#zeruch

“I’m going what?” Zeruch looked with wide eyes at his father over the breakfast-table.

Azrael smiled gently. “Going to meet your grandparents.” He repeated himself, reaching for his tea as he did so. “My parents. It’s long past time we should have done that. They have been demanding to see you ever since the adoption.”

“Oh.” The small child blinked a few times. “What... what do grandparents do...?” And what was he supposed to do with them?

“Usually spoil their grandchildren rotten.” Abaddon chuckled lightly. “They are parents who are all the fun and none of the rules and stuff.” The General grinned. “We should probably plan a visit to my parents then as well.”

“I’m not looking forward to that.” The scholar countered, putting down his tea. “Look at what they turned you into.”

“A perfectly fine warrior.” The General told his fellow parent over the giggles of their child.

“Very debatable.” Azrael leaned back lightly. “Now go wash up, Zeruch, we can’t be late, can we?”

“Alright.” Zeruch grabbed another sweet bun for the journey to the bathroom and fluttered out the room.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The young boy was clutching Azrael’s hand when they left the portal. This was his first time outside of the White City and the nervousness at the change of scenery was re-activating long-suppressed Nephilim-instincts.

“It’s going to be fine.” The older angel assured him, touching down on the white stone of the outpost.

“Okay.” The child really wanted Abaddon here as well, but a demon-assault on one of their outposts had called the General to the field.

“Abaddon will be fine.” Azrael lifted him up, wrapping one arm around the boy to keep him steady on his hip. He briefly inclined his head towards the guards they passed as they headed into the central tower. “He’ll join us when he’s done.”

“Okay.” Zeruch looked around. It certainly looked like the White City, but there were guards  at nearly every corner and hardly anyone was without armour.

“Azrael.” A warm voice called out to them, a four-winged female heading down a hallway towards them.

“Mother.” The scholar stopped moving, waiting until she had joined them.  “Zeruch, this is Laylah, my mother, your grandmother. Mother, Zeruch.”

The female was on eye-height with the child when she arrived. “Well met, Zeruch. I have been eager to meet you.”

Half-hiding in his father’s robes, the blue-eyed child let his eyes flicker over this new relative. “You’re wearing feathers.” He reached hesitantly for the white decorations of her outfit, missing how her eyes ever so briefly flashed with holy light and then narrowed.

“That I am.” She chuckled lightly when he caressed the small dove-feathers on her shoulders. “One of few, I imagine.”

“Where’s father?” Her son asked, smiling at the sight of his child completely mesmerized with the small feathers. “In his office?”

“In the apartment.” She answered, lifting Zeruch from his hip to place him on her own. “There, that way you can keep looking at them.”

Both the elders snorted at Zeruch’s bashful face. “Sorry.”

“No problem.” The female lead the way through the tower. “You’re not the first. Azrael did that as well... though he was younger than you are.”

“I was a baby.” The scholar muttered softly.

“That, yes.” Her skirt rustled when they entered a luxurious sitting-room. “They’re here, Rahab.”

Zeruch was struck by how dissimilar the rising angel looked to most other warriors he had seen. The male was easily among the tallest of angelic males, with wings as large as Azrael’s, but far thicker and with eyes that looked like they could kill with a look alone. Even the armour was weird, since where most angels had silver-with-gold plate-armour, this male wore pure silver segmented armour that made him look like a large, dangerous insect. In short, the boy was terrified. He whined lightly, reaching over to his father.

“As approachable as always, father.” Azrael indulged the child, taking him over from his mother. “You couldn’t at least wear something else?”

“I am the head of the Garrison here, my son.” The older male snorted lightly, a smile breaking through the glare customarily on his face. “It’s literally in the laws that I must wear armour close to ‘all the time’.”

“You terrified your grandchild.” The scholar dryly countered, patting Zeruch’s back. “Zeruch, meet your grandfather, who taught your uncle all about being scary.”

“Or being a warrior, which your father equates with the same.” Rahab waited patiently until the child was looking at him before smiling gently.

“I’m not that bad.” Azrael pointed out, caressing Zeruch’s head. “Abaddon is just excessive.”

The amused eye-roll of the eldest male broke the ice, making the child giggle.

“How about you two spend some time together while Azrael helps me get the lunch in here.” Laylah spoke up in amusement. “I heard someone likes food.” The look that her grandchild threw her probably meant something like ‘best grandmother ever’.

Azrael put down Zeruch, following his mother into the kitchen. “You don’t have enough food to overfeed him, do you?”

“Of course not.” The female angel assured him, gesturing to the two platters of food. “But that’s not why I asked for your help. I looked at the boy. What I find concerns me.”

“Oh?” Her son looked over at the closed door.

“He has no parents.” Four wings twitched behind her back. “I see nothing when I look at him. I can always see a person’s parents and if I concentrate, I can see their whole ancestry. But with the boy, I can only see vague shapes... I had wondered why you did not ask for my assistance in finding his family, but you didn’t because there is nothing to find, didn’t you?”

“I know the boy’s ancestry.” Azrael sighed. “My problem always had been finding his family.” He closed his eyes briefly. “He’s a Nephilim. One of those created by Lilith.”

It was tantamount to the trust his parents had in him that his mother said nothing, instead waiting for his explanation.

“I found him at the demons, that much was true. At first I thought he was an angel, only to realize all too soon he was not. But I hardly could throw him back to the demons at that point and the Nephilim were nowhere to be found.”