body paralyzed.
“Izak,” I said in warning. The demon just stood there with a light grip on her wrist. All he would have to do is run a fingernail through her flesh and his poison could begin to seep in. It would serve her right for being so impetuous, but it would also force Thomas to act.
“Melody,” Thomas said, his displeasure obvious. “You have been instructed in the basis of our laws. This type of rash violence is forbidden, and giving in to such impulses could lead you down a very dark path that you wouldn’t wish to travel. Furthermore, you would serve yourself and our Lord well to heed my warnings, and take advantage of my experience. Look at the back of the fiend’s hand.”
Melody’s eyes shifted down, her pupils dilating when she saw the dark etchings of the runes beginning from the back of Izak’s hands. No minor fiend would ever have knowledge of such things. It was a testament to the demon’s power.
“You can let her go now,” I said.
Izak bore his eyes into Melody’s for a few seconds, sending a warning about further aggression, and then released her wrist. Able to move again, the seraph took a few steps back and put her hand to her face to cover her tears.
“We have a plane to catch,” I said to Thomas, pulling Melody’s blade up to my hand and glamouring it as a guitar case. “It was good to see you again.”
I started walking around the angels, but when I looked at Melody I felt a sudden, unbidden twinge of guilt. I stood in front of her until she looked up at me.
“Your time will come Initiate,” I said, the words familiar on my tongue but foreign in my mind. “Remember that your greatest strength comes not from your skill, but from your faith.”
Somehow, the words brought her comfort, but they completely sapped me of mine.
“ Josette ,” I said, calling out to her in my soul. I could feel her spirit, her warmth, but it was gone as quickly as it had arrived. I stepped around Melody and continued towards the terminal, my entire being weighed down by the experience.
When we got to the gate, I found a couple of empty seats in the corner by the window and led Izak over to them to wait. The demon eschewed the chairs for the floor in front of the window, taking off his suit coat, bunching it in a ball, and using it as a pillow to rest his head against. He glanced over at me one last time, and then closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The action confirmed everything I already suspected about our alliance. Demons didn’t need to sleep any more than I did, so the move was an obvious dismissal. Izak was interested in Sarah, nothing more. The feeling was mutual.
I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, feeling the river of power feeding into my soul. I tracked it back to its source, my Source, and watched as the mortal world began to dematerialize around me. In moments it was a frozen haze, and then it was gone. I was sitting in the airport again, but my soul was firmly planted in Purgatory.
A wave of my hand, and the glass of the terminal vanished. I stood and ran towards it, kicking off at the last instant and launching into the air. I couldn’t fly in the mortal world, but things were different here.
There was no real need to fly at all, I could have brought myself to my destination with nothing more than a thought, but I had found that maintaining a relative amount of consistency between the worlds was useful for normalizing the feedback of the experience to my physical mind. In the early days after Rebecca had vanished I had visited Purgatory often, exploring my newfound power and testing my limits. I had made and remade the world so many times, and when I had returned to my body I had found my power reduced. Like everything else, it was a balance.
I found Dante outside of his eleventh century manse, tending to his garden. He was kneeling over a smaller outcropping of roses, a simple white linen robe resting over his shoulders, with lines of dirt
“Izak,” I said in warning. The demon just stood there with a light grip on her wrist. All he would have to do is run a fingernail through her flesh and his poison could begin to seep in. It would serve her right for being so impetuous, but it would also force Thomas to act.
“Melody,” Thomas said, his displeasure obvious. “You have been instructed in the basis of our laws. This type of rash violence is forbidden, and giving in to such impulses could lead you down a very dark path that you wouldn’t wish to travel. Furthermore, you would serve yourself and our Lord well to heed my warnings, and take advantage of my experience. Look at the back of the fiend’s hand.”
Melody’s eyes shifted down, her pupils dilating when she saw the dark etchings of the runes beginning from the back of Izak’s hands. No minor fiend would ever have knowledge of such things. It was a testament to the demon’s power.
“You can let her go now,” I said.
Izak bore his eyes into Melody’s for a few seconds, sending a warning about further aggression, and then released her wrist. Able to move again, the seraph took a few steps back and put her hand to her face to cover her tears.
“We have a plane to catch,” I said to Thomas, pulling Melody’s blade up to my hand and glamouring it as a guitar case. “It was good to see you again.”
I started walking around the angels, but when I looked at Melody I felt a sudden, unbidden twinge of guilt. I stood in front of her until she looked up at me.
“Your time will come Initiate,” I said, the words familiar on my tongue but foreign in my mind. “Remember that your greatest strength comes not from your skill, but from your faith.”
Somehow, the words brought her comfort, but they completely sapped me of mine.
“ Josette ,” I said, calling out to her in my soul. I could feel her spirit, her warmth, but it was gone as quickly as it had arrived. I stepped around Melody and continued towards the terminal, my entire being weighed down by the experience.
When we got to the gate, I found a couple of empty seats in the corner by the window and led Izak over to them to wait. The demon eschewed the chairs for the floor in front of the window, taking off his suit coat, bunching it in a ball, and using it as a pillow to rest his head against. He glanced over at me one last time, and then closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The action confirmed everything I already suspected about our alliance. Demons didn’t need to sleep any more than I did, so the move was an obvious dismissal. Izak was interested in Sarah, nothing more. The feeling was mutual.
I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, feeling the river of power feeding into my soul. I tracked it back to its source, my Source, and watched as the mortal world began to dematerialize around me. In moments it was a frozen haze, and then it was gone. I was sitting in the airport again, but my soul was firmly planted in Purgatory.
A wave of my hand, and the glass of the terminal vanished. I stood and ran towards it, kicking off at the last instant and launching into the air. I couldn’t fly in the mortal world, but things were different here.
There was no real need to fly at all, I could have brought myself to my destination with nothing more than a thought, but I had found that maintaining a relative amount of consistency between the worlds was useful for normalizing the feedback of the experience to my physical mind. In the early days after Rebecca had vanished I had visited Purgatory often, exploring my newfound power and testing my limits. I had made and remade the world so many times, and when I had returned to my body I had found my power reduced. Like everything else, it was a balance.
I found Dante outside of his eleventh century manse, tending to his garden. He was kneeling over a smaller outcropping of roses, a simple white linen robe resting over his shoulders, with lines of dirt
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