Thomas' shrieks alerted the merchants in the marketplace, who all looked up from their stalls and away from their customers to turn toward the stranger who sat alone on the edge of the fountain. Teresa's children were well-known in the market, and Thomas was running away from the man nobody had seen before. Murmurs began to rise among the merchants, and Ravenna's cheeks became flush.
"Mama! Mistah Michael touched my scrape and now it's all gone! He's different!" Thomas continued to shout as he grabbed at his mother's skirts, hiding his face in the fabric.
Michael held his breath, still at the fountain's edge. –What have I done? My first time to Ravenna's village and I've already messed things up! So many people are staring and whispering... what do I do? I can't just sit here, that looks bad! Do something!– The Seraphim silently berated himself before standing, making his way to Ravenna and Teresa.
The murmurs among the merchants grew as the stranger approached Ravenna, who had disappeared and reappeared as if nothing had ever gone amiss. Michael heard one of the merchants blame her disappearance on the strange man, as he had never been seen before Ravenna's return. He tried to shake the growing unease in his heart, and grasped the healer's hand for comfort.
"Ravenna," he whispered. "I messed up."
"Excuse us, Teresa, we will be right back." Ravenna smiled at her friend, who understood that the angel was having a difficult time adjusting to life in the Mortal Plane.
Leading him away from the onlookers, Ravenna took Michael to the edge of the market square. "What happened? You seemed to be doing okay until Thomas shouted. Did he frighten you?"
Regret crossed Michael's face. "No, but I think I frightened him. He cried when he fell, when he hurt himself. I remembered something my Brother Raphael told me a while ago, that blood of a Seraphim can heal the wounds of humans."
Ravenna listened carefully to Michael as he explained that he had drawn his blood on the fountain rocks and used it to heal the scrape on the child's knee. Pressing her lips together, she looked up at the angel. "You just confused him. You need to remember that my kind is not used to such magic. It was very kind of you to want to help him, but we should keep this power between us for now, okay?"
"I understand."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Thomas settled down after his shock at the fountain's edge, and his eyes became heavy. The small child curled up behind his mother's market stall on a pile of blankets for his afternoon nap, and began to doze off, his light snores lulling his sister to sleep in Teresa's arms.
"Don't worry about keeping me company, Ravenna, go take Michael around the market, let him see more of what our village has to offer!" Teresa encouraged her friend away from her stall, and the couple left the mother with her sleeping children.
"Is there anything you would like to see while you're here?" Ravenna gave Michael's hand an encouraging squeeze, trying to ease his mind after Thomas' reaction to his help.
"I want to show you something." The angel led her between two buildings on the outskirts of the Canden market square, somewhere he recalled being a long time ago. He stood in the shadows, pressing her against the building where nobody in the market could see them. "This is where I was when I learned your name. That…the dead man…he called after you when you rejected him. He looked like he was going to follow you, and I very nearly stopped him then." He placed his right forearm above Ravenna's head, leaning down over her protectively.
Ravenna tilted her head back, and Michael brought his left hand to her jaw, capturing her lips with his own. He wanted her to feel how important the hidden place near the village center was to him, how special the memory was when he first had her name carved into his soul.
The chattering of a growing crowd broke the couple's moment, and they left the shadows to see what was causing the commotion. As the people continued to gather, Ravenna got separated from Michael.
Michael stood next to an elderly man as the merchants and patrons circled a young man and woman. The man dropped to his knee before the woman. –Why would he do that?– Curiosity outweighed Michael's anxieties about being amongst so many humans, and he put his hand on the old man's shoulder. "What is wrong with that man? Is he hurt?"
The elderly man laughed and turned to see who had asked such a peculiar question. "No, son, but he might be real hurt soon, depending on what this young lady says. He's asking her to marry him. You must not be from around here, are you?"
–He knows! The man knows I don't belong here! I need to think of something quick!–
"No, I'm not, I'm from another part of the country. So this is how your people ask women for marriage?" The man had answered his questions before without much fuss, and Michael hoped he would continue to do so.
"It is. Watch, see how he's on one knee? If he is going to do the traditional proposal, he will, ah yes, there it is. He's offering her a ring as part of his promise to marry her. How wonderful, she seems to have agreed! Canden needs more young couples like them."
"Do you think Ravenna would want that?" Michael blurted the question to the elderly man before he could stop himself.
"You must be the man who arrived from Brackenridge! Robert and I pointed the farmer that found you to Ravenna's home, he had heard of her healing abilities and was desperately looking for the Hawthorne home to help you! Last I saw you, you were a bloody mess on the back of a horse cart!" The older man's eyes grew wide as he realized the man towering above him was the same one who had arrived with Richard Cassia after the worst storm he had ever seen.
"Yes, I suppose that would be me. My name is Michael. Ravenna was kind enough to take me in after the man that found me brought me to her. She's allowed me to live in the infirmary while I recover from…whatever had happened to me. I wish I knew." He offered his hand to the older man that had been so kind to him.
"Pleased to meet you in a better condition, Michael. I'm Oliver Quill, I've been here my whole life. I remember the day you arrived. The farmer from Brackenridge was so determined to get you help. He didn't know what happened to you either. Guess only the Ruler knows what happened to you!"
Ravenna nudged her way through the crowd to find Michael turn pale in front of Oliver.
"I suppose you're right, Mr Quill. Only the Ruler knows what happened to me."