[M] Angel of the Night (Holey & Angel) IC

[Holeypaladin]

Arriving in the city of Firenzia by way of airship, Sir Harold, Dragon Knight of Bahamut, summoned forth a phantasmal steed by incanting the phrase, "Jivi, arcanisstok," triggering his conjuration circuit to summon the creature from a celestial plane. Firenzia was one of the most powerful of the Bahamut-aligned cities among the League of Free Cities, and one of the few cities supporting a genuine airship dock.

Harold's business, however, was not in the city of Firenzia itself, but in the surrounding countryside of the League. Dragon attacks had been intensifying over the past several months, which warranted the Doge of Firenzia to enlist the support of one of the most famous of Bahamut's dragon knights in order to deal with the menace.

Harold was not the only one dealing with the dragons, of course... it was said that the goddess Varvara also offered sanctuary for her followers, and indeed, some of the local free cities had taken to worship of the night goddess, or "Dea Della Notte" in the native language. Such cities seemed to be spared from the dragon raids, and were among the destinations that Harold intended to visit on his journey, to study what manner of divine magic the night priestesses held that could ward off dragons.

Before long, he was on the road, heading towards a small city called Lucia, which had taken to worshiping the goddess Varvara exclusively. It would be a few days by horseback, but Harold wanted to see some of the beautiful countryside in this temperate climate along the way.

[AngelDellaNotte]

An angel with long white wings wearing red and silver armor walked into the main hall though by the looks of it the armor wouldn't do much to protect her. Looks wasn't really what mattered the armor was the enchanted armor of an angel designed to take the shape of whatever the wearer desired yet offer the same protection as a full suit of chain mail. The main hall was a grand room with pillars that seemed to stand fifty feet high made of black marble and gold, leading up to a ceiling that was brilliant purple color flaked with specks of gold. Under her feet was the same black marble, the angel continued on to a large golden throne at the end of the hall. She stopped just before it and dropped to one knee bowing her head. “You summoned me Mistress?” The woman asked, looking up at the throne to the woman seated there.

“Fleur, my sweet Fleur.” Varvara said, rising from her throne and walking toward the angel. She leaned down, cupping Fleur's cheeks in her hands and gently pulling the other woman to her feet. Varvara leaned in pressing a light kiss to her lips then stepped back to her throne pulling the angel along by her hand. “Stand beside me where you belong.” She said, taking her seat the angel taking her place next to the throne.

Varvara waved her hand in the air before them causing a viewing portal to appear. “I have a task I need you to complete.” She said, an image of a man stepping off an air ship. “This man Harold, a Dragon Knight of Bahamut has been causing quite a stir below with our allies. They have asked us for our help to rid them of him.”

“Mistress, I do not understand our alliance with the dragons, with the havoc they cause among your followers.” Fleur said, genuinely confused the dragons caused much problems for the mortals under Varvara's protection yet they had many dealings with them.

“Politics is not the place for a pretty warrior like you.” Varvara said, stroking her fingers across the top of Fleur's hand which she still held. “Leave the matters of them to me. You are needed elsewhere. As you are...”

“I am your spear.” Fleur said, finishing her mistress' sentence while she looked at the man in the portal. He looked strong and well armed, the stories she had heard about him say he had felled many dragons. He no doubt was a formidable warrior but he had never faced off against an angel. “As you command Mistress.”

“Good, we have word that he is traveling from Firenzia to the city of Lucia. You will travel to our temple there and take care of the problem.” Varvara said. Fleur nodded then brought her mistress' hand to her lips pressing a kiss to it before walking away.

She was a short distance from the goddess when a spear (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/cb/d5/06/cbd506140ea9070c3281c7a5c6ce7f40.jpg) formed in her left hand and she spread her wings out to their full length, flapping them twice then disappearing. A moment later she appeared on the altar of the temple in Lucia scaring a young acolyte. Angels had the ability to teleport between the heavens and mortal realms but only to lands holy to the deity they served.

[Holeypaladin]

Arriving at the outskirts of the small city of Lucia after a long ride through the countryside, Harold acknowledged a couple pretty young acolytes that were making their way into the city. Disciples of the night goddess, Varvara, by the looks of them. They weren't bad to look at, but he was on the job right now, and had other things to take care of first.

For some reason, dragons never came this close to town. Harold thought that it might be due to some sort of divine ward that somehow repelled them, but a quick scan of the magical fields revealed no such thing. Still, Varvara's priestesses possessed some sort of magic that he was unfamiliar with that repelled dragons... it would definitely be worth looking into, as any tool that he could use against them was a good one.

Well, he wouldn't learn much from watching the city from outside. Dismissing his phantasmal steed for the time being, he proceeded into town on foot. While some people liked to ride their horses through the crowded streets, Harold found it to be rather inconvenient for those on foot, as they had to make way for the massive animals.

And so, he headed on foot into the city of Lucia. His destination was quite obvious... the center of divinity. The Temple of Varvara. Though it was still daylight, evening services would begin soon. Most of the night goddess' rituals took place at night, of course, so this came as no surprise. Making his way to the temple, he soon pressed open the doors, stepping foot onto Varvara's holy ground. Even though he was not a theurge himself, he could feel that this was a place of great power for those who practiced such theurgy.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Fear not, young disciple we serve the same Mistress.” Fleur said, stepping down from the altar noticing her landing on it had knocked over several offerings for the goddess. She stepped around a goblet of wine noticing it was a dark red wine from the vineyards of Fruzli to the north of here. It wasn't one of Varvara's favorites ironically the goddess of night preferred white wines over red. Still most parishioners mistook reds as the goddess' favorite due to the dark color of it. She smiled to the acolyte once she was on the ground then picked up the goblet. Reds may not have been Varvara's favorite but Fleur did enjoy them. She took a drink of it seeing the acolyte torn between stopping her and thinking it was alright. “Lovely flavor just a hint of bitterness. Word of advice, our Mistress prefers whites.” She told the man then began walking away from the altar to the doors, noticing it was smaller than she was used to in the heavens. She laid her wings down flat on her back, closing her eyes and willing them to fade away, using a charm that would allow her to blend as a human.

[Holeypaladin]

Stepping into the temple, Harold took a moment to concentrate, scanning the room for magical signatures. There was, of course, a steady flow of Divinity heading through the altar towards the goddess Varvara herself. As deities drew power through the faith of their followers, a place of power such as this temple acted as a nexus, routing power from her many worshippers to the goddess herself. In turn, the goddess would return some of this power to her clergy, allowing them to perform feats of magic through a means of theurgy.

He wasn't interested in this, however. Putting aside the flow of divinity, he noticed... something powerful. A very powerful signature of magic, emanating from a single woman. He sensed traces of Draconic spiritual essence as well, but rather than the foul, sinister nature of the chromatics, this woman was... good. Benevolent. Caring. Not a full dragon, of course... he could recognize those right away. Possibly a quarter dragon, as the non-dragon aspect of her was far more powerful than the dragon aspect.

Slowly, he made his way over to the woman. One glance at her face and he froze. She was, in fact, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Though she wore a human form, he immediately knew that she was no human... for no human woman could possess such a supernatural beauty. Taking a moment to compose himself, he sat down next to the otherworldly beauty.

"Hello..." he said. "I couldn't help but notice your overwhelming magical aura. Could it be that you're related to the reason why this city has been spared from dragon attacks recently?"

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Mistress Varvara protects these lands and though I serve her I am not charged with the protection of this region.” Fleur said, glancing at the man the grip on her spear tightening a little then letting up. She hadn't expected to run into her target so soon, figuring he would still be on the road when she arrived. She must have misjudged her jump from the heavens to the mortal realms. Time flowed different in the heavens and in travel between the two you often either gained or lost some time, it would seem she had the latter. She pondered for a moment about attacking him right here but the closed in space would make battle difficult and she couldn't use her wings to aid her in battle. Not to mention there were people around who could be collateral damage, followers of her mistress. No, she would have to lure him away from here somehow. “What interest do you have in my mistress' lands?”

[Holeypaladin]

Harold noticed the way the woman tensed up, gripping her spear. She clearly was not a human, though she definitely seemed to want to pass for one. She seemed to be defensive of him, as well, and now that he was closer to her.. her magical aura was overwhelming. It was similar to the magic used by theurges, yet also similar to the Divinity that filled the temple and flowed to the celestial realm in order to provide Varvara with her power.

Harold didn't know that this was most likely the woman's first time trying to disguise herself as a mortal... only that she was clearly inexperienced in doing so. Plus, the fact that she referred to Varvara as her mistress, rather than her goddess, indicated that he a closer relationship to her than a mere priestess or paladin. "You're not human.." he said in a low tone, so as not to alert the other clergy. "You're not even from this world... what are you?" Well, it was certainly clear why the woman would want to disguise herself as a human... but any trained user of magic could easily discern her supernatural nature of they tried.

"It is said that your... mistress..." he used the woman's term as he spoke, "protects her followers from the chromatic dragon attacks that are currently plaguing the countryside. Indeed, there are no signs of this city or anything around it being hit. My interest is in what sort of magic your priests use in order to ward them off... it would be helpful to learn this sort of thing myself, as I'd like to protect other cities in the same way."

[AngelDellaNotte]

"I am but a servant of Mistress Varvava." Fleur said, an idea coming to her mind. While it was true she hadn't traveled much on the mortal plains her teachers had insisted she study them intensively. She knew much about the cultures, politics, other religions and most importantly their geography. To the north of the city there were some old runes that had once been a worship area of the goddess. They hadn't really been used much in the last few hundred years as people moved from the lands to the cities. Nowadays they were only used on holidays and usually by the most devote. "The magic is my mistress' but I can show you some areas of great importance to her."

[Holeypaladin]

It wasn't lost on Harold the way the beautiful woman hadn't answered his question... but he let it slide, as he sensed she was at least pure of heart and righteous, so she had her reasons, whatever they were, and it would be rude to press the issue. Instead, he listened as the woman offered to show him some places of power. Perhaps these would be a bit more enlightening. He gave her a nod.

"I'd love to accompany you to such places," he readily agreed. "It's a date, then." He certainly wouldn't turn down a chance to accompany such an incredibly attractive woman along in his travels, despite her mysterious nature. It didn't bother Harold a bit that the woman wasn't human... human women tended to be far too boring for his tastes, after all. Magical creatures such as elves and fae were far more interesting and mysterious. "Shall we, then?" He offered the woman his arm in order to escort her.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Fleur looked at his extended arm and his comment about a date. "Not a date only a show of the goddess' good faith." She said, starting to walk out the door not looking to see if he followed before adding, "I'm sworn to my mistress." Once outside she looked to see if Harold had followed her. The runes were a couple miles from the city and wouldn't take long to walk there. She would have preferred flying there but didn't want to let onto Harold what she was or cause the townspeople to realized what part she played in this. The acolyte had seen her in her divine form but even if he did tell anyone it was unlikely they would believe him.

[Holeypaladin]

"Not interested in men, are you?" The knight was a bit disappointed, and merely shrugged. "A shame. Quite the shame indeed." It was unfortunate, but he still held an interest in seeing the runes. He didn't seem quite as interested in the woman, anymore, and figured there wasn't currently much reason to waste anymore time trying to get to know her for the time being. Still, there was one thing that he figured he should ask.

"What's your name, anyway?" He asked as he let the woman show him towards the holy sites. "I'm Harold, a dragon slayer. I suppose I'm not all that well known around here, yet... but I expect that will change once I start to save villages from dragon raids, and such. Do any of the villages around here sacrifice young women to dragons in order to spare their village, like they do further north? Because that's pretty disgusting."

[AngelDellaNotte]

"I never said I wasn't interested in men. Just that I am sworn to my mistress." Fleur said, thinking her relationship with Varvara must seem strange to a mortal who didn't know what she was. Angels were sworn to their deity before anything else. They loved them unconditionally, their deity would always come before any other love. Some deities took advantage of this love others did not. Varvara was of the former but only with her most favorite of angels. She never forbid any of her angels from taking lovers but it was always understood that she came before any other.

"My name is Fleur, and I have heard of you before. I am not of this land, I come from far away but tales of your exploits have reached by ears." She continued on the road for walking next Harold listening to his questions, when he reached the comment about sacrifices a frown crossed her face. She didn't know much about dragons taking sacrifices but was pretty knowledgeable with the practice among gods. It was a much older practice not found in many places, while there were still some gods that enjoyed them it wasn't all of them. The power a deity received from most sacrifices wasn't what mortals believed it would be. Mostly due to the willingness of the sacrifice, only those who willing gave their life to their gods gave the most power. Whereas most had unwilling sacrifices and only garnered minimal power. Varvara condoned the practice many years ago wanting to be seen as a friendlier loving goddess. "Not that I am aware of. It doesn't seem like a wise idea and would only encourage the dragons."

[Holeypaladin]

"Oh... I suppose..." It didn't make a whole lot of sense to Harold, though he was familiar with the way many clergy members devoted themselves to their deities and refused to marry. Still, the woman who had called herself Fleur didn't speak like a clergy member at all... most priestesses would refer to Varvara as their goddess, yet she constantly used the term mistress. As if they had a master-servant type relationship rather than one of worship. Strange.

"Fleur..." he repeated her name. "A beautiful flower. The name certainly suits you," he gave a slight nod to her, still confused as to how to treat her. "I didn't realize I was that well known... guess world travels far, these days. Who'd have thought?" He knew much of the destruction caused by dragons, and the way they ruined lives, so sacrifices were not anywhere near the most vile of their tendencies.

"It's a terrible idea," he agreed. "But so many humans are so very dumb. They think that by sacrificing a few, they can save the rest of their village, but in the end, they're no less evil than the dragons. I have a difficult time feeling any sort of pity or remorse for those who would cause harm to the innocent out of cowardice."

Thinking for a moment, he figured out another reason why the towns devoted to Varvara might remain safe from dragons. "Say..." he said, "Does Varvara employ many paladins as dragon slayers? I didn't see any in town, but they could have easily been out on missions at the time, right? This seems like an effective method of keeping them at bay..."

[AngelDellaNotte]

"Mistress Varvara," Fleur said, emphasizing the use of an honorific with the goddess' name. "Sacrificing a young girl or paying tribute to a dragon only works until the dragon realizes that by terrorizing the lands he is being rewarded." Fleur didn't have an true experience with dragons having been taken from her father at such a young age but something about pure blood dragons bothered her. They never did anything if it did not suit their own gain. The few times Varvara had hosted dragons in the heavens they had been concerned only with what they could get. Several had been quite harsh with the servants granted to them during their stay. She didn't understand why her mistress worked with the dragons, but it wasn't her place to question it.

"There are a few knights in my mistress' service but they mostly stay to the larger cities. My mistress much prefers to do her work in the shadows." Fleur said, a smile coming to her face at her joke, "She is the goddess of the night afterall."

[Holeypaladin]

"Sacrifices and tributes seem to continue either until they can no longer afford to pay," the knight commented, "Or someone puts an end to it. Either way... it's a vile practice, conducted by cowardly, weak people who refuse to stand up to the tyrant themselves." Thinking for a moment, he shrugged. "Granted, not everyone has the power to fight a dragon... in fact, most don't. But there's a reason why men like me exist. Those with power... have a responsibility to protect those without. Noblesse oblige, they call it."

Her comment on the knights still didn't explain why the small town of Lucia was spared the wrath of the dragons... in fact, with paladins hunting them, it made more sense for them to target the smaller, unprotected towns as a way of striking back. There was still something the woman wasn't telling him... either because she didn't know, or because she kept it a secret. Her comment about working in shadows tended to imply the latter.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"To service is the greatest honor of all." Fleur said, realizing they were a fair distance from the city now. She could strike at him now as they were alone on the road but every so often they would be passed by another traveler. She couldn't risk one getting caught in their battle if they came along. They would have to keep going a while further, which meant she had to keep with the small talk until then. "How does one become a dragon slayer? I can't imagine there are schools on the subject."

[Holeypaladin]

"I suppose it depends on who you're serving," the knight remarked with a shrug. "Helping people out and making peoples lives better is a good thing," he stated. "Saving them from the monsters that plague them is also good... provided they are unable to save themselves, of course. There's a difference between cowardice and powerlessness."

"But blindly serving someone whose intentions are less benevolent... definitely not for me." He chuckled. "I don't think I could ever serve someone without knowing for certain that their cause is the right one. I tend to question everything, never accepting anything at face value." He looked over at the beautiful face of his guide. "Perhaps that's why I could never devote myself towards religion. I'm not trying to offend, I've just seen too much corruption in my time to believe in any religious dogma."

"Technically, one becomes a dragonslayer by slaying dragons," he said with a shrug. "But much training and preparation is required in advance. Any accomplished warrior can study dragon physiology and learn of their weak points, although acquiring dragonbane weapons is more difficult. But dragons are typically considered to be boss fights... meaning a group of mortals tends to be required to kill them. I suppose you could say I'm an exception to that particular rule... but I also possess a rare ability. Which is a secret, so don't tell anyone," he said in a slightly teasing tone.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Fleur cringed at the mention of dragonsbane, being half dragon it was just as dangerous to her as it was to full blood dragons. While she was training her superiors had thought by using it was helping her to become stronger. The use of it had taught Fleur to always be on guard and block the attacks coming at her but she had been injured many times. At the completion of her training her superior had given her a dragonsbane sword that she had never used instead preferring to use a spear. The sword was locked in a case under her bed never used. "Everyone must have faith in something. While humans are corruptible gods are not." Fleur said, turning down a side road that would lead to the runes.

[Holeypaladin]

It wasn't lost on Harold the way this woman cringed at the mention of dragonbane weaponry. He did sense some sort of draconic-based energy from her, but it was different from that of a true dragon. A half-dragon, perhaps? That would certainly explain her aversion to dragonbane weaponry. And since half-dragons tended to take on the nature of their dragon parent... Fleur's dragon side would need to be of Metallic origin, since she didn't seem to be of an evil sort.

"No offense," he said, "But saying deities are incorruptible is a load of utter bull feces. There are corrupt, evil deities all over the place... most of them support the chromatic dragons in their recent war against the mortal races of this world. But being a deity most certainly does not make them good... otherwise, these deities wouldn't be killing each other lately."

"The main difference between what we refer to as gods and mortals is that the deities gain power through the faith of their followers. While it shapes them to some degree, it doesn't make them perfect, or anywhere near perfect. And I cannot bring myself to hold any sort of unquestioning faith towards an imperfect being. Though I don't worship him as his kin do, I still hold an immense degree of respect for Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon... and immense hatred towards his equally powerful sister, Tiamat. Both of these dragons are far more powerful than any deity worshiped by humans. Yet one is good, and the other evil. It is no different among deities."

[AngelDellaNotte]

Everything Harold said set Fleur's blood to a boil, it went against everything she had learned in her life. From as long as she could remember her tutors taught her of the importance of the gods and hope they always knew what was right through divine right. She had been taught that she must have faith in them and never question her goddess. They weren't far from the runes now, Fleur could see that there was no one around. It would be the perfect time to strike at her target. She had never sent her spear away and had been using the butt of it as a walking stick though she didn't really need it. Her strength was such that a few mile walk wouldn't tire her, she could fly for hundreds of miles without wearing out. She took another step, longer than the ones she had been taking allowing her to get a step ahead of Harold and spun her spear around toward his throat one side of the double axe racing to him with enough strength to decapitate his head if it made contact.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold had expected this religious zealot to be offended by his words. Many of the things she had said and done were quite suspicious, as well... why would this servant of Varvara decide to accompany him out to these runes, and why had she kept her weapon drawn the whole time? She had mentioned that Varvara worked in the shadows, in a very subtle manner... but she herself wasn't very subtle.

When the woman swung her axe at him with her full force, it was hardly the stroke of a trained assassin. It was the actions of a warrior... one who faced her opponents head on, rather than striking from the shadows. And because of this, Harold was able to see it coming in time to react. He was, after all, an incredibly experienced warrior, himself, and his reflexes weren't those of an ordinary human.

As he himself was unarmed, he had no weapon with which to parry this blow... but a strike of that level of force was best countered by other means anyway. Ducking under the swing, he extended a hand towards the woman and incanted, "Jedark tersha" in the Draconic language. This caused a massive telekinetic force to impact the woman, enough to send her flying up into the air. A human would come crashing down with enough impact to knock them out, but Harold was unaware that this particular woman had wings.

Regardless whether she fell or simply hovered in the air, this brought him enough power to summon forth a weapon. Tapping into his foundry circuit, he summoned the first weapon that came to mind... a dragonbane sword. Designed to penetrate dragon scales and cause massive damage to their flesh, this was the weapon of a dragonslayer. It also happened to be quite effective against half-dragons, as well.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Being thrown into the air caught her off guard, she knew Harold had magic abilities but to be able to use them so quickly without much perpetration meant he had a fair amount of skill. As she sailed close to thirty feet into the air the force of the blast caused her to flip over several times until she dispelled the enchantment hiding her wings. It took another couple of flaps to steady her, as she hovered in the air above the dragon slayer. He drew a sword that she could tell from the glean on it was made of dragon's bane. She would need to be careful when fighting him to avoid the bite of the blade.

It probably would have been easier to kill the man with a sneak attack, let them get to the ruins then as he was examining them strike at him from behind where he would never have seen the attack coming. But Fleur wasn't an assassin, she was a warrior and though she had killed many times before in battle she had never killed an unarmed opponent. She had always killed them after a battle was fought and she had earned the kill. Something inside her just wouldn't allow her to kill in cold blood. If Varvara wanted this dragon slayer killed like that she should have sent one of the imps in her service not a warrior angel. Pumping her wings and gaining speed in her wings Fleur descended to the ground at the speed of race horse in it's prime. She held the tip of her spear straight at Harold aiming to impale him much like a jouster would do.

[Holeypaladin]

As he saw the woman extend wings to catch herself in mid air rather than fall to the ground, her identity was finally revealed to the knight. Those wings were indistinguishable... she was, indeed, an angel. One of Varvara's warrior angels... attempting to kill him. For what? Had she intended to kill him the whole time, or was this an impulsive reaction to the words he said? She wasn't speaking... but perhaps he could get her to.

