Little Russia

[SINIB]

Lubei

He let his head tilt to the side. The angle didn't make her appearance any more or less unusual, but it felt strangely fragile to Lubei's eyes.

"We sleep and eat as mortals, but the mightiest more out of want than need," he replied. Pushing stagnant air out of his lungs with the heaving of his chest, he tapped at his temple with a weary swing of the wrist. "There's no end to what troubles me. And what of you?"

Ivanna

"Angels are a superior existence who do not require mortal convivences nor possess their weaknesses. We are perfect beings who act as the arms, eyes, and ears of God, and sometimes, even his voice. I am one of the highest grade of angels, serving directly beneath Lord Michael himself. I know all that there is to know, my existence is an immutable fact of the universe."She turned her head and looked straight into his eyes at the same angle. Despite her words, there was a bitter and hurt tone to her words which was not typical of how she usually spoke. It was almost as of she were jealous? Bitter? Angry?

[YOLF]

Lubei

That wasn't what he was asking. Was his shortness of words to blame, or did she choose her answer on purpose? If it was true, then truly her ilk sat beneath the very heavens. But it didn't sit right. Even gods lived within the roads of karma, and immutability and omniscience were not freedom from it. Was that what crawled with familiarity in Lubei's stomach, listening to her?

The demon king raised a hand, slow and deliberate, and it hovered an inch from her head. Gnarled tension furrowed his brow, and he shut his eyes before patting her hair.

"Your purpose makes you bitter?" He asked.

[SINIB]

Lubei

That wasn't what he was asking. Was his shortness of words to blame, or did she choose her answer on purpose? If it was true, then truly her ilk sat beneath the very heavens. But it didn't sit right. Even gods lived within the roads of karma, and immutability and omniscience were not freedom from it. Was that what crawled with familiarity in Lubei's stomach, listening to her?

The demon king raised a hand, slow and deliberate, and it hovered an inch from her head. Gnarled tension furrowed his brow, and he shut his eyes before patting her hair.

"Your purpose makes you bitter?" He asked.

Ivanna

Her hair felt soft and silken as he ruffled his large fingers against her small head. It felt perfectly soft in a supernatural manner which couldn't simply be explained with good hair care.

"H-hey." Ivanna muttered, a rare redness painting her cheeks a rosy color. "Maybe." She responded after a few flustered moments that felt like an eternity for the small angel, before she settled into this rare show of affection for her. She hadn't felt like this in millennia, not since the War in Heaven...

"I mean, ahem. Maybe it's the lack of purpose, too." Ivanna bit her lower lip and averted her gaze. She hadn't heard from Him. Not once. "I feel-" Her words fell off into silence. She wasn't sure if she really should even be voicing such thoughts.

[YOLF]

Lubei

How strange. Was his host the kind who looked strong, but kept all weaknesses to herself? He could relate, but that didn't feel accurate. His younger sibling was an audacious, shameless girl, but she hid away her frailties behind a remonstrative glare. She did not enjoy being gazed upon or comforted in such a state, yet needed it. That was closer, but Ivanna did not snap at his touch in disregard of her dignity. No, there was... someone else. A cousin? A child. Sun-kissed skin red with unspilled tears. His daughter? Lubei didn't have children.

A child whose blood lay on his hands. A thousand reasons burning in the fires of hell, none of which could answer for the lives on his back. A tomb of ice for a living soul.

He pulled his feathered touch away, curling his hand into a fist, and squinted at the seraph through the pain that creased his forehead. "Sinking." He finished in her stead.

"You feel... Afloat, adrift, oceans apart from land? Forced to wear down your feet and to tear your legs, told that forward is the only way to go, when you can't see where the end lies. Though you must make choices to proceed, and none will tell you whether they were right or wrong, and you know not whether you were entitled to make them. Entrusted with determining goodness when you are alone because you didn't know it in the first place, and only ever desired to execute it."

The stinging in his brain receded as he spoke, and he exhaled in relief. It turned to silent trepidation as his own words sank.

