The fated meeting of the black raven and white crow

The arrival of the black ravens outside on the narrow and slightly curves cobblestone street that made out Filigree Crescent didn’t sit well with the little witch. Not well at all. And neither did the witch’s loyal familiar like it. She had been watching the black feathered bird appear one by one all day, all the way from the early morning, where she had woken up to one sitting on the window sile on the other side of the glass. Croaked her a menacing greeting. Or maybe it had simply been to fully make its presence, as well as its following unkindness, known to her. Though, ravens had haunted her mind for a rather long time now. Months. Appearing in her dreams, even dreams they would never belong in. Actually, she had yet to remember a dream, where a sleek black raven hadn’t felt completely out of place. But it wasn’t only the ravens which posed an unsettlement in her. There was something in the air as well, which she had felt sensitive towards. A tension buzzing around her. Just… it wasn’t foreign. Not totally. As of late the same tension had been playing tricks on her senses.
Saga looked down at the snow-white cat laying on the desk next to the big open book, that she was organizing since the day so far had been a quiet one in the shop. Circe had chosen to stay in their cat form all day. Not unusual, however it was clear why with how the cat rarely look its golden eyes from the big frontal display window, watching the ravens. And the way it laid was only half relaxing. Still ready to spring like a springlock.

Suddenly the sweet little, welcoming tone of the old bronze bell above the front door, rang, catching the little witch by a bit of a surprise as became prominent in how she automatically looked up from her book. Still, what felt like several seconds before she even lifted her chin and her eyes landed on the potential customer, she felt at loss of breath. Not in the sense that something had forced the air out of her lunges, but instead it was as if the air had just vanished around her. It wasn’t the case. She breathed find. And yet… it made her have to discreetly steady herself, putting the pen gently down on the books open pages. Then she saw him.
Their eyes met instantaneously and for a moment that was all she could see. Those gunmetal blues staring back at her. And she stared back with close to none of the normal filter a person would have. None of the natural discomfort of looking a stranger – or even a closely familiar one – in the eye. And it wasn’t because she simply couldn’t look away. She was… analysing him with an almost stoic expression on her face. Observing him. Even more so, as he came closer, walking with such grace. She didn’t know who he was. All she knew, was that he was trouble. Like it was out of nowhere, the white cat hissed violently, drawing her attention and making her eyes looked down at it, just seeing how her familiar had lost most, if not all, higher intellect and purely ran on animalistic instinct as it swung a clawed paw at the beautiful hand that had just stroked its fur. The moment after the cat sprang from the desk and ran up the spiralling metal staircase to disappear up on the floor above. Leaving Saga alone with the captivating stranger. That was… very strange. Enough to make the look in her eyes, as she calmly looked back up at his face, standing tall above her short frame, seem criticising. A bit of a frown on her dark brows. Whatever had just happened, she didn’t doubt he was a culprit.

“I’d need a name if I’m to know who you’re searching,” she replied blatantly to his forthcoming request. She had managed to collect herself and her body, so she didn’t need to support herself. She placed the pan on the side of the table before slamming the large book shut with a rather loud bang. One would almost expect old to slow up from it. Luckily it was often used and dust never got a chance to collect on it. She didn’t comment on the deep scratched her familiar had caused his hand. He was, after all, the only on to blame. “Who is it you’re looking for? And what makes you believe that I should know of their whereabouts? I sell magic of many sort. But not tracking.”

Saga’s expression didn’t change and her eye didn’t avert from the long-limped man. She noticed how the joyous sense of superiority played in his eyes. How he looked down at her. But height meant nothing for the little witch. Towering people had rarely affected her stone-carved confidence and although this one made the air weight much more down on her shoulders, it didn’t change much. It wasn’t his height that poked to the fright centre of her body and mind. It wasn’t his gaze that seemed to compete side by side with her own natural intensity. Only, his were edging to mischievous while hers remained stoic.
However a slight chance did spring forward when she heard the name of the man, this entity was looking for. Lucifer. It wasn’t much, but the little smoothed out wrinkle between her dark brows created a small shadow and the look in her eyes became harder. More sceptic. Of course, she knew where he was. She had been the one to place the previous angel there herself. For safety. “I believe you must have misunderstood something. This isn’t a shelter for lost doves with clipped wings. I don’t know where this ‘false Lucifer’ of yours is. He’s not here. That’s all I can tell you,” she explained, the hostility from her eyes having merged ever so slightly with her poise voice as well.
“You would have better luck searching the cursed and abandoned chapels in Moonlight Falls if it is an unholy man you’re looking for.” Saga wasn’t dumb. No. Quite the opposite. She was aware that her words probably wouldn’t be believed. His man gave off a feeling of knowing. But she also knew that he couldn’t prove her wrong. And even if I could, truer answered wouldn’t be coming his way. Only fools tried to pull something there in the magical shop.

