Lalea clenched her fair hands into fists and braced herself for the pain that seemed to call her name. But then... there was something else. She could sense another entity... another essence somewhere nearby. But was it there to help her... or there to cast out more lashes upon her light skin? Just like Keskan. The strange monster who never wanted to leave her alone... who never left her to her own thoughts, which he had pushed away and turned into nightmares anyway.
"Hey!" She heard a stern voice bark.
"And who are you?" Keskan hissed, his long tongue lashing in and out like a snake's.
"I am Lavitz Slambert. Head of the First Knighthood of the Kingdom of Basil." The man twirled his spear around, slicing the air threateningly. "And if I am not mistaken, you are trespassing on King Albert's lands."
"Trespassing on King Albert's lands would mean standing on Serdian ground, naive knight." Keskan slurred as his words tripped over his fangs.
"You are only half right." Lavitz seemed as cool as a cucumber. "Good men and women do not trespass, they simply inhabit. But evil... creatures... such as yourself, you trespass because you do not follow honour or good, which is what Serdio is made up of."
"Right." Keskan rolled his eyes sarcastically. "So what is this WAR going on, hm? Between Serdians?!"
"Imperial Sandora are not Serdian!" Lavitz tried to keep his voice steady, but it wasn't working. This creature just wanted to piss him off really badly... and it was working.
"Oh and you, lowly knight." Keskan narrowed his eyes. "Stupid enough to just barge into a short meeting all alone."
"Meeting!" Lalea cried out, mortified. She hadn't found this 'meeting' to be a form of that at all. In fact, it was just like all their other 'meetings'. She couldn't understand why he picked on her... why he beat her the way he did. Maybe a hatred towards her kind?
"Exactly what are you doing here?" Lavitz managed to find his center again. His stance was offensive, yet Keskan knew he was well trained with defense as well. He probably wouldn't stand a chance against him... only if he had Nisa to help him...
"None of your business." He lifted himself off into the air, wings beating strongly. "Until next time, young Angel." Lalea fell limp to the grass and moss she had been pressed upon, and let out a huge whoosh of a breath. Lavitz inched towards her, his javelin still in front of him just in case there was still a threat.
"Thank you." Lalea managed to speak softly. Her voice made Lavitz feel sort of... tingly and warm inside of his heart. He knew then that Lalea wasn't a threat. "Keskan's kind are nasty creatures... one might call them demons... although they are earth children, like you."
"Earth children?" Lavitz was taken aback by the term. He studied her face carefully. She had eyes that looked ice blue at one angle, but when she turned her head towards him he saw shades of purple shimmer by. By the way she blankly stared at him... he could tell she was blind.
"I'm not blind." Lalea said, surprising Lavitz as if reading his mind. "I just don't see the way you do."
"Why don't you defend yourself?" Lavitz asked nonchalantly.
"Because... I feel sorry for him." Lalea turned her head away from the sympathetic look of the human before her. "Keskan doesn't realized what a foul creature he is, that's just how his kind were made to be."
"Well then, TELL him how foul he is!" Lavitz exclaimed. "Then he might leave you alone!"
"I can't do that. It would be detramental to his existence." Lalea sighed. "He... it would shatter his self image."
"But his self image is a monster!" Lavitz threw his hands up, hitting a tree branch with his spear. The crack it made caused them both to jump, and Lalea bit her lip.
"You couldn't possibly understand." Her voice was still calm and gentle as it had ever been. Lavitz clenched his jaw, thinking hard about what this woman's reasons for sheltering Keskan could possibly be. "You are only human. You were made one way. That way is closed-minded." Lavitz blinked, blankly staring into her delicate eyes. He blushed, realizing his horrible slowness. He felt as if Lalea was picking him apart... judging his entire soul.
"You... he called you..." He stammered, and Lalea nodded slightly.
"Young Angel, yes." She closed her eyes slowly, breathing in gently and then looking up to the sky.
"Where are your... I mean, don't your kind have..."
"Wings? I haven't any. They now belong to Keskan." Lalea pursed her lips.
"How can you put up with this?!" Lavitz threw his spear down clattering to the rock and gritted his teeth.
"I was taught unconditional love. Although Soa is vengeful, she taught all her Angels to love all creatures no matter what they do or how they act. They are earth's children, just like Soa. So she created and raised us to respect her and her brothers and sisters."
