Chapter Text
Everything in the summoning was going well. All of his ghouls were there to lend Copia their strength, and he knew that the summoning circle was drawn correctly. He checked it multiple times before even beginning the ritual.
Was the amount of blood he offered not enough? Did he misspeak when saying the Latin verses? He had practiced so much. This hadn’t happened with any of the other summons he had performed, so why did it go so wrong?
Upon finishing his lines, the ghouls began chanting and the flames of the candles placed around the circle turned blue just as they were meant to. A small tear formed in the floor of the church at the centre of the circle, the smell of brimstone coming from it accompanied by smoke which billowed forth to fill the church with a grey veil.
He joined the chanting, his voice rising above the others in a crescendo, calling forth the new ghoul.
It was then that everything went wrong.
The candle flames turned white before snuffing out, plunging the room into darkness.
A few cries of surprise went up as the chanting stopping. He continued, however, refusing to let the tear close until he knew for sure that the new ghoul was fully through the portal. Sweat dripped from his brow, the strain on his soul heavy after the ghouls stopped chanting with him. Some of them started back up while the others scurried to light the candles again.
Just as the others joined back in, the flames turned white yet again, growing and billowing up into tall spikes. This time, they all stopped chanting as they felt a new presence in the room and the tear in the floor closed with a boom.
“Get the lights and open the windows,” Copia called, and several ghouls complied as Aether stepped towards him.
“Papa, please allow me to check them first, there is something… off about them. I don’t know how they will react to you.”
Copia nodded and gestured for his quintessence ghoul to step forward.
As the drapes covering the church windows were removed, and the panes opened clearing the smoke, a small naked figure could be made out laying on the floor.
He stepped closer but Mountain held out an arm to stop him, standing protectively in front of him.
Aether moved forwards towards the figure, crouched slightly in a defensive stance.
The ghoulettes pushed the rest of smoke out of the room with their elemental magic, fully clearing the air before moving to the group before the circle, Sunshine taking Copia’s hand.
Leaning around Mountain to get a better look, he could see Aether crouched over to the figure, hiding them from view. Was something wrong? Had he hurt them somehow when pulling them through the portal?
Aether let out a low vocalisation, something between a hum and a growl, causing the figure to stir a little before slumping back against the stone floor.
The ghoul turned and nodded, signalling that it was safe to come forward, though Copia could tell by his stiff shoulders that something was not right.
Mountain moved out of the way and allowed him forward, Rain shadowing him at his left as he moved.
As he got closer, he could start to make out more of the new addition.
The first thing he noticed was the blood. It coated nearly every inch of them, and a small puddle was forming under their small body, smudging the chalk lines they laid on.
Instantly his heart sank, the uneasy feeling further growing within him.
The next thing he noticed were the wings.
Something within his brain seemed to short-circuit, not allowing him to fully comprehend just what he was looking at.
“Aether?” He muttered under his breath, knowing that his ghouls could still hear him.
“It’s… not a ghoul,” Aether sounded as shocked as Copia felt.
“What…” he couldn’t finish his question.
“They’re not a ghoul. I think… they’re an angel-“
Voices filled the room at that.
“What the hell-“
“Papa what do we do?”
“I…” He didn’t know. Just what could he say? He had called forth one of the enemy, something he had never heard nor read of happening. How? How did this happen? What did he do wrong?
The small being in front of them whimpered, their fingers twitching, short claws grazing weakly at the ground.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before making a decision.
“Aether take them to the common room, Cumulus get Special, and Rain go to the library. Get as many books as you can about celestials or failed summonings. Sunshine, you help him. Dewdrop and Cirrus, I need you with Aether in case they wake up and are hostile. Swiss and Mountain come with me, I need to speak with Imperator.” He grimaced a little at the last order, knowing he was never going to hear the end of this from the Church Matriarch or Papa Nihil.
He let out a breath and clapped his hands together, “let’s get moving.”
Everything hurt. Everything. Pain spiked out from your back, snaking its way around your chest, and clinging to your throat. You didn’t have the strength to fight back anymore.
‘Whatever is happening, let it happen,’ you thought.
You knew you were already close to death; you could feel its icy fingers caressing the edges of your burning mind. Gravity shifted around you, swaying, making your head spin.
You closed your eyes tighter, willing the nauseating feeling away. You knew you had nothing left to spill from your lips other than blood. A pitiful whimper slipped from you and a soothing rumble replied. That couldn’t be right. Your mind must be tricking you into a sense of comfort in your last moments. Twisting the growls you had grown accustomed to into churrs. Hopefully, the unending void ahead of you would be more bearable than where you were before.
