Jugement du Ciel
DISCLAIMER: Don't own Riviera, as you may have surmised. This is my own little story thing and plagiarism will be handled either by my security (Envy) or any one of my other babies, probably Reiko-kun, who needs a new chew toy anyway (his don't last very long). You may not sue me, however, because I claim no part of Riviera but a game cartridge and my (substantial) obsession with certain characters.
WARNING! This fanfic contains or will in all likelihood contain fairly graphic sex and EXTREMELY graphic violence. You have been warned, so I don't want to hear any whining.
(Jugement du Ciel: "Trial of Heaven")
The trials of a Grim Angel are many, and all of them are dangerous.
But I wonder… how dangerous is too dangerous?
It has taken us years of research, but finally we have a solution to the traitorous Hector's truly barbarous method of Grim Angel creation. The sacrifices Asgard's children have so bravely offered in exchange for their divine power were ripped from their bodies in an act so like rape that there should not have to be any distinction. Although the very transformation is traumatic by nature, there are ways to do it humanely—by those specializing in the associated fields, with proper anesthetic care.
Ledah Rozwelli was very lucky both that his body frantically worked to keep him living for the years he went with his heart so damaged—that, in fact, it was starting to regenerate—and that there was still a man living who could help speed the process and control the regeneration so that the very fabric of his heart and soul weren't warped during the procedure. He lives, and he lives as a whole being.
Were Malice Ructor to have survived the end of the Second Advent, I am not so sure that she would ever have been able to come back from the edge. The damage to her body was extensive; she was, after all, missing at least seven internal organs, and unlike Ein and Ledah, the physical sacrifice of her future was never used to forge her Diviner—Hector, of course, created a false one. And there is the matter of Malice's never completing the first of the trials. Never a complete Grim Angel, she probably would not have survived any of the theorized recovery processes.
If Ledah is the miracle and Malice the impossibility, our dear Ecthel is wavering somewhere in between. No matter what is done, the amputation of his wings cannot be reversed; but if their essence can be released from the Diviner, removed from it, or duplicated in his body… there are ways that we have developed in which he would be able to harness it.
Of course, removing the spiritual essence of Ein's wings from Einherjar would destroy it; Ein would never allow that to happen. His Diviner is, after all, a part of him. And as of yet, we have no way of recreating any type of spiritual essence. Encouraging it to regenerate, yes… but of course, aside from their residual sleep within Einherjar's core, Ein's wings are dead.
The only way that remains is the Guardian.
Such a twisted and horrible beast would require all the power of we Magi to create, and even if we were to succeed, with all my wisdom I know not if Ledah would be able to destroy it. He is a powerful man, a powerful angel… but the trials he has already survived have weakened him more than he would like to admit. And he would not enjoy the knowledge that I am aware of his weakness.
In addition, time has passed since his transformation, and in age he begins to lose his power…
If Ledah were to die in the trial, not only would everything we've worked for be lost, but Ein himself would probably die as well. The loss of the focus of his life would surely destroy him in every possible way.
And so the question remains:
How dangerous is too dangerous?
Can we make this work without any loss of life?
And if Ledah survives, what will be the cost to his already-battered body?
---
Ein closed his eyes and let himself enjoy the quiet snicker of the shears, doing his best not to fidget at the tickle hovering at the nape of his neck. Instead, he took a deep breath, sighing serenely. It was mid-summer, he was seated outside, and Elendia still smelled as floral as if it were spring. There was a cool breeze in the air that kept the heat from becoming too unbearable; either way, Ein had left his usual cape, scarf, and gloves back at home—he'd wrapped his hands and forearms as usual, but that was more out of habit than anything else.
Starting to smile, he half-opened his cobalt eyes, which were liberally flecked with hazel and gray in the warm light. Only a week ago, he and several others had made a most welcome addition to his home—windows, with a large open panel of glass in the ceiling, right over the room in which lay the large, family-sized marble bathtub. There were shutters on it, of course, so that it could be closed from the inside or outside if need be, but when it was open in the middle of the day, the bathwater glittered beautifully whenever one moved in it.
There was one final, decisive snip, and Ein blinked up at the blue sky and pearly clouds as the voice behind him announced, "Well, there you go. All done!"
