The sky was a pastel red with swirls of black and white. Constantly moving. Constantly changing. Like an abstract painting that constantly had a brush pushing around the oil.
A crowd. A huge crowd was gathered. A stage? No, a courtyard, with plants of impossible species. Glowing, striped, spotted plants.
A cheer erupted. The crowd consisted of both demons and angels. Angels with wings and marks on their foreheads. Demons, green with horns.
Vexi and Ioul ran up to an old demon, crying, "Elder!"
Grysle fell to the feet of a demon woman. She placed a young child in front of him. He wept upon seeing the child.
Luten was surrounded by a beautiful and large family.
It was a reunion. Fathers and sons. Mothers and daughters. Wives and husbands. There was someone for everyone.
Delrik was returned to his normal state, with a distinct difference in the pointiness of his ears.
Angelo, who was trembling on the ground, half-dead, had now assumed an angel form with wings and a forehead mark.
Marley, who also had returned to normal, was whisked away by a group of red-headed demons that looked just like her.
An angelic man, beautiful beyond description (almost matching Cosaria in beauty, but not quite), approached Felux, Tilda, Cosaria, and Beniter. The man noticed that Felux winced when he tried to stand to greet the man.
The man said, "Allow me." Then he touched the leg and said, "Sana."
The leg healed immediately.
"Ah… thanks," Felux said.
Cosaria asked, "What's going on?"
A devilish woman, with a sly kind of smile, approached Cosaria. She cupped Cosaria's face and said, "She's your daughter alright, Summus."
The angelic man approached Cosaria and hesitantly held out his hand. Cosaria took it. He said, "My little girl."
Tilda and Felux and Beniter sat off to the side like awkward wallflowers…
Cosaria said, "Father?"
"Yes," Summus, the angel said, "I am your father, my dearest child."
"But how can this be?" Cosaria said, "I already have a father. Lord Baxarte was my father."
"No, my dear," Summus said, "Your mother used him to help protect you at a time when it was most dangerous."
"Oh," Cosaria said.
Summus said, "Come, we must explain everything."
Angelo's body was being carted off by a group of angels and demons.
"Traitor," A passing angel spat.
༻✧༺
The group were gathered around a round table in a throne room.
Beniter sat crunching on some kind of swirling shimmery snack. Tilda scratched her nose. She had never sat at the table of royalty before, she thought she should feel out of place, yet she couldn't say she did. Felux mumbled to Beniter, saying, "Pass me one." Everyone else was paying vivid attention to the demon woman's long historical lecture.
The woman was named Nelfa, and she was apparently in charge of the demons. Or at least, she was a main commander of some kind. She said;
"Eons ago, during the great war, angels sent demons to earth as prisoners. Soon after however, a truce was called and since then, demons and angels have been working together in a spirit of unity. We tried to open the gate but earth is a much more unpredictable place than we originally thought. The opening required both sides to active for the connection to be established."
Summus, Cosaria's real father, continued the story, saying, "Unfortunately, many of the angels that had been sent as wardens over the demons became corrupted by power. They liked their lives on earth and the power they had. It was easy for an angel to amass power, fame, and fortune living amongst powerless humans."
Tilda sort of resented that.
He continued, "When the war ended, the wardens rebelled against the realm and closed off the gate completely. I was one of those wardens."
Delrik and Cosaria gasped. Yawning, Tilda was not surprised. (One would think she'd be shocked by these things, but her emotions were already so frayed that she was passively accepting everything.) Felux stuffed his face with the shimmery snacks while Beniter picked his nose.
Nefla said, "We had been sending messages to humans, demons, and angels for years, trying to inspire them to open the gate. Those messages often got… misinterpreted. Often intentionally. By the wardens." She gave a dirty glare to Summus.
He looked away sheepishly. He said, "Yes. Ah. I was one of those. That was until I met your mother, Cosaria. She taught me about love and together we dreamed of building a better life. And then you came."
Beniter gagged as Felux snickered. Both boys winced as Tilda jammed her elbows into their ribs.
Summus continued, "We were helping the demons create a plan to get back home. In the process though, things did not go as planned. I had just found out Seredith was pregnant when our plan went terribly wrong and I was accidentally forced through the gate, leaving you and her alone."
