Justice

Trees cracked, fires roared, explosions seared the earth, and the sky itself seemed to scream in terror. A combination of beating wings, magic, and actual screaming filled it to the brim. The battle for the world of Nolixuul raged on. The demons were strong in numbers on all six continents now, and their strategy grew shrewder every day. Meanwhile, the humans clung together in small groups, constantly forced out of their homes by invading demon or angel forces. Luckily for them, the humans bred like rabbits, or they’d have been wiped out entirely by now. They were a resilient people, but they had little or no defenses against the massive explosions that ripped the landscape on a daily basis. Demons could create bombs just as powerful as those of angel manufacture now, and they were more willing to use them. Angel environmental mages were doing the best they could under the circumstances, but the planet was suffering. Captain Janael of the United Angelic Forces was able to reflect on this because he wasn’t involved in a major battle today. He’d been assigned to this patrol squad several weeks ago, and today it was nothing but smooth sailing in their enchanted cloud.

The padding of feet sounded from the hallway behind him. Private Horan burst into the room and saluted smartly.

“Beg to report several squadrons of about 50 Demons each heading this way, sir!”

Captain Janael sat bolt upright in his seat. “What, now?!”

“Yes, sir!” said Horan, who wasn’t trembling all that much.

Janael shook his head. The Demon attack force was three sectors to the south today; their scouts had proved that. They were supposed to be on routine patrol. And…

“50 each? They’re getting bigger every day…a lot of corrupted humans among them, then?”

“I don’t know, I can’t tell! I guess not…there’s not a lot of humanoid ones…but there’s more squads than we have here.”

Poor young sod, thought Janael, he probably thought he could escape battle here. “Listen, we still have the upper hand in this war, all right? We started death-apotheosis. We started choosing humans first!” He did not say, “We corrupted first.” It probably wasn’t even true. Anyway, death-apotheosis was a far better war tactic. Janael remembered the time the demons had thought they were winning a decisive victory over the hopelessly outnumbered angels at Truskin Lake, only to discover a large encampment of humans directly below the battle, to whom the angels immediately transferred angelhood as they died.

“Sir?” Horan was still saluting. Janael got to work. “Call for reinforcement divisions, as many as you can reach!” he barked. “And…tell the other guys to put some pants on!”

“What?”

“Prepare the men for battle, I said!”

Horan ran down a tunnel in the cloud.

--

Angel Patrol Unit #57 gazed down at the lower clouds, some of them already crouched to dive. With any luck, more patrol squads would be along any second, but for now they were on their own. They could see the hints of activity down below, brief dark flashes of formation movements. Some of them were channeling vision spells to get a closer look.

One said, “Hey, you don’t think—”

“No,” said another quickly. “It’s squads. Squads versus squads. We’ll take them down no problem.”

“Right…”

The shapes were getting closer now. “They’re coming up,” said an Angel, peering through the wavering magic lenses. “About forty seconds now if they go full speed.”

“Then we dive in twenty,” ordered Janael. The others looked at him.

“One of you can send up a flare for help if you want, but I have a feeling this is going to be flashy enough as it is,” he said grimly, dropping onto his fingers and toes. “Ready? Six, five, four—”

“Three, two, one, let’s jam.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

--

The demons came.

While it was true that careful planning was not usually the demons’ strength, they had been waiting for this moment for months. The maneuver they were about to pull was a trick the angels had pulled in war several times before, despite all their preaching about honor. The illusion spells were simple enough to work, but the angels would not expect this level of sophistication from the barbaric demons. The demons hoped the angels would find the experience…educational. And then die.

One of the faster demons landed on an enchanted cloud and caught an angel on the way down. The rest of the pitifully small group of angels came blasting, and one of the leading groups of demons, apparently consisting of only 40, rose to meet them.

They were too close. The spell broke.

