When We Were Mortals

by E. S. Mercer

  “I’m sorry, but we can’t let you leave,” Hugh, the larger of the two men announced. “General Renaldi’s orders.”

  “General?” I scoffed. “Alistair or Ryan?” “General Elaina Alistair,” the other one announced proudly and with a puzzled look on his face. I guess he thought I should have known that answer.

  My jaw dropped to the floor. “General of what?”

  “It’s ok. You can let her go,” Michael interjected, bouncing down the stairs. “General Alistair nor the Annunaki are not in charge here.”

  He walked up to the men who immediately stood at attention. “I am.” "My apologies, your Highness,” the guard mumbled, turning to grab the door handle. But, before he reached it, there was a hearty knock on the door.

  You could see panic in Michael’s eyes as he pulled me behind him and reached into his shin high leather boots to retrieve a dagger. The guards, pulling swords from their backs, waited for his command.

  He nodded that he was ready, as Hugh whipped open the door.

  Michael’s demeanor changed, however, as he saw who stood on the other side of the threshold.

  “Raph,” he exclaimed, sheathing his dagger and rushing the middle-aged man. I could tell by their embrace there was a strong bond between the two. “How are you here?” Michael asked the man, pushing him at arm’s length. “Have you been cast?”

  “Brother!” Raphael said, pulling his brother back in for another hug. “It’s so good to see you.”

  “Wait,” Michael said, looking out the front door. “Where are Ramiel and Uriel. Raph, as good as it is to see you, I’m worried.”

  “Do not worry little brother,” Raphael bellowed. “We were not cast, we fled Cimmeria. They were right behind me. We found Gabriel.”

  He adjusted the scabbard5 at his waist, clanking his sword against the metal buckles of his boots. “ Aljann is gone,” he continued. “The Gateway has fallen and all realms are open. Father has

  fled to Cimmeria and Hyperion has vanished.”

  “What do you mean vanished?” I asked, finally speaking up. “How can he just vanish?”

  “Evangeline?” Raphael asked in a softened tone. “Is that really you?”

  He turned back towards his brother. “You found her?” “She found me,” Michael answered.

  He stopped and thought of our moment at the Gateway when he became slightly distressed.

  “Renu and the council. They were in the temple at Aljann!”

  “Ryan got them out and took them to Matris before the Aljann’s final collapse,” Raphael pledged.

  “So, Ryan is ok then?” I asked.

  “Yes, yes,” Raphael replied.

  “And all is well,” he said turning to Michael. “We are all intact.”

  “Thank the gods,” Michael exclaimed, motioning for Hugh to shut the door.

  “We aren’t good enough to be let in?” A man asked stoically, sticking his foot in the door, just before it closed.

  “Ram,” Michael called out, stopping the guard. “Let them in!” he demanded politely. Another man, much younger looking than Raphael and Michael, pushed open the door with arms wide open and a frown that looked more like an attempt to smile, than a pout. With one corner of his mouth trembling as it curved upward, it showed some personality in what looked to be a stone cold yet very handsome face.

  Following behind him was a woman standing at well over six feet tall, with incessant legs that pulled her in slow motion towards her brothers. She had intensely strong features with a masculinity that amplified the feminine to extreme levels. Her intense jawline held her pursed lips in place as her obvious disgust for me showed through and her gentle yet sharp green eyes demanded answers to questions that hadn’t been asked yet. Her long amber hair, pulled in a thick braid and skin tight leather pants added to the cold disposition she was successfully representing. However, the warmth for the men she was about to greet pierced through this ‘tough’ exterior, showing a much softer and probably more realistic side.

  “Uriel, you look more beautiful than ever,” Michael said, pulling both his younger siblings into his arms. “Eva, these are the rest of Samiel’s children,” he said, hugging tighter. “Well, minus one.”

  I heard him but completely ignored him as I concentrated on the man who now stood on the front stoop.

  As soon as he saw me, he knees buckled ever so slightly.

