Chapter 21 - Wounds

They both made the jump, albeit with some difficulty. The distance itself wasn’t as much of an issue as how narrow the path was, but Lazar managed to duck into the cave to make space for the demon.

His wounds stung, his shoulders screaming every time he moved his arms. He could tell that the range of motion in one arm was significantly reduced; he was almost certain he’d dislocated that shoulder. Still, the seraph was finding it increasingly easier to ignore the wounds the more time passed, and he decided it would be fine to continue to do so for a little longer while he studied their surroundings.

The cave was fairly large, much larger than it had looked from the ledge, and filled with stray boulders and stones. It extended further back into the mountains, connecting with a labyrinth of winding tunnels, the path behind them quickly vanishing into darkness. Lazar listened closely, but he couldn’t make out any sounds. It didn’t seem like there were any demons nearby in the cave system.

The walls were made of a dark stone that, at a glance, appeared to be the same gleaming substance that had formed the rock structures and spires in the field. Unlike those, however, the surface of these stones turned a brilliant silver wherever light touched them, but they remained cool to the touch. Though the position of the entrance rendered much of the cave’s interior in shadow, the few areas exposed to the realm gate were enough to light up the entire space.

The black flowers were present here as well, a few scattered blooms dotting the ground between the large rocks and boulders. From his current position, Lazar could see that they trailed further into the caves.

The distant sound of flapping wings broke him out of his observation. Lazar’s head snapped to the side. The sound had come from outside.

The seraph instinctively moved deeper into the cave, pressing himself against the wall to conceal himself. He stopped, eyes widening when he realized that Ciel hadn’t moved from the entrance. He nearly took a step forward to pull the demon back, but stopped.

Digging her uninjured hand into one of the large boulders, the demon narrowed her eyes. In a show of pure brute strength, she heaved it forward, muscles bulging as she forced the stone in front of the cave entrance. The boulder slid to a stop, leaving a small sliver of an opening just as the sounds of wings grew louder.

Lazar held his breath, fingers clenching around his halberd as a shadow passed by the entrance. Then another. And another.

Through the thin slit, he could only make out brief hints of scales, leathery wings, feathers, eyes of every color passing by.

Finally, the sounds faded into the distance, the demons having passed by none the wiser.

Lazer exhaled and slumped back against the wall. Behind him, the vast emptiness of the cave system seemed to stretch infinitely.

They were safe.

For now, at least.

“I can’t tell if that was good or bad timing.” Ciel snorted, shaking her hand out and plopping down on the ground. Lazar peered behind them, deeper into the cave system, listening for any signs of life. It wasn’t until he was sure there were none that he rose and moved closer, placing himself at a calculated angle that allowed him to keep an eye on the small gap while also being able to use one of the shining stones for light.

“May I see your hand?” he asked politely.

Ciel raised an eyebrow, but she held the wounded hand out. As gently as he could, Lazar wiped off some of the blood and grime with his sleeve. It wasn’t as clean as he would’ve liked, but they didn’t have much in the way of proper sanitation right now. He could only hope that demons healed more similarly to seraphs than they did to humans.

Ciel didn’t make a single sound, not reacting or giving any indication of feeling pain as she looked on with an oddly sharp stare. Lazar could practically feel that keen golden eye burning into him, unreadable, but he ignored it in favor of inspecting the damage.

It was bad. Flesh had been shredded and torn clean from the bone where the fingers had dug into the cliff face, and most of the fingers were dislocated. That being said, he noticed that despite being misaligned, very few bones actually seemed broken. Perhaps the demon possessed stronger bones than average. It made things a bit easier, he supposed.

“That bad?”

Lazar looked up, and Ciel was still watching him, but if anything, she looked amused. About what, he didn’t understand.

“I need to set the bones back in place,” he explained, already releasing her hand to tear away some more scraps of cloth to use as bandages. He winced a little as the action pulled on his bad shoulder. “Ideally we would have water to clean the wounds, but…” His voice trailed, glancing around them. In their current location, there was nothing but the stones and black flowers, no signs of water in sight like there’d been in the cavern.

Ciel snorted. “Don’t bother wasting your time. If I hadn’t used all my flesh reserves, this would be an easy fix.” She shrugged. “Once I eat something, I’ll manipulate it back. Much more effective.”

The cushion really had been the last of it, then.

“You saved us,” Lazar said.

“Hey, I wasn’t too keen on dying either.” The demon’s eyes gleamed and her grin widened. “Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting that to be your plan.”

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Lazar winced. “It… wasn’t very well thought out,” he admitted. “I’m sorry.” He should’ve been able to think of something better.

He focused on the injured hand. Despite the demon’s insistence that it was nothing, he still decided to wrap it, if not just to discourage her from using it before she could heal herself, which she seemed very keen on doing.

Ciel slapped his back with her uninjured hand in a motion that was too rough to be truly comforting.

“Hey, it was pretty damn entertaining. Never thought you were the reckless type.” Her eyes casually scanned their surroundings as she spoke. She was watching for other demons, he realized. He pushed himself to work faster.

“So what’d you do up in Elysium anyway?”

He blinked, glancing up for a second before continuing his bandaging.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I figured you were a soldier, with the way you swing that thing around.” She nodded at his halberd, leaned against one of the boulders. The demon cocked her head. “But now I’m wondering if you were a doctor or something. You seem to know your way around wounds.”