Some of the angels cried out as the demon attack force, the one that was supposed to be three sectors away, the one that must have numbered over a thousand, wavered into view. Then they scattered. The demons let out a collective roar and charged, the ones without wings grunting as they projected more energy behind them.

Janael made a sharp turn in the air and dove, sending as big a blast of holy fire as he could manage before stopping in the middle of a circle of demons. He swung his sword in a wide arc, keeping the demons at bay as claws and teeth snatched at his neck, stomach, heels. A corporal dived in after him, creating a quick force field and clearing the way for their escape. A few feet to the left, three members of Janael’s squad had already fallen. No demons seemed to be dead yet, although it was impossible to tell if a face was missing among the multitude. A more experienced angel pulled Horan out of a growing cloud of demons. They landed on a cloud above them, and Horan’s rescuer drew his sword and began channeling energy into it. He signaled for Horan to do the same.

Streaks of light across the sky heralded the arrival of more angels, but they would be quick snacks for the monstrous demon horde. Stopping in mid-slash, Janael called for them to go back, and a foot was taken off for his pains. Screaming, Janael flew straight upward.

The other angel patrol units, knowing it was too late even to run, arrived in a blinding flash of light. A great screeching went up, but two eyeless demons shot up through the glare and took out the lead angel.

The remaining angels’ desperate guerilla tactics looked almost like flashing rain against dark water. One of the odd things about life is that such horrible tragedies can look so beautiful, Janael mused. Then a bolt of lightning shot out from the cloud above him, striking into the cloud of demons below.

Janael jumped and then burst out laughing. “Watch where you’re aiming that thing!” he yelled up to Horan and his partner. They had succeeded in creating a thunderhead! Janael knew it couldn’t last long, but he couldn’t help cheering anyway.

“Take that!”

A wave of many-colored demons flew up from the swarm. Lightning struck once, twice, three times, and they kept going.

“No!” Janael cried and tried to put up a force field. It was no use. The demons struck the cloud and tore it in two. The two angels fell straight into their clutches.

“Yaaaaaaargh!” Janael dived toward the descending wave, fire engulfing him. A solitary demon turned to face him.

“I’ll see you in hell, you bastard!” Janael screamed.

The demon snorted. “Don’t we wish,” it said, and they connected.

--

And far down below, the Eternal Forest was spread on the ground like a sea of green and brown, although seas didn’t usually have large black charred patches. The trees rustled in the twilight breeze trickling down from the remnants of the battle above.

“Kezra? Kezra!”

Kezra groaned as she came to a stop between two dark redwoods.

“Kezra—” The man caught up to her, panting. He straightened up, and they stared at each other for a while.

Kezra sighed. “Tels—”

“Kezra, why do you have to do this?” Tels interrupted. “I want you to be safe.”

“I know. I’m just going to—”

“No,” said the man. Kezra looked surprised. “Please,” he continued. “Stay, just this once.”

Her green eyes flashed. “You can’t stop me.”

“Kezra, I—”

“I know,” she repeated, and disappeared into the trees.

The man sighed. He looked back at the camp’s inviting glow, and trudged solemnly in the direction Kezra had gone.

--

Kezra stared up at the disturbed sky. Their pitiful little tribe had been on the run from the War as long as she could remember, but sometimes there was no escaping it. Kezra loved watching the battles, loved the brief glimpses of angels or demons she saw fighting with such power and grace. She knew what the angels and demons were doing to each other, and to the world, but she couldn’t help being enraptured just the same. She would jump at the chance to be up there with them.

Instead, one of them came down to her.

Kezra squinted at the black speck, directly overhead, that seemed to be getting bigger. When she realized what it was, she gasped and ran to the edge of the trees. The demon’s body hit the top of the tree, broke off the top of the trunk, and shook the ground with its landing. Kezra fell over backwards.

When she got up, she ran to the fallen demon. It was lying on its side in its little crater, looking very powerful, but very dead. Kezra stared in awe at the hulking form. The muscles under the black skin looked as if they could snap bones cleanly in two, yet the body as a whole was slender and no doubt one of the lighter, more agile demons in life. Slowly, Kezra reached towards the demon’s shoulder to turn it onto its back.

