56. Old Demons (3/3)
To Casimir’s credit, he did actually fly at a reasonable speed, and hovering within the barrier also resulted in a much smoother ride overall. Isaac was torn between being impressed and grateful and being annoyed that the angel could’ve done this from the start, but never had until now.
He glanced back at the higher levels of the Inferno as they continued to descend. Lucius had long vanished from view, and the pulsing walls of the cavern were made a blurred streak of glowing red from their movement. He turned back to look at the angel flying beside him. “Weren’t you gonna fight Lucius again or something?” What he really meant was, Hey you really didn’t need to follow me to the train station.
“Well yeah,” Casimir said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He shrugged his shoulders, somehow managing not to interrupt the motion of his wings. “But I already know it’s gonna tie, and I heard what you were talking about, and that’s waaaay more interesting.”
Isaac frowned. “The stuff with Remus?”
“Yep.” Casimir pronounced the ‘p’ with a pop.
“I didn’t think you’d know that much about it.” It had sounded like an internal Inferno issue, to Isaac.
“Eh, Paradise likes to keep tabs on the Inferno, you know?” He waved vaguely. “Our realms used to be, like, connected connected, no funny tunnel travel and stuff.” Casimir was still facing forward, which made it hard to make out his expression as he kept talking, but his tone maintained his usual boisterous cheer.
“I still remember it, you know! Back when Lucius beat Remus, a bunch of the other angels were talking about it. ‘Bout how the terrible Inferno tyrant got dethroned by an even crueler king,” he continued in a casual voice.
Isaac furrowed his brow. “I don’t think Paradise angels are the best judges of demons.”
Casimir threw his head back and laughed, the sound loud and booming. “Ha! Maybe.” He finally turned to face Isaac, a sharp grin on his face. “That one’s probably true though, if you ask me. You know, Lucius used to be real violent. Still is, actually, he’s just better at pretending to care about things.” He snorted and shook his head.
Isaac studied the angel’s expression, but try as he did, he couldn’t discern how serious the other man was. His constant aura of cheery, slightly manic glee made it difficult to read him, Isaac was starting to realize. It was an unsettling thought. He turned away and directed his gaze ahead at the approaching station.
Landing was a simple affair; the barrier slowed smoothly until it was only a few inches off the ground, then the red sphere dispersed and Isaac felt his feet touch the hard earth again. Beside him, Casimir landed much more showily, kicking up clouds of dust and making a loud thud as he crashed down onto the ground. The angel stood up with a satisfied grin and shook his wings a bit to get some of the dirt off the white feathers. Isaac watched him, frowning.
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“You’re pretty friendly with Lucius, despite thinking all that stuff about him,” he finally said.
Casimir raised an eyebrow. To Isaac’s surprise, he didn’t deny the ‘friendly’ part. “Well yeah. He’s a piece of shit and a monster, but we did use to be friends, you know. Before we started trying to kill each other that is.” He shrugged. “With the system in place, it’s easier to just focus on all, like, the good qualities, put myself back in my old shoes, blast from the past and all that.” He made a chopping motion with his hand to emphasize his point, the tattoo on the back made an indistinct blur in the process.
He spoke the words with his usual easygoing cadence before spinning around to stride over to the subway station, humming as he did so. Isaac stared after him, struggling to comprehend what seemed so matter of fact to the angel. He couldn’t imagine simply deciding to revert to a past mindset and just…being able to do it. It didn’t sound feasible to him.
“That,” he said slowly, “is an insane amount of compartmentalizing.”
Casimir glanced back. “Eh, maybe. But you do what you gotta do to stay sane, right?” He spun around fully, an eyebrow raised. “Besides, I figured you’d get it.”
Isaac frowned, shifting his weight. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, don’t you do the same thing? All that ‘Underside business is Underside business’ stuff.” The angel did a very poor imitation of Isaac’s voice that was more mumbling than actual words, then shrugged. “I figured 90% of the reason you agreed to this stat updating stuff was, like, as a distraction from whatever’s going on in the Upper World.” He cocked his head to the side, grinning. “Am I wrong?”
Isaac’s fingers tightened around the tablet, still cool to the touch, black screen dull and motionless.
“It’s not like that.”
Silence followed, and it made Isaac grit his teeth. In front of him, Casimir watched wordlessly, and Isaac resisted the urge to look away.
Finally, the angel heaved a sigh. “I didn’t think that’d bother you that much.” He shook his head. “Whatever, forget it.” The grin returned and he flapped his wings a few times, kicking up gusts of wind around them. “You’d better hurry and get to the station! I’m gonna go do that fight,” he declared. Casimir waved cheerily. “See ya!”
With one more great flap of his wings, the angel shot up into the empty expanse of the Inferno’s cavern, leaving Isaac to stew on the ground. Isaac inhaled and exhaled, realizing how tense his muscles had gotten and forcing them to relax. It was just Casimir spouting bullshit like usual, he told himself. That was it.
As he turned away to head towards the station, he gave the Inferno a final glance. After descending with the red tint of the barrier surrounding him, the cavern suddenly looked foreign and out of place, a few shades off and crisper in appearance than it had been during the trip down. The rocky floor felt bumpy under his shoes after being in the air. Through his shoes' worn soles, the rough texture was faintly discernible.
Gripping the tablet tightly in his hands, Isaac spun around and continued to the subway station in long, quick strides.