Chapter 213: 213
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"How on earth is she going to be our spy when Azrael knows full well she has every intention of killing him and handing him over?" Kal asks, desperation lining the obvious wobble to his voice. Doubt simmers through the room like a fine mist as a series of looks are exchanged between them all- all except Ithuriel, whose gaze remains firmly planted on me.
From the way his feelers glow and the little spark that ignites in his eyes, one would assume that he is eager to tell me something, or at the very least has something on his mind. But for now, I let my mind continue to linger over the situation at hand, still not fully recovered from the shock of having both my wife and my brother disappearing both at the same time. After all, that isn't exactly something that happens every day.
Brooding is likely the correct term for what I am doing. Brooding.
Silently, I glance to the space where Serena disappeared, my eyes tracing the exact shape of her body as she went through, gleaning over that memory which is now a moment lost in time. My heart throbs agonisingly at the thought.
But I will find her soon. I promised her that.
At last with a jolt I realise I left Kal's question unanswered.
"My dear Kal, it is not as simple as you make it seem, in fact, Serena had some rather crucial tricks up her sleeve before she followed Azrael through," I say at last, drawing myself back to reality with a heavy sigh. In all honesty, I am not quite ready to face the truth of the situation. Perhaps it would be easier to let myself melt away as I had in my former years, consumed once more by blood and death and the occasional lusty night. But such a decision would be detrimental, not only to Serena and I, but the entirety of Faey as well.
After all, how can Faey even hope to be spared from the wrath of the mind soul if there is no other souls there to protect them?
"But what did she do?" Kal protests, clearly confused by the matter.
Honestly, here I was thinking the little dragon was rather bright.
Lazily, as to push aside the ardent beating of the bond against my chest and trying to ignore the subtle reminder of all that I have lost today, I spin dark plumes of magic between my fingers, whisking them into shape- her shape. My body cold with a melancholy emptiness, I mull over these figures as though desiring to pluck them from the darkness and reclaim them once more.
I could do it- I know I could. It is not outside of my power to find her.
But then the plan would be ruined and Serena…
I do not wish to think of that.
"Do you recall what Serena asked you to do minutes before she jumped through that portal?" I ask, giving Kal a long, hard look.
Kal thinks on it for a moment, his hand pausing against the fur of his little fox friend.
"Let me think," he murmurs, eyes glazing as he retreats back into his mind, trying to remember the pleas that were asked of him. Several seconds of silence and distant mumblings later, Kal snaps his fingers, his eyes alight with realisation.
"She asked me to make her pendant invisible. God, I am an idiot. Oh Soren," he whispers, screwing up his face as he places his hand against his forehead, eyes flickering shut. In distress the little white fox raises his head up to Kal, attempting to soothe his agonies, before he plods his way over to me, placing himself down on his haunches. Rambling, Kal continues.
"Azrael isn't going to realise that she is still unaffected by his mind control. And if Serena pretends to be flexible to his suggestions, let herself appear to succumb to his wishes-"
"Then we have ourselves the perfect insider, a spy, and our assassin. She can tell us what Azrael is planning, and help us locate the soul without Azrael getting to them first."
All at once the room falls into a shocked silence. That is until Kal's exclamation pricks the air.
"Holy hell," Kal whispers to himself, flopping himself down on the ground. Then suddenly he glances over to the corner and realising there is a minor in the room, quickly covers his mouth with a guilty look plastered against his features.
"I just… can't believe it. Soren, that's actually genius. Serena is an agent on the inside. Maybe we do have hope after all!"
Despite everything, I manage to crack a small, half hearted grin. Carefully, I pace towards Kal, stationing myself next to him as I wrap an arm around his shoulder, allowing him to lean his weight against me.
"Well, she is my wife, Kal. How else do you think she managed to get her way into my icy heart of stone?" I chuckle with a wink.
Besides me, Kal shrugs, looking down affectionately at the little white fox, landing himself a wet boop on the cheek.
"Well, I don't know, you have a habit of being rather sly, Soren. And between you and me, you have been smitten with her for years- or at least the thought of her, don't even try to deny it," he grins back, adding a complimentary wink before his face falls once more, the reality of the situation hitting him like a brick to the face.