The movement stopped then, and you could feel something shifting against your bloody skin before being placed on a surprisingly soft surface. Your groggy mind tried to understand what was happening, but you let the thought slip away.
‘What’s the point?’
You could make out muffled talking above you. It was like you were underwater, unable to hear clearly what was happening around you.
Suddenly a piercing pain lanced through you, turning your vision white. A hand was on your chest, agony rippling out from the contact and soon another two joined in holding your body still.
You writhed as bones snapped back into place, the burns and tears marring your skin tugging back together and sealing shut. It was agony. All the pain of the injuries given to you over the past week coursed through you all over again at once. You screamed.
You didn’t remember blacking out but when you awoke, it was to the feeling of someone petting your hair. It was nice. You were pleasantly warm, and nothing hurt anymore. You were tired yes, exhausted even, but you were used to that. You purred to yourself softly and felt the tip of your tail twitching before freezing at the sudden realization.
‘Wait. Why didn’t it hurt-‘
Your eyes shot open, and you pushed yourself up away from the hands, and onto the floor, wrapping your tail around your leg in fear. You could hear a shout behind you, but you paid it no mind, already scanning the room for an exit.
Your eyes landed on a door on the other side of the room, and you went to stand to run towards it, but your knees buckled under you, sending you back down to the floor.
Determined to escape, you hauled yourself onto your hands and knees, and scurried forwards as fast as you could. Which apparently wasn’t fast enough because not two seconds later, two strong arms looped around your middle and hauled you up into the air.
You kicked out and clawed at the arms, a weak snarl passing your lips. It seemed your struggling was futile however, as whoever was holding you just kept you firmly in their grip, their arms pressing against your newly bandaged sides. You let out a desperate cry, tears forming in your eyes. You didn’t want it to happen again- Please don’t let it happen again-
Suddenly a strange calm came over you, and you drooped, your tail coming loose and hanging limply as the fight instantly left you.
Whoever held you turned around, your legs and tail swaying slightly as they did so.
This… wasn’t normal. You could feel that this feeling was unnaturally placed upon you. By what, you didn’t know, presumably whatever being was holding you. You could feel the fear bubbling in the back of your mind, just out of reach, smothered with a thick fog of calm. The lack of control over your feelings should have instantly concerned you, but it seemed that whatever the person holding you had done was preventing you from being anything other than relaxed.
Lifting your heavy gaze from the floor, you squinted at the scene around you.
There were four demons standing before you, their own tails swishing behind them apprehensively.
You blinked your bleariness away, and they came into focus.
You studied them for a moment, all sense of urgency stolen from your mind. All of them appeared to be wearing a uniform of some kind: black shirts and dress pants, along with braces and strange steampunk-style helmets, the glass of their goggles shining under the lamplight.
One appeared to be a tall curvy female ghoul; she stood before a grey couch, her slate grey hands held up in a placating manner.
Another was next to her, slightly shorter and thicker than the first, and held herself nervously, seemingly unsure of what to do to help.
The third was a taller male, and unlike the others, he wore a sculpted silver mask without a notch for his mouth, a smooth silver surface in its place ending in a pointed chin. He moved to drop himself into one of the armchairs, slumping slightly as a long sigh exited him. You could feel the exhaustion coming off him in waves. It made you feel… strange.
The last seemed to be the shortest, his white teeth bared, fangs on full show. He bristled as you studied him, hissing.
You whimpered at the display of aggression, ducking your head in submission.
A low voice spoke above you, and you tilted your head back to see a fifth demon. Ah, so that’s who was holding you.
“Dew, stand down. I’ve calmed them, they can’t do anything,” his voice was deep, and you could feel it reverberate through his chest and into your own where you back was pressed against him.
You looked back from the ghoul holding you to the hostile one, and saw him begrudgingly relax his posture, huffing quietly at the order.
The shorter ghoulette spoke up, “Aether, what do we do now? Can you put them back to sleep until the others get here? They’re still…”
The ghoul, Aether, hummed and slowly let you down on the floor, keeping a hand on your shoulder, causing him to crouch slightly. You sat at his feet quietly studying those around you and picked at the bandages wrapped around your left hand. You recognised that you should be terrified, these creatures were literally from Hell. You pushed weakly against the strange barrier or calm that held you. It didn’t budge.
They should be killing you on sight, but they weren’t. You didn’t understand why. Was there even any point in fighting it? It was nice to feel like this for once. Maybe you should just embrace it and let these demons do whatever it was they were going to do to you.
It couldn’t be any worse than what had already happened.
“I know. I’ll keep them docile until the others get here, they’re probably too aware now to put back to sleep but keeping them calm will stop them from running around at least. Special isn’t in any state to finish healing them,” Aether continued.
