Chapter 56: Tai Chi

Lanie

I stormed out of the apartment. Kira was so irritating. She was naïve, and dumb, and... so smart. I was jealous. I knew it. I hated that she could look at all those crazy things in that book and actually figure out what they meant.

My fury pressed on. My mind continued to attack her. She was broke, had tiny apartment, and loads of debt. She was soft, although my body felt weak from lack of use, she was sensitive and trusting. She was all the worst parts. Well, except that brain. I could see why Isabell separated that. If I had her brain, I would have figured out her deal way before she tried to kill me.

My mind sat on the word "separated" for a minute. It really was like the Pandora story. Kira was all the parts locked away from me. I stomped forward faster. Whatever. If I could figure out how to combined our power, then we might be able to fight this darkness. We might be able to put Isabell down for good.

Who was I kidding? I wasn't going to be able to figure this out. All I could do was put the information in front of Kira. That's why I left the book. Hopefully she wasn't dumb enough to run back to Isabell with it. If she was, then there was no point anyway. Without her, the book was useless. I already got all I could out of it.

I found the park. I think it was actually the park we were at a two nights before. I wandered until I found a nice clearing. There were a few people far off, but mostly I was alone. I plugged in the pink phone I'd found in Mila's backpack. I picked a playlist, then I started with Tai Chi.

I moved through the positions slowly, trying to clear my mind. My body was sluggish and big. My muscles were loose. I increased the movements and tried a flip. My balance was off and it was a wreck. I cursed then pushed my mind to clear it again. This was still my body. It still knew how to do these things, it was just a little run down.

The light faded into nighttime. My movements became swifter. I was starting to get used to the new size and shape of my body. My mind sharpened with every movement. My mind began to work. It drifted to the story of Pandora. There was something about it that had me stuck. If Kira was all my bad things locked away, then was she even my twin?

I continued the movements. My mind locked on the emporium. To me, it seemed like only days ago, and yet it also felt like forever. When my body rejoined my soul, it created this duel sense of time. I remembered the man that ran away from me after calling me a fracture. Like a fractured soul. Wait. Someone else had said that before to. Who was it? The term "half-souled piece of dirt" drifted into my mine followed by a beautiful face with hard eyes.

"Karma," I whispered aloud. My movements faltered, but my mind continued to race. A few glimpses of memory hit me, something about a shiny white sword. That wasn't important right now. What was important, I was half a soul.

Something about that hit me hard. My knees shook. I wasn't even a full person. I was half. I was partial. I was missing something. Anger flared up. And jealousy. I was jealous of Kira for having the brains. She had what was mine. Wait no. That wasn't it. She was me. She was my other half, not my twin, not my sister, she was me.

I stood froze. I felt like my brain couldn't contain any more thoughts. I feel like I couldn't function. It was just... too big.

"Lanie." A deep voice knocked me out of it.

I paused then turned slowly. A tall man with bulging muscles and golden hair stood behind me. He looked familiar but older than when I knew him. I eyed him up and down. Adulthood looked good on him. His blue jeans fit well and his white shirt clung to his jacked frame. Some deep part of me squeezed in excitement. "Angandriel."

"Kira needs your help."

I blinked. Kira, the other me...I crossed my arms. He probably knew. Remi probably knew. My anger bubbled up, but I pushed it back down. It was probably better if I didn't let them know I knew yet.

"I see you ditched the shiny armor dress," I said.

He just stared at me. "Kira?"

"Why don't you go save her?"

"I can't get-"

"Involved. Yeah, that's an old one. Nice try. If you want her saved, then you do it."

"You know all those times I used to save you?" He asked.

I glared at him. "Yeah, what about them?"

"I saved her just as many."

"And yet, you never told me about her. Neither of you did."

"We can't interfere."

"This is not persuading me."

"What I mean is, Remi and I have saved you countless times. You are our first charge. And because of your complications, we have to save you more than any of our others."

"What about Kira?" I asked.

He hesitated. "You, Kira. It's the same. We saved you."

I that struck me hard. He did know. He knew we were the same person. "So?" I spat.

He stepped forward and put his hands on my arms. I was surprised by the contact. Angandriel had never openly touched me before that I could remember. "We are like family. We have a close bond. If we lose her, we lose that bond."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he saying if she died, I died? "Why do you care? Do you love her or something?" I felt like such a child. I was even jealous of that. Maybe he did have a thing for her, well for that part of me. He certainly never did anything for me.

And that's when I should have put my foot in my mouth. He pulled me into a hug. My face pressed against his hard chest. His arms were so tight I could barely breathe.

"I'm glad you're back." He whispered in my ear.

Shivers went down my spine. I couldn't say anything I was so shocked. Well, and he was crushing all the air out of my lungs. There was something so familiar about this warmth. Had I felt this before somewhere? Why couldn't I remember? Oxygen was getting to be an important factor after a minute so I thumped him with my hand to let me go, which he finally did.

I leaned back out of his grip. I was pretty sure that was a tear in his eye. I was fairly confused now. When I finally got a good breath in, I said, "You couldn't save me before Juno smacked me into limbo?"

He shook his head. "She's a God. She works outside of time. I couldn't even get inside the bubble. I tried."

"Do you really care about me and Kira that much?" I eyed him suspiciously.

"I care about you that much." He wrapped me in a hug again and kissed the top of my head. I was starting to feel a little embarrassed for him. I felt like a puppy.

"Okay, okay." I fended him off. "I really am half a soul aren't I?" Just saying it out loud hurt.

He eyes were sad. He nodded ever so slightly.

I narrowed my eyes. "Alright. Can you take me to Kira? Or do I have to find her myself?"

"Your real father has her."

"Matei? Why?"

"Because she killed Mila."

"Wait Mila our half-sister? Oh, shit. He must be pissed." I walked around in a circle as I thought. "Can you just pop me in there?"

He shook his head. "It's interfering."

"What's so bad about interfering? I don't get it. Why can't you just interfere? Remi does all the time."

"Remi knows the consequences and has served them. I don't want to go back there."

"Where? Hell? Aren't you an Angel?"

"It doesn't work like that."

"How does it work then?"

"If I help you, they pull me back. I am punished for years and then they send me back in."

"What kind of punishment? I know time works differently in different realms, so wouldn't the benefit of, oh, saving a life be worth a couple years of punishment?"

His eyes turned haunted. "No."

The look on his face made me pause. It must be really bad. It made me wonder what happened to them in punishment. I remembered Remi had said something about it being like Dante's Inferno. Just the look on Angandriel's face made me shiver.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it." I pressed on. "So, where is old Daddy at? I think I should pay him a visit."