However, he would first need to deal with the incoming charge. As the angel swooped down from the sky in an attempt to impale him, Harold tapped into his foundry circuit once again. He didn't specialize in defeating humanoid opponents, but he had been forced to fight them on numerous occasions. Dragons occasionally assumed a humanoid form, after all, so this was no different, so far. Tapping into his foundry circuit, he summoned forth a shield in front of him. This shield had the Dancing property, and therefore needn't be held in order to block the incoming attack. However, the force behind the blow was quite powerful, and a dancing shield wouldn't be able to resist such a strike. For this reason, he took hold of the shield with his left arm, angling it to deflect the incoming spear attack to the side. As the blow hit with force, Harold felt the shock on his arm, but in deflecting the blow he had a split second to deliver a retaliatory strike with his blade, attempting to disable one of the angel's wings and therefore her ability to fly. They were large targets, and, though beautiful, they were currently the enemy.

"Just for clarification," he said as the angel passed him, "Are you attacking me because your angry, or is your goddess just evil?" Angels tended to be terrible liars, so he figured he'd at least try to get some information out of her by getting her to start talking.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"What does a godless heathen like you know of good and evil?" Fleur growled spinning to the right to avoid any sort retaliation attack. She touched down the ground her the ball of her left foot pivoting on the ground. She turned so her wings were away from the dragon slayer knowing he would go straight for her wings mortal always did and while the idea sound logical to take away the ability to fly an angel's wings were much stronger than a bird's wings. She could take several hits to them before it affected her ability to fly, although she wasn't sure about the dragons bane blade. She had never been struck there before with dragons bane and didn't know if it would cause more damage than a regular blade or not. She was hoping not but didn't want to find out. Fleur spun her blade around with her pivot but her landing was a little on the clumsy side and she only managed hit him on the back of the head with the pole of the spear before jumping into the air again.

[Holeypaladin]

"Apparently more than you do," the knight replied sarcastically. "All you know is how to obey orders like a mindless drone. It's a wonder you have any semblance of intelligence at all, as a golem construct can obey orders and have the same effect." The haft of the polearm harmlessly glanced off his helmet, as he hadn't bothered to avoid it entirely.

Releasing his grip on the shield, he let it continue to block the polearm of its own accord. Currently, the angel held a reach advantage over Harold, but this could be easily rectified. Surely she would expect him to fight her at close range, attempting to get within sword reach of her, but in order to do so, he would have to somehow get past her polearm.

"Morality is so simple that the dumbest child can figure it out," he muttered. "But I suppose a brainwashed mind-slave lacks the intelligence of a five year old." His words were meant to distract her, as his shield blocked her vision from what he was summoning in his left hand. As the shield moved aside, however, his double barreled flintlock pistol (http://www.swordsandarmor.com/images/G22-1264_Double_Barrel_Engraved_Flintlock_Pistol.jpg) was pointed right at her, and with a thunderous explosion, discharged a dragonbane projectile at point blank range, aimed for her center of mass.

[AngelDellaNotte]

As the knight spoke she noticed some movement behind his shield but couldn't fully see what it was. She growled at his words but the thought of one of her tutors appeared in her mind. Thoreau, she had hated the man for years, he was a master fighter who always taunted her while fighting, making comments about her lack of pure blood. It wasn't until many years later she realized his taunting had been a lesson not to let her anger get the better of her. This dragon slayer was doing the same thing, insulting her in the hopes of making her angry and loose focus.

She wouldn't let that happen a growl escaped her throat as she finally saw what was in Harold's hand noticing the pistol. She swore under her breath, having never really liked firearms they were a coward's weapon in her mind. Any idiot could point a gun and shoot it, skill was taken to wield a real weapon. Even a bow and arrow took years of study to master. She could see the bullets barreling through the air noticing the glint of dragon bane on the bullet. She attempted to fly out of the path of the bullets but even her angel speed wasn't fast enough as she felt the one of the bullets ripped through her right wing. It hurt but it didn't burn like it had when she had been struck with a dragons bane blade. Well that answered that question.

She dropped down to the ground holding her spear before her protectively as she flexed her wings feeling the sting of the wound. The bullet went straight through the wing and while it hurt it didn't completely prevent her from flying, she still would be able to but wouldn't have the speed she was used to. It would be best to stick to a ground battle for now and only fly if she needed. First though she needed to get that gun out of the fight. She held her hand up summoning a small ball of fire in her hand, it was barely the size of her palm when she threw it at the pistol the ball hitting the barrel and coating it quickly turning the metal red hot.

[Holeypaladin]

The knight was surprised by the angel's ability to somehow evade the line of fire at the last split second, but he had at least scored a minor injury to her wing. It wasn't much, but it was better than a miss. The woman's response, however, was... not what he had expected. Her magical strike had been directed not at him, but at the pistol... as if the pistol was considered a bigger threat than the man wielding it. Well, it wasn't his only weapon, so as the metal heated, he simply discarded the weapon, tossing it into the air.

"Not even denying it, are you?" he continued to taunt her, leveling his gaze at the woman in order to see how she would react next. "You should at least give one of those 'since you're about to die anyway, I might as well tell you the whole plot' speeches like a good evil overlord would do. It's the sort of thing that would suit someone who is lawful stupid, like yourself."

Timing his attacking, Harold stepped in, using his shield to provide cover against the polearm in order to get close enough to strike with his sword. As he delivered his blow, however, his pistol, discarded but still with a bullet in the second chamber, fired as if on its own from a different angle as the knight distracted his opponent with a direct frontal assault.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"I have faith, something a man like you apparently knows nothing about." She said, spinning her spear around to block the blade of the sword away from her. The pistol discharging startled her but she tried not to let it bother her and pushed back on the sword moving it further from her and closer to Harold the two of them seeming to have a push and pull going on. The two of them looking to have an even amount of strength. Despite the pain it caused in her wings Fleur flapped them giving her the extra strength she needed to knock Harold over.

She stood over him with her spear posed to strike down but paused staring at him not at all sure what she was doing. Yes, she had been ordered by her goddess to kill this man but never fully understood their alliance with the dragons. Before she could think more on it or strike at the dragon slayer she heard a roar in the sky behind her and looked up to see a good sized red dragon circling above them. By the pattern on the scales on the dragon Fleur could recognize the dragon as Iyliam, a lesser red dragon in the service of Saryn. He was a young dragon but quite cruel she always hated when he was in the heavens.

A couple years ago he had made several attempts to woo her into his bed but they had been crude and insulting. She had refused the dragon angering him to strike her. Varava had been quite displeased when she had gone past defending herself to out right defeating the dragon wounding him and embarrassing him in front of the other dragons who still taunted him about being bested not only by a woman but a angel. Since then the two had managed to remain peaceful around each other physically but their verbal barbs at each other were constant. So much to the point that Varvara always found some sort of assignment for Fleur when the dragon was around.

The dragon dropped down closer to them seeming to be heading straight toward them he let out another roar then spouted a large flame from his mouth. Fleur spread her wings out wide and crouching down wrapping them around herself and quite by accident around Harold as well. Being half red dragon she had a higher tolerance for fire, it was painful but she was able to absorb the flames.

[Holeypaladin]

The angel was skilled.. far more skilled than any human Harold had fought. And far stronger than a woman her size should be. Ordinarily, he could overpower anything short of a dragon by brute force alone. Then again... half-dragons were much stronger than humans, due to the draconic blood that flowed through their veins. In an attempt to make the angel feel like she had the upper hand at close range, the knight allowed himself to fall to the ground. In reality, it was a tactic to prepare her for another strike, but as she raised her spear, he sensed hesitation. Had his words gotten through to her, or was it something else?

A familiar-sounding roar interrupted their conflict, as the dragonslayer heard the familiar sound of a red dragon. It was unusual for a dragon to be seen this close to Lucia... unheard of, in fact, unless the dragons were, as Harold now suspected, in league with the treacherous goddess Varvara herself. At first he thought it was reinforcements arriving to support the angel, but when the dragon breathed its fire...

Even as the angel inadvertently shielded him with his wings, the knight's eyes narrowed. "He's trying to kill us both," he stated the obvious. Thankfully, the angel's dragon blood allowed her to resist the flames, though Harold's own armor was also designed to resist dragon breath, as he'd be a rather ineffective dragon slayer otherwise. "Truce for now, while we slay the dragon?" A three way fight wouldn't serve either of them, and if the angel still desired to kill him, she could make a second attempt once the dragon was dealt with.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Fleur hissed in pain standing up her wings singed around the edges. The only good thing was that the dragonfire had cauterized the bullet wound on her wing. “What the hell are you doing?” Fleur said, stepping away from Harold ignoring his comment about working together. She walked toward the dragon who had landed a short distance from them.

“Saryn sent me to ensure you can do what your lady claims you can. But apparently don't have the ability to kill a simple human.” The dragon roared smoke coming from the corners of his mouth.

“I have the ability or have you forgotten how you got that scar on your side?” Fleur growled moving closer and pointing her spear at a long scar on the dragon's left flank.

Iyliam growled loudly rising up on his hind legs, “Enough of this! I'm going to finish this and if a pesky angel falls in the process so be it. Shame how I'll have to explain to your goddess how despite my best efforts I couldn't save her precious Fleur.” The dragon said, launching another blast of fire at her. Fleur managed to wrap her wings around herself again, not knowing how much dragonfire she could absorb. She hissed in pain as the dragon refused to let up pounding her with the flames.

[Holeypaladin]

The distraction provided by the angel allowed Harold some time to think and react. This red dragon was arrogant, and young... which made him weak, as far as dragons were concerned. Much weaker than the last dragon he had faced. Though he wasn't specialized for defeating angels... dragons were a different matter entirely.

As the dragon bombarded the angel with fiery breath, she showed a remarkable resistance to fire. Even a weak red dragon could reduce a human to ash with that much fire, but this angel was only being scorched a bit. Well, and weakened... weakened to the point where Harold was certain he could finish her off. He only needed to dispatch the dragon swiftly... this was his real goal, after all.

"Sehlek wyogale," he incanted in Draconic, "Trelk." Though the dragon would most certainly have been able to know what he was casting had he bothered to listened, he was too busy drowning out his own hearing with the sound of the fire breath to see what was happening before it happened. As Harold completed his incantation, he teleported a short distance... right up into the dragon's face, impaling the creature through the eye with his dragonbane sword. Thrusting it hilt-deep, he pierced the creature's brain with a swift stroke to a vital area, dispatching it before the dragon even realized his mistake.

As the creature fell to the ground with a thud, the knight slowly approached the angel, examining her scorched wings. "You're in no condition to fight," he stated a fact. Her injuries were too severe for her to carry on... he had delayed the finishing blow long enough to ensure this much. "Surrender, or at least tell me why I shouldn't finish you off."

[AngelDellaNotte]

She was thinking the flames were finally going overpower her when without any reason she could think of they just stopped. She knelt there for a moment unsure of what was happening then with a tremendous amount of pain she pulled them back from around her and looked up seeing the dragon slayer standing on on top of Iyliam with his blade buried in it's skull. Well that explains why the dragon stopped. She stared at Harold looking at him until a twinkle behind him caught her eye. It was a small purple light buzzing around. A pixie and a familiar one at that, Jarrah he was Varvava's number one spy. Which meant Varvava was watching what happen she had seen Iyliam attack her and did nothing to stop him.

The dragon slayer jumped down and walked toward her, ichor and blood still dripping from the blade. Fleur attempted to stand having to use her spear to help her to her feet only to collapse to her hands knees. She looked up at Harold again but wasn't looking at him merely at the Jarrah still out of sight from the human and still doing nothing. She wasn't sure what she excepted to happen. Perhaps for the heavens to open up and a horde of angels to rain down? Or maybe the goddess herself to appear and whisk her away. But none of those things happens Harold merely stood there. Fleur threw her spear to the away from them and sat up to her knees with her head bowed, “Just get it over with.” She said, defeated and realizing her goddess had abandoned her.

[Holeypaladin]

Watching as the angel looked at him, Harold suddenly saw her eyes dart to something else. Following the movements of something... that wasn't him. Rather than turning around to see what it was, he instead used his summoned shield as a mirror, revealing the location of an unseelie sprite. A spy, no doubt... but one who wasn't interfering.

Perhaps the sprite was testing the angel's loyalty. That would not be much of a surprise... angels were, by nature, lawful good, but since her goddess had obviously strayed from the path of goodness, she was likely losing angels left and right as they became aware of the corruption that had taken hold of Varvara's mind. Fae were known for being masters of illusion magic... but two could play at the illusion game.

As the angel lowered her head in defeat, Harold approached her, sword in hand. Illusion most definitely wasn't his strength, but a simple enough illusion should be all it took in order to accomplish his goal. "Beli," he whispered a simple spell, before bringing his sword down in a heavy blow.

From the perspective of the sprite, it would appear as if Harold's sword severed the head of the angel, sending it rolling in a gory mess, her body collapsing to the ground shortly after. In reality, the swing had been a very narrow miss... having struck right above the top of her head. The sprite seemed satisfied with the results, however, and buzzed off to report back to his mistress.

The knight extended a hand to the angel. "Varvara may have abandoned you," he said, "But I think it's because there is too much good in you, whether you realize it or not. Take my hand, and let your heart be your guide. It is in your nature to be good and lawful, so listen to your inner voice... your conscience. It's been telling you that the alliance with dragons is wrong, hasn't it?" He was guessing, of course... but hoping beyond hope that his guess was at least somewhat accurate.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Your pet failed.” A man with long blonde hair (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/07/b0/28/07b028ba682649ccb98f6ef419f37317.jpg) and a little scruff on his chin said, from a throne placed a little lower on the dais as he looked over to Varvara a look of displeasure on his face. You could tell by looking at the man that he wasn't human there was an aura around him but he didn't have the look of a god either.

“Saryn, only because that imbecile of yours intervened.” Varvara said, looking over at the pixie having just watched a magical recording of the battle again. They had been watching live while it happened but Saryn insisted they watch it again when the pixie returned.

“She had failed even before that.” Saryn said holding his hand up and winding it back to where Fleur stood holding her spear over Harold. “She could have killed him here yet she didn't even make an attempt. It seems another one of your angels has fallen.”

“That had hardly has been proved. We'll never know now that she is dead.” Varvara said, looking over to Saryn a puzzled look on her face. “I'm surprised you show no remorse at her death.”

“Why would I?” Saryn said, standing up and walking away from the dais. “She was merely a half blood and an unwanted one at that. I imagine you will morn the loss of a bedmate far more than I will morn a mongrel. There still is the problem of the dragon slayer I hope the next warrior you send has more loyalty then the last. I've held up my end of the bargain and your lands remain untouched yet he still lives.”

Varvara watched as he left the room followed by several other dragons. There were a few angels and other servants still in the room. “Out now, everyone of you!” Varvara shouted, then glanced to the pixie who was scurrying from the room with the others. “Jarrah not you.” The pixie froze mid air and timidly flew back toward the goddess seeing that she was furious. “Show it to me again.”

The pixie gulped and then showed her the images again. When it came to right before Harold was about to kill Fleur she commanded him to stop. Then she stood walking over to the image looking at it closer. Around the angel there seemed to be a strange shimmer. “Interesting.” Varvara said, taking her seat again. “You are dismissed.”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Fleur looked at his hand as if it were a snake that could strike at her at anytime. She hurt from head to toe from the dragonfire. So much was going on that she didn't understand. Her goddess allying with the dragons, ordering her to kill someone who had time after time saved her people, abandoning her to Iyliam and now this human showing her mercy. She took his hand and with his help stood. “I don't understand why?” She asked but never got a chance to hear a reply finally succumbing to her injuries and passing out into his arms.

[Holeypaladin]

"Because you're pretty, really," the knight said with a shrug at the angel's words. It seemed she hadn't heard him, however, as she instead passed out in his arms. Well, he could think of any number of things to do with a pretty lady in his arms, but all of them were the sort of thing that he'd never actually follow through with. Instead, he simply picked her up in his arms, carrying her away from the site.

It wouldn't do to bring a wounded angel back in to town, so he instead searched for a secluded area in which to set her down. Heading off into the forest, he soon found a suitable camp site, and lay the unconscious angel down on the ground. Gazing at her body, he considered what to do next. She had just tried to kill him... but in the end, she had hesitated. Harold wasn't a very idealistic man by nature, but he wanted to believe in this woman, at least.

Well, mostly it was because he had been incredibly attracted to her supernatural beauty since the moment he met her. It was upsetting that she had tried to kill him, sure, but her judgment had been clouded by indoctrination. With a sigh, he came to a decision.. a risky one, which may end up costing his life, but he simply couldn't summon the will to end hers.

"Irisv shio ezoukeic chiilipen," he incanted the most powerful healing spell he knew in Draconic. It was sufficient to heal all of the angel's injuries and burn marks, though it didn't repair her clothing damage, nor did it restore her stamina. She would still need rest in order to recover and after using up that much magical energy.. so would he. A fire would be too risky, now that he knew that he was in enemy territory... but he still needed rest and warmth of some kind. Wrapping his arms around the angel, he snuggled inside her wings for warmth rather than attempting to start a fire, holding his enemy close as he fell asleep alongside her.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She awoke laying on a hard surface rather than the plush soft bed she was used to sleeping on back in her room in the heavens. It was cold and dark out, it would take a little while for Fleur's eyes to adjust to the darkness. She was so tired and so sore but she didn't seem to have any injures adding to her confusion. As her eyes got used to the darkness she could see her clothes were burned and frayed. Aside from the hard ground underneath her she could feel she was snuggled up against something or rather someone. It was a man, and not just any man she was laying curled up with the dragon slayer she had been sent to kill by Varvara. The thought of her goddess sent a whole another wave of emotions through her. She loved Varvara and had thought the goddess loved her but how could that be after she so carelessly abandoned her? Unable to help it tears started falling from her eyes as she clutched tighter to Harold.

[Holeypaladin]

Waking to the sensation of being held tightly and the sound of a woman sobbing, Harold tightened his grip on her as well, pulling her head to his chest as he began to stroke her hair. He could only imagine what she was going through... he didn't know much about her relationship with her goddess, but considering the blind devotion she had shown, the whole affair must have left her broken and without purpose.

Well, she wasn't trying to kill him, at least, but she wasn't... alright, either. "Fleur..." he said, recalling the name she had given him earlier. He wasn't even sure if it was her real name, but she wasn't a very good liar, so most likely it had been. He opened his mouth to speak again, but couldn't find words, and merely continued to hold her and let her cry.

From his perspective, it was a good thing that the angel felt like her goddess abandoned her. But he didn't say this, for it would only cause her more pain, at the moment. Varvara had obviously sided with the evil dragons, according to what the young red had said, but it didn't serve to ease the pain of this angel, whose every belief had been shattered so recently. And so, he just held her, not speaking lest his words betray him.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Why?” Fleur asked, not really asking Harold it was more so a question for herself. When she felt his hands running through her hair she was brought back to reality and who's chest she was crying on. She couldn't believe she was actually crying on the chest of a man she didn't even know. Without really thinking about it she shoved him away and stood up calling her spear. It was linked to her and she was always able to call it to her. Standing up and using magic made her remember how weak she was, she found herself having to lean on her spear to stand. “Why did you spare me?” She asked, this time directing her question to Harold. Though she had called her spear and now held it she made no moves to attack him. Not that she could if she wanted to, she was still drained from the battle. “After I attacked you with no provocation and learning that I am allied with your enemies?”

[Holeypaladin]

Well, her response wasn't exactly unexpected, but, Harold merely sat up. Though she had called her polearm, she made no threatening moved towards him, so he sat and considered how to respond to her question. Eventually, he gave a shrug. "You're not the real enemy," he said as he found a tree to lean against. "You weren't attacking out of your own will, but according to the orders of someone else, right?"

"But mostly..." he said, "The way you hesitated. It showed me that you didn't have any particular desire to kill me... that you were acting against your own will, but rather according to the will of someone else." Well, also because she was beautiful, but that wasn't as much of an issue now that he had given it some more thought. "Deep inside, you know chromatic dragons are evil, which makes me a good guy for killing them. It's not in your nature to be evil, despite how others might try to program you."

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Then you should kill me.” She said, somehow finding the strength walk to him without the aid of the spear which she held out to him the axe end of it pointing towards her. She forced it into his hands and kept the tip of it pressed right over her heart. “Well come on do it. You've no doubt figured out what I am. As you say chromatic dragons are evil, then slay me.” She stood there staring at him her breath heavy from exerting energy she didn't have to stand and push the spear into his hands. Even though it was a struggle to stand she still pressed on urging him to kill her. What point was there for her to live? She was a fallen angel with no god, what purpose could there be for her in life? Serving her goddess had been the only life she had known.

[Holeypaladin]

Watching the angel as she approached, her next words made him realize something. Of course. Why hadn't he realized it already? Some dragonslayer he was. "Are you referring to your dragon half?" he asked, as if he had known the whole time. "From what I've seen, it's not your dominant half. Though you may technically be half dragon, your actions and personality is that of an angel... so you're more angel than dragon."

Setting the spear aside rather than sticking it through the woman, he gazed at her. "Why are you so eager to die? What purpose would your death serve? Surely you must realize that you can accomplish more alive than you can dead... but in order to do this, you must first come to an understanding of what is good, and what is evil. Sit with me," he patted the ground next to him, holding his gaze on the angel. "You can hardly stand anyway, so go ahead and sit."

[AngelDellaNotte]

Losing the last little bit of strength she had left Fleur dropped down to the ground next to Harold, folding her wings on her back as she leaned against the tree. She rested her head on the tree looking up at the stars then said, “You don't even know me. Hell, I don't think I even know me. I have spent my entire life thinking I was doing good. That by serving my goddess...Varvara, I was one of the good guys. Now I'm not so sure anymore. You weren't the first person I've ever fought with the intent to kill them. I'm a warrior, I've fought before and I've killed before. I always believed it was justified because I was on the side of good. I see now that I wasn't. Those people that I killed was it justified or was it murder? You ask why I want to die. I ask why should I be allowed to live?”

