Daniel’s eyes cracked open to glory, if glory was a beautiful woman trying to hide her tears with a smile. Clara’s wings were more ruffled than he remembered last, her hair less neat, and her dress top showing signs of plucking.
What a mess of a wife I have… She’s perfect.
“Welcome home, My King.”
“I’m home, My Queen. But for how long? Was that a fire? People?”
“Worry not. They are caring for you in the waking world.”
“That’s good. I’ll have to thank them.”
He narrowed an eye, a small smirk forming at her appearance.
“Do we have time for a bath?”
“If we had one.” Her nose crinkled in the cutest manner. “Wait, are you saying I stink?”
“Never. That’s my department. Right? Look at all this blood on your bed. It might as well be a blood altar… What happened to your dress?”
She brushed it a little as if trying to extend it with pure willpower when he righted himself. He followed her gaze to a desk by the window, littered with materials.
“It’s not important. What did you think of Night? I love the name you gave him…”
Clara trailed off, feathers like a ruffled peacock to distract him. Daniel’s gaze wandered from the desk to the empty closet and the chest. He swung his legs into a cross, held up two fingers, and flicked the tip of her nose.
“Hey… What was that for?”
“If you need supplies. Tell me.”
He willed the card to his hand, and to his delight, the chest image appeared. Daniel leaned forward to throw her off, kissing her forehead and making her wings quiver.
“We’re a team.”
Her mouth pushed to the side with her shifty eyes.
“But we haven’t even seen the money or markets of this world. There are more important things than a grocery list. You need to learn the card system, the currency, the…”
“Shhhh.” He kissed her to shut her up. It worked. “Hey. I like solving your problems and leaving you better than I found you. So tell me what you need. As much as I love seeing more thigh, I’d rather it be from a devious angel wife under candlelight than due to poverty.”
Clara’s hands folded together, thumbs fiddling with a dangling piece of lace.
“We’re not poor… We’re just lacking certain things.”
He squeezed her hand, drawing her fidgeting gaze as she tried not to be a burden.
“Rely on me. I love you, and all of your flaws.”
Her cheeks turned rosy, eyes falling to his bare chest.
“What a demanding husband you are.”
“The most demanding. Someone needs to shape up, huh?”
His flashing teeth got a light jab in the chest.
“Fine. I’ll let you decide what I need, if you’re so reliable. That way I can have you longer and watch you squirm shopping for me, trying to read my mind.”
He let her guide him back to her lap, her soft fingers sweeping back his blond hair.
“You sure you aren’t a devil, darling? Such a schemer… How long do we have?”
Her fingers brushed over his cheek.
“Not long now, I’m afraid.”
“Shame… I don’t like seeing you cry. But I like that I can tell when you try to hide it.”
“Maybe you should punish me.”
“Oh, you temptress you,” he laughed, looking up into her bright eyes. “I’ll work hard.”
“I’ll be watching… Always. Did I mention I also finished the last card I can make with the cores you gave me? The Server Card. Not combatants, yet. But they can help in other ways.”
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Thinking back on how the other cards worked, a rumble came through his chest.
“An hour of help each day, I assume? Maids and butlers?”
“At random, yes,” she sighed, looking away with tight eyes. “I can’t say who will show up each day. Some of our staff I’ve read about have…quirks. Some also tilt toward one of us more than the other.”
He stretched out, yawning as he felt a slight tug.
“Wonderful… I think I’m about out of time, angel.”
Daniel saw the tears coming on, but her hands drawing him up distracted him.
“I should have done this before. It hurts me to do it. I hate it… But I need to remove the remains of your wings. It is causing instability in your soul. It feels like ripping out my own just imagining it.”
“Clara.” He pulled her chin up to dispel her guilt and shame. “You’re my doctor. I’m in your gentle care. I trust you, My Queen. Do what you must.”
She slid forward to wrap him whole against her chest, wings folding around him possessively, her hands sliding over the protrusions along his back, dulling their pain.
“This is too cruel… But I will bear it. I will restore you, Daniel. This cost you too much. I seethe. I cry. I scream when you are not here. But seeing you press on in that dark dungeon gave me strength.” Her fingernails pressed against his skin, her soft words almost whimpering into his ear. “Thank you for not abandoning me to Carl and giving up on a problem wife.”
