World Tree MUSH

    "Father why was I born?" The clay boy asked as the old man put the finishing touches upon his son.
    "My son, you were made to protect our people from those who would bring us harm..."

    -----

    Sword clasped in hand, the young man of clay singlehandedly repels those who would attack his home, his city, and his people.
    "Father, I will guard all we hold dear..." He vows.

    -----

    "Father must I sleep?" The man of stone asks as the old man removes the special talisman from his mouth to put him back to sleep.
    "Yes my son, peace is upon us. I will wake you when you are needed again."
    "Alright father. I love you."

    -----

    "My son our home is under attack once more. I call upon you to wake and protect us once again." The much more aged man says, placing the shem back in the stone man's mouth.
    Slowly he awakens...
    "I will protect them all, father..."

    -----

    On his deathbed the old man breathes his last as his stone sone holds his hand, too weak to remove the talisman from the clay boy's mouth, he passes on and for years the man of stone protects the town, growing larger and larger with each passing year... until...

    -----

    "You take up too much space!" "You eat us out of house and home!" "We do not need your protection anymore!" The mob shout and cry. "Leave us!" "Leave this place!" "Go away!" "Never return!" They howl and jeer, poking the stone man with their tools and jabbing him with their weapons.

    "... But I promised... I would protect you all..." He moans as they chase him out of the city...

    -----

    On a world that is actually NOT the Spirit Chasers world, but a world very similar to 1600's era Earth, there is a city on the Vitava river in central Europe home to roughly 1.3 million people. This city is currently at peace, having not known war or strife for some time, and it bustles with activity and the hubbub of countless people walking the streets, talking and being merry.
    Castiel is here, the small blonde dressed in a lovely white dress, sandal-clad feet walking along the cobblestone road.
    "Mmmm... I thought I felt something familiar in this city." She murmurs softly to the companion at her side, lips pursing into a thoughtful frown. "There's *something* here but the city is so sprawling I wouldn't know where to look for it."

    "Perhaps I might be of service, luminous one," a woman's voice greets. The source of the voice moves through the crowd smoothly, violet eyes regarding Castiel with interest. Her tall walking staff taps against the road softly with each step, and her entire demeanor is one of calm, curiosity, and humbleness... entirely at odds with the radiant and serene presence easily visible to the supernaturally-inclined. "If you can tell me a bit about it, I may be able to assist you in finding it. I've a talent for such things, as a seer. Lian Kamoya," she adds, with a respectful bow.

Itana doesn't really have people she considers true companions. There is one exception. Her name is Castiel.

Itana's usual scant attire wouldn't fit into the environment of southern Bohemia. She'd scandalize any Bohemian city, let alone a city the size of modern Prague. She swapped it out for a long dress with loose sleeves and a cloak caught about her throat, though a careful look would turn up a few convenient clasps here and there - it's an easily abandoned layer of frippery if things go wrong.

"What do you feel?" Itana purses her lips and looks down to the tiny angel. The density of a city like this interferes with her normal awareness of her surroundings - she is not a city dweller by nature. Castiel's sweet and steady presence is helping to rein in the part of her that dislikes being in an urban area, at least.

She nods towards a shadowed gap in the line of buildings. "Perhaps if you can focus on it," she suggests, before Lian makes her appearance.

Itana recognizes the other woman. She nods gravely.

    The intel came in rather promptly. Laswell's feelers were good, but Ghost didn't think they were -that- good. Captain John Price, 141's walrus-bearded and puffy cheeked CO chews thoughtfully on a stogie as he looks over the briefing material. "Right then, we can only send one person in without causing a load of suspicion. Otherwise we'll just be bloody obvious, and we don't have time for twenty questions."

    "I'm good for it, sir." Gaz steps up, while Soap MacTavish is currently boredly tossing a rubber band ball against the wall.

    "Nah. Better we send someone who knows the main contact a bit more. Lieutenant?" Price glances toward Ghost, who's been staring at the table silently.

