//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Seraphim 
// by Salacar 
//------------------------------//





Seraphim


Chapter 1

 
 
The persistent feeling of agonizing pain was the first thing I knew as I became conscious once more, never before had I felt such pain and I hoped that I never again would. My world was one of misery and darkness at that point, I could barely feel my body and I was sure that my right arm at the very least was broken. Most troubling of all perhaps, was the hollow sensation where my soul, the source of my Ascended power, used to be. It felt akin to having a vital organ or limb taken from you, something you had depended upon your entire existence. The feeling was mortifying to say the least, and it terrified me like nothing else.

As I lay there I slowly became aware of my other senses, the pain in my body effectively numbing my mind, yet I couldn’t help but feel heavy raindrops, cool and soothing, fall on my exposed skin with a rhythm which at that point sounded much like a lullaby to my weary ears.

Where was I? What had I been doing? For the longest time I just lay there, feeling muddy ground beneath me, a multitude of questions running through my muddled and confused mind, I wasn’t certain for how long, but at some point it all came back to me in a rush.

Ezekiel, the Seraphim betrayer, the one who had apparently gotten rid of the rest of the Council, allied himself with the Fiends, and led an invasion force into the plane of Elysium. How could he do such a thing? Elysium and the White City had been his home, his charge, for an untold amount of time. He was one of the oldest and strongest among us, a Seraph of the highest regard, a champion of good and a beacon of light, someone who should have been incorruptible and without the slightest taint. What had happened to cause his fall? How had he turned into something capable of doing all that evil? He had killed so many of the Ascended, tainted Elysium with the presence of Fiends.
 
‘He destroyed the Flame of Life’
 
I felt tears running down my cheeks, just remembering what he had done brought a chunk of ice to my gut, I remembered the shock of it all, how he had so easily thrusted the tainted blade into the Flame, the core and center of all life across the planes. He shouldn’t have been able to destroy it, there was no way that it could be gone, it was supposed to be eternal, it was supposed to be!-…
 
The denial was promptly dismissed from my mind and replaced with something else, a burning anger the like of which I had never felt before, a sense of karmic vengeance as I became vividly aware that I was still somehow alive, even after being forcefully disconnected from the Flame and having most of my soul ripped from my body, I still lived. And if I still lived, I could still find Ezekiel and make him pay for all the misery he had wrought.
 
First of all, I needed to bring myself out of the state of misery and pain, recovering was my first objective. With the greatest care I opened my eyes, expecting to be thoroughly blinded by light, I was however pleasantly surprised when I discovered that it was night out, the soft light of a moon shining down upon me from between the crown of trees all around. A soft cold wind blew through the forest in which I lay, bringing calmness to my mind and slight comfort to my battered body. The stars above were many, so at the very least I knew that whatever plane I was on had an actual cosmology, you would be surprised how many intermediate planes consisted of only a single planet, or sometimes not even a planet at all.

As far as I could tell the trees and the flora around me were mostly green, sharing similarities with plant growth on Elysium, from this I figured that this world belonged to a yellow sun and that most common rules of biology would be present.
 
‘Well, here goes nothing.’
 
With pain wracking my body with every movement I raised my left hand to the front of my face, the smooth white skin was mostly whole and only carried a small amount of bruising. Thankful that my left arm and hand at least functioned, I tried to do the same with my right.

No such luck, no matter what I tried to do the only response I got from my right arm was a serious pain warning me not to try it again. The pain had started to confuse me greatly, I knew that it was normal for mortals to feel great pain if they damaged their bodies too much, but for us Ascended the pain was a minor thing, a simple warning of damage which should never be debilitating in any way, allowing us to fight on despite grievous injuries. Blaming the predicament on whatever had happened with the Flame I returned to investigating my body, flexing the muscles I could and trying to figure out how much was broken.

I discovered that my right arm and hand were the only limbs I couldn’t move, the rest of my body still felt like it had been dipped into molten lava, but at least nothing else seemed to be broken, a miracle considering I had just recently been slapped around by roughly seven thousand pounds of angry Balor.
 
