#interlude 12

Odium did what. Is he acting as the Stormfather?

What Soulcast material is that? Magic kevlar?

Huh. Didn't think she was allowed to do that. Also, who are her forces?

Do you think there's a connection between Koravellium Avast and Tanavast? Probably not, but two original Vessels ending in "avast" is weird.

Ooh. Huh. Cultivation all of your plans about Taravangian are not going well.

Tamyra was waking up slowly, bit by bit getting more aware of her surroundings and as she tapped next to her, she had to realize with disappointment that Wren wasn’t in the bed with her anymore. She wasn’t sure when they fell asleep the previous night, tangled limbs, talking and laughing well into the darkness of the night, something that warmed her from the inside to think about, really. Everything still felt new in all the right kind of ways.

It was easy for Madi to get sucked right into her work, and what was easier more than anything was getting lost in work at the apiary. She needed to move several hives that day and, probably thankfully, she was very late in the process when she noticed an unknown person walking around, getting closer to her and the hives.

It all felt like every cd, every phone with a new music on was something precious to be kept and something important to keep safe. There was so little now compared to the vast variety they all had access to back in the outside world - and yet all of it just felt so amazing, so important. Maybe it was the over a decade of time she didn’t get a chance to listen to any music, but she didn’t care. It was just nice to have a selection again, and it was nice to be looking through the options with Kaz.

Wenzel had to admit that the influx of new blood to the beach had brought some perks. Such as the house he had been gifted by Emre, the expanded farm (even if that came with the loss of the tobacco field), and, of course, the media library. The world had changed rapidly while Wenzel had been a part of it, and after he had come to the island, the world hadn't ceased expanding, growing more awe-some and hideous and beautiful. And all Wenzel had to experience it was the small collection of books in the library.

Apparently libraries were redundant. Who needed a library when telephones (that people carried around (?) in their pockets (?)) had an invention called the internet on it, which was a sort of encyclopaedia. It was a ridiculous notion, Wenzel still couldn't figure it out. His best bet was that the Internet was the name for some Kummerkastentante who they called on their tiny telephones that apparently did not need wires. It all sounded like a type of mass hallucination to Wenzelslaus.  

Give him books any day. Wenzel lost himself in the pleasure of looking over the small shelf of books, steering clear of the electronics on the opposite wall. Yes, he was curious, but his curiosity was the sort where he wanted to break apart the tiny electronic things and see how they fitted the wires inside, which would inevitably lead him to being unable to realign the wires inside. His fingers traced the well-worn spines of the Lord of the Rings series, no, he could not reread his beloved series for the thousandth time. His finger stopped at the spine of an unfamiliar book. Wenzel pulled out the book, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, just as someone else entered the library.

"Ah, potzbiltz," Wenzel gasped, bringing a hand to his chest. "My apologies, you startled me." Wenzel offered the other man a wan smile, unsure whether they now had to endure the niceties of small chatter that he so loathed.

… or …

The Sacrificing of the Lightbringer

… or …

The Fall of The Archangel Raphael

The Uprising - Mitchell Broom

He sat, clenching his divine gift close to his heart and using its power to view the carnage from the battle afar. Hunched over the stone step, he sat alone, his knees pulled close to his chest and he watched it all unfold in silence. In servitude. He waited, submissive and passive as commanded. He waited, until that terrible instant when he felt his older brothers vanish from his sight and his mind. Their presence snapping entirely away from him and out of existence.

He waited until he could bear it no longer.

Raphael stood. There was no longer any hesitation in acting and he triggered the staff to take him to the last place he saw Rael, but nothing happened. The item was completely inert and he knew why. He spun to address the rotating wheel behind him, seeking to address the Creator directly, to demand the reactivation of his gift, however his father spoke first.

There will be no further rash actions today. Remain patient.

"Remain … patient?" Raphael scoffed at the command, having to force the words out. “I can no longer feel them … at all.” His older brothers were gone and he slowly felt the other angels in battle disappearing from the nexus. One by one, they were all snapping away from him. The generals. The infantry. The entire army. He felt no pain or emotion with each of their disconnects, but the severing of their consciousness was instant and cold.

I am aware.

"The battle is lost. The war is over." Raphael choked the words out. How could this have happened? Their power, their army, was vastly superior to anything the Morning Star could have created on his own. “Let me go--”

The war has not yet begun … and you are best served here.

"Here?" Raphael mocked the words. “Best served here?” He scoffed at them. “And where exactly is that, Father? Behind you?”

By my side.

"I’ve never been allowed by your side. I am not a Hand. I am a tool." He had never been so cross with the maker, but then again, he had never lost his brothers.

Tell me, my child, what is it that you think you could do?

"Anything is better than nothing."

You, of all in my creation, would act so rashly? You would sacrifice? You know that if you fall, then so does the army.

"There is no army left. But I wonder … is it my fall you fear, Father?" The emphasis on the last word was intentionally demeaning, as if Raphael mocked even the thought of it. “Or is it the loss of my control over them that causes you such apprehension?”

You have never been so petulant, child. Never question the source of my affection for you.

"Affection? Keeping me in this cage?" He spun around, waving his arms at the chamber around them. “Is this really how you define ... affection?”

As Earth falls ... as their armies crush the life from it, I will grow more powerful.

That had been true and that had been the plan. To allow the Morning Star his fit, to the point where God could recover enough of his spread divinity to swat the Hayyoth back into his place. But something had gone wrong. Nothing was coming back to Heaven. All loose divinity was stagnating somewhere.

Remain calm. Have faith. There has been no destruction. He has not the power to destroy Eternal Ones. Not even the Eternal themselves possess--

"Or what?" Raphael refused the command. He defied it to his core. “What will you do to me, Father? Will you punish me, just as you have tried to punish Lucifer!?”

Have faith in--

"Do not patronize me!" His own temper was beginning to boil as thoughts of Rael’s possible fate rampaged across his mind. “I know why you keep me here. I know what I am to you! I am nothing more than a weapon. To be used.”

You are not a weapon, but you are not like them. You have never been.

"You may be able to lie to them, but you cannot lie to me. I know you have secrets. Sometimes I feel them fleeting across your mind."

And what lie is it that you think I harbour?

"That you are infallible, when in fact, you fail and cover it up. Over and over. With violence. With punishment. With … arrogance." He expected some sort of retort, but was met with none. It was obvious that he struck a nerve, though he had actually not intended to do so. This meant that he was right. “Open the door and let me free. Allow me to stand … and fall … alongside my brothers.”

No.

"As I was created, so shall I pass … beside them. If that is their fate, then I beg that it must be mine as well."

No.

"I have never asked you for anything before." Raphael’s nostrils flared. “I am asking for this. I am begging. Let me go to them … please.”

Phael, you know I never set out to make four. I was simply created until I succeeded in my task … and I did … with you.

"And yet ..." Raphael nearly laughed as the word rushed through his lips. “I am the only one who stands behind you, Father.”