--

Telsik ran through the trees. Where could she be? It was almost dark. She couldn’t have been stupid enough to go out in the open, right? He thought he saw a flicker of a shape ahead, and ran toward it, glancing around at the darkness. The foliage rustled unsympathetically. This was the part of the Eternal Forest where it was rumored the Grenulsh hid. “Lovely,” Telsik muttered to himself, and darted forward.

Finally, Telsik reached a break in the trees, scarred with past fires that would allow no life to regrow. In front of him, a dim shape was bending over a huge black mass on the ground. It had to be her.

“Kezra! Kez—aargh!” Telsik shielded his eyes as an intense light shot up from the ground. An invisible force slammed him against the tree behind him. He kept his eyes shut tight as the brightness continued, forming strange shapes on the inside of his eyelids. When the light subsided, Telsik got up slowly and peered out through the trees. A much taller figure now stood proudly outside the forest. Telsik walked toward the figure cautiously, but stopped when it unfolded its wings. His breath stopped in his throat as the opaque, iridescent membranes glistened in the day’s last sunlight. She—and there could be no questions about her gender at this point—was like an enormous butterfly that had just exited its chrysalis.

She stepped forward, towering over Telsik, flexed strong, clawed fingers, and rolled her neck. Her red-gold hair whipped wildly around it. Her clothing was simple black cloth, and yet it was somehow…suggestive. Telsik tried not to stare.

Then the figure’s head straightened, and a pair of striking green eyes caught his. Gasping, Telsik stumbled back, almost falling over a tree root. She regarded him with a kind of amusement. Telsik had an uneasy feeling that it wasn’t a good kind. He was never sure, afterwards, how long that moment lasted. He stood halfway back among the trees. She twisted and turned and flexed, her wings stretching out and gently moving and looking stronger every moment as the sunlight retreated down the side of the world, in pursuit of its source. All the while, she stared at him with those bright green eyes that he knew so well. Finally, when Telsik could barely see anything but those eyes, she leaned towards him. Her mouth was centimeters from his ear.

“You are a fool, Tels,” she whispered. “But I loved you for it. Remember that.”

Kezra the demon spread her wings and took off into the cool night air.

--

Magleus had no idea why he was here. He hated memories, and they in turn had no particular fondness for him. And yet here he stood, in the dark cave, listening to the echoes of the past. He sat down, and felt the cool floor against his legs. Probably he just wanted some time alone, some time away from the War. Old runes covered the walls of the cave chamber. He didn’t know exactly how old they were. Corionus might have carved them himself, for all Magleus knew. At any rate, Corionus was fascinated with them, and would spend long periods of time poring over them, for reasons of his own. As such, this was a familiar place to Magleus, but not a friendly one. Even the crystals hanging off the wall seemed dulled, dead. Maybe he came back here because he wanted to know what the runes meant for himself. No doubt they were related to some plot of Corionus’s to gain power. Corionus lived to gain power. Or at any rate, control…

Something invisible stabbed Magleus in the chest. Too much reminiscing and it got literally painful. Gasping, Magleus stood up and spread his wings. His light brown hair flapped about his head as he did so, glimmering with the iridescence that was one of the trademarks of all angels. He ran out of the cave, jumped into the open air, and soared upwards. He flew over the endless trees of the Eternal Forest until he saw two angels flying towards him. Hoping his face betrayed nothing about where he’d been or how he felt, Magleus sped towards them.

“Brother!” they cried when they saw him.

Magleus greeted them. “Brothers, am I needed at the front?”

“You are indeed. The demons cruelly deceived us yesterday with their illusion spell. Their relocated force has driven us back to Pestrius Peak, but it is there that we will press forward and crush their main force,” declared one of them.

“We are close to bringing justice to Nolixuul! I can feel it,” said the other.

