Alice's Ears

CHAPTER 6 - ETERNAL LIGHT

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The seraphim wrapped her fingers around Alice's hand and gave it a light squeeze "I told you already," she said. "I am eternal, I have no age. I am light, stagnant and unmoving in the froth of time." Alice hesitantly squeezed Sera's hand back. The seraph smiled at the small act of kindness.

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CHAPTER 6 - ETERNAL LIGHT

Alice blinked painfully, only one eye was able to open properly. What she could see was blurry and unfocused. Everything was inexplicably bright as if lit by a sun. The bright reflective surfaces of the room burned her retinas and made her head ache. When she shifted her gaze the reflections formed long tracers that stayed as shadows and cluttered her vision. They made identifying where she was impossible.

She tried to sit up but everything hurt, she felt like one big bruise covered in cuts and scrapes. Many points under her skin ached terribly, sending splitting pains through her limbs. She tried to move again, but movement paired with the visual artifacts was making her dizzy and explosively nauseas. Alice tried to turn her head in time to negate some of the impending projection, but when she looked left she was blinded by a searing light. Cringing in pain she turned her head straight.

Alice vomited what little there was in her stomach across her chin and neck. The clenching of her stomach caused her entire chest to burn in pain. Alice's ribs where white hot. She gasped, inadvertently sucking some of the vomit towards her lungs. Alice began to choke, but coughing hurt too much to continue her self-preservation. She was drowning, unable to breathe, unable to clear her throat, Unable to move or see.

"Fuck me..." A strange feminine voice called from her left, heavy with concern. "Not again..."

Alice heard the shift of something heavy, followed by quick steps over to where she lay. The light grew ever brighter with the approaching footsteps. Alice's was painfully rolled over onto her side. She felt what could only be fingers pry open her lips and slip in. They dug at the back of her throat trying to clear the blockage. Alice couldn't see a single thing, the light blinded her. Eventually Alice managed a labored breath and the fingers were pulled out of her mouth.

"What a mess..." the voice noted.

A piece of coarse fabric was brought to Alice's face. Whoever had just cleared her throat got to work at cleaning her face. Alice felt something drop onto her arm. Warm and wet. She thought she heard a quiet sniffle coming from the same direction as the voice. The cloth was pulled from Alice's face, something warm and soft pressed against her forehead.

"Rest. Please?" The voice said from much closer this time. "And if you can hear... anything. Don't move the next time you wake up... you are not ready... you need more time to heal, my kitten."

Alice mumbled something too quiet to reach an ear before she slipped off into a deep sleep.

~~~~~

"Fuuuuuu..." Alice groaned as she woke to immense pain still present over nearly every inch of her. Something soft and warm was pressed gently against her entire right side. Alice tried to open her eyes to look right, and just like before only one eye listened. However Alice quickly closed it again as she was assaulted by the same blinding light, emanating from the soft object pressed against her. Alice groaned again and began to stir. Her head spun in reaction to the painful light.

A voice close to her right ear whispered in a comforting tone, "Shhh Shhh Shhh, be still my kitten. Rest, you are still unwell."

The voice floated over Alice, and settled against her skin like a blanket. Warm and soft. Alice immediately began to relax. Alice felt what could only be a hand take hers. Delicate fingers intertwined as a thumb slowly stroked. The skin was so soft, it was like touching suede.

Alice couldn't help herself, she cleared her throat with a painful but tiny burst of air. "What is going on? Where... Where am I? How bad is... Am... Am I going to be okay?" As Alice spoke her voice began to tremble with fear and blind confusion. She was on the verge of tears.

The hand that held hers let go and moved up to her cheek, softly stroking it in a gentle hold. "No no no, my kitten you are fine, everything is fine." Alice felt breath on her cheek followed by something soft and warm pressed against her skin repeatedly. "Everything will be ok, you are with me. I finally found you, I won't let you slip away. Just please... sleep. I promise it will all be better soon."

The voice held enough authority in its gentle words that Alice began to calm. She let out a sigh that carried her strength with it. She felt the world fade as she was taken by sleep.

~~~~~

Alice woke once again. She was still in a considerable amount of pain, but it had faded to something more manageable. She opened her eyes. Relieved to feel both of them react, though one still bulging and swollen only opened partially. Like the previous times she was assaulted by a bright light coming from something in the room. Almost unbearable, she turned her head to the left in search of the origin. It was definitely coming from somewhere inside. Alice had to close her eyes, the light was just too bright.

