“Um, alright, I suppose so,” Isalla agreed, forcing herself to her feet, then headed for the room. She paused as she was about to enter, looking at Kanae as anxiety bubbled up inside her. “Do you want me to come out, or…?”
“No, I just need to know if it will fit. They should be a touch on the large size, since you lost quite a bit of muscle.” Kanae replied. “There’s a belt, so it shouldn’t be too bad for you.”
Nodding, Isalla stepped into the room and closed the door, pausing as she looked at the basket resting on the table in a bit of disbelief. She was relieved that Kanae didn’t expect her to parade herself in front of the demon, but somehow Isalla felt like this was a strange dream or nightmare. Only a few days before, she’d been in the heavens, with fine clothing, immaculate housing, and had been surrounded by light. Now, though… she was in the hells, in a dark house that was oppressive, was subsisting on the charity of a demon, and had been weakened so much that she couldn’t defend herself. The degree of change was startling and left her off-balance. Not to mention how much of a turmoil her uncertain emotions were in.
That didn’t mean she shouldn’t do as Kanae asked, though. Better clothing would be good, and that would help her rebuild her confidence.
Opening the top bundle, Isalla blinked at the sight of the deep red silk, her eyes widening as she murmured. “Silk? Why is silk available in an area that seems remote? Why for a patient like me?”
She hesitated, then pulled out the shirt, the other was relatively plain with a slightly off-white color to it, and each would reach her wrists, most likely. It was incredibly finely woven, which just made her even more confused. Hesitating, Isalla opened one of the other bundles to see more silk, this made into trousers. Frowning, she shrugged it off for the moment, resolving to ask Kanae about the clothing when she was done. She did like silk, after all, and it’d always helped her feel prettier.
It took longer to try the clothing on than she’d expected, and the only surprise was that the socks were wool, but every other piece of clothing was made of silk, including some underthings which Kanae hadn’t mentioned. The shoes were leather, and didn’t fit perfectly, but finally she put on a skirt and shirt before stepping out of her room, feeling strangely burdened by the clothing, but more comfortable. More… balanced, she supposed.
“Thank you for the clothing, but… I just have to ask…” Isalla began, then hesitated as she saw what Kanae had been doing.
“Hm? Have to ask what?” Kanae asked, looking away from sharpening a kitchen knife, then nodded. “It looks good on you, and I think you’ll fit the clothing nicely once you’ve recovered.”
“I just… why silk? You have wool socks, so… why would you use something so expensive for the rest of my clothing?” Isalla asked, her gaze still on the knife.
Kanae stared at Isalla for a long, long moment, then began to laugh as she set the knife aside. Isalla looked at her in confusion, then annoyance.
“What’s so funny?” the angel demanded. “I was asking a simple question!”
“I’m laughing because the socks are more expensive than most of your other clothing.” Kanae replied, mirth in her voice now. Her violet eyes were practically dancing as she explained, her face looking far more attractive in her amusement. “Wool and cotton have to be imported, along with most other thread, and importing it from through the portal is less expensive than from elsewhere in the hells, sadly. Silk, on the other hand… that we have in abundance. There are several spider demons in the area, and they herd a large group of giant spiders that supply the town’s spider-silk. That’s what you’re wearing, Isalla, not the silly silk that comes from worms.”
“Spider… ew.” Isalla gasped, looking down at her clothing and wrinkling her nose. It didn’t feel too bad, and considering things, there wasn’t much choice, but the idea of giant spiders disturbed her. In fact, it disturbed her enough to distract her from the sight of Kanae.
“Oh? Are silkworms any better?” Kanae asked skeptically.
“I never said they were. I just said ew about spiders,” Isalla said, shivering. “Thank you for the clothing.”
“You’re welcome. I think I can go get the last ingredient tomorrow, since you’re looking about to the point I think the elixir will work,” Kanae said thoughtfully, tapping the table gently. “Plus, it’ll keep me gone most of the day, which would probably be for the best.”
