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A Blinding Light in the Darkness[Rathe]

Started by Jace, September 04, 2016, 12:44:02 AM

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Jace

He had no idea how long he had been wandering this time. He didn't even know what century it was. It had been......well, a very very long time since Azireal had interacted with any of the beings on this plane. He had searched this entire plane over and over again and still he had not found anything that might help him unlock the memories of his past. Too many of the mortals' settlements had sprung up for his liking. He remembered an island that had little to no inhabitants on it that had piqued his interest some time ago. That was why he had landed on this island of Thanatos. It was much different from the last time he had been here. There were more trees then. And less people. Still, it did hold some sense of familiarity for the angel, so he decided to stay. He made his way across the island, through a few villages here and there, until finally he came across a cottage not far from a small hamlet. He almost passed it by completely, and still would have, if it weren't for a strange sense of foreboding he got coming from it.

Against his better judgement, Azireal decided he might as well find out just what it was that was causing this feeling. He made his way slowly toward the cottage, his hands in his pockets as he walked. There was nothing but a blank expression on his face that might be taken as a sign of boredom, which wasn't entirely false. If he made it to the door he would knock three times and wait for an answer.

Rathe

Rathe had finished with her work for the day, and the sun glowered on the horizon as it began to transition into the later evening. Slipping off her moccasins, she would move to the fireplace, putting on a kettle of water to boil. She rarely ever felt like eating, especially now that she'd seen the results of her last.... accident. The released bacteria had caused the body to expel as much water as possible into the alimentary canal, shriveling the body within hours. So here she was, making some simple tea, like she did every day. Never once in the centuries that she'd lived here had she missed her evening teatime, and she didn't intend to start now.
Putting her cloak on the makeshift bamboo hook by the door, she sat down and massaged her muscles. Again, just a ritual gesture, since she hadn't actually felt sore in... well, since she'd last been fighting for her life.

But today, of all days, there was a disruption in her "normal life". Three knocks at her door. Rathe's whole body tensed; people rarely came to her cottage, and whenever they did, it was usually just to ask for directions, no one ever asked about the plagues. Standing up, she'd pad over to the door and open it.

"How can I help y-" Oh. Of course, after nearly half a millennium of causing no trouble, they'd send someone after her. She blinked once... no, her eyes didn't lie. It was an angel. Immediately, she thought about running away, planeshifting somewhere else, but she hadn't done something like that in forever. Even if she tried, she'd probably only be able to move a few feet away.

"Well? What do you want?" Her mouth was set in a thin line, and she was looking directly at him. At any moment, she could probably turn the surrounding foliage into something useful, but that'd definitely give him enough time to pull something of his own. 

Jace

It wasn't long before the door opened before him. The one behind it though was not exactly what he had been expecting. Actually, it had caught him completely by surprise. It certainly explained the uneasy feeling he had though. Standing there at just over 5ft was, unmistakably, a demon. She didn't look like much, considering. "Well shit. I was really hoping this uneasy feeling was just something I ate. Nope. It's you. A damn demon. Well, I suppose I was getting a bit bored." he said, simply ignoring the demon's question. He took one more look at the girl, sizing her up before he pushed his way past her and into the cottage.

This didn't look like what he would expect the home of a demon to look like at all. In fact, it was pretty docile even for a human. Standing in the center of the room, Azireal slowly turned in a circle as he took in every detail before stopping to rest his eyes on the cursed creature. "You don't look like much. I suppose you're the one behind the never ending plagues and diseases in town then. What's the point in that anyway? I just don't get it..." He turned away again, this time moving over to a nearby chair and plopping himself down on it, grabbing the cup of tea that had, undoubtedly, not been poured for him and took a long sip before placing it back down on the table.