There must be some part of him that misses Serena, that feels guilty by association, for failing to kill Azrael, failing to stop her, and simply letting her go. After all, he made it right to the eternal flame with her, and by all that Serena told me, got his ass handed to him several times. Without her endeavours to save him, perhaps there would be no 'Kal' left at all. No cheeky winged dragon boy to prod comments over my marriage and to shed sarcasm at the most inappropriate of times. It is likely this guilty thought that nags at his conscience, nibbling away at his conflicted heart when he says:
"So, what are we going to do? How can we help her? If we don't want to spoil her plan and go to her directly, how else can we aid her?"
Before I can think about bringing myself to answer, the pitter patter of footsteps behind us alerts me to an ulterior precedence, and quick as a flash I spin on my heels, magic flaring from my form until my eyes meet the little creature, and I stop dead.
Dawn- a previously weak, pallid little angel, patters over to the unconscious Delina propped up at the side of the room.
"Dawn," Kal calls warily, stretching out his hand to beckon her to him. But she doesn't hear. "Dawn come here."
This time, Dawn answers.
"The lady is hurt," she says softly, absently, scooting further towards Delina.
There is a faint glowing aura around her body, a dancing light that sways in the pale white of her hair and the frills of her tiny ragged dress. Her wings- previously torn and tattered by the influence of my kind whose vicious claws and pointed fangs had not ceased to save her from their wrath, are now healed, glowing, alight with the fervent freshness of life.
A similar luminescence springs from the eternal flame within my hands, dispelling the grim shadows on the walls. It practically seems to burn away the rot and the grime to replace it with a sparkling freshness, restoring the room to life and quenching that putrid smell of death from the air. The eternal flame… the giver of life, of immortal power, and the lifeforce of many of the angels. It would seem that its presence almost seems to revitalise them, draw out the powers that have long since been hidden in the depths of their souls and let them flourish more outwardly, embedding magic directly into their veins.
"Kal," I say slowly, my eyes never leaving the little angel girl. "I think I know what we need to do. I think I know what Serena would have wanted."
With a brief shortness of breath, I realise that Serena never had planned to kill my people, not even to begin with, when business' with souls was even on the table. Always, after all this time, she had merely planned to save hers.
As Dawn kneels down beside Delina, her eyes wide and frightful as her fingers spark with a pearly pink magic, I recall my promise to Serena, to her people, to mine, that I would return the flame, and together, we would build a new society of our own. One of peace, where war was a word written in the myths of the past, and a blissful happiness could flourish among the people of Faey once more. Where nights were not haunted by the red eyes fiends who lust for blood, but a propagation of equality between species, were revels played out long into the night under a blanket of twinkling stars, and muses sing like birds through the whispering trees long into the night.
This is the vision we have realised, so close and yet somehow out of grasp. And here is my calling, my proof, that such a vision does exist in the wider world.
Serena wanted to unite our kinds. And what better way to unite them than under the banner of war against the end of the world?
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"How on earth is she going to be our spy when Azrael knows full well she has every intention of killing him and handing him over?" Kal asks, desperation lining the obvious wobble to his voice. Doubt simmers through the room like a fine mist as a series of looks are exchanged between them all- all except Ithuriel, whose gaze remains firmly planted on me.
From the way his feelers glow and the little spark that ignites in his eyes, one would assume that he is eager to tell me something, or at the very least has something on his mind. But for now, I let my mind continue to linger over the situation at hand, still not fully recovered from the shock of having both my wife and my brother disappearing both at the same time. After all, that isn't exactly something that happens every day.
Brooding is likely the correct term for what I am doing. Brooding.
Silently, I glance to the space where Serena disappeared, my eyes tracing the exact shape of her body as she went through, gleaning over that memory which is now a moment lost in time. My heart throbs agonisingly at the thought.
But I will find her soon. I promised her that.
At last with a jolt I realise I left Kal's question unanswered.
"My dear Kal, it is not as simple as you make it seem, in fact, Serena had some rather crucial tricks up her sleeve before she followed Azrael through," I say at last, drawing myself back to reality with a heavy sigh. In all honesty, I am not quite ready to face the truth of the situation. Perhaps it would be easier to let myself melt away as I had in my former years, consumed once more by blood and death and the occasional lusty night. But such a decision would be detrimental, not only to Serena and I, but the entirety of Faey as well.