Smiling, Ein ran a hand over the back of his head, heaving an inner sigh of relief at the newly even, short ends of the hair there. Not every day was like this, and summer in Elendia was hot. "Thanks, Lina."
Lina giggled. "Don't mention it!" Swiftly, she undid the slipknot of the white tablecloth she'd had draped over Ein's shoulders, shaking it out and dumping tufts of his blue-brown hair into the grass around them.
Ein stood and stretched, cracking his shoulders as he did so. Twenty-five years old, he still looked much the same as he had when he'd first arrived in the peaceful village of Sprites: His short bluish brown hair (though currently a little less shaggy) flopped into his face in temporarily tamed tufts, his eyes were wide and clear, and his face open and honest, though it was only marginally less of the baby face it'd been when he was seventeen. Standing at a modest five feet and eleven inches, Ein had a body toned from various types of work that he'd done for the past eight years and palms roughened by sword calluses. He was habitually (almost obsessively) clean-shaven, and so he tended to look quite a bit younger than he truly was. Over the years, his voice had deepened from a mid-alto to a kind and often-cheerful low tenor. He looked much like any ordinary Sprite, but there were always two things that would destroy that notion in those he first met.
One was the exceedingly odd sword he usually carried with him, a bright yellow bolt-shaped weapon that blazed with holy power.
The other was the pair of ugly, twisted scars over his shoulderblades.
Ein Legendra, formerly of Asgard, was a Grim Angel, living in a state of "military leave" from his duties as the blade of judgment. His former commanding Magus, Hector, probably would've rolled over in his grave if he'd known this, but Ein no longer cared much about what a power-hungry, amoral, completely ruthless being such as Hector would think of him. He cared very much that his new commanding Magus, Celina the Just, allowed him to live in this fashion—she was, very simply, just about everything that Hector was not, and she saw no point in keeping Ein tied up in Asgard when there was no need for his powers. She would contact him if he was needed (already had, on one occasion), but other than that, she mostly left him alone. Which Ein liked a lot.
"You're getting really good at doing haircuts," Ein told the girl who'd been standing behind him, a small pair of shears in her hand. "Now, if only we could convince Ledah to come down here and let you do one for him, too. But, no… as soon as I point out that his hair's getting long, or he notices it himself, it's out with a pair of scissors—or even worse, his tooling knife—and…" Ein mimed a very quick, shoddy, uncaring job of cutting one's own hair, with a grimace that made Lina giggle. "It gets crazier every time, and he usually ends up with that one little tuft at the top that sticks up no matter what we do to it. I swear he does it on purpose."
"But whenever you're not complaining about it, Lina always hears you saying it's cute," Lina pointed out, hiding a grin. Even after so long, she still hadn't outgrown her exceedingly odd speech pattern of referring to herself in the third person, and probably never would.
"Shh. Don't let that on to him," Ein said hastily, looking around as if he expected Ledah to be walking through the woods at that very moment. "It just… it grows on you, okay? Isn't that the way of most things…? But it gets annoying that he never does anything different…"
Lina just grinned. Nineteen years old, she had grown from the small and bouncy child Ein had first met into a leggy, sunny, smooth-skinned young woman. Her long orange hair had been hastily plaited into a braid, with a black silk bow tied at the end. Her light brown eyes flickered with amusement, offsetting her yellow tunic and sun-golden skin perfectly. Lina also had on her thigh-length black stockings, leather ankle boots, and the soft, tanned-leather archer's armbands that Ein had made for her out of deerskin for her last birthday. Her bright personality and budding good looks drew the attention of all the young village men, but Lina seemed oblivious to them all. Instead, she spent most of her time with Arc fighter Serene or her adopted elder sister, Fia.
"Well, wish Skyler good luck for me when you see him," Ein said with a wave, dusting off his shorts. "Fia's going to cave in sooner or later. You can so tell that she likes him."
"Will do," Lina replied with a salute; Ein headed off down the path.
Elendia was at its most beautiful in the spring and autumn, but it didn't exactly look bad in summer, either. There were still small flower patches growing to the sides of the cobbled paths that surrounded the trees and hedges that separated the home and work districts of the town. And everything was just so wonderfully green and rustly in the breezes…
Before Ein realized it, his feet had carried him home.
