Sixth Hope in the 76th year of the New Order
Blinding sunlight shone right into Arakiel il Kalanaar’s face the moment he stepped out of the portal onto a new plane, a new world. The light made it hard to make out any specifics, but he felt a scorching dry heat all around him right away. Furthermore, the ground beneath him felt uneven, sandy and the overall air smelled of nothing in particular except the faintest note of lilac.
From behind narrowed eyes, he could make out a thoroughly blue sky and below the horizon, a lot of sandy color.
Ezekiel’s voice spoke up next to him, noting dryly. “If I were you, I’d ask for a refund.”
“Mine eyes espy nothing but sand, far and wide,” Mellia added with a hint of awe and then, finally, Arakiel’s eyes more or less accustomed to the bright sun.
A dry, warm breeze of air wafted by, bringing dust along which immediately began to dry up Arakiel’s mouth while making his nose itch. Furthermore, his rather porous clothing added to the first-hand contact he got with this plane’s biome.
All around him, there was sand, finely ground earthen-colored sand – entire hills and valleys full of it.
“A desert,” Arakiel concluded right away and then turned his attention towards Ezekiel whose skin was still covered by the fine aura of silver flames, even as he let Selene down so that she could stand, albeit on wobbly knees. He had to support her and judging by her expression, she was still catching up with the decision she had just made. “I’m afraid the Transcended doesn’t do refunds,” Arakiel felt the need to reply.
“Bad practice if you ask me, very anti-consumer,” Ezekiel returned and began to chuckle a little. “I don’t suppose you got some water on your…”
His words trailed off as his gaze fell onto Arakiel’s right hand.
“Bugger me sideways!” He exclaimed in a rather crass manner, eyes widening. “Arakiel you son of a… scratch that! Is that what I think it is – surely it cannot be!?”
Arakiel drew quite a bit of satisfaction from having thrown Ezekiel off-balance and to put a cherry on top, he presented the Spatial Ring as best as he could while still rocking Aurora as little as possible.
She had just let out a small, delightfully sounding soft moan.
To the side, Mellia approached, still sticking to her disguise by hooded cloak. “I can see the merit of thine earlier words, Arakiel. Was it thine intention to showcase the trinket’s use right away?”
“What’s with your speech, little lady?” Ezekiel interrupted, his eyes looking over Mellia. “And who are you, even?”
“Safe thy scorn for someone deserving, Lord… Ezekiel, was it?” Mellia returned in an amicable manner.
“I ain’t no lord,” Ezekiel waved off right away. “I’m just the most handsome guy in this entire desert that just happens to have caught himself an imperial princess of one of the Eternal Cities!”
Ezekiel’s eyes briefly looked up as though he was pondering, a grin beginning to form across his entire face. “Hmm, stating it outright… I do be rather impressive – and handsome. Hah!”
“Arakiel, brother. I trust thy faith in this man is backed by impeccable confidence?” Mellia queried in a somewhat doubtful tone.
“Confidence? In Ezekiel?” Arakiel returned and chuckled. “What confidence?”
“Hold up a moment… ‘brother Arakiel’? Ezekiel repeated at which point Mellia’s delicate hands suddenly came out from underneath the thick grey cloak in order to pull back the hood, allowing Arakiel to behold his little sister’s countenance for the first time.
It kind of took his breath away.
Mellia was more or less Alexandria’s spitting image, just younger, without any of the timeless features and her father’s lustrous ginger hair that fell in soft curvy patterns right above her shoulders.
Given their mother’s reputation that had often found its way into poetry or song, Mellia was destined to grow up in order to surpass her mother even, as both astral and nature should give her an aspect of eternal youth that was basically impossible to recreate and on top of that, she was the direct descendant of two demigods, which only enhanced the whole package. Direct children of two demigods were always born healthy and of fair appearance, for the spark of divinity supposedly purged the body of uncleanliness.
Sadly, only the female line of House Alexandrite seemed to have inherited their mother’s fabled pulchritude. Arakiel himself was not ugly by any means, but he had illusions about being considered beautiful. Handsome, perhaps even very so – but beautiful? No, most certainly not.
Mellia’s deeply green eyes still showed the last traces of the sprinkled gold that proved her trueborn ancestry and while these would fade over the coming years, they only served to accentuate her divine appearance for now.
