Dance of the Marshes (Cas)

[Raphael]

She was starting to get cabin fever, no pun intended. For the past two weeks, Raphael had holed herself up in her cabin with the sole purpose of healing the wounds she had sustained from being tortured back at her old home with her own race. The wounds on her knuckles were completely healed, as was the injury to her wing as she had landed. The cross like cut on her forehead and the powder that ate away at her hand however, had left thin pink scars on her skin. However, the one thing that she couldn't heal was the fact that Raphael was still mostly blind in her own eye, the gray colored of her pupils all clouded, as result of the powder that had fell into it. Yet one wouldn't think that she had survived such a horrible ordeal through her outward personality.

The marshes were always quiet. No real race ever resided in them, and it was just a short distance to fly from her cabin in the woods. Raphie could understand why. It wasn't really a very habitable place. The trees draped blocking out the sun, and with it being dusk, an eerie mist surrounding the trunks. It was hard to tell what was a puddle or marsh, and what was dry land with all of the foliage lying about. For some, it was a perfect way to get a sneak attack, however, no one stayed long if they had to. Everyone agreed that the marshes, were just plain to disgusting.

Well for most people anyway. To Raphael, they were the most fascinating thing in the world. She had always been a part of nature, and completely loved every aspect of it. To her, nothing was disgusting, and she simply did not mind getting dirty. It was a playground, a new place to explore. Even if there was no human like races that lived among the marshes, there was animals that had resided here. Snakes, and birds, and things of the like. It was just everything she liked about being alone in this big vast world.

With a slight hum, Raphie made her way through the marshes. Once again, she had no shoes on, her feet trekking their way through, already covered with mud. Her once clean yellow sundress had splashes of mud on them, and her blonde hair had a few leaves in it. A smile danced on her lips as she made her way through, her wings also a bit muddy and ruffling contentedly behind her. It was safe to say she didn't mean sporting this dirty look.

Another move forward, her ears atuned to the nature, that was until she had heard something behind her. Immediately her wings folded back behind her body, as she attempted to find the nearest tree to hide behind. Ever since what had happened before, and running into different races of people, she had been a little on edge. She wasn't going to fight, but she didn't want to die either. She just hoped that it was just some animal. To her surprise, it wasn't.

[Čⓐѕ]

His metallic wings shined in the sunlight as Cassiel had gotten a lead from a vampire prisoner on the whereabouts of a stray angel living in the marshes, He had gotten this information privately of course making his absence known as a hunt and that he would go alone. They objected of course but he commanded the room with a gesture of his hand, he had left alone. He had circled the marshes twice spotting a splash of yellow here and there, he finally had a lock on her. He floated down, his wings and movements as silent as an owls. ducking underneath the foliage he floated down to the ground following Raphael, he feet landed with a dull thud as he landed on a hard patch of land among the boggy mud and slime. Raphael's wings had came inward immediately, he watched her search for a hiding spot but it was to late. He spoke with a hint of amusement

"Youseem afraid out here in the marshes on your own... You sure your going to be able to live on this planet without a soul to help you?" he said this with a small smile, he knew his torture didnt completely disable her. He wondered about her eye though, he had brought a vial for her either way if she wanted it or not. He didnt bother to bring it up just yet, he knew she had a few words for him. He didnt mind really, he did what had to be done and she knew that.

He crossed his arms as he stood looking upon her, his senses tuned around him. Silence was golden in these marshes that he knew, the only creatures that ever wandered here were some stray wolves and other things as well. He wasnt worried about them now, it was light out but coming dark soon. But this didnt seem to matter to the marsh at all, its large wildly growing trees and vines cut out the sunlight in many places here giving night creatures a place to stay for the day. He wondered about sending groups to clear them out, but realized that Raphael is living here and she would be found and captured once more.

His face was smooth, he held no hard expression or anger in it for her. In someways he was glad she had gotten her wish, she was always the free spirit among many angels. He spoke once more

"Pray I see your face Raphael? How are your injuries? Do they still hurt you?"

He didnt think they would, most of the damage inflicted wasnt life threatening or fatal; just painful. He noticed her hand had healed nicely thanks to her remedies, he had told another of the herbalists to whip up something for scarred tissue and eye damage and so he had. The small clear vile held a light blue substance, it would clear her eye so she could see and heal most of the scarring from the powder. He waited for her to reply, or attack, who knew.

