“I like the one of Rhen wearing his dress uniform and riding a Surpen Beast of War,” Erfce told them. “It looks like it was taken after he returned from a successful battle. He’s so happy in it.”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a Surpen Beast of War,” Latsoh admitted.
“They’re scary,” Tgfhi told them. “The Surpens brought them to Tgarus.”
“They look like dragons only smaller,” Crystam said.
“Yeah,” Tgfhi said. “I think they’re similar to dragons. Their snouts are rounder though and their teeth are smaller, but just as sharp. I think their tails are longer than a dragon’s, compared to their body mass.”
“Do they come in different colors?” Erfce asked.
“No, they only come in tan, but the black spots are different on each beast. It helps you tell them apart.”
“Can those tiny wings really carry them?” Latsoh asked Tgfhi.
“Yes. They fly all over the place. And they land in a run, so watch out if you don’t have enough space. They’re amazingly quick and agile in flight. You’d never think it by looking at them.”
“I like this one of Rhen falling backwards into some Surpen Generals,” Latsoh said. She held up the photo for the others to see.
“Do you think they caught him?” Erfce asked.
“He’d kill them if they didn’t,” Tgfhi said. Crystam smacked him on the arm and he laughed.
Latsoh stared at the picture she was holding. Rhen was laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes. His left foot was lifted high in the air and his right foot was just coming off the ground as he fell backwards into some soldiers. She smiled at the joy that was so apparent in the photo. “I like the…” Latsoh paused. Something about Rhen’s left boot made her hesitate. For months now, she had been working for the Black Angel Club. Twice a week, she would sit for hours, staring at photos of the Black Angel’s clothing, looking for clues. A shiver ran down Latsoh’s spine as she bent her head closer to the picture to examine Rhen’s boots. “Tgfhi, do you have a picture of the Black Angel that I can look at?” She was surprised by how calm her voice sounded.
“I always have pictures of the Black Angel,” he sassed, removing a folder from his bag. Tgfhi pulled out a few photos and handed them to Latsoh. She flipped through them, until she located the one she wanted. In the picture, the Black Angel was flipping over backwards to save a child from being killed by a stray laser blast. It was a very clear shot of the Angel’s boots.
“Oh, my God,” Latsoh said. “Look! The Black Angel wears Surpen military boots. We did it. We found another clue to the Black Angel’s identity.”
Lunging forward, Tgfhi snatched the photos from Latsoh’s hands and laid them down on the coffee table to compare them. Sure enough, the boots looked almost identical. Erfce and Crystam waited for Tgfhi to give his verdict before congratulating Latsoh. “No,” he finally said, shaking his head. “No, the Black Angel’s boots are similar to a Surpen’s boots, but they’re not the same.”
“You’re wrong Tgfhi,” Latsoh growled. She grabbed the photos. “They’re the same, except the back heel of the Black Angel’s right boot has a small tear in it and there’s also a red mark down the side of his left boot.” Latsoh tossed the photos onto Tgfhi’s lap. “I’ll prove it to you. Rhen must have a pair of old military boots in his closet. Once I get them, you’ll see they’re the same. The Black Angel probably spilled something on his left boot and he’s torn the heel of his right boot from use, that’s all.”
“Latsoh,” Tgfhi called after her as she walked away from the sofa. “Don’t bother. They aren’t the same.”
Latsoh stuck her tongue out at Tgfhi before marching into Ceceta and Rhen’s bedroom. She opened their closet and stepped inside, turning on the light. Some old, military boots had been kicked into the back corner of the closet. “Perfect,” she said, swooping down to pick them up. Latsoh turned off the light and stepped out into Rhen and Ceceta’s bedroom. As she moved into the brighter light in the bedroom, she paused to look at the boots in her hands. The left boot had a red mark down the side of it and the right boot was torn at the back of its heel.
