Death Blossom

Soaring luxuriously through the air, her golden locks blowing in the wind. Before her are clear blue skies, white clouds... there was nothing that tall mountains could hide from up this high. Up here there was no limit. The Empyrean Reaper, flapped her wings magnificently as they sliced through the clouds, splitting them apart on contact. Six white wings, three on each side, embodied purity. It seemed as if they brought peace throughout the realms with every gust of wind that emitted from them. Peering down to the world below, a mountain comes into view, cracked down the center as a sparkling river makes its way through, cascading into a shimmering waterfall. The scenery disappears from view just as fast as it had appeared. She smiles as she takes in the beauty of her surroundings. This is what she loved most about flying throughout the mortal realm; she loved the crisp breeze across her face, the smell of freshness, and most of all the scenery. The Light had created wonderful things, and she relished in a feeling of serenity.

Soon she sees a garden, one that she doesn’t recall seeing before. Taking an interest in the garden, she lands smoothly near a path outside the garden as her wings disappear into her back. Her white gown with gold embroidery falls gracefully down her slim figure as she is wrapped in the embrace of a pure white cloak swaying in the wind. The path was surrounded by trees on either side, there was a distant sound of water flowing and birds chirping merrily. She strolls into the garden, taking in its beauty. The sun washes the garden with a golden glow. Roses, lilacs, camellias, bluebells, and a wide array of flowers stands tall from the earth all around the garden. Buzzing bees flying from flower to flower, desperately seeking pollen. The pollen resembles floating pixie dust being scattered by the blustery wind. Twirling around on her heels in merriment, her cloak goes flying through the air. Laughing, she stops twirling and walks over to pick it up.

As she places it back around her shoulders, she catches sight of a flower that looked more beautiful than the rest. Almost dumbfounded, she approaches it and stares at it in awe. Her gray eyes focused only on the flower. She felt that she had to touch the flower, if only to find comfort, that she laid her hands on a great creation of the Light. This flower swirled from dark purple to dark red. It was most enchanting. The dew from the morning glistened off the petals as it shined beneath the warmth of the sun. She reaches her slender fingers down to touch it, but careful enough not to break it. She gently rubs her fingers along the petals, feeling the life coursing through the flower. Remembering she had to soon return to Heaven, she runs her finger along it one last time. As she withdraws her hand, she feels a slight prick as brightness trickles down the palm of her hand. Pulling her finger up to her mouth, she makes a swift movement of her tongue along the cut, closing up the wound. Looking down, she sees the flower wither into nothingness. She stares for a while, contemplating what just happened. A feeling of regret washes over her as she thinks to herself, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have touched it.’ Not wanting to destroy anything else in the garden she looks around the garden one last time, reveals her wings to full wingspan taking flight and leaves the garden.

Putting the thought of the garden behind her, she lands without a sound in a rather empty street. She glances around her surroundings and enjoys the quiet of this place. People walking to and fro doing their daily shopping and chores. They were unaware of her kind, but even worse they were unaware of a more heinous threat, demons. She knew though that it was best for them not to know about angels and demons, their mortal minds couldn’t handle bearing such knowledge. Those that do, tend to go crazy or, even worse, seek out to make pacts with demons or wonder why angels don’t keep bad things from happening to them. They just didn’t and would never understand. She strolls along the sidewalks, peeking into nicely decorated shop windows. Peering up she sees a traffic light frantically changing colors, she giggles a bit whispering to herself ‘Mortals sure do have their flaws, but they have a purpose, they are the prized creation.

She turns her attention to a young boy whose corruption was lingering across her senses.

She approaches him with a warm smile on her face. “Hey there, what’s your name?”

He looks up frantically as if he didn’t hear her approaching, “Oh, uhm… I’m Thomas” as he says this he drops his head staring at the ground.

“Thomas, what a nice name.”

Her gray eyes brighten slightly as she takes her pointer finger, placing it on the base of his chin, forcing it upwards. With her other hand she touches his temple, but before she could begin to bless him she sees him fall backwards onto the ground, crumpling in a corpse resembling a mummy.

