> Artifact research is an extremely dangerous branch of study that involves hunting for artifacts and testing them. Since artifacts can’t be triggered remotely, the researcher must expose himself to any number of unknown hazards.

>

> —Excerpt from Dan Blaedel’s “House of Fury”

Sariel

The first few weeks after Asteria left were tough. I spent most of my free time with Seraph, making sure that he ate and slept properly. We went out drinking a lot.

He settled down soon afterward and threw himself into his work. When Asteria had arrived, he’d greatly reduced the number of missions he took on personally because he wanted to minimize his out-of-town trips. Now that she was gone, we went on more monster-hunting trips with the men.

Weeks turned into months. Seraph coped better than I thought he would. He turned quieter than normal, that was all.

He’d always been a cold, calculating type of fighter whose every move was precise and efficient. Now there was a ferocity in his fighting style that hadn’t been there before. Monsters that would have been cleanly cut in half before were now reduced to nothing more than a smear on the ground. Uriel and I were forced to remind him not to destroy the monster cores.

Part of it might have been the fact that all three of us were more powerful than we were when we’d been infected. I think the Iah virus had been weakening us, so when Asteria did whatever she did to us in that pool, we emerged stronger, younger, and more able to use anima.

Months turned into a year. Seraph withdrew into himself, speaking only very rarely. The men under his command became concerned but, since Seraph did all his duties conscientiously, they had nothing concrete to complain about.

I had a terrible time getting him to take care of himself. I spent so much time watching over him that people joked that we’d moved in together. My love life suffered a lot.

The first year of Asteria’s absence was bad enough, but the second was worse. Seraph had trouble sleeping at night; he had no appetite; he stopped tending his plants. Uriel and I would catch him staring outside his window instead of doing his paperwork. Sometimes he refused to eat. Other times, he drowned his sorrows in alcohol.

It was so bad that Freja, of all people, started coming around more often, trying to bully Seraph into eating more, acting like a bad-tempered older sister to him.

I was worried Seraph was going to self-destruct until something unexpected happened.

Uriel and I were trying to coax Seraph into eating something. We were in my office but my enhanced hearing picked up a commotion outside.

“Is this a prank?” Gitte’s voice was freezingly cold.

“Ma’am?” I recognized the voice as someone from the mailing room.

“Fine. I’ll sign for it, but I’ll find out who sent this.” The threat was implicit in her tone. After a minute, there was a knock on my door. “Commander, you should take a look at this.”

Gitte put an opened package down on my desk.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Letters from Asteria,” said Gitte. “The handwriting on the envelopes looks like hers.”

“What?!” said Uriel, but Seraph had already snatched the package from my desk. Gitte had only met Asteria a few times but she knew Asteria’s handwriting from the instructions Asteria had left me. I’d shown the list of Seraph’s favorite things for Gitte to copy in case I needed her to buy something for him.

“She sent letters,” I said to Uriel.

“Her motto is to always be prepared,” said Uriel.

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“Hey, don’t read the ones that aren’t addressed to you,” I said to Seraph, but he paid no attention to my protests.

Outside, I could hear Gitte making the first of no doubt many phone calls. She didn’t need me to tell her to track down who had sent the package.

Seraph had quickly finished reading all three letters, but when he was done, he read them again. Then he read them a third time.

“Stop staring at that letter, and eat,” I said to Seraph. “You’re going to burn holes into the paper.”

After gently removing the letter from Seraph’s grasp, I put it beside his plate. He started eating while still staring at the letter. I gave Uriel’s letter to him, and I read the one that had my name on it.

Dear Sariel,

My work is taking more time than I expected. Hang in there! I’ll be back soon. Please take care of those two for me.

Regards,

Asteria

Short and to the point. Uriel showed me his letter.

Dear Uriel,

I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long. Please continue to take care of the school charity.

Regards,

Asteria

I leaned to the side and peered over Seraph’s shoulder to read the letter Asteria had written to him.