Stopping dead in her tracks, Latsoh felt confused. Why would Rhen have copies of the Black Angel’s boots? Hesitantly, she took a step forward then stopped. Her head felt light, and she was having trouble thinking. Latsoh stared at the boots, her throat growing tight. These weren’t copies of the Black Angel’s boots, these were the Black Angel’s boots. But, why would Rhen have them? Taking another hesitant step forward, Latsoh stopped again, her mind swirled, grasping at facts. “Oh, Themrock,” she breathed out. A prickling sensation raced across her scalp. It all made sense now. Rhen refused to tell them his powers. He already had more powers than any elf in the Universe. Those weeks, when his father had kept him from sleeping, Rhen was too tired to function and the Black Angel had disappeared. Now he was sleeping again and the Black Angel was back. Rhen had the Angel’s boots, because Rhen was the Angel. How could they have been so stupid as to not realize it before? The reality of it all crashed down upon Latsoh. Her eyes fluttered and she collapsed to the floor with a thud.
“What was that?” Erfce asked, rising from the couch. “Latsoh?” When she didn’t answer, Erfce rushed into the bedroom to see what was wrong. “Latsoh! Latsoh!” he cried out, when he saw her lying on the ground. Erfce dropped to his knees beside Latsoh and picked her up in his arms.
“I’ll get some water,” Crystam told him, running towards the bathroom. She came back a moment later with a wet washcloth that she used to dab around Latsoh’s ashen face. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Erfce said, sounding worried. “Should we take her to the doctor?”
“No,” Latsoh said. She reached her hand up to her head and pushed her hair away from her face. “I can’t believe it?” she said quietly. “Can you? It’s just so beautiful, yet bizarre at the same time.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Erfce asked, his eyes full of concern.
Without warning, Latsoh burst into hysterical laughter. She pushed against Erfce’s chest and reached out for the boots that had fallen to the floor. Picking them up, she cradled them to her body as she cried and laughed at the same time.
“What’s wrong with her?” Tgfhi asked the others.
“I don’t know?” Erfce said. He reached out to take the boots from Latsoh, but she jerked them away from him.
“Latsoh, what are you doing?” Crystam asked. She was beginning to feel afraid. “You went to look for some of Rhen’s old boots to compare them to the Black Angel’s? Why are you acting like this?”
“Compare them to the Black Angel’s,” Latsoh repeated, with a hiccupping laugh. “I don’t need to compare them to the Black Angel’s.” She pulled Rhen’s boots in closer to her body and bent her head down, to rub her cheek against the side of them.
“Whoa,” Tgfhi said, taking a step back. “That’s a little weird.” He looked at Erfce. “Do elves ever go crazy suddenly?”
“No,” Crystam snapped. She couldn’t believe Tgfhi was joking at a time like this. It was clear that Latsoh was in trouble. “Latsoh, what’s going on?” she begged.
Lifting her face, Latsoh gave them a dreamy smile. She took a deep, shuddering breath and said, “Crystam, I don’t need to compare them to the Black Angel’s boots, because these are the Black Angel’s boots. Rhen is the Black Angel.”
The others were silent for a moment and then Tgfhi jumped forward and grabbed the boots out of Latsoh’s arms. Lifting them into the air, he studied them. The left boot had the identical red mark down its side as the Black Angel’s left boot and the right boot had the same tear at the back of its heel that the Black Angel’s right boot had. These were the Black Angel’s boots. Tgfhi handed the boots to Erfce and Crystam, who snatched them up with excitement to examine them.
“Why would Rhen have the Black Angel’s boots?” Tgfhi asked the room.
“Think about it Tgfhi,” Lat
soh told him. “He doesn’t just have the Black Angel’s boots. He is the Black Angel. It all makes sense. Everything was right before our eyes. We were blind. It’s so obvious now.”
Tgfhi shook his head, refusing to accept what Latsoh was telling him. He walked over to Rhen’s closet, opened the door and flicked on the light. “If Rhen’s the Black Angel, he would have more than just his boots.” Reaching into the closet, Tgfhi started flipping through the clothes that were hanging in front of him. He couldn’t believe Rhen was the Black Angel, and he felt satisfied, when he didn’t find any of the Black Angel’s clothes. “He’s not the Black Angel. He doesn’t have any other Black Angel clothing,” Tgfhi told the others, turning to switch off the closet light. As he put out his hand to flip the switch, he noticed a pile of black clothing thrown carelessly on the floor in the front, left corner of the closet. Bending down, Tgfhi reached out to pick up one of the items on the floor.
“What’re you doing?” Crystam asked.
