Alizel's Song (Angel Ward Saga Book 1)

by Pottle, Bill

  Plus…they could fly.

  The angel Zebub spent a good deal of his time at the practice field, and it showed in his skill. He was a Virtue who had hair as white as new snow at dawn and aerodynamic jet black wings. Very few angels had feathers or hair of either color, and Zebub certainly appreciated his appearance. Sometimes when he was conversing with others, he would run his fingers through his hair.

  “Welcome, friend!” he called out as Alizel walked down to the practice field. Zebub brought the hilt up to his lips and then swept it downwards. “Care to lose against me again today?”

  “It would be an honor to face you.” Alizel nodded and swept his open hand from left to right in the form of the salute given when one didn’t have a weapon.

  “Go sign out a weapon,” Zebub said, warming up with a few crisp strikes. “As long as no Powers or Seraphim come by, you can have a shot at me.”

  Although Alizel knew Zebub was just giving him a good natured ribbing, something about his tone still bothered Alizel. Why was Zebub always so boastful of his abilities? Didn’t he know that every skill or strength they had was a gift from God, and nothing more?

  Alizel went to see Cantos the attendant and sign out a blade. Though the Seraphim and Azazel all had their own custom made weapons, all of the practice swords were the same.

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  Alizel took hold of a sword and felt its weight as he rotated it through his fingers. Everything was, of course, perfect. The speed at which he and his fellow angels fought required not one atom to be out of place on the blade.

  Satisfied, he saluted Zebub and began.

  Zebub sprinted at Alizel with his head and chest parallel to the ground, flapping his wings hard to drive him forward, but then shaping them downwards to avoid losing contact with the ground, a ground-assault technique they called “assisted running.”

  Alizel was almost unprepared for this assault, but flung his sword up just in time to block it. Zebub whirled and swung the blade towards Alizel’s feet, but he flapped his wings to jump in the air just in time.

  Alizel brought his sword downward, but Zebub was there to block it.

  Zebub whipped the sword around and held it right in front of Alizel’s neck.

  His defeat had been quick, but he smiled. “Well done, my friend.”

  Zebub smiled back as he accepted the praise. “It was, wasn’t it? Let’s try again. You don’t get to my level without a lot of practice!”

  Alizel tried again, but the result was the same. Fortunately, he was saved from a third try as Uriel came into view with a sword of his own.

  “Hello, Alizel,” Uriel said, a twinkle in his large brown eyes. “Would you care to train with me?”

  “I would love to, sir,” Alizel answered back, grateful for a change in opponents. Zebub smiled and left them to it, as Alizel and Uriel exchanged the salute and began.

  They chose an aerial assault, and hovered about a meter above the ground. Uriel swung downwards, and Alizel shifted his weight backwards and laid his body out horizontally, blocking the blow with a loud clang.

  Alizel flapped his right wing and spun, and Uriel jumped backwards, crossing his sword downwards to parry Alizel’s blow as he barely jumped out of the way. Alizel flapped his white wings again,

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  right and then left immediately afterwards, causing his body to spin in a lethal spiral as it headed towards his Principality.

  Uriel’s earthy green wings propelled him upwards, his sword arcing downwards as Alizel sped by him and then spun quickly to face him once more.

  They could go on like this for hours.

  “Very good,” Uriel remarked, bringing the hilt up over his heart and sweeping the sword downwards in the traditional salute. “I think that is enough for now.”

  Alizel returned the salute and they headed back to the armory. They turned in their weapons and Cantos signed them back in.

  “Well,” he said. “Your improvement over the last hundred years is remarkable.”

  Alizel thanked him for the compliment.

  Alizel and his fellow angels spent a great deal of time in the wonderful gardens that filled Heaven’s borders. It wasn’t unusual for them to spend years or even decades in quiet contemplation. Rivers of liquid diamond twisted and sparkled as they branched through the soil, nourishing the plant life around them. Each section of the gardens had their own flowers and trees. They had every beautiful flower that had or would ever evolve on Earth, plus so many more that never would. They all blended together to create brilliant combinations, the subtleties of the mixture achieving something that was more than the sum of its parts.

  Alizel came across Eleleth and Abbadon sitting together on a bench talking quietly during one such excursion. Those two had always been close to each other, almost like they were two sides to the same coin.

  Marriage was not a concept angels were familiar with, at least not in the way that humans would come to think of it many years later. The bond felt in marriage was really a sharing of the love and power of God between two souls. Alizel felt that close to each and every angel in Heaven, because that was the way they were connected.

