by Pottle, Bill
It suddenly seemed like everyone was talking at once.
The Seraph known as Michael held up his hands. “Enough!” he said, quieting the rest immediately. Fires danced in his eyes. Michael was second only to Luciferel. He had brilliant white feathers and short black hair, and his feathers were so sleek they almost seemed to slice the air when he flew. Michael was never without his special breastplate.
“What would you have us do, Azazel?” Everyone waited.
Azazel took a breath, but his voice was strong and steady. “We need to ask the Father to make us a weapon.”
There was a pause.
“What is a weapon?” a Virtue named Eleleth asked, rising from her seat. Alizel had always liked her. Soft, wise, and calm, she was one of the most important Virtues and an arbiter of conflict between others. Her golden hair was the exact color of the V on her white sash.
“Something powerful— an item that can end the existence of a being.”
Silence. No one moved or spoke, the enormity of what he was asking pouring over the angels like a waterfall from Heaven’s rivers. Such terms as “death” and “killing” were foreign to them. But they understood that this was something permanent.
Eleleth was the first to recover, although her voice was little more than a whisper. “Is such a thing even possible?”
“All is possible with God.” Luciferel had been silent so far, but now he responded automatically.
A Seraph with brown hair and wings rose quietly. His name was Raphael, and Alizel always wondered if he really belonged to the
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highest order. He was always so calm and relaxed. If anything, Alizel felt safe with him. But as he looked at him now, Alizel wasn’t so sure. Just because someone avoided conflict didn’t mean that they wouldn’t prevail at it. Raphael spoke softly, great concern in his voice. “But to destroy a being? Even an angel? What would happen to him?”
“That is not our concern, sir.” Azazel’s silver eyes were cold, hard. “Would you rather destroy one or risk the chance that we all could be annihilated if Heaven falls? The good of the whole must be paramount.”
“We know not what we unleash,” another voice spoke for the first time, but the angel remained seated, and Alizel craned his neck to see who was speaking. “How are we to know that this weapon will not fall into the wrong hands?” the voice went on. “This could be a greater threat to Heaven than anything to come from the Universe.”
Gabriel was a Seraph whose council was sought by many. He was large, with ash blond curls and gray wings. He wore no armor, and Alizel wondered if it was due to his massive chest muscles being protection enough. Still, despite his size and obvious strength, he seemed to bow readily to the authority of Michael and Luciferel.
“This is true,” Michael added. “The weapon being used for the wrong reasons would be a terrible threat. And even without this weapon, the Powers can hold the barrier between the worlds. Even if these cells on Earth become more complex, they may not be able to even reach the Kingdom.”
“Azazel is not asking us to make such a weapon,” Luciferel mused, his platinum hair falling gracefully over his ears. “He is only asking us to plead with God to do so. To me, this seems the obvious course. If the Lord does not think it a good idea, He will not forge the weapon.”
This was a difficult point to argue. Still, those against the resolution would not be so easily swayed, and many were yet undecided.
Raphael spoke with a sadness in his voice. “It is up to God to choose whether or not to follow our requests, but that does not mean that He will be happy with us for making them. We have always enjoyed peace. Shall we risk giving it up now?”
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“Sometimes violence is the price for peace.” The dragon on his breastplate smiled as Michael spoke.
“There may be a compromise.” The booming voice was from Orifel, head of the Thrones. Except for the head instructor Bodiel, it was rare to hear a Throne speak. When they spoke, they usually appeared like other angels…except with several sets of extra eyes all over their faces. Their concentric circle form didn’t have a mouth, after all. Although they could communicate in other ways, using a mouth to speak was the most natural.
“There is a compromise,” Orifel strengthened his statement. “It seems God, in His wisdom, has foreseen this.”
His dramatic pause was not necessary. He had the full attention of every last angel present. How could there be a compromise between existing and not?
“Some time ago, He directed us Thrones to begin construction on a special repository. It is a chamber with one entrance and one exit. The chamber is nearing completion, and it was built so that its contents will be in a state of perpetual darkness, of existence without awareness.”
“What is this new chamber to hold?” Raphael asked the question on everyone’s minds. But it was odd, Alizel thought, for Raphael to be doing so. Didn’t the Seraphim have privileged knowledge? Why was construction of a new part of Heaven told only to the Thrones?
“It is to hold the essence of an individual. It could hold an angel.”
Eleleth was aghast. “This cannot be why it was ordered to be built? To contain angels?”
“Only the Father knows His purpose,” Orifel responded, his multiple eyes blinking in acknowledgement. “But this seems an optimal solution to our concerns. The weapons Azazel desires could be made to send the essence of an angel to this trap. If the exit is sealed, they would remain there until it is safe for them to return.”
