Contrivance 2

--Leraye--

"Was that us?" This was the first question Leraye asked when she saw the sudden stop of the petroleum train. She stood high up on the bricked roof of a three-story building and had been watching the whole incident taking place.

The subsequent actions of the angels verified that it hadn't been their doing as they were attentively searching for a cause of this happening. Therefore, Leraye quickly eliminated this thesis.

However, there was still the possible involvement of the infernal forces. The demons often took much more independent actions than the angels. Their reign didn't possess much of a hierarchy due to the fact that hell consisted of many different independent factions.

Only Lucifer had been able to hold all the sovereign forces together, a proof of the absolute power he had possessed. However, the passing of the devil ultimately killed the thought of a united empire. Of course, the seven fallen angels, who had been loyal subordinates even before Lucifer's coup against god, tried to succeed his will. They were with him the first beings to be called demons after being thrown down to hell.

Nonetheless, they lacked the absolute strength to command all the territories of hell. Therefore, many different autonomous fractions had formed and only their hatred towards the common enemy was alike.

The fact that they were currently in the angel's territory didn't help much. To prevent a cascade of demon fatalities the different groups of agents didn't know of the other's plans and locations. Even if one was caught by the heavenly forces he wouldn't be able to reveal much confidential information about the others. Therefore, she couldn't be sure if this was a terrorist attack from their side.

"I do not think so," a deep voice answered her question. Leraye turned to the origin of the voice. It was the mother Eyna had seen in the train. Though, the raspy man's voice didn't fit her appearance at all.

She still carried the child, which lay completely silent in her arms as if it was dead. Its eyes were hollow and motionless, the skin had a greyish tint.

Suddenly, bubbles began to appear under the skin of the two of them. The bumps became bigger and merged together while moving randomly over the organic surface. The infant became an unrecognizable form of moving flesh. Thereupon, the wobbling chunk of meat was slowly sucked into the body of the mother.

However, the woman's curly hair had long fallen out and a dark expression was on the shapeshifting demon's face. In a matter of seconds, the young mother and her child had turned into a grim-looking tall man clothed in an inconspicuous black raincoat.

"Why do you say that?" Leraye queried without being the least surprised by the sudden change in appearance.

"I had not detected the tiniest trace of divine energy when the incident had happened. The whole time, I was incessantly attentive. Only divine beings of the highest order could have been able to escape my perception," he recapitulated his findings.

"So it was the doing of the human?" Leraye said with an obvious ironic undertone.

"No, I do not think so. She crashed headfirst into the wooden seats when the incident had happened. If she really was smart enough to plot such an intricate plan she would have foreseen this accident. And it didn't seem like the fall was a product of acting," the male demon elaborated, not having detected the irony in Leraye's remark.

"What do you think happened then?"

"We still don't know the exact cause of this incident. However, we need to remember that this thing called "train" is still the invention of mere humans. Therefore, random errors in the machine are a possibility we can't cast away," he replied.

Leraye thought over his words. Maybe it was truly just an unforeseen coincidence lacking any mastermind who had initiated this event.

"Sounds plausible. Maybe they had unintentionally filled up the tank with the wrong fuel or something like that," Leraye ended the conversation and directed her attention back to the motionless train having halted in the middle of the journey.

The human probably didn't catch the attention of the angels. Thus, the artifact should still be safe. However, with the incident taking place the enemy's vigilance had increased and their plans needed to be postponed. Now, it was much too dangerous to try to smuggle out the artifact.

However, it did not seem like all parties were of the same opinion. Leraye could see Eyna leaving the broken train after the angels had found nothing special about the passengers.

"Wait, where is she going?" Leraye exclaimed. The human didn't walk in the direction of their meeting point which was agreed upon in the case something unexpected would happen.

"Either she has lost her sense of orientation, which would be explainable since she's blind. Or the human tries to advance with the plan," the demon standing next to Leraye stated.

When looking at the decisive movement of the human the latter seemed to be more probable. Additionally, the street she took would lead her directly to the southern gate. Leraye became furious.

"What is that useless piece of mortal garbage doing? Why doesn't she go to the arranged venue?"

With the increased alertness of the angels, the success of the current plans would have decreased by several folds.

"Should we try to grab her before she reaches the gate?" The man suggested thoughtfully.

"No. This would be even more noticeable for these feathery birds than our actual plan. Additionally, she is already too close to the wall."

Even though Leraye was steaming from anger, rationality prevented her from doing any excessive actions. The original reason why they had given the artifact to the human at such a remote location was that anywhere near the walls would be much too conspicuous. Therefore, they had let her take the train, only tailed by two natural shapeshifters who would accompany her to the walls. Now, even for them, it was too risky to follow the mortal woman closely.

"If she loses the artifact, I will kill her!" Leraye promised with gritted teeth.

"If she loses the artifact, she has been caught by the enemy. I don't think you will be able to kill her then," the man advised her excessive remark.

"Shut up!"