Past {14}

She hid her flinch, her restless reaction as his fingers graced hers. It was so sudden, so unexpected.

Still, calming her rapid heartbeat she tried to ignore the tenderness his hand offered, the feeling of a connection... but despite it, it stung; the silent confirmation that the only way she could be near him would be through death.

The thought made her tense beneath Heka's gaze that flickered to her ever so often, fully aware that Skye could never hide those thoughts; apparent on her face like it was written in a book.

Skye grew worrisome with a selfish guilt of wishing to stay by his side longer, as every second that passed came closer to a time where she would have to leave him, and that was like a wrench thrown in cogs- a nauseating jar to her leaden stomach.

Her eyes selfishly glazed over him, the wounds continued to weave shut, his body gaining a warmer colour.

He was alive.

Heka breathed seriously, noticing the looks and shift in the air, "He will be ok, no scars or evidence of the damage will be left on his body physically"

She shut her eyes in silent relief.

"...but spiritually, his energy inside him has altered"

Skye rose a trembling brow, daring to take her eyes from Lev for a moment, "how is that possible"

Curse her damaged senses... "Humans energy is not easily manipulated..."

Heka sighed, "I am unsure myself" Lifting her hand away from his body, his state radiated a certain glow. She continued, "The moment I allowed my own energy into him something repelled against it"

"What?" She screeched in concern, the hand gripping Lev's hardening without knowing, "Something fought against your energy?"

"Not exactly, something was protecting it from an intruder, I could feel it's intention, it was what kept him alive for so long"

A pregnant pause. Skye fell silent, hushed with the news that another had left a mark within him.

She knew another had entered... but changed? That.. that was not something to take lightly.

She swallowed, lowering her neck, "Who's energy was it?"

Heka's face scrunched, her palm gracefully moving over to her sister as a warm glow casted upon her.

Skye could feel her sisters energy, it's pulse like a child's laugh entering her body; innocent and pure.

It was strange. Never before had she been on the receiving end of Heka's power, even in chaos that ensued above a millennia ago.

The healing, invisible to the naked eye swelled within, a feeling indescribable using human language...

Yet it was almost like an entity itself, listening to the commands Heka fed through her grasp on it- so, one by one, the stinging scratches littering her body began to heal themselves, and the luminous glow emanating from her palm highlighted the teary eyes that were puffed and drained.

Heka soothed gently, "The energy that intertwined with his... was another angels..."

The silence was stagnent before Skye broke it.

"Elementa..."

Heka froze, the air turning stale as her arms twitched, the healing faltering for a split moment.

Of course she knew, even in a mortal form, Skye was still an original, a being beyond comprehension.

"I could feel her near when I first found him..."

"Yes..." Heka brushed a strand from Skye's face, the eye it covered like a curtain dripped with fresh tears.

She sobbed, "Elemanta is not here anymore is she?"

Each word was a dam struggle, a realisation that didn't even need to be told.

And in a time when she needed comfort, needed just a breath of relief, Heka could only offer a nod that sent her world spinning.

The nauseating feeling clouded her vision with white dots, everything felt substantially ill and Lev's body acted as if it were cutting the circulation in her arms.

"Excuse me..." she rambled, throat clogged beyond the pain, "I need a minute"

His weight was transferred to the angel next to her as Skye moved carelessly.

She had no direction, no destination in mind, no other intention than to just breath.

So it was Elementa that saved him? By altering the energy flowing within him to keep his heart pumping, ever feint.

Shaking, Skye dropped to her knees; stained freshly with cuts as she stared past the world.

A calling of her name bellowed behind, sounding as raw as a real human.

Was this the feeling of being mortal? To suffer, to love and to loose, to live and to die...

It was too much.

Too much for the fallen angel who now that the rubble had been brushed aside, and attention peeled away from the human, could she see her own end.

The feather...

It burned, stabbing deeply in a depth she had never reached.

Memories rushed back, enticed by the grief as she just took it all in.

//

A divine light, so heavenly it gleamed and manifested in a form that approached them elegantly.

Light steps emerged, an air humming with ample supremacy followed.

Within it, a mortal human far from the weak boundaries of humanity and gender, stood the creator of all life.