Rathe

Hmph. Were angels usually this rude? Rathe remembered them to be pretentious, haughty, self-righteous bastards, but they weren't as unruly as this. Also, he hadn't attacked her right off the bat. Was this 'something else' merely changing its aura? No, she'd have sensed that something was wrong. As he shoved past her and started flapping his mouth, she'd lean against the wall by the doorpost. So she was playing hostess to an angel now? Fine. This was something she could deal with. If it had been three of them, she'd probably have at least tried something different. But one? At worst, this could only end up with her needing a few hundred years to heal from whatever mental trauma he was going to try and deal to her.

"It's not like I can help it, idiot. You think I just let out random diseases for fun?" If she'd really wanted to be malicious, she'd at least have more of a pattern to what kind of bacteria or beast she made. Still, she had focused so much early in her life on developing her abilities, that she'd never given a thought to a time when she would actually not want to use them.

As the angel prick grabbed her teacup, the tea leaves suspended within would change to eucalyptus leaves instead. It probably wouldn't have any effect on him (and it'd really only numb the mouth of a normal human), but it was a gesture of spite. He probably wouldn't even know it until it was too late. Besides, the taste was now off.

"So... you're not going to try and kill me?" Even if he said "no", Rathe still wouldn't believe him, but she wanted to try asking anyway. Also, he didn't seem like the typical angel. To her chagrin, she found her interest growing in this guy.

Jace

The tea tasted...off. Azireal simply shrugged and returned his attention to the demon before him. She was now standing against the door post, obviously agitated. At least, he thought she was agitated. He was having a hard time remembering exactly what emotions looked like, let alone what they felt like. Deciding that the chair he was sitting in wasn't comfortable enough, the Angel gave a short motion with his right hand and suddenly he was sitting in a larger chair with much more cushion. "Ah. That's much better." and then he realized what the demon had said. He stopped inspecting his handy work and turned his head to look at the woman.

"Did you say kill you? Why the hell would I do that. Who cares about a few minor diseases. I could cure them all without breaking a sweat if I wanted to. I try not to meddle in the affairs of mortals anymore though." he said matter of factly. "If you wanted I could probably do something about that power leakage though. For a price of course. Yea. You might actually be able to help me. What do you say?"

Rathe

Ho... so not only did he barge into her house, but he was littering her place with needless furniture, too. The flow of the cottage had been just fine before. More importantly, though, this guy really wasn't acting like a typical angel. A sudden thought occurred to Rathe. Had this guy been kicked out of a divine plane or something? It would make sense, considering. Angels didn't usually lay traps or make dubious offers, and somehow, this guy had freed himself from that stuck-up mindset that most of them had. It still felt weird to her, though, and she knew enough to trust her gut.

"So why should I trust you? You body your way in here, drink my tea, and expect me to suddenly believe that you can help me? Don't make me laugh. I've lived here for a long time, buster, and I'm just fine. I don't need your help." To be honest, Rathe was firmly convinced that either way, this "angel" didn't have her best intentions at heart. So, she just didn't care, like always. This guy could probably have made a better first impression, but she still might not have accepted him even then. Rathe hated angels.

Jace

Much to the angel's dismay, this demon seemed rather intent on doing things her own way. If he wasn't mistaken, he thought there was quite a bit of contempt and disgust for him coming from her. Did he do something to offend the creature? Probably. He wasn't sure what though. Azireal simply sighed as he decided to try to apologize for....well whatever had seemingly offended this demon. "Apparently I've upset you....I think. It's been a long time since I was around any other beings. I'm not quite sure what exactly emotions look like anymore." A quizzical look came across his face this time as he thought about it. "Not really sure what they feel like either now that I think about it." With a lazy flick of his wrist the angel made another cup of tea appear on the table before him. He picked it up and offered it to the demon. He seemed to recall that gestures such as this often helped to diffuse situations. Perhaps this one would help.