Magleus had learned long ago to suppress the gag reflex. He flew after them, on into the south.

--

“It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a female,” growled a demon that looked like an oversized, upside-down scorpion. The other demons cackled in agreement. Kezra stood in the middle of a large underground chamber lit with torches. Despite all the other demons’ attempts to make her feel unwelcome, and the general menace of her surroundings, she felt a certain unshakeable sense of belonging. These were her people now, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Another demon, this one blue and furry with batlike wings, chimed in. “Apparently your human males are better suited to being demons than you females are. You must have been a special case as a human.”

Kezra was done with this. “I can’t even tell what gender most of you are,” she said, and her fellow demons gurgled in amusement, “So if you’re done pointing out mine, you may as well tell me if I’m going to be fighting the angels soon.”

“Ah!” said a humanoid demon with a low, breathy voice and skin the color of the void. “Enthusiasm for war. We like that around here.” A chorus of agreement.

“I meant, are you going to prepare me in any way? Give me a weapon, or something?” Now there were sounds of derision.

“Weapon, who does she think she is…”

“Bloody well learn to fight on her own soon enough…”

“Expects to get angel treatment, angels don’t treat their new fare any better, that’s for damn sure…”

“Come with me,” said the void-skinned demon. Kezra followed it down a roughly carved passageway into a room filled with weapons and armor. Some of it hung on the walls, but most lay on the floor like so much compost.

Blackness Incarnate picked up a cruel-looking sword from the floor and gave it to Kezra. She looked at it, and weighed it in her hands. She had held swords before, and knew what they were supposed to feel like. This one was oddly balanced. She took a closer look, and saw that this was because some inexperienced demons had made some modifications. There were spikes on the blade.

“Thanks,” said Kezra.

--

Kezra was herded off to the front lines of the battle the next day with little more explanation than she was given when she first arrived. Tucked in to the underside of one of the crags on the east side of Pestrius Peak, the demons sharpened weapons and claws and waited. Kezra had dreamed of fighting in the Angel-Demon Wars since she was a small child, but she was smart enough to know that this would be a nightmare at best. No training, barely any information about positions or tactics…Kezra wasn’t sure what she had expected, but it was more than this. She knew how to wield a sword, but her experience was limited to defending her little nomad camp from bandits, and as a woman, she wasn’t allowed to do much of that. The demons, however, had no such gender prejudices, and they didn’t seem to care about her lack of experience either. Just ship ‘em off to the battlefield and hope for the best! Was that really the angels’ strategy as well? Kezra was sure that they were cruel enough to the humans chosen as angels, but to thrust them into battle unprepared…they always seemed so organized, so perfect. Kezra was barely even used to her new body yet. She had managed to scrounge up some spare armor from the makeshift storage room. There must be a better collection of weapons and armor somewhere…this war had certainly been going on long enough for the demons to develop the technology, and some of the demons around her were even wearing the evidence of this. No matter. She was a new recruit, she was getting the hazing treatment…to be expected.

“Hey!” a demon with a face like a lemur and the body of a huge falcon addressed her with all the subtlety of a hammer. “You know what the angels always say, you know what?”

“What?”

“They say they’re bringing justice to Nolixuul by wiping us out, that’s what they say. They create us, have us do their dirty work for them, expect us to die out after we finish and when we fight back they kill us early. Justice! We’re the ones bringing justice around here, this is—”

A popping sound, and strobe lights began to go off all around them. Shining figures in gold armor swooped over the mountainside. Kezra squinted in the sudden brightness.

