Noth had read the ominous note again and again for an hour, desperately trying to figure out a single shred of information more than he had already gleamed. His mind turned circle after circle as speculated left and right about what any of this could mean. Why had the prophet decided to speak with him? If this was the God-dess’s decree, did that mean that the God-dess was the one who had told him to do it? What was the purpose of this? There was no way that this was just going to be a friendly and informative chat, was there? Did the prophet stand to gain anything from all of this somehow? Had the pope enlisted their assistance to help remove Noth? Could it be that he and his angel had somehow enraged the God-dess, and this was a way of getting rid of them?
The teen’s mind wandered back to the flower he’d eaten, the ‘God-dess’s Love’. Could it be that consuming that flower had caused the almighty deity to frown upon him? Serris may have told him that there wouldn’t be any adverse effects from eating it, but he’d already known from the beginning that she was hiding something. He’d let his hair grow out just the tiniest bit more over the past year, just in the hopes that he could hide the strange mark that had been left on the upper left of his back that day. What Noth had first believed to be some kind of bruise or discoloration when he’d first noticed it the next day in the mirror had actually never gone away, instead only solidifying and growing more vividly coloured over time. His angel, as always, had been no help, instead deciding to keep it all a secret, just as she typically loved to do.
When Noth’s back twitched at the reminder of the mark that had been engraved upon it, another stray thought suddenly entered his mind. The thought firmly planted itself there, taking root and growing wildly the longer that it stayed.
If the prophet knew everything… then would he know about this mark?
Of course, it was a silly question, as there wasn’t anything that the prophet couldn’t know. But that mere realization immediately filled Noth’s core to the brim with excitement. Finally, someone who would know all the answers! How easy it would be, simply asking this prophet and learning the bevy of secrets that had been kept from him all these years! Every question that he’d been madly wondering wouldn’t have to just be stuck swimming about in his head anymore! In fact, the note was an invitation to learn about his angel in the first place, which was basically the root of most of the questions that Noth had!
But the thought of his miserable angel who’d been left sobbing on the ground quickly cooled his racing heart.
Serris. She’d been so afraid of this note. She knew he’d have no choice but to go and see the prophet once he’d read it, both due to the God-dess’s decree and his own raging curiosity. Would it have been better to have respected her wishes and not have read it? Was he hurting the one closest to him by doing all this? Did he really think that the answers he’d been so desperately seeking all this time could make him hate her? It felt so nonsensical to think that something could possibly convince him to turn against his angel, but Noth was aware that he should know better than to take something for granted by now. Just because his imagination wasn’t good enough to come up with some awful scenario or another didn’t mean that it wasn’t possible. He’d been unpleasantly surprised many times by now with unthinkable events, why suddenly believe that he was safe from them this time around? Was he going to think that way just because the past year had been so peaceful? How laughable. As if he was dumb enough not to notice a pattern repeating itself.
Noth’s mind had slowly managed to convince itself of the worst once he thoroughly thought things over.
He imagined every possible awful thing he could think of for the angel to do.
He hated doing so, but he had to admit that he might have inadvertently lied to Serris; He really didn’t have any proof that it was impossible for him to hate her no matter what he heard.
He trusted her enough to believe she wouldn’t have done any of the horrendous things his mind had come up with, but he also knew just how easy trust was to break.
He had to accept that despite all the time they’d spent together, and despite how well he felt that they knew each other, in reality he knew very little about the secretive angel.
As Noth was brooding, Elillith suddenly stood up. She turned around and took a step up the stairs, only to look back at the teen as if asking if he still needed her. With a grim nod, Noth also stood up, and he followed her slowly up the stairs, splitting off from her when she left for Helt’s room. The teen firmly closed the door behind him when he finally made his way into his room further down the hall, and then leaned back against the door as he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. His eyes slowly scanned back and forth through the room in front of him fruitlessly; He couldn’t see anyone else here.
He could sense her here.
It’s why he came here in the first place.
But it seemed like she was still hiding.
Hiding from him.
“I know you’re in here, Serris. I read the letter. It didn’t even say anything about you yet, just that the prophet wanted to meet me to talk about you.”
Silence was the only response. Noth gave a weak smile as his body slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor. Of course she wasn’t going to let things be easy.
“I'm sorry, but I’m going. It’s not like I have a choice in the matter, but even if I did, I’d probably still choose to go. You’re precious to me, Serris, and I believe you always will be. But I think it’s about time I finally got to learn about this precious person of mine, don’t you? Not a carefully padded and omitted version, but the real honest truth about who it is I’ve been keeping so close to me. You already know me well enough that you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist learning the truth, right? You already knew about me long before we ever even met as well. Why not make this fair and let me get to know about you, too?”
A moment later the crying face of his angel materialized in front of him. The big fat tears she was crying didn’t lose out to the overly cheesy and dramatic sobbing noises she was making. Her graceful arms wrapped their way around his neck and pulled him against her like steel girders.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
It was hard to breathe, and it took a lot of pushing, but eventually she let go of him just enough for him to finally pull back, get some air, and stare her in the eyes.