[Holeypaladin]

Harold wasn't going to lie to the angel and say that she was doing good in order to reassure her. Instead, he attempted to approach the matter from a different perspective... thinking of what to say, how to give her at least some measure of hope and will to continue existing. Well, he hadn't saved her only to kill her or let her die, after all.. it would have been quite the waste of a powerful healing spell.

"You are indeed a warrior," he said with a nod. "A rather skilled one, at that. Perhaps one of the most skilled warriors I've ever faced... and I've faced many." He considered her words. Had her crimes deserved death? Perhaps... but she hadn't known that her targets weren't evil. She was a tool, after all. He wasn't sure what sort of relationship she had with her "mistress," but he did get the impression that she wasn't one to voice objections openly, despite her reservations.

"Varvara once served the cause of good," he said eventually. Well, he didn't know a lot of the details of her fall, so he could only speculate at this point... but he was a rather intelligent individual. One had to be intelligent, when hunting highly intelligent beasts such as dragons. "She wouldn't have had any angels to begin with, had she not. Evil deities don't typically have angelic servants... their servants tend to be much more evil, after all. But after thousands of years... I suppose she lost her way."

He chuckled a bit as he recalled what he knew from her religion. "Night is dark and full of terrors, but can also be comforting. People would pray to Dea Della Notte for protection from the terrors of night... and she would send angels, such as yourself, to guard their dreams. Thus began to the lore of guardian angels, who would protect the dreams of the faithful."

Frowning, he shrugged. "I guess the Renaissance had taken its toll on Varvara. Men no longer worship deities as they used to, placing their faith instead in logic and reason. Perhaps, in order to regain the power that all of this regions deities lost... she decided to make an alliance with the forced of evil, turning away from her original purpose. An act of desperation, perhaps, but proof that deities can be corrupted." Night was also a difficult domain... one easily misinterpreted, due to the natural fear men held of the dark. This also allowed for a potentially evil night goddess, rather than one who provided pleasant dreams and protection from nightmares.

"As for why you should live..." he said, "Your death would serve no purpose. You can't redeem yourself if you are dead, so why seek death? All it would do is end your life. You still have potential to accomplish a lot of good things... and you are powerful. There are ways to distinguish right and wrong, without having to listen to dogma and doctrine... an entire school of philosophy is devoted to using reason and logic to determine right and wrong. This is the school of Ethics. I can help you to figure out a more Ethical way to live, if you like."

[AngelDellaNotte]

She listened to him talk about guardian angels a smile coming to her face. "Dream walking." She said, looking over at him thinking about the practice. "It has been many years but I have dream walked before. I had to have been around twelve the first time my tutors took me along. We walked into the dream of a girl not much younger than me. It was a frightening dream, I remember being terrified. I had never been so scared in my life. The girl was dreaming about being attacked by bandits. My tutor made me step in and fight them. He didn't tell me that the couldn't really hurt me. I didn't know that I would feel the pain but the moment the dream walking was over I wouldn't have any wounds. It took some time and I took quite a few hits but finally I stopped all the bandits. I was in so much pain but when I saw the look on the girl's face it was all worth it. It was amazing." Fleur said, recounting the memory the smile growing on her face. "I used to dream walk all the time but as I got older Varvara noticed me more, she kept giving me assignments and increasing my training until finally I just stopped dream walking."

[Holeypaladin]

The angel seemed to enjoy remembering her experience in protecting a young girl in her dream. Indeed... she definitely seemed to prefer protecting people rather than acting as a hit girl for her goddess. "Some of the threats in dreams are real," he said, "So it's good for people to have angels such as yourself who can step in to protect them from the dangers of their nightmares."

Gazing towards the angel, he noted once again how beautiful she was, especially when she smiled. "Ethical principles can be difficult, but the concept is pretty simple. It's good to help others, and bad to hurt them. Pretty basic, once you get down to it. As I said before... even a child can figure it out." He gaze settling on her wings, he reached out to touch and stroke them, in some sort of effort to try and comfort her. He had no way of knowing, after all, that in addition to protecting her from fire, her wings might very well act as erogenous zones for her kind.

[AngelDellaNotte]

At the touch of her wings Fleur took a deep breath, a soft moan escaping her lips. Her eyes fell closed, enjoying the touch on her wings. It was a few moments later that she realized who was touching her wings. Her eyes shot open, she turned toward him and slapped him across the face before standing up. She was still weak from the battle and lost her footing falling back into a bush not far from them. As quickly as she could she untangled herself from the bush sitting a short distance from Harold her face completely red and leaves stuck in her hair and wings. "Sorry it's just my wings are..." She said, pausing to find the correct word. "Sensitive."

[Holeypaladin]

The moaning sound that came from the angel when her wings were touched was most definitely unexpected. In that moment, Harold learned something quite interesting about her wings. The slap that followed, however... well, that was something that, in that particular instance, he indeed expected, so it didn't come as a surprise at all.

It was weak, but still hard enough to be felt. What amused Harold most, however, was the way she tried to stand up, only to fall over into the bushes. This caused him to try and maintain his laugh... it was all such an amusing situation. As he saw the mess that had been caused by the foliage all over her, he could no longer contain himself, and began to laugh loudly.

"S-sorry..." he said, trying not to laugh, "But... if you saw yourself now... you'd be laughing too!" A bit more laughing, and he shook his head and composed himself. "That was... unexpected. I'll try not to touch them again until I know you a little bit better... sound good?" Still chuckling a bit, he tried to compose himself, hoping the angel wouldn't be upset... but she looked utterly hilarious in that moment.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"You... you will never touch them again." Fleur said, trying to compose herself. She managed to brush the leaves from her hair with her fingers but she knew she couldn't reach the ones on her wings so she didn't even try. Instead she stood her strength returning to her a little, she waited a moment to be sure she had her balance then flapped her wings a few times. The wind made from her wings stirred up the leaves around her, a smile came to her her face as she turned away from Harold still flapping her wings sending the leaves toward the dragon slayer. Once all the leaves were free from her wings she stopped and turned back to Harold seeing that he was covered in leaves now. A chuckle escaped her lips before she said, "I suppose it is kinda funny looking."

[Holeypaladin]

It was cute the way the angel tried to compose herself, still shaken from the experience it seemed. "Well..." he commented, "At least not without your permission." It seemed she still had it out for him, however, as she sent a gust of leaves at him, obviously trying to make it look like an accident. He wasn't sure what it looked like, but imagined it to be something similar to what she had looked like when she first fell into the pile of leaves herself.

"Yeah yeah," he said, "Very funny." Well, if she was able to joke and tease, then perhaps she was starting to feel at least a little bit better. This was a good sign, but... "Hey Fleur, I bet you don't spend a whole lot of time in the mortal world, do you?" He paused to clarify, "I mean like, when you're not on a mission or something. Have you ever had time to just... see the sights? Without having to worry about tracking a target or carry out a specific assignment?"

Walking over to her, he slowly reached out to take her hand in his own. "Let's go on a date," he said. "I bet that would be a new experience for you, wouldn't it?"

[AngelDellaNotte]

"I've studied many aspects of the mortal world but no I haven't really stopped to take in the sights." Fleur said, indeed feeling better, her strength returning to her. She wasn't strong enough to fight but at least she could stand without falling over. "Angels aren't really known for vacationing here, it is hard to compete with the heavens they are unlike anything you have ever seen." A sight frown came to her face thinking that she couldn't really return home and would have to get used to the mortal realms. Varvara had abandoned her and thought she was dead. It would be a good idea to actually experience the world, reading about it was one thing but actually seeing it. She looked down at her clothes thinking her armor in this shape would stand out, granted so would her wings but she could conceal them. Fleur closed her focusing on her armor and willing it to change. A sort of fog swirled around her for a few moments and when it faded she was wearing a red and white gown. (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/9b/84/1f/9b841f42a960ef4d7efb76f32bc7f7b0.jpg)

[Holeypaladin]

Harold was glad to see the angel in better spirits, shrugging at her words. "While this place surely can't compare to the heavens," he remarked, "It does indeed have its own small wonders. The Free Cities are currently going through a Renaissance in art and technology... some of the paintings and sculptures being produced by the finest mortal artists in the world can be found here. Perhaps not comparable to the heavens, but are not mortal works beautiful because they are created by flawed creatures?"

Making his way closer to her, he moved up next to her. "It's normal to walk like this while on a date," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist, careful not to touch her wings. "And since you're still a bit weak, it's best not to push yourself, right? So lean on me for support." He tried to think of the nearest city with a Salon of art. Lucia was not an option as it was under Varvara's control, and Firenzia was on the other side of Lucia from their present location, and he'd prefer not to head in that direction. Instead, he steered the angel towards Genvese, a coastal city with a wide array of art and a powerful trade fleet.

[AngelDellaNotte]

As Harold rested his hand on the small of her back a shiver ran through her. She had been touched like this before having a few lovers other than the goddess but it felt different this time. More real, she wasn't entirely sure what it was. She let him guide her back to the road and enchanted her wings to be concealed should anyone traveling on the road see them. She could tell by the landmarks that they were heading away from Lucia and the lands loyal to Varvara, thinking it was a good thing. Yes, the goddess believed her dead but it probably wasn't a good idea to go gallivanting around her territory. That led her to the thought of Harold as well, she had been sent to kill him and though he staged her death he still lived. Varvara no doubt would try again to kill him and so would the dragons. "Is it safe for us to travel like this? You have a death warrant on your head." She asked.

[Holeypaladin]

Making his way down the road, the knight shrugged as she expressed concern for him. "Thanks for your concern," he said to the angel, "But it's never really safe to travel, anymore. Banditry and dragon raids have grown far too common in recent months, and merchants are forced to hire so many guards that they can hardly make a profit. It forces them to charge more for goods, driving prices up and making it difficult to afford much of anything."

Chuckling a bit, he shrugged. "And I've had a death warrant on my head for years. It's nothing new. You're hardly the first assassin sent to kill me..." He gazed over at her angelic face. "Though, you are the most pretty. The last one was kinda cute but... not quite on your level." He didn't mention the fact that the last one had given up on trying to kill him after how well he pleased her in bed. Her plan to kill him while he was distracted by her body had backfired in a rather amusing way.

"Anyway, it's a long walk, and you're weak. So we'll ride, instead." With that, he incanted, "Jivi, arcanisstok," in a language that was familiar to the angel, summoning forth a phantasmal steed from a celestial realm. Making his way up into the saddle, he helped Fleur up into his lap, gently holding onto her and squeezing a bit as the horse began to make its way down the road towards Genvese.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"I'm not an assassin." Fleur said, taking offense with the word. Yes, she had been sent to kill him but she was a soldier. She meant to challenge him head on in battle, honorably not to sneak around and stab him in the back like a coward. Granted she had lost, though it really was yet to be seen how they would have fared if they hadn't of been interrupted by Iyliam. Fleur smirked a little thinking she had the upper hand prior to the dragon attacking them. She looked over to Harold as he boasted about foiling the last one, him no doubt thinking she was smirking at his complement rather than her own thoughts about besting him.

The words he spoke an enchantment summoning a steed for which she was grateful they wouldn't be walking as she was still a little weak. Though when he pulled her onto the mount she was a little uneasy, she had never actually rode on a horse be. There wasn't ever really a use for her to, it was much easier just to fly. Not that she had the strength to right now. Which made her thankful for the ride even if it did make her feel a little nervous. The fact she was riding side saddle across his lap didn't help, she felt like she was going to slip off and fall. So she grabbed onto the arm wrapped securely around her waist.

[Holeypaladin]

"Yeah... you make a pretty terrible assassin," the knight agreed. Her tendency to attack directly and fight honorably weren't effective traits for stealthy assassination, not typically for dragon slaying, either. Harold himself often used deceit and trickery to dispatch dragons and strike their weak points... they were a great deal more powerful than humans in any sort of fair fight, after all. "But you do make a good warrior," he said with a shrug.

As he hadn't mentioned the way he defeated the last assassin, Harold had no clue why the angel was smirking. Perhaps it was the mention of her being pretty, though it seemed to be the sort of thing she heard quite often. She definitely seemed to be clumsy on horseback, but this proved to be a benefit rather than a problem, as he could simply hold her tighter while she grasped him as well.

"Not many angels have dragon blood," he commented, more a way to pass the time, really. He wasn't typically much for conversation, but figured mentioning something like that would give her something to talk about so as to avoid awkward silence on the road.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"My mother was bound to a dragon rather than a god." Fleur said, recalling what her tutors had told her. She didn't remember anything before coming to the heavens, she had been quite young. "I'm not sure how that happened. It isn't a common thing. My tutors never really would go into the details. I think they were worried that talking about my mother would upset me." She closed her eyes briefly, trying to bring an image of her to mind but she had only ever seen her mother in a painting once before while Varvara was staying in Saryn's lair. Dahlia had been a beautiful woman and Fleur could see much of herself in the painting though she did have some traits from her father most noticeably was her blonde hair. Most of Varvara's angels had either dark black or brown hair causing Fleur to stand out.

"She died when I was born." Fleur said, still clutching to Harold's wrist and feeling him pull her closer glad for the support but feeling a blush come to her face as his chest pressed into her back and she could feel his breath on her neck. "I'm told I lived with my father for a few years before he decided it was best for me to be with my own kind. We never have been that close but dragon's aren't known for being the most parental."

[Holeypaladin]

Frowning at the angel's words, Harold considered her words. "No..." he remarked, "It most definitely is not a common thing. Not at all. The only use a dragon would have for an angel is... well, a trophy. And considering he had a child with her... obviously other things as well. Most likely, they didn't want to go into details because they didn't want you to realize what kind of situation your parents were actually in."

Squeezing her a bit tighter and pretending for it to be due to the horse speeding up slightly, he thought over her words. "Not all dragons are bad parents... but the chromatic dragons tend to be terrible parents, yes. They don't actually take care of their children, but lead them to fend for themselves, and their wyrmlings promptly murder each other until there's only one left from the original brood."

Sighing, he shook his head. It was a shame how some of the more terrible deities treated angels as sex slaves just because they were pretty. Fleur's mother had been one, and Fleur herself had most likely been exploited as such by her own goddess. At least the good deities gave their angels some degree of respect and didn't abuse their relationship with them. It was no wonder Varvara's angels were falling like flies lately.

"You know..." he said, "Most half-dragons take after their dragon half. But most are half human. I'm glad you take after your angel side more than the dragon side, Fleur."

[AngelDellaNotte]

"You know nothing of my parents." Fleur said, angry at what Harold was implying about her mother and father. She knew little of them but didn't want to believe what he said was true. How did this human know the affairs of the angels and dragons? From what she knew about Saryn it was quite possible but she always remembered back to that painting she had seen in his lair. Saryn was sitting on a throne, Dahlia was standing behind him with her hand resting on his shoulder. The look on her mother's face didn't seem the look of a captive or a slave. She seemed happy, how could her mother have that look if she was a mere trophy like Harold suggested? What Fleur didn't know about the painting was it was made a short while before she was born and her mother was only smiling at the thought of the child growing inside her, not how it was conceived.

Fleur relaxed a little in Harold's grip not wanting to seem like his comments had angered her that much, he didn't know what he was talking about and only had his experience with dragons to go off of. So instead she directed the conversation away from her parents relationship, "Angels are divine by nature they will always be the dominate race when mixed with another race. With the exception of demi-gods."

[Holeypaladin]

"Perhaps you're right," said the knight with a shrug. "I never met them, after all. But from the sound of it... you don't really know anything about them either, only what you've been told. I just want you to be prepared in case things between them might not have been as happy as you imagine." He chuckled. "I do consider myself somewhat of an expert on dragons, after all." He hadn't meant to anger the angel, and she had come across as upset with her words... but soon relaxed. Perhaps she wasn't all that angry after all, then.

"Hmm..." he said, considering her words. Well, that had been what she was taught, no doubt. "Well, without a whole lot of examples to draw from, it's difficult to say for certain. Ancient dragons are often more powerful than deities, after all. Your goddess would not choose to ally with a weakling, so they're at least powerful enough that a goddess considers them a worthy ally, yes? Which means they're perhaps equals, in her mind."

"Perhaps..." he considered, "Perhaps you're fortunate in that your angelic nature is stronger. At least for now. As dragons grow more powerful with age, there's a chance that side of you could grow in influence as well... so it's something to keep in mind." He didn't want to add in the fact that her angelic nature had been very heavily corrupted by Varvara... it was too soon to be saying such things, after all.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"Varvara is using the dragons." Fleur said, she didn't know all the details but Varvara always said they were a means to an end. "She tolerates them but that is where it end. She'll never see them as equals." She looked out ahead of her noticing there appeared to be a city in front of them. Before them she could start to see the red peaks of the buildings there with the rich blue sea as their backdrop. Out on the water there were a number of boats anchored, each one of them looking to be a work of art. Fleur took a deep breath the sight of it was far more pretty than any painting or drawing she had seen.

[Holeypaladin]

"Of course," the knight said with a shrug, "One does not simply befriend chromatic dragons, after all. They're certainly not friendly. But what you've described is basically how alliances work." The angel seemed to think she knew everything, despite the fact that it was pretty much impossible for her to know any more than what she had been told, so it was no surprise that she didn't agree with the things Harold said. At least, not yet. "The dragons are using Varvara as well, so long as their interests align. They're certainly not a stupid race... most of your own intelligence likely comes from your dragon side, as angels don't have much need for independent thought."

As the city of Genvese came into view, Harold watched the reaction of the angel. For saying that mortal cities could not compare to the beauty of her own celestial realm, she certainly did seem impressed by the sight of this particular city. "Genvese," he said, nodding towards the city. "One of the more advanced cities in this continent. Perhaps not as impressive to look at as Virenzia with its massive system of canals, but certainly not a bad sight." As he approached the city, he noted that the gates were more heavily defended than usual... likely in order to ward off any potential dragon threats, as well as hostile armies, as the free cities had begun to fight each other more fiercely than usual, lately.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She tried to ignore Harold's comments about dragons and her heritage rather than let it bother her thinking he was trying to be helpful despite it coming across as rude. Instead she listened to him talk about the city, it was much like she had studied but the sight was truly a beautiful. "It's so bright and vibrant. Varvara's realm is full of much darker colors. Beautiful in its own way but nothing like this." She said, as they rode closer to the gates. She noticed the guards standing at the gates seeming to be checking each person as they passed by. She also noticed that with every person the guards would look up to a large blue gem stone set into the archway. Each time someone walked through it pulsed from blue to green.

They rode up to the gate and waited in line until it was their turn and Harold trotted his magical stead closer, when they were just under the archway the gem began glowing red and emitting a piercing siren. "Dragon!" One of the guards said, as they all drew their swords aiming them at the pair. From above them she heard several archers lock in their crossbows all aimed at them. On instinct Fleur jumped from the horse summoning her poleaxe and standing her ground as she looked around at the guards waiting for them to make a move first.

[Holeypaladin]

Nodding somewhat in understanding, Harold commented, "A deity's realm would reflect that deity's aspect, so of course it would show the dark beauty of night. Probably a lot of stars everywhere too, huh? The mortal world is incredibly diverse... so you'll see many more sights the longer you stay here." He was somewhat concerned with how the guards were inspecting everyone who entered Genvese, and the stone that shifted color was obviously magical. He considered examining it more closely when it suddenly turned red and alerted the guards.

"Oh," he said somewhat lamely. "That's what the stone does." Before he could react, Fleur had jumped off the horse and summoned her weapon. The powerful Genvese crossbows were all pointed at her, and it definitely seemed like a fight was imminent. "Wait wait wait!" he shouted, moving his horse between Fleur and the crossbowmen, waving his hands for them to stop. "She's obviously an angel, not a dragon! Show them your wings, Fleur," he said with a nod to the angel.

"Red means dragon," growled the sergeant in charge of the guards. "Move aside so we can terminate it."

"Don't you recognize me?" the knight said, pointing to his face. "I'm the world famous dragonslayer, Sir Harold. I killed a red not that far back up the road, near Lucia. I can personally guarantee that my companion here won't be burning your pretty city down. Is there someone with the authority to let us in?"

Staring at him for a moment, the sergeant seemed to recognize the name, but couldn't put a face to it. "Don't move," he said, "Don't even breathe funny. Wait right there, and we'll confirm your identity." Whispering to one of the soldiers, he ran off, presumably to fetch someone in charge.

Glancing towards the angel, Harold said, "They're just soldiers... not the enemy. It would do no good to start a fight here and spill innocent blood... so let's wait patiently, shall we?"

[AngelDellaNotte]

Fleur growled at Harold as he announced she was an angel, it wasn't something that was broadcasted on the mortal realms. She had been told by her tutors to conceal her identity from mortals due to many times when an angel revealed themselves it caused problems with people flocking to the angel with pleas to heal the sick, save their crops and a multitude of other things an angel couldn't do. Not to mention the amount of hysteria it caused. She had only revealed herself to Harold because of her intention to kill him. Fleur lowed her poleaxe to a lower hold, one less threatening but still able to defend herself. "I mean these people no harm but I swear I will defend myself if I must." Fleur said, noticing the sergeant had returned with another man looking to be a higher rank.

"The dragonslayer here at my gates." The captain of the guard said, looking at the pair. "And here with a dragon he claims is an angel. Yet she sets off my wards and draws arms against my men. Tell me woman are you an angel as the dragonslayer claims? Or are you as the ward proves a dragon?"

