Kalista and Aditi: The Golden Paladin and the Grand Tactician

She had those dreams again. A dark, hot cave, lit only by fire. The light of the fire glinted off a massive hoard of coins, jewels, and treasures. She laid down on a pile of rugs and silk cloths, letting the heat from the cave sink into her muscles and relax them. The heat always felt so oppressive, like it was cooking her brain. She felt her throat run dry. She wanted water, but wondered if she could even find any in the dreamscape. She heard footsteps. Not massive ones that shook the earth, which she was used to whenever she had this dream, but quiet ones that echoed. Eventually, a man came to stand in front of her. His back and shoulders glistened with translucent red scales, and his yellow eyes were slitted, like a lizard’s. Behind him swung a reptilian tail. “Python.” Kalista sighed. “What is it?” The dragon-man laid next to her. He reached out his hand to play with her hair, twirling it around his finger. His movements were calm and deliberate, and his face betrayed no emotion. “Treasure,” he said, “war comes soon.” “Does it?” “Yes.” “And you’re telling me… why?” “To remove that scent of human on you.” She understood what that meant. “You okay?” Kalista sat up and shook her curls out. The dream was still heavy on her mind. “I’m fine, Adi,” she said. Adi nodded. She placed a bowl in front of her. “Take your time.” Adi was a unique sort of mage. Kalista munched on her food (fowl braised in seed oil) as she reflected on that fact. There were three types of magic in Elysium- celestial spellcraft, druidic spiritcraft, and daemonic witchcraft. Of the three, spellcraft was perhaps the most common. The humans of Elysium wanted a society without angels, but the more crafty angels would offer humans their own magic in exchange for favors, like information or life energy. That was Kal’s magic, in a manner of speaking. In exchange for information, Python gave her a piece of his own soul, letting her use his magic even without his permission. His power was special- appraisers could tell that it outstripped most other spellcraft abilities. However, Kal could not use it no matter how hard she tried, a fact she was sure Python was aware of. He probably thought that he had stacked the deck; he would gain information for the war effort, while his charge would gain virtually nothing. And then Kal met Aditi. Aditi had a natural gift for spellcraft, as though she had years of experience. The moment she took the piece of his soul in her hand for the first time, a mist clouded over her eyes as the soul warbled in her hands. Kal watched in abject surprise as she, albeit for a brief moment, tamed the soul and drew out the fire from it, a task no one had been able to do before. “I see,” she said. “He’s a rare kind of angel whose magic is only channeled through his beast form. That’s why you can’t use it.” “Because I don’t have a beast form?” “No, it’s because you can’t take his beast form.” Aditi paused. “Unless you can turn into a dragon?” Kal shook her head. Aditi shifted it around in her hands some more before Kal asked another question. “So, is it useless?” “There’s power inside, waiting to be unleashed. I’m still looking to understand the depths of it.” She placed it down. “But, strictly speaking, a human can’t use it.” She smiled. “Now, there is a way. The magic activates under certain conditions. By recreating those conditions, you could harness its power.” Kalista nodded sagely. She didn’t understand magic, but if Aditi felt it was possible, it surely was. It was a three day long journey for them. They’d ridden out to a secluded forest and found a sleeping dragon alongside a hunting party. They slew the dragon. Aditi used the dragon’s body, as well as some other catalysts she’d brought with her, to create two powerful objects. The first was the golden sword that Kalista carried by her side, its pommel a dragon skull. It did not burn, but it carried the fire’s properties. The second was the dragonbone gauntlet which Aditi wore, which unleashed her angel’s fire at a far less powerful degree. “I understand,” Kal said, as she rotated the sword in her hand, feeling the magic within respond clearly to her will. “Why this magic can only be used in dragon form.” “Because it’s true fire,” Aditi said. “Fire burns, but it cannot burn through stone, metal, or even the earth itself. But this true fire, on the other hand, can destroy anything.” “So, explain to me how this works again.” Aditi drew some circles on the ground with a stick. The first set of circles were three in a line. The second set were three bunched up like corners of a triangle. “The average angel’s nodes of power look like this.” She pointed to the three circles in a line. “In the middle is the core of the soul. The one on the left is the beast form, and the one on the right is the Gift. The angel can channel their power into one of two at any given time.” She then motioned to the second set of circles. “Your angel’s nodes of power look like this. In this case, the beast form and the Gift channel power into each other. That