If the demon took the cup Azireal would smile and continue. If she refused, he would simply set it down on the table again and continue speaking anyway. "You really have no reason to trust me, except that I could've attacked you from the start of this. Yet I haven't." with blinding speed, the angel stood from his chair, crossed the room, and placed his left hand over the demon's forehead. He was delving into her mind, searching for anything that might explain why she was causing these diseases to spread in the first place. If he passed by any deformities as he searched he would simply heal them and continue onward. All the while the demon would be able to see exactly what he was doing inside of her mind and could kick him out of it easily if she so chose.

Rathe

Ignoring the cup of tea that he had created, Rathe would note the fact of the situation: the angel had some kind of creation ability. He seemed to be able to catch on pretty quickly, too, as he hadn't created anything blatantly organic so far. Damn him. Besides, why would someone need "practice" to know what emotions felt like? Being a demon, the visceral and corporeal things had always come naturally to her, and she assumed that they did to humans, too. Even angels, she postulated, must feel things like indignation or pride. But to forget what emotions felt like? Was this guy brain-damaged or something?

Her thoughts didn't prevent her from seeing the angel as he moved toward her. He may have been fast, but Rathe was pretty experienced. She'd spent thousands of years in her younger days training for fights against beings like these, and to be frank, she was relieved that he was finally getting to the point. With her left hand, she'd grab his wrist before it could make contact, stopping it about six inches away from her forehead.

"So much for 'helping' me." As she caught hold of his arm, the wood around the cottage would sprout microscopic pores, and begin to excrete a divine-tier toxin into the cottage's interior. Rathe's own body had already produced the antidote interiorly, so she was immune to it, but the angel probably wouldn't be. The toxin itself was colorless and odorless, so she was banking on the fact that he didn't know he was inhaling it.

Jace

The angel was more confused than anything else. He just couldn't understand why the demon had stopped him from helping her. Did he do something wrong? He had only wanted to try and fix her power leaking problem. His vision had begun to become blurry, his mind a bit fuzzier than normal. "But...I was just...trying...to help.." he managed to mumble before he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. Whatever the poison was that the woman had created, it had taken hold of Azireal and he fell unconscious onto the floor of the cottage.

Fractured visions of himself streamed past his eyes. Flashes of immensely blinding light made it hard to tell exactly what he was looking at. He caught one image of himself, the form he seemed to favor, smiling and laughing with others. He thought he remembered a warm feeling in his chest. They were somewhere he didn't remember ever visiting on this plane. Were these other angels?

The images were gone as quickly as they had come. He could feel his mind returning to normal. He could feel something hard pressing against his back. His eyes flew open and he stood back up. He had only been out for a second or two. He might have been affected by the poison gas, but not for very long. "That was uncalled for. I was just going to look for what was causing your inability to control your powers so I might be able to fix it." he said as he reached up to crack his neck.

Azireal's eyebrows furrowed as he thought about it. "I guess I should have said that before doing it." he shrugged at that, deciding on a different course of action. "Well, maybe you can still help me. I can't remember anything before I woke up on this plane centuries ago. I've no idea what my life was like or how I ended up here. Any thoughts on how I might be able to find out?"

Rathe

As the angel collapsed, Rathe backed off. Trying to help her? What could he possibly have been doing, running at her like that? Did he really think that he could contain that kind of power... a power that could create godlike beings and strip humanity from people? How haughty of him. Come to think of it, maybe he was just a normal angel after all. She knew that with his speed and power, it would be useless to bind him with anything normal, so she didn't even bother. After a second or too, he starting coming to, anyway, so she just backed up a few steps. The wood would have stopped producing gas by now, and no doubt he'd have created some kind of defense against it, but Rathe would have the wood change to a different toxin, just in case.

Huh. So he was trying to pretend to be contrite now? If he thought she'd fall for that, he was dead wrong. In the interest of returning to her normal life as quickly as possible, however, she decided to play along.

"If I had more practice and time, I could probably just shift us to a divine plane, where you'd get your answers, and I'd get eternal punishment." Her tone of voice and body language would indicate that this was clearly sarcasm. Even if she could escape a divine plane safe and intact, she'd never do something like that just because he asked her.

