Edited
[Story Start]
Arianna's P.O.V.
I watched as the guards took Victoria away down the hall and I smirked at how she struggled. As they turned the corner, it was then that Keegan turned his full attention to me and had a concerned look on his face. I tried to smile at him to calm him down but I don't really know if it worked.
"Are you sure that you're ok? Did she really hurt you?" he asked and gently held my wrist again.
"Yes, I'm fine. I just landed on it at an awkward angle but it's fine now. Honest," I slowly twisted my wrist to prove just that.
My fiancée let out a small sigh and grabbed both of my hands in his and brought them up to his lips so he could place a gentle kiss on my knuckles.
I wasn't sure if he was angry or not. He didn't like to talk about his feelings very easily even though it was usually pretty evident on his face. But I don't really know how to interpret that either. I guess I don't know him well enough for that or for him to even be open about it with me.
"Do you still want to go to dinner? We can send them home with an apology and a rain check," his voice was guarded but I think he was a bit mad still.
Shaking my head 'no' quickly I said, "That would be rude to do to our guests. Plus I didn't get all dressed up for nothing."
The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile as he held his arm out for me to take and I did.
"You do look very nice tonight by the way," he said suddenly.
I felt my face light up and blood rushed to my cheeks as a big smile covered my face. I was hoping for 'beautiful' or 'gorgeous' but any compliment from him was good for me.
I was actually very lucky to have him as my fiancée. He is the wealthiest; most powerful and never mind most beautiful man in all of Idris as his career has made him very well known.
And he is all mine...
Keegan pulled a little silver whistle out of his pocket that looked like two angel wings and he blew on it gently.
It made no sound that could be heard by a human ear but I knew that it was made and specially designed to have a certain soft trilling. This sound is so high that only angels can hear it as it makes the little vibrations in the air. Our other 'slave' Trinity, has been trained to come to this whistle.
Not even 30 seconds later and Trinity was turning around the corner ahead of us and instantly walked forward and met us halfway. When she reached us, she glided into a full curtsey. As she stood up straight again, her hands were clasped together in front of her and she had a bright smile on her young face as she looked at Keegan.
Her pure and perfect blonde hair came a good distance past her shoulders and were pinned back o expose all of her flawless features and in a feathery light and happy voice she said, "You called, Master?"
"Yes," Keegan said in that loud and strong voice of his that always made my knees weak, "You will be accompanying Arianna and myself to dinner tonight."
Her fingers started to play with a piece of the fabric of her white maids dress with light blue lace, "But I thought my duties as personal slave were relieved due to the arrival of the new angel you purchased?"
"A change of plans. You will be sharing the duties. Teaching this new Fallen the ways of this household until she is fine to be on her own."
Trinity gasped at hearing that the new slave was a Fallen, fore there had never been a Fallen captured as a slave before and she did not know of this over the past couple of years.
I simply rolled my eyes at her and her stupid cuteness and at the way that her plump pink lips pouted into a perfect little 'o'. I'm sure that if she was older than merely 16 and wasn't an angel that Keegan would be with her just on looks alone. Never mind the fact that he seemed to enjoy her company ever since he saved her life... But that's a story for another time.
She cleared her throat, "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly does that entail for me?"
Nodding his head, the three of us proceeded to talk as we walked to keep our guests from waiting much longer.
"You will be showing a positive example for the Fallen. She has been rogue for a very large portion of her life. 17 years if I remember correctly. So she has a bit of a problem with following rules and understanding the concept of respect for her masters. You will teach her that as well as how to properly live with and serve us. That would also obviously include helping her learn her way around the palace." He explained.
I really just wanted to cross my arms and pout at the stupidity of the whole conversation. He was so nice to this angel at times like this, when she was merely curious and had done nothing to upset him. It made me sick.
Keegan is particularly nice to Trinity though. Long and very boring story made short, he saved her life when she was very young and took her in without going through the auction house.
I think it is wrong and dirty.
These angels are merchandise and should be treated as such. They aren't even like pets in a household. They shouldn't even be treated like lower level people...
In all reality they are lower than the dirt on our feet.
But it doesn't matter how much I try, I can't change his mind about it. I've tried to talk to him about changing his attitude and behavior towards the angels but he just gets angry and turns off all emotion to me and it just ends badly.
I love him and everything he stands for when it comes to his work and position in society and this entire city of Idalis and country of Alemondir. I trust his decisions so I guess I'm done trying to change his opinion on things.
We continued walking down the curved flight of stairs to our main dinning hall that was to the right of our ballroom that was located exactly at the middle of the palace. Trinity obediently followed right behind us the entire time.
I sighed angrily to myself. Why couldn't that stupid Fallen beast just do the same?
There were two couples already waiting for us as they handed their coats to our maids who took them to the closet to be hung up. Behind each couple stood an angel slave. Both were dressed in very plain clothing.
"Michael and Clara Jones! How very nice to see you both again," Keegan boomed in a welcoming voice, "I hope the travel here wasn't too stressful."
