“I saw you,” Ahaviah said. “in the rain.”
“I handle it better than others, but the death in the rain… It fills the silence in my day. I try to find new things to enjoy, but they feel empty, lonely, and I can never forget. How could I forget?”
“You’re not like me though. You accepted it all with resolve. So I thought, maybe you were what we needed.”
“You… recommended me? To this?”
I eyed Ahaviah. Her short, lightly pink hair struggled against the wind, and her ruby red eyes read the world below with knowing calculation. My look couldn’t help but wander to two demons just beyond her. They had entered a bitter brawl atop a lonely peak. Claw met claw, in a desperate bid for supremacy as they sacrificed flesh, even limbs, just for an inch over one another.
“No, this is just a small part,”Ahaviah replied. “The choice to stay is yours, but regardless, the world out here will remain, and we will just face it without you.”
Just beyond her, as one demon triumphed, now a bloodied, limbless mess, it let out a blood curdling roar. A cry of triumph. It was then set upon by a crowd of drooling demons, which had smelled its exhaustion and lunged for its head. That was a mistake, because in that single moment, four of them lay headless as the crunching jaws of the triumphing demon echoed the hills. There weren’t merely four of them though and soon the triumphing demon’s head was shredded apart in waves of teeth and claws as they battled over its remains.
The captain said that I should be a coward. But that I should run from this, and leave others to suffer it alone would be a joke more vile than any demon could possibly be. Because I’ve been soaked in that same loneliness from the rain of countless lives. And I want to see what the world really is.
“No. I’ll stay.”
Ahaviah looked surprised for a moment, but soon her blank look melted into a smile.
“Thank you.” she replied.
I looked back at the crowd of demons as they ripped into each other. Never before coming here, had I been so thankful to have wings.
I looked out into the Dygarlands, flying through the ambience of its constant brawl. To be surrounded by so much violence for so long made it feel so unimportant. For moments at a time, I would forget the demons were even there, like they were bugs working away at the soil. I was only reminded of where I was when they focused their attention on me. Some would try to trail me 100s feet below, others would send shrieks filled with murderous rage, and one even tried jumping up to reach me only to splatter onto the ground. Still, most of them never bothered me. I looked down at them with pity and began to feel bored.
“Somethings not right… the demons are thinner in this area.” The captain murmured. He looked at the ground like someone had gone through all his things and put them back just wrong.
“Uriel do you recall if the valkyries were dispatched anywhere near here recently?”
“Why would I know that?” Uriel looked almost offended.
The captain, Avahiah, and Simcha gave him something I could only describe as a look.
“Okay okay fine– I get it,” Uriel paused for a moment, before opening his eyes with an excited recollection. “Well there was that time during Tranquility where the Valkyries and Lady Mirindiel went out for field–”
An arrow whizzed past him by several feet.
Everyone stopped and our eyes darted to the source. Straight ahead, in the area we were just about to fly through. There was a creature with slender bat-like wings that sprouted from its back, its skin was dark red, its legs were covered by slate black scales, and two horns protruded from its head and curved forward. It was a person, a demon. She sat, slouched on the ground with another of her kind that was blue, with a single horn on its forehead and leathery brown wings.
There weren’t demons anywhere near them and the undergrowth seemed calm. Yet, their look held a frozen fear. They looked shocked, even at their own actions. Still, there was not a hint of regret.
The captain let out a laugh “Well I’ll be damned, either those two are the most lousy assassins in the heavens with an even more lousy target–”
“HEY” Uriel let out.
“Or these demons just gave us a warning shot.” The captain pondered for a moment. “Huh. I wonder why they’d do that.”
“Maybe… they’re just posturing? They don’t want us to capture and kill them.” Ahaviah proposed.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
“It doesn’t make sense for it to be posturing because we didn’t notice them until they shot at us. A distraction wouldn’t make sense either because then it’d have been better to take a shot to kill.”
“Maybe they just thought we noticed them.” Ahaviah shrugged.
“You’re right, I could be overthinking it.” The captain conceded. “Still, I wonder why there’s only two of them. If they came as a scouting party for the princes there should be at least 5. Were they killed? Or did they split?”
The captain thought for a moment. “Keep an eye out for any other demons in the area, try to capture these two for confessions.”
The captain started forward and the party followed.
I watched as the look of fear in the demon contorted to a malignant frustration. I saw, reflected in the fury of her eyes, that we were bugs, stupid and fumbling around in something we couldn’t begin to comprehend. A look of despair washed over her for a moment, like she was ready to just let the world take her, until her sullen eyes meandered to her companion. In that momentary glance, life filled her eyes once again, and she drew her bow with an utterly perfect grace.
