Chapter 29: Chapter 28

"..... therefore the theme of the tale is entirely based upon your interpretation of whose perspective we are really following. Consider that in your reports." The professor finished as I arrived at the door.

"Report?" A student asked, with mounting horror.

"Yes." I could hear the smile on her words just as I peeked into the hall, with her bright red hair visible from my vantage point, "Due Wednesday. They'll count on your Theology 301 credits so don't sandbag on them."

The students let out a collective groan of disappointment as she laughed softly, her hair shaking like bloody ripples across her back.

"Now, now don't be like that. It's almost time for midterms. This will be good practice." She turned and I got a good look at her face as one singular thought flashed across my mind.

She looks badass.

[She looks fucking badass.] PK mirrored my sentiments.

She was dressed in a sleek pant suit, with a professional white shirt beneath it and while she was no looker, she had a certain aura around her that between her red mane, her chiseled cheekbones and that awesome eyepatch, made it so that she looked more fit for a battlefield than a theology lecture. Rich with battlemagic, I finally pinpointed it.

I could feel it waft off of her in soft waves, a subtle bloodthirst that was the driving force behind her entire existence. Always alert, always prepared, all hidden behind the mask of geniality she put forward.

No doubt sensing my gaze she snuck a glance at me, through the small glass window in the door, just long enough for me to gesture to her.

Come. Meet me.

She nodded slightly, walking up to her desk on the podium as the bell rang. I stepped back, skipping along, merging into the hordes of students exiting the classrooms, and headed for the cafeteria.

I need a second breakfast.

.

I munched down on a delicious grilled cheese and groaned happily.

Ah, college food. Still as shitty as ever, yet there was something so familiar about it, having made it and well, mostly ramen, my diet over the past few years. It had become an acquired taste by now.

I chuckled when two footsteps stopped before me.

I didn't need to look up to know who it was.

Lily Sunder, foremost expert on Enochian magic and master of all forms of combat, armed and unarmed.

The only relatively safe mentor for me as I am now.

I had briefly considered going to Cain for tutelage. He was the Father Of Murder after all. But while I could convince him to train me, he could very well lose control and end up killing me mid training. Can't have that happen.

Then there was Cuthbert Sinclair, Master Magician of the Men Of Letters. He was an eccentric collector though and would most definitely put me on display in a glass box like some stag beetle instead of actually teaching me anything. And if he gets his hands on the ring? We could have a multiversal magical Brainiac on our hands.

And Rowena, the most powerful witch in the world was out of question as well, given her treacherous alignment.

She was just as likely to betray me as she was to help me.

So here I was.

Besides, I did need to learn Enochian magic anyways.

Silently, I patted the bench beside me.

"Have seat." I swallowed, "I don't suppose you had any difficulty finding me, courtesy of...." I gestured around us at the empty corner of the park.

"The giant barrier you erected in the middle of the university? No. Almost missed it." She snarked.

Heh.

I smiled.

She's still got some spunk in her, even living in borrowed time.

"Bounded field. That's the uh... operational term." I drew a golden circle in the air, magic trailing off of my finger, "Neat little spell. Lots of applications. Great for private picnics." I raised an unopened foil wrap to her.

"Grilled cheese?" I offered, but she raised a hand to refuse it.

"I can't stomach that. The texture is just... " She made a disgusted face, "It's like eating slime mold or clay."

Oh, right. She's burned off her soul in search of power and immortality to the point she's lost touch, taste, even the ability to dream.

"Sucks not being able to taste anything huh?" I sighed.

It made me grateful for this homunculus body still having the sense of taste. I can't even imagine what life would be like without my beloved garlic bread. Or chocolate chip icecream.

Ugh, I'd probably just kill myself.

"So you know." She leaned back and let out a long, tired breath.

"Yup. Not a lot though, so don't worry." I assured her.

"That just makes me worry even more. I have even more questions now than when I first came here. And we haven't even talked properly." Her eyes bore deeply into my chest, glinting with a faint light. A spell.

"Lady, I know I'm beautiful but my eyes are up here." I teased and gestured up at her, but she barely responded.

"You're not an angel." She finally said, "Yet there are signs of angelic power. And your being, it is nature and creation. Light and water." She deduced, "You have met an angel recently. Healed by one. Is that how you know about me?" Her eyes grew colder, a deep frozen hatred fizzling up to the surface.