This couple is about the same age as Keegan and myself, although I believe Michael is a year or two older than Keegan. Michael was just over 6 feet tall and had broad shoulders and he had his arm linked with a beautiful shapely woman who was about 6 inches shorter than her husband and her big brunette hair hung in big full waves around her face. I found myself jealous of her natural beauty.
Their slave tonight was a 20 or so year old male angel with light brown hair hanging straight down to his ears. He didn't look very strong at all and his eyes were dull but he looked healthy enough.
They smiled at us brightly and shook our hands, "Please meet my fiancée, Arianna," Keegan said.
They introduced themselves to me as they each shook my hand, "The trip was pleasant actually, thank you. And it is very nice to see you again and meet your fiancée."
From what I remember of being told, Michael was the new head president of the Angel Hunter Society as the old one had to retire of old age a few years back. As Keegan was his second in command, they obviously spent a lot of time working together.
Keegan turned to the other older couple that looked to be in their late forties, and they had just finished removing their coats and they smiled at us both now.
Their slave was a 30-ish year old female. You could see that the Human world was having its effects on her as her hair was starting to turn her dirty blonde hair grey at the sides. She looked a bit livelier than the male with her more slightly plump facial features.
"Peter Clarington and his lovely wife Kathy. It certainly has been ages since I last saw you both," Keegan said with a huge smile.
They both nodded and Kathy spoke first, "It's been a long time. Peter and I will soon have to retire!"
"Yes, I heard," Keegan sympathized.
"Ah, yes, Keegan," Peter started, "I still remember the first day I met you, so young and ready to learn. And look at you now! You have done great things with your life. Like finding this beautiful young lady!"
Peter and Kathy both shook my hand, "Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce you. Peter and Kathy this is my fiancée Arianna Goldsworth. Arianna these are two of my old professors at the Seraph Institute."
"It's nice to meet you," I smiled.
I indicated towards the table, "Why don't we all have a seat?"
"Oh of course," was mumbled, as was, "Yes, lets."
Keegan sat at the head of the table with me at his right. Kathy and Peter sat across from me and Clara sat beside me and her husband was to her right. Each of the angel slaves stood behind their masters silently, not saying a word.
Subtly I glanced over my shoulder to see that Trinity had moved to stand behind me at the ready just as the others had done.
I smiled at how well she behaved and listened to orders and I frowned internally as I remembered that that was why I couldn't show off the Fallen to these important people tonight.
But that didn't matter at the moment. I tried to put that behind me and think of better things. At that moment, Keegan gently grasped my hand in his and rested it on the corner of the table.
Two of our kitchen maids came in then and showed a bottle of wine to Keegan.
Glancing at it quickly, he turned to our guests, "The main course is steak tonight, and I hope everyone is alright with some red Malivoire wine?" He asked.
Everyone agreed and the two maids then proceeded to fill everyone's glasses.
"So," Kathy Clarington spoke, "Congratulations on the engagement! You two have been together for a long time I presume?"
Glancing at Keegan I smiled, "Well it's been just over a year, maybe 15 months since we were first a couple."
"Oh.." she nodded slowly.
I guess she didn't really consider that a long enough period of time...
"How did he propose?" Clara asked excitably.
"You can tell a lot about a man from how he proposes," Michael stated and leaned forward seemingly interested in hearing the story as well.
I gave a bit of a nervous giggle and my eyes darted warily to Keegan.
The truth of the matter was that I had almost sort of forced him into asking me to marry him as he wasn't totally ready for the commitment of marriage yet.
Basically I was tired of waiting and stupidly courting. I didn't want to waste my life away like that because I had always wished to marry young. Plus I wanted the most power full man in all of Idalis to be mine alone. Before I met him, we was very popular with the ladies...
Gently giving his hand a squeeze, I smiled warmly at him, "Why don't you tell this story honey?"
I couldn't lie to these people and I knew he would make the story believable, as he would most likely want to impress them.
"Well, lets just say that I was scared," the men around the table laughed, "I know, me of all people. But it was only four months ago now, when Arianna came up to me after we had just gotten over a bit of a disagreement and said, 'So are you ever going to ask me to marry you, or do you just want to lead me on forever?'"
There were some laughs. But I blushed at this because that was a very nice version of what I had really said. Truthfully, we were in the middle of an argument and he said he would if I stopped yelling at him.
"I was very shocked," Keegan, continued, "The question caught me rather off guard. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later; it just all depended on when I got the courage to do it. But can you imagine how confused I was about that alone? I could go to war all alone against a thousand angels and demons and werewolves without worry but proposing to this beautiful woman scared the life out of me.
"I couldn't answer her right there so we parted ways and left it at that. It wasn't until I found her again later that night. She saw me and became furious again and I didn't know what to say so I simply kissed her and got down on my knee right then and pulled the ring out of my pocket and proposed."
The two ladies awed and I smiled at them.
Keegan pulled my hand up to his lips and placed a kiss there, but I could feel that his lips were hard. It was a tiny message that he was covering for me and the truth of it as it is not as pretty as he painted it out to be.
"That really is sweet, "Kathy said.
"Indeed," Michael added.