And although Arakiel couldn’t deny that he found her utterly captivating, there was only the faintest trace of fleeting physical desire in his gaze. It died as soon as he became aware of it.
Nonetheless, Mellia’s lips slightly upturned and she threw him a disappointed look, yet that didn’t lessen her charm in the slightest. Perhaps it even heighten it. Her voice relayed the sentiment as well, but the youthful undertone helped in clearing his head. “Although thy behavior was expected, I cannot fail to mention thou art my mine kin, Arakiel. It is improper… feasting thine eyes upon mine countenance.”
“Bugger me crossways!” Ezekiel exclaimed, her odd antics having broken him from his spell, but the way he addressed her spelled disaster. “Doth thou seekest a career in theater, O Lady Mine?”
From one moment to another, Mellia fully turned towards Ezekiel, her eyes narrowing lightly while her cheeks puffed up. This time, she sounded genuinely upset. “Thou shall not mock me, Lord Ezekiel! Mine expression is mine own and thou shall not belittle me!”
“Of course, of course… little lady.” He returned while giving her a wry smile. “Alas, it is the only way I might keep myself from lusting after you, though.”
“Ezekiel,” Arakiel chimed in right away. “If you so much as put a finger on a strand of Mellia’s hair, I will personally cut off your manhood without any warning whatsoever.”
He noticed a satisfied and pleased nod on Mellia’s part. She even went so far as to have her eyes closed for the duration just to make sure that people really thought her to be impossibly peculiar.
“Arakiel, partner-in-crime.” The man in silver flames began, giving his heartbroken impression again. He even made the gestures.
“Stop imitating Shem,” Arakiel interrupted right away. “You look ridiculous.”
His opposite’s face cleared in one go and he lightly turned to the side, making a slight bow while ensuring that Selene wasn’t implicated.
So far, the Selenyean princess had said nothing. Instead, her eyes seemed more or less glued to Ezekiel, only occasionally drifting off to the sand beyond.
“Fair enough,” Ezekiel agreed in a perfectly leveled tone. “I wonder what become of Yaza?”
“I assume she’s off to one of the pro-immortal cities. She did look like an immortal, at least.” Arakiel suggested without knowing.
On the side, Mellia had once again pulled up her hood, seemingly content with the impression she had made.
“Does that mean she wanted to turn us into immortals?” Ezekiel pondered aloud. “Makes you think, doesn’t it?”
“Does it? It doesn’t matter anymore. Whatever happened, happened. You seem to have gleamed some insight on our class and I, too, have a few things to share with you over the coming days. Maybe everything isn’t as bleak as it looked initially.”
“Look around Arakiel, looks pretty bleak to me?” Ezekiel noted, shrugging with his free arm. “Or are you gonna tell me that there’s tons of food and drink in that Spatial Ring you somehow acquired?”
“And what if I do?” Arakiel queried, slightly glaring at his former partner, now partner-in-crime.
“Then I’m really darn glad that one of us has an idea about what’s going because… I’m a little confused I gotta admit.”
“You, confused? Who are you kidding, Ezekiel.”
“Is that a compliment I hear?”
“Maybe – how about we mull it over while walking somewhere… standing around here won’t do us any good.”
“I approve of thine foresight.” Mellia chimed in, with Ezekiel groaning in a low tone. Mellia, however, noticed it and for the first time, she let out a low chuckle. “And before thou embarrasses thyself, I shall not besmirch mine own speech.”
“At least tell me why you sound like you’re on stage all the time?” Ezekiel asked and the conversation threatened to prolong even further.
“Thou shall address me as Lady Mellia. We are not kin.” Arakiel’s little sister stated matter-of-factly.
“Then would the gorgeous Lady Mellia please find it in her heart to tell me why she speaks as though she is on stage – all the darn time?” Ezekiel asked again, mocking her quite openly.
“I shall not,” she replied curtly and then turned away demonstratively, letting a slight and kind of cute huff.
In Arakiel’s book, they were off to a good start as they hadn’t jumped at each other’s throat just yet.
The little party without a name soon realized that talking wasn’t exactly a smart idea while traversing a desert, for where there was wind, there was sand – and there was always a little bit of wind and even more sand to enter into every single opening it could find.