  “Adam?” I whispered, stepping towards him. I didn’t have to see him very clearly to know exactly who I was talking to.

  He stood firm, attempting to collect his thoughts and keep his emotions in check. “In another life, I was. The name is Gabriel,” he said.

  He could see the look of confusion on my face as I heard his response.

  “But Adam sounds cool,” he continued with a teary wink and a grin. Then, he grabbed ahold of me and just held on to me as he began to cry. “My brother is just exhausted,” Uriel said, trying to pull him off me. “We found him wandering in the Poison district yesterday, battling his memories and disoriented. He hasn’t had sleep since he was reclaimed.”

  “Reclaimed?” I asked, looking up at the familiar stranger.

  “He is no longer a mortal,” Michael offered. “Someone gave him back his memories and his wings.”

  “Your brother?” I asked, looking up him. “Adam, I mean Gabriel is your brother?” “Yes, I am exhausted, but that is not why I am crying,” Gabriel said, jerking away from Uriel. “I just never thought I would see her again,” he said, grabbing my face with both hands. “Even as Adam, I knew that I missed her. There was a hole in my heart that I couldn’t fill.”

  “Wait, what is going on?” I asked, releasing myself from him. “I don’t understand.”

  “She still doesn’t remember?” Gabriel asked, looking at his brother. Uriel’s eyes widened as she started to figure it out.

  “Remember what?” Michael asked. “Um,” Uriel said, softening a bit. The concern she had for what was about to take place between the brothers outweighed her irritation with me. She then started rambling something in the language I had heard the shadow people use once before.

  Translation. “Raphael, she thinks she is married to Michael.” “She is!” Michael exclaimed, facing his sister. You could see an anger in him as he defended himself against her. “You have it wrong Uriel. She chose me over Gabe a long time ago.”

  “No, she didn’t” Raphael added, gently placing his hand on his brother’s back to calm him down. “There was never a choice. It has always been Gabriel.”

  “No,” Michael replied in disbelief. “Father will tell you, Eva will tell you. She is my wife.” “What are they talking about Michael,” I asked, backing away from all of them. I started to feel crowded and confused, the new tension in the room began to choke me.

  Ramiel, who had stood quietly up until this point, came over to comfort me as Michael’s confusion turned irritation.

  Michael began to pace angrily. “That’s not right,” he kept repeating, visibly trying to recount every moment of his life. “That is not how I remember it.”

  He knew what they were saying couldn’t be true, but it he knew in his heart that Uriel and Raphael would never lie to him.

  “I even remember the wedding,” he said, finally collapsing in the chair nearest him and choking back tears. “I remember the day she told me she loved me too.” He shifted in his seat to rest his head on his hand. Pulling at his hair, he began to recap an important moment between us. “We were hiding in the orchard as the Praetorian guards were out searching for us. We were tangled up in a grape vine when she leaned in and whispered it in my ear.”

  “That was me,” Gabriel barked. “You were with the guards looking for us.”

  “No,” Michael retorted. “I remember it clearly.”

  Gabriel threw his hands in the air, and walked out the front door, knowing full well he was not going to convince his brother.

  “You have caused this family more grief than it is worth,” Uriel barked as
she started to come after me. “It is not her fault,” Raphael, the eldest sibling bellowed, grabbing her arm. “I know you feel like his guardian, but he is a grown man and can handle himself. Father has done something to alter Michael’s memories. I can feel it.”

  The entire time he spoke to her, she kept her eyes fixed on me as if to remind me that she disagreed with the fact that this wasn’t my fault.

  “Can I go now brother?” she asked, looking back at him. “Gabriel needs me.”

  Raphael released her arm, allowing her to leave.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, approaching me. He felt as if he needed to help me understand more of what was going on. “Our mother died when Gabriel and Ramiel were very young,” he continued, “Uriel has felt the need to mother the boys ever since. She means well, I assure you. She is just a bit over protective when it comes to Garbiel, especially.”