"Even asshole brothers, like Keskan?!" Lavitz cried. "Obviously he doesn't respect you, so why should you let him walk all over you like that?"
"He doesn't have to respect me." Lalea countered. "I am an Angel. We were created only to serve the children of the earth. That is all. If it weren't for Soa, I would not be here."
"Well anything would be better than Keskan's wrath." Lavitz tried. "Even an Angel doesn't deserve that. Not that Angels deserve anything like that..."
"I understand what you are trying to say." Lalea bowed her head down. "But now... there is nothing I can do anyway. I have... well, we tend to call it 'fallen'. My wings are gone, so that decides that I am to stay here... and die mortally." She crossed her arms and shivered, for the Moon was glowing brighter as nightly chill threatened.
"Then you are human now."
"No. I am an Angel. I have fallen. But I am still, and always will be, an Angel." Lalea snapped, and then sighed. "Why are you here, Knight Of Serdio?"
"I hate to see anyone abused." Lavitz answered quickly, knowing it was a dutiful answer.
"Well, when you have seen what Keskan and his kind have been through... let's just say they have been very abused." Lalea's eyes seemed to glow for a moment as she recalled memories of Keskan's past. "He... is not one of the most well-liked creatures."
"If Soa really loved her brothers and sisters, wouldn't she make them loved?" Lavitz was surprised at his question, he had never referred to Soa as 'she'. He had been told, and always assumed, that Soa was male. But here he was, talking to an Angel of Soa... and she would know what Soa's gender was. "Why are so many of them hated by other creatures?"
"She never gave them life." Lalea shrugged. "The Divine Tree did. Soa simply planted the Divine Tree to see what kinds of souls and life it sowed into this barren land. Her home."
"But why couldn't she make a perfect world, if she is all-Divine?"
"She may be all-Divine, but she has no control over the course of time, or nature. She simply loves all."
"Except her Angels." Lavitz stated bluntly, and was taken aback by his own words. They were harsh, he realized, but he couldn't stop them. They just popped right between his lips before he could contain them. The look on Lalea's face made him want to pluck the phrase right back out of the air and swallow it, compressing it into nothingness. But it was too late. A single pale pink tear glided out of her mysterious right eye, and Lavitz watched it fearfully as it slid over her perfect nose. It stopped at her lush pink lips and hovered for a moment, before Lalea reached out and caught it as if fell from her face into the air below. It landed on her gloved hand, and she studied the wet spot for a moment before opening her mouth to say something. But no words came out. Instead Lavitz felt a pang in his heart, a pang that sent a wave of extreme sadness through his veins, pulsating the sensation of sobs, gasps, shattering hearts, all throughout him. Lalea looked right into his eyes, and for a moment he watched her lure him to her, lure his soul out from him and make him vulnerable to her senses.
"It's true." She barely whispered, standing up to his eye level. She was the same height as him exactly, the perfect height to plant a very light kiss on his smooth cheek. "Sad... but true." Lalea turned around, with her frail back to Lavitz, and began walking off into the darkness. He couldn't follow her, although his entire being was screaming for her, he was frozen, rooted to his spot. Something so beautiful... but she didn't know love. She knew how to love. But she didn't know real love. Sad, but true.

Lavitz sighed heavily as he sat atop his favourite perch in all of Serdio. His 'treasure', the roof of his mother's cute house back in Bale. He twirled his javelin between his hands, and then finally set it down on the soft hay protecting the wooden roof. He leaned back on the natural cushion, keeping his eyes trained on the castle with ease. Lavitz loved that spot, staring off at the castle that his best friend called 'home'. The castle seemed like a second home to Lavitz even, he was there every chance he could get.
Yet, no matter how much Lavitz tried, he could not keep his wandering mind from trailing to the angel, the beautiful woman he had encountered not too long ago in the forests near Bale. He wondered where she was, where Keskan was, or if she was safe from him. He kept asking himself how she came to be living on the earth instead of with Soa... how she let Keskan get his hands on her wings. But he had no answers. It was torturing his brain, his normally cool and calm mindset. He just seemed so distant. And he was. He couldn't stop thinking about her. He didn't even know her name.
"I must find her. That demon..." Lavitz trailed off, sighing. He knew that he had to go after her. He wanted to know more about her... and deep down, he wanted to protect her from the world's evils that could harm a fallen Angel.