The silver ghoul grunted, shifting into a more comfortable position. You noticed that he was breathing quite heavily. Despite yourself, concern replaced fear in the back of your mind behind the calm. Did he heal you at a cost to himself? No one had ever done something like that for you before. Not even when you were in-
You shook your head, pressing your palms against your eyes as tears formed. You remembered it now, how you got into this mess in the first place. You back began to ache again, what remained of your wings twitching pitifully.
“Hey,” the taller ghoulette was crouched in front of you, “how about you come back to the couch. You’re safe here, so we can all just relax and wait for Papa to return. It shouldn’t be long now.”
You felt yourself nodding at her and stood shakily, placing most of your weight in her offered arms.
Soon, you were back on the couch with your tail wrapped back around your leg as you sat curled into yourself, hiding your nakedness and refusing to let your eyes slip closed despite how exhausted you were feeling. Aether kept a hand on you at all times. You assumed it was how he was making you calm. You didn’t like it, but you still couldn’t bring yourself to fight it.
You mentally checked over your body, noticing that indeed many of the worse injuries had been healed, only shallow cuts or scars remaining. Any that remained open or went unhealed had been hastily patched up with gauze and adhesive tape or bandages. You were thankful but had no idea why they would do this for you. You were still unclothed and smeared with blood and grime and would have felt disgusting but had long since gotten used to the feeling.
You weren’t entirely sure how much time passed while you sat there, Aether’s hand warming your shoulder. Everything was moving so fast and yet unbearably slow at the same time. It confused you and you had to close your eyes a few times when one of the ghouls walked across the room in front of you, causing a ghost of themselves to trail after them, making your head fill with fuzz.
In the end, you ended up allowing yourself to doze, though stayed conscious enough to monitor each of the presences in the room with you as they moved about. The ghoulettes seemed to flit about the place, never staying still for very long. The angry ghoul had sat on the ottoman watching you for a while but was now pacing across the room by the door, obviously impatient.
You were focusing on the tired ghoul in the armchair when a loud bang jolted you awake.
You felt panic rise in your chest, struggling against the imposed calm. The hand on your thigh tightened and you slumped against the arm of the couch, feeling too relaxed to hold yourself up.
“Rain, Sunshine,” Aether greeted, “what did you find?”
“Not much,” came a quiet voice from the door you tried to escape through. You struggled to turn your head and see who it was.
“We got like… 6?. Plenty about summonings gone wrong, but nothing about… this. And hardly anything about Celestials in general,” a new ghoulette chimed in.
The short ghoul hissed in frustration, “damn, Copia really screwed up this time. I bet he’s getting his ass chewed by Imperator right n- OW!” He yelped as you heard a smack ring through the room.
“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. You know how he is about getting everything perfect.”
Bickering started up around you, the occasional hiss or growl interrupting words and you sunk further down into the couch covering your ears with your hands.
‘Just stay out of the way. Stay unnoticed. Maybe they won’t hurt me’
It was then that a human entered the room looking flustered and slightly angry, two more ghouls following in behind him.
Your heart seemed to stop.
You couldn’t let him see you. Last time a human saw you, you lost everything.
‘No. No no nononono-‘
Your terror pierced through the false calm that Aether had placed on you, and you instantly regained control of yourself. The earlier fear flooded back into the forefront of your mind and your breath quickened, pulse hammering in your head. You scrambled up the back of the couch, your nails digging into the cushions and tearing them in your haste as you pushed yourself over the edge to hide behind the bulky furniture.
Aether was quick to lean back over the couch and grab you, stopping you from running any further and you could feel him try and pull the calm back over you. But the spell was broken. You were far to panicked for his magic to work right now. You could not be caught unaware again.
You hissed at him – since when did you hiss? – and wrenched yourself out of his grip. You couldn’t breathe. You needed to hide-
You scrambled across the room to the only other door you could see, covering your face as best you could as you went.
You could feel the ghouls behind you, someone called out. A hand brushed against your bloody feathers on your back, and you yelped, throwing yourself at the door and into the room beyond. You slammed the door shut and threw yourself back against it sending a lick of agony. It stole your breath away and you wheezed as your eyes filled with tears, blurring your sight as you scramble for the lock.
Your shaking hands managed to push the latch across just before several bodies thumped against the door. You backed up, breathing heavy and uneven.
Looking around, you realised you were in a bathroom, the cold tiles pressing against your bare feet.
A sob ripped through your chest and you let yourself sink down to the floor, resting your side against the large bathtub as you curled up in a fetal position on the bathmat, trying to regain your breath.
