Holy Opposites 7

	I splashed a bit of water on my bare arms and managed a tiny smile.  “It feels good.”

	The Noble Eladrin cocked his head.  “You are unashamed to be naked.”

	“Why wouldn’t I be?” I snapped.  I was feeling suddenly very angry.  “Nobody’s offered me any clothes!  And I’m bathing!”

	The celestial fey nodded as if I had confirmed something.  “Clearly, you are no mere Succubus.”

	I blinked, quite taken aback.  “What?”

	“Your rage.  A demonic Succubus, or a devil defector, would not have been so angry.  Nor would they feel it to be of importance only when invoked.”  He gestured broadly at my bare body.  “A succubus would have run for its life, facing me.  At least tried to seduce me.  You have done neither.”

	I said nothing.  There was nothing to say.

	The Noble Eladrin looked at me a bit longer before finally smiling.  “The angel said you were a strange one.  What do you think of this place?”

	I looked around.  The mossy ground was at eye level as far as I could see, but it climbed up behind the trees into massive, looming mountains.  Clear blue sky rolled away in all directions, and if I squinted, I could just make out a gigantic castle, far away in the sky, hanging on a cloud.  “Well… it’s gorgeous.”

	“Would you like to be in a place like this someday?” the unnamed Eladrin asked.

	“I’d like to just stay,” I admitted.  Now my anger was completely gone.  What was this?  “Why?”

	“Because you are a strange one, as my friend said,” he said.  He pointed at my heart.  “You have a soul, child, a potent and pure one.  Where did you get it?”

	I shrugged unhappily.  “I… I mean, I woke up with one.”  My fists clenched underwater.  “Asmodeus saw it and threw me out a window.”

	“Ah.”  The Eladrin cocked his head again, processing that.  “Then you are… what, his daughter?”

	“His experiment,” I said bitterly.  “He built me to be the first of the High Succubae.”  Memories rushed by, and I ground my palms into my eyes.  The water felt good on my face, at least.  “He gave me a soul without meaning to, I guess.  I don’t know, he tried to kill me.  Why are you asking me all this?”

	“Because I need to decide whether to kill you,” he said simply.  My stomach clenched.  Before I could say a word, though, he continued.  “The boy you helped save is on the long, slow road to recovery, if you’re curious.”

	I shook my head.  “Can I see him?”

	“Why?”

	“I want…” I paused.  Why did I want to see him?  “I… actually, I don’t want to see him at all.  Why would I?  And he was so scared of me.”

	The Eladrin stood.  “Rest, child.  Heal, swim, be calm.  Just don’t leave.  I will return with judgment.”

	I scowled.  “That’s my fate?  I sprawl about in a magic bathtub, waiting for somebody who won’t tell me his name to finish his coffee and decide whether or not to murder me?”

	He spun on his heel.  His face was like ice.  I recoiled inside, but externally, I didn’t move.  “Yes, devil-child, that is your fate,” he said coldly.  “Do not attempt to leave.  Enjoy my hospitality.  I will not be long.”  He vanished.

	I stared at the spot where he had stood, before slapping both hands down on the water, sending a splash up against my bare chest.  “Fuck that!” I growled.  I started to rise when he was suddenly back.

	I started.  “That was fast.”

	“A conference was not needed,” he said.  “This is not the place for you.”

	I stood up and planted my hands on my hips, staring up at him as he loomed over me.  “So I’m leaving now?” I asked flatly.

	“You are.  There is another who has taken an interest in you,” the Noble Eladrin said.

	I just stared at him in silence, before I flicked my hair over my shoulders.  “Well, who wouldn’t?” I said airily, cocking my hips.  I figured I might as well highlight the absurdity of it all.

	The Eladrin just stared, before the faintest smile touched his lips.  “Right.”  He gestured behind me, and I turned to see a portal appear above the water.  “Step through, devil-girl, and face your final choice.”



	“I did, of course,” I said.  I had taken my seat again.  “It was the Arbor.”

	“What was he asking you all that for?” the friar asked.  I opened my mouth, but Axiopistos got there first.

	“He was determining how much will and self-control she had,” the Aasimar said.

	We both turned to look.  He was pouring himself a glass of water from a metal pitcher in the corner.  “The questions about her nudity were to establish if she wanted to change her appearance to her advantage.  The questions about her soul were to establish if her recollection of her creation was being related truthfully.  Leaving her alone was a test, to establish whether she would try to escape.  Staring her down was to try to determine her confidence, and asking her if she liked to come back to Arvandor was to establish both whether she liked being in a good-aligned afterlife…”

	“And to see if I would take the usual fiendish temptress route of using the question to try to establish rapport with him,” I finished.  He smiled at me, and I finally relaxed.  “How did you know all that?”

