The forest went quiet. Or maybe it just seemed to do so to Nerluce. He trembled, staring wide-eyed at Rieka and the sword Aristide had pointed at her.

Wolf woman? He'd never heard that name before. Granted, Nerluce's knowledge of the world outside Itoroh was limited at best but surely if this wolf woman was such a dangerous figure that Ethera would send two of its Seraphs to exterminate her... He shook his head. They had to have been mistaken. Rieka wasn't... she didn't seem like a bad person. And she most definitely didn't deserve to be killed.

"W-wait," Nerluce said, shaking his head as he approached Aristide. "Calm down. I'm sure that there's been some sort of mistake. Rieka is... she's nice."

And that was all it took for Aristide to turn his icy glower onto Nerluce and the tip of his sword. Just like the last time Nerluce had the sword pointed at him he didn't feel much of anything. No fear. No anger. Not even a burst of adrenaline. Everything just seemed to... slow down. Become quiet and dull as Nerluce glared right back at Aristide.

"Angel," Nerluce said.

"Nerluce," Aristide said in turn. "I hope you realize the position you're in. You've already been deemed a suspicious figure and now I've found you conspiring with a known practicer of the forbidden magic." He didn't blink, just stared Nerluce down. "I have full authority to execute you. So consider your next words carefully."

Nerluce swallowed. The air was thick with tension and magic. It seemed to stick to the inside of Nerluce's lungs. He stole a glance at Taayir, hoping to find her support but she wouldn't meet his gaze. She couldn't protect him. Aristide was the one who had been put in charge of supervising Nerluce, not her, and if he really did think that Rieka was a bad person then that would certainly only validate all of Aristide's suspicions.

Therefore the only way for Nerluce to get out of this was to prove that Rieka wasn't a bad person, wasn't it?

Shit. Making a gamble, Nerluce gritted his teeth and extended his arm before pushing Aristide's sword from his throat with the back of his hand, slow and purposefully. "Kill me then," he said. "What I'm telling you is that you've got the wrong person! Rieka isn't this wolf woman you're looking for!"

"Kid," Taayir said, her voice low. "She is."

"And how would you know?" Nerluce asked, turning on her. "Taayir, I don't know what's going on but this woman... she's kind. She gave me tea and..." Nerluce shook his head. They didn't need to know about the fan. "If she were really so evil that she needed to be executed on the spot, wouldn't she have killed me?"

Taayir pressed her lips into a fine line. She looked desperate. Not to believe Nerluce but... for him to just shut up.

"Why indeed?" Aristide asked. "And the ease in which you slipped through her defenses."

"There were no defenses!" Nerluce protested. "I just walked into her camp!"

"Which makes it all the more suspicious!"

Taayir cut them both off. "Well, Wolf Woman?" she asked, looking directly at Rieka as if she was expecting some sort of answer. "Are you allied with this boy? Have you used your magic on him?"

"Me?" Rieka asked, clutching her hand to her chest. "Don't be ridiculous. We only just met."

"And why did you let him past your defenses so easily?" Taayir asked, narrowing her eyes. "Don't tell me that you were so focused on us that you left your rear unguarded?"

Rieka didn't say anything to this. Of course, she didn't because Taayir was wrong! Rieka wasn't the Wolf Woman! Taayir had to have been mistaken! However, when Nerluce turned to Taayir, he felt his stomach drop. The woman's expression was one of cold hatred. Nothing more and nothing less, directed right at Rieka.

Finally, Rieka sighed. "Your High Priestess must've sensed it too," she mumbled. "He has a lot of potential. I wanted to meet him."

"Rieka?" Nerluce asked.

Aristide stuck his blade out again, this time to separate Nerluce from her. Nerluce looked at Aristide who simply shook his head. "You were fooled, Nerluce," Taayir said. "There is no doubt about who this is. I've crossed paths with the Wolf Woman dozens of times on the battlefront. Let's finish what we started, yes?"

"It would be my pleasure," Rieka said, bowing her head, and at the same time, four massive wolves leaped from the brush.

Nerluce didn't exactly process what was happening because everything seemed to happen at once. He stumbled backward, falling onto his elbows as Taayir's flaming whip sliced through the darkness of the forest. Aristide's sword went soaring forward and Nerluce blinked and then the blade was covered in red and the wolf fell to the ground in a heap of muscle and fur.

The world spun.

More wolves came, spilling from the trees. Taayir hissed a curse. Metal filled Nerluce's nostils. He couldn't get his legs to work right but he knew he needed to run. To escape. He couldn't fight! He couldn't die! He needed to run away, run away, run away. He needed to get as far away from this place as he could!

