The Whisper of wings

[Jelenis Tythe]

Bel looked to the man and sneered.

"Ah.....Sabre's willing whore....yes she was elven....dark hair, slight, what did Sabre call her?" He purred.

"Honey Flower.....and my queen.......and yes.....Flori Flower. She lapped it up and moaned eagerly in his bed....she whipped the boy...she loved it!" Bel hissed.

"Never have I seen one fall as quick and as eager as her!"

[Parkway]

His breathing increased.  The demon was baiting him.  A twitching in his jaw belayed how angry he was growing.  But these creatures of the night they fed off this stuff.  So he willed his heart to slow down.  To keep his emotions in check.  If he did not the beast surly bested him.

"That is her name, they described her."  He spoke only to Alorin. 

Turning to the demon.  "Did they give any indication to you where they were going?"  He did not think they did but if he didn't ask now he would never be able to.  His emotions were a jumbled mess.  How could his own flesh and blood be so easily corrupted?   They described her looks, said her name, but she had always been a sweet girl.  She had been innocent and kind.  They called her a whore.  They said she....  He couldn't even think of it.  A sour taste was coming to his mouth.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Bel glanced to Trayder who shook his head.

"We do not know...Sabre has masked himself along with Jelenis and your little sister!"

His gaze then turned to Alorin.

"What is your interest in Jelenis Angelic....he is our charge, ours to protect...Sabre will pay dearly for this when we find him!"

Alorin lowered his sword and looked icily into the demon's pitch black eyes.

"Because he is my nephew Belisarius...and he is also an abomination, the result of a mating between one of your kind and one of mine....but before I send you home...you will tell me how my sister died!"

Bel gave a very slow smile.

"Oh how you must hate the thought of it....the lofty guardian...Alorin Silver...uncle to an abomination because his own sister opened her legs to a demon. She moaned well for him Alorin...more than once....night after night...he took her....again and again!"

Alorin closed his eyes and raised his hand, there was a flash of blinding white light and the pair had vanished.

"I would listen to no more of his filth!" He said quietly.

"Now we have work to be about...we need to find where they might go!" He said to the elf man.

[Parkway]

It seemed even he could not take the taunting's of the demons. 

"I found some sketching's and some other things my sister wrote upon.  She left them behind.  I had hoped her journal would be here.  That is if she still kept one."

He headed for the stairs.  It seemed this demon Sabre was powerful.  He trapped two of his own kind.  But did this surprise him?  Not really.  It was a demon and from the stories he remembered from youth they would do what they pleased without regard to elves or humans.

As he headed up the stairs he called to the man.  "It was in the alchemy shop.  I wonder if she had her own space here maybe we could find more.  Piece together their whereabouts."  He took the stairs two at a time.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Alorin's pace up the cellar stairs was much slower than the elf's, his mind drifted over Belisarius' taunt about his sister.  How could Arina have fallen so far, how could she have laid with this demon and then married him....how could she have borne the abomination?  She would have known the danger of what the boy was, a creature that was forbidden by both races, a creature that would be hated by both races.

If Sabre worked out that the boy was not Human somehow then his life would be a misery.  Demons hated Angelics and vice versa...he would likely torture him and incite the girl to it as well.

He reached the top stair and moved out into the shop as the elf searched high and low for some sign of his sister, another lost to the same sin as Arina.

"Did you find anything?" He asked from where he leaned against the wall.

[Parkway]

He looked up at his approach.  "These.  I found these.  I am trying to piece together her mind set.  Most of the sketches are from our times growing up."

He spread the artwork on the work station and studied the pieces.  He could make out some little spots that they had played in while traveling around.  A lot of the caravan.  There were three of particular interest.  Ones that he remembered from their past.

"These three."  He pointed to the ones he wanted to man to view.  "This one is located on the island of Yoreiq, this one is located in Hyoite, and this one in Adela.  These are all very secluded.  If she was drawing them I could see her telling him of them.  Shall we check them out?"

