After one last set of gentle pats and shakes, Cassiel gave up on trying to rouse Rosalinda from her unconscious state.
She looked up to find Rainier staring into the skies, at the uncontested angels.
"Are you... going to fight them?" she asked.
"I’d rather look for Kir... but soone has to stop what’s happening." He clenched his fists.
Cassiel’s heart beat faster. So much had happened. She’d lost her role, her ho, her people... and here, Rainier had co back into her life.
So why did she feel so sad?
"Rain... Do you... still love ?" Cassiel asked.
He looked down, at her, and she rose to a stand, holding that gaze.
"I never stopped," he said, and hope fluttered in her chest. "But..." Her hope was replaced by trepidation. "A lot has happened. I can no longer see any good in Heaven. I no longer know what we could even be to each other."
"There are still good people in Ar-"
"Don’t." Rain interrupted, his voice sharp. "We can talk later. I’m going up there to fight. I won’t ask you to fight with , but... please stay safe."
He took off into the air before she could protest, wings bursting out of his back like obsidian laced with gold.
*
Reiko ran in the air, on rooftops, and through alleys.
Wherever she looked, she found destruction and death. Kordia, in the air, beca the target of a trio of angels as she ran, seven fox fires trailing behind her. Reiko sacrificed three flas to knock them each from the sky near-simultaneously.
"A little too much, don’t you think?" Sin passed to Kordia through the bond.
"We think," Reiko corrected. "And right now, we aren’t any closer to finding Rainier."
"Found him!" Lapins said from the roof of a multi-family house, with enough excitent to desynchronize her thoughts.
To Kordia’s left, and in front of Lapins, a figure in black fought with a flaming black sword and a pair of floating blades against a trio of angels, who also held black blades. From the look of it, it was all Rain could do to dodge and fire lightning as he circled the fight, his swords serving as distractions and counterattacks.
Whenever one angel’s shields faltered, another would take their place, and the cycle would repeat itself, with his Manifest Arms suffering with every strike they deflected.
"Let’s not waste any ti," Reiko muttered to herself, borrowing mana from Kordia and Sin as they turned their steps toward the fight, with Lapins and Sin making shields beneath their feet to rise into the air.
The mont they had a clear shot, three beams of pure mana struck the angels who had pushed Rain closer towards the rooftops.
*
One mont, Rain was on the back foot. There had been three angels and two Elevated at first, but two of the three angels had wasted their ti trying to compel him and lost their heads for it. His luck had failed to hold, as the last angel was clearly the squad leader of the Elevated in his Executioner squad, and their teamwork had slowly but surely overwheld his offense.
They’d gained the high air on him, but before the angel could strike a blow, his three opponents disappeared in beams of blinding silver light, and he was caught from below by a silvery, fully evolved foxkin woman with graceful features, wearing a robe in the western style.
Wordlessly, she alighted on the roof below, then hugged him as two other beastkin arrived.
"Rain..." she whispered, with a familiar voice.
"Have we t?" Rain asked. "Wait. Are you..." The image of Kir stood at her back, embracing her from behind.
"I can’t believe you!" Kordia seed about to slap him, or at least he greatly suspected the woman was Kordia. She reverted from her evolved form back into a more human one, still standing on a shield to make herself the sa height as him. "Recognize now?"
"Kordia!" He surged forward and kissed her, holding her close. When they parted, the two beastkin with her looked a bit more than flustered.
"Damn he’s good," the short foxkin girl said, and the rabbitkin nodded to her. The rabbitkin looked vaguely familiar, but Rain spared her no more than a glance before he entirely focused on showing Kordia how much he still cared for her.
However, all good things had to end, and when Kordia gently pushed him, he parted. Stepping back but keeping his hands on her hips as if she would disappear the mont he let go. "Why are you here?" he asked.
"I ca with friends. We’re looking for Kir and, well, an agent of Maledict’s who might know where he is." She gestured first to the petite foxkin. "This is Sin, uh, she’s from Gra’Rhuel. And I hope you rember Lapins." She gestured at the rabbitkin.
"Princess Lapins?" Rainier quirked an eyebrow.