“If you say so,” Isalla agreed, sitting in the chair again. She paused, then frowned as she asked, “You said that the concoction was alchemical, didn’t you? Who’s going to brew it?”
“Me, of course,” Kanae answered, starting to sharpen the knife again. “I’m pretty sure I said that before.”
“Oh. I didn’t see an alchemy lab, though…” Isalla murmured, her thoughts churning. Come to think of it, she thought Kanae had said something about performing alchemy before, but she’d mostly forgotten.
That prompted a chuckle from Kanae. “As if I’d want the lab in an attached building. No, it’s a few dozen yards from the house. I don’t want to lose my home if the lab explodes, after all.”
That, Isalla reflected, was a very good point.
Chapter 4
By the time Isalla woke the next day, Kanae was already gone. The only reason she knew that much was because she’d found breakfast and lunch set on the table, each of them covered and waiting for her. She couldn’t have woken up too long after Kanae had left, though, since the breakfast sausage was still slightly warm. A small part of the angel felt guilty that she hadn’t been awake when Kanae left, but she was still recovering.
Isalla hesitated, then decided to reheat the food over the fire, since the coals were still burning. Actually, once she thought about it, she’d never seen Kanae add more coal, which puzzled her. She shrugged it off, instead taking a pan off its hook, nearly dropping it on her toes due to its weight, then put it over the fire. She managed to avoid burning the food or hurting herself, but it was a near thing, and Isalla cursed her weakness under her breath, growing more frustrated than she already had been.
Once breakfast was done, she found herself alone once more, and Isalla found herself even more restless than she’d been before. Sitting around and doing nothing was starting to chafe, and finally she decided to do something to improve her situation.
First, she tried to exercise, hoping to build up her strength, but the experience was… disheartening, to say the least. She couldn’t do push-ups at all, and aside from stretching, most of her exercise attempts got halfway at best. By the quarter-hour mark, Isalla found herself wheezing for breath on the floor as she tried to recover and decided that the best option was to stop exercising for the moment. As much as she hated to admit it, she simply couldn’t exert herself for long.
Once she wasn’t panting like an overworked dog, Isalla decided to explore the house. The building wasn’t terribly large to begin with, but she was curious. She started with the door next to the room she’d been staying in and wasn’t surprised to find that the room was identical to her own, save with the bed made and not having an occupant.
The back door went into a short hallway, followed by another door. Isalla hesitated before opening the door cautiously, only to be met by a wave of steam with the faint scent of sulfur. Inside the room, she found herself looking at what appeared to be a naturally formed pool, the surface of which was moving due to heat. A channel allowed the steaming, sulfurous water to exit the pool and flow out the wall, and it took Isalla a moment to realize that Kanae had built a small hut over a hot spring.
“I… suppose that works. Not what I expected, but it works,” Isalla admitted, tempted to take a dip to soothe her aching muscles, but paused as she thought about it more. She didn’t have any way to dry off, and if something happened, with as weak as she was… it probably wasn’t a good idea. So she reluctantly left the room, closing the doors behind her with a last, longing glance at the pool of water. She’d have to ask Kanae if she could take a bath once she was back
.
Kanae’s room brought even more hesitation, but after a few minutes, Isalla’s curiosity got the better of her. Kanae was a mystery and enigma to the angel, and anything that explained her further roused Isalla’s curiosity. When she found the door was locked, though, Isalla sheepishly realized that her curiosity was doomed to disappointment. She debated on checking the front door, but remembered that Kanae had locked it after going out the previous day. That meant she likely wouldn’t be able to look around.
With nothing else to do, Isalla examined some of the books on the shelves, and was surprised to find that she could read most of the titles. Most of them appeared to be texts on medicine, herbalism, and even some on alchemy. With nothing else to do, she considered what was there, then took one of the medical tomes from the shelf. Maybe, just maybe, she could figure out how difficult her recovery would be.
Once she opened the book, Isalla quickly found herself out of her depth. While she could read most of the book, there were quite a few words that she couldn’t understand. She persevered despite that, continuing to pore through the book intently, hoping she could find something of use. Some sections made more sense than others, but she had to admit that it was still far beyond her understanding.
