“I wanted to be a social worker. I wanted to work with kids in particular.”
“I’m sure you would have been great at it.”
“Well, I guess we will never know now.” I looked down and picked at my fingers.
“You’ll still be helping people as a Goddess. It just won’t be in the same way,” Gabriel consoled.
“I suppose,” I said halfheartedly.
After that Gabriel walked me home and stayed with me for yet another night. It was actually kind of embarrassing that I couldn’t sleep on my own.
“Good morning,” I said sleepily as I sat up in bed. “What are the plans for today?”
“Well, once you’re more awake I had planned on leaving you with Uriel for the day. I would like to check up on my former charges.” Once Metatron knew the Goddess was back he made me Gabriel’s only charge. All of his other charges got assigned to different angels. I knew Gabriel felt conflicted on this matter. They were, after all, destined to be his charges but he knew that protecting me was of highest priority. Just one more way I was a burden to him.
“Are you going to be able to get them back now that I’m safely living in Aether?”
Gabriel shook his head. “Metatron still wants you to be my only charge. Besides, the fact that Asteria is back means something big is going to happen soon. Metatron wants me to put all my focus into that.”
I took about an hour to get myself ready and have breakfast. Gabriel cooked pancakes and bacon for me. If he kept this up I was going to get spoiled. Then maybe I really would feel like a Goddess. Gabriel walked me to The Archives before leaving me on my own for the day.
“Goddess, your back!” Arafiel was at the entrance to the Archives just as he was the first time Gabriel brought me here.
“Good morning.” I smiled at him even though I found his enthusiasm slightly annoying.
When we walked inside an angel, who I could only assume was Uriel, approached us. As he walked towards us he withdrew his wings, but not before I got a look at them. They were an interesting color, light beige but with a pink hue. They almost looked peach, which made his wings the most unnatural color I’ve seen so far. But I found that I could still relate it to a gemstone: Andesine. It was strange that all the angels’ wings looked like radiant natural stones. But I guess the Asteria created them both so they would have similarities. The little hair that the man had on his head was completely white and he wore gold, wire framed spectacles. Of all of the angels I had seen before today, not one wore glasses. There was one more major different between this angel and the others. There was something in his posture that did not exude the sense of power that all other angels seemed to have. Instead there was a quiet humbleness about him. He seemed more fragile, his feet shuffled, barely lifting from the ground as he walked.
I liked him instantly.
I realized why he was so different from the others: he was old. I had not yet seen an elderly angel in Aether. I didn’t really believe they aged much. But here was Uriel, who clearly had some human wear and tear on him. I’d have to find a way to politely ask him about that later.
“Salve,” Uriel greeted with a bow of his head.
“I’ve been wanting to ask what that word means. Everyone keeps saying it but no one has ever explained its meaning.” I furrowed my brow.
“It simply translates to ‘greetings’,” Uriel replied. “We don’t use much of the old language anymore but there are still some words integrated into our modern language.”
“We missed you last night, Uriel,” Gabriel noted.
“Oh, I was there. I didn’t stay long though, festivities are not much my thing any longer.”
“I am entrusting her to you now,” Gabriel said as he placed his hand gently on my shoulder. Before he turned to leave he whispered into my ear, “Behave.” It’s slightly insulting that he didn’t trust me to act appropriately around the angels.
“Well, where shall we begin?” Uriel’s eyes glowed with excitement. I got the feeling that he didn’t get many visitors here.
“Well, I do have a lot of questions. Is there somewhere we can sit?”
“Of course, of course.” He hobbled over to the back corner where there were rows of dark wood tables lined with chairs. They looked just as they did in a normal library, except all of the chairs were empty. “So, begin.” He smiled with an eager gleam in his eyes.
“Um, Okay. Well, I guess the first thing I would like to know about is the aging process for angels. I know you guys don’t age in the same way humans do, so what is the math behind it? Is there a ratio for how many human years is equal to one angel year?”
Uriel chuckled before answering, “The laws of nature do not bind us. There is neither math nor logic to our ageing process. I, for example, have been around since the very beginning and yet here I am still fit as a fiddle! I show certain signs of aging of course but that is all.”
“But doesn’t everyone have to die eventually?” I know it was a morbid thought but I was curious.
“Of course, but angels tend to live for as long as The Goddess needs us to. We live until our purpose is served or until there is someone who may replace us.”
“Is that what Arafiel is doing out there? Is he preparing to replace you?”
“Oh goodness no! That poor boy could never keep track of all the records in here. He loses that clipboard of his at least twice a day. He’s a good kid but not the brightest if you know what I mean.” I laughed at his quick, appalled response.
“Next question: how exactly does the whole flying thing work. Because I’ve noticed that there doesn’t seem to be any logic there either. To get to Aether, you fly up. To leave Aether, you also fly up.”
“When an angel flies to or from Aether they reach this sort of in-between. Once there, the angel must think of where they would like to go and the in-between almost teleports them to their destination. Of course this area is outside of both Terra’s and Aether’s atmosphere, so if an angel remains in Terra’s atmosphere and is in say, the United States and wants to get to Europe, he would have to fly the hundreds of miles to get there. It would probably just be easier to take a plane at that point.”