The low-slung, one-story house had a brick foundation though it was built out of wood, its roof thatched with grasses and large leaves over its wooden tiles in order to help water roll off without warping the ceiling. The door was unlocked and stood slightly open; Ein headed inside, closing it behind him.
"Hello?" Ein called, looking around. The front door led into the kitchen, which had a carefully-laid floor of wooden panels and a long counter that ran along the wall under the window to the icebox on one side and the little gas cooking stove with the range on its top on the other. The table in the center of the room stood as it had in the morning, with one notable exception—Ledah's chair had been pulled slightly out, with his bright crimson Grim Angel's mantle hanging folded over its back. The sandals with straps of braided black leather that had been given to Ledah by Kyle, one of the locals, rested near the bottom of one chair leg, as though they'd been pushed up against it after their owner had kicked them off.
"I know you're in here, Ledah, so there's no point in not answering," Ein said as he gently pushed open the door that led to their bedroom. Nothing here, either, although the wingless angel thought he heard the soft liquid sounds of moving water through the closed door in the adjacent wall.
Shaking his head and smiling wryly, Ein threw off his belt and jacket onto the freshly-made bed, pulling his shoes off and leaving them by the wall before opening the door.
"I thought I'd find you in here," he said with quiet triumph as Ledah turned, a slightly startled expression on his face.
Apparently just about to get into the water that filled the large, two-person marble basin he was standing before, Ledah had already stripped off his clothes, which lay in a neat pile on a small wooden stool that lay beside the door. That suited Ein perfectly well—although it was something he got to see on a daily basis, he never tired of watching Ledah in the nude.
There were good reasons for this, at least from Ein's perspective. Even among angels, who were known as one of the fairest races of the world (one of, not the, Ein would always say, and point out that he was plain enough to disqualify their people in the running), Ledah was a beautiful man. Beautiful rather than handsome; the latter description simply was not adequate in the view of more than just Ein. Ledah had nearly austere fair coloring; his skin was pale almost to the point of albinism, and his hair a rich and wild golden-blonde. Even though Ein rarely admitted it to people other than himself, he thought that Ledah's highly inattentive way of dealing with his hair when it got too long only enhanced the older angel's natural beauty… especially when that unevenly cut hair was wet. The tufted ends always clung to Ledah's skin when dampened, tracing around the nape of his neck in a particularly appealing way.
Trained in self-defense out of necessity at a very young age, Ledah had kept himself in shape his entire life (while not curled into a chair next to one of the low lamps in Asgard's library, his nose deep in some piece of obscure literature), and it had paid off. The frame of his body, while solid, remained lean, with faint suggestions of his toned muscles rippling occasionally under his skin. When he was naked, the state of his body helped to show off all the little things about him Ein loved—the sharp dip of his clavicle, the angled bones of his hips, his flat belly and the perfect cup of his navel. Of course, it also showed off the fact that Ledah was still an inch longer than him, which drove Ein crazy (in the end, it was the only thing he wouldn't be able to do anything about).
A lot more of Ledah's beauty, however, was in his intense and level gaze, directed by his striking, soft-lashed carmine eyes. His body was the envy of angels, some had said, but his face was the envy of gods. Others had said that this was just because the Rozwelli family supposedly carried some divine blood, but Ein didn't much care. All that was important to him was that this was the face (and the heart behind it) that he'd fallen in love with. Aside from his dramatic eyes, Ledah also possessed straight brows, high cheekbones, and full, sensitive lips. There was stubbornness and pride in the set of his features, but deep sympathy and tenderness as well. As it always did unless Ledah had it tucked back behind his ears or tied with a small leather thong, the angel's soft blonde hair spilled into his face, framing his cheeks and partially screening his eyes. As usual, Ein had to clasp his hands behind his back in order to keep himself from going over to Ledah and, under the pretense of straightening those wild, fluffy locks, playing with his hair.
