23.4

Deep within the Old Temple in Lyr, Zyrdicia lay on pile of silken pillows in a room that had once housed a shrine to Azriok in ancient times. Most of the modern temple had been built by the Zyrian priesthood a thousand years ago atop a much older complex of interconnecting Sephiroth shrines. Those, in turn, had been built at some point over even older places of worship. The deeper one went in the catacombs beneath the temple, the older the ruins.

She was the only living being with an intimate knowledge of the darkest depths of those catacombs. She had explored them thoroughly over the years. She knew every ghost and ghoul, every hidden door and booby trap.

Miles below the city's surface now, she rarely came down this far down anymore. She could hide adequately in any of the levels just below the main temple complex. It took a fair amount of work to reach this deepest area. Many, many generations of Priests had protected the catacombs beneath the Old Temple with the greatest magical wards they could muster. The deeper one went, the more protected the area. Circumventing all those protective glyphs and death spells was a tedious chore.

Now that she was here, she breathed a forlorn, fatigued sigh. The darkness was unbroken, and the silence was perfect. Not even the slither of vermin disturbed the quiet. She stared vacantly at the ceiling, feeling crushed by the weight of her life.

She wanted to sleep. It had been so very long since she had been able to do that. A heavy weariness combined with her ever-present loneliness to wrap her psyche in a suffocating shroud of melancholy.

She let her mind drift, begging sleep to take her. For once, the demon-filled dreamworld seemed preferable to her waking reality. Being flayed by dream demons had become a desirable escape from the despair of the material world.

As the first tendrils of sleep embraced her, a soft flutter of feathers stirred somewhere nearby, breaking the room's silence. She opened her eyes irritably and scanned the darkness. She sat up quickly, startled by the nearness of the presence she detected.

Just a few inches from her feet, a black-winged figure knelt, staring at her expectantly. His coal-colored hair fell in bunches of tight curls at his shoulders. His youthful appearance made him look a little like a wicked cherub.

The dark angel's eyes fixed upon Zyrdicia mischievously as though waiting for her to join him in a game. He flashed a playful smile. In one hand, he clutched a rune-covered, golden bow.

Zyrdicia frowned at the sight of the weapon - it was obviously of Seraphim manufacture. "Who the fuck are you?" she hissed.

"Andireon."

She had never heard the name from Azriok. She pondered how to deal with this new stranger. She could call her sword and kill him, thus ending his game. Or she could let him play it out.

Sensing her thought, Andireon said, "If you call your blade, I shall flee before you can kill me. My freedom is much too dear."

"You've taken quite a risk in coming to me then."

"I've wanted to meet you for so very long. You cannot imagine how curious I am about you."

"Does Azriok know that you are here?"

"No. I spend most of my time in the mortal world so that he cannot catch me."

"You're afraid of Azriok? Then you must serve Zyr."

"I did once. But no one does that anymore. Zyr's time is past."

Zyrdicia saw excitement animate the dark angel's eyes. He wanted desperately to reveal something to her. He pursed his lips knowingly, expecting her to catch a cryptic hint that eluded her.

She groaned, "I don't give a fuck about the war in Hell."

Andireon shook his head gravely. "There is no war, princess. Azriok has won it. Azriok is already slaying the last of our kind. I hide in this world to escape him."

"I doubt that."

"The Twilight has never been about Zyr and Azriok. It is about you and Azriok. He alone rules Hell now, and he has a plan to devour you and your spawn."

Zyrdicia rubbed her eyes, thinking. All that she knew of Hell's war she heard from Azriok - or Astaroth. And Astaroth had not appeared to her in quite some time. It would be a trivial thing for Azriok to deceive her by pretending that his own minions belonged to Zyr. But she had no reason to trust this new angel.

The playful expression returned to Andireon's face. He held up his golden bow then and said, "Have you no curiosity about this?"

"You stole it from a Seraph. So what?"

"Not just any Seraph - Cupid!"

Zyrdicia rolled her eyes and smirked at the thought of Cupid's bow in the hands of an evil angel.

"I waylaid him centuries ago in Luminaria and killed him. You cannot imagine the fun I have had with his bow. I can shoot a couple through the heart with Cupid's arrows, and then send a demon to kill one of them while the other watches. Or I shoot the children of sworn enemies causing them to run away together and thereby bring warfare to their families. I cause women to love men destined for the gallows and men to love women destined for convents. I hunt for the most chaste and faithful of spouses, then cause one to fall in love with the husband or wife of another. No one's virtue is out of this bow's reach! I can cause tragedy and pain unlike any possible with dark magic."

"Lovely," Zyrdicia said dryly.

"It is lovely!" Andireon laughed. "Look at what I did to the poor mortal your father bred for you."

Zyrdicia stared through the darkness at the Sephiroth and shook her head warily, "Your arrow missed its mark there."

"Oh, no it didn't. It's still there. As it is with you." He added quickly, "Stealing Cupid's bow for this purpose was Zyr's idea, you know." Andireon made a magical gesture at her and revealed a previously invisible, golden arrow protruding from her chest. It should have been a lethal wound, clean through the heart.

"Take it out!" she ordered coldly.

"Impossible. It would pull your whole heart out."

"Fine. I'll live without a heart."

"No, that wouldn't do. We have the spawn to think of now." Andireon's eyes lingered on his arrow in her. He confided, "I didn't think it would affect you, you know. You have so much of us in you. But Zyr was certain."

Zyrdicia's eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to her, "What if you shot Azriok? Would he love me then?"

Andireon shook his head. His eyes sparkled in delight as she finally joined his game. He laughed gaily and answered, "No. But Seraphim weapons are poisonous to us. One of Cupid's arrows would gravely wound him."

Andireon picked up the bow and pulled its string back, causing an arrow to materialize, ready to fire. He plucked the golden missile from the bow and held it out to Zyrdicia.

The instant she reached for it, he snatched it away playfully. "Only on one condition, princess."

"What?"

"You must permit me to co-exist with you in the material world forever. I want to escape the Twilight."

Zyrdicia's jaw dropped slightly at the request. She stared at him as though he were a raving idiot. "You want to be human?"

"No," Andireon said adamantly. His form wavered and his wings vanished. His matter lost its alien features and settled into the shape of a young, mortal man. He grinned impishly and said, "But I want to pass for one. The fun is endless!"

Zyrdicia's shock quickly gave way to fascination as she stared at the human form of the Sephiroth. His youthful face was aglow with a playful thirst for mischief. He reached for one of her hands and grasped it lightly. His touch was as cold as she expected.

He stared at her with a curiosity that echoed her own. His gaze became intimate and he whispered, "You carry such sadness in you, yet you have such power in this world. Why is that?"

"I'm lonely, Andireon," Zyrdicia sighed. "I miss a past with Azriok that will never be again, and the friendship with a mortal that never really was."

"I have watched love's ghost linger long after it dies. The Seraphim cursed this race with a suffering as cruel as any of the afflictions we sent from Hell."

"I wish I were truly one of you so that I didn't feel it."

"We secretly envy you the experience," Andireon confided. "Even Azriok himself. He hates humans as much as he does because of it."

Zyrdicia smiled wryly, wishing it were true. But she knew in her heart that Andireon was lying to ingratiate himself to her. Lonely as she was, though, she appreciated the effort.

He stood up then, still grasping her hand. Despite his human form, the effortlessness with which he had pulled her up was entirely inhuman. He flashed a perfect, boyish grin. He suggested slyly, "Let's go cause havoc together."

"Why?"

"You crave company. And I'm frightfully bored."