The High spirit.

Hair, a silky gleam that travelled the length of their waist, bound and platted. A face, so divine that captured the very definition of beauty with eyes that deeply shone every colour- yet none at the same time.

The moment those eyes landed on you, most would forget their own name and remain enthralled by the power lurking behind those depthless enigma's.

Clothing, simple material draping across a body unidentified- for a true form... did not exist.

It spoke in a tongue not native to the world, "Deirdre, why have you come here?" The high spirit commanded.

Skye and her wings fluttered in respect, along with the others who remained low, bowing in a line while their sister stood a metre ahead.

Bore upon Skye's head was a crown of light that hovered, cushioning the parted blonde hair- the mark of the original guardian. It was worn when in the presence of a deity.

Deirdre however, with her droopy wings and messy hair looked unkempt, a frightened aura emanating.

Strange? What would she be frightened of?

Her voice trembled ever so slightly, "I have come in the greetings of my sister to ask you a question that I believe you are aware of Alex"

She shivered at the mortal given name for the high spirit, such a word slipping off a tongue carried a weight that no one but them could understand.

And no one had dared use it, no one but Deirdre.

"Go on"

So blunt...

The high spirit had changed over the milleniums Skye had been around; always joyful and compassionate, caring and warm... someone who from the moment of opening her eyes she willing followed, and would continue to do so.

It hadn't aged well.

All sisters noticed that out of the 9, Deirdre had become the most attached, taking on the horrific burdens and duties that no one else could stomach, just to earn favour with Alex.

It changed her, her attitude, her sense of rights and wrongs became twisted, her soul purpose... please the High Spirit; declaring it all in the name of love.

Love...

Something Skye couldn't understand, something she feared, even after ample time the thought of it was something that confused her very existence.

Skye shared a curious glance with the sister next to her, Dara, the angel who held wisdom close to that of the High spirit.

Staring intently, a glimmer behind the white eyes told the guardian all she needed- something was wrong.

"Alex-"

There was that name again.

"-My question to you is this, may I be with you for eternity, may I take care of you when your mortal form grows tired, and love you unconditionally in a way you have never known"

Skye sucked in a breath, her back tingling from a tense atmosphere. Swaying against her knelt legs, the pearly white gown turned icy against her.

What was Deidre doing?

Skye wished to stand, but a pressure was placed opposite her, like they knew she would attempt something; halting her movements, and by the twitching of her sisters, holding them in place too... she was not the only one...

The room grew dark, Deidre the only one who could move; rising slowly with a perplexed face. Confused, she exclaimed, "Why can't they stand Al- high spirit?"

No response.

Skye shut her eyes- and she wished she hadn't, for what ensued once she did engraved itself so vividly, that even through death she could not escape it.

The question that her sister had gathered them all for... it was something disrespectful, shaming a deity and comparing them to mortal ideals.

The power surge the high spirit was releasing showed their wrath.

Skye couldn't breath.

"You dare ask that so selfishly?" Alex boomed, the pressure doubling.

"Do you think of me as your equal?"

Her skin felt submerged into a tank full of water, like she was sinking, and her wings, dragging her down.

Deidre responded hastily, "No!"

She bowed as far as her form would let her, throat bobbing, "It is just a reque-"

She was cut off, the High Spirit having taken her voice with a glance.

Deidre shot up, eyes wide while hands plummeted to her neck to grab and gnaw for speech; screaming and screaming rendered useless.

Alex spoke with an undertone far more human than they wished, startling everyone, "You mean nothing to me, and for your bold act of selfishness you are to be removed"

Deidre dropped to her knees- eyes tearing like a waterfall.

Where was the spirit she loved? The one who was kind and compassionate? Where was the deity her heart had been devoted too?

For what she saw when she looked up unlocked a rage in her un-quenchable.

But it couldn't match the pain...

Her wings were severed.

A silent scream.

And with a swipe of a mortal hand, she fell to ash, her soul falling past that of material to an underworld of cruelty.

All that remained in her place was a feather stained with grief and a crown formed of the fiery ash.

Alex sighed, "You were never the angel of literature, of expression and empathy..."

The room was dead silent.

"... you were, and always have been, the original sin"