A woman stood in the distance. She was looking down at her feet. Who is that? Alex thought. He was adrift in a black space with no definition. Alex looked down but didn’t see his body. Propelling himself forward with a thought, he stopped in front of her and studied her.

  Her eyes were clamped closed and tears ran from the corners of her eyes. The full-breasted woman wore a white shirt with long sleeves over a swollen stomach and denim pants. Her red hair was lit from behind by glowing blue wings coming from her back. She looks so sad.

  Alex had a feeling of wholeness and looked down. He stood before the winged woman in clothing similar to hers. Alex tried to touch her left wing, but his hand passed through it. A tingling feeling from the gentle pulses of light that ran through her wings tickled his palm. He pulled his hand back and used it to lift her chin.

  The woman opened her hazel eyes and smiled at him. Her cheeks dimpled, and the tears stopped. “Don’t be sad, Beautiful,” Alex said.

  Alex opened his eyes and looked around the small room. The walls were some kind of rainbow-hued crystalline compound that he didn’t have a word for. There were not doors or windows; the only break in the walls was the small hole the Progenitor had gone through the last time he had been awake. He tried to lift himself up, and succeeded this time.

  Scooting back to lean against the crystalline wall behind him, Alex tried to move his legs. The most he could get from them was an uncontrolled twitching. His stomach rumbled, and Alex realized he was hungry. He didn’t see any food and decided to wait for someone to come to him. If they took too long, he was certain they would attend to him if he called out, but the half-demon wanted some time alone.

  The woman from his dreams lingered in his mind’s eye. She had looked crushed when he first saw her, but as soon as she opened her eyes, it was as if she knew everything would be all right. Maybe if I can find her, she can help me remember who I am.

  A white Life Warden the size of his fist zipped into the room. it asked him in a woman’s voice. Alex shook his head. the crystal made a complex sequence of chimes that produced a haunting melody.

  Alex laughed. “I don’t think I can pronounce that. May I call you Melody?”

  The Life Warden chimed a high pitched tone a few times before Alex realized she was also laughing.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Alex said. Melody chimed a laugh again and flew back through the hole in the wall. Alex thought about the red-haired woman until the Life Warden returned in a few minutes with a small crystalline plate floating before it. A table of the rainbow colored crystal extended from the wall next to him, and Melody put the plate on it.

  The plate had small cubes of a white meat on it with broccoli on the side. There weren’t any utensils, so Alex picked up one of the pieces of meat and popped it into his mouth. The meat bounced off of his upper lip and landed back on the plate.

 

  The woman’s face still lingered in his mind, but Alex was afraid he may forget it. “Do you have something I could draw with?” he asked before he carefully put a piece of meat in his mouth. He bit into it, and the taste of chicken filled his mouth.

  Alex nodded as he chewed the meat. He finished the meal while he waited for Melody to return. The chicken was warm, and while he held no particular love for the tree-looking vegetable, Alex ate all of the broccoli in an attempt to quell his rumbling stomach.

  In about the same amount of time that it took the Life Warden to get his food and return, it floated back into the room with a bundle of papers of various sizes. Alex’s plate floated up into the air and the stack of paper took its place. Long pieces of graphite were in a small wooden box in the middle of the bundle of papers. “Thank you,” Alex said. He slid the lid off of the wooden box and picked up one of the dark sticks.

  Melody said with her kind, matronly voice.

  “How?” Alex asked. The white Life Warden paused just before it reached the hole in the wall.

  Melody explained,

  “But the Progenitor said the mind and soul of a half-demon like me was disconnected,” Alex protested.

  Melody chimed a laugh. The Life Warden grew silent, and a few moments passed before she spoke to him again.

  Alex nodded. “I think I’m beginning to understand it now. So essentially, the soul is the motor that drives the body through the brain.”

 

  A question bubbled up in his mind. “What if one of the three is damaged in some way?” Alex asked.

  Melody spun slowly in the air, and the plate revolved around her.

  Alex scratched the back of his head. Some of his brown hair had fallen in front of his nose, and he tucked it behind his ear. “If there was some damage to the body, then obviously the mind would die and the soul leave. If there was damage to the brain, then the body wouldn’t be able to carry out the will of the soul, and if the soul was damaged—”

  Melody interrupted.

  Alex nodded and bent over the pages of paper. He tried to make a straight line on the paper, but his hand jerked back and forth. The more he tried to focus on holding his hand steady, the more it trembled. Growing frustrated with his inability to even make a simple line, Alex gripped the piece of graphite in his hands to snap it.

