The Daughter of Death- *RAYOR*

Chapter 19: A Tale to Tell

The next few weeks were much better. Aster dropped in, and after he caught Nicco and Levy on his tail, accepted that we couldn't hide this from them, and let them drop in too. Many nights were spent, Aster and Arielle and I, laughing around a fire. There was something bad, though. We had lost the horses in the maze.

So walking was something we did, a lot, and soon, I began to feel that I would always travel by scythe when I became a reaper again.

"My legs hurt," I complained.

"Haven't you said that, maybe, ten times in the last hour?" Willow looked grumpy.

"Yes, and I'm saying it again." At least my rear no longer ached on the bony back of the pony.

Arielle, obviously used to sipping tea in dainty cups and lounging about, was not happy at all. "I don't like this." She slumped down on a rock.

"No one likes walking, but we forgot about the horses," said Willow.

"How did we do that?" I looked ahead.

"Maybe only three days until we reach the Cave," said Willow, ignoring me and studying the map.

"Three days?" it seemed like forever. I was craving my old life now.

"We had to start somewhere," said Willow. "What makes you think you can find your powers, anyway? The Cave is endless."

I tried not to let this dissuade me. "I will be able to find them."

"You don't know what they look like, Blake."

I looked down at the floor. "We've come such a long way." My head snapped up. "Arielle?"

"Yes?" she was looking at the floor again.

"You... you can travel like a reaper," I said. "I've just remembered. When you left Russia for Egypt."

"I can," said Arielle.

"Why didn't you say?"

She shrugged. "I didn't need to. And it's not like I can transport all three of us."

I knew her logic was true, but still felt slightly betrayed.

The sun was sinking, and soon, night fell. We kindled a fire and sat down together, warming our hands by it. It was fully fledged winter, which was a good thing. All the walking kept me warm.

I tried to feel grateful for this, but instead I felt tired.

Arielle left then, eager for sleep, and Willow and I shielded the fire from the icy wind.

"What happened, Willow?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"With Arielle. She's sixteen. Sometimes she acts like it. Sometimes she acts like a child."

"I know," said Willow.

"Why?"

He looked down. I felt my heart sink to somewhere around my stomach.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't-"

"No," he said. "It's... fine." He paused, seeming to piece words together, then began. "I think the only person my dad loved was my mum. He had been a fallen angel, banished from Elysium, powerless and unprotected when she met him. She took him in and brought him back to life, though she barely knew him, though she didn't have to." He let out a sigh. "Stupid. She was stupid, but so kind. They later-" he waved a hand to indicate marriage- "and Ari and I were born. That was when he began to... change, I guess. He became... different. Ari doesn't remember. I shielded her from most of it. But she remembers the screaming. I think it broke her. She hated that, being afraid, and it made her even more so. It ripped her apart. Some part of her is still trapped in the past... with him."

He covered his hand with his face, and when he next talked, his voice was softer, a little muffled. "I don't know how it happened, but she died, very young. My mother. He was distraught. Love isn't perfect, but he knew and I knew that my mother was perfect. In 2008, an artifact was coined, one that could reverse death. He stole it, and used it on my mother. She lost all recollections of him. But she remembered me and Ari. She always remembered us. I was the only one who knew she was our mother."

"Where is she? Who is she?"

He looked down. "Enid."

"What?"

"Her powers appeared after she was brought back to life," Willow said. "And every hair on her head turned white. It was a glitch." His face was expressionless.

I knew it was pointless to say that I was sorry, that he had probably heard it many times before. "I... didn't know that."

"Not many people knew," said Willow.

"How can someone get banished from Elysium? An angel?"

"Maybe if they do something really bad." Willow looked into the fire. "Can you go now? Please."

I got up, leaving him in the snow, wondering if it really was the right thing to do.

The next two days passed in a blur, and the cold seemed to die down a little. The crest of a hill, a sun peeking out behind it, was what greeted me that morning.

"The cave's there," said Willow. He looked much more cheerful.

"Then let's go," I said. Arielle took Willow's hand, and we hiked up the hill. Excitement gave me strength, and I surpassed Willow and Arielle, soon standing at the top of the hill. I saw a lake, the cave, and a person sitting with their back to me, legs in the frigid water.

Forcing down the impulse to shout to them- what if I made them faint?- I walked down carefully down the steep slope. What would the cave look like? I wondered. A jumbled library of objects? Would they be strewn on the floor? Neatly packaged up? Arranged in shelves? Who was the boy? Some sort of guardian?

I smiled as I reached nearer to the person, maybe ten feet between us. And stopped.

I knew the arm, resting on the shore, the slight lean to the left hand. I knew the back of that wildly curly black head. I knew the jawline, the alertness of his posture, the tilt of his head to the sky. And I couldn't believe it.

"Gabriel?"