And then Nerluce blinked and his body was working again in an odd way. Nerluce was running but he couldn't remember getting up. Taayir - or maybe Aristide - called his name but Nerluce didn't care. He couldn't care. Everything was going so, so fast and so, so slow at the same time. It was wrong. Nerluce felt like he was dying. But Nerluce knew that if he stopped then he'd definitely die!

Faster. Nerluce needed to go faster. He couldn't go faster. Nerluce needed to keep running. He needed to run far, far, far away from this place. He couldn't keep running. Go on. Stop. Run faster. Slow down. The conflict between life and death was snarling in his ears so loudly that he didn't hear the wolf behind him until its teeth sunk into the fabric of his cloak.

Nerluce choked. The cloak caught his throat and brought him to the ground. Had Nerluce been running from this wolf the entire time. He didn't think so. He wasn't faster than a wolf! He knew that much! Where had it come from then? Had- had Rieka sent it to attack him or was it just a regular wolf?

It snarled, coming closer to Nerluce now that he'd been thrown to the forest floor. He would be so easy to kill. The wolf could have it finished in a matter of moments. Would it, though? Was this some predator or an animal willed by a human being, infected with humanity's ability to drag out death? To torture and hurt. This wolf could make him hurt so much worse than Lord Father ever did.

Nerluce fumbled, trying to get out his matches. His matches! He just needed one of them! If he could just get a fire going, no matter how small then maybe- maybe he could scare this wolf off. Maybe it wouldn't hurt him. Nerluce pulled the matchbox open with blunt fingernails, trying to grasp one of the thin matches but... but he was shaking. Gods he was shaking too badly to get one and-

The wolf lunged forward, sinking its teeth into Nerluce's arm.

Nerluce's fragile skin had no chance of holding up under the sharp white fangs - brought to existence by thousands of years of carefully cultivated evolution, for the sing purpose of puncturing flesh and bone. And it hurt. Gods it hurt. Nerluce let out a scream so loud that it rattled the forest into consciousness for just one moment.

The wolf didn't release Nerluce. It kept its jaw locked, sinking its teeth deeper and deeper into Nerluce's flesh. Nerluce let out another scream as he saw his blood - the only crimson thing about him - spill. It stained his clothing. It would stain his corpse. A crimson bedsheet would be Nerluce's final resting place.

Gods, would they find his body? Would they recognize his body if they did find it? Tears stung at the corners of Nerluce's eyes as he let out one, final and desperate cry, that tore his throat and ended in more of a long whimper.

Nerluce was an idiot. He had seen Rieka's beauty, so human it made him ache, and he had lowered his guard around her. Humanity was beautiful but it was also so incredibly awful. Nerluce glared down at the wolf, now certain that it was under her influence because no animal would hold on this long, loosening and fighting its grip, only to cause pain. Gods, gods, gods it hurt but Nerluce had no more voice.

He had no voice. He had no weapon. He had no magic. He was completely and totally alone and defenseless in the forest. The wolf stared at him with great, yellow eyes that seemed to reflect nothing and everything all at once. In a way, they were rather like one another. They were both being controlled, pushed around by forces they could neither resist nor understand and they would both die like that: never resiting, never understanding.

Gritting his teeth, Nerluce swiveled his entire body and used his other arm to grab at the wolf, his nails becoming talons as they sought blood and found it. The wolf snarled and bit down harder but Nerluce didn't release it either. He would never release it. That was what he would swear to the creature.

For all eternity, Nerluce would be clinging to it.

Yellow eyes looked into Nerluce's muddy brown ones. They were desperate and killing one another, slowly but surely. And... that made Nerluce ache. He... didn't want to kill the wolf any more than the wolf wished to kill him. There had to be another path. Something that Nerluce could do.

And deep down, Nerluce knew exactly what he needed to do. He already had all of the tools available to him. Magic was everywhere and in everything. The solution to everything was right at Nerluce's fingertips. The wolf itself was teeming with magic. If Nerluce could just reach out to it then maybe he could...

A blade came soaring through the air.

It punctured the wolf's chest, causing it to go limp and collapse onto Nerluce in the blink of an eye. Nerluce pulled his hand free, staring down at the bloody mess. He couldn't... he couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel his hand! Nerluce couldn't stop staring at it in a mix of shock and horror as he poked mindlessly at his own arm like it were a foreign object strapped to him.

"Nerluce!" Aristide's voice said.

Nerluce lifted his head but then lowered it again. He was tired. Much more tired than he'd realized before now. Aristide's voice called to him once more but Nerluce couldn't find him. He couldn't find his angel. Where had he gone? Nerluce fought back sleep, desperate in his search until... at long last Aristide's face appeared above his own.

Nerluce smiled, lifting his hand upwards. He brushed Aristide's cheek with it, smearing blood upon his holy face. "Angel," he said.

And then, promptly, passed out.