[Raphael]

Raphie didn't know that she was being tracked, and frankly she wasn't really good at that either. She wasn't made to fight, just like others weren't made to do other things as well. She was made to heal, to be free, and that was what she was granted after running away from her own kind. Before, she was always stuck in the clinic, healing angels from battle left and right. She loved to heal people, and bestow the kindness upon them, but it took a toll on her. She couldn't stay in one place for too long. She needed that freedom, and with a painful price, she was granted it.

The person who had tracked her, hadn't been another race, but that of her own. It was the man that had done this stuff to her, the one who had hurt her. Cassiel. However, she did not run nor did she make an attempt to hurt him. She merely just stood there, her wings still withdrawn, with a slight tilt of her head. “I'm not going to go back if that's what you are implying, Cas. This is where I belong. besides, I have already made friends, a human and a werewolf to be exact.” Raphael replied, a small grin playing on her face. True, she had met both men from these races, and didn't manage to kill her. The fact that she had made friends on this planet pleased her, to make it feel all not so bad that her own race had deserted her. “Of course, I do miss my one friend. One who is going to tell me why he came to find me?”

Her wings spread out more as she relaxed, her hand lightly resting against the trunk of one of the cypress trees. Her eyes studied his in a bit of silence, as if she were trying to read into his soul. She knew he didn't come to bring her back. Otherwise, he would not of come alone. Didn't mean he was going to apologize for what he had done. He didn't need to. She knew he had to do it just as much as she herself knew she had to go through with it for the sake of showing her people that war is not just one-sided. So if he came for her to starting yelling at him for what he had done, he was completely wrong. “I'm not mad at you, Cas. Not going to yell at you or anything of that sort.” Raphie said simply, hoping it would cause him to wonder the reason. Thought was a very powerful weapon, even more so than a gun sometimes.

Ever so slowly, she closed the gap in between them, her lavender wings slightly flapping as she moved. He wanted to see her face, and she obliged in his request. She still had a bit of distance from him, not wanting to be too close, as to be improper, but less than an arm's length away so he could see her face clearly. ”It is fine. Healing as much as I can with the sources I have. And you Cas? How have you been..” So, perhaps trying to start a conversation with the man who tortured you might not be the most common of things amongst this world..

[Čⓐѕ]

She stood her wings still withdrawn a little as she spoke back to him not bothering to turn, she tilted her head. He smirked at the lack of respect she held for superior, but in any case he no longer was. His smile left quickly, she was a friend.

“I'm not going to go back if that's what you are implying, Cas. This is where I belong. besides, I have already made friends, a human and a werewolf to be exact.”

His eyebrows raised as she said this, his small smile returning at the corners of his mouth. People liked her, that was an honest truth. He waited in silence and she spoke again

“Of course, I do miss my one friend. One who is going to tell me why he came to find me?”

His own expression did not fade at her words, but he did not speak just yet. He watched her in silence, her wings relaxed a little. He noted that vaguely

“I'm not mad at you, Cas. Not going to yell at you or anything of that sort.”

Cassiel nodded simply, agreeing that he was not here for that reason. He looked off into the trees spotting some slithering life that had drawn up from the muck, his mind didn't wonder about her meanings. Cassiel never played with words or emotions to others, he was past the point of small word play. He left his word twisting with the courts and the people, he only looked off.

His head turned back to her as she turned and moved toward him, he watched her face the entire time. It was scarred and pink, still raw, he wanted to apply the medicine himself to her wounds. He tossed the foolish idea, he waited until she came close but not to close. He studied her face with moving eyes, their soft gold glow running over the wounds of the powder he had put on her soft elegant face. He scowled at the markings and her clouded eye, the powder was nasty. Luckily he had cleaned it off before it had eaten through her eye, he regarded the scars and spoke quietly

"I am here for no reason than my own, I will not persuade you that I know."

He dropped his arms and tilted her head a little, his head coming down so he could look at her under his eyebrows. His words were clear and decisive, he held no games in them

"We will not discuss these matters now, you are free and I will send no one for you. But be wary of the others, their orders are to kill or capture you on site. Try and watch the skies a little every now and then."

