Darkest Light (Or Kanos & Sam)

The city streets were busy. The snow muffled the sound of tramping feet, but not the happy shouts and glad greetings. A chilly wind could not daunt the merry shoppers, or the delicious sound of baking pie. There was a sense of magic in the air.

But darkness stalked the streets. A tall man in a jet black hat and coat. He didn’t say anything to anybody and the cold air seemed to follow him. Crowds grew silent and whispered among themselves as he passed.

“Is it really him?”

“They say he killed a 100 men”

“Don’t get too close!”

He didn’t pay any attention to them.

Some kids were playing in a snowy courtyard. One of them fired a snowball at her friend, but it sailed over the fence. Time seemed to freeze as everyone watched in horror as it sailed right towards the brooding man’s back.

In an instant, he whirled around and swiped the snowball clean out of the air.

The children gasped in amazement, then yelped and ducked out of sight as the man glared at them. With a swish of his grand coat, he continued marching on his way, just as if nothing had happened.





Watching this drama from an upstairs window was a little girl. Her hair was as white as the snow outside, when it wasn’t dirty and matted like it was now.

Her clothes were just as messy, an old patchwork dress stained and weatherbeaten. Her room was a large attic, cold and drafty. Everything was coated with spiderwebs, as she was always too tired from cleaning the rest of the house to do her own room.

The girl sighed and kept staring out the window. In the bed next to hers, her friend snored loudly. Agite had been in this room a lot longer than she had, so the girl supposed she should count her blessings.

Still, what she wouldn’t give to be outside playing with the others.

A shout from downstairs made the girl jump. Agite jumped as well, falling out of bed in a heap. While her friend was still groggily trying to figure out what was going on, the first girl was slipping on her coat and rushing out of the attic.

“Yes Mother?” She asked, coming down the stairs three at a time.

The source of the voice was the Headmaster, a tall and boney woman, with wrinkles on her wrinkles and a sweet smile.

“Samantha dear” She said in a singsong tone. “I’ve realized I’m all out of wine for my dinner tonight. Be a dear and run down to the store for me, won’t you?”

Samantha nodded obediently. She headed to the door, but paused and turned around before reaching the knob.

“Please Mother” She said in barely more than a whisper. “Could I… could I borrow some shoes?”

Her “Mother” slowly turned, lips stretched in a kind smile.

“Dear Samantha” She said. “You know I can’t do that. I have a responsibility to the other children’s parents, to take care of them and their belongings. I keep orphans here, working for their board, on good faith that they won’t harm the others. Besides… what would Cook say?”

Samantha shivered, and not from the draft coming in under the door. She quickly nodded her understanding and headed out the door, barefeet and all.

When she wished to go outside, this was NOT what she meant.





The man in the black hat and coat headed up the street to his house. There was a nice, broad path that let visitors get to his home easily. But no house was perfect, he supposed.

His home had been a mighty warship, many years ago. It and it’s owner had fought in many of the same battles, but the skies no longer needed protecting. No flying, no fighting, just an old relic buried in the snow. And so was his home, the man bitterly thought to himself.

Tramping up the entry ramp, the man stepped inside, letting the warm air from his heaters wash over him. He pulled off his hat, hung up his coat and knocked the snow from his boots. The silence of his house washed over him as well, nothing making a sound but the muffled hum of his generator.

The longer the man stayed in the entryway, the more he felt he heard something else.

Ships like these, ships with history, almost seemed alive sometimes. Like there had been so many people onboard, who had seen so much that the walls themselves were alive with the ghosts of the past.

The man shook his head. Silly fairy tail rubbish. He stomped down the halls, towards his quarters. Whispers following him all the way.

“It IS him. It’s Kanos”

“The man who ended the war”

“The man who let Him die”





Samantha hurried up the steps, back to her attic. She had caught a glimpse of Cook while handing Mum her groceries. He was, if it was even possible, bigger than ever, with the same meaty hands and great, bushy beard.

