And they were blunt creatures, sometimes cruel, and always rash. To escape the torture of people who'd never seen a deformity before, Ron had hidden away with only his thoughts. Brilliant thoughts. The same ones that had influenced Nick to learn a little more, try those wild theories, and become one of the strongest aether users in all of the known planes of existence. Technically, I was stronger, but I still had a whole lot to learn.
So did Ron, although he was catching up quickly. When I'd stood face to face with a dragon, I'd figured out how to break through the seal on Ron's skin enough to give him back control of his ability to touch aether. He could feel it now, which meant he could use it. In theory. The problem was that knowing how something worked wasn't the same thing as knowing how to make something work. The second took a little hands-on experience.
But Ronwe was my mentor. He'd started teaching me in Hell, had become my friend, fallen in love with another of my friends, and had recently joined our legion. Granted, I hadn't been invited like he had. It was more true to say I'd been claimed, and I was oddly ok with that. Ronwe, on the other hand, had been thrilled to be accepted, so he was throwing himself into the chance to prove he could be a benefit to our strange family.
Re-skinning Bel's body into that of a fairy proved that the adjustments I'd made to my own body had worked. This was the first big project I'd tried since I'd fixed my skin to work like a dragon’s, and I could still pull in aether from the world around me. I could also push it out just as easily. The only difference was that I no longer sucked at it hard enough to distort the veils of all five planes. In other words, I should be invisible on the maps that both angels and demons liked to use. The only thing I worried about was that we hadn't yet discovered the downside.
Personally, I had a few theories, but they weren't exactly easy ones to test. Logically, though, it would make sense for me to have constantly been filling. If I always drew aether to me, then I would've always had a small amount unconsciously refueling my own reserves, right? If I no longer had that pull, it simply meant I'd need to manage my own "fuel tank," so to speak. Considering that I could now reap the dead, I thought that was a fair enough trade.
Yet without some massive working of "magic" - because to me this crap was definitely magic, even if my demons disagreed - I would never know for sure. What I needed was to spend all my stored aether somehow, then go reap more to see if refilling was going to be a problem. Since running out of aether was the same as dying, my guys weren't exactly on this bandwagon. Not to mention the problem with a large aether event being like a beacon to our enemies, the angels.
So Ron and I had spent the day running through a few theories, trying to test them, and mostly talking about guys. Our guys, and how screwed up we both were with this whole dating thing. When the sun began to sink in the green sky, setting off lilac and magenta streaks, the two of us decided we were done. The others had been working on construction all day, which meant it was my turn to make dinner. Two big problems with that. First, I had no idea how to cook. Second, I had no clue what the food was on this world.
Thankfully, Nick snuck in to help me. Seeing him as a fairy was still a bit odd. This was Satanael, the Grim Reaper, and one of the most powerful demons in all existence. And yet, as a fairy, he looked so elegant and almost harmless. His baby-blue skin, lean body, and iridescent little wings were pretty much the exact opposite of what I expected Satan to look like. It also kinda looked good.
"Hey," he said, smiling a greeting as I made my way into the fairy version of a kitchen. "How'd lessons go?"
"Uh..." I headed over to the sink to wash my hands. "Well, I made Bel a skin, so I'm not having any trouble using aether."
He turned to lean his hip against the prep table. "Did it take longer with the aether barrier? Can you control the flow still, or does the invulnerability throttle your ability? Do you feel drained at all?"
"I actually feel the same as normal," I assured him. "I mean, I know it's easier to do this stuff here than in Hell, so that might be a part of it, but no, I'm not feeling drained, or like I have to push, or anything else. I think I'm ready."
He passed me some tube of vegetation that I didn't know the name for, and then a knife. "Cut that into rings like a tomato? And I don't want to rush into anything with the angels. This is the last safe haven we have, and I don't even know why it works."
"Should Ron and I look into that?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Sure. If you can figure out how I stopped time in this bubble, then maybe we can do it again. The problem is that most worlds are a lot more invasive than Tyrnigg. Even Vesdar. There just aren't enough fey left to stumble upon the Vale."
I started chopping. "Yeah, but if we did the same thing on Vesdar, would anyone really notice? It's pretty sparse too."
"Maybe. Maybe not." He paused to grab something else from the pantries that lined the walls. "I also want you to learn how to fly."
"Fairies don't fly," I reminded him.
He gave me a look that said he knew that. "I mean in your other body. On Vesdar. If you can fly there, then you can fly on Daemin. If you're fast enough, you'll be able to re-skin yourself on Angelis and fly there as well, should you ever need to. Since everyone else can - well, except Ron - you're at a disadvantage, dove."
I sighed. "Shouldn't we be worried about what Michael is doing with the dragons?"
"Yes," he agreed. "And at the same time, no. Sia, if we can't protect ourselves, then picking a fight is a lose-lose proposition. Time is on our side. It's always on our side. Conversely, we've just lost our entire army because you locked them in Hell."
I huffed in annoyance. "I told you why."
"You did, and I don't entirely disagree. I'm just talking about the logistics right now, dove. The six of us against six hundred and sixty-six angels? That's not a fair fight."
"They're not all awake, and Luke's on our side now."
"And we have no idea when they will be revived." He didn't bother addressing the part about Luke. "Just because someone is unconscious today doesn't mean we won't fight them tomorrow. We have to be careful, dove."
"Yeah, but Michael - "
He cut me off with a lifted palm. "Michael is not a Muse. If he wants to make a new skin, it's going to take him a while."
I carefully set the knife down and leaned over the table to face him. "And in that case, time is not on our side. If he learns how to make himself impervious to aether, then he can simply lock himself on Angelis, re-skin himself there, and test it at home. You're locked out of Heaven, I closed the door to Hell, and now we're stuck in the midworlds, right? So, if Michael figures this out the same way I did, we're going to be fighting this for the rest of eternity, and I honestly don't know if I can undo it."
"We'll figure it out," he assured me.
"So why aren't we figuring it out right now?" I tilted my head back and groaned. "This is not one of those things where my quick life is making my decisions. Nick, I'm serious. If angels learn how dragons work, then they'll figure out how to make this war a little harder for you. And the truth is that I can die. Even if I try to live forever, I can get killed. So, if I go poof, then what?"