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  Angels also had neither need nor desire to reproduce. The whole idea of reproduction was strange to them. They saw the vital role it played on Earth amongst the new creatures living there, but every angel alive had existed from the beginning. No one was older or younger than another. On Earth, the makeup of a population changed as some organisms reproduced more than others. As the environment changed, so too did the creatures who were suited for it. Yet, angels were already perfect. They had no need to evolve into anything else.

  If angels did have marriage, though, Eleleth and Abbadon would certainly have been the ideal couple. Alizel rarely saw them apart.

  Alizel waited out of earshot, but gradually meandered over into their field of view and stopped when he was sure that they had seen him, the polite way of waiting for them to finish their conversation and not interrupting. He waited a while. It might have been an hour, a day, or a week. He wasn’t really sure, and time had even less meaning inside of the gardens of Heaven. Alizel felt perfectly comfortable just sitting and contemplating a flower for a year or more. Even though he could move at the speed of light and completely understand a thing instantaneously, sometimes it was worth it to just sit and think deeply about the wonder of God.

  “Come on over, Alizel!” Abbadon waved to him. He usually spoke first when he was with Eleleth. Abbadon had always been a large angel, strong and toned. He had a commanding presence in his black robes, yet he didn’t seem dangerous in the way that the Power Azazel did. Yet perhaps that was just because of the influence of the one sitting beside him.

  Eleleth smiled and nodded her invitation, and Alizel covered the distance to where they were sitting in a few strides. Eleleth was wearing a simple white alb that flowed as easily around the curves of her body as her golden hair flowed across the contours of her shoulders. As always, her robe was perfectly spotless.

  “We were just marveling at the beauty and serenity here,” she remarked, looking around as if seeing everything for the first time. It was one of the most remarkable facets of the Garden. If an angel looked away and then looked back, the wonder he had just seen would be gone, with a new and equally splendid one in its place.

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  “Do you think it’s true?” Abbadon looked directly at Alizel. “Could someone ever come to destroy this place?”

  It was quite a direct question, but Abbadon was never one to fear action or directness. Alizel shrugged his shoulders. “I can’t imagine it, but I also admit that I never foresaw the evolution of life in the Universe either, so I may not be the one to say one way or another.” Eleleth looked around again. “Surely we must also consider the benevolence of the Lord. He wishes us to live in peace becau
se that is how He created us. Why then would He create others who could do us harm? Why would He create a wonder such as this garden only

  to let it be destroyed?”

  “You’re probably right,” Abbadon agreed, and smoothed a hand through his blood-red hair thoughtfully. “Besides, God did create Azazel and the Powers to protect Heaven and hold the border between the Realm of Spirit and the Realm of Matter. Certainly they would be strong enough to defeat anything that could come through the Portal.”

  “I do not even see how any creature from the Universe could ever be strong enough to come here,” Eleleth mused. “After all, we can enter freely into the Universe and thus our spirits can exist there. Yet, there is no matter here in Heaven. The creatures in the Realm of Matter are made only of matter, without a spiritual component. So it seems as if things can go only one way. Those from Heaven can go to the Universe. Spirit can go to matter, but not the other way around. Could a material creature even exist in a spiritual world?”

  Alizel had never thought of that. “You’re right…they would need to have a spiritual part, and also be able to separate it from their physical part. I do not see how such a thing could ever evolve. But it’s all speculation when we’re dealing with the wonder of God’s creation.”

  They spoke on like this for a long time, finally going their own ways to contemplate the beauty that was in the gardens, secure that none could ever come from the Universe to destroy them.

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  CHAPTER THREE:

  ZEBUB’S REBELLION

  Time went by, and the complexity of life on Earth increased exponentially. Some of the mammals could even work in groups or use tools. Alizel found new wonders to observe and contemplate nearly every time he visited the Portal, or whenever Bodiel took him and the others to their training ground in the Universe. Earth was beginning to teem with activity.

  It was about this time that the trouble in Heaven really started. Ever since life had begun to develop, there had been questionings of God’s plan. Most, like Alizel, had been content to wait and see

  what He developed. Angels had never been in need before, never been led astray by God. But perhaps that was the problem.

  Alizel never expected anything to come of the grumblings. And he never thought that his friends would have been capable of such an act.

  He couldn’t say that it started out of boredom, but even angels can get restless after fifteen billion years.

  He was at the training grounds one day while Verin and Zebub were in a particularly contentious match.