	“I have an investigative mind, Cavria,” Axiopistos said.

	“It’s true.  Nobody keeps secrets from my friend Axio,” Dreblin chuckled.

	Axiopistos acknowledged the compliment and passed me a glass to ease my talking.  I accepted gratefully and took a sip.  Nice and cold.

	“I would further venture that your acknowledging that you shouldn’t go near the boy helped out your appearance in his eyes.  Cracking a joke didn’t hurt either,” Axiopistos said.

	“Especially a joke about my appearance,” I quipped feebly.  Dreblin didn’t laugh, but Axiopistos did.  I decided I liked his laugh.

	“So what happened next?”


Chapter Five:


	I emerged in a quiet, misty forest.  All around me, I could see vast trees.  Pines, birches, oaks, ashes, rowans, huge maples with their proud crowns, crowding firs and fruit-bearing apples and pears.  A thin layer of mist hid the ground, but I could feel bare dirt beneath my feet, even under the trees where there should have been leaves.  I watched a pair of birds fly by overhead.  I heard a deer scamper away.  I could have been somewhere else in Arvandor, but I sensed otherwise.  The air felt thicker, somehow.  I took a few steps forward when I heard the portal close behind me.  I didn’t turn around.  If whatever being ruled here wanted to speak with me, they’d find me, I could tell.

	I walked on, feeling a warm breeze on my face, and was drawn to it.  Why, I don’t know, but it felt natural, like I was going to a home I actually liked instead of the one where I was kicked through windows.  I must have walked for an hour, not stopping except to listen to the silence and enjoy it.  I liked that place, as frightened as I was.



	“Frightened?” Axiopistos asked.

	“Yes.  I was lost on a strange plane, being judged by people I hadn’t met,” I listed, counting on my fingers.  “I was not told the criteria, nobody was coming to find me, I was naked and alone, defenseless… yes, I was frightened.”

	Axiopistos nodded.  “I wasn’t judging.  Continue.”



	Eventually, I found a pool of water, similar to the one in Arvandor.  I gingerly stepped in, and found the water warm to the touch, as warm as bright sunlight.  I saw how much deeper it was than the water in the other pool, but I had nothing else to do, so I plunged in.  I climbed into the water and held my breath, letting it cover me completely.  I closed my eyes and counted to ten before rising to the surface and blowing out a breath.

	My hair stuck to my face.  I pushed it aside and looked around.  To my surprise, I heard what sounded like voices which hadn’t been there before.  Should I have hid?  Clearly, this place was holy.  I could smell it in the air, taste it in the water.  I morbidly wondered what would have happened if angels or petitioners found a naked Succubus in the water.

	What emerged from the forest, though, wasn’t a petitioner or an angel.  It didn’t come out from behind the trees, either.  Spectral creatures, looking like nymphs, only both male and female, appeared from the stones, slowly resolving into fey shapes.  Tall, well-muscled men, delicate females, and a few of the reverse for both.  I looked around and saw that perhaps ten of them surrounded me.  Their features seemed to shift and change as I focused on them; their clothing morphed between styles, but never grew wet in the water.

	“Er… hello,” I managed.  A few nodded in greeting, though the voices were quiet now.

	“Is… this your pool?” I asked awkwardly.  Most shook their heads.  One spoke, very quietly.

	“No, miss, we belong to the world.”  It sounded very distant.

	I looked around.  “So… uh… what can I do for you?”

	“Rest,” one murmured.  “Find peace and comfort.  This is a place of pleasure and happiness.”

	“Your desire to be alone no longer brought us here,” a female specter whispered.  “And we can leave again if you wish.”

	I slowly sat down between two of them and sank down to my collarbone.  “No… I’m tired of being alone.”

	“Very well,” one male said softly, and he sat down beside me.  A female sat down on the other side, and the rest vanished.

	We sat in silence for a while, as I just enjoyed finally having other people nearby.  Eventually, I started asking questions.  I learned the place was called the Arbor of Innocence, and it was where the souls of sacrifice victims who were children went when they died.  Others could come too, if loved ones or a large group of strangers prayed for them, and petitioners of adult age could join them if their faith was true.

	I rose up in the water and rested my head on the shoulder of the male, with my eyes still shut.  He explained, in that distant voice, how this was the realm of Ryaire, a servant of Ilmater of the Triad, and that she had taken interest in me.

	I sighed.  “I don’t even have a name.”

	The female stroked the back of my hand and smiled.  “You will, child.  Don’t be afraid.”

	I opened my eyes.  The faint, spectral nymph on whose shoulder I was resting wrapped an arm around my middle and snuggled me close.  I cooed in the first genuine happiness I had ever felt.

	“I’m not afraid now,” I whispered.