The Codex: An Angel's Guide To Seducing A Human (14 page)

Narius flashed me a smile then squatted to face the girl. “Come here, little girl. I won’t hurt you. Don’t be shy. I am a really nice man. You can trust—"

I folded my arms and gave him a disapproving look. “What are you doing?"

Narius glanced back at me. "It worked on you, didn't it?"

"Worked so well that my respect for angels vanished forever." 
Letting Narius talk to a little girl would end in a disaster.
Pushing Narius to the side, I smiled at the girl. “My name is Emily. What’s yours?”

“Ciel,” the girl said.

“Ciel, huh. We are looking for someone. Is there an adult nearby?”

“Mommy told me not to talk to strange people.”

Narius’s wings shook as a grin stretched over her lips. “Emily might be strange, but I am an angel. Everyone knows us.”

Ciel shook her head.“No… Mommy said that true angels have halos.”

Narius flinched. “Someday, when I become an archangel, I will have a halo of my own.”

“Really? Then Halfaya must like you.”

"Of course! I am his most faithful servant.”

I felt my brows knit and the alarm bells in my head ring. The fact she knew about halos and identified Narius's flock in an instant seemed a bit odd. I stared at her, looking for any signs of villainy. “Ciel, you should go back to your mother. She's probably worried."

The little girl's eyelids drooped. "I can’t. Daddy said she's sleeping with the fishes, and I can't find her resting in any of the ponds I checked."

Ciel's words touched my heart. I wanted to give the girl a hug, but held myself back in fear that she could be lying. "I see. Maybe you should take us to your father?"

"No. Uncle said he bought a farm. He said Daddy is happy there, and won’t be able to visit for a long time."

My lips felt a little dry. "What about your uncle?"

The girl placed her hands behind her back and grinned innocently. "Dead."

The rational part of my mind shouted to leave the girl, but I shoved the annoying voice down. “Okay, Ciel. We are taking you with us and out of this forest.”

“Why? This is my home. I know everything here.”

The angel's wings perked up. “Really? Do you know a certain fruit that can change someone into a woman?”

“Yes. A lot of people eat the apple when they wander this deep into this forest. I’ve seen it happen quite a few times in the last few decades.”

Narius clasped Ciel’s hand, the angel's face suddenly on the verge of tears. “Does that mean I am going to stay like this forever?”

Ciel smiled. “No, the apple of a shape-shifter lasts only for a day. You’ll return to yourself soon. No problem.”

I raised my hand. “Wait... you said 'decades'? You're still a child.”

“I'm not a child!” Ciel pouted, and her little brown eyes narrowed. “I will be seventy-four next month!”

I smiled at the child, sensing that she was just an orphan who wanted nothing more than attention from a motherly figure like myself. “Right...”

“It's true!” She pulled her lips apart and made me look at her mouth. “See, I have all the teeth!"

I studied them to make her feel like she was being appreciated. "That's nice—" A gust of wind blew into us, silencing me and blowing off Ciel's hat, revealing a pair of pointy ears hidden beneath.

My smile withered and my mouth dropped open in shock. “Those aren't human.”

Ciel touched her ear. “I hope so. Otherwise they would be very awkward.”

“You're an elf? Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but I just assumed that you were a—”

“No, I am a dryad.”

The world stopped for a moment. “Dryad?”

She bent over and caressed her toes, then her calves, and finally her knees. As her hands moved up, whatever spell that she had on them vanished, revealing roots of a tree intertwined together in their place. My mind froze. 
Dryad. She's a dryad.

“I always had trouble hiding my legs. Daddy said I shouldn’t show strangers, but you two seem all right.” She gestured to the house at the base of the tree. “Why don’t you come in? We can play inside.”

Questions about how she lived and the other hundred things I could ask that scholars would pay to have answered came to mind, but before I could interrogate my golden goose, Narius smiled and calmly returned the hat to Ciel’s head as if nothing were wrong.

“Narius! She’s a dryad! Look at her legs! That's the proof!”

“So?”

“She's a guardian of the forest, or at least a daughter of one. She is a magical being from the legends and stories!”

Narius tilted her head. “But I am an angel. We are the guardians of humanity. I am also a magical being from legends and stories.”

“Yes, but look! She's a dryad! People make pilgrimages to see them. She’s special! I always wanted to see one.” 
Also, let's not forget how much money I could make by telling stories to scholars with deep pockets. But how will I prove it? Should I get a lock of her hair and make them analyze it for—

Narius tapped her index fingers together, panic flashing across her face. “Varian said people would come to see me as well.”

“Sure, angels are holy and rare, but we see them a few times every decade. Dryads are incredibly hard to find! Less than fifty of them exist on the entire continent! If that!”

The angel’s eyes wavered in fear, and her wings shook with it. “But I am rare as well.”

“But look at her. It's rare to have a child, and even more rare to see a dryad this young."

Narius pressed the Codex into a tighter embrace. “But... but I am young, too.”

"Yes, but I've seen you for the past few weeks. She is something special."

Ciel scratched her head and pointed at the dwelling located at the base of the tree. "Hey, it's getting dark. Let's go inside.”

With the sparrows still crying above us, I dismissed the idea of staying out in the open. "Of course. Come on, Narius." I pushed the slightly upset angel and followed the dryad into her home.

The wooden house was much larger than it appeared from the outside, and it smelled of flowers. Long branches intertwined with one another, forming the walls, while the floor was made out of soft grass. Only the furniture appeared extremely ordinary.

Grasping my hand with her small one, Ciel directed us toward the living room where dolls and crude drawings of the forest littered the grass.

