Paper Moons Part 5 (Patreon)

Reaching out, I placed my hand gently on Elias’s wrist. I could see the tears in his eyes but most of all, I could see the determination.  “We could try combining our grace? I- I am unsure if that’s even something we’re capable of but if we can do that then maybe it’ll be enough to heal him.  Just until I get my full power back.”

“Do it,” Reese said, interrupting Elias. When Elias looked up at him, he shook his head. “I’m not negotiating this.”

I could see the pinched look upon Elias’s face but I didn’t think he was ever really one to argue. Instead, he gave a nod of his head, turning his body towards mine and reaching out to take the hand that held the shard of grace.  I could feel something tingle against me as Elias’s own hand lit up, a soft glow pulsing through his wrist and down to our joined fingers.  I hissed as it pierced through my palm, pulling at the celestial power that sat just below the surface.  I had used the grace a few times at this point, performing minor healing and little miracles. Gabriel was my first Fallen that I was able to help.  Faced with Elias, it was clear now that I had no idea what I was even capable of doing.

The field around us lit silver. The grace tinged with soft waves of comfort bloomed from our joined hands, wafting out over the empty meadow and towards the waterwheel of the cottage. It rose up the paddles before falling again into each proceeding bucket.  Above us, the sky burst forth with a vast and endless array of stars.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked down at the prone man in my lap. I had almost forgotten that he was there. His skin began to heat, the cracks in his skin filling in with the combined light as his chest rose in one aching crack and his body arched off of me to suspend itself in midair. Elias’s grip tightened on me, not letting me go as he focused on his son, eyes burning a bright blue silver, sweat dripping down his face and forming their own cracked lines as he took Gabriel’s away.

When Gabriel floated back down to the ground, nothing more than a feather, the light dissipated.  Elias slumped forward, finally releasing my hand while Reese grabbed him and cradled his close. And in my lap, Gabriel was whole. His eyes softly shut in peace.

~~~~~

Reese shut the door to his bedroom where Elias rested peacefully. In the other room, Gabriel was also asleep, the window the goblin had come through, boarded up.

“How you doin’, kiddo?”

I looked up from where I sat on their couch, my hands having been twisting together in discomfort.  “I’m fine.” My palm did not glow. The faint trace of grace that was normally there was flat and dull, the skin there looking puckered and burnt.  “How are they?”

Reese looked entirely like a man that wasn’t sure how he was supposed to answer such a question.  Fine, was the typical response, but we would both have known he was lying.  “Elias can’t give any more of his grace,” he said.  “He’s given too much already and he is dangerously close to tipping to madness.”

I nodded. Each Fallen had a threshold and the fact that Elias was even here at all was more of a nod to his strength than anything else. “How long have you two been together?”

“About a decade,” he said.  “Maybe more. I don’t know. My world was destroyed and I was cast out into the endless sea. Elias literally fell from the sky and wrecked the side of my raft.  We were out there for some time.”

“He’s been a Fallen for ten years?” I knew that the surprise was written in stark lines across my face but honestly, I was more amazed than anything else.  “Fallen rarely last a year alone.”

“They just don’t have the right help,” Reese said.  “Not their fault that people are fuckin’ idiots and put an expiration date on them.”

I bowed my head. “I didn’t mean any offense by it.”

“Did I say you offended me?”  The table in front of me squeaked as he sat down on it. I could hear a few bottles clinking together and a cork pop. “You drink?” I shook my head. “You’re one of those sweet souls, aren’t you.”

I frowned, not really sure what he meant.  “I try to be kind to all…”

Reese nodded. “And you do it because you like it. Not a lot of people are just nice because it's in their nature. Most people are just nice because they want something from you.  You’re refreshing, Graceling.”

“Thank you?”

He laughed. “Point and case.” Taking a long pull from the bottle in hand, bourbon if I wasn’t mistaken, he didn’t even grimace. “Alright, so you obviously are something that people are looking for. You were hella hard to find but now I’m kind of thinkin’ the goblins got your number.  So, I’m gonna take care of that.”

“How are you going to take care of that?” I asked. I couldn’t have him with me all the time.

“You like cats?”

“I- yes? They’re cute.”

“Well, you ever get into any trouble, you just tell the cats.  They’ll come get me.”

“You have cat agents?”

He grinned around the lip of his bottle. “Don’t fuckin’ tell anyone.” Standing, he moved to the kitchen. “I’m going to make food. You can decide if you want to stay here a bit. I only have the couch to offer you but I figure it’s better than going out there and dealing with whatever we just dealt with.  Also, I’ve done some investigating and your place is a shithole. You know that right? Like, it’s a fucking dump.”

It was a hole in the wall blocked together by a few stray pieces of moldy plywood. I was well aware.

“I really do not want to impose…” I said softly.

The door to the right opened and Gabriel, looking far more put together than he had before, stepped out.  “If Reese is offering you kindness, I would suggest taking it.  I hear it only happens once a year,” the man said.

Reese snorted in laughter.  “Twice. And you should be in fuckin’ bed.”

“I’ve been in bed for days and I feel better.  I would prefer to sit out here and get to know the individual who saved me.”

“Oh,” I said, pitching my gaze down.  “Elias did most of the work. I just lent him the power.”

“Gabe, put a shirt on. You’re making her blush.  She’s a sweet girl and you are a wall of muscle.  It’s scarring her.”

Gabriel frowned. “Are humans scarred by the skeletal system?”  A shirt hit him in the face.

“What did I tell you about taking everything literally? Fuck. I hate that about you celestials. No sense of humor and when you do get one it ends up being twisted.” Reese went into the kitchen then, muttering to himself about comedy and leaving Gabriel and I alone in the living area.

“We have not been properly introduced. Or,” he paused. “At least I do not think we have been. I was a little worse for wear when I woke early.”

“It’s alright.  You may call me Graceling. And I already know you are Gabriel. Though I don’t think I have gotten your last name.”

“Caine.”

I smiled at him.  “Like Caine and Abel?”

“I am unsure.”

I waved him off. “It’s an old religious tale from my own kind.  I have yet to find out if the things I believed in back home even exist here.”

“It’s the Night Market. I have found that nearly everything exists here.”

[[Ask him how he met Reese and Elias]]

[[Ask him if he fell to the Night Market or had to travel here]]

[[Ask why he felt the need to save you despite not knowing you]]