Fate's Vinculum

Chapter 5.

In the blink of an eye Sera's sword was at hand. Cautiously the archangel made his way to the door. Hesitating for just a moment, he threw open the door, not knowing what to expect. All of his muscles were taught, ready to attack. However, no attack would be needed; who greeted Sera's gaze shocked him.

A short woman stood before him. She was voluptuous, built like the ancient Grecian paintings of Aphrodite. She was completely naked, save for a long flowing shawl that covered her shoulders and wrapped around her arms. The shawl was an opaque black, and when the material shifted it glimmered and twinkled like starlight. Jet black ringlets poured down her back past her buttocks. She was pale, skin a milky white, and her eyes were black, the pupils circles of white. Her nails were perfectly trimmed, made from shining black onyx.

Immediately, Sera went on one knee and bowed his head, sword disappearing into thin air. "Lady Nyx."

The Goddess entered, bending at the waist and taking Sera's hand. Sera looked up and she took his other hand, helping him to his feet. She smiled, revealing sparkling white, perfect teeth.

"Good evening, Seraphin. I do hope I am not intruding?"

"Not at all," Sera replied, moving to the side so Nyx could enter his house fully. He shut the door behind her. "To what do I owe this greatest of pleasures to?"

Lady Nyx looked at Sera evenly. "Let's boil right to it and skip formalities. I have come to ask you to spare my husband's life. I will veritably beg if I have to."

Sera narrowed his eyes and his nostrils flared. "You heard?"

Nyx looked slightly offended. "Of course."

"From?"

Nyx stood straighter, thrusting her large breasts forward. "Come now Sera, don't be so dumb. You know I am omnipotent."

Sera's lips pursed into a thin line. "Then you too should not be so dumb, Lady Nyx. Your husband took a very large city with millions of people in it and wiped it off the face of The Surface. He is trying to prematurely cause Armageddon."

"You don't know that," she replied testily. Her will seemed to falter a bit, and she clasped her hands. "Can't you—I don't know. Talk to him?

Sera outright laughed at her. "Talk to The Morningstar? You're just as crazy as he is! There's no talking to him. He only speaks in lies—if he's having a lucid day." Sera sneered. "Why don't you talk to him? You're his wife."

It seemed as though any willpower evaporated out of Nyx, and her shoulders slumped. She looked at her bare feet, a long curl falling into her face. "I have not spoken to him in years. I lost track, it's been so long. He's a sick man, Sera."

"Not my problem."

Lady Nyx's head shot up. She strode over to Sera, taking his forearm in desperation.

"Please," she said, black eyes pools of need, "try to see it from my perspective. You weren't there. You don't know what it was like when I found him. He was in a crater, alone, afraid. He had gone mad, screaming and ripping all his newly blackened feathers off."

Sera turned his head, glaring at the wall. "I don't want to hear this..."

"He was in pain, Sera! He was in utter anguish!" she spoke desperately. "By the time he fell all the way from Heaven, it was night. It was my time of day. And here was a broken, confused, petrified being in my realm."

Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. "I didn't know what to do so I gathered him up in my arms and calmed him down. I created a place for him to live. Dug it out with my own two hands, I did. Deep within the ground because seeing the open sky reminded him too much of the Heaven he could never return to."