05

I could see only darkness surrounding me, but I heard the sounds of leaves rustling, waters gracefully streaming, and birds chirping. Overwhelmed, I broke into tears and I kneeled, exhausted and ready to see Lyzziel and my father again. As I wept, I felt a pair of arms embrace me.

"This isn't the end," Veilos assured. "You will avenge your father. You must find the appointed mortal, let him bear the key, soar on the wings of your fallen brothers, and together you shall pierce the darkness.".

My eyes shot open as my throat burned from the violent gasp that pulled air into my lungs.

I sat straight up, trembling as a harsh breath of brisk air brushed up against my back. I grunted as I felt a few pricks at my skin; I was still alive. One sudden gasp broke an abiding silence, and in that moment I realised that I wasn't alone. Snapping my head around, my gaze met the bright, brown eyes of a young man around my age.

"What... what are you?" Asked the stranger. He looked much like an Azcyvian, except he had no wings. He was clearly startled as he stuttered a bunch of nonsense.

As I propped myself on a rather curious yet obvious excuse for a domicile, shifting away from a thorny bush of white roses, I felt a mild pang in my back. After turning my head, I gasped and marvelled at a pair of wings as white as untouched mounds of snow. I couldn't believe my eyes! These wings... they were my own!

As my eyes focused on the residence once more, I sighed as I realised that I was no longer in Azcyviel and that this young man wasn't my age after all. Lyzziel once told me about a world named Terah; where lived mortal men and many other creatures that I had yet to encounter, with typical lifespans of less than a single century.

"You're absolutely breathtaking..." exhaled the young man, combing through his dirty blonde hair with his fingers, still in awe and disbelief. "...Where did you come from?"

It was rather odd... I could understand everything he said. I even tried to answer him, but my speech came out broken and indecipherable.

"Whoah," he uttered before slowly reaching his hand out to me. "Here! Let me help you up."

I took his hand and lifted myself off the ground. I instantly felt an inexplicable something once our hands touched. It was mysterious yet comforting. That's when I realised that this was the mortal that Veilos mentioned, the one that would "pierce the darkness"

Once I was upright, standing seven inches taller than the mortal, I felt something slide out of my hand and into his as we broke contact. It was a bronze skeleton key strung up on a thin, bronze chain. Carefully incised on the key was a single word.

No... a name... Aaren.