The warmth passed over me as I appeared on the other side of the planet. I released my hand from the grips of two others, as I blinked the heavenly light from my eyes and started to take a look around.
Angelic transposition was always something which gave me pause, even almost a decade after I was first introduced to the power of my Aunt’s. It always felt alien and strange, somehow, despite seemingly comforting to her. Nico seemed indifferent, as he stepped forward, with the same stride as he always had.
A business trip with my Great Aunt, and my fiancé. Always a joy. I sighed. I was at least hoping for something easy this time, but by the grim look on her face when she’d explained where we were going had dashed that hope. Nico and I had been on vacation, this time, when we’d gotten told by Hestia that they had another mission for us. The last time had been in Russia, and the time before that Canada. So at first, I’d been at least slightly interested in a trip to some place warmer.
Guatemala wasn’t what I’d been expecting. But our agent, a woman named Esa, had made it seemed like it was urgent for the small amount of time she’d managed to speak to us. The only things I knew so far is that this was the type of mission where we were killing something, which meant we got to go in swinging, by proxy. Normally we had to do a bunch of subterfuge bullshit first, before getting permission to engage. But the other thing I knew about this particular mission, was that the Silent Hearth was active.
And if the Silent Hearth was active, that meant no witnesses that would matter could talk all about the woman with the hammer, the man with the wings, and the wheelchair bound crone with…well, I suppose she didn’t have much that would expose them. Transposition was one of the few gifts my great aunt had maintained, and the others she had weren’t particularly obvious. She would be our talker, ideally, in the hypothetical world where things went wrong. Which they always did, so honestly, the hypothetical might as well just be the certain future. She had a way with people. That, and we’d trust her guidance on as much as possible. Future sight made her annoyingly useful, even if she was short with me a lot of the time.
Me and Nico, however, we had the bombastic stuff. I had a giant hammer, the strength to swing it, and healing abound. Nico had his flight, his sword, and could knock people out of this world-literally, for a few seconds. We were more suited to bad guy wrecking, personally. It was why we made such a good team, and apart of why I was going to marry him. I looked over at him fondly, brushing a strand of red hair out of my face. He was about my height-about five foot ten inches, with a muscular build (he lamented how he had to work for his and I didn’t), the most striking hazel eyes, and well tended to facial hair on his upper lip. His hair was a somewhat tousled brown, though that was likely more of a fault of transposition then his own lack of care. He was wearing a casual outfit, a tank top and shorts, but they would stop a bullet if they needed to. Our abilities came with armor, as a default. And said armor could be anything. Still, despite our defenses, we had our fair share of scars, and his current outfit showed a lot of them. Some things even magical healing couldn’t fix.
For my part, I was a wearing a short sleeved blouse, and a pair of shorts myself. It was hot out, and even knowing it going in, I was still sweating already. I had too much hair for this, it draped down to my lower back, because I refused to cut it. My hair was a cute redish orange, not a normal color, but it had changed when I’d absorbed all of the powers that I’d had. I always told Nico that he was lucky that he didn’t look weird. He’d always counter it with a defensive statement about how I would never stop being beautiful. He said it about my scars too.
I looked over to my great aunt, as we finally took a long view of the landscape. She was an older woman, easily reaching her 70’s by now, and her face bore scars more then anywhere else on her. A pearl necklace hung around her neck, and her shadowed brown eyes probably looked like mine a half century ago. She was wearing a long sleeved blue dress, yet not a single bead of sweat dripped down her face. Her face was like stone, and her wrinkled skin only added to that effect. She was looking behind us.
We stood on an elevated area, overlooking the sea and a city below. The sea behind us, city in front of us. I put a hand up to shield my eyes, as I squinted down at what would hopefully be our destination.
“So, Aunt Ruby, where are we headed this time? What dirty errand are we doing for Hestia this time?” I said, not looking at her. Nico let out a low chuckle, even if he tried to pretend like he didn’t.
“Maisy. I’m afraid what we are facing this time goes far beyond our previous tasks. For the first time in quite awhile, we face something beyond what we have faced before. My portents are clear, on that. As was Esa. That is why we are here.”
A long sigh escaping me, as I lowered the hand, and turned over to face my Aunt.
