There was a yell of exertion as the swordswoman swung her blade around herself, the long whip sword’s blade followed the same path as the hilt she was gripping. Where the hilt moved to so to did the blade unless she acted upon it somehow. Larka had been out here for about an hour now practicing with her sword and magic, as evident by some of the earth that had been shifted around. She was sweating and breathing hard, it had been sometime since she had put herself through this kind of workout, after all she was a new mother, but it felt good.

The twins were four months old now and Larka hadn’t been away from them, at all, in that time. Celeste, her wife, had taken care of bringing in money, though they had a network of friends that could help if needed. Akira would wonder through on her adventures now and then as well, but neither Larka or Celeste would force Akira to spend more time than she wanted to at home. The foxgirl was her own free spirit and they didn’t want to dampen that, of course they worried, and would help out with anything that Akira asked them to.

Celeste had decided that Larka needed some time alone, just for herself, away from the house and the twins. Larka hadn’t like that idea, saying she was fine, but Celeste insisted and half forced Larka out the door. Obviously Larka hadn’t gone that far, she was only on the other side of the Lake from their home, but it was still plenty far when you hadn’t left at all in months.

But the one armed woman was managing, using that time to get in some much needed sword practice. She was using muscles she hadn’t used in over a year since she got pregnant, so they were rather stiff but the memory was still in them all the same. Coming to a stop Larka held the stance for a few moments before taking a deep breath in and shifting her sword back to its normal blade state. Walking over to the bag that lay on the ground she reached in and grabbed a canteen of water and gulped it down.

The black haired woman chuckled as a large wolf came over and bumped her forehead into Larka’s leg. ”Easy, Kyu, you aren’t a puppy, remember?” Larka joked and kneeled down, setting the canteen away before scratching at the wolf’s neck, who started to lick her. ”Hey, hey, stop.” Larka laughed again pushing the wolf away playfully before wrapping her arm around the odd coloured wolf with her midnight blue fur and gold streaks running through it. A storm wolf.

Taking another drink Larka stood up and drew her blade again. She could form her left arm if she wanted, and she would later, but with over twenty years of fighting without she could go either way. So for now she would practice without it before forming it and using it along with more earth magic.

So far Artiya'il had done a grand job of keeping Uriel far, far away from the rest of the family. It was as much for her own amusement as it was necessary. Artiya'il and Uriel had never got along - the fact of the matter was the Arti could not stand her sister - as Neutral as the Angel of Grief was, Uriel really did wind her up… and so the usually apathetic Archangel enjoyed winding Uri up as a past time. 
Artiya'il was aware of the location of every member of the Host; now that her mother had banished them all, here to Revaliir, she could still locate them - and Uriel knew it. Sadly for Uri her talents did not extend to being able to find their brothers and sisters, which was good for Arti since she had little to no intention of allowing her to reunite with Gabriel… nor with Sammael or Michael, or in fact with her father or sister if she could help it. 
As such whenever Uriel thought she had found signs of any of the above, Arti skilfully left a more convincing one elsewhere, dragging Uriel in the opposite direction of those she wished to find. She had a feeling that Uriel would be catching on by now; however Uri had no way of distinguishing between a true sign or one Arti had created - so she would be forced to follow the stronger ones… which was always Arti as she was keeping very close to her wrathful sister for obvious reasons. 

As a lake came into view Arti saw a new opportunity to annoy her sister - Gabriel was close by, as was Sirona (together she believed, strange though that was given the former was the one who had banished the latter from the realms of Earth in the first place) but Uriel finding her lord and master was inevitable and Arti had work to do in this world, work that was being pushed to one side because of this merry little dance she had been playing with her sister. 
Casting Gabriel's signature spell, sending light shimmering over the lake, the Archangel dropped from the sky, landing gracefully on the shore, turning her storm grey eyes to the falling 'stars' as she waited for Uriel to answer the spell. 

Wings furled against her back, Artiya'il suddenly realised that she was not a lone, spotting another woman just out of the corner of her eye. "Apologies if I startled you, I mean no harm. Merely here to annoy a sibling," she stated matter-of-factly, eyes flickering back to the skies once more as she waited for Uriel to arrive. 