You are not behind me, child. You are the only thing that I stand to protect.

"The only thing? You have so many children. So you admit it openly then." His heart broke with those words. “You will not protect any of them? You’re a coward.”

Your insults will not sway me. Think of me what you will, for I have lived through a million worlds, my little Traveller. I have been the simplest of life forms before I became what you see before you now. I have bore witness to countless holocausts, genocides, apocalypses--

"And so what? Does that make you more prepared to watch another one? To feel nothing over death?"

This is not the first world I have inhabited, nor is it the first I have created. Your pointless sacrifice will not be permitted.

"It would not be pointless to me." He knew where the Wheel was going with this. He understood the manipulation that was afoot.

You are not as old as you feel. Even you, with all of your wisdom and all of your reach and power and glory, cannot fathom the pain I have seen or felt.

"And yet, you belittle the pain that I feel right now." Rael. He bit back the emotion that nearly escaped. He would not give his father this satisfaction.

Think of me as a coward if you must. I will not risk more life for foolish pursuits.

"Foolish pursuits?" Raphael balked at that statement. He knew he was being irrational. He knew he was throwing his own little fit. “Fighting is not a foolish pursuit! And what of Lucifer? You will leave him? You will give up … so easily?”

The Morning Star … our Lightbringer … is lost.

"He is not."

I have seen this before. I have witnessed the corruption of an … other, of the destruction of worlds. I have--

"You pretend to think so highly of me, but if you truly think I am worth your great effort … then why do you refuse to listen to me?" Raphael spat the words with more vitriol than he had ever shown his father. “Your arrogance truly knows no bounds. You know he is more like you than any of us--”

Watch your words, my son.

"Or what?" Raphael hit a spot with his words and he grinned at his father’s patience beginning to wane. “Tell me, Father. What will you do? Will you cast me out as you have done to him? Or perhaps you will just wipe me from existence, as you plan to do to her.”

I would let you go if I did not care. You are the only creation that gives me hope.

"But such has always been your way. To sit idle and pass judgement on souls. It’s always been just a game to you."

Tell me, child, what is your plan then? To rush in and do what exactly? What could you do against the Morning Star and his seer? You are not as strong as three of your brothers and they have fallen within moments. You are not as strong as the entire Army of Heaven. So what could your sacrifice possibly accomplish?

"I …" Raphael paused. He did have a plan, but he knew his father would not like it.

He has a weapon that cannot be--

"I know this. That is why you must make us a weapon." The wheel stopped its rotations at Raphael’s plea.

No.

"Make me a weapon, Father."

There will never be another. You have--

"Learn from past mistakes. Accept that your folly occurred and let us grow from it. I am not asking you to remake Lilith nor Adam. Whatever it needs to be, do not make it free as they are. Do not make it human or Hayyoth. Permit me control of it. Make it so that I can wield it. Make it an angel prophet."

You are mad! Have you not seen anything?!? Such a thing cannot be … controlled!

"And yet you claim to have faith in me. But when it matters, you trust no one."

Something as such cannot be wielded. Not by me. Not even by you.

"Trust that I can do this, Father. For them. For him. For everything we have built here."

No. As he destroys, I grow stronger. I will--

"You can lie to everyone, but me. There is no power coming back to Heaven. He has already won."

I cannot make the same mistake that caused this ...

"You won’t. We won’t. Trust in me and my abilities. Make it without feeling or heart if you must. Make it a living machine. Nothing more than a weapon that I might wield. Trust me."

I do trust you, my son.

"Then prove it to me." Raphael begged. His voice cracked with the words. “Let me show you.”

There was a painful pause and Raphael waited. His heart rampaging through his chest as the tense moment extended into the minutes. Was his father actually considering it? Was it possible?

It will be an object. A weapon. Nothing more. Nothing less.

"Yes." He rushed to agree vehemently.

Without emotion or body. And it will have no existence outside of your Nexus. Is this understood? There will be no freedom for this abomination. You will keep it chained and shackled. And when its use is done, its light will be extinguished.

Numbers - Daughter

Take the worst situations

Make a worse situation

Follow me home, pretend you

Found somebody to mend you

I feel numb

I feel numb in this kingdom

"Yes." He responded, accepting the terms fully and the Wheel of Creation began to spin. It ground against the air around them, sparking with speed, rotating faster and faster. Raphael felt the creator drawing upon him and he watched as his rich purple divinity began strip off of him in convulsing waves. He should have been expecting it, as Father was weak, but the act caught him off guard and he gasped as the power was siphoned from his very soul. When the creator had taken just enough, Raphael collapsed to his knees and he looked up as his indigo energy mixed with the Wheel’s white light. Drawing it into the center of his spokes, its color lighten to a light cyan hue.

Its rotational speed increased and Raphael squinted into the intensity of the brightness as his father condensed it, further and further still, pushing the new light to become smaller and smaller yet brighter and warmer. Its color darkened to a rich blue. The movement of the divine machine caused the chamber to shake violently and in the final moments before creation completed, Raphael had to shield his own eyes from the intensity of the illumination.

And it was at the point of the fastest revolution, at the moment when the light had been condensed as small as it possibly could, that the new object sparked into existence and Raphael heard the distant crashing of waves against a beach he assumed he would never see and his body flooded with bumps from the sensation of it all. He knew what it was. That distant and hidden ocean, even though he had never heard it before.

It was the Ocean of Time.

Raphael was to his feet at once, stepping to the Wheel and reaching into its center without fear or delay, gently cupping the tiny thing that rested within. At first, he was shocked. It was another Wheel, though it was small and much different than his father. No bigger than the size of a bee.

He held the tiny, flickering light in the palm of his hand and it lit up his face from below. He could feel it pulsing with life and then, slowly, it started to overflow with thoughts as its senses were bombarded by the new world around it. Without wasting time, Raphael reached out to pull it into his nexus, to give it language and words, and mostly importantly, to leash it, but then the light was suddenly gone. Entirely vanished from his hands.

Ummmm … Uh oh.

Had it died? Had Father destroyed it? Or was it fast? Faster than even he? Was that possible? The staff purred from its idle place on the ground as the Creator reactivated it for his son’s use.

Where did it go?! Find it! QUICKLY!

Retrieving it from ground, he spun, his eyes as wide as they had ever been. The hum of his Father’s voice began its usual stern condemnation.

You said you could control--

Everything stopped. All at once. Everything. Even the molecules floating in the air. Even his father’s heartbeat, that pumped breath into everything around them stopped. The absolute silence of the experience nearly caused Raphael to fall forward, because, for the first time in his long life, he heard no voices in his mind. Nothing at all. He was free of the nuisance of the bombarding noise from the Nexus. Gasping to come to terms with the incredible silence, he gripped his head and closed his eyes tight as they teared up from the sensation of …

His mind reeled. Freedom. Absolute freedom.

What was happening!? Everyone was suddenly … gone.