Ledah turned partially towards Ein, crossing his arms somewhat protectively over his chest, his black wings shifting in slight embarrassment. As he did, the glossy feathers caught the light, shining with blue highlights. Though delicate like any creature's wings would be, Ledah's were still very powerful, capable of carrying not only their owner but Ein as well (at reasonable stretches of time) through the air. When fully spread, they had a span of nearly sixteen feet, with the longest pinions each measuring about seven inches. Though he considered them just as beautiful as everything else about Ledah, sometimes Ein was unable to look at his lover's wings without the long ache at the loss of his own resurfacing in his heart.
Managing to avoid such unhappy thoughts, Ein padded over the floor to loosely put his arms around Ledah's waist. "Hi," he said softly, moving one finger up and down over the ridge of Ledah's spine.
"Hello to you, too," Ledah murmured, giving in and lightly resting his arms around Ein's body as well. Back when Ein had started letting Ledah take the dominant role if he ever wanted to during their lovemaking, he hoped that it would cure his lover of his tendency to submit to Ein's will most of the time (within reason, of course). It hadn't. "Besides the usual, is there something you want?"
Ein didn't answer the question right away; instead, he lightly skimmed his fingers over the surface of the warm bathwater behind the two of them, causing the surface to ripple and glitter in the light. "It's pretty, isn't it?"
"Yes," Ledah said simply, resting his cheek against Ein's forehead and turning slightly in the younger man's hold to look. They were silent for a moment; at last, Ledah straightened up, looking Ein up and down. "What has it been for the past week or so, then, Ecthel?"
"Some carpentry and some plowing," Ein replied. If anyone other than Ledah called him by his full name, Ein would complain; Ledah himself only used the name Ecthel at his most loving or serious moments (and during sex, when he didn't seem able to help himself), which was part of the reason Ein didn't mind. "And you're still helping the Magic Guild sort out that accident waiting to happen that they call their bookshelves, aren't you."
Ledah nodded, then gently drew his hand over Ein's abdomen. "You've been getting defined. All this must be good for you, then."
Ein squirmed. "Will you stop that? It tickles!" (Ledah, smiling somewhat mischievously, grazed Ein's belly with his fingertips twice more before withdrawing.) "It may not be the work at all, you know." There was a suggestive slant to his words as he began to grin crookedly. "You know what they say, after all. And that certainly does seem to be a way to get nice, prominent abs."
"Ein, you are an incurable pervert." Nevertheless, Ledah was smiling again.
"You seem to enjoy it, though."
"…So, I take this to mean that you don't want anything other than the usual?" Ledah asked, resting his hands on Ein's hips and slipping his thumbs under the waistband of his shorts and the loincloth beneath them.
"Not really. Why? Is it now a crime to want to enjoy your beautiful body at close quarters?" Ein teased, his fingertips tracing an intricate pattern over the small of Ledah's back.
"Maybe it wouldn't be if you didn't want to 'enjoy' my so-called beautiful body at least six times every day," Ledah retorted, softly tossing his hair and rolling his carmine eyes. "In addition to being a pervert, you are also incurably horny. …No, I don't have any problem, but would you mind not taking it into the bathtub? I'd still like to get clean after this, and it's hard to get clean in water someone's come in."
"As long as I can get in with you."
"Then I shall obviously have to make sure that you are quite thoroughly sated beforehand, shan't I?" His grip on Ein's clothes firmer now, he slipped shorts and loincloth down his lover's hips; Ein stepped his right foot out of them and kicked them towards the wall with a flick of his left ankle that had been perfected over six years of vigorous and usually spontaneous sex all over the house.
Ein slipped his left hand behind the nape of Ledah's neck, drew his lover towards him, and kissed him soft and sweet, shifting only briefly for air before closing again, a little rougher this time. After a moment's pause, he felt his lover's lips part as he yielded, their kiss deepening as Ein pressed Ledah's back against the smoothness of the stone bath.
Gently, Ledah reached out and pulled Ein's right forearm up to chest level, very slowly and carefully undoing its linen wrapping. The two of them were silent but for the quiet rush of their mingled breath; Ein suppressed a shiver of anticipation as Ledah gave his other forearm the same tender treatment. Casting the strips of linen aside, Ein let his lips rest on the pulsing, vulnerable artery under the soft side of Ledah's throat, nibbling gently before kissing that sensitive spot, drawing the skin between his teeth, and sucking gently. He wanted to be sure this left vivid marks all down his lover's body. As he repeated his movements, sliding his hands up Ledah's sides so that his thumbs and forefingers briefly grazed his lover's nipples, he heard and felt his lover give a long, low, enthralled-sounding moan.
