Astrid stood before the Adonai, helpless, captive by the chain around her ankle.
"What do you want with me?" she said, her voice a steady tremble.
"Well," he said, "let me show you..." The Adonai snapped his fingers. "Enter."
Suddenly, the door to the office opened and a small, wiry man with a withered visage walked in.
From even a single glance, Astrid knew she hated this man. She couldn't really pinpoint what she hated most. Something about his long, scraggly white hair, or his thick glasses, or his long, pointy chin...
She couldn't decide.
"Meet Doctor Laveau. He will be in charge of you from now on. He is heading the Angelic Euthanization Project, and it is his job to find out"—the Adonai smiled a devilish smile—"how to manifest your powers—and what makes them tick."
"He's..." Astrid's blood went cold. "What...?"
Two soldiers entered the room, burly men, wearing white instead of blue like the rest. Astrid writhed and fought as they forced clamps on her wrists and unbound the chains around her ankle.
"Take her to the laboratory for now," the frail Doctor Laveau said, waving a hand dismissively.
"Wait!?" Astrid shrieked as she squirmed against the strength of her captors to no avail.
They were larger, stronger.
No. Her mind raced. She dreamt of her power, she pleaded with her heart to summon those horrific black flames once more.
But the magic did not come.
The Adonai walked to the window, Astrid's screaming growing fainter and fainter as she was dragged down the hall.
"You say you know she isn't Starborn?" Doctor Laveau said, his voice squeaky like a rat.
"No," the Adonai said. "Legend is that the Children of Vespira have violet hair and eyes." He narrowed his eyes. "She is something...different, perhaps an even greater resource than the Starblood could have proven to be..."
Doctor Laveau rubbed his hands together. "I can't wait to see what makes her...tick."
"Do you think she will power the Juggernaut?" the Adonai said, ignoring the excitement of the sneaky man beside him.
"Well," Doctor Laveau said, "if she has any magical resonance, she could, in theory, power the machine."
"Good," the Adonai said. "Because an Angel is coming to my city. Have her ready to power the machine by then, so that we can...see if it works."
"But Your Honor," the doctor started, "the Juggernaut is a weapon of mass destruction. It is meant to wipe out the Angelic civilization! Using it on the city would obliterate everything—"
"You are dismissed, Doctor," the Adonai said, cutting the man off. "Pray you make it to the door before I kill you."
The doctor whimpered as he rushed out the door and down the hall. The Adonai looked at the city below. The sun was setting, bathing the world in dandelion gold.
"Come to me, Angel," he said as he clenched the tattooed number 4 on his chest. "I will make you feel everything I felt..."
You will know pain.
Gilliam gathered everyone together as the sun set over the dense forest.
"Allow me to introduce my companions," he began. He pointed to Krista. "This is Krista Morgans, my expert spy. She is able to infiltrate any fortress and pick any lock." Gilliam pointed to Kitt. "And this is Kitt McHelva, master technician and my second in command."
Alphonso narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin with his large fingers. "You guys are kids..." he finally said.
"Fonzie!" Vylet exclaimed, swatting Alphonso on the back of the head. "It doesn't matter how old they are. They saved me."
Philos nodded. "Yeah! And anyone who helps my friend is a friend indeed!"
Krista tried to hide a blush. "It was nothing," she said bashfully.
"Yeah," Kitt said blankly, "it's what we do."
"Now that introductions are made"—Gilliam cleared his throat—"I believe it's time I tell you the gravity of the situation."
Gilliam scanned the ones before him, then he stopped and focused his gaze upon Philos. In the setting sun, the young man's reddish eyes were a dark color like dried blood. They were expectant, fiery...
They were eager, and filled with untapped rage.
"My brother, the Adonai"—Gilliam turned his eyes to Sir Smith—"wants to attack the Morning Star Kingdom, a political decision that will effectively cease the unspoken non-aggression treaty between the humans of the Outskirts and the Angels of Heaven."