Careful not to step on anything, we sat on wooden chairs surrounding a round dining table.

An instant later, Ciel pounced on the table. “I haven’t had anyone sleep over in years!” She jumped up and down, bouncing off the ground with each hop. "What do you want to do?"

I held up my hand to calm the girl. “Well, I have a whole list of things to ask you, but first I want to know who controls the trees here.”

“That's me. Why?”

I placed my hand against the side of my face. “No. There has to be someone else, you are still a child."

The dryad pounded her tiny fist on the table. “I'm not a child! I'm a lady!”

I looked at the idiotic angel for support. "Narius! Tell her that she is a child."

At the mention of her name, the angel pouted and placed the Codex onto the table. She flipped the book to us and showed a page with illustrations of naked dryads. “As you can see, much like the humans—"

I covered Ciel's eyes and kicked Narius off her chair.

The angel crashed onto the floor, crushing Ciel's dolls and drawings.

Before Narius could rise, I stepped between her wings and pushed her against the grass, making her drop the book in the process. “What’s wrong with you?”

Narius squirmed under the weight of my boot. “Education begins with the youth of this world.”

I bent over and snatched the Codex from the floor.

The book screamed and shouted profanities upon contact.

I reached out to rip the page, but Narius stared at me with her damn innocent eyes. At the sight of them, my eyes twitched, and I shoved down the urge to tear the book apart. I tossed the Codex back down to the angel. "Educate yourself first."

Ciel, who watched our interaction with interest, coughed. "Anyway, I really am the one moving the trees. There’s no one else. So what do you want?"

I lifted my foot off the moaning angel, and turned to face Ciel. “To have a little chat.”

Narius turned herself onto her back. She hugged the Codex close to her chest and scooted away from me, towards the corner of the room. Her eyes glinted with suspicion as she clutched her blue book like a baby.

I let out a sigh, feeling a little guilty about handling the angel so roughly. 
Maybe I should give her another bar of chocolate. But right now, I have to follow through with the princess’s orders. 
Returning my attention to Ciel, I rubbed my forehead. "Let’s assume you are the one. Why are you moving the trees south?"

“To carry a message to my father. It has been a while since I heard from him, and I'm worried he overdosed himself with cannabis.”

“Wait. Your father is dead. You said he bought the farm.”

The child turned her head from side to side. “No. I said that he had bought a small farm in a desert.”

I raised my eyebrow at the lying girl. “In a desert?”

Ciel grinned. “He’s building a greenhouse. So that he can grow and harvest crops even in the winter.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to make sense of what she was saying. I couldn’t, so I smiled instead. “I see, but that doesn’t make a difference. The trees need to stop. Otherwise they will block the trade route."

She tilted her head. “What’s a trade route?”

“Well, it’s complicated, but people need it to survive. Think of it as a river filled with food.”

The dryad’s eyes widened. “Really? I thought sending more and more over time would work, but is that why none of the trees I am sending south are getting back to me? They are getting stuck in the water?”

The images of the chopped down trees came to my mind. “Sort of. But they're also being stopped by a group of humans, and the trees won't get past them until the humans leave.”

“And the humans will stay until they have what they want?”

“Yes.”

"Then there is only one way we can do this. Take me to your leader.”

“What?”

“I want to talk to the humans there. Maybe they can explain why none of my trees are coming back to me. Oh, and I also want to see the streams of food!”

"Well, it's not a literal stream. Look, there's no need for any of this. Just stop the trees."

Ciel yawned. "No. Uncle said I should always talk to a leader to solve problems," she said with sleepy eyes. "I should do no less."

I tapped my foot against the ground and let out a long breath. 
She's a handful... but taking a young girl to see the Princess?
Twirling Narius's feather against my neck, I frowned. 
Is that wise? It might end poorly. Still, I’m getting nowhere right now. Maybe the Princess can convince her.
 I gave a curt nod. "All right. When do we leave?"

Ciel covered her mouth as she yawned and pointed into the dark room. "Tomorrow… why don’t you go sleep in my parent’s room?” she said, wobbling out from her seat. "I'm way past my bed time, and we need to get up by dawn to avoid the sparrow that rises early to get his meals."

I nodded, and glanced back at Narius, who was already fast asleep in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall like it was the most comfortable thing in the world. A smile crept up on my lips as I approached the sleeping beauty. I placed my hand against her head and ruffled her hair, forcing her awake.

Narius

Emily stood in front of me, gesturing to a room. Rising to my feet, I stumbled forward, rubbing my eyes, and folded my wings as I stepped through a door. Inside, the moonlight penetrated through the glass ceiling and illuminated the room. At the center of it was a large fluffy bed, larger than several book cases lying on their sides. Next to it, various bottles of different colors and sizes stood within a glass cabinet.

As I studied the room, Emily wormed her way into the bed, taking the center of it with no signs of wanting to share. Then with her lips and nose covered by the blanket, her blue eyes bored into me.

Figuring that I should get some sleep, I walked to the corner of the room and closed my eyes. Balancing myself with the weight of my wings, I relaxed and prepared to sleep.

“What are you doing?” Emily asked.

“Trying to sleep.”

“By standing?”

I wagged my finger at her ignorance. “I used to do this all the time in front of Heaven’s gate during guard duty. I can stand watch and sleep at the same time.”

Emily made a disapproving noise. “They trusted you to guard something?”

I opened my eyes and found her still staring. “I am an excellent guard. I can sleep anywhere.”

And that was how the wing of the library got burnt to the ground,
 the Codex whispered.