"Did Ishim send you here?" She asked.

"No. And he wasn't the one to heal me either. None of his flight were. It was another angel entirely. But I know of your feud with him. That is why I'm here in the first place. I can offer you your retribution. Ishim and his flight, at your mercy."

"I find that a little hard to believe.... " She looked me up and down, gauging my strength, "You're not nearly powerful enough."

"Power has nothing to do with it." I replied calmly, finishing my sandwich as I brushed off the crumbs from my coat and pants onto the grass below.

"If you're planning on using a summoning spell, it won't work. The angels will come, discover the trap and just as easily fly away. Nothing can hold them in place while their wings yet remain."

"Thanks for explaining. I didn't know that." Interesting little bit of lore, that. She sounds like she's tried it before.

"But that is not how I intend to accomplish it."

"And how DO you plan on accomplishing that?" She asked.

"I will tell you, of course, but first...." I smiled like a used car salesman.

"You require something from me." She guessed correctly.

"Yes. I have an offer for you. A partnership. We have similar goals, you and I."

"And that would be?"

"The downfall of angels. Peace in Heaven and Earth. And our own little profits at the end of it."

"I don't wish for the downfall of angels, just Ishim and his flight. I have no enmity against them all."

"Yes. But without clipping their wings, one and all, you have no chance of ever getting to Ishim. So here's what I am offering."

"I am guessing you know of a spell to permanently ground angels and that it is indiscriminate in it's application?" She asked.

I nodded.

"And what spell is that? I know all there is to know about Enochian magic and there is no such spell to my knowledge."

"Yes. To your knowledge. But there is more to magic than what you know. And more types of magic than just Enochian." I pointed out.

"I am aware of demonic magic." She said with distaste.

"Not just that. There's shamanic magic, blood magic, death magic, new world magic, gaelic sorcery among others. These are just the ones I remember off the top of my head."

"I know. But all of them require sacrifices, hurting others to benefit oneself. That is something I cannot abide by."

Oh. So she's a person with strong morals. A genuinely good person. That's new. Something I will have to work around then.

And I definitely can't tell her about the Angel Tablet spell now. It requires a fair bit of bloodshed. But, just to be sure, I prodded her a little bit more.

"All magic requires sacrifice. You can just use chickens or pigs for sacrifice. Enochian magic burns away your soul with each use. Can you even dream at this point?"

She bit her lip with conviction. That must have touched a nerve.

"That is a price I am willing to pay if it means no innocent lives are hurt." She said coldly.

Alrighty.

Moral paragon then. Great.

Those are easy to deal with, all goody two shoes.

Moral fibers so thick you can knit them into a bridle and ride them like a horse.

And I plan to work her like one too.

"That is very noble of you." I nodded in appreciation.

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She shook her head.

"It isn't noble, it is the right thing to do."

Wow. Doing good for good's sake.

She'd make Superman blush.

"Back to point. What do you want?" She checked her watch.

"You seem to be in a hurry?" I asked.

"Yes. I have another lecture at 2, so I would appreciate it if we could go through this quickly."

"Two theology lectures in a day? Damn, colleges are more of a scam than I thought." I laughed.

She chuckled.

"You don't know the half of it. At least it pays a decent wage. And the texts haven't changed since time immemorial. Makes it easy to assign coursework."

"Sounds like a cushy job."

"It is." She nodded, "Which is why I like to be punctual. It is the least I can do."

"Alright. I'll make it quick. Do you know of the Hands of God?" I asked.

"Only hearsay. Faint rumors and obscure mentions. Nothing concrete. Some say they were lost to the sands of time, never to be found again."

"They are objects, touched by God, artifacts of great divine might that contain a fragment of His power. The Staff of Moses, the Ark of the Covenant, among others. They have many names. Hands of God and Words of God are the most common. Among those, Words of God specifically, are three stone tablets. The Leviathan, Demon and Angel Tablets respectively, each relating to their namesakes. Of course the one of interest to us is the Angel Tablet, made to inform humans about the workings of angels, ways to summon them, use them, fight them and if necessary kill them. It holds great power over them, and if I'm right, based on what I know of the Demon Tablet which contains a spell to seal the doors of Hell forever, there might be a similar spell on the Angel Tablet. One that seals all angels into Heaven, where they have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to fly away to. And with the Angel Tablet, we can take the fight to them, to Ishim up there in Heaven."