"I could also make something that could fix your head... maybe. I'd have to know exactly what happened, and even then, it might not work." It was true; if his soul had a seal on it, or something similar, she was helpless.

"Give me a good reason why I should help you, though, then I'll think about it." She hadn't forgotten what he'd just tried to pull on her, and it'd have to be a damn good reason for her to even start thinking about his amnesia problems.

Jace

Finally he was getting somewhere. The demon said something about how she could shift the both of them to a divine plane if she had time and practice. Certainly he could get his answers if they did that. What stood out was the phrase eternal punishment though. That didn't make sense to him. "Why the hell would you be given 'eternal punishment' for not being able to control your powers? Angels are real dicks if they'd do that."

Azireal may have lost his memories and be a bit rusty at social cues, but he still had some sense of right and wrong. "Well I could give you time and practice, but that's out of the question. No need for you to be tortured or anything so cruel. You're just trying to live your life here." It was pretty obvious by now that the angel didn't understand the concept of sarcasm, despite the girl's impossible to miss body language and tone.

She went on to say she could do something to fix his head...if she knew exactly what had happened. The problem with that was *he* didn't know exactly what happened. Maybe the two of them could come up with something together. First, apparently he had to give her a reason to help him. So he tried. "Well, like I said, you just want to live your life here not worrying about me or anyone else that might come looking for you. I might not be able to 'fix' you, but I can certainly put up a powerful barrier around the nearby villages that would prevent your demonic energies from harming anyone. You know as well as I do that demonic magics has little to no effect on holy magics. And if you're not causing random diseases then there would be no reason for anyone to come looking for you, right?" Apparently he still had a few tricks up his sleeve after all.

Rathe

"You really don't remember your divine plane, do you..." Rathe remembered the angel army, and their rule: no mercy to demons. Kill them, or put them where they begged for death. She didn't really care about any of the ones that were captured... just meant that they were either too weak to fight back and win, or too cowardly to at least take some of them out on the way down. In her heart, though, she knew that if the angels managed to capture her, she'd be gone for sure. She really didn't want to help this guy, either, though she knew that angels didn't resort to lowly tricks to get victory. They did it straight, or not at all.

So... could this guy actually be genuine?

Pfft, she'd be a fool to think that. SOMEONE'S game was afoot here, even if it wasn't his. Sighing, she wished that there was a fire poker or something around here that she could use as a weapon if things went gnarly. On second thought, maybe not. Unlike many other infernal creatures, iron didn't hurt her, but it did make her pretty uncomfortable. Forget about it, she thought to herself.

"That's not good enough. Even if I did decide to help you, if there's nothing wrong with your brain, that means we'd have to travel around looking for something that can help you. Just putting barriers up around nearby towns won't be enough." Unless he could persuade her somehow that she'd be happier traipsing around the world, there was no way she'd assist him.

Jace

The demon's mutterings about Azireal really not remembering his home plane made the angel finally realize that it was having trouble believing him. It did make sense considering how things have gone so far. "No. I really don't." he said softly in response. She took a bit longer to respond to the angel's offer than he thought. Finally she told him that it wasn't enough. That she still needed something more to convince her to help him because his barriers wouldn't be enough. Well he thought he was making progress at least.

"Well I can do more than that. I am still an angel, you know." His thoughts were of different scenarios, thinking about how he could use his abilities to ensure that this demon would help him. He decided his ability to manipulate the minds and memories of those he chose was probably his best bet.

"Maybe this will help. I have the ability to manipulate the memories of anyone I choose. Even if we were faced with traveling around the world searching for answers, I can make sure that no one ever remembered you. Or change their memories to anything else that I wanted." he wasn't sure if this would be enough to gain the aid of an extremely skeptical demon, but he had to try.

