How suddenly fate can turn. Some nights ago, Luminex felt her hunger stir again, compelling her back into the skies to hunt. There was a town nearby, sat on a crossroads frequented by merchants. She doubted there'd be much of value, but every coin and bauble fed her domain, however slightly.

It was then, as her shadow fell over the sleeping town, that the sky seemed to tear open, bleeding light from the black and swollen clouds. From this sudden dazzling radiance, a single figure descended, wielding a spear and shield of gold and soaring on ivory wings. An angel.

At first, Luminex would admit only to herself, a moment of panic- have the heavens themselves decided to quash her ambitions? No, she realized. Only one angel had come down from that shining gash in the sky. Gilded and glittering. So very enticing.

Even so, it had been a hard fought battle. The angel's shield shrugged off the dragon's fiery breath, and that golden spear pierced her hide more than once as her smaller foe darted through her blind spots. This only made it all the more satisfying, when the battle inevitably ended with the angel pinned and squirming beneath her talons.

The fury drained from the angel's perfect face, and she peered up at Luminex with resigned eyes. "Do as you will with me," she pleaded. "But please, spare the townsfolk."

The dragon agreed. She'd won a far greater prize here than she'd ever have gotten from those groveling peasants.

Back into the depths of her cavern Luminex carried her new jewel. Then, pinning the angel again to the crest of a rolling hillscape of treasure, Luminex bid her prize, "Look around."

The angel did so, craning her head to see past the claws holding her down.

Luminex asked, "What do you see?"

The angel's beautiful face twisted with disgust. "Greed," she answered. "So much it reeks. So much it fouls the air like the miasma of death after a battle."

"That's right," purred the dragon. "I am a greedy thing, little angel." Luminex fanned out her vast wings, filling her prey's sight. "I'm a sinful thing." Lighting a spark of dragonfire, Luminex held the flame within herself, letting it ignite her scales with amber light. Letting that light play across her horde. Setting the mountains of gold and silver and gemstones to sparkle, as if a gilded night sky were held within her cave.

Letting those thousands of shimmering sinful stars reflect against the canvas of her wings, bathing the angel with the wages of her greed.

"It's beautiful," mocked the dragon, "isn't it?"

The angel winced. Trying to shut out the dazzling display. "You're a thief."

Luminex chuckled. "So I am."

"Sin is not a strong enough word," hissed the angel, struggling as she tried to rouse her righteous fury. All she accomplished was digging herself deeper into the heap of trinkets. "You're a devil."

"That's right." Luminex lowered her wings over her prize, so she could see nothing but the lights. "I'm a devil. And you are mine, little angel."

Luminex had expected it to be harder. That this holy being would resist her for longer.

The angel sank quickly. Her eyes dulled to an amber haze as the dragonspell coiled around her mind. The rage in her face dissipated to doll-like serenity.

With her jewel secured, Luminex set the angel atop the highest crest of her horde. Posed her on her knees, face raised in entranced supplication, wings fanned out just so to show off their pristine white sheen. Her golden spear and shield laid before her, boasting of her defeat and capture.

Had any drake or wyrm ever burnt with such pride as Luminex, in those first nights after she took the angel? Had anything ever stoked her hunger more than learning that the heavens themselves could be pilfered? She soon raided the town again, hoping to lure down another angel. No more came.

Then, slowly, something changed. Luminex's hunger lessened.

At first it was just a slight flagging. After such a victory, she could afford to rest and savor her victory. How many other dragons could boast of what she could? She'd grow her horde in her own time.

Then, her hunger started to wane.

Luminex looked up from her coils once more, surveyed her dominion, and felt no need to grow it. The angel still knelt atop her heap, radiant and subdued, the dragonspell still blinding her eyes and mind. Who else could claim such a thing? Luminex lowered her head and returned to sleep.

The dragon didn't start to worry until she realized she hadn't raided in a month. Her horde had not grown in a month. She examined her domain again. It was vast and opulent, yes. Moreso than most. Did she really need more?

Of course. She wanted more. She was a devil of insatiable, burning greed.

But did she need more? Luminex wrestled with the question for some time longer. What was a dragon without that hunger? What was her dominion worth if it stopped expanding- if she let it stop? All the while, the angel knelt atop the horde, her pretty face as dazed as ever.