"You know where they are." She realized and gasped.

"I have a lead. The notes of a prophet who decoded the Demon Tablet. I'm confident I can find it. And I can share it with you. But not as I am now. Right now, the trials to finding it would kill me. So I need a mentor." I said, letting out a long held breath, "As you might have noticed I'm-"

"Weak. Like an autumn twig. Yes, I noticed." She teased.

"I will admit. I'm not much of a fighter."

"That is apparent to the eyes." She smirked.

My eyebrow couldn't help but twitch in annoyance.

"What I'm saying is, I need a little coaching. I want to learn Enochian magic and some combat training."

"You need more than just 'some' combat training if you want to help me fight Ishim and his flight." She poked my stick thin figure.

"I'm a quick learner. You'd be surprised at how fast I learn." I shot back, "I'll have you beat within the month."

"We will see about that." She grinned, "Meet me tomorrow morning, 5 am at this address." She handed me her card.

I took it and looked it over but it had no address, just a phone number.

Noticing my expression she gave me a mischievous smile.

"The address shouldn't be too difficult to find. You did find me, didn't you?"

Ah, so she's going to be that type of a mentor, is she?

Still, I did need knowledge of Enochian magic to craft an important item for when I begin my plan to kill Raphael.

On that note....

"Actually, you might want to take a leave for the month. I don't have a lot of time before I need to go on an.... errand. I will be gone for a while then and once I return, there won't be any time for training.

"I see. But taking a whole month off...." She hesitated.

"If it's about the money, I will compensate you generously." I summoned the small glass bottle with grace in it.

"Angelic grace?" She noticed.

"Yes. You can use it to heal your soul, restore it a little. Maybe you can even dream again."

Her eyes fixated on the bottle as she nodded.

"Maybe." She muttered.

"But if that doesn't help, I do have something else for you as well. A gift." I told her and she looked up from the bottle to me.

"One I'm sure you'll like far more than this."

I snapped my fingers in the air and the space by the tree before us rippled, a black swirl appeared and bent it like taut elastic membrane, before spitting out two figures before us. Appearing out of a misty fog, sparkling with a faint light were a man and a girl.

Ajay and....

"May!" Lily cried out, as she jolted up out of her seat, eyes wide at the sight of her long lost daughter.

"Mother?" The girl, twelve, brown of hair and dressed in old frontier clothes, a frock and bow called out in surprise.

Lily look at her for a long moment before she turned to me.

"She-"

I raised a hand to stop her.

"Before you ask, no. She's not getting thrown out of heaven. I just had her temporarily smuggled out so you could meet her again. I know how much you miss her. Just a few minutes and then she'll have to go back though. So cherish your time together."

"I used to dream of her but now..." She teared up.

"I know." She gave me a quizzical look, "As for how I know, it's..." I jazzed up my hands with sparks flying off off them in a tiny lightshow, "Magic!"

Lily rolled her eyes, wiped her tears and muttered a soft 'Thank you' before she rushed to pull her daughter into a hug.

And I smiled.

It was nice doing something good once in a while.

[So you do have a heart!] PK gasped in shock.

Of course I do.

Especially when it gives me brownie points with my mentor. I can just feel that relationship level go up already.

[And just like that, you've ruined any and all character development.] PK sighed.

Oh please. I can be nice and profit oriented, both at the same time.

Capitalism doesn't have to be a heartless slog you know?

It's the greedy bastards who push the line that make it so. Give it a bad rep, I say.

[Yes, yes. Please launch into a ten hour rant on capitalism and all it's wonders. I'm sure I'll enjoy it just as much for the fourth time as I did the first three.]

Sheesh. Who pissed in your coffee today?

Before he could answer though, Lily suddenly spoke up.

"You... Um .."

"Emerson." I supplied.

"Emerson." She kissed her daughter's head, as Ajay gently pulled her away back to Heaven.

Lily on the other turned to me and looked me in the eyes. It was then that I noticed the empty bottle in her hand. She had taken the grace and healed herself up. A light had returned to her eyes again, a little fuller with life, though still dim.

"I will take that leave. Get ready for a month of hell, boy. I do not go easy. Now that you have done this for me, I will pay you back, in full~" She grinned and a chill ran down my spine.

Oh boy. I'm in danger.

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