Rathe

There was something oddly persuasive about this guy, but she couldn't figure out what it was. It was the first time in centuries that she had actually wanted to help someone in need, and it disturbed her. With his memory modification ability, it wouldn't be hard for them to cover their tracks... damn it, even the rational part of her mind was caving in to this ridiculous business. Sighing, she passed her eyes over the old house, then rested her gaze on the angel once more.

"So... was that what you were trying to do just now? Read my memories, find out all my vulnerabilities?" Knowing this made her feel even more ill at ease around him, but it also gave her a valuable piece of information. He probably needs to touch me to pull it off, she thought to herself. Well then... I'll just ensure that doesn't happen. Her body didn't need sleep if she so willed it, though she did secretly revel in the wild tranquility of dreams. Either way, she now had to make up her mind: leave this place and everything within it behind, or stay here and continue with her normal life.

It was at that moment that she thought of something. If this guy regained his memories without her... he'd bring back friends and decant fire into her veins. In the end, it was fear that motivated her to say "Alright, fine. But if you want to leave, we're going tomorrow morning. I need to tidy and lock up, and pack." To be fair, that last one was just an excuse. She probably wouldn't need to bring much, as she could fashion clothes from flax and the like at will. Perhaps a bit of that home made soap she'd spent so long making last month.

"And don't touch me, or you'll regret it." She realized that she'd probably have to start practicing on some of the powers that she hadn't used in a while. Just in case.

Jace

The demon seemed to realize what Azireal had been trying to do earlier when he moved for her. Well, for the most part. He was trying to sift through her memories. It wasn't to find vulnerabilities though. "Yes. I was trying to search through your mind. I was not looking for vulnerabilities though, but hoping to find a reason for the leaking of your powers. If I found one I might have been able to help. I see now that you don't want me to do that." he said in response to her question. It was probably rhetorical, but whether it was or wasn't the angel really couldn't tell the difference.

He didn't have to wait long after that before finally getting an answer from the girl. It seemed he had sufficiently convinced the demon to help him. She had mentioned needing to tidy up and pack before leaving, which they would do tomorrow. That was fine. Azireal was in no rush. He'd been wandering for centuries now, another day would be nothing to him. He was about to speak when she had given a final warning. If he touched her he would regret it. Very well. He would not touch the demon. The only reason he had had for doing so was to help her anyway, so if she didn't want the help then touching her held no interest to him.

A smile crossed the angel's face now. "Very well. We will leave tomorrow when you are ready. May I spend the night in here or would you rather I came back?" he asked sincerely. Before she could answer, however, he added one last thing. "I'm called Azireal by the way."

Rathe

What, so he thought they were on a first-name basis now? She'd agreed to help him against her better judgement, but that didn't mean that he could treat her so informally.

"Go make your own cottage. I'm sure you can manage on your own." She certainly wasn't having him sleep in HER house, on the floor or otherwise. The warmth of this hearth was for her alone. As soon as he was gone, Rathe would sit down in her old chair. There was something tickling the back of her brain, but she couldn't figure out exactly what it was. This was irksome to her, and she decided to relax before she cleaned up and prepared.

Leaving the house (and making sure to lock it firmly behind her by fusing the door to the doorframe), Rathe would move to the north of her residence, entering a cave. After a few seconds, she reached one of her favorite spots: a hot springs. Small patches of phosphorescent moss that she'd created and placed here herself provided dim but sufficient green lighting. She'd thought about making it red at first, but then realized it'd be simpler and less suspicious to make it green. Red was so practical, though...

Disrobing completely, she'd sink herself into the warm water up to her neck, letting the heat permeate her flesh. Mmmph... now this was the kind of pleasure she could understand and revel in. Not whatever kind of spiritual ecstasy the angels kept babbling about. Sighing and realizing that she was wasting time dreaming up complaints, the demon started washing her hair. It wasn't THAT long, but there was enough to require regular maintenance. She'd had it shorter in the past until she realized that it drew attention from people, so she just kept it at a "normal" length. Humans were so bothersome and nosy.