“And I don’t suppose your portents are clear on what exactly we face this time, in more specific terms and words?” I said, raising an eyebrow to her. She didn’t move, as she continued.
“I know of it some. I have a connection, that I may be able to follow to it’s source. I will be transpositioning us closer in time, but I am attempting to get something of a lay of the land first. I did not want to drop us into the middle of enemy territory just yet.”
Correct, objectively. While me and Nico could handle ourselves, some people were cold hearted enough to try and kill the woman in the wheelchair.
“Right. Anything we can do in the meantime? Just to speed things up?”
“It will be a matter of minutes, Maisy. Be patient.”
I hadn’t given the slightest inkling of impatience. But we didn’t really have time to lose, not in the slightest. As always, she irked me.
“Of course. Don’t let me get in your way.” I stepped forward, to near the cliffside, looking out the ocean. At the very least, it was a nice day out. The sea was beautiful.
After a few silent moments, Nico walked up beside me and grabbed my hand. It made me feel better about waiting.
It was about fifteen minutes, according to Nico’s watch. So while she was technically in the right, it felt like she wasn’t. It passed in silence, though, which I almost appreciated.
Aunt Ruby called us over, though. Her eyes reopened after a trance of a few minutes.
“I have a good lead. A path forward. We are going to appear in a reasonably crowded street, so please, behave, you two.”
That once again irked me, but I nodded. So did Nico.
“Of course, Mrs. Horne. I try my best to be.”
She gave him a sagely nod, likely the politeness making her happy rather then the statement.
“The locals here speak mostly Spanish, so let me and Nico do most of the talking. There are those who still speak different Mayan languages, and if we run into anyone like that, let me speak with them. Otherwise, I am going to be heading us towards a place to stay. We can plan our next move from there.”
She said this in a dictating sort of way. Not that I disagreed, but the fact that she expected me too nearly provoked that response. She held out her hands again, starting to channel the process of transposition. I gave Nico’s hand a squeeze, and gave one more look at the sea, before the uncanny warm feeling took me over again.
When I was next able to see, we had appeared at the zenith of a streetcorner, a position where the people behind us couldn’t see us in full, and nor could those in front of us. No one would question us not being there a moment before.
Me and Nico both moved to grab the back of the wheelchair once we appeared, which didn’t help, because we both ran into each other in the process. In our attempts to grab it swiftly to avoid hearing Aunt Ruby complain, we’d slowed ourselves down. I heard a long sigh escape her lips. Me and Nico looked at each other, silently, and he began pushing the wheelchair down the street with a big smile.
I followed right beside the pair, taking a long look around. A mix of more green areas with more modern looking architecture, the entire city looked like it had a knife hanging over it. The sun was shining, but I could feel a sense of gloom. Not magically of course. But something had happened, relatively recently at that. Something pretty bad too. A lot of people seemed to be trying to keep their heads down, which did help us blend in. We seemed to have been deposited in a segment of the city which wasn’t particularly well developed, compared to the looming parts of the city that looked far more developed, glass and metal. The people here didn’t seem to be the wealthiest either.
“So, where too Mrs. Horne?” Nico said, in a cheery sort of voice, his Spanish accent creeping into his voice. It didn’t matter how many times he came to America with me, it always stuck with him. It was cute.
“A little bit further, then turn left when you see the image of a dragon. There we will find a person who can help us in our quest.” She said that, like talk of dragons and quests was normal. Which for us, I suppose it was.
It wasn’t long before we saw it. Slightly faded wall art, graffiti of a green feathered serpent. There was a small street there, and Nico, seeing it too, turned down that way. The wheelchair didn’t like the texture of this road, the wheels making more then a few grinding sounds. I really hoped it wouldn’t break. Thankfully, it didn’t.
“What are we look for?” Asked Nico, as he pushed her down the side street.
“Look for the golden door.” Was all my aunt had to say in reply
It didn’t take us long to find that either. One of the smaller houses, nestled between several other buildings. The windows were shuttered, the paint was peeling, and it looked like no one had lived there for years. My aunt gestured me forward. I sighed, walked up the creaking steps, and rapped twice on the door. The sound echoed throughout the side street. I turned back to the other two, giving a shrug, when the door opened.