    "Fine. Try not to let Soap run off while I'm gone, sir. He gets rowdy if he's not had his walkies."

    Soap promptly gives Ghost the inverted peace sign.

    Days later, Simon Riley stalks the streets with a gray and black wool hoodie and sunglasses. Hoodies tend to be the default for him, even if it's rather warm out.

    He recognizes Itana and Castiel pretty quickly while stalking through the busy streets, keeping to himself and deftly avoiding bumping into passers by.

    The lady with the stick might pick up a lot about Ghost on a glance; A lot of barely contained anger and loss radiates off this man, an ice-cold spike to the heart, held together with military discipline.

    "Itana. Castiel." The man speaks, voice deep and rough. "You ladies look lost." His dark eyes glance toward Lian, gazing her over in a grave nod. "Call me Ghost."

    Peace. Peace is a fragile thing, delicate like a gossamer veil. It is easily broken, and break it does.

    A resounding crash of something massive smashing something equally massive rings across the city, and the form of a massive stone man can be seen punching down into one of the buildings near outskirts. An orphanage, filled with children whose families abandoned them; either willfully, or through death of one type or another.

    The golem's arm sinks into the structure, causing timbers to splinter, stonework to crumble... then it recoils, the arm shattering into fragments... that quickly reform back and resolidify together. It will be difficult to bring down.

    The structure continues to crumble, and within the dust and rubble a golden light shines. A blonde girl stands resolute between the golem and a huddled group of orphans, a blazing brand of Blessed Flame in her left hand, that looks oddly like a firepoker.

    Tapping a finger to her lower lip, Castiel pauses thoughtfully.
    "I thought I felt... Something like myself here." She admits to Itana as Lian appears. "Ah...?"
    Crystal blue eyes fall upon the jedi and Castiel stares for a beat; the woman practically radiates a serenity the likes of which she has only felt in angels more powerful than herself, and the fact that a mortal human can emit such a thing makes her pause for a beat, before she glances between Itana and Lian- who Itana seems to recognize.
    If that is the case, she has absolutely no reason to hide things from this woman.
    "I have been looking for others like myself for quite some time now." She admits before dipping into a slight curtsey, because politeness and propriety are important. "I am Castiel."
    With her introduction given, she pauses again when an UNFAMILIAR face approaches and says she looks lost with Itana.
    There's a beat.
    Castiel stares.
    The voice is familiar however and after a split second of mentally overlaying a SKULL FACE MASK over the man's face, she's smiling.
    "Oh, hello Ghost."
    Pleasantries are, however, cut short when the peace is violently disturbed. The sheer force of the rampaging golem's steps shake the earth as it comes into view and smashes through the roof of the nearby orphanage.
    "A-ah...!" Castiel blurts, eyes wide with shock and horror. ... But surprise even moreso at the radiant light emerging from the building.
    With a howl of fury the man of stone flexes the fingers of his reformed hand and tries to smash into the building once again, roaring as stone and timbers are launched through the street. In an instant Castiel' hand is upon Itana.
    "...-- the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover them all day long, and they shall dwell between his shoulders!" She says, causing a protective golden light to sink into the nomad's body as Castiel gives Ghost and Lian a pleading look.
    "We cannot let it rampage through the city like this!"

"Another like yourself," Itana murmurs, looking down at the tinier girl. "Can you focus on the feeling...?"

It takes Itana a second to figure out who this person in the hoodie is. Fitting into this setting less than her is hard. He's managing it. After a couple of seconds, a memory clicks into place. "Hello," she answers with an arch of her eyebrows.

Before she can say anything more, the Bohemian calm is broken by the crashing of timbers and stone.

The building nearby gives way, and the creature of stone and earth looms. Itana clicks her teeth, reaching back under her cloak and coming out with her bow. Castiel's hand is upon her right away. The gold light suffuses her and vanishes under her dress and into her body. Tensing, she nods down to the little angel with a tight smile. "We will," she assures, before striding forward and undoing a couple clasps.