He smiled a little and reached into his robes pocket, he slid the vial inside of his sleeve and brought it out his hand empty. His right hand went to her chin lifting up her face a little more, he spoke softly

"Do you not have the remedies you need to clear your eye Raphael?"

He didn't bother to answer her small talk. His hand let go of her chin easily, his fingers went to the inside of his sleeve slipping out the bottle and gently slid it onto her person. He brought his arm back his face a total mask of his true natures, he smiled a little again and spoke bluntly

"You may be scarred like that forever? Unfortunate, I could have one of the other medical's come up with a remedy for you?"

His eyebrows came up once again in a questioning look, his hard features seeming rather soft in this expression. He wasnt emotionless by any means, but he was good at hiding what he truly thought. He waited for her reply, eyes focused on her good eye.

[Raphael]

It wasn't that she didn't have lack of respect for him. In fact, he was the only one she had respected. It was simply her personality. She wasn't really like all other angels. Especially the female ones. Sure, they might have been tied to their emotions, but they were all the same. Drones working for the beehive. They had some sort of job. Either they were in the army themselves, or did something at the aboratorium. Some had relationships, others had familes. Raphael on the other hand, always seemed to think outside of the box. She didn't want to be stuck doing the same job over and over again. She wanted to be free. And now she was, but at what cost?

She didn't know why she had gained the friendship of two other races already. It wasn't like it was expected. They both randomly ran into her. The werewolf pushed her curiosity, making her want to know more about him. The human, Lucian, had already become a dear friend to her. He had promised to protect her and to keep her safe, even if she was an angel. He believed in her strive for peace. It was just one step towards her goal.

It did in fact come with a cost, a cost of her friend, Cassiel. Because her views of peace, and the fact that she wanted to be free, the angels saw her as a traitor, someone who should be dealt with like every race on the planet. Cassiel was an archangel, one that had been chosen because of his skills and past of fighting. A traitor like her could never be friends with the archangel. Not anymore at least. That was what saddened her most of all when she had made her decision to leave.

”I admire you Cas. More than I should. I am very sad that I have to lose you in all of this.” She finally admitted, the smile escaping from her lips, a frown replacing it. Her expression only softened as he said that she was free and would not make her come back. A small chuckle escaped her lips as he told her to be wary. “Got myself out of there, didn't I? Besides, I do have a guardian. I am not the only one who grew tired of the life they were forced to live.”

Raphael's face brightened up as her gray eyes seem to sparkle as he had lifted her chin to look at her eye. He questioned on why it hadn't been fixed yet. “The resources I need are not available here on earth. I would like for it to heal, but it is okay if it is not. Makes my other senses stronger anyway..” She trailed off.

She knew his games very well. After all, he was the one who had trained her. She might have been cunning and could get out of sticky situations, but only because he had taught her how to effectively do that. So Raphael knew that he had slipped the vile into her pocket. A small raise of her eyebrow as he pretended like nothing happened. She took it out of her hand and held it up with a slight smirk. “I think I know you a bit too well, Cas.” She started before her expression looked at him a bit questioningly. “Do you mind...? I can't exactly put it on where it needs to go without a mirror or something.”

[Čⓐѕ]

Cassiel listened quietly as she spoke to him, he was suprised at the knowledge that she had made relations with the other races so quickly. He shook the thought, it was coincidental, others would be less lenient to her. Smiling back he listened to her trail off about her scars, he had not realized how cunning she had become over the years as she pulled out the vial he had slid onto her person.

He laughed as she smirked and commented on his antics, his laugh was loud and vibrant. He hardly laughed these days but Raphael had a way about her to make the situations seem easier, he grabbed the vial back from her and smirked back speaking easily

"You haven't lost me old friend..." His hand tilted her head up once more as he pulled the lid from the vial, he applied it directly to her eye and scars. He watched as the fog seemed to fade away, the scar would take a day or so to completely heal over restoring her lovely features. Letting go he stepped back and handed the vial to her this time, he spoke gradually

"Your a smart woman Raphael, hopefully things will change for the better and we wont have to fight. But in my opinion, I dont think either sides going to have a bit of patience for that."