A Mayan woman opened the door. She had straight black hair, dark brown eyes, and a look of…exhaustion, about her. A few scars dotted her exposed arms, and a larger one ran across her left cheek. She kept one hand behind the door, out of sight, which set off alarm bells. A gun.
She spoke something in Spanish. I gave her a confused look, and before my aunt could intercede, she spoke a bit of English at me.
“What do you want, canche?” She said in her heavily accented voice. Narrowing her eyes at me.
I just sort of…gestured for my aunt. Nico rolled her up to the steps, as I took a step to the side.
My aunt began to speak, and I could already tell her powers were at work. Firstly, her voice felt perfectly understandable, as if I could not misunderstand a single word. Secondly, I felt put at ease, despite my building annoyance with her. The tongue of an angel was helping her, for the time being.
“My apologies for the intrusion. My name is Ruby Horne, in front of you is my niece, Maisy Horne, and behind me is Nico Acevedo, a friend of ours. I’d like to talk to you about your brother. I’m not with the government, or any government for that matter. I may be an American, but our president is no friend of mine. In fact, we’d like to help you, if we can.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but given that she was one with the future visions, I nodded along. So did Nico.
The woman seemed downright shocked, at whatever was being said. Though when she fired back a response in a language I didn’t understand or recognize, I understood why. The angel’s tongue made people hear whatever language they were most comfortable hearing. And whatever language it was, I don’t think she was used to foreigners speaking it. The hand which I was fairly certain was holding a gun behind the door lowered slightly
“-Of course, I understand. I only heard of your brother quite recently, but I have reason to believe he’s in danger. I’d like to help him, and his friends, if you’re alright with that. We’re professionals.”
She seemed to ponder a moment, and step out of the doorway. Making a quick and curt gesture for us to come inside. Though giving a slightly awkward grimace at my aunt’s wheelchair, after Nico’s first few attempts to get it up the stairs. I stepped forward after a moment, ushering Nico inside.
I picked up the entire wheelchair with ease, placing it on the porch, before pushing it inside. I got a wide eyed look from the woman as I did. I just gave a polite smile in return. When I passed her, I saw that her other hand had indeed been housing a gun. She placed it on a table near the entryway as she filed in behind me. I pushed Aunt Ruby to a small kitchen table. Nico was leaning against a wall nearby. The woman began going through cabinets, as if trying to prepare something.
Around now, my aunt deactivated her tongue, and looked to me and Nico.
“This is Gloria Miranda. Her brother is apart of the insurgents taking part in the civil war here. She used to be apart of the same group, but something odd caused her to leave. We’re going to help her ensure that her brother is safe, and that the oddity isn’t a harm.”
Oddity was always the word she used when trying not to say ‘Magical bullshit’. I nodded.
The tongue reactivated, she looked back over to Gloria.
“You need not get us anything, dear. It’s very sweet of you, though.” She gave her a smile. Gloria seemed to nod, going into the fridge, and withdrawing a can of beer for herself, cracking it open, and taking a seat at the table across from my aunt. Responding in that same language as before.
“Oh I know where to start-can you tell me why you left? It was a few days ago, yes?”
She gave a nod. Saying something in reply.
“Two days ago. And you returned today?”
She nodded.
“And why was that? The reason you left, I mean” She said, returning to the question with a soft smile. She was good at these sorts of things.
The woman seemed to frown, and then seem to recant her tale. By the time she was done, there was a look of almost fear, and most certainly trepidation on her face. And my aunt had a very, very concerned look on her face.
“And you’re certain of all of this? What happened to him, what he could do? And most especially how the other reacted?”
She gave a firm nod.
“Well, that’s quite concerning, and you were right to leave. We’ll do our best to help your brother see sense as well. Is there anything else I should know?” She was speaking more clearly, then calmly. There was a difference to it. When she was trying to get something she wanted to know, versus something she needed to know.
Gloria kept talking. While she did, I looked over to Nico. Despite not being able to understand a word, he was firmly paying attention to what Gloria was saying. Either he was trying to sell the illusion of understanding, or he was trying to gauge her reactions to things, to see what the situation was.
