An Angel’s Road to Hell

Cassandra Pendragon

“I thought I won our bet,” I complained while I stared in abject horror at the bundle of cloth Ahri had somehow smuggled into the bath. Which bath, you might ask. Well, the one with running water and heated floors. Don’t ask me how a tree can heat up in some places, since “it’s magic” would be my only answer. So much for my aeons encompassing, arcane knowledge.

“Not my doing,” she replied smoothly and seductively lolled around in the tub we had shared until a few moments ago. I found it pretty difficult to concentrate, the clear water left nothing much to my imagination, after all, and I couldn’t help but remember her boastful claims of being too ashamed to handle the attention, should she ever have to parade around naked in front of our friends. Well, in this instance it was just one but the way she moved would have made me blush like a ripe tomato. Luckily Reia was still too young to fully understand what the vixen was doing to me.

I shook my head and had to replay the last second in my mind before I stammeringly replied: “right… they just appeared out of thin air, didn’t they?” To add a little context to my moaning, the piece de resistance was nothing more than gauze wrappings for my thighs and chest, paired with a few bands of grey silk I was supposed to somehow tie around my waist. If I was ever going to wear it. Which I didn’t see coming, not by a long shot and not even in private. Probably.

Ahri shrugged and finally got out of the tub without missing the chance to strike another provocative pose when my sister had turned her back, trying to comb out the waves of ebony, gold and silver she now called her own. “Believe what you will, but I didn’t buy them… I didn’t even have the time to get anything practical, never mind shopping for lingerie. But… I wouldn’t mind if you tried them on. Tonight. I’m not going to let you leave the house… tree, wearing these.”

“That much we can agree on,” I said reflexively, still puzzling over where the garments, if you could even call them that, had come from. Admittedly, it might seem like a silly notion, considering we had just spent the night in a tree, that had grown from a tiny seed within a few heartbeats, but magic usually didn’t simply happen. And even if it did… this felt somewhat personal, like an ironic welcome home present from someone who knew me and my decidedly masculine fashion sense rather intimately. Especially since there wasn’t a second set and my own clothes had miraculously disappeared. The longer I thought about it the more certain I became that either Ahri was having her fun with me or my mom had decided to celebrate us moving into a new home by acting like a leprechaun with an impish sense of humour. Mordred and Sera wouldn’t have bothered with a prank and since no one else was staying with us for now, at least no one who’d have dared to make fun of me, I fervently hoped, there weren’t many alternatives to choose from. “You’re not pulling my tails, are you,” I still asked to make sure.

She shook her mesmerising head, sending sparkling droplets of water flying everywhere. “I’m not. But who…”

“You seriously don’t know,” Reia interrupted and turned around with a bright, happy smile on her face. She looked good, healthy. The ordeal she had put herself through last night hadn’t left any lasting marks except for her changed fur and a tiny, almost invisible, silvery flaw on her alabaster skin. I hadn’t yet pointed it out, it was nothing to worry about, simply a sign of the forces she had come in contact with, and I didn’t want to have her fret over something inconsequential while she already had a boatload of real challenges to deal with.

“Don’t know what,” I wanted to know, even though it might have been a stupid question. We were taking a bath about 50 metres above the ground in a room grown from a living tree, had slept in beds that had manifested from thin air and judging from the quick peek I had hazarded last night there was still quite a lot to discover, without even considering the vast network of roots, hidden behind a glowing door at the deepest point of the trunk… which incidentally was hollow and served as a central walkway. Like I said, it might have been a stupid question considering where we actually were. If it had been a leafy robe or something similar I wouldn’t even have wondered about its origin, but something so ostentatiously… decadent just reeked of someone trying to provoke me. In a very informal manner… quite like my family.

My little sister covered her mouth with her hands, trying to hide her laughter, but it soon enough bubbled forth freely. Between her joyous outbursts she still managed to press out: “oh boy, you’re in for one hell of a surprise. I’m not going to spoil it, though. You’ll see her when she wants you to.”

“Her? Who…,” Ahri wondered aloud, her eyes igniting with crimson sparks as she channeled a bit of her power to augment her vision. “There’s…” she paused, her mouth slowly opening in a silent exclamation and then she joined Reia, their melodious voices reminding me of a fresh summer breeze. A moment later she nodded, as if to reply to a question I couldn’t hear, and began dressing. To my chagrin her clothes hadn’t changed or rather disappeared while I was stuck with that grey, silky monstrosity.

