“I grew up on the streets. I can’t remember the first thing I stole, but I remember being hungry.”

Igni listened he knew what the words meant but put together he lost them. He’d never known hunger, nor what it meant to be alone. But they defined her down to her marrow. Visions of the night before came to him, faces printed with horror truths, hate burned in eyes meeting their end. These things defined the mortals.

Understanding kindled in concepts that had only ever been words on pages and whispers on his elder’s tongues. As always new questions rose.

“There was very little though in those years. I ran from one thing to the next taking and doing as I pleased. I told myself I’d been abandoned, it was only fair, it was only right.” The girl’s voice was a gentle monotone, the kind that hid much. He could see the shape of what lurked behind it. Even his dawning ignorance knew an infant could not survive the street.

He stewed in his curiosity.

“But eventually as most thieves do I made a mistake. It cost me dearly.” There was churning weight to her words. A screaming pause that spanned a breath. Though he held his senses close, he felt her soul shiver. “I lost my hope and I lost my delusion. For a time I thought I lost the chance to ever be more than a thief. ”Her steady voice words melted under the bright day.

“I-“ he waited for her to find the words. “May I be frank emissary?”

“I will always appreciate honesty Two.” What could be more sincere than the spilling of a closed heart?

“Then I think you are making a mistake.” Warmth abandoned her. She went from genial to cold and bitter. “There’s no point asking why a monster hurts people. Few if any of those people deserve consideration. Our work was theft of things and people. They revelled in it or simply didn’t care.”

Igni looked at her again and was again confounded. She was clad in the blue and gold of the governor’s employ. Her thick hair was tied field in locks and bundled by a ribbon to bounce behind her. She walked the decorated streets like any other attendant, but Igni remembered.

He remembered her and so many others fleeing in his mist. She breathed him in as she pulled herself from a breakdown and knit herself back together as she marched to a possible death. Composed despite everything. Calm until Leandr painted the night red. His brother called her a little deceiver with eyes too big. Lancet called her a child of misfortune, a thing of neglect.

Curio said there was a lesson to be learned from her. His interest kindled into a flame, that demanded fuel. He asked a question that bordered on impolite “Do you deserve consideration” his wings shook with anticipation.

She did not disappoint. “No,” Two said, the declaration was hard, cold. “I did what I did because it benefited me. I wish I could tell you that empathy or my conscience made me do the right thing, but if my interests demanded I cast them aside I would have. The greatest difference between me and those corpses is that I lived.”

“That,” for the first time in years an answer stunned him. There was a lie amongst her words. One he could not find without overstepping propriety. He chuckled and tossed the answer around his head. Most of it was true and what a strange truth it was.

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He chuckled. “ You are strange Two. You lie and I cannot tell it whether it is to me or yourself. Yours is a cold world. Was it worth it?”

She did not break her stride, but she hitched. An indecision so minor as to be invisible hinted at spiralling thoughts, at doubt. “I wanted to be free.” Before she had held herself like a rock braced against a storm but now she was a hollow cavern. A whisper bounced about an empty space. Long-held and longer forgotten.

He had overstepped. Yet he could not bring himself to stop. His wings ruffled and shook, and spots of pale brown grew heavy and flecked with spreading gold. It would have been so easy to take the answers he sought. She wouldn’t even have noticed but Igni would know. Curio with his long gaze would know and understanding would be tainted by indulgence. He sighed and a breath of cold mist doused rising heat and left retreated from his wings.

Passing mortals stared with an intensity almost matching his, he waved with a smile and they scuttled off. He returned his gaze to the mortal that walked none the wiser and with the gentlest tone he could, asked the burning question.

“Are you free?”

There was a lull and the morning breeze passed them by. “I got what I wanted.” She turned slightly and raised a hand. In it, a clear crystal lay bound to a chain that wrapped around her neck. ”The governor calls it a pure diamond.”

Igni blinked and cocked his head to the side as a lesson reared its head. He recognized the name. He sighed, “So you’ve resigned yourself to your fate.” Such a shame to lose such an interesting person.

A shiver raced up Two’s spine. She was not a stranger to ill portents but rarely had she heard one with such weight and never had one come from the lips of an angel.

Two forced herself to keep walking. Burning stares slipped past her to find the emissary. Traffic thickened as they closed on the city’s centre and slowed as sight of the emissary made people forget their necks and legs were independent. Carriages slowed, horses and their drivers forgot themselves. The angel would be the world’s most interesting traffic jam when they reached busier streets.

For now, Two had the luxury of leisure and the angel’s attention. The latter was as heavy as she expected.

“Fate?” She asked with a calm belying her dread.

He sighed, and Two’s stomach twisted. “What do you think that diamond does?”

Nothing. The stubborn thought struck her Anchored to the fresh doubt. Reason pushed the doubt aside. His words implied the jewel did something. She’d not been scammed or at the very least not given a useless prop. “It suppresses my…” she trailed off. “Condition.”

“Taint.” He amended in a dour tone.

“Yes.” She said and glanced at him. He looked disappointed but the feeling did not seem disappointed at her. She took a breath but the mist was as indecipherable as ever. “Am I correct” his reply did not inspire confidence

“Partly. Taint as you call it is a semi-contagious affliction. That diamond only contains it.” The words were delivered gently but two still felt as if someone had torn away the floor from beneath her feet.

Blighted had been one Butch’s last words. Her taint was undeniable it polluted every interaction she had. Poisoned every friendship or acquaintance she hoped to make. She’d thought that was all it was. Everything else seemed an exaggeration, folk tales to shame those who strayed too deep into Spes Nova’s tunnels. That assumption cracked and crumbled. The life she founded on it crumbled too. The diamond around her neck felt heavier and panic crept into her thoughts. It mixed with dread into a noxious blend that nonetheless sharpened her thoughts.

“I think I’ve been the victim of a misunderstanding. Could you please clarify?” She smiled. It was the day’s prettiest and least sincere. An idiot could tell it was fake, but she’d never show how tired she was. She couldn’t.

He looked at her with naked sadness and a smile that stole the hearts of passerbys. “Tell me what you believe and I shall correct you.”

Two thought of every curse levelled at her. She dredged up whispered tales of things buried far beneath the swears and why they were left forgotten. She breathed in, she breathed out, she let herself fall away. She tied it all up neatly and spiled as she put her worst nightmares into words. ”Taint is a stain on the soul, a pollution of self. An emotion festers and mutates becoming parodies of itself. An evergrowing cancer that grows and twists the mind and body about it. Until the soul hollows and all one feels is sick and wrong. Poison leaks from the damned invisible yet known. Listen to your instinct. Distrust, hate disgust, the soul knows and it will remind you. Run burn the thing do something, but never linger. Lest the taint seeps take you too”

His reply was slow. Two opened her mouth the shut it with a click. She was wound too tight. Nothing good could come from speaking now. She began the slow process of pulling herself to calm. Her breath cycled slowly and she honed in the scent-smell of essence.

Essence danced by her. Awe and curiosity were chief among them. The feelings swung back and forth in great waves as they walked down the road. Building a word and sight of the angel came, then falling into a current of wonders as they passed.

How many had seen angels so far? Hundreds at the least likely thousands and they’d yet to reach the city’s heart. This was a day most would never forget. A day they’d tell their grandchildren about. To think Ignis, the centre of their attention was waiting for her to calm down.

She released a breath and found amidst the mounting dread. “Thank you for waiting.” And apologies for my lacking composure, “What’s the verdict.”

“It’s all true.” It was a wonder how such a kind voice could say such hurtful things.