Colin's posts

Lex nodded again.

"Right." he said.

"I'll do that." he told her.

-The next day-

Around noon (about 11ish), Lex made his way into Madison's room, and sat down in a chair.

He looked at her sleeping form, and sighed.

"...Madison..." he said quietly.

"I... I'm..." he stammered, before shaking his head.

"...damn it." he just cursed.

"......." again, Lex was silent for a moment.

"...it is." he said.

"Yes. It really is." he reiterated.

He then sighed, and shook his head.

"Around noon, tomorrow, huh?" he then muttered.

"I'll be there when she wakes." he said.

"I can at least do THAT."

With that, Uriel and Emelie excused themselves, and disappeared from the room. Uriel left in a pillar of light, while Emelie calmly walked out of the room and... was gone. Just like that.

"......" Lex was silent, before looking at Aimee.

"Aimee..." he said quietly.

"I..." he stammered.

"...damn it." he cursed.

"I feel like this is my fault." he said.

"I'm her guardian. I should have been able to protect her... save her..."

"....I can understand that." Lex mumbled.

"This will be... well... hard for her to adjust to." he said.

"To understate it." Uriel added.

"At any rate, there's nothing for me to do here." he then said.

"So I'll be off." he told them further.

"All right." Lex said with a nod.

"....all right..." Lex responded quietly.

"If you say so." he said.

"Thank you, once again." he told her.

"...any idea when she'll wake?" he asked.

"I... I feel she shouldn't be alone when she wakes up." he reasoned.

"And I want to be there when she DOES."

"...at least there's that." Lex said.

"Thank you." he said to Emelie. "So very much." he went on.

"Is there anything I can do to repay you?" he asked.

"Anything at all." he said.

Uriel just smirked a chuckled under his breath.

'If he only knew who he was talking to.' he thought.

"As I said, the answer is... simple, but at the same time, complex." Uriel said.

"Just... yeah." he mumbled.

"It's hard to explain." he sighed.

"I see." Lex muttered.

He then looked at Emelie, concern in his expression.

"But... she'll be all right, right?" he asked.

"She'll survive this?"

Aly was surely surprised when she was given a gift.

"Huh?" she muttered.

She then shrugged and opened it... nearly dropping the item when it was revealed.

"...I... I..." she stammered.

"This... this is..." she said further, before looking at Eke.

"Eke, how did you ever get ahold of this?"

"I don't know." Uriel admitted.

"I'll see what I can find. Any information, any leads, any clues." he told them.

"But for now... it seems that Madison will be leading the life of... well... a mortal." he continued.

"Granted... well, one with a much longer lifespan, and... well, SOME of the passive perks of being a mage, but... you know what I mean." he said.

"For all intents and purposes... she has no active mana." he went on.

"And I'm not sure if there anything that can be done about it." he sighed. "Not from the realms of heaven and hell, anyway." he specified.

"You two are free to try and research a way to lift it... and I hope you find one, if you DO search." he told them.

"I will devote my life to it." Lex responded with conviction in his tone.

"..." Lex was silent as well.

"How... how could this happen...?" was all he managed to get out.

"Believe it or not, there's a simple answer that's actually far more complex." Uriel responded. "However, before you ask or anything, just... don't. It'd take too long to explain." he sighed.

"Just know that this... this is something that shouldn't have happened." he told them.

"And remember... she's still alive." he added.

"Yes." Lex agreed.

"She's alive. She didn't die out there" he said further, nodding his head slowly.

"I wish I was joking." Uriel responded.

"However, believe it or not, I'm pretty sure this is the best outcome that could have happened." he then said.

"...I'm sorry?" Lex said quietly.

"From what I sensed within her, the sealing that was used on her didn't start out as a sealing." Uriel replied. "It seems like it was meant to actually DRAIN her of her mana, which would have killed her outright." he continued. "However, it seems like something happened to disrupt or corrupt it, which transformed it into a sealing sort of thing." he explained further.

"So... so, someone was trying to kill her?" Lex stammered.

"Well... effectively. Their motives can only be speculated on." Uriel replied. "But odds are they just wanted to collect all of her mana to use for... whatever reason." he went on.

"And that seal... is something that I don't think myself... or Emelie... can remove." he then added.

Uriel just sighed.

"....Lex, remember how Madison was when you first met her?" he asked Alex.

"Yeah." Lex replied. "She was hungry and sore and weak and-" he went on, but the archangel interrupted.

"Mana-wise." he said.

"...well... she was strong, but couldn't access her mana." Lex recalled.

"Indeed." Uriel said.

"...and this is a repeat of that, only worse."

"....." Lex was silent, before nodding.

"Yeah. Of course." he replied.

He then made his way downstairs, where Aimee was... just as Uriel stepped up as well.

"You two." he said.

"Den. Now." he told them.

"...um... all right..." Lex responded.

"That... this doesn't sound good." he then commented.

"It's not." Uriel said.

"...but don't worry about her survival, that is all but guaranteed." he then quickly assured them. "However, there IS something that you both will need to know about Madison, going forward." he mumbled.

Lex had no time to question what was happening.

Instead, he lifted Madison up as softly as he could, before carrying her inside, and up to her room, laying her down on her bed.

Uriel, meanwhile, made his way to where Emelie was.

"My apologies." he said.

"But I could think of no one else to call in this situation." he told her.

"She's hurt. Badly." he went on.

"And... there's more to this, but I think you can feel that." he then muttered.