“—For justice!” the lemur-demon screamed, and shot up into the air. An angel met him on his way, and immediately cleaved him in two with his sword. Kezra almost laughed, but luckily the wave of nausea kept her from making any outburst. She took a deep breath, gripped her spiky sword and leaped out from the rock outcropping. Her wings fluttered and she soared up towards the mountaintop. Angels and demons and explosions were everywhere. Kezra gripped her sword and shot through the melee, crying out in fright and excitement. She looked up, and saw a hovering angel aiming a longbow straight at her. He released, and a streak of light shot towards her. Kezra screamed and slashed blindly in front of her with her sword. There was a tiny cracking sound, and the arrow’s halves fell to the sides of her. She let out a whoop and kept going, meeting a grim-looking angel in single combat. He swung his sword, and Kezra flipped backwards, recovering just in time to block a second swing. He was too fast for Kezra to get a stab in edgewise, so she ducked down under him and took hold of his feet. Then she stopped flapping her wings, hoping to weigh him down. He struggled for a moment, taken aback by this unusual tactic. Kezra realized that he was too strong for her strategy to work, but it did give her a chance to look down.

There was the dizzying distance of the ground, the fighting below, and the angels and demons that inevitably parts or their whole bodies to the unforgiving earth, but one thing apart from all this caught Kezra’s eye. Rising up from an unknown source—for what could hide something so giant?—was an enormous red dragon. It could only be the legendary Arals. No other dragons had been seen in these parts…ever, if Kezra’s limited knowledge of history could be believed. With one swipe of those massive wings,
Arals soared purposefully towards the battle. Some of the soldiers cried out, even stopped fighting, as the behemoth got closer. Arals, Arals!

The angel whose ankles still served as Kezra’s handhold slashed downwards with his sword. Kezra dropped off of him just in time, fell an exhilarating several meters, and swooped upwards. She dodged a wayward fireball, swung blindly at a passing angel, almost got her head chopped off and then—

“STOP!!”

The dragon had burst into the battle like a giant war machine, and the cry was an aural earthquake. The huge red tail sliced through the air, right towards—

Whuump!

--

Kezra got up as soon as she knew where she was. It was somewhere on the forest floor among clumps of ivy, growing on top of its deceased parents on a pile that stretched back for generations. She didn’t ache nearly as much as expected, and she still had her sword.

There was a groan from a deep ivy patch a few meters over. From it rose a tall angel, with shoulder length light brown hair, and dark eyes—

An angel! Kezra leaped into the air and fell down towards him, her spiked sword cleaving the air. He blocked her as though he was tired, on autopilot. She struck again, and again, and he blocked her. Then he swiftly sidestepped her and struck back. She blocked, the spikes twisting awkwardly and almost getting her sword caught on his as they wrenched apart. Then, their eyes met for the first time.

Magleus stepped back. Something about this girl’s, this woman’s, this demon’s eyes had jarred him. He’d have said it was the striking green color, but many demons had far more disturbing eyes than that. He twisted behind her and struck again. She ducked and attempted to kick his legs out from under him. Magleus must have been in a weak state from the fall, because she succeeded. He turned it into a roll, tucking in his wings, and then stood up. No, something else was wrong here. He wasn’t supposed to feel this way about a close encounter with a demon. His heart began to beat entirely too fast as she ran and faced him again. Another diagonal slash with the sword. Apparently she wasn’t very well trained, or she’d be able to come up with some more interesting moves. Magleus twisted the sword out of the way and stabbed mechanically. She jumped back and grabbed the sword’s tip with her claws. Their eyes locked again.

He was holding back, Kezra realized. It took her a moment to realize that she was holding back too. Not that this wasn’t difficult for her (she turned to block a sideswipe and aimed a kick that he easily dodged), but it seemed that he could have been pushing much harder to kill her, and achieved some kind of success by now. They were grappling, but not for the chance to kill one another. For what then? His eyes were deep brown, she noticed.

It was like they were fencing, thought Magleus. Or stage fighting. They were darting back and forth, the swords clashing, but with no intent to kill. He was breathing harder now. The swords scraped against each other.