Most of Itana's dress was held in place by them. What's beneath it resembles nothing so much as a one-piece leather bustier in her usual white-blue-black patterns, her archery gloves and boots matched to it.

Itana takes a few running strides before boosting forward in a long leap, then one more. Her heel hits the wall of a structure and she kicks off from there, flipping dramatically to land on the edge of a roof overlooking the orphanage yard. Adept fingers snap to the fletching of her arrow as she draws it back and lets it go.

Piercing damage may not be ideal against stone creatures. This is likely to be offset by the fact that the arrow smashes through the sound barrier and rips towards the rampaging golem's shoulder like a railgun round.

    The nod from Itana is returned by Lian, with a warm smile of greeting. Ghost, however, draws a much longer, analytical look from the ebon-haired seer. She regards him with scrutiny, and if anything, a touch of sympathy sets in to her features. "...Ghost," she repeats, inclining her head a little. Her tone is gentle. "A fitting name." Her face, her eyes almost seem to say that she can see right through him.

    Curiously, her reaction to the thunderous crash of a golem smashing apart a building seems to come very slightly before the sound arrives. Cloak fluttering, Lian turns straight towards the source, her hand reaching down to a leather-wrapped metal cylinder at her belt. She doesn't quite draw it, but she does stare out at the source of the chaos with a sharp, stern expression. "Perhaps my assistance won't be necessary to find what you were looking for," she says, her tone slightly dry. "But I'll happily offer an entirely different sort of assistance."

    She gives Castiel an encouraging smile - then turns and leaps, from a standing start, high enough to come down on a nearby rooftop. Running, hopping, leaping and darting, she crosses the city skyline with superhuman precision, her cloak fluttering away some time in the advance and her staff tossed along with it.

    Were there always two of those cylinders on her belt? It's hard to say. But there are two now, at least until one of them finds its way into her hand, and a blade of sky-blue light erupts from it at the peak of a soaring leap. Down comes the woman with the glowing blade, aiming a slash at the shoulder of the tremendous golem.

>> SUMMARY[Lian Kamoya] >> Greeting Itana, appraising Ghost. Then leaping to the rooftops and charging into battle when the golem attacks, with a lightsaber slash for the golem's shoulder.

    Simon looks right at Lian for a moment before suddenly all hell breaks loose. No time for socializing. Ghost quickly dons his skull balaclava and sunglasses. No time for adding eye shadow, the glasses will have to do.

    There's no need to tell him twice. Within a minute he's already got his chest rig, plate carrier, and rifle out of his backpack. "I'll look after civvies. Let's move!" He says as he slings the Chimera carbine.

    He looks as Lian does her thing. For a moment he thinks of Stelle's energy bat thing from before, only for the sky-blue light to come to life in a snaphiss. That's no club, it's a goddamn laser sword.

    "Fucking hell..." is all he mutters before he goes to rush for the orphanage. Of course, it's a damn orphanage that's in trouble.

    He shoulders the Chimera before letting off a burst of .300 Blackout rounds at the golem's midsection, trying to get its attention so it'll back off from the orphanage.

>> SUMMARY[Ghost] >> Ghost radiates sad angy energy before golem shows up. He goes to try and save the orphanage. With bullets!

    "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I shall fear no darkness. For thou art with me. Thy staff and thy rod, they comfort me." intones the blonde as that fist comes crashing down again. She digs in her back foot, bracing to STOP THAT FIST with her body.

    Her improvized weapon comes up, and the resounding CLANG of metal reinforced with Divine Power, reverberates through the streets. She is pushed back, digging furrows with her feet toward the cowering children... but stops before reaching them. "Run, this foe is far beyond you. Flee now!" she says, her voice is soft, and so much similar to Castiel's, though the inflection is far more aggressive. "Cease your rampage, Construct. Your task is long over."

