Malachi dragged his feet as he approached Rowan's farm.
The image of Melanie's bruises had seemingly burned themselves into his mind, giving him an even greater headache than the one he'd already possessed.
He'd kept trying to tell himself that he'd been mistaken, that what he'd seen was some sort of trick of the light.
No matter how many times he'd told himself that, it didn't change what he already knew.
Melanie was being abused, and Malachi was certain he already knew the culprit.
"It's none of my business anyway." He grumbled.
'So why am I so bothered?'
"She cheated on me with my fucking boss for god's sake."
'Yet I still don't feel like I can turn my back on her.'
"This is bullshit."
'I'm just not going to think about it anymore.'
While Malachi no longer held romantic interest in Melanie, that would not change the fact that he was a person with a compassionate heart who could not justifiably walk away from someone he knew being abused.
"You know if you have to make that kind of face when you visit, I think I'd prefer you not visit at all."
Malachi looked up from his thoughts to see Rowan standing on the porch, cigarette in hand.
"Sorry old man, it's not because of you." Malachi came to a stop at the bottom of the steps and gestured for the old man to give him a cigarette as well.
Rowan obliged him and soon the two were standing side by side, smoking leisurely as they watched the grass blow in the breeze.
"Wanna talk about it?" Rowan finally asked.
"No." Was Malachi's only reply.
They sat in silence for a bit longer before Malachi finally made a request.
"Can you teach me how to use my flames better?"
"The flames of heaven, huh?" Rowan became deep in thought, seemingly trying to recall what he'd read from textbooks and stories.
"For a power like that, you don't actually need my help." He said after a long silence.
"Pardon?"
"Show me a spark." Rowan asked.
Malachi obliged and a small ball of golden flames were created in his palm.
Rowan took a deep breath before he walked towards Malachi and stuck his hand directly into the ball of flames.
"H-hey, what're you doing you crazy old man?!" Malachi jerked his hand back and put his dark gold flames away.
Instead of answering, Rowan held his hand up and showed Malachi that it was completely unblemished, showing no signs or damage except for age.
"What the hell?" Malachi stared at Rowan in shock.
He knew for a fact that his flames burned at over 6,000 degrees.
Yet the old man's hand was just fine?
"The flames of Michael are said to do many things, but they are most famous for being able to burn away beings of sin."
'Apparently, this old man isn't irredeemable.' Rowan chuckled inwardly.
"They also cannot be held by someone who does not possess a righteous character." He added.
These words caused Malachi to smile inwardly and he began to feel a little relieved.
"Come on, let's work on your control." The old man walked towards the barn with a lightness in his steps that wasn't there before.
Knowing that the main weapon of the strongest archangel in heaven did not consider you to be a malicious person has it's ways of easing the burdens on the soul.
Malachi followed closely behind, and soon the two were embroiled in another taxing training session.
-
Currently, Luna was sitting at her desk and going through a stack of papers.
She'd been working harder than normal lately in an effort to distract herself from certain events and it appears to have been successful.
She'd finished up work she'd been days behind on in only a single night.
The only problem was, now she had run out of things to do and as a result, she had no distractions.
'Gods, I miss being able to get drunk.'
She sighed before she leisurely leaned back into her chair and gazed up at the ceiling.
She took out an item from her pocket and stared at it with a forlorn expression.
This was Malachi's ring he'd gotten from his first gate.
He'd given it to her to be analyzed and she had yet to return it to him.
'I really don't want to see that kid again.' Luna sighed internally.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Aisha entered without even waiting for a response.
Luna was much too tired to care by this point so she didn't even chastise her as she usually would.
She simply sat up in her chair and leisurely tossed Malachi's ring to her. "Perfect timing, you can deliver that to Mal."
Aisha caught the ring and looked at it suspiciously. "What's it do?"
"It's an invisibility ring." Luna replied flatly.
Aisha let out an impressed whistle. "Pretty decent drop for a first timer."
"Indeed."
The white haired girl put away the ring and walked closer to her boss's desk.
"Is there something going on with you and Malachi?" She asked.
That question seemed to be one Luna suspected and she showed no signs of being caught off guard. "No, there isn't."
"Are you sure? Seems like you've been avoiding him for some weird reason." Aisha prodded.
"Seems like you have a bit too much free time if you can worry about something as trivial as this." Luna poked back.
Aisha finally relented and she sighed before walking towards the door.
"I don't know what's going on but she never asks me for favors so it must be something serious."
"She who?" Luna asked.
Aisha did not answer and instead opened the door to reveal Sei standing outside timidly.
"She's all yours, I hope you'll tell me what this is all about later."
Sei politely bowed to show her thanks. "I will, thank you Aisha."
Sei entered the room and Aisha closed the door behind her, leaving only Luna and Sei alone to talk.
"What are you doing here?" Luna asked warily.
"I'm sorry for the intrusion!" Sei once again bowed apologetically. "But I felt I had to talk with you!"
Luna sighed as she could already guess where this conversation was going.
"Look, I am far too busy to talk about nonsense, I don't know why I said that to Mal at dinner but my guess is it was just the wine."
"You can't get drunk." Sei reminded her.
"Then I was high."
"You don't smoke, and nothing is strong enough to-"
"Alright fine!" Luna finally had enough and stood up in frustration.
"I said it alright? But I have no interest in being with that brat, okay!?"
Sei put on a sad smile and she moved to sit on one of the couches in Luna's office.
"I don't think that's true. I think you are just afraid to be vulnerable."
Luna scoffed. "What would you know?!"
Sei took a deep breath and then showed her a warm smile. "I know because I was the same."
"I should probably tell you… about my ex husband." Sei finally said.
Luna stared at the woman in front of her for a long time.
She could kick her out, but so far this woman had been nothing but kind to her.
Plus, in this moment, Sei seemed to be quite fragile.
Even though she was trying to hide it, Luna could smell the sweat pooling in her palms.
With a sigh, she sauntered forward and sat on the couch opposite Sei.
"Talk."