by Joe Duck
Emily sat up, straddling me like a horse. She twirled her hair and avoided my eyes, her face blushing. With her other hand, she tugged the back of her shirt, making it stick to her skin, revealing her lovely figure. “Narius, don't you want me?” she said in the most innocent voice I had ever heard.
My cheeks warmed. “Of... Of course. I am just a little confused.”
Emily laid her hand on my cheek and gazed into my eyes. “Nothing to be confused about, Narius. It’s all instinct. You want me. And I want you.” She lifted my right hand and licked it. “I'll teach you everything. We have all the time in the world to figure it out. Then we can hold hands and eat cake.”
An image of a black book, oozing with evil, popped into my mind. “Didn’t I have to do something? Find something important?”
She lifted my hand and pressed it against her left breast. It felt firm, and warm. “You already have it in your hand.”
Brief images of a gruesome slaughter seeped into my mind. I saw splattered blood and fleeting glimpses of Emily crying. “But wasn’t there a battle? How did it end? And why were you crying?"
“It doesn’t matter. You have me.”
Emily wants to marry me, I said to the Codex. I think she wants to rub herself against me, but it feels wrong. I mean, I want her to marry me like Nathen said. But I keep trying to remember something. What... what should I do? Is this the time for me to wrap myself in a ribbon?
The book didn’t answer. My hand searched the ground next to my hip, but there was only a patch of grass. It seemed a little odd. She was always there for me, providing flawless, sound advice whenever I needed it.
I scanned the field around us, but the Codex was nowhere to be found. Suspicion gripped my mind. I gently pushed Emily off me, and as soon as her body no longer touched mine, I felt something tugging my soul from somewhere distant. Then everything came back together—painful, horrible, and unforgettable memories.
I stared at the human lying next to me. “You are not Emily.”
The smile on her face faltered. “What are you talking about, Narius? I am Emily. Just the way you remembered her. A creation born from your heart.”
“What? Where am I?”
“You are dead, Narius, and this is one of the choices you can make,” Emily said with sorrow in her eyes. “If you choose me, you can rest peacefully for all eternity.”
The world around me came in and out of focus. Then a jolt went through my body, and I felt something within me, something that was tying me to this world, vanish.
I tried to rise, but my eyelids grew heavy, until I couldn’t keep them open. The image of Emily stroked my head and whispered, “Remember, this is the Paradise.”
Narius
“So, did you enjoy your brief time in Paradise, Narius?” a feminine voice asked. "Was it nice being with Emily again?"
My eyes blinked open. I sat on a creaky chair, my hands resting on a cold marble table. I was no longer naked—I wore my armor again.
Across the table, an archangel leaned back on a wooden chair of her own. She brushed back her chestnut hair as the light from her halo reflected off her spotless cuirass that looked almost identical to mine in design.
I could not see her Codex anywhere, nor even the markings of the other flocks. I looked around for clues to reveal her identity, but the rest of the room was shrouded in darkness. There was no sign of Emily, and my heart sank with my wings.
The archangel rubbed her halo, casting a flitting shadow upon the white table. “Smile, Narius. I am Mortia, a rather bored custodian of the afterlife.”
“So I am really dead?” I asked as sadness seeped into my mind. Then I did the right thing. I wouldn't want Emily to remember me and cry.
“I am afraid so. But, don’t worry, it happens to all of us.” She covered her mouth and let out a muffled laugh. "Well, almost all of us."
“Why am I here?”
"You were impaled by a large stick."
I laid a hand on my stomach where Palkeon had struck me, but found nothing.
Mortia flashed me a smile. "Now, let's get you processed and send you off on your jolly way." She placed her hands on the table and brought them together, palm against palm, as if to clap. When they parted, a small aquamarine cube appeared between them. "First, a decision. What would you like to do, Narius?”
“I want to be with Emily.”
"Then you have two paths before you. Do you wish to go back to the Paradise? There is an Emily there waiting for you, waiting to make your stay comfortable for a very long time.”
I shook my head.
"Then do you wish to be reborn?"
I bobbed my head.
“Do you understand what being reborn will do to you? Do you know the price?”
“I do. Even if I don’t remember her, even if I am not an angel, even if I don't know how much I love her, I want to have the chance to meet her again. Fall in love again.”
Mortia snorted. "Somebody is a romantic.” She tossed the aquamarine dice on the marble table. Sparks flew off the cube like lightning with each bounce until it came to a halt in front of me. "Now, before we start, give me a second to look at my timetable."
She summoned a long parchment to her hand, and the long page drooped on the floor and curled around the table. "Let's see. Well, if it's any consolation, Emily will be dead by next winter. So I can time your and Emily's rebirths for the upcoming—”
I jumped from my seat, the chair screeching against the floor. “No!”
