After World Chronicles: Angel Awakens

Banishment Ends

DANTE:

The days of banishment are finished!  I've been in my own private hell for every single one of them, especially these last two with Angel in Noma Point, on her own with no protection from me.  Sven's compulsion prevented me from entering even through the outer gates, so once Angel disappeared through them there was no way for me to safely monitor her.  I've felt like I was losing my mind!  Never in all my centuries of existence have I endured such emotional turmoil, like someone was shredding me apart from the inside.  I never knew this kind of pain could be more unpleasant than the physical kind.  

Over the last two days I could sense her through our blood link.  She's had enough of my blood for me to be ever mindful of her approximate location and her stronger emotions.  When her fear spiked I was ready to go on a killing spree, with Sven at the top of my list, if only it were possible to kill an immortal Watcher.  This experience has caused me to lose all respect for him. How could he put his own daughter at such risk? 

I bypass the outer gates by flying in over them. I've cloaked myself in shadow so no human eye can see me until I allow it.   Landing unobtrusively in the black market area of Shanty Town, I retract my wings and let glamour settle over me.  Before I shed my cloaking I take the opportunity to feed on one of the vagrants wandering about with leathery skin from overexposure to the rays of the late daytime sun.  I'll need my full strength to deal with what's ahead.   When all is settled, the young man that is my human form steps out of the shadows and begins scanning the market.   My princess is close.  I can feel her.  This evening she feels satisfied and confident and therefore so do I.

As I look around me I'm startled to see the Red Woman with a quartet of her minions around her. Her tall, lithe figure is dressed in reddish-brown leather from head to toe. A long cape of the same color swirls around her, reaching all the way to the top of her knee high boots. Everything she wears blends in with varying shades of the same color, all a bit muted beneath her carefully braided red hair. She wears no weapons on her that I can see, but her power is so great she doesn't need any. Her guards are all heavily armed and wearing brown leather. To the untrained eye, they appear as soldiers of a sort. To a celestial like myself, the taint of being affected is obvious. I can see it in their posture, smell it clinging to their bodies. I wonder how they entered the city, thinking the group must have come through the gates. The Red Woman could arrive as I did, but her minions would need to enter by foot.

To my relief she doesn't seem to be aware of me. She and her guard appear to be looking for something specific. I'm curious about her business here, but finding my princess and reuniting with her is a priority. I blend into the passing crowds and watch as the group moves away in the direction of the vagrant market.

Sylvan, the old man who crafts traveling documents, is known to me. His reputation as an incomparable artist has followed him for decades. Angel and I have discussed using his services several times. I go to his dwelling to investigate if she's been there and am admitted inside by his widowed oldest daughter. Sylvan had three daughters, but no sons. His wife and youngest were killed before the outer wall was secured. A horde of affected over ran the city, attacking randomly. In the melee, the two were lost. I was one of the army who came to eradicate the threat. We were able to eliminate them, but not before the poverty stricken of Noma Point suffered heavy losses.

The last time I came this daughter was still married to her husband, and still young. The husband was an apprentice to her father. Yara was never attractive, but she is a competent care taker. She's aged well, looking better as an older woman that she did younger, and I wonder why no other man has sought her to wife. 

She looks me over mistrustfully, with resentment. The intervening years have not aged me a single day.

"Dante?" she scoffs, eyebrows rising. Even though she's always known my heritage, she still is skeptical and hostile to the lack of physical change.