"I know not what Sir Harold speaks of in regards to angels. Perhaps he is a lovestruck fool." Fleur said, causing several of the men to laugh until the captain of the guard hushed them with a look. "I will admit I am dragon at least half but I assure you it not my dominate half and I mean you no harm. A city with the resources to have a dragonstone no doubt has other protections against dragons. Have you a Dragon Bangle? If you grant me passage into your city I will agree to wear it." She had worn a Dragon Bangle before in the heavens during her training, it was a magical item enchanted to bind the powers of a dragon, her tutors had used it to teach her to fight without relying on the powers and strength she got from her dragon nature.

[Holeypaladin]

The captain of the guards was justifiably skeptical, as it would be quite unusual for a famous dragonslayer to be seen with a dragon in his company. Harold suspected several dragons were already living within Genvese itself, but he doubted they ever left through this main gate, and were more than likely upstanding individuals in the local society, as metallic dragons tended to be much more good-natured than Tiamat's kin.

As the angel denied being an angel and instead confessed to being half-dragon, Harold winced. "Wrong thing to say," he muttered, realizing almost beforehand what was to come next.

"A confessed half dragon!" came the reply from the captain, "Crossbows, ready, take aim-"

"Wait a moment," came another voice, this one distinctly female in nature. A woman soon approached, making her way up next to the captain. She was incredibly beautiful, wearing the uniform of a mercenary general and therefore superior in command. Upon seeing Harold's face, she smiled. "Well, I had heard that someone claiming to be the famous Sir Harold had come to the city... but now that I've seen you with my own eyes, I must wonder what brings you here."

"Hello, Adelina," said Harold a bit sheepishly, "Fancing seeing you here..."

"Likewise," she said in an extremely neutral tone. "Imagine my surprise, waking up alone expecting never to see you again, only to find you at my mercy at the city gates... tell me, why shouldn't I fill you with holes?"

"Well, we're on the same side, aren't we?" The knight spread his hands to show he was unarmed, but it didn't seem to make the mercenary general back down much at all. "Besides, you were the one who told me not to take it too seriously..."

"Hmph," the woman said, glancing over to Fleur. "And I see you already have a new girlfriend..." Feeling inadequate in that the angel was quite obviously far more attractive than she was, the woman glanced to the captain. "He's the real Harold," she muttered, "Give him the dragon bangle." With that, she strode off into town without looking back.

"Old girlfriend," the knight said with a shrug as he returned his attention to Fleur, catching the device that the captain had thrown down and fastening it to her wrist. "Or something like that. I guess. From now on, don't go around saying you're half dragon... because half-dragon humans take after their dragon half, every single time."

[AngelDellaNotte]

"I'm not his lover." Fleur said, looking up at Adelina seeing the other woman looked upset about whatever happened between her and Harold, figuring that they had been intimate in the past. Fleur barely knew Harold and didn't want to mislead the woman. The concept of boyfriends and girlfriends was a foreign one to angels. Yes, many paired off but it wasn't anything like the mortal concepts, due to angels being loyal to their gods before anything else.

Before Harold clasp the bangle on her wrist she sent her poleaxe away not liking the fact that there were still several crossbows aimed at them. If the archers decided to betray them she could always summon her wings to shield herself from the bolts but honestly she rather not since she had just lied about being an angel. The moment Harold slapped the bangle on her wrist she felt the energy sapped from her, forcing her to drop to her knees. Had she been at full strength it would never have affected her like this but she was still weak from the battle. Perhaps it was a good thing as it showed Adelina and the soldiers she wasn't a full dragon. A full dragon would never be this weakened from the bangle. Fleur took several deep breaths adjusting to the feel of the bangle blocking her powers. She always hated wearing one in training, sometimes she felt that her tutors would push her to her limits just to see what she was capable of, since she was the only known half angel, half dragon in existence, well at least in Varvara's realms.

Fleur wasn't sure how long it took to recover from the bangle but finally she stood felling unsteady on her feet though she tried not to show it. She looked to Harold, "I didn't see the point of lying they knew I was a dragon from the ward and you can't go around telling people what I am." She said, meaning her angel half still not wanting to say it herself as the soldiers seemed to be buying her excuse of not being an angel. She didn't want to confirm it by mistake. She lowered her voice so only he could hear her. "There is a reason you rarely see my kind on the mortal realm. That doesn't mean we aren't here."

[Holeypaladin]

Watching as the angel staggered from her draconic powers being weakened, Harold reached out an arm to steady her. "Take it slow," he said as he helped her to her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist and walking her in past the guards. There was still a concern over them killing her, of course, but apparently Harold was at least somewhat validated in their eyes due to the words of his ex girlfriend.

"They'd be much more willing to accept you if they knew what you were," he said with a shrug. "Anyway..." he gazed over to her beautiful face, "If there were a lot of your kind on this world, I'd most certainly know, by now." Harold had met many pretty women in his time on the world, but never anyone as beautiful as Fleur... women of her level of beauty were most certainly rare, even without the angel wings.

As the angel was still quite weak in her current condition, doubly so with her dragon powers suppressed, Harold headed towards the nearest inn, continuing to steady her along the way. If nothing else, it was a convenient enough excuse to hold on to her. Upon reaching the inn, he reserved the room, and helped the angel up the stairs only to find that the room had only one bed.

"Well," he said with a shrug, "I suppose we'll have to get used to it." He helped Fleur over to the bed, sitting her down on the edge and sitting next to her. "Are you alright?" he asked with some degree of concern. Though she had tried to kill him not long ago, he was still concerned with her current condition.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"Angels assigned to the mortal realms are instructed to keep a very low profile." Fleur said, continuing their conversation now that they were behind closed doors. "If word of their presence were to get out there would be people lining up for a miracle. It would create panic. Angels only reveal themselves when they absolutely must and usually only to the most devout. If you were to meet an angel you likely wouldn't even know. They would have a magical aura that could be passed off as being a magical being like a sorcerer."

She was glad to be sitting down on the bed, feeling very weak from the battle and the bracelet. "Sorry, I was starting to feel better then the bracelet stole my energy again. I really hate wearing these but it was the only way I could see out of there without a fight." She said, then held her hand up before Harold could speak, "Please believe me when I say people can't know my true nature. Besides I'm supposed to be dead if an angel appeared in Genvese, Varvara no doubt would notice."

She looked to the bed then back to Harold thinking about his exchange with Adelina and her mistake about their relationship. Harold was an attractive man, there was no denying that. She wasn't sure why Varvara wanted him dead, by everything she had seen he was a good man, even if he seemed to be a bit of a womanizer. Fleur rested her hand on top of his, lightly brushing her fingers against the battle worn skin, "You could have even slept with an angel without knowing it. Those of us assigned here are very good at blending in. I assure you it would have been a night you would never forget."

[Holeypaladin]

"I suppose a sufficiently powerful mage with experience with angels would be able to recognize them right away," the knight said with a shrug. "But most of them lack the necessary knowledge to do so. As for myself, well... now that I've met you, I'm fairly certain that I could identify a similar aura as that of an angel, were I to meet another one."

Thinking over the fact that revealing her nature would, indeed, cause widespread rumors that her so-called death was highly exaggerated... Harold gave a single nod. "I see your point," he admitted. "Genvese does not worship the goddess of night, but I'm sure she has spies and other agents in town. I don't know how many angels she has left that haven't fallen... but she might have one placed in town who would recognize you, so we should be careful."

Observing the way the angel glanced at the bed before making a sexual reference, Harold turned to gaze at her, gently taking the hand that had stroked his into his own. "I'm not so sure," he replied, even though he was pretty sure he would have recognized her aura had he ever encountered similar before, "But perhaps if an angel were to give me such a memorable night, it could trigger my memory, or at least erase memories of ordinary humans like Adelina." He gazed at her to see how she reacted to his words, recalling the way she moaned at her wings being touched.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Fleur threaded her fingers with his leaning closer into him. "Don't mention her name." She said, thinking about him mentioning there could be other angels in the city possibly ones loyal to Varvara. She could cast glamour to conceal her identity but any angel loyal to Varvara or not would be able to see through it. "My Mistress.... Varvara has many agents in the shadows." She said, with a frown that turned into a smirk as she realized she had just chided Harold for mentioning a past lover moments before mentioning her own. She tried to push all thoughts of Varvara from her mind, that part of her life was over, after she had seen how little she meant to the goddess. She briefly wondered if Varvara had ever loved her but quickly realized she already knew the answer.

Sitting up and taking a deep breath she finally admitted her herself that she couldn't keep living in the lies and falsehoods anymore. She was her own woman now, bound only by her own will. She had become a fallen angel. The thought of that scared her as all the stories she had heard growing up told her an angel couldn't survive without their god, but that seemed a little suspicious to her. She knew Varvara had lied about a number of things this could just be another lie.

The thoughts were jumbling around her head starting to be more than she could bare. Throwing all caution to the wind she closed the distance between her and Harold capturing his lips in a kiss meant to push all the unwanted thoughts away with a little distraction.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold smirked at the way Fleur told him not to mention his ex girlfriend, only to almost immediately mention her own. It was amusing how awkward she was. He didn't know how old she was, only that angels didn't age in the same way that humans did... but she did seem to be quite young and naive for an angel. Which, no doubt, made the betrayal she felt all the more harsh.

She seemed troubled for a moment, but soon he found her lips pressed against his own. Harold wrapped his arms around the angel, returning his kiss, sliding his tongue against hers as he held her in his arms. Judging by the innuendo from before, it was clear that she wanted this kiss to lead to other things, and so he decided to grant her wish, continuing to kiss her deeply as he lowered the angel onto the bed.

Slowly sliding her clothes off in order to expose her incredible body, he gave her a slight smirk, remembering an incident from earlier. "Now would you like me to touch your wings?" he managed to say, before kissing her neck, licking and sucking on it as his hands slid over her skin, gently caressing her, not wishing to rush this.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She reached up rubbing her hands along his shoulders enjoying the feeling of his lips on her neck. The feeling of the light stubble on his chin was a strange one. Angels didn't really have facial hair, it was strange but not all that unpleasant. Bringing her hands up to the clasps his breastplate she quickly undid them and dropped the heavy item to the floor, no doubt making whoever was on the floor below them wonder what as happening up stairs. From there she surprised the dragon slayer and with a strength she shouldn't have given the battle and the dragon bangle she reversed their positions so she was sitting on top of him straddling his waist. The comment about her wings brought a flush to her face that took a few moments for her to recover from as she thought about the feel of the stubble brushing across her wings, almost too much to bare. Instead she pushed him down into the bed kissing the edge of his jaw. "That, my brave knight is something you will have to earn." She said, between kisses.

*Queue the corny music as the lights dim*

[Holeypaladin]

After spending a good portion of the evening earning the privilege that the angel spoke of, Harold eventually fell asleep with the woman in his arm, holding her close to him throughout the night. Eventually morning came, and he awoke to find her still close in his arms, stroking her hair and caressing her as he gazed at her beautiful body. "Fleur..." he whispered his name, careful not to wake her. He had worn her out quite a bit, after all, so it wasn't much of a surprise that she would be so tired.

Not really wanting to move much or escape from her grasp, Harold continue to admire her silently, stroking her soft hair and gazing at her. It was too bad that her wings were currently hidden, as he quite liked them... but she had to maintain her disguise, in this city of humans, so it was a necessity in this particular case.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She awoke to the feeling of her bedmate stirring though she could tell they were trying not to disturb her. Waking from sleep came hard this morning, whether it was from the battles the day before or their activities during the night was wasn't entirely sure. So she lay in his arms for a few minutes before opening her eyes, enjoying the how it felt when her brushed his fingers through her hair. She looked up at him seeing his own hair was messed and flipped up a bit in the back with bed head. Her own hair no doubt looking perfect, not a hair out of place. One of the joys of being an angel, very rarely did they not look at their best, a sort of magical charm each one had since birth. “Good morning.” Fleur said, leaning up to press a kiss to his lips. She brushed her own hand through his hair trying futility to smooth down his hair with a giggle escaping her lips.

[Holeypaladin]

As the angel woke up in his arms, Harold returned her kiss tenderly, stroking her perfect hair. "Morning," he remarked, chuckling somewhat as she tried to fix his own hair and failed. "Did you have a nice rest?" The angel was quite the contrast to himself, as her body still looked flawless and perfect, despite the mess of her that the knight had made the night before. Benefits of being a celestial superbeing, he supposed.

Sitting up in the bed, he gazed at the woman, continuing to admire her beautiful body. It was hard to believe he had gotten together with her, but he definitely didn't object to it. She was certainly correct in saying it was the sort of thing he would never forget, but that didn't mean he'd never get a chance to repeat the experience, as she seemed to enjoy it quite a bit as well.

"How do you feel?" he asked the angel. He was still concerned for her, as she had undergone quite a bit of an emotional roller coaster lately, though the day at least ended on a rather good note, if he said so himself.

[AngelDellaNotte]

When Harold sat up in the bed so did Fleur taking a bed sheet with her and wrapping it around her as she stood up walking across the room. She stopped when she found her dress on the floor where it had been thrown the night. Picking it up she pulled it on then walked back to the bed sitting down next to Harold. “I feel a little better. A good nights rest helped.” She said, looking down at the bangle thinking she would probability feel much better if she wasn't wearing the bangle. She rubbed her wrist around the bangle then smiled looking up to Harold. “So what do we have planned for today? You promised to show me the wonders of the mortal realm and while last night was wonder I don't think that is what you meant.”

[Holeypaladin]

Harold chuckled as the angel wrapped the sheet around herself when she went to fetch her dress. "A bit late to be covering yourself like that, hmm?" Watching her pull it back on and return to him, he wrapped an arm around her waist, squeezing her a bit closer to himself. "Glad you're feeling better," he remarked. "Hopefully I contributed somewhat towards cheering you up."

He wasn't sure what to do about the angel's bangle, so he decided to leave that decision up to her. "Indeed," he remarked. "There are some things in town I'd like to show you. But first.... we should wash up. Well, I should, at least. I'd invite you to bathe with me, but you seem to have already gotten dressed," he teased as he made his way over to the bath.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Being a divine creature has its advantages.” Fleur said, a shimmering sparkle washing over her skin and washing away any hint of their activities last night. She followed him to the bath where she leaned toward him pressing a kiss to his lips the shimmer seeming to lightly coat him as well before fading, “I do get cold though and this room has a draft. Beside we are heading out and not everyone has earned the privileges you have.” She pulled away from him and walked back to the window looking out it giving Harold time to dress.

The inn he had chosen was located in an area of town that had very nice view. From here she could see the city square, some noble estates with beautiful gardens and if she looked out into the distance she could see the ocean. That was what had interested her the most, she had never actually seen the ocean before. The heavens had their own displays of nature but there weren't any oceans to be found. Hundreds of lakes, springs and rivers but never any oceans. At least in the celestial realms she had traveled in. She had never traveled to Arnavor, the realm of the god Arnav who ruled over the seas.

[Holeypaladin]

"I'm sure it does," remarked the knight, gazing at the angel as her body seemed to cleanse itself of its own accord. He wrapped his arms around her and returned the kiss, gazing at her for a time. "Alright," he said, "I'll be out soon enough." He went ahead and cleaned himself up before dressing and returning to the angel, noting the way she gazed out the window to the sea.

"This city is one of the two main trade cities in the region," he remarked. "If you like the view here, you should see Virenze sometime. Canals run through the whole city, and ferrymen take passengers to various parts of the city. Are you ready?"

He wrapped an arm around her waist, caressing her tenderly as he led her back downstairs into the streets of the Genvese. "Now then..." he remarked, "What part of the city are you just dying to see? Or do you want me to surprise you?"

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Surprise me.” She said, as they walked through the streets Fleur letting Harold guide her taking in the sights before her. She never realized before how interesting the mortal world was. Whenever she was here before she never took the time to actually look around instead just focusing on her mission. They stopped by a fruit vendor where Fleur reached down picking up an apple and bringing it to her lips. She paused when the vendor cleared his throat. Another difference between the realms, things here cost money and Fleur realized she didn’t have any. She looked over to Harold a smile on her face as she arched her eyebrow hoping he would pay the man.

[Holeypaladin]

"Alright," said the knight, squeezing the angel a bit closer since she didn't seem to have any objection to being held in this manner. Of course, she attracted the eyes of all the mortal men, but no doubt she was used to being stared at whenever she walked the mortal world. She could hide her wings, but she couldn't hide the fact that no human woman could compare to her beauty.

He chuckled at her confusion when she took an apple without paying. Tossing over a gold Firen to cover the cost since it was the smaller coin he had, Harold said, "Keep the change," allowing the vendor to essentially pocket an entire week's income. Steering the angel away, he decided to surprise her, as she had suggested, and made his way to some of the more elaborate manors.

Approaching a certain manor, Harold approached the doorman. "Hello," he said, "Is Lady Fernanda in?"

"May I ask who is asking?" the doorman asked.

"Harold. She'll know which Harold if you tell her she has a magnificent hoard."

"One moment," the doorman said, heading off for a time. Harold was left alone with the angel for a time, reaching out to stroke her hair softly.

"I think you'll like this," he said to her, giving her a tender kiss and a chuckle. "Don't worry," he said. "Fernanda isn't one of my old girlfriends... her kind mates for life, so she's rather picky."

[AngelDellaNotte]

She munched on her apple as they walked through the city enjoying the fresh taste of it and the view of the city. Each step amazed her more at how beautiful it was. Most of the time she spent on the mortal range wasn't in lands like this but smaller cities and the lairs of dragons allied with Varvara. Harold guided her to what appeared to be the richer side of town with the houses turning into large manors and estates. They stopped at one of the grander ones and were approached by the doorman. Harold exchanged with him a bit then they were led into a very large parlor as the man left to inform his mistress of their arrival. Something about the manor seemed familiar to Fleur. She knew she had never been here before she would have remembered a place as lavish as this but it was just a feeling inside her that she felt she could relate to. Harold talked about the owner of the manor pointing out that she wasn't one of his ex-girlfriends making Fleur smirk, “Good to know that you haven't bedded every woman you've met.” She teased.

[Holeypaladin]

The reception parlor that the butler led the two into was rather elaborately decorated, with some very impressive paintings adorning the walls. The largest painting was that of an impressive dragon with golden scales, dominating the others as a center piece. All of these paintings were indicative of the Renaissance in art and ideas in which the free cities were currently experiencing. The angel was allowed some time to admire the artwork as Harold respond to her teasing. "What do you take me for?" he teased back, "I've got standards, you know." Though he needn't say that Fernanda exceeded his standards, as this became immediately apparent when the woman walked in to the room.

"So the famous dragonslayer, Sir Harold, decides to grace an old woman with his presence," said the golden-haired beauty who most certainly did not look young at all... rather, her physical age was that of a woman in her early twenties, though the beauty of her flawless features far exceeded that of mortal women, hinting to the fact that she was something other than human.

Fernanda's attention was instantly drawn to Fleur, who she approached and appraised. "Half red, half angel..." she remarked with a slight smile. "You always did get bored of humans, but who knew you'd ever find someone so.. exotic? Pleased to meet you... they call me Fernanda... around here, at least." Laughing a bit, she asked, "Did you come to see my hoard? You can look, but please don't touch anything."

[AngelDellaNotte]

As she teased Harold their host walked into the room, Fleur could feel the radiance coming off the woman who by appearances was the same age as her. Though just by looking at Fernanda you could tell the woman was very old seeming almost ancient. She had never seen a gold like Fernanda but instinctively Fleur could see that she was one of the king dragons. Most of the dragons Varvara allied herself with were reds. She had met a few greens and blues but never any metallic dragons. When Fernanda began examining her Fleur found herself bowing to the older woman until she was in a kneel. Normally a red would never bow to a gold the two dragons both powerful though the golds were almost always stronger, a red's pride would never allow them to admit that. Fleur was only half dragon her other half being an angel, a race known for serving others.

Fernanda with a smile reached down to Fleur guiding her back to her feet and brushing her hand across Fleur's cheek. “So young. By all standards, dragon and angel.” She said, then turned to Harold. “I never knew you liked them so young barely into adulthood.”

[Holeypaladin]

Harold gazed at the angel as she reacted to the commanding presence of Fernanda. As all dragons radiated a powerful compulsive aura of magical energy, it was always interesting to see how a person reacted to it when first meeting them. Harold himself had developed a resistance to this aura, as it was rather difficult to kill a chromatic dragon when one was paralyzed with fear from their compulsive aura... but Fernanda's aura was incredibly powerful. It was interesting to see the way it brought the angel to her knees, quite literally.

Well, he wasn't surprised at all that Fleur could identify who and what she was immediately. After all, she had some experience with dragons in the past, though perhaps none so powerful as Fernanda, whose power rivaled that of most deities. He smiled somewhat at the friendly way in which the dragon greeted the angel. He was somewhat concerned that she might grow aggressive due to her background, but it was clear she trusted Harold and could tell that Fleur wasn't evil.

At the remark of her age, Harold sighed slightly. "Actually..." he said, "I kinda wish I'd gotten to her sooner." Pausing, he spoke in Draconic, "Jacioniv ithquentiv krara jacioniv hefoc kenzi."

"Oh, how very sad and terrible," Fernanda spoke as if completely mortified. "Such a young thing... far too young to have endured what you have." She wrapped her arms around the angel in consolation, gently holding her for a time. "It shames the name of all gods when they mistreat and abandon their own angels," she spoke sadly.

"Yes, well," Harold said, "She wanted me to show her around and surprise her... so I figured I'd show her something incredible."

Smiling softly, the gold dragon remarked, "Right this way, then. You're in for a treat."

The preferred treasure of gold dragons was, in fact, precious works of art. Much of the Renaissance was funded by wealthy gold dragons such as Fernanda, who commissioned paintings, sculptures, and other forms of art that would become absolutely priceless in time. With no shortage of years to spend admiring the artwork, Fernanda could simply wait it out as the value of her hoard skyrocketed over the centuries. And she was now leading Fleur on a tour of what would come to be some of the most valuable artwork of all time.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Looking over to the dragon slayer she lightly growled at him. He had spoken Draconic around her before but she had never actually acknowledged that she understood it. She was a bit rusty with it having not really spoken it fluently since she was a child but she got the gist of what he said. His words were harsh but the further she got from Varvara the more she realized how true it was. She had merely just been a plaything to the goddess easily thrown away. Varvara no doubt would have already moved onto a new favorite. Fernanda's embrace caught her a little off guard, she didn't even know the woman but already she was showing such kindness. With her limited exposure to dragons never had she seen one act this kindly unless it served them in the end. She couldn't think of anything she might have to offer the gold making Fleur think that Fernanda was genuinely good.