  Stop it, man, he thought. Breaking this won’t make you recover any faster. Relax. Stop trying so hard, and just do it. Alex placed his left hand back on the paper and lowered the graphite to the page. He closed his eyes and took a slow breath. As Alex let it out, he traced his hand across the page at a measured pace. He opened his eyes and saw a straight line bisecting the page.

  Alex grinned at his accomplishment then laughed at himself. “It’s a long way from a line to a portrait,” he told himself. The Guardian cracked his knuckles and set himself to the task.

  The demoness Odessa stood before the white Life Warden. it chimed to her. Melody whispered into her mind.

  Odessa finished brushing her blood-red hair and slipped the white dress over her head. She looked in the full-length mirror the Life Wardens had materialized for her. I wonder whose eyes and hair he has. She looked at her solid, bright-green eyes that marked her as a demon. “Is he well?” Odessa asked.

 

  Because it would put Alex in danger from the ones that should be helping him, Odessa thought. She had been on the run for a long time before she was able to travel to Aria, and being a benevolent demon had earned her little more than attempts on her life. Until I met Tom, then it earned me a child. If only Azreal had not gone mad with power… I wonder if I could have convinced him to see a better way.

  “Can he move around?” Odessa asked.

  A feeling of confusion Odessa knew came from the Life Warden pervaded her mind.

  The Demon Lady frowned. “I wonder who it is,” the demoness said.

  The floating crystal spun in the air with an idle grace.

  “Will you take me to him?” Odessa asked. “I think it’s about time I meet my son.”

  Alex looked at the finished drawing in his hands. Almost perfect, he thought. Her eyelashes were a little longer… He pushed the portrait from the edge of his table and reached for another blank piece of paper, but his clean left hand found none. Alex glanced over at where the pile of papers Melody had brought him had been but saw only an empty shelf of the multi-colored crystal.

  Did I use them all? He leaned over the edge of the bed and looked at the floor. It was covered in half-done drawings of varying levels of skill. Alex found the one he had just completed and hopped off of the warm bed. It wasn’t until he scooped the drawing of the winged woman off of the floor with his left hand that Alex realized he was standing.

  Spying a basin full of liquid with a piece of cloth hanging off the side, Alex placed the drawing back on his desk and began washing the graphite from his right hand. A chiming came from behind him, and Alex assumed Melody was back to get on to him about all of the pieces of paper littering the floor again. He picked up the towel and said, “I’ll clean them up in just a bit. I just finished the one on the table and ran out of paper.”

  Alex finished cleaning his hand off and set the towel down. “Do you like it?” he asked as he turned. A moment of shock roared through Alex when he saw a woman with long, dark-red hair holding the finished drawing. For a split-second he thought she was the woman from his dreams, but he realized her hair was a bit longer and a darker shade of red. She doesn’t have glowing wings either.

  “It is a very nice drawing,” the woman said. “She looks happy. And very beautiful.” The woman set the drawing back onto the table with a deliberate grace. She placed her left hand over her right and pressed them against her stomach as she turned to look at him. Alex saw the white dress bunch up under her hands as she took a fistful of the cloth. She slowly raised her head and looked at him.

  A sad smile grew on her face below her emerald green eyes that had neither a pupil or white. “Oh, you are handsome,” she said. “You look so much like your father. Good, you have human eyes, too.”

  Alex scratched the back of his head. “Umm… Thank you. My name is Alex Zane,” he said as he took a step forward and proffered his hand.

  She laughed a single soft laugh. “I saw this going differently in my head,” she said. “I know who you are Alex.” The woman unclasped her hands and wrapped him in a warm hug. Unsure of what to do with his hands and baffled at the sudden embrace, Alex patted the woman on the back; she felt much warmer than he did.

  Releasing him, she put her hands on his upper arms and looked into Alex’s eyes. He could see by the tiny movements in her emerald orbs which eye she was looking at. “I’m your mother, Odessa.”

  “Oh,” Alex said. What should I to say to her? “It’s nice to see you again.”

  His mother let out a short sigh. “This is the first time you’ve seen me since the day you were born.”

  “Why’s that?” Alex asked.

  Odessa let go of his arms. “It’s a very long story. Would you like to walk around Aria while I tell it?”

  Alex nodded. “I would, but I don’t have any shoes.” His mother lifted the hem of her dress to reveal bare feet. He chuckled. “I guess I don’t need any.” She turned and walked toward the door, but Alex hesitated before following her.

