by Jarod Meyer
Far in the distance, he spotted what looked like a small mountain range, and then turning slowly, he set eyes on the most magnificent sight he had ever seen. Jutting above the seemingly endless fields was a massive series of buildings. They were of the most intricate architecture, and every one of them was shining white and gold against the brilliant sunlight. It looked like a mountain of cathedrals interwoven and entwined. Columns and arches reminiscent of Greek architecture could be made out amongst the sprawl of white stone. William’s jaw dropped slightly in awe as he stared.
So many emotions welled up inside him, yet he could not look away. He stood frozen and speechless, marveling. He found that he had innumerable questions, but before he could begin to ask them, a voice cut in and snapped him from his thoughts.
“Praise the lord, I am home!” Angelica said.
William turned to where she stood, and caught sight of Gabe.
“Where are we?” William asked.
Gabe smiled, and held a hand out towards the distant city.
“Welcome, young ones. To Archonia,” he said, his tone reverential.
“What!?” Angelica gasped.
Gabe’s face became more somber. “There is much that you need to understand before setting foot inside the city. We have much to discuss, my young friends, so let us walk,” he said, gesturing towards the towering city.
Gabe led the way, his intricately embroidered white cape draped down his back and whipping in the slight breeze.
It was silent for a moment, allowing William to organize his thoughts.
“You’re an Angel?” William asked after a moment of deliberation.
“No,” Gabe said, simply.
Angelica shrieked in surprise.
“And so… this is not heaven?” William deducted.
“This place has many names,” Gabe raised his arms, indicating the world around them. “We that live here do not call it heaven.” He paused, considering his words. “Your mortal histories have become distorted and confused by millennia of languages, religions, and translations. Your records are little more than guesses as to what life truly holds.”
They walked in silence for a bit, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts.
“Are we dead?” William asked, abruptly.
“There is no such thing as death, only rebirth. Your mortal bodies were a shell. They cocooned your essence, until it was ready to be released,” Gabe said casually.
“Released into what, exactly?” William asked.
Gabe stopped walking, turned, and held his hands up as if to indicate himself.
“So what are you, if not an angel?” William shot back.
“You may perceive me as a being of flesh and blood, and yet you also perceive that I share your language. In short, I simply am, as are we all, here in Archonia,” Gabe said with a smile.
“Okay, buddy,” William snapped, “enough with the riddles.”
Gabe chuckled. “I am not trying to upset you, my friends, but these things can be difficult to explain.”
William took a moment to consider. “So…back there in the alleyway?”
“Your mortal bodies were destroyed, and your Archonian essence was freed.”
“And what exactly is that?” William retorted.
“I am Archonian, and we exist outside of physics, unlike your mortal world,” Gabe said.
William couldn’t figure out what he meant by outside of physics, but before he could ask Angelica burst into tears and ran into the field of white grass and fell to her knees, sobbing.
Gabe moved towards her, but William held up a hand. Gabe nodded, and let William go instead.
William’s stomach clenched as he approached, and realized that it was her crying that unnerved him. It felt as if he was sharing her pain. Angelica knelt in the grass, tears rolling down her cheeks. It made William realize that he had never really comforted a person like this before. He didn’t really know what to say.
“Hey,” William said, softly touching Angelica on the shoulder as he knelt down next to her.
Tears streamed heavily down her beautiful face, and sparkled like gems in the sunlight, momentarily distracting him.
“What’s the matter?” he asked softly.
Angelica shook her head, “we were wrong.”
“Wrong about what? You religious types were right about a life after death, right?” William asked, trying to catch her attention. His words didn’t seem to console her, so he paused a moment to think.
“Look. This guy Gabe doesn’t seem too bad to me,” he said.
“But this is not heaven. This is not where I was supposed to go,” Angelica moaned.
William looked around. “Everything is gold and white, that guy looks like he came straight out of a movie, and you don’t think this is heaven?” William asked, laughing just a bit.
“So they call it something else here. Everyone had their own names for it if I remember right,” William continued. “I say we give this guy a chance, before we make too many conclusions.”
William used the sleeve of his grungy shirt to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“Hey. Look at me,” he said, gently grasping her chin with his fingers. “If this place isn’t cool, we can always go check out hell.”
Angelica sputtered with a choked laugh. She wiped the rest of her tears away and took William’s hand, using it to help her stand. They walked back over to Gabe, who waited patiently.
“Alright, Gabe…” William said, mockingly, “Tell us what this place is all about.”
“Fair enough,” Gabe said, starting to walk once again. William caught site of Angelica out of the corner of his eye. She wasn’t staring at her feet anymore. Instead, she was looking around at the scenery. Her eyes were still puffy and red from the tears, but William thought that just made her look all the more beautiful.
Archonia appeared to be surrounded by fields of the tall, white grass, but in the distance there were lakes and rivers and plateaus of white stone jutting from the ground. Flocks of strange looking birds flew by, peppering the open sky between them and the approaching city.