The older gold lead them through the manor to a door at the end of a hallway, Fernanda removed a key from a chain around her neck and opened the door. Fleur could feel magic coming from the door even if it did mix with the radiance of the dragon's auras. As she inserted the key Fleur could see Fernanda draw a symbol above the lock but she more much to fast for her to be able to see what it was. It didn't surprise Fleur that Fernanda kept her hoard behind a magical lock and key. Dragons were known to be very protective of their hoards. As a child Fleur remembered a time when a group of adventurers had managed to sneak into Saryn's laid and been caught. Saryn had killed each one of them but none were lucky enough to die quickly the red had drawn their deaths out for weeks. She had thought about it in years but the sounds of their screams echoed in Fleur's ears making her shiver. She felt Harold's arm slide around her waist and leaned into it enjoying the feeling of him there. He may not have known what was bothering her but still he comforted her with just the slightest of gestures.

[Holeypaladin]

Judging by the angel's reaction, she was quite fluent in the Draconic language. Well, Harolds' words may have been a bit harsh... but true. Still, the fact that she might be sensitive to the way her goddess had used her was the reason he had at least attempted to speak words that she wouldn't understand. He watched as the golden woman provided her with some comfort and affection, following after her as she eventually made her way into the locked vault of precious artwork.

Sensing some degree of anxiety from the angel, Harold wrapped his arm around her waist and squeezed her a bit, holding her close to him. He didn't know the exact cause of it, but wanted to provide what comfort he could. "Such artwork has little value if no one sees it," the knight remarked, gazing over some of the paintings, sculptures, and other artwork that Fernanda kept on display.

"Indeed," she said with a soft nod. "Sometimes I can spend days on end just gazing at everything... but it pleases me to show it to friends and family, provided they come in peace." She smiled softly. "One time, someone came with intentions to steal some of it... I had to give him a rather stern lecture." Laughing merrily, she commented, "Oh, I ranted at him for hours... by the time I was done he was promising to give up thievery until the end of his days!"

Harold could only imagine what it must have been like for the would-be thief... to be captured by the powerful compulsive aura of an ancient gold dragon... a beautiful woman who could kill him in an instant, yet decided instead to give him an extensive lecture in morality. No doubt she had completely broken his will to commit such crimes, just by being so overpoweringly charismatic and good. With that amusing thought in mind, he gazed over to Fleur in order to see her reactions to the artwork as the older dragon showed them around.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Fleur took in the sights of Fernanda's vault, there were paintings and sculptures everywhere she turned. It wasn't just a mountain of stuff like some dragon lairs she had seen but everything was neatly arranged looking more like a art gallery or a museum than a dragon's hoard. It really was quite a collection. Harold was right that it was a shame to be kept away. Fleur did think though that it made the vault all the more special and she felt privileged to be allowed to see it. She got the feeling that Fernanda didn't share it with just anyone.

She walked through the vault taking in each piece of artwork letting her eyes guide her from piece to piece, pausing to admire all of them. She was drawn to a large painting on the wall, it was a image of a dark haired warrior angel floating above a battlefield looking to be protecting them. Fleur knew by the look of the painting it was several hundred years old but it reminded her of her mother for some strange reason. A smile came to her face as he stared at the painting for a while.

Looking over to Harold she thought their relationship was an odd one. Harold was known as a renowned dragon slayer and Fernanda was a golden dragon one of the most powerful of dragons.

[Holeypaladin]

As he gazed at the various paintings, Harold listened as the gold dragon began to eagerly speak about the various pieces of art in the gallery. "Almost all of these paintings and sculptures are made by human hands..." he said, admiring some of them as he brushed her fingers lightly against them, careful not to damage and of them. "It's incredible how much humans can get accomplished in their short lifespans. An elf might be able to spend decades on one of these paintings, but a human doesn't have nearly so much time. Even the incomplete portraits will be incredibly valuable, someday."

With a soft smile, she remarked, "Most of these are only a few years old. Decades, at most. I sponsor worthy artists... commission most everything you see here. Other works are inherited from other sources." Noting the painting of the dark haired angel girl that Fleur had taken a liking to, the dragon walked over to her side. "Ah yes... one of the oldest paintings in my collection. The warrior angel Dahlia," she spoke the name of Fleur's mother. "A shame, what happened to her," she said in a pitying tone.

Harold wasn't familiar with the name of Fleur's mother, so the significance of this particular painting was lost on him... though it was no surprise that Fleur took an interest in it, as the woman portrayed in it was quite obviously an angel.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Listening to the dragon speak she froze completely at hearing the name Fernanda spoke. She had been reaching out to touch the painting despite knowing that she shouldn't. To anyone looking seem that she had just realized her mistake. But Fleur was shocked at hearing the name. It couldn't be, she thought. “What happened to her?” Fleur said, not believing that this could be a painting of her mother. The angel in the painting looked so beautiful and regal. It was the spiting image of what she had always pictured her mother to be.

[Holeypaladin]

The shocked reaction of the angel was not lost on Harold, so he was certain that the dragon woman had picked up on it, though her reaction was much more subtle as she merely made her way to Fleur's side in order to tenderly take her hand in her own. "Since you asked, I'll tell you," she said. "You should know that my kind are honest to a fault... so I'll tell you the truth when you ask, even if you don't like my answer."

Harold winced slightly. If the gentle Fernanda said something like that, then he was positive that it was definitely not good news. Sure enough, it soon became apparent, as she spoke on about how angels were, by nature, pure of heart and good. However, when an angel was in service of a deity who turned towards evil... well, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Her good nature caused her to fall from the grace of her deity," she remarked. "She was bound to one of her deity's dragon allies as a... pleasure slave. An unfortunate fate that angels should never have to endure... but as they're almost as beautiful as dragons, it is the nature of cruel people to take advantage of such beauty." Harold couldn't help but smirk at the "almost" part of the dragon's sentence. They did tend to have rather high opinions of themselves, after all.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She nodded her head, not wanting to believe it was true but part of her knew that it had to be. She was glad that Fernanda held her hand and for Harold being near. In the last few days her entire world had been torn apart and thrown upside. Fleur dropped to her knees, tears falling down her face the weight of it all finally coming down on her. “Did you know her?” Fleur asked wondering if Fernanda had only hear tales or if she actually known her.

It wasn't often dragons collaborated together unless one was subservient to the other and she didn't think Fernanda would bow to another let alone a red like Sarin, whom she didn't think wold bow either. Still she wanted to know everything she could about her mother. She never had the chance to meet her. There was so much she wanted to know.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold was instantly at the angel's side as she dropped to her knees, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close. He squeezed her, stroking her hair, kissing her cheek. Her reaction was strong, and it indicated that this Dahlia in the painting was most likely someone incredibly close to her. He recalled the fact that her mother had been the property of a dragon... so, connecting the dots, he merely held her, unsure what to say.

Fernanda also placed a hand on her shoulder, gently squeezing it as she slowly shook her head. "Not personally, no," she responded. "But I knew her by reputation. She was one of the best, so she was also one of the first to fall, unfortunately. But it would appear that she at least had some amount of joy in her life, towards the end." The dragon was obviously quite wise indeed, and had already figured out what Harold just realized.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She sobbed into Harold’s shoulder letting him embrace her. Fleur hadn’t cried like this before, she couldn’t recall a single time. Not even when she was going through her training. Her trainers had been relentless in her training, breaking her down so they could build her back up. Not once during all that had she ever broken down. She was a warrior angel, they didn’t behave like this. Warrior angels were supposed to stand tall and brave whatever came at them. Or at least that is what she had been taught. It was all she knew.

It was some time before she finally had cried everything out and stood to her feet, while still holding close to Harold. Fernanda surprised her pulling a silk handkerchief seemingly from nowhere and handing it to her. Fleur dried her eyes trying her best to compose herself a little surprised that she had broken down like that. It went against everything she had been taught, yet it felt right. So many times before her heart had conflicted with her training. She had always just pressed on trusting her tutors and her goddess. Now knowing the things she did she wondered if her heart had been right. She looked to Fernanda, “I’m sorry.” She said, not sure what else to say.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold was somewhat surprised how the ordinarily strong angel began to weep, but he merely held her close, stroking her hair and allowing her to cry on his shoulder as much as she liked. She was still a woman, after all, and she was going through the most traumatic time in her life at the moment. "Fleur..." he whispered into her ear, holding her close and squeezing her.

The dragon lady seemed quite sensitive to her condition as well as she handed the girl a hankerchief. With a gentle smile on her face, she simply shook her head at the apology. "You have nothing to apologize, young one..." She reached out to stroke Fleur's hair as well as Harold held her close to her, squeezing her in his arms. "You have a good heart... so follow your own heart. And your knight may be a bit of a sex fiend, but he's a good enough man aside from that."

"Says the thousand year old virgin," muttered Harold to counter Fernanda's words. The golden-haired dragon didn't even attempt to deny his words, only giving a coy smile in response.

[AngelDellaNotte]

It took a while for Fleur to compose herself, borrowing Fernanda's handkerchief to dry her eyes and holding tight to Harold. It was amazing that less than a day ago they had been fighting each other to the death. Since then they had been inmate together. Though last night was nothing compared to the level of intimacy she was showing him right now. Given the fact that Fleur had never known her mother, this really was the first time she grieved her loss. She had always known her mother was a good person and an amazing woman but she had never really known her. It had always just been something that was there. Dahlia was just someone people talked about with great regard. Now knowing the truth about her, how she was so mortal it made her realize she was really her mother.

Once she had pulled herself together she stood with the help of Harold though she still held close to him. She looked over to Fernanda a smile on her face. Ignoring the banter between her and Harold she said, “Thank you. I feel more connected to my mother than I ever have.” She said, reaching out and taking Fernanda's hands.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold squeezed the angel in his arms, noting the way she more or less ignored the exchange between himself and the dragon lady. He couldn't imagine what was going through her head currently... but whatever it was, he would be there to support him. However, it seemed that Fernanda was much more sensitive to what the angel was feeling than Harold himself was, which... sort of made sense, since she was a woman, after all.

Gripping the angel's hands, Fernanda smiled. "Of course, child," she said, "If only I could do more for you... but I can show you some more art, for now." Shooting the knight an "I win" type look, she began to pull Fleur away in order to show her more of the paintings. With a sigh, Harold got up and made his way to the angel's side, resting a hand on his shoulder as the dragon showed her around.

[AngelDellaNotte]

The artwork that Fernanda showed them was amazing and it seemed that her gallery would never end. By the time they had seen the whole of it several hours had passed. Fleur couldn't believe how many pieces of art she had, Fernanda's hoard was one of the largest and most unique she had seen. Sarin's own hoard was mostly composed of gold and jewels. Varvara didn't collect treasures though now that Fleur thought about it the goddess in a way did with her angels. And she had been one of her most prized, yet she was so easily thrown away.

Pushing the thoughts of her former goddess from her mind yet again Fleur turned to Fernanda bowing deeply to her. “Thank you very much for sharing such amazing treasures with us. You are fortunate to be surrounded by such beauty.” Fleur said.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold didn't really have much to say about the artwork, as it wasn't really his thing. Many of the paintings were pleasing to look at, and a surprising number of them portrayed nude women and men, though not in pornographic ways. It was definitely a new trend in artwork, as such things weren't typically considered suitable for public consumption until recently in the history of this region.

Eventually it seemed like they had seen the entire gallery. It took longer than it particularly needed to, but... well, it was worth it, as it seemed to sooth his angelic companion and set her at ease in such a troubling time. "You are most welcome," he heard the dragon lady respond with a curtsy, gazing at her curiously for her decision to bow like a man rather than curtsy like a lady. Harold simply figured that Fleur hadn't been around enough upper class humans to know the difference, and shrugged it off.

"Thanks, Fernanda," he said to her. "You've been a great hostess. Keep protecting Genvese in these difficult times." Most likely, the wards that had detected Fleur as a dragon were designed at least in part by Fernanda, as she was the single most powerful being in the entire city... effectively a demigoddess herself, though without any mortal worshipers. Turning to Fleur, he asked, "Where to now?"

[AngelDellaNotte]

After bidding Fernanda good bye they headed back into the city walking through the alleyways. Harold asked where they should go next but Fleur wasn't all that sure. She didn't know much about Genvese or the mortal world. “I don't know. Maybe we could just walk around a bit.” Fleur said, linking her arm in Harold's and leaning against his shoulder as they walked. They found themselves walking along the beach. Fleur paused a moment taking her sandals off and walking barefoot in the sand. It was soft and cool to the touch, unlike anything she had felt before. In Varvara's realm of heaven she didn't have any oceans, there were a few lakes but they all had rocky shores. A smile crossed her face at the feeling of the sand between her toes. “This is nice.” Fleur said, walking to the edge of the water and letting it lap across her feet behind sure to hold her skirt up to keep it from getting wet.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold shrugged at Fleur's suggestion. "Works for me," he said, squeezing her arm closer as she linked it with his own. The casual stroll soon found them at the beach, and he laughed a bit at how much she seemed to enjoy walking on the strand. "I take it you like the beach?" he asked, pointing out the obvious fact. He didn't mind the walk along the beach with a pretty girl, as it was pleasant enough.

He directed her attention out to the harbor, where galley ships (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Sbonski_de_Passabon-Galeasse_a_la_voile.jpg) were coming and going. It was an ordinary sight to the people of Genvese, but to someone who had never seen the ocean, he supposed it could be quite impressive. It soon became clear just how much time they had spent in Fernanda's parlor, as the sun would soon be setting over the horizon, into the ocean itself. "Ever seen a sunset on an ocean with several ships sailing in and out of the harbor?" he asked her, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her closer.

[AngelDellaNotte]

"Once." Fleur said, breaking away from Harold to walk in the water, being sure to hold her skirt up so as to not get it wet. The water was warm despite the sun setting. Thinking of the sunset it had a beautiful look to it the way the pinks and yellows bounced off the lush blue sea. She turned back to Harold figuring he was a little confused as she had never seen the ocean before. "Just a little while ago in Fernanda's parlor. But a painting doesn't do it justice." She skipped back to Harold taking his arm again but this time pulling him to the ground with her as she sat. She rested her head on his shoulder and looked out at the sunset.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold was indeed confused by the mention from the angel that she had seen such a sunset before, but he chuckled somewhat as she clarified. "I see," he said with a nod. "Something like what that man over there is painting, then." He gestured over to one of Genvese's many aspiring artists, who was painting a portrait of the Genvese sunset as it appeared before him.

He went ahead and sat with the angel, going so far as to pull her into his lap and hold her close in his arms as the sun began to set over the ocean horizon. "I hope you enjoy the view," he whispered somewhat into her ear, squeezing her closer and stroking her hair. He was wishing he could touch her wings as well, but as he had them concealed at the moment, he merely caressed the spot on her back where her wings met her shoulders, caressing her thigh and allowing her to enjoy the view.

[AngelDellaNotte]

No resistance was put up when Harold pulled Fleur into his lap, in fact she welcomed it and practically crawled into his lap. She started with her head resting on his shoulder looking out at the sunset thinking of how beautiful it was. She soon found herself ignoring the sunset in favor of kissing and sucking on Harold's neck. The passion of the sunset seeming to have seeped into her. If the last few days had taught her anything it was that she couldn't get enough of the knight. She continued this way for a while until she felt a strange feeling and tensed up. Pulling away from Harold she looked around the beach until she spotted a soldier walking along the beach seeming to be making his rounds. At first she couldn't really see who he was but she could sense him, his aura very familiar and not one she expected to find here.

The soldier moved closer to them seeming just as tense as Fleur, when he was finally close enough from her for her to see him better she jumped from Harold's lap her pole arm appearing in her hand, her armor replacing her dress and her wings stretched completely out as she dropped into a fighting stance. The soldier reacted at the same time as Fleur drawing a bow and arrow and aiming it at her as wings (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/43/6b/d1/436bd181d3668d09833f61fc3e11ad59.jpg) appeared on his back. “Leandre.” Fleur growled recognizing the fellow angel right away. He was one of Varvara's angels who often worked on the mortal plane for the goddess. Fleur had actually been a little surprised that Varvara had sent her to kill Harold rather than Leandre but he always seemed to be on some sort of mission. She had figured at the time he had been on one and that is why she had been sent. Now that she thought about it she hadn't seen Leandre in the heavens in months, even when he was out on missions he still came back every so often to report in but she couldn't recall the last time he had or even the last time Varvara had mentioned him.

Had Varvara sent Leandre after her? That was the only reason she could think of him being hear. “Fleur!” Leandre shouted then launched an arrow at her.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold held the angel for a time, squeezing her in his arms and stroking her hair. As he felt her kissing his neck, he continued to hold her, content to let her do so as his hands wandered across her body, feeling her in his arms. It seemed like this sort of thing would soon develop into something more, when he felt the angel tense up in his arms. He soon realized why, as well... the unique magical aura, now familiar to him, of an angel... not the same as Fleur's but close enough.

As the angel jumped out of his lap, the knight also rose to his feet to stare at the man she called Leandre. Sure enough, he drew a bow, and aimed it, at which point Harold tapped into his Foundry circuit, summoning forth a shield to hover in the air between Fleur and her opponent. Sure enough, the angel released his arrow, and Harold's shield intercepted it, blocking it before it could hit Fleur.

Having had sufficient time to analyze and prepare for just such an encounter as this, Harold knew which weapon to summon from the Foundry... an angelbane sword, designed to kill these winged servants of evil deities. He quickly rushed the archer, intent on exploiting an archer's typical weakness in close combat as he delivered well-placed slashes and thrusts meant to take him down as quickly as possible, while his attention was focused on Fleur.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Her wings allowed her to move much faster than Harold and she reached Leandre before him. She slashed down at him with her poleaxe, the other angel bringing his bow up and using it to block the attack. He pushed Fleur back dropped his bow and drew a sword. Angels moved very fast and he was was to recover launching his own attack at Fleur. His sword clashed against her poleaxe the sound of it echoing on the beach. Thankfully there weren't many people on the beach but the artist that had been painting the sunset looked over to them, instead of being afraid and running he quickly flipped his canvas over a pencil appearing in his hand. Starting what no doubt would become a masterpiece that someday may hang in Fernanda's gallery.

With nether of them realizing it Fleur and Leandre pushed themselves off of the ground taking their battle into the air. Leaving Harold below. Their weapons continued to clash against each other and they danced through the air. “Must admit I am surprised to see Varvara's pet here. I didn't think she let you off your leash or out of her bed.” Leandre said, confusing Fleur a little as she had figured the other angel was here for her. That Varvara had figured out she was still alive. It was well known among her angels that she wouldn't tolerate an angel abandoning her. Varvara always sent someone after them to either bring them back or kill them. Which was Leandre here for?

“I'll never be under her leash again and I won't be her pet.” Fleur said, finally admitting that her relationship with the goddess wasn't what she had thought it was. She had been a slave there was no other way of putting it. Their weapons were locked against each others as they both tried over overpower the other. “I'll die before I go back.”

Her statement seemed to confuse Leandre just as much as his had confused Fleur. Both seemed to freeze their weapons pressed together but neither was really pushing anymore. “You've fallen?” Leandre said, a look of shock on his face. “Impossible.”

“She didn't send you?” Fleur said, pulling away from him and hovering in the air her poleaxe hanging at her side. Leandre was Varvara's assassin he had to be here for her. There was no other explanation.

“I don't serve that whore. I am my own man.” Leandre said. They both dropped back to the ground Leandre sheathing his sword and Fleur securing her poleaxe on her back as the two of them stared at each other confused.

“You've fallen?” Fleur asked, echoing his question. They just stood there staring at each other no doubt leaving Harold a little confused.

[Holeypaladin]

As the angels ascended into the sky to continue their fight, it was clear that Harold needed to either fly himself, or use a longer range weapon. He had the perfect weapon in mind, in fact, using his Foundry circuit to summon forth a tech weapon (http://www.civilwarvirtualmuseum.org/1861-1862/missouri-enters-the-war/images/camp-jackson-musket-medium.jpg) that could be used as a polearm should the angel come for him. Raising his weapon to aim at this Leandre, he waited for a clear shot that didn't involve putting a bullet through Fleur rather than her opponent.

However... before he could get his shot off, it seemed the two of them clarified a sort of misunderstanding they had and stopped fighting. As they lowered their weapons, Harold lowered his own, glancing between the two of them as they repeated themselves in their surprise. "Well," he remarked eventually, "This is a bit awkward..."

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Indeed,” Fleur said, looking at the strange weapon Harold was holding. She still wasn't used to the array of weapons the Dragon Slayer had in his foundry. She pulled her eyes away from the weapon and looked over to Leandre finding it hard to believe that he had fallen. He was Varvara's attack dog. If there were any of the angels as loyal as her it was Leandre. Though it was a little more believable as Leandre always seemed so honorable. Each of the assassinations the goddess had sent him on must have finally built up to the point he couldn't take it anymore. “Harold, this is Leandre he was formerly one of Varvara's angels. Though it seems that falling from the heavens is trending right now.” Fleur said, moving next to the knight and linking her arm in his.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold wasn't sure how to deal with the archangel, either. Sure, he claimed to have fallen... but there was no guarantee that this wasn't some sort of deception on his part. While it wasn't exactly in an angel's nature to be deceiving, he recalled that Fleur had shown no small amount of deception at first in hiding her own identity, as well.