She jumps back in shock, looking at the body. “What on earth is this…” she says quietly to herself.

She thinks and thinks for what seems like hours and comes to a conclusion that maybe this mortal was poisoned. She hovers the body in the air with her powers and sends it in a beam of bright light directly to an Observer in the Heavens. Not only that, but she needed them to study the remains while she looks for more clues. Frowning and a bit agitated, she sets off in her search.

Scattered across the desk are books and scrolls about prophecies of special mortals. Ranging from mortals with divine powers, mortals that can see beyond the veil, mortal children with immense powers. Sitting amongst this pile is an angel of valor. She hoped that maybe one of these scrolls contained something that could shed some light on her troubles. After reading a few, she tosses them aside and looks around the desk, picking up a different section of scrolls. Here she finds an array of many prophecies that have come true. ‘Maybe just maybe there is something in here that was partially true’ she thought to himself. As mortals tend to think many things to be true or fact, but in reality only the immortals know the truth.

Taking a break, she looks up from her scrolls and stretches out of habit as she glances around the library.

Turning to her left, she almost jumps out of her seat when she looks up from the scrolls and sees another angel sitting near her. “Whoa, I was so drawn in by the scrolls, I almost forgot that anyone else was here.”

The angel looks up from their research and smiles. As they have also taken up residence in this very library in recent days.

“Have you made any progress in your search through the scrolls?”

Frowning, she says, “It is going slow so far. I am trying to see if maybe the scrolls of prophecy have any information.”

Getting lost in the conversation, they both begin to discuss back and forth between one another.

Unknown to the other angel, she was not researching prophecies, but she had promised the Empyrean she would not tell anyone else about it.

Standing up, the angel named ‘Mercy’ can’t help but sigh, “Nothing here either. This is harder than I ever thought” she says more to herself.

Looking around, she sees the Empyrean Reaper stepping into the library and bows deeply, acknowledging her presence.

Not quite expecting to see Mercy, the Empyrean nods towards her as she pulls the hood of her cloak over her head, not wanting to attract much attention to herself. Digging her hands into her pockets, she walks over to Mercy.

With a solemn look etched across her face, she whispers, “Since you are here, I could use your help...”

The Empyrean looks at Mercy and motions with a turn of her shoulder for her to follow her. Without looking back, she walks deeper into the rows and rows of shelves filled with books. Mercy begins to follow her and wonders if this could be about what she was researching or something different entirely.

She looks back for a second, then continues to follow the Empyrean, and wonders just where she was taking her.

The Empyrean stops abruptly when she reaches the furthest wall. She turns and waits for Mercy to catch up. As she gets closer, she begins to tell her about the mortal she encountered earlier.

“Mercy, this is a serious matter. I went to the mortal realm this morning, as I was going to bless a mortal, he simply fell over dead… Mummified.” She pauses, staring directly at her, “This is not a normal occurrence. I fear it might be demonic poisoning. Do you know anything about this?”

Mercy looks up, her blue eyes dim with concern, “I am sorry Sator, I have heard nothing about this, but I would be more than glad to help you look for information.”

Her hands motion to the books and scrolls, “I am sure there is something here that might help us.”

The Empyrean furrows her brows and lets out a sigh, “Books and scrolls….very well then”

She runs her hands through her hair, slightly annoyed. “Mercy, since we are within the Grand Library, knowledge within this place can be exchanged with one another. Even between Angels and Demons. - well, if they do decide to share - or they would for a prize/price. Go out and seek the knowledge that we need.

Pondering for a second.

Thinking for a few minutes longer, she starts to see there is much more going on now than there has ever been. Shaking her head, she starts to walk around the library.