“In the beginning, there were nine beings called Archons,” Gabe began, drawing William’s attention. “We believe the Archons were created to be companions for the creators. The creators realized that these beings were lonely and thus created creatures on a different plane of existence. These new beings were of all shapes and sizes. Massive reptilian beasts and other sorted warm blooded creatures. -They were such beautiful creations. Then something wondrous happened. The creatures evolved and as time passed, some began to take the form of the Archons. We can only guess at the truth, but we believe these creatures began to achieve intelligence like the Archons, and the Archons taught them things and interacted with them.”
Thousands of images and ideas flashed through William’s mind, and even more questions. He took a breath to ask a question just as bright flashes filled the sky all around them. The tall grass flattened and William was nearly pulled from his feet by a whirlwind of force. William shielded his eyes, and squinting through the gust of air caught sight of twenty or more figures floating in the sky.
Who are they? William wondered.
The mysterious figures floated above them, hovering like large birds without wings. William turned to Gabe just as the new arrivals descended, forming a perfect circle around them. The newcomers were clad in silver armor much like Gabe’s, and they carried massive spears. William considered the weapons for a moment. They looked much too large for any normal person to carry.
William stepped in front of Angelica, who cowered in fear, his muscles coiling and tensing in anticipation of a fight.
Gabe placed a hand on William’s shoulder, suddenly calming him.
“Greetings, Meredox. How pleasant to see you again, my old friend,” Gabe said, his curly golden locks still fluttering in the aftermath of the whirlwind.
Meredox took a step forward. He was shorter than Gabe, and had curly black hair. He didn�
��t appear to be a warrior like the others. He wore a finely tailored outfit of gold and purple velvet beneath highly decorative armor. His face was scrunched up in a very serious grimace as he strutted forth with an annoying confidence. William immediately disliked him.
Stopping just short of their group, Meredox declared, “Gabriel, you are hereby placed under arrest for willfully violating the laws set down by our great Synod. I believe you know of which laws I speak.”
Another man in the circle of soldiers smirked and added, “Again.”
“Greetings, Brock,” Gabe said, turning towards another man in the circle.
Brock was an enormous specimen, easily seven feet tall. His muscles appeared ready to burst from the very skin that held them, and his armor was such that his massive arms could be shown off. He was fair in skin color, and had a bald head. His voice was a deep bass. This man smiled while the others looked extraordinarily tense, like they were ready to strike, but were mortally afraid.
“Enough!” Meredox shouted. “Will you surrender?”
“Of course, my friend,” Gabe responded politely.
William found Gabe’s response strange. He appeared strangely calm for someone who was under the threat of attack.
The soldiers surrounding their group relaxed, and averted their spear tips upwards. Many of them looked relieved. William was not ready to give up so easily.
“What is the charge?” he growled, turning towards Meredox.
“Arrest this scum,” Meredox replied quickly, not bothering to address him directly.
William reacted in anger, his fists clenching as he charged at Meredox. He was moving one moment, and the next, he was staggering back, Gabe’s massive palm pressing against his chest.
It felt like William had hit a wall. Pain shot through his chest, but he came forward again, trying to push Gabe’s arm away, but it would not budge.
“No!” Gabe yelled suddenly.
William thought he was shouting at him at first, but turned as two figures converged on them. William wrenched his hand free just as the closest man swung the butt end of his mighty spear at his head.
* * *
William fell into a strange dream world, where he was swarmed over by memories from his life. He stood over a woman as she wept. A still, prone figure lay in her arms. He looked around and noticed that he was in a village, its buildings ablaze with torrents of flame. People were running and screaming.
William awoke with a start, roaring in reaction to images that were not real. He felt a warm, hard hand on his shoulder again.
“A dream, my friend,” Gabe said gently.
“Where are we?” William asked irritably.
They were in a small, dark room made from white stone. There was a small window on one wall with metal bars as the only buffer between William and a bright light. The opposite wall opened into a hallway, but was separated by a wall of solid metal.
“Prison,” Gabe said casually.
“Why? We haven’t done anything.” William rubbed his still-throbbing head.
Gabe started out the small, barred window but said nothing. His radiance was breathtaking even when standing still. He was like a model from a magazine. His hair and face seemed to be perfect.
“Where is Angelica?” William asked quickly, looking around the cell and not seeing her anywhere around. Had they hurt her because of his stupidity?
“She is safe,” Gabe replied, not looking away from the window.
“She is free. She has done no wrong.”
“Neither have we!” William growled, exasperated.
“I am afraid we have. You see, you are not supposed to be in this world. I was not supposed to bring you.”
“I don’t understand,” William responded.
“Things were not always this way. It is said that long ago, when the Archons first discovered man, there were two of them that loved man as their own children. But there was another, one who despised them. That Archon’s name was Lucifer.
“The devil?” William asked.
