Angelfire (Dark Angel)

by Hanna Peach

  Alyx remembers what Daniel had said in this very lecture hall only a few days ago. “Would you sit with me if things were different?”

  Had Daniel known they were to be promised to each other? Did he ask for it?

  The lecture pod has become strangely quiet. The other Seraphim around the hall are watching her. Alyx recognizes the emotions behind their pursed lips and clenched brows. Envy. An unsanctioned lightwarrior develops a rare gift, pulling her out of obscurity, and matched with a highly desired Castus, a direct descendant of the Chief Elder no less. It is the stuff of angeltales.

  Alyx glances up towards her friends who have all stopped to watch her too. She turns back towards Daniel who is floating towards her. “But I...”

  Before she can protest any further Daniel is at her side placing his arm around her shoulders, firm, possessive, and guiding her to where his friends sit. His touch is alien to her.

  The Castus reshuffle themselves to allow Alyx and Daniel to sit in the middle of them, as if the two are a centerpiece. Only Constantine doesn’t move.

  “You know Terrentine and Angelo,” Daniel says. The two seraphs nod to her. “And the seraphelles, Desmona, Avalon and Constantine.”

  Constantine refuses to even to look at her. Desmona and Avalon give her dainty little waves with the ends of their delicate fingers. Alyx folds her hands in her lap, conscious of how ungroomed they are. Ungroomed and calloused from years of holding weapons.

  Around her the Castus are all in bright colors. Even the seraphs are wearing royal blue and fern-greens. Alyx picks at the hem of her warrior blacks, part of it coming undone.

  A crow among the pretty birds.

  Alyx stops in front of the store. Antony Arden, the sign reads. Alyx looks down at herself. Warrior blacks. This is all she has ever had to wear.

  Is she really doing this? She feels her nerves begin to fail her. She almost turns and leaves... A crow among the pretty birds.

  No. If she can face a dozen Darkened head on without flinching, dammit, she can face this. Alyx forces herself to push through the door.

  Inside the pod, glow-worms are trapped within clear lights that drip like icicles from the ceiling. The cool light reflects off the pearly colored walls and shines across the racks of silky fabrics and plump hanging seats upholstered in sumptuous folds of pale blue and silver.

  “Are you lost?” The question is directed to her by an older seraphelle. Her golden hair is piled upon her head and kept in place with emerald butterfly pins. Her shocking pink lips press into a sour pout.

  Alyx clears her throat. “I’m looking for a dress.”

  The seraphelle arches an eyebrow. “For your mistress?”

  “No. For me.”

  The seraphelle’s face scrunches up further as it turns a pale beetroot shade. “Now listen here. I don’t appreciate―.”

  “I have gold.” Alyx pulls out a pouch from her pocket and jingles the gold inside it.

  This seems to compose the seraphelle somewhat. “Well then. Is there a specific occasion?” She pauses then peers closer at Alyx. “Why, you’re Alyxandria.”

  “Alyx.”

  “You’ve been promised to Daniel, son of Chief Elder Michael.”

  “That’s me.”

  “Oh my dear, please forgive my slight. My memory is not what it used to be after a thousand years or so on this earth.”

  “That’s okay.”

  “Please, call me Ellyn.” Ellyn places her fingers on Alyx’s back and directs her to stand in front of a large mirror, framed in sapphire, which takes up almost a whole wall. “Let us begin. What do think about something like this?”

  Ellyn keeps her fingers on Alyx’s back. In the mirror her warrior blacks begin to shift. The fabric becomes soft, sheer and fades to a light blue as pale as a robin’s egg. The black feathered shoulders shift into cupped sleeves, her jacket sweeps around her legs and closes into a full length skirt, her forearm shields disintegrate to reveal bare skin.

  Alyx gasps, looks down, fingering her hem. She is still wearing her blacks. But another look in the mirror shows her draped in a long dress of blue chiffon.

