He was a warrior and a wise man, childlike and ancient, powerful and easily fooled. In short, a true hero.

—Excerpt from “A Child’s Tale of Adon” by Soren Grondahl

Asteria

I was really tired, but this was no time to relax. I got off the bed and freshened up a little in the room’s tiny bathroom. I wished there was time to shower but, judging from the time it took for Sariel to arrive, I only had a few minutes. ELs must run faster than dyr. I was feeling hungry so I was asking the farm’s owner to prepare dinner for me when Seraphiel arrived.

Seraphiel stopped a few meters away from me. We stared at each other for a while before he started slowly walking towards me. This was the first time in ten years that I had a good look at him. My eyes filled with happy tears and I held out my hands to him. Seraphiel was taller than before and he had filled out. No longer a gangly teen, he had a lean but muscular frame now. His long black hair, the rarest hair color in this world, was done up in warrior braids in front but hung loose down his back. Like Uriel, he was wearing a tailored military uniform, but his clothes were black.

An unwelcome jolt of revulsion shocked me when Seraphiel took my hands. My flesh crawled as my body reacted to the proximity of the active Iah virus, but I hid my disgust from him. Seraphiel sighed as he touched his forehead to mine. After a moment, I tore myself away from him and said, laughingly, “Hey, where’s my candy?”

Seraphiel smiled as he took a small bag from his coat pocket and handed it over to me. I extracted a piece of candy and closed my eyes in rapture as I put it in my mouth. Sugar was a luxury item in this world, and honey had to be extracted from monsters’ lairs. That meant that truly sweet things were rare and expensive. Most desserts were made with sweet herbs and fruits.

“Yes! That hit the spot,” I said. We walked hand in hand towards the room I had rented. The sweet treat made it easier for me to ignore the creepy feeling I got when I touched Seraphiel. Damn this virus.

“You’re tiny,” said Seraphiel as I sat down on the bed. “I thought an angel would be taller.”

He was looking down at me with a smile on his face. I noticed that his lips were very pale, and his skin was a pale, pale white. The famous hair was as lustrous as a black onyx stone.

I frowned. “Wait, let me cure you first.”

“I’m fine,” said Seraphiel, but he obediently kept quiet when I assumed my meditative position.

As expected, Seraphiel’s situation was drastically different from Uriel’s and Sariel’s. They had been deliberately infected with a dormant, weakened Iah virus as part of the EL treatments when they were small children. Seraphiel had been infected in utero with a genetically modified version of the virus. While Uriel and Sariel had the Iah virus in their blood and internal organs, the Iah virus had bonded with Seraphiel on the cellular level and it was in all his cells.

I sighed mentally but kept my face expressionless because I didn’t want to alarm Seraphiel. I opened my eyes and said, “Okay, take your clothes off.”

“What?” Seraphiel’s mouth fell open.

“This is gonna be messy,” I explained.

Seraphiel cleared his throat and looked at me with a hint of displeasure in his gaze, “Did you ask Uriel and Sariel to take their clothes off, too?”

“Sariel was wearing a purple thong!” I lied. Seraphiel looked shocked which made me burst into peals of laughter. “Ely, you’re too easy.”

Seraphiel’s pale face turned slightly pink and he looked quite relieved. He smiled and said, “You’re wrong anyway. Sariel doesn’t like thongs. He calls them butt floss.”

“Oh, and you know all about Sariel’s underwear, huh?” I wagged my eyebrows up and down suggestively. “Are you two…?”

“Don’t you know we lived in the barracks for five years?” said Seraphiel. “And no, we’re not.”

I laughed again. Seraphiel started unbuttoning his greatcoat.

“I think you should sit on the floor there,” I said, gesturing at the bathroom.

“Is that really necessary?” asked Seraphiel.

“Yes.” I took a towel from the bathroom and handed it to him. Seraphiel went inside the bathroom. Wow, he must really be used to living with other people in the barracks since he totally forgot to close the bathroom door when he was taking his clothes off. I closed the door for him, theatrically covering my eyes with my hands as I used to do when we talked in the lab.

“I’m done,” said Seraphiel as he opened the door.

I was seated on the floor in front of the bathroom, cross-legged, my back turned towards him.

“Is this okay?” asked Seraphiel.

“Kyaaa!” I had unthinkingly turned towards him to look. Seraphiel was wearing only the towel that was wrapped around his waist. Nice six-pack! He had a great body. I turned my head away as fast as I could, and I definitely wasn’t drooling or anything. “It’s fine, it’s fine.”

It was Seraphiel’s turn to laugh.

“I’m starting,” I said. I slowed my breathing down and entered a meditative state. This time, the goddess’ power came out of me in a wave of bright golden light instead of sparkles. I needed a stronger force to weaken the Iah virus in Seraphiel’s body. Progress was excruciatingly slow, and I didn’t turn around or open my eyes, but I knew that Seraphiel was projectile vomiting. Eek. I started feeling lightheaded, but the Iah virus was gradually weakening. I only hoped that Seraphiel’s pain wasn’t too agonizing. An eternity seemed to pass before I finally finished the Rite of Cleansing.

“Seraphiel? Are you okay?” I got up and turned around slowly, giving him time to make himself decent in case he needed it. The bathroom door was closed. He probably shut the door when he started puking. The smell of vomit must be even worse for him because of his enhanced senses.

“I’m fine,” said Seraphiel.

I staggered to the bed and practically collapsed on it in exhaustion. I could hear the sound of brushing teeth and water splashing as Seraphiel made himself presentable. After a few minutes, Seraphiel came out of the bathroom, fully dressed.

“Are you alright?” asked Seraphiel in a concerned tone of voice. He looked exactly the same as before, but perhaps he would get some color back now that I had weakened the virus in his body.

I smiled up at him then held up a hand, palm up. Seraphiel frowned in puzzlement for a moment before realizing what I was asking for. He placed a piece of candy in my hand and I moaned in pleasure when the sweet taste filled my mouth.

“Thanks, I needed that,” I said. A knock came from the door and Seraphiel went to open it.

“Sir, your dinner. I made two servings.” It was the owner of the farm with a tray of food. He put it down on the sole table then left after Seraphiel paid him.

“Is it my imagination or was he looking at us a little strangely?” I asked Seraphiel after the man had left.

“People who live alone tend to be a little eccentric,” said Seraphiel.

Dinner was beans and spicy sausage with flatbread. We ate in companionable silence, neither one of us in any shape to chat.

“I’m bushed,” I said when we finished eating. “Do you mind if I sleep? I’m sure you have a lot of questions you want to ask but I’m sooooo tired.”

“I don’t have a lot of questions,” said Seraphiel, to my surprise. “Go ahead. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

The floor was sure to be hideously uncomfortable, but I was simply too tired to care. I crawled under the bedsheets then fell into a deep, dreamless sleep right away.