Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

35: Reborn in blood

 Dohniel was- well, I was trying not to reflect on him too much as he half carried me in whichever direction I pointed. But he was trying his best. My desperation had led to me attempting to drink an angel's blood, but it hadn't seemed to work- while I was certainly alive still, I was not feeling any better.

Dohn was coping with this fact. I couldn't really think of an explanation, but he seemed to take it as a goal to walk me through the woods. I had managed to explain, hoarsely, that I needed to find the funeral bottles I knew Michael kept in his room. And despite his Grace, Dohn seemed ready to assist.

The fighting, still happening but being pushed slowly through Heaven's gate, was mostly localized. A couple stragglers had found time for short firefights in the nearby forest, but those conflicts had often ended quickly. We were safe our entire journey over.

I could not climb the wall, or ready even grip it's edge, and it fell to Dohn to about throw me over, tossing me halfway so my stomach rested on the top, then again lowering me down once he climbed up.

Dizzy from the movement, I paused to throw up more diluted blood once I was back on the ground.

"You should be seeking Raphael instead of more blood. Though it's true you've lost a lot of blood, I'm not sure drinking it is the proper way to replenish it into your veins."

"We're close. Once I have Grace, I will be entirely better."

A couple angels were patrolling the wall, of course, and one leapt down to inspect us. Dohn was recognized fine, and I leaned my face against his chest and acted unconscious. Which wasn't exactly a hard task to do at this point.

"Haos. He is injured." Dohn said.

"Dohniel. He would be better off sacrificing himself. Throw him on a bomb. Our Healer, Raphael, is not to be found. He is dying anyways."

"It's a minor injury."

I imagined a pause where Haos examined the trail of blood I had been leaving. "You can be tenacious of your friends, Dohniel, but it will do little to fend off demons."

I heard him leave though, and Dohn kept walking forward for a while to imitate taking me to a safe house. Then he turned around and walked into the Church Tower building.

"Lveniev was a guard here." I said rather pointlessly. But, well, the man's blood was in my stomach. It felt right to at least pay him some tribute.

The building seemed to be abandoned, which I suppose played to the one noble truth of Heaven: our superiors still fought the same war we did.

Dohn seemed slow to climb the steps up to the Arch-angel's floor, perhaps fearing their eventual retribution when they psychically found out later. Or maybe it was just the knowledge of the law, so wired into his mind, that was weighing him down.

We came to the Brother's living room, and Dohn was not shocked at what he saw there. Or at least, he was not visibly disturbed by the Earth trash and domestic normalcy the Brothers enjoyed.

He simply took me to Michael's ever messy and ever knowable room and helped me sit on the bed. I fell against his shoulder pathetically, and he lay me down gently while he retrieved a funeral bottle off the bookshelf.

"Lakoi. Quite recent." He carried the bottle over. It really was more of an urn, I suppose, though built for liquid instead of ash. But it was still carrying sacred remains, and it still was something not meant to be touched.

It wasn't the same, I recognized, as the clay cups Cassiel and Victory used in funerals- in fact, as I turned the glass in my hands, I was starting to think it was just a washed out jelly jar. With blood in it.