The angel had only been in this city now a full day, and this would be her first night in Adeluna. Still wearing her armour that she had for the whole time she was at sea, Sirona was absolutely lost in the city now. She had gotten directions from the captain of the ship she had sailed over with, but it seemed she had taken a wrong turn somewhere and was now in the seedier part of the city, not that she knew that either.

Sirona was hoping to have the inn that had been suggested to her before night fall, but that wasn’t about to happen it seemed. Signing to herself, Sirona opened her large wings and got herself into the air over the buildings. She would have done so earlier but she wanted to learn the city by foot as flying wasn’t always the best option.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right option now either. She hadn’t been long in the air before the whizz of an arrow caught her ear. Before she could react she felt it puncture through her right wing and it was soon followed by another arrow through her left wing. Hissing with some pain, as there wasn’t a lot of feeling in the parts of her wings that had been struck, Sirona quickly dropped from the sky into an alley.

Why had they shot at her?!

Out of the sky now Sirona looked around as two figures came into view at the end of the alley way while she took hold of her shield and placed her right hand on the hilt of her sword. The figures came closer, one raised his bow and drew back a fresh arrow while the other hand two daggers in his hands. “Your kind are rare here. One of me friends on the ship told me of you, angel, you from that place the insects came from. I lost me brother in the fighting. I have to ask, why did no one else over there stop the insects from attackin’ us?”

Sirona narrowed her eyes, damned insects had given some people bad thoughts about anyone coming from Onnen it seemed. “No one knew of their invasion until it was too late. Please, stand aside, I have no qualms with you, human. I just wish to be on my way to find an inn for the night.”

”No can do, angel. Your feathers are valuable, make up for the loss of me brother.” He took a step closer.

Sirona scowled and drew her blade of sapphire, it had a faint mist around it from the chilling aura it had. ”Last chance, please step aside.”

The occasional bouts of boredom that Dalanesca experienced while essentially trapping herself in her own realm had grown more and more common. The many remedies she had found to occupy her time were beginning to grow rather dull and tiresome, only adding to her boredom after having become so repetitious. The overwhelming sense of boredom had grown to be too much, and thus, the goddess decided to take the chance and leave her realm.

Adeluna was a familiar city to her, and she assumed that placing herself into familiar surroundings would help her keep her cravings if one could call them that, under control. With the help of a few close allies, Angela’s champion, Serci, in particular, she was much more herself these days. Heading to Adeluna rather than a less familiar place would avoid any strange happenings that might take place.

Well, those were the goddess’s hopes, at least.

Upon emerging from the portal she had created that had transported her not far outside the city’s walls, she made her way through the gates. She had, of course, cast an aura spell over herself. While her appearance remained the same as ever, there was no chance at all that anyone, lest they be a fellow deity with as much power as she, would be able to recognize her for who she really was.

Her boots clicked against the pavement as she walked, taking a shortcut through an alley to head to her favorite destination in town, The Winking Mermaid. Though mortal liquor no longer gave her any sort of inebriation, the taste gave her a hint of nostalgia and she enjoyed imbibing on occasion. So, she had set her sights to that - head to the tavern, have a few pints and a bit of whiskey and then make her way back to her realm (unless anything else interesting came about).

Her plans came to a screeching halt, however, when she saw what was taking place in the alley that she had chosen for her shortcut. Two men stood with their backs in her direction, clearly threatening the female form in front of them. With her ethereal hearing, she was able to discern that they were speaking of the female’s feathers. An angel, she thought to herself. She hadn’t met one of those in a very long time - perhaps that was the entertainment she was looking for on this day.

She made her way silently towards the trio, and when she was near enough to both of them, her hands shot out, finding their targets.

What the being standing before the men would have been able to see, would have been the two men freezing in place, each dropping their weapons to the ground. Their eyes became rather hollow looking, and soon they crumpled to the ground. Standing behind them was a rather petite yet curvaceous woman, clad in a mixture of black and red leather and lace. She looked very, very out of place - as did the two hearts she clutched, one in each hand, each still dripping blood. It was clear that she had ripped them clear out of the men that had once stood there.

With a glance at the unknown angel in front of her, Dalanesca tossed the hearts to the ground, stepping over the corpses of the men she had so easily dispatched. With a swift motion, she raised her left hand to her lips, drawing it between her lips and tasting the blood. She cringed, not enjoying this one’s flavor, and advanced towards the angel. ”You can put that away,” she said, gesturing towards the sword that the angel held. ”I’ve no intentions to hurt you. They were boring,” she said, rather nonchalantly, considering she had just murdered two men in cold blood. ”You, on the other hand, seem rather interesting,” she added.

Noticing that the angel seemed a bit concerned about the fact that there was a murderer standing directly in front of her. ”Well, no point in keeping secrets after that display,” she added, and allowed her aura to drop for the angel in front of her. ”I am Dalanesca, I am the Reaper, the Siren, et cetera, et cetera… whatever title you choose to call me… though I mostly just prefer Dalanesca,” she said, her eyes flashing momentarily to a deep crimson from their typical icy blue. She looked the angel up and down for a moment.

