Through half-lidded eyes devoid of emotion, I stare down at him, blood comes freely from his eyes and mouth, steaming slightly, but he pays it no mind.

He pulls on the chain connecting us again.

What drives you?

He ignores me, focusing on the task of trying to pull me down from the sky, like a man trying to capture the sun.

Why struggle this much, so pointlessly?

A wordless scream rips from his mouth as he pulls again, muscles tearing, desperate for reprieve.

What lengths would you go?

What price would you p-

"Everything."

The word rips me from my thoughts as I stare down at the bloody wreck attempting to usurp my dominion.

"There is no price I wouldn't pay."

No matter the cost?

His eyes flash a challenge.

And if our gods didn't ordain it? If they took back their blessing?

"Then I would cut my throat and bleed whatever price they demanded; I would snuff my own life

in service."

I smile, my point proven. Our service matters more than anything, and heaven has opened its doors, we can leave this pit, leave it for the pile of squirming worms and rot that it is.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I gather the chain to lift him up, so that we can ascend, go to heaven arm in arm.

Another tug pulls me down another few feet.

"But I would savor every minute, every second that I could steal before that happened, enjoy every laugh, every smile. I serve, but that doesn't mean I need to forsake all dear to me." I see it then, the determination that bound me to him, the will that moved me, that would grant him use of my power.

He juts out his chin, defiant. "Between the two options, I choose not to choose."

The discordant notes of the seraphim around us play credence to his hypocrisy.

He raises his voice over the noise. "I will not betray what I am! WHO I am! And I would NEVER betrayed the twelve!"

And if they tell you to kill her yourself?

My eyes briefly flick over to the woman mourning our corpse, unaware of the war being raged

over the cooling meat.

I am taken aback as he suddenly releases his hold on the chain, and grabs the end wrapped around his heart.

"Then they would have betrayed ME. Our devotion is a two sided affair, our blind faith built on trust. I can put the torch to a family home, content with the knowledge that our gods ARE justice, they ARE redemption, and that the task is truly good, no matter how repulsive!”

But if they would ask me to kill someone that I KNOW to be innocent, that I KNOW to be good, then they have fallen, the pantheon is rot, and I would demand you help me slay them, and remove their corpses from their gilded thrones."

The scream of the seraphim around us reaches a fever pitch, and I feel the eyes of our pantheon, of our gods, on us; through the entrance of our heaven.

I glance up briefly into twelve pairs of glowing, unwavering eyes. Eyes that betrayed no emotion,

I don't understand how this little play is being received, or how much danger we are in. I again am torn from my thoughts, as he continues.

"If they were to demand this woman's blood, without the weight of Sin on her, then they are not our gods, they are our tyrants, and our vows become shackles."

I feel his resolve to rip the chain from his heart, to sever himself from me

I am struck by a sudden pang of emotion.

I do not want to lose my friend.

I descend slowly to stand apart from him.

"I know you feel the same, we both love our order, we love our gods, but for a REASON. We truly believe in the path provided."

He extends his hand out.

"Trust in me, like you always have, believe in me. Nothing has changed old friend, we are brothers now as we were then."

I look at his hand, mutilated and ruined, and down at mine, perfect blue flame all the way through.

I glance at his eyes without moving my head, and I see the raging inferno of faith, of commitment, that storm of unwavering hatred for all things corrupt and evil. I am once again reminded of why I bound myself to this man.

I reach out and clasp my hands with his, my perfect, peerless blue flame, encompassing his.

I watch as the flesh on his hand quickly turns red, the blood boiling up out of the deep lacerations blanketing the appendage.

Then, as the blood boils away his skin cooks, turning brown.

Eventually cooking so much that it smolders and turns black.

I look up and stare him in the eye, and I know.

I know the agony that this is, the hell of feeling your limb being burned to nothing, a breathtaking, all encompassing pain.

And yet, I don't see a hint of it in his eyes. I see elation, I see relief. He is this happy...this happy…that I chose him again?

All of this...for a mortal?

He smiles wide, and toothy.

I can't help but feel the corners of my mouth lift up in response, in spite of myself.

"Grant me flame, grant me heat, and I will give you the strength and resolve necessary to slay our enemies." He chants, his vow heavy in the air.

I consider in that moment, just for a second, the idea of abandoning him, taking my power back, and ascending. I know the pantheon would let me; I could have everything I've ever wanted.

But what would it be without him?

I feel the change in my soul long before my mouth reacts.

"I grant you my flame. I grant you my heat."

My voice remains clear despite the turmoil in my chest, my misgivings falling away before the face of the only true choice I would ever consider. I was his, unique in my disposition that I was truly grateful to BE his.

I watch as the flesh of his hand turns gray from the buildup of ash, before blowing away to show the clean white of bone.

I speak again.

"Blood to burn, Burn to black."

The madman throws his head back and laughs!

"Ash to bone." he responds, grinning from ear to ear.

I take one last moment to roll my eyes before ripping my way into his forearm, carving a path up his arm and deep into his chest, burning and cooking as I go.

I finally arrive at my final resting place, the tomb that I seal myself in willingly.

I eat his heart.

I coil around the place that it inhabited, and hook myself into his circulatory system, 

I pump molten flame. 

I feel him pull us into our dead body.

I feel at home.