He seemed to relax somewhat, however, as the girl came close and linked her arm with his. Squeezing her a bit closer, he gave a nod. "It isn't in an angel's nature to serve an evil deity, after all. They were originally created as servants to the good ones, right?" Well... he somewhat doubted either of them knew a whole lot about the true origins of angels, as they had likely been indoctrinated to believe that Varvara herself had created them. However, the fact that the angels of different deities all looked more or less the same indicated that they all had common origin, while mysterious, made some degree of sense.

"Nice to meet you, Leandre," he murmured, still unsure what to think of him.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Still holding tight to the knight Fleur realized that Harold and Leandre didn't know each other. “Leandre, this is Sir Harold, Dragon Knight of Bahamut.” Fleur said, gesturing from Leandre to Harold.

“Aye, I know who he is.” Leandre said, holding his hand out to the knight to shake. He gripped Harold's forearm, his grip nice and firm. “I see that Varvara sent Fleur to kill you when I refused.”

“You refused her?” Fleur asked, looking a little puzzled. It was very rare that one of the angels disagreed with Varvara let alone disobey them. Varvara commanded obedience from her angels. Not that she was vengeful against them but it was just something that wasn't done. Never did any of them ever think to. Fleur knew she hadn't before Varvara abandoned her.

“Yes, the dragons are playing her and she is too blinded by her goals of power to see it. She ordered me to kill him because the dragons mainly Saryn.” Leandre said, pausing as if he was stopping to weigh his next words. “Your father is a very cruel man. I don't know how much you know about him but his alliance with the goddess will only last as long as she is useful to him. Why send his own dragons against a dragon slayer when he can use Varvara's angels?”

“I never understood why she worked with him. Her follower pray for deliverance from the dragons but she works with them.” Fleur said. That had never sat well with her.

“Hence why I fell. It surprises me that she would send you. But not as surprising as you bedding a human.” Leandre said, he could smell the human's scent all over Fleur and her all over Harold. Added with the way they hung on each other made it apparent that they were lovers. “I didn't think he was your type.” It was no secret that Fleur was a favorite of Varvara and often shared the goddess' bed.

[Holeypaladin]

As the angel introduced him to Leandre, Harold went ahead and returned his firm grip. "So you were the one originally slotted to be my assassin, were you?" he remarked. "I suppose in that case, I should thank you for your refusal to kill me." There was no guarantee that he was telling the truth, of course, but it wasn't in an angel's nature to lie, either, so Harold was inclined to take him at his word.

"It makes sense why they would send angels against me instead of dragons," the knight chimed in. "After all, every dragon they've sent at me has died. They're simply attempting a different approach, using a sort of enemy that I have less experience in dealing with." He knew very well all of the weak spots in a dragon's anatomy, approach angles, and how to use their massive size against them, after all... angels, however, were a completely different sort of opponent. Stronger than humans, more agile, and highly skilled with weaponry... it was no surprise that they served as the foot soldiers for deities.

He smirked somewhat as the angel commented on the previous night's activities. "Fleur is still quite young, remember..." he remarked. "How would anyone know what her type is when she's not even a century old?" He figured Leandre himself had at least a couple centuries of experience, though for some reason, Fleur seemed to be incredibly powerful for her limited experience... perhaps due to the fact that she was a mixed breed of two very powerful creatures.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“That she is,” Leandre said, looking over to Fleur then he reached out touching her cheek lightly. “You look so much like her yet so different. Her spirit flows in you. I can see it in your eyes.” Leandre said pulling his hand away and turning from them. Before he turn Fleur thought she could see something on his face. Something that seemed like a great sadness. Fleur was about to comment on when Leandre spoke again. “We should leave this area. We undoubtedly were seen and Varvara has spies everywhere.” He folded his wings against his back with them slowly fading away.

Fleur followed suit and hide her own wings then still holding Harold's hand followed the fallen angel from the beach. They walked back to the city where Leandre lead them to a small cafe where he nodded to the clerk. Fleur looked at the clerk noticing his aura, it had a heavenly appearance to it but the aura wasn't familiar to her. The clerk was an angel just not one of Varvara's angels. The clerk opened a door behind the counter and let them through it. In the room behind the cafe Leandre pushed aside a couple barrels revealing a stairway. “There is an underground city beneath Genvese that most don't know exist. It was created years ago at the beginning of the city's history but fell out of favor of the residents then forgotten after a couple generations. Nowadays though of us that must stay out of the sight of the gods live here. You will be amazed at how many angels you will find in Genvese.”

“There are more here?” Fleur asked as the stairs descended into what looked like a city street. There were more people here than she could imagine. Like Leandre said some were angels but not all of them. There were humans and many other races. Fleur could even feel the presence of other dragons but it wasn't like she had felt with Fernanda. They must have been half or quarter dragons. Fleur wondered if Adelina knew how many dragons lived in the city she was the warden of.

[Holeypaladin]

As Harold watched the way Leandre gazed at Fleur, he quickly realized something by both his words and his actions. "You knew her, didn't you?" He was referring to Fleur's mother, Dahlia. By the way he regarded Fleur, it was far more than just knowing who she was. "You were in love with her..." he spoke his conclusions out loud. It must have been devastating for Leandre when Dahlia fell. Why he didn't fall immediately afterward as well... well, that seemed like a long story. It took a lot for angels to come to the point where they lost faith in their deity, after all.

Squeezing Fleur's hand, he allowed Leandre to show them to the underground city. "You mean... an underground city like Virenzia used to have?" Virenzia had sunk beneath the ocean due to the way the undercity construction opened up a canal which allowed the ocean to flood it, along with the first story of houses. "I guess the engineers here were more successful," he remarked.

While he wasn't sure if Adelina knew about the underground settlement and its supernatural inhabitants, he was quite sure that Fernanda at least would know and be familiar with it. Knowing her, she would consider herself a sort of custodian of the place, watching over it and ensuring that its population behaved. She was certainly powerful enough to do so... perhaps the only resident of Genvese with enough raw power to keep its undercity intact.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Still walking through the undercity with them Leandre looked back to Harold. It was a few moments before he responded. “You are quite observant and presumptuous.” Leandre said, then turned to Fleur a soft smile on his face. “Yes, I knew your mother. She was an amazing woman. Stronger than any of us. She was the first to take a stand against Varvara. I should have been by her side but instead I stood there and did nothing as she was thrown to that monster. Fleur, I wish I could ask your mother for forgiveness. I won't ask for yours. You don't know me and I haven't done anything to earn it.”

“Leandre.” Fleur said, not at all sure what to say. He had know her mother and done nothing to stop what happened to her. She should have been angry at him for allowing that to happen. But really how could she be angry? What had she ever done to stop Varvara? She had been her loyal lap dog. She took a deep breathe then looked over to the other angel. “You didn't answer Harold. Did you love her?”

“Yes, Fleur. I loved her more than anything. I know she loved me as well. The look of betrayal on her face when I did nothing as she was cast out said everything. I wasn't worthy of the love she gave me. And because of my betrayal I wasn't worthy of you. Fleur you should have been my daughter.” Leandre said, turning away from them and walking again. He led them through the undercity showing them all the different areas. It really was just like another city beneath Genvese, there was a hospital, a school, houses and shops. “My work here is a hope that I can earn redemption for everything I have done. We call this place sanctuary and it is just that. A place for those who wish to live their lives as they choose. Not how a vengeful god decides or how society does because of what they were born. You will find people from nearly every race here. Proving that they can live in harmony.”

[Holeypaladin]

Smirking a bit, it wasn't lost on Harold the way the older angel hadn't confirmed or denied his feelings for Fleur's mother. He couldn't exactly blame him for finding her attractive... after all, despite the fact that Fleur was still incredibly young for an angel, she was full grown, and would never grow a day older than her appearance showed. He figured the angels had their own ways of determining their ages... likely by their magical aura, which was how Fernanda had noticed the fact that Fleur was so young for her kind.

He allowed the two to speak a bit, with Fleur eventually getting the other angel to admit his feelings towards her mother, along with his regret and remorse. No doubt it had tortured him for some time, and with Fleur serving as a reminder, it was no surprise that it eventually became too much to bear... more surprising, in fact, that it had taken him so long to turn on the goddess.

Glancing around the undercity and its variety of different races, Harold noted a kitsune, an elf, and a neko among them. There were humans, but not nearly so human-dominated as the city on the surface was. "This reminds me of a different city..." he remarked. "But rather than being underground, it hovers high in the clouds over a distant continent. It's nice to see there are other cities in the worlds where different races can coexist in such an environment."

[AngelDellaNotte]

“If only we didn't have to live in secluded cities. There is too much hate in the world.” Leandre said, leading them further into the city. The cavern they were in grew larger the deeper they went. It almost seemed hard to believe that all this was here. Fleur would have never guessed in a million years. He lead them to a building (https://i.pinimg.com/564x/14/da/5c/14da5cb41ca7abba4ebd05964b4c7757.jpg) at the end of the street. It was larger than most of the buildings here and much more grand then the others. Fleur couldn't help but to stop outside marveling at it. A smile came to Leandre's face at the way she lit up. She reminded him so much of her mother. Dahlia had the same look on her face the first time he had shown her the wonders of the mortal world. “We have a number of dwarves in the settlement. They do wonderful work. This place is called the gathering. It is where the governor lives.” He said, waiting a moment for them to take in the building then he motioned for them to go inside.

“The governor?” Fleur asked, thinking he meant the leader of this settlement not completely surprised that it would be a democracy, something not all that common.

“Yes,” Leandre said, picking up on her thoughts, “Not that we have any formal sort of voting here. Everyone just respects the governor and trusts in his leadership. They walked through the building with Leandre waving and nodding to a number of people appearing to be well known in the city. They finally reached a room where he knocked on the door. It opened without anyone touching it and Leandre walked in first with Fleur and Harold following behind him.

Sitting on a throne much too large and grand was a young boy (https://i.pinimg.com/564x/28/01/8e/28018ea9b39e54cfea663745a7a27754.jpg) wearing very plain clothes. It wasn't what Fleur had been expecting to see. When she had heard the title governor her first thought had been an older man not a young boy. There was something about his aura that she couldn't quite place how she knew it. “You're the governor?” Fleur said, aloud not realizing until late how rude it sounded.

The boy before her laughed a mirthful laugh surprising Fleur even more that he wasn't upset and even found it humorous. He stood from the throne and walked to a couple of sofas in the room gesturing for them to sit down. He took the seat next to Fleur, “Yes, they do call me the governor but I prefer to be called Halian. To be honest I never asked for this job.” Halian said.

Fleur stared at him for a minute trying to place where she knew his aura from then it hit her and she slide back across the sofa. “You are a god.” Fleur said, a shocked look on her face. His aura reminded him of Varvara's aura but it was very faint seeming as if it almost wasn't there.

“Aye, I was born a god but I haven't been one in a very long time.” Halian said, “I formerly was Halian the god of youth but over the years I grew more mischievous and that was my downfall. The more mischievous I became the more my followers did until I became a forbidden god. My followers were hunted down and killed until I became a forgotten god. By the time I noticed the errors of my way it was too late.”

[Holeypaladin]

The knight gave somewhat of a nod to the angel's words. While not all of the cities that allowed an angel to walk around with her wings exposed for all to see were secluded, the only one he knew of was so far away from the Free Cities that it might as well have been, as far as the people were concerned. Genvese was a big enough center of trade that an occasional airship bound for the distant Empire showed up, but the cost to book a voyage as a passenger was certainly not cheap.

He showed somewhat of an amused reaction at the mention of a governor. "Must be quite the character..." he said, wondering what sort of being this entity would be. It had to be something of great power in order for the people to acknowledge his authority without the threat of extreme violence or appointment by the Doge of Genvese or similar council of nobles.

As soon as Harold saw the form of an extremely young-looking boy sitting on the throne to rule over the undercity, the knight knew he was definitely not human. His first guess was some sort of deity, in fact... but one who had lost most of his power, as he wasn't detecting the overwhelming flow of Divinity that he had detected back in Varvara's temple.

Unsurprisingly, Fleur was able to verify this guess with far more certainty than Harold himself felt. Chuckling somewhat, he reached out to stroke her soft feathery wings and caress them as he pulled her a bit closer to himself and listened to the history of this... Halian. "It could have been worse..." he remarked in response to his speech. "You could have been eliminated by the infamous Godslayer that you deities love to deny the existence of before your followers."

The mention of a Godslayer might, in fact, come as quite a surprise even to Fleur, as deities used extreme measures to hide the fact that they could be slain, and that there was... someone in the world, who did just that. Harold only knew about the existence of a Godslayer due to his incredibly cynical nature towards deities in general, combined with the vast array of books that had been available to him back at the Arcane University where he had studied magic. He had made his decision to become a Dragonslayer based on a pressing need he felt to be able to destroy the seemingly invincible tyrant that often terrorized the mortal man. Deities stood out as the highest on the list, but when he had realized that the University could not teach him whatever secret the Godslayer used, that was when he had decided to train in how to deal with the second most dangerous threat to humanity: Dragons.

[AngelDellaNotte]

When she felt the touch on her wings Fleur shivered but easily leaned into Harold, liking how his touch made her feel. She listened as he spoke of this godslayer. Never before had she heard anything remotely like it before. Killing a god was impossible or at least that is what she had been lead to believer her entire life. But what of her teachings could she believe. In the last few days she had learned much of her life had been a lie. Halian on the other side didn't seem as surprised at what Harold making Fleur think there was something to this godslayer. Halian stood up and walked over to them looking Fleur over very carefully. He walked around her twice then stopped before her. “Tell me what do you know of what happened to your mother?” Halian said, “About her downfall?”

Fleur looked at the young appearing god a little surprised that he knew who she was. Leandre hadn't introduced them or had he been able to send a message ahead of them. “My mother was a noble warrior but she lost favor with Varvara. I never really knew what caused her to loose favor. It was not something spoken about in the Heavens. Because of whatever my mother did Varvara gave her to Saryn as punishment. She died giving birth to me, it would seem that being an angel didn't prevent her from falling to the fact of most woman bearing half dragons.” Fleur said, reciting what her teachers had told her whenever she wanted to know about her mother. Most teachers wouldn't tell her much and the story she knew had been put together from several different teachers.

“An interesting story but not the truth.” Halian said, gesturing for them to walk over to a long table. He took a seat at the head of them waving for them to sit next to him. Fleur followed suit and sat to his left, hoping he would continue. “That is the story Varvara told to save face among the other gods and to keep her angels in the dark. Your mother indeed did lose Varvara's favor, that much of your story is true but that is wear the truth ends. I suppose I should start with the reason Dahlia fell from grace. Sir Harold, it is interesting you mention the godslayer. There are many who believe Dahlia was searching for the secret of the godslayer. It isn't known if she found it or not. As the rumor goes Varvara ordered your mother's death. She fled the heavens and continued on her quest of the godslayer, although she was captured by Saryn some saying the dragon coveted the secret of the godslayer. He wanted to use it to ride himself of the only beings more powerful than him.”

Halian paused, stopping to let it all sink in. He could see Fleur trying to process everything. Much like Harold he didn't think Fleur had ever heard of the possibility of a godslayer. Most gods, himself included maintained control of their angels with the dogma the presented. Angels by nature were very trusting beings when it came to the gods. Faith was the most important value taught to angels. They would never believe that their god didn't have their best interest in mind. When in fact most gods only did what was best for themselves. There were a few gods that truly did care for their angels and followers but that wasn't the case with most gods. “Judging by the fact Saryn hasn't declared war on the gods either Dahlia hadn't found the secret of the godslayer or she took it to her death.”

[Holeypaladin]

Harold listened to the words spoken by the overly young-looking deity, thinking over his words. However, there were plenty of holes in his story. Namely, his own part in the events that had taken place lately. "If what you say is true..." he remarked, "Then why would Varvara send her angel to kill me, an enemy of Saryn and the other chromatic dragons?"

There was definitely a possibility that Saryn was searching for ways to slay deities... however, it was also undeniable that there was some sort of alliance between the night goddess and the dragons that Harold himself specialized in slaying. He wasn't sure how much to trust of what this Halian was saying, either... after all, he was a notorious trickster. Though he may not be able to act openly anymore, the nature of a deity rarely changed all that much.

"Anyway," he said with a shrug, "If there's anyone in the world who knows the identity of the Godslayer, it would be the Master Wizard of the Arcane University. I've never seen a more extensive collection of powerful relics and forbidden arcane lore than what the University contains in its Great Library... not to mention the sealed vaults containing who knows what?" As far as most sages, dragons, and deities new, the Godslayer himself was dead, retired, or living in hiding... but the Master Wizard would have the highest chance of knowing the truth.

Stroking Fleur's wings a bit more, Harold laughed a bit. "But the Arcane University is thousands of miles away, in the Imperial City. I doubt Leandre even knew of its existence." The only reason why Harold himself knew of the Arcane University was because he had studied there in order to become a Dragonslayer to begin with. It was the only place in the world which had unlocked the secrets of both dragonbane weaponry and Foundry circuit, after all.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Why do the gods do anything they do?” Hailan said, with a shrug as if that was enough of an explanation of Harold's doubt. Fleur stood there thinking things over, Hailan could be lying for he could be telling the truth. There was no way of really telling right now. They would need to discover more if they really wanted to know. They needed to go to the Arcane University but was Harold said it was thousands of miles away. If they were to travel there normally it would take months of travel. Even if they flew it would still take weeks. Something told Fleur they didn't have the time. She didn't know if it was a real threat or just her desire to know more. As far as they knew Varvara thought she was dead.

“We need to go to this University.” Fleur said, looking to Harold.

“I can arrange transport, I have connections with merchant fleet captain. We should be able to get you there in eight months.” Leandre said.

“That isn't fast enough.” Fleur said, thinking there was a way but it was very dangerous and would put to an end any doubt about her being alive.

“Traveling across the land would take twice that long and you can't fly that far.” Leandre said, thinking he knew what Fleur was thinking and it wasn't good. “Fleur you can't be thinking of doing that. Right now Varvara thinks you are dead, you do this and she will know you aren't.”

“I can't keep hiding like this. I need to know.” Fleur said, taking a step toward Harold and wrapping her arms around him. Her wings spread out then moved around Harold. “I can take us to the mid-grounds. From there we can travel to the university.”

“Fleur if you go to the mid-grounds, Varvara will sense it.” Leandre said. The mid-grounds was a plain of existence that existed between the human world and the realms of the gods. Angels and other heavenly entities used it to travel from place to place. It allowed them to move to the human world or the different realms. It existed by the combined powers of the gods. Fallen angels didn't travel there as when they did the god the were aligned to could feel it.

“Yes, she will know I am alive but she won't know where I went. We won't be able to say long we will have to move quickly. Harold I will need you have an image of the University in your mind before we go. We will jump to the mid-grounds then to the University. Varavara won't be able to track where we went. Just that we returned to the mortal world.

[Holeypaladin]

"They always have their reasons..." responded the knight to the words of this Halian. So often mortals and divines alike attempted to dismiss the actions of deities as being beyond human comprehension, but this was rarely the truth. There were always reasons for what they did... everything from ambition to petty greed or jealousy. To try and claim otherwise was simply a way of hiding the truth... which caused Harold to suspect this Hadrian's intentions even more.

Even still, the words of Fleur had some merit. This Godslayer knew how to kill a deity, and whether or not he would actually help... at least he could tell them how he did it. Still, the more he listened to the exchange between Leandre and Fleur, the less he liked the idea of using the mid-grounds as she called them... though the mages of the Arcane University referred to it instead as the Astral Plane.

It didn't look like they had much other choice, however... Fleur was correct in that it would take far too long by merchant vessel... or even by airship... to reach a city that was halfway across the world from their location. "The fact that she doesn't know Fleur is still alive is our main advantage..." he said, frowning at the idea of exposing her existence so soon.

"Isn't there some way of disguising her identity?" he asked. "It's dangerous enough to roam the Astral Plane to begin with... but to set off a beacon letting our enemy know of our need for long distance travel would give her a very good idea of where we're headed." He doubted that Varvara's reach extended to the Imperial City itself... but the element of surprise was currently their greatest weapon.

He glanced to Halian. While his own skill in illusion magic was lacking, the trickster god might know a trick or two that would work. Still... Harold had more reasons not to trust the god of youth than he did to trust him. He seemed to be pushing them a bit too hard when it came to discovering the location and identity of this Godslayer... as if he had his own motivations for wanting to know.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“There is a way but I am not sure if you are going to like it Fleur.” Leandre said, after a moment of thinking. He looked to Fleur not sure if he wanted to share with her. It was a good idea but had its own problems. With it she would be able to walk in the midgrounds without being seen by any of the gods but that wasn’t all that she would lose. “The draught of disbelieving.”

The young angel looked Leandre in shock as if he had suggested she cut off her wings. In a way he basically had. The draught of disbelieving was an old legend told among angels that could be used to turn an angel into a mortal. It was first used by the god Bindel as a test to see how devout his angels were. Legend told that Bindel had a number of his angels who he wanted to see if they truly were loyal to him, he secretly pour the draught into their food causing each of the angels to lose their divinity then left them on the mortal world with only the mission to return to him. Each of the twelve angels lost their powers and became mortals unable to feel their god or access their powers. Of the twelve angels only three returned and were granted a place of honor next to Bindel and their powers restored. Two angels fell into despair and killed themselves. Three found mortal life too tempting and remained so until their deaths and the other four died in the pursuit back to the heaven.

“That would strip me of being an angel.” Fleur said, knowing she would still have her dragon abilities but she had always been an angel and far more in tune to those powers than her dragon half. Taking that away would be like cutting a part of her out. Yes she had lost her faith in her goddess but was she ready to lose who she was as well?

“Yes it would.” Leandre said, wondering if he would be able to go through with it himself. Like Fleur he had betrayed Varvara but being an angel was who he was. “There is a temple of Bindel several days walk from here where the draught can be found. If you were to take it you could walk on the mid-grounds not as an angel but a mortal.”