I’ll admit, at that moment I considered just staying put until my body had healed itself, a rather rapid process for all Ascended, being entities of mostly energy meant that we weren’t limited by the mortal bodily functions in order to recover from damage or sickness. Given enough time we would be able to recover from all but the most deadly of wounds.

Another peculiar thing I noticed after my little examination was that my armour had apparently disappeared, I thought this to be odd because unlike my sword, lantern and wings, the armour I had worn wasn’t actually mine and didn’t have a matching Sealing Mark anywhere on my body, meaning that it wouldn’t have just merged with me after I was knocked out.
 
Deciding that the missing armour was yet another mystery for another time I tried to get on my feet, bracing myself against the ground with my functional arm, all the while doing my best to get up as painlessly as possible. I wasn’t all too successful in that regard.

After another few painful minutes I was steadily standing on my feet, maybe steadily might have been an overstatement, but at least I wasn’t falling on my face just yet.

I took the opportunity to look at my body again; turns out I was wearing what little I had worn beneath the armour at the time, a simple white tunic and matching trousers with light leather wrappings around my feet. At this point I realised that I was all alone, unarmoured and wounded in a dark forest on a world I was unfamiliar with. I quickly shifted my attention to the suddenly very intimidating woods around me, scanning through the trees to find, well, anything really.

With a sigh I concluded that there wasn’t anything dangerous out there, and I also found, to my great joy, that I at the very least still had some of my enhanced senses, and most likely still in possession of my Soul Sense. This made me rather happy, it was the ability I had the most training in after all, as being able to attune my sight to the plane of souls was an important skill in my duty as Caretaker.

Former duty, I had to remind myself.
 
‘Well, let’s find out what other abilities I can still call on.’

With determination in my mind I closed my eyes, shifting my focus to the well of power within me, my Soul. It was still there I concluded, but it felt more like a weak ember compared to what it used to be, so weak in fact that I was afraid it would be snuffed out at a moment’s notice, dropping my dead husk of a body to the ground without another thought.

After determining that I at the very least would still live for a while longer, I returned to examining the rest of my abilities, noticing with a smile that the Sealing Marks on the backs of my left and right hands still persisted, the familiar arcane patterns indicating the sealed items in question.

With a thought I conjured my silver sword, the Mark on my right hand glowing softly as the physical form of the sword was unmerged from my essence and brought to my hand.

Or rather, would have been brought to my hand if it was still useable, instead the sword fell to the ground, blade first into the soft earth. With a sigh I retrieved the blade with my functioning left hand, feeling the leather bound hilt brought a sense of security to mind, but I couldn’t help but feel how heavy the sword itself felt, though it was most likely just the result of my weakened state.
 
I quickly dismissed the silver blade, then shifted my concentration to bringing out my Miracle focus, the brass lantern. After a few minutes had passed I gave up, I could feel the lantern in there, but whenever I tried to summon it I felt my soul struggling under the pressure, as if it was simply too weak.

One angry sigh later I turned my attention to the last two tools in my arsenal, I quickly dismissed the idea of summoning my remaining weapon, figuring that if I were unable to even conjure my lantern I shouldn’t even give it a try. My wings however was another thing entirely, they were the only natural extension of the powers that all Ascended had, and most Ascended didn’t even bother getting them Sealed, but personally I always felt that they could be a distraction when meditating, hence the Sealing Mark on my wings.

I closed my eyes once more, quickly finding the magical trigger to the Seal and activating it. With great satisfaction I felt my feathery wings spread out from my back. Then I suddenly realised just how heavy they were! It felt like they were made of lead, they also felt stiff and unwieldy for some reason, though I did not feel any pain coming from them, so at the very least they were still intact.

Blaming it once again on the current state of my soul I dismissed my wings, deciding that I had spent enough time on figuring out my current state. Shelter and rest should be the most important things on my checklist.
 
Glancing around once again I tried to make out the geographical features I could see. All around me was forest, in one direction, the one I figured would lead deeper into the forest, I could clearly see the side of a rather large mountain, while all of the other directions would either lead me away from the mountain, and probably out of the forest, or just in any direction around the mountain.