[Jelenis Tythe]

He leaned to look at the drawings and noted the destinations, for him travel there could and would be instantaneous....how would this elf man do it.

"How do you travel?" He asked simply.

The three areas were some way apart, the demon could be at any, though he may has stashed the boy and the woman in different places.

"Which one first?"

[Parkway]

He looked up and the angelic and simply stated "I travel by horse.  It is swift one.  I should think the least liky is the isles as they would have to garner passage so I say we hit Adela first, if not there we go next to Hyoite.  Lastly Yoreiq."

He said this as Opaas would have no knowledge of a demon mist or this type of travel.  These were all unknown.  Even how the angelic moved about was not something he knew.

[Jelenis Tythe]

"Horse." Said the Angelic slowly.

He knew horses of course he did, four legged beasts that allowed men to ride them...but they tired after a while no matter how swift or hardy.

"Your horse cannot traverse starlight....nor can it fly." He said trying to work out how the man was ever going to make it to these places to save anyone in time.

There were not many that knew how Angelics moved, they could fly of course, his wings when on show were a deep glossy black sweeping from his shoulders to the floor and he could fly far.  Though among his kind it was quicker to travel the beams of starlight across the night sky, almost like becoming the star itself.

"Where is this horse?"

[Parkway]

"Starlight?"  He questioned looking at the man.  "It is in the stable, the one when you first entered town."  He collected the sketches his sister did.  Looking around briefly.

He hesitated but had to ask.  "How do you knows he two you pulled from the mirror will not try to intercept us or better yet this other demon?"

[Jelenis Tythe]

Alorin poked around at a few of the items on the table.

"I banished them back to their realm...they will not be able to follow us for a while at least.  If either do it will be Belisarius and he will make a line for Sabre...he was not pleased at being imprisoned."

The matter of the horse still puzzled him...the animal would be slow, he would have to travel slowly.

"I do not ride." He said finally.

"Never have needed to....can you make make the animal fly?"

[Parkway]

Opaas was really getting confused by the angelic.  He looked at him and just couldn't figure him out.  Was he mocking him?  No?  Shaking his head Opaas just replied in a flat tone.  "No, to my knowledge horses do not fly.  But, hey I just spoke to demons so maybe it can.  I do know how to fly dragon.  But, alas they are scares and very expensive."

He took stock of what was here and he could tell Flori had been here.  Little traces of her were everywhere.  He had been gone too long.  Now it looked as if his sister was lost forever to him.   

He didn't quite understand the angelic.  What did he mean never needed to travel by riding?  Did he walk everywhere?   He tucked what he thought might come in handy into his satchel and looked up at the man.   "How do you get around then?  Walk?  I mean no disrespect, just these lands can be harsh as I am sure you are aware."  He trailed off not sure what to say to the man.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Alorin showed himself in that moment the man asked his question, the long sweeping raven wings emanated from his cloak.  They settled elegantly, large feathers that appeared blue black in the candlelight.

"I fly." He said simply.

"Though if I have to travel far I use starlight...I can move along the star's light to a place."

These lands might be harsh to mortal men but Alorin rarely came to rest upon it, he had only come to look for information on Arina's death and apprehend the Nephilim.

"So you see why I ask about the horse."

[Parkway]

At the moment his wings emerged Opaas could only stand there and stare.  It took a good few minutes for him to regain speech.

"What are you?"  He couldn't help but ask.  He saw this man and he had wings.  He spook of flight.  Of horses?  He took a step back.  He was even more confused now then he has ever been. 

He could just stand there but he wasn't sure what to do.  Answer the man's, uh, whatever he was question.  He stammered out, "I know not if a horse can fly."

[Jelenis Tythe]

The Angelic smiled ever so slightly, his wings flickered and vanished back into the cloak.  He had allowed this elf to see them, most could not...not if he didn't let them.

"I am a messenger of the Gods." He said softly.

"And if you do not know whether your horse can fly...it likely cannot."

He turned about and paced the room, and went into a small back room where he found a table, across the room on the floor he found a torn shirt, he kneeled down and picked it up and held it to his face.