    A moment's distraction, as Itana's shot, Lian's saber and Ghost's bullets come in and take the pressure off of her, and a familiar presence... a presence she's not felt since...

    No, Lumi, focus.

    What is this feeling? The radiance that is so familiar to Castiel?
    Something about it has the small angel more agitated than usual as the others move into action. She chases after Ghost, Itana, and Lian on foot rather than spread her wings and cause more confusion and panic.
    The golem's fist meets the divinely empowered fire poker in Illumiel's hand and the resounding clash can be heard for a great distance as the small blonde repels it, earning a roar of frustration from the stone man. It is then that Itana's shot and Lian's lightsaber find their mark, the shriek of the nomad's arrow tearing through the air ends in a small sonic boom as the arrow punches through the stone man's clay midsection, leaving a gaping hole in its place, before the jedi's blade of hope and peace slashes through the monster's shoulder, severing its arm completely.
    A raging howl of pain sounds out as Ghost's cover fire pelts the thing's center of mass as it... Starts to reform in the middle and PICKS UP ITS ARM and presses it back into place, remolding properly together like two halves of clay becoming one.
    "Ah..." Dawning realization seems to strike Castiel as she joins the 141 operative in trying to shepherd people and children away from and out of the building.
    "It is a golem! Look for a shem on its forehead or in its mouth! It should say um... Elohim-- or Adonai... Maybe El-Shaddai... Something like that! Removing that will end this!" She says while grabbing a child and dragging them to a nearby alley.
    Ghost meanwhile will have his hands full getting others to safety, a cluster of small children take one look at him, his SKULL FACE balaclava, and start panicking wildly.
    The golem, on the other hand, still piecing itself back together, takes a series of wild swings at the jedi, nomad, and Illumiel inside the building while howling with rage.

    In fairness, Ghost expects people to be scared of him. He's 6'3", built like a heavyweight boxer, and usually pals about in tac-gear. The skull mask is just the cherry on top. But when it comes to saving kids who are in danger, Ghost tries his best to not be too scared. "Don't be afraid! I'm here to get you out! Take my hand, now!" He holds out his hands as he storms into the orphanage.

    This doesn't work at first. He does have a secret weapon: PLUSHIES.

    He gets out three pokemon plushies, small enough to fit in his backpack without taking up room, and hands them out. "Here. Good luck charms. C'mon now, we gotta move." He ushers them out quickly, even picking one up when she lags behind and carrying her in his arms securely.

Itana can't quite see into the orphanage from her perch. She's getting closer, though.

She can hear Castiel calling from down below. Nodding sharply, Itana lets her eyes dart over the damaged golem - but it's already beginning to reassemble itself. Her eyebrows arch.

The creature's swings are heavy and wild, but enormous. A blow swung Itana's way caves in the edge of the house she's perched on. Roof tiles shatter as she lunges away at the very last second, debris pelting her as she soars back, but her speed spares her the worst. Her legs come up over her head as she touches down inside the orphanage yard and skids back several feet under her own momentum. Her heels dig rugged furrows in the turf.

The children. It occurs to her with a pang. Someone has to take care of the children. And she's probably not the best for it. There's Ghost, but--

Something else occurs to Itana: Ghost is a scary man in a skull mask.

Gritting her teeth, Itana shoulders her bow and pulls out a small knife. "I'm going to regret this," she mutters as she starts to run. She'll have to buy Ghost time, not just to help the kids, but to convince them he's not some kind of homicidal maniac. Castiel, at least, has given her something to look for. As she dashes towards the golem, she coils up, leaps --

--And attempts to land on one of the golem's arms. She'll try to kip off and balance on the move, trying to rush up the limb towards its head with knife in hand.

