The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 64: Recovered

Chapter 64: Recovered

As soon as his head hit the familiar pillow of his Academy bed, Kir was back to sleep.

His dreams were fitful, marked by pain. Sometimes with a sense of victory, but most of the time full of feelings of loss and suffering.

He dreamt that he was running through the halls of a hospital-like interior, only the whole thing began to twist and bend upon itself as countless, monstrous limbs and faces began to melt out of the walls and every surface. He was panting, saying "I’m sorry" between every breath... But the monsters didn’t hear or understand. Instead, they watched him as he ran. Whispering, shouting, groaning a name-

"Kir!" Rainier’s voice woke him with a sudden jerking of his whole body.

Rain had both his hands on Kir’s shoulder and had clearly been trying to shake him awake for some time.

"Rain?" Kir said, his voice hoarse. From the lighting in the room, it was still dark outside.

"You were having a nightmare or something. I mean, it was kindof cute until you started saying the same thing over and over again..."

Kir sat up, and Rain sat at his back to support him, one arm wrapping around his waist.

"How long was I out?" Kir asked.

"All day. The Chancellor sent someone to heal you but after you still didn’t wake up so she wants to see you first thing in the morning." He paused for a long moment before asking. "What’s gomensai? You kept saying it..."

"Sorry," Kir said, leaving his explanation of the phrase ’gomenasai’ at that. Thankfully, Rain didn’t press as Kir leaned into him, enjoying the half-angel’s warmth.

A long moment passed before Kir raised a hand, trying to put out enough mana to make a small flame, but almost as soon as the first spark formed, his whole body shuddered with pain. Not a lot, but enough to confirm that circulating his mana within didn’t activate the seals on him. It was casting that did.

Rain noticed his shudder, squeezing him a bit tighter. "Kir?"

"I’m fine," Kir answered. He still felt somewhat drained, so there wasn’t much "pressure" behind his attempt at a spell, and thankfully the seals seemed to be proportional. He took a long moment to just lean against his boyfriend, feeling Rain’s strong and slow heartbeat at his back.

Afterward, Kir asked if Rain wanted to push their beds together. They lay in each other’s arms until dawn, and though Kir couldn’t get back to sleep, he watched Rain’s dreaming face until he drowsed just enough to not notice the time. Even in his dreams, he wore a little smile.

Eventually, the dawn came.

Kir untangled himself from Rain to get dressed, noticing he was down to only one blouse for his uniform. He pulled his jacket on over it, deciding he would use some of the gold he got from dueling to finally buy an enchanted version of his uniform... if he could even stay at the Academy.

Alone, he rode the elevator to the administrative floor before walking the halls to Chancellor Lumis’ office, the grim look on his face scaring away the few students he saw in the halls.

Even though her office door was closed, as soon as Kir sat, Lumis’ voice said, "Come in, Mr. Gale." He stood and opened the door, finding Lumis at her desk with a tray of tea. He took one of the two seats and waited as she slid him a cup and saucer. "You’re early," she said.

"I woke up early. Couldn’t get back to sleep," he admitted, taking the tea but not drinking.

"To clarify, I meant you are here before the other person I needed to talk to. I can tell you some things before he arrives though, if you wish."

"Who are we waiting for?" Kir asked.

"Cael Dunn, vice-captain of the Arcane Knights," she replied.

Kir’s cup rattled a bit in his hand. Given what he knew about the Academy’s relationship to the knights below, and the fact that Rain worked out with them sometimes, the fact that Lumis brought them up could only mean one thing... His time at the Academy was likely done-

"Quit catastrophizing, I can read it on your face. Gods, you’re just like your mother," Lumis sipped her tea loudly. "You aren’t being expelled, and you aren’t being reprimanded. What I’m going to offer you is something you’ll badly need to figure out your situation. Time."

"What exactly is my situation?" Kir asked. "I know I’m... sealed somehow..." he reached up and touched the piercings on his left.

"Let me show you," Lumis said, setting down her tea. Cupping her hands together, she opened them to reveal four magic circles outlined in yellow. These enlarged themselves as she set the illusion hovering between them. "I trust you have some understanding of magic circle creation?"

"Yes," Kir said. He had the basics down, but he had yet to completely dive through all the mysteries of why they worked.

The most important parts were the circle that controlled the flow of mana and the terms written within the circle, which acted in a way that reminded him of programming and logic gates. What was drawn within the circle was meant to connect the different "commands" that could then be automated or activated with mana.

Not that he could explain any of that to Lumis in a way that wouldn’t draw suspicion.

What he saw in the circles she showed him that they had been made with very few commands, in a language he couldn’t understand.

"What language is this?" Kir asked.

"Celestian," Lumis said. "The high language of Heaven. I was able to get a close look while you were unconscious, but this is something you need to keep to yourself. People tend to assume that when the angels have someone sealed, it’s for good reason." She pointed. "These seals each have different conditions for neutralization written into them, as well as punishment for other criteria, like attempting to remove them. Sadly, I cannot read Celestian; the angels guard their secret language well.

However, I recognize enough to know that it is likely she means for you to do some specific tasks. The only consistent instruction I could puzzle out is that she or someone else might be able to remove your seals on command. Otherwise, the criteria are unknown, but the fact that she pierced your ears meant she only sealed your abilities as a caster and not your capacity for enhancement magic. Had she wanted to rob you of all mana, she would have used a spike near your spine. It’s like she’s challenging you."

Kir thought about this. It made sense that Halie would want to be able to remove them if she desired to, but to have four different sets of instructions and leave him capable in some form of magic capacity did feel like a challenge now that Lumis mentioned it. Or a set of challenges.

After a moment, he circled back in his thoughts. "I thought Halie was a giant though," Kir said. While everyone tended to speak some variation of Common, some peoples possessed a "high language" spoken with different capabilities in mind and used exclusively within their domains.

"She has been known to work with angels in the past, though that association was thought to have ended after the last Heavenswar, two hundred years ago. All of which adds to the mystery of why she showed up for you in the first place."

"I don’t know why she appeared," Kir said. "I didn’t even know she existed until yesterday." Kir considered another possibility as his hand unconsciously touched the place on his chest where his father’s Forbidding was. "Could she have been contracted? Maybe by a demon or angel?

Leaning on her elbows, Lumis looked into Kir’s eyes. "I was afraid you’d say that. Even considering who your father is, there’s no indication she’s engaged with Heaven’s agents; and she’s earned the ire of all of Hell for her actions in the past. I can’t think of any faction amongst them that would risk the wrath of its peers to deal with her. So it’s likely whoever set her on your trail is here, on Ayther."

"I still have no clue who could do that," Kir said, but he knew by now there were plenty of his peers who would. The timing of it didn’t make sense, however. Not if Halie’s commission to the Guild had been made two years in advance...

"Do you have any idea where she might have gone?" Lumis asked. "The guards know she hasn’t left the city, and there was no sign of her returning to the teleportation circle."

Kir shook his head. "I wish I did. I owe her for that beating she gave me." He felt a good amount of respect for Halie as a fighter, but the thought that she had used his mother’s feathers in battle against him stoked his wrath. He intended to get answers from her or die trying, assuming he could overcome his seals somehow.

A quiet knock at the door interrupted his thoughts and Lumis quickly banished the illusion of the seals between them, scattering them into wisps of fading light.

"Enter," she commanded.

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