  Ellyn laughs but it is kind. “It does take some getting used to but we find it better to do this rather than have you actually try them on. So, what do we think of this one?”

  Alyx realizes, Ellyn is a MirageWeaver.

  Before Alyx enters the Heart tonight, she looks down at herself again, brushing her new emerald green dress. Is everything in place? She is not used to how soft and light silk feels on her skin. It almost feels as if she is wearing nothing. She is too used to the tough and thick material of her blacks. “The green brings out your eyes,” Ellyn had said.

  Alyx takes a deep breath and floats into the Heart. She spots her flock at a table. She floats through the tables towards them.

  Her movements become hesitant. Alyx is used to being stared at. But not like this.

  “Alyx, wow,” Xavier’s eyes are wide as he stands up, bumping his plate. “You’re in a dress.”

  The others of her flock are also staring at her with dropped jaws. She wants to slap some sense into all of them.

  “Come on guys, stop looking at me like that. It’s just me.”

  “What are you doing here?” Elysia says as she crosses her arms.

  Alyx frowns. Is she supposed to be somewhere else that she has forgotten? No, she doesn’t think so. She glances at the other faces of her lightwarrior flock around the table but now most of them aren’t meeting her eyes.

  “Why shouldn’t I be here?” Alyx motions for Passar to move over so she can join them on the end of their bench.

  “I thought you were too good for us now that you have new friends.”

  “Elysia, you know that’s not true.”

  Alyx can hear the circle of silence widening around them as more and more Seraphim notice this terse exchange.

  “We certainly weren’t good enough for you earlier today. And helping me with my assignment before last meal was obviously not a good enough way for you to spend your evening.”

  “Sorry, Elys I was―.”

  “There you are. My promised, up here.” Daniel is waving at Alyx from a Castus table high above them on an elevated platform. He could not have picked a worse moment.

  “See, your new friends are waiting for you.” Elysia’s lips press together.

  “But I―.”

  “Alyx, you look amazing.” Daniel floats down to her and pulls her into an embrace. Alyx is not sure where to place her arms. He draws back and surveys the table. “What’s the matter here?”

  Her flock is watching her. How is she going to react?

  Alyx clears her throat. “Nothing. Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Okay then. Come on, we’re all waiting for you.”

  Alyx looks back at her table. The table that she has always been welcome at, a part of, until tonight. Elysia is glowering at her.

  “Go. They’re all waiting for you. You don’t belong here anymore anyway.” Elysia’s voice hitches and she turns in her seat, facing her back to Alyx.

  Passar shrugs as if to apologize for Elysia’s behavior. “Go on Alyx.”

  Daniel slings a possessive arm around her neck and whispers in her ear, “Come with me beautiful seraphelle. You belong with us.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alyx mouths to Passar. He shrugs again and turns back to his dinner.

  Alyx lets Daniel pull her to his table hanging highest above the main floor of the Heart.

  Alyx glances around the table to her new friends, laughing and talking. She has barely said a word all night. The laughter and chatter of the Castus float over her.

  “…did you see what Cato is wearing? Hideous...”

  “...importing them from Gabriela. There seems to be a market for them here...”

  “... ruined the last two gowns I have sent to her. I am never going back...”

  Alyx picks at her food. Sitting with the Castus high above the lightwarriors below Alyx feels alien
to this elevated world she has been thrust into. She feels a longing for the world that she has come from, a world that obviously will not accept her anymore. Stuck between both but belonging to neither, the hollow-ness has never felt so consuming.

  The Animale

  Second level magic.

  The Animale can communicate with all animals however the Animale will find they have an affinity with birds in particular.

  Animale bloodink should be used in extracting information from animals. Be aware that wild animals may be unwilling to communicate and can be unreliable sources of information.

  Familia’s, birds fitted with an Animale bracelet, can be used as a method for communication across distances or for carrying Threads. The model lightwarrior will practice communication with a familia as a starting point before attempting to communicate with a wild animal.