>> SUMMARY[Itana el-Zayl] >> > climb golem

    Despite lacking wings, Lian Kamoya almost seems to soar, turning a flip after her lightsaber sinks home and coming down on a nearby lamp post. She whirls around immediately, keeping a careful balance while she watches things develop further; and she's rewarded with the sight of the golem simply regenerating the damage done to it. It's Castiel's shout that gives the Jedi her next focus, and she gives a simple response of, "Right!" before leaping back into the fray. Her body shifts, her leaps turn into tumbles, and she's just barely able to scrape by one of those wild smashes aimed right at her; but each strike she dodges puts someone else at risk, and that's something the old Jedi absolutely cannot accept.

    As Itana aims for one of the golem's arms, Lian Kamoya's feet touch down on the road below. The woman deactivates her lightsaber as she lands, and clips it to her belt in a smooth motion that's been practiced for longer than half of those here have been alive. And without even an instant's delay, both her arms come back up, held out towards the golem as if she could stop it...

    ...and Castiel and Illumiel can both feel the exact moment it happens.

    Down into the Force, Lian Kamoya sinks. To that power that surrounds, that pervades, that links all life and all creation. She doesn't question, she doesn't doubt; she lets herself fall into the great river of All That Is, lets her mind expand, lets herself feel... everything. And in that vastness, she reaches out. Takes hold. Pits her will against the will of the stone being, her will and all the might that the Force itself can muster.

    Her aim is simple... to hold it in place. That's it.

>> GAME >> Lian Kamoya spends an Edge for: Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.

    Blue eyes glance at the archer and the... whatever Lian is... and whatever the skull... faced... Those blazing blue eyes lock onto Ghost for the longest moment, but he doesn't seem to be undead, so she's back to the Golem...

    Just in time to take a smack from that big heavy arm. It sends her flying into a nearby building hard enough to shatter the wall, and two more before she comes to a stop.

    What emerges from the building... through the roof, is a winged figure in gleaming armour. She doesn't have a halo at the moment, but the feathers of her wings glow from within with a golden light. The poker is broken, snapped in half from her impromptu home renovations, so she looks around for something else.

    She dives and lands near a city guard, who's currently looking very baffled and uncertain, sword in hand. She grasps the sword-arm with one hand, the sword BLADE with the other and firmly removes the sword from the hand. "I need to borrow this." she says firmly.

    She then leaps back into flight, and lands next to Itana. She reaches out, and with a familiar, yet different feeling flow of power, she speaks. "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." As she does, that same Blessed Fire engulfs both her sword and Itana's knife. "I can feel it. In the mouth. We must be swift and deadly. Strike sure, archer. I will give you an opening."

>> GAME >> Illumiel spends an Edge for: =Avenger Aura

    Castiel and Ghost usher the civilians to saftey, the children drop their panic in the face of plush toys and become SO MUCH more compliant with Ghost when he gives them toys, which means he and Castiel can get more of them out of range of the rampaging stone man.
    Itana lunges- landing herself upon the stone man's arm and he *immeditely* tries to shake and swat her off but before he can...
    The will of one so deeply in touch with the Force speaks... And even Castiel has to halt in her tracks to stare as the great stone man pits his raw physical strength against that willpower-- and he is found lacking.
    The golem seems to stiffen visibly, struggling- straining- resisting the Force with all his might and unable to counter Lian's willpower, his body cracks and strains all while...
    "Wait is that..." Castiel stops dead in her tracks before she shoos the civilians to go on without her.
    "... S-... Sister?"
    Illumiel, in the meantime borrows a sword and has a plan... Now. Now is the time to enact it.

    A quick trot to get the civvies to safety, Ghost lets the children keep the plushies. "Keep 'em." He says and takes off before the kids can return their gifts.

    Plushies tend to be a good way to help reassure children.

    Ghost goes back to the fight, drawing his Chimera again as the carbine lets out a spray of fire. It's only then that he notices Lian's focusing really ahrd, and making the golem freeze in place.

    "Fuckin' bloody hell." This Worldtree's full of damn weirdos.

    At this time, there is nothing more to do - she's already giving everything of herself. The concentration is writ plain across her face, everything discarded but the singular focus of holding the golem steady in the vastness of the Force. Even as experienced as she is, she knows she won't be able to keep it in place forever. But she only has to hold it long enough for an opening to be created; and, it seems for Itana to exploit it.