[OOC: Much swearing from here on between Uriel and Larka, you have been warned ;) hehe]

She was going insane! She knew, KNEW that Gabriel was in this world yet she had yet to find him! Was he avoiding her? Did he not want to see her?! Did he even know that Uriel was in this world with him now? It didn’t help that Uriel couldn’t sense where in this world any of her siblings were, she knew that some where here, Artiya’il had said as much(though Uriel did not know that Sirona was here at this time). Artiya’il! That one was truly the bane of the tall archangel, for she was toying with Uriel, who knew it and was unable to do anything about it, and it was driving Uriel up the wall with rage.

So this time when she sensed the angelic magic and turned to head in that direction, when she came to the lake area she was looking for Gabriel. It was his signature spell that had been cast, but she wasn’t surprised when she saw that it was, in fact, Artiya’il, again, having used that same trick again. Uriel wasn’t a fool, however, her zeal to find and reunite with her brother Gabriel was frantic at best and fanatical at worst.

”Artiya’il!” Uriel shouted from the air as she dropped down a few yards away from her sister, at the moment not noticing the human woman or wolf that was close by. ”You fucking bitch, I’m getting sick and tired of you giving me the run around. I’m trying to find Gabriel, and you know that, and you know where he is. Now, for the last damned time, take me to him!” Uriel demanded knowing damn well that she didn’t have the power to compel Artiya’il to do such a thing

A noise caught the tall archangel’s attention, a slight snort of laughter, and she finally took note of the black-haired human woman and her wolf. This woman was tall for a human woman, but Uriel still had enough height on her to look down, though she’d have done that anyway if Larka had been taller. Scowling at the human Uriel waved her hand to wave her off. ”Be gone, human, this business doesn’t concern you.”

As she turned back to Artiya’il with the intent to ignore Larka from now, the human woman replied and something she said caught Uriel’s attention again. ”What do you mean you saw another angel before us? Who were they?” Uriel demanded to know and turned her fury towards Larka, who only stood there with a slight grin on her face.

When Larka said THAT name Uriel’s face went bright red as rage filled her. ”SIRONA?! She yelled and turned to Artiya’il again. ”You! You fucking knew, didn’t you! You knew Sirona was here, that little bitch, and you didn’t tell me! Artiya’il, I swear…” She balled her fists up and then turned to Larka again. ”Tell me everything you know of Sirona, human, now.”

Oh, that was not the right way to speak with Larka, and Uriel would soon find that out.

When the light shimmered across the lake Larka and Kyu both squinted at the sudden increase in brightness, this was clearly magically done. Blinking the light from her eyes Larka was in time to see a figure drop from the skies, an angel! No, this one seemed different than the last one Larka had met, but she didn’t know how or what that difference was, but she knew something was. When the angel addressed her Larka shrugged. ”Eh, I’ve seen enough in my life that few things will startle me anymore. And, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stick around and watch.” She chuckled, taking this rather well, but Larka wasn’t exactly young for a human, not old either. But into her early forties and with the life she had led, as she had said, she had seen enough that few things phased her anymore. Angels, ghosts, demons, vampires, common place really when one went looking for them, or they came to you.

It didn’t take too long for another angel to drop from the sky and she was a tall one! It was also easy to see that she was also very very angry at the first angel that had appeared. She started into a rant and Larka grinned, she was already taking a liking to the first angel, if this was her idea of annoying a sibling. Uriel took notice then of Larka and demanded that she leave, Larka raised a brow at that. ”Wow, you aren’t like that other angel I saw before you two.” Before she could go on Uriel was almost in her face demanding the name of the angel Sirona had seen. ”I believe she called herself Sirona.” Larka replied and watched as Uriel went off on Arti in a curse filled rant, and Larka found it interesting that Uriel would call Sirona a bitch. Larka wouldn’t have gone that far, misguided and misinformed maybe, but not a bitch.