Her green eyes glowed. "Sit."
My body obeyed and forced me back down.
“Do not worry," Mortia said. "Nothing you can do from here will change that."
"But can't you do something to save her?"
The archangel raised an eyebrow. "What am I, a god? Besides, everyone dies in the end. Just accept her fate, pick up that dice, and roll your life away."
I grimaced and took the cube into my hand. It felt cold, and as final as death. I hesitated, knowing that I held my life in my palm.
Mortia sighed. "It won't be that bad. It might seem like a bit of a setback for your love, but you will have a new life to live. There will be others."
I took a deep breath and looked at my future, condensed into a cube. With Emily and her gentle soul filling my heart and mind, I rolled the dice. Emily, I will find you.
The dice spun across the table, sparking with a bright green light. After what seemed an eternity, it slowed to a stop. The image of a wing appeared on its luminescent top.
Mortia leaned against the table and looked at the rune on top of the dice. “Congratulations! You will be an angel again. Always glad to have more of our kind. Now we should decide which flock you will be serving.”
She pushed the dice to me again.
I tossed the cube across the table. When it came to a halt, a symbol of a harp shone over it.
"Lady Tristana's, then. Fitting for you to end up in Lady love's flock, I suppose." She flicked the dice back to me. "Now, one last time, to leave this life and begin your new one."
I picked up the dice again. It felt heavy, and my mouth soured. So this is how everything ends. Mother, Father, and Lord Halfaya, I wish I had been a better angel. I closed my eyes, thought of Emily one last time, and tossed my life away.
The dice clattered against the table.
It kept on bouncing.
I opened my eyes and watched, waiting for it to stop.
It didn't. It refused to settle.
Mortia frowned. She reached out to snatch it. The dice slipped from her fingers, and it kept hopping—again, again, and again—striking the table with a steady drumbeat.
With irritation written on her face, she tried to grab it again, but caught only air.
As if taunting her, the dice began to glow, increasing in intensity until it outshone her halo like the morning sun.
Mortia scratched her head. "Huh. That's not supposed to happen."
The cube bounced against the table one last time, an
d then it rose, higher and higher, until the light grew so bright that I could only see white.
Narius
When the light from the cube faded, I found myself dressed in pants and a white shirt with holes cut in the back for my wings. I was tucked in a bed. Next to me was a nightstand bearing the Codex. Below her leaned Castilia and my armor, basking in the sunlight.
Books were thrown on the shelves without a care for size or category, like some untamed part of the great library, and the floor was littered with wrinkled skirts and shirts. I was in Emily's room.
The owner of the room stood over the bed. Her eyes widened, and she dropped the tray she'd been holding. Soup splashed on the floor, but she didn't seem to mind. Emily rushed towards me. With tears in her eyes, she slapped me. Before I could get over the shock, she hugged me and cried. “You idiot! Do you know how worried I was?”
Not knowing what to say, I hugged her back. "A lot? But wait! You shouldn't know who I am. Didn't I erase—"
Her tears dripped down onto my neck. “Why did you want me to forget you?”
“I… I didn’t want you to be sad.”
She pulled away and pouted. “So you thought locking my memories away was the answer?”
"But... but I was dying. I thought if you didn't know, then you could go on living your life—"
She crossed her arms and glared. "Do I look like I forgot? You know, if you hadn't pulled that little stunt, I could have... ah, forget it."
Emily leaned against me and kissed me. She caressed my tongue with hers, sending an odd pleasure through my body. I closed my eyes and moaned as she gently massaged my mouth.
When she finally pulled back, saliva from our tongues clung to my chin. "There. We are even."
I stared into her deep blue eyes and panted. “You... you are not going to ravage me?”
“What? Well...” Emily blushed, the tips of her ears turning red. “Well, you just woke up after several days of intense healing. I don’t think we should—"
I grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her onto the bed. She fell against me, and I enjoyed the touch of her body. “You are real. This isn't Paradise.”
Emily twitched and looked at me with a hint of annoyance. “Well, I-I might not be the prettiest girl in the kingdom, but you don’t have to ruin the mood. Besides, we should wait before we—”
I placed my hands on her back and squeezed her in my arms. This is really her. This is Emily. Tears flowed from my eyes, and I lay my head against her cheeks so she couldn't see my crying.
I held onto her for a long time, not daring to speak another word for fear that she would go away.
Emily wiped the tears off my cheeks. "Feel better now, cry baby?"
I nodded.
She wiped her own tears away and traced small circles on my chest. “I’m just glad that you are alive… I thought you were dead.”
“What happened?”
Emily rested her head against my shoulder, her legs brushing against the blanket. “You should ask your book.”