Feeling both playful and aggressive, Ein trailed kisses over Ledah's collarbones, inching down along his chest. Squeezing his lover's hips, he murmured, "Show me you love it, or I'll bite," in a soft singsong tone.
"Ein—what? I…" Ledah started, confused, then gasped as his lover kissed, then licked at his left nipple insistently.
"Louder," Ein commanded in a whisper, relishing Ledah's tense shiver at the feel of his breath. He grazed his teeth over the same spot, provoking a choked cry that Ledah tried to fight by gritting his teeth. "I told you louder," he moaned, and bit hard.
Involuntarily pushing his hips forward, Ledah half-shouted and half-sobbed with the intense meld of pleasure and pain. Smiling darkly, Ein continued downwards, sparing a brief nibble at Ledah's navel before kneeling completely and taking fierce hold of his lover's erection.
Ledah shivered, let out a tiny helpless cry, and arced his body inwards, clutching the marble behind him as his eyes squeezed shut in the intensity of his strangled throes. For his part, Ein dug his nails into Ledah's hips as he worked more fiercely than ever before, tasting the throbbing blood under Ledah's skin as he strained for the release, flicking the tip of his tongue over the head as he pressed his teeth down insistently. He could hear his lover's breath rasping as he gasped for air, could feel the tension beneath his hands as Ledah struggled between holding and at the same time pressing himself further past Ein's lips, half-thrusting automatically at the demanding man who knelt suckling at his groin.
As the pressure culminated and overwhelmed his will, Ledah cried his lover's name and came hard, panting desperately for breath as Ein let out a muted, satisfied moan, reveling in Ledah's taste until it ended, and he let go, taking the blonde's full weight as Ledah collapsed into his arms, still breathing hard, his skin coated in the thin sheen of sweat.
Murmuring softly, Ein found Ledah's lips and kissed him, but after a few moments the blonde backed away with a slight grimace. "I'll never get used to how bitter it is."
"We always taste bitter to ourselves," Ein told him with a shrug. "But if you ever did it to me, you'd understand why I love it so much. You just taste so damn good to me…" Crooning, Ein turned the word into a throaty moan.
"Thank you, but no. Yes, it feels nice on my end, but I still like actual sex better."
"Oral is a kind of sex."
"Maybe that's true, but I'm still feeling you there when I want to feel you here or put myself inside you. It's never enough in the end—it just makes me want you so bad it hurts." Lacing his fingers together at the nape of Ein's neck, Ledah squeezed his lover's waist with his thighs and gently thrust into the brunet's belly. "Gods, Ecthel, just take me. I can't bear it much longer."
"I will. Just a second." Stretching up, Ein scooped some of the as-yet-unused bathwater into his hand, using it to briefly rinse most of Ledah's taste out of his mouth. He kissed his lover deeply, bending Ledah backwards though he kept the blonde's upper back off the floor. Running a hand along Ledah's right wing, he pulled away and murmured, "Better?" in a soft and husky voice.
"Much," Ledah sighed, obviously unaware of what Ein was really doing. At least until Ein's fingers found a suitably loose feather and tugged it out.
Ledah was sobbing out Ein's name from the moment the black feather's tip touched his skin, trembling as Ein traced meandering patterns over the skin of his lover's chest and abdomen. Dancing it over the hypersensitive skin of Ledah's lower belly, inner thighs, and the soft spot just between his wings, Ein couldn't help but smile wickedly. Even after everything they'd experienced over the past six years, Ledah's feathers were still his favorite sex toys.
Taking the time first to slowly trace the feather's tip over the full length of his lover's erection and then briefly flick it back between his legs, Ein set it aside, pushed Ledah's thighs up, and gave in to the urgent pulse of hunger, penetrating the blonde and thrusting hard.
Slamming his hips into Ledah's repeatedly, Ein felt heat rush into his cheeks and knew he was already in trouble; after teasing himself with their prolonged, potently erotic foreplay, he found that he just couldn't hold even though he tried his best. His own screams of his lover's name blotting out Ledah's fevered moans, Ein let his mind go completely blank.