”Can’t say I’ve seen an angel in these parts in recent times,” she said. ”So, what’s your story? What brings you to Adeluna? And, more importantly, I suppose, your name?”

Sirona never noticed the third party in the alley way until after the fact. She watched as the two men went stone still and dropped their weapons. The angel gripped her weapon tighter, what was going on?! She smelled copper in the air as the two men dropped dead before her, and a petite female was standing in their place, dressed in red and black. She looked out of place, like Sirona did, but in a different way.

But what was making Sirona most on edge was the fact that this small woman was holding the hearts from the men in her hands! What kind of fiend was this?! Sirona wasn’t going to kill the men, just disarm and then disable them and get away from this place, the holes in her wings wouldn’t hinder her flying anyway and would heal in due time. But, by Onnen, was this female who just casually ripped the hearts of men out?

She came closer to Sirona, stepping over the corpses as she tossed the hearts away before tasting the blood. Vampire! Sirona’s eyes narrowed and she was about to put herself back into a ready stance and prepare for an attack when the woman spoke, gesturing to Sirona’s sword. No intentions to harm her? That wasn’t very helpful in Sirona’s eyes at the moment.

Sirona did not put her sword away she was about to ask why this woman had just murdered two men when she mentioned secrets. What secrets? However, when Dalanesca’s aura was revealed to her Sirona visibly flinched from the sudden rush of power she felt coming from the woman. It was at the same time familiar and foreign to the angel, and it didn’t take long for Sirona to realize why.

By the time Dalanesca had finished speaking Sirona had realized that she was in the presence of a Goddess! The very beings that were part of why Sirona had travelled to these lands on her first day she had encountered one. But the fact that Dalanesca had murdered two men so easily and coldly wasn’t settling well with the angel. In her time of travel to get here she had built up in her own mind an image of the Deities being benevolent to the mortals, and right away those ideas were being challenged by Dalanesca.

Yet, Sirona was an angel and in her mind she was a servant of the Gods, so despite the dilemma in her mind at the moment, she did what she felt she had to do. Up to now Sirona hadn’t said anything only stared and comprehended. Finally she moved, but she did not sheath her blade, instead she dropped to one knee placing the tip of her sword on the ground, pushed the hood away from her head to expose her black hair and better display her facial tattoos and then placed both hands on the pommel her head bowed.

”Lady Dalanesca, I am Sirona, as an angel I am bound to serve the Deities in any capacity.” She started, clearly nervous but holding herself together, her breathing steady even if her mind was racing. “I have just today arrived by boat from Onnen. I heard of the Deities in these lands from a centaur from Canelux and since then more about your roles in the invasion by the insect tribes, though few details on your personally.” She took a breath. ”Upon hearing of the Deties I felt compelled to come to these lands and seek you all out, as a divine servant I felt it was my duty to present myself to all of you and offer my services to the best of my abilities.” She kept her head bowed throughout and would only raise it if Dalanesca said to do so. ”I am at your service, Lady Dalanesca.” Sirona ended, she had questions though, mostly about why Dalanesca had murdered the two men, but she would hopefully get to ask them in time.

Dalanesca watched the angel with deep interest as she removed the barrier of the hood from her face, revealing rather interesting features coupled with raven hair. As she bowed her head, it was all Dalanesca could do not to shoot forward and wrench her head back upwards. She appreciated being shown respect, but there was a limit to what she liked… In her opinion, there was such a thing as too much respect.

The words that Sirona spoke as she introduced herself were something that Dalanesca had never expected to hear. She knew that angels, as a general rule, served deities, but she always assumed that they were only to serve the deities who fell into the realm of ‘good,’ as it were, and maybe on occasion to assist those in a neutral tenancy. She did not, by any means, expect that an angel would ever even dream of assisting someone that the general public would encapsulate as evil.

The Reaper’s breath caught in her chest as Sirona mentioned hailing from Onnen. Flashbacks of her run-in with the insects that had resulted in her death blasted through her mind, though she shook them off quickly, pushing them to the back of her psyche. Rather than interjecting with her own words and thoughts, she allowed Sirona to continue her explanation as to why she had arrived in Canelux. When it was clear that the angel had finished, she stepped forward, and gently placed two fingers beneath the angel’s chin, tipping her head upwards in a fashion so as to show her that she did not expect her to bow.

”Well, let me be the first to tell you, the way those men welcomed you to Canelux is by no means a comment on the character of this land. Most of the people here are well meaning.” She took a pause and removed her hand from the angel’s chin, taking a step backwards so as to indicate to her that she meant her no harm. ”I do not know much of Onnen, only what my fellow gods and myself have discerned from our battle with them. I actually fell in the battle with the insect tribes, but my sister goddess, Angela Rose, brought me back – with a few changes as payment, of course,” she added, a faint hint of darkness to her voice. ”On behalf of the Conclave, welcome to Canelux.”

