With Marcos healed, Anatheia asked Tyan if he would help her check the perimeter for where the traps were detonated so they could replace them. Tyan agreed, and they had a nice leisurely stroll resetting traps and Ana stringing up more Light Thread.

I wonder what will happen if someone steps on one of my traps without meaning me harm, she pondered. It would probably be rather painful. It might even cause damage to her if the recoil was bad enough. Still, the risks were worth it, even if she didn't expect anyone else to try to break the perimeter again tonight.

“Thank you Tyan,” Ana bowed her head to the elf, before heading off to resume her watch. Respect was important in the elf culture she remembered, and with the respect that the two elves had shown her, she figured giving a little back wouldn't hurt.

Though Ana expected Lilith to go to sleep after the fight, the wonderfully energetic assassin came back to resume the watch alongside her.

“You don't have to do this you know? I can take a night of watch on my own,” Ana asked, trying to make sure she wasn't doing this for her. Unless they wanted something, she didn't like when people did things for her. It felt like they were just hiding what they wanted, or they were manipulating her. She looked to the younger woman and almost recoiled at how quickly she looked ready to cry.

Lilith sniffled, “Y-you don't want me? Th-that's okay...” Anatheia quickly waved her hands in front of her in a panic.

“No no no, that's not what I meant,” she blurted out a little too loudly. She heard a throat being cleared, and turned to see Marcos and Olena glaring from their packs. Ducking out of the path of the pair's glares, she turned back to face a Lilith who was shaking. Still thinking that the girl was crying, she went to speak again when suddenly the giggles escaped.

Ana scowled and accused, “You manipulative little...I was completely wrong, you aren't an angel, you're clearly a demon in the guise of one.” Lilith smiled wickedly.

“Just because you misjudged me doesn't make me a demon! I merely wanted to see your reaction, learn more about what kind of person you are,” the girl explained.

“Ah, excuses, excuses...from this point forth you are Devil Child to me,” Ana replied to Lilith's dejection.

After everyone settled down, the night went without incident. Lilith went to bed around midnight, and Anatheia kept herself busy trying to sort out the memories in her mind.

Some of her memories were of someone with black hair. Other memories she had the person she saw in reflections had silvery hair. The face of the second looked like hers now, but the wings were also wrong.

None of them told her anything though. No names, no nicknames, addresses, nothing that could help her pin down who exactly she was except for Anatheia. The most important question to be asked though was, why she was discarded by the Council of the Seraphim.

As she pondered these questions, light began to break in the eastern sky, so she stoked the evening fire again to reheat the leftover stew for breakfast.

The party stirred to the smell of the warming stew, and soon everyone was up and eating.

“Good morning Devil Child, how was your sleep? Restful I hope,” Anatheia asked the shuffling assassin.

“Don't call me that Anatheia,” Lilith whined in response to the amusement of everyone but

The fallen angel teased, “Oh? Dropping the Miss already are we now? What a presumptuous Devil Child.” The rest of the party, minus Olena and Marcos, laughed at the antics of the two. It made for a happy atmosphere to set off to. A good atmosphere was always preferable on long hikes.

After a short time on the trail, Marcos fell back to her spot at the back from the middle of the formation. He seemed happy, which meant he had something planned.

“Why do you walk with us when you could fly wherever you wish to be quicker?” He inquired brashly.

“Because I just adore your company so much Marcos,” She shot back an off-the-cuff answer. While this served to upset Marcos, he did not leave.

“I mean it, why do you stick with us. Don't you have more important things to do as an angel?” He asked pointedly. Clearly he wanted her to go, but she was going to play dumb longer.

“Why, part of it was a whim. I also made an agreement, and I do not break those. I could also be guiding someone in this party that is important. Though mostly it's the boredom,” She answered. The majority of it was completely bullshit, but some of it had some truth.

She was in fact guiding someone. She had not come there to guide them, but had found them nonetheless. Her happening upon Lilith, and to some extent the Elf twins, was pure dumb luck.