“Interesting,” I mused before moving on to my next question. “So how did the fallen, well….fall?”
“That is quite a story. I believe that I am the only one still alive who was here when it happened. First, I must tell you of Lucifer, as he was the one who lead the revolt. He and Asteria were extremely close. She entrusted him with everything and held him in her highest favor; but when Asteria created the human race and gave them free will, Lucifer became unhappy. He tried to persuade her not to create them. Even though he spoke to her of it only it private, the tension between them was visible to all. She created them despite Lucifer’s protests and for a few years he kept up his grudge towards the humans. Then, one day he suddenly stopped his protests. He seemed to finally understand what the rest of us had known all along. The other angels and I had always assumed that Asteria had finally convinced him. Although, it was always a bit strange to us that he ever even doubted her.
“The other angels understood from the beginning the gift that she was giving her people: free will. It was something the angels did not have. We are forever bound to Asteria unless, through an act of morbid betrayal, we broke that. Asteria is the only one who can break that bond though. She must decide that an angel has broken her trust beyond all hope. But most of us are gladly bound to her and would never wish it to be different.
“Some time passed and still Lucifer seemed complacent. No one saw his betrayal coming. Apparently, he never let go of his grudge towards the humans and as time passed his grudge turned into hatred. He managed to convince a few others of his beliefs about the humans. To this day, I’m not sure how he managed to get others to follow him without a single one of the faithful angels noticing. It’s baffling; but there seemed to be no hints of his ill will, let alone that there were others who shared his mindset.
“Eventually they attacked. The fallen slowly poisoned all of the angels in the water supply. This poison weakened us and when we had all gathered for our annual celebration to the Goddess they trapped us inside the Conference hall. Not only had they weakened us, but they had armed all the doors and windows to explode if anyone tried to escape. Some angels fought and those that did so died. Only a few fallen stayed in Aether to guard the other angels. The rest of the fallen went to Terra to wipeout the human race.
“Asteria was devastated. They had poisoned her too. For a while all she could do was sit on the floor, staring off into the distance with tears streaming down her face. She admitted later that she had had visions of Lucifer’s betrayal but she did not believe them. It was probably the only time she ever doubted herself and I’m certain that after that betrayal she would never doubt herself again. While she was sitting on the floor, she kept seeing the visions of the angel’s destroying the humans. Her sadness turned to anger. Her passion for her people was the only thing that saved them. It gave her strength to project herself outside of the conference hall where she was able to deactivate the explosive on the door and allow the rest of the angels out.
“Though there were more of us than there were of them, the fight was still brutal. The fallen had been preparing for this and we were still weak. Both sides lost a lot of angels and eventually Asteria knew that we could not destroy them all. Instead, she found a way to ensure the fallen would not cause any more trouble on Terra or Aether. She created the Underworld with the sole purpose of binding the surviving fallen there. They would never be allowed to step foot on Terra but more importantly, they would never be able to enter Aether again. Needless to say Asteria broke her bond from the fallen.
“Watching her following the revolt was disheartening. Asteria blamed herself for letting her feelings get in the way of her visions. It was impossible for her to get over their betrayal, and Lucifer’s betrayal hurt her the worst. Because of the revolt, Asteria decided to pass her power on to humans, in a very limited form of course. She would allow a select few of humans to share in her powers of premonition. I believe she did not want to make the same mistake again, she wanted to make sure others would know if something were to happen in hopes that nothing like the revolt would ever happen again. She also assigned angel’s to protect those prophets, before then the protector angels were not necessary.
“It was after the revolt that I decided to start this library.” Sometime during his story, Uriel had gotten up to bring a few books onto the table in front of us. He opened a few of them up to show me some pictures. All the pictures where hand drawn sketches. I gently moved my fingers over one of the drawings.
“Did you make these?” I spoke softly, staring in awe at the detail and perfection in each drawing.
Uriel nodded his head before pointing to the picture I currently had my fingers on. “That is Asteria, before the betrayal.” The girl in the drawing was stunning of course. Her golden hair was cascading around her shoulders and her smile radiated off of the page.
“How do you get these colors?” I asked as I traced one finger over her hair and along the outline of her red dress.
“Crushed flowers. The technique took a little time to develop but I was able to keep the color and get the consistency of a pencil. The color of her hair is from a yellow cymbidium orchid, for example.”
“Amazing.” I began flipping through the books. Most pages were words; these books clearly contained the story of the fallen. Most of the images that were scattered throughout them were heartbreaking. There was a drawing of Asteria on her knees weeping, just as Uriel had described to me. There were battle scenes and images of human bodies that had died at the hands of the fallen. In the last book the images were a little less dismal, as this book clearly depicted the victory over the fallen. There were images of luminescent blazing swords and angles with a clear look of triumph in their eyes. Images depicted the humans rebuilding their lives and humans happily receiving their gift of prophecy from the Goddess. The final image was of Asteria, and while it was clear she was glad the war was over and that she had won the battle, there was a certain sorrow about her. It seemed as though the battle had taken much out of her. She had been hurt, betrayed, and had lost a lot of both angels and humans. Clearly the Goddess would never be the same.