After all, how can Faey even hope to be spared from the wrath of the mind soul if there is no other souls there to protect them?
"But what did she do?" Kal protests, clearly confused by the matter.
Honestly, here I was thinking the little dragon was rather bright.
Lazily, as to push aside the ardent beating of the bond against my chest and trying to ignore the subtle reminder of all that I have lost today, I spin dark plumes of magic between my fingers, whisking them into shape- her shape. My body cold with a melancholy emptiness, I mull over these figures as though desiring to pluck them from the darkness and reclaim them once more.
I could do it- I know I could. It is not outside of my power to find her.
But then the plan would be ruined and Serena…
I do not wish to think of that.
"Do you recall what Serena asked you to do minutes before she jumped through that portal?" I ask, giving Kal a long, hard look.
Kal thinks on it for a moment, his hand pausing against the fur of his little fox friend.
"Let me think," he murmurs, eyes glazing as he retreats back into his mind, trying to remember the pleas that were asked of him. Several seconds of silence and distant mumblings later, Kal snaps his fingers, his eyes alight with realisation.
"She asked me to make her pendant invisible. God, I am an idiot. Oh Soren," he whispers, screwing up his face as he places his hand against his forehead, eyes flickering shut. In distress the little white fox raises his head up to Kal, attempting to soothe his agonies, before he plods his way over to me, placing himself down on his haunches. Rambling, Kal continues.
"Azrael isn't going to realise that she is still unaffected by his mind control. And if Serena pretends to be flexible to his suggestions, let herself appear to succumb to his wishes-"
"Then we have ourselves the perfect insider, a spy, and our assassin. She can tell us what Azrael is planning, and help us locate the soul without Azrael getting to them first."
All at once the room falls into a shocked silence. That is until Kal's exclamation pricks the air.
"Holy hell," Kal whispers to himself, flopping himself down on the ground. Then suddenly he glances over to the corner and realising there is a minor in the room, quickly covers his mouth with a guilty look plastered against his features.
"I just… can't believe it. Soren, that's actually genius. Serena is an agent on the inside. Maybe we do have hope after all!"
Despite everything, I manage to crack a small, half hearted grin. Carefully, I pace towards Kal, stationing myself next to him as I wrap an arm around his shoulder, allowing him to lean his weight against me.
"Well, she is my wife, Kal. How else do you think she managed to get her way into my icy heart of stone?" I chuckle with a wink.
Besides me, Kal shrugs, looking down affectionately at the little white fox, landing himself a wet boop on the cheek.
"Well, I don't know, you have a habit of being rather sly, Soren. And between you and me, you have been smitten with her for years- or at least the thought of her, don't even try to deny it," he grins back, adding a complimentary wink before his face falls once more, the reality of the situation hitting him like a brick to the face.
There must be some part of him that misses Serena, that feels guilty by association, for failing to kill Azrael, failing to stop her, and simply letting her go. After all, he made it right to the eternal flame with her, and by all that Serena told me, got his ass handed to him several times. Without her endeavours to save him, perhaps there would be no 'Kal' left at all. No cheeky winged dragon boy to prod comments over my marriage and to shed sarcasm at the most inappropriate of times. It is likely this guilty thought that nags at his conscience, nibbling away at his conflicted heart when he says:
"So, what are we going to do? How can we help her? If we don't want to spoil her plan and go to her directly, how else can we aid her?"
Before I can think about bringing myself to answer, the pitter patter of footsteps behind us alerts me to an ulterior precedence, and quick as a flash I spin on my heels, magic flaring from my form until my eyes meet the little creature, and I stop dead.
Dawn- a previously weak, pallid little angel, patters over to the unconscious Delina propped up at the side of the room.
"Dawn," Kal calls warily, stretching out his hand to beckon her to him. But she doesn't hear. "Dawn come here."
This time, Dawn answers.
"The lady is hurt," she says softly, absently, scooting further towards Delina.
There is a faint glowing aura around her body, a dancing light that sways in the pale white of her hair and the frills of her tiny ragged dress. Her wings- previously torn and tattered by the influence of my kind whose vicious claws and pointed fangs had not ceased to save her from their wrath, are now healed, glowing, alight with the fervent freshness of life.