  He reached out and touched my arm. I could feel the sincerity of his concern for me, as a father would to a child. There was a deep sense of responsibility and wisdom intertwined with a longing to please and to do by right by all who relied on him. His emotions were strong, yet controlled and what drove him to be who he was. He was the glue that always held everyone and everything together.

  “When it comes to you, well,” he said, walking towards the parlor room. “She is quite touchy.”

  He motioned for me to sit. “Her heart is bigger than her ego, I assure you,” he said, clasping his hands. “She loved you once, like a sister and by the way she shows such hostility towards you, I believe she still does. Sadly, you fell out of favor with her when Gabriel was cast out. When he sent away, it took away her purpose.”

  “Why do you keep saying Gabriel?” I asked. “Why not Michael.” “Because Gabriel is your husband, not Michael,” Raphael replied. “And if Michael is of this belief as well, our father did this to him. Michael would never knowingly sabotage your relationship with his brother.”

  “Would he not?” Gabriel asked, coming back into the room and overhearing the conversation. “He’s loved her as long as I. He has said so on many occasions.”

  Raphael crossed the room to his brother, reaching his hand out and gently placing it on the back of the neck of an agitated man. “We will sort this out I promise,” he said shaking him a bit. “Your personal issues cannot overshadow the mission. She loved you once, she will love you again.”

  He pulled his brother closer. “We need Michael in this fight. We cannot be splintered. We are a unit. Samiel and Hyperion cannot win.”

  “But I have sacrificed everything to find her,” Gabriel said through tears.

  “I truly understand,” Raphael replied, “but this is what Samiel wants.”

  He turned Gabriel to face his brother.

  “With you two fighting, we lose sight of our goal.”

  “Which is,” Gabriel barked.

  “Protecting her, helping her remember who she is so she can fulfill her destiny and end this war between our fathers.”

  I couldn’t hear what they were saying, as I was distracted by the pain in Gabriel’s gaze as he locked it with mine.

  “If we help her I may lose her forever,” he sighed. “Yes, Gabriel, you above all of us will have sacrificed so much,” Raphael praised. “This is the job we were given to do and you must do it, same as us.”

  Uriel, who had been silently listening to their conversation now started laughing under her breath.

  “And you,” Raphael chastised, finding her giggles to be quite juvenile, “you will not interfere. You will support the mission and her." Raphael shot a loving glance in my direction. “We have been tasked with protecting her. We all know who she is, whether we can say it out loud or not, it is our duty to ensure she does what she came to do."

  “Doesn’t seem fair at all," Uriel retorted. “None of us asked for this.” “I would go to the ends of the earth to make sure she was safe,” Gabriel replied. He began to get a bit agitated with her behavior towards me. “Don’t confuse my despair with not wanting to do anything I can to make sure Eva is safe.”

  He hugged his sister and whispered.

  “It is what it is Uriee (his nickname for her), please just help me deal with the fact that she is confused and keep me on track.”

  Uriel realized at that moment that he needed her strength more than her contemptuous attitude.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Seeing you in pain gets to me more than anything.”

  I tip toed past them, hoping not to interrupt their tender moment.

  “Where are you going?” Michael asked, sitting up in the chair. “It’s not safe for you to go out there alone." “I really need that fresh air now,” I said. I hadn’t had a moment alone to process anything since Aljann and now finding out I was meant to be with Gabriel instead of Michael really threw me.

  “I need to be alone,” I replied. “Please, just give me a few minutes to make sense of the last couple days of my life.”

  “It’s ok, let her go,” Gabriel demanded. “We don’t need babysit her.”

  “She is still vulnerable,” his brother argued. “Without her memory she has no power and no strength.”

  “Protection and smothering are two different things, Mike,” Gabriel barked. Raphael could see a fight brewing and immediately stepped in. “Ram, why don’t you escort Eva outside and just keep an eye on things, I need to have a talk with your brothers.”