[SINIB]

Lubei

How strange. Was his host the kind who looked strong, but kept all weaknesses to herself? He could relate, but that didn't feel accurate. His younger sibling was an audacious, shameless girl, but she hid away her frailties behind a remonstrative glare. She did not enjoy being gazed upon or comforted in such a state, yet needed it. That was closer, but Ivanna did not snap at his touch in disregard of her dignity. No, there was... someone else. A cousin? A child. Sun-kissed skin red with unspilled tears. His daughter? Lubei didn't have children.

A child whose blood lay on his hands. A thousand reasons burning in the fires of hell, none of which could answer for the lives on his back. A tomb of ice for a living soul.

He pulled his feathered touch away, curling his hand into a fist, and squinted at the seraph through the pain that creased his forehead. "Sinking." He finished in her stead.

"You feel... Afloat, adrift, oceans apart from land? Forced to wear down your feet and to tear your legs, told that forward is the only way to go, when you can't see where the end lies. Though you must make choices to proceed, and none will tell you whether they were right or wrong, and you know not whether you were entitled to make them. Entrusted with determining goodness when you are alone because you didn't know it in the first place, and only ever desired to execute it."

The stinging in his brain receded as he spoke, and he exhaled in relief. It turned to silent trepidation as his own words sank.

Ivanna

Yes, this felt good. Liberating. The brief feeling of his hand against her head brought a momentary sense of peace to her mind. It didn't feel like she was so alone. Like he was able to empathize with her fears, her worries. Of course, this was a fancy. She knew this. There was so much more, so much he couldn't possibly understand, because his world was so different from her own. They were both aliens, desperately trying to find their ways in this brave new world. Ivanna sighed. "It sounds like you're feeling the same way that I am-funny." She chuckled, and then turned back around. "Let us walk. The best way to experience the cold patter of snow is to remain in motion through it. Praise the lord."

Through her selfish use of power, the sky suddenly grew overcast, and a light flurry began to fall onto them as the wind howled around them. "There's a peacefulness in the cold, don't you agree?"

[YOLF]

Lubei

His feet followed, but the response wallowed in his throat. It was reckless to share so much. There was no point in making this about himself when he was just returning her kindness. It was undeserved to lament these stray feelings.

Yet beneath the cover of familiar gales, Lubei found himself speaking. "In the depths of my land, the cold brings only death, yet ice is our greatest guardian, and the foundations of our city. We despise fire, for it targets our weakness, but heat is the greatest commodity of all."

He had attained dominion of frost, ruling implacable over the icy wastes, untouched and comforted by Winter as its king on the Earth. Yet he feared the frozen land ordained by the Heavens, to which his soul was destined. "It's... complex."

[SINIB]

Ivanna

"Come now Lubei." Ivanna chided him with a laugh. "It could hardly be more complex than my love of the cold. You've witnessed how I fight. My element is fire, and I use it to clense that which is abhorrent to God. I burn until not even the ashes remain. Hadn't you already been wondering why I was in charge of a fridged paradise such as this one, when I could shift the weather and climate with but a simple song?"

"You long for that which is difficult to obtain-Lubei. But it's also frightening. Unsettling to experience new things." Ivanna reached up and wrapped her small hand around his thumb. "If you ever need an ear, I will be by your side."

[YOLF]

Lubei

It wasn't the same! There was naught to condemn in seeking relief after a duty that your heart wasn't into, to distance yourself from the means and in being apart from your actions. That was not the same as denying them. Ivanna's business with an annoying responsibility was her own. One could move for duty, but find no joy in the deeds. Lubei's protests were foolish. He might have questions, but he knew what conscience demanded. Some piece of him, deep inside, was fracturing, and he was almost ready to understand why.

The angel's grip on his thumb tugged him back to reality. His eyes rested on her with a mumbling growl. "Remorse binds me, and my pride rakes against it," he said, as the softness of familiar feathers rubbed against his neck. He wished it was easier. "Thank you."