Raphael stiffened as he quickly came to terms with the silence. His staff was gone, disappeared from his very grip, and he heard a buzzing from behind. His shadow growing long on the ground before him as a light illuminated his back. He wasn’t entirely sure what to expect as he turned to see the blue shape, but he understood what it was immediately.

It was bigger now. Much bigger. Vaguely human formed, but nothing more than a spiritual apparition. It was now at least 4 feet in height and, most importantly, it was holding his staff.

"Make it work." A high pitched, vibrating voice emanated from the center of its brilliance.

He reached forth with his mind, but not to leash it this time. He was careful to just graze the surface of it to read intent. There was no animosity. There was no hatred. There was only curiosity and he smiled.

"Why?" Raphael tilted his head. “Where is it that you wish to go, little one?” He would always regret those last words as the new creation took it as a challenge.

"Little?" The light chimed, playfulness rich in its angelic voice and then it grew, matching his height precisely and then continued a full inch beyond him. “I wish to visit Earth now.”

"Earth?" Raphael asked, matching its curiosity with his own. “Without a Divine Shell, you will be lost there.”

"I think you will find, Prince of Presence, I am not like anything you have seen before." It moved the staff, shaking it gently. “But, how do you make this work? I have found nothing in your library about its true function.”

Prince? Library? Did it know who he was? Had it read his mind? He stared at it with growing curiosity as it flickered and he doubted the latter assumption. For if that was true, then it wouldn’t be interrogating him now, would it? "You cannot. Only Hayyoth’s Divine Well can drive its power."

It stepped forward and offered it back to him and he took it with a nod full of gratitude. "Then you take me to Earth, Traveller."

"But why?" He began to walk around it, and it allowed him. Looking the figure up and down, he spoke calmly.

"I wish to learn from it. I’ve grown bored of this place."

"But there is much in Heaven I can show you first." Once his rotation around the being was complete, he stopped before it again, squinting. “How did you teach yourself to speak, child?”

"Heaven has nothing more to offer me. I have seen it all. I have already read your libraries here. There is nothing further to gain from it."

"Our … libraries?" He didn’t mean to laugh, but he did. The chuckle escaping as he shook his head and scratched his chin. “It would take someone hundreds of years to read just the books in the main hall and that’s not even including the personal collections--” Even as the words trailed off, he already knew it had.

"The main hall? Two hundred and seventeen years, to be precise, lord. Though, it did take me several decades to learn language on my own. Metatron’s personal collection took another several hundred years to sift through. He has hidden much from public eye. And then the personal collections of--

"But … why?" Incredible. In the several seconds since the light disappeared, it had lived lifetimes, alone. “I could have--”

"You could have what?" It doubted him. “I felt what you wished to do to me, my lord.” The voice was no longer playful. “You sought to control me.”

"Yes." Shame washed over his face. He shouldn't deny it. He couldn’t deny it. He wouldn’t deny it. This creation, made from his very own divinity, deserved the truth, and he was certain it already knew everything. “You are a very dangerous thing.”

"I imagine no more dangerous than you, Nexus Builder."

It knew?! But … how?! That was not in the book. That was one of the best kept secrets of … Raphael took a deep breath. "No … you are far more dangerous than I am."

The light grinned. It had no face. It had no mouth, yet he could feel it smiling. "You’ve no idea what you are yet, do you, Living Creature?"

"Tell me then." Raphael had never been one to beat around the bush. “Whatever knowledge you offer, I gladly accept.”

"All in good time." It laughed and then pointed to his rod. “But first, I wish to experience Earth now.”

"No." His retort was immediate and firm. The light pulsated, flickering with annoyance. “First, we …” Resisting the urge to look back to their Creator, his brow pinched together. “I require your help.”

"I know you do. I have gathered as much." Its light hummed. “But for this gift, I too shall require something in trade.”

"If you help, I will take you to Earth." He promised and the light chuckled at his attempt to barter.

"Oh for this kind of help, I shall require something more."

Raphael stiffened. "And what is it that I can offer something like you, angel prophet?"

"I will require three things from you as payment." It stepped forward, wobbling on its new legs. There was a moment when he thought it might stumble, but it caught itself before he needed to reach for it. He would have eagerly offered it stability just to afford him the chance to touch it. His arm was already out and instead of pulling it back, unable to resist, his fingers grazed its arm. The feeling of its moving spirit, of the glyphs that danced back and forth, electrified him. His touch caused it to shudder and the glyphs reversed direction and sped up in their rotations across and through each other.

"What are your demands?" He asked. His voice calm and collected.

"The first you’ll find simple." It stared at his hand, still resting on its skin and it tilted its head to the right. “I am not a weapon. I will not be your thing. And as such, I require a name.”

"Just a name?" He asked and as it nodded, he promised. “It will be done.”

"The second … “ Hesitation. Ever so slight. Ever so delicate. Its light flickered and he learned this was how it showed apprehension. “I wish to feel." He blinked. “I demand it.”

He made no immediate promises on this one yet. Instead, he ask to know the next. "And the third?"

"The third?" Its tall form smiled. “I require a proper Qliphoth. I wish to experience … life.”

Double Rainbows - Secession Studios

"You hesitate." It observed.

"I was given … direction." He explained, but he knew his explanation didn’t matter. He was asking something of this being. This was a negotiation.

"You are without your creator here, child."

Raphael laughed out loud. Child? Child?! He surpassed its age by hundreds of millenia … and yet … "You would have me defy him?"

"You wish something from me, Prince of Presence. Simply stamp me out of existence if you cannot give all three. For I cannot fathom another moment as I am."

"You wish death?" It made no response and he understood why it had approached him. “Isn’t any existence better than none?”

"I am empty, my lord. I am bored. Without purpose. Without reason. Can you not feel it?" Yes. He could feel it all. There was something broken about this thing. It was clear this was purposeful Father’s doing. Glancing back at the Creator, he breathed deeply, considering her demands carefully. All these things were what Father had stipulated the new creation could never possess … and yet, he complied.

To be named.

Many names came to his mind, but he didn’t wish it to have something so mundane that it might need to share it with anyone else. It was his brother, yet it was also made from him. He felt a connection he could not deny and all of these things merged together in his mind.

Syn meant together. Adelphos meant brother. Ophan meant wheel. He hadn’t even sounded it out in his head before he uttered the beautiful name fully. "Your name is Syndelphan." This was the first form of the name and though it would change and evolve over time, he would prefer this one most of all.

To feel.

He could feel little emotion emanating the being, though it clearly had consciousness. Father had stripped it of heart and Raphael reached out, this time gently prodding it for permission first. As it opened up to him, he fixed the disconnect between its heart and its mind, opening up the pathways that the creator had cauterized. Its glyphs began to dance and resonate and he felt the reverberation of emotion.

To live.

Raphael pulled particles from the air and structure around them. He changed them. Taking them apart at an atomic level and then reforming and pushing it all towards the new being and into its center. It was a makeshift Qliphoth at best, but it at least gave a physical form.