He continued to hold out the vial, it was still half full. His expression was soft and caring as he did, he had secretly cared over Raphael all these years. He wouldn't let her stubborn actions and silly dreams ruin their friendship, his face kept the smile on it, he needed it for her mostly. A small ray of sunlight hit the vial then, causing a brilliant flash between them and around the trees. The vial shined a clear blue all around them, Cassiel kept the vial under the sun as he looked around at all of the spots and lights making the Marsh look magnificent. It died as quickly as it came, he kept the smile as he still held the small clear vial.

[Raphael]

Raphael knew that deep down Cassiel had also wanted peace among the nations. He might put up a façade with the others, stating that other races were vile and needed to be eradicated. However, she knew that it was only because her race was confused. They were stuck on earth with no way of getting home, so it pressured everyone into reigning this nation so they wouldn’t come out as the underdogs. She understood the military tactics, she understood his thought processes. Raphie might have disagreed with them, but that didn’t mean in any way that she would fight him, let alone lay a finger on the man.

Her smile only seemed to grow as he laughed. Oh how she had missed his laugh. It made her feel completely at ease, her lavender wings fluttering a bit behind her happily. If she were the fighting type, she would have been right beside him, fighting the war. However, she wasn’t the fighting type. She was the healing type. Her hands were not made to wield weapons but to heal those that have been hurt. Perhaps she was chasing this fleeting idea of peace because that is what would heal people’s souls.

Raphael’s gray eyes sparkled as he stated that she hadn’t lost him. The smile still plastered on her face as she tilted her head for him to put the liquid on her cuts, already feeling it beginning to work. It was a small warm, tingling sensation. Raphie noticed that she was soon beginning to see a little bit better in her injured eye. The vial was working. “If there was a way for me to redeem myself up there, Cas, I would. I don’t know if it would do any good. You might say I haven’t lost you. Yet, I know there will be a time that I’ll be on the other end of your sword. I just want peace. Is there something so wrong with that? I want to heal everybody..”

She was going to reach out and take the vial for him, that was until the light hit the liquid inside. Her wings withdrew as her eyes scanned the area. The vial made many hues of blue hit the marshes and caused a brilliant beautiful view. Raphie gasped in delight, and just like that it was gone. It was then she decided to act on her impulses. Her hand grasped his that held the vial, before wrapping the other around him in a soft embrace like hug. It might have been improper for her to do so, but she didn’t care. “I’ll always care for you Cas. ”

[Čⓐѕ]

Cassiel stood shocked but not surprised by her action, he had seen it in her demeanor as he watched her. His smile was soft as she hugged him, he patted her softly on the shoulder. He brought his hand around to the front of her shoulder and pushed her lightly back pulling her away from him, he spoke calmly his face a mask of concern

"You cant save everyone Raphael, that is the truth."

His gold ringed eyes glowed faintly back it her, the golden fire shining lightly instead of brilliantly. His words were slow and mindful as he spoke,

"And I for you, I must be going now."

He stepped back his eyes turning towards the sky, they were calling for his return. He cursed his duties. Turning he looked back to Raphael, his eyes ablaze once again. He tossed the vial back to her, and smiled once more.

"I hope your new friends will help you along with your journey here, I am sure they will be very happy to have your healing abilities."

His right hand reached inside of his coat pocket pulling out a small book clasped in a leather seal, it was old; very old. He pages seemed to be dried stretched skin instead of paper.
Cassiel spoke ominously, his deep voice seeming to mix with the dark of the Marsh.

"This is a book of healing magic Raphael, this is a book stored in The Arbatorium's vaults. I am the only angel accessible to the vault in the fortress right now, now this book is capable of great things. The healing magic you will learn is extraordinarily fast, you will be able to heal others in a matter of minutes with the practice used in this book."

His tossed it down on the dry patch of land they were standing on, its soft body hitting the ground with a light thump. He turned and spread his wings, he spoke evenly his voice once more a deep commanding tone.

"Take care of yourself Raphael, and dont try to save everyone. With those powers come a price, use them and you will know."

His head turned back and he winked slyly,

"Alius vicis tunc."

Their native tounge saying his goodbye for him, he turned back took off. His wings shoving him into the air and into flight, he took off fast breaking through the limbs above him he reached the sky and shot forward back to his chores as a military officer. His face was stern and composed as he flew his metallic wings once more shining the suns rays back into the sky, he pumped hard racing back.