It had belonged to the Nephilim....at least now he had the faintest of scents, the boy had been afraid when it had been ripped from him, it smelled of lilies....flowers, where his sweat had permeated it.  He held it up to Opaas.

"This is the boy's....what ever happened here he was scared....the scent of his fear is all over it."

[Parkway]

Opaas nodded respectfully.  "A messenger of the Gods."  He said this in awe.  It was more of a statement for himself.

He leaned in and caught a faint scent of beautiful flowers.  The scent of flowers!  His fear!  This was beginning to feel like a dream not real.  But it was.  All too real in fact.

"If he was in fear then neither of them are safe.  I know she may already love him, this beast of a demon.  But, it was all a corruption.  It wasn't of her own free will.  Not natural."  He turned to the angelic.  "We need to find them.  You asked if my horse could fly?  Why?  You can that is obvious.  Can you take me?  Or should we pick a place to met up at and you check one and I one?"

Opaas was eager to get moving.  The two needed help.  Even if Flori didn't know it, she did.  The young man did for even graver reasons.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Alorin looked solemnly at the elf.

"I am not a horse." He said mildly.

"I do not carry people!"

He did not mean to sound rude or off it was just his way, he did not converse with earth dwellers very often.

"You are right though, we need to leave and find them, your sister will love this demon, make no mistake, she will be unhappy if you try to take her from him...she is his mistress now. I do not mean this to be coarse but she will be in every sense of the word."

His thoughts went to the Nephilim, the boy, his nephew.

"Likely the boy is starting to reach his Kai'Tor...his ..." He struggled to reach for a word that might explain it to the elf.

"Do you have coming of age....when a boy starts to feel certain feelings...display certain needs...to grow in his strength?" He asked with his head tilted.

Such a thing might be similar to Kai'Tor, though for this Nephilim it would be a time of torment, feelings he did not understand, a tearing between his soul, that of demon and that of Angelic.

[Parkway]

Opaas did mean to sound off putting but they were wasting time.  He shifted uncomfortably but listened the angelic had done more for him in his search then anyone had at this point.  He owed him.

"It would seem it is similar to our coming of age.  When one leaves childhood behind and enters adulthood.  For my culture it is around 135.  It is a time of great joy and celebration for us.  We begin to change physically as well as emotionally and this change is slow it can take between five to ten years before fully complete."

He thought it would be the closet he could come to understanding what the boy was going through.  He worried what happens if the demon gets to him first.

"If you or I get to him and the demon has been successful in his corruption will the boy be lost then as well?"

[Jelenis Tythe]

Alorin took a breath.

"It depends on what is the stronger blood trait within him...if he is more Angelic than Demon he will withstand some of the corruption for a time...if the demon blood is stronger then it will start to overwhelm him....Sabre will suggest and he will start to comply."

His hand moved sub consciously to his sword and he stroked the shining milky white stone in the pommel.

"It will be small at first...finding a weakness...something from the past that it can use in the present...something that will prey on the boy's mind...a memory....it will grow from there.  Likely he might even use your sister....no ...she will want to help."

He turned and headed towards the door.

"Let us go and see this horse of yours....perhaps I may be able to make it go faster....or fly." He said tersely.

He hoped the boy had more of Arina's blood in him...prayed that he was an innocent...it might stave the corrupter's influences.

[Parkway]

Opaas nodded.  "The stables, follow me."  He didn't mean it as a command just getting to the point.

He heard what the angelic said he just didn't want to waste time.  He lead the way to the stable and to his horse.  Handing the stable hand a few gold pieces to run off. 

"I gave the boy some coin to be sparse.  This is Engof my horse."  The beast was large.  A true war horse of large breeding.  His coat a rich brown with a lighter mane decorated with braids and some bead work.  The horse's tail had the same color and style.  One could tell the horse was well cared for.

"I can meet you at one of the locations?  maybe you traverse to one and we met at the other?"  He did not like feeling as if he was a burden.