As such, any potential topics they might’ve covered soon ceased and they silently walked one after another, with Ezekiel and Selene, whom he carried, taking the lead as he was the most physically able right now, especially once he recalled the silver fire into his body. Mellia came up next and seemed quite pleased with the silence. She was also the only one who had more or less weatherproof clothing, even if Arakiel had no idea how his little sister managed to endure the scorching heat from above.
About one hour afterwards, Arakiel could no longer move and had to request a rest, as his body had all but dried up in addition to feeling utterly fatigued. He more or less fell onto the ground while trying his utmost to shield Aurora as his legs could kind of gave up, the aftermath of his clash with the Selenyean evokers finally catching up to him.
There, on the ground, he recalled a line about a steel-leather canteen on the slip of paper and as he thought it, it suddenly manifested in his right hand, having been brought here right out of the Spatial Ring.
While he took several, smaller gulps as to not strain his body too much right away, Mellia approached him, her hands with the well-polished nails of a soft rose color once again having come out from underneath. Without warning, his little sister knelt down next to him, her hands beginning to glow with a soft energy of two distinct colors: green and white-silver… nature and astral. Inexperienced sorceresses and sorcerers were always unable to hide the energy – some supposedly never learned to. His kin quietly put her hands together, ensuring that they gleamed in both colors, after which she ordered him to remove his vest and shirt so that she had free access to his skin.
Ezekiel made a snide remark, but watched with interest while Aurora still snugged up to one of Arakiel’s arms.
Once he was bare, Mellia placed both hands right onto his chest and as he looked down, he saw an enchantment of a silvery white light with the faintest touch of green forming right on his chest.
As soon as she retracted her hands, the array began to light up, sending a pulse of a warm, soothing feeling through him and wherever the feeling went, he felt his flesh and spirit mend in real time. The effect was faint, but noticeable and Mellia remarked that the fleeting enchantment would last for exactly fifty minutes, sending a pulse of ‘healing light’ throughout him at every tenth mark.
His little sister called it a relief enchantment, a way to apply ‘true healing’, one of the most important traits of the astral-nature crosspath since it negated both the drawbacks of conventional nature or astral healing. When Arakiel asked her to explain, Mellia went on a long-winded tangent about the differences as far she understood it, but given that she slavishly stuck to her manner of speech, it took a long time for her to relay what she wanted to say.
It basically boiled down to this: nature healing was either exceptionally slow without much stress for the body, or it was exceedingly quick with massive stress to the body, to the point where untrained individuals would just faint after having suffered a grievous injury – not because of the wound itself, but because of the body being unable to keep up with the regenerative process.
On the other hand, astral healing was always very quick and barely strained the body right now, but it was so because it drew from one’s life and soul itself, meaning that one would age more rapidly during the healing process.
When the two paths cross, however… things change a little, or so Mellia put it. Now, nature’s healing restorative properties were accelerated by astral’s temporal component, leaving the body out of the equation entirely.
Arakiel watched Ezekiel’s expression change dramatically, his evaluation of the teenage girl having taken a massive turnaround – and for good measure.
This sole enchantment alone was excessively potent to the point where Ezekiel probably now understood why ascendants, especially crosspath-mages, were regarded so highly.
Arakiel felt proud of his sister, politely thanking her for the enchantment which caused her to do a little satisfied puff of air again.
Despite her antics, she certainly liked to received praise and he’d give her heaps of it if she kept this up.
He queried whether she could make a second enchantment, which she affirmed on the warning that she would more or less collapse right on the spot after casting it. She was still level one and even a simple spell nearly took her all.
In a few hours, Mellia promised to have recovered enough to make another one.
Fifteen minutes later, after the fourth pulse had just coursed through him, Arakiel felt well enough to get moving once more – a little slower, but every progress counted.
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Conversation was kept to a minimum as there were no natural discussion partners. Mellia ignored Ezekiel who himself quickly gave up on her while his brief exchanges with Selene could be boiled down to her asking whether he meant what he had said back on Kalanaar, which the man with the thin, short blonde hair affirmed.
Arakiel himself had to preserve his strength as much as possible. For as potent as the relief enchantment was in theory, it was still just a rank 1 spell when there were 10 ranks in total.
Once, he had witnessed a shardtapped rank 7 fire evocation during the raid on the Selenyean holding. The sight and sounds of the hundreds of wailing servants that died in a massive firestorm still made him shiver. So much innocent mortal life lost for no damn reason, just because the radicals couldn’t distinguish between supporter and bystander.