Alizel leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, and thought about this compromise as he continued to watch the debate. The plan seemed like it had the potential to satisfy everyone. If an angel or other creature did somehow get out of hand, he could be sent to
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a place where he could no longer hurt himself or others. At the same time, nothing was permanent and he could always return later.
The debate continued for a few more hours, but the essential points had been laid on the table. In the end Azazel had his resolution, and the Father agreed. The Lord not only gave Azazel a weapon called a sword, but He taught him how to make his own.
A sword was a long, sharp piece of metal crossed with a smaller, blunt piece to protect one’s hand. Below the smaller, blunt piece was a handle that ended in a pommel. The whole piece was infused with the energy of God by one of the Seraphim touching it to the Almighty Himself. This glory often made the sword flare up along the cutting edge.
Soon Azazel had forged swords for all of his Powers, and for many of the Seraphim as well. He offered to make some for the Cherubim, but they saw no need for them and declined. A passion for sword making seemed to consume Azazel, and he had an armory erected to store all of the weapons.
This dangerous power was not left unchecked, however. Angels were tasked to guard the armory, keeping perpetual watch. Each sword had to be signed out before use and signed in when the shift was over. Only Azazel kept his, as he rarely ever left his post. Some of the Seraphim had swords custom designed for them, and they wore them at all times as well.
Training in the weapons was open to all angels, although many were still unsure of the weapon’s utility, and failed to take advantage of the opportunity. All training was done under heavy supervision by a higher ranking angel, usually a Power or Principality, and at the end of the session, all weapons were stored and locked away.
The angels all agreed that these sensible precautions would prevent any problem with misuse of the weapons.
They were all very wrong.
As part of Alizel’s continuing education, the Throne Bodiel took him and his friends on flights, teaching them how to interact with
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the Universe. Alizel loved to fly and he loved to learn. The first time he had gone through the Portal to the Realm of Matter, he had been worr
ied about what it would feel like. How would it be to be in a different realm from the Father? What if he couldn’t feel God’s energy?
As it turned out, his worries were for nothing. They could still feel the Father. Although it was nothing like standing directly in God’s presence, His love and energy still permeated the fabric of the Universe. Although not taking up any space while in the Universe, angels could “overlay” the Realm of Matter at any point. They could be at any point they wanted, yet since they had no matter they did not affect that world in any way.
Since the developments on Earth were so important, angels had started keeping track of time using Earth’s measurement. Revolutions around the sun seemed rather arbitrary to most, but they didn’t question the orders that came down from the higher angels. It had been nearly fifteen billion years since the Universe had been created, and angels were now finally allowed to go there under certain strict conditions. One of the stipulations for traveling to the Universe was that they always remain a great distance from Earth—it would take hundreds of millions of years traveling at the ultimate speed to reach it from the training grounds. One of the first lessons drilled into the head of every angel was how their actions influenced the rest of the Universe through the physical laws set down there. The training ground was another planet that was judged a significant distance from anything important that was happening on Earth.
What came to be known as “life” had begun to develop rapidly on Earth following the first cells. The RNA changed its structure slightly and became more stable, losing an “oxy.” This new ‘de-oxy’ RNA or DNA took over the information storage function and RNA was dethroned and subjugated to serving only as a messenger that took the sequence of DNA and arranged small groups of nitrogen-containing acids. It was incredible what these “proteins” could do. They served as structural components, enzymes that brought together multiple chemicals so that they could react with each other, and even special molecules that facilitated the whole process.
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That was really the turning point. Alizel had stood at the Portal for millennia on end, just watching the entire process, all the minutest components bonding together and coming into their created purposes. Soon entire cells started collecting together, feeding off each other. One cell swallowed another that was an energy factory and with all that extra energy, it was only a matter of time before it out-replicated the rest.
Cells teamed up with other cells, and the advantage was clear. Soon they started specializing, and a whole host of creatures were born. Animals came out from the sea, great terrible lizards rose and fell, and millions of species were born and either morphed into other species or else died out. Lately, smaller mammals had out replicated the rest to ascend. It was amazing, certainly, but no more so than cleverly arranged sets of atoms. Indeed, it wasn’t even really a shock to see them, because they didn’t come about all at once. Their complexity arose so gradually over billions of years that there wasn’t any single moment that amazed Alizel any more than any other moment.
The evolution of life was made possible by the physical laws of the Universe, but Alizel was amazed at how precisely God had created those laws. There were so many constant values — the attraction of gravity, the mass of the electron, the speed of light in a vacuum, and more. If any one of them was even slightly off, the complexities would never be able to form.