  Keep in mind that each animal has an individual language and that meanings can be lost in translation. For example, owls, being nocturnal, will have an opposite relationship between day and night.

  The Lightwarrior’s Protocol

  Chapter 18

  The next morning Alyx hears a knock on her pod door. It is Daniel.

  “Hi,” Alyx says in surprise. She moves outside her pod and closes the door behind her. “What are you doing here?”

  “You don’t sound very happy to see me,” Daniel pulls her into a hug. His lips brush her forehead.

  “No, that’s not true. I just didn’t sleep very well last night.”

  “Anything I can help you with, my promised?”

  “No. Just a strange dream, that’s all.” A dream of him.

  Daniel’s sudden smile is cheeky. “I have something for you.”

  “What is it?”

  “Oh no. Not yet. You have to come with me first.” He takes her around the waist and pulls her along the air.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “Will it take long? I have lectures soon.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “I can’t just skip―.”

  “When you’re with me you can,” he says into her ear, his lips catching her earlobe between them as he speaks. It sends a sharpness down her back.

  Daniel leads Alyx up the mountain, away from the lightwarriors pods, through the centre of the city, along the paths between the buildings, and up higher where the Castus have their homes, large domes and elaborate pod structures.

  All the Castus who pass them are staring at her. Or is this just her imagination? She feels like a stranger here even though she will be living up here soon. Will it always be this way? Even after Daniel and her are entwined? Will she always be a stranger?

  Daniel stops at the front door of a dome. He pulls a keye from around his neck and the shield retracts, unlocking the door. He pushes it wide open. “Come in.”

  This must be his home. Alyx doesn’t move. Her stomach tightens with unease. What does he want? What will he expect from her if she enters?

  Daniel laughs at her hesitation and slips his arms around her. “You don’t have to be afraid of me.”

  “I’m not afraid.”

  Daniel brushes his lips across her forehead then pulls her inside, closing the door behind them.

  His home is a far grander home then Alyx has ever been in. Plump seating, covered in soft red pillows, hang from the ceiling. Exquisitely painted art adorns every wall. A large balcony wraps around half of the pod, with a view over the city and the forest beyond.

  “It’s just you living here?”

  “Yes. And soon you will be too.”

  Alyx shakes her head. Just his living space is the size of her pod.

  “And now, my gift.” Daniel floats over to a long side table upon which is a clear vase with a single dragonberry flower in mid-bloom. The flower gives the air around it a touch of sweetness. Daniel slips his hand under a section of the table. Alyx hears something click. He slides a small drawer open. A secret drawer.

  He pulls something out, keeping it hidden in his fist. He moves towards her smiling before he unfurls his fingers and reveals it. A vial of violet liquid. DreamWalker bloodink.

  “It’s for you to practice with.”

  Alyx stares at the vial, the bloodink seems to glisten. She doesn’t move to take it. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “It’s distilled from my own blood,” Daniel says. Then a light flares in his eyes. “Let’s do it now.”

  Without waiting for her to speak he pulls something else out of the drawer. A tattoo quill.

  Alyx frowns. Daniel has his own DreamWalker magic. Why does he have a tattoo quill? Perhaps it is the curious look on her face, but he seems to know what she is wondering.

  “Sometimes I like to share magic,” he says. “Try something different. You need something different sometimes, you know? Otherwise life gets boring.”

  Alyx thinks of her own life as a lightwarrior. She doesn’t remember it ever getting boring.

  Daniel unscrews the lid of the vial and twists the tattoo quill in its place.

  “Are you sure it’s safe?”

  “Sure. I do it all the time.” He moves close to her. He closes his fingers around her left arm and his eyes darken. He presses the needle to her skin and begins to fill up her mark. “There’s something sexy about knowing that I’m putting my ink on your skin, don’t you think?”

  Her face warms. His fingers on her body, his body too close to hers, this suddenly seems… unwise.