Granted, the Selenyeans had utterly failed in setting up potential counterspells, but still… high level mages were a scary, scary thing and double-digit battles often boiled down to who could protect their spell-casters better… or whose casters passed out earlier.
If he had to take a guess, the ranks of the skills that the Air Evokers had used against him were level 2, at most 3. The shardtapped spell was probably just an upscaled level 3 variant. Anything larger needed far too much time to cast in an actual combat scenario and more importantly, the area might’ve been devastated and that was something the Seleyeans probably didn’t want to risk, even with the council’s backing.
Although, they had probably done something else that took up most of their concentration if they still thought that he was a Traveler. He could’ve just blinked out, after all – granted, he would’ve never even been there in the first place if he could’ve still used his old powers. It didn’t quite fit, but he didn’t want to dwell on the issue for too long.
More importantly, Arakiel missed the ease of just tearing the plane’s very fabric, but perhaps his newfound powers would grow into something much more potent.
The healing that had happened could certainly be of an astral nature. In fact, he was certain that it had been a variety of astral healing.
There were many things he needed to ponder over in the upcoming week or two and in this regard, he kind of welcomed the vast, open space of the desert, for there would be enough time to truly think things through.
Not today, though – even with Mellia’s help, he just wanted to crawl in some bedroll and never emerge again.
Once the sun began to set, it became cold – very cold. And although his Spatial Ring stored lots of goods of many different kinds, it did not contain firewood. Thankfully, Ezekiel had been quick-witted enough to chop down a lone cactus that they had encountered.
Mellia had rather poetically expressed that it spoke of Ezekiel’s special kind of character that he immediately sought to kill the first sign of life that they had met in this forsaken desert, to which he noted something along the lines of it being a pleasure to meet expectations.
Nonetheless, it allowed them to make a campfire on top of one of the larger dunes while the sky above was slowly turning dark and there were very few stars spread across it. Mellia once again put a relief array onto him and, shortly after having ignited the fire, Aurora kind of woke up and although she was terribly weak still, she seemed unharmed albeit extremely fatigued.
Arakiel handed out rations of preserved meat, bread and cheese, explaining that their supplies would last for a long time, even more so if they eventually rationed.
He had to feed Aurora, who seemed so drowsy that she didn’t even properly realize just how much her surroundings had changed. The seraphim more or less solely focused onto Arakiel and when he took her into his arms, she soon closed her eyes once more, snuggling up to him with body and wings. With a few gentle touches, soft words and a bit of rocking her like a babe, Aurora quickly drifted back to the realm of dreams, her plumage having been put to rest around him. It was very soft and Arakiel sometimes caught himself thinking about plucking one of its myriad feathers.
He doubted anything could wake her up now, having briefly checked whether her flame had regenerated a little by trying to draw on up, but had then quickly ceased in fear of thoroughly draining her.
Her soul’s fire was regenerating, but the rate seemed fairly slow, which was in line with what little he knew on immortal souls. They were the core of an immortal and through it and its manipulation, the immortals performed their own magic.
The best way to capture adult immortals was to tire them by having them burn through their soul – easier said than done.
A little later, as they set around the fire, he addressed Ezekiel who was just chewing on some cured mutton. Selene sat next to him, quietly enjoying at a bit of creamy cheese and white bread, her silver eyes gleaming particularly mysterious in the fire’s light while her wings seemed in a resting position.
Mellia sat close to Arakiel, her hood down. She seemed quite occupied with a fairly sizable bar of shortbread that she had been slowly nibbling down over the past thirty minutes or so.
“So, Ezekiel… how’s it feel. Been about a day now, hasn’t it?” Arakiel opened the evening discussion.
The amethyst-eyed man looked over to him in a nondescript manner, almost like he was thinking, which was impossible as far as Arakiel was concerned. Ezekiel did not think, he acted – that’s how he liked to taunt the man, but it might do him a disservice.
Nonetheless, he decided to meet Ezekiel on equal footing now, even if his ancestry was nothing close to Arakiel’s.
“In the temple of the god-in-grey, I had a status check on myself,” Arakiel began, briefly thinking back to his communion with the Transcended.
“Out with it.” Ezekiel said right away.
