Lonely Light

Chapter 5

Arael spent the next few days researching magic and preparing the spells he would need to heal Sariel and send her back to the upper plane. While all angels had an enormous amount of magical potential, the level of mastery Arael had attained, driven by curiosity and the Darkness of ambition, was unparalleled. Most of his knowledge came from personal experimentation upon reaching Earth, but he had come across one or two books written by humans that had been useful.

He also arranged for a trip out to an unpopulated area. The dimensional gate he would create would be very bright and conspicuous, and he did not want to attract any attention.

"Would you like to fly there or drive?" he asked Sariel. He could easily bear Sariel's weight in flight, but he was afraid to pain her with the loss of her own wings.

"Fly." Sariel appreciated Arael's concern for her feelings, but would rather be carried in his arms than seated in a car, which felt strange and unnatural to her.

Arael nodded, and continued to write in a notebook, finalizing the details of the spells. Sariel had moved the blanket and pillows from the bed into his study to make a comfortable nest where she could watch Arael as he worked. Anyone on Earth would have been incredibly bored after a few hours, but Sariel found watching the balance of his energy shifting slowly towards the Light a fascinating process.

Eventually, Arael completed the preparations. As he put down the notebook, heaviness filled his heart. He had managed to treat the preparations as an academic puzzle, looking over his past experiments with detached interest, but now had to face Sariel's impending departure. Now that his energy was primarily Light, he felt a calm sorrow instead of anguish at the thought of being alone again.

The calm allowed him to savour his remaining time with Sariel rather than flinching away from the pain she represented. Picking her up, Arael settled into the nest of blankets and pillows with his arms wrapped around his angel. He forced himself to speak.

"It's done. We will leave at sundown."

Sariel was having trouble understanding her own feelings, let alone Arael's. She knew contentment so well, but what she felt in his arms was somehow slightly different from the contentment of the upper plane. It was more than contentment. It was... Happiness? The word had been introduced into her vocabulary, but she did not fully understand the meaning. In the beginning, she had simply classified it as a synonym to contentment, but the more time she spent on Earth, the more difference she felt.

"Arael, what is happiness?"

Arael sucked in a breath at the question. That Sariel would ask about happiness, that strange alchemy of Light and Darkness, indicated that she had picked up a measurable amount of Darkness. If he did not perform the magic soon, she would be unable to return to the upper plane.

Still, he answered. He could deny her nothing. "Happiness is the feeling that makes you smile and laugh."

Sariel nodded as Arael helped her to pinpoint the difference between happiness and contentment. Back in the upper plane, smiling was as common as breathing, but nobody laughed.

"I made you laugh," she said softly, smiling at the memory.

"Yes, you did."

"Teira made me laugh."

"Yes." Arael had etched the beautiful sound deep inside his mind.

Sariel settled back into silence as she continued to ponder.

At sundown, Arael and Sariel drove to the city limits and parked. Finding a secluded spot, Arael manifested his true form. Sariel was struck by his beauty.