Azra-El Series Arc 2 Ch. 00

Clara stopped one of the younger angels and asked, "Where can I find Princess Fenghuang Shangdi?"

"Huh?" the pink-haired angel responded, cluelessly.

"The Blazing Fury."

"Oh, I am not sure. Her cubiculum number is 21. If you cannot find her there, she might be messing around in the mechanics lab," she said, and Clara could not figure out if she sounded annoyed or amused.

"Thank you," Clara said, and went in search of cubiculum 21. She found it quite easily, as the cubiculums were numbered, and arranged sequentially.

The door of the cubiculum was slightly ajar, and Clara heard signs of presence in the room, so she knocked on the wooden door.

"Come in," Clara heard, and she stepped inside.

It was a small room by angelic standards, 10-by-10 feet, and the Blazing Fury sat by a small desk, with her back towards the door. Clara easily recognized the Fury, though the first time she met her, she had thought her to be a fan of the Blazing Fury. It had been a great surprise when she learnt that the ina she met at Riverbridge was the Blazing Fury, herself.

The princess' hair was quite long now, and was held up in a hastily put-up high ponytail. She wore a pair of baggy grey shorts that were quite unusual in angelic fashion, and her baggy shirt was not as form-fitting as possible. She looked more like a tramp rather than a princess, but Clara assumed that her appearance was like that only because she was working at a lab.

She often worked at Tir's campus, and a few other workshops, too, but surprisingly, the University of Bologna had been the only place Clara could get access to, without arousing too much suspicion.

The princess was intently scribbling away on a piece of parchment, and parts of several deconstructed VPs lay scattered all over her desk, along with a couple of books on energy devices. A couple of ugly-looking designs hung on either side of her desk.

"What are you working on?" Clara asked, curious over what interested the Fury to such an extent, that she did not even bother looking at the person who had entered her room.

"Trying to figure out a way to entangle multiple coupling stones," she muttered, and continued to scribble away.

Clara decided to wait.

"Gah!" Blaze finally cried, "This is so frustrating. Why can't someone invent something simpler, like radio waves?"

"What waves?" Clara asked, understanding little of what she said.

The Princess swiveled around on her chair, before answering, "Waves on which you can superimpose signals, which can then be received by multiple devices."

"Like ocean waves? You can send signals on them?"

"No, no, not those. Nevermind. What can I do for you, ivka?" she asked, but then, recognition dawned. "It's you!"

"Hello, Princess Fenghuang. It has been a while. Do you still have those Blazing Furies clothes to show me, or was that just a ruse, too?"

A look of guilt immediately sprouted on the Fury's face. "I am sorry. I was just going along with Nikolett Lovag. I did not know that she was going to shoot you with a tranquilizer," she muttered. "Was your mother really a part of the Princeps?"

Clara sighed. It seemed that the Fury had no idea of what she had been doing. It made things easier for her. "Yes, she was, Princess, and so was I, technically."

The Fury raised her brow at her, seemingly unsure of how to react to her admission.

"But, we are not as bad as our notoriety may suggest," Clara continued. "Most of our infamy is due to the Malakim using us as scapegoats for their deeds."

"Oh? And how can I be sure that you are not lying?" Blaze asked, unconvinced.

"I am not here to convince you of anything, Princess," Clara sighed, again.

"Then what are you here for?"

"I hear that you are a kind angel, Princess. So, I am here to make a request," she asked, softly.

"Speak."

"I have not heard of my mother since that day, Princess. I do not even know of her fate, whether she is rotting in some Malakim prison, or if she is even alive. My mother was a Princep, but the only thing she has ever been guilty of was association with the group and hosting their events.

"She has never done anything untoward, that I know of, princess. So, I am here to urge your kind heart to make an attempt at finding out what has happened to her. I need to know, Princess. I did not know of who else to approach, and I believe that you owe me this much," she asked, emphatically, yet pleadingly.

The Fury was silent in thought, for a moment. "Very well. I shall ask around. How will I be able to contact you when I have the information?" she asked.

"I will find you in a month or two, Princess. The Malakim are still looking for me, and coming here was a huge risk, but this was the only place that I could catch you alone."