“And? So what if I don’t like it? In the end, you’ll still be you, and who you are is very precious to me. You’re a part of me, Serris. And if I find out a part of me is doing something bad, then can’t I just do my best to fix it? If someone trips they don’t just cut off their legs, right?”
His words seemed to have at least gotten her sobbing to stop. Although she was still sniffling and tears were still dripping down her face, there was a smallest look of wishful hope beginning to shine in her eyes.
Noth’s face settled into a picture of pure resolve when he heard her reply. For a second Serris flinched back and looked like she was going to run away, but before she could move to flee, Noth’s arms were firmly wrapped around her. He hugged her tight to his chest, just as she had done moments ago.
“Then I’ll just have to get stronger, strong enough that it won’t matter how broken or bad you may be, and I’ll use that strength to cover for all your faults. And if you think that it’ll be too hard for me to get that strong, then you’ll just have to help me get there!”
The teen could feel his shirt growing more and more soaked as time ticked on, and when his trembling angel still refused to lift her head, Noth started to panic. Did his words somehow make her feel worse? Should he have said something different? But those were his honest feelings! Was there something else he could say to make her feel better? He tried to softly nudge her shoulder to get her attention, and when that didn’t work, he gently tried to push her off of him. It was a bit of a tug of war, but eventually Noth managed to move the angel at least a foot away.
“Serris? Are you alright?”
His angel hid her sniffling face behind her hands, not letting him see the face she was making, even as her tears continued to drip down her arms. Noth hated seeing someone he was so close to crying, and yet a small piece of him found the scene absolutely stunning. He couldn’t help but think that this could have been the muse for an absolutely gorgeous fountain, or maybe a mural. Perhaps it would even make for a perfect statue on top of a grave. As the time passed while the teen artistically contemplated the picture in front of him, Serris’s tears slowly lessened. Eventually she let out one big sniff, breaking Noth out of his reveries, and roughly wiped the tears from her face. She looked rough, and haggard, and red. Bits of her hair were plastered to her face, and her breathing was still a bit unsteady. And yet, despite everything, the moment that she smiled at him as bright as the sun, he couldn’t help but think she looked positively perfect.
The sniffling angel leaned forwards, quickly giving his forehead a small kiss before bashfully retreating back.
<... Thank you for the beautiful words. They made me truly happy.>
~~~
A week had passed, and the agreed upon day had arrived. It was time for Noth to visit the capital and meet with the Prophet. His angel had been moping for almost all of the days leading up to the scheduled meeting, but for some reason her attitude had done a complete 180 the day of, and now she was practically bouncing from excitement. When he’d wished for clothes befitting a noble, he’d been given a luxurious deep mauve suit, one that looked overly stylish and yet somehow still serious. Serris had even gone the extra mile and threw in a new black cape for him to wear over the right shoulder of his outfit. It looked to be the same base as the previous cloak that she’d given him, but the golden trimming along the edges and the commanding looking golden epaulette on his shoulder made the cloak seem anything but ordinary.
Elillith had entered the room at some point while Noth had been preoccupied with childishly playing with his new cloak, and even though Serris had been clapping along and laughing as he used his right arm to do a myriad of moves with the cloth, the unimpressed stare he was getting from his one and only friend quickly made the teen blush and sit down. She quickly came up behind him and started to organize his hair, brushing out his long, slightly curly locks of hair, and then putting it all into a low ponytail over his shoulder. She even managed to slick back a majority of his bangs, giving Noth an older and more serious look overall. The woman nodded nonchalantly, wished the teen luck in the most uncaring sounding tone, and then left to look after the kids once more. Noth truly wished that she showed a little bit more concern about her friend who was about to enter the lion’s den, but he knew that that just wouldn’t be like her in the slightest.
Serris was flitting left and right and all around him, clapping her hands and looking at him in awe.
“Similar to what, exactly?”
Noth let his hand run over the neatly styled ponytail draped over his shoulder. ...Should he maybe let his hair grow out more? Or should he try to gain a bit more muscle? Did he even want to look more like the failed Noth that his angel was romancing? He really wasn’t sure how to feel about her words.
“Thanks… I guess?”
The giggles and winks interspersed into her words didn’t really do much to make Noth believe her, but it also somehow made him truly feel silly to have looked so deeply into what she’d said. He couldn’t help but sigh and make a slightly upset face.
“Whatever then. Instead of this, shouldn’t we be talking about how to get to the capital? You said we wouldn’t need a carriage or anything.”
Noth had never once in 6 years considered using his wishes for something like this. It was possible to just… wish to go somewhere?
“...I can do that? Why didn’t you ever bring this up before?”
The angel gave a large beaming smile to the teen as she cupped his cheeks in her hands and looked deep into his eyes.