The ‘ground’ beneath Benjamin’s feet shuddered as the angelic dragon knelt. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. With how he had set up their religion, it was sure to ruffle some feathers seeing an angel address a human as one of their gods.

Implications of this suddenly dawned as he processed the scene in front of him. She recognized him. Not by his true title obviously, but as the god of fate and time.

His mind swirled as he tried to figure out how this was possible. He was certain he’d kept his image hidden, working through others to do what he needed. Even his persona’s angels had never seen his face before.

“Excuse my curiosity if you would,” Kinsoriel said with a slight unevenness to his voice, “but what are you doing, good angel? This is merely a deathbound. Nothing more.”

Moira let out a sharp gasp at the statement. “You dare deride Fayten? I ought to skewer you for such impudence! Consider yourself lucky that he has deemed you worthy of a grand destiny.”

Ben noticed the claws surrounding him curl inward a bit before relaxing.

“I suppose I should.”

Nodding at his response, the Archangel enveloped herself with her wings. She turned herself clockwise multiple times, shrinking in size with each full rotation. The muscles in Kinsoriel’s hand tensed up underneath Ben as she stopped at a humanoid size.

She was in a bipedal stance, with her wings wrapped around her neck like a cloak. Her shape was decidedly more feminine as well, with wide hips and a pair of breasts. With a bow, she called up to Ben, “I hope this form makes it easier to converse with you, m’lord.”

Without warning, Ben was dropped from Kinsoriel’s hand. Quick to react, he found himself in the arms of the Archangel.
“I think now’s as good a time for a reprieve as any. Benjamin, be a good servant and explain our arrangement for me in the meantime.” With a deep breath followed by a ‘hmph’, he went over to another section of the ruins and began pacing.

Benjamin put a hand to his face as he was gently set down on the sand. While he could never truly understand what the dragon was going through in his head, he could read all the surface emotions easily. Denial that this was happening. Disgust and betrayal that a religious figure of such significance would become more like a mortal. And that hardly restrained anger at the whole thing, masking something else he couldn’t make out.

“How dare he!” Moira carefully patted Ben down, looking for any signs of harm. “Do you wish that I punish that whelp?”

“No, no, it’s fine. He’s just… going through some things right now. Can I ask you some questions?”

“Anything Lord Fayten, it would be my pleasure.” She now stood back up straight.

Despite being in a more human form, she was still a good head taller than Ben. Though he considered looking away from her nudeness, he was quick to notice that her scales covered anything that might make him look perverted. He thought of what he should ask first with a breath of relief.

“Do you remember why I had you waiting here?” As he discovered with his magic system and written language, he wasn’t forbidden from relearning anything.

“Of course. You wanted me to guide Kinsoriel, Son of Ortremel, into his role as an intermediary between mortal races and the dragons.”

Yup, that sounds like the ending he’d make. He knew this place had some sort of plot relevance later on, he wouldn’t just have random city ruins in the desert for no reason. Unfortunately for him, he had a feeling this wasn’t the right time for them to be here.

How much of an impact she’s supposed to have was up in the air though. Was she supposed to serve as a neat little milestone, or something more? He made sure to keep critical info for surviving and trying to maintain the storyline, and even though he was pressed for time, he didn’t think to include this angel. Hopefully, that meant she didn’t have much to contribute, otherwise meeting her out of order could hurt everything else.

“How did you know who I am?” he asked next.

At this, Moira pointed at her eyes, pride evident in her voice. “Your gift of Fate Sight, m’lord. All things have your plan written into their beings, which I can see. All things, except you of course.” She suddenly had a pale face that bordered on horror. “D-did you not want me to see you? I’m so sorry! I didn’t know! I mean no transgression! Please for-”

Ben had to cut her off with a finger to his lips followed by a shush. Like the obedient angel she is, she stopped rambling immediately.

“It’s fine, I’m not angry or anything,” he said to calm her down, “I just wanted to know is all.”

Her explanation made sense to him. He was the god of fate after all, and it would be weird for such a god to bind themselves in the same way. It bugged him how he was supposedly just another person in this world, but easily seen as otherwise by a side character.

He could probably chalk it up to Stromwell attempting to be ‘fair’. Despite how rigged against him this was, he’d have no chance if he’d been stuck with his brand of fate. In other settings where he included it, he’d set it up to where everyday things were unaffected by it, but certain events would always happen. The universe around these events would automatically adjust to accommodate whatever he decided should happen. For how loath he was to admit it, this was one thing that made Ben appreciate his brother’s ego.

While contemplating all of this, Ben realized something. “You were about to fix Kinsoriel’s destiny, right?”

“Yes m’lord,” the angel accentuated with a head nod, “but something strange stopped me before my corrections could take effect.”

Drats. It was worth a shot. If she had simply stopped on his account, he might have won right here and now. Maybe this was something he could still use though.

“Would you be able to tell me what interrupted you?” Ben asked hopefully.

“Alas,” Moira said with her head lowered, “I fear I cannot. I was going to revert him to the time before he diverged, but no matter how hard I pressed, I could not go further than him flying into his portal. I still have no idea what caused it. My apologies lord.”