"Okay. You must be careful when you approach me, next time. The Malakim may have eyes on me," Blaze said.

"Thank you, Princess. I did not think that I would be able to convince you so easily. It seems that you are truly a kind angel. I shall take my leave, now," she said, with gratitude.

"Wait a moment," Blaze said, and pulled out a few sets of the latest clothing from her stores. "A little something for a fan," she said, with a smile.

Clara accepted them and quickly left the room and the building, leaving Blaze with a lot to ponder over.

***

From the University of Bologna, Clara flew straight to her hotel in D'Warka, and went to Boazhai Rong's room. The prefect of the Princeps quickly invited her in, and closed the door. A young ivka sat on a couch near the tea table; Clara did not know who she was, only that she was an undine.

"How did it go?" Baozhai asked. The Xian angel was in full disguise, and even Azalea would not have recognized her, from a first glance.

"She accepted," Clara said, her surprise evident. "Quite easily."

"Yes, I expected the same. The only tricky part was to get you in touch with her, without anyone noticing."

"But, what is the point of all this? Though I am quite eager to know of my mother's fate, I doubt it holds the same interest for you," Clara asked.

"I have already provoked the Nephilim's wrath, Ms. Clara. The only way to get on her good side, now, is on her terms. I have realized that the way into her heart is to sincerely ask for her help."

Clara nodded, though she did not quite understand the prefect's zealotry towards the Nephilim. Her response, "She is the only way to true freedom," did not make much sense, though it aligned with the Princeps motto, "Power is Freedom".

***

Blaze mulled over Clara's request for a few days, before bringing out a VP that he thought he would never use. He channeled his energy into it and waited for a response.

"Blaze?" a surprised voice spoke from the other end. Though he had once decided that he never wanted to hear it again, it was still music to his ears.

"Hey, Nikolett," Blaze said, unable to remove the bitterness in his voice.

"I may be Nikolett," Nikolett said, "but I am also Lynn, Blaze. I have always liked that name. That is why I gave it to you."

"If you say so," he said, shaking his head. He did not blame her for the disguise, as those were the circumstances under which they had met. He blamed her for her actions towards Sky and him. "Anyway, I am calling because I need to ask you something. The Princeps mayor of Riverbridge— can you tell me where she is or what happened to her?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Do you need to know?"

"I would like to know," she said, "but I will answer your question anyway, as I feel that you may feel responsible for the fate of those Princeps. Liliana Arosio, the mayor and head of the Princeps branch of Riverbridge, is serving a hefty sentence in the dungeons of Cockaigne. The rest we captured that day have had their properties and titles seized, and donated to their respective exchequers. However, most of those angels will be released after a few years of imprisonment."

"So, why are you still going after Liliana's daughter? What could she possibly know that the others don't?"

"Ah, Clara Arosio? I presume she approached you for information regarding her mother?"

"Yes."

"Well, we just need to make sure. We have not been able to glean much information from her mother, but her daughter may be more forthcoming, if she knows anything," Nikolett elaborated.

"Can't you just leave her alone? She is only a young angel."

"We will, if she answers our questions."

"Good. I shall talk to her. However, the interrogation must take place at a location of my choosing, and I need your assurance that you will not go after her, later," Blaze said.

"We will not, unless we have good reason to. Other than that, we have a deal," Nikolett agreed.

"That is good enough. Thank you for being frank," Blaze said, his voice finally softening.

"I am just trying to do what is best."

Subsequently, a couple of months later, Clara Arosio was interrogated by the Malakim, at the Xian Capital. The Malakim were not able to gain any useful information from her, but they decided that she did not have access to more than what she had told them. In fact, Clara had been very forthcoming, and the Malakim could corroborate her information with what they already knew, which made them inclined to believe that she did not know anything more. Even her escape had been facilitated by two angels who had been living as guests at their house. She said that they had left after dropping her off at a neighboring town.

Thus, Blaze managed to not only procure information about Liliana Arosio's whereabouts, but also obtained Clara's freedom. Clara was quite grateful, and joined the Blazing Furies, and began to help them out with random tasks.

oOo

LE 642, Bianca. Arcadia.

