The wings.
The demon.
Unhidden. Unmoderated.
Dangerous, and not shy about it.
I lean my head back on his shoulder, relaxing. “Nope.”
A flicker of a smile crosses his face.
Then he goes even faster.
Nariel carries me effortlessly as he asks with his flight: Do I scare you now?
Because given how he rose to power, even if spirits in Dark Earth respect him now, they must fear him, too. At the very least,he has to always be mindful of the power differential between him and the spirits who are his to protect.
But me, he just saw flex my still-burgeoning power and drop all my enemies in an instant, with barely even a spell.
Nariel can fly as fast as he wants without worrying he’s going to overwhelm me.I’mnot worried, anyway, and eventually he won’t be either.
But I think he also means for me to understand not just that he is strong but that I can rely on his strength, andthat’sa problem.
If I rely on him to solve this, no one will ever take me, or humans, or even other spirits, seriously.
If High Earth attacks me, or other wizards, or anyone in Low Earth, I can’t run to him to solve my problems for me. He has his own problems.
I have to be able to stand on my own, or Ican’tbe an equal partner to him.
But I’m also, very evidently, not enough on my own. If I were, Brook wouldn’t be involved in this.
Nariel cloaks us as we approach the waterfall and lands us on a bend in the trail, so no one notices we’ve just come from out of the literal blue.
We walk unspeaking, unwilling to poke this delicate and beautiful new thing between us despite the ugliness we just came from, through the new sounds of this place. The sounds of people. Of yelling, and laughter. Of rushing water rather than hushed silence.
The sounds of innocent people like my sister who can all become hostages against me, against this whole dimension, because I’ve done nothing to defend them.
Yet.
I stare at the waterfall. It’s a tall one and a strong one, crashing into a pool. The pool itself doesn’t look as dangerous as it is, but it’s only once the water crashes over boulders and thence downa creek that it’s safe for people to enter. The currents are too strong near where the waterfall hits the pool.
Which means it’s empty.
“Can you cloak me?” I ask Nariel. I don’t want anyone else watching me and deciding it’s safe for them to try.
I can use magic, after all.
Instead of triggering joy, my jaw clenches at the thought even as I feel Nariel’s magic tingle over me, my nerves dancing to awareness.
“I’ll wait for you,” he tells me softly.
For some reason, that’s what almost breaks my equanimity.
I clench my fists, holding my wand tightly, and dive into the pool.
For a moment, I let the whirlpool and the strong currents batter at me, let them wash me under.
I scream, releasing my gathered magic with a wild pulse that sets off a wave of water around me.