The sound of a key in the lock startled Isalla, and she looked up from the book in relief as the door opened, about to welcome the woman back, then froze in surprise with her mouth open. Kanae wasn’t exactly looking her best.
The demon was in a pair of trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, was wearing a cloak and had a sword at her belt, but she was absolutely filthy, and the stench coming off Kanae caused Isalla’s nose to wrinkle. She thought there were shreds of fungus across the woman’s pants and shirt, there was quite a bit of dirt and some sort of reddish-purple liquid, and Kanae looked… well, resigned, really.
“Um, are you alright, Kanae?” Isalla asked, swallowing hard and trying not to breathe through her nose. The slight surge of happiness she’d felt at the demoness’s return was mostly buried by her shock.
“I’m fine. From the moment I decided to make the elixir in question, I knew that I was going to have to go into the mushroom groves, and it was just as unpleasant as I expected it to be,” Kanae replied, closing the door, then leaning down to unlace her boots. They were also caked in muck, Isalla noticed, and she dearly wished she couldn’t smell anything at the moment as the demon continued. “I did find the ingredients I needed, though, and that’s the important thing. If I hadn’t, I’d be rather angry that someone had hunted down all the growth vines in the groves, and probably would’ve hunted them down to make my displeasure known.”
“Okay. I just didn’t think you were going to have that much difficulty.” Isalla said, standing up as Kanae pulled off her boots, complete with the socks. At least the demoness’s feet were clean, though it was a small blessing.
“As I said, it is what it is. Now, I’m going to go wash off before doing anything more. I’ll get you your elixir tomorrow,” Kanae said firmly, walking through the room and to the back door. Almost before Isalla could think of what to say, the demon had closed the door firmly behind her, boots in one hand.
“She’s… strange,” Isalla murmured, then took a seat again to wait. The stench wasn’t gone with Kanae’s absence, but it certainly wasn’t as strong, which was a relief. Even so, Isalla felt relieved that she wasn’t alone anymore.
It was about an hour before Kanae emerged, holding her wet clothing in front of her, draped over one arm. Kanae was wearing only the shirt, which was also wet, but the pale-skinned woman quickly vanished into her room. A couple of minutes later, she emerged in her usual robes and let out a sigh as she took a seat, glancing at the book in front of Isalla.
“Find anything useful?” Kanae asked, arching an eyebrow curiously.
“I’m afraid not. I’m not a trained healer, and a lot of this doesn’t make much sense to me. I’ve figured out a few things, but most of it may as well be gibberish,” Isalla admitted, her cheeks flushing slightly. She didn’t like admitting ignorance.
“That would make sense. It took me years to learn enough to do what I do properly,” Kanae said, smiling slightly. Isalla almost did a double-take since she thought she heard a bit of sympathy in Kanae’s voice.
“I was going to ask… could I take a bath? I explored what I could of the house, but I didn’t see any towels or the like,” Isalla asked nervously. “I also was wondering why there weren’t any windows, and only the one way out of the house.”
“There’s more than one way out, though I’m not sharing how just yet. As for windows… they’re a weak point. I had numerous enchantments placed to defend the front door, and attempting to ward windows as well would be difficult at best, so I limited things so I could focus the home defenses on a single point,” Kanae explained, studying Isalla for a few moments before she continued. “As for bathing, that’s more questionable. I’d have to examine your wounds first. If they’re healed enough that the water shouldn’t aggravate them, I can allow it, but the water isn’t as clean as what I’ve used to wash your injuries before.”
“Oh, okay,” Isalla said, smiling in relief as she understood why the demoness hadn’t offered her a bath before. The explanation made far more sense, and it helped her understand Kanae a little more. “When could you do that?”
“While I’d like to wait a while, now would be fine,” Kanae said, frowning as she stood. “It’s been a long day, and if I don’t do it now, I might forget later.”