  *****

  I realize that before I go any further I need to quench your thirst for knowledge. To appease the burning hunger for information as to how we all got into this mess. To help you understand the importance of having us all together in the mortal realm, fighting side by side against those we were once most loyal to – our fathers. So here is history lesson part one.

  Now remember, I didn’t know anything up to this point. My memories were gone and what little I was told, only included Michael not Gabriel. So, anything you read is from knowledge I gained in the future.

  Apparently, it all started when Gabriel and I were very young, no more than two or three years old. His mother, Arabella, would visit her sister, the Queen, and bring him and some of his siblings along so we could play. Raphael was much older than the rest and already had found his place in my father’s army.

  Arabella’s visits didn’t last very long, however, as she passed away when Gabriel was a little over five years old. Her death was a mystery, something no one in Caelum had every experienced before. Since age was not measured, and poor health was not something Cimmerians and Lumenarian’s alike suffered from, death was no more than a myth. Although no one had suffered the loss of death, everyone knew it was possible since no creature is truly immortal. As children, Caleumites were told that if anyone was to suffer physical death, their light woud never be extinguished and therefore they would still exist and their presence would be felt for eternity.

  When she passed however, her light vanished. She was playing with her young ones in the courtyard of their large homestead, when she suddenly began to drain of color. Her eyes, which were usually quite vibrant and welcoming, became as black and cold as the night, as her tether dimmed until there was nothing but wisps of fog and smoke, where here wings once were. When she collapsed to her knees, her skin began to crumble, until she was no more than a pile of dust on the blades of grass her children sat on.

  The tension between the King and his brother started to build after her death. They each blamed the other for her passing, finding no reason to agree on anything they discussed.

  Samiel compelled his children to stay away from the castle in fear that they may suffer the same fate, but Gabriel, who had no desire to listen, snuck into my quarters almost every night and stayed until near dawn.

  Throughout our childhood, we found mere comfort in being together, but as the years drew on, we started to find that our connection went way beyond that of friends. We were soul mates, linked together in a way neither one of us could explain.

  If he
was hurt, I could feel it too. The nights when he couldn’t make his way to me and he would miss his mother, he would cry. I could be in the best of moods, and yet, without knowing why, I would cry too. No matter the distance between us, we could feel everything the other one was feeling and feel it as intensely.

  Now fast forward a couple years. Caelum has been broken into two separate realms and the Cimmerians were banned from the Capitol City of Matris. This included the children of the King’s fallen brother.

  However, my father was too preoccupied with his own issues to notice that Gabriel and I were deeply in love and sneaking across the realms to find each other. There was no Gateway to fracture the realms at this point, so it was much easier to do so than anyone would think.

  We would meet in the forest, where the two realms met, every single night. This vortex, as with the others scattered throughout the world, would act as a doorway between the two realms and a perfect way for us to access one another. That was until the Gateway was built, permanently shutting them down and creating only one way in and out of each realm.

  Then, we would meet in Aljann as often as we could, staying out of sight and allowing our relationship to flourish. There were few that knew about us, including his siblings, my mother and her most trusted friend, Renu.

  As a matter of fact, when we decided to take our relationship to the next level, it was the temple in Aljann where we secretly took our vows, with Renu officiating it.

  Shortly after, Hyperion finally learned of our ‘love affair.’ He demanded that I immediately rescind my vows and end this unsanctioned marriage. I refused, swearing that I would run away to the mortal realm if I had to, just to be with him.

  Instead of more threats and demands, my father obliged and sent us there himself. He stripped us both of our wings and banished us to live as mortals. He also took our memories and tossed us to the wolves so to speak. We had nothing with us but a will to survive and an inherent need to find what was missing in both of us.

  The mortal realm was still fairly new and was not heavily populated. So, it was only a matter of months before the two of us found each other, regaining our memory and realizing where we both belonged. We returned to Caelum, imagining that he would forgive us and allow us to live in peace.