shoulder. “Just let me know if there’s any way I can help you, okay?”

“Well, one of these days, it’d be nice just to play tennis with the team again.” Felix looked at Kendra.

“That should be doable,” Kendra said. “Maybe we can pick a weekend.”

“Who’s this?” Jace asked, shooting Kendra a confused glance.

“She’s one of the, uh, teachers at my new school,” Felix said.

Jace frowned. “So, you’re not coming back to Maple Point?”

“No. It’s…complicated.” Felix did his best to explain his new life at Bright Academy without revealing that he was actually training to use magic.

After that, he only had a few more minutes to catch up with Jace before Kendra gently interrupted to let them know it was time to sit down.

To Felix’s relief, Helena’s presence stuck with him for most of the ordeal. May and Ezra chimed in on occasion, too. May had a surprising amount of snark for her own funeral, mostly directed at the decor. Ezra balanced out her comments with compliments for the speakers, which included a couple of their neighbors, along with a Guardian named Michael Beck who had apparently been close to their parents.

Wait, I recognize him, Felix realized. He’s on the King’s Council. Michael was one of the council members who had vouched for him in the debate.

Oh, yeah, he’s cool I guess, May said. Hey Felix, you should summon us like you did with Helena. That would be really funny.

I can’t do that, Felix told her.

Aw, come on! I’ve always wanted to haunt my own funeral.

Helena jumped back in. May, knock it off. This is serious. We’re dead, remember?

I don’t feel dead.

Hey, Ezra said. I want to hear Michael’s eulogy. He always brought me plants from the castle when he visited.

Felix, thankfully, managed to keep a straight face through his siblings’ arguments.

Once the funeral was over, instead of heading back to the car, Kendra led Felix to where Michael was deep in conversation with a few other Guardians. When he noticed Kendra approaching, he stepped away from them to talk to her.

“Is everything good to go?” Michael asked.

“Just about.” Kendra rested a hand on Felix’s shoulder. “Felix, Michael and a few other Guardians offered to pay off your house. Once you’re ready to leave the castle in a few years, we’ll sign it over to you and you can move back in. Or sell it, if you want.”

“Wait, seriously?” Felix asked. That was a lot of money to spend on a kid they barely knew, even if they were friends with his parents.

“Don’t worry about it,” Michael said. “You’ve been through enough already. We just wanted to help however we could.”

“Who else helped pay for it?” Felix asked. “Anyone I know?”

“The Tamuras, Sadia Malik—she’s the other council member who supported training you at the meeting—oh, and Sebastian chipped in quite a bit, too.”

“Where do Bright Guardians get money?” Felix asked. “Does someone pay you all to hunt monsters?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Kendra said. “The council does pay Guardians to go on missions, but most of those funds come from other Guardians who have sources of wealth outside of the Brightlands.” She folded her arms. “Some of us take paying jobs from civilians who have issues with monsters, but that’s rare. People with supernatural problems usually turn to witches or psychics first, since we keep our organization out of the public eye.”

“Of course, they run into a lot of fakes that way,” Michael added. “Most people have no idea where to look for help when they run into real magic for the first time.”

“Why not make the Bright Guardians public?” Felix asked. “Offer to help people?”

“That would cause even more problems,” Kendra explained. “It’s best if people who haven’t dealt with monsters don’t know they exist. And we’re not the only ones fighting them, anyway. There are witches, exorcists, other groups of magicians, even human hunters who’ve trained with weapons.”

Movement caught Felix’s eye, and he turned as Archer approached the group. A few non-Guardians gave him weird looks, undoubtedly wondering about his mask, but he ignored them.

“Archer, could you take Felix to the car?” Kendra asked. “I’ll be there in a minute. I’m just going to go over one last thing with Michael.”

Felix groaned internally. He had a feeling that “one minute” would wind up being closer to ten.

“Sure,” Archer said.

“Oh, and Felix, we’re transferring your records from your high school to Bright Academy,” Kendra said. “At least, the version of it that exists to the public. All you have to do is take some online courses to fulfill general education requirements, and we’ll give you a diploma when you turn eighteen.”

“Can’t send you into the real world without basic knowledge,” Michael added with a small smile. “Even if you decide to become a full-time Guardian.”

