Chaser of Faith

“What do you think the odds are that Rahmiel left his room unlocked?” Adriel asked next, smirking and raising his eyebrows quickly. He took my hand, bringing me down the hall to Rahmiel’s room. I didn’t fight him- my curiosity stirred, getting the better of me. He let go of my hand once we reached his closed door and I took it back, crossing my arms across my chest. I watched him carefully. He hummed thoughtfully for a moment before quickly reaching out and taking the door knob in his hand. He hissed, making me jump, and shook his hand with pain, muttering in Nythen under his breath.

“Locked rooms mean secrets,” I examined slowly.

“It’s not just locked. It’s charmed.” He rubbed his sore hand. He shot me a grin. “But it might only be charmed for me. Would you like to give it a shot?” I glared at him, unamused.

“No.” He stretched his fingers, letting his hand fall back to his side.

“Fine. Care to take a trip to the center of Beythas with me?” I frowned, but felt excited to leave this house.

“Why? What would we find there?” He started back to the living room and I followed.

“Hopefully we can find something to combat the charm. I know a guy. You coming?” I put on my shoes in front of the door and put on my black cloak.

“Of course I’m coming. What about Nicholas?” He waved the thought off dismissively.

“We’ll be back before he even knows we left.” He felt the pocket of his own cloak, and I heard the jingle of coins. I made a mental note. I would need some funds when I left, after all.

We left the cottage. He hopped over the fence again, but I used the gate. He laughed at me.

“Ready?” I nodded and started walking. Suddenly he rushed at me, scooping me up in his arms making me gasp. He flapped his wings and we were suddenly racing up into the air. I let out a strangled scream.

“Stop doing that!” I shouted at him.

“Ae xi,” he said, probably expecting me not to hear. It sounded familiar and it struck me that that was what he had said to me the day before. I grit my teeth with frustration.

I clung to him tightly, trying to raise myself up to his shoulders to get a better grip. I looked down at the world. The cottage was surrounded by woods. The dirt path in front of the house was the only road I could see for miles. I winced nervously. Where would I go when I left?

It took only about twenty minutes of fast flying to reach the city again. I had been watching the world from his shoulder as it passed behind us. I watched the view of the cottage as it shrank into the distance. Once I saw the first tan building of the city I turned around in Adriel’s grip to survey the area from above. We passed two other angels in the sky, and I couldn’t help but stare at each one in amazement as they passed. We soon descended to an empty edge of the city, near the wall. My legs felt shaky when Adriel finally let me down. I tried to fix my wind-blown hair as much as I could but there was little to no use. Adriel laughed at me.

“You look ridiculous,” he mocked. I punched his shoulder.

“I’m still prettier than you, ass.” He laughed at me. I flushed with embarrassment, still furiously trying to fix my hair.

“Claire, please, please, please. For the love of the gods. Do not wander off or get separated from me.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“I’m a big girl, I can handle myself.” He rolled his eyes back at me comically.

“You know ten words of Sanen and you have no idea where you are. Stay close to me.” I felt myself blush again, looking away from him to the crowd of creatures. He offered me his arm, and I looked back to him. I didn’t move for a moment, weighing my options. I rolled my eyes with a sigh and looped my arm in his. He laughed. “Thank you, talas, xe.” I frowned.

“What does xe mean? You’ve said that word to me before, I remember. Don’t lie.” He chuckled again as we walked briskly with the crowd. He seemed to know where he was going, so I let him lead me.

“In Nythen it means darling. It’s a good thing, I promise.” I found myself blushing again, though I didn’t want to.

“And you keep saying ‘ae xi.’ What does that mean?” I urged. He threw his head back to laugh at me.

“Ae xi? Geer rith max. She. Is. Cute.” I glared at him, scoffing.

“Cute? That’s what you’ve been saying? She’s cute? Ugh,” I seethed. “You’re annoying.” He looked at me with a mocking frown.

