Divinity: The Gathering: Book One (73 page)

I gently lay her fragile, light body
down upon the ground and sighed painfully as I stood and backed away.

Seeing her small form engulfed into the immense light and glory
, was powerfully blinding and though it hurt my own eyes, not being able to withstand it anymore as a fallen, I didn’t look away.

             
The complete purification transitioning of her entire body had taken a mere few seconds, but to me it seemed like an eternity. Once the pure white light had dissipated completely…the angels were gone and so was she.

             
I don’t know how long I simply just stood there, staring at the ground where she had lain, trying to make sure I had the perfect picture of her in my mind. It was then that I remembered —I had something a little better than a mere memory of an image alone.

I returned to her apartment, cloaked…wanting to take a few things of hers both to keep for her and for my own keepsake. I also had a plan
, and I wanted to arrange things just in case for both her and all her friends’ sakes, when they learned of her absence soon.

Her roommate China and her boyfriend were both still asleep in her bedroom when I a
rrived. After checking on them, I left a note in Star’s handwriting to her friend China; taking care to remove some of her items and clothing to look as if she had done so herself, and then left the note lying on the pillow in her room — after cleaning it all up again. I didn’t know if any of these acts would be considered breaking the rules, or that they would even mean anything to her friends or her, but I was banking on the notion that she would remember some fragments of her former life at some point.

             
From the cell phone I had used; I still had the photo of her and I at the concert that she had sent me. I drew the image out and magically imposed it onto poster sized paper, and then had the photo mounted, framed and set in a pure gold, ten by sixteen portrait frame. I took it with me into the spirit realm, into my dwelling and hung it over my bed in my bed chamber.

She was so beautiful tonight. This would be a night I would never
, ever forget, even with the blemish of seeing other shadows and angels in the background, which I left untouched. Her aura was captured, and it was striking even amid the images of the angels and shadows behind us.

This memento
of us together, served as a bittersweet and painful reminder, and I found it hard to look at it sometimes without feeling deep anguish.

I hadn’t visited the mortal realm since her mortal death. What were a few days in the mortal world was nothing but a few hours in the spirit realm, in time calculation.

I had no desire to visit let alone even think of Morning Star’s domain, which I doubted he would have allowed me to set foot inside its boundaries ever again anyway. We were already both on the brink of a personal battle that could take place at any given moment. That was fine with me, it was for the best…I had needed to kick
the habit anyway and I had when I met Star.

I stepped outside
, onto the ledge of my domicile, gazing out towards the west. Far in the distance, lie the Divine Hall, and the sun was dipping into the horizon above it; casting a celestial purplish pink glow over its grand white walls and steeples.

Thoug
h it would take a while for her to finish her training and education, I was patient…I would be for her.

I smiled to myself.

They trained new warriors often in the Forests of Light and sometimes in the stone forests near the dark lands and neutral areas.

I know the rules and I al
so knew how to get around them… however here in the spirit realm, there were no rules. I had all the infinite time in the world.

Though I have yet to see her or her aura; all that I needed to know in order to continue to go on in my existence
, was that she was there now, as an immortal, soon to be divine warrior — and so I would keep watch … and wait.

DIVINITY: TRANSCENDENCE: BOOK TWO is coming…

Copyright © 2013 by Susan Reid