we are not truly immortal

[dark_light]

After Glass's party is over with, Amariah and Kas go home.

Amariah fetches down their alethiometers.

"It's about time I took care of Alethia's afterlife, whatever it may be," she says quietly. "What can the alethiometer tell you about what I'll find?"

Comments

[dark_light]

There weren't any signs, Amariah linkbounces but refrains from saying aloud. Instead she says, "Don't you want to know why we're here?"

[pythbox]

"No."

[dark_light]

"Well, I'm afraid it's very important, more so than trespassing, although I do apologize that this was called for," she says.

[pythbox]

"Leave," says the angel. He points down and away, out of the mist.

[dark_light]

"No. My errand isn't going to decrease in urgency until it is complete."

[pythbox]

"Your errand is meaningless," says the angel. "Go, now, and you will not be harmed."

[dark_light]

Amariah plants her hands on her hips, in a gesture that puts her hand near her dagger's hilt.

"My errand is not meaningless. I would like to talk it over peacefully, but if you escalate to violence I don't think I'll come out the worse for it."

[pythbox]

"Tell me of your errand, then," he says disdainfully.

[dark_light]

"How kind of you," says Amariah. "It's about the land of the dead. I don't like it. I'd like to redesign it without interference."

[pythbox]

"Impossible," the angel dismisses.

And he glows brighter.

[dark_light]

Amariah flares aura. "Possible. But perhaps not without a fight, if you want to stand in the way."

[pythbox]

"Impossible," he repeats.

And a bolt of pure light swats all three of them out of the sky.

[lifes_sake]

Cam is bedecked with standard wards, but hasn't been flying for long. He strikes the ground, swearing.

[dark_light]

Amariah has controlled less obedient flight mechanisms than this in weather nearly this hostile since she counted the Tooth Fairy in her pantheon.

She recovers her trajectory, pulls her dagger, and streaks through the air towards the angel.

[pythbox]

Instead of swatting her again, he dives to meet her.

[truthwright]

Kas torches in midair.

[dark_light]

Amariah spares a split-second link-check that he's torched and reset properly, and then she's fighting.

She was "not embarrassing" with this dagger (this blessed, witch's dagger) when she could barely walk down a sidewalk without going sprawling.

Now she's in flight, and the dagger is slightly more magical than it was then, and she is very, very annoyed.

[pythbox]

The strange angel is every bit as solid as a human, and he's fast, and strong, and angry.

Which makes it more or less an even fight.

[dark_light]

Amariah's invulnerable unless she chooses not to be and even a lethal hit would only delay her for a second while she torched; he can move her around, but not really damage her. That doesn't mean he couldn't pin her and make her life unpleasant, though; she pretends to need to dodge strikes, until a key moment when she doesn't, and she permits a blow to the back of her neck that pitches all her weight behind a dagger-thrust to his gut.

"Surrender," she suggests. This wound would kill a human, but not instantly.

[pythbox]

"Die," snarls the angel, and he starts glowing again.

[dark_light]

She jerks the dagger across, down, out, and across his throat.

[pythbox]

The angel... dissolves.

[truthwright]

Kas... watches.

[dark_light]

"There," says Amariah, and she whirls in midair, looking to see if any other angels are approaching.

[truthwright]

None.

But Kas is looking at her.