Until Luminex woke in the deep hours of night to a strange sound. Airy and sweet, echoing through the cavern. Singing.

Snapping to awareness, the dragon lifted her head, and saw the source at once. The angel atop the horde, her eyes suddenly clear, singing to a heap of coins cupped in her hands.

Luminex's mind struggled with the sight a moment. Trying to formulate a response. Yet whenever she neared a decision, she found herself derailed by a soft clamor of bells, ringing inside her skull. She knew this much: the angel was doing something to her.

She should be furious. A dragon was a conqueror: a thing of hunger and power, all-consuming, proud and unyielding. And yet, she couldn't focus her rage. Couldn't bring her titanic wrath to bear. A deep serenity filled her chest, soothing the inferno there.

The angel ended her song and let it echo away into the shadows. It was then she at last acknowledged Luminex, with a smile so soft and kind that it smothered whatever fire the dragon had left.

"When you began to terrorize our faithful," she explained, "burning their homes and stealing their worldly things to feed your sin, we weren't sure how proceed. Would we anoint one of them champion, imbuing them with our grace so they could defeat you? No, we couldn't be sure any of them were up to the task. Would we descend to slay you ourselves? No, we couldn't risk the lives of our sisters, when there is so much dark throughout the world to dispel."

"Then," she said, a glint in her golden eyes, "I had an idea." The angel tipped her cupped hands towards Luminex, letting her see the wealth collected there. "Our song can enthrall mortal things, either to guide or to correct them. And yet, it rarely works so directly on creatures like yourself."

For the first time since the sky first split and bled radiance onto her, Luminex felt panic bite at her neck. It was snuffed as well as the angel laughed, a gentle musical titter. "To claim a dryad's soul, you sing to the tree she is bound to. To claim a water sprite, sing to the river she tends. To claim the kobolds and tommyknockers deep in the mines and caverns, sing to the rock and earth they inhabit, and your grace will seep from that into their souls."

Parting her hands, the angel let the coins tinker back down into the horde. "And to claim a dragon, sing to her treasure."

"You were a devil," the angel continued, steel entering her serene eyes. "A thing of sin, a thing of greed. But be not afraid. You are mine now, and I will make you pure."

At last- far too late- Luminex pieced together the ruse. The angel hadn't been weak. She'd let herself be entranced. And then she'd pulled herself out of trance again and again as the dragon slept to sing her enslaving song- speaking chains of devotion into being around her soul.

And Luminex couldn't rouse the anger to resist. She felt those chains firmly in place. Felt the collar of light snug around her throat.

And then she could only watch.

Pilgrims and priests swarmed to her cavern, taking her horde bit by bit. Shrinking her domain by the day. "This wealth will go to repairing the devastation you've wrought," explained the angel, hovering overhead, "and to caring for those your greed displaced."

As the mob devoured her horde, Luminex felt herself dwindle as well. Her scales losing their luster. Her horns and talons growing duller. Her vast wings losing their strength. That holy collar kept her body docile.

But in her mind, the dragon raged. She was a demon in flesh. She was a conqueror. A thing of fire and splendor and fury, taking as she pleased, domination her birthright. And now it was all bleeding away. As her treasure was reduced to the last shining dregs, her body shrank and withered. Scales fell away to soft flesh. Horns crumbled and fangs dulled. Her inferno extinguished.

A church was built in the former dragon cave. Vast and shining white, torches along the marble walls to lead the faithful on their pilgrimages and a bell clamoring within its grand tower- some of the treasure went to its construction, as well.

And deep within its catacombs, the Angel still dwells. She sits on a throne of silver, Her spear and shield close at hand. A watchful guardian- and diligent keeper of the cavern's former mistress.

Nestled in Her lap is a girl, a pair of nubby horns atop her head and feeble leathery wings upon her back, and ruby scales upon her cheeks and shoulders. Coiled around this girl's neck is a collar of golden light. Sometimes she watches it shimmer against her scales, a distant yearning in her eyes.

When this happens, the Angel gently kisses her hair, cooing, "You are pure now, Lumi."

Then the girl settles, laying her head on her Angel's shoulder.