Fowlhunter [GL]

An angel with light-green hair stood in the doorway of the coffeehouse. She was in blue uniform, with a lime cardigan knotted round her waist.

“Kikko!” Sabira and Lila rushed over to greet their friend. Ennanis remained by the window.

Kikko Apple had her head bowed low, her posture hunched. When Sabira and Lila reached her side, she met their gazes with a nervous look. She also gave Ennanis at the back a glance; when she saw her, her features visibly softened. But then she looked back at the two girls in front of her and tensed up again.

“We are so glad you could make it!” Sabira looped an arm around Kikko’s shoulder. “We saved you some sweets. The homemade butter cookies today have been divine.”

“Where have you been all this time?” Lila chorused, similarly hugging her. The three of them stumbled back towards the table, a tangle of arms and legs until they sat down.

“Kikko,” Ennanis put down her cup and nodded at her.

“Hi,” Kikko greeted her, the smallest of smiles. She moved toward Ennanis’ side, but Lila dragged her back to sit across the table with her and Sabira. Ennanis observed this without comment. Sabira was oblivious as she busied herself with cutting Kikko’s share of cake. Derrick and Ulysses did not seem to be rejoining them, so it was just them: three girls on one side of the table, Ennanis on the other end.

Her absent expression unchanged, Ennanis reached for the coffeepot. Lila visibly fumed, and opened her mouth to say something when Kikko spoke.

“I’m really sorry for worrying everyone,” Kikko said. Her hands grasped at, fiddled with the flowery tablecloth discreetly pulled over her lap. “You deserve an explanation.”

Sabira and Lila looked at her, falling into quiet.

“I have something to tell you,” the angel exhaled.

~~~

“I have something to tell you.”

One week ago, when Kikko had approached her, Ennanis was sitting on the top of a tower. Kikko noticed Ennanis did that lot, before or after missions. She would find a tall building or structure, and perch atop it like a bird surveying the land. She obviously wasn’t in any danger; below a curtain of wind-snatched rose ponytail, her wings were folded, their plumage full and healthy. Strong, well-trained wings. Plus, an angel wouldn’t die from heights. The damage from the fall would merely knock her out for a few days.

Still, the expression on Ennanis’ face… Kikko sometimes worried. There were certain fates worse than death. She had come to learn a lot about them recently, after all

At her voice, Ennanis turned to look at her. She cocked her head, indicating that she was listening. So Kikko walked up to stand beside her on the roof of the tower. The signalling tower overlooked the Archizonian coast. The ocean rolled out into the horizon. Kikko gazed out for a while, then sat down herself, swinging her legs over the edge. A tranquil breeze passed between them.

“I was enlisted into the Graveyard Division,” Kikko confessed. She loosened the cardigan tied around her waist, revealing the grey belt underneath.

“I see,” Ennanis said.

“...This isn’t news to you, is it,” Kikko said, after a while. “You saw me, that day. In the Command Centre.”

Ennanis nodded. They sat in silence.

“Why tell me?” Ennanis asked, after a while. In it was the implicit question, and why not the others. Their other friends, acquaintances in the 52nd Brigade.

“I know you’ve been talking with the greybelts a lot…” Kikko said, fiddling with the sleeves of her cardigan. The seawind blew strongly, battering against her face. A sensation she had come to associate with bone-chilling fear. She curled in on herself. “I just felt like you would understand.”

“In a way, maybe,” Ennanis breathed out. “But don’t you hate me?”

At that, Kikko whipped her head to look at her, flabbergasted. “Why ever would I?”

“Because I’m a Warden?” Ennanis wasn’t wearing her white robes today, in favour of the standard blue uniform the Knights wore. She never seemed to like donning the robes. But who could ever forget the Golden Rose and her accolades, gossip that seeped into the ears of any hearing angel. “And you’re, well, Graveyard.”

“What, like I’d be jealous?” Kikko inquired. Ennanis nodded. And Kikko sighed. “Of course I wish I could be as successful as you… but I wouldn’t hate you. You’re my friend. I’m happy for you. I hope you will rise to the top, because you were made for it—you deserve it.” She said this almost fiercely. Because Kikko Apple really believed it.

Ennanis’ eyes were still dim, but she nodded.

“Is something on your mind, Ennanis?”

“Why?”

“You look troubled,” Kikko said. “You’ve… looked troubled for a while now. Did something happen in the Command Centre for you, too?”

Ennanis sighed. “...I won’t be able to see you girls for much longer now.” Before Kikko could make an alarmed remark, she added, “Because of Warden duties. I won’t have the time for missions and such.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was part of it.

Kikko nodded in understanding. “I’ll miss you terribly. So will everyone else will. You should tell them.”

“As should you,” Ennanis said.

Kikko exhaled. “I don’t know if they would understand like you do.”

“Show your face at least,” Ennanis said. She looked out into the ocean. A sigh, then, she muttered, “...I really hate losing people.”

Kikko wanted to say, haha, don’t make it sound like I’m dying, but then again, wasn’t she? In the Graveyard Division, after all, it was only a matter of time. Depression welled up in her chest, like a fist clenching around her heart, so tightly she might’ve stopped breathing.

But then a pair of warm arms wrapped around her.

Ennanis hugged her for a long time, on that tower. For as long as Kikko needed.

“Kikko, you deserve better, too,” she said lowly.

“...You don’t know why I’m in the Graveyard, though?” Kikko sniffled into her shoulder.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ennanis said. “Every one of the greyed. They all have their own stories, I’m sure, but they all deserve better.” Kikko saw her close her eyes. “…I just wish there was something I could do.”

“You’re doing more than enough, Ennanis,” Kikko hugged her back.

Ennanis didn’t reply.

~~~

Many stories were told about the Golden Rose, too many to keep track of.

But we all know how this story ends.

With heavy footsteps, Ennanis took the jangling keyring of hers, a device meant to free the dead, and liberated someone very much living.

She stood in front of the cell which housed a young girl. With laughter like windglass, and a dark garb much too large for her skin, who claimed to have been framed in place of the real Cockatrice.

“I’ve made up my mind,” she told the ash-eyed girl.

Ennanis unlocked the door. Then, under the cover of night, with only the stars to guide them, the angel used all her prodigious expertise to lead her out of the sunprisons, down the mountain, and into the forest backdoors, where she left Chime for the last time.

Only, shortly after, the petrification began anew, and soon there was no question about who had been telling the truth.

Of course, that traitor to her kingdom, ceased to be a Warden.

And it was so that the Golden Rose fell from grace.