Kezra pushed forward with her sword. Magleus took a step back. She twisted out of the sword lock and swung again. He blocked. Annoyed, Kezra swung her left fist. But she wasn’t really trying, and he grabbed it. They were both breathing very hard now. Hearts beating. Slowly, their hands unfolded until they were palm to palm. They moved closer. Their hands were parallel to Magleus’s face, and their faces were centimeters apart. Breathing, blood pumping—

A sudden crashing sound from the trees above them. A demon landed in the ivy with a thud.

They were too close. The spell broke.

Other demons came swooping down more gracefully. All of them were yelling or shrieking.

“Arals was in the battle!”

“Arals! Bloody damn Arals was in the actual battle—”

“And trying to stop us from fighting, and saying she was going to hold a meeting of everyone who wants to stop the war tomorrow near the Second Deadland in the Eternal Forest—”

“Angel!” a demon with an arching back like overcooked fish screamed.

Kezra gave an affirming yell of rage and sliced at him with her sword. The demon gang shot fire at him, which he summoned up a burst of water to deflect, and soared into the air even as he did so. Their eyes met one last time, a question, a confirmation. Will you be there? I will if you will.

Kezra turned to the other demons in genuine exultation.

“My first battle! Did we win up there?”

Two of the demons laughed. “We would have, if Arals hadn’t shown up,” said Fishback.

Kezra nodded slowly.

--

It was a larger meeting than Kezra had imagined. Not only were there more demons and angels than she would have believed would dare to come, there were quite a number of humans, too. Three days as a demon and she was already starting to feel separated from them as a species. But there were a lot of them, no doubt eager to finally have something that felt like a hand in the war. Apparently, word about this meeting had been spreading for a lot longer than Kezra knew about.

Arals was seated in the middle of the large clearing, rising high above even the tallest demons, and watching over everyone.

“Beings of all kinds!” she said, her majestic voice seeming to personally find each person’s ear and speak directly to it despite the impersonality of her words.

“You have come to me tonight because I am the only open protestor of this horrible war. It is a mark of the desperate nature of our situation that though so many on all sides wish the war to stop, only I am able to say so, because anyone else will be killed. Do not worry; the magic surrounding this place prevents anyone outside our circle from determining the identity of anyone inside. You are all here because, for one reason or another, you dream of the impossible: a world where there can be peace, where angels and demons don’t have to fight anymore. I am sorry to say that you are right to believe that this is an almost unreachable goal, that someone as fantastic as me is considered necessary before any hope is allowed. It is a vicious cycle that causes this planet to be locked in war, but a strong one. That is why the tactic I am considering is to separate the angels permanently. I am confident, confident that if I have the support and assistance of dedicated angels, demons, and humans like you an end to the war is as achievable a goal as any.”

From across the circle, Kezra caught the brown-haired angel’s eye.

The moon was almost full that night, and this part of the Forest was a particularly dark one. Perfect for stargazing. They sat together on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a little tucked-away valley, thriving in its shelter from the everlasting storm.

“I’m Kezra. And you are?” Kezra extended her hand.

“Magleus.” He took it, but seemed unsure of what to do with it. He kept holding it. “Haven’t we met?”

“Not really. Not completely.”

“I was worried I wouldn’t find you,” said Magleus.

“But you did find me. No worries there. Thanks to Arals, we’ll be able to find each other a lot.”

Magleus looked up at the moon and frowned. “What do you think of all this? Is Arals really going to stop the war?”

“Do you know, I was a human and wanted to be part of the war with all my heart? I’d wish for it, sometimes beg for it. I thought I wanted to get away from my hopeless nomad tribe so badly…”

Magleus chuckled. “When I was a human, I never wanted to be part of this. Wings are nice and all, but the price…”

Kezra’s eyes lit up. “You’re a chosen human too?”

Magleus turned to face her. His eyes said it all. He was one of the corrupted. Kezra had never had proof the angels really did it until now.

“Oh. Oh I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I worry about the future, not the past.”