In it, he knew it reflected the doubts Carl had seeded. It wasn’t just him the Core was attacking with those loaded questions. The dungeon would have laughed and said he was being twisted around her little finger.
Carl was a piece of stone.
“Clara, your biggest fault is that self-esteem… I love you. Trust in my words.”
“Okay.”
She kissed him, and her arms went around his shoulders, one hand sliding down his back to find the six blunt places along his spine. There was no pain as the blood leaked out of the places, staining her bed further gold, all while their lips touched.
When she broke away, her forehead pressed against his.
“We will find a way to put them back, Daniel,” Clara said. “I swear it to you. We will restore your wings. Goodbye, until the night returns you to me.”
Daniel held on to her and let her fingers go where they pleased.
“I never wanted the day to end sooner,” he whispered.
The abyss drew him away, and Daniel awoke in a bed with a straw mattress and a ceiling made of somebody’s floor. Everything in him was rested. Though his right hand hurt.
It took him a moment to work out why. He had not let go of the case. Not in the dungeon, not on the grass, not through however many hours of this. It took real effort and one embarrassing noise to open his fist.
He sat up, then he reached behind his back.
Daniel found wet gold and smooth skin. What it looked like would come later.
Have more confidence, Clara. We’re both stumbling our way through this change.
Something moved against his hip. A card, easing itself out of the case like it had been waiting for him to be finished. He pulled it free to find two cartoonish figures in it, back to back.
One was a woman in an apron with her sleeves rolled up; the second was a tall man in a coat, very upright, looking in exactly the opposite direction.
[⟡ Server]
“Huh,” Daniel said. “My second diamond card. That can’t be a coincidence. Clara’s Heart and Server. We’re off to a good start, darling.”
It was bright, possibly noon.
Across the room, the chair creaked, drawing his gaze.
There was a young man in it. Dark hair, maybe twenty, folded into the chair at an angle that was going to cost him later. He came awake in stages, yawning and cracking open his eyes.
He said something unintelligible, rubbing his eyes.
It took ten seconds before the language emerged through thick fog in his mind; it arrived with a bright box of information.
[Dravish is added from the Akasha Records]
“ — understand me? I am Asper. Asper. Can you understand me?”
Daniel yawned, scratched his hairless chin, and gave him a two-fingered salute.
“Hello! How are you, Asper? I take it you saved me? Thanks for the save.”
“Wow. What strange vocabulary. I suppose angels are from another realm.”
The young man did not relax even slightly. Not the reaction he was going for. His eyes went sideways with his position, attempting to stare at his back, and Daniel followed them.
The sheet under him was ruined. Long dried streaks of dark gold stained it, still catching the window light and throwing it back.
“So you’re a real angel? Not a manifestation from the higher realms?”
“Manifestation?” He tilted his head and rubbed his chin, noticing tight pants had been put on him. Probably Asper’s. He was shorter. “I can’t really answer that. But angel? Yeah.”
He held up a thumb, and silence ensued.
Daniel’s eyes shifted left and right, cataloging the room in that awkward beat.
The room was small, with a single table and chair, a small cabinet, and the bed he lay on. The bustle of vehicles came from outside, the chatter of angry birds, and shouts of people.
After several seconds, an idea popped into his head.
“Oh! Question. How much is this worth?”
Snatching the case and popping it open, a single card pushed up at his directing will. He held the treasure chest upside down, and coins began to fall out, answering his desire. The iron coins came out of it and rained down onto the bloodied sheet in a small bright heap.
The young man stared at the pile, then he stared at the card. His hand pressed against his mouth, and he began to laugh.
“This is insane. You’re a Contractor.”
Daniel got the distinct image of a man with a toolbelt, standing on a stool with an old lady issuing useless instructions beside him. But if this was going to get him answers…
“Yyyes?”
“A nice one, too. That’s a strong type! Portable storage is big.” He pointed, vaguely, at all of Daniel. “I’ll get you some better clothes. Julia just wanted to wash them first. Maybe we can eat something before anything else. Do angels eat breakfast?”
Daniel grinned at him.
“This one does!”