[SINIB]

Lubei

It wasn't the same! There was naught to condemn in seeking relief after a duty that your heart wasn't into, to distance yourself from the means and in being apart from your actions. That was not the same as denying them. Ivanna's business with an annoying responsibility was her own. One could move for duty, but find no joy in the deeds. Lubei's protests were foolish. He might have questions, but he knew what conscience demanded. Some piece of him, deep inside, was fracturing, and he was almost ready to understand why.

The angel's grip on his thumb tugged him back to reality. His eyes rested on her with a mumbling growl. "Remorse binds me, and my pride rakes against it," he said, as the softness of familiar feathers rubbed against his neck. He wished it was easier. "Thank you."

Ivanna

"No problem." Ivanna replied with a simple expression. "Let us walk."

[YOLF]

Lubei

Deep in the halls of the Seraph of Little Russia, Lubei's nails drummed on an ornate desk as he attempted to glare understanding out of the pages spread out before him. Curled in frustration, his shoulders strained to keep him sitting straight, but discipline spoke just a little higher. It wasn't as if he was working in an office beneath another's judging awareness, or onlooking colleagues that would dare to scold him for sloppiness. This room had been given him as a guest and an ally, to use for an indefinite time, and he had to share it with no one.

Just as he refused to loosen his poise in private, however, he made no attempt to customize the surroundings. The same high walls with the same paintings, the floor with the same carpeting and furniture, the same grave carvings around the windows as had been provided to him were as visible as before the demon settled in for merely temporary rest. The only addition were books. An increasingly large stack of books made its home on his desk. Most of them related to the history of the Nexus. One was a collection of apparently local folklore. Another dealt with contemporary economic theory. Two of the thinnest were fiction of a sinfully brainless sort, and they were the most untouched.

He rubbed an uncomfortably warm palm on his temple. It seemed to Lubei that any amount of his laboring in this place only produced more issues to worry about. Nothing could be as simple as charity, or conquest and construction by any other name. Demon clan politics and heavy handed vengeance claims were almost preferrable. But most importantly, it didn't matter what he preferred, because he was no closer to knowing how to go back. Every answer he found in these pages only buried that goal further in the future.

But the worst was that he couldn't get that encounter out of his head. He couldn't get Mai away from his thoughts, nor the questions she made him ask, as omnipresent as the bird that haunted him. Lubei had searched for her, after, but their paths had not crossed again. What would he even do if he found her? It was plain they weren't compatible, or at the least they would only engage in mutual punishment through barbed words if they shared the same air. But Lubei still wanted to speak to her again. He couldn't bear the thought of how she planned to continue to live, though he had no rightful say in it.

"Perhaps Ivanna could..." His muffled words died under his tongue as he rose from the chair and slammed shut the book in his hands. It wasn't pride that kept him from asking the angel for help. This wasn't business. But just requesting to hear the thoughts of a friend on a personal complication should be no large burden.

He threw on his coat over his azure tunic and moved in search of the petite ruler.

[SINIB]

Lubei

Deep in the halls of the Seraph of Little Russia, Lubei's nails drummed on an ornate desk as he attempted to glare understanding out of the pages spread out before him. Curled in frustration, his shoulders strained to keep him sitting straight, but discipline spoke just a little higher. It wasn't as if he was working in an office beneath another's judging awareness, or onlooking colleagues that would dare to scold him for sloppiness. This room had been given him as a guest and an ally, to use for an indefinite time, and he had to share it with no one.

Just as he refused to loosen his poise in private, however, he made no attempt to customize the surroundings. The same high walls with the same paintings, the floor with the same carpeting and furniture, the same grave carvings around the windows as had been provided to him were as visible as before the demon settled in for merely temporary rest. The only addition were books. An increasingly large stack of books made its home on his desk. Most of them related to the history of the Nexus. One was a collection of apparently local folklore. Another dealt with contemporary economic theory. Two of the thinnest were fiction of a sinfully brainless sort, and they were the most untouched.

