Free Here Shines the Sun by M. David White Page A

the world had ever known.
    Saint Hadraniel stopped just outside of the wall’s all-consuming shadow, the tops of the fortress towers looking down on him from many hundreds of feet above. He felt the gentle weight of Saint Karinael’s hand rest upon his star-metal pauldron and he turned to meet her brilliant, amber eyes.
    Like all members of the Order of the Saints Caliber, Karinael wore a white leather bodysuit beneath her black Star-Armor. The rays of the sun from beyond one of the billowy clouds above reflected off the facets of her angled breastplate, casting her long, amber locks of hair in a warm light that Saint Hadraniel found thoroughly seductive. Her shoulder pauldrons were similarly angled, like cut diamonds, and they matched the bracers on her forearms and the armor that covered her upper and lower legs, including her star-metal boots. Upon her waist hung a pair of faceted plates that protected her hips and front.
    “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” said Karinael with a smile. She leaned in to give Hadraniel a peck on the lips.
    Hadraniel flinched away from her. “Not here, Karin.” he hissed. “Somebody will see.”
    Karinael looked Hadraniel in his molten, silver eyes. “So? Who’s going to say anything?”
    Hadraniel flicked his eyes up at the towers. “What if Nuriel is here?” he whispered, as if the very name might summon her.
    Karinael rolled her eyes. In the sun they looked like crystalline honey. “She’ll get over it.” She reached her hand up and mussed his short, chrome hair and then gave him a peck on the lips.
    Hadraniel recoiled and swatted her away. “I’m serious, Karin! Not here!”
    Karinael took Hadraniel’s hand in her own. He gazed upon the soft features of her face as she rubbed her thumb over the top of the smooth, star-metal plate that armored the back of his hand, tracing his stellaglyph that was painted there in red. All Saints were given a unique stellaglyph. It was their star name, an unpronounceable symbol, and it was scarred into the back of their necks and painted on their armor. Hadraniel’s was a five-pointed star, crowned with three spires and an elongated ray upon the left. It was much different than Karinael’s more symmetrical eight-pointed star, which was painted upon the fingerless gloves of her white bodysuit. Like their stellaglyphs, Hadraniel’s Star-Armor was the polar opposite of Karinael’s. Where her’s was faceted and cut in pleasing angles, Hadraniel’s was rounded and smooth. His breastplate was almost spherical, enhancing the glassy-blackness of the star-metal. His pauldrons were similarly round upon his shoulders, and the armor upon his upper arms and the bracers on his forearms were all rounded and smooth, almost cylindrical, to match the armor on his legs. Upon Hadraniel’s waist hung scales of circular star-metal armor.
    “I can handle Nuriel.” said Karinael at last. She turned those large, gem-like eyes of hers up to Hadraniel’s and he had to fight off his urge to wrap her in an embrace. “And stop worrying so much.” She smiled and brushed her soft fingers down his cheek.
    Hadraniel tried to hide his frown. Karinael’s enduring optimism was one of her more seductive qualities and it had charmed him from the moment he met her, some eight years ago. At times like this, however, he secretly wished she’d be a little more realistic. There were too many secrets they shared and Hadraniel could feel a tension building among all the Saints Caliber. Things were in motion—dangerous things that he and Karinael were deeply involved in—and he had sensed a knowing and disapproval from Nuriel the last time they had seen her, which was a few months back. Karinael and Nuriel had been the best of friends growing up at Sanctuary—Hadraniel knew that and understood that—but Karinael didn’t seem to want to come to terms with the fact that Nuriel was not the same Nuriel she had grown up with. She still believed that the old Nuriel lay