All the children at the boarding school guessed that Mother had hired Cook more to scare them than to actually prepare food, because he was very good at the former and not at all good at the later. And that was without the servant girls who sometimes went missing.

Though Samantha remembered Mother telling her that servants often came and went off the streets. Many would rather sleep outside than work for room and board.

Entering the attic, Samantha headed straight towards the back of the room. Here was the brick chimney, leading up from the roaring fireplace in Mother’s room. Samantha threw off her snowy coat and pressed her frozen feet right up against the warm bricks.

She was so busy trying to get feeling back in her toes that it took her a very long time to realize Agite wasn’t sleeping on her bed anymore.

Looking around, Samantha finally found her roomate curled up in the corner. She appeared to be silently sobbing.

Quickly, Samantha got up and ran (as best she could with her numb feet) to her side.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” She asked her friend gently.

Agite looked up at her with bleary red eyes.

“Mother didn’t like me falling asleep in the middle of the day” She explained. “So she- she’s invited me to dinner tonight, to be punished!”

“Well… that doesn’t sound all bad” Samantha said, confused. “I had dinner with her several times, when my father was- when I lived downstairs.”

“You don’t understand” Agite said, and the sheer terror in her voice made Samantha’s blood run cold. “Having the servant girls for dinner isn’t at all the same thing as that. People would notice if a student went missing”

“What are you talking about?” Samantha asked.

Agite wrung her hands fiercely, unable to look her in the eyes.

“Mother doesn’t punish the servant girls herself” She finally choked out. “She gives them to Cook. I’ve been here since I was just a baby and I’ve never- I’ve never seen one come back upstairs!”





Kanos sat in his chair, fingers clutched around a steaming mug. He stared straight ahead, oblivious to the ticking of his clock or the snow gently falling against the window.

The ship had grown very noisy indeed.

He saw a face, the same face he saw every night. A boy, with snow white hair, playing with his black-haired friend next to a river. Then the same two, now young men, sharing a joke over a recruitment poster. The white-haired man nervously waiting at the altar, his best man assuring him he’d be just fine.

The happy news of a baby daughter. The sad news of a draft, the black-haired man volunteering to enlist as well. Standing back to back as the bullets flew. Ribbing the black-haired man over his budding friendship with the chief medic. Comforting the white-haired man over his letter from home. And then a gunshot and now there was only one, standing over his friend’s grave.

Kanos angrily jumped to his feet, hurling his mug at a scene that wasn’t there.

He listened to his heartbeat as it pounded in his ears. Kanos glanced at the happy couple in the picture next to his clock, the only image he had of Him. Of either of them: at least they were together now.

But they had left a legacy behind, somewhere out there in the snowy streets. And he, Kanos, had failed to find it.

But that was okay, he thought bitterly, as he headed for bed. If the ghosts of the past had shown him anything, it was that she would be better off without the so-called “angel of death”.





Samantha had thought long and hard. Despite Agite’s protests, she had come up with a plan.

With her friend safely hidden away behind a loose panel, Samantha patiently waited on her bed. Mother had always liked her, she thought. Whatever terrible things Cook did to the servants, maybe she could talk them out of it? At the very least, her friend would be okay.

Samantha clenched her fists as she waited. The only comfort she had was the old leatherbound book on her nightstand, a final gift from her real mother. It had given her hope and courage through losing her real mother than her father. Surely it wouldn’t fail her now.

“Samantha?” a tiny voice said, making her whirl around.

Agite was peeking out of her hiding place.

“Sshhh!” Samantha ordered. “Get back in there! Or do I have to show you Dad’s sumo throw again?”

“No, no” Agite assured her friend, rubbing her still-sore shoulder. “I was just wondering… do you really believe what your parents told you? About Angels watching over us?”

Samantha glanced back at her book and smiled.

“Of course. Now get down, I hear him coming”

There were indeed heavy footsteps marching up the stairs.





Kanos did not sleep easy. His dreams were haunted by more visions.

A tall and foreboding mansion, covered in snow and ice. A small girl, scared and alone. Another grave, this one unmarked.