Almost walking around in circles, Mercy stops and takes a detailed look around. She walks slowly and stops next to a demon. “I’m looking for information about demonic poisoning”, she says. The demon gives her an ugly look and walks away. “Awesome, this is going great…”

She goes from demon to demon until finally a demon wants to listen to her inquiry. “Do you know about any demonic poison that could kill a mortal, turning them into mummies?” The demon nods, but pushing their hand out. “Uhm, what is it that you want?” “Relics…relics”, the demon demanded. “Fine fine, I have 100 Relics to spare.” The demon smiles, closing their book and banishing them with a wave of their hand. “My name is ‘Rizgal’ by the way. Relics do the talking, don’t they?” Mercy smiles slightly, “Mercy, nice to make your acquaintance. Yes, yes they do, huh…” “You wait here.” Mercy nods and waits patiently.

Rizgal moves to a stack and walks into the darkest reaches of the library, reserved for his kind alone and sealed by wards set in place by the Prime Evil eons ago. Going to the section that dealt with spells and experiments upon mortals, he touches several tomes before finding the one he was searching for and pulls it off the shelf. Opening the book, he scans the pages with intent focus and finds the right page. He pulls a valuable parchment from his bag and chants a duplication spell that copies the information precisely as it was written. Putting the tome away, he walks back into the heart of the library. He approaches Mercy and hands her the scroll.

He explains “Mummification isn't what the spell was made to do, but if someone took this and used it to develop a poison, it might well be what you're looking for. It was an experiment from ages ago to accelerate the feeding process in the interest of allowing my kind to be more battle effective under pressure.”

Meanwhile, at the back of the library, the Empyrean removes the hood from her head. She takes her palms and points them outward. Her gray eyes glow into a blinding light as she mumbles “Demonic Poisoning” over and over again. Suddenly, every book on the shelves that contained information about demonic poisoning starts to glow a rich golden hue as they float off of the shelves. As she walks forward towards the main part of the library, more and more books float off the shelves, following behind her… Seeing an empty table as she reaches the opening of the library, she drops all the books on it. She plops down most ungracefully, sighing as she levitates one book at a time in front of her, flipping rapidly through the pages searching for a specific demonic poison that was similar to what she saw. She cocks her head to the side, looking over in Mercy’s direction. She sees Mercy smiling and talking to a Demon, she then grabs a scroll from his hand and begins walking over to the Empyrean. Mercy held out the scroll for her to take, “This might help us” she says softly. The Empyrean pulls the scroll directly in front of her face with her powers, leaving it to float. While she scans quickly over the scroll, Mercy picks up a book lying on the table and starts reading it, just in case the scroll was not what they needed.

Breaking her out of thought, the Empyrean says, “So, if this was turned into a poison it could kill a mortal and mummify them? I don’t understand...” she bites her lips, standing up abruptly, “…something is missing.”

Mercy only nods as she was thinking the very same thing. Tilting her head to the side, she remembers something and feels slightly ashamed of her thoughtlessness.

“I just came here and dropped all this demonic poisoning problem on your lap. I apologize.” she sighs, “I didn’t even bother to ask you how you were.”

She drops the scrolls and books and walks over to Mercy, placing her hand on her shoulder, looking a bit concerned.

“Are you doing well?”

Mercy looks up and smiles, “No harm. I am glad that you came to me for help.”

Never losing her smile, she continues, “But let’s find out what is going on with this. I don’t like the idea of a mortal just falling dead, that would only bring more chaos to a chaotic world.”

The Empyrean nods slightly, removing her hand from her shoulder, giving her a faint smile.

“This is just so sudden and makes no sense.”

She turns her back to Mercy, staring out the window of the library. She sees that the sun was on the brink of fading into the darkness as the moon was about to bring in a new light. Her thoughts race through her mind, ‘What am I missing?’ she thinks to herself.

Breaking her out of her thoughts, Mercy begins to speak, “Well, a poison could be anything really. From whatever the mortal ate or maybe touched or breathed in. Poisons works in so many different ways, in fact, this could be hard to pinpoint. We need more information. Did you notice if he was eating or drinking anything before you tried to bless him? Or maybe he was holding a book in his hand? Anything at all, my Sator?”

Frowning, the Empyrean stares blankly out the window, “No, nothing at all. He was just standing there… smiling.”

“This is very strange indeed. Kind of scary if you think about it.”