Mellia’s brief pause told Arakiel that she was listening very closely. Let her, he had no intention of hiding anything.
“I’m a Mortal Ascendant, level one. The aspect of my chosen immortal is medium fire, high astral and low air. My statline is unchanged.” Arakiel recounted from memory, adding. “Aurora is ineligible for a class, but the Class System itself acknowledges her, though she is an immortal.”
“Never heard of that class.”
“I thought thine class was Traveler, Arakiel?” Mellia queried surprised, adding. “Alas, this doth explain quite a bit of thy recent decisions.”
“I’ll never get used to this,” Ezekiel muttered quietly and either Mellia hadn’t heard him, or she chose to dismiss his jabs at her.
“Me neither,” Arakiel answered, leaving it open to interpretation which comment he alluded to. “But I can almost say with certainty that either I, or more likely Aurora, performed some sort of astral healing on me during my encounter with two Air Evokers. Furthermore, her soul’s fire was consumed in the process.”
“As is expected of immortal sorcery, is it not?” Mellia asked, with both Arakiel and Ezekiel affirming at the same time.
Arakiel then addressed Ezekiel once more. “What about you?”
By now, even Selene was listening, her wings having begun to spread wide, revealing their rather impressive length.
Ezekiel held out his hand. From one moment to another, a thin, low aura of silver light began to surround his skin while his amethyst eyes gained a thin silver halo, causing Selene to gaze upon her owner with wonder.
“This ‘state’ if you want to call it that,” the former Wanderer began to answer in a tone that relayed curiosity with the slightest tinge of appreciation. “Feels different from what I did right after the ritual or the few hours that followed.”
“How so?”
The fire surrounding Ezekiel vanished, as did the faint gleam around his irises. Then, he looked straight into Arakiel’s eyes, saying. “It makes me feel weak, while I feel slightly stronger now… yet when I broke my shackles, I must’ve done something to make me far stronger than I am now.”
“Can you recall why? It might give us a hint.”
Ezekiel began to lightly tap Selene’s head, causing her to blush and then abashedly stare at the remaining bits of food in her hands. “Selene needed a reminder that I own her, that I lead and she obediently follows.”
Arakiel looked at the Selenyean princess, asking. “Selene ast Rhea, can you manipulate the silver fire?”
Her silver eyes briefly looked up to him, and then to Ezekiel, who ordered her calmly. “Tell him.”
“I wouldn’t dare, Master Ezekiel.”
A thin and brief smile hushed across the blonde man’s lips. “As you shouldn’t.” He stated matter-of-factly and then slipped one hand beneath her dress, causing her to perk up. “You’re a scatterbrain, Selene – but that is fine. You can learn, as you’ve already proven. We just need to tackle issues one at a time, starting with exercise and posture tomorrow. We need to readjust your body to its new weight.”
That right there was Arakiel the slaver, the longtime member of the Slaver’s Guild that had a near flawless recording in fulfilling his client’s wishes no matter how exotic. His only limitation had been that he only trained the female sex.
Arakiel had looked over to Mellia to gauge her reaction, but the shortbread still had bits left and if she was displeased with Ezekiel’s actions, she did not voice them.
As for him, didn’t mind nor care. Selene was Ezekiel’s legal property and he was free to do with her as he pleased. As long as he didn’t needlessly beat or abuse her, it was just the way of things. The moment he did, though, he would need to have a serious conversation with his ‘partner-in-crime’.
Not that Ezekiel was that kind of man. He enforced submission and obedience, but he had never maimed or seriously wounded one of his charges, as far as Arakiel was aware at least.
It had been one of the conditions Shemyaza had set when they pondered on whom to choose as the second champion.
Alas, that was another time. This conversation right now had already given him a few interesting tidbits of insight.
“Arakiel,” Ezekiel then said and Arakiel focused onto him. “We should spar once you’re up for it. Gotta get used to all of… this.”
As he said these words, Ezekiel spread his arms, once again covering his skin with silver fire while his eyes lit up.
“Agreed, but Aurora and I used up pretty much all of her soul.”
Ezekiel raised an eyebrow, having listened closely, which pleased Arakiel. Arakiel wanted his partner to know that his means were different.
