Pyre dangled in the air, with his back facing the ground. A tail was wrapped around his waist, and his upper body and legs hung limp. There was a pipe in his mouth, held upside-down, but its contents remained inside because his head wasn’t oriented right-side up. The ground was his sky, and the sky was his ground, but he was touching neither. He furrowed his brow as he blew out a cloud of purple smoke.

“Hey, Palan,” Pyre said.

“What?” Palan asked as he turned his head. He didn’t need to pay attention while flying because he couldn’t even control what direction he moved in after he was in the air.

“There’s something odd going on in the eastern part of the city,” Pyre said as he watched black toothpicks rain down from the sky. Palan twisted his body around, and Pyre flexed his abs to lift his torso up to continue watching the scene in the east. On their right, there was a massive wall that Pyre had told him was the walls of the capital. It prevented them from looking over it even though they were flying pretty high up. Another toothpick appeared in the distance and fell from the sky.

“And?” Palan asked after observing for a while as their bodies continued floating towards the west.

“You don’t want to check it out?”

“In Eljiam, curiosity gets you killed,” Palan said. “I have a goal to find Raea, and we both know she went west.”

“But doesn’t that look suspiciously like a wrath archdemon’s or archangel’s power? What if it’s Raea?”

“And what if I go there and see that it isn’t her, and then on the way back, she gets killed by the rebel army because I wasted time? That would be truly unfortunate. Raea’s a bit slow sometimes, but she knows the difference between east and west. Besides, there’s a massive wall here to the south. She doesn’t even need to know east and west as long as she can tell which way is left and which way is right.”

“I guess that’s reasonable,” Pyre said and let out a grunt. “I wonder who it is though. Maybe you’re right. Curiosity shouldn’t distract you from your goals.” If he hadn’t spent so many years of his life in the pursuit of science, would he have already destroyed the capital by now?

Palan turned back around. The outline of the western checkpoint wall could be seen bordering some buildings. Lightning was falling from the sky, striking the top of the wall. “Something’s happening over there as well,” Palan said. To him, red lightning meant archangels like Michael and Melissa, but he ate Melissa so it shouldn’t be her.

“Are they conducting a pincer attack? But it should’ve taken a lot longer to circle around to the east as well. Solra hadn’t told me his plans for taking over the first sector and the capital,” Pyre said. “But I know he should have a few more archlings under his control. It’s possible one of them is wrath, and there’s also Ishim, but I didn’t think he was that strong.” Ishim had died during the slaughter at Marossa, but Palan and Pyre didn’t know that.

“Doesn’t matter,” Palan said. “They can do whatever they want as long as they don’t hurt Raea. Is the lightning from Michael? I don’t understand why they’d attack the top of the walls.”

“It’s probably the harpy,” Pyre said. “She was one of the first to evolve to an archling. It looks like the rebel’s army chosen to force their way through the checkpoint. They were probably waiting for the first sector to gather its powerful angels before making a move. Solra enjoys sweeping things away in one motion, which is why he waited for the archangels to arrive at Marossa.”

Palan’s brow furrowed. “Why can’t I sense Raea yet?” he asked and clenched his hands.

“I’ve already told you there’s plenty of reasons why you can’t call on her powers,” Pyre said with a cramped face. Palan’s tail had tightened around his waist. “It isn’t necessarily because she isn’t there.” If either of the two had turned around at that moment, they would’ve seen a giant, black halberd form in the sky, but they were too preoccupied with the lightning strikes ahead of them.

“You’re supposed to be smart, right?” Palan asked.

“Supposed to be smart? I’m a fucking genius,” Pyre said and snorted.

“What’s the best course of action to retrieve Raea?” Palan asked. He wanted to see how Pyre’s train of thought worked compared to his own.

Pyre furrowed his brow and inhaled on his pipe. “Well,” he said after expelling a purple cloud, “since it doesn’t seem like Raea is wreaking havoc, she’s either subdued, dead, or unable to use her powers. You haven’t experienced any side effects, so I’ll assume she’s unable to use her powers which would lead to her being subdued given enough time. Solra keeps his prisoners and has them generate energy to power his orbs—which was totally my idea by the way. Your best bet is to exchange something for her because, I’ll be honest, I don’t think you can fight an army by yourself especially if your powers are taken away. You might be strong, but hobgoblins can lift a quarter of a ton. Enough of them will pin you down.”

Palan didn’t say anything.

Pyre shrugged and continued. “If I were you, I would capture that harpy, then open up an exchange with Solra,” he said. “Trade her for Raea. I can help you negotiate. All Raea can do is power orbs for him anyway, the harpy has much more value.” As the two got closer to the wall, they could see a flock of harpies in the air.

“Would Solra be willing to exchange?” Palan asked and raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t he just forcefully capture us with the army?”

Pyre rolled his eyes. “Not everyone’s a demon,” he said. “Besides, the halflings won’t hate you because you’re a demon. If you were an angel, it would be a lot more difficult.”

“Then what about you?”

“Well. I carry around a lot of dangerous items on me and the rebels know that. In fact, I can explode at any moment.”

Palan stared at Pyre. “I’m going to drop you.”

Pyre laughed as he wrapped his arms and legs around Palan’s tail like a sloth hanging onto a branch. “It’s a very low chance,” he said. “I haven’t exploded the whole time I was with you. You shouldn’t worry too much about it. I don’t want to die a pointless death either.”

Palan frowned, but decided to keep Pyre around. In any case, now he knew if he threw Pyre at someone hard enough, he could cause an explosion.