Gabe nodded, but continued quietly, “he hated humanity so much that he began to use his power to corrupt them. He taught them to lie, to cheat, and to covet the possessions of his fellow man. The two Archons that loved humanity the most would not stand for this corruption and confronted Lucifer. It was then that he used his power to mortally wound one of his brothers. The other Archons could no longer sit idly by, and they swept in, defeating Lucifer swiftly. But they could not destroy him, you see? For they still loved him. So instead, they banished him from Archonia. Lucifer entered the mortal world.”
“Lucifer did not count on what his fallen brother would do. With his body broken, he had but one choice. With his dying breath he reached out to a woman that he had grown fond of during his visits to Earth. He transferred his remaining power to her. Miraculously this woman became pregnant. She bore a son unlike any other human. This baby grew into a man, and eventually as all humans do, he died,” Gabe paused, waiting to see if William understood, and continued.
“But it was only his human body that decayed and died. His true essence lived on. He had developed his own Archonian body. This half-Archon had many sons and daughters in his lifetime. They too eventually died and passed into our world as well. Lucifer succeeded where his Archon brethren failed. He made mankind his children.
“Never before could the Archons reproduce, but through humanity a new race was born. Lucifer could not stand for this, and he went to the Earth and in his hatred began to corrupt these special souls.
“Their essence turned black, Lucifer’s manipulations twisting them into something unnatural and evil,” Gabe continued. “The first of these was a man named Hades. When Hades died, his Archonian essence was released, but it was not like others that had come before him. - It was monstrous. The creature had power like the Archons, so naturally more were to follow. The remaining Archons finally saw what Lucifer had done, and they sought him out to deal with him once and for all.
“When they found him, he had amassed an army. The seven remaining Archons used all the power they could muster to destroy the army, but they became overwhelmed and some were destroyed. The others fled, using their power to create a barrier between our realms. Lucifer and his army could not pass and were left to fester in their own lands. Archonia was split in two,” Gabe finally finished his explanation.
William was astonished and remained silent for many minutes before softly speaking.
“Those shadowy creatures back in the alley?” he asked.
“Those were the hollow shells of corrupted souls,” Gabe answered.
“Human souls?”
“Correct, that through his evil, have been corrupted. Or so the histories say,” Gabe added, looking out the window.
“So why exactly is it that I am not supposed to be here?” William asked.
Gabe looked back at him, his brows drawn and his face tight with worry.
“There was a time when all Archonian people passed into these lands. Soon however, the darkness of corruption spread. We found that even good souls could be tainted. They passed in our realm, bringing sorrow and pain to this otherwise peaceful world.”
“Our people formed a great Synod, made up of the purest and brightest Archonians. It was much like a human government. They decreed that only chosen souls of pure heart could pass into our realm.”
“Angelica, her soul is pure. She tried to help me, and I wouldn’t listen,” William interrupted, before asking, “So what are they going to do with us?”
“I do not know,” Gabe sighed. “The penalty for my crimes is banishment.”
“You don’t seem too concerned,” William said.
Gabe didn’t respond, and William didn’t press the issue. He had a more important question on his mind.
William got up from the stone slab that constituted his bed, and walked slowly over to the window to stand next to Gabe. The metal bars crisscrossing the small portal gleamed brightly in the sunshine.
> “What happens to me?” William asked.
“They fear you are a corrupted soul, and will most likely banish you to Dichonia.”
“Dichonia?” William asked, before putting two and two together. “Hell?”
Rage sparked within him. He’d never amounted to anything in life, and even now, surrounded by angels, he was still second class. William’s anger erupted, and he lashed out, striking the outer wall with all his might. There was a crash, and William staggered back. He stepped forward when the dust cleared, a bright beam of sunlight cascading into the formerly dark space. The stone wall and barred window that had just stood before him crashed to the ground many hundreds of feet below them. He lifted his gaze and took in the endless fields of wind-swept white grass.
“Whoa. How did I do that?” he asked, turning to Gabe.
Gabe smiled. “Do you remember when I said that our world is not based on the same natural laws your world is?”
William nodded. “What did you mean?”
“In this world, you are not bound by the burdens of gravity or weight like your mortal body was. You are only limited by what your mind can comprehend.”
This took a second to sink in. “Great! Then we can escape,” William said, laughing loudly.
“NO!” Gabe exclaimed with a ferocity that took William by surprise. “Do not cross the threshold of that wall.”
“Why not?”
“To be imprisoned in this world is only symbolic. Were you to try to escape, it would mean that you are truly guilty. They would destroy you without hesitation,” Gabe replied.
“How can they destroy me? I’m already dead!”
“Your mortal body has died, and while one’s soul may live forever here, their essence can still be destroyed,” Gabe explained.
“You said they will banish me to hell anyway. I can’t imagine that will be very pleasant. I’m guessing they don’t sit around, singing songs and passing out roses down there. At least now I have a chance,” William said, thoughtfully looking out at the open landscape.
Gabe wrapped a strong, thick hand around William’s arm. “No. You have a better chance if you stay here. I may be able to sway the Synod to let you live.”
