Chapter 69.4

After waving goodbye to Amara and Evelyn, Vee slowly drove off. She occasionally checked her rearview mirrors to see how Amara was doing, and couldn’t help but chuckle as she saw her love freeze on the sidewalk—no doubt nervous about approaching the house. Trusting that Amara would be okay, especially with Evelyn by her side, Vee turned the corner and began looking for parking.

Most of the streets in the neighborhood required permits to park, and it took the better part of fifteen minutes for Vee to find a spot. It had been ages since she’d needed to parallel park, but thankfully she hadn’t lost the skill entirely. After turning off the car, she tucked her phone in her pocket and stepped out, eager to stretch her legs after multiple hours of driving. She shook the stiffness from her body as she paced back and forth next to her car, double checking the spacing before nodding contentedly at how well she’d parked.

It was a gorgeous day, all things considered. Spring was only a week away, at least according to the calendar, but it normally took the Chicago weather several more weeks before it decided to actually warm up following the drawn-out winter. Vee took a deep breath, savoring the feel of the crisp air in her lungs as she looked around.

When she released her breath, she caught tiny glimmers of iridescent radiance dancing across the edges of her shadow. She grumbled in frustration, then closed her eyes and focused on her connection to the Divine, to the Miracle of Creation that sang in intimate harmony with her soul. Now, more than ever, it was imperative that she keep a tight hold on her abilities. She remembered the countless nefarious forces that Evelyn had detailed as they prepared for this trip, then carefully dimmed the light of her soul to prevent it from spilling out into her surroundings.

She still wasn’t used to keeping such a tight grasp on her magic. It felt most natural to let it breathe as it desired, but doing so always resulted in minor miracles following her around. Conspicuously radiant light where none should exist, wildflowers blooming in her wake, strangers staring at her in awestruck wonder. Earlier in the week a songbird landed on her shoulder, and it took all her strength to stop herself from seeing if it might indulge her in a duet.

It was possible to keep her magic in check if she focused, but doing so had its own side effects. Keeping a lid on her magic felt like forcing the matching ends of two magnets together, and doing so caused her abilities to bubble and stir in protest. Creation hated to be stifled, it wanted to explore the world it had shaped all those eons ago. When trapped inside of her, the magic enhanced her body in a myriad of ways she still hadn’t entirely figured out. Once, during one of her morning runs, she found she was capable of effortlessly bounding up entire flights of stairs with a single jump. When she tried leaping in the opposite direction, she caught her magic slowing her fall, eventually suspending her several inches above the ground when she tried to land.

If nothing else, today’s excursion would be a great way to practice self-control.

Vee pulled out her phone to pay for parking, then quickly checked her messages. Thankfully, she had none from Amara; hopefully that meant she was wrapped up in meeting her family. With little else to do, and confident that it would be many hours before she needed to pick up Amara and Evelyn, Vee happily started wandering the neighborhood.

For her first destination, she set her sights on an open field some ways down the street. The thought of enjoying the weather by walking around a park sounded amazing, especially since she’d missed the group’s big nature walk earlier this week.

Reaching the park took longer than she’d expected. Bottling up her magic always resulted in greatly enhanced senses, and her instincts had yet to catch up. Ordinarily, being able to pick out individual leaves meant being fairly close to the park itself—that was no longer the case. She heard the trees rustle in the breeze, saw the gentle ripples of wind passing through the branches, all while standing at least a mile away from the park.

The disconnect frustrated her. She’d spent years training her body, fine-tuning her senses to gain a perfect understanding of her body’s limits and tendencies. How many early morning runs would it take to retrain her spatial awareness? Would she ever fully understand her new abilities?

Halfway to the park, she flinched in surprise as a car alarm went off. At first, it felt like she was standing directly next to the vehicle, but as she looked around, she found that wasn’t the case. The offending car was, in fact, several miles down the road. She even heard the grumbled mutterings of its owner as they rummaged with their keys from inside a store near the car, eventually finding the clicker and turning the alarm off.

There’s got to be a better way. Maybe I should try to find something else to focus on? If I could direct my magic into a specific venture, maybe it would stop overloading my senses like this.

The thought stuck with her. It was only a matter of time before one of her accidental Miracles happened at exactly the wrong time, or the wrong person caught a glimpse of her halo. The problem was that she had no idea what to redirect her magic towards. She started by ruling out her physicality and senses—they were already greatly enhanced, and she didn’t like the idea of distancing herself from the rest of humanity even further. She also considered burning off extra energy by creating objects, but quickly discarded the thought. The magic of her Miracle was boundless and infinite, so unless she wanted to magically create a constant slew of random items, the idea had no merit.

When she finally arrived at the park, she started thinking about Amara. Her demonic love had the ability to see electrical signals, but also the auras of life and lust that surrounded everyone around her. While Vee was confident that she had no latent talent for sensing libido, she wondered if she might be able to give herself extrasensory perception. An extra filter to slide over the world that would, hopefully, serve as a persistent outlet for her excess magic.

Vee began debating her options as she looked around the park, wondering which way to start walking. From her current vantage point, with the surrounding fence no longer blocking her view and her focus no longer locked on the tall trees dotting the landscape, she realized this was no park at all—it was a graveyard.