Jace

The demon answered quickly, telling Azireal to go make his own cottage. She hadn't given him a name, but that wasn't very important at the moment. The important thing was that she had agreed to help him, which is all the angel really cared about. Leaving the demon's lair, which is what the angel had finally decided to refer to it as, he let his wings come forth from his shoulder blades and soar high into the sky. He could see everything for miles and miles around. Nothing really stood out to him as a good location to create a cottage for himself yet.

He took of to the north of the house, surveying the area as he went. It had been many years since Azireal had last been to this island. Many things had changed, yet the landscape was mostly the same. The angel had just spotted a nice patch of land near the entrance to a cave that he decided on using when he saw the demon enter it. He was curious as to what she was doing in there, but figured it was best just to finish his work and call it a night.

Descending nearly instantly upon his desired location, the large white-feathered wings folded in on themselves and disappeared into the angel's flesh once more as his feet touched the ground. He held his right arm out in front of him, his palm facing toward the spot that was about to become occupied by his new creation. After a few seconds, Azireal brought the outstretched arm to his left hip slowly, then made a quick motion diagonally upward and to the right. Instantly a small wooden cottage appeared out of nothingness in front of him, the front of the house angled so that it was perpendicular to the cave's entrance about thirty feet to the left of it. Satisfied with his work, Azireal leisurely entered the house, ready to wait for morning to come and his journey to get started.

Rathe

Drying herself off and dressing, Rathe padded out of the cave, noting the cottage and feeling a twinge of jealousy. It'd taken her two whole hours to get the framework of her place down, and another whole thirty minutes to finish construction. Sure, by human standards, that was astronomically fast, but this angel just conjured things like this out of the air with a wave of his hand. Turning away, Rathe entered her own home and began packing. It didn't take her longer than five minutes, as she only packed a few pieces that she deemed essential. She didn't keep any maps, which was unfortunate, but that was fine. Who would bother a random man and woman on the road? If anyone did, she thought grimly to herself, they'd regret it pretty quickly.

Hours passed, and morning came. And by morning... well, it was 1 AM in the morning when Rathe slipped on her moccasins and exited her cottage for what was likely to be the last time in quite a while. Knocking loudly on the angel's door, she'd wait for Az-..... whatever his name was to answer. She'd have a frustrated, impatient look on her face, with her hands on her narrow hips. The sooner they got finished with this, the better.

Jace

The angel was just sitting on his comfy couch in the cadlelit room when he heard the knock at the door. He didn't know what time it was, but surely it hadn't been very long since he had left the demon to her own devices. He rose from his position and walked across the cottage to open door. Sure enough the girl was standing there with her hands on her hips. "Is it time to go already?" he would ask.

He just walked out of the cottage without waiting for an answer, waiving his left hand half-heartedly behind him as he closed the door. In an instant the small house disappeared into nothingness. "Alright let's go then." Leading the way, Azireal started walking in a southerly direction, no real path in mind. "I heard there was a strange temple nearby that seems to be fairly ancient. It's unused and nobody seems to know the reason it was built. I figure we can probably try to get some kind of answers there."

Rathe

"I... uh...." She'd never heard about this temple before. To her embarrassment, she realized in the thousands of years that she had lived in her cottage, she'd never really ventured far from it. Then again, she really didn't want to... no reason to bring her "problem" to other locales. It was only a matter of time before probability produced some monstrosity of a microorganism that she'd actually have to think about in order to get rid of.

"Fine. You lead the way." She didn't explain why, not feeling the need to give any of these details to the angel. As they walked south, the cool dark sky started to grow just a tad bit brighter as daylight approached. Rathe didn't think they'd find any answers in a temple that the angel had picked at random, but then again, she was also a believer in archetypes and subliminal memories. Maybe this place that they were going to had some kind of connection after all.

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