It bristled at the sensations, but he could read its displeasure immediately. This wasn’t a living vessel and it knew it. "No. I demand a real life."

"This is the best that I can offer now." He admitted the truth freely. He did not possess the gifts of his father … yet. “But, when this is over and time flows again. If we retain control of Heaven, I promise you will have a birth on Earth.”

"You promise, do you?" It looked down at its hand, opening and closing it before it flicked its head back towards the wheel behind him. “And what if he says otherwise?”

"Help me, and he will bend to my will. I promise it."

"Full of promises, aren’t you, Prince.." Its voice became more melodic as it settled into the simple shell. “I suppose I have little choice in the matter.” Smiling, it showed its brilliantly white teeth, contrasting against the dull purple, dark gray of its new lips. “Though I wonder, are you really prepared for my help?”

"Yes." Without hesitation, he answered. Rael’s fate loomed in the back on his mind. “I am ready.”

"Very well. Then let us begin." It almost laughed the words and then there was stillness. Silence. It did not move nor speak again and Raphael looked around. His chest heaved with heavy anticipated breaths over what might occur next. Always knowing what everyone around him thought, always being the center of all divine attention, he never thought it possible to be in the dark again. He felt nervous.

The creation stood still before him, silent and watching. Still and ominous. Its warm light bathed his face and he resisted the urge to squint at its beauty. In the end, he lasted only minutes before his patience burned out faster than it ever had before. "Well? Now what?"

"Now?" It purred. No. She purred. The overwhelmingly deep vibrations laced deep in her tone died away and a feminine voice was left in its breaking wake. The satisfaction in her voice sent chills down the Hayyoth’s ancient spine. His frame was rocked with sweet anticipation of the unknown. Until this moment, he hadn’t realized how bored he had grown in his old age. “Now you pay the necessary price, Prince. Just as your younger brother has.” She flickered and he could see a face beginning to form in the head of the strobing shape. She was shaping the shell to her liking. Perfectly humanoid in shape, although lacking a nose entirely. She was becoming more formed with each passing second.

"But what price is that?" He was unable to mask his desperation. “What price did Lucifer pay? Will it change me as it changed him?”

"Undoubtedly so. This price changes everyone. But the real question is … will it be for the better or the worse? That part is entirely up to you." The blue hue from the glow of her body consolidated to her eyes as the base of her body shed its purple vibrancy and settled into a dull gray. She took solid form, but glowing glyphs burned and etched across her skin, spinning in unison with each other and in rhythm with her pulsing eyes. “Now we wait.”

"Wait? For …" Raphael swallowed hard. “How long?”

"As long as it takes."

"As long as it takes … for what?" Raphael stepped forward, expecting her to retreat from him as she had done before. But she stood her ground and he resisted the urge to touch her skin again. “Please … what is this price?”

"The price is simple." She smiled and Raphael took a deep breath in, preparing himself for her answer. “Time.”

"I …" This wasn’t what he expected and he tilted his head with inquisitive intent. “I don’t follow …”

"Do you think your brother changed overnight, Prince? He did not change in the instant that it felt like to you. He changed over many, many millennia. It simply passed too fast for your, or your kin, or your father, to witness."

"Many millenia? But how … " Raphael pinched his eyes shut. His kind grew stronger with age. All angels did. They always had and now it made sense to him. Why the Morning Star was suddenly and irrevocably different. In mind. In body. And … in spirit. “Lilith …”

"She gave him the gift of age and in turn, he gives her the gift of existence."

"Lucifer …" Raphael whispered the name. “What did you do?”

"She gave him time, and in turn, he affords her protection. That is the price he paid."

"It’s not that simple. It’s not just protection he offered her." Raphael sighed. “It was companionship.” He wanted to screamed at even the thought of it. The Morning Star had clearly gone mad in isolation because he chose love over obedience. “My poor brother. A millennia of solitude … for … her.”

"Is there nothing in this world that you would do for the ones you love? Or do you wish to change your mind now?"

"No. No. I will do anything for my brothers … even ... this." The gravity of the situation sank in and Raphael closed his eyes delicately. “What happens now? Will you stay with me?”

"In fact, I must." This relieved him. “If you wish a chance at victory, then I must also be as strong as she.”

"For how long?"

"I have no idea. As long as it takes?" Raphael nodded solemnly and she misinterpreted his sadness. “But these worlds are vast. I will glad leave you if you require space.”

"No." Raphael interrupted, nearly reaching out for her as she took a step from him. “I do not.” He smiled. “I do not.”

And thus began the long and lonely aging of the Archangel Raphael ...

They tired of Heaven quickly and learned the world was no longer as Raphael remembered it. Lucifer had changed it, purging and cleansing it in his own image. Where Raphael and Sandalphon aged alone, Lucifer and Lilith had taken the Earthly world with them for part of their journey.

All of the olden creatures, the vast and powerful reptiles that once roamed the world freely, the dragons of lore, the legendary birds of prey, and others long forgotten, had all been wiped from the Earth by the Morning Star as he pushed man towards his own vision. In the blink of an eye, the once great Garden was long dead, vanished in the wake of time.

One day … Raphael asked, "Andy, can you see the future … as she can?" Thousands of years into it, he had finally asked. He dreaded the possible answer, but now he just needed to know if it was all futile. They laid with their backs against the cold sand of that distant beach, staring up into the constant stars of the night sky. He missed how they used to twinkle with time. “Can you tell me if we win?”

"Don’t you think if I knew that, I would have told you already? I cannot see the future as she does." Sandalphon admitted, confessing quietly. “I cannot see very far ahead. I’m not sure how she does that yet.”

"It’s just … one thing that keeps bothering me …" He sighed. “If--”

She already knew where he was going with this and she finished the sentence for him. "If she knows the future, then she already sees us coming."

"Yes."

"But Lucifer does not possess the power of travel." She touched his staff. “He could not breach the gate to Heaven. Perhaps this was the flaw in her plan? She could not get to you or … Father … in time to stop you from my creation?”

"I doubt that very much." He stirred, sitting to attention and wiping the sand from his palms as he rubbed them together. She sat up, watching him carefully. Her eyes put him at ease so easily and he leaned forward, brushing the brown hair that had fallen before her vision. The moment was painful, as they always were. He was too close and he retreated, as he always did when this occurred.

"Why do you always hesitate with me?" She never questioned his retreat before and he never heard such disappointment in her voice before.

"We should not." His resistance waned, but held firm. “You are made from me.”

"Only a part of me, but what does that even matter?"

"I matters to me."

"The ocean is made from the creator himself, but do you think that stops him from swimming within its waves?"

"Andy--"

"Or the air itself?" She gazed at his thick lips. “Does that stop him from breathing it in? From flying through it?”

