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yourself forever. And if you do that, it will make me cry, Joth. But you'll be
the one who makes me cry-not Nevin."
Joth stared down at her for a long moment, then closed its eyes. The horns
sprouting from its head retracted themselves, like those of a snail. "Don't
cry, Lucy," the angel pleaded. "I never want you to cry, Lucy. Never."
Lucy blushed and flashed a smile as shy as a schoolgirl's. "That's sweet of
you, Joth-but crying is part of being human. I wouldn't he human if I didn't
cry now and again."
"Yes, it is a vale of tears you mortals dwell within, is it not?" Meresin
commented as he picked his way through the splintered ruins of the front door.
"Tears are part of the woof and weave of human existence-as is sorrow, pain,
loneliness and abject misery. All these things would be yours as well, friend
elohim. I ask you-is it worth it? Are you willing to surrender the uniformity
of the Clockwork, the constancy of the Machine, to partake of the unleavened
bread of mortality?"
"What are you doing here?" snapped Lucy.
"Just stopping by to speak with my newest client regarding a point of
business, my dear, that's all! It seems I forgot to get him to sign a couple
of documents earlier," the sephiroth smiled slyly, patting his breast pocket.
"I'm a stickler for paperwork."
"You've done enough damage as it is, daemon," Ezrael replied. "Joth doesn't
need you tickling its ear with your serpent's tongue."
"This prodigal will be mine whether it falls or fails," Meresin said with a
shrug. "Indeed, it seems to be already more Infernal than Celestial by the
looks of it. I simply do not see how encouraging this poor creature to pass
itself through the eye of the needle is worth all this fuss! It's plain to see
that the elohim's fate is sealed."
"Hold on-what's going on here?" rasped Nevin as he lurched to his feet,
massaging his throat. "Meresin-you know these assholes?"
"Ah-Nevin! I am pleased to see you still amongst the living, although it would
have been worth sacrificing a pawn such as yourself in order to capture a
knight."
"Is everybody around here a friggin' nutcase? What are you babbling about?"
scowled Nevin.
Meresin cast a disparaging glance at the artist. "Do not bother your gray cell
about it, you talentless cat's paw!"
"Hey-!" Nevin said angrily. "You're supposed to be my agent! Where do you get
off calling me talentless-!!?"
"Do as I say-!" snarled Meresin, allowing its mask of humanity to drop long
enough to flash the artist a glimpse of the true face underneath. "Go tend to
your tedious yoke-mate-to-be and stay out of this! Come the dawn, neither of
you will have any clue as to what happened here-except for the window, of
course."
Nevin turned the color of oatmeal and scuttled over across the room to help a
dazed Gwenda sit up. Meresin sighed and turned back to Lucy and Ezrael.
"Where were we-? Ah, yes! As for yourselves, I recommend that you take this
time to take the prodigal and go, before the police arrive."
"Meresin's right," Ezrael said. "We don't have much time."
Lucy turned to look at the angel. "Joth-please come home."
The angel glanced over at Nevin, who was kneeling beside Gwenda. The artist
cringed and tried to position his dazed fiancée between himself and the angel.
Joth nodded and stepped forward. "I am ready to go home."
Meresin watched the trio flee the apartment, waving a final farewell before
turning to glare dispassionately at Nevin and Gwenda.
"What the fuck was all that about?!?" spat Nevin, regaining some of his
bravado now that the others were gone. "And what's with you taking up for that
bitch and her wacko friends, telling them to beat it before the cops got here?
That fuckin' lunatic jumped through the window and tried to kill me!"
"Actually, it was trying to destroy you," Meresin corrected. "Daemons do not
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
kill or murder-that is purely a mortal sport. We destroy. Granted, it may seem
a matter of semantics to the person involved. However, you should be more
generous in regard to Ms. Bender. You owe her your life, what there is of
it."
Meresin frowned, studying Gwenda as one would a particularly distasteful bug.
"Frankly, I do not see why you chose to discard Ms. Bender for such a creature [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]