“But Claire, how can we get closer if we aren’t honest with each other?” He laughed at me again. I blushed as my attempted trick came back to bite me in the ass. He squeezed my arm closer to his chest. “Don’t worry, I’m a very patient man.” I continued to glare. I noticed that the buildings were becoming more run-down as we walked on.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked in annoyance.

“My friend Cal is a Saniat artificer from Forj. I think he may have something to help with the charms that Rahmiel is using to hide his secrets.” I bit my lip, suddenly nervous. I didn’t care about this as much as Adriel did. He seemed crazed.

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Ah, no harm, no foul.” He aimed his smile down at me but I did not return it. His eyes were gone again. He was different. “We’re nearly there, don’t worry. It’s just a couple buildings over.” I nodded, looking around the city, drinking in the scene. The sky was a light peach color. The creatures who passed us on the street were mostly humanoids. I was pretty sure that they were Saniats- the native inhabitants. They looked human, but I knew they were not.

They could not be trusted.

Adriel pulled me to our left, cutting out in front of the annoyed men and women we passed to reach our destination. I read the large red sign above the door as we walked closer.

“Cal gen bethhat eto chass. What does that mean?”

“Cal’s artifacts and charms. Now, try not to talk, okay?” I scoffed as he pulled the hood of my cloak up over my head. I tried to pull it back down but he swatted my hand away. “Trust me.” We crossed the threshold of the shop, and I sighed but accepted it.

As we crossed into the shop I noticed immediately that the loud chatter of the crowd in the street was gone. It was silent in this building, despite the open door to the city. I looked back in awe at the door as Adriel pulled me in further.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” I said without thinking. He squeezed my arm, trying to silence me.

“Adriel.” I heard a voice ask from in front of us. “You’ve got a Ronen friend with you?” I turned to see who was speaking. “She’s got good taste,” the man said with a wink. He looked to be in his thirties. His skin was a creamy chocolate color, his eyes were bright green, and his short hair was deep black. He was more handsome than I was expecting. “Geer topar Sanen mye.” Topar… I couldn’t remember that word. He asked about me and Sanen. Understand? Speak?

“Yes, she speaks Sanen-” I made a mental note. Topar: speak. “-But not fluently. I’m not trying to keep secrets from her,” he said quickly. My heart swelled gratefully. I was glad that I would not be left out of the conversation for once. He wasn’t trying to hide anything.

“The creatures of this planet do not care about you.”

I shook the thankful feeling. I looked around the shop discreetly. There were glass cases of trinkets and statues. Shelves were full of old books and novels. The walls were lined with ancient swords, daggers, bows and arrows.

“What can I do for you, Adriel?” Cal asked warmly. “Who’s your friend?” I looked back to him, opening my mouth to introduce myself, but Adriel cut me off.

“I need something to block a Nythen cloaking charm and a Nythen locking charm.” Cal looked up into the distance, putting his hand on his chin in thought.

“I may be able to help you with the cloaking charm. But the locking charm? No good, I’m afraid. You’d need the magic of the one who cast the spell for that. Locking charms are under the category of protection charms. Those are very difficult to counter.” Adriel sighed in annoyance.

“What do you have for the cloaking charm, then?” Cal wandered from behind the glass counter in front of us, to the other side of the shop.

“I have some matches, if it’s invisible?” he inquired, looking back at us. Adriel shook his head.

“Rahmiel charmed a closet.” Cal chuckled.

“Hm, that might be a little trickier, my friend.” Cal paused where he was standing, between a bookcase and an artifact case. “You will need his blood,” he finally stated. He led us back over to where we had first met him. He reached up to the wall, pulling a short silver dagger from the wall. “I assume the charm is written plainly on the door of the closet?” Adriel sighed.