For seven years after her return from D'Warka, Arethusa tried various methods to create feelings of camaraderie between her own kin, the Mami-Wata, and the angels of the adjacent queendoms. On this principle, she created the "League of Sisters", open to all races, promoting sisterhood among all its members. However, she was not done with that. She also began to approach the sirens at their refugee camps.

Just like how the Isles had always been independent of the HU, the sirens of the Singing Archipelago, beyond the north-western coast of Azra-El, had always been independent from the demons.

However, that had changed when their nation finally fell to the Hela empire, about a hundred years ago. Facing something akin to enslavement, many sirens began to escape their lands. Since they could not enter the HU, as they were considered demons by the angels, they chose to swim all the way to the Isles. Soon, schools of sirens began to arrive at the Isles as refugees.

The Isles were left with no option but to take them in. However, the nereids were still afraid of the sirens, so they segregated them and put them in meagre refugee camps, on the condition that they could not leave until they had proven themselves. However, the culture of the sirens was vastly different from that of the nereids, and they could not easily integrate into nereid society, especially when faced with deep-seated mistrust and discrimination.

Though Arethusa had easily accepted the Mami-Wata, it was not the same with the sirens. However, she remembered Blaze, Siofra, and Blaze's speech. It made her feel that if Blaze could call herself an angel-pixie for the sake of a pixie, why couldn't she try to see the world through the sirens' eyes? If she would extend a hand to anyone who was suffering, why couldn't she extend a hand to the sirens?

Thus, she established a school for the sirens, at Arcadia, to impart them nereid philosophy, science, and technology. This didn't go too well with the nereids, and thus, she took to the stage at the senate, to address this opposition.

"You disdain us for who we are," she spoke, taking the voice of a siren refugee. "But, have you ever considered why we are this way? We are poor, stricken, and each day is a struggle for survival. Have any of you ever come anywhere close to that? Let us see how long you maintain your moral superiority whence you do.

"But, that is besides the point. The point is, do you really expect us to behave any differently, when all we've known our entire lives is the law of the jungle?

"Then, you come along and judge us, and if any of us tries to get out of the prison you've created for us, you restrict us based on those very prejudices, and not let us free.

"And if by some chance some of us do manage to climb out of our cesspools, they are still influenced by their backgrounds. They see you 'moral' lot, and begin to view their own kind with contempt. They feel special for rising above their own brethren and begin to avoid them.

"There may have been some who have surpassed all of these barriers, but those are few, and not enough to lift our kind out of destitution that was caused by the Hela Empire, and sustained by you!

"Now, I realize that I am only a young and naive nereid in your eyes, and maybe I am, but I request you to give me a chance to show you that the sirens can be integrated. They will still retain some of their culture, but I am sure that one day, we can all live in harmony.

"What do you have to lose by educating, and sharing some of our knowledge with them? Have we not prospered because of sharing our knowledge with one another? Why can we not do the same with the sirens? Or are you afraid that the prosperity of fifty thousand sirens is a threat to 1.2 million nereids?"

Arethusa's speech at the senate brought both good and bad with it. Those who had viewed her as a naive young princess began to see her as a potential threat to their society, but there were also enough nereids that she had convinced, to allow her a chance to continue her project.

Arethusa had started her school in LE 638, and after four years, it finally became self-sustaining, with numerous young and old sirens taking classes, and getting to understand the way of life in the Isles. A few of them even began to live at Arcadia.

Many nereids began to volunteer at her school, not only to teach the sirens their ways, but to understand those that would be living with them for the foreseeable future.

Though there had been a few setbacks along the way, caused by both sides, Arethusa was happy with how things were going. However, she felt it was not enough. She heard about some of the things Blaze had achieved, and she felt a little inferior. Blaze's influence and outreach were far more expansive than what she had accomplished. However, this did not arouse her envy. She only felt even more admiration for the young angel. Little did she know that if Blaze heard about her accomplishments, he would feel the same, if not more.

