The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 219: Stress Riser

Chapter 219: Stress Riser

"You compelled me..." Rain said.

The realization had dawned on him the moment after she’d compelled him to confess his conversation with Malz. Kir once had a familiar, and something she once said had echoed in his head. ’Anything Hell’s got, Heaven’s got. Like the Erosian Choir. ’Cept their version of succubi are supposed to be all soft and sweet and lovey-dovey. Like putting a fancy rug on a slut-stone floor.’

Her analogies were always lewd. To be fair, Stella hadn’t known that house Eros wasn’t the Choir leader when she called it the Erosian Choir, since House Eros hadn’t been head of the Choir for generations, but she didn’t take very well to correction from what he saw of her interactions with Kir, and so he’d decided not to correct where she was wrong. But right now, he hated that she seemed to have been right in one sense...

"What?" Cassie replied.

"That night after the fight. You compelled me to drink! And you knew! This whole time..."

"I just wanted to know how you felt about me! I didn’t compel you to do... to do that other thing with me!"

"You manipulated me against my will!"

"I was drunk! And you were playing hard-to-get for ages! I just wanted to finally figure you out!"

"That’s still no excuse! You could have just asked me-"

"And what? Get a non-answer and a pretty smile? Do you really think I don’t notice when you turn away the other Elevated? You should be grateful I’m even letting you talk to me like this."

"Grateful?! What we did was dangerous!"

"It was just sex! Half the teams are fucking each other; angels and Elevated alike!" Cassie opened her arms, letting her hands fall onto her thighs, exasperated. "Why are you so uptight about this?!"

Neither of them noticed Ozzy coming around the corner with the nearly finished mana concentrator in his hands. As soon as Ozzy saw them fighting, he turned back around and walked away.

"Because it’s dangerous! Are you not listening to me?"

"How? How is it dangerous? The worst thing that’ll happen is they slap us on the wrists and lecture us about boundaries and whatnot."

"Because my life and my family’s lives are on the line!" Rain shouted. The look of shock on her face told him that she didn’t know, but this pressure had been building in him ever since his parents convinced him to confess about Kir.

"Rain I... I didn’t know..." Cassie swallowed heavily. She looked away from him, thinking for a long moment as Rain panted. "I’m sorry about... about using compulsion with you... I just... I really, really like you..." She bit her lower lip. "Why are they in danger?"

Rain wiped his eyes, just then realizing he was crying. His voice came out half-croaking, "Because if I don’t serve Heaven well enough, they could lose everything."

"Who told you that?"

"Vinam Victoriam."

Cassie flinched. In that one motion, Rain saw her fear. The acknowledgment of a power far above either of them. As Rain’s father had once said, ’One who can end lives with the stroke of a pen will often kill far more than a man with a sword.’ Vinam Victoriam had not given Rainier the impression of being a mighty warrior, despite his image, but if he decided to reduce Rainier’s family to penniless outcasts or outright have them executed, there would be nothing Rainier could do to reach him.

"That’s... not right." Cassie acknowledged, pacing a little as she put her face in her hands. "Ugh! How the Hell did we even get like this?!"

Rain shrugged. "I guess it’s just been rattling around all this time," he said. "Something was bound to crack eventually."

"Can you forgive me for compelling you? I never meant it to hurt you, and I’ve never done it for anything important."

"Sex seems pretty important," Rain said. He felt like he was coming out the other end of his sadness to a place devoid of emotion, from which he could at least draw a slight amount of humor. He had to wonder though... could he forgive her?

Rain continued, "I... don’t know. I can still work for you... but if you really want us to be a thing, then I need to know that we’re equal. And that you won’t do that again. To me or anyone else. Maybe after a while, I’ll figure out how to forgive it. But right now..." he sighed. "Look, I know I’m in your power. If you wanted, you can just get rid of me without repercussions-"

"I would never do that!" Cassie interrupted to protest.

"- I think. But until I figure it out... I just want to keep things professional. You’re a good squad leader, when you aren’t drunk, and I can tell you really like the idea of becoming an Executioner."

"Right. Professional." Cassie bit her lip. "How long do you think you’ll need?"

Rain felt a little insulted at being asked for a timeline, be he decided to just swallow his feelings and took the first answer that came to mind. "After the Choir Prime selection."

"Right..." Cassie swallowed and looked away. "Can you answer one thing for me?"

"Maybe," Rain replied.

"Do you... like Malzkael?"

Rain really didn’t want to be back on this subject, but since he needed to re-establish trust with Cassie, he decided to answer truthfully.

"I like her in a different way than you. But I don’t think she likes me like you do."

"Well she hasn’t kicked you out of her library yet," Cassie said with a rueful smile.

"She might after today..."

"If she does I’ll... try to help you figure out your tablet or something."

From behind Cassie, a clearing of the throat sounded.

Cassiel tilted to let Rain see past her, revealing the orc who had been Elevated to become a half-angel. "Ozzy. How long were you there?"

"Oh, uh, I waited when I heard yelling. Hope everything is alright, angel?" His tone suggested he was checking for signs of duress, but Rain held his tongue.

"We’re fine. Just had a little argument, is all."

"Right," Ozzy said. "Well, I have the concentrator set up. Just needs to be fixed in place and loaded with crystals." He tilted his head to look into the closet. "See you learned how to use a welding wand," he looked at Rain, his smile not reaching his eyes.

Before Rain could respond, Cassie interjected, "Let’s just get this done. I’ll go steal a proper door and we can try it tomorrow."

"Cassiel... would it be alright if I go find Malzkael? I want to apologize to her."

Cassie tensed. "Go ahead," she said after a long moment.

In the end, however, he couldn’t find Malz anywhere, so he returned to his room to sleep.

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