When Uriel’s attention was back on her the tone of voice that was used made the human’s brow raise up. Oh, that was a mistake. ”Well, I was playing with my toddlers in the Lake not too long ago when Sirona showed up.” Larka started, taking careful and slow steps towards Uriel. ”We spoke for a bit, but when I mentioned I was married to another woman she kind of got annoying. Tried to tell me that how I was living my life was wrong, asked if I had even tried to not be a lesbian. I gave her a talking to in turn, she left and I haven’t seen her sense.” By now Larka was right up to Uriel and looked up at the archangel. ”But while she did kind of piss me off with that kind of bullshit way of thinking, and I suppose you could call the way she acted a bit bitchy. At least she wasn’t a stunned cunt like you probably are.” That was a word that Larka hated, even Celeste hadn’t heard her us it before, so when Larka did bring that word out you knew she was really angry with someone.

Ah. There she was. 

Even the usually apathetic Artiya'il, could not help but let the corners of her mouth twitch into a brief smile, as Uriel appeared in the sky above her and roared angrily. Ahh ever the wrathful Angel - the irony of which had never been lost on Arti. Long ago she had commented to her mother on this point; on the fact that she could see the Sins within her siblings.
Pride - in Gabriel.
Wrath - in Uriel.
Sloth - in Raphael.
Greed - in Sammael. 
Lust - in Lucifer. 
Envy - in Michael.
… and Gluttony? Well… in a way that was her Sin was it not? Though not quite in the same way as her brothers and sisters… 

Arti cocked her head to one side, storm coloured eyes blinking at her younger sibling. "Really Uri? Have you not worked out the difference between my magic and your beloved Gabriel's yet? Tut tut, he would be so very disappointed in his little pup," she replied mockingly. "And the answer is still no."

The Archangel glanced at the human who had snorted, again the corners of her mouth twitching slightly at the woman's reaction - she had been right to stick around… the exchange between herself and Uriel was so very often a source of amusement, it was almost as if Arti existed purely to wind her sister up… She didn't. But it was a favourite pastime.

Ah. Shit. 

Now Artiya'il truly smiled… and it was somewhat terrifying. 

The Archangel of Grief was not known for her emotions; one of the few truly neutral Angels Arti did not show emotion very often, not like she was now. The smile reached her eyes, a mixture of amusement filled with the dangerous amount of grief she had collected over the millennia. Her very body was brimming with a flood of mourning from hundreds of beings - it did not affect her… but it could so easily become a weapon against even the greatest enemy should she require it. Only twice in her lifetime had Arti called upon the ability to transfer the grief she carried out into another… and it had swallowed those beings whole, destroying their minds despite it being only a minute amount of what Arti herself carried. 

Arti let Larka deal with Uriel; her sister would not be used to a mere 'human' talking to her like that… much to Arti's amusement of course. "Yes, I'm afraid my little sister has been detached from us for far too long, Gabriel expelled her from our world with such force that she forgot who she was. Had she grown up with mother and I, and our father to an extent, she might have been less abrasive in that respect," Arti sighed, glancing at Uriel to see if she picked up on the fact that Sirona was her sister by blood… not just be association of being of the Host, but physically born of Raegul and Lucifer's union… it was not a well known fact for a good reason. 
"Oh and Uri? Gabriel is with Sirona, right now," Arti added, loving the way those words rolled off her tongue - Uriel's sheer, unadulterated, hatred of Sirona would be uncontrollable at this fact. 

Moving to stand beside Larka, Arti looked almost bored as she looked at the woman. "A lot of my siblings still hold onto some of the more, old fashioned, views we were taught to believe in, though a good amount of us have grown up knowing better. There's no accounting for Uri here of course, not got enough between that head of her's to have independent thought for a start, though I had hoped for better of Sirona."

”We’re all archangels, Artiya’il, our magic all feels the same! And if you call me a fucking pup again I’ll knock you head in.” A hollow threat, Artiya’il was stronger than Uriel, and they both knew it. But Uriel couldn’t help herself with the threats. ”And for fuck’s sake, stop calling me Uri!” She added at the end, she hated when people shorted her name, and, as one can perhaps tell, she didn’t shorten her siblings’ names either.

