"I told you, I'll leave you your purity. eyond that, I make no promises." He said as he wrapped his arms around her, his wings stretching wide. "But for now, we have other things to do."

She held onto him tightly, blushing slightly. She didn't like being so close to him, but it was definitely preferable to staring at the ground. "What do you even mean by that--'leave me my purity'?"

"It means I wont do anything to you that would make you 'impure' by the heavenly standards. Such as murder, physical relations with demons, that sort of thing. I won't take away your afterlife. In fact, on the contrary, eventually I'll make it better for you."

She looked up at him. "Make it better? How? ....And why?" Anything coming from him that sounded like a good thing made her worried. She frowned, a suspicious look coming to her eyes.

"Because, it will do a lot for me too. No more questions about that. You'll understand when the time comes."

"This is getting annoying," she grumbled, but she dropped the subject, choosing to instead lay her head against his chest and close her eyes. Vile or not, he made a decent pillow, and she was getting tired.

Jin fell quiet, deciding it best ot let her rest. After all, she wasn't in for an easy night. After abou a half hour he landed on a peak, overlooking a deep valley on either side. The top of the mountain was oddly flat, with the exception of a single very round rock. "You awake?"

Her eyes fluttered open and she grumbled something. "We here...?" She asked softly, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Still half-asleep, she looked around. "Where's your friend?" She mumbled, laying her head back down on his chest.

Jin lightly pulled away long enough to slid the top of the rock off, proving it to be a small box od ink. He poured it int he center of the mountain peak and it filled a pattern on the ground. Withing seconds thier surroundings changed to that of a small shop. the walls were lined with weapons and armor, and the air was clouded with incence. "She's probably in the back room."

She yawned again and took in the new surroundings, the incense making her tired again. "I don't know how to use weapons," she pointed out. "I'm anti-violence." Suddenly she went into a small coughing fit a large amount of smoke finding its way into her lungs. "This stuff...is so thick!"

"Demons aren't requied to breath, although in this form it bothers me too. We aren't here for weaponry, not for you at least." He said as he eyed a high quality sword.

"Jiiinnn.... It's been a while." The sound of mechanical mocvements came from the doorway and a strange form became visible in the smoke. A woman from the waist up was visible, clothed in robes simmilar to Jin's. Her hair was up in the same fashion, her intracate braids looping in and out of eachother. Her legs, if she had any, were hidden by black metal spider-like legs that put her several feet higher than them at a crouch. "What can I do for you Jin? And what's with the mortal?" The woman asked, straightening her glasses.

"She's a project of mine you could say, I need her fully protected."

"Right-o, but you'll have to wait out here, you're too harsh on humans." She said as the machiene extended to allow her to look over Caroline. "And you, you don't need to be afraid of me, I usually don't work with humans, but I have nothing against them. This way please."

"I'm not a project!" Carol snapped at Jin before looking the woman up and down in frightened curiosity. "What're you going to do to me? And please don't give me one of the same answers he has. 'You'll understand later' really isn't working for me." She wasn't sure if it was her religious beliefs, her pride, or the fact that she didn't much care if she lived or died at the moment that allowed her to completely disregard how much more powerful these creatures were than her, but she was certain it was going to get her in trouble at some point.

The woman stared at her in surprise, and then burst into laughter. " 'You'll find ou later'? That's so like him." She snickered, earning a glare. "Relax, I won't hurt you, and I'll explain everything I'm doing as I do it. By the way, since he's failed to introduce us, I'm Annet." She said, offering a hand with long steel nails and many rings.

She hesitated a moment before taking it. "My name is Carol...Um....if you don't mind me asking...What, uh, what's going on with all this?" She asked, gesturing to the woman's body.

"Ah, this? It's my own invention, and a very handy one." She said as she tapped her way into the next room. "Stand on the metal circle." She instructed.

She did as told, looking around the whole time. "What're you going to do?"

"Strip. I'm going to apply a few spells, and then get you some lightwieght armor that will protect you from basic attacks." She explained, "You can leave your underclothes on."

Her face turned bright red and she immediately crossed her arms over her chest. "What?! No! I haven't undressed in front of anyone since I was kid!"

"It's just me, Jin won't be coming in here, and we're both girls. The ntent is nothing humiliating or of any sort of sexual nature, and it beats the hell out of being attacked, doesn't it?"

"But..." After a few minutes, she sighed and took off her clothes, though she never raised her gaze from the ground. It'd been bad enough when Jin spied on her, but she felt so vulgar actually removing her clothes for someone else.

"Relax, you'd have to do it for a tailor to if you're getting custome clothes." She pounted out. Two of the metal legs began takign measurements and two others begand spining silver thread. She took a small dish of ink, "Don't worry, none of these spells require burning, but the ink will get warmer." She said as she placed quick and percise markings over Carol. about twenty minutes later she was washing the still glowing ink off and presenting Carol with a silver garment lighter then most cloth that would fit her perfectly. "You can dress, but put this on under your clothes. If mae right, you won''t realize you're wearing it half the time."

The whole thing made Carol very awkward. When Annet showed her the new clothing, she took it curiously and pulled it on before dressing in her original clothes. "And what does this all do?" She asked as she buttoned up her shirt.

"The armor deflects most spells, as well as pysical attacks. The spells are all to protect you. Of course, they're triggered by certain things in your body, but will not activate is Jin is the cause. One prevents Angels from detecting you. You may be a woman of god, but as long as you are under the control of a demon the angels will consider you neither friend nor victim, but prey. Another sets it so humans can only see you if you want them to see you. They come it sets, I may be forgetting a few that were set, ut it's nothing serious."

A wave of depression swept over her at the thought of the creatures she'd worshipped for so long thinking her evil. "So am I done here?" She wanted to get home. She only had three days to take care of everything, and she'd already spent the first day dealing with these things. Plus, she was growing very, very hungry, and as if to illustrate this, her stomach let out a loud growl.

Annet smiled, "You're too impatiant. You and Jin will be staying for dinner. Let's go." She said as she left the room.