Tgfhi didn’t answer but turned towards the room. In his hands, he held the famous long-sleeved shirt that the Black Angel wore. It even had the slight fray at the edge of its left sleeve. “By God,” he said quietly as he showed it to them.
Erfce brushed past Tgfhi and grabbed the pile of clothing off the floor. He moved it over to the bed and started laying out each item.
“Do you believe me now?” Latsoh asked, with a triumphant smile. She didn’t need an answer. It was obvious he did.
Tears streamed down Tgfhi’s face, his nose was clogged, and he was having trouble breathing. Crystam went over to him to give him a hug. He pulled her into his body and bent his head down to cry on her shoulder.
“Where did you find those?” Latsoh asked Erfce, walking over to the bed.
“Thrown carelessly on the floor of the closet.”
“No one would throw the Black Angel’s clothes carelessly on the floor,” Latsoh said. “Unless—”
“They were the Black Angel,” Erfce finished for her. He turned around, so everyone could see that he was holding up the Black Angel’s Genister cape. “I’m holding a Genister cap.” He laughed and raised it higher, the black folds of fabric swung in the air in front of him. “A Genister cape,” he repeated with wonder.
“Come,” Crystam told Tgfhi, pulling him towards the bed. Together they joined Latsoh and Erfce as they picked through the Black Angel’s clothes. Tgfhi lifted the scarf the Black Angel wore to cover his face and head. The Black Angel’s gloves had been wrapped up into it. They fell onto the floor by his feet. Bending down, Tgfhi picked up the gloves. He rubbed the black leather between his fingers. They were softer than he had thought they would be and there was a small stain on the back of the left glove. “I wonder where he got that stain.”
“Do you think he used those gloves in the military before he became the Black Angel? Could they be blood stains left over from one of his wars?” Erfce asked. Tgfhi shrugged and placed them down on the bed.
“So, how do I look?” Latsoh asked, tossing her hair over her shoulders. “Do I look like the Black Angel?” She turned around wearing the Black Angel’s sunglasses and lifted her chin in the air.
“Oh, Themrock,” Crystam said as the reality of what they had just discovered finally hit her. “Oh, dear Themrock.” Her whole body was shaking.
“What’s wrong?” Tgfhi asked. He pulled Crystam into his arms to try to comfort her.
“Don’t you know what this means,” she yelled, her body still shaking. “If Rhen is the Black Angel, he has more power than anyone else in the Universe. He can fly, breathe underwater, make the ground move, catch lightning bolts, disappear, phase… you name it. No wonder the oracles are saying he’ll conquer all of us. It’s because he can. It’d be easy for him.”
“Wow,” Tgfhi said. “You’re right. Nobody can defeat him.”
Erfce put the Genister cape he was holding onto the bed. “It’s funny, when you think about it,” he said. “Rhen’s the one person in the Universe that no one would ever suspect of being the Black Angel, and yet he is. Everyone is waiting for him to turn into the Surpen God of War and destroy all of us, but in secret, he’s been spending his time trying to save us.”
“Ironic,” Latsoh said in agreement.
“All those times they attended the B.A.C. meetings. They never said a word,” Tgfhi said in a daze. “Rhen would just fall asleep in the corner as we discussed what he had done the night before.” He laughed, envisioning Rhen sacked out on his favorite chair in the back of the balcony while they worked to discover his identity.
Tgfhi picked up the Genister cape to look at it. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I know it’s true. These are the Black Angel’s clothes, but still, I can’t believe that Rhen, Rhen of all people, is the Black Angel.”
“Oh, Themrock,” Crystam said again.
“Is it possible that Rhen knows the Black Angel, and he keeps his clothes for him?” Erfce asked the others.
“No,” Latsoh told him. “Think about it. Most people have how many powers?”
“One,” Erfce said.
“Right,” Latsoh said. “Yet every day, we discover that Rhen has a new power. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to what he can do. He must be the Black Angel.”
“Rhen, who told us when we first met him that he didn’t have any powers worth mentioning,” Crystam said with a laugh.
“I guess he lied,” Latsoh said. She took off the Black Angel’s sunglasses and put them back into the pocket of the Black Angel’s coat, where she had found them. “I guess this also means that the Black Angel isn’t a Genister,” she added. Erfce was gathering up the clothes on the bed to put them back into Rhen and Ceceta’s closet.