Kendra nodded and continued. “Since it’s almost summer, we’ll just have you take the rest of the year off and pick up classes again this fall. That will give you time to adjust to your training schedule.”

“Thanks,” Felix said. What a relief. He couldn’t even begin to imagine trying to do something like math right now.

He and Archer walked to where Kendra had parked on the street. “You’re holding up better than I thought you would,” Archer commented when they reached the car.

“I mean, it’s not like they’re really gone,” Felix said. “It’s hard to mourn someone who’s cracking jokes in your head.”

Archer opened his door. “Don’t forget that ghosts are ghosts, Felix. They may be in your blood now, but they can’t stay forever.”

The words didn’t have Archer’s usual iciness, but they weren’t warm, either. When Felix glanced at his face, his gaze was somewhere far away.

Felix climbed into the back seat next to the boxes of belongings he’d grabbed from his house on the way to the funeral. “I know,” he said. Did he? There hadn’t been much discussion about what would happen to Felix long term, other than a few vague allusions to him eventually becoming a Guardian. Could he keep his family’s ghosts with him indefinitely? Would they even want that?

He wasn’t sure he could bring himself to ask.

Felix leaned against the window and rested his chin in his hand. His expectations had been correct. It took Kendra eight minutes to return to the car.

On the drive back to the castle, Felix finally got a better explanation for its location that somehow both was and wasn’t in the middle of a forest in western Washington.

“One of the early members of the Brightland family had the ability to create pocket dimensions,” Kendra said. “She used her power to build another realm for us to live in. With the help of other Guardians, the Brightlands were constructed with a vast forest, farmland, a lake, and an entire city where Guardians lived.

“Unfortunately, the wards we used back then weren’t nearly as powerful as today’s,” Kendra continued as she pulled off the freeway. “Maybe it was because they had more ground to cover. Regardless, monsters and spirits were often able to break through. A particularly powerful family of demons used their hellfire to burn away most of the pocket dimension before they were defeated.”

“Now, if you travel too far into the forest around the castle, you’ll hit a barrier,” Archer added.

“In the early 1900s, another Guardian was born with the same ability,” Kendra said. “He tried expanding our dimension in hopes of restoring the former lands, but he wasn’t able to do much before his death. I think he extended the barrier by about half a mile, in total.”

“How common is it for Guardians have the same ability?” Felix asked. “Could someone else with that power come along and add more to the pocket dimension?”

“It’s possible. Abilities are somewhat random,” Kendra replied. “Guardians often pass down abilities similar to their own to their children, but unusual ones still pop up in kids all the time. Elemental abilities are probably the most common, but there’s a lot of variation within that category.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, this dimension building ability seems to be one of the rarest.”

The conversation died out after that, and what little remained of the drive back to the castle was quiet. When they arrived, Kendra helped Felix carry his boxes up to his room and explained his new schedule to him.

“You and Arisa will meet with Sebastian every weekday from ten to noon and two to five,” Kendra explained. “He’ll decide what to do with each session, but I assume it will be a mix of practicing your abilities, training with weapons, combat, and learning about sigils and wards. Hana also told me she’d be happy to give you some sword fighting lessons starting next week.”

“Cool.” Felix sat down on top of one of his boxes.

Kendra paused by the door. “Also, I believe Sebastian’s trying to get permission for some kind of field trip, so be prepared to spend a day on that.”

“Field trip?” Felix asked. “Are we allowed to do that?”

“If King Atticus lets him,” Kendra said. “Sebastian’s not the most trusted Guardian, but he can be surprisingly persuasive.”

“Does the king distrust him as much as Archer does?”

“I don’t think so. But I’m not entirely sure what the king thinks these days,” Kendra replied. Her gaze went distant. “King Atticus is hard to read, and I don’t talk to him much.”

She left after that. Felix moved to the window and peered out at the castle yard. Arisa had been right about the view being nice. It was hard to appreciate right now, though. He swept his gaze over the trees and wondered just how far it was to the barrier. Archer hadn’t explicitly said it was forbidden to go to it, and Felix was curious what the edge of a pocket dimension was like.

He held up his hand and examined the burn he’d given himself during training yesterday. He could have put one of those healing bandages over it, but the thought kept slipping his mind when he was actually in his room. Besides, he still felt bad that he’d hurt Arisa, too. Maybe if he kept the burn around a little longer, it would remind him to be more careful in the future.