Fallen Out Of Grace

8.

Saphrina is currently scurrying from one end of the pit to the other as dirt piles in then disappears as a torture tactic. Her breathing steadies but then heightens as it keeps happening on a repeated loop. Feeling around in the pit, she tries to climb but keeps slipping each time she gets to the top. Sitting in the dirt, she sighs and closes her eyes trying one more prayer, hoping the Higher being would listen and help her from this hole she's in.

"This is her hundredth time calling out to us, what do we do, your Higher being?"

The Higher being bites their knuckles, holding off from helping, but given the history they wave it off.

"Go...go and help her but just this once."

The angel bows its head and leaves going to where Saphrina is being held and gets her out without anyone getting a whiff of them coming and going.

"Thank you...thank you so much," Saphrina says genuinely.

The angel bows its head then starts to leave until Saphrina says, "I want to speak to them...the Higher being."

The angel bows its head again and they were in front of the pearly gates with a few new editions to it since Ares burned the last one.

"Through there," The angel says to her mind without opening their mouth.

Placing her hand on the gate, it opens up and she walks right through.

It's been years since she's been home...everything was so guarded.

"Everhart, I see you found your way back."

The Higher being says while signing off on some angelic scrolls.

"I need a blessing from you my Higher being," Saphrina says, getting on her knees.

"What would that be? An apology for leaving? Betraying your orders? Having your brothers and sister murdered from that brute of a man you so happened to marry?"

Saphrina shoots her head up not knowing Ares had killed her own.

"Ares was the one to set that fire? The one that killed fifty of us?"

The Higher being nods, "Guess you don't really know a man until his secrets come bargaining in on your front steps," Clearing their throat, they spread their arms out on the throne they are sitting on and look to Saphrina. Taking a look at its most powerful purifying fire angel become a weakling, it breaks their heart. "What is it that you seek from me?" Saphrina gulps in absolute fear as she says, "My daughter, Nysa. Ares had to send her away so that his kind wouldn't kill her. They won't let me see her or even check to see if she's alright. I just need to make sure she's even alive." The Higher being thinks on it and snaps its fingers having an Oracle send out a crystal ball.

"Say her name and you'll be able to see her through this crystal," As the Higher being hands it to Saphrina, she whispers Nysa's name and sees the scene of her and Fisher playing in the ocean, laughing, smiling, bonding. Taking a closer look, she sees Fisher say something to Nysa to have Nysa smile wide as if it almost created butterflies in her stomach. Saphrina, fearing the worst, looks up to the Higher being and asks, "They do know they are half siblings right? Even with their memories erased...they must know...right?" The Higher being has the crystal ball taken and folds their arms.

"You've let your husband meddle in things that can't be undone."

Saphrina shakes her head violently, "Do not tell me they will fall in love and be considered incest, my Higher being."

The Higher being says nothing while looking to the side.

"Our children have the free will to do as they please...but once the nature of things are changed...well...they change as well."

Saphrina becomes sick even thinking of Nysa and Fisher to be lovers to one another.

"There has to be a way to let them know! To stop whatever might happen!"

The Higher being weighs the ways of what they could do but it's really nothing they can do.

"We shall let it play out Everhart, we shall let it play out."

****

After the whole "She can heal" party, Dov and Brooks cooked up a seagull with some snake eggs accompanied by fruit pieces for lunch. Nysa passed on both the seagull and snake eggs and just had the fruit. Looking down, the ringing in her head comes back making her very nauseous. Thinking she should lie down for a bit, she gets up but then faints right into Keon's arms. "Get me some water and a rag," Keon says to Brooks as Nysa feels feverishly hot.

Laying her down on the cot, Keon wrings out cold water on her arms and forehead.

Without anyone seeing, Hecate appears as she makes an illusion for the others to not know she was.

"Our girl is ascending fast I see," About to touch her, Keon stops his mother and gives her a look.

"I don't know why you have this obsession with her gifts and what she is but she's still one of us, so don't do anything I know you would do."

Hecate sneers in delight as her son stood his ground against her tedious ways.

"Oh, my boy is a real man...a real real man."

Keon sighs ignoring his mothers crazed talk she does here and there, focusing on bringing Nysa's fever down.

"Is she going to be alright?" Keon says as his mother peers over his shoulder looking at Nysa.

"Fire...that's what's causing her to break out into a fever."

Keon looks to his mother from the side confused, "Fire? What does fire have to do with her fever mother?"

Hecate lays her hands above Nysa's temple hovering as she closes her eyes to get a better look energetically.

"Purifying...her body is purifying itself with fire since that's what she's half of."

Keon looks to Nysa in wonder, only dancing in confusion but enlightenment to what she might be, knowing it could in fact be something worth risking the purity of it all. 

Hecate clasps her hands together in enjoyment of prowling in Nysa's energy while looking to her son.

"Now do you see why she's such a gem? I could see death bathing in her energy alongside ours."

Keon, hesitant but aware of what his mother meant, nods slowly but can't help but to not hand her over so freely as he thought he would when they found such a being like her.

"So she's the sacrifice we have to use for the greater good?" Keon says in nonbelief.

Hecate nods happily, "Yes my boy, she is our ticket to ruling the underworld fully, once and for all, with no boundaries but radiant fear. All we have to do is have you coax her into thinking you are falling in love with her and once she says the words, "I'm in love with you," we strike."

Keon, tethered by his mothers intentions and his own, he wishes her gone and the illusion that was left in her presence vanishes and everything was back to normal.