“…His sister was still with this Ramiro Soto? So they were going to go back for her, and more of these necklace parts?”
Gloria nodded again, responding verbally as well. She almost looked relieved to be talking about this. I recognized the look. Of thinking you were crazy.
“Well, my dear, that’s not the best situation. But as I said, we’re professionals. Our little group here is called the Divine Crusaders of Delaware, and we’re experts in this sort of thing. We’d be happy to go resolve things, if you can tell us where they were.”
She hesitated. Then shook her head before her next response.
“…I’m not sure it would be the safest, if-”
Despite the Angel’s Tongue, the woman shot my aunt a glare.
“I’m sorry if I offended you. We’d be happy to have you along. Though you may see and learn some things you may wish you hadn’t. Tell me Gloria, are you good at keeping secrets?” She spoke with the patronizing tone she always had, like she was talking to a child. But it came out like a dream speech.
She nodded again.
“If you swear you will not speak of us, or what you see around us, once all is said and done, then I have no objections to take you along.” She said, giving me and Nico pointed looks.
I sighed, and spoke aloud. “None from me either.” despite it being English. Nico just nodded.
She said something to my aunt. My aunt nodded, smiling warmly. It seems her word had been given.
Gloria then looked at me, and spoke English right back.
“Can you shoot?” She said, pointedly.
“No, don’t need to. I can break a man with one arm.” I said, since apparently we were giving away secrets now. As a joke, I flexed one arm.
She gave me a deadpan look.
“Muscles don’t help bullets.”
“Mine do.” I said in response, taking on annoyed tone to match.
“When you get shot, you’ll disagree.” She seemed to save me for a newcomer to this sort of thing. She’d just have to wait and see what I could do.
Ruby interceded before I could.
“Would you mind if we stayed the night here, did a bit of preparing, then set out tomorrow?”
It was about mid afternoon now. So that was probably a good idea.
Gloria nodded, responding back in the same tongue as before. My Aunt laughed.
“What did she say?” I asked, curiously.
“I said, you two can stay in the basement, since you don’t mind bullets.” She gave me a coy smile that I didn’t like. “I need to go shopping, since I have…guests. I will be back later. Stay here.”
Before we could protest, she was out the door.
At the very least, it gave us a window to talk. I looked over to my Aunt.
“Well? What’re we dealing with?” I asked, putting a hand on my hip.
She turned the wheelchair around slightly to face me, and Nico, who had moved to stand next to me again.
“Our new friend was apart of the revolutionary army in the region, who set up camp in the highlands Northwest of here. Her group was on the smaller side, mostly people from the same few families. A few weeks ago, they got into a skirmish with a group that wasn’t standard government grunts. Highly trained individuals who were well trained enough to incapacitate and not kill. A few of their number got captured, including a boy named Otto, and his sister, Bianca. According to the later accounts of Otto, they were put to work, under reasonable threat, up north at Tikal, working for a man with the government named Ramiro Soto. They had uncovered some kind of new ruin there. Otto, who broke free, had mentioned them finding several objects that seemed like magic.”
Nico frowned. “Are we here for a bunch of government thugs with magic items, then?” That sounded oddly reasonable.
My aunt shook her head, dashing that hope.
“No. But they did begin testing these items on the people they had captured. Including one that took the form of a necklace, with golden squares that depicted animals on them. Otto was made to hold one, and began a physical mutation. Taking on the traits of a howler monkey. With powers to boot. He was stronger, faster, had claws, and could probably scream a man to death, if Gloria is to be believed.”
That was concerning. I blinked.
“…So we’re here to deal with him, then?”
“Not quite, but almost. He used his powers to escape captivity, and fled back south to his group in a single night. Do you know why that’s quite odd?” She said, posing the question to me. I shook my head.
