Heaven Hast Fallen

Dying by Echion’s hands is an indignity. 

Knowing she is leaving Atarniel and the rest of her family behind is even worse. 

Sariel is not a stranger to torture, having fucked around and found out enough through humanity’s long history not to have fallen into trouble once or twice. Her unending curiosity keeping her grounded in her vessel through enough torture sessions to tolerate the pain so that it would never get to her. The rebellion before that, and losing her grace at Michael’s had hurt far beyond that regardless. 

As creative as it was, the Elder Great One’s torture did not hurt hear nearly as much as knowing that she was leaving behind her family in a world broken by the very beings they had defeated once upon a time. It’s a bitter dying thought, to know that she had failed more than once and the last face she would see is that of another friend that she had failed to save.

Sariel dies, bitter and unable to see her family one last time. 

She opens her eyes to 4 the Record and Astaroth. 

She isn’t ashamed to admit that she jumped them and bawled her eyes out, not when it had been five years since she had seen them and their last conversation had ended in a fight. It’s a blur, after that, in which she runs through the city moving to find the survivors until she realizes the truth of what had happened. Haven had fallen, and only a handful had survived. Atarniel and Adatiel had survived. 

Until Adatiel, Zeke and four others had chosen to die for all of them. 

The world is saved, but the cost of it all sits heavy on her shoulders as she remembers her conversation with Uriel. 

Only three blessed remain after Ulthar’s carnage. Countless siblings she had not seen since her fall, gone, because of their so-called father’s greed. 

Their entire species, devastated without them knowing. 

Now, more than ever, Ulthar had to die.