“I guess not,” Tgfhi agreed. He reached out to take the clothes from Erfce. He wanted to be the one to put them back in the closet. When he was finished, Latsoh tossed Rhen’s boots into the closet, where she had found them.
“So,” Latsoh said, closing the closet door. They walked back into the living room. “No one in the Universe, except for us, knows that Rhen is the Black Angel.”
“Ceceta knows,” Crystam corrected her as she sat down.
“That she does,” Tgfhi said.
“His powers… they’re mind boggling,” Erfce said. He leaned back against the old, blue couch and ran his hand through his medium-length, brown hair. “Even though Rhen isn’t a Genister, he has powers that are just as strong as the Genisters’ were rumored to be.”
After a few minutes of silence, Latsoh brought up the subject they needed to discuss. “So, what do we do now?”
“We must tell the Thestran Royal Family,” Erfce said.
“No,” Tgfhi said. He was proud of the fact that Rhen, his Prince, was the most powerful man in the Universe. One day, Rhen would be his King. For the second time in his life, Tgfhi loved the fact that Surpen ruled his planet. To think that Rhen, his friend, his Prince, was the Black Angel. It made him feel honored.
“We need to tell the Thestran Royal Family,” Latsoh concurred with Erfce. “Rhen is supposed to turn into the Surpen God of War. The Royal Family needs to be made aware of the fact that they’re dealing with someone who has powers that are greater than all of theirs combined.”
“No,” Tgfhi said. “We can’t tell them. Rhen is our friend. It’s important to him that his work as the Black Angel be kept a secret. We should respect that. Rhen will tell everyone, when he wants them to know.”
“No, Tgfhi,” Crystam said. “If he turns into the Surpen God of War, we’ll all be in danger. We need to warn the Thestrans about his abilities.”
“He won’t turn into the Surpen God of War,” Tgfhi said.
“Yes, he will,” Erfce retorted. “I’ve watched him turn into the Surpen God of War in my dreams for weeks now. The predictions are true. He will become this beast and he will conquer the Universe.”
“You heard Ceceta,” Tgfhi told them. “He’s already called the God of War. Do you think that Rhen is evil?” Tgfhi paused for a
moment to stare at each of them. They shook their heads. “Exactly, so even if his body should change into that… that animal thing, he’ll still be Rhen underneath. Rhen is a good person. We need to respect our friendship with him and keep this quiet.”
“No,” Latsoh said. “It’s too dangerous not to tell the Thestran Royal Family. Tgfhi, we’re talking about saving the Universe.”
“Latsoh,” Tgfhi said. He turned to look her in the eyes. “This entire conversation rests upon what type of person you believe Rhen is underneath his Surpen façade. I say he’s a good person. How could he not be? He’s the god-damned Black Angel. Would an evil person spend his evenings saving people? No.”
“Why is he saving people?” Crystam asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out eventually,” Tgfhi said.
“Perhaps because of guilt,” Erfce said. “He may feel guilty about killing so many people. He could have invented the Black Angel to make himself feel better.”
“He did tell us once that God gave us great powers and with those powers came ‘great responsibilities’,” Crystam said quoting Rhen.
“Exactly,” Tgfhi said. “And our responsibility is to Rhen. He’s a good person. We need to respect that. He should be able to count on us as we have come to count on him as the Black Angel. We must keep his secret. We can’t tell the Thestran Royal Family.”
“You want us to keep his secret, possibly jeopardizing the entire Universe’s safety, because you think he won’t turn into the Surpen God of War?” Erfce asked Tgfhi.
“No,” Tgfhi told him. “I want you to keep his secret, possibly jeopardizing the entire Universe’s safety, because I know that when the moment comes, and he has to decide whether or not to kill us, his good side will prevail, and he’ll do the right thing. We know Rhen’s personality better than anyone else. We know he’s a decent person. He has a good heart. We need to have faith in him. We need to trust him and to offer him our silence. He will not destroy the Universe. His personality won’t let him.”
Everyone was quiet. They agreed. Rhen was their best friend. They owed it to him to keep his secret. They wouldn’t tell the Thestran Royal Family about his powers, nor would they tell Rhen or Ceceta that they had discovered their secret. They would act as if nothing had changed. If he wished it, Rhen’s secret would remain a secret forever.
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