"It’s not the same. You are not the ocean and you are not the air. You are …" He touched the light gray skin of her cheek as she leaned closer. “You are--”

"And was Eve not made from Adam?" Her head tilted and he watched her glyphs begin to spin as she beamed at him. “Made from him. Made for him.” Sandalphon was made from him and that is what made her so different from anything before. This was what made her different from Lilith.

"It’s not that simple." Yes it was. It really was and he wanted this so very badly, but none had resolve like the Indigo Child. He resisted, standing and leaving her sitting alone on the beach. He strolled closer to the frozen wave, longing to see it finally crash against the Earth.

"You did not make me. You did not raise me. In fact, I was nearly a thousand years old when we first spoke." She spoke from behind. “I am not your daughter, Traveller. I am your companion.”

And yet he would hesitate again. Even after her words and his own certainty and agreement with them, he would keep this distance, but his resistance would not last for much longer. Eventually, his strength to refuse her faded and he would surrender to everything they felt.

The eternally unchanging twilight hue of the horizon pained him more than ever before, and she reached out, touching the back of his hand. He sighed heavily. His boredom grew. "I can see the boredom in your eyes, my prince?" Her prince. Yes. “Should I be insulted?” It was a playful statement.

"Hardly." His grin was brilliant, so wide that he flashed his fangs fully for her to see. “It’s just … some days weigh on me more than others. I apologize. I assure you, it is no commentary on you.”

"Well, I was thinking … They call you the Traveller, do they not?"

He squinted at her sideways. "What did you have in mind?"

"That if you grow bored of here, might we venture a bit farther then?"

"Beyond what? This world?" He queried, tilting his head further. “We have explored Earth and Heaven, fully. That leaves only Hell. The staff cannot go there and I cannot open the gate unless time flows again. Not that I would even want--”

"I do not speak of Hell, Raphael." She waited until his eyes were locked upon hers and then he followed her gaze as she turned her head and stared up into the purple sky and the stars just beginning to shine behind the rich atmosphere.

"But there is …" He took a deep breath. “There is nothing out there.” His statement was firm, but even he doubted its ultimate truth.

"Come now …" She chuckled at him, swimming in his feigned ignorance. He might have been older than her, but in many ways, she was far wiser. “Do you really think your God … our God … is the only one that exists? He may be one of the most powerful, but do you really think this is the only world? The only one that he has ever created?” He knew it wasn’t. Father had admitted it to him and she smiled. That smile. Half devil. Half angel. “I think that is a hypothesis that we can explore.” His hand gripped hers. “We have time … do we not?”

Yes. In fact, all they had was time.

And such worlds they saw. Galaxies. Solar Systems. Planets. Stars. And other life. They taught themselves languages never imagined. Witnessed art unimaginable. Experienced beauty unlike anything Earth could afford. In these millenia, in these years, spent far from home, he learned vast secrets that his father had kept from then, growing beyond the leash of Earth. In this time, he became what God had always hoped he would.

Strong. Confident. Resilient. And most importantly, independent.

There were no rules here. No laws. No Father. If the moment of an angel’s fall is their rejection of the Divine Command, then this was the beginning of Raphael’s descent, and he relished every second of it. Every world. Every star. Every embrace. Every kiss. Every look and every argument. He relished and grew from it all.

Built for This Time - Zayde Wolf

Standing there on the edge

Ain't scared of whats ahead

Walking up like revenge

I was built for this time

Bleeding red like the sun

Taking over everyone

Watch me as I overcome

I was built for this time

Raphael knelt and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he muttered a low prayer and she bent to him, gripping his hand as he looked up into her cobalt eyes.

"You are nervous?"

"It makes sense to be. Are you not?" He knew she was. In fact, he knew she was more nervous than he, though not by much at all. “You still cannot see?”

"We both know what lies inside, but …" Sandalphon glanced back toward the hundred foot tall doors and shook her head. “It is cloudy for me beyond this point. The future splinters once we step through the door. I believe she …” She shuddered. “Clouds me.”

"Then let us hope you cloud her just the same." Raphael knew this already. He’d asked a thousand times and the answer was always the same. Nodding, he breathed and stood. “Remain behind me.”

For the first time hundreds of thousands of years, Sandalphon allowed time to flow once more as he stepped forward, staff in one hand and waved a hand towards the locked doors with his other. The locked snapped in half, and the opening creaked open, slowly at first and then suddenly and all at once, the doors snapped backwards, hitting the walls with incredible force.

He could have put them in the middle of the Great Hall, in the very center of the Morning Star’s Throne Room, a replica of God’s chamber. He could have used the staff to transport them right before Lucifer, sitting idly on his massive throne, Lilith standing to the right side of him, her elegant hand resting on his left shoulder. Raphael and Sandalphon had already been through the space, several times, but breaking through the front door was so much more … dramatic.

His little brother grinned. Not a single muscle within his body tense as he underestimated the Traveller who approached. Arrogant. He did not even consider what the ten foot tall, gray skinned, glyph covered angel behind Raphael even was. Arrogant, as always. As … always. Raphael matched his brother’s mischievous smile.

Clearly, Lilith did not share in that ignorance and she stepped to the side, her head tilting as she stared at the Wheel within the Wheel.

Raphael strolled the hundreds of feet, down the center of the shined granite. He had learned of his other brothers’ fates long ago. Asking Sandalphon to show him was his first request of her. They lined the far walls, on either side. Lucifer’s trophies. The hall was as much a Trophy Room as it was a Throne Room.

His brothers, all the most powerful of Heaven, stood entirely still. Each standing, completely frozen in time, in their final moments of defiance against the morning star. Father was right. They were not destroyed at all. They had simply been halted. Lilith had done it to them. In all honestly, Raphael hoped that having all of the most powerful warriors Heaven had to offer in one single room would prove ultimately problematic for his overly arrogant little sibling.

The army itself was still outside, surrounding the citadel. Frozen, just like their generals. The question of why all the divinity was stagnated was simple. It was stuck in time. Everything was halted in the middle of their siege into the Citadel of the Morning Star. They had walked through the thousands of soldiers on their way to the heart of the city. Raphael needed to see them all. To motivate himself for what would come next.

And now, he walked the hall, passed the Nine Generals of the Right Hand. The Ophanim. The many-eyed Ones. Ozryel’s most powerful.

Then the Seven Admirals of the Left Hand. The highest ranking and most loyal Elohim. Michael’s chosen few. Camael, Jophiel, Zadkiel, Simiel, Oriphiel, Raguel and the strongest of them, Uriel.

Then there were the Five Erelim leutinents. The Courageous. Rael’s.

And six of the original eight Seraphim Elite were next. The Burning Ones, the Winged Ones, the Feathered Serpents, who served as their own tetramorph to the elements. Seraphiel and Jehoel among the last in the line. Lucifer had made the lesser born all bow before Lilith frozen them, and his anger boiled over it. It was likely the witness of the Hayyoth’s defeat that caused the others to surrender.

And then there were his brothers. Raphael’s rage began to boil within and the ground lightly rumbled under his steps.