“I’m not sure exactly. I have not seen it myself. But it’s locked in Rahmiel’s room.” I looked at him. He thought that Rahmiel had moved my old armoire back into his room and replaced it with another one. It made sense. I glanced back at Cal who was stroking his chin again. I felt sneaky and dishonest suddenly. I tried to take my arm from Adriel and he let me go reluctantly, glancing down at me in annoyance, silently warning me. I wandered away from the two men, looking at the artifacts around the room.

“If you can get into his room and find the armoire. All that you need in order to reverse the cloaking charm will be this knife. The tip of this knife must be saturated with the blood of the one who cast the charm. And you will need to scratch the charm out with the blade.” I shivered at the grim instructions that Cal gave. “Reversing Nythen charms can be messy.” I heard the grin in his voice.

I focused on the artifacts as they spoke. There were buttons, matchbooks, children’s toys, gloves, and pens. Golden statues, soap bars, feathers, and perfume bottles. It was very intriguing. I wished I could know more.

“This is going to set you back 600 hass.”

“600 hass?” Adriel shouted in horror. I snickered.

“It’s very old magic, Adriel. But you know what? Since you’re a friend, I’ll bring it down to only 550. I’m basically handing this to you for free at that point.” Adriel groaned. I felt a sick sense of satisfaction. If he wanted to go behind Rahmiel’s back like this, he was going to have to pay for his dishonesty.

“You can’t go any lower?” Cal sighed.

“I’ll tell you what. 500 hass. And you allow me to give your beautiful friend a gift.” I turned back to him, confused. I flicked my eyes between the two men. A gift? Adriel squinted suspiciously at Cal.

“What gift?” Cal smiled, pulling an artifact from the glass case in front of him. He walked to me, holding out a silver necklace for me to see.

“This necklace brings protection to its wearer.” I swallowed nervously, inspecting the necklace. It looked very similar to the necklace my mother always wore and made my heart skip a beat. It had a long, thin, dark silver chain and a small silver star charm. “This artifact was blessed by the Nythen angel of the stars, Kokabiel.”

“It’s beautiful,” I mused with a smile. Cal shot me a grin.

“It means quite a lot to me. May I?” he offered. I pulled my hood down, and moved my hair out of the way as he clipped the long chain around my neck.

“Thank you,” I said, feeling my face flush again with nervous excitement as I put a warm hand to the cold charm. I noticed Adriel frowning in the same spot, glaring at the back of Cal’s head. “Kon yix rith Claire aya.” He held his grin.

“It’s a pleasure. Please come back soon, Claire.” I looked down at my feet bashfully, letting out a breathy laugh.

“Sav jo tobat,” Adriel finally said from his place. Cal laughed.

“Sav nox edo geer rith kolet jos,” he said very quickly. I didn’t catch a word he said, he had said it so fluently. Adriel did though, and he pretended not to seethe with anger. Adriel fished through his cloak, finding his bag of money. He picked out Cal’s money and slammed it on the glass case next to him. I was surprised it didn't shatter. “Eto bit jo hagt ve mist, jo stin,” Cal laughed almost as if he was teasing Adriel. I sighed.

They were back to keeping secrets.

“Time to go,” Adriel said suddenly. He took the dagger from the top of the glass case and rushed past Cal angrily. He took my hand and dragged me from the shop, the sounds of the city hit me again. I looked back at the shop. Cal waved me off with a smile on his face, and I smiled back, putting a hand to my new necklace. A part of me felt whole now. I didn’t know how else to explain it. I felt grateful to him, and I hoped I could see him again once I left the angels.

As Adriel dragged me through the crowd to the part of the city where we had landed before, I tried to unlatch Adriel’s hand from my wrist. I bumped roughly into a few of the beings in the crowd, who gave me dirty looks. I ran up to Adriel, punching his shoulder.