    Her piece said, she flies up in front of the stone man's face. She brings her borrowed sword up holding it before her face as she speaks, low yet firm. "Vengeance is Mine, I will Repay." She then turns, sweeping a horizontal slash across where the stone man's mouth is, cutting the lower jaw clean off to expose the shem mark on the roof of his mouth. "Strike true, archer. Strike now!"

Itana is in the process of trying to climb a golem when /someone/ lands beside her. At first she only catches movement in her peripheral vision, nodding sharply -- and then something clicks, at the moment of that little touch. Her knife ignites with the sacred flame.

The archer's eyebrows go /up/ and she halts for a second in mid-climb. "You're not Castiel."

She's able to stop like that thanks to Lian. Every nerve in Itana's body screams at her to be ready to jump at a moment's notice. She shoves the urge aside and trusts the Jedi - and the two angels. From where she's hooked in, she can't hear Castiel.

She doesn't need to. She remembers something the tiny angel told her, one day by a lonely fire.

"You have someone you need to talk to after this," she states with a brisk nod.

Illumiel does her thing. Itana's already in motion. Planting a heel, Itana vaults off of the golem. At the moment the other angel strikes out with such violence, the archer is turning in the air, oriented upside-down at the arc of her jump, her arm angled back. Fire ripples along her knife blade.

She snaps it forward. The knife flies from her hand, whirling in a pinwheel of holy flame - and arcs in as Itana herself descends.

The nomad lands in a dramatic three-point stance. Her cloak settles around her.

A second later, the thrown knife should slam through the exposed shem mark with bullseye precision.

>> GAME >> Itana el-Zayl commits an Edge for: Acrobatic knife toss action!

>> GAME >> Itana el-Zayl spends an Edge for: OKAY I'M ONLY BACKFLIPPING AND THROWING THE KNIFE ONCE OKAY

    Held in place by the will of Lian Kamoya and the Force, the golem stands no chance.
    Illumiel is not Castiel, indeed, and when the avenging angel strikes, she cleaves the golem's jaw off. And unable to move himself to catch said jaw and put it back in place, that leaves the mark of the shem in its mouth exposed...
    Itana's knife flies true...
    Embedding in the middle of the shem mark the Name of God written upon the golem's body is disrupted.

    -----

    "I said I would protect them..." The man of stone whispers to himself.
    "But they don't need my protection anymore... Did I fail? Was I a bad son, father?"
    "No, my son. You were a good son." The golem's last memory of his father runs through his mind as the light fades from his eyes...

    -----

    One last cry of misery and woe, and the golem goes stock still, even moreso than when held by the might of the Force, before the stone mane starts to crumble to dust and rocks on the cobblestone streets.
    All goes quiet. Save for the shuffle of sandal-clad feet on the cobbles as Castiel steps over fallen rubble, debris, and golem-dust into the street.
    "... Illumiel...?"

The golem crumbles to dust behind her. Itana closes her eyes and breathes out slowly. She leaves her knife amidst the debris heap that once made up the colossus. She can get another.

After a moment, she whips her hair back and straightens up, adjusting her cloak minutely. Drawn by the soft tap of little feet, she turns to see Castiel approaching.

A faint smile reaches her face. "It seems another was here after all," she murmurs before taking a half-step back, close to the little angel and ready to stand by her if needed, but all too ready to let the pair have their moment together.

    A breath. "Be at peace now. Your task is done. Be welcome in His court." she says to the dying Golem as she drops lightly to the ground. Her wings vanish, the flames die out around the borrowed sword...

    And then a voice, much like her own speaks her name.

    She turns, locking eyes with the mirror image of her own face, and the severe scowl softens... then breaks into a relieved smile as she darts forwards and embraces her. "Sister!"