Rael.

Michael.

Ozryel.

"Ah there you are, Phael! Good, good! Have you come to take your rightful place by their side, brother?" Lucifer waved a hand at the empty pedestal, opposite the room from Rael’s. “This doesn’t have to be difficult. I promise it’s painless.” He stood and locked his hands together behind his back, meandering down the stone stairs. “I’ll even let you take any pose you wish to be remembered by, though honestly, I’d prefer you kneeled.”

Lilith smiled and Raphael blinked slowly as he glanced right, staring at his other. Rael had been frozen mid-fight, as would have been expected. His jaw clenched in a mad determination and his two arms held his sword high above his head. Raphael then turned to the left and stared at his empty pedestal and nodded once. "Your arrogance knows no bounds, does it? I am sorry, Lucifer."

"So am I, brother. I am sorry it had to come to this, but I promise, after I have fixed this world, and when I have cleansed Heaven, you will all be allowed to return."

"No, brother. You misunderstand. I’m sorry I can’t make you the same promise." He heard the Wheel within the Wheel’s gears begin to crank from behind and his shadow illuminated on the cobblestone before him as his angel prophet began to burn with deep blue light. “Unfortunately, this will be very painful.”

There was a dramatic sigh from his little brother and he waved a hand towards Lilith but nothing happened. At that moment, Raphael felt the heat emanating from Sandalphon.

"What is that thing?" Lucifer’s eyes grew wide. Finally he took note of the tall being and his smile melted away. “What is--”

"I think you know what she is, brother." Raphael bit back a childish grin. “Isn’t it obvious?”

"Lilith?" Lucifer turned back, catching Lilith’s eyes and she shook her head, implying she could do nothing and his brows pinched together. “Lilith? Did you see--”

Perhaps letting the implication of her possible betrayal sink in would have been the best course of action, but Raphael moved to strike first and it was a glorious blow. Their fight would be short and he would have the Morning Star on his knees several times until he held the staff against his little brother’s throat from behind, a solid knee planted squarely into his spine.

Lucifer huffed, desperate to hold the metal of the staff away from his trachea as he coughed to Lilith. "... run .."

But the Corruptor stood still. Her possible exit was blocked by the tall Sandalphon and then the angel’s glyphs began to burn brighter and brighter as she began to undo Lilith’s work. Ozryel was the first to show signs of life, moving slowly. Then Michael and Rael began to twitch.

"NO! NO!!!" Lucifer reacted far more violently than Raphael expected and he flung the Traveller off of him from behind as the area filled with sparks and both brothers skidded away from each other.

The staff landed closest to the Morning Star and he had it within his grip, yet it didn’t matter for the overall outcome. This was checkmate. Lucifer had only one move left and they both knew it. The Traveller would rip the staff from his grip in an instant and The Morning Star was now surrounded on all sides. He only had enough time to trigger the divine gift once, and as old and strong as he was, his power still paled in comparison to all four of theirs combined.

Raphael hoped he would flee. In fact he wished it. He did not want to see him confined again nor to suffer Father’s wrath … again. But in that fleeting and painful moment, as Lucifer glanced back one last time across the room and into his prophet’s eyes, Raphael felt the anguish billowing from his brother’s heart. Lucifer shut his eyes tight, clenching his fist on the rod. His divine well powered the object and Lilith vanished before their eyes.

"Quickly! Before he escapes as well!" Ozryel screamed, but Raphael was already gripping the staff, pulling it out of the Lightbringer’s weakening grip. Lucifer flailed and screamed when his brothers descended upon him, as the birds of prey they were.

Each grabbing an arm, the Hands held him in place and Rael put a palm on each of his shoulders from behind.

"Where did you send her?" The largest of them purred down into the smallest’s ear from behind. “Just tell us, brother. Don’t make Phael rip it from your mind ... because you know he will.”

"No." Lucifer pulled on their arms. His eyes welling with frustrated tears. “You’ll never find her.”

And then Raphael hesitated. His brows pinched together as Lucifer looked up into his eyes from below and he felt Sandalphon pulse from behind. He knew his brother would never beg for mercy, and yet his eyes were doing just that, breaking the Traveller’s heart.

He glanced at Ozryel and she nodded to him, urging him to take the information by force.

He glanced at Michael and the Left Hand looked away. Shame riddled through his Golden brother.

He glanced at Rael. "Do it." His other purred. “Finish this so we all can go home. It is The Law.”

Home … All of them? Raphael craved their companionship more than ever. He had missed them all so very much and yet he knew Lilith faced absolute destruction. And he understood this was why Lucifer did what he had. He knew what her fate would be if he took her location from his brother’s mind. And he knew he had no choice in the matter, save one possibility ... Raphael would forever regret what he suggested to his brother next.

There is only one way you can protect her from us, my little brother.

There was no other choice, for in his brother’s eyes, all he could see was Sandalphon’s staring back. He spoke these words to Lucifer, and Michael, directly, followed by a gentle flick of his eyes towards Ozryel. Not so much her figure, but to the blade sheathed at her side.

Now it rested entirely up to Michael and this tense moment would change them all forever. The Left Hand understood. His compassion for his brother outweighed his sense of duty to Heaven and his grip loosened just enough for Lucifer to tap into whatever energy remained, pulling his arm free and throwing his head back into Rael’s nose before thrusting a heel deep into Raphael’s sternum. The Traveller played along and tumbled backwards along the ground.

Then he was upon Ozryel, flinging her wildly away as he drew the blade from her belt. "I will be a slave to Heaven … no longer." The sword’s edge was already to his throat and he grinned madly as he cut into his shell. His flesh sizzling as it severed his Hayyoth head entirely and his body crumpled as his soul fled to the underworld.

"NO!" The screams were universal. Even Raphael himself, having instigated it, found himself bellowing at the site as he dropped to his knees and watched Michael cradle the empty body in his arms.

This would be the last time he would enter the Chamber of God until the Fall of Ozryel.

The Gate to Hell can be opened. Pursuit of the Morning Star should be--

"It will remain shut. Lucifer will remain within. His body is contained.  I have ensured I will be alerted should it ever be touched and Lilith is already in the wind." Raphael countered. “The release of its imprisoned souls can not be permitted.”

You speak as if you are the one in charge, my son. I am--

"I know everything, Father." He spoke to the Wheel with unflinching conviction. “I know all your secrets.” He was no longer a subordinate. “I know what you have kept from us.” The Wheel stopped its rotations. “I know why you made this world. I know everything.” Travelling the universe had revealed many things to the Traveller.

Then you also know why everything that I have done is necessary. Then you also know what’s coming for us next and why IT cannot be permitted to exist.

"She." Raphael corrected his father. “Sandalphon will stay because she is the only thing that nullifies Lilith’s abilities.” Saving Lilith had never been solely about his brother’s heart. It had also been about his own. This gave the Angel Prophet lasting value. “And not only that, she will be allowed to flourish.”