“Tikal is about three hundred miles from the place she’s describing. It matches up with a few other strange occurrences in this region over the past few years. A lot of the rebel forces in the region have a habit of suddenly appearing in the places they seem to need to be. This seems to be no different. And I don’t like it. Regardless. Otto returned to the camp, met up with Gloria and her brother. The issue being, Otto’s sister, Bianca, is still in captivity. So they begin to plot a rescue mission, to recover Bianca, and the rest of these necklace squares. This mission is reaffirmed, when Otto deals with a patrolling group of Guatemalan soldiers like they’re nothing. Ripping them in two, clawing them up. By how she was talking about it, it was nasty enough to get her to not want to see what would happen. She tried to talk her brother out of it, but he was adamant. So she left, and came here. This isn’t her home, it’s an insurgent safe house that hasn’t been used in awhile.”
That was all…lovely. Nico spoke before I did, seemingly about in the same mood as I was.
“So our goal is to find these people, and ask them to not go on this rescue mission, and then leave? Not only does that feel more then slimy, doing the government’s dirty work, but it feels too easy.” His arms were crossed. We’d gotten a briefing from Esa about this country before coming. Nothing good was happening to the people here.
“Not quite that either. Something else has gone wrong. This is only one part of a larger issue. Which is why I need you two to do something for me. I need you to get eyes in the sky, see if you can find anything wrong in the city proper. Once we rule things out here, we can embark tomorrow. Once Gloria gets back, get going.”
“Alright, we can do that.” Nico said with a nod.
I held my tongue, and just said- “Yes ma’am.”
She gave an approving smile.
After Gloria was back, we took to the sky. Flying made me feel better, especially given how close it let me be to my husband to be. He had both his arms around my waist, even if he’d really only need one. When he touched someone while his wings were out, they got pretty much weightless. So really, a romantic gesture instead of a pragmatic one. So I loved it. His wingspan was massive, almost twice my height across, pristine white feathers all across.
We reached open sky pretty quickly. High enough that anyone looking would think of it as a weird bird. There was a bit of magic at play that helped that illusion. Thankfully, whichever angel Nico’s family drew power from had some kind for subtly, Michael, however, had none. Which was fine, most of the time.
We stayed quiet, for a few moments, before I let out a loud-
“Fuck“
“…How eloquent, Divine Crusader.” Nico said with a laugh. I looked up with a mock scowl, and he made a more defensive look.
“Angels, I hate getting dragged out to places like this, to go fight people who probably don’t deserve it again, all because some French bitch tells us too!” I said, my protests having been heard before, and would be heard again.
“You know what the alternative is, yeah?” Nico said with a sigh. “I don’t like it either. But Hestia is a lot nicer then some of the other UN divisions. And I like being able to help people when I can, not hide from some extra-governmental boogeyman.”
“I know, I know-” We’d been through this before. “I just. This feels wrong, right? Telling people they can’t have power, when we can?”
“It does. Which is why we’re going to do what we always do, Maisy”
“…And what’s that?” I said, a broad smile forming on my face, as I knew what he was going to say.
“Malicious compliance-” He said, doing a brief twirling through the air, almost a full barrel roll, to my delight.
After he finished doing that, I planted a kiss on his lower arm, the only part of him within reach.
“I love you-” I said with a contented sounding sigh.
He leaned down, and kissed the back of my neck.
“And I love you too. I’m always going to do what’s right, and I know you will too. And I bet your aunt will too-”
“Oh please, she’d kick a puppy if Esa told her too-” I said, as a quick retort.
“I swear, she’s a big softie-” Nico said with a laugh. “She’s just…been through a lot, and doesn’t want anything else to go wrong. You know that. We’ve all felt like that, since-“
“Yeah. I know.” I said, awkwardly. We fell into silence as with surveyed the sky. To no ones surprise, there was nothing to see. After another ten minutes or so, once again according to Nico’s watch, I decided to break the silence by force. I gestured with my head, down towards a larger rooftop of one of the taller buildings.
“Set us down, I think I see something-”
Nico nodded, and with a flash of wings, we were there. He released me, and I stumbled forward a step, before he caught me. He looked around, oblivious.
“What did you see?”
I grabbed his arm, pulling in close to me, and kissing him for a long moment. When I released, I whispered.
“Someone who feels very lucky to be looking at the most handsome Angel in the entire world-”
He smiled at me, as I picked him up with ease, pressing him close to myself, as he began to reach for my blouse, his wings coiling around us for a long while.
Kindling And Miscellany 