Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 13, Final Part

They met in the slums of the mortal place called Urbs Hostiae, drawn to one another's promenia like the seas to the planets.

"You should not be here," the woman who was not a woman said. She did not look at the two of them but watched a mortal beggar flee from their presence down a narrow alleyway.

The other eidolon eyed her up and down, curious and frightened of the power radiating from her promenial form. This one was very young compared to it, and yet she made it feel uneasy. She must have held great power during her mortal life, enough so that she carried authority with her into the Caeles upon death and back out again.

It pushed the fear aside, though not without a mental nudge encouraging its companion to linger out of reach. Just in case. "You should not be here, either." It tilted its head in an approximation of the gesture mortals sometimes made to convey critique. "You departed the mortal realm two months ago, and I did likewise... somewhat longer ago than that. Yet here we are."

She arched a brow, and something told it that she had progeny. No, children. Mortals called them children. "I blend." The dry flatness in her voice sounded nothing like its own modulated tone. "And I know these people. Their ways. But you..." She trailed off, waving a hand at it to indicate its glowing pink and golden promenial form. Her own form better mimicked that of a mortal, though too glossy and indistinct along the edges where the magical particles she'd appropriated drifted.

What gesture did the mortals use to convey a lack of concern? Ah, yes. It shrugged. "I did not blend well back in my time, either," it said. The Neo-Romans had not welcomed the Sleepers and the knowledge they had offered. Not at all. "I made do then and I will make do now."

"At least try to look more like them."

It shook its head. "I do not want them becoming suspicious and hunting their own kind in some foolish attempt to find us. There has been far too much bloodshed in their history. Most of them cannot harm me. Let them face me as I am. This is a new world for all of us."

"A new world even for that?" she asked and frowned at its companion.

The daemon shrank back in fear, but irritation radiated from its promenial form and it glared. "I am a who, not a that."

"You are a daemon."

Its hair shifted from pink to electric blue as agitation energized the particles. "And you are an eidolon," it snapped. "Yet I do not treat you as a thing."

The woman looked mildly surprised, and the other eidolon could not blame her. The daemon's personality was stronger than expected. The entity must have interacted with mortals often in the Caeles. "Fine," the woman said. "What do you want me to call you?"

It froze, then shifted from foot to foot and frowned. At last, it shrugged and peered up at its eidolon companion. "You should choose for me," it said, its musical promenial voice shy. "Your former kind made the Caeles, and I am a child of the Caeles. But I am an Advice Daemon no longer."

It nodded. "I will give you a temporary name until you know yourself and can choose a better one on your own."

The daemon considered that for a moment and then smiled, its teeth like glittering diamonds. "Very well." It stepped forward eagerly. "What is my name?"

"You are a being of the Caeles given form. I call you Logos."

The daemon looked pleased as it beamed up at its eidolon companion. "And who are you?"

It thought for a moment. It remembered its mortal name, of course. But it had left that life behind long ago.

Then again, it had also abandoned fear and hope when it stepped through death's door and into the Caeles. Now, it had reclaimed the mortal emotions and made them new.