With the sun having set for a while now, it had gotten very cold in the desert and although the fire did help in keeping his body warm, Arakiel still pulled out five of the six bedrolls that had been stored inside his Spatial Ring and although it was a bit of a challenge, he managed to tuck Aurora into the bedroll all the way to the stop, which were her wings. Thankfully, he still had a few more blankets, his mother having put a great deal of thought into what the Spatial Ring should house.
He didn’t know the exact capacity yet, but it was much more than 50 kilograms. Perhaps 80 to a 100.
Before Arakiel went to sleep, Mellia visited him for one last enchantment after which she rolled up in her bedroll, more or less dozing off right away. So so he’d like to believe, but the hood made it impossible to tell.
Looking down at his own tatters, Arakiel kind of whether his mother had forgotten to put clothes into the Spatial Ring, or whether she had wanted to send a message.
In his mind, he could still occasionally hear the words lingering about. Actions have consequences.
Looking around, he could find no fault in it.
His own actions had brought him here onto this minor plane in some desert… and his own actions would see him succeed and move on, would see him return home triumphantly.
As he drifted off to sleep, he quietly wondered whether his time as a pariah to his family drew to a close.
Arakiel was the last to rise on the morrow. The sun had already risen and dawn had come and gone without him, but he felt much more ready to tackle the day ahead.
Ezekiel and Selene were nowhere in sight while Aurora sat next to him, her eyes still wide in wonder at the near-endless hills of fine sand that surrounded them. Mellia noticed him waking in an instant, demanding food right after having greeted him.
He procured some bread, ham and cheese for her, adding another stick of shortbread as a means of apology for not realizing that he had involuntarily become the quartermaster of their party.
Party… yes, that was correct.
They were a planeswalking party, if only a very small one. A party nonetheless – and although he wouldn’t claim to be happy about it, he was still not utterly opposed to the idea. Whether it was because he had no other choice or something else entirely, Arakiel could not say.
Aurora immediately hurried over towards him after hearing his voice, her golden eyes shining with affection and relief at the sight of him.
They hugged, kissed and then exchanged little, intimate gestures of affection while he more or less brought her up to speed while leaving out many details, especially those about her and her elder sister and although he couldn’t say for certain, he was sure that Mellia listened in.
Aurora took him at face value before she told him about her side of the story, about how she had wished for him to make it through, about her wish to see him healed and restored so that he could make it through.
It added another piece of the puzzle, but Aurora and Arakiel had no way to test it until her soul had regained more flame, which was fine.
When his seraphim then learned about who Mellia was, she politely and respectfully greeted the ‘Lady Mellia’ who in turn refused to acknowledge Aurora’s presence. It was expected given the difference in station, but Aurora was still taken aback, given how Chryse had been very cordial in her relationship with the seraphim.
But Chryse was also a people person whereas Mellia was probably not.
When Ezekiel and Selene returned not long afterwards from their early-morning training session, the party had a small but nutritious breakfast and then headed straight northward.
All the planes had the same alignment, with the sun rising in the east and setting in the west and although Arakiel couldn’t tell for certain, he was sure that every single plane also shared the time of day – at least the Eternal Cities did for certain. In the last eight years, he had mainly been to Selenyea, Impyrea and Kalanaar, only once having gone to Akh Karab’s Great Duality for a little vacation. It was another plane covered in red desert sand, but the trade with other planes alongside its perfect spot in the middle of two oases had turned it into a neutral vacation spot for all Eternal Cities.
As Arakiel made his way across this minor plane’s desert, he kind of wished to be back in the Great Duality, sipping sweet wine with a beautiful slave girl fanning him fresh wind all while watching some graceful native, sunburnt women perform their veiled dances that left one breath- and speechless.
Alas, it did him little good to dwell on the past and eventually, he refocused his mind onto other matters in order to keep the boredom at bay.
When all one saw was blue sky, earthen sand and more earthen sand, one quickly longed for any kind of distraction and as lovely as Aurora was, Arakiel had no intention of walking around with a third leg, especially given his lack of proper clothing.
Not much happened over the course of the day and when the sun eventually started to set, they began to search for a camping spot and found one right behind a more or less random gritstone boulder that was just there, perhaps hinting at some of the geology beneath the sand.
Talk was kept to a minimum and after dinner, Arakiel, Aurora and Mellia soon went to bed while Ezekiel retreated with Selene to some other place.
