"So, where exactly were planning on us staying?" Almas asked, looking over his shoulder at Abaddon, who was surveying the city.
"Did you think that far ahead?" you ask, studying Abaddon's pursed lips and slight frown.
"We'll stay with my father." he said finally.
"Do you even know where he is?" Almas sighs, kicking at the rocky ground. You look away from them. The three of you are standing on a cliff on the forested side of the city border. The place looks like a mountain of precariously placed buildings. At the top center is what you can only assume is the school. The place looks just as comical as Maev had described it.
"We'll phase there, my target seems to have been slightly off." Abaddon says, beginning glow around the edges.
"Oh, did you intend to actually land in the city?" Almas asked in a slightly mocking tone. Abaddon responded with a cutting glare.
"We should go now if we want to find Lord Angel before sunset ends." You say, grabbing your weapon's hand and pulling him into a patch of dimming sunlight. You close your eyes, seeing all of the places in the city where there was enough light to form out of. Soon you and Al are stumbling onto cobblestone, at the top of an unnecessarily long set of stairs.
Before you could look around to see where Abaddon was someone falls next to you, the cobblestone cracking in circles like glass from the impact. They have their back turned towards you, and all you see is long brown hair, about half a foot shorter than you.
"Abaddon, how long has it been? 600 years?" the girl says as Abaddon straightens to his full height of a little under six feet, several inches shorter than you. You walk around to him and see that the girl addressing him is Rowan. The princess holds her hand out to the prince, and he takes it with a grip of formality. He regards her coldly, but she seems to ignore this and smiles at him instead. You can see Almas smirking at you behind her.
"And Zadkiel! You're still taller than me!" she said as you high fived each other. She had her white bangs braided back out of her eyes that came together into a curled lock of hair in the back. Her loose sweater was lilac, tucked into a pastel yellow pleated skirt. You notice silver flats and white thigh highs when you casually look down.
"We are not here to socialize." Abaddon says sternly.
"Conferences are just about the only socializing the gods do, especially with one another. We should enjoy ourselves!" Rowan counters, and you can't help but smile at her cheerfulness.
"Well, I'd like to see my father, are you aware of where he may be?"
"Death made new rooms for him and Life, their doors are on either side of the doors to the Death Room. Do you need me to show you the way?"
"No." Abaddon said proudly, walking into the building as you groan inwardly.
"Are you going to follow him?" Rowan asks after the door shuts.
"No. He wouldn't want me to be there to say that he should have had you come with." She and Almas laugh, and she turns to him.
"So, who're you?" she asks.
"I'm his weapon, Almas."
"Shotgun, right?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"You've been mentioned. I assume you know the situation?" she said, her tone of voice taking a grave turn.
"Yeah, yeah I know."
"Good. Once I get my brother in on it we should be strong enough to take whatever's coming."
"Have you seen him yet?" you ask.
"I've seen him loads of times."
"Have you made yourself known to him." you sigh.
"No."
You look at her questioningly.
"He needs time to adjust before I go in a unbalance him again. I mean, me coming here caused the switch to begin with, who knows what actually being around me will do to him."
"Well, what if being around you helps him get back together?"
"Do you think that would happen?"
"Well, I don't know, it's not like we've dealt with it before."
Rowan sighs, and looks out onto the city so you can't see her face.
"So where are you staying?" Almas asks.
Rowan shrugs.
"You are staying somewhere, right?" you question, now concerned.
"I'm capable of sleeping anywhere when I need to. There's no need for the two of you to concern yourselves." she said sternly, still staring off into the sunset. The light turned her human-toned skin gold.
"You should probably just go home."
Rowan looks at you over her shoulder, unimpressed.
"I'm not going all the way to another realm to sleep, Zadkiel."
"I meant where Elder lives." you reiterate with a sigh.
"They're not Elder, they're Akira. His soul split remember? This one's Akira." she corrects you.
"How convenient that Lady Demon gives all her kids three names." Almas joked. Rowan gives him a half-hearted smile.
"Three is the number of power." She says. "And names should represent everything."
Okay so I write a lot of symbolism in this and to be honest no one's going to look up the meaning of character names unless you're in english class so I'm just going to give the ones not explicitly mentioned already to you guys here.
Akira: Bright
Rowan: symbolises Power, vision, protection, healing, balance, and mystery.
Mavourneen: Derived from the Irish phrase mo mhúirnín meaning "my darling"
Hyacinth: Symbolises consistency, but also rashness
Abaddon: Angel of destruction
Zadkiel: Angel of mercy and freedom, Patron Angel of those who forgive
Almas: Diamond
Memoria: Memory
Saecula: Forever
Liberalis: Generous
Yellow Roses represent friendship, from the part with the glass where Almas is introduced.
Earlier Lord Death refers to Rowan as a Gestalt soul and I forgot to link it then sorry.