“Well anyway, three days was enough for me. My desire to be part of these battles is gone. Now I want…” He was still holding her hand. Butterflies in the stomach were a funny sensation when you appeared part butterfly yourself. She continued, “I want a place where this war is gone. No more angel-demon wars.”

“I lost hope that there could ever be such a place years ago. But here, now, I want to hope again. If anyone could come up with a solution to this war, it’s Arals. I don’t know how she would do it, but I still have hope.” He looked at her. “It’s a very odd feeling.”

A warm breeze blew across the cliff and over the valley, where the trees grew strong. Kezra and Magleus’s hands clasped together.

“Whatever Arals is planning,” Kezra mused. “We’re all going to have to work on it, I’m sure.”

“I hope she offers exceptions to her helpers,” said Magleus suddenly. “Separating the angels and demons forever…you know, we might want to…”

“Whatever she’s going to try, it’s going to be hard,” said Kezra. “Hard to do. And she’ll need to achieve it quickly. It’ll need to be fast.”

The moon stared down at them as they stared at each other. Breathing, blood pumping.

“Maybe not too fast,” said Magleus.

The wind rustled through the trees. If anyone noticed they had been gone, they didn’t say anything about it.

--

It was paradise. It was perfect. Nothing could go wrong with their world. Kezra fought in numerous battles in the weeks to come, and no one questioned her about any treasonous anti-war involvement. Arals had done her cover-up work well, or else most angels and demons actually wanted the war to end, and wouldn’t bother to persecute those seeking one. Even Magleus found he had a renewed vigor for battle. Nothing could stop them, not demons, not angels…

And under cover of darkness, they met at all of Arals’s gatherings. They listened to her plans and ideas, and they listened to each other. Arals said there would be two worlds instead of one, and one would be Nolix and the other Uul. Angels would live with the humans on Nolix, and demons would live on Uul, along with the spirits of dead humans. Apparently, death-apotheosis had resulted in the disruption of the natural life-death process for humans, and their souls would remain on the mortal plain until further notice. No matter. Nothing was perfect.

Underneath the stars, underneath the moon, the trees, the bushes…

In addition, Arals said, in order to keep the angels and demons under control, an interesting system would be arranged. All angels and demons would have to give up a great deal of their magical capabilities, in exchange for the knowledge that this would keep both the humans and the angels and demons safe from each other on their respective planets. A few angels and demons left the group because of this proposal. Most stayed. Kezra had never used any magical powers that she knew of, and Magleus hardly cared. What mattered was that they had each other. At their first opportunity, they approached Arals privately and asked her for a special favor: that Kezra could stay on Nolix with Magleus. Arals said that she was overjoyed to see love triumph over hate and war, and she would certainly allow Kezra and Magleus to stay wherever they wished, though she could not guarantee widespread acceptance of Kezra on Nolix.

They spent quite a long time away from the encampment that night.

Arals elaborated on her new worlds order. A supervisor for the angels and demons both would be needed. It was only right, she said, that the supervisor of angels be a demon and the supervisor of demons be an angel. Hence, an angel and a demon began to appear at Arals’s right and left sides. The demon didn’t speak much and he was known only as Zel. The angel was much more friendly, and discussed plans with many of Arals’s disciples.

“Call me Azra,” she said.

And finally, one night…

“Ladies and gentlemen,” announced Arals in that booming, personalized voice of hers. “The two new worlds of Nolix and Uul are ready to be created! I have worked long and hard to develop a technique to make sure each demon and angel ends up in the proper place, and I created some very special helpers for us all.” She raised a closed claw.

“Everyone, may I introduce to you…Hamavaki.” She opened her fingers, and there was Hamavaki. He looked like a tiny humanoid demon. Dark skin, pointy ears, fuzzy around the edges…and he seemed to be muttering to himself.

“Is it a monkey?” asked an angel in the crowd. The little imp jumped to his feat, leaped out of Arals’s claw, drew a knife, and shot towards the inquisitive angel.

“HAMAVAKI STAB!!” he screamed.