Still she wanted to move, needed to determine what was going on. The dizzying nausea was mostly gone. It would probably be okay if Alice got up. With great effort she clenched her abs and flexed to lift herself, she managed but a few inches. Intense searing pain stabbed at Alice's left side. She screamed out, falling back clutching her stomach afraid to let her hands go near her ribs.

"Oh!" the familiar voice gasped, "Loud... not good, not good... another nightmare..."

Alice heard footsteps approach from the left. Light shone through her eyelids. Bright red like when one lays on their back on a sunny day, there was even warmth. The same velvet soft skin brushed against Alice's cheek. "Who... are you?" Alice asked.

"Ah, you are awake!" The voice said slightly startled, "You yelled, are you in pain?"

"Uh... ummm... Yeah," Alice said, "I hurt... everywhere? My ribs though..."

The voice made a concerned warble, "...They are, not good, the bruising, the uh... colour... It will take a while." There was a long moment of tension where neither Alice nor the voice made a sound. A velvet hand was placed on Alice's, a gentle squeeze followed.

Alice sighed and fearfully asked, "Am I blind?"

The voice sounded confused "I... don't know. Can you open your eyes?"

Alice kept her eyes closed while answering, "Yeah. Well, one... But when I do open them all I can see is ligh-"

"Oh fuck! Oh Fuck!" the voice said startled and apologetic, "Fuck, I am so sorry... uhmm... just a second." The voice's hand left Alice's face. Mumbled apologies continued for a few moments. "Ah, there we go. You should be able to see now"

The blinding light faded along with its warmth. Alice carefully opened her eyes, she could now see she was on a normally lit bed, in an oddly extravagant, but normally lit room. She slowly turned her head to the left, towards the direction the light had been. Alice gasped loudly, the quick intake of air sending pain through her ribs. "Oh my god..." Alice mumbled gazing in the direction of the voice, astonished.

Gone; the bright light. Standing where it had poured from was a beautiful woman. Alice was unable to form the proper words. She felt like she was staring at something one wasn't supposed to see. Something not meant to be seen. It scared her, but the sight was so beautiful that there was no turning away.

"I... Hmmm... I'm not sure how to say this... But are you literally an angel?" Alice asked the beautiful woman.

The woman scoffed, crossing her arms. She furrowed her brow and shifted her weight over one leg. Alice's fear intensified, the thought of pissing of this... woman? Was not high on her list.

"I am not." The woman said coldly, offended. Her expression did change slowly, a smirk curling her lips. "Those prudish simps couldn't hold a candle to me or my kind."

"Well... I am not sure any light could be held to you..." Alice said rubbing at her eyes, pupils still dilating after the nova.

A brief look of concern flashed over the woman's face. "I... am sorry. Sometimes I forget to. Sometimes I forget to stop being myself around mortals. But um... good news, you didn't turn to ash?" Visually embarrassed the woman shifted and pawed at the back of her arm.

"You could have set me on fire?" Alice asked, worried.

"Oh, no... Just, instantly turned you to ash. It would be much less painful."

Alice nodded, bewildered "Oh, Kay... Super. Glad that didn't happen."

The woman smiled and nodded back at Alice "Me too! It would have been a lot of wasted time if it did."

"Uh-huh." Alice said, looking to move past spontaneous combustion. "So, what are you then? Who are you?"

"Ah, right. I am..." The woman said giving a mock curtsy "A seraphim."

Alice raised an eyebrow quizzically to the woman's declaration.

The woman deflated with a sigh. "I am a being of light. Eternal, I have only ever existed, there were none before. I travel between and through. I am everywhere and nowhere. Blah, blah, blah... I don't really like talking about myself."

Alice continued to look on puzzled, though thoroughly intrigued. "So you are like, a god?" Alice asked.

The seraphim let out a small amused laugh. "Ssuuure, but like an itty bitty one. Really small. I am actually the, uh, runt of the litter." She brought her forefinger and thumb together to emphasize just how small she was. "Oh!" The seraphim said with an excited tone, stepping forward to the bed Alice laid on, "My name is Seraphine. It is nice to meet you... well talk to you, I already met most of you." Seraphine approached with her hand outstretched, looking to shake Alice's.