“These are beautiful Uriel, thank you for sharing with me,” my voice shook a bit as I spoke. I truly was grateful for Uriel. I found it very honorable of him to take the time creating these books all by himself, having to relive memories that I’m sure were awful for him to think about. He also was allowing me to understand Asteria more, and the role that I play in this world. For the first time I felt a true connection to the Goddess. Her love, passion, and commitment to both her people, and her angels was evident. I’m not sure Uriel will ever understand how he just eased all my concerns about being the Goddess incarnate.
The sound of the door closing snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked at Uriel before turning my attention to the front of The Archives. I almost laughed out loud when I saw the expression on Uriel’s face. He was thoroughly surprised and elated to have not one, but now two visitors in his building at the same time. Poor guy clearly wished more people would share in his love of history. I made a mental note to visit him as much as possible.
Unfortunately, Uriel was going to be disappointed; this visitor was not going to be here long. Azrael came over and stood behind me.
“Sorry Uriel, but I need to borrow Sage. There is something she must be shown.” She at least made a good attempt to sound remorseful about taking away his only company.
“Oh, certainly.” Now there was true remorse.
Feeling bad about leaving Uriel, I told him I would come back when I had more questions and I assured him I would have many more.
“So what is it you need to show me?” I asked Azrael once we had taken a few steps away from the Archives. A sly smirk slid across her face.
“Fun, that’s what I need to show you. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Um, for what?”
“Saving you. I bet you never would have figured out a way to escape Uriel’s stories. You would have been there for days.”
“I didn’t mind too much actually.” I’m sure Azrael was very familiar by now with the history of the angels, but I still had a lot to learn. I decided to keep that thought to myself and instead I asked, “So what are we going to do for fun?”
“I hope you brought a bathing suit with you,” was all Azrael said.
After stopping by my house so that I could change, Azrael brought me to a lake where Michael, Sara, and Raphael were already enjoying themselves. I gasped a little once I got close enough to the lake. It was utterly stunning. It was in a rock quarry and had a little waterfall at the back of it. The color of the water was turquoise and thanks to the sun, the surface shined as if it had a crystal sheath over it. Once I got closer I noticed that the water was translucent and pastel colored rocks could be seen lining the flooring of the lake.
Azrael and I laid out our towels next to the others’ before stripping off our clothing to join the others in the water.
“Good to see you, my Goddess,” Michael greeted and I noticed his eyes took a quick glance down at my body. I suddenly became very self conscious in my bikini and cursed the beautiful water for being so clear.
Thankfully Azrael chose that moment to send a splash-full of water into Michael’s face. The two began a playful war with each other while Raphael, Sara, and I retreated towards the waterfall wanting no part in their fight. Instead the three of us shouted encouraging words to the two from a far as we sat on a rock the jutted out from the wall since the water was too deep here for any of us to stand. After a few minutes Raphael decided to take over for Azrael. Clearly neither I nor Sera had any inclination to join. Sera was much too gentle and I had no chance since they were angels and I had not yet begun my training practices.
“Don’t think I couldn’t have won that,”
Azrael huffed as she joined us. “I just figured Raphael deserved a shot.” I had no doubt that Azrael could win a fight against Michael, or anyone else for that matter. She was tough, both in her personality and in her physical build. Though she didn’t have bulging muscles, they were clearly toned and she did have curves that gave her some mass.
We watched as Raphael and Michael took turns throwing each other around and wrestling each other under water.
“Good lord, that’s enough. Clearly this is never going to end,” Azrael demanded with a roll of her eyes. The boys immediately stopped. “Come.” Azrael grabbed my hand as she pulled me out of the water and climbed up the rocks that surrounded the side of the lake. We climbed all the way up to the top of the waterfall. “You might want to move!” Azrael yelled to be heard over the roar of the water. The others moved out of the way and began to climb up the rocks just as Azrael and I had done.
“Jump on the count of three,” Azrael said, standing next to me, trying to lead me closer to the edge of the rock.
“Um, you do know I’m afraid of heights right?” I purposefully looked at Azrael and avoided looking down at the water below me.
“Trust me, it’s fun.” She grabbed my hand securely in hers and began her count. I took in a deep breath and at the three I jumped alongside Azrael. It was absolutely terrifying. The wind angrily whipped my hair around my face and the water stung slightly as I broke through its surface.
“Don’t count on me ever doing that again,” I gasped catching my breath after resurfacing.
“Fair enough since you at least tried.” Azrael laughed.
I sat myself on my towel as I watched the others take a few more jumps off of the rocks. Soon they had grown tired and joined me on the grass. I laid down enjoying the warm sun drying my skin and hair. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting on our towels. The boys had started their own conversation since they didn’t enjoy the topic of ours which included gossiping about Hollywood actors and our favorite television shows. Eventually the angel’s decided that they needed to check in on a couple of their charges and apologized as they left me alone.
Solace (Asteria Trilogy Book 1) Page 8
