Norah was walking on the pearly white floors of the silver city with her angelic white robes flowing with her movement. She wore a proud smile on her face as the angels she passed by waved at her and greeted her with a friendly hello. A normal day. A perfectly normal day…just like any other day…for 13 years…13 years..same old thing. But it’s fine! It’s safe and comfortable! I have a home, friends, and family. That doesn't have to worry about dying.
She greeted them back with the same, her vision then went black as she came to a halt.
“ Guess who!” Said the mysterious voice from behind, but Norah wasn’t alarmed. She took off the hands that covered her face and turned to face the angel behind her cheerfully saying.
“ Gabriella! You’re late to Vita’s meeting as well?”
“ Of course not. Her majesty sent me to come to get you since you’re late, slug legs.” She teased playfully as she took the lead back to Vita’s palace.
Norah followed behind the short sandy curly haired woman with pale skin and angelic robes similar to Norah’s.
The two arrived in the front gardens of the palace giggling about some gossip Gabriella had heard from the mortal world. They took a few breaths calmly then entered the marble palace through the open golden doors. No matter how many times Norah entered the palace she always admired how clean and perfect everything was. From the silver figurines to the paintings of the other gods in Vita’s family (aside from Azrail). Everything was polished to perfection making them shine like the stars in the night sky.
The two entered the throne room seeing Vita sitting on her crystalized cushioned throne, staring down a demon with torn robes wearing an elk skull. Norah scoffed in disgust as she took her seat on the right side of Vita’s throne, and Gabriella stood next to the shackled demon.
“ I apologize for my tardiness, My Queen,” Norah apologized, as Vita nodded in acknowledgment.
“ Now where were we demon, ah yes now I remember, tell us where your organization's base is. You think you and your cult can continuously steal the souls of my creations, and not go unpunished.” The demon responded with silence and not even look at Vita. Gabriella snorted a little and kicked the demon in the side causing it to cough up some orange blood onto the ivory carpet. Vita gazed at Norah and nodded. Norah nodded back and hesitantly stood up as she struggled to summon her aurora colored flames to appear in her hand. She walked over to the demon and kneeled at its level.
“ Please just answer her… this fate will be worse than betraying your cult.”
The demon looked at Norah glaring at her with his gray eyes that glowed through the eye sockets of the elk skull.
“ I will not. We are, finally, doing good deeds. We ain’t a cult. We are trying to keep peace. We are basically cleaning up the mess you created. You were supposed to be the Savior, but now you’re just a mindless lap dog.”
Norah’s expression went from pity to rage as the demon spoke. The fire in her hand burned even brighter and more wildly. She tore off the skull mask and shattered it in her hand.
He was a pale-skinned elf that had nasty scars torn across his once elegant face. The demon remained calm keeping his loathing glare fixed on her, Gabriella forced the demon to open his mouth then Norah shoved the fire in the demon's mouth. The demon tried to spit it out but Gabriella forced his mouth shut and kept it shut making him swallow the fire. They both backed away as the demon screamed in agony.
“ I am the Savior. I saved everyone from Death himself by killing him, from disease since we isolated Pestis, and we took everything else bad from the world. We made the world perfect for everyone. Now we ask again. Where is your cult?”
“ I-I will never tell! You all mean nothing to me! Y-Your status means nothing! You’re a-all false!” The demon said, muscling through the burning pain from inside him. Vita scowled at the demon and gripped the arms of her throne.
Gabriella pulled out her dagger that sparked with lightning. Norah looked at Gabriella and shook her head at her friend. Gabriella scoffed and sheathed her dagger once more.
The three watched as the demon curled up from pain as he began to sweat and groan. He started shouting things in a language she didn’t understand, but she could tell the language was some sort of reversed foreign language.
He continued to shrivel up in pain as he continued to shout in his bizarre language. After a few more minutes of watching the demon suffer in his agony Vita gave an order to Norah, and she obediently went to the demon summoning the fire out of the demon’s body. He gasped in relief and began coughing, shedding tears of blood from his eyes trying to recollect himself.
“ I ask again, demon. Where is the base of the Soul Feasters? My patience is running thin,” ordered Vita with an enraged tone to her normal soft kind voice.
“ I answer. The base is up your angelic-” The demon was cut off by Gabriella punching the demon in the side of the head, knocking the fiend out.
Vita sighed in disgust, and she waved her hand signaling the guards to take the Soul Feaster away into the dungeons.
“ We’re sorry we couldn’t get the demon to speak,” Gabriella apologized kneeling before Vita.
“ It isn’t your fault. These pests are loyal to their cause and whoever their leader is. They dare to ruin my perfect world. Besides that, Gabriella, have you made any progress with either of the Dream Lords?”
“ No, my Queen.”
“ Pity, I thought you could complete this task. This simple task. Well, then I suppose we need to work on invading the Dream World. While we’re talking about the invasion, how is the invasion plan coming along? Are we getting close to storming Pestiss’ kingdoms?”
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“ Yes, my Queen. We are working on coming up with manpower while keeping the rest of the kingdoms under control. But recruitment and training will be starting soon. Then we’ll begin the attack.”
“ Perfect, you’re dismissed.”
The archangel nodded and headed out of the palace, shouting out at angels giving orders. Norah returned to her seat beside Vita sitting straight and perfect. That poor elf..No Norah don’t have sympathy for him. He’s a filthy demon, he’s beneath us…what am I saying? He’s still a person who feels…and screams in agony.
“ Norah darling have you heard from Sean or your sister?”
“ No. I haven’t been in touch with any of them since we destroyed Paradise, and they tried to rebel against you...and Willow’s execution.”