“Adriel, give it a rest. What the hell is the matter with you?” I shouted at him. The sky was bright orange now, we didn’t have much more time before the sun would set. I placed myself in front of him, stopping him in the middle of the traffic. He glowered at me, glancing quickly at the necklace before meeting my glare again. I tucked it into my dress, scowling, making sure that it was out of sight. He suddenly expanded his wings as wide as they could go, bumping a few creatures. There were many protests, but he didn’t seem to mind. He flapped his wings a few times and pulled me to him again. I groaned. “No, please, not again-”

He picked me up quickly and shot off the ground into the air. My stomach flipped, but I made no noise. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. I couldn’t help scrunching my face with surprise and fear, but I didn’t say a word once we left the ground.

The sun was beginning to set, but the sky was still orange. It looked gorgeous from so high up. I tried not to hold on to Adriel as much as I usually had. But to combat that, he would sometimes jerk his flight pattern, or stop flying altogether. When he did I would usually scream and grab onto him tightly, making him laugh cruelly. I refused to say a word to him. I just grit my teeth and bared it.

When we finally hit the ground twenty minutes later, the sky had started to turn violet. I walked quickly to the house, ignoring my shaky legs. He followed closely. I ripped off my cloak and hung it up on the hook by the door. I put my shoes back in the pile by the door, as well. Before I could storm off to my room, Adriel took my arm.

“You need to take the necklace off, Claire.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because he’s a conniving liar and you can’t trust him as far as your tiny, little body can throw him.” I scoffed.

“I thought he was your friend? And I can’t trust you either, asshole. Yet here I am.” He threw up his free arm.

“Of course you can trust me, xe. I haven’t lied to you.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I spat. I tried to pry his heavy hand off of me again. His tight grip pinched my skin painfully. “Adriel,” I stuttered. “Get off.”

“If you don’t take your hand off of her I will break one of your wings off.” I looked over to the staircase where Nicholas’s voice came from. I was so grateful and a sudden feeling of safety washed over me. Adriel didn’t look at him. His eyes remained on my face. I looked back at Adriel again and tore my arm away finally. Adriel let me go.

“Tiviat,” he said calmly and slowly, over-pronouncing each consonant. I rubbed my sore wrist anxiously. “Jo rith ve striss at edo sav plath oto rohath.” Adriel’s voice was dangerous. He slowly turned to Nicholas. “Feer jo rith onket es mye.”

“Sav ness blank fair.” They stared each other down.

“Stop, please.” I held my wrist to my chest. “Adriel, stop.”

“You owe her an apology, I think,” Nicholas said slowly. Adriel turned to me. His eyes were back finally. I stared him down bravely. He held out his hand, taking my wrist in his hot hand. His hand seemed to be hotter than usual as he held me. It felt soothing, and it made my whole body relax. He held me for about thirty seconds, staring down at our hands the entire time. I looked between our hands and him. When he finally let go, the red swelling and pain were gone completely. I let my mouth drop open as I tried to find something to say. He had healed me.

“I am sorry, Claire. I don’t know what came over me.” I blinked at him as he turned back to the front door and left slowly. My mouth was still open when he left. Nicholas came over to me cautiously.

“Claire, are you okay?” I looked down at my wrist before swallowing the lump in my throat. The adrenaline was starting to wear off. I suddenly felt exhausted.

“I’m okay. Thank you, Nicholas. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here.” He held his arms behind his back, standing straight in front of me.

“I’m happy to help. I’m sorry for what that monster did to you. I’m glad I was here.” I shook my head, trying to clear my mind.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” I asked, looking at the back door, resting my eyes. Nicholas nodded.

“Please, ask me anything.”

“Is Rahmiel trustworthy?” He seemed taken aback by the question.

“He is certainly more trustworthy than that barbarian.” I bit my lip, furrowing my brows.

“But can I trust him?” Nicholas thought for a moment.

“I’m not sure you can trust anyone in this city, Claire.” I took in a breath, nodding slowly. I looked back to him.

“If I was going to leave… where could I go?” He gave me a half frown but nodded once quickly, turning and walking towards the stairs.

“I will draw you a map.”