Justitia was standing on top of an earthen wall, staring at the plains outside of the city. The yellow moon hung overhead but didn’t provide much illumination; instead, bonfires were scattered throughout the city and on the plains outside as well. Ever since the army was sneak attacked at night, Michael had the soldiers light bonfires outside the city walls before the sun set.

Justitia shivered as she began to pace back and forth along the wall that Andrew had summoned. When the four council members arrived, they began to reinforce the defenses until the whole city of Marossa became one giant fortress. But that only took less than an hour, and the soldiers never saw the council members after that. She shivered again as a cold breeze blew past her skin. A thought flashed across her mind when she saw the other sentry who was patrolling with her round a corner: I should leave.

She bit her lower lip and shook her head. The council members had ordered a group of guardians to patrol the roads to scout for any movements of the rebel army and deserters. She wasn’t confident in her abilities to escape undetected. A sigh escaped from her lips when she thought back to the soldiers who had already left. She couldn’t quite believe Owen deserted, but she guessed it was understandable seeing as Elrith had deserted too.

There was a thumping noise which caused Justitia to stiffen and turn around. She saw her patrolling buddy crumpled on the ground, and she tightened her grip on her lance, causing purple lightning to coil around it. There was a movement in the corner of her eyes, and she whirled around to see a snake’s head lunging towards her face.

“Palan!?” Justitia shouted as she raised her lance to block the blow. Raea’s demon was the first person she thought of when she saw the black and red snake. The snake easily avoided Justitia’s parry and engulfed her head. She tried to scream, but foul liquids entered her mouth instead, and she began to jab blindly with her lance. Seconds later, her vision returned, and she was able to breathe again.

“You know me?” Palan asked and tilted his head at Justitia while she coughed out the liquids she swallowed. He was holding onto her lance, and Danger Noodle was hovering near her throat.

“You don’t recognize me?” Justitia asked. “Justitia … Blossom…? Any of those names ring a bell?” She wiped at her face with the back of her hands.

“Oh,” Palan said as he released her lance. He shrugged. “There’s just so many of you angels that it’s hard to remember all your faces.”

Justitia’s brow furrowed. “Is he … dead?” she asked and gestured towards her fallen companion.

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“Yes,” Palan said. A shudder ran down Justitia’s spine, and she took a step back.

“Did Raea send you to do this?” she asked as her hands tightened on her lance. She knew she couldn’t win against him, but her weapon comforted her.

“Raea?” Palan asked as his eyes slightly narrowed. “No. She’s gone.”

Justitia’s face blanched. “Then… are you going to kill me?” she asked.

“Are you going to report my presence?” Palan asked back.

“My duty is to report any signs of the rebel army,” Justitia said and bit her lip. “Are you a part of that?”

“No.”

“Then I won’t.”

“Then I guess you can live,” Palan said and shrugged.

Justitia exhaled and lowered her lance. Her legs were shaking. There was a sharp pain in the back of her head, and her vision went black as her body fell to the ground. Palan stared at the unconscious angel and frowned. Why had he spared her? He had a feeling Raea would be sad if she found out he killed Justitia, but who was going to tell her it was him? He shook his head. Whatever, it didn’t matter anyways. Tonight, he wasn’t here to kill, but to obtain information about the city’s layout. After he thought about it for a bit, he came to the conclusion that someone who’s lived here for a while would know it better than he could in a single night.

Palan glanced at the unconscious angel and picked her up, grabbing the back of her belt. He paused and picked up the dead angel as well before leaping off the earthen wall and retreating. He carried the two angels like groceries and leapt into the air, enveloped by a black glow. After escaping to a hill off in the distance, he went around the base and brushed aside a boulder, revealing a hole in the hill. Inside, there was his carriage.

He entered his hiding spot and stripped the dead angel before storing him into the mounds of salt. As for Justitia, he took away her lance and armor before tying her hands and legs together with strips of leather. Without Cleo, he didn’t know how to start a fire, so he pulled out a piece of salted meat and began to eat it raw. He was in the process of breaking the leftover bones to slurp the marrow when Justitia started to scream. Palan’s brow furrowed—he forgot to gag her too.

“Quit screaming,” Palan said and lightly smacked her head with the femur in his hands.

“Untie me!”

“I have trust issues,” Palan said and resumed eating.

“I … I don’t understand,” Justitia said. She bit her lower lip as she attempted to work her hands free from their restraints. “You—“

“Just relax,” Palan said as he chucked the broken bones over his shoulder. “I just want to find out some information about the situation of Marossa: the people, the layout”—his eyes narrowed—“the archangels. And it was easier to just take you with me instead of discovering everything for myself. That also ensured you couldn’t tell anyone about me.”

Justitia exhaled. “So you’re not going to do anything to me?” she asked. Her limbs stopped struggling. “My mom used to tell me stories about children who got kidnapped by demons because they were misbehaving.”

“Do you want me to torture you or do you want to tell me about Marossa?” Palan asked and raised an eyebrow. “In fact, just tell me everything about the army and the rebels. I heard there were halflings as strong as archangels.”