"Like a full-on strike?" Joseph said as he blew out cigarette smoke.
"No." Gilliam continued. "You see, this is where your friend, the girl who calls herself Astrid, comes into play. My intelligence"—he pointed to Krista—"has discovered that my brother has been working a secret operation: the Angelic Euthanization Project."
"Sounds good to me," Alphonso said, shrugging. "If he wants to get rid of the Angels, why not let him? They ain't nothin' but trouble anyway, right?"
"It's not so simple," Gilliam said. "He plans to do this by means of a secret weapon he calls the 'Juggernaut,' a weapon capable of converting magical energy into a concentrated blast—a blast strong enough to annihilate entire cities if aimed well enough."
"I'm still not following," Joseph said as he took another puff of his cigarette.
"In order to use the Juggernaut, someone has to act as the battery, that's where your friend comes in. That's—"
"That's why he needed Astrid?!" Uri exclaimed, his voice shaking.
Gilliam nodded. "Precisely, and using her as the conduit will cause her excruciating pain...if she survives at all."
"So that was his plan all along..." Philos said, his voice a heated whisper. He clenched his fist. "Gilliam, what do we do now? How do we save Astrid?"
"Easy," Gilliam replied with a smile, frost seeping from his mouth. "We take a secret underground passage into the city, cause a commotion, and use the confusion as a chance to get close enough to save your friend."
"Yeah," Vylet said with a sigh, "that sounds simple enough, but it's too simple."
"Not so." Gilliam held up a finger. "I gave us one advantage. In Hazelnut Town, I allowed one of my brother's spies to see Sir Smith, and this will be all we need. If the Adonai knows that an Angel is in his very city, he will be too distracted to notice anything else."
"So," Uri said, turning to Sir Smith with big green eyes, "Sir Smith is..."
"...bait," the Angel finished his sentence.
Gilliam nodded. "Exactly."
"I like it!" Alphonso said, running his hands through his brown hair.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Joseph exclaimed, his cat ears perking up.
Vylet nodded. "Right!"
"Get rest," Gilliam said. "We move at dawn."
It was the middle of the night when a half-awake Philos was startled by the sounds of movement in the brush around them.
An enemy?!
His eyes shot open. There, in the darkness, he could see the faint blue glow of Sir Smith's halo as the Angel wandered slowly away into the forest.
Trying to escape? Philos wondered.
Sir Smith didn't walk far, and eventually he stopped in a clearing, the green grass lit by a pale, silver moon.
"Running away?" Philos asked as he walked to the Angel's side. He never noticed before, but Sir Smith was tall, a full head taller than himself.
"Run?" Sir Smith said, his voice as emotionless as always. "I would never run."
There was a silence then, filled only by the unintelligible sounds of night.
"I don't understand," Philos finally said. "You're an Angel, yet you fight with humans. You're an Angel, yet you want to fight your own kind? You confuse me," Philos held his chest.
"You were a slave, weren't you?" Sir Smith said.
Philos raised an eyebrow. "How did you know?"
"Because you grabbed your chest. Are you holding your number?"
"I..."
"You ask me valid questions, I guess." Sir Smith looked up at the moon in the night sky. It was like a silver bastion, far from the troubles of the world, aloft in a lonely void, its ashen rays illuminating the Angel's stark and icy eyes.
There was a pause. "Philos." The Angel's voice was low, almost wistful, "I confuse you? Is it really so odd? Is it really so strange that I, too, dream of a world where all people are free?"
Philos smiled. "You know, Sir Smith," he said, "I guess it is odd. I asked you back in Hazelnut what I was to you. I think I know now." Philos looked at Sir Smith and smiled with a look of hopefulness. "I rather like your dream."
Sir Smith did not smile back. He stood there, looking into the young man's eyes. They were dark in the night light. They weren't violet like hers.
But, he thought. He remembered her smile. Even after a thousand years, he never forgot her smile. And it was the same smile he was looking at now...
He's a lot like you were...
Right, Vespira...?