Marcos begrudgingly accepted this answer and returned to Olena's side who patted his shoulder. Based on all of their interactions she had seen so far, these two were definitely a couple. Which would make sense why they got along and barely anyone else could stand him. With Marcos gone though, Ana turned to talk to Syl, who was a relatively quiet woman.

“Syl, why are you and Tyan following this man? Surely with your class you could do better,” she pried. Luckily, the elves seemed to be very taken with her as an angel, so Syl was more than happy to talk about it.

She explained, “Well, though the prejudices against elves in human lands are dwindling, they still exist to a degree. Like Lilith, Nobody wanted us. He offered us a place to fill his team up. We didn't ask what happened to the others, because we needed the party.”

Now that is interesting, Anatheia thought. Syl had just fed her some juicy info. Perhaps he had lost some people before. If he was that bad of a leader to lose members at such a low level in a relatviely safe place, he needed to lose his position. And maybe his head would follow. She smirked at the thought.

In order to keep herself busy, she walked with Tyan and began teaching him some new ways to use ice magic. She was by no means extremely adept at ice magic, but adapting techniques from Light and Shadow into Ice could possibly lead to some interesting spells. Maybe the elf mage would even be able to come up with a unique spell family. If that happened, and the system accepted it, he would be significantly stronger.

In return he showed her a few of the holding spells that Ice is famous for. Using them with Light and Shadow was a bit more difficult because it required her to condense the light and shadow to incredible levels of density. Luckily she had experience with that because of her Light Blade technique, but that was a much smaller scale.

However Tyan remembered her Light Thread spell and suggested using that. When she used Light Thread with the techniques he offered up, she found more success. This would be her practice regimen to work up to the chains and slows.

Ana thanked him and decided to work on it later. Right now she had to check on Lilith at the front. She fell back behind the twins and then began running in the opposite direction the group was traveling. In sudden fashion, she snapped her wings out and began flapping to gain altitude. She didn't need the running start, but it helped, and felt immensely better on the shoulders.

Once in the air, she flew higher and higher until she was circling the group from high above, providing another level of security. Once at that altitude she could also see the city they were headed to. It was massive, and no more than a day or two away at their current pace.

She could go and leave them, but she wanted to bring Lilith and the twins with her. Lilith was the main attraction, but the other two were interesting and talented in their own right. Marcos may be a terrible person, but at the very least he had an eye for talent.

With her mind made up that she would stay, she began a steep dive down to the now stopped group. As she rapidly approached she wondered just what the hell was up.

Back on the ground, Marcos was laughing uproariously at seeing the damnable angel take off. Good riddance to her. She was only a problem.

“So Lilith, Demon Child as she called you. How does it feel to be abandoned?” He sneered.

As she arrived, Marcos and Lilith were in some kind of argument. Anatheia decided to buzz Marcos when she heard what he said. Now she was going to do more than buzz him. As she flew over her boot landed solidly in the back of his head, knocking him down.

“Who abandoned her? You certainly weren't talking of myself. I was scouting the area, and we are about a day and a half from the city,” She said, feigning shock. Ignoring the anger rising on Marcos face, she turned her back on him to talk to Lilith.

“He didn't do anything stupid besides lie did he?” She whispered, but when she looked at the younger woman, she realized, she was crying.

“You came back! I thought he was right. I mean, why wouldn't you leave? You don't need us,” Lilith sobbed. As she cried, she felt something wrap around her. She discovered it was Anatheia's arms and wing, holding her in a tight embrace. Ana spun them around so she could face Marcos and stared at him with fury in her eyes.

He seemed ready to pull his blade on her when suddenly Olena stepped in and put a hand on his sword.

“We are a party currently Marcos,” she warned.

Anatheia grinned as she said, “Yes Marcos, keep that blade sheathed, because the next time you think about pointing your sword at an angel, I will pass judgment on you. I can already see that judgment will not be kind to you”