To: Ely

I do what I must because I’m the only one who can. I’ll return when I’ve finished saving mankind. You’ll know that I’m almost done when strange phenomena start appearing all over the world.

From: Asteria

“She said she’s coming back,” said Seraph. His fork was frozen halfway to his mouth.

“Of course, she’s coming back. Did you really think she wouldn’t? Nothing would stop that girl from doing what she said she would.” I pushed Seraph’s fork closer to his mouth. He glared at me, but he did start eating.

“Yes, and you’d better watch out, Seraph. You look like you’ve aged a decade since she left,” said Uriel.

“Wasn’t Asteria quite pleased when she saw that Seraph looked the same age as her? I hope she’s not disappointed when she returns,” I said.

“I haven’t aged a decade,” said Seraph. He touched his face and looked anxiously at his reflection in the window.

“Start working out more or someone might be disappointed when she slaps someone’s flat butt,” I said.

Uriel and I laughed when Seraph involuntarily turned to look behind his own back. We continued to tease Seraph about his lack of youth and sex appeal until I received an unexpected visitor.

“Can you believe this?” Magnus Kraej had entered my office without so much as a by-your-leave, and now he was waving a letter at us.

Seraph took the letter and we crowded around him to read it.

Magnus,

There may or may not be earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides, monster migrations, and other natural disasters in the near future. You might want to have evacuation and rescue plans in place for populated areas near the coast, fault lines, and other danger zones.

Regards,

Asteria

I whistled.

“May or may not?” Uriel raised an eyebrow.

“I can’t just snap my fingers to make stuff happen! Things like this require planning,” said Kraej.

“Since she does the impossible, she tends to expect people to also do the impossible,” I said. For example, she asked me to take care of her lovesick beau. “Why don’t you join us for lunch?”

That was how Magnus Kraej joined our weekly “let’s complain about the perfidy of women” meetings.

Seraph cheered up a little when he received the letter. Gitte found out that Asteria had left the letters with a bank in Aarlborg, with instructions to send them at a certain date.

The third year was a rollercoaster. Reports of strange phenomena flooded in from all over the world. The first time we got word of strange golden lights in the sky over Dragor, Seraph was sure that her return was imminent. He filled his apartment with flowers and took special care with his hair and clothes for several days afterward. When she failed to appear, Seraph sank into a depression for several days, until there was another report, this time of “unearthly sounds” coming from the Skive mountains. All over the world, bizarre anomalies appeared. The migration patterns and mating seasons of several types of monsters were disrupted.

The Kraej Company scored a major PR victory when Magnus Kraej’s newly organized Early Warning System and Rapid Response Rescue Team project saved several towns from tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, and avalanches.

Judging from the unusual goings-on around the world, Asteria must have been busy. Seraph stopped moping around and took great pains to take care of his appearance. He ordered new uniforms, and his hair became even shinier. I even caught him wearing a cooling eye mask once when we had to stay overnight in a hotel for a mission. He didn’t want his eyes to be puffy in case Asteria came back. That was when I sent him to my esthetician.

I almost regretted doing that. Seraph had always cut an impressive figure. Now that Seraph was taking steps to improve his looks, he was so dazzling that one of the rookies cried the first time he saw Seraph’s face.

When we asked him why, the rookie said, “I was shocked when I saw how perfect he looks. I don’t want to be a soldier anymore. How can anyone compete with that?”

How, indeed? Seraph wasn’t the only one who desperately wanted Asteria to return. I was so busy taking care of Seraph that my love life was practically nonexistent now.

Then one day, we retired to a hotel after a monster-hunting mission, and she was there waiting for us. The afternoon sun haloed her small figure, and the wind blew her fluffy blonde hair in her face. She didn’t speak but held her arms out.

“I’m back,” said Asteria.

Asteria was back from heaven. Everything was going to be alright now.