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Riell could not find her center. Seeing Shrazz had derailed her emotions. The thought of a partnership with him excited her, and she hated it. He had not invaded her thoughts for at least a hundred years. His injuries should not have changed that.

When Riell felt burdened to the point of distraction, she found comfort in people watching. Her favorite place to do this in Nuevas Cruces was the boardwalk of the city known as The Circ: an entertainment district built on the shoreline of the city's largest lake.

Its ring of themed bars, clubs and restaurants provided a wide variety of entertainment options for different music tastes, social classes, subcultures and sexual orientations.

If she felt bored with one area, she could move to another and experience something completely different. The Circ had more than enough authentic establishments to choose from. This alleviated Riell's need to travel when The Falling Curtain required her to remain in Nuevas Cruces.

At the outskirts of the section devoted to southern Asia, the sound of an Indian woman's voice caught her attention. Riell immediately knew the woman was singing a portion of "The Ramayana."

Riell had originally heard the epic from her teacher Devi in the Himalayas. It, among other Hindu texts, had shaped her during the first century of her life. She walked into the restaurant to listen to her.

The two-story high building looked like a temple dedicated to Vishnu. Small statues of the god stood in niches cut into the orange-red stone of the place. Its stepped pyramid roof climbed fifteen feet into the air.

She could hear the woman's voice plainly now and recognized her lament. She sang of Rama, an incarnation of the god Vishnu and his decision to banish his wife Sita. The epic had reminded her of her relationship with Shrazz.

Shrazz was twenty and she eighteen when they moved together from London to Paris. Three years of leisure culminated when Riell found Shrazz with three other women.

She had heard their moans outside the apartment and watched their foursome camouflaged.

Although they had been romantically involved from time to time, they had never declared themselves as a couple. Riell could tell that he did not love any of the women and had used them to satisfy his voracious exous passions. It had been years since he had seen combat, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt and tried to alleviate his tension by ambushing him from time to time.

Introducing unexpected violence into Shrazz's life curbed his appetites, but eventually the same women returned.

Weeks went by. With every one that did without Shrazz uttering a word about his continued affair, Riell packed more of her things. She had assumed Shrazz would want to work things out and be mature about the situation.

She had received a letter from her old mentor Dejanto before Shrazz's affair began. He wanted her to continue her education and suggested a teacher in the Himalayas. Devi was that teacher.

By the time Shrazz had noticed that his possessions outnumbered Riell's in their flat, his silence had already proved him to be only a selfish child. She decided to leave.

Riell remembered her talk with Devi about the epic. Riell had not agreed with Rama's banishment of Sita when she had been completely faithful while in the hands of the demon, Ravana.

"So you feel like Rama knew she was telling the truth?" Devi had asked.

"Yes," Riell said. "He just wanted her to leave so he could be unfaithful with a clean conscience. He never really loved her. She was just a beautiful trophy of dark skin and curves he could wrap his fingers around. Then he used her to entrap Ravana, who may have truly loved her."

"An interesting retelling," Devi said. "Ravana was a demon who reveled in destruction though. He had thousands of concubines waiting on his beck and call."

"Rama had concubines too," Riell said. "But, while he fell prey to temptation and lost his love for Sita, Ravana somehow fell in love with her despite succubae being more than likely included in his band of mistresses."

"You speak as if this story has historical truth," Devi said. Her black lips smirked, dimpling her dark wrinkled cheeks.

"You were the one that spoke of the truth behind the gods, goddesses and demons of these epics," Riell said. "Most of them actually lived as half-breeds, which means some truth does exist in these tales."

"You are astute," Devi said. "So which are you? Rama or Sita?"

"What?"

"You told me about you and this exous, Shrazz," Devi continued. "That he had mistresses and still loved you. Despite that, he did not tell you the truth and you left him."

"Right," Riell said, through a clenched jaw. Devi had agreed to never bring up her past relationship with Shrazz.

"I am Sita," she said.

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"So he banished you?" Devi asked.

Riell could not speak.

Shrazz was her Ravana, and she had banished herself along with their potential relationship. He had always loved her, despite the other women. Her mistake was not professing her love. If she had, maybe they could have salvaged their relationship. Maybe he would have understood that he had hurt her. She wrote a letter to Shrazz that night to rebuild their friendship.

His reply came months later: a band of ragtag humans who dared to call themselves knights with him at the helm. Still, Riell fondly remembered their little skirmish, mostly because she was the one who came out on top.

She giggled.

I was on top later that night too...

She sighed, why was she acting like such a fledgling? She listened to the woman sing for a bit longer. She missed the Himalayas.

I wish I could hash this out with Devi right now, Riell thought. The thought of her taking me as a pupil humbles me to this day. She was worshiped as a goddess. Not only one, Riell smiled, but three: a nurturer, a warrior and a destroyer.

She walked to the guardrail of the boardwalk and looked over the lake to let her thoughts bathe in the cool, limpid water.

That angel's coming heralds the next Great War. Which is he, I wonder? A teacher for these humans, a warrior fighting for a cause? Or perhaps he is only the apocalyptic instrument of his God. How could such a being be entrapped? And what does The Falling Curtain want with his life?

Riell gazed at the full moon.