“I don’t know if I could travel there as a mortal.” Fleur said. Both angels and dragons had the ability to go to the mid-ground but she relied on her angel powers and had very little experience using her dragon powers. “I was trained to use angel magic not dragon. Varvara always told me dragonic magic was wild and unstable. That my divine powers would never fail me.” She couldn’t believe she was thinking about this. But if she ever wanted to live truly free she had to free herself from Varvara. Drinking the draught would make her mortal and unnoticeable to Varvara but could she live with herself if she didn’t do anything to stop the goddess?

[Holeypaladin]

Harold thought over the words of the angels as they spoke. The term "draught of disbelieving" wasn't particularly familiar, as he never really paid much attention to mythology, focusing on the more practical aspects of dragonslaying, but... the more he listened to the two, the more of an idea he got over the nature of this particular potion. And the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like an even worse idea than the first.

"Removing her angel powers is an absolutely terrible idea," he said with certainty. "Not just because these are pretty..." he said as he placed his hands on the angelic wings, stroking them softly as he spoke, "But because Fleur isn't an angel. She's a half dragon angel. She will never, ever be mortal... and if you remove the angel aspect of her nature, she won't be human, but dragon. Red dragon, specifically."

"I may not be an expert on angels and mythology," he said with a shrug, "But I am an expert on dragons. A chromatic dragon is evil. Always. They do not have the freedom to choose their own morality, as humans do. And red dragons are the worst of the worst. Even half dragons succumb to the nature of their dragon side, unless the dragon aspect is sealed by a very powerful magic."

"In the case of Fleur..." he said, gazing at her beautiful angelic face, "I would say that her angelic nature is the only thing sealing away her draconic heritage. But were she to lose it... she would most definitely not be the Fleur that we all know and love, but instead a monster. I'd sooner take a path straight through Inferno than seal away her angel nature."

It was true that Inferno was a realm ruled by former angels... fallen Seraphim, in particular. Their angelic nature had been twisted as they turned into devils, though it was also a realm which deities like Varvara would never even think to look.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Harold stroking her wings caused her to shiver but it wasn’t a bad thing. She really enjoyed the feeling of his fingers brushing across her wings. If she were to use the Draught of Disbelieving she wouldn’t be able to feel it anymore. Across from them Leandre looked at Harold seeming he was appalled a human would touch her wings, especially knowing firsthand what it felt like. He had already figured out the pair were lovers but still wasn’t something angels did often and even less often in public. Pushing the thoughts from his mind as Fleur was young and Harold a human who probably didn’t know any better he spoke again about the Draught. “I’ve heard tales that the Arcane University has quite a Theology department. Someone there may know where to find the Draught of Believing or may even have one. I’m told the University has all kinds of potions and charms in their walls. What I mean to say is the change might not be permanent. Fleur if you are anything like your mother then I know your resolve is strong. Breaking from Varvara must have been hard but she went against everything you believe your will was too strong to just stand by. I believe you can resist your nature, it will grow harder as time goes by but you can do it.” Leandre said.

Fleur glanced from the angel to Harold thinking his words over in her mind. She loved being an angel and really couldn’t see herself as a dragon but if he was right it could be reversed. She could be made an angel again. Legends told that the angels who passed Bindel’s test had the god in their hearts and their bond was stronger than ever before. If she drank the Draught of Believing without Varvara or any god in her heart would she be free from the god’s meddling? She didn’t know but knew that as long as she was bond to Varvara the goddess would have power over her. Taking Harold’s hand in herself she squeezed it and looked into his eyes. “Harold, I don’t see any other way. I’m asking that you trust in me that I can hold out and not give into my dark nature. You must believe that I can do it as much as I believe that if I fail you will be able to pull me back. I wasn’t raised as a dragon and my formidable years weren’t spent with that nature. I can resist it because I have something others don’t. I have you.”

[Holeypaladin]

Harold gazed at the half-dragon angel, concerned over her well being. It seemed they were stuck between a rock and hard place, so to speak, and yet Leandre still seemed convinced that suppressing her angelic nature and turning her into a red dragon was somehow a good idea. Harold knew better... he had faced dragon in the past, along with half dragons. Though he heard rumors of a white half-dragon that had eventually overcome her evil nature, he also knew that white dragons were the least evil of all breeds of dragons, and the weakest. Red dragons like Fleur's father, however, were the most power, most tyrannical of all chromatic dragons in the world, and their evil nature was undeniably overwhelming to anyone who lacked an equally powerful good nature, such as Fleur inherited from her angelic mother.

He knew that the University was bound to have a Draught of Believing... in the possession of the Master Wizard himself and under lock and key, if nothing else. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that once Fleur's dragon nature was unleashed and unrestrained, she would no longer be herself, and that was something he couldn't stand for. "Before you can drink the draught..." he said, "We'll need to find a way to seal up your dragon side as well. Meaning that during the trip through the Astral realm.. Mid-ground as you call it... you'll be powerless as a human."

"I might be able to help with that part," came a beautiful feminine voice as the familiar beauty and overwhelming charismatic presence that was Fernanda made her entrance. "She's but a mere juvenile in dragon years, after all... it wouldn't be too difficult. Though I must warn you... any sort of pyromancy could break the seal and unleash the dragon within."

[AngelDellaNotte]

“No, the mid-grounds are dangerous. I can't leave you alone to fight through.” Fleur said, knowing that a mere human could never survive in the mid-grounds. Harold wasn't a mere human, he was a dragon slayer. A warrior proven time and time again in battle. The problem would be her, as a human she would only be a hindrance, putting him in danger. “Harold, I know you are an expert in anything dragon related. But even without my angelic nature I am still who I am. Do you really believe that I am evil? I know we haven't known each other very long. I can't believe that, in my core I am evil. My goddess may be but I am not her. Hell I am doing this to put a stop to her. Harold, we still have the dragon bangle if I start to slip it will weaken my powers. It won't fully stop them but it will be enough that you can stop me from doing anything wrong.”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

“Mistress.” Jarrah said, the pixie flying into Varvara's room. He hovered a short distance from her waiting to be acknowledge as she lay on a bed with a handsome young angel rubbing her back. The angel didn't stop instead he continued looking at the Goddess for direction.

“Jarrah, this better be good. I don't want to be disturbed.” Varvara said, sitting up and wrapping a blanket around her nude form. She waved the angel away and looked over at the pixie that look of displeasure still on her face. Tension with the dragons had grown, her spies hadn't been able to locate the dragon slayer and Saryn had been pressing her to make good on their deal. She had already heard of lesser dragons razing the outskirts of her lands. Nothing more than a number of scared villagers but a sure message from Saryn.

“Yes, Mistress. My spies have news in Genvese have word of a pair of angels fighting.” Jarrah said, still hovering away from the goddess.

“Two angels you say?” Varvara said, thinking about how Genvese was a free city. One of the epicenters for the renaissance, no god claimed the city mostly as most of the people didn't have faith in the gods. It would be unusual for an angel to be there and even stranger for there to be two. “Is this information creditable?”

“Very creditable, Mistress. An artist was there on the beach. He is working on a piece of art of their clash.” Jarrah said, waving his hands in the air before him the image of a artist's workshop appearing before them. The artist sat before a partially finished painting. It was little more than some sketches and light colorization. The outline of Fleur and Leandre could be seen but it wasn't clear enough to know for sure if it was them.

“Interesting.” Varvara said, standing up and walking to the angel who stood holding a robe. She dropped the blanket and slipped into the robe before walking back to Jarrah's image. Varvara reached into it grabbing the artist. She pulled him through the portal leaving the confused man standing there looking around. He looked about to speak but she held her hand up, his mouth moved but no sound was heard. “This angel you saw on the beach describe her.” Varvara said, waving her hand again.

“A young blonde woman wearing a suit of red shinning armor. Beautiful as can be, perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen.” The artist said, looking to the goddess seeing her glare at him sending a jolt of fear through him. He knew instantly he had made a mistake before this powerful woman. He was standing before divinity, there was no doubting it. “The most beautiful I have ever seen until this moment.”

The goddess looked at him pausing for a moment then nodded to Jarrah who created an image of Fleur. “Was this the woman?” Varvara asked, and then man nodded. “Very interesting indeed.” She snapped her fingers and the artist disappeared.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold frowned somewhat at the words of the angel. He didn't really want to argue with her, but she seemed quite confident in her ability to resist something she understood very little about. True, there was the dragon bangle, and it should be able to contain some of her dragon nature... though it would also weaken her greatly. Her angelic nature was a part of who she was, he was sure of this, and to get rid of it would be to turn her into something that she wasn't.... maybe even make her human.

Harold didn't like human girls. They bored him.

More than that, however... he didn't trust Hailan. There was a reason the youthful trickster deity had been kicked out of his own pantheon and hunted, and a reason he was now forced to live in hiding. While he doubted the deity would provide any overt interference... he wasn't one to be trusted, and Harold had no idea where his true loyalties lie. Another rebellious deity such as Varvara might be just the ally the child-god was waiting for in order to return to power, after all.

Pulling Fleur closer, Harold kissed her on the cheek. "Let's give it a bit of thought before we decide..." he said to her. "It would do no good to rush head first into a dangerous situation without adequate preparation." He was reminded somewhat of his first dragon hunt... a battle where he had nearly been defeated against a young dragon because he rushed in without properly preparing. Quite embarassing, in retrospect, and not a mistake he liked to repeat.

Suddenly, the dragon lady seemed quite alert. Noticing this, Harold looked over to her. "Something up?" he asked the ancient dragon.

"Divine energies..." said Fernanda. "Very unusual. It's rare for deities to directly interfere in the mortal plane, but one just did, and in my city no less..." She glanced at Hailan who she was sure could sense it as well before continuing. "I'll go investigate. Stop by my parlor before you leave town, would you?" With that, she went off in the direction of the beach where the artist had been abducted.

[AngelDellaNotte]

At hearing Fernanda's statement about divine energies Fleur froze feeling an eerie chill. “It is Varvara, I know it.” Fleur said, leaning into Harold for support. The goddess thought she was dead, that was the only thing saving her right now. If the goddess knew she was alive it was likely that she would come after Fleur. She didn't think that Varvara would just let her go. That and she still wanted Harold dead. It would only be a matter of time before she went after the knight again. Harold could handle himself against dragons but she was a goddess. No they needed the godslayer. “We need to get out of the city.”

“We can help you with that. There are tunnels in under the city that most in the city know nothing about.” Hailan said, gesturing around him to the room. They were standing in one of them. “Leandre can guide you.”

Looking to the young appearing god Fleur started to nod but then shook his head. “No, thank you we will find our own way out. You've already helped enough. We can't involve you anymore.” She could see Harold's hesitation to trust the Hailan and it had good reason. They didn't know him or what his motives were. Even if they could trust him, letting him help could put him on the wrong side of Varvara and that could put the people under the city in danger. Fleur couldn't do that. “We should head back to the inn get our things then leave after seeing Fernanda.”

[Holeypaladin]

Squeezing the angel closer, the knight frowned. "We don't know that for sure..." he remarked, yet he also suspected it was most likely Varvara herself who was interfering in the affairs of mortals... after all, rogue deities weren't a very common appearance, as they were usually kept in line by the others of their pantheon along with powerful outside forces such as Fernanda, whose power rivaled that of a minor deity, along with fear of the infamous Godslayer.

As Halian mentioned the underground tunnels, he glanced over to Fleur. It seemed the angel as well had reason to suspect Hailan's motives, or perhaps she had caught on to his own suspicions... still, he couldn't argue against Fleur's decision, giving a nod. "Let's go get our things then," he remarked, glancing back to the young deity of youth. "We appreciate your hospitality, but it is time for us to get going."

He went ahead and made his way back out of the tunnels into the city, ensuring that Fleur didn't stray far from his side. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I think we have more powers in play than simply Varvara and the chromatic dragons," he remarked, noting how Hailan as well had his own interests in mind, along with the metallic dragon ancient Fernanda who he trusted. Leandre as well seemed to have objectives of his own, though Harold was unsure what they might be... it was clear he had been deeply in love with Fleur's mother, but aside from that he wasn't sure what the angel wanted.

Upon arrival back to the inn, he gathered up what belongings he lift, glancing somewhat wistfully towards the bed. "Would that we had time..." he remarked, remembering the enjoyable evening he had shared with Fleur so recently. "Let's go see what Fernanda was able to discover," he remarked, stroking Fleur's wings a bit as he headed back towards the parlor that he had shown the angel earlier in the morning.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Back at the inn Fleur didn’t really have anything to gather up. Everything she owned was in the heavens and she couldn’t really say that it was much. Physical possessions wasn’t really something angels had or wanted. The gods provided them everything they needed. The only thing she could really claim was her was her poleaxe and she could summon that whenever she needed. She waited while Harold gathered his things wondering if he was carrying everything he owned or if he had a home somewhere with everything he didn’t need on the road. He had a massive arsenal he could access through his foundry but wondered if he had more. “Do you have somewhere you call home?” She asked, as he stroked her wings. A shiver ran through her body and a halfhearted glare was sent at the knight. He knew what that did to her and that they didn’t have time to be dallying around. “Tease.” She whispered trying to push the desire back down inside her.

It made her pause though very solemnly, if she drank the draught of disbelieving she would lose her wings. They were part of her and something she couldn’t imagine living without. Yet she could think of no other way to avoid Varvava. Harold seemed to think there had to be another way but she couldn’t think of it. He feared her dragon side and his fear was rightfully placed. Fleur had grown up around dragons, first as a child in Saryn’s den and then in the heavens with them an ally of Varvara. Still she had to believe that in her core she wasn’t evil. The thought of it hurt her even thinking about it. Yes, she was half dragon but that wasn’t who she was. It couldn’t be. She looked back at him wondering if he could see the turmoil inside of her. “We shouldn’t keep Fernanda waiting do you have everything?”

[Holeypaladin]

Harold was used to traveling light, maintaining only the essential possessions to survive on the road. This typically involved camping supplies in order to survive away from town, as many expeditions and adventures took him far from civilization. Food was also essential in order to survive, of course, and while certain types of conjuration magic could summon it, conjured provisions tended to be of poor quality, and there were times when he used up so much magical energy in combat with a dragon that he lacked the magical endurance to waste on provisions.

He thought over her question, and gave a shrug. "I don't really have a place to call home..." he said. "Home is where family is, and that ship has yet to sail." Though he had no problems attracting the attention of human girls, he also tended to get bored of the ordinary, and humans were nothing if not ordinary. An angel, of course, was far from ordinary... though he had only met this particular angel recently. Smirking at her reaction to his touch on her wings, he said, "Would that we had a bit more time..."

He nodded once he had gathered the essentials, making his way back towards the manor where the gold dragon guardian of Genvese resided. Escorting the angel back to Varvara's residence, he was greeted by the beautiful golden-haired lady at the entrance, but the dragon had a somewhat grave expression on her face. "Come," he said, showing them to a room that was properly warded against Divination magic in order to provide for some privacy.

"I have acquired a new piece of art to add to my collection," she said, nodding towards a painting that had a cloth draped around it. "I believe we shall find it to be... revealing." Walking over to it, she pulled the cloth off to reveal the finish painting of Fleur and Leandre locked in a pose of aerial combat. It was a rather impressive looking portrait, but the somber look on Fernanda's face implied it was quite serious.

"I fear the goddess Varvara has already seen this painting... the artist who drew this portrait had his memory wiped after being returned to Genvese. And I also believe that Hailan is not to be trusted. Although he provides some service to the non-human residents of Genvese... he would do anything to assume the full mantle of Divinity from the days of long past, even if it involves betraying a fallen angel back to a goddess who has forsaken her. And it is most definitely not in his best interest for anyone to acquire the ability to kill a god such as himself."

Glancing over to Fleur, the knight remarked, "If Varvara knows you're alive... then we've lost our advantage of anonymity. There's no longer any point in drinking the draught... since the only reason to do so would be to hide the fact that you're still alive... a fact that has already been revealed to our enemies." He thought for a moment. "However..." Glancing towards the gold dragon, he realized something. "We also have an ally with the power of a lesser deity on our side. I'm guessing our generous hostess has her own idea how we can get to the Imperial City, yes?" He looked at the dragon woman who began to smile, knowing full well that her intelligence was on a level far exceeding even the most brilliant of human wizards. Of course she would have a plan... a plan which she had waited until they were away from prying eyes and ears to relay to them.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Family.” Fleur said, solemnly. “I thought I knew what that was.” She never knew her mother and her father was a dragon. They usually were anything but parental. She had thought her family was among the angels and Varvara. Fleur had truly thought she loved the goddess and likewise but Varvara had proven Fleur was expendable just like the rest of her angels. She shook her head pushing the thought from her mind then gave Harold a small forced smile. As they walked to the door she sent her wings away so not to be seen while walking through the city.

When they made it to Fernanda’s estate she noticed the look on the gold’s face right away. Something was wrong. At seeing the painting she knew something was definitely wrong. Varvara knew that not only was she alive but so was Leandre. “I don’t trust Hailan either. It could be my newfound bias against them but something about him wasn’t right. However if Varvara knows about this painting then she knows about Leandre as well. Fernanda could I trouble you to send him a message after we’ve left the city? He should know that she is aware of him.”

Looking away from the stunning painting Fleur stared really into nowhere. Would Fernanda hang it next to her mother’s painting? Fleur was about to ask looking over to the gold dragon who merely nodded seeming to read her mind. She could have been nodding about sending a message to Leandre but the way she looked at Fleur felt like she could read her mind. Her thoughts drifted next to what Harold said about the draught. She was relieved and disappointed at the same time she wouldn’t have to give up being an angel but she had also been curious about learning more about her dragon nature. It was always just something there, over shadowed by the angelic side of her. “So where do we go now? The Mid-grounds?” She asked.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold wasn't sure how to respond to Fleur's comment about family. Though he was intelligent and rational when it came to logic and reason, emotional intelligence and empathy often eluded him. Thankfully, the dragon lady caught on quickly, and said, "I'll make sure to hang this portrait next to the one of your mother," she said to Fleur with a soft smile, reaching out to take her hand tenderly.

Nodding at the angel's suggestion, Fernanda went on to say, "I'll make sure Leandre knows that he is in danger. Goddesses can be quite vindictive towards slaves who have the audacity to turn on their masters, as they see them." Harold knew that gold dragons opposed slavery in all forms, so it was no wonder that she was willing to help the two who showed enough individually to seek freedom.

At the mention of mid-grounds, Fernanda gave a wide smile before slowly shaking her head. "The Astral realm, or mid-grounds as you call them, can be used as a shortcut between distances on the material plane... but it is not the only parallel plane that can be utilized in such a manner. As Hailan is aware of your plans to traverse the mid-grounds, he would be the first to inform our enemies of such so that they might set up an ambush... and so, we shall use this to our advantage."

Gazing up and down the angel, the dragon lady spoke some words in her native language, "Regpos di beli yobolat." The way she spoke them in such a commanding way was as if she was forcing the world itself to heed her call, which it did, as flakes of snow rapidly coalesced into the form of Fleur, before the image became completely indistinguishable. Then, it began to move of its own accord, mirroring the movements of the angel.

"This is a Simulacron," the dragon explained. "All that's left is to imbue it with some of your... essence. I'll leave it to your knight to assist with the extraction process. What we will do, is send the simulacron into the Astral realm to deal as much damage to Varvara's ambush as possible, while the two of you will instead traverse through the Fairy realm, following this map." She handed a map over to Harold, which detailed a rather complex route in, out, and through the fairy realm... a route undoubtedly full of quite a bit of danger of its own. "This should get you to the Imperial city within three days, give or take. Any questions?"

Harold was familiar with the fairy realm from his own education at the Arcane University, but he understood that the angel might not be quite so familiar, as she was young and may never have had any such cause to visit such a realm. Thinking over this plan, however, it was... brilliant. The genius dragon lady had come up with a rather impressive idea in such a short time, and made it look effortless.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She nodded her thanks to Fernanda for hanging her portrait with her mother’s portrait, it seemed fitting. She was grateful for her passing the message on to Leandre. The fallen angel had been her mother’s lover and had been nothing but kind to her. She didn’t fault him for working with Hailen, and didn’t have any reason to distrust his loyalty. She figured if the god did betray them he wouldn’t let the angel know, he would do it behind his back.

Traveling through the fairy realm would be smart in that if Hailen did turn on them they wouldn’t know they were there. Although Varvara did have several pixie spies in her ranks most didn’t live most of the time in the fairy realm, choosing to reside in the heavens instead or wherever else she placed them. Varvara cared little for the fairy realm, most fairies had their own gods which they worshiped and it was an unspoken agreement among the gods to not meddle in the other’s realms. Fleur had never been to the fairy realms but she had studied them quite a bit.

When Fernanda made the Simulacron, Fleur walked around it, also familiar with them as well. Toward the end of her training she had fought several of them as the Simulacrons acted and responded much the same as those they were created from. It was the ultimate test of your fighting skills to literally fight yourself. Though as it stood this was just a copy of her. It would mirror whatever she did until it was given her essence and a task. Fleur didn’t need Harold’s instruction on imbuing her essence onto the Simulacron she had done it many times before. There were several methods that could be used but there was one she was most familiar with.

Calling her wings out Fleur stretched them and flapped them a couple of times. Her wings were a part of her and she could feel them just as much as she could her fingers and toes. The feathers were much like hair though different in their own way. Shaking her wings a couple more times she could feel a feather that was coming loose. She reached up to her wing and gently grabbing the base of the feather she pulled up. There was a slight pinch as the feather came the rest of the way free. Thankfully it was loose enough that it didn’t bleed when it was removed and the others around it fell into place to cover where it had been.

She held it in her hand twirling it around, angel feathers had the same structure as a bird feather but there was a magic to them that made it seem like they were shimmering. Looking up at the Simulacron it was still mirroring the image and holding a feather as it looked at her. If Fleur had never seen a Simulacron it would have been a startling thing to see. Turning away from the Simulacron she held the feather out to Harold, “I believe you will need this.” She said.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold thought over the words of the dragon lady as he glanced over in the direction of Fleur. It was no surprise that such a highly intelligent creature such as Fernanda would think up such a brilliant plan. When the more intelligent of the dragon species put used their brains, humans were essentially like cattle in comparison, with angels not being all that much smarter, yet more limited in the scope of their thought. A gold dragon of Fernanda's age and power could even rival a goddess such as Varvara in power, though he doubted they'd ever have a chance to test this.