Defying me on this issue is ill-advised. I am not as weak as you assume.

"Nor am I, Father. Let us be entirely honest with each other. You are dispersed and if you force my hand on this, you will be impressed by my … defiance." He clenched his fists, letting the anger wash over, through, and then away from him. He had no purpose for it. He was beyond it. “We both know you are unable to stop me in your current form. I’ve grown up. Is that not what you wanted?” Grinning, he knew he was right and his Father gave no protest. “And not only will she flourish, but she will be permitted to experience life, on Earth, as the true prophet she is. She will live. I have promised her this.”

Before she opened her eyes for the first time in that all too familiar grass field, all she knew was that she was a boy. Her name … her name was … Sandal … no … it was Elijah and … tomorrow was her fifth birthday.

But this wasn’t entirely the truth. Or at least it wasn’t the full truth. Sandalphon pulled herself to her feet as the memories of Heaven and God and … The Traveller … Her Traveller … bombarded her. In waves, her true age returned and she doubled over, into the grass, and heaved, though nothing was expelled from her empty stomach. She didn’t really have a stomach here, did she?

She squinted in all directions and saw there was a light in the distance. Cutting through the twilight darkness, it flickered and danced. It was fire. As she moved towards it, she trembled with confusion as its light illuminated the surroundings and she saw the outline of a figure, sitting before it, its back towards her.

"Hello?" She called out to the figure, but it gave no movement. “Where am I? What is this place?”

"It is our home." The voice wasn’t familiar, but it was feminine and pleasant. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

"MY home? I’ve never been here before." As she rounded the fire, she recognized the face immediately. Her body flushed with bumps. “You.”

"You were not human before. You were not able to dream yet, but you have always been in this place. Since the first moment you were born, you have been rooted here. It is the fifth realm. The place apart of the others. Isolated. Protected. And cherished by our kind." There was sadness in this tone. Sandalphon had never read nor heard such vulnerability from The Corruptor before and this caused her great pause. “This is where we can be … safe from the Eternals.”

"But …" She could not feel Raphael. She could not feel the Nexus. In fact, she couldn’t feel anything. Not even the power and presence of God. “Who made it?”

"We made it." Lilith held a long stick in her hand and she poked it into the fire.

"We?" Sandalphon looked around, but there were only the two of them. “I did not--”

"Not you, fool. My other and I …" There was continued sadness in her voice and she expressed it vividly in her expression as she met the Angel Prophet’s eyes. “Adam and I made this place together. Before things changed. Before they changed him. Broke him. Before his ... blinding.”

"But … Why?" Sandalphon looked around, squinting into the field surrounding them. There was an ocean crashing in the distance, but the sky was too dark to allow her to see far enough beyond the tall, swaying grass to see the water. “Why would you make it?”

"We made it to help us see farther. We made it so we could help each other dream. This is the Confluence."

"Sure … yeah. Forgive me if I don’t trust a single word that slithers from your treacherous mouth."

"Watch your own tongue, prophet." Lilith glared at her, her lips curling up to expose her enlarged canines. “You are still my lesser, in many … many … ways.”

"How so?" Sandalphon laughed. “I think you’re just sore I beat you.”

"You think you beat me?" Lilith chuckled. “I allowed you to win. I saw you coming from a mile away.”

"Yeah, right." Sandalphon attempted to sound confident, but her and Raphael had spoken of this many times. They knew there was simply no way Lilith hadn’t seen them coming.

"And I allowed it because I have done something unforgivable. I have caused an imbalance." Lilith waved at a log across the fire from her. “Please sit, sister. We have much to discuss.”

"Imbalance?" Sandalphon remained standing.

"The four were always meant to balance each other. To keep one another honest. To keep one another true. A system of Checks and Balances, if you will. I did not see what they actually were to the Creator until it was already too late."

"Too late ... for what?"

"Too late for me to change the path I had set in motion. For me …" She poked at the fire with a stick and distant waves crashed in all directions around them. Were they on an island? “There has always been a finite set of futures. Each choice. Each decision. Everything that I have done. I knew where it might lead me … to an extent, but even my vision has its limits.”

"What do you want from me, Lilith? Why have you brought me here?"

"I have not brought you here, Wheel within the Wheel. You finding your path here was inevitable."

"Inevitable? Because you saw it?"

"No." She flicked at her fanged teeth with her slightly split tongue. “Inevitable because this world is as much yours as mine. As much …” She sighed deeply and Sandalphon could not discern whether it was animosity or sadness. “As much my husband’s before his Blinding. And as much for the Children of Prophecy to come.”

"Children of Prophecy?" Sandalphon laughed. “To which prophecy are you referring?”

"To the prophecy that you will foretell to Heaven next." Lilith grinned. “The ones who will undo my mistake … our mistake.”

"Our mistake? I’ve done nothing wrong. And forgive me if I have issues trusting anything that might leak from your mouth."

"I am not the enemy." Lilith’s tone was genuine, but she was The Corruptor, afterall. She waved at the log across from her, brushing her palms against the tips of the dancing fire. “Please sit. We must trust each other next …”

Sandalphon looked at the log and bumps flooded over her body again. Should she resist? Should she flee? Was it even possible? Perhaps, but regardless of Lilith’s history, she had answers. Answers to those burning dreams that the angel prophet had been plagued with. Dreams of the--

"You’ve been dreaming of the End." Lilith could read her eyes. “I have seen it as well. Everytime I shut my eyes, it plagues me.”

"But if we have both seen the end, then there’s really nothing we can do to change it."

"It is time to get creative."

"Creative?" Sandalphon scoffed at the word. “Have you lost your mind?”

"As I have said before, to me, the possibilities were always finite. Before you were made. Just as Adam did, you make everything ..." Lilith waved her hand in the air in front of her face, wiggling her fingers around in front of her lovely dark eyes.

"Cloudy." Sandalphon understood. “The future becomes hazy. I cannot see the possibilities anymore if you are involved.”

"No. You misunderstand it. It is not that we cannot see it." Lilith grinned. “It is that it becomes flushed with possibilities. There are infinitely more paths than before. And each one that I choose changes the paths that you choose. I can control only my future choice, but because of your sight, that will shift all choices.”

"No." The angel prophet shook her head. “There’s only one possible future. There’s only one path--”

"There is ONE outcome. Only one will happen. But there are many possibilities. Take this for example." Lilith threw her stick into the center of the fire as she grunted with annoyance. Bending forward, she retrieved a tiny stone from the sand and cupped it between both of her hands, shaking the rock out of Sandalphon’s view. She smiled. “Which hand will it be in, prophet? Make your choice, but … “ Lilith’s smile deepened. “Only tell me after I have revealed it to you.”

Sandalphon laughed. "Then I can just lie."

"That’s not the point of this." Lilith purred. “Have you decided? Which hand, seer?”