"But how can this be? Lord Baxarte was my father. Mother left a note for the priests."
"It was all a cover up," Summus explained, "After I had been forced through the gate, she worried about what would happen to you if she disappeared somehow. She used Lord Baxarte. She knew he was… sweet on her. So she used that. He was rich and could provide a good life for you."
Cosaria started, "But he! …didn't."
Tilda thought, Cosaria's mother chose Lord Baxarte as a replacement father? Was she daft???
Summus looked sad. He said, "She couldn't have known that. She was a struggling single mother, doing the best she could. And I am partially to blame for that."
Tilda felt a pang of guilt for her condemning thoughts. Obviously, there was a lot more to the story than she could understand.
Summus said, "Your mother never stopped helping the demons though, and she was there at the temple on the day the gate was moved. Unfortunately, that was when your mother perished."
Gasping, tears welled up in Cosaria's eyes.
Meanwhile, Beniter brought out a deck of cards. At first, Tilda had glared at him, but nobody noticed or cared about the uninvited guests, so she and Felux agreed to start a game of cards.
Summus said, "But now all is well. The gate is open. My daughter, I would like to ask, you are half angel; This land is your home. Would you like to come and live here, with your people?"
Delrik turned away. His greatest fears were rising to the surface. He felt like he could strangle this man.
"Forgive me, father." Taking Delrik's hand, Cosaria said, "But my home is with him."
Not even the moon was high enough to describe how out-of-this-world Delrik felt.
Frowning, Summus said, "I see, then I shall have to watch only from afar."
Cosaria said, "but will we be able to come visit?"
Summus looked at Nefla with a raised eyebrow.
༻✧༺
They were gathered again at the gate entrance, in front of a large crowd of demons and angels.
Nefla held out fancy keys to Delrik and Cosaria. She said, "If you accept these keys, you are accepting the keys to the gate of the realm. You will be responsible for overseeing those who come and go from the gate. You will decide if they are worthy of passage. The title of guardian will be associated with your name for the rest of your life and the lives of your children. Do you promise to uphold this honor and to pass on this title to your future posterity?"
Delrik knelt graciously while Cosaria bowed next to him.
Delrik said, "Indeed. I vow my life to it."
Cosaria said, "And I do the same."
Nefla said, "Then rise, guardians of the realm. May you be inspired with wisdom and courage as you guide the path for those who travel your way."
Nefla handed Delrik and Cosaria the keys. Delrik bowed as Cosaria curtsied.
The crowd erupted into cheers.
Watching, Tilda felt relieved, which somehow confused her. Wasn't she supposed to help Cosaria in this task? Shouldn't she be overwhelmed? Yet, somehow, she felt this was entirely Cosaria's responsibility, and Tilda had nothing to do with it. It wasn't Tilda's job. It never was. And that was relieving.
Cosaria and Delrik held hands as they waved to the crowd and walked through the gate, back to the land of humans.
Beniter bowed to Nefla and Summus, saying, "Been a pleasure!"
Then he jumped through the gate.
Marley hugged her extended family. Tilda heard one of them say, "Next time, bring everyone!" And Marley agreed in tears.
Marley felt like a lost part of her family had been found. She gave kisses and farewells, when finally, she left through the gate.
Felux approached the gate and held out his hand to Tilda. He said, "Ready?"
Tilda hesitated.
Nefla put her hand on Tilda's shoulder. She said, "I sense a question within you."
Tilda asked, "Why did your kind kill my sister? She died because of your curses."
Nefla let out a long breathe. She said, "My dear, you seem to have experienced a deep tragedy. You need to understand, demonic curses don't kill humans. It turns them into mindless demonic beasts, but it doesn't kill them."
Tilda said, "She was killed by the curse."
Nefla said, "My dear, it wasn't the curse that killed her. It was the attempts to save her. As they tried to save her from the beast, they killed the very beast that she had become."
Felux put his arms around Tilda as tears fell down from her angry face. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but that wasn't it.
Nefla said, "Goodbye, brave dears. Goodbye."