Homecoming

“Are you sure you will be okay alone from here?” Sariel asked. Azreal shook his head in the affirmative.

“Yes. My wounds are still sore but they’re healing well. It’s maybe forty minutes to Teatris from here and it's not like I’ll be climbing a mountain.”

A few days ago, Azreal would never have imagined that he’d be able to scold Sariel like this. They’d barely ever talked. But now, the team was down to them and Cryph and what they had experienced during their failed mission had forged a connection between the two. Azreal wouldn’t say they were friends by any means, but they could communicate effectively with each other with minimal awkwardness. At any rate, he didn’t sense any malice or annoyance coming from Sariel when they interacted.

“Alright, just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t collapse where there are no people. If either of us hears anything, we’ll contact the other immediately, agreed?” Azreal nodded. Sariel seemingly lived a nomadic life by his own choosing. But, with the enormity of what they’d have to face in the future, He’d opted to stay at a town few hours from Nacre to be close to both the capital and Azreal.

“See you soon, then. Good luck, Sariel.” He waved goodbye to the other man before turning and resuming his journey down the road.

‘I hope Mari isn't going crazy with worry. Nanny and Sori know that my comings and goings don’t happen on a set schedule, but I told her I be back by the time they came back from Andressa and that happened a week ago. She’s probably terrified that I’m dead in a ditch somewhere.’

As strange as it was, he was burning with the desire to see Mari again. Part of it was that she soothed his anxiety and put him at ease, but he’d also recieved a disturbing wakeup call. Even if he knew he wasn’t to blame, he was still going to carry the weight of Scath’s death with him, potentially forever. It was a disturbing death that even a sadistic bully didn’t deserve. Encountering those demonic entities had made Azreal realize just how fragile life was. It was cliche, but true.

He’d been desensitized to death and conditioned to accept violence from an early age. He’d seen gory, unspeakable things and taken hundreds of lives. He may have had moral issues with what he did, but he long since ceased to be disturbed or scared by anything. But now...

he’d witnessed what could only be described as hell on earth and suffered a resounding loss. No matter how strong he was, there was a limit to his power, just like all other living beings. He was human and, just like Scath, he could end up dead in an instant. And thanks to the demonic creatures, he knew firsthand the depths of pure, unadulterated evil that existed.

For the briefest moment, when he had been thrown into the air by the creatures, his life had flashed before his eyes. And most of it was awful. Sad, bloodstained memories of hurting and being hurt. Loneliness and emptiness. Wishing he could just disappear. Until he’d met his family and the village that he’d called home. He’d found people that would love and accept him, even if he had done bad things. He was able to look forward to each day instead of just aiming to not die. And then Mari come into his life and, with her joy and excitement, she’d enriched his life tenfold.

He now had something that was good; something that wasn’t the darkness and despair he’d been trapped in for so long. When this realization had flashed before his eyes, Azreal finally saw how small and pathetic the majority of his life had been. But he had finally been allowed to glimpse  a bright light and, now that he had survived, he fully understood the preciousness of what he had. Azreal was now hyper aware of his own mortality. He wanted to embrace and bask in the light he’d been blessed with as much as possible. He wanted to have no regrets when he died because he had realized that his life could be over in an instant before he even knew it, just like Scaths

‘God, even if our time together has been short, Mari means more to me than I can put into words. I want to be with her again because I think I’m able of fully appreciating and respecting who she is and enjoying being with her.'

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“Is there anything you want, dear?” Nanny Tenka asked. Mari turned to look at her grandmother. “No, I’m good.” She gave a tight smile as the old woman slipped out to go to the market, but it fell off her face the second she was alone.

She was sitting at the table with a book, but she hadn’t read a single page in it. Sori had gone over to Rimea’s house because she was so unmotivated to play with him. She couldn’t even bring herself to feel any guilt over being a bad big sister.

The trip to the sea had been amazing! She’d been able to see and eat so many new things and had seen her best friend for the first time in years. Now that Mari had a permanent living situation, Tetra had promised to send her letters when the two had hugged goodbye back in Andressa. She'd had lots of fun and it felt like she had grown closer to Nanny and Sori, too! But she wanted Azreal, and he still hadn’t returned.

All she could think of was the worst-case scenarios of him having died in various brutal ways or been taken prisoner. It was strange; she’d spent her entire life alone, even when she had technically been living among others. But now that she was faced with the possibility of losing one of the first people who loved her...she clenched her first.

‘I love Azreal. I love him from the bottom of my heart. That is as basic a thing to me as breathing; it’s just right. But what would I actually do if he was gone?’ She couldn’t bring herself to carry that thought experiment all the way to the end. ‘Ugh, I’ll just go make some coffee, I think.’ Mari pulled herself to her feet and went to the outdoor kitchen.

She rummaged around the shelves, looking for the iron pot that Nanny brewed the coffee in. ‘Don’t tell me, Sori didn’t put it back in its place after breakfast?’

As she was grumbling, a black speck caught her eye off in the distance. It was so ordinary, it shouldn’t have drawn her attention, but she immediately zeroed in on the person that was slowly walking this way down the street. Mari frozen. ‘That shape and movement-!’ She suddenly dropped the dishes she was holding and tore out of the kitchen and down the road.

“Azreal!” She screamed, not wanting to believe what she was seeing. The figure sped up at the sound of her yelling. After what seemed like a thousand years, Mari finally reached Azreal and threw herself into his arms.

He yelped unexpectedly and stumbled backwards but, just like when they first met, his strong arms caught and supported her as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Azreal! Azreal! You...you had me so scared...” She started sniffling as squeezed him as tightly as she could, afraid he was a vision that would vanish any second.

“M-Ma-Mari...air...” Azreal gasped.

“Ah, sorry!” Mari quickly let go of him and hopped back to the ground. As she looked him up and down, she started tearing up again. “You’re hurt...” She reached out and grabbed one of Azreal’s hands.

“I’m okay, really.” Azreal said gently. “Things didn’t exactly go the way we expected. It’s one hell of a story and I’ll tell it to you later but...it’s just a mild injury. It hurts, but the worst is over because the medics at the palace fixed me up with magic.” He smiled warmly at her. “I knew you’d be nervous, and I wanted to get back to hear about your trip as soon as I could. I’m sorry that I chose the first time you experienced me leaving on a mission to end up sliced and diced.”

“No, you have nothing to apologize for.” Mari smiled radiantly through her happy tears. “Everything’s all better now that you’re here.”

Suddenly, Azreal wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into a tight hug.

“Ah! Az!” Mari was suppressed but not upset. ‘This is out of character. Not that I’m complaining though!’

Azreal’s body immediately relaxed as he leaned into hers and he buried his face in her shoulder. “I missed you so much...I’m glad I’m back...”

After a moment of shock, Mari returned his embrace and rested her head on his chest. She could feel his strong, steady heartbeat. ‘He’s alive. He’s alive and he’s here with me.’

“I missed you too. Welcome home, Az.” She whispered.

Book 1 End; To Be Continued in Book 2