"Nisa you don't understand. I do not battle alone."
"Yet you beat on that Angel alone!"
"Nisa, please don't do this to me." Keskan exhaled in frustration. "I know this displeases you, but please understand. We have to kill this knight before he sends out word about me. About us. He will have us hunted!" Nisa turned to him, her black hair astray around her purple shoulders. Her red eyes burned into his, but she knew that he wouldn't back down from her. He was too determined. He called himself a demon. He called them all demons. She knew better. She was the oldest, the wisest, of them all. And she knew that they were Earth-Children. Just like that knight that came between Keskan and one of his little games. She knew that he only hurt Lalea because she was an Angel, and since he believed that he was a demon he thought they were enemies. Maybe he thought he was opposing Soa, beginning a great 'revolution for demons'.
"Alright." Nisa finally replied. "I will help you. But I will not kill him."
"Of course not." Keskan shrugged. "I will."

"Lavitz, would you like some jerky to take with you?" Lavitz' mother called from the kitchen.
"No, mom, it's alright I already have some!" Lavitz called back, and then exited his little house in Bale. With a glance at Indel's Castle, he wondered whether he should tell King Albert where he was going... or maybe take a few knights with him... no. If he met up with Lalea again she may not want others to see her. And if he met up with Keskan again, well, he seemed pretty vulnerable. So Lavitz simply headed out of Bale to the nearby forests where he had first encountered the beautiful yet mysterious Angel and Demon. Or, Earth-Child, as Lalea had called Keskan.

"And I thought this would be a challenge." Keskan inclinded his head as he saw Lavitz entering the dank forest. He took Nisa's arm and pulled her out onto the path, waiting for him to walk right before them. Nisa blinked at the figure, she knew who he was. He was the First Knight of King Albert. They were best friends.
"Lavitz Slambert." She whispered the name, and Keskan elbowed her. She stumbled, and Lavitz stopped dead in his tracks, spear ready in front of him. Keskan watched with glee as Lavitz' eyes darted about him, going over everything in his head about being conscious and clear-minded in battle. Nisa pulled herself off of the ground to stand up and stare at the darkened figure. She decided to brighten things up a little, and cast a fireball right at Lavitz. To her amazement, he dodged the small sphere of flame. She didn't understand how he could have done it.
"Keskan." Lavitz spat the name, and faced their direction. "Did you bring this... Nisa... you spoke of? Where's the Angel?"
"Very direct, aren't you, boy?" Nisa stepped forward, until she was right behind him. She had cloaked herself in invisibility magic as to stay hidded from him. "Yes, I am Nisa, and I am here. And you, little boy, don't stand a chance against us." Lavitz whipped around with his spear, just missing her invisible form.
"That is cheap."
"Well, life isn't fair, meek human." Keskan stepped into the pale light of the Moon That Never Sets filtering through the branches. "For you, especially." Lavitz felt a slash on the back of his left shoulder, and the pain engulfed his arm as he swung around, hitting something with the flat of his spear tip. Nisa yelped in surprise at his lucky swing. She leapt over him, and clawed his other shoulder on the way down. Lavitz just barely missed her throat that time he whipped in a circle, and Nisa was beginning to get uncomfortable. But Keskan was getting cocky.
"Show yourself!" Lavitz cried.
"Trying to be strong, Knight?" Keskan laughed cruelly. "For your Angel? Pointless." He growled at Lavitz, and Nisa dared to get closer as to slice her nails across his chest. But Lavitz' trained senses caught her that time... and not a moment too soon as his spear contacted perpendicular with flesh. Nisa flickered a moment, and then came into full view as she fell to the ground, convulsing in pain. A strong wind blew the branches apart, and the Moon's rays showed the horrendous scene to Keskan.
"Oh..." Nisa moaned as Lavitz removed his blood filled spear from her pulsating chest.
"Nisa! No!" Keskan dropped to his knees, cradling her head in his arms. "Nisa, please don't... don't go... I didn't mean for you to... Nisa?" Her eyes simply rolled back into her head and her body shriveled up, burning naturally. Keskan turned to Lavitz and quickly snatched a strain of Nisa's life force to knock him into unconsciousness.

Lavitz awoke to the cheers and cries of a thousand of Keskan's 'demons'.