“What’s gotten into the two of you,” I snarled, my irritation slowly growing.

“Nothing much,” my angel replied, still chuckling, while she pulled up her pants. “Or rather nothing to worry about. You’ll see… maybe. Depends on how long she’s going to enjoy toying with you.” I had had enough but when my eyes flared silver Ahri immediately covered them with her delicate hand.

“No cheating,” she admonished. “It’s nothing dangerous, at least for us. Trust me.”

“I always do,” I replied while I shoved away her hand. “But I’m also curious… fine, whatever. But what am I supposed to do now? I’m not going to wear this,” I nudged the bundle of straps and see through cloth with my foot, “and my other things are gone.”

“Didn’t you store a few spares in your stamp?”

“Right, I almost forgot.” Well, I had forgotten, to be honest. By now I had stuffed so much in there that I was mainly trying to keep track of the things that could potentially change our world. Like the cube, the ring I was wearing, the emblem Mephisto was hibernating in, Shassa’s gem or the goddamned book Amazeroth had planted for me. Speaking of which, once I had visualised the interior of my stamp, said tome immediately drew my attention. Even in the subspace it was stored in it was glowing and pulsing with suppressed energy, almost as if a seal had been broken.

“Sure, there isn’t enough to do already,” I growled under my breath but truth be told, I had been expecting it. For all intent and purposes Amazeroth was the architect of the magic within the seed, now tree, and he had enchanted the book as well. That the two of them were somehow linked wasn’t that much of a surprise but I wouldn’t have minded a few days, or rather weeks, to deal with the much more mundane insanity I was already drowning in.

“What is it,” Ahri asked anxiously, picking up on my changing mood while sparks ignited in her hair and she inadvertently moved to hide Reia behind her back.

“This,” I mumbled while a decent set of clothes and an old, leather bound tome, burning with an inner fire, manifested in front of me. “I guess the first seal broke when the tree bloomed. So much for me pouring my energy into it. If Mephisto had been awake, I could at least have laughed at him and called him an idiot.” I shrugged into a comfortable shirt and tapped my chin thoughtfully, murmuring: “to read or not to read… how long do you think it’d take?”

“Watching a memory,” Ahri asked hesitantly. “Not that long but you might be out of it for a while, if past experiences are anything to go by.”

“That’s the book the elf girl used to summon you, isn’t it,” my sister piped up, peeking around Ahri’s leg. “Why don’t you just open it? Maybe then we’ll know more.”

“If only it were that easy,” I sighed. “Once I open it chances are I’m going to be sucked into whatever lunacy is hidden in there. I’m not so sure if that’s…” I didn’t get any further, a soft, greenish glow near the door silenced me as effectively as a gag. My wings manifested and I glided in front of my family only to recoil a second later, my jaw dropping to the floor.

In the midst of the green light a figure materialised, tall and slender with brown skin, almost like a smooth bark, and an undeniably leafy texture to her hair. A dryad, I thought, but that wasn’t what had me stunned. A powerful magical plant was bound to attract or even create elemental spirits, but this one I knew, at least I thought so. When she opened her mouth every doubt I had was put to rest immediately. I did know her but I had never expected to see her again.

“You’ve really got a talent to put a dent in my plans. Here I was, imagining a hundred and one different ways to surprise you but now I’ve got to simply appear and tell you that you shouldn’t ignore the fucking transcendent message the guy, who’s been pulling the strings behind most of your troubles, left for you. Seriously, I thought you learned a thing or two under my wise, tender and insightful tutelage, yet, apparently, you’re still about as clever as you were, when you saved a scared girl from a dying world,” Greta complained, while I simply stared at her, flabbergasted.

“What,” she continued, “no tears of joy, no jubilant expressions of astonishment? You could at least offer me a hug, you know? After all I died trying to keep that rock, you call a head, on your shoulders. I mean, I didn’t expect a banquet, but…” her tirade ended in spluttering since we both went down, my tails wrapped around her like a silvery cocoon. When she had first appeared I had felt a bubble of churning emotions, ranging from anger to delight, rise in my chest and when her half mocking half caring words had penetrated the haze of confusion, it had exploded. Before I had known what I had been doing I had tackled her, laughing and crying at the same time.

“I missed you,” was all I managed to say in between strangled hiccoughs but apparently it was enough. I felt her smooth, gentle fingers brush through my hair as she whispered hoarsely:

“And I you. Have you… do you remember who I am?” I nodded without letting go of her.

