More Fun (Emily) - Darius and Crew

A mixture of fear and revulsion crossed her face as she allowed the rest of her form to manifest in all of its glory. Her speckled wings partially expanded, her eyes were glowing green orbs, her skin looked hot to the touch, she was a warm summer day and all achs and pains faded around her.

"No!' Her breath was the wind, it seemed to come from everywhere.

"What was your intention for Emily?" She demanded. It sounded authoritative, but there was still that fear. Fear is the killer of faith as it were.

((Lore of humanity 4: Confess. WP on the roll))

He seemed to utterly surrender to the voice of authority from the woman. Why? Because when you search for the one thing that would make your dreams come true for so very long...

"To use her to help raise the Child that sleeps here."

There was no fear in his voice. None. No remorse, either.

"Child? What child sleeps here?" She asked, the bite in her voice of wind softening.

He turned, seeming to move quickly, more frantically than she had seen him move before. Move, until he came back with the news clippings of the worker who wandered away...

"I don't know his name. I wish I did. I don't know. But I know this is the sign of a Child sleeping."

She looked down at the clipping and nodded slowly.

"I know this worker I know where his body was. Torn apart and hung to bleed. Aweful. A child sleeping? Do you mean, something like me?"

He nodded emphatically.

"Yes... something like you..."

Kind-of.

"But not entirely like me, so not one of my brothers or sisters." She sounded dissapointed.

"I don't know..."

Because he honestly didn't.

She reached out and touched his face, like he had asked earlier. Her hand seemed to warm his very bones. She wanted to know for sure if he was looking for a fallen like her.

"You don't feel guilt... do you do bad things? Hurt people?"

He closed his eyes and tilted his head to the hand that touched his face...

"When I have to."

That was a certainty. He thought he had to.

She couldn't judge him. She hurt people too. It wasn't her place to judge. It was God's.

"I want to know for certain if this person you are looking for is one of my kind. I want to help you find them. How can I help?"

He drew another breath, turning his head to kiss her wrist.

"I don't know... I've never met... one of your kind before..."

"A fallen Angel?" She said the word 'fallen' with a great deal of remorse. Her glowing green eyes were sad, her warmth dimmed.

He shook his head, nuzzling his face against her hand. Really, he reveled in that touch.

"I've searched... and searched... for so long. And never before now have I met one like you."

"More and more of us are escaping the abyss." She shuddered at mentioning the abyss.

"You may have more luck. If you find them, tell me... I can tell you where this missing man was found."

He nodded.

"Show me?"

"I will take you to the place he was found. Perhaps you can find a clue there."

She looked down at him and considered something before continuing.

"Pledge yourself to me, protecting me, give me your faith and I can give you a gift in return. Something you desire about yourself. An ability, a protection. Name it."

He was thoughtful for a very long time.

"Never leave me?" he asked quietly. "That's what I wish. For you to never leave me."

"If you are one of mine, one with a connection to me, then you will never be alone. You could call me from the pit of hell and I would hear you, see through your eyes, act with your hands. You will be as one of my children." She smiled, that pristine calm spreading across her face. A moment of faith and contentment so rare for the tormented fallen.

He was thoughtful again.

"How do I become yours?"

"You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The answer to so many prayers come true. Yes, I will protect you, with every ounce of my being, I will."

"And I will protect you and lend you my strength in your good works here on earth." She said with a smile, the warmth of her aura cresting. She stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. Angel of friendship and all that.

He felt it in his core. For a brief moment a heat deep within, in his very soul and then she pulled away.

"My name is Mihr, ex-Angel of mercy and friendship, gaurdian of mankind. Call me in your mind and I will hear you and we can talk mentally."

Flickering images erupted in his mind suddenly of the man he had been looking for, the one Emily had found with the others. Images of the strange mud Griselda brought up. Police sirens. The body being taken away, crying. Images of the workers who had known the man, their sadness.

It was staggering, to be flooded with so much information. Which is why he sat down, his head in his hands. Concentrating.

"There's another like me. Another one sacrificing humans to raise the Child."

Which seemed to surprise him. He wasn't expecting someone of his own Clan, other than Gwen. Which was why he seemed so highly, utterly confused.

"Humans sacrificed? Why would anyone need something like that?"

Hurting her precious children seemed compltetly alien in concept to her.

"Unless, you are trying to raise an angel of death? A reaper?"