After her attention was on Larka, who spoke of Sirona, which made Uriel turn her fury back to Artiya’il again. Uriel then turned back to Larka and demanded more information, but the way that Larka reacted and replied made Uriel’s blood boil. Larka spoke of how she had met Sirona, while playing with her toddlers in the lake, Sirona had become annoying after Larka had mentioned being married to another woman. In truth when Larka mentioned that now Uriel wasn’t able to keep herself from making a face for a moment, very much like the one that Sirona had before to Larka.

However as Larka finished speaking, now right up in Uriel’s face, and what she called Uriel made the archangel absolutely red with rage. How dare a mere human call her that! Let alone one that decided to live like she did, for Uriel was as much a homophobe as Sirona, perhaps more, at least more vocal about it. As Uriel was shaking in her anger at being spoken to like that, and it was taking her all not to lash out and punch Larka, Artiya’il decided to keep talking. She told Larka of how Sirona came to be in these lands, and that it had been Gabriel who had banished her. ”WHAT?! Uriel roared at the thought that Gabriel and Sirona were together already. Why would he be with her anyway?! He hated her as much as Uriel did, and if it was true that Sirona didn’t have her memories that was all the better.

Her rage peeking Uriel stepped back up to Larka again and looked down at the human, who only glared back with a slight grin that Uriel really wanted to smack off of her. ”Listen closely, human. You dare speak to me like that again and I will take you down a peg or two, understand?” At Larka’s reply, Uriel blinked at the forthrightness of Larka’s words. A fight? Now? Uriel scoffed. ”Fight you? You have but one arm and I have wings, we…” She trailed off when Larka proved her wrong.

Larka could see the rage that her words gained from the ignorant archangel and it only made her grin. Why was she doing this anyway? It had been some time since Larka had been in a fight, perhaps she missed the thrill she used to enjoy? Perhaps she just wanted to beat some sense in this ignorant bitch? Hard to say, but Larka was spoiling for a fight if Uriel gave her that excuse, she didn’t Arti would by the way she acted.

In fact it was Arti that explained more of what was going on with Sirona. Ah, that did explain some things, Larka figured. More news from Arti made Uriel even angrier and she walked back over to Larka and told her to stay in line or be punished for it. Larka’s brow went up again and she chuckled at the taller angel. ”In that case, why not just fight me now, hm?” That got a scoff from Uriel and she started to explain why that would be foolish on Larka’s part.

When she started in about Larka’s missing arm the human’s blood started to bubble with rage, and what neither archangel knew was that Larka was a berserker, becoming stronger the angrier she became. Uriel would find that out soon enough, however, if she kept running her mouth. Without a word Larka put magic into the raven wing tattoos on her back and from her back sprouted two large black feathered wings. That shit Uriel up real fast, more so when Larka used her earth magic to draw up some sand and dirt and used that form her missing left arm.

Larka opened her wings and flapped and got herself about two feet off the ground and continued to flap the wings to hover there glaring daggers at Uriel. ”Bitch, I’d take you one with one eye, one arm and half a missing leg. But, if you want equal footing you have it. Now, we doing this? Or do I need to call you a cunt a few more times for that to sink in?” Larka challenged with a smirk, yup, that seemed to do it.

Artiya'il rolled her eyes at her sibling; clearly Uriel's threats did not worry the Archangel, nor had they ever, in truth Arti could ruin Uriel's mind if she so wished it, and she doubted very highly that her highly strung sister would actually dare to take action against her. Uriel had been more mouth than action for most of their lives, it was on very rare occasions when she actually acted on anything. "When you stop acting like Gabriel's bitch I will stop addressing you as such, and I will call you whatever I want Uri, you are not above me in rank and you have absolutely no way of stopping me," she said with a small smile, which she knew would only enrage her sister further. 