A similar luminescence springs from the eternal flame within my hands, dispelling the grim shadows on the walls. It practically seems to burn away the rot and the grime to replace it with a sparkling freshness, restoring the room to life and quenching that putrid smell of death from the air. The eternal flame… the giver of life, of immortal power, and the lifeforce of many of the angels. It would seem that its presence almost seems to revitalise them, draw out the powers that have long since been hidden in the depths of their souls and let them flourish more outwardly, embedding magic directly into their veins.
"Kal," I say slowly, my eyes never leaving the little angel girl. "I think I know what we need to do. I think I know what Serena would have wanted."
With a brief shortness of breath, I realise that Serena never had planned to kill my people, not even to begin with, when business' with souls was even on the table. Always, after all this time, she had merely planned to save hers.
As Dawn kneels down beside Delina, her eyes wide and frightful as her fingers spark with a pearly pink magic, I recall my promise to Serena, to her people, to mine, that I would return the flame, and together, we would build a new society of our own. One of peace, where war was a word written in the myths of the past, and a blissful happiness could flourish among the people of Faey once more. Where nights were not haunted by the red eyes fiends who lust for blood, but a propagation of equality between species, were revels played out long into the night under a blanket of twinkling stars, and muses sing like birds through the whispering trees long into the night.
This is the vision we have realised, so close and yet somehow out of grasp. And here is my calling, my proof, that such a vision does exist in the wider world.
Serena wanted to unite our kinds. And what better way to unite them than under the banner of war against the end of the world?
"How on earth is she going to be our spy when Azrael knows full well she has every intention of killing him and handing him over?" Kal asks, desperation lining the obvious wobble to his voice. Doubt simmers through the room like a fine mist as a series of looks are exchanged between them all- all except Ithuriel, whose gaze remains firmly planted on me. From the way his feelers glow and the little spark that ignites in his eyes, one would assume that he is eager to tell me something, or at the very least has something on his mind. But for now, I let my mind continue to linger over the situation at hand, still not fully recovered from the shock of having both my wife and my brother disappearing both at the same time. After all, that isn't exactly something that happens every day.Brooding is likely the correct term for what I am doing. Brooding.Silently, I glance to the space where Serena disappeared, my eyes tracing the exact shape of her body as she went through, gleaning over that memory which is now a moment lost in time. My heart throbs agonisingly at the thought. But I will find her soon. I promised her that.At last with a jolt I realise I left Kal's question unanswered."My dear Kal, it is not as simple as you make it seem, in fact, Serena had some rather crucial tricks up her sleeve before she followed Azrael through," I say at last, drawing myself back to reality with a heavy sigh. In all honesty, I am not quite ready to face the truth of the situation. Perhaps it would be easier to let myself melt away as I had in my former years, consumed once more by blood and death and the occasional lusty night. But such a decision would be detrimental, not only to Serena and I, but the entirety of Faey as well.After all, how can Faey even hope to be spared from the wrath of the mind soul if there is no other souls there to protect them?"But what did she do?" Kal protests, clearly confused by the matter.Honestly, here I was thinking the little dragon was rather bright.Lazily, as to push aside the ardent beating of the bond against my chest and trying to ignore the subtle reminder of all that I have lost today, I spin dark plumes of magic between my fingers, whisking them into shape- her shape. My body cold with a melancholy emptiness, I mull over these figures as though desiring to pluck them from the darkness and reclaim them once more.I could do it- I know I could. It is not outside of my power to find her.But then the plan would be ruined and SerenaI do not wish to think of that."Do you recall what Serena asked you to do minutes before she jumped through that portal?" I ask, giving Kal a long, hard look.Kal thinks on it for a moment, his hand pausing against the fur of his little fox friend."Let me think," he murmurs, eyes glazing as he retreats back into his mind, trying to remember the pleas that were asked of him. Several seconds of silence and distant mumblings later, Kal snaps his fingers, his eyes alight with realisation."She asked me to make her pendant invisible. God, I am an idiot. Oh Soren," he whispers, screwing up his face as he places his hand against his forehead, eyes flickering shut. In distress the little white fox raises his head up to Kal, attempting to soothe his agonies, before he plods his way over to me, placing himself down on his