Isalla nodded in understanding, getting up and heading toward the room she thought of as hers. She did blush, as she realized that Kanae would have to look at her mostly naked, but it wasn’t like the demoness hadn’t had plenty of chances to see Isalla’s entire body before this.
Undressing most of the way, Isalla laid down and waited nervously as Kanae followed her into the room. She sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over Isalla, examining her back closely. Isalla shivered at the touch of Kanae’s fingers brushing against the injuries ever so gently, but didn’t say anything. Neither did Kanae, as she checked the injuries that had been inflicted on each major joint of Isalla’s arms and legs. Just as she was finishing, Kanae paused.
“You know, you’re making this extremely difficult for me, Isalla,” Kanae said mildly. “You can take a bath, just be careful not to scrape your wounds against the side of the pool. I’ll get out a towel for you and leave it on the table, and you can wash at your leisure.”
With that, the demoness pulled away, just as Isalla asked, “What? Umm…”
When she exited her room, Isalla only caught a glimpse of Kanae as she disappeared into her bedroom, a towel resting on the table.
“But…” Isalla began, flushing slightly as she realized what the demoness had been meaning. The idea of a demon being attracted to her was… it should have been repulsive, and yet it wasn’t, not entirely. Isalla tried to untangle her thoughts, and her blush grew brighter as she realized a part of her was pleased that a demon could see the beauty of an angel. Shaking her head to drive the thought from her head, Isalla took the towel and headed for the bathing room.
The bath itself was pure bliss, as the heat radiated through Isalla’s body and felt like it was soothing every ache and pain she had. It wasn’t perfect, but in short order she felt like she was almost melting in place. It took quite some time before she managed to drag herself out of the water to dry off.
Upon leaving the bath, she found a bowl of stew waiting for her. It was simple enough, though the stew had mushrooms this time. More surprisingly, Isalla didn’t see any sign of Kanae. She tried to stay up and wait for the demoness, to apologize for any difficulties she was causing, but as time passed, there was no sign of Kanae. Finally, Isalla couldn’t keep herself awake any longer, and she crept over to her room to lay down and pass out.
She did have to wonder why she felt so guilty, though.
Chapter 5
“Angels,” Kanae muttered under her breath, trying to
ignore her instincts. “The bracelet should be masking her scent, and is, yet I swear I can still smell her. Hellfire, it’s frustrating.”
It had been longer than Kanae cared to consider since she’d last been in the presence of an angel, and she’d forgotten how intoxicating their presence could be off the battlefield. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it weren’t for some of her previous experiences, but it weren’t as though she could forget those.
“I blame Mother,” Kanae announced to the room, unbottling the jar containing essence of life and dribbling a precise amount of the sap into the vial containing troll blood. The alchemical concoction in front of her didn’t seem impressed by her announcement, instead continuing to bubble and churn.
Watching the sap and blood react for a moment, Kanae hooked it into the complex equipment and slid a heat stone under the vial. The alchemy she was performing wasn’t terribly difficult but was rather time-consuming. She’d made the excuse to herself that it was the time which had made her start on the elixir tonight, but she knew better than that, and knew better than to truly lie to herself.
“An angel falling from the sky… and she just had to come directly toward me. It’s more than a bit ironic,” Kanae mused, adjusting some of the beakers as she considered her situation. “Fortunate for her, really. I don’t know that there’s anyone else in the region who could have saved her, would have saved her, and wouldn’t have immediately handed her over to the army or a local lord. That would’ve ended poorly.”
It was nothing but the truth, too. All around Hellmount was a region that’d been ravaged by war with the angels on multiple occasions, though it’d been a long time since a full-scale invasion. It was said that the gateway it led through had been created by a war between angels and demons, and though Kanae had her doubts about that, it had led to a lot more distrust of angels than in many regions. Some parts of the hells were so remotely located that none of their inhabitants had ever seen the portals to the mortal world, and who considered the tales of war with the heavens as little more than rumors from far-off lands with little to no impact on them.
Heaven's Fallen Page 3