As Fleur plucked one of her feathers to hand to the dragon, Harold chuckled somewhat at her choice. "Not the most fun method of extracting your essence, but it'll work," he remarked. There were, of course, other means of imbuing the simulacrum with Fleur's essence... blood being one of them, and his personal favorite being a liquid of more... intimate nature.

He was surprised that Fleur didn't have any questions, so it fell upon him to come up with some. "Any words of advice for dealing with fairies? And is there anything you'd like me to tell this Godslayer, if we should happen to find him? What sort of dangers are we likely to face within the fairy realm?" While he knew somewhat about fairy lore from tales, he decided it best to rely on the experience of the wise dragon rather than test his own theories.

"Of course..." said Fernanda with a smile. "When dealing with fairies, it is important to know two things. Never make a deal with a fairy, and never trade with one. You've no doubt learned to never make a deal with the dragon... and the same applies to a fairy. If you trade with a fairy, it means that they own you. As for the dangers... not all fairies are the pretty pixies you hear so much about."

"The fairy realm is divided into four seasons, rules primarily by two courts: The Seelie and the Unseelie. The Seelie represent Light, and are known to be honorable and emotional, though they can be quite dangerous. The Unseelie represent Darkness, and are known to be underhanded, cold, and cruel. Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient time to teach you of the different types of fairies and their dangers. Most have an allergy to cold iron weapons, however... they may be your best weapon."

"As for the Godslayer as you call him..." she said, smiling somewhat at the mention of him for some reason. "If you do wish to relay a message from me, tell him I still haven't found a suitable mate, after searching for more than a thousand years. You can go on to say any other flattery that you might wish on my behalf, if you like."

Harold couldn't help but laugh somewhat at the personal message she had for the Godslayer. He glanced over to Fleur and said, "You're much better about singing praises than I am, so I'll leave that to you." He found it amusing that the thousand year old virgin would show such interest in a man, though from all accounts of legend and lore, the Godslayer was every bit as immortal as she was, so it could work out in a strange way. "I think we're ready," he said with a nod to the dragon.

"If you would open the rift to the Astral Mid-ground, I'll take care of the portal to Fairy," said Fernanda to Fleur before turning to walk into another nearby room full of portraits. These particular portraits were landscapes of worlds beyond and between the mortal realm, though they also tingles with a magical aura, indicating they were more than mere paintings.

"This one should lead to the Astral Mid-grounds," she said, gesturing to a portrait which would likely look familiar to the angel. "You should be able to open it easily and command the simulacrum to walk through." She then turned to another portrait resembling a verdant landscape full of otherworldly vegetation, the flowers in full bloom of spring. "Nifopen," she commanded in the Draconic language, causing the surface of the portrait to fade, opening a portal between the mortal world and the fairy realm of Spring.

Harold approached the painting, sticking his hand somewhat through and meeting no resistance. The portrait had become a portal, allowing travel between worlds. Turning to Fleur, he said to the angel, "Ladies first," before gesturing towards the portal in a courteous manner.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Opening the portal in the portrait was a little different than she was used to but she still managed to open it. Closing her eyes she thought of the simulacrum willing it to walk through the portal. Before it was completely through she mentally gave it instructions to head in the opposite direction they were headed so when Varvara tracked it she would be looking in the wrong place. A moment later the portal closed and she looked over to Harold taking his offered hand and walking through the second portal. She held her free hand out ready to call her spear should she need it when they crossed over. The art study disappeared and they were standing in an open field. Fleur looked up at the sky seeing that while it was blue it had a purple tint to it. This wasn't unusual with other realms, they tended to differ just a little. Like how Varvara's realm was an eternal darkness always being some sort of dusk, night or dawn.

“So where now?” Fleur asked. She had never been to the fairy realm and didn't know where to go. She figured it was similar to the mid-grounds in that traveling a mile in the realm could be a one hundred miles in the mortal realms. It would be best to get their bearings first to make sure they headed in the correct direction.

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Sitting in her throne room Varvara paused in taking a drink of her wine. She closed her eyes focusing on what caused her distraction. It was in the mid-grounds in the corresponding location in Genvese. Scanning the area Varvara caught a glimpse of what ha caught her attention. Fleur started walking heading away from Genvese toward the Uria Mountians. “Foolish girl.” Varvara said, opening her eyes and taking another drink. She waved her hand causing a viewing portal to appear showing the simulacrum walking through the mid-grounds. “Jarrah” She said, causing a pixie to fly over landing before the throne.

“Yes, mistress.” Jarrah said, holding his bow until Varvara acknowledged him.

“Travel to the mid-grounds and follow Fleur. Do not be seen and report everything she does.” Varvara said.

[Holeypaladin]

With the simulacrum sent on its way, Harold no longer needed to worry about Varvara's underlings pursuing them or learning of their destination... but instead, the fairy realm held its own dangers, which were not to be taken lightly. Finding himself in an open field, in a realm different from that of mortals or angels, the knight reached out to take Fleur's hand in his own. "By the looks of it..." he responded to her question, "We're in the Fairy realm of Spring."

There was little he could say about the fairy realms that hadn't already been explained by the dragon lady, who had centuries of collected knowledge upon which to impart on them with her parting words. Instead, he pulled out the map that had been given to him, studying it for awhile. "Looks like we'll be traveling through the realms of Autumn and Summer on our way to the Imperial City... as well as through some exotic eastern kingdom in the mortal realm. The map seems to serve as a key to opening the necessary portals, so we just need to keep hold of it."

Glancing over to two spring fairies who were going at it in the bushes, making loud sounds of pleasure, he sighed a bit. "I suppose that sort of thing is to be expected in the Spring realm," he murmured, noting how unlike mortals, the fairies seemed to have absolutely no shame about such things... though there were a few winged pixies who began to show an interest in the foreigners, keeping their distance for the time being but obviously quite intrigued.

"Let's go, shall we?" he said, getting a bearing of the terrain before wrapping an arm around Fleur's waist, walking off in the direction of a path leading through a tranquil glade of flowers and other exotic plants not native to the mortal realm.

[AngelDellaNotte]

They walked for a while the two pixies following them. The landscape was beautiful almost reminding her of parts of the divine realms. She heard that the fairy realms were divided by seasons and times of the day. Knowing that Varvara employed pixies the two of them following them unnerved Fleur though wasn't sure why the were following them but if they were spies they wouldn't be so obvious about it. One of the pixies finally broke the distance and flew up to them. He circled around Fleur a flew times seeming to examine her. The second pixies rushed up to the first berating him about being reckless. Fleur stopped walking and looked at the two of them arguing.

“Are you daft Timon?” The female said, smacking Timon on the head.

“No, just curious Zora. I told you it wasn't a giant pixie.” Timon said, dodging another blow from his mate. “Look at her wings they are feathers just like a thought.”

“I knew it wasn't a giant pixie I was just indulging you. Now you've had your look lets get out of here before it eats you.” Zora said, tugging on Timon and trying to pull him away. “Probably a harpy.”

“I'm not a harpy and I promise not to eat you.” Fleur said, while Timon flew closer landing on one of her wings and looking at her feathers. He brushed his hands through them and even rubbed his cheek against it testing the softness. Fleur let out a light giggle as the action tickled a little.

“Fine then what are you?” Zora asked, once again flying over to Timon and pulling him away with a few more harsh words.

“I'm an angel.” Fleur said, a little amused at the couple's behavior.

“Bullshit. Angels don't come to the fairy realms, the gods think it is beneath their slaves.” Zora said, stopping to look at Fleur.

Fleur's smile turned into a frown at the mention of angels being slaves. A short while away it would have made her angry thinking of angels as slaves, taking it as an insult. No now she was upset because she knew it was true. “I'm not exactly in good standing with my goddess.” Fleur said, not knowing how much they should say.

[Holeypaladin]

It was no surprise to Harold that some of the local residents of the fairy world would follow them. Most likely they were curious who these foreign intruders in their realm were, but he was also aware that fairies tended to make some of the best of spies. The Seelie were no friends of the night goddess, though, since they represented light and warmth... but the same would not necessarily hold true of the Unseelie. Thankfully, he doubted the Unseelie would know to keep an eye out for a wandering angel, though it would likely strike their queen as quite curious indeed once she learned of it... by which point Harold intended to be long gone from the fairy realm.

He chuckled as he heard the exchange between the tiny pixies and their confusion as to what Fleur was. Wrapping an arm around the angel's waist, he tried to think up some kind of excuse as to why she was in the fairy realm. As he did so, however, she ended up admitting to the both of them that she was an angel, which blew any hope of cover.

"We're just passing through these lands on our way to our destination," he told the pixies. "Our goals are aligned with those of your court in this matter, so it is in our mutual best interest that we reach our destination." He was very careful not to request anything of the pixies, nor offer anything to them, as the ancient gold dragon had advised him against making any sort of deal or trade with fairies.

[AngelDellaNotte]

She thought of conversing with fairies as they walked however Harold's hand on her waist reminded her again they should be careful with the information they gave. She probably should not have revealed her angelic nature but it was too late now. The mortal realms still confused Fleur, she wasn't used to all the half truths, lies and deceit even if it was necessarily. It went against her nature, angels tended to make poor spies as lying didn't come easy to them as Fleur had proved when she first met Harold. She bid farewell to the two pixies and they continued on their journey through the fairy realms. They walked for most of the day through meadows neither really saying much instead merely enjoying the beauty of it all.

When they finally stopped the sun was beginning to set turning the sky a purple haze that reminded Fleur of Varvara's realm. Despite knowing that her life was a lie and she was used by the goddess it reminded her of home and reminded her that it wasn't her home anymore. She was an angel without a home or a god. What was her purpose in life now? Fleur honestly didn't know. When this quest was over and they had found the godslayer then what? Kill Varvara? What would come after that? She had found herself sitting on a fallen tree staring at the dusk sky not noticing that Harold had been setting up a camp for them.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold didn't particularly mind the quiet as he walked along with the angel girl. True, there were some things he would like to know, but in this land of pointy ears that heard everything, only the minimum amount of communication could be spared until they reached their destination. There were, of course, things he had yet to decide or figure out about their plan, but he was the sort of man who would fill in the gaps as they went.

Though the spring world was far from safe, they had been fortunate enough not to encounter anything that tried to kill them, so far... perhaps because the fairies were too curious about why these otherworlders were taking a casual walk through their realm. It was one of the more peaceful of the fairy realms, however, as the environment was geared more towards creating life than destroying it.

After setting up camp in a peaceful glade in the evening, he made his way over to Fleur's side, stroking her soft, sensitive wings. "This is about as far as we'll make it today..." he said to her. "Let's wear your celestial body out so that we can get some rest." He took her hand gently and began tugging her in the direction of the tent, gazing at her as he did so. "You probably feel the mood of the spring realm already..." he whispered into her ear, noting how two bunny-eared girls in the woodline were giggling at them and blushing, still a bit shy to approach them.

[AngelDellaNotte]

The sun light breaking through the crack in the flap of the tent shined into Fleur's eyes and waking her up. She was tangled up in both in the bed roll and in Harold. It had taken Harold several rounds to wear out her celestial body out. The longer she spent with him she wondered how the human was able to keep up with her. She was so comfortable she didn't want to get up but she knew they were on borrowed time. The sooner they could get across the fairy realms and find the godslayer the better. She knew until Varvara was dead she wouldn't totally be free. She could try to hide as Leandre did but what kind of life was that? And could she bring Harold along with it? She had a feeling her would do anything for her but she couldn't ask him to live a life like that.

Slowly disentangling herself from him she managed to do it without waking him and exited the tent. When she stepped outside she realized how cool it was when the morning air hit her skin. She worked her angelic powers to call a dress to her, covering her. From the treeline she heard a pouting couple of sighs and looked over to see the bunny-eared girls. Both of them looked disappointed that she wasn't walking around nude anymore. “Oh run along you voyeurs.” Fleur said, watching them run off then walked to the remains of the fire pit. It hadn't gone completely out but was very low. She threw another couple of logs on the fire. Then called a bow and arrow to her and quietly looked around the clearing noticing a couple of rabbits hopping around. Notching an arrow she managed to hit one of the rabbits on the first shot. She thought it probably was a good thing the bunny-eared girls were gone she didn't know how they would react to her killing a rabbit.

A short while later and she had skinned the rabbit and set it about to cook. Roasted rabbit wasn't your usual breakfast but when in the wild you eat what you had. She worked on cleaning the rabbit pelt not sure what she planned on doing with it but she had always been taught not to waste anything. The food would be done soon and she would have to wake Harold up but for now she let him sleep. She knew he had to have been drained from last night on so many levels. The two bunny-eared girls had to have been treated to quite a array of sounds last night.

[Holeypaladin]

After a long night of wearing out the angel's celestial body, Harold woke in the morning to see that the bunny girls were still there. He chuckled at the angel's comment, stroking her soft wings a bit and remarking, "I bet they wanted to join us." Trying to identify what sort of fairies they were, he stated, "I think they're Osterhasen," he said as he searched his mind for what he knew of Spring fairies. "An all female race of bunnies... they seem cute and innocent, but they're known to take a man back to their village and pass him around. Sometimes they accidentally sex him to death, though they're not a malicious race."

He frowned somewhat as he noted the bunny she was cooking. "I'd warn you not to hunt on fairy lands... but it seems I'm too late. Let's hope the Osterhasen didn't notice." He made his way over to the cooking fire and sat next to the angel, wrapping an arm around her and stroking her soft, feathery wings. He waited until it was finished cooking and began to eat it. "I didn't realize angels needed to eat," he remarked, having heard all sorts of rumors about how they weren't mortal and therefore didn't need mortal food... then again, it was hard to determine what was true and what was fiction, when it came to angels.

[AngelDellaNotte]

“Technically we don't have to but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy it.” Fleur said, turning the rabbit on fire. She really didn't know what she was doing and didn't want to admit this was the first time she was cooking. In Varvara's realm they often had the most amazing feasts but Fleur never saw them being prepared. To be honest she didn't know if there were cooks or if Varvara used her powers to create the food. “I like trying the different mortal foods. I'm especially fond of..... Oh I can't think of the word. Food that burns your mouth but not because of the temperature. I find the conflict between the good taste and the burn fascinating.”

Fleur reached down again and this time pulled the rabbit from the fire. She thought it was done as if she left it on any longer she feared it would burn. Using a knife she cut it into quarters seeing that it indeed looked like it was cooked enough. She brought a piece to her lips and tasted the rabbit. The taste of it reminded a small flightless bird she had tried at one of Varvara's feasts. It tasted a little bland however, “Not bad, I think it could use some spices though.” She said, pausing for a moment. “Oh that's it! I like spicy food!”

[Holeypaladin]

Observing the angel as she roasted the rabbit over the fire, it was clear to the knight that she wasn't used to cooking, though he didn't point this out as he figured he'd let the girl do her best... it was, after all, meant for him rather than for her, so he decided to show some degree of appreciation. Chuckling as she made an attempt at describing spicy food, he remarked, "It'll come to you" as he allowed her to finish roasting the animal until it seemed to be done enough.

"It does, does it?" He always felt there was a difference in flavor between rabbit and chicken, though to one who didn't eat as much as he did, he supposed they might taste similar enough. Nodding at her words, he said, "Agreed... spicy food is better. Perhaps we can pick up some spices at some point, if you're planning on cooking more often. I believe the spice you're looking for is called cayenne pepper." Bland though the meat may have been without spices, Harold had eaten worse, and so he resolved to eat as much as he could in order to keep his energy up for the fights to come.

Once he had finished his meal, the knight stood up, offering his hand to the young angel. "We should get moving..." he said. "I've heard that time passes differently in the fairy realm, but that doesn't mean we should delay our trip any longer than we have to."

[AngelDellaNotte]

She ate sparingly letting Harold take what he needed. It was more so he didn't have to eat alone, her teachers used to tell her that mortals felt awkward eating alone while someone watched them. She hadn't much experience with mortals aside from her time with Harold. They weren't quite like she had been taught. Harold was so much more complex than that, so much more interesting. He wasn't the dullard they made mortals out to be. Most angels tended to have a better than you attitude when it came to mortals. Fleur was learning they weren't all that different. After breakfast they packed up and started of the road again. The walk would be a long one and while Fleur wouldn't tire, time was of the essence and like he said it move differently here.

Fleur kept her frustrations to herself walking in silence until she noticed a herd of unicorns grazing off the side of the road. She held her hand up to Harold to stop and began walking over to the unicorns. She moved very slowly and sent her spear away. Unicorns could be very dangerous but they were intelligent beings and could be reasoned with. As she approached she held her hands out in a peaceful manor, “Well met, I come as a friend.” Fleur said, in the language of the unicorns to one that was standing toward the front of the herd.

“Well met, as for a friend that has yet to be seen.” The unicorn said, though the words were not spoken aloud, instead they sounded in Fleur's mind. The voice wasn't her own it was a male voice and sound melodic. Almost like the words were being sung. Fleur wasn't sure if the unicorn was letting Harold hear him or if he would be able to understand. Unicorns had the power to project their voice into the minds of others in the language of the unicorns or their language. It was their choice to let who they wanted to hear it. “An angel in the fairylands is unusual, especially one bound to Varvara. Tell me what one who serves the night is doing in these lands?”

“I am bound to the Mistress of the night but I do not serve her.” Fleur said, unicorns weren't bound to any of the gods and most ignored them or tried to control their powers. The relationship between the gods and unicorns wasn't a good one. Varvara especially as she tended to use anyone who crossed her path.

“Ha, a fallen angel. Quite unusual.” The unicorn said, with a chuckle. “Tell me demon why do you walk in the fairylands?”

“I am not a demon.” Fleur said, not liking the term though it was somewhat accurate.

“Is that not what you are? Angel cast out of grace?” The unicorn said.

“Perhaps but I prefer to be called Fleur.” She replied, then gestured to Harold, “My companion is Harold.”

“And I Aeolus. Now that pleasantries are done you have still not answered my question.” The unicorn said.

“We are traveling to the Imperial City and do not have the time to traverse it on the mortal plain. Nor do we wish to be seen in the mid-grounds. I fear I can not share our reasoning though I assure you they are just. I wish to ask for your people's assistance in speeding up our journey. Would you lend us the aid of helping us to the portal?” Fleur asked, ending in a low respectful bow.

[Holeypaladin]

Harold stood near the angel as she decided to speak to a herd of unicorns. Though he had heard much about unicorns, the knight had never met one personally, as they tended to be quite wary humans... particularly male humans. The light elves, he recalled, got along quite well with their kind, even going so far as to form partnerships... a unicorn cavalry force, so to speak, though the requirements to be a unicorn rider were quite strict.

He was somewhat surprised that one of the unicorns decided to speak to Fleur, though could only make out about one word in three... and only the words spoken by Fleur herself. The fairy dialect of the unicorns had some similarities to the elven languages that he was proficient with, but not enough for him to understand. He sensed that the unicorn was communicating with the angel using a form of telepathy, though he himself wasn't privy to the words.

He winced as the elf asked a question to the unicorn. "Didn't the dragon lady tell us not to make a deal with a fairy, and not to trade with one? Be very careful what you say to these things... they may not be true fairies, but an intelligent fairy beast is close enough, as far as I'm concerned..."

"You are right to be wary, mortal Knight," the unicorn's thoughts could now be heard by Harold as well... making it clear that the creature could understand the language of humans as well as whatever language Fleur was speaking. "However, it would be to our benefit for both of you to leave this realm as quickly as possible. I can show you to the portal, but neither of you may use my back, as you are Impure."

It was no secret that only virgin maidens of pure heart were permitted to ride unicorns, so this didn't surprise Harold, who merely nodded as the unicorn turned and ran off in the direction of the portal. Even following in the magical creature's footsteps, however, it seemed to him that he was covering more distance with each step... a tribute to the inherent magic of a creature that could cover great distances swiftly and even teleport.

[AngelDellaNotte]

Running with the unicorn reminded Fleur a bit of flying, the feel of the wind flowing through her hair was magical. She wondered if Harold had ever felt anything like this before. Flying is when Fleur felt the most free and the most at home. Both of her natures were drawn to the sky so it was no surprise. She had enjoyed flying most at night being bound to Varvara and though she hadn't flown night recently she thought it would be different. The unicorn came to a stop in a clearing and Fleur had been so lost in the run she almost didn't notice. She was inches away from bumping into the Unicorn but somehow managed to stop just in time. The unicorn was granting them a favor even if it did say it was to get them out of his homelands, it wouldn't do to insult it by crashing into it.

Fleur composed herself and bowed to the unicorn. “Thank you for your assistance. We will now leave your lands.” Fernanda had opened the portal through a painting which was nothing like the swirl of blue and green that was before them. Fleur traced her fingers around the edge of the portal thinking of where she wanted to travel. Portals usually could travel to multiple places and you had to focus on which one otherwise the portal would throw you wherever it wanted. She thought of the Arcane University then took Harold's hand before stepping through the portal.

They exited into a room full of books, there were no windows and the room was lite by small magical orbs floating around the room. With all the tombs they had here it was no wonder that there were no open flames. Across from them stood an old man that normally would look frail from age but stood tall with power behind him, in his hand there was a long staff that was more than just wood. Fleur found herself breathing deeply as she could feel her draconian nature flowing to the surface. Her wings were extended and although she couldn't see them she knew her eyes were red. The portal must have a spell on it to show anyone who walked through it's true nature. Fleur didn't tap into her dragon side often and the feeling was strange like she couldn't control it. She tried to will it back down but it wouldn't go. She locked eyes with the old man realizing he was holding the reveal spell on her.