Silence. Utter silence. Nathaniel squints his eyes as he stares at the ceiling of his bedroom, being able to follow familiar patterns in the spackled surface despite it being pitch black. He presses his lips together in a thin line and lets out a rather frustrated sigh before rocking himself up into a sitting position, finally accepting the inability to fall asleep. Leaving his sling on the nightstand, Nathaniel shuffles out of his room and moves quietly towards the sliding glass door that led to the balcony, welcoming the cool night air that sent a shudder through his body the moment the door opened. The sounds of the city seem rather quiet, but Nathaniel finds himself enjoying the interrupted silence as he leans against railing, the dull ache in his body suddenly less of an issue thanks to the cold.
The longer Nathaniel stays on the balcony, the more he begins to realize the vast differences between his home and the human world. Aside from the obvious, his home was never as noisy and his siblings were rarely as open as the humans. He longed to be home again, because it was what he knew and what he had grown used to over the centuries, yet he felt tired the longer he pondered over that feeling. Nothing changed and he had been growing distant from his siblings for quite some time, for reasons he had yet to figure out on his own, so finally being able to be away from them felt rather uplifting. Perhaps it was that feeling alone that was keeping Nathaniel from deciding on an ultimatum for his brother.
A fluttering sound reaches his ears and Nathaniel nearly jerks towards the door till he spots a familiar strawberry blonde boy arching over the top of the apartment complex. The boy's blue eyes widen and he wobbles a bit in the air before swooping down and landing on the balcony near Nathaniel, clearly exhausted. "I wasn't sure I'd ever find you," Ceren says with a bit of a cough as he catches his breath.
"I didn't think I was that far from the hospital," Nathaniel replies, getting an unamused scowl from the smaller male, who apparently had been flying for quite some time. "... Sorry."
Ceren lets out another heavy exhale before standing up straight and readjusting his shirt. "I came to let you know that the search for you has been lowered as a general priority," he starts, "The gateway's stability is fluctuating and other guardian angels have reported that it's causing the spiritual energy in this world to ripple. Apparently the distortions are affecting the mortals more than anyone realized, so all available guardian angels have been relocated to help repair the rift."
Nathaniel clenches his jaw at the information, having not realized how fragile the portals really were, and he crosses his arms over his chest, briefly wincing at the twinge in his shoulder. He was relieved to some degree at knowing he would be able to move freely for a while without being spotted, but still concerned for his friends and family. Then something clicked in his mind. "The distortions are affecting the humans? In what way?" he inquires.
"Several ways, I've heard. Change in weather, rapid nature growth, general accidents among the humans," Ceren explains, moreso with his hands than anything, "The hospital has been so crowded lately with humans claiming to have random blackouts just before ending up in some major accident and we can't transfer any of them to nearby hospitals because they're also crowded. I've even heard some humans claiming they're seeing ghosts wandering the streets." Ceren's continued rambling after the general information was lost to Nathaniel as his heart sunk, coming to the painful conclusion that Morgan's life had been turned upside down in more ways than one because of his arrival.
"Ceren, do you know of any churches in this area?" Nathaniel asks him, having to cut Ceren off from the rambling he was still engrossed in.
"Ah, yeah. I passed a few small ones on the way here, but there's a pretty old cathedral closer to the city. I think one of the main cemeteries for the city is there also."