Her eyes gently lowered themselves from him. And with ease of the unseen strength in her arms, she picked up the large book from the table and for a moment held it into her chest and straightened her posture, only for the ocean blues to glide back up at him. Her head tilted scarcely to the side. “Who are you? And I get feeling like I should ask just why you’re looking for that man?” she then dared asking as curiosity won the battle in the end. She didn’t recognise his face. Not like how she had recognised Michael’s the first time he had visit here for her services. Then she had known who the archangel was from the get go although she had played an innocent and polite game of pretend. It wasn’t like that with this man. She could feel the ancient energy. As well as… The black substance. She wasn’t only holding the book to put it in place but its placement discreetly hide her chest’s movements and how it slowly kept at it at a heavier pace than usual. Usually she never noticed her breathings. But now she felt close to hyper-focused on them. And by the thought back at the day before the last day of the year, had forced her heart to skip a beat.

Her head slowly tilted to the other side, her loose-hanging black locks elegantly following by law of gravity and gently brushing against her shoulder. So, he wasn’t going to give him his name. Left her to figure that out herself. Not an easy task it would seem, since he apparently went by many names. She wondered for a moment if there’d be a meaning behind finding it out, but then instantly after the thought had simply grazed her mind, she knew the answer to that. Yes. She felt a need to know who he was. And she needed to know how, in his presence, this feeling of need grew steadily into a craving. The smile, breaking free from his fraudulent angelic face, even if only a speck of its true potential, carved itself into her. She felt anything but safe standing there, yet she stayed and faced him. She handled fear a bit differently. She didn’t fear ‘fear’.
She squinted her eyes ever so slightly at him by the mentioning of Sage, however the rest of her face remained aloof. And then she finally moved from the spot behind the beautiful antique wooden desk. Walking calmly around it and continuing passed him, sense a stronger whiff of whatever emerged from him as he did. “Did he tell you about her?” she asked, intentionally not giving him the pleasure of an answer. She simply through the question back at him. Had she answered, her lies would have been even more exposed, after all.

She moved over to a shelves near the door, where her trusty broom even stood leaned in the corner beside it. A few of the shelves were filled with books of old bindings and size, to the one she was holding. Some were leather and some were fabric. Here she slit the book into a perfectly sized space between other two books. Aligned and then pushed with a soft and graceful hand all the way in. Her hand resting on the leathery back for a moment longer before she let it slide down and back down by her side as she turned her head to looked back at the captivating man. She immediately missed the shield of the book. “You won’t be finding anything here which you’re looking for, sir. What you’re looking for might have been here once but I can assure you it’s no longer.” She caught his eyes again and although she was never one to have trouble holding a gaze, she couldn’t remember when someone had her fall so deep in such a short amount of time. Interesting..
“I cannot help you. Nor do I wish to. Leaving would be most profitable for you,” she then very plainly stated, her voice not really charging away from the nonchalant neutral tone. It was a confident tone. She had control over her voice and how she spoke. Didn’t let even the strange effect of him affect it. She watched him closely, await to see compliancy. Realizing that she indeed wasn’t going to help him.