means that when power is channeled into one, the other is automatically activated as well. So he can only use his gift in his Beast form. However, because they power up each other as well, both are stronger.” “But I don’t have those nodes of power. Shouldn’t I be able to use the Gift without an animal form, then?” “His own internal structure is adapted to his nodes. The same is the case for every angel. In his case, he has draconic organs which expel true fire. You don’t have those in human form.” She motioned to Kal’s sword and her own bracelet. “But we’ve infused the properties of a dragon’s organs into this sword and this bracelet. Now, we have a sword that can cut through anything with a proper slash and a bracelet that allows its wearer to bend a weaker fire.” That was over a year ago, and the two had been inseparable since. The two of them set out, bound by a single angel’s soul, hunting for their target. Reportedly, a creature was sighted doing something strange in the bamboo jungle. They were to investigate and report their findings. Kalista rode her horse in the direction of the bamboo jungle, with Aditi hanging onto her back and her sword and shield hanging from her hip.. Kalista glanced back at Aditi- she wasn’t used to riding horseback, and if anything seemed scared. She placed her hand on Aditi’s, trying to soothe her fear. While it was common to see horses in India, where Aditi came from, she’d never ridden one before. She’d never have to, either, she said- in Indian culture, the grooms are led by a procession on top of a horse to their brides. So anything other than a car felt unfamiliar to her. The sky was a beautiful blue today. Kal gently slowed the pace of the horse until Aditi wasn’t clinging to her so tightly. “Is that better?” Kal asked. She heard Aditi’s hair shift, then her voice. “Yes, better.” As the bamboo forest’s shoots spread up around them, they got off the horse and hitched it to a guidepost. Neither of them were good trackers, Kal noted. Someone like Brooke or August would have been a better companion in this department. But it didn’t take a tracker to notice the aberrations in the earth- as though large chunks of stone had been messily hewn out of the ground and dragged into the distance, knocking down a few bamboo trees in the process. She glanced back at Aditi- she had noticed too. The two followed the trail of turned earth and snapped trees as they continued deeper into the forest, keeping their magic and sword at the ready. Kal froze. It was faint, but she could sense it- a pair of distinct divine influences. She commanded Aditi to stay behind her. She made a series of hand motions to her. Angels. Two of them. Kal stalked forward while Aditi looked around them. She could trust her, Kal thought. Aditi had a keen eye for her surroundings, and was quick to signal if something went wrong. The trail of overturned earth continued deeper into a small clearing- a pit in the ground about three feet deep. Aditi signaled for Kal to stay behind as she walked forward and glanced out at what was inside. Kal caught a glimpse of a large creature walking through the clearing. It appeared to be some kind of rocky lizard. Aditi glanced back at Kal. “There’s two angels and a rock skink. They’re building a fort out of stone, and somehow using the skink to amass materials.” “Why?” “Can’t tell. It could be for the war.” “Then we kill them. How are they positioned?” “If we’re at the 6:00 position, the skink is currently at 9:00, and the angels are at 2:00. No, scratch that.” Her eyes widened. “One of them’s gone.” Kal gasped and glanced around. She could sense it, somewhere in the woods behind them. “Adi, jump down!” “What?!” Adi asked. “Now!” Kal grabbed her hand and pulled her down into the clearing. Above them, a scythe’s head flew out of the woods, followed by an angel. It appeared to be a beastman with a thin layer of brown fur and white robes. Long rabbit ears poked out above its head. The angel landed on the ground in front of them, while the other angel- a floating woman with pink skin and butterfly wings- looked shocked at their arrival. She held her arm out as the rabbit angel took his stance once more. “Eliminate them!” she shouted. With that command, the rock skink suddenly charged towards the two of them. “This is bad!” Kal whispered. Aditi’s eyes darted back and forth as she calculated the possibilities in her head. “Kal, go after the rabbit angel. Try to get behind it and go for its joints, but stay alive.” Kal’s eyes glowed as she heard Aditi’s confident words. She readied her sword and shield and charged towards the rabbit angel, keeping her shield in front of her. The rabbit angel jumped over her, twisting in midair before he landed behind her. He struck down at her with his scythe, but Kal quickly shielded. Still, the impact could be felt- Kal was sure that if this angel had succeeded in his surprise attack, they’d both be dead in two blows. Aditi stepped back as the skink approached her. She circled towards the angel who was presumably controlling it. She charged a blast of fire in her hand