As soon as my voice could be Heard in the guild everything and everyone went silent. Then something cracked, something crumbled and something slammed. I heard something, as if storm or the end of the days, was charging through the stairs from the floor.

Capitan! The contact with an enemy has been established! Prepare for impact in three, two, on… MAYDAY, MAYDAY! I REPEAT WE NEED A BACKUP! The enemy attacked faster than we suspected! We underestimate their battle capabilities!

Or speaking in English – Gisele tacked me down

“YOU IDIOT! YOU BLOODY IDIOT! I was worried! I was worried so much! You… idiot! Idiot! Ido…t”

Anger in her voice was slowly replaced be relief

“You idiot… I told you to be careful.” “I know, love.” “And what, what did you do?” “I wasn’t careful, love.” “You are so… so…” “Stupid? Narcissistic? Overconfident? Thoughtless?” “All of them!”

Her hug became tighter and tighter, but it was far from being painful. I was slowly melting in her arms… No! I had to snap out of it!

“Gis, please, let me go…” “No! I let you go once. ONCE! And you vanished for… god only knows how long!” “Two weeks, to be precise, but right now it is not important, you see…” “I don’t care! You will tell me later! Right now… just stay like that…” She burrowed her nose in my hair. God! How much I wanted to stay in this position. I was so tired. First, I was captured, then I was tortured, then I was running and finally, in past four days, I had barely any sleep… I just wanted to lay in bed cuddling with her for couple of days… the smell of her skin, I missed it! I missed it so mu… God damn it, Zari! The girl that is your safety warranty is dying right now! “Gisele. Lemme go.” “No!” “God damn it! Woman! Do you think that I don’t want to just lay and squeeze the hell out of you?! But I can’t! Not just yet! I have something to finish, and I have to do it quickly!” “Just moment…” “Gisele, look at me. A little innocent girl is going to die if I won’t move!” “Now you are just teasing me! You know that I love helping those who are helpless and you want to use it against m…” “Gisele! If you want, you can come with me – then you would meet her! Even more – she is still a child! She has barely more than 12 springs! Get up, you little, stupid lizard! Come on! Get your equipment!... something that can resist high temperatures would be nice.”

She looked at me and nodded

“If that’s some kind of prank. I will kill you, hire a necromancer, resurrect you just to kill you aga…”

I planted a deep kiss on her lips. I was savoring her taste for couple of seconds before parting out lips

“Get moving, love.” I smiled gently while looking her in the eyes “R..Right.” “Marika! Gustav! Nyx! Are there any good magicians here?!” “Gustav in away meeting his family…” Marika yelled “… Nyx on a mission. You are stuck just with petite, gorgeous me!” “I just hope it will be enough…” “HA!? We managed taking down a dragon!... even if undead… and taking into consideration that you did most of the job .. still, what can be worse than a dragon?” “… I will give you detail as we would departure… we need to hurry now…” or if you are smart enough you would know that situation is very, very serious and I don’t want you to chicken out.

We were riding in direction of forest. Me, squad of Hellion, Daralon, Gisele, Marika and Elana, of course. Her condition got much, much worse. She fainted a few hours ago her stamina dropped to 10 and my healing no longer increased those numbers – simply stopped them from falling even more. I also used that time to tell Marika and Gis what this commotion is all about

“Angel? Did you say angel, did you? And by an angel you mean angel-angel, not some creation of an angel? I am just trying to comprehend… Ok. Pardon me. I am leaving here…” Marika didn’t like the idea “Too late. We won’t stop before we would reach our destination.” “And where are we going?” “Forest of dread…” “STOP THE CART! Sure! Not only we are riding with bloody angel – we are riding with that angel to one of the most dangerous places on the continent!” “It’s not that bad as long as you know where are you going to. I mean, that place is pretty much safe if you won’t wander over territory of Behemoths…” “Territory of Behemoths? Greaaat.” “Stop whining, Marika, this girl is all alone!” Gisele took my side “… Exactly… Zari, what did you get from helping her?” Fairy squinted her eyes “What do you mean?” “You won’t help somebody you don’t know without getting anything in return! What did you get, or what are your relations with her?”

Eh, they would have known sooner or later

“That girl’s name is Elana Scarlet…” “Hm? Name rings a bell.” “Sister of Amelia Scarlet.” “… Funny, her name sounds similar to the girl that picked after Jericho title of the strongest… That Amelia?” “A-ha. Also – that Amelia that was responsible for beating the crap out of me and dragging my ass to the Holies.”

All this time Gisele had one of her hands on my shoulder as if she was afraid of letting me go. Right now, the grip of that hand almost crushed my collarbone.