“Which makes the shit you pulled all the more infuriating,” I finally pressed out. “You’re not supposed to protect me, it’s the other way around!” I felt her move, her breath, smelling of cherries and leafs, tickled my fur as she whispered:

“I’ve grown up. Sometimes its okay to need help, even when it comes from your children. I’m sorry for never telling you, but just imagine how you’d have reacted back then if you had known. Still, I don’t think I’m ever going to call you dad again.”

“You did,” I asked, taken by surprise. I couldn’t imagine I had ever allowed her to refer to me as dad but she only shrugged.

“It took a few decades but I think you came to enjoy it. That ship has sailed, though. Especially if I still have to hammer some wisdom into you. From what I’ve seen, and trust me, I’ve seen enough, even though I was stuck in a pocket for most of the time, you need it dearly. How often did you almost die in the last weeks? Five times and then there’s also the little fact that you actually kicked the curb, once. So, from now on, you’ll listen to me again and maybe we can manage to avoid most unpleasantries, which surely are waiting for us further down the road. First order of business: get off me!” I chuckled quietly and scrambled to my feet. Scrutinising her through a stubbornly lasting veil of tears I offered her my hand and pulled her up.

She had changed tremendously, becoming a nature spirit without any tails was a far cry removed from the cranky kitsune I had come to know and love... twice. Somehow her fox ears had survived, though, but the fur had a decidedly green tinge to it. Her face was still the same, minus the scars around her eyes, which were a startling shade of purple, and the wrinkles on her cheeks. She looked… ageless, an ancient soul staring at me from a young face. In a way she looked like us, like an immortal. Her appearance and her age didn’t match. Still, her crooked smile and the way she tilted her head, as if she was waiting for me to stumble or blunder, were just as infuriating and endearing as I remembered. So was the coarse sack she called a dress. That particular item hadn’t changed at all, even though I was decently sure she could just wish for anything she so desired to appear. The gaudy strands of silk she had conjured were proof enough.

“What,” she interrupted my reverie. “Don’t tell me you expected me to look like my old self. I’ve spent more than enough time with aching bones. A little compensation for my selfless sacrifice isn’t too much to ask for, is it?” She hesitated before she added, much more sincerely than I had expected: “do you like it?” I laughed and finally managed to brush away my tears.

“I do. It… suits you. Have you always had purple eyes?”

“You mean before that… shit, I can’t even curse him with real venom anymore. Before your cousin took them? No, but there isn’t much I can do about it. Well, I could use a spell, but I quite like them, to be honest, and they work.” It was her turn to stare at me intently, her smile widening with every passing second.

“You… still look like I remember, for the most part. I just hope I’m not going to get burned.” For a moment I was confused until the memory of her asking me to fly closer to the sun resurfaced.

“Thanks for the compliment but didn’t you listen to me, back then? I said most beautiful things are dangerous and while I won’t deny what I am, I will never again put your life at risk.”

“No promise,” she snorted. “Figures.” Her expression changed, becoming softer, almost serene. With a quick step she stood in front of me again and wrapped me up in a heartfelt embrace. “I can’t tell you how hard it was on me to listen while I was unable to help. Still… should anyone ask I’m going to deny ever having said anything of the sort but you did good. Better than I would have expected. You’ve grown.”

“Literally or figuratively,” I wanted to know.

“Both. The angel I met all those years ago would have left behind a trail of corpses and ash and the little girl I taught would have curled up and died. I don’t know when or how it happened, but you’ve finally become the person I’ve always seen in you.”

“Unfortunately I still feel like a moron, most of the time,” I replied and breathed in her scent.

“Ah well, between your grandmother and me I’m sure we’ll get you sorted out. Which reminds me… I should probably introduce myself to our other guest. And you, my dear, have a memory to explore. Don’t worry, should you get lost I’ll make sure to wake you up before noon.”

“And how are you gong to manage that?” Her smile became even more pronounced.

“Like I always have. With a lot of fun for me and an equal amount of lovingly administered injuries for you. Cassy… this tree is me and I am the tree. There isn’t much I can’t do here and jolting you awake with a spell is but child’s play. The artefacts you used to create the pond… they were saturated with your blood. I’m never again going to need a focus to spell you. My… heart, core, wood, whatever, is imbued with a minuscule part of your strength, as well as yours, Ahri.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a cause for celebration or if I should fear for my life.” I said, shuddering.