Rows upon rows of headstones marked the names and years of hundreds, if not thousands, of lost loved ones. Of those laid to rest here, many had nothing more than simple stone squares, while others had elaborate stone statues dedicated to them. In the distance, Vee saw small stone mausoleums, decorative memorials for fallen soldiers, and all manner of flowers and offerings scattered throughout the field. The sight reminded her of the spirits she’d seen lost in Purgatory, the ones whose existence had briefly been subsumed by a psychopathic ex-cultist, and a flash of inspiration hit her.

What if I could see the influence of other planes? Or maybe magic? I’ve never heard of angels having that ability, but it’s hard to imagine that such detection would be beyond the scope of my abilities.

After choosing a path that took her away from the few other people she saw wandering the grounds, Vee got to work. She connected with her magic and tried directing it at the planar fabric of the world around her. She envisioned the cold, lifeless world of Purgatory, remembered Tessa’s explanation of how it worked, and imagined a window between their worlds.

Nothing.

She experimented with her mentality, hoping that a different approach might solve the issue. Could she enhance her own senses to see extraplanar happenings? No. Could she reach out with her magic and push aside whatever veil of secrecy hid their worlds from each other? Also no.

Okay, well, maybe it just doesn’t like Purgatory.

Vee pictured the endless jungles of The Wilds, the way its crystalline light dripped from leaves and pooled around the many vines. Perhaps it was still close enough to warrant a connection?

Once again, the magic of her soul found no purchase, and she huffed in frustration.

Is this what it’s like for other angels? I’ve heard stories of heavenly beings so powerful that they simply couldn’t exist around other humans. I always assumed their exile to be partially symbolic, or perhaps a venture undertaken at the end of their lives, but this… No. I refuse to believe that my only path forward is isolation. There has to be something I can do!

For the next hour, Vee wandered the many paths of the graveyard while experimenting with her magic. She tried guiding it towards specific outcomes, praying for advice, eventually even releasing it high above her like some kind of pressure release valve. That last attempt in particular proved remarkably unsuccessful, and she considered it a stroke of luck that she’d been out of sight for that attempt; a tall pillar of iridescent snow and rainbows would have no doubt raised a few eyebrows.

In the end, she revisited the idea of altering her perception. This time, instead of looking for alternate planes or hints of magic, she prayed for insight. To learn more about the world around her by whatever means her soul found appropriate. Wireless signals, errant feelings of love, lingering malcontent, she hardly cared which at this point.

At this point, she’d taken up residence on a quaint wooden bench tucked between several large trees and a mausoleum. The additional cover, hopefully, would provide a level of secrecy should any more rainbows leap fully formed from the depths of her soul.

After so many attempts, so much time spent needlessly banging her head against this fruitless idea, she braced herself for another failure. Instead, her magic connected with something. But what? Caught off guard, she immediately jumped to her feet and looked around. Nothing smelled any different, nor did she see any previously hidden secrets in the world around her. The buildings and trees surrounding her were every bit as solid and mundane as they’d been seconds earlier, and her hearing appeared unaffected as well.

All the while, this strange new connection hummed with satisfaction.

If it’s not the world around me… It might be people? If not, then I have absolutely no idea.

After one last look around to ensure she wasn’t sparkling or hovering, Vee dared to leave her small grove in search of other people. It only took a few minutes before she found three people standing near a fresh grave, somber expressions darkening their faces. Darting behind a tree, Vee sharpened her vision and waited.

Several minutes passed before any of them moved. The tallest, a middle-aged man wearing a slightly bedraggled suit, walked towards the grave with a bouquet of flowers. He kneeled down and gently placed the floral arrangement on the grave, his breath catching in his throat as he let them go. A brief tremor overtook his body, then he grabbed a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped several fresh tears from his face. As he did, unusual flickers of dim light started drifting from his body. They moved slowly and without purpose, a dull collection of silent fireflies sharing his grief with him.

One of the man’s companions, a similarly aged woman in a long black dress, stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. “He’s at peace now, Jack,” she said.

The man nodded. “I miss him, but… Yeah. It was so difficult in the end, I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore.” The strange motes of light surrounding him pulsed, their glow brightening. They grew warmer and more vivacious, eventually scattering to become a persistent aura that hummed in time with him. The man nodded, reached a hand towards the grave, then whispered, “Goodbye, Dad.”

With his final words, the light surrounding him reached its zenith. Its brilliance sang with a sense of harmony that Vee had never felt before, yet she somehow felt familiar warmth in its glow. Unsure what this meant, Vee leaned against the nearby tree and muttered a small prayer in recognition of this man’s lost father.

When she opened her eyes again, she waited patiently for the small family to leave. She found small hints of similar auras on the others present, though none ever reached the same heights as the middle-aged man. As frustrating as it was to lack the answers she wanted, she took a great deal of solace in the idea that she’d found an outlet for her abilities at all. By the time the family left, she turned her attention inwards and found that her Miracle seemed significantly less strained than it had during her previous hour of experimentation. Whatever she’d uncovered, it felt like it was working.

Curious, she looked to her immediate surroundings just to double check. She found no wildflowers surrounding her, nor did she find any mysterious rainbows or glimmers of iridescent radiance.

Okay, this is a promising start. Now to figure out what the heck I’m seeing.