I reached towards the nightstand and touched the cover of the Codex, waiting for her to speak, but she was asleep. So, I focused my magic and slowly shook her out of her slumber while Emily did the exact opposite by mumbling something under her breath and started to snore.
You moron, the Codex said. If it wasn’t for my quick thinking, you’d be dead.
What?
Well, I, the great Codex, undid your grand stupidity so that Emily could keep you alive until your soul could be dragged back from Mortia's creepy room of dungeons and dice.
How am I alive?
Well, to be exact, you were revived. Emily used the fancy feather you gave her to freeze your body and soul before the latter could flutter away. I mean, the spell was messy since it was her first time. Still, once your mother woke up and mended your body, everything was fine. Then we got a few helping hands and carried you to Emily's room. Though I wouldn't be surprised if she became a little too curious and peeked under the blanket a few times.
Peek? I asked. Wait, that's not important. How did she keep the spell that long? The feather can only last a short period of time unless someone was powering it continuously.
Emily stayed awake for two days straight to maintain the spell.
She didn’t sleep? I glanced back at Emily, who was now drooling onto my shoulder, and for the first time, I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. Guilt dragged my happiness down, and I laid my hand on her shoulder and sent a bit of magic into her and drove her fatigue away. How can I repay her? She did so much.
Why don’t you offer yourself to her? Tie yourself up in ribbons.
The images of the grassy plains of Paradise flashed into my mind, and my face heated up. Do you think I should somehow practice it first so that I know what to—
Emily stirred, and her sleepy eyes opened again. "Narius... good. You are still here. It wasn't a dream." She laid her arm across my chest, a sad look in her eyes. "So, when are you going back to heaven?"
I shook my head. "I am going to ask Lord Halfaya if I can stay here instead."
"Really?" she asked, resting her chin on my chest, a smile blossoming. "I-I mean. O-of course you are. You owe me bags and chests full of gold."
Being so close to her reminded me of the Emily I had seen in the Paradise, and what she wanted with me. I looked away from the real Emily and stared at a bookshelf in the corner of the room as if it was Lord Halfaya himself. My chest felt heavy, like a pile of books lay on top of me. "So what happened to Mafis's daughter?"
"Filia? She's fine. Thankfully, she doesn't remember anything about what she did. What about you? Are you all right?"
“Well, I... I had the strangest dream.”
“What kind of dream was it?” she asked, snuggling against me and sniffing my shirt. "Was I in it?"
"Yes, and you wanted to marry me." I laughed, avoiding her gaze. "Sounds ridiculous, right? You would never want to do that to me, right? I mean, I wouldn't know what to do if we did."
I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. Her face lit up like a scarlet firework, and her eyes were cast down. She sat cross-legged next to me. "Marry you? Umm..." She twirled her hair then coughed into her hand.
My lips quivered as my heart sank. "No?"
"Th-this is so sudden. I just thought that I would end up proposing to you under a lamppost with a full moon that made your wings shine as I gave you a ring. Of course, I-I would be wearing a dazzling dress, and looking utterly irresistible."
I thought about how Emily from the Paradise had overpowered me and made me want to rub myself against her. I squeezed my eyes shut and cringed. “I see. So, and… and if it is all right with you, well, my body is ready. I... I don't know about the dress, but if you want, we don't need the lamppost. We can ask Mother to be next to us with her halo while we get married."
“A… ah… umm… what?”
"Well, it might be odd with her looking at us holding hands, but if you want to, then I am more than willing." I peeked and found Emily giving me a confused look. I scratched my head, unsure how to say what I wanted her to do to me. Then the conversation with Nathen flashed in my mind.
"Will you marry me?" I asked, ready to feel my clothes being ripped apart and have her spread my legs. It felt scary, yet I wanted Emily to enjoy me. "I... I mean, it's going to be my first time, but I think I can figure it out when we get into it."
Emily laid her hand on my cheek and stroked it. “Yes."
I opened my eyes and saw a smile blossoming on her lips. "Yes?"
"Yes. When we have enough money for a big ceremony, we will do it in front of everyone we know.”
"Everyone? But wouldn't that be embarrassing?"
"Not for us, and everyone else would be too jealous that I chose you."
"Will there be cake while we... marry?"
"Yes. I promise."
The end
About the author
Joe Duck is a fantasy writer, residing in the surprisi
ngly warm land of Canada. He lives with two dogs who sleep during the day and run around the house at night to annoy the neighbors.
Acknowledgement
To my computer. Without which none of this book would have ever been possible.
Also to Joey, Jeff, Ernie, Laurel, and Maria for encouraging me to keep going.
And finally to you the reader for reading up to this point. (Unless you just skipped to the end.) In fact, if you are real, feel free to send me a message at [email protected] I would love to hear from you.
Also if you enjoyed reading the book I would be thrilled if you could leave a review and encourage your friends to give this book a chance.