Eve was almost an ordinary woman. She had hair down to her shoulders that was so dark it appeared to be made of pure shadow. Her face was free from all birthmarks, pockmarks, spots and scars, her skin was pale, at a stark contrast with her hair. Her face – white framed against black – gave the impression of the moon on a starless night. Her eyes were a piercing green. She would have been a completely ordinary woman if it weren’t for the two wings that protruded from her shoulder blades, they were a pale green colour and their many feathers were not unlike the many blades of grass in a meadow. Her lips were cherry red and she was clothed in in a green dress that had a pattern upon it which was the form and shape of thousands of leaves from every type of tree. Her shoes were plain leather. 

As she sat cross-legged on the soft grass she fingered a long blade that rested on her lap. The blade was steel with an ivory cross-guard and hilt. Along both the blade and the hilt were inscribed symbols – runes – that danced and twirled with beautiful calligraphy, whoever had inscribed the runes had done so lovingly, with an eye for beauty rather than cold function. 

As Eve sat there meditating, she moved her hands subtly, measuring the air currents, and was surprised to discover a void of air directly behind her. 

Someone was standing behind her. 

She only moved when she sensed something move towards her neck. She jerked forwards, avoiding the weapon, and she managed to move into an awkward roll. She came up crouched and turned to face her assailant. Her assailant was an Angel like her but with blue wings instead of green, in his hands he held a mahogany staff tipped with a head shaped like a hawks, the hawks eyes were rubies set into the wood. Runes, much like the ones on her sword, ran the entire length of the staff. 

Her attacker stepped forward, his staff already swinging towards her wrists which she now held her sword in with both hands. She moved her wrists left, out of the way of the staff but the weapon still collided with her right arm, breaking it. Eve cried out in pain but didn’t clutch her arm, that’s what he wanted. Instead she moved her sword into her left hand and swung at her attacker, a slashing motion that would have sliced her opponent from hip to shoulder. If he hadn’t blocked it of course. Her eyes narrowed and she attacked again but every time she struck steel met wood. 

She took a few hasty steps back to give herself some respite and she began to circle him, seeking a weakness, when an idea sprang to mind.  

She knelt down and placed both hands flat on the ground, her sword between them. Her attackers face lit up with realization and moved to stop her but he was too slow. The earth exploded as the growth rate of the grass around him was sped up massively, the grass wound round his limbs like thick cable cords and lifted him in the air, his staff fell to the ground with a soft thud. The Angel struggled uselessly with his bonds, confusion flashed across his face but was quickly driven away by a smile. His whole body started to glow with heat. The grass bindings were turned to ash and he fell to the ground, landing gently on his feet. 

Eve still had her hands on the ground, she removed them now and glanced up, picking up her sword as she did so. She seemed dizzy and unfocused, sweat dripping off her in rivulets and her hair was matted. She had spent much of her strength when she had tried to keep the bindings together as they were burnt, but his magic had proven the stronger, much stronger. She shook her head and gathered her thoughts, she swayed slightly on her feet. She looked up at her opponent again, he wasn’t even breathing hard. 

Anger at how immaculate her attacker was flared within her brightly and she swung one more time at her attacker with all her strength, her swing was both strong and swift and should have taken his head from his shoulders, he had no way to defend himself, he hadn’t picked up his staff. But then, impossibly, he reached up and simply placed the palm of his hand on the sword blade. Eve’s arms jolted and her broken arm exploded in pain. The runes on her sword flashed brightly and suddenly her sword shattered into pieces. She automatically covered her face with her hands to protect her eyes and that warranted another blast of pain in her right arm. 

What happened next was a blur but she soon found herself flat on her back looking up at her attacker, waiting for the killing blow.       

Instead the staff clunked into the soil next to her and her attacker stuck out his hand to help her up. 

She took it and was hauled to her feet, where she brushed herself down. 

Her attacker watched her carefully, like he thought she was going to fall from exhaustion, and although Eve was tired, she wasn’t exhausted. 

The Angel in front of her was her teacher and friend Elijah, the Embodiment of Life and one of the three Elder Ones, the powerful Angels who ruled over all the other Angels, known as the Lesser Angels. He had skin that was tanned olive colour from being out in the sun, and he was clean shaven. He wore a tunic and trousers which were all the same deep red colour, which when with the blue and green of his wings made for an outfit as bright as his character. His ears were pointed and his eyes were the regular almond-shape if not a bit big. They were a dark hazel colour and most assumed that they were black. His hair was blonde and ran down to his shoulders in an untamed manner, resembling the mane of a lion. On his feet he wore sandals made of plain leather.   

Elijah picked up eves broken sword by the hilt, flipped it over in his hand so he was holding the broken end and presented the hilt to Eve, who took it without a word and sheathed it into her plain leather belt. 

‘How did you do it?’ Eve was glaring at him, they had sparred before, many times, but he had never caught her blade, and Elijah had once told her that her blade was unbreakable. 

‘How did I do what?’ Elijah’s voice was silky smooth as always, and now he had a look of fake innocence, he knew exactly what he’d done. 

‘Break my sword, you said it was impossible’. 

‘No, I said it was impossible to break when you were against ordinary opponents, I am not ordinary.’