He managed to peer around him, and he was on the rock floor of what looked to be a stony valley, far away from anything he had ever seen before. He didn't even know if he was still in Serdio. To his left, there was a large wooden platform that Keskan was standing upon. Lalea had weakly collapsed onto a patch of dirt to his right, and looked as if she had been beaten quite a bit. Lavitz wanted to call her name... but one, his voice didn't seem to work that well, and two, he didn't know her name. He wished he did, so he could utter it to grasp her attention.
Keskan seemed to be giving a speech of some sort, but Lavitz hadn't been listening until he heard his name mentioned. Keskan motioned to the two demons holding Lavitz and they jerked him to his feet.
"Oh no... Lavitz..." Lalea croaked as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Her breath was raspy, but she prayed out loud despite the dry pain. Lavitz tried to resist as he was forced up onto the platform.
"And this... this is the Angel's... KNIGHT! Guardian!" Keskan cried out to the crowd. "Let him be punished!" The two demons holding Lavitz lifted his arms and chained him to a cross-like symbol. Lalea knew what they would do to him and she began to panic.
"He can't... oh dear Soa please not like this..." Lalea turned onto her back and with a shuddering cough, moisture gathered around her right eye. Angels didn't cry... although before she had shed a tear... but she had been theoretically human, right? Now... she felt the divinity of Soa back through her veins... all of a sudden. This was the only moisture she had left in her body. The warm tear ran down her temple and then dropped daintily from her fair skin. It hit the dirt, and did not sink in like it should have. Instead, it began to glow, warming Lalea's body with it's radiance. She felt the pale light envelope her body, and all of a sudden she took a deep, healthy breath, filling her lungs with sweet air. There was a tingle in her back as her strength began to replenish. Lalea felt herself burst with energy as her newly formed wings extended. The light from her tear burned a few nearby demons, and Lalea's eyes opened wide with fear as she realized their deaths happening right in front of her.
"It's okay Lalea." Soa's gentle female voice echoed in her head. "They need to be sent where they belong." Lalea nodded her head and leapt up into the air, thrusting her hands up as if calling the sky to her. A beam of light came shooting down and collided with her slender fingers. In a graceful movement, Lalea focused the energy down atop the demons dark coloured heads. The screams were inevitable, the shrieking voices in a pitch far higher than a human voicebox was capable of. They all seemed to melt away, into small heaps of purple dust. Keskan fell back from the blast, cowering like a child, all burned on his face, arms, and chest. Lavitz' chains melted like ice and he leapt forward, snatching his spear from a fallen demon and gaping up at Lalea.
"Damn you Angel!!" Keskan groaned. "Just kill me... now... let me be with my people..."
"You do not deserve to be with your fellow demons, Keskan. You deserve to wander the earth, the last of your kind, all alone and forlorn. Unable to go home." Lalea watched Keskan's fearful expression. "But I am an Angel of Soa. I will send you to Mayfil where you can stay with the rest of the wandering souls. Goodbye, Keskan."
"Thank you... Angel." Keskan closed his eyes and Lavitz shoved his spear into the midsection of the purple figure. Keskan groaned in pain and then collapsed to the wooden floor of the platform. Lalea folded her hands and bowed her head, sending Keskan's demonic soul to the Death City. When his body was legally slumped lifeless, Lavitz dropped his spear clattering to the floor and his big questioning eyes engulfed Lalea's own.
"Dearest Knight." Lalea landed gracefully before him, her white booted feet not making a noise against the wood. "I want to thank you for saving me... in more ways than one. Unfortunately, I cannot stay here with you. I want to, Lavitz... but I am not able. I am not 'fallen' anymore. Soa has remade me."
"She was right to do so." Lavitz nodded his head in honour. "You are a beautiful creature, and it was my honour to defend you. Please... wait for me... wherever I may go."
"I promise." Lalea turned her head to the side and noticed the spot where the Angel's tear had fallen. In it's place was a small jewel no bigger than a fingernail, clear as the sea and shimmering like the sun. She placed it in Lavitz' palm, and inclined her head politely. "Here, Lavitz. One day, return that to me. That is the only tear ever cried by an Angel that held devotion and love. And it was shed for you." With that she placed a quaint kiss on his forehead, and then skyrocketed upwards into the vast blue above. Lavitz grasped the jewel in his hand tightly, and stared up above, wondering if she was watching him at that very moment.
The Angel that he loved...
And he still didn't know her name.

END