Her tone was joking, and Lazar found himself smiling as he tied off the last bandage and sat back.

“I was a servant,” he said simply. At Ciel’s cocked brow, he elaborated. “A personal retainer. I had to learn quite a few different things.” He nodded at her hand and rose. He found himself swaying a little, belatedly remembering how much blood he’d lost.

Lazar felt a hand grab him before he could lose balance and looked up to see Ciel had also stood.

“Thank you,” he said gratefully.

Ciel’s golden eye landed on the seraph’s arm. “You’d better wrap that thing. It’s still bleeding. I can smell it.”

“I will,” Lazar promised. He frowned at his shoulder. Now that his vision had cleared, he could see where the bone was dislocated. He would need to fix it first to get his range of movement back before he tried to do anything else.

Inhaling, Lazar raised his uninjured arm and firmly gripped the shoulder. He watched Ciel raise an eyebrow as he grit his teeth and proceed to wrench the bone back into place.

He felt instant relief, and his back hit the wall as he slumped back and exhaled. It still throbbed, but it was much better than before.

“You know, you could’ve asked for help.”

Lazar blinked, peering over at Ciel. He tried to speak, but paused. He hadn’t realized how ragged his breath had gotten.

“It’s fine,” he finally managed to get out. “It’s faster if I do it myself.”

“I’d be insulted, but you’re probably right.” Ciel tossed a few strips of cloth his way, and Lazar caught them on instinct with his uninjured arm. He glanced down, seeing that the demon had torn some pieces from her own cloak.

“Better hurry up and bandage that. I’ll keep watch so you do you.”

Lazar nodded and began dealing with his arm, which was indeed quite bad. The demon’s teeth had dug deeply into the flesh, and the cuts had widened when he’d slammed the creature into the cliff. It was pure luck that the demon didn’t seem to have had any poison or, like Ilana, acid.

The thought of the flesh eaters made Lazar slow, though he kept working even as his mind thought back to what had happened. As he pressed down on the wound to slow the bleeding, he took the opportunity to sort through what had been a very chaotic series of events.

“What’s going on in your head now?”

Ciel’s voice sounded from across the cave. She leaned casually against the cave wall, arms crossed. Lazar met her gaze, then returned his attention to the wound.

“I was thinking about what that demon said. Ilana, I believe.”

“Yeah? Which part?”

Lazar was quiet for a few moments, continuing to apply pressure to the wound.

“Did you really eat that other demon?”

“Yago? Yep.” The flesh eater’s voice was blunt, without a trace of hesitation.

“I see.”

Ciel cocked her head, a bit of her hair moving enough to reveal the edges of those gleaming golden eyes on the other side of her face. “Does that bother you?”

“I think I’m mostly surprised,” Lazar admitted. “I…hadn’t realized so many demons had codes in place, you could say. I assumed most killed indiscriminately.”

Ciel smiled. “Ah, so you thought most were like me.” She shrugged. “Well, sorry to say but most sentient demons are a little more, hm, discerning. I’ve just never bothered.”

“Why not?”

“Why should I?” She raised an eyebrow. “Look, if I sat around trying to analyze which demons I should and shouldn’t devour, that’d be the same as passing judgement on them, right?” She cocked her head. “I’m not interested in that, and frankly, I think most wouldn’t want me judging them either,” she added with a snort.

Lazar removed his hand. The bleeding had slowed enough that it was probably okay to wrap it. He reached for the bandages.

“In other words,” he murmured, “attacking indiscriminately avoids the need for consistent values.”

The demon snapped her fingers, and Lazar glanced up just long enough to make sure it was her uninjured hand before he continued wrapping his own wounds.

“Bingo. It’s pretty simple, right?”

“I suppose so.”

A beat passed. Lazar could feel the demon’s eyes on him.

“You know,” she drawled, “this is usually when you’d give an opinion or something. Like, ‘gee that makes so much sense’ or ‘oh Light what a monster!’” Her voice took on a theatrical inflection, and Lazar chuckled.

“Perhaps,” he said. “But in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think it would particularly affect our alliance.” He finished tying off the bandage and tested it a few times. He tried to move the arm, still mindful of his shoulder, and the bandages remained firmly in place. He took the remaining scraps of fabric and decided to make a pseudo sling for himself, one that he could easily get out of should a fight arise.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it,” Ciel was saying, “but you know there’s such a thing as being too non judgemental, right.”

Lazar dusted off his clothes and reached for the halberd, wrapping his fingers around the cool metal. He hesitated.

“Is there… something wrong with that?”

The demon didn’t say anything at first. Lazar shifted, uncomfortable under the weight of that golden gaze.

Finally, after a moment’s pause, a wide smile stretched over her sharp features.

“Well,” she said. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t come back to bite you one of these days.”

Lazar blinked.

You’re crazy.

Julius’s voice rose unbidden in his mind. He rubbed his forehead, about to respond, but stopped. His eyes darted warily to the dark tunnel behind them, mere seconds before the entire area shook.

Rocks tumbled down from the walls, mixing with scattered petals. The cliffs themselves seemed to tremble and vibrate. Deep within the cave system, a low rumble resounded, its sound muffled and muted where they currently stood.

It continued on for what felt like ages. When it finally stopped, Lazar and Ciel met eyes in silent agreement.

They should get moving soon.