Eden’s body was stiff when she woke, and her body was in even more pain than it had been before she had fallen asleep. Her joints popped as she sat upright and stretched. The fire in the stove had died, but it remained warm in the small space. A little light passed through the cracks in the window and the door, illuminating the entire cabin.

"Samael?" Eden called in a hoarse voice.

"I've already said you don't need to speak to me out loud."

"But that's really creepy. I don't like thinking that you know what's in my head."

"Does it help to know that I can only read what you want me to know?"

"Really? Just what I want you to know?"

"I made it sound too simple: anything you’re not trying too hard to hide from me, I already know about you."

“Then, no, that doesn’t make me feel better at all.”

Eden climbed to her feet, and she opened the window. The sky above was cloudy; there were only light clouds, and there was no sign of a heavy rain or storm approaching. Her uncles would have thought it was a good day to travel.

Thinking of her family brought a sharp pain to her chest.

"So, what are you exactly?" Eden asked. "You already told me you were an angel, but you're different from what I expected."

"There's a small mirror in one of the cabinet. Would you grab it for me?"

Eden pressed her eyebrows together, but she went to the cabinets. Just as he had said, there was a hand mirror resting on the shelf. She grabbed it and looked at her own face. Her hair was a mess, and there was more dirt dusting her cheeks than she had expected.

"Now, angle the mirror so that you can see over your right shoulder."

Eden adjusted the mirror. She saw a faint golden light near the door, and it was in the shape of a man. Gasping, Eden looked over her shoulder, and with her plain vision, there was nothing to see.

"You think of angels as winged creatures with flaming swords," Samael stated, "but angels are merely spiritual beings who will sometimes use a human body to manipulate the world."

Eden turned back to the mirror, but the glow had disappeared. She tried angling the mirror again to see him, but no matter which direction she looked, she saw no strange light.

"I saw a light," she said breathlessly.

"I know," Samael said, and there was a faint chuckle inside Eden's head.

"And that was you?"

"You have the rare gift to hear me, Eden, but you cannot yet see me with your own eyes."

"Yet?"

"There used to be more humans in this world who could communicate with angels, but your kind has closed your minds to us. You are more open-minded than most, and that’s why you can hear me.”

“But what about fiends? They’re spiritual beings, too. More people can hear them, right?”

“Fiends are far more common than angels, and they like to manipulate people whereas angels try not to interfere with humans.”

“That’s why they’re so common now?”

“The fiends rose and conquered the world because someone allowed them to get stronger, and while they’re so strong, it’s easier to find people who have cracks in their psyche--cracks that they can turn into deep fissures if one lets them. They trick people into letting them slip inside.”

“Trick?”

“It has to be permitted. Each soul can only have one thing that is truly there and no one else’s: a body. No one can take that away from you until you give them permission to do so, but sometimes, one can despair so greatly that they allow a foreign soul to take over without ever realizing it.”

“So, you’re saying that my mother allowed a demon inside her?”

“Yes, but it takes a long time of torment to reach that point.”

Eden sat on the windowsill as she thought about the things that may have led to her mother despairing so greatly that a fiend would her an easy target. She had always been close to Mary--closer to her than Ariel had been--and there were a few moments all throughout her childhood that would catch Mary staring long and hard at something--not always anything in particular. There would be a silent darkness in her eyes, and her hands would shake until she pressed them together in front of her chest.

Eden recalled the way the fiend had spoken through Mary. She had wanted to spend more time Eden, and she had seemed disgusted with Ariel. The two had always been distant, and whenever the three of them were alone together, Mary would sometimes out herself between Ariel and Eden as if protecting her. A pain rose in her chest as she connected a few things that she had never thought about before.

“Are you ready to set out yet?” Samael asked.

Eden nodded, sighing. She looked through the cabinets for any overlooked food, but she had not gotten as lucky as she had been at the dilapidated house. After shrugging on her backpack, she climbed out of the window, and she headed in the direction where she believed her old campsite would be.

“You haven’t eaten anything,” Samael observed.

“I don’t have much, so I want to save it until I feel like I need it.”

“Traveling with an empty stomach will make you ill, and I can tell you how to find more food and water. You don’t have to ration so carefully.”

“Fine, I already feel sick, and I don’t want to eat right now.”

“You’ll just feel even worse.”

“You kept telling me earlier,” Eden said just to change the subject, “that you knew that Ariel was alive.”

There was a long pause from Samael, and she could almost sense him getting annoyed with her. When he next spoke, it was in a flat tone of voice:

“He’s still alive, and he’s in less pain than he was the last time you saw him.”

“But how do you know that? He’s so far away. How can be so sure that he’s alive?”

“We spoke earlier about you being more open to spirits than most people, but my kind, the angels, have trained ourselves to read our environment to understand the world. Everything gives off an energy. We all have souls, if you will allow me to call them that, and each soul leaves traces of itself as it interacts with other things. I can read the energy of the environment, and it tells me many great secrets and truths.”

“That’s just a really long-winded way of saying that you have special powers as an angel.”

“No, not powers, as humans have a modicum of the ability as well, but few are open to it. Most see the world plainly through their one or more of their limited five senses.”

“A modicum?” Eden repeated, frowning. “You mean we can see the energies, too?”

“Angels are different from humans as we can see further into the world than you can, but some humans have retained a part of the ability: you, for example.”

Eden paused her walk, and she stared at her boots.

“Shouldn’t I have known that my mother was going to be possessed, then?” she asked.

“Do you know blame yourself, Eden, for what happened to your mother. She has kept many secrets from you and your whole family, and that it is what lead to her downfall.”

“Was it because I left the group without her permission?”

“It was because of her own weakness that it happened, and there’s no reason to blame yourself.”

Samael’s assurances did little to hold back the tears flooding her eyes, but she continued to walk through the forest.

“I should ask,” Samael said, “why are you heading back to your campsite? You will find nothing helpful there.”

“I want to go there before we do anything else. Are the fiends and Ariel still there?”

“No, it is safe, but there are still plenty of unpleasant things--”

“I know. You don’t need to warn me.”

“All right.”

Eden stayed quiet, and Samael only spoke to tell her to change directions so she was going the right way. As a nomad who had traveled through the forest with her family many times, Eden felt she could navigate the area well, but her thoughts kept her distracted, kept her from thinking about where she was going.

"We're nearly there, Eden," Samael said after a time. "Are you certain you want to go there?"

Eden stopped. She could see the exact break in the treeline where she had first watched the possessed Mary strike her brother. There were no other people from her perspective, but her heart pounded as she thought about what had happened just the previous night.

“You would tell me if someone was coming, right?” Eden asked.

"I went through a great deal of trouble trying to help you before," Samael said. "Of course I'm going to help you now. I was actually trying to warn you away from this place."

"I know what I'm going to find here."

"Some things are best left unseen, Eden."

Eden shook her head.

"I can't just leave things as they are, and there are things here that could help me."

"If they left some things behind."

"You would know if they left things behind."

Samael paused for a long time before he answered, "Yes."

"Then, is there anything still here?"

"There is, but you might not--"

"Then, I have more than one reason to be here, don't you think?"

"It's true, but psychological damage is harder to heal than physical damage."

Eden shrugged her shoulders at his words, but there was a weight in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to help her family, but she had a vague idea of what she would find. The last thing she wanted to do was find her family dead, especially knowing that it had been at the hands of her own mother, but she would always regret never coming back if she didn't.