A young thief is overcome by the spirit of charity. Literally.
guest story by CorruptiveSpirit
tags: angel, purification, transformation
artwork by Jill
Not even the rippling spots of colored light could liven up the bleak atmosphere of the church. Ariel wondered how the stained glass might have looked before wild branches and thrown stones had destroyed them. Their lead seams had collected grime and spread it inward, leaving only smokey hints of what had once been brilliant. Now they stood like jagged maws framing the equally dismal pews in solemn procession as she moved deeper. She hoped that wasn’t the same case for the treasures buried here.
Ariel had gotten wind of this place from a sufficiently inebriated town clerk. Formally abandoned, it was still on the books for some tax code or whatever. Imperial bureaucracy was a mess, and she wasn’t inclined to explore it beyond that. There were often artifacts, relics, or other such things ‘warding off demons’ hidden in the floorboards or walls in a place like this. Such relics fetched a high price for the right buyers, even the wrong buyers if there was enough gold involved. Was it sacreligious? Sure. But from what she was seeing, it didn’t seem like the holy wards had done this place any good. She kicked aside another moldering pew, looking for any marked floor tiles or recessed panels, and sighed. Maybe in the cellar then. Near the back, a decaying curtain hung from an equally dilapidated rod revealing a ‘hidden’ doorway. It looked promising, not too obvious as to have been looted already. The door was locked but rotted through enough for her to open it off the locking mechanism. The stairs that were wood too, unfortunately. The cellar, while untouched by human hands until now, had suffered greatly from the elements. She clung to the wall as she shimmied down the side, pausing as the wood groaned and her fingers sunk into the rotten railing like a damp sponge.
Only the first few steps were serviceable, and half way down she could hear the brittle and bug-gnawed wood snapping under her feet, prompting her to move faster. A dull rumble filled the room as the entire frame shifted to the left a moment later. She gripped the railing as she tried to get off before it collapsed in on itself, and as the first boards snapped she leapt over the side – into the darkness below.
When the dust settled, she pushed herself off the ground. Her hand stung something fierce—she could feel something warm and wet and assumed the worst as she waited for her eyes to adjust. She could still stand and so held her hand up to the light now streaming through the doorway above. Thankfully, she seemed to be fine, except for something white and liquid burning where it had touched her. She shook it off, wincing as she saw the bleached skin beneath. Ariel looked around the room, finally able to adjust to the low light, holding her hand tightly as it began to sizzle and itch like an awful sunburn.
The room looked to be another chapel- a second altar in the back of the room surrounded by… gold. Two large, gleaming candlesticks, a book embedded with jewels and a holder for a glass cylinder. The glass had shattered, sadly, but the strange geometrical holder looked exotic enough to feed her for half a year at least. Something white, like what had been on her hand, dripped from the glass and had pooled in the middle of the room. She scratched at the skin affected, the itching getting too bad for her to stand. The skin, once bleached, now gleamed like glass. The dexterity was still there, but the weight felt off. Thankfully, at least the burning sensation had subsided. She could worry once she had gotten her paycheck. Going back now would leave her too broke to even treat the injury.
Ariel tried going around the pool, finding quickly that it reached all the way to the edge and ruining her boots in the process. Her feet were already itching by the time she took them off and worse, her hand was beginning to burn again. Somehow, she felt flushed and lightheaded now as she tried to smear off the potion from her feet. She sighed, wiping the sweat from her brow and leaving a small trail of white where her hand brushed her brow. Lights began to swim in her vision, and something loud and shrill kept ringing in her ears. Before, she was worried about what she’d do once she got back; now, even that seemed in jeopardy.
Perhaps she could jump it. But Ariel wasn’t thinking clearly when she moved to get a running start, and when her feet began to numb she tumbled, splaying out in the mess of white. Lights flashed in her eyes as she flailed, her body covered in the oily liquid, sticking to her- pulling at her clothes. Her face went from a fevered red to a pallid white as her eyes joined it in changing, looking closer to a marble statue than a person. It felt like she was being being pulled in every direction as her brain began to spark and sputter. The lights were drawing squared spirals behind her eyelids, and worse, she could understand them. Her breathing steadied and her heart began to slow. The heat had only gotten worse- but it was ok. She was getting better. She would be more than better.
She reached a hand to her lips, feeling the clink of her hand against them as her body began to really twist underneath her. The sudden weight of her body almost toppled her. Her skin cracked and shattered around thick protrusions of marble and gold filament, and it felt glorious. She could feel her body changing within her and pushing out, like a beak puncturing a soggy eggshell. The light and glory flowed like wine from her wounds! Something pushed its way up into her mouth- and she let it fall from her lips. A coin? She didn’t understand, but something told her she would. That she didn’t need to. That she already had.
She stood again, this time on different legs, as her body drew closer to art than human. Strength rippled through her body. She was no longer a creature of the earth, having been baptized in the seed of the sky—no longer muscle and blood, but marble and light. Another coin fell forth, dissolving into the white purity she had fallen into minutes ago. It fell farther than last time, her body pushed up higher and higher as she began to watch the world from two sets of eyes. What was once her face now nestled between her breasts as something purer took its place. Her form heaved, and a waterfall of coins splattered beneath her. Her brain felt like it was being pulled through a straw, sweating out sins, memories, identity as the angel emerged from the last vestiges of her humanity. Wings were the last to emerge, wreathing her new, purer visage. Her body was the same marble as her face, gold outlining designs over her chest. Larger arms like pillars, spread from her shoulders, each tipped with golden claws, while smaller appendages propped her up from behind like a backwards grasshopper. She took a few steps, easily pulling herself up out of the cellar. The sun fell only on her Real Face, glinting and shimmering. The false vestige spat a coin into the shade beneath her bulk, expression unchanging.
The relics might not have warded off demons, but the angel was here now. A being of greed no longer, more coins poured from the Angel of Charity as she pulled herself through the church. The tithes had not been paid, the prayers had not been said; the Angel of Charity had plenty to offer all the wayward sheep~ Gifts they could not help but accept.
Author’s Note: This is a guest story from CorruptiveSpirit, who has the unique status of being the only person on this website who is both an author and an artist! Perhaps even more than me, CS loves her creepy angel transformations. I am extremely proud to host this story.