“ I’m sorry again they all betrayed you, dearie.”
“ Don’t worry my Queen, I’m here and living a happy fulfilling life. I’m no longer constantly moving, I can actually belong somewhere.” Norah smiled brightly which made Vita smile back gently. The day passed as it normally did, solving other angels’ problems, patrolling some parts of the mortal world, hanging out with Gabriella, and continuing to train with her abilities. She ended the day by laying alone in her bed content with the normal day. Just a perfect night to end a perfect…perfect normal..day. She closed her eyes, slowed her breath, and drifted off to sleep.
Norah was standing on a hill with grass blades flowing with the wind, and petals that drifted with the wind. She stared up at the bright blue sky that was littered with small puffy white clouds that moved with the gentle breeze. Norah sighed in contentment as she rolled down the hill then began wandering around smelling the beautiful flowers and holding small insects in her hands then letting them go. While a glorious turquoise-flamed phoenix flew above her.
After aimless wandering for who knows how long. She saw a small cliff ahead and she went toward it seeing a deep dark ravine below.
Cries and begs of help echoed throughout the ravine, Norah felt a pain in her chest as she heard the helpless cries endlessly echo in the ravine.
She jumped off the cliff and slowly hovered her way down into the depths of the ravine. Her surroundings darkened the lower she descended into the belly of the beast with her only light being the dim flames of the phoenix that followed her. The wails for salvation echoed only louder, deafening all other sounds as she descended downward.
Norah continued downward regardless, as her chest ached painfully with desperation in wanting to help. She eventually landed, glancing around she saw nothing in the darkness, but her soul shuttered with the feeling that someone was watching her. She desperately tried to ignite a flame since the phoenix’s flames were barely providing light, but nothing even smoldered in her hand.
Norah tried wandering around aimlessly through the ravine, as the wails persisted on. She then tripped on something like a rock that yelped like a puppy. She fell to the ground face first, then felt a heavy stone cold paw on her back with claws that dug into her skin. A cold breath whispered in her ear.
“ I’m stone cold. Yer fault.” The whisper continued on and on as the claws dug deeper and deeper into her back and wings. Norah squirmed and wiggled as she broke free then began running through the darkness then she felt a thud against a manish figure. The only thing she could make out was the flowers that the man wore on his head, and the figure looked at her.
“ My home destroyed. Your fault,” said the figure in a weeping tone as it reached out to touch her repeating the phrase. Norah dodged the hand and began running again. She tried to fly out, but the ravine’s mouth was snapped shut.
She hovered a few feet above the ground gliding through the dark rocky ravine. The two previous voices were following her saying their curses as they followed. She bumped into another figure in the air that felt like Mama Willow, and she said in a grieving tone.
“ I am gone. Your fault.”
Norah quickly flew on, but the taunts still followed her and more joined them.
“ Please stop! It’s not my fault! Y-You did it to yourselves I’m not to blame! I’m the savior! I’m the chosen one! I’m the hero in this legend! You-you all are just the bad guys! The traitors!” She then flew up with tears of rage streaming from her eyes and broke through the mouth of the ravine.
She woke up sitting up in a cold sweat and tears still streaming down her face. She swiftly put on her fuzzy robes and some boots then ran to the dungeons.
She entered the marble dungeons with haste and took one of the torches passing by the cells that contained the sleeping Pestis, the sickly Fawn, and Flora, the god of war, and the several Soul Feasters.
She arrived at the largest cell that had Azrail sitting in the middle with chains around his neck, wrists, and torso that were pinned to the walls and the hard ground. His eyes were closed, his body was almost like a stick, his skin was paler than fresh snow, and his cheekbones jutted out of his sunken face.
Guilt crept into her heart seeing the mighty High god of Death chained up and his soul in a sickly state, but she shoved the feeling aside as she banged on the bars with the torch making a sharp unpleasant sound that awoke the sleeping fiend.
Azrail opened his bleak black blood-red color eyes. His black and gray hair was still shaved on both sides but the middle part was ruffled, and a grizzled goatee.
“ What have you done to me?” Norah demanded.
“ Nothing,” Azrail replied in a raspy voice, he began to doze off once more.
“ You gave me a nightmare to make me feel guilty! I have never had nightmares here before! It must be you!” She slammed the bars again, waking him up.
“ I did no such thing. I’m not in charge of giving nightmares”
“ Liar! You probably ordered the mutt to give me one!”
“ The dead don’t lie. I didn’t give it to you and neither did I tell him to.”
Norah’s face tensed with anger and frustration as she stared into Azrail’s eyes searching for something, but all she saw were eyes filled with despair, and grief that only made her heart fill up with guilt. She then sighed, recollecting herself.
“ If the dead don’t lie then tell me where I can find the Black Beast.”
“ Has Vita told you about your parents? What really happened that night you were chosen?”
“ No. Why would I want to know? I never knew them, and Mam-I mean Willow is dead. So really Vita is my mother. Why should I care who they were? Now where is the Black Beast?”
“ It’s a very simple question with a simple answer. I’m sure Vita can answer it for you.”
“ Of course she can, but it isn’t worth her time.”
“ Aren’t you curious why you were chosen? Why you were adopted and how?”
“ I suppose it’d be nice to know,” she admitted after a small pause.
“ The Black Beast is in the Mortal world.”
Norah headed out of the dungeon returning to her home. Pestis went to the door of her cell looking at Azrail’s cell.
“ Azrail, you lied. We both know you-”
“ I didn’t lie. I am not the reason the Mare chose to give her a nightmare. I am only a vessel for it.”
“ Will she be back?” Pestis questioned, and Azrail nodded.
“ She will, there’s no doubt.”