She wished to contact Blaze and ask if her society could become a sister society to the Blazing Furies, but she felt that she needed to accomplish something more before she did that. She wanted her society to bring something unique to the table. However, she did not know what that was. She felt that understanding the society of the demons would bring her more clarity, and maybe spark some ideas.

Thus, on the first month of LE 642, she set forth into the demon lands, taking five of her mother's arch-nereids to accompany her on the trip, hoping that the trade relations her mother had with the demons would provide her some modicum of safety.

oOo

LE 642, 1st Kite

Nikolett Lovag was a little irritated as she stood by Astrid Marigold, at their booth, at the student fair of Nghia Linh University, the premier academy of Kahyangan.

She and Astrid had traveled all the way from the heartland of the Caledonian Empire to the south-eastern coast of Azra-El, just to inspire and convince some of the top students of Kahyangan to join the Malakim.

However, despite the fact that she was famous, and was offering scholarships and other benefits to students who would join the Malakim, most of them seemed to be more interested in the booth set up by the Blazing Fury society. The BF society was still considered a student society, so Nikolett could not even complain about Blaze stealing potential members of the Malakim.

What sort of a student society has members in all corners of the HU? she complained in her mind.

However, since the BF society did not even have a guiding motto yet, no one could say otherwise. Nikolett could not decide if it was a part of a master plan that Blaze was cooking, or if she was just having fun. From what she knew of her, either was possible.

"Who are they?" she asked Astrid, eyeing the two inas angelling the booth, placed directly opposite to theirs, in a large courtyard overlooked by exotic steep-roofs that were curved at four ends. It was a part of the main lecture building of Nghia Linh.

The two young angels seemed to have their hands full, as they tried their best to handle the hordes of young angels flocking to register with the Furies and take away a free set of the latest TPF clothing, styled to match the Kahyanganese tastes.

The younger inas received a pair of red cotton boyshorts, printed with beautiful designs of trumpeting cerafents, surrounded by tall grasses that were native to the country. The ivkas received similar red culottes. The tops were the same for all ages— stylishly crafted drape-tops made of whitewashed bison wool.

White and red had become the unofficial dress code of the BF society.

"Bi and Kida," Astrid answered, casually, "They are Blaze's classmates. I believe Bi's ancestor may have been from Kahyangan."

Astrid's eyes were on the pile of clothes from the The Blazing Furies stores, lying by the side of the BF booth. They had been left unattended, as neither Bi nor Kida had the time to advertise or sell them.

"I cannot believe the angels of the top university of Kahyangan are more interested in getting a free set of clothes, rather than learn about the societies of the HU!" Nikolett protested. There were other societies who had set up booths, but currently they all seemed to be facing the same fate as the Malakim.

"What did you expect? With a ridiculous and archaic clause that does not let angels to freely switch societies, why would any thinking angel want to join a society at such a young age?" Astrid answered.

"What about you and me?"

"Let us be honest. How much trouble would it be for us to swap to another society? If I wanted to, I would be an official member of the Chayot or the Ophanim by tomorrow. It may not be as easy for you, but every society will go to great lengths to protect you, if you choose to join them. Anyway, there is no need to get antsy. Once the students receive their free clothes, they will start making their way to the rest of the booths."

"I hope so."

"Anyway, for now, you will be fine here by yourself, right?"

"Why?"

"It looks like Bi and Kida are too busy to sell the clothing from The Blazing Furies stores. It needs my intervention," Astrid said, standing up with a new fire in her eyes.

"You must be joking!" Nikolett cried, almost too loudly.

"Er, no. I have investments in that store, and some of those clothes are my own designs. They will not sell by themselves, would they?" Astrid said, matter of factly, returning to her flighty persona.

"Why are you even here?" Nikolett said, angrily. "You are a Malakim, and you want to go sell stuff for the Blazing Furies?"

"I am here for the same reason as you, Nikolett," Astrid snapped at her. "My support for the Malakim and my friendship with Blaze are two different things. Besides, I am not selling stuff for Blaze, but for myself. As long as his stores are successful, I shall be invested in them. Do not drag me into your narrow-minded outlook towards everything.