"I guess I was a bit more than human this whole ti," Lapins blushed. "It’s good to see you again, Rainier. I look forward to introducing you to rcy."
Rain nodded, and then Kordia said excitedly, "There’s soone else you need to et!"
"Wait," Rain said. "I t a demoness earlier who said the sa thing... are you with her?"
"Her na is Amarena. Or Leviathan, she doesn’t seem to have decided. She’s a friend, and so is Reiko."
"Who’s Reiko?" Rain asked.
"I am." The three of them all raised and lowered a hand in eerie synchronization.
Rain turned about. It sounded like all three of them had spoken together. "What is..."
"Rain!" Cassiel’s voice echoed across the roof as she landed, the bard from before carried by floating hands as she readied her magic. "I’ve decided... I want to fight with you!" She took a step forward and brandished her staff.
"These people are safe," Rain said. "They’re... friends. I’ve told you about Kordia before." Cassiel walked to Rain’s side, looking about. "Kordia, this is Cassiel. She’s... We were lovers." He gestured at them both. "Cassiel, this is Kordia."
"Your old lover?" Cassie asked, a slightly sad sound to her voice.
"Right now, we are Reiko," Lapins and Sin ca to stand beside Kordia. "It’s nice to et you, Cassiel. Who is that with you?"
"She’s just so local nad Rose. Is this so kind of trick?" Cassiel asked.
"It’s a long story, but the three of us bonded so... we’re really four. In any case, we shouldn’t tarry here. Brigit and Darlae will be waiting for us. Stella, too, if you rember her."
Rain felt a little confused. "Kir’s old bat familiar?"
"Tarry?" Cassiel scoffed.
"You know what I an!" Lapins raised her voice, clearly in so sort of emotional turmoil. That Rain couldn’t begin to guess about.
"What about the invasion?" Rain asked, looking at the sky where dozens of angels still flew, filling the streets and alleys with destruction. "Who is Maledict’s agent?"
"We haven’t found her yet," Kordia answered. "Sorry to spring Reiko on you, but she wanted to et you too. I know it sounds insane, but please co with us."
"Here, thought the most insane thing about the day was wandering into a war." And seeing hallucinations. He thought to himself as Kir clung to Kordia’s neck as she turned and walked towards the fortress at the center of the city.
Rain counted seven tails on her, which he knew was a long way for her to co in only three years.
*
As she brought the others back with her, lowering her shields towards the rooftops as they neared the fortress, Kordia’s mind raced with thought. Rain looked... he seed different than the last ti she’d seen him. She was different, she knew, but Rain seed... colder. More distant than the angelkin with a smile and an open hand for anyone who needed it.
The black suit he wore sohow felt wrong to her. It’s magic twisted and knotted through him in ways that made her suspect sothing terrible had befallen him. Because peer as she might, she couldn’t see much of Rain left beyond it.
"He seems hurt, in more ways than the physical," Reiko suggested, along with the realization that she could still exist without them, the more she used the bond. It was weird, like having Lapins, Sin, and her simultaneously have an epiphany while a bit of their foreheads all felt a little asleep, but also comforting to Reiko, who was on shaky terms with her own existence.
"I’m not letting him go now that he’s back," Kordia replied.
"Are we sure he’s back, though? It looks like he found soone else while he was away," Lapins thought.
"Felt pretty ’back’ to . And I don’t even know him," Sin’s mind transmitted mories of experiencing the kiss through Kordia. Her thoughts about him were a bit naughtier, and they made Lapins push back with a bit of disgust.
"Whatever we are now, we’ll talk to him first," Kordia said with finality in her ntal tone.
eting up with Brigit and Darlae wasn’t terribly difficult. They’d occupied the top floor of one of the few buildings without defenders on top.
As soon as another confusing round of introductions occurred, before they finally got around to the unconscious woman in the room.
"Wait," Brigit pulled on her cheeks as she regarded the bard. "Did you say her na is Rose?"
"That’s what she said, in more flowery terms," Cassiel replied.
"You know her? Darlae raised an eyebrow."
"Yeah," Brigit pinched the bridge of her nose with a frustrated look. "She’s my ex."
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