    Lian can feel it. The moment that Itana looses her blade, engulfed in flames. She already knows that the knife will strike true. She has only to hold it in place as long as it takes for that throw to reach its target, and then her entire body sags as her concentration is released.

    The old Jedi Master very nearly collapses where she stands, a breath of strain and effort rushing out. "Haaaah... gooodness," she mutters breathlessly, practically gulping at the air. "I'm... certainly not as young as I used to be..." It takes a good moment or two before she can bring herself to stand up properly again. Only once she's caught her breath does Lian start to move in closer; and that's about when Illumiel and Castiel reunite, drawing a soft, contented smile. "Well. Seems as if you've found what you were looking for, then."

    The monster is felled, and Ghost lets his Chimera dangle on its sling while he brushes dust off his hoodie. THe masked commando observes Castiel and Illumiel, but like Itana he doesn't intrude. This is personal between the two. It just wouldn't do to interrupt.

    "Mission accomplished." He muses to Lian. "Guess that's one mystery solved."

    For a moment. For just a moment. When Illumiel embraces her. It is as though two halves are finally made whole. Castiel practically throws her arms around her twin when they meet, and her grasp is tight and she does not let go for a long moment.
    When she finally does let go, her hand finds Illumiel's and threads fingers, while her free hand dabs at her eyes.
    "... I had thought I'd never see you again." She admits with a small huff. Oh right. The golem is dead now. Peace is returning.
    Somewhat.
    "... Itana, this is my sister that I told you about, Illumiel." She introduces her sibling and her travel companion- because politeness and propriety are important.
    "I should thank all of you, really." She says including Lian and Ghost. "I didn't expect to be so blessed, this day."

Something visceral twists deep inside Itana's soul at the sight of the two little angels hugging each other so tightly. The sisters are reunited. For just a moment, she can see something else. Heaps that were once life, in familiar patterns, fallen in the shadow of a place entire worlds away.

Itana closes her eyes and opens them again with a brisk shake of her head. The thoughts are buried behind a faint smile. Her pain is not relevant here. What matters is Castiel's happiness.

What matters is what she has now. /Who/ she has now.

Dipping her head, she takes a couple of steps forward and into the angelic conversation. "Hello, Illumiel. Castiel told me a little about you. I'm glad that you can be reunited with her."

Itana lays a hand on Castiel's shoulder and squeezes, light but supportive and fond.

    "Indeed," Lian replies to Ghost, her smile soft, but unmistakably warm.

    To Castiel and Illumiel, however, the woman offers a deep, almost reverent bow. "I am very happy to have played my part," she replies, straightening up again. "It looks like we've stopped it without harm to any bystanders, so I couldn't ask for a better resolution." There is a pause, however, when she glances at the pile of rubble that used to be a golem. Even now, she can feel the echo of sadness from what remains of the stone sentinel. Something she wishes she could have saved, perhaps... but it wasn't to be.

    "Don't mention it. I was never here." Ghost answers calmly. "There was no other choice to be made. People were in danger, so we acted. That's the job." He says with a slow nod. There's a tinge of satisfaction in his words. Nobody got seriously hurt, and the problem was solved for the most part. And a heartwarming reunion is had, it seems.

    "Name's Ghost." He nods to Illumiel. "Task Force 141. If you need me..." He passes out a business card to Illumiel. Hard to really tell how you'd use the number on it on worlds without a phone. "Just in case."

    "Nor I, you." replies Illumiel to Castiel, clasping her twins hand firmly then turning to bow to the others. "A truly blessed day, all told... though you do keep some strange company these days, sister."

    Itana's conflict draws the Avenger's attention, though she doesn't speak of it, instead focussing on the archer in the now. "Has she now? Pray, ask for clarity if thou must."

    Why is she speaking formally so suddenly.

    Lian's bow is returned in kind, the little Avenger suddenly out of her element now combat is done...

    "... Ghost..." she says, taking the card and slipping it into her dress, somewhere. "You do not feel like undead."