(I've uploaded 9 & 10 simultaneously, so if you're here for the update, you'll want to go back one.)
"Don't those of your profession dispose of people like him? People who, by all counts, only cause those around them to suffer?"
Rose's mind screamed at her to move, to do something, but she couldn't move a muscle. She was paralyzed—with fear, with indecision, with overwhelming revulsion.
"I can do it, you know," Symonne said. Her eyes bore into Rose's own. "I can kill him. Just for you. You only need to say the word."
The sound of Sorey retching stole Rose's attention, if only for a moment. He no longer writhed in Heldalf's grip, but he stared at her, eyes begging for action.
In that moment, she knew. She couldn't let him die. She couldn't let her fear make her let him die.
But if she was going to do something, she couldn't do it on her own—she was still weak from marinating in malevolence. Really, there was only one thing she could do, but the thought of it made her want to hide.
Dezel lay completely still, a ruby red bead of blood sliding down his neck from where the tip of Symonne's baton lay. Had he given up, or was he already dead?
Only one way to find out. She let out a final, shuddering breath, then whispered, "Lukeim Yurlin."
She almost gagged as Dezel flooded her senses, but his seraphic intrusion revitalized her weary body. His emotions were a jumble she had no desire to get into, but his confusion was so strong it almost overpowered her own emotions.
She promptly expelled him from her body. Symonne glanced around, wide-eyed, and Rose decided to take full advantage of her distraction. It only took a few leaping steps to get behind her, and only a flick of the wrist to place a dagger against her neck. Symonne squirmed, but after Rose pressed the blade a little deeper, she froze completely.
Heldalf gazed levelly at them, though his grip on Sorey slackened, as evidenced by Sorey's sudden heaving. "You would kill even a seraph?"
"Murdering is my business," Rose said. "Or did you forget?"
He smiled and shook his head. "Symonne."
"Very well," she said, tensing.
He threw Sorey aside, then aimed his hand at Symonne and Rose. She thought, Even he wouldn't—
He blasted them with malevolent energy. Rose screamed—it seared the flesh on her arms and hands and ripped it apart, putting her in agony unlike anything she'd ever felt. Symonne took the brunt of the attack yet somehow managed to pull away. Her entire front was a bloody mass, and Rose had just enough clarity of mind to wonder if she were dead, though Symonne dissipated before she could even think to find out.
Rose wept from the pain, eyes squeezed shut, her shirt drenched with warm blood. She should've just slit Symonne's fucking throat and been done with it. She was dimly aware of the others having an altercation with Heldalf—Symonne must've released them as she'd left—but she didn't care anymore. She just didn't. Maybe she was just delirious from the pain, but she bitterly wished she never gotten mixed up with malevolence or seraphim or hellions.
A scuffle at her side. Startled, she opened her eyes, only to behold Dezel sitting beside her, green energy flowing from his hands to her mangled forearms. Blood smeared his face and matted his hair, and his nose looked as if it had been broken.
She tried to sit up.
"Stay still," he murmured, his voice gravelly. She wanted to push him away, but since that wasn't an option, she pretended he didn't exist. She turned her head toward the others.
Sorey and Heldalf faced each other, Heldalf looking completely fine, and Sorey panting, his cape torn and bloody, his legs shaking as he used his sword as a crutch. Lailah and the others stood at his side.
"Then if you will not see reason, let us finish this," Heldalf said, taking a fighting stance.
"I refuse that as well," Sorey said. "This is neither the place nor the time. I realize that now."
"So you say," Heldalf said, smiling grimly. "But one day, you will discover for yourself, the true nature of humans and seraphim in this world." He dissipated, and in a flash, his domain disappeared. Dezel heaved a sigh of relief.
Everyone came over to them. Lailah and Mikleo knelt beside her to help with the healing. Now that the pain had subsided to a continuous throb, she couldn't tear her eyes away from her arms—the way the green, red, and blue sparks danced along her them, making them itch, knitting new pink flesh together. The other two were much more skilled in healing than Dezel, but he stubbornly remained.
"Are you all right?" Sorey asked, sitting cross-legged by Rose's head.