as she monitored her position relative to the skink and the angel, who was herself backing away. She must not be a fighter, Aditi thought. But I need to get her to not run away. Aditi arced her hand and swept it around in a circle. A circle of red flame appeared around the three of them, startling the angel, who had nearly stepped into the ring of fire. The rock skink’s tail touched the flames- as she thought, it was unaffected by fire. That’s okay, Aditi thought. Fire can do more than just burn. She shot a blast of fire at one of the skink’s eyes. The skink howled and bucked as its vision was obscured by bright light, but Aditi kept her fire trained on his eye while keeping herself visible in the other. She carefully manipulated the path of her flame as the skink snapped its jaws at her, trying to stop the onslaught, driving it further in the direction of the only eye it could see from. Aditi’s plan was simple. She couldn’t kill the skink on her own, which the butterfly angel would have used against her. Therefore, she would need to take care of both at the same time- and lure the skink into killing its own master. Aditi tumbled out of the way as the skink lunged towards her, its jaws wide open. Its jaws collided with the butterfly angel and snapped shut. Aditi ran away as the skink came back to its senses and dropped the angel’s corpse. It scrambled out of the hole, eager to escape the noise caused by Kal’s clash with the rabbit angel. Kal, in the meantime, was deflecting the rabbit angel’s blows with her shield. Scythes were difficult weapons to wield, but also difficult for opponents to block due to the odd angle of the blade. She gripped the shield and rolled to the side as the angel brought down his scythe again. He uses two hands to swing the scythe down like that, Kal thought. When he does that, he’s only open from the back. If he’s wielding it with one hand, there just aren’t any openings. How am I supposed to beat him? Kal remembered Aditi’s advice- “go for the joints”. She kept an eye on the angel’s movements. He gripped the scythe again and swung it at her shield. Kal took special note of the angel’s hands. While holding the handle of the scythe, his right hand was the one closest to the blade. That was a pretty clear tell, Kal thought, that he was right-handed and gripping the blade the strongest with that hand. That also meant that he would have a hard time repositioning if she managed to attack the right side of his body. Kal ducked and rolled forward, ending up around the angel’s right knee. She lunged towards the back of his knee, slashing it, before dodge-rolling away. The angel momentarily fell, its movement having been hampered. As the angel struggled to stand, Kal charged back towards it and sunk her blade, with its sharp and unbreakable edge, deep into the angel’s heart. The angel sputtered, spitting out green blood, before it collapsed on the ground, dead. Kal breathed a sigh of relief as Aditi walked towards her. Both angels’ bodies had begun to disintegrate into motes of light. “You took care of him all by yourself.” Aditi smiled. “I’m proud.” “Mind if I pull the joints thing for future reference?” Kal asked, smiling at her. “It’s basic tactics. Of course you can.” Aditi took her hand. “Let’s head back.” Apart from the destruction, the forest was safe now. There was no doubt that NFNT knew what had happened, but since the angels connected to their hivemind were dead, it also meant that they wouldn’t know if the fort would remain standing. Aditi radioed in to the city that the threat was gone, but that they might want an earth-aligned spiritcrafter to help fix the destroyed terrain. They received an affirmative response, and after ensuring that there was no other information, they were cleared to return home. By the light of the sun, now low in the sky, both Aditi and Kal rode back to the city. “How long until the next invasion?” Kal asked. “One month,” Aditi said. She gazed back at the city. “Just one month, and then the angels come for us again.” “Python and Ven too, right?” Kal could imagine it in her mind. Her angel, in human form, was the man she dreamed of last night- a scaled man with a handsome face and a muscular body. An otherworldly appeal, at least in human form- and a cold, controlling heart. In beast form, he was a twenty-story-tall dragon that rained fire upon the earth. All of that fury and fire, just to take back his treasure. It was a miracle they were able to even stop him last time. And Ven, Aditi’s angel. A being who could divide itself into many bodies- a literal one-man army with a linked consciousness, though it always preferred to be the twins Viviel and Thanatel. And all of Ven’s pieces, including the twins, were assassins of the highest caliber. “Python, Viviel, and Thanatel. I don’t want that.” “Me neither.” Aditi loosened her grip on Kal’s back. “I like this city. I like what it stands for. And I love you, Kal.” Kal smiled. “I love you too, Adi.” Yes, Kal thought to herself. When their angels came for them next, they- and the whole city- would have to be ready to take them on.