haunches. Rambling, Kal continues."Azrael isn't going to realise that she is still unaffected by his mind control. And if Serena pretends to be flexible to his suggestions, let herself appear to succumb to his wishes-""Then we have ourselves the perfect insider, a spy, and our assassin. She can tell us what Azrael is planning, and help us locate the soul without Azrael getting to them first."All at once the room falls into a shocked silence. That is until Kal's exclamation pricks the air."Holy hell," Kal whispers to himself, flopping himself down on the ground. Then suddenly he glances over to the corner and realising there is a minor in the room, quickly covers his mouth with a guilty look plastered against his features."I just can't believe it. Soren, that's actually genius. Serena is an agent on the inside. Maybe we do have hope after all!"Despite everything, I manage to crack a small, half hearted grin. Carefully, I pace towards Kal, stationing myself next to him as I wrap an arm around his shoulder, allowing him to lean his weight against me."Well, she is my wife, Kal. How else do you think she managed to get her way into my icy heart of stone?" I chuckle with a wink.Besides me, Kal shrugs, looking down affectionately at the little white fox, landing himself a wet boop on the cheek."Well, I don't know, you have a habit of being rather sly, Soren. And between you and me, you have been smitten with her for years- or at least the thought of her, don't even try to deny it," he grins back, adding a complimentary wink before his face falls once more, the reality of the situation hitting him like a brick to the face.There must be some part of him that misses Serena, that feels guilty by association, for failing to kill Azrael, failing to stop her, and simply letting her go. After all, he made it right to the eternal flame with her, and by all that Serena told me, got his ass handed to him several times. Without her endeavours to save him, perhaps there would be no 'Kal' left at all. No cheeky winged dragon boy to prod comments over my marriage and to shed sarcasm at the most inappropriate of times. It is likely this guilty thought that nags at his conscience, nibbling away at his conflicted heart when he says:"So, what are we going to do? How can we help her? If we don't want to spoil her plan and go to her directly, how else can we aid her?"Before I can think about bringing myself to answer, the pitter patter of footsteps behind us alerts me to an ulterior precedence, and quick as a flash I spin on my heels, magic flaring from my form until my eyes meet the little creature, and I stop dead.Dawn- a previously weak, pallid little angel, patters over to the unconscious Delina propped up at the side of the room. "Dawn," Kal calls warily, stretching out his hand to beckon her to him. But she doesn't hear. "Dawn come here."This time, Dawn answers."The lady is hurt," she says softly, absently, scooting further towards Delina. There is a faint glowing aura around her body, a dancing light that sways in the pale white of her hair and the frills of her tiny ragged dress. Her wings- previously torn and tattered by the influence of my kind whose vicious claws and pointed fangs had not ceased to save her from their wrath, are now healed, glowing, alight with the fervent freshness of life. A similar luminescence springs from the eternal flame within my hands, dispelling the grim shadows on the walls. It practically seems to burn away the rot and the grime to replace it with a sparkling freshness, restoring the room to life and quenching that putrid smell of death from the air. The eternal flame the giver of life, of immortal power, and the lifeforce of many of the angels. It would seem that its presence almost seems to revitalise them, draw out the powers that have long since been hidden in the depths of their souls and let them flourish more outwardly, embedding magic directly into their veins."Kal," I say slowly, my eyes never leaving the little angel girl. "I think I know what we need to do. I think I know what Serena would have wanted."With a brief shortness of breath, I realise that Serena never had planned to kill my people, not even to begin with, when business' with souls was even on the table. Always, after all this time, she had merely planned to save hers.As Dawn kneels down beside Delina, her eyes wide and frightful as her fingers spark with a pearly pink magic, I recall my promise to Serena, to her people, to mine, that I would return the flame, and together, we would build a new society of our own. One of peace, where war was a word written in the myths of the past, and a blissful happiness could flourish among the people of Faey once more. Where nights were not haunted by the red eyes fiends who lust for blood, but a propagation of equality between species, were revels played out long into the night under a blanket of twinkling stars, and muses sing like birds through the whispering trees long into the night.This is the vision we have realised, so close and yet somehow out of grasp. And here is my calling, my proof, that such a vision does exist in the wider world. Serena wanted to unite our kinds. And what better way to unite them than under the banner of war against the end of the world?
