Chapter Two - Annie

After we've entered a noble-looking hotel, she ordered something which had its cost displayed as 100$ in the orderbook. It was supposed to be some kind of an alcoholic cocktail mixed up together from various ingredients. I've ordered beer, as it's pretty much the same everywhere they brewed it. As I was thinking how to deal with payment, I've decided I must use my powers to slightly manipulate the mind of the bartender, so he gave us the drinks for free, because I injected his mind we were the tenth millionth customers visiting this hotel. After he left to return to his post, the girl extended her hand and said: "Hi then, I'm Annie. And your name is?"

As if by a sudden shock, I totally forgot that I am in a hotel with a really nice girl from the mortal side of the Universe. She was greeting me, like she wanted to be friends. I then in an instant, I've turned up into my mind, asking Alyss for opinion, and she said in a quick response: "I am not the one that has to decide this girl's fate. It is you. Good luck." And with that, the mental-core connection to my only loyal friend and my ship was cut off.

In the meanwhile, that girl was waving her hand in front of my ice-blue eyes, as I snapped out of it: "Did you just spaced out on a date?!" She screamed, a bit of tension in her tone.

I just happened to stutter as I tried to get a decent response to that. I may be all-powerful godlike entity, but the concept of dates, marriages and love was beyond my understanding so far. So I responded with: "A date? Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Dorian. It's nice to meet you." I've extended my hand and squeezed hers with very little force, so I didn't break her hand into atoms, but retaining the "manly" grip of a strong, trained man. She then asked me: " And Dorian, where do you live? Are you from this city or from another one?"

I was again catched in a small shock by that question, and after giving it some thought, I said with a soft smile: "Yeah, I am not from this city". Deep inside my head, I though: "I'm not even from this world", but I kept that thought deep inside my mind, preventing myself from saying it aloud.

The time I've spent in this bar with the young "human" girl, whose name was Annie, was going quite at a fast speed. With the local 24-Heri time format, it was almost evening, the sky behind the windows turning red, as the local star settled beyond the horizon. While watching the sunset, we were idly chatting about pretty much random topics and looking out of that window on to the fading sky.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She asked me, like she knew exactly what I had in my mind.

I looked at her face, illuminated by the lights of the room from behind us, and that fading sky in front, she looked just like a girl from a picture. Or should I say, more like a real angel. Just those wings are missing there, on her back.

I blurted out, as I did not even understood why: "You are beautiful as an Angel." And then I though in my mind "Damn it, I shouldn't have said that".

But her golden eyes filled with tears of joy as she turned away from me, blushing like a red giant-class star from ear to ear. She then said: "You definitely seem to know how to talk to girls, do you?"

I just kept looking at her beautiful face and her shining golden eyes, deep in my thoughts. As there, deep in the place, where most of the beings in the universe had their hearts, I've felt a feeling that was not exactly unpleasant. It felt rather I was enjoying the presence of Annie, just chilling out like this. I was thinking "So that's how love at first sight feels, huh?" Again, as if she was reading my mind, which is more like impossible, like when I tried to read the mind of my father, saying: "Maybe we can meet again, if you want."

Pretty much in an instant, in another of my superfast moves, I grabbed my ID card, edited it a bit and then handed it over to her. "This thing is my ID. You can use that to call me whenever you want and wherever you'll be." She picked it up, looking at it with a curious look on her face, while examining it deeply. As she examined it, she said with that happy tone of hers, giggling: "You did that fast move again!"

I am now sure of it, that this girl, Annie is blood-lined with some angel, as those are the ones of a few beings even able to spot my speed. I didn't even feel my face shifting it's grimace, as I curiously asked: "Annie, who is your mom? And I don't mean her job and such. I mean.." I stuttered again. And she looked at me with quite the most neutral look you can see on any nice girl you like. As she looked at me, bit baffled, and bit relieved, speaking: "So I.. How do you know about that? I mean, the Angels. Did my eyes gave me out? Or what was it?" She looked at me with a sad look on her face, mixed with curiosity. I took a very deep breath, though I didn't even need to and told her the truth in the shortened version. I've added then: "Lets say it like this. I can tell you the rest, if you want and you can come with me."

With that said, she just got up to her legs from the expensive chair and said: "What are we waiting for, then, huh?" Smiling wildly.

We both said goodbye to the still-brainwashed bartender and left the hotel. After that, I've took the lead and went the way I came in here with. After around a half a Heri, I started speaking: "As you may know, you, your eyes or nothing on your body gave you out. It was your powers. Even if they were very deep and hidden, I can sense them. The powers inside you are great. With some decent training into them, you may be uncountable times more stronger than now. We can be even equals in terms of raw power in some near or distant future."

I slowly walked over to a big tree of unknown type, and sat down on the ground with a loud thud. Annie followed me up and sat next to me. "So who are you, then. Are you that Dorian, that there are those legends about? Did you lie to me about your name? And why did you say I can be equal to your powers when you're dressed like some rich guy?"

I got up to my legs, while with just a thought, I've removed my illusionary clothing, standing there in my armor, weapons hanging from me like some kind of décor on a fir tree.

She then took a few deep breaths, probably trying to process that who exactly is standing in front of her and then, approximately around 7 Mis of local time, got up and told me: "If you are really THAT Dorian, I'll stick with you maybe a bit longer. Just to see where that will lead us. What do you say? Will you still travel alone as the old legends say, or will you let someone else into your eternal life and have some happiness to it?" And to add it up, she said that sentence completely In Ancient Speech.

I carefully thought that over, and also adding in the fact that she can speak Ancient, that feeling which had surfaced within me in that hotel grew bigger, and the more it did, the more it felt like even with all my powers, I would not be able to remove that bond, which she might feel growing too. As on cue, she immediately said: "Yeah, bonds with angels are for the eternity. It cannot be severed. Even with the half-angels, like me."

"As you can see, I'm not a full Angel, I don't have wings. I just have the power, and the eyes. That's all. And I will highly likely never be one." She added, shifting her face into a sad smile.

As I listened to her, I have grabbed her hand without even thinking about what I was doing and created a greenish-like circle in front of us and we both stepped though.