She starts to pace, something she used to do as a mortal and never quite stopped doing. Stopping, she thinks for a second and looks over.

“You touched him, I wonder...” she starts to say, then falls to the floor, feeling faint and tired. She looks up, her body turning frail.

Her soft blue eyes turning pale gray as she starts to feel more and more weak. “W-w-what is h-happening my Sator?”

She stumbles over her words as the angelic energy starts to leave her body. Laying on the floor, she feels cold, something she has not felt in a long time.

Eyes wide in shock, “Mercy, what are you...” she stops mid-sentence and stares at her, “Your eyes...”

Standing, she rushes over to her and crouches on the ground. Not to disturb the library and to draw away unwanted attention, the Empyrean covers them in a hazy mist.

“Can you talk? Did you eat something? Touch anything strange...?” She stares at her as worry creeps up her spine.

“N-nothing like that, my Sator, nothing at all.”

She thinks back to what she was trying to say. “I was...” stopping to take a breath, “I was trying to say that you touched the mortal… I t-thought maybe you did something today. Did anything happen? Did you talk to a demon?”

She was able to speak slowly but then lays back on the floor looking up confused as she starts to breathe not out of habit but because she now has to, The Empyrean remains speechless looking down at her.

Suddenly shocked out of silence, she says, “You are mortal… How?” thinking back, she frowns, “No, I didn’t do anything today. It was a normal day… No demons...nothing… I just...”

In the distance, an angel who knew Mercy drops his books. He jumps from his seat rushing over to her and looking at the Sator, stricken, “What happened? Why is she changing?”

Startled by their sudden approach, “I… I don’t know. She is mortal and very sick. She could...”

The Empyrean trails off “.....She could die.”

The angel ‘Cassiel’ starts running his hands over Mercy lightly, looking for any foreign object or sign of a wound. Almost stuttering in shock as she seems to have become fully mortal. She clamps down on her personal distress and steels her resolve.

“Please, I developed a spell long ago within The Walls of the Great Library with Mercy… If you accept, it should act as a diagnosis spell. You might be able to see something.”

Looking from Mercy to Cassiel, the Empyrean nods her head slightly, “I accept. Will this spell enlighten me on what is causing her to turn mortal?”

Cassiel looks back at her with uncertainty in his eyes, “I don’t know. It may pinpoint exactly what is wrong, or it may fail...”

As she says this, Mercy starts falling into an unconscious state.

Knowing that not much time was left before Mercy drew her last breath and succumbed to death, the Empyrean focuses on the incantation of the spell in a soft murmur. Time seems to slow and she feels a sudden pull. Her vision goes blank and her gray eyes light up in a spectacle of pure white as her iris disappears. The blankness is replaced with a beautiful flower, one she remembers. Its purple folds blossom outward. It was enchanting, captivating even. Scarlet tendril like petals begin to surround it, making a dance around her as it pricks her finger and withers away, leaving a faint whisper in the air, “Flors Mortem.”

Her eyes shoot open as she whispers out loud, “Death Flower.”

The revelations seemed to shock Cassiel out of silence. “Death Flower… But I thought that was gone from creation, my Sator?”

With a sullen look, the Empyrean rests her gaze on Mercy’s aging body, “So did I, but it seems one managed to find me. I saw that flower today in a garden I never came across before. I felt a prick… I didn’t think much of it. I had completely forgotten about it.” she sighs and tilts her head, “There is a test to be certain...”

Without waiting for any response, she takes her hands from her cloak pocket and reaches her hands to hover over Ray’s body.

“The Death Flower is drawn to people that fall victim to it. It relishes on the agony brought forward as its victims die.”

Her veins suddenly become dilated as purple fluid rushes down her hands towards her fingertips, seeming like they wanted to escape to get to Mercy’s body. She quickly pulls herself back, placing her hands behind her back with her head down.

“I-I killed that mortal and now Mercy will most likely die…”

Cassiel looks down at her as sees that her skin started to age more and begin to wrinkle as her hairs turned gray strand by strand.

It was time for full focus is needed now.