Figuring that my best bet was to get out of the forest, and away from any nocturnal predators that were most likely lurking in it, I started heading away from the mountain, my feet and legs aching with every step and my broken arm hanging painfully from my side despite my best attempts at steadying it with my remaining working hand.

As I moved through the moonlit forest I could just barely notice the shape of an animal every now and then, I was fairly certain that I had seen some species of squirrels and owls, perhaps a mouse every now and then, but never anything bigger. This made me somewhat hopeful, as the population of predators might be held in check by a nearby civilization of some sort, meaning I’d possibly be able to find rest with some natives.
 
I didn’t walk for very long before I noticed the trees starting to thin out, and while the steady rain made the ground muddy and difficult to traverse, I couldn’t help but feel happy at the thought that I might soon be out of the forest.

That’s when I heard it, the movement of a mass of creatures breaking through the silence of the wood, I could tell that they were running and after a while I was certain that I heard yelling as well, yelling in the Common tongue even!

With renewed vigor I started picking up the pace, heading in the direction of the sounds, ignoring the thumping pain in my legs, the presence of sentient beings the only thing on my mind. The voices became louder as I approached, I could just barely make out the light of torches from between the trees, whatever they were there were quite a few of them, the shadows created by the torches hinting of at least a dozen. Even better, they seemed to have halted their running and were now all standing in one place, barely a hundred feet from me.
 
Throwing caution to the wind I went into a run, hoping to catch up to them before they could disappear back into the forest. I couldn’t afford to let this chance of finding help slip me by.

Another fifty feet and I could start making out what the creatures looked like, involuntarily slowing down into a silent walk as I took in their appearances.

They seemed to be equines of some sort, though already I could tell that the proportions were out of place compared to the equines I were familiar with. They weren’t quite the size of horses, were they ponies maybe? As I drew closer I started to notice a few other things, for one it seemed like there were both pegasi and unicorns in the group, yet they looked nothing like the pegasi of Elysium’s plains, or the unicorns of the Sylvan Woods. These creatures were rather small, their heads would hardly reach past my chest if I were to take a guess, and they were all much more colourful than any other equines I had ever seen, the torchlight revealing a multitude of colours present on all of the creatures.

That’s when I noticed that many of them were carrying what looked like pitchforks, a few even had crossbows or knives. How they managed to actually hold the objects in question I had no idea, but I was fairly certain one of the crossbows was levitating in the air, surrounded by a pale blue aura.
 
The entire group looked agitated and were obviously threatening something out of my sight. Not wanting to startle an angry mob of ponies wielding pitchforks and torches I decided to sneak a bit closer, the leather wrappings of my feet doing an excellent job of muffling the sound of my footsteps as I drew closer.

After a few seconds I was crouching behind a nearby bush, peeking out at the spectacle in front of me, I couldn’t help but let out a gasp as I took in what was happening.
 
Lying in front of a large rock was a battered and bruised creature, it looked the same as the others but this one was clearly younger, it barely reached the other ponies to the knees and the small horn on its head was a blunt little thing. It looked absolutely terrified; tears were welling up in its big azure eyes as it tried its best to scoot closer to the rock behind it, dirtying its pearly white fur and bedraggled pink red mane.

I was taken aback by the display in front of me, the other ponies obviously wished the little one harm, but how could that be? It was a child of their own species!
 
The mob of ponies was getting even more agitated as their shouts of ‘Monster’ and ‘Freak’ went unanswered by the little unicorn. I did not pay this any mind however, as I let my sight change into the familiar Soul Sense I had used so many times before.

The world around me became somewhat of a blur, removing most of the physical details from my surroundings, leaving the souls of the colourful ponies in front of me as the only visible features.

The glowing spheres inside each of the ponies were as colourful as their owners, each of them unique in their own way as life experiences painted their souls in different colours. A soul would always have two layers of colour; the bottom layer was the one shaped by the personality and experiences of the creature in question, while the top one would change in shape, tone and colour based on current feelings or recent actions. Learning all of these many aspects was instrumental in determining the makeup of a soul, and thus was one of the first things a Caretaker learned.
 
From what I could gather, these ponies were angry, very angry; the red tints of hatred clear on their surface aura, but at the same time there were also splotches of yellow, the colour of fear.