"Ledah… Ledah… Ledah… Ledah…!"
And then, the vicious spurt of his seed into Ledah's body, as some small part of him thought in amazement, Six. I only made it to six…
Gasping, Ein withdrew, already trembling from utter exhaustion. It was only long afterwards that he would realize that there had been something amiss; as it was, it took him completely off-guard when Ledah roughly rolled him over, pushing him flat on his back and stabbing into him.
Ein gasped, his eyes rolling back in his head as something in his throat clutched, preventing him from doing anything but letting out a long, tortured-sounding sob of pleasure. For once in his life, Ledah was completely merciless, thrusting hard and fast without any kind of pause.
For how long they stayed that way, Ein could not recall. All he knew was that by the end, he was hard again, and as Ledah came as viciously as Ein himself had done, he was brought to a second climax, letting go mere moments after his lover did. Whatever had blocked his speech died in his throes of ecstasy, and he shrieked Ledah's name until both of them were spent.
---
"I still can't believe you did that," Ein murmured, even now seeming unable to open his eyes more than halfway.
Gently brushing the washcloth over his lover's forehead, Ledah replied, and Ein could hear the wry smile in his voice even if he couldn't see it. "Well, it was your own fault for deciding to sodomize me with my own feather. Again. I hate it when you do that for a reason, you know. It tends to drive all rational thought out of my mind."
"You seemed to like it," Ein protested weakly.
"And I do. I hate it, but I can't help loving it, even so. Gods, it turns me on."
The two of them were sitting curled together in the marble tub, taking the time to relax and soak the soreness of their brutal lovemaking out of their bodies. Ledah, leaning against the marble side, had his wings stretched out, resting over each side to trail on the floor. Ein leaned in a weak and unresisting slump against his lover's chest; he sat between Ledah's legs, with the older angel's free arm wrapped supportively around him.
Gently squeezing out the washcloth so that water would drip along the nape of Ein's neck, Ledah went on. "That's exactly why I hate it, you know. When I'm driven out of control like that, I could hurt you so easily… and I never, ever, ever want to hurt you, my dear. I pushed you too hard, and I'm so sorry."
"I push you twice as hard," Ein said sleepily. "I deserved it…" He stretched lethargically, then resettled. "And it just felt so good, you know…?"
Ledah smiled, then leaned down to kiss the top of his lover's head. "I think this is about as clean as we're going to get you. Here… let's get you dried off and into bed; I'll be along when I finish."
---
"Hey, wake up, stupid! Are you just going to sleep all day?"
Ein groaned and threw an arm over his eyes. "Go'way!"
"I am not going to go away. Get up! You have a guest!"
Reluctantly, Ein opened his eyes a slit. His old familiar, Rose, was leaning over him with an angry scowl on her face. Wearing her black hair loose, Rose was given an even more severe look than usual, especially glaring in such a schoolmarmish way. She wore her usual black dress, with her gloved hands planted on her hips, her cat's ears pinned back, and her emerald-green eyes narrowed irritably. Originally assigned to help Ein learn when he had just been made a Grim Angel, Rose had become a bit of a younger sister to him. At times like these, she certainly nagged like one.
"Ledah, do I have to—" Ein started, groaning, then stared. Ledah was already standing, tying his white ruff with a serious expression.
"Ein, you must get yourself dressed," he said softly and gravely. "I have no idea why, but…"
"It's Celina," Rose interrupted, hauling the sheets off Ein, who let out an instinctive yelp of protest and tried to cover himself as best he could. "And if you don't want me hauling you out in front of her as naked as the day you were born, I'd suggest you get some clothes on."
"WHAT?" Ein sat up, completely forgetting about covering. "Celina? Here? Now? Why?"
"I don't know," Rose said with a shrug, throwing Ein's discarded pants and loincloth at him. "Here. She just said it was important, and could I kindly get you because she'd like to speak with you."
Groaning, Ein yanked both garments on, then went digging for his sleeveless undershirt. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Believe me, I tried. You sleep like a rock when you've been having sex. I would've slapped you awake, but Ledah asked me not to, so I just had to yell."