Dalanesca surveyed the angel for a moment before she spoke any further. ”I will tell you, that your kind are few and far between – in fact, I cannot say as though I have ever met an angel before,” she added. ”That’s a rather valiant and noble reason to journey to our land, to offer your services…” she trailed off, a bit of a smirk on her lips. How ironic it seemed that she, the Goddess of Death and Desire, would be the first deity that Sirona came across? It was almost laughable – though this angel had done nothing to her to warrant Dalanesca being downright rude.

”Now, let me explain to you something. I do not generally care for theatrics and honorifics,” she began. ”I appreciate the respect you have shown by bowing your head, but I never want to see you bow to me again. Do you understand?” she asked. Her voice was firm, but it was clear that she was more being firm to enforce the point that she did not care for bowing and things like it. ”But if you offer your services, I am sure I can find something that would suit your talents,” she said. ”But that will come later.”

The Siren fell silent as she surveyed Sirona once more, leaning against the side of the building they were near in the alley. Her eyes darted from the discarded corpses on the ground back to her new acquaintance. She could see in Sirona’s eyes that she was questioning what had taken place, though she was unable to discern what exactly about it she was questioning. ”One thing you’ll need to learn about my position as a deity in this world… I have to kill. I reign supreme over desire, but I also reign over death… and that comes with things, such as this. Those men added nothing to the world – they were terrible, would have killed you for your wings in a flash – as they were attempting to do,” she explained, nudging the closer of the two with her foot. ”It is my job to dispatch sick miscreants such as them,” she added, wondering if it would be enough of an explanation for her.

”That being said, Sirona… have you any questions for me, as the first of the deities you have come into contact with here?” she asked, her words smooth but heartfelt. ”I’m an open book, to a point,” she said, indicating that she would answer whatever questions the angel had – within reason, of course.

Sirona felt the motion in the air as Dalanesca stepped closer and she felt the fingers under her chin left her face upwards to look at the Goddess. It was all Sirona could do to stop herself from reaching out to take Dalanesca’s hand lay a kiss on the back her hand, but the message was clear enough from the Goddess. She spoke of the men before stepped back and Sirona got her feet now and sheathed her blade as she listened to Dalanesca’s speak. She fell in battle with the insects? But weren’t they immortal?! Tack on another question that Sirona had for the Gods, but she managed a smile to Dalanesca when she was welcomed. ”Thank you, Dalanesca.” She replied and then continued to listen.

The angel wasn’t too surprised about hearing of her kind’s rarity, but truthful deep down she was a little disappointed. She had hoped that perhaps there were more angels here, that way she knew she wasn’t alone down here with no other kin. But alas, that didn’t seem to be the case, and she was a rarity here as much as she was back in Onnen. It still begged many questions of course, ones she hoped to find the answers to in time. She felt a little pride when Dalanesca said that her reasons for coming to Canelux were valiant and noble, but she attempted to not have that show on her outward appearance, not wanting to appear prideful in front of Dalanesca.

Dalanesca then explained about her thoughts on bowing and Sirona, who just about bowed with a slight twitch of her hips, stopped herself and nodded simply instead. ”Yes, Dalanesca, I understand.” That was, odd to Sirona that a Goddess would be like that with honorifics, but then again Sirona only had her own imagination and what Paradox the centaur had told her to go by when it came to the Deities.

When the Goddess’ eyes moved to the corpses so did Sirona’s, but hers lingered a bit longer. Those two lives taken so easily, despite what they were going to do to Sirona if they had that chance, Sirona didn’t like it. Yet, how could she argue with Dalanesca about this? Dalanesca was right, Sirona was no fool as to what their intent was with her. Desire? So, the Gods held two aspects then? Death and Desire under one Goddess, how interesting, made Sirona wonder what the others may hold as their aspects. But Desire that was something foreign to Sirona, she had never Desire, at least not in the way perhaps most thought of the term, and such talk could make the angel uncomfortable.

The end of Dalanesca’s explanation, however, did as some comfort to Sirona’s conscience. If that was true and Dalanesca only dispatched those that were like these men or worse than perhaps Sirona wouldn’t have as hard a time serving under Dalanesca. She could only hope. ”I understand, Dalanesca, I will do my best to dispatch those kind of beings in your name, if that is your command.” Sirona replied, again twitching in almost bow out of pure reflex before she nodded instead. That was a habit that was clearly going to be hard for the angel to break.

At Dalanesca’s offer to answer questions Sirona almost burst out with a long strong of them but caught herself and spoke normally. “Please forgive me if I ask too many at once. But, how many of you are there? I heard rumours that you were once mortals? Is that true? And if so, how did you rise into the positions you are now?” She asked, clearly she had more but Sirona stopped herself for now before she became annoying with the amount of questions at once for Dalanesca.