He awoke with a start, covered in cold sweat. Throwing his covers off, he placed his head in his hands and cried. Getting a hold of himself, he glared up at the ceiling, clenching his fists in anger.

“But I tried!” He snarled. “I looked, and I couldn’t find her! You have to give me more than vague ghosts and nightmares! I need help.”

Kanos fell to his knees, shivering. A voice seemed to whisper to him out of the darkness.

“I already did”

Kanos froze. A snowball, thrown by a group of children playing in a boarding school’s yard. A lonely little girl, watching them from an attic window. It was the same girl from his visions, though there she had been joined by a long, bloody knife...

Kanos jumped to his feet. He barreled out of the room and sprinted down the hallway. A prayer of thanks had barely passed his lips by the time he was out the door and racing down the street.





Samantha stood in a corner of the school’s kitchen. She was trembling where she stood, watching as Cook busied himself with a huge pot of stew. She was too scared to make a run for it, forced to stand there and listen as Cook sung something horrible about feeding rats to spiders.

Finally, Samantha couldn’t stand it and had to speak.

“Aren’t- aren’t I supposed to be having dinner with Mother?” She asked.

Cook stopped and slowly turned around, giving the girl a smile that did not at all put her at ease.

“Of course my sweet” He said. “But I think you misunderstand what we mean by “Have you for dinner”.”

Realization suddenly dawned on Samantha and she decided she could make a break for it. Unfortunately, Cook wasn’t nearly as slow as his bulk might suggest and he was already standing in front of the door. With a backhand, he sent her flying across the room and crashing down onto the table.

A dazed Samantha tried to get up, as Cook slowly approached, pulling out his long, smooth cooking knife.

“I think I’ll start with the throat on you. She does love some good tongue meat.”

Nothing could save her now, she thought, not even her angels. But she had to keep fighting. Her father would have wanted her too. She just had to keep fighting...





Kanos leaped the wall around the boarding school. The dark, silent building loomed before him, draped in curtains of snow. Charging up the front steps, he threw the doors open with a kick. Standing on the hearth for just a second, Kanos listened carefully.

The only sound was some clattering off to the side, towards what looked like a kitchen. Kanos immediately ran towards it, just as it ended with what sounded worryingly like a girl’s cry for help.

Bursting into the kitchen, Kanos took just a second to take in the scene before him. It was grisly, even for someone who had seen the mud and fire of war. But at that moment, all he really saw was red.

Cook turned around at the sound of the

Intrusion. He was confused by the stranger, but decided that one more course for dinner wouldn’t hurt anything.

Brandishing his knife, Cook charged Kanos. A white-hot blade of blue flashed out of Kanos’s scabbard, throwing back the gloom of the room. Cook hesitated, but Kanos did not. The beefy hand, still clenching the knife, hit the ground with a thump, followed a second later by the rest of the body.

Kanos felt his anger pass, replaced with worry for the bloody form on the table. Sheathing his weapon, he pulled the girl into her arms. A heartbeat, thank God.

Shooing away the spiders already gathering on the table, he gingerly lifted her. Turning, he rushed out of the building, carrying the fading life.





Elanor sat at her table, pouring over a dusty old book and absentmindedly stirring a collection of herbs. Frankly, she would have thought being a frontline medic was more than enough practice to earn an official doctorite, but apparently not.

There was a sharp knock at the door and Elanor looked up. She wasn’t expecting any visitors…

Marking her place in the book, she stood up and cautiously approached the door. The would-be doctor was much younger than the lines on her face would suggest. The war had stolen her youth as well as her trust, she thought to herself, as she retrieved a pistol from her coat as she pulled the door open just a crack.

It was the last person in the world she would have expected. The same dark coat and hat he had always worn, the same intense eyes and towering frame. But his face… his face was covered by a pleading expression she had never seen Kanos wear before.

And then she saw why and gasped. The small girl was terribly pale with blood loss, her chest barely moving as her breath came weakly.

“Please” was all Kanos could say.

Elanor beckoned him inside, tossing her pistol away. She helped him set the girl gingerly down on her table, throwing her studies aside without a thought. And then they began.