"Whoa, check out this chick's get up!" A man shouted from behind.

Riell closed her eyes tightly and silently rebuked herself for not changing clothes.

"You know the medieval section is on the other side of the lake," the man said. "I can take you there if you want some company."

Riell ignored him.

"Christ, you don't have to be so bitchy," he said as he continued on his way and left Riell to her thoughts.

She turned back to the lake.

"That guy was right. You don't have to be so bitchy," a woman rasped. She leaned against the rail and looked at their reflections in the water.

Riell's hand went for her short sword when she saw translucent wings cloaked the stranger.

The skia's thin lips curled into a smirk. She reached into the pockets of her jean jacket. She pulled a box of cigarettes out of the undersized coat.

Riell took her hand from her hilt but kept her eyes on the eavesdropper.

"You fledglings are always so classy," Riell said.

"I just came here to talk, but your ego is getting to me," she said.

"Who are you anyway?" Riell asked. "You've got some audacity following me here. If we weren't in such a crowd this meeting would be an unpleasant one for you."

The skia jammed her cigarette box back into her pocket. She took a deep drag and blew the smoke in Riell's face.

"Either tell me where the angel went or next time you're not in such a complicated area we'll collect the bounty on your head," she said and ruffled the back of her brown spiky hair.

"Bounty?" Riell laughed. "No benefactor would dare place a bounty on my head, not with my connections in The Curtain. You have heard of The Falling Curtain, haven't you, fledgling?"

The skia said nothing until she finished her cigarette. "When The Curtain finds out you and Shrazz are using a third party for the best paying kidnapping job I will ever see in my life, you may find we're not the only ones after you," she said.

Riell laughed. "Shrazz would never commit to such sacrilege," she said. "How old are you? Twenty-five?"

"Actually I'm closer to fifty, bitch," the skia said. "Age doesn't matter as much as skill."

"He and I have been at this for over three hundred years," Riell said. "You'll soon find that age and skill are two inseparable attributes. Who trained you?"

"Verill the Unbreakable himself."

"The self-proclaimed 'Unbreakable.'" Riell chuckled. "He has one loss on his record, if I remember correctly."

"Shrazz got lucky."

"I have received training from many sensei, knights... warriors of all kinds," Riell said. "The goddess Devi is the most notable of them."

"Gods and goddesses don't exist."

Riell laughed. "I guess calling Devi a goddess is being dishonest. She is a skia with multiple personality disorder that has lived thousands of years. Each personality was a different well of knowledge. Her warrior aspect was named Durga."

The skia hacked out a laugh.

"So you learned how to fight from an insane hag?"

"How many times did you have to spread your legs to get into Verill's little posse so you could waste your time with your 'training'?"

"We're going to find the angel. Then you. I promise you that."

Riell chuckled. "I've been absolutely cordial with you," she said. "If I see you or anyone else spying on me the last thing they'll see is the tip of my sword piercing their eyes."

"You won't find me on the end of your sword, old whore," the skia said as she walked away.

"Come again?" Riell asked, though she knew full well what the woman had said. She concentrated on the area around the two of them and created a small, imperceptible dome that would obscure them from sight for a short period of time. She delved into the woman's own shadow.

The skia's hazel eyes met her green ones. "I said you're a hag. And a whore."

Riell commanded the woman's shadow to restrain her.

Tendrils of opaque black reached up and wound themselves around the woman's legs, wrists and neck. She tried to cry out, but the tentacles stifled her scream. Riell smiled at the panic in her eyes: the woman's realization of Riell's superiority to her. Riell loosened the grip on her throat.

"Why can't they hear me?" she yelled.

"I erected a shield that blocks any physical or mental contact with this area we're standing in," Riell said. "No one can see or hear us."

"There's no way you're this powerful. Your wings... there's no color within them at all."

Riell let out a sharp, sardonic laugh.

"The fact is, fledgling, my wings are so luminescent I had to train myself to control the light they emit."

"You're bluffing."

Riell let her wings illuminate and sighed in relief. It was like discarding a heavy weight she had shouldered for hours upon hours.

The skia saw the uncountable brilliant colors of Riell's radiance before she covered her aching eyes.

"Now you understand your place, but this lesson will be the last one you will receive in this life."

Riell did not let the skia die quickly. She strangled her for a full minute before she broke her neck. The tendrils of the skia's shadow vanished along with her heartbeat.

Riell tossed the body into the lake before she dropped her shield. She searched the crowd for any of the skia's cohorts. She could feel traces of sloppy Inner usage and assumed they retreated.

Riell resumed her walk around The Circ. After she had made an example of their messenger, she knew they would leave her alone for the time being.

Ignorant child, she thought. Hopefully that will show them what they're up against if they want to try to take the angel for themselves.

Cold wind buffeted her. Her black hair flew in every direction.

Riell stayed near the edge of the boardwalk to avoid the crowd. The laughter of a group of young girls drew her eye, and she did a double take when she saw that one of them resembled her as a child.

She imagined twelve-year-old Shrazz next to her. He would have been a foot shorter than her, scrawny but wildly powerful. He wore baggy rags at that age to conceal his electric green scales and bony body. Riell knew she missed him. She always had.

"I guess I'm in Shrazz," Riell said.