  He continues, “I like that I get to mark you.” He lets out a low growl from his throat. “Mark you like you belong to me. You belong to me don’t you, my promised?”

  She doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know how to react. Is this what it’s like when you’re someone’s promised? Alyx remains frozen with uncertainty as he fills in her DreamWalker mark with his bloodink.

  When he finishes he slips the quill onto the table and studies his handiwork. He rubs his thumb across the fresh tattoo. When he lifts up his thumb it is smeared with a mix of bloodink and her blood. He smiles. To Alyx’s shock, he puts his fingers to her jaw and rubs the bloodink across her bottom lip. His eyes have a harder glint in them then she has ever seen before. He grabs her by the back of her neck and presses his lips to hers. Hard. His lips are hard. His tongue is insistent.

  When he pulls away her lips are tingling. From the kiss, from the bloodink. He smiles at her, brushes a finger against her jaw. Then he pulls her towards a hanging love-seat. She is too stunned to stop him.

  Daniel lies along the back of the seat. There is only a small width left for her to fit. She will have to press herself along him. He opens his arms and draws her down against him. So close.

  “I’ll go into the DreamPlain and create a DreamScape with my subconscious,” he says. “Wait a few minutes then go under and try and find me. It should be easy because you’re right here next to me.” He smiles at her and rubs his nose against hers. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Alyx watches him as he closes his eyes and grows still. Soon this will be her life. Her life with her promised.

  I don’t belong here.

  She pushes this thought away.

  Alyx closes her eyes and draws upon the DreamWeaver magic. Daniel’s DreamWalker magic. It swirls in her body like mist, tastes like drops of clouds, wet on her tongue.

  She goes under.

  The DreamPlain is a black expanse.

  All around Alyx the DreamScapes twinkle like stars. If she is to draw to Daniel she must hold in her mind a feeling of him, of being close to him. She turns her thoughts to his kiss. She can see herself witnessing this kiss, watching as he slides his tongue between her lips, noticing his body’s reaction as he presses against her. Then she notices her reaction. Shouldn’t she have felt more? Shouldn’t she have wanted more?

  She begins to pull in a direction. Slowly first. Then faster and faster.

  She can see the brightness of a DreamPlain in front of her, orange and swirling like a plane
t. It grows bigger in her vision as she hurtles towards it.

  She slams into the DreamScape.

  Alyx is in a garden. It is still. No wind shakes the white carnations or makes ripples along the water in the stone fountain or whistles through the leaves of the trees. Alyx takes a deep breath. Jasmine, sweet and powdery. The hedges are pruned, trimmed in straight lines and even heights. The flower beds are neat and square. Someone has taken great care in keeping up this garden.

  Something moves. A rustle of someone brushing against leaves.

  “Daniel?”

  Alyx follows the sounds. It leads her through the paths further into the garden.

  Giggling. Female giggling. Not Daniel.

  Alyx moves around a row of thorny rose bushes with petals so red they look like they have been dipped in blood. In this part of the garden the trees are denser and block out more of the sun. The air is cooler here.

  A flash of color to her right.

  Alyx turns her head in time to see a wisp of coral cloth disappear through a gap in the hedge that runs across the edge of this garden. Alyx moves towards the gap. Is there something beyond here?

  It is dark through the break in the hedge. Dark, and the air blowing through from the other side is like ice. Alyx pushes her head through to look.

  On the other side the trees have grown so thick they completely block out the sun, branches forking like black lighting towards the sky. On the other side the rose bushes have been left to grow into wild thickets, thorns almost as big as the roses with petals so dark they look almost black. On the other side there are no paths that she can see, no easy way through.

  What is this place? Dare she enter? From somewhere in this dark forest she hears laughing.

  Hands wrap around her waist. Alyx cries out as she is pulled back from the hedge. Back against a warm body.

  “You found me,” Daniel’s voice is low in her ear.

  Alyx releases her breath. “Is there someone else here with us?”