“There is something I can try to help, an Angel of the High Heavens,” says the Empyrean.

Cassiel looking back at her with eyes wide open.

The Empyrean Reaper musters up a faint smile and without any further hesitation she walks towards Mercy. She places her hands over her. Using her powers to drag Mercy from the ground and turns her in a position as if she were standing but floating in the air. Cool wisps of air begin to flow around the area. She reveals her magnificent wings and flaps them rapidly, causing a slight turmoil within the library. As her wings move to that steady, rapid motion, light emits from them and forms a barrier around them. The barrier swirled in every direction, beaming light brighter than any other. Pointing the palm of her left hand towards Mercy’s chest, an intense wave of lightning spirals into her body. Taking her right hand she consumes it with Blue Flare aiming it directly at her temple.

As the ritual took place, Cassiel looked on in amazement as his eyes widened.

The Empyrean continued to direct the immense energy and light into Mercy, though her powers were waning, she continued. She felt that she must save her. ‘It was her fault after all that she was in this situation,’ she thought to herself. Her golden locks started to change from their bright state to the darkest of blacks, and her wings gradually from the tip began to be engulfed in the blackness. Her wings turn fully black, and they stop the steady flapping motion before stopping all together, swaying downwards as if they had no more energy to give. She falls to her hands and knees as her power weakens.

Looking up, she sees Mercy’s angelic nature returning and manages a smile. “S-she’s alright now.”

As she says that, there is a huge thud on the floor as Mercy falls. She lays there as her eyes turn back to a soft blue and her body returns to the state of an angelic being. Without any hesitation, Mercy stands up and spreads her wings, relishing in the fact that she was back to normal.

“Thank you for saving me. My Sator, I will help you find answers to this,” she says as she bows deeply.

Cassiel looks down taking in the state of her Sator “...but your own energy, Empyrean Reaper. What should we do to reverse the Death Flower’s effects on you?”

“Don’t worry about me.” The Empyrean struggles to move away from them, as she didn’t want to harm anyone else. This ritual had taken a much heavier toll on her than she thought it would.

Stepping forward, Cassiel speaks as he stares directly into the Empyrean’s weak eyes. “You are needed, I offer you my grace. Please allow me to help, even if it means my death”

The Empyrean shakes her head profusely and smiles weakly at Cassiel “That I cannot do… I am just weak now from restoring Mercy from the Death Blossom’s touch. I won’t die…as I cannot die… ”Looking up at the two of them she sighs, “Grace will only restore my energy, it will not remove the Death Blossom. My energy will restore on its own, so please don’t worry about me.”

Cassiel smiles reassuringly, knowing once his Sator has made up her mind, it cannot be changed. He goes to stand next to Mercy and offers his aid in research on the Death Blossom.

Staggering as she stands, the Empyrean leans on a nearby column, “I cannot stay here...” She looks at them with sorrow filling her eyes, “I will not stay here and kill or harm anyone else.” She musters the strength she has left and summons her Wraith, a creature loyal to her from the very beginning of time. Engulfing herself in the Blue Flare, she whispers “Goodbye” and disappears without hesitation.

Mercy starts to look up everything she can on the Death Blossom, hoping that they will find an answer, and soon. Cassiel follows right behind her, determined to help in any way he could.

Mercy says to Cassiel “Let’s look for books on the Death Blossom, and get together later to compare our notes. We must do this quickly.”

Cassiel nods slightly and with a somber smile.

Now, the Empyrean Reaper, landing in her place of solitude, sits on her throne staring down at her hands, contemplating her next move.

“I have to stay here a while… I cannot be in contact with anyone… especially those who reside in the High Heavens…” She sighs “... I might just be the death of them.”

With her new resolve, she stands and walks towards the Crystal Arch, taking in its beautiful glow and calming aura. No doubt left in her mind, she steps inside and enters a stasis like slumber, while leaving a perfect copy of herself behind for the time being.

“This was for the best,” She thought, “at-least for now”

Does this Death Blossom think that it is more deadly than Death itself?

I think not...

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