The Demon’s Bride

Heaven sunk to a thought before nodding his head, "I will try, come forward, Elise."

It felt strange, it was her first time to meet the Angel named Heaven but somewhere she didn't feel like a stranger with the man. Stepping forward, Elise then felt Heaven's hand over her head. He muttered something under his breaths and before Elise could feel it, she saw light materializing underneath his palm.

Elise was startled by the light but it didn't feel uncomfortable instead somewhere it felt so warm and relaxing. Ian from the side watched them way Heaven's frowned continued to furrow when suddenly his hand was repelled by some impact and was thrown back. Loosing his balance, Heaven also took some steps behind and felt his skin sizzled as a small thunder had struck his palm when he tried to unbind the magic that affected Elise's mind.

Startled Elise saw blood trickling down from Heaven's hand, "Oh no," whispered Elise, making her way forward when Ian took hold of her and nodded. Taking more steps, Ian healed Heaven's wound by a touch.

"What happened?" inquired Ian, an the Angle stared at his hand with an expression of a shock.

"It's not an Angel's magic. I do sense some angelic quality there but more of a Demon," Heaven revealed. 

It was a Demon? asked Elise. So one who had sealed all the memories of her past wasn't an Angel but a Demon. 

"You cannot unbind the magic?" Ian then questioned, the Angel replied by shaking his head.

"Unfortunately, I am not familiar with undoing magic of a Demon, a curse, I might try but it's not possible," answered Heaven, her then leaned forward, "How far do you remember of your past, Elise? Do you remember the time when you live in Saltige and about your mother?"

"I don't remember a lot of things but I do remember living in Saltige and my mother," answered Elise, because this man knows more about her she hoped he would know more, "Can you tell me how did we meet?"

"I was on my way to visit your mother," answered Heaven, trying to understand the extent of Elise's memories loss.

"My mother, do you know her?" questioned Elise, seeing the man nod. Ian shifted his eyes and met Elise's blue ones, finding her eyes filled with some eagerness to know more. 

"You really don't remember anything," only now was Heaven convinced that the memories that Elise lost was the major ones, "What do you remember from your mother?"

Elise clenched her hands together. Speaking about her mother, she traced that she only had that one memory of her fighting against Barner was when she finds her mother the most warmest. "My father left my mother to pursue something for himself. She then succumb to her mental illness and went mad until her death."

"What?" Heaven gasped, looking startled and rather greatly shocked by what she had said.

"Oh, get to straight to the damned point, Heaven," Ian rolled his eyes, unable to keep the delay of informations that Heaven kept throwing back and forward by being surprised at every words Elise said, his patience was running thin. "What did you find strange?"

"It's not only memory erasing magic that is put on her, she is also under the influence of memory alteration magic!" Heaven exclaimed, his hand reached forward again over Elise's forehead, "There it is," he said when he sensed another layer of magic in Elise.

Elise was confused, all this time her memory had been wronged? That would mean her mother never went mad nor beat her or strangle her. The light over her forehead grew in distance and turn brighter than before. Slowly some of the memories that Elise had believed this entire time corrode, breaking to pieces to reveal the truth that all this time was covered and altered by magic.

Only after a while that Heaven pulled his hand. When the magic Heaven performed had ended, Elise felt her head dizzy and her body lost its balance, moving backward to collapse on Ian's lean chest. "Are you alright?" Ian questioned and Elise nodded.

"You will feel some discomfort," Heaven said, "How do you feel?"

"Better and lighter," Elise pointed out, with the help of Ian's strong arm, she gained her posture and stood on the ground. 

Heaven continued, "I knew it strange when you said you didn't remember your mother. It will take some time for the entire magic to be dispelled but you should have a clearer view of what is the truth and the tampered memories that this Angel placed on you."

"It was an Angel?" Ian questioned, his eyes narrowing, "Who was it?" He would find the damned Angel who had altered Elise's memories, causing her deep wounds in her heart and ripped their wings apart.

"I am not sure, but I feel some familiarity with this Angel's magic, it felt like my brother. It must be an Archangel," Heaven said. Archangels again, thought Ian they always appeared to be the most holy and sinless but in fact the most fishy out of all creatures in this world. They did say the whitest are the blackest. Ian then shifted his attention to Elise who he knew needed him the most now. 

Reaching out his hand, Ian caught her better in his shoulders. Elise fell silence for a good three minutes. In the silence, she felt the new and correct memories surged to her mind. In the memories, she saw her mother smiling warmly. Her face which was covered by thick black fog last time, gradually fading, showing the motherly expression of a woman who shared the same hair color as her. It was the smile and expression that Elise had never seen before, but the loveliest expression she had ever seen from her mother.

'My sweet daughter, you are my treasure,' whispered her mother, Adelaide on the deepest part of Elise's memories which still linger in the back of her ears. The warmth of her mother's hug came to her mind as if it had only been yesterday when her mother hugged her and brought her to her embrace. Tears rolled from the corner of her eyes which Elise didn't realized as she was still going through the memories in her mind. A storm of emotions washed over Elise, causing her to feel sad even though she didn't fell so sad in the beginning. But as more memories came on her mind, her heart sunk to the sadness that begin to swollen in time. 

Ian drew his brows when he saw her tears. Seeing Elise tears always affected his heart to squeeze painfully. Even though Ian had been stabbed in his heart multiple times, when his eyes caught her sloped brows and her dribbling tears, the pain in his heart was incomparable to all the pain he had suffered for the past six hundred years. Ian pulled out the kerchief that Elise had made for him and in time caught her tears. 

Feeling Ian's warmth, Elise closed her eyes to blink away the tears and released them, "Ian, my mother," she sobbed in whispers, "She didn't go mad. She was sane. This entire time," she said on broken sentences. "I was wrong," Elise whispered. She was wrong to think that her mother had hated her that she wasn't needed in this world. Her mother had loved her deeply. So much that she remembered how her mother would always hug her in times she needed. The memory and nightmare she always had where her mother strangle her was no where in her memory. It had never happened and someone was the one to make believed it.

"I know," Ian whispered, giving her the comfort by hugging her. He pressed his lips on her forehead, coaxing her body that shakes as Elise teared up from the sudden rush of overwhelming emotions of warmth and sadness as the true memory of her past came abruptly. "You can cry, don't hold it back. It would be okay," Ian continued to coo her, letting Elise to recollect the memories that had been hidden by others for years of her life.

While Ian gave Elise the comfort she needed and pacify her mind, his eyes narrowed in what he had found. There was a Demon who had erased Elise's memories and an Angel who had altered her memories, making it horrible than the truth. Ian knew Elise was unique. Something about her past was very mysterious but he had not expect that her past was surrounded by a lot more mysteries than he thought.

The Archangels, thought Ian, they must be trying to hide something about Elise by meddling with her. While patting Elise's back, Ian suddenly snapped his gaze to the tree near them, catching sight of a white feather that was very similar to the one he had seen for a few times.

After last time in the forest where he met Gabriel, he wondered if Heaven had begun to make their move.

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A/N: If there is anything confusing please comment, I'll try to dispel the confusion~~ Don't forget to vote and thank you for the support~~