For the first time, Alice noticed just how big Seraphine was. Not truly a giant, the seraphim had to have been at least seven and a half feet if not pushing eight. Alice attempted to lift her arm, but was met only with pain. Still she couldn't help but giggle. "You are Seraphine the Seraphim?" Her laugh was cut short by pain seeping from her ribs.

Conflicted between the pain Alice was in and the jab at her own name, Seraphine took a step back and lowered her hand with a huff. "I did not pick my name, it was given to me by my sisters. Though their laziness has been duly noted. Just Sera is fine..."

"Awww..." Alice said warmly, "It's not like it is a bad name. Just very... on the nose I guess? And it's not like my name is much better. My Last name is a big cat, now look at me. I am a big ol' cat."

Sera squinted at Alice, a wizened look on her face "Serendipitous isn't it?" Her expression quickly changed to excited, affable. "Want to check out my wings?"

Alice, puzzled by the change in character nodded slowly "Sure..." she agreed.

The seraph stepped back and bounced a few times on the balls of her feet, as if warming up. "Ready?" She asked rhetorically, closing her eyes and sighing before a response could be made. A ripping sound came from Sera's back. She grimaced and hunched over, curling her back. Wet, fleshy, extrusions followed the ripping. Bursting from her, nearly instantaneously sprouted, were six wings. If you could even call them that. The feathers were more like that of a crinoid, the legs of a feather starfish. Thousands of these made up each wing. Sera groaned as her wings unfurled fully. There were two smaller pairs, one pair pointed diagonally up, the other diagonally down. The main wings were huge, each one was at least as long as Sera was tall. They pointed straight out to the side. Each feather glowed a pale white, and like a heartbeat, glowing gold pulsed through what looked like veins. Sera stood straight, stretching her wings to full length and flapping them gently.

It was hard for Alice to put her feelings into anything comprehendible. Terror, like part of her knew she had witnessed something not meant for her eyes. On the other hand, Sera was magnificent, true beauty, the stars corporeal, glowing.

Sera had long straight, jet black hair, a colour that didn't reflect any light, a shadow. It wasn't styled this way or that, just tucked behind the seraph's ears. Her skin was dark olive, freckled lightly under her eyes and on her arms. Her eyes were scrutinizing, a life spent in contemplation. With irises of rich golden coffee, there was warmth mixed with the calculating stares. High cheekbones and a slender jaw, gave the deity an angular face, making her eyes look bigger. Her lips were thin, a slight sad frown seemed to shine through even when she smiled. A small pointed nose with a flat bridge added to Sera's dignified look.

The seraph's torso was slender, willowy even. But the parts of Sera that were uncovered rippled with lean muscle. On a human, Sera's chest would have been quite large. But scaled up to the height that Sera was, the breasts looked to be about average in size. Sera looked relatively normal for an extra dimensional being. The only thing that could have given her away as being something other than a very tall woman (Aside from her wings) was the length of her limbs. Though not astoundingly long, the seraph's limbs were just long enough to look out of proportion, at least when compared to a human. She wore a loose fitting robe, and what looked to be some form of sportswear underneath. Sera by all means was majestic, exuding a beauty too high to fully describe. Perfectly made and existing for eons, eternal light embodied as a woman who looked no older than thirty five on a bad day.

Sera giggled and furled her wings around her body "I was showing you my wings," she said, a bright pulse of gold flashing through the feathered veins "Yet your eyes were somewhere else?"

Alice gave a sore shrug "I was just taking my time, this is the first time I have even been able to look at you."

Sera unfurled her wings with a smirk "And? What is your consensus?"

"I don't know what to say, am I even allowed to look at you?" Alice's eyes danced over Sera's body, wishing to see more. "You might be the most beautiful person I have ever seen."

Sera scoffed "That is because I am not a person," a hint of jealous dejection flickering over her face "And I am not even the most beautiful of my kind, not even close." The seraph unfurled her wings again, though kept them curled like petals around her. "You are 'allowed' to look at me, I mean I am ok with it, and you didn't turn to ash, so... I deem you 'worthy' or whatever." Sera gritted her teeth and arched her back, a wet sucking noise gurgled loudly from her back as her wings were pulled back inside her. "Ughh," Sera said, rolling her shoulders in discomfort "That should do for a while."