  “I told you you’re no match for me,” Zebub was saying as he parried blow after blow from Verin. “You are so hasty. There’s no subtlety in your attack. Take your time and don’t telegraph your movements!”

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  “You’re not the only one who knows what he’s doing!” Instead of heeding Zebub’s words, Verin did the opposite and doubled down on his previous strategy. “I’m too fast for you!”

  Alizel cringed watching Verin’s dogged determination. What was the rush? If he would just slow down and think things through, he would make much better decisions. As it was, he had no hope of beating Zebub.

  Zebub was playing with him now, slicing off tufts of Verin’s fire-red hair and laughing.

  Alizel became uneasy. Something about how Zebub was doing it made Alizel feel things he hadn’t felt before. Something was very wrong, almost as if Zebub was enjoying Verin’s distress.

  Cantos must have felt it too, for he came over and halted them in their duel. They immediately broke apart.

  Verin stood there, fuming.

  Alizel frowned, watching his friend. Did he notice something dark behind those eyes? Alizel was relieved to see that Cantos had a Principality and a Power standing behind him.

  “I think that is enough for now,” Cantos intoned, his voice stone serious. He held out his hand. “It is time to turn your weapons back in.”

  Zebub started to hand his sword over, although his face showed that he very much disliked being told what to do by someone who didn’t share his skills with the blade.

  “You too,” Cantos said to Verin, who looked like handing over his sword was the last thing he wanted to do. When he didn’t move, Cantos reached out gently to grab the pommel.

  Verin held it fast, so Cantos tugged a little harder.

  In a flash, Verin swung the sword straight at him. The desk keeper’s face showed the slightest hint of shock before the blade hit him.

  An angel’s sword didn’t cut, but as it touched his body, Cantos screamed. Angels had no conception of pain, so Alizel wasn’t sure what it was. But he soon saw its effects. Instantly, Cantos’s whole body shimmered and shivered, iridescent hues running from the tip of his toes to the ends of his feathers. And then, just as suddenly as it had started, he was gone.

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  There was a moment where the world hung frozen. The enormity of what had just happened washed over all of them. For the first time, ever, something had changed in a way that it would never go back.

  The word “broken” entered the angels’ collective knowledge. In the instant they recovered, Verin struck again, panicked. He

  hit the defenseless Principality, who screamed and disappeared just as Cantos had done.

  “Verin!” Alizel wanted to stop him, wanted to keep things from spiraling out of control, but he didn’t know what to do. Zebub and Verin were the only ones who had swords!

  Verin turned to face the Power, but Zebub had already taken care of him.

  He looked to Alizel, and Alizel was frightened by what he saw in the other’s eyes. Verin was scared too, only understanding a shade of what had transpired.

  Zebub kept a level head. He grabbed Verin by the shoulder to gain his attention again, and Alizel saw their determination to protect each other in the chaos that was sure to ensue.

  Without even thinking, Verin and Zebub launched into the air with two flaps of their great wings, and were gone.

  Alizel felt something running down his cheek. He reached his hand up and realized that it was a tear. What a strange thing… He had cried before, many times. Yet those had always been tears of joy at the wonder of God. He did not know that tears could also come out in sorrow. The immediate danger past, Alizel buried his face in his hands, sank to his knees and wept bitterly.

  Rather than chasing immediately, the other angels mourned. They cried, for what they had feared had come true. None wept harder than Eleleth.

  Despite the fact that God could open up the Containment if He wanted to, Alizel knew deep within him that all of this, this feeling inside his heart, this sorrow in Heaven, was something fundamentally new. Things were going so terribly wrong.

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  He thought that would be the end of it when Azazel went after the two refugees, but for some reason he could not find them. He had all his resources dedicated to securing the borders of Heaven; he was not prepared for an attack from within.

  Yet an odd thing happened. They became a magnet.

  Everyone who was dissatisfied with the rules of Heaven, or who thought that God had neglected them, or taken advantage of them, or was just fed up with living in Heaven as it was set off after them to join them. Alizel had thought that his fellow angels were satisfied. After all, how could they be unhappy when they lived a perfect immortal life? What could cause someone to throw that away? With Verin and Zebub, it had been a combination of pride and impatience. Alizel was sure that they would regret it. He couldn’t understand why they did not just come back to God and beg for forgiveness. Would God really turn away from His own creation?

  Perhaps if it had just been the two of them, maybe they would have come back. Alizel certainly held out hope. But when other angels joined them, Alizel knew it was too much for Zebub. He would
love to be in command.