Pulling the undershirt over his head, Ein cast about briefly for his jacket and belt. Ledah picked them off the floor and held them out to him; sighing with relief, the wingless angel put them on, cinching his belt tightly and slipping on his shoes from where he'd dumped them.
"You ready? Then let's get going. Celina looks serious, so I don't want to keep her waiting long."
Grabbing each Grim Angel by the wrist, Rose dragged them into the kitchen, where Celina the Just was waiting.
Clad in the billowing robes favored by each of the Six Magi, Celina "stood" (hovered about a foot off the ground) in the middle of the kitchen, looking exceedingly out of place and not seeming to give half a shit about it. Unlike Hector, who had gone around swathed in bluish-purple, Celina was dressed in rich scarlet, with the omega marked on the front of her hood in dark mahogany. Two long tufts of her auburn hair trailed onto her chest; as her hood was pushed back far enough to expose her full face, Ein could see that her coppery red bangs also hung into her face, though they did not obscure her almond-shaped eyes, which were the color of oxidized blood.
"It's good to see the two of you on such short notice," Celina said mildly, her eyes glinting briefly with humor.
"Dear Hela, I am sorry about that," Ein said, shaking his head and tugging at his collar.
"I'll just leave you guys alone to deal with whatever it is," Rose said with an offhand wave, and left, her curling tail flashing in the doorway before she closed it behind her.
Turning to face Celina, Ledah bowed, his face smooth and expressionless though his eyes were sharp and alert. "Celina-sama. What is it that the Magi require of us?"
"I don't have a new job for you, in case you're wondering," Celina began slowly.
Instantly, a great deal of Ein and Ledah's formality fell away. "Really? Then what is it?"
"Don't relax just yet. This is very important. You know that we of Asgard have been devoting our time to research on how we can help Grim Angels recover from their losses during the transformation… partially to help the two of you, and also in case more of your kind ever need to be brought into this world. Well, I'm here to tell you that all that research has finally borne some satisfactory results.
"Ein, there may be a way for you to win back your wings."
Ledah slipped his hand into Ein's and squeezed it hard.
Ein himself was staring at Celina in complete incomprehension. "I don't… I don't understand…"
"Of course, we can't physically restore your wings to your body, but if we're able to get at their true essence, then we can fix a spell in which you can call your wings back to you spiritually. You wouldn't be able to maintain them for very long, but you would be able to fly again if you needed to.
"Don't look at me like that, Ein. This is going to be very dangerous, and it will involve battle against a foe several times more powerful than Hades. In all likelihood, both of you could end up dead or crippled for life, even if the trial eventually succeeds."
"We've gone against those kinds of odds before," Ledah said softly, his hand still held tight in Ein's. "If it means that Ein could have his wings back in any form…"
"I don't care about the risks," Ein managed at last, his voice strained and passionate. "To be able to fly again, by myself… I never dreamed I would even have the chance…!"
"You might care later… So you're willing, then?" Celina asked. Ein nodded wordlessly. "I expected that you would be, of course. But, Ledah, are you certain?"
Ledah blinked. "I… of course I am. I would do anything for Ecthel, you know that."
"I absolutely must have your consent on this, after all. The two of you have no idea just how dangerous this trial is going to be…" Celina shook her head. "You may actually be better off as you are now, but it's your choice. Very well. Come to Asgard as soon as you can, and I will explain the trial to you in full. Even then, you'll have the chance to turn around, but once that trial starts, it's either succeed or die, just like so many of the other situations you've gotten yourselves into in the past. I expect to see you soon."
There was a flash of light, and she was gone.
Ledah turned Ein to face him, and squeezed his lover's shoulders. "Can you believe it? A real chance to win back your wings…"
Ein brushed at his cheeks, trying to hide the tears of shocked, disbelieving joy. "I… I… Ah, gods, what would we do without her? Celina's done so much for us all these years…"
Ledah smiled, then leaned forward and kissed his lover's forehead. "Go on, Ecthel. You need to tell everyone what we're going to be doing. I'll do the packing, alright?"
"I… I… okay…" Turning back and forth, seeming not to know what to do with his hands, Ein headed out of the house, staggering in shock.
Ledah smiled after him, then sobered.
This is what he's needed, so much… so why do I have such a bad feeling about it…?
:TBC: