Silver Shackles

Chapter 6

"Luke, you're usually doing your very best to tease me and piss me off. Something in your thoughts?"

Baal tugged on my arm making me snap out of my daydreaming session. Somehow I had managed to doze off for the entirety of our walk to Cordelica's center. I was surprised we hadn't gotten lost to begin with.

"Oh! I'm remembering how this place looked like two hundred years ago." Half accurate, I was going through my biography's strong points. My absent mindedness wasn't a good thing for a first date, I would have to cross my fingers Baal didn't take it the wrong way.

"Huh, two hundred years ago? That's good to know, you're old." Baal clicked his tongue and tightened his grip on my hand. "Experienced and sexy, definitely just the way I like it."

We had already arrived at the center square, the Temple of the Ancients stood in the middle of it in all its granite glory. The tall building had four towers and an enormous hexagon shaped window with the picture of a star in smoked glass. The doors were plain in comparison to the angel adorned ledges and balconies. It looked more like a small palace if it weren't for the colorful stained glass windows in my opinion, it always did have that air as well. A huge statue stood in front of the cathedral and I couldn't help but laugh in an outrageous manner once I took it in. The statue hadn't been there two hundred years ago. I guessed that after I saved Cordelica from northern were-breeds some sort of commemoration had to be done.

"What on Iris is so funny Luke?" Baal looked at me with a funny face and I simply snorted out it was the statue. "Okay... why is it so—"

Baal stepped closer to the tall, stone man dressed in only a tunic, his feet bare to a granite stand. Baal's eyes rose to meet the statue's face. Although it had long hair and wings, Baal recognized me almost instantly.

"What the hell?" He looked from the statue to me and backwards, he couldn't quite believe the similarity. "That can't be right...?"

"I didn't think they'd go ahead and make a statue, that wasn't there two hundred years ago. Someone clearly took up poetic license to etch me like that. I've never let my hair grow longer than my ears, and I'm definitely not an angel geesh." I snorted while Baal just rose an eyebrow in confusion. "If you're going to be traveling with me I can't keep who I am a secret from you. Not unless I want it to backfire all over my face in the future."

"Your blood isn't red, right?" Giving me a shy grin, he walked over to me and held my hand again. "You're a lot older than you let on... even for a vampire, aren't you?"

"Let's go inside and sit for a while? Let me tell you everything."

We left Ion tied to a post made exactly for these situations and made our way inside the cathedral. The place was much like I remembered it, quiet and peaceful. The air smelled of incense and it felt warm compared to the wintery coldness outside. A shrine lied at the end of the main hall, it was decorated with gold and silver ornaments. Angels occupied most of the upper areas in the church, benches with red cushions were placed looking towards the altar. Some pilgrims prayed on the smaller shrines at the sides of the hall.

Baal looked at the altar before he did a small bow and said a few words under his breath in another language I didn't, surprisingly, understand. I smiled knowing well the Goddesses could see us clearly, I wondered how long it had been since I had talked to them to begin with. We sat on one of the benches closest to the back, I took a big breath of air before I started talking.

"As you might've guessed... I'm an Ancient." Baal nodded his hands crossed as he faced forward staring at the altar. "I've lived for over five thousand years, fought in most of the great wars and traveled the world before Old Iris was barren. There's very little I can't talk to you about our world's past."