Celestial Matters

"Aye ... he's winning ... but not in the way you expect." Jon said. "But he needs to hurry ... once the sun rises ... the Angel's will have the advantage again ... from what I've seen of the red haired Angel ... we're no match for her."

He turned to me, and gave me a weak smile.

I tried to return it ... but my eyes kept drifting back to the rapidly brightening sky.

-------

My spell was like a symphony ... and I was its conductor.

I was an artist, a visionary. Never, I imagined, had a binding had so much power behind it, never had it had so much thought behind it. Cariel the Seraphim of the Second Sphere would never disobey Lord Devnikolus ever again.

Maria had better appreciate the lengths I had gone to ... in order to keep her sister alive.

I reached the crescendo of my spell. My magic surged ... and once more reality and time melted away in the wake of my magic ... leaving a ripple in the fabric of creation.

The binding was invoked ... the band had been activated ... and the securities were in place. Everything was done ... and everything had been done well.

She would be mine now.

Perhaps I would make her my bondswoman. It was the least she could do for killing Turkik.

The power slowly faded from my hands, and the tremendous energy and light faded from the field. Cariel stood before me ... still frozen ... still pathetic and weak before my power.

The binding band glittered around her neck.

Marking her as mine.

It would be a symbol of her absolute servitude to me.

I grinned. This had turned out far better than I had ever hoped it would.

Maria's voice broke my silent triumph.

"Master, THE SUN!" She screamed across the clearing.

At that moment the sun's brilliant ray's peaked over the fluttering leaves on the forest tree tops. For the first time in over a century the sun's light touched my face. I had no wards ... and no power with which to protect myself with.

I wanted to scream ... but the light of the Light had already stripped me of that power.

-------

-Cariel- What had once felt like a wall made of the most impenetrable willpower ... suddenly felt like soft cheese.

I let out a sigh of relief as the sun's healing presence once again made its self known to the earth. A warm breeze swept through our forest ... washing away the chill and the ugliness of the night.

I took a step forward. The demon's holding magic melted away under the sun. I grinned. Our roles were reversed now. He would be the powerless one.

I wondered if I would get to watch him burst into flames. Or perhaps demon princes turn into stone?

The sun made the demon prince look unbelievably pale. His normally red eyes looked brown and muddy. In fact ... he looked so diminished in the light of day, I might have mistaken him for a common man.

I put a finger to the collar on my throat ... and tugged at it. But it was no good, the demon's magic was locked up in the metal, away from the sun's light. Never mind, his death would release me from my collar.

I waited a second longer, waiting for his agony to begin.

Devnikolus simply stood unmoving.

I raised my sword.

Perhaps I would help things along. If I cut out his heart, and exposed it to the sun it would most surely kill him.

Heaven, no Demon could survive that.

I raised my sword ... ready to be the one to vanquish The Prince of Destruction once and for all.

"No, stop it!" I heard my half-sister scream in the distance.

Maria, with her golden hair shimmering in the sunlight, was running at a full sprint toward the demon. In her hand lay a crude wood cutting axe.

With a wave of my hand and threw up a quick barrier spell.

Maria bounced off a blue wall of light ... and was thrown to the ground.

I carefully started to cut down the foul demon's chest.

Dark blood dropped down onto the morning lit field.

Maria screamed, and shouted something I couldn't quite make out. Suddenly the demon's eyes widened ... and there was a flash of crimson light.

It was a transportation spell!

Without bothering to question how the demon had managed magic while in the full presence of the morning sun, I threw myself at the red light ... hoping that I could perhaps catch the tail end of the spell and follow the demon to wherever he was fleeing toward.

-------

-Maria- Jon offered me a hand up.

I took it, and he hauled me to my feet. My eyes were streaked with tears ... Jon had let me cry uninterrupted on the ground for a while. My face still ached from running into the wall of magic ... but it was nothing compared to the ache in my heart.

Jon leaned down and brushed some grass of my dress.

His brown eyes met mine. "Do you know what happened there Maria?" Jon asked.

I nodded stiffly.

He put his arm in mine ... and he let me put my weight on him ... as we slowly hobbled back to the inn.

"Tell me Maria?" Jon said softly.

I shivered in his arms ... and he patted me comfortingly on the back.

"I made a wish Jon ... I used my unfulfilled wish."

"From the blood deal?" Jon asked.

I nodded again.

"What did you wish for?"

I swallowed the bile in my throat.

"For him to be in a safe place," I said tiredly.

Jon sighed. "That's good," he said heavily. "I was afraid for a moment their ... that after all these centuries, I was going to see my Master die."

We stopped at the inn door ... All I wanted to do was rest ... rest and cry.

Jon leaned close and whispered, "We can't linger here ... to much magic clings to this place ... we have to press on ... or else more may come."

"It seems like ever since the day I was Awakened things have never stayed still ... nothing is normal ... nothing is staying the same."

Jon nodded, and he helped me over the threshold of the inn. "I know of what you speak. It has been the same for me ... ever since I lost to Master in a duel for immortality."

He paused, and took one last look at the field and at the glaring sun before continuing.

"But we don't have a choice. Love it or loathe it, we are a part of Celestial Matters."