The world being able to see seraphim…it was almost too good to be true, but if it was really within his power as shepherd, he would do anything it took to make it a reality. Sorey leaned back in his chair, staring out into Alicia's gardens, utterly lost in thoughts of humanity and seraphim, together at last, humans finally being able to share in the love and joy he'd experienced in his Elysian childhood—

Alicia raised her head, her fingers tight around her teacup.

"Sorey," she said, curious but embarrassed. "Could you – pardon my presumption – describe the seraphim? The Lady Lailah's and Lord Mikleo's voices seemed so regal and refined, but I could not yet see their faces – I imagine they are just as beautiful as they sound."

Sorey beamed. In the meantime, he could make sure that everyone knew just how wonderful the seraphim were. He looked over at Mikleo for inspiration.

Mikleo craned his graceful long neck to regard Sorey. His beautiful sets of violet eyes all blinked in time.

"Yeah," Sorey sighed, enraptured. "They are."

Alicia was on her knees, gazing up at the seraphim with a sort of slack-jawed reverence. Sorey could sympathize with the feeling – though maybe not the tears and trembling. He guessed that was understandable when beholding something as lovely as a seraphim for the first time. Lailah cooed at the attention, hiding one side of her faces with one of her immaculately-groomed and eternally-burning wings, but she was clearly relishing Alicia's rapt interest.

Sorey could tell that Mikleo was getting a little shy from being stared at so intensely; two of his soft, pretty wings slowly creeping up to conceal his faces. (Which, Sorey noted with a twinge of jealousy, were all currently sporting the cutest little blush.) His wings weren't as vast or numerous or on fire as Lailah's, but they were cute and graceful and smelled of a warm, gentle spring rain – he was sure Alicia was just as impressed by Mikleo as she was by Lailah.

Alicia barked a loud, somewhat hysterical sound somewhere between a laugh, a scream, and a sob, and flung her whole body to the ground before Lailah.

"I pledge my spear before you, o mighty seraphim!" she screamed through her tears. "Please show mercy to this humble squire and her people!"

Lailah smiled kindly at Alicia, and unfurled her dozen blazing wings, stretching them as far they could reach; radiant feathers illuminating every crevice of the temple's high, carved ceilings. With all of her many mouths, she began to sing to Alicia of her new responsibilities as a shepherd's squire. Alicia began to convulse at the sound, her entire body stiffening and seizing, her eyes rolling back into her head and her ears and nose beginning to leak small trickles of blood. Mikleo fluttered forward, concerned, and gently hummed a familiar healing spell as a supporting tenor to Lailah's trilling aria. The healing song soothed Alicia's nerves, and she went still; staring with blank, wide eyes at the glorious light playing off the ceiling of the temple.

Sorey smiled at the sight – finally, someone to share the seraphim with! – and absently began to rub at a twinge of pain in his right eye.

Rose had eschewed cups after she'd plowed through the third bottle of wine – her shaking hands kept losing their grip, leading to about five smashed glasses. Rose clutched her fifth wine bottle between her hands in a white-knuckle grip, casting frequent, frantic glances to where the seraphim stood around her.

"That thing was in me for years…following me…they're all around me…"

Rose had been mumbling things like that over and over again for the past few hours, and Sorey was honestly getting a little miffed. He admitted it was pretty rude of Dezel to possess Rose without asking, though. Sorey tried to understand it that way, since he definitely didn't get why Rose kept calling his friends "horrifying" or "monsters". Or why she screamed until her voice gave out after Lailah appeared before her to form the contract. Geez, Lailah had even said "fear not"…he guessed Rose couldn't hear her through all the screaming, though.

A reaction like Rose's made Sorey's resolve to follow his dream falter. If humans were just going to scream and seize and panic when they saw seraphim… his hands fisted into the sheets of the bed where he sat. As if sensing his mood, Mikleo placed a gentle hand on Sorey's shoulder.

"It's alright. Humans seeing seraphim again – you can't expect things to go smoothly."

Sorey nodded, once. He supposed it was only to be expected – he'd learned by now what most humans seemed to deem as "normal" and "not normal", and the seraphim, beautiful and kind as they were, seemed to fall much more on the latter side of the scale to the human mind. Maybe if he hadn't been raised in Elysia, rocked to sleep as a child alongside Mikleo in Gramps' huge, gentle wings, he'd react the same way.

It was a very strange concept indeed. Sorey couldn't really imagine being scared of seraphim, not finding them wonderful and warm. Or not finding them beautiful. He clutched Mikleo's hand where it rested on his shoulder, and rested his own head atop Mikleo's, pressing a kiss to the warm spot where his hair parted. Mikleo drew his wings around them, surrounding Sorey in their warmth and scent. Sorey had seen many things on their journey outside Elysia, ruins and vistas and seraphim more ancient than his human mind could even grasp, but Sorey could confidently say that Mikleo still took the cake as the prettiest of them all – the cake, and the ice cream, too.

Edna seemed to have grown tired of Rose's mumbling, and took the opportunity to grasp her by the ankles with bindings of earth. Rose started screaming again, and smashed her wine bottle against the table to use the shattered end as an impromptu knife. Edna joined the screaming contest, and her song made the entire underground base shudder at the sound. Dezel tried to intervene on Rose's behalf with his own sound, but Edna's voice was mighty and ancient indeed – Dezel's hat was sent flying, and he only narrowly caught it with one flailing wing. Rose howled and flailed at nothing with her wine bottle shank.

"I SEE ALL OF YOU NOW! I SEE YOU! YOU'RE NOT HIDING ANYMORE! COME AT ME! COME AT ME!"

Seraphim and humans weren't that different, and if humans couldn't see that, it was Sorey's duty as the shepherd to bridge the gap.

It was the eve of the final battle, and Sorey stared out at the stars. Mikleo rested beside him in their inn room; sated, sleeping, and peaceful. Sorey gently stroked his bare back, rubbing at each spot between where his wings sprouted – he knew they got sore, especially after Mikleo…exerted himself.

Sorey leaned in to kiss at his cheek, and rose from the bed; dressing himself and quietly leaving the room to walk the city and clear his head. As he left the inn, he saw Rose seated on a bench, staring at him as if deep in thought. Sorey tiled his head quizzically, and went to sit next to her.

"Sorey. Question."

"Shoot."

"Like…I've wondered this for a while. And since I'm probably dying tomorrow, I figure I might as well ask."

"Rose, you're not going to-"

Rose grasped Sorey's shoulder, peering into his eyes.

"How do you and Mikleo fuck? Seriously? And don't try to deny it; I've heard the two of you through the inn walls a million times. I'm pretty sure the whole town hears, honestly. You bellow like a boar in heat and Mikleo's shrieking brings in thunderstorms."

Sorey stared. Rose continued on.

"He and the others are like, mostly wings and eyes. Does he have a bottom half under all those feathers? Though I guess there's always his mouths-"

Well, if she was asking.

"Seraphim feathers are very sensitive," Sorey stated. "And they tickle."