His portal? That would line up around the time he was… oh man. If she couldn’t go past that, that meant only one thing; Ben’s presence here was somehow stopping her from fixing this. He didn’t know how or why, but this lined up too neatly to be a coincidence. With no way to take himself out of the equation, this win condition was off-limits.

“It’s fine Moira,” Ben said with a sigh. The draconic angel gasped, holding her hands over her mouth. “What is it?” asked the ex-Author, now looking around with worry.

“You used my name! I’m not worthy of such affections, m'lord!”

She then hid her face to the side rather ineffectively. He didn’t know how it was possible, but Moira’s metal-like scales were blushing. Something about the difference from how intimidating and dignified she was only a few minutes before now was giving him serious whiplash. While a welcome reprieve from his main character’s prideful temperament, this crush-like reverence was almost as grating.

“Please don’t think much of it,” Ben half-begged, “and I have one more request of you, if possible.”

Seemingly thankful to divert from that conversation, Moira was quick to say, “Anything Lord Fayten.”

Looking over to the still-fuming black dragon, Ben asked, “Could you make Kinsoriel his real size again?”

Moira turned to look at him as well, her eyes regaining their divine glow. Tilting her head a couple of times, she finally let out a hard ‘tsk’.
“Not fully. Your spell prohibits it until he has seen the world as a man would.”

Before he could object, Ben understood what she had meant. Arfael, the cleric who had cast the spell, had gotten it directly from him. He even named it Fayten’s Will, which in retrospect, also made him sound more arrogant than he’d prefer. Like it or not, it was his spell.

That bit about ‘seeing the world as a man would’ made for a good clue. He knew he had to finish Kinsoriel’s arc, but the exact developments were lost to him. Up until now, he’d been trying to get the dragon to improve in an unfocused, general way. This right here was the real goal of his MC, and by extension, his own. Get him to see the world as a man would.

“So can you do it partly?”

Moira held a hand to her jaw as she thought. “I could try, though it will only work insofar as he has fulfilled your will. Is that to your liking m’lord?”

Giving a grateful smile, he replied, “That it is.”

From his current standing, Ben had little sway in how the dragon conducted himself. Sure he could maybe convince him into something here and there, but only if it aligned with his goals. His mentorship came with the promise of helping him get revenge. Saving that roadside victim was only possible because that hatred of thievery had been stoked. If he were to give him something he truly wanted, maybe that could change.

“Master,” he called over to Kinsoriel, “could you come here for a moment?”

This earned him a confused look from the angel while the black dragon came over, still in the middle of his bad mood.

“What is it now? Have you finished what I have asked?”

Sheepishly, Benjamin answered, “No, but I have some good news for you.”

Before any complaints could be made, he gestured to Moira with open palms. “Moi- ahem, Archangel Moira will fix your size… partially.”

She replaced her confusion with a look of pride at the gesture, puffing out her chest a bit.

Kinsoriel’s reptilian eyes widened. “Is that so? In that case, I suppose I could overlook you ignoring my order for the moment,” he said as magnanimously as he could.

Glaring at the comment, the humanoid dragon looked to Ben with concern, likely unsure of what to make of this. Mouthing a rough ‘I’ll explain later’, he motioned for her to go ahead.

“Prostrate yourself before me young one,” she said alongside a sigh.

The black dragon obliged her without question. In the blink of an eye, the humanlike shape she held reverted to her gigantic form, lacking any flourish in the transition this time.

Holding her four hands above Kinsoriel’s head in a line, she chanted in a language foreign to all others present. As she continued chanting, Ben noticed an almost impossibly thin strand of white light appear above his head. It seemed to be of the same hue that emanated from Moira’s halo and eyes. She suddenly stopped her chanting and closed her multiple hands around the thread. With a grunt of exertion, she yanked it away from the black dragon with one large pull.

Looking to see his expression, Ben saw the dark orange irises of his character shrink back as they dilated. His face was completely blank, eerily so. It remained that way as the angel stood over him, crushing the thin light and dropping it along his back. Even as it spread across his body and enveloped his form, his face lacked the spark of self behind it. Creepy.

Nothing happened for a few moments once it had fully covered the dragon. Ben eyed the angel nervously. She looked like she was confident in her abilities earlier, but what if this was something else Ben’s presence would screw up? That face Kinsoriel wore could stick. He could be left with a brain-dead main character here.

Before he could seriously sweat, the light started to expand. It began pulsing In a rhythm similar to a heartbeat, getting a little bit bigger with each thump. Each growth also came with a gradual fading of the light, almost like it was being absorbed through the dragon’s skin. Kinsoriel ended up considerably larger than he had been by the time it was fully gone. That chillingly absent expression was shed as the dragon looked around in a daze.

“Are you okay teacher?” Ben asked worriedly, earning another confused look from Moira.

Looking down at him, Kinsoriel plucked Ben up with ease by his backpack. With a slowly emerging smile, he said, “That and more.”