“Then.. shouldn’t you like… I don’t know? Kill her? Have revenge?” “So her sister would lead the charge at Neira just for the sole purpose of finding me and killing me? No. I preferred using her as a hostage to escape the land and then heal her to get myself her gratitude. Also, if I would eliminate house of Scarlet from war, the King could start liking me…” “…It’s good to know that Zari is still same old Zari…” Marika smiled “… always looking for possible gains and thinking on many fields at the same time.” “Also, you would see the place of my birth… I wonder if my hut is still standing? I just can’t wait to see what creatures dwell in it now…”

Once again a journey in direction of border with Holies. I can’t say that I like that idea, yet I couldn’t complain. Possible gain would reward me all my struggles… No. I am trying to convince myself that I am doing it all for material gains. That’s not a full truth. That girl is so much alike to old me… I… I don’t want to let her down. When I got sick I get everything I needed. Medical care that actually helped me, support of family and friends… because of that poisoning, I couldn’t attend classes for three months, so my friends were visiting me home on their own not only to give me notes but also to actually help me with studying preparing me for tests…

I wasn’t left alone, and I can’t leave her alone. Just look into what wonderful, sexy beast I turned into at the end? Maybe- just maybe, by giving her same possibilities she can alter her fate too? Fate of sacrifice. Of incubator.

“Ok. Zari. How does it work?” Marika finally asked as she apparently gave up idea of running away “Those are only my suppositions… but you know what angel is?” “A form of higher spirits – so called celestial rank spirit. The creature that is an avatar of pure power and will, yet as every spirit – without a physical body. They were banished from this world my Aira, so they can appear her only by special permission of goddesses or by summoning, yet as powers of angels are surpassing those of the humans, it is impossible for us to summon an angel in its full glory and power…” “What if angel WOULD be given a vessel. A permanent, living vessel?” “Impossible. They would be torn apart from inside…” “You are missing the point of my question. What if an angel wasn’t summoned into a body, but BORN in a body?”

She looked with fear at Elana

“No. No, please, don’t tell me that…” “Um…” Gisele joined our conversation “Mind telling in language that non-magicians would understand?” “It’s… terrifying! Listen!” Fairy took the job of describing the situation “Imagine that you have a vessel – let it be… a balloon! Or vial! Or bottle! Or whatever you want! That vessel is a body. Now, the angel in… something that you want to put into the bottle… BUT ANGEL IS FUCKING HUGE! It’s like whole tank of water that you want to put all at once into that one small bottle! Impossible! The pressure would break the bottle from inside… but what if an angel would be small? Very, very small? Smaller than a bottle? You can say such baby angel that has yet to grow. You plant such angel in a bottle. It grows with time building slowly pressure from inside – because it is relatively a slow process the vessel can somehow… adapt, expand a little fitting more of angel with time… as it grows and become bigger and bigger… the problem is that… how to put it…” “Bottle – the body, had its own content before – a soul” I joined “… you see, even as vessel if getting bigger, the small bottle can fit two souls… so the smaller one, the weaker one would be devoured and merged into the bigger…” “So?” “So soul of Elana is right now being replaced by Angel. Soon this little sweet girl would become a living angel. The one that you can’t banish because it would be connected with the body and not with the heavens.” “Which means?” “That angels may return to this world, and this time Aira won’t be able to cast them away.” “... fuck.” “Fuck, indeed.” “But.. but how was that possible? Planting another soul into a human should cause a shock? Sleeping-baby-angel should be killed or the host would die, for the soul would try getting rid of an intruder!” “… not if it was planted when target was weakened – sick, and for first few months conditions of host would be worsened on purpose…” it finally become clear to me. That’s something I wouldn’t find out if not a conversation with fairy “Elana was sick. The disease must have been serious because her father called priests for help, but those fuckers instead of healing her planted an angel inside her… and then they were responsible for her condition all this time! No later than a week ago she was still [treated] by priests! They let it grow and now it is almost fully adapted… Jason! Daralon, you heard that?”

I yelled on the outside of the cart to the people riding around us

“Clearly.. .still bastard must become a perfect parasite? How will we force it away?” “Fear not. I have my own idea.” I tried calming them down. Even as my heart was pounding in fear of what am I about to do. I will truly, truly push my luck.

We ride for almost two days, your average distance between capital and forest. It was close to dusk when we left the cart.

“Jason, carry Elana.” “Why?” “Because it would be four days since I slept last time, I have to lead ritual and find a way home. Last time I checked I was also the only one you could call tracker, and also because I told you to do so. Need more reasons?” “Eh…” “I will tell everyone, literally everyone in capital to not sell you alcohol…” “Consider it done, commander!”

See? Different people need different approaches while motivating. Key is knowing their weakness.

“Home, sweet home…” I said looking into dark, deep forest