Of Wise Retreats and Just Punishments.
((Sorry for the late update! I hope you like it. It's short, but I promise, be prepared. Things might get twisted.))
How foolish of me. To think that I could just return to what I once was. What foolish optimism caught me and planted such ideas in my head? To think that my friends would forgive me. How absurd.
My departure was a retreat, plain and simple. I just wanted to escape from the sins that I saw reflected in my former charge's eyes. I put up a good front, I think. I managed to leave just as I always had. I didn't want them to think me broken.
But I am broken, and my body seems determined to point this out to me. No more than ten miles outside of Bobby's home, my wings fail me and I meet the ground in a manner unbefitting an angel. I have not felt so fragile since my brief stint as a human and I will not claim to miss the ache of muscles, or the limitations of a fully physical being. But miss it or not, here I am, once again powerless. I push myself off of the ground, feeling my vessel protest against the treatment. My hands dig into the mud and I can feel the numerous cuts and scrapes (souvenirs from my most recent fall, I believe.) Once again, I am all too human.
It couldn't be at a worse time.
"Well now, I have stumbled across our new Lord and Savior."
I am still on the ground, struggling to even stand up. But I do not even need to look up to see who spoke—I know that voice.
"Malial…" I say, my heart sinking in my chest.
"Surprised?" I can hear the bitterness in her voice, and I know that I put it there.
"You have always been resourceful," I reply.
"Yes, resourceful," she snorts. "Isn't that why you came to me? Is that why you asked me to bow? To pledge my undying love and loyalty to you, our new God?"
"It was a mistake-"
My reply only seems to infuriate her, and my reward comes in the form of a swift kick to the side. It hurts far more than it should have.
"A mistake," she hisses, aiming another blow towards me and leaving my head ringing. I hear, rather than see, her kneel before me. She grabs a fistful of my hair. "You killed our brothers and sisters, for what? Because they did not want to fight another civil war? Because they refused to acknowledge a false God?" I look into her eyes and one thing is certain
She means to kill me.
And she has every right.