Eve felt her temper rising so she bit back her retort and took a look at her surroundings. She often came here to be alone and quiet. The garden was arranged in a perfect circle 500 feet in diameter, with the plants lying on the outer edge of the circle and was so arranged in a ring. There were stone paths 6 feet across leading around the edge next to the plants but there were more paths leading inwards, like the spokes of a wheel, to meet in the centre where a fountain in the shape of a stone rose stood 15 feet high. The plants were the ordinary junipers, roses, foxglove and Azalea’s, but mixed in with them were other far less, sometimes unique plants. There were plants that flowered gems instead of petals, others were made of living stone, but perhaps the most unusual was the plant in the corner that appeared to be made of shadow. Whenever someone looked at it from the side it disappeared and when it was looked at from face on it had a 2-D flat appearance.  

Elijah cleared his throat behind her and she whirled back towards him quickly, but the action brought with it another flash of pain in her right arm. This time she did clutch it, suddenly aware of the throbbing pain. 

‘Let me have a look at it.’ Elijah’s voice was full of concern, and although she knew she should be touched by this she was more annoyed by it, she was 25 and he still tried to protect her from everything. 

‘I’m fine’ she snapped. ‘I just forgot to dull the nerve endings when you broke it, that’s all.’ 

‘Do you want me to fix it?’ 

She sighed, ‘yes of course.’ 

‘Good, this won’t hurt a bit.’ 

Elijah’s eyes began to glow, so bright that it was difficult to look at him, he took old of Eve’s arm and she bit back a cry of pain. He focused his eyes on her arm and it was filled with heat, she could feel her bones realigning, muscle reknitting together and new tissue being made. This time she did cry out in pain. 

Elijah let go of her arm, it fully healed, and she clutched it in pain. 

‘You lied.’ She said accusingly, ‘that hurt loads.’  

Elijah shrugged, ‘You wouldn’t have let me do it if you knew it would have hurt, and anyway it doesn’t hurt anymore.’ 

Eve glared at him, but then decided not to say anything, he was right of course, the pain was only a dull throb now, but she kept a hold of it anyway, no need to tell him she was feeling better.  

Elijah softened his voice and asked ‘Have you given it much thought?’ 

Eve sighed, knowing what he meant. ‘Lots.’ 

‘Have you reached a decision?’ 

Eve hesitated. ‘Possibly.’ 

‘And?’ 

Eve paused before answering. She was approaching the day when she, as the student of and Elder One, would become an Embodiment of her choosing and take her masters place. 

‘I was thinking Nature.’ 

Elijah’s response was immediate. ‘Why?’      

Eve shrugged. ‘It’s the branch of magic that’s easiest for me to control and I’m fascinated by it.’ 

Elijah nodded and led her down one of the stone paths towards the edge of the garden. 

‘You do know the consequences of this right?’ 

Eve nodded. 

‘Tell me them then.’ 

‘I will have my whole temperament change. Instead of being reasonable and just, I will decide with my instincts and the desire to protect myself. I will become peaceful to violent in a moment.’  243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPqxkJOJp8X
Precisely.’ 

Elijah hummed a tune as they walked around the garden. 

Eve stopped and bent down to pick one of the flowers at her feet. Elijah kept on walking for a few more steps before realizing that she had stopped. When he did he turned and smiled when he saw what she was doing. The flower she was picking was a white lily except instead of delicate petals it had petals made from white star sapphire. She straightened up again with the flower in her left hand. Elijah looked at it curiously and he waved his right hand over the flower and the flower began to twitch. The sapphire receded to the centre of the flower before disappearing completely and in its wake it left normal petals. Elijah had turned the flower into a proper lily. A bead of sweat ran down his brow. 

Just then a commotion could be heard coming from behind them, as if someone was hammering metal. They both turned to face the sound and a door emerged from the stone wall that encircled the garden. Out of it stumbled a single Angel with yellow wings, giving them a sickly appearance. He looked around for a second with confusion until his eyes settled on Eve and Elijah. The angel was dressed in armour that was bronze coloured and he carried no shield but had a short sword strapped at his hip and a pike strapped on his back between his wings. On his breastplate was a picture of a tower surrounded with six six-pointed stars. 

He ran over to Eve and Elijah and doubled over, out of breath. Both Angels waited patiently until he had recovered. When his breathing slowed he stood up, wiped the sweat from his face and he pounded his right fist onto the left side of his chest, as is the normal sign of respect top show to your elders in greeting and was often used as a salute. 

The Angel addressed them in a formal tone ‘Elijah, Eve.’ He nodded to each of them respectively. ‘Abaven requests your presence at the Magna Room on a matter of great urgency and importance.’ 

Elijah nodded, his face grave, ‘Thank you for coming so quickly, you’ve done well. Notify Abaven that we will be there presently and then return to your post.’ 

The Angel banged his breastplate again and ran off. 

Elijah turned to Eve and said ‘We should leave immediately, but first, summon your sword shards.’ He gestured towards the centre of the garden where they had been sparring. Eve looked surprised that she hadn’t picked them up.’ 

Eve held out her left arm, unwilling to trust her right just yet, she expanded her mind and felt the power thrumming in the air around her, she pulled it into herself and then extended it through the tips of her fingers towards the sword shards. When the power, the magic, encompassed the shards she pulled the power back towards her palm, and the remains of the sword were brought with it. 

The shards settled into her palm gently and she placed them in one of the many pockets in her dress. Maybe she would be able to remake the sword, it was one of her favourites.

She turned back to Elijah and nodded to show him that she was ready, it wasn’t every day you got an audience with Abaven.

‘Anyway, let’s go and see what our lord and master Abaven wants.’