He rubbed an uncomfortably warm palm on his temple. It seemed to Lubei that any amount of his laboring in this place only produced more issues to worry about. Nothing could be as simple as charity, or conquest and construction by any other name. Demon clan politics and heavy handed vengeance claims were almost preferrable. But most importantly, it didn't matter what he preferred, because he was no closer to knowing how to go back. Every answer he found in these pages only buried that goal further in the future.

But the worst was that he couldn't get that encounter out of his head. He couldn't get Mai away from his thoughts, nor the questions she made him ask, as omnipresent as the bird that haunted him. Lubei had searched for her, after, but their paths had not crossed again. What would he even do if he found her? It was plain they weren't compatible, or at the least they would only engage in mutual punishment through barbed words if they shared the same air. But Lubei still wanted to speak to her again. He couldn't bear the thought of how she planned to continue to live, though he had no rightful say in it.

"Perhaps Ivanna could..." His muffled words died under his tongue as he rose from the chair and slammed shut the book in his hands. It wasn't pride that kept him from asking the angel for help. This wasn't business. But just requesting to hear the thoughts of a friend on a personal complication should be no large burden.

He threw on his coat over his azure tunic and moved in search of the petite ruler.

Ivanna

As he threw open the door, his search was cut short in a rather lackluster manner.

"Eep!" The small angel he was looking for seemed to have had much the same idea—and considering her trembling hand was raised to where his doorknob had just been, she'd been about to enter herself.

Ivanna's beauty was indelible from her form, flawless and perfectly sculpted as if by Michelangelo himself, she looked exhausted. Beyond tired, and slightly wide-eyed in a crazed manner.

"Ah-L-lubei. I was wo-wondering if we could chat?"

[YOLF]

Lubei

He seized mid-step, left to stare at Ivanna's early appearance. It was a good thing, not unlike ripping off a sticky bandage from a wound corroded by the unearthly that had finally begun to scab as it should, skipping the process of looking for her. Now, however, it was not his hesitation that attempted to kick his dialogue knees to the ground, but the unmistakeable unease that the angel was radiating.

"In truth, I was," he said, then cast the rest of the sentence to oblivion, breathing. "Yes. Of course. You look disturbed. Is what what you want to talk about?"

[SINIB]

Lubei

He seized mid-step, left to stare at Ivanna's early appearance. It was a good thing, not unlike ripping off a sticky bandage from a wound corroded by the unearthly that had finally begun to scab as it should, skipping the process of looking for her. Now, however, it was not his hesitation that attempted to kick his dialogue knees to the ground, but the unmistakeable unease that the angel was radiating.

"In truth, I was," he said, then cast the rest of the sentence to oblivion, breathing. "Yes. Of course. You look disturbed. Is what what you want to talk about?"

Ivanna

"I-well..." Ivanna started, but then her voice trailed off, leaving her thought left painfully unfinished. "Yes. But what did you want to discuss?" She looked around, almost fearfully. "Perhaps talking here isn't the greatest of ideas."

[YOLF]

Lubei

Lubei mannerisms weren't flexible enough to bring across the entirety of his confusion. What did she have on her mind that she felt unsafe in the heart of her territory? Could anyone who was neither a guest nor blazingly loyal to her even enter these halls at will? He couldn't sense anything so strange or so unholy near.

"Where then?" He asked. The demon cast his eyes left and right over the otherwise vacant hall, then back to his door. Without thought, he extended an open hand to Ivanna in urgent invitation.

[SINIB]

Lubei

Lubei mannerisms weren't flexible enough to bring across the entirety of his confusion. What did she have on her mind that she felt unsafe in the heart of her territory? Could anyone who was neither a guest nor blazingly loyal to her even enter these halls at will? He couldn't sense anything so strange or so unholy near.

"Where then?" He asked. The demon cast his eyes left and right over the otherwise vacant hall, then back to his door. Without thought, he extended an open hand to Ivanna in urgent invitation.

Ivanna

Ivanna paused, taking a deep breath and quieting her paranoia before responding. "I-I don't know. That's part of the problem." She looked behind herself before returning her quiet but fearful gaze to Lubei. "Not here. Do you know of any places outside of my domain?"