Leaning back into his chair, Keegan let go of my hand hastily and shrugged his shoulders, "And to think that it wasn't even that scary at all. Why didn't I ask earlier?"
"Commitment," Peter said jokingly.
"Timing," Michael added and I tried very hard to not let my face falter.
They both hit the nail right on the head...
"Well anyways, enough of this business. Have you heard about the attack on the Lupine Penitentiary in Grosselheim's city of Denfold?" Michael asked.
"Lupine?" I asked confused.
"Werewolves," Clara filled in for me.
"Oh..." Lifting my glass to my lips, I took a small sip. I know of werewolves I had just never heard of that term before. And I didn't know that they had a penitentiary...
"No what happened?" Keegan asked quite interested. I guess since Michael is head of the Angel Hunter Society, he would be very well updated in matters such as this. Angel Hunters were also involved in getting rid of werewolves. Werewolves have been known to be ruthless in small villages by eating the livestock. And not long ago, they started to switch their prey from animals to Humans and more often than not, Vampires.
Peter put down his glass and said, "Oh I think I heard something about that. Wasn't there some kind of attack?"
Michael nodded, "Yes. Some rogue werewolves attacked the penitentiary one night a few days ago, trying to break out their fellow brethren no doubt. They didn't get in but there were many guards who were killed. They're guessing that they have been hiding in the mountains just to the East of the city as that was where they seemed to be headed afterwards."
"Mountains? Do you mean the Rang'Shadina Mountains west of here that is out border to Grosselheim?" I asked.
He nodded.
"That's awful..." Keegan said, "I wonder why I haven't heard this news yet."
Michael shrugged and Michael said, "They have been pretty busy with dealing with it all. Informing families and having burials and rebuilding the penitentiary... They probably just haven't had much time yet. I only know because I had to go there and just missed the whole ordeal. Luckily for me I didn't get caught by the retreating raid on my way through the mountains..."
"Fair enough..." Keegan agreed.
"On to some more interesting and exciting news," Clara exclaimed loudly, trying to get the attention to a lighter mood, "We've heard that you two are the next owners of the rare fallen angel!"
Keegan nodded, "Yes, you heard correctly. Arianna and I thought that we should get another angel slave and I was actually unaware that the fallen was going to be at the auction house that evening. But when Arianna saw her, that's what she wanted."
"Wow, that certainly is amazing though. After decades of knowing of its existence and two years later they finally catch the infamous fallen. I never would have thought that they would have gotten it in our lifetime," Clara explained.
"The fallen is a she..." Keegan spoke suddenly.
I looked at him incredulously. I don't think it's really relevant what gender the wretched creature is and I'm sure they don't care either...
Kathy looked a bit worried, "Aren't you afraid that she will attack you or any of your other maids and servants? Michael has told me many stories of how ruthless any Pure angel can be after being rogue for such a long period of time in their life. And this is a fallen with a heart of black... I'm sure it's very hard to keep her under control..."
"Oh, Kathy, think of where you are," Michael said, "You and your husband both contributed to his training in this field. He's easily earned his spot as such a high ranking Hunter. Working with him I'm confident in his skills as I see it almost everyday. He's trained all of his guards I'm sure and they are more than likely masterfully skilled in dealing with this sort of thing."
Kathy smiled in agreement and Keegan thanked the big man.
Peter smiled triumphantly, "When you say it like that, I certainly take pride in knowing that."
"That's very modest of you," Keegan joked, "But yes, Kathy, you are right. This angel was approximately 17 years of age by humans standards when she was caught. But angels age a lot more slowly in their true homes so she could have been centuries old in mind. And with that many years under her belt of being wild and free and learning our ways and how to avoid us and then learning what we do to her kind? Not very good for us to be enslaving her."
Clara gasped quietly and put a hand to her mouth as she surely thought of what the outcomes of that could most likely be.
"But," Keegan continued, "Like Michael said. I am very skilled in dealing with these kinds of angels. I probably trained the team that caught her. I've been involved in this field since I was 8, 17 years now. It's more than simply a job for me, it's a big part of my life."
"And the fallen hasn't done anything wrong yet?" Peter asked.
From what I remember, he studies the psychology of angels and is very interested in their behaviors and such towards Humans. The fact that she's a fallen must make it that much more amazing.
"Yes," I finally spoke up, "she has. The angel attacked both Keegan and myself already."
The eyes of our four guests widened.
"And yet you still keep her?" Clara asked.
Keegan sipped at his wine and held it as he rested his arm on the chair. "She is being punished now. That's why she isn't here tonight. My other angel, Trinity here, is going to be with her at all times. To teach her the proper ways of being a slave and such..."
"Very smart idea," Peter praised, "It's been tested and rogues actually do better to adjusting to a new life if they are with another of their kind to ease them into it because that is all they know. Maybe she will then see the light of how it isn't such a bad life for her. You did say that the Fallen is a she, correct?"
I nodded and when I looked at Keegan I was confused at the look on his face.
He seemed to be thinking about her now in a way of longing or something that I really didn't understand.
"Yes..." he said in a far away voice, "and her name is Victoria..."
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