Chapter 2
KORMAC/TITUS
There is no death here.
My name is Titus, and I’m an angelus, not a human living in the realm of Faerie. Kormac is a false name given to me in a life I was called to serve.
That was over now.
Angelus were called from beyond the stars to serve the whims of many realms. Whispers through the stars, prayers of desperation, our servitude coming in many guises. To help guide a destiny, to hold the hand of the dying—some even called us angels sent by God.
There are many gods throughout the intricate web of existence. An endless stream of realities, of magic, of lives and technology and faiths.
As my Titus memories began to return, I once again knew so much information beyond my twenty- eight years as a human living on Faerie.
Some realms used the internet, drove vehicles, were so advanced when it came to technology.
Some realms were dying, some without magic or technology at all. Some we were never called to at all.
With one foot still in Faerie, I struggled, spending most of my time as a ball of energy in my green and blue glass room at the Sky Palace.
I liked to float at the window and watch the many towers of the same-colored glass, filling up with information while holding onto my false human desires, the developing emotions I felt for Prince Valance.
Olivia, my angelus friend, told me they would fade, that I’d be me again.
It would be easier for everything to go, for my mind to be wiped clean of him. But he sat in my chest, close to my heart as a strange flutter. After everything we’d been through, the hate that’d burned so brightly, things began to change into something more caring, something warmer.
And then I ‘died,’ my mission complete. I was meant to serve his destiny, nothing more. Now he would be on the path of revenge, ready to burn down the world.
Hellpiss!
I still held onto that exclamation.
Olivia came to see me often, or I bumped into her in the corridors of blue and green outside my room.
I did remember being her friend, spending many days in the meadows outside of the Sky Palace, along with other angelus.
When we weren’t being called, we studied the threads of existence, we waited.
We lived peacefully. In this tiny pocket of skies and meadows beyond the stars, just outside the web of everything, there was no war, no disease, no pain.
Ending my memories of Faerie would reset me to my former peaceful state because we were made from peace, carved by Many Hands over by the crystal falls.
Many Hands. The maker. A god if such a word were relevant here. Only, nothing stood above anything in Fatumstellae.
Valance…
The sun rose as it did every morning, promising a day of sunshine. No rain or snow or wind, only lovely warm days and nights, the skies always picture-perfect with various blues during the day and inky hues adorned with stars at night.
I missed the rain, the snow, even the cold—anything that changed this endless loop of warmth. Hells, I even missed violence, the adrenaline of a battle, the stench of dirt and blood, the weight of a weapon, the crunch of bone.
I sighed, watching the sun’s rays sparkle on the glass towers.
The sooner I forgot, the sooner I could be Titus again.
No…
Not again…
The rest of my kin were working to fix me, to restore my physical form and restore my stolen undying power. Without it, I would stay a floating ball of green and blue light.
The old woman wasn’t supposed to take that, apparently. But then, wasn’t it part of Valance’s destiny for him to have it?
Gods, destiny was complicated.
I knew I was supposed to be of a humanoid, male body. Not this ball. The real me. Back to serve a realm again if required, live a life of eternal life and joy.
My bedroom door opened. This was my room, filled with a bed and things for a physical body, hidden from me at the moment.
Olivia entered the room, floating in as a ball of light. Her actual form was hidden because I only saw angelus as balls of light while I waited to be fixed, despite my understanding.
It would be nice to have limbs again.
“How are you today?” the green and blue ball asked.
“I remembered a different calling today,” I said.
Truth. Before Faerie, I went to help Cleopatra meet her destiny, to meet Marc Anthony, and follow the path leading to her destruction. Her heart called to me, and I went to her as her lover.
“I was once Marc Anthony,” I said.
“That’s a good sign,” she responded, floating over to the window. “You have one of the best views here.”
She liked to remind me of this every other day. I failed to see how tower tops constituted a great view. I’d rather be facing the edge of the Fatumstellae, looking down at the sea of stars instead of this.
I never corrected her, though. Angelus didn’t correct kin, didn’t hurt or upset or cause drama.
How I longed to see a bar fight in the tavern of Riverleaf, usually involving my father.
Not my father.
Kormac’s father.
Kormac didn’t exist.
But he does. I am him…
I want to be him again…
My skin, my lips, my senses, my cock, my desires, the taste of Valance on my tongue, the exquisite sensation of burying my hardness deep inside him.
Written in the stars…
“Titus?” Olivia said, her voice richly melodious. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Just thinking.”
“About Faerie?”
“Yes.” I was always honest because there were no such things as lies here.
“And Cleopatra?”
“Yes.”
“It is all helping you understand what you are.”
“Yes.”
“I’m so happy you’re coming back to us, Titus. This is excellent progress. Soon you will be ready for a visit to Many Hands.”
“Do you have any idea when that might happen?” I asked.
“Soon.”
She said the same thing yesterday.
“I can’t wait,” she added. “You’re going to be my best friend again.”
I want to be… to be back with him.
But there was no way back, only this new forward. This return to myself I didn’t want.
Valance…
I miss you…