Did he see you? You didn’t know. You’re sure he did-
Loud knocking on the door made you flinch and dig your nails into your scalp. The tears that had earlier threatened to fall broke through and ran down your cheeks, leaving tracks in the blood and dirt on your cheeks.
Everything hurt. You were scared. You just wanted it to stop.
The voices from outside had quietened some and you uncurled slightly, listening intently. Just what were they planning? Their silence terrified you more than their shouting.
Sniffling a little, you closed your eyes and channeled your focus onto the presences on the other side of the door. Their essences, their souls, had seemed to congregate in the center of the room, where the seating area was. That… couldn’t be right. Your superiors said that demons didn’t have souls. That they were nothing more than beings hellbent on causing pain and suffering. You grimaced, moving your focus to the soul that was distinctly human.
He was putting out waves of stress and a few of the ghouls were leant up against him, the wispy tendrils of their souls intertwining with his. It was strong. Stronger than those of any other humans you had seen before. Sparks flicked over the surface of its core, as if the thin membrane there couldn’t contain the sheer amount of magic within him. You knew from your teachings that it was very rare for humans to have any amount of occult power, let alone something to this degree.
It seemed that they were preoccupied with discussing what to do and were leaving you alone. For now at least. This would probably be the only chance you had to attempt an escape before the attention was back on you.
Looking around the room, you noted that it was bigger than your Ch-… no. You were not going to think about that right now.
It was all grey tile and white porcelain. The bath you were leant against was large and a separate shower unit stood in the corner next to the toilet.
The sink unit stood under a mirrored medicine cabinet on the other side, and you shuffled towards it and opened the door to the cupboard it sat on. It was full of cleaning supplies and unopened bottles of soap. Nothing of use to you.
Shakily, you stood, leaning on the counter for support and, as you were reaching for the mirror, you stopped in your tracks, hand held outstretched.
No. This couldn’t be happening. You were an Angel. So why did you look like…
You leant forwards, studying your face. You previously opalescent skin had taken on a slight grey pallor, and you rubbed at your cheek a little, hoping it was just ash. No. You had definitely turned a shade of grey. The next thing you noticed were your hands. What were previously smooth pinkish nails had darkened and grown pointed. The couch. You had ripped it during your panic. Guess this explains why. Just what was happening to you? You clenched your hand into a fist, letting the pinpricks of new claws against the palm ground you, your other hand coming up to tangle in your hair. You backed up and took in a deep breath in an attempt to push the panic down.
“No, no, no- I-…” You forced yourself to suck in another breath.
Escape first. You could fall apart when you were safe.
You reached forwards again and pulled open the mirror, revealing the medicine cabinet. It was filled with various bottles and boxes, all useless right now. Just as you were about to shut the door, a silver glint caught your eye. A straight razor. Well, any weapon was better than none. You didn’t like causing others pain, but if it was you or them, you would do what you had to.
You picked up the blade and held it tightly in your shaking hand. You could do this.
Glancing around once more, you decided that that was all you were going to get out of this room and moved to stand in the bath. There was a large cross hatch window above it, and you put the razor down to open the latch. It was stiff and you grunted slightly with the effort. No matter how hard you pushed, the handle wouldn’t budge.
A knock on the door startled you and you bumped the knife off the narrow windowsill, causing it to skitter around the bath. Luckily the blade only grazed your ankle lightly. It stung, but at this point you really didn’t care.
The knock sounded again, more insistent this time and a voice followed behind it.
“Hey, you okay in there?” You think you recognised Aether’s voice.
You heart began pounding again. If he caught you, you were sure you wouldn’t be able to escape again.
“Listen, we don’t mean you any harm, we’d just like to talk.”
You shook your head. No. He was lying. They were demons. You knew what they did. And it hurt.
You picked up the razor and held it out in front of you, clicking your teeth in warning.
Another voice sounded from the other side, but you couldn’t make out the words.
“Hey, no. Dew wait. They’ll come out, just give them some time like we- DEW!”
A loud thump sounded against the door. Were they trying to break it down!?
You went back to the window, desperately trying to pry the lock open, digging at it with the razor.
A heated discussion was happening outside the door, but you paid it no mind and kept digging at the wood around the latch.
You paused for a second when the voices stopped, and an electronic whir started up. Some sort of drill? You tried the latch again. It moved a little but remained closed, so you went back to digging at it, picking up speed as the screws from the door hinges fell to the floor one by one.
You didn’t have much time.
You dropped the razor and put all your remaining strength into one last push, the window swinging open just as the last screw dropped to the tiles.
Not wasting any more time, you scrambled up onto the ledge and closed your eyes, your mangled wings instinctually holding themselves out in preparation for flight.
And you let yourself drop forward.