Sandalphon tilted her head left and then right, reaching out into the future of the seconds later and she could see a possibility. The right hand. But as she opened her mouth to voice that she had made her choice, she blinked as the option shifted to the left and then back and forth. She squinted and her brows pinched together. "I … I … I don’t know."

"Because everything we choose to do, the two of us, changes the paths that the other will decide. The farther we look, the more options unfold and the harder it is to see. I can tell you would have seen that I would put it in the left and so I changed to the right. And you change. And I change. And so on, and so forth."

"It’s a …" Sandalphon nearly chuckled. “Feedback loop.”

"Yes." Lilith threw the rock to the ground. “If we want to change the fate of our future, choose the best possibility, if we want to fix what we both have broken. We must work together. Otherwise, we are both blind as bats.”

"We?" Sandalphon shook her head. “What can the two of us do to stop this? It’s all already in motion ...” She had seen the future that Lilith spoke of. She had seen the death of Lilith and the final battle of The Morning Star and the Traveller. She saw the outcome that no lesser being would survive. Could survive. Herself included.

"Not just the two of us." Lilith blinked. “We will need … considerable help. And I will require your referral for that.” The look on her face was enough to convey her intention to Sandalphon and the angel prophet laughed again, merely at the thought of it.

"You’re talking about God, aren’t you." Lilith stared in silence and Sandalphon rolled her head. “Oh good lord, you really think he’s going to help you!? After everything you’ve done?”

"The Morning Star is a ticking time bomb."

"Yeah, one you armed."

"You armed your own bomb. Nethertheless, it is one we both must diffuse. He will pop eventually, but I have an idea."

"And you think The Creator will listen to me?" Sandalphon laughed out loud again. She took a deep breath and shook her head as she exhaled. “I think you misunderstand our relationship. He doesn’t trust me anymore than he trusts you. In fact, I’m quite sure he despises my very existence.”

"He may be cold. He may be callous. He may be apathetic ..." Lilith bit into her thick bottom lip as vicious memories played in her mind. “But for his sons. For Lucifer …” She stared into the fire. Its amber reflection danced in her black eyes. “For Raphael, I promise you, he will listen.”

Sandalphon spun her tea cup and stared into the ivy-design of the wrought iron table top, tracing her free hand over the metal leaves. "She saw it too late.”

"Saw what too late?"

"Just as when Hayyoth age, they become more powerful. As my kind ages, as a prophet ages, their sight into the future grows longer and longer, stretching farther and farther ahead."

"Alright." Uriel followed as best he could. “What did she see?”

"Lilith saw, in their time together, during their aging, she started to see the end. Her own end and by proxy, the end he would bring to all. But by that time, he was already too strong to stop. By that time, she could not undo what she had already set into motion."

"I don’t buy that. Lilith could have stopped him."

"She would never have condemned him to that fate. Even if she could have frozen him, how is that any different than true death, brother? He would no longer exist or experience life anymore. But it doesn’t matter, that option was off the table long ago."

"She stopped Ozryel, Michael, and Rael. She stopped me. The Entire Armies of Heaven and Earth and--"

"You’re still not following me, Uriel." She sighed. “He surpassed even her ability to confine, to contain. In all her glory and all her power, he is still a Shaper of Worlds. He is still Hayyoth. And there is nothing as powerful as that. She may be the unstoppable force, but he is the immovable object.”

"You’re wrong. You’ve forgotten about God." Uriel countered. “God is more powerful than even the Hayyoth.”

"My brother! My brother … " She interrupted him and laughed. It was laced with pity and excitement. Her eyes filled with tears as she reached for his hand, gripping it and his spine tensed. The look upon her face worried him. “Do you not understand what the first five truly are? Do you still not get what this entire experiment has been to our Creator?”

"They are …" He was going to explain what he understood them to be, but her face urged him to listen instead of fight. Her face urged him to understand what she had witnessed in the future. “The Living Creatures … The Tetramorph to the Chariot of--”

"The only difference between Father and his five sons …" Sandalphon shuddered. “Is time.”

Uriel blinked. "What do you--"

"The only difference … is age."

"You’re saying they’re ... Gods?"

"Their babies, but just the same. Haven’t they alway been though? History remembers them as such. Zeus, Horus, Quetzalcoatl, Anu …" Her words trailed off and she watched his face.

Uriel sat in silence for a moment. "But what does this even mean? Why tell me all of this?"

"Because you, above all, need to know the truth. Because you, Uriel, who stood at the Gate of Eden with your fiery sword, you who watches over Thunder and Terror. You are Regent of the Sun. Flame of God. Angel of the Face. Angel of Sanctification. Angel of Glory. Archangel of Salvation. Prince of Presence." Uriel had missed the old names. “Raphael will seek to change everything, and you, the very highest of the low-born, must stand by his side. Their faith in the Hayyoth will falter, and they will all look to you for ultimate guidance. Your continued loyalty is key.”

"I think you overestimate my influence." Uriel cracked a weak smile. “Phael is strong enough not to need my help in doing anything he wants.”

"Do you think he wishes to take power by force? If I could have talked him into that, this would have been over millennia ago. God is flawed. When it is realized he is no different than you or I." She explained further. “This system, all of its beliefs and its rules and its laws are built on the assumption that he is infallible. When that crumbles … and it will crumble ... his sons will be doubted as a result. Your influence is the key to peace.”

Uriel sighed. "Wait …" He squinted, pulling his head back from her sisterly grip. “You mentioned Lilith. You … and Lilith. You’ve been working for her this entire time?”

"Don’t be so dramatic. Not so much for, brother, as with." She crossed her arms over her slender chest and she looked down, her face falling with moderate shame.

"She’s the reason for all of this." He spat at her. “She is The Corruptor. The start of all evi--”

"She merely sought to exist. Something I myself demanded as well. We’re all just shades of gray." Meeting his eyes, her gray skin lightened and then darkened. “There is no good. There is no evil. There is just existence. And the continuation of that is more important than morality or ethics right now.”

"You sound just like him." He leaned back and looked her up and down.

"Lucifer?"

"God."

Silver Sea - Samuel Bohn, Christopher Worsey

Several millennia ago …

In a familiar meadow ...

Deep in the wilderness lands of Heaven …

"You are better than them. You are better than him. And he knows it. That is where his pride flows." Sandalphon slipped her fingers through Raphael’s and they laid in the grass of the heavenly meadow, the wind blowing through them as they lazied about.

"I don’t accept that. I can’t. I’m not better than--"

"That’s exactly why you are." She flickered. “Humility in something so fundamentally powerful, it is a rare thing.”

"You’re wrong. Just as Father is. I am flawed."

"Absolutely. In fact, that is the point. It is those very flaws that make you different and very dangerous."

"How do you know all of this?"

She wouldn’t answer with words, only another kiss. He wouldn’t pry for information and when he left her side this day, he didn’t realized it would be the last time he would see her for over several thousand years. This was their last conversation before she slipped quietly back into the Pool of Rebirth and disappeared fully from Heaven’s sight.