An arrow whizzed past us by a few feet once again. The captain did not stop though.
I spoke in a quiet, but insistent tone. “Captain, wait, we have to stop, there’s something wrong.”
The party stopped in the air and I watched the array of curious glances turn to me. The captain cocked his brow. “What is it?”
“I don’t think they’re afraid of us captain, when we stepped forward they looked… frustrated.” I considered how to describe her look.
“Frustrated?” The captain looked confused.
“Yes, like we’re doing something horribly wrong and they’re trying to stop us.”
“Huh…” He looked even more confused, but a hint of concern was mixed in now. “And you can tell that all the way from over here?”
I nodded.
Simcha patted me on the back at my silent nod. “Remember to speak up Mevakiel, you’re part of the team.”
Simcha paused for a moment. “I say we listen to her captain, she’s got good eyes, and something just isn’t right about this whole place.”
“Did you see anything Simcha?” The captain asked.
“The ground just looks uncanny to me.” Simcha snorted.
Uncanny? What in the world does that mean? I looked around but everyone else seemed to be taking it oddly seriously, exchanging worried glances about whatever they were about to fly into.
“I wonder what we’ll do then.” The captain considered. “We can’t just leave without answers on why they’re here, they could be scouts for another incursion.”
“We could try asking them.” Uriel shrugged.
Everyone looked at Uriel for a moment.
“I guess that’s not the worst idea.” The captain mused. “And they’re far away, worst case if shouting alerts whatever they’re afraid of, it’ll just kill them and we’ll see whatever it is and report it back.”
Uriel puffed his chest with a proud grin on his face and bellowed far across the Dygarlands “DEMON SCOUTS OF THE PRINCES, WHY HAVE YOU COME TO THE KINGDOM OF THE LIGHT? CONFESS AND PERISH SWIFTLY.”
Panic swept across the demon’s face as Uriel bellowed. With blindingly fast speed she knocked an arrow, but was only able release one before she and her companion were impaled by–
“Crystalline flowers…” Ahaviah muttered
The captain flicked a dagger from his holster which shot out, spinning like a disk. It intercepted the arrow heading straight for Uriel, kicking sparks into the air.
The captain clicked his tongue as the deflected arrow ricocheted straight towards Ahaviah.
With a sound not unlike the crack of a whip, a dagger was out in Ahaviah’s hand and the arrow was shattered.
“That's my lieutenant!” The captain grinned.
“YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!” Ahaviah complained.
“Well I'm awfully lucky you weren't that easy to kill!” The captain chuckled.
She gave him a scornful look.
Then the captain’s playful laugh settled into a serious stare. “Also, I don't think that was me. I’d guess that was her magic.”
Ahaviah returned a blank look.
“She must've been pretty strong if she resisted Uriel’s confession.” he paused. “Or she wasn’t a scout for the princes.”
Where the demon had died, crystalline flowers spread outward, blooming in clusters. They cracked with each new spouting stem, it sounded like someone was prancing along on thin ice. Each flower boasted a charming, sharp symmetry, but their patterns differed uniquely, similar to snowflakes. Their gentle grace looked too perfect for this world, as if they all might shatter under the slightest breeze. A crystal stem had shot straight through the head of the blue demon, diving downwards before shooting up the red demon's torso and through her eye like a spear. It curled from where it emerged from her eye, almost playfully. The flower at its tip had crystal petals, pointed and dangerous. They folded over each other, curling inward, hugging around its center with careful beauty.
Crystal vines cracked as they began wrapping around the two demons, holding them tightly in an embrace so that they did not fall. Held up like limp puppets, their vines began blooming with crystalline flowers. At the beat of a few cracks, a layer of crystal enveloped them, frozen in time, with surprise and fear still on their faces.
The party looked on at them, and a still, eerie feeling filled the air.
“Maybe, and this is just a hunch,” The captain pursed his lips. “she was a ranger.”
“A ranger? Why?” Uriel asked. “The wisping mountains aren't for hundreds of miles.”
The tempo of cracks quickened as a forest of flowers sprouted from the ground. Lingering demons were impaled and frozen as catastrophe spread outward in a sudden crescendo of growth. It stopped for a moment. The glow of the undergrowth reflected on the crystals, making them shine like they were lights. They were blue and calm and despite the frozen terror of the demons within, the crystals cradled a space of peace among the death of the Dygarlands. From the midst of this new forest of flowers poked an enormous lotus of crystal. Its crystals jingled like chimes as it emerged, and then an absolute silence swept over the area.
“Because that,” The captain said, “must be the work of a spirit.”