“Whoa!” yelled the angel, brandishing his sword. Hamavaki snuck in a light poke in the shoulder, then scooted away on a blast of wind.

“Do not be alarmed!” said Arals. “You have now been specially marked to be sent to Nolix. Hamavaki will not seriously hurt you. He is one of many magical lockers I have created to cement our cause.” As she spoke, impish and cherubic creatures began to emerge from behind her. “You, brave souls, must pass these helpers off as human children transformed into demons or angels, and allow them to become part of your angelic and demonic ranks. Every angel and demon, I repeat, every angel and demon must be correctly marked before the war will end. Leave the rest to me.”

The confused murmuring developed into cheers. Kezra eyed Hamavaki warily. When Hamavaki saw this, he winked at her, then collapsed into giggles.

--

It was hard. But Arals worked fast. The little demon and angel-surrogates were soon adopted, and the marking began. Luckily, the little imps and cherubs seemed to be particularly adept at staying alive, if not much else. Everyone was correctly marked—except for Kezra and Magleus, who planned to get their incorrect marks close to the end. Avoiding the imps and cherubs who were unaware of their situation did not prove terribly difficult. It was perfect. Nothing could stop them now.

There came the day at last when Nolixuul would be no more. Nolix and Uul would be divided by a magical barrier that prevented any contact between them. The battles were terrible that day. Arrows streaked across the sky. Fire and ice, and water and lightning. Metal clashed on metal. The air held an almost electrical tension, though only Arals’s followers knew why. Outside of that, there was only rumor.

Kezra and Magleus huddled together in the thriving valley, tucked away from the war. In each other’s arms among the green trees. This was they best day of their lives. The past no longer haunted Magleus, the battles no longer haunted Kezra. They could feel the moment of departure coming. The sky wailed above them, but it could not keep them apart. Nothing could keep them apa—

“Forgot a demon!” A red bundle fell over the edge of the valley. It was one of Arals’s imps. Sharp fingernails dug into Kezra’s shoulder.

“NO!” screamed Kezra. Magleus stood up. A cherub had marked him for Nolix yesterday. It couldn’t be.

“No!” cried Kezra again. She drew her sword and before she realized what she was doing, it was deep in the back of the imp.

“FEagtrackssst!” the imp’s dying cry petered out and it dissolved into light.

“No, no, no!” said Kezra again. She could still feel the magical lock on her body, restraining her, controlling her—

“Kezra! We have to find Arals!” said Magleus, as calmly as he could manage.

“Right there!” Kezra shouted, and flew up into the sky. Indeed, the great red form of Arals stretched against their upward view like a gargantuan thunderhead. Magleus flew after her, closer and closer, just a few more meters now…

The thunder struck. The entire atmosphere seemed to shake, tossing Kezra and Magleus with it. But they were so close…

Arals was not to be found. In her place was a shimmering blue-purple wall, ethereal and completely impenetrable. It began to spread.

“It’s too late,” mumbled Magleus.

“IT CAN’T BE TOO LATE!” Kezra shot towards Magleus, and ran straight into the Barrier. His face wavered from the other side of the translucent wall.

“NO!” she sobbed, pounding on the Barrier like so much shatterproof glass. “You were the best thing that ever happened to me!”

“You were the only good thing that ever happened to me!” The screams, exclamations, and cries of alarm from demons and angels all around them were beginning to rise in volume as the locks buckled down and the Barrier spread.

“Can you hear me? Kezra!”

“Magleus!”

“KEZRA!”

“MAGLEUS!”

They could barely see each other now. Some form of nothingness was enveloping the world. Still they cried out to each other.

“It was going to be forever! Forever!”

The Barrier was wrapping itself around them now, they could no longer press up against each other, they were being pulled apart.

The desperate words “I love you,” in all their hollowness, echoed in the air. Then there was nothing. Blackout. Angels and demons were separated, permanently.

Justice had finally been brought to Nolix and Uul.