Chapter 65 - Moment

Iris

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“What… is this place?”
Caerwyn paused, glancing back. His grip on the spear in his hand loosened briefly, then tightened again. He turned and continued to move forward, body rocking to match the silent, delicate steps his lower half took.
“Human.” Caerwyn glanced at the tall statues of stone, the slabs beginning to tilt and crumble under the soil giving beneath their bases and the slow, steady erosion of the earth. In the darkness, they looked like two-dimensional shadows rising from the ground, insubstantial yet insidious, like the closing fangs of a maw rising from the earth.
“Humans made it,” he replied, carefully stepping aside for a toppled, crusted slab of stone roughly hewn into the shape of what could’ve been a cross, or could’ve been a bird in flight, though the body seemed too elongated for that.
Valkyre stared down at the ground, at the green and brown stains where a vine had once crawled over the stone, then withered and died, leaving behind the unyielding rock.
“…A graveyard,” he said. He caught Caerwyn’s eye, but the other’s expression was blank in the dark, wide eyes. Caerwyn probably did not know what a graveyard was.
Valkyre felt the light, gentle tug of a hand in his. He glanced to Iris, who smiled with his eyes and pulled him along. Valkyre hesitated before following. ...He didn’t want to move ahead. He stared at the boy’s small hand in his own, pale fingers smudged and dirty, a small cut showing over the knuckle that Valkyre had never noticed before.
What was Iris doing? What did he want, stumbling towards the end? Was he still searching for a reason, for a purpose? For meaning to his life? For death?
Valkyre didn’t want Iris to die. But he remembered the young boy, curled in on himself, knees under his chin, crying without tears.
He didn’t want Iris to be hurt, to be sad. He wanted to see Iris smile, to know the sound of his laughter. Would dying make Iris happy…?
Valkyre gasped suddenly and yanked hard on the boy’s arm, dragging him back. Up ahead, Caerwyn skidded to an abrupt stop as well, spear raised defensively, body tense and poised.
Crouched atop a stone monument roughly depicting a human figure emerging from a flutter of stone wings and cascading water, Raguel stared down at the three, off-set eyes glinting in the dark, lips pulled back in a smile.
“Valkyre.” His voice was low and sensuous, as if laughing somewhere beneath the surface. “Will you still choose to run the world into ruin?”
Raguel stood up, fluid and smooth in the motion, his black hair and clothes wrapping him like a shadow in the darkness and the still air, only a silhouette against the dark gradient blue of the night sky, peppered with stars.
Raguel laughed, bitterly. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Valkyre. Admit it. You’re clueless.”
In one liquid movement, he dropped to the ground, rising again in an instant, smooth and languid, ignoring Caerwyn as the boy tipped the end of his spear towards him, poised to strike.
“Valkyre. Let me explain.”
The crossbreed backed half a step, boots digging for purchase. Iris stepped back further, hiding himself behind Valkyre’s outstretched arm. The crossbreed shook his head.
“No. I will do what I believe to be right. And I won’t allow you to hurt him.”
They all stood still, Valkyre’s violet eyes locked on Raguel’s unmatched yellow and red, neither moving.
Around them was only the silence, dragging through the void. And then Valkyre smiled.
“And besides… you still have to answer for your actions.”
Raguel’s eyes, for the briefest moment, registered confusion.
Asher, however, did not allow the moment to go to waste. He’d traveled silently, a shadow on a landscape of shadows, from cross to stone to dusty ground, flitting in and out of view. His blow caught Raguel squarely on the back and shoulders, catching the other entirely off-guard. The two vanished into the shadows between the monuments, Asher emerging for just an instant before disappearing into the forest of cold shadow, stone, and silence.
“Come on!”
Valkyre wasted no time, grabbing Iris by the hand and guarding the boy closely, Caerwyn falling into step at his side, eyes constantly alert, glancing behind them often, though there was no trace of any pursuer.
Valkyre’s mind had already moved ahead to other matters. Dodging a slab of stone leaning precariously against another, he tightened his grip on Iris’s hand. Asher’s appearance meant only one thing to Valkyre.
And then, abruptly, they were there. The stone statues cleared and fell back to either side of him, and Valkyre found himself in a wide clearing, no trees blocking his view, the last fading hints of a light blue sky edged sharply by the silhouettes of the mountains far before him, stretching up in undulating waves to the horizon.
And in the center of the small field, a lone figure, his gray-streaked hair distinguishing in the blacks and dark blues of the landscape, though hardly as obtrusive as the folded, clean white wings arching from the figure’s back, glowing in the darkness as if emanating a light pure and clear as bells, as stars drifting from the sky.
Valkyre pushed Iris behind him, motioning. He glanced over long enough only to ensure that the boy was safe under Caerwyn’s care, pulled back until they were stepping into the edges of the graveyard again, stone columns rising to either side.
Valkyre stepped forward, closing the space between himself and the other.
Camael, for the first time, looked up. His face was lined and calm, expression peaceful, almost… happy.
“Valkyre.”
The crossbreed stiffened. His hand fell to his waist, fingers slipping down and slowly lifting at the hilt of a dagger, seeking reassurance from the softened, well-oiled leather bound to the handle.
Camael was smiling.
“What a shame.”

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AN: OH GAWD. D: You guys better be darn thankful for all this. XD; ...Well, guess this isn't so much. But! I'm updating, and TOMORROW. NO DELAYS, NO EXCUSES. I'VE ALREADY GOT THE CHAPTER DONE. D:
This is what my summer is turning into. One chore after another, one homework assignment on top of another.
...Oh, wait. I do this willingly. XD;
Anyway. Things are~ DUMDUMDUM! drawing to a close. Yeah. ...I'm sorry if some of the characters gets left out a little, but I've no choice. I can't squeeze them in anywhere else. (Like Asher...)
It turns out, I have too many 'good guys.' (laugh) Maybe I shouldn't have killed off Rheis like that... but, then again, he was turning senile. XD; (jk, jk)
...Still too many 'dark' and vampiric/demonic characters in my story, ne? Well, get ready for a dose of Angel! next chapter. ...No wait nobody likes those anymore, either. Hmmph.
Okay, I'm done. I'm happy, because I'm getting so much done. Root me on, guys!! Final stretch!! After a year and a half, and then some-!!! Thanks for everything!!

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