A Kiss of Life (Bk2)

Chapter 6

"You are right Mother. I do need to part with the cloak. If only to set Fin free from hounding to the very ends of eternity," I said flippantly ignoring Fin's sudden frown.

"I was thinking the best way for all of us to get what we really want is for you, mother, to reveal the cloak's origins," I said simply.

The burst of laughter that sprang forth was unexpected. Its source was even more so. I stared appalled at Williams behaviour. I did not see the comedy in this but apparently he did. It took him a while but in the end he did sober up enough to say," Shall I tell her, Saitene or will you?"

I stared at him in shock. No one called mother by her true name. Absolutely no one.

But him apparently. I stared at mother who said nothing at all to rebuke William for his contempt.

But William didn't wait for her answer and turned to face me."You deserve to know. You wear the cloak. You should know."

I nodded my head feeling a little stunned.

"Do you recall the great battle between heaven and hell?" Asked William.

I raised a wry brow at him and questioned," Which one?"

"The very last epic battle where the gods left the Earth and retreated to their heavens for good. Where your mother agreed not to venture the mortal realm in her true form," he said.

True form. The dragon was never her true form. But she did maintain her part of that bargain and has not taken on that form in all these time. She'd even gone so far as to remove those memories from existence. Indeed the mortals now only remember the dragon as a myth. A fable. A tall tale told by fashionable bards of the past.

That the tales had any bearings to a truth that once existed was never considered. Indeed I understood the humans way of thinking. If there were no remains of the creature to prove its existence then naturally the creature never existed. It would be hard to explain that remains are left by the dead and mother... well mother was very much alive.

"Yes, recall that battle".

It had been one I actually partipated in albeit ineffectively. It was hard to be outstanding in battle when one had not taken sides with either of the combating parties.

"Well do you recall then the peace treaty. The clauses within," asked William annoyingly. I did not want to play twenty questions. I recalled the clauses clearly enough having read it numerous times in the muzium of antiquities. It had been mother's odd humour that formed that muzium to store her many agreements with heaven. To her the agreements have never been concrete. It was merely a means to call time out between bouts.

"Yes I recall them... clearly," I emphasised before he decided to ask that next. I was looking for answers here not questions.

"Then what was clause thirteen?" William asked quietly. I would have raised hell at that. Really, I would have... if I hadn't seen the deadly earnest tilt of his handsome mug. Just what was he getting at? I recalled back to that fat volume of agreements and thought back to number thirteen. I didn't of course recalled it verbatim but I was close enough to what it meant. There would be a gift of gratitude from the heavens to seal the deal. Mother being Mother had wanted that gift to sting the giver most accutely. And for that she had chosen well. She requested a son of the gods to be gifted to her for all eternity.

I had always assumed that son had been one of the fallen who frequented her. I had never considered...never thought...

"Are you saying this cloak is somehow related to that angel?" I asked William feeling confused. There was something here. Something big that had my missing heart pumping hard. 

"I am saying the cloak is that angel," said William softly.