She managed a weak smile, conscious of her tear-streaked face. "Just peachy," she said, her voice warbling.
Soon the healing was finished, leaving her arms feeling tingly. Resisting the urge to yank herself away from Dezel, Rose calmly walked to a safe yet inconspicuous distance away from him. She didn't know if her blood-soaked shirt would be at all salvageable. She examined the tattered sleeves of her jacket—yep, there was definitely no fixing those. Pity. She'd liked that jacket.
Sorey turned. "Dezel ..."
Dezel was suddenly so jittery, Rose thought he'd jump out of his skin at Sorey's address. "Sorey, I—"
"I just wanted to know if you're coming back to us. I'd like you to, but ultimately, it's your own decision."
Rose didn't look at either of them. She'd meant what she'd said a few days ago—she didn't want to be the one to drive Dezel away. But that didn't mean she liked having him around.
"You're our wind seraph, after all," Sorey said. "We'd have a ton of trouble replacing you."
Dezel hesitated, and Rose hated him for it. Just accept it and move on, she wanted to tell him. "... Are you sure?" he finally asked.
"Of course!" Sorey said with a genuinely happy smile, and in that moment Rose hated him, too.
"Anyway," Edna said, and Rose loved her for it, "now that we've gotten that out of the way, what about Maotelus? We haven't really determined whether or not he's connected to ol' Kittybeard."
Mikleo frowned. "This may seem strange, but when we were trapped by that malevolence, I thought I felt a presence."
"You did," Dezel suddenly said. "I felt it, too. I was in there for even longer than you, and I definitely felt something. Something big."
Even longer than you ... Lailah asked what was doubtless on everyone's minds. "How long were you imprisoned?"
He turned his face away. "Just a while. Does it really matter?"
They went on talking, but Rose couldn't move on from that thought. I was in there for even longer than you. Getting imprisoned in a bubble of malevolence had been just as torturous as getting sucked into a hellion. She didn't doubt Dezel had been trapped for quite a long time—he wasn't one to overstate his pain. On the contrary, the more he suffered, the less he showed.
So she wondered, just how long? A few hours, maybe a few days?
A few weeks?
She nearly shuddered at the thought. Not that she cared what happened to Dezel, but—he didn't deserve that much. Maybe.
"Rose, you coming?"
"Huh?" She looked around, only to realize everyone had begun to move on without her. "We're leaving?"
"It pays to pay attention," Lailah chided in a sing-song voice.
"You sound like someone's hokey grandma," Rose countered.
Lailah stuck out her tongue.
A little while later, once they'd settled down for the night, Sorey took her aside. "You sure you're okay with this?" he whispered.
"Yeah," she said. "I'll be fine. Don't worry." She noticed Dezel by himself only a small distance away from them, his head turned away, but Rose was sure he could hear them. She was tempted to say something nasty just to spite him, but in the moment, she couldn't think of anything.
"Thank you, Rose," Sorey said, bringing her back to reality.
She turned to looked at him. "For what?"
"For being so gracious."
Gracious? She didn't feel gracious. Did he even know what the word 'gracious' meant? "Thanks, I guess?"
"I mean it," he pressed. "In your circumstances, most would hold onto their grudge and vow revenge. But you haven't."
Rose went cold. "Don't say that. You don't see what goes on inside my head."
"Still—"
"Just let me do my thing, without making any judgments." The words came pouring out of her, and she realized that this was a confrontation long overdue. "Or at least, if you must make them, keep them to yourself. I don't like to feel like my every move is being evaluated. I know you're just trying to be nice, you're just trying to make me feel better about everything, but honestly, it's having the opposite effect. So just stop. Please." She glanced to the side to watch Dezel stand up and leave. Had he disapproved of her speech? Did it make him uncomfortable?
"I ... honestly hadn't thought about that," Sorey said, looking down. "I'm sorry."
"Don't sweat it," she said. Then added: "And don't you dare accuse me of being gracious for saying that."
He laughed a little. "All right. Good night, Rose."
" 'Night."
Rose went to bed shortly after he did. The low murmurs of the seraphim lulled her into a blessedly dreamless sleep.