It was something they had done more than once together, although Kanos would be the first to admit he was better at making wounds than healing them. But he worked, now, as a world-class nurse. Whoever this girl was, Kanos was going to save her through sheer force of will.

And he did. Elanor didn’t believe all the silly myths about Kanos, of course. She had been there. But… she knew her friend. And he rarely gave up.

“It’s been so long” Elanor thought to herself an hour later, washing the blood from her hands. “And he’s still that far in your head, huh? You need help, Elanor.”

Once she was cleaned up, Elanor checked on her patient again. The girl was… well, alive, and that alone was incredible. Resting, still unconscious, in Elanor’s bed. She was a fighter, almost as tough as... And that hair…

“It’s her” Kanos said, making Elanor jump.

He was standing on the balcony of her small apartment, staring out at the city lights and gently falling snow. Elanor walked up to stand behind him.

“Samantha” Kanos continued. “I found her.”

“How?” Elanor asked.

“I… don’t really know” Kanos shrugged. “I think it was some Christmas Carol thing. Which is weird, because it’s May. I hate this city, it’s always so cold. I guess this makes me Scrooge.”

“I think we all already knew that” Elanor commented, making Kanos chuckle. “Where did you find her?”

Kanos sighed, his smile leaving as quickly as it came.

“There were too many spiders” He said, making Elanor raise her eyebrows in confusion. “I need to go.”

“Now hold on” Elanor said sternly. “You can’t just come barging back in here and leave me with-”

“I’m. Not. Leaving.” Kanos said fiercely.

He wheeled about, but Elanor stood her ground. Kanos worried her, but he did NOT scare her.

“I have to go” Kanos said again, calmer this time. “There are others like Samantha, in danger. I have to help them.”

Elanor smiled.

“Of course you do” She nodded. “Go. I’ll take care of Samantha.”





Mother smiled as entered the children's quarters. When her dinner never arrived, she had investigated the kitchen. The scene she had found… it was just awful!

Someone had discovered her. She had to hide the evidence, all of that. And besides that… she was hungry.

Mother stepped forwards, her shadow shifting and contorting horribly. Extra legs, clicking pinchers, terrible red eyes. The girls didn’t stir. Death would take them in their sleep.

Someone else moved in the room and Mother turned around. She hissed with fury and surprise and fear.

“Yes” Kanos said, drawing his blade again. “It’s me. You’re looking… gastly”

Mother drew herself to her full height, towering over the man, clicking and hissing. The girls woke up and started screaming at the monstrous sight. Spiders seemed to pour in from every corner of the room.

Kanos harrumphed.

“Same old tricks” He muttered.





The sun rose over the city. Light glistend off of the snow banks. Kanos stood on Elanor’s balcony, nursing his bandaged arms. Nothing worse than a couple stings, luckily. And the girls had been untouched.

Kanos closed his eyes. He was tired. And not ready for the girl inside to wake up, or for Elanor to give him the final report on her condition. He doubted it would be a good one.

He wanted just one more dream. To remember that day, when the war had ended.

And he did. The night before, with singing from both camps. The chilly morning, when a still grieving Samuel had urged Kanos against it, saying it was sucide.

The unseen force, that had driven Kanos across no-man’s land. To shake hands with the enemy captain. The singing and eating and gaming and cheering that came in the days to follow. And then the officers on both sides who had demanded they start fighting again.

The armies who had refused. The officer who had pulled his gun. And Samuel, who had taken the bullet for Kanos.

The one casualty of the battle that ended the war. The so-called “angel of death” was a grieving friend, unable to join in the celebration as both high commands were forced to give up trying to get their men to fight (Both claiming victory, of course).

Kanos shook his head. He had spent way too long dodging admirers and assassins alike, looking for his best friend’s daughter. But now, that adventure was over. A new one was before him… one he was completely unprepared to deal with.

“Same as always” Kanos smirked, looking up at the sky. “Alright Sam, you can really rest in peace now. I’ve got it from here.”