Oh now this was interesting. A smirk flickered across the usually expressionless face of the Archangel, intrigued to see just how her sister would react to having a human face off to her in the fashion Larka now was. While Uriel was busy with Larka, Arti turned her attention to the horizon - Gabriel was coming, she could feel his ego even at this distance. In the back of her mind the Archangel built her defences, readying them to protect Larka should she need to protect her against her brother's wrath. She did not like how close he was now, though his reunion to Uriel had been inevitable she supposed. She wondered how swiftly her sister would become the meek little puppet to him; Uri had always worshipped the ground Gabriel walked upon, she had been naive in that… 

As things began to heat up between Larka and Uriel, Arti turned her attention back to the pair, reluctantly as it meant she could not counter Gabriel's arrival… or rather deflect it. Oh? Wings? How intriguing, though she supposed there had been humans back on Earth with a good hold on magic that might have been able to replicate similar. "I'm afraid she's not worth the fight Larka, and sadly we're about to have company. Seems you get your wish Uri. Your master is here, run to him like a good little dog." 

He had felt the burst of magic on several occasions, and each time he had wondered which of his siblings was using his own magic. There were very few amongst the Host that would be able to replicate that particular spell. It had taken him some time to work out who would be using it, and why - but he could feel Uriel. Every time the spell was used, Uriel followed it, and it did not take Gabriel long to work out that his idiotic sister was following it, hoping to find him. If she had stopped for a moment and used that brain of her's, maybe, just maybe she would have realised she was being led astray! 
There were only a few of their number who Gabriel could not locate, exempt from the Army as they were he had no way of locating them, not in the same way as he could Sirona or Uriel… but he could hazard a guess as to which of those few were leading his soldier on this merry bloody dance. 

"Come, Sirona, it is time for you to meet more of your siblings," Gabriel commanded sternly, creating a gate for himself and his sister to travel through. He had stayed close to Sirona, hoping to lead her back down the correct path - the one she should have walked down originally as one of his followers. 
Stepping through the gate, Gabriel held his head high, wings half furled, catching the light and glinting in the sun. "Uriel!" He roared, slamming the end of his halberd onto the ground as his eyes fixed upon his sister. "Attend me immediately," he snarled, gaze narrowing as he realised she was almost nose to nose with a human woman with wings. 

Really? This was what she was doing? Getting into petty arguments with humans rather than putting her mind to returning to his side? As his gaze moved to Artiya'il he sighed heavily, his assumption had been correct then, of course Raegul's eldest daughter would be the one teasing Uriel… he would have to speak with his sister more sternly when they were alone, she knew better than to associate with the Angel of Grief, Artiya'il had done everything she could to undermine him in Heaven, just as her mother and bloody father had. 
He glanced back at Sirona, motioning for her to stand beside him, hoping that he could keep a grip of her a little longer, last thing he needed was for Artiya'il to twist her mind when he was starting to feel like he had a chance to change her for the better. "Well met Artiya'il, there are not many who can create, let alone dare use, my spells as efficiently as you can. I take it you've been keeping Uriel from returning to her place by my side?"

When Gabriel commanded her to follow the younger angel glowered at him when he turned his back. She hadn’t been around him that long since she had summoned him, by accident, into this world. With her memory loss, thanks to him, she had had to relearn a lot of what she thought she knew of herself and her past. What had been a black hole in her memory of the time before she woke up in the monastery years ago in Onnen, was now being filled in by Gabriel. However, Sirona had learned enough to know that what he was saying and how he was describing things was HIS version of the story, and he was likely being very one sided as well.

But curious to meet more of her siblings, which she seemed to have a lot of, Sirona followed him through the portal. She saw Uriel first, and then the Arti and then… Larka?! Sirona inwardly groaned, oh Gods not her! Their first and last meeting hadn’t gone well when Sirona criticized Larka being a lesbian and Sirona had left, but had felt that if she had pushed the topic Larka would have become violent. But at the time her children were with her so she had controlled herself, but Sirona saw no sign that her children were with her. Add to that she was nose to nose with Uriel, had sprouted wings somehow and was looking ready for a fight Sirona hoped to defuse this situation quickly.

She caught the motion from Gabriel and signed, unable to stop her mouth as she spoke, but she did mean the words. ”I’m not a pet for you to command to stand beside you, Grabriel.” That tone of voice caught Uriel’s attention who had fully turned herself away from Larka and was not glaring death itself at Sirona. Oh fun, another sibling that hated her! She turned and took a step towards Sirona spouting words to not speak to Gabriel like that, but then Larka caught her attention again and Sirona could only watch as things went downhill and fast.