Ah. So, he simply knew. Had been there, it seemed. In his world. So much did the little witch know at the very least. That the Lucifer that she knew, that this tall handsome stranger was looking for - or rather had come to see, since there was only little doubt that he already was aware where he was at all times or where he had been - wasn’t from the exact word or dimension where they both stood in right then and there. If had had been the case, then that rainy night when the fallen angel had stumbled through her door, ignoring locks and wards, would have had a bit of a different tone. A tone much like the one which hummed the atmosphere in the little boutique at this very moment.
Her eyes followed him as he stepped closer to her, turning her body as he went so to always have her front more or less turned towards him. “I can give you answers.” Her head turned to look at his elegant hand instead of his face, as the sign on the door got flipped and then click. The door. Her brow furrowed discreetly at this. “Just not any answers revolving this ‘other Lucifer’,” she finished gracefully sternly, as she directed her eyes back up to his face just as he came even closer. She could immediately feel the sensation of being trapped. He was a predator, that was clear! But so was she. Only in a different sense.

Her gazed glued to his made it so she barely noticed him lifting a hand up before it grazed her cheek, catching her ever so slightly off guard. Her face retracted in a faint expression of discomfort by the playful stinging his touch sent through her body and as if it was a reflex, she slapped his hand away with a back-handed toss. Only for his hand to return to her body shortly thereafter. Like a snake. This brought out a startled gasp. Made her take half a step backwards out of instinct although she was well away of the little leeway she had to go on behind her. Only one step away from her back to meet with the shelve. Automatically had a hand of hers grabbed unto the one he held round her fragile neck, even though she didn’t exactly fight to claw it off of her. Her other hand had grabbed further up his arm near down by his wrist. Then he leaned closer. Much closer, and however strange it might sound, this left her more breathless than the choke hold. His smooth voice so close to her ear drum. His breath against her skin - she had expected it to be as cold as the air surrounding him, but it was warm enough to counter the coldness of her own skin and bring out goosebumps near the back of her neck. She felt… dizzy. Very dizzy in fact. And she knew what was doing it. It was him. Him being so close.
“Then you’ll know that my lies have not been plentiful,” she only just about uttered, her voice lowered to match the lack of distance between them so to not shout, before his hand tightened and her head naturally tilted a little backwards, lifting her chin and her face further up in an angle towards his height. The hand by his dug its fingers a little deeper in between his palm and her throat. She could still breathe but it wasn’t optimal, forcing her to breathe through slightly parted lips rather than her nose to keep a proper airway.
Saga hadn’t actually fed him many lies. The only one and been that she didn’t know where Lucifer was. The rest had been strategically said truths.

She took note how his eyes wandered. How he took her in even more now that there was only very little distance between them. No furniture either. It would only need one more step to suffocate the air between their chests. “I believe I’ve given you enough of the truth.” He didn’t have the right for the whole truth, although she was sure, that he thought so. His entire being demanded everything as soon as he stepped inside a room. She had felt that from the very moment he had walked through the now locked door beside them. He demanded everything to himself and right then and there he had gotten her all alone, Circe having fled to floor above them like nothing more than an ordinary animal - something that still concerned her deeply. While she didn’t wish to give him what he craved and ordered, she still knew to be careful around him. He was dangerous, so say to least. She… she needed him out and away as quickly as possible. But of course, he wasn’t letting that happen as easily as she would have liked.
Her expression twitched slightly by the grazing of his fingers while brushing aside her hair, especially the side where his hand had moved to. She gulped, undoubtedly something he’d feel in the palm of his choking hand, and while the hand she gripped around his wrist was perfectly still and perfectly calm, the hand trying to remove his choke hold was vague shaking. The only thing about her shaking, really. Except maybe her breathings… She silently drew a deep breathe in. “Why is it important for someone like you to find this man?” she asked the stranger. “And how can it be you need me to tell you where he is? You stated so yourself; how his presence is still lingering here, which can only mean you’re perfectly capable of tracing him yourself.”

Then very slowly the hand, that had been clawing at his, stopped its digging and gracefully slid down and laid softly on top of it, curving with it round her neck and nearly laced her fingers in between his. She then moved her other hand to lay exactly like the first one just on the other side of her neck, the thumb of the hand placed side by side with his. “Now. Let go off me,” she almost whispered, her voice not sounding very commanding. Only the words themselves. As well as the look in her eyes. “Your presence is already making it rather difficult to…” She suddenly had to inhale before finishing: “…breathe.” Just.. why was that exactly? She sensed no actual pheromones in the air. Only the every tempting.. darkness. She could even still feel the sensation from his fingers on her skin even as an ever-continuing echo.