  “What is it?” Odessa asked when she reached the door and looked back.

  Alex grabbed the drawing of the winged woman from his table and walked over to his mother. He held the picture out to her. “Do you know who this is? She has red-hair like yours but a few shades lighter, and her wings glow and your hand can go through them.”

  Odessa shook her head. “I’m sorry, Alex, but I’ve never seen her before. But it sounds like you are describing a half-angel.”

  As soon as the words left his mother’s lips, Alex knew she was right. She’s a half-angel just like I’m a half-demon. Alex folded the drawing a few times until it was small enough to fit in the denim jean’s back pocket. He had asked Melody for clothes like the ones in his drawing, and she had brought them to him while he slept. A long-sleeved white shirt and blue-jeans were neatly folded and waiting for him to don when he had awoken.

  Alex followed his mother through the doorway, and he looked around. A beam of red light emanated from a wide pit a few yards from him. Bits of red crystal floated in the light.

  “This is the heart of the Soul Foundry,” Odessa said. “Every soul whose body dies returns here to be implanted into a new body.” She looked at Alex. “Or their old one, in certain, extraordinary circumstances.”

  “What are those little pieces of red in the light?” Alex asked.

  “Those are pieces of Mars, one of the First Ones,” Odessa said as she turned to the left and started walking. “They created the Nine Realms almost ten billion years ago so all of the sentient races could have a place to live in relative safety. They also created a few of the races to help protect the realm, the Valkyrie, the Life Wardens, and the Changelings are the ones I remember being created.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow at her. She didn’t look much older than he did. “You look awfully young for a ten-billion-year-old. Have you really been alive for that long?”

  Odessa laughed. “No. Demons remember everything that happened in any of their past lives. Most of it blurs together or fades away, but there are some things you never forget, no matter how much time passes.”

  “Like what?” Alex asked.

  “The first person I killed is one I’ll never forget,” she said. “I didn’t want to do it, but it was him or me. It was an angel named Tyrius. He had me under the point of his sword, but I was able to knock him off balance and run a spear up under the seam in his armor between his chest plate and his groin. It shredded his bowels, heart, and lungs. He died instantly.”

  They exited the Soul Foundry through an opening that appeared in the wall similar to the one in his room. It slid into the wall above them and disappeared. The outside was a sphere that was no more than two miles from one side to the other. We’re inside a ball, Alex thought.

  “This is the entirety of the Realm of Life,” Odessa said. “There are only eight Life Wardens that reside here.”

  Alex looked up and saw the Soul Foundry stretched all of the way to the top of Aria. The foundry was wider at the bases than it was in the middle, giving it the impression of two pyramids that touched at the tips. Odessa turned left again and led him toward an area that glowed with orange light.

  “I would have to say the first person I ever truly loved is another thing I’ll never forget,” Odessa continued, “but it happened so recently that only time will tell. Your father, Thomas Zane, was an amazing man. He was your height and had muscles like yours.” She looked him over and smiled. “His hair was the same color as yours too, but he kept his longer and back in a pony tail. He was Daein, from the Realm of Magic.”

  “How did the two of you meet?” Alex asked. He realized the area they were walking toward was a lake of roiling fire.

  “I started running from Azreal as soon as I realized he was planning to kill the Overlord of Hell,” his mother said. “I knew that once that happened, my twin would begin killing off the other Demon Lords and Ladies and raise others to their positions if he kept any. As far back as I could remember, Azreal was always a cruel and ambitious soul, but we were twin souls, always born together.

  “A few thousand years ago, I began to realize that the war between the angels and demons was pointless. We rail against one another to the benefit of none. I grew tired of an eternity of looking over my shoulder, waiting for a dagger in my back, so I left Hell. A few hundred years ago, I left and ran as hard as I could, hiding in the shadows, darting from one to the next.”

  They drew up to the lake of fire, and Odessa held her hands out to it. She seemed to welcome the heat while Alex edged away from it. His mother looked at him. “Hell is a complex maze of floating walkways above a dead star. The Black Sun may be dead and not give off any light, but it is still extremely hot. I’m never warm anymore,” she whispered.

  Although he had known his mother for less than an hour, Alex felt drawn to comfort her. He put his arms around Odessa, and she hugged him back. The son released his mother, and she gave him another sad smile.

  “Thank you,” Odessa said. “Where was I?”

  “You were darting from one shadow to another,” Alex said.

 

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