“I never would have thought that these amazing creatures could come from natural laws alone,” Alizel confided to Uriel during one of their training sessions. The two of them and their instructor Bodiel were watching the new life forms on Earth from their training planet on the borders of Universe where they couldn’t interfere. “Surely God is wonderful,” Alizel admitted. “Yet I wonder why it has taken so long? Our world was created in an instant.”
“The Lord has other, bigger plans for this world, I think.” Uriel winked at Bodiel, who only smiled. At least seven eyes twinkled.
“What could be better than our world?” Alizel wasn’t satisfied with the Principality’s answer. “God makes His dwelling place with us. He is not going to move to another world, is He?”
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“Perhaps the value of that world is in the fact that God is not bodily present,” Bodiel said.
“What? How could that make a world better?” Alizel was more confused than before.
“Patience,” Bodiel smiled. “I do not pretend to know the Will of God. I have only guesses. But I do know that all will be revealed in time. Things are speeding up. That is all the more reason why we need to get back to your training.”
Alizel knew that there was no use arguing with him, and reluctantly prepared for his next lesson.
The lessons were frustrating in themselves. It was so difficult to accomplish even the simplest thing in the Universe. Alizel didn’t understand why God had handicapped angels so severely. Although they had been forbidden from interfering with things in the beginning, and still weren’t allowed to go to Earth itself, Alizel hoped it was only a matter of time. There was little doubt that they would be called on to shape events on Earth some day.
“Now,” Bodiel continued, “Uriel, you move that grain of sand to the left, and Alizel, you move it back to the right.”
Uriel focused, bringing his hands to his temples. He sent his essence out to the sand, zooming down into the smallest electrons, sending them closer or farther to the nearby atoms, pushing the grain of sand to the left atom by atom. Sweat began to pour down his brow and soak into his chestnut hair. Lines of concentration etched all over his face as the grain slowly moved. As soon as he hit the mark, he dropped his hands and took several deep breaths before wiping his forehead with the back of his hand and fanning himself with his green wings.
“Too hard.” Bodiel frowned and shook his head. “You’re trying too hard. Our limitations in the Universe are less than they seem. You must use the laws of this world to your advantage.”
“How can I make it easier?” Uriel asked. “The same work still needs to be done.”
“True,” Bodiel replied. “But you need not be the one to do all of it. For example, Alizel, try to move it back.”
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Alizel braced for the exertion he knew was going to come. He took a deep breath and focused on the grain, ready to jump in.
“But this time, only pull the front edge of the grain.”
He brought his fingertips to his temples, pressing inwards to aid in concentration. He found it much easier to move the front edge of the grain, and the back just followed along. It was still difficult, but when he opened his eyes and looked, the grain was back where it began and he was sweating much less than Uriel.
He wiped the sweat away anyway, just to avoid showing up his mentor. Uriel smirked, but seemed pleased with Alizel’s success.
“There is more than one way to go about it,” Bodiel remarked. “You might try pushing the back edge as well as pulling the front edge. You might try heating the surrounding air to create wind to blow the sand. On Earth, you can use the most powerful method… well, more on that later.”
Alizel perked up when he mentioned that forbidden place, but he knew that Bodiel always had a way of making them want to come back for the next lesson. Alizel supposed that’s what made him such a good teacher.
“Before we finish…” Bodiel looked directly at a heavy rock on top of a cliff, and wiggled it back and forth with his own essence, finally giving it a push that sent the rock careening over the edge and splashing into the pool of liquid below. “What does that mean?”
Uriel redeemed himself by answering first. “It means all our actions have consequences, intended and unintended, that stretch far into the future. Just as the ripples spread out and lap against distant shores, we must be careful what we set in motion.”
Bodiel nodded. “If you learn nothing else, remember this.”
Although A
lizel still didn’t have a clue what his purpose was, at least he wasn’t bored anymore. Not only did he have training in the Universe, but he trained at home in Heaven with the new weapons as well. Of course, not everyone wanted to train. But Azazel opened up the weapon hall to anyone who did.
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It’s amazing how good you can get at something when you have millions of years to practice it, Alizel thought. Since angels weren’t hampered by limitations of age or loss of skill and physical agility, their experience only increased while their physical bodies remained strong.
They learned to read their opponents, to feel the vibrations along the edge of the crossed swords and discern their opponents’ intentions. They even had enough control that if they did pass through the other’s defenses, they could still stop the blade an atom away from their body to avoid hurting them. It was impossible to accidentally strike a friend. They took the time to study the minute shifts in their weight, the barest flutter of an eye that would lead their opponents to telegraph their next technique.