As he drifted off to the world of dreams, he wondered if he had perhaps chosen correctly, after all?
Marianka was gone, but Aurora was here.
He got up very early on the next morning, before the sun had even begun to rise although the sky was already showing first signs of its arrival. Aurora woke up alongside him, a part of her body having more or less crawled on top of him over the course of the night.
Neither spoke a word, but there was a tacit understanding when their eyes met, one that alluded to restlessness and more importantly, unmet desire.
The two slipped away. Under the cover of shadow and rock, they touched, kissed and then merged. It did not serve to quench the fire. It acted more like an accelerant, another spark to further ignite their flames that blazed increasingly hot.
Arakiel gave himself over to it in full, just like Aurora did. Whenever embers shone through, a simple touch or thought was enough for passion to flare up yet again and by the time the sun began to rise, it wasn’t even remotely met.
They had somehow ended on top of the sizable rock, with him bracing the uneven, slightly jagged edges while Aurora sat on top.
When the golden rays of the morning sun began to illuminate her immaculate nude body alongside her spread, magnificent white wings, she took his breath away. She noticed, beamed him a smile and then longingly turned her gaze out towards the east, towards the slowly rising orange-golden disk.
And then, he beheld her stretching out her arms towards the dawn, towards the rays that the sun sent in order to announce its arrival on this plane.
In that moment, Arakiel understood that his seraphim had spoken literally back then, for he witnessed how Aurora caught the morning sun’s rays, how she beckoned motes of golden, red and white light to converge into her left palm and after about five minutes, she gently guided it towards her bosom, where the light then briefly flared up before it ceased. She opened her hands, revealing a small, crystalline shard of a roughly jagged shape – its surface mostly golden with specks of white and red.
“My love… see how the very dawn responds to my wishes,” Aurora whispered in a voice that sounded almost absent-minded. It held affection, love and… pride. “The very stars support our oath… our covenant.”
Her eyes lacked focus while her golden hair softly swayed in the winds and Arakiel was awestruck, still.
She then leaned down and kissed him at which point her eyes regained its focus and although Aurora suddenly blushed as though she had become aware, she did not relent. Quite the opposite; One last dance followed.
A little later, the two sat side by side, watching the sunrise, one of his arms twined around her delicate shoulders. In the other, he beheld the shard of morning light and was reminded of the Transcended’s words.
Medium fire, high astral and low air – it correlated to the amount of color inside the shard. Roughly half of it was golden, while the amount of red slightly exceeded the amount of white… and given that she had consumed the golden part of the previous shard…
Arakiel’s heart skipped a beat while his eyes widened in growing disbelief as he began to grasp what exactly he held in his hands here, what exactly Aurora might be capable of.
“Say, my aurea… did you draw upon the shard’s gold when you made your wish manifest?” He found himself whispering while looking over to the side.
“I… I don’t know.” She returned. Once again, her lips quickly formed to another smile. “But it was radiating and it felt pleasantly warm… just like you.”
He gave her a brief kiss for the compliment and then directed her attention to the jagged shard in his hand. “I think you tapped the astral energy in this shard.”
“Astral energy?” She repeated, lightly tilting her head as she loved to do when she didn’t understand something. It made her look cute in his opinion.
“The golden light – it has to be astral energy… and you performed some kind of astral healing on me… which would make you an Astral Evoker in the Class System.”
Aurora straightened a little and looked at him excitedly. “I have a class!?”
He shook his head, hurrying to explain the issue before she became downtrodden. “You’re an immortal, Aurora. You cannot participate in the Class System like we mortals… but I think our union made it recognize you.”
“Recognize me?” She asked and he noticed how she held out hope.
“It acknowledges you as my chosen immortal. I am a Mortal Ascendant of the ‘lord-type’.” He began, causing an immediate answer on her part, one filled with boundless affection.
“You are my champion, after all – and my lord.” Aurora affirmed, blushing slightly.
“And you are my aurea, my light – and my servant.” He returned, resulting in yet another intimate gesture.
It was like they both couldn’t get enough of one another.
“So you’re saying…” Aurora then added with a dash of hopefulness.
“We should explore this union… together.” He concluded and judging by the way her wings suddenly fluttered, he had just made her very happy which in turn pleased him.
“Yes! None is more worthy of my soul than you are, Master Arakiel!”