Draiks and Angels: Deity

2 - Raid

A bronze-skinned Angel led Satiya higher into the Aerie while the leaders discussed details. As expected of an Aerie supported by humans, there were staircases in the corners of the building, but since her escort was an Angel, they flew.

The main room of the building was square and open to the air for four floors. Balconies surrounded the room, held up by more orange pillars, painted around the top in a geometric pattern. Satiya was a little surprised at how similar the design was to her own Aerie, though it didn't have the wooden walkways that crossed the room as hers did.

They flew to the fourth floor and walked down one of the hallways toward what she determined was the back of the building. Her escort led her to a sturdy wooden door that opened inward. Inside was a nicely furnished room: a queen bed with carved wooden headboard, a couple wooden chairs with cushions, a chest of drawers made of the same wood as the headboard, and a small table with a standing mirror on top. The Angel indicated that she should go inside, and closed the door softly behind her. She noticed the door had a sliding lock nailed to the door and frame.

Alone, Satiya first took the sleeves off her shirt. They tied on separately, and she was roasting in the heat. Then she flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Today had just been too surreal. She had heard tales from her parents of the adventure they went on, what, 25 years ago? But to have something happening to her was unreal.

She wished she was back home. She wondered briefly about her cats, but knew that her business partner would be in tomorrow and hopefully they would know she was missing before it was her shift again. Satiya was a cat breeder, specializing in winged cats. She worked with a Draik, Luke, in a little building where the cats were raised. Sometimes she took cats home, but luckily she didn't have any there right now.

She thought about the Irisi Aerie's Archangel. He looked pretty young, maybe in his thirties, but that didn't mean he couldn't be older. Satiya knew she looked young for her age. She was 22 years old, but often got 20 or even 18 from people. She didn't drink, but she was sure she would get carded every time if she did.

Satiya rolled over, bored, and decided to meditate again. It always helped take her mind off her anxieties, and it would help pass the time. She sat on the end of the bed with her wings spread wide, closed her eyes, took a slow, deep breath and tried to clear her mind. She felt for the sensations she could feel in every limb, every finger, every toe. The feeling of her clothes on her skin, the pressure of the bed where she sat, the warmth of the air on her face. More deep breathing. The feeling of the air in her lungs. And she relaxed.

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Satiya was so deep in her meditation that she didn't hear it at first. After a little while, something began to prick her ears. Something that sounded suspiciously like shouting. Walking to the door, she stuck her head out, looked down the hallway and listened. Definitely shouting!

As she watched, a human male in a robe came into sight. He was carrying several pairs of handcuffs in one hand, a number of leather bands and a roll of duct tape in the other. He saw Satiya and called behind him in another language. A second robed man came up, carrying a gun. Satiya slammed the door shut and threw the lock closed. She looked around in a panic. There were no windows, no other doors, how was she going to escape?!

There was a loud bang as something hit the door, and Satiya jumped. Another bang. And another.

"They must be trying to break the door down!" she thought.

She could see the nails holding the lock in place were starting to lift out of the wood. Thinking quickly, she cast a barrier against the door, preventing them from jarring it and the nails any further, or entering the room at all. More bangs, but she could hear from the tone of the foreign speech that the men on the other side noticed the difference.

"Psst!"

Satiya heard someone whisper from the far side of the room. She looked around, unable to see anyone. She walked over to the side of the room the voice came from and inspected the mirror. Sometimes people use mirrors to communicate.

"Over here!"

She turned and looked behind her, behind the bed and saw a human female barely visible in a hole in the wall.

"They have a way to get rid of your magic! We need to leave!" the woman hissed.

Remove her magic?! Humans?! But Satiya wasn't going to argue. She just climbed into the opening, and sidled past the woman in the dark as her rescuer closed the panel in the wall.

"How many hidden wall-tunnels are there around here?" Satiya asked as they worked their way through the dark.

"Many."

They came to some steep stairs that led downward in a sharp spiral. Satiya lifted one finger and produced a small flame above it to give just enough light to keep from breaking her neck. It took them a long time to get down the five or six flights-worth of stairs, and at the bottom was another tunnel that led in two directions. The woman led them down the right tunnel. It turned and continued, but she stopped and motioned to Satiya to extinguish her flame. She pulled open a panel just far enough to look out, and Satiya peered out over her head.

They were looking at the back outside corner of the Aerie. Night had fallen. There were black vans all over the place. Humans in robes were dragging struggling Angels in handcuffs with leather bands over their wings and tape over their mouths into the vehicles. Humans with guns stood guard over the proceedings. Satiya swallowed hard.

The woman quietly closed the panel and spoke in the darkness, "We are going to run quietly to the right and then straight. You can follow me."

Opening the panel again, just enough that they could squeeze through, the woman started running and Satiya hurried to follow. She had never been so glad that her wings were black as they blended into the night. They ran through rough dirt and rocks until they reached a river. In the darkness, the water was an inky black void. They only paused for a moment to catch their breath before the human urged them on, walking along the banks of the river until they reached a bridge, which they hid underneath.

"We can rest here for a little bit longer," the woman said.

Satiya sat on the ground and spread her wings behind her to keep them from getting bent. Once she had recovered her breath enough that she could concentrate on other things, she took a closer look at the human who had rescued her this time. She was bronze-skinned, as the inhabitants around here were. She had long, black hair, braided over her shoulder. She wore a sleeveless shirt and cargo shorts, though Satiya couldn't tell what color in the dark. She wore sandals that were good enough for running, apparently.

"I'm Satiya," the Angel announced, "Whom do I have the pleasure of being rescued by this evening?"

"I know who you are. I probably wouldn't have tried to save you otherwise. I'm Amisi."

Satiya frowned at this.

"Just- I am a spy in the society. I couldn't have stopped tonight from happening, and it would have blown my cover if I had tried. I am more valuable to the Aerie as a spy. Except there's you. I couldn't let them capture you again."

"Doesn't that mean your cover has already been blown then?"

"No, not yet. I was already on break, so they don't know it was I who snatched you away. If I don't return when my break is over, though, they will know something is up."

Amisi glanced around, "I know a place we can go that is safer than this, where we can get some supplies and maybe learn something of what happened. It's a safehouse for society spies, where we can rest and leave information for each other."

Satiya stretched her arms and wings, and got off the ground, while Amisi made sure the coast was clear. Then they headed off for the safe house.