Alice gazed on in wonder; the impressively beautiful, yet oddly disturbing display was confusing to say the least. Her eyebrow rose quizzically at the seraph's last statement. Alice contemplated asking about it but decided there were more important things to question. She moved minutely about on the bed, attempting to analyze her injuries in the gentlest way possible. Most of her still hurt to some magnitude, but she couldn't tell how her body was healing.

A lump formed in Alice's throat. Now that Alice could at least partially comprehend Sera, the prospect of merely talking to her was a hurdle. "Uhmm... S-sera?" Alice asked.

The tall seraphim tilted her head, her expression split between investigative and concerened. "Yes, my kitten? Please. Fear Not... er... I mean, feel free to ask me anything. It seems I cannot set you aflame, and I do not bite."

Alice nodded, swallowing to clear her throat. "How long have I been here? How long has it been since... this... since this was done to me?" She said, making a small hand motion towards her whole body.

Sera stepped over towards the bed and kneeled down, saddened as her eyes drifted over the bruise blotched skin of the cat girl. "At least a decade, maybe a bit mor-"

"What?!" Alice exclaimed, utterly shocked. "A fucking decade? How is that even possible, I still have bruises, I am still in pain... I can still feel them... feel it."

Sera opened her mouth to affirm her statement but then took on a contemplative expression and looked up for a few moments while thinking. "You know. Maybe it was a bit over ten days, kinda hard to tell, you know?"

Alice stared at the seraphim, bewildered. "How do you confuse a day and a year!? They are... quite different. But, ten days does make sense, or is at least believable."

Sera looked upon Alice with a curious gaze, like a teacher bemused by a naïve student. "Tell me kitten. How many nanoseconds has it been since you asked me about my confusion? How many picoseconds?"

Alice shook her head, "Is that rhetorical?

You

have to know that

I

don't know."

Sera giggled, and placed her hand on Alice's "Exactly. Day, year. Picosecond, nanosecond. Just be happy that my attention can linger for such short periods of time."

"...Sure" Alice said, her gaze shifting to the hand that was on hers. Heat that should burn but only warmed emanated from Sera's skin. "How old

are

you Sera?"

The seraphim wrapped her fingers around Alice's hand and gave it a light squeeze "I told you already," she said. "I am eternal, I have no age. I am light, stagnant and unmoving in the froth of time." Alice hesitantly squeezed Sera's hand back. The seraph smiled at the small act of kindness.

Alice looked into Sera's deep brown eyes, thinking of a tactful way to broach the topic but coming short. "Can you die?" She asked softly.

The seraph's hand jerked back reflexively before settling back within the cat girls grasp. Trying to hide her disconcertion, Sera pulled her lips into a shallow smile. "Do you want me to?"

Alice squeezed Sera's hand tighter, imploring trust through her grasp. "Why would I want that? You did save me after all, or at least... helped me. Who knows if I was going to die or not."

Sera nodded, still wary of the conversation "Yes, I did save you. But I also..." She paused for long moments "But I also designed you, constructed you, planned you. Often enough, intention of deicide is declared. Fickle they become when things don't go right." The seraphim couldn't meet Alice's eyes.

Alice squinted, she was almost certain she had been born, not created, unless birth is creation. Still there were more important bits of information to pick. "You planned me? You knew what was going to happen? Did you let it happen!? Make it happen?" She said, frustration edging into her voice.

Sera moved to clasp both her hands around Alice's. "No!" The seraph exclaimed, pleading to be understood with just one syllable. "I would never, had I known... I... I was searching as fast as I could, but time doesn't work like that, I didn't know when you were. And there are so, so man worlds. I would never..." Her grasp tightened around Alice's hand as her head dipped, forehead touching Alice's hip.

Alice didn't fully understand, but didn't want to press. She was taken aback by the display of defeated affection the Seraphim had just shown her. "I... forgive you?" Alice offered. Sera didn't move for a long time. She just clutched Alice's hand and sniffled. Her eyes staring at the blanket that Alice lay on.

"Thank you, but, Not yet." Sera finally said after long moments of silence. She lifted her head and wiped a single tear from her eye with her elegant hand. She gave Alice a sad smile, patting her hand. She shook herself off as she stood. "I bet..." she said motioning with her thumb to a counter and a small kitchen, "After ten days you are hungry, no?"