Shifting my attention to the smaller pony I immediately noticed that the soul was young, thus my suspicion that the creature was a child was confirmed. It pained me to see the pure white of such a young soul tainted with the ugly tints of yellow, so tainted in fact that it had started taking on the disgusting sickly yellow of despair.

I’ll admit that the sight made my Caretaker nature flare in agitation, that such a young soul should be traumatized so early in its life was an unforgiveable crime in my eyes, and I wasn’t going to stand for it.
 
I brought my senses back to the physical world as I heard the yelling from the crowd increase, I glanced in their direction just in time to see a crossbow being levelled towards the young pony. The wielder’s intention was clear.
 
“Shoot it already! That monster has to die!” The hateful yelling increased in magnitude, the small one had now closed its eyes in obvious fear, its breath coming in rapid succession as it felt its death close at hand.

The pony wielding the crossbow gave the small creature an angry glare before it took aim, and pulled the trigger with the magical aura emanating from its horn.
 
In that moment time seemed to stand still for me, I could feel my entire body pounding as I rushed from the bushes with all the speed my broken body could muster, closing the distance between me and the small unicorn faster than I’d ever moved before, even aided by the magic of a Miracle.

The entire mob of ponies grew suddenly silent as my pain-filled cry went out through the forest.

I had just barely managed to get in front of the young pony, the wooden bolt now stuck painfully deep into my practically unprotected left shin. The pain was unimaginable and with another cry of pain I fell to my knee, still protectively in front of the small creature behind me who had grown as silent as the rest of the ponies.
 
I don’t know how long I sat there, all I could feel was the throbbing pain of the intrusive object in my leg and a deep thumping in my ears. Finally I managed to get back on my wounded legs, spreading my arms out to each side of me as I spoke through gritted teeth.
 
“You….won’t harm…this child.” Every word was painful and I couldn’t help but cough at the end, I knew that I looked pitiful, but I wasn’t going to let anything hurt this innocent soul.
 
The ponies stared dumbfounded at me for a moment longer, their mouths agape in surprise until one of them, one of the regular ponies with a tan fur and dark brown mane, spoke up.
 
“It was saved by another monster! Quick, kill them before they get away!” The call brought the rest of the ponies out of their stupor, angry glares replacing surprised faces as they all moved closer to us, pitchforks and knives at the ready.
I could already tell that there would be no peaceful solution to the situation, the ponies were obviously mad with fear and hate, an anger which wouldn’t be sated until myself and the young unicorn were dead.

In a moment of strength I managed to whirl around, my feathered wings sprouting from my back as I undid the seal. I heard gasps of surprise, but my attention was focused entirely on the creature at my feet, staring up at me with fearful blue eyes. Without another moment of hesitation I scooped the small creature up with my only functioning arm, hugging the squirming form close to my body and whispering in my most calming voice.
 
“Stay still, I’ll keep you safe.”
 
It apparently understood my intention as it stopped moving, its tiny hooves instead gripping my arm with all the might in its small body.

Without another moment of hesitation I spread my wings out wide, they still felt heavy and clunky but I took no notice of it. The only thing on my mind was getting this poor soul to safety, no matter the cost. With a clumsy jump using my uninjured leg and a mighty flap of my wings, I took to the air, quickly reaching the treetops after only a few seconds of exertion. Using strength I in no way felt that I had, I took off in direction of the mountainside, moving quickly above the trees beneath us. I could feel the strain on my entire physique, with every agonizing flap of my wings it felt like my spine would be ripped out of my body, every inch of my concentration used in simply staying aloft and conscious.

I’m not sure how I managed to do it, or even how long it took, but the next thing I knew we were at a cliff side, a small opening in the rock signalling the presence of a cave.
 
With my last ounce of strength I thrusted myself forwards. Knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to land safely I tucked the small unicorn protectively against my chest, bracing myself for impact.

The next thing I knew I crashed through the opening, landing on hard stone floor and rolling around painfully a few times before coming to a halt. As I drifted back into darkness the last thing I saw were the big azure eyes of the small unicorn, looking at me with desperation and, I noticed with happiness, its fear replaced with worry for my well-being.