Chapter 10
Sorcha had only the vaguest of ideas about how much time had passed since her imprisonment within her comfortable cell of a room.
She hoped that time flowed similarly here as on Sanctuary. If so then Sorcha had been within the city for two weeks.
Her father had not made contact or even any attempt she could sense to come and collect her. Sorcha more than once rued the fact Oisi had not taught her how to teleport.
Not that her days were boring.
She realized early on that Imperius had her squirreled away in secret. Often the windows to her room would be sealed shut, only allowed open at times when she suspected no one was likely to be around.
To keep occupied, Sorcha started to learn to control some of the new strength that was starting to ebb ever closer to the surface since Oisi had removed her bracelet.
It was slow and tedious but she had plenty of free time.
And she found it was worth while when the skills she already knew became far more powerful and some new gifts began to emerge from their shadow.
Imperius visited at least once a day. At the start it was always to question, almost harry her into answering as if seeking to catch her out on fibs.
Sorcha didn't lie... at least not to him.
By the end of the first week, he just would arrive. Often tea followed shortly afterwards. They would sit together, Sorcha drinking the hot beverages and chatting aimlessly about one thing or another.
The archangel was mostly unchanged, preferring to simply sit and listen to her ramblings.
Then, at some undetermined point, he would get back to his feet and teleport away.
Sometimes Sorcha fancied she could almost hear a summons for him, perhaps the Council needing his leadership.
"Are you happy?" she idly asked him one day.
Imperius's helm with the suffocating dark within faced her. For a man with no real face Sorcha had certainly gotten very good at reading his emotions.
"I am Valor, not Happiness."
"My father always said that just because people say you should be one way doesn't mean you have to be. Look at me! I have no idea what I am but... actually, I am a really bad example. My old friend, Ashi, from Tur Dulra is a far better example. He was assigned to be a druid, almost given no choice in the matter. His father was one, his grandfather before him, and almost all the male line going back centuries. But Ashi, well he wanted to be a hunter and he got it. See, just because people say you have to be one way doesn't mean squat. You can be Valor and happy too. Actually Ashi has fantastic tracking abilities. He once chased a wolf pack on foot for three days through the deeper forests! Long story there. And he is dating again to the entire community's surprise considering how badly his last one went. At least his last letter said he was. I have to reply. He hates it when I forget to respond. You know he asked me out once? Had to let him down gently. My father didn't want me stepping out with someone at thirteen. He might have had a point there. I was always talking about something silly. Oh! Have you seen how Lucius looks at Helius?! Now I know I shouldn't gossip but he is clearly head over heels for her. It's so sweet when they are on duty together here! Lucius is always trying to carry things for her or give her little breaks away. Do you have relationships like that with each other? Oh god, imagine how cute baby angels would be! I wonder would they have tiny suits of armor like yours!"
Sorcha chuckled to herself before slowly realising that she had just completely dominated the conversation.
Imperius didn't seem to mind. He just stared at her from the dark recesses of his helm with something akin to amusement.
"Sorry. I just talk way too much sometimes."
"I have noticed."
Sorcha took a sip of her drink and stared out over the now familiar view.
"I have a question for you."
Imperius's deep voice roused her from her reverie.
"Like the good old days. What is it?"
"If you are a replacement for a dead god, I imagine that makes you one yourself?"
Sorcha grimaced. "Funny how you have carefully avoided that one since we talked about that part of myself."
"I had things to look in to."
Sorcha sighed. "If you listened to Oisi then yes. But I don't feel like one. I don't have phenomenal cosmic powers or... hell, I can't even teleport away from here."
"Why is that?"
She shrugged. "No idea. Like everything else, my father said he would tell me when I was older and here I bloody am – trapped, with no clue how to escape and... and feeling so damn small."
Imperius's wings flickered and stretched as he ruminated on her words.
"Yet as a god... goddess, you were born on Sanctuary. A world forged by traitors and populated by the living embodiment of their sin. Born into their flesh even."
"Humans are mostly good. The nephalem... not so much although they don't quite exist anymore."
"You feel like a nephalem," Imeperius retorted.
"But I am human!" she answered with a cheery wave. "And goddess-y too I guess."
Imperius got to his feet, the conversation obviously over.
"Bye to you too," Sorcha muttered as the archangel warped away without another word.
Soon her guards would arrive to seal the windows, leaving her cut off from the world once more.
"Father..." she whispered. "Where are you?"