If found worthy, the soul-botanists of Heaven, cherubs, would take the souls to commence their reincarnation. Cherubs led the souls through the soul-gardens, known as Eden to humans. The child-like angels transmuted human souls into seeds, the source of the endless vegetation in Eden.
The gargantuan trees and flowering plants produced seeds that housed new souls. Cherubs inspected those seeds for deformities, negative energies, and other signs that made seeds unsuitable for the soul production process.
Seeds that failed their tests were cast into Hell, for they had no place in Earth or Heaven.
Those that passed were taken to the cherub’s nurseries for soul extraction.
Soul extraction required a long series of machines. No angel, save Lucifer knew who engineered the celestinite factory capable of extracting and refining souls.
However, some humans that showed undeniable faith and respect for the Lord during their lifetimes were formed into angels. This process expanded on the souls’ already devout allegiance to God, consumed its free will and made them into a being driven by a desire to serve the Lord.
Drean found himself contemplating humans from time to time: their acceptance into Heaven despite their sins, how new angels were created from their souls, how God allowed their souls to cycle eternally, how they were cared for in Eden by the cherubs, content and basking in God’s light, until time’s end.
The more he thought about it the more he did not understand God’s logic, and as he struggled to understand, he found himself questioning it. Why was he cast aside when they were not?
Eventually anxiety and depression borne of his questions dug into his mind as if with a spade; gradually penetrating him to his core. Some days he slept it off, woke with a fresh outlook and optimism to match. Some days it kept him in bed: torn, lonely, and jealous.
Virtues flew over him. Their orange-red flaming wings left trails of heat in their wake as they patrolled Heaven. Others sat in gargoyle fashion on upwardly curved ledges extended from the tops of the three domes. Their burning wings stretched fully as a warning of no quarter. He sat on his bed. He felt the familiar sadness tug at him, and as he watched his brethren it escalated into anger.
There is no reason for me to be here. I did my duty and failed only once. I deserve another chance. Drean opened his mouth. He felt compelled to shout at God and iterate his thoughts into loud protests. No. I cannot. Belligerence is what Lucifer was damned for. I will not make the same mistake.
“Lord, why am I thinking like this? This never happened while I was by your side.”
Drean waited for a response. None came.
“Lord, I need you!” he cried out, his voice trilled. He heard it echo before he collapsed on the ground, exasperated.
“Angel.”
The voice of God resounded from all around him. Drean knelt and bowed his head.
“My Lord, I apologize for my insolence.”
“Ascend to The Sanctuary and speak to me there,” God said.
“Yes, Lord.”
Elated, he unfurled his wings and broke the red ribbons that fettered them. Without hesitation, Drean took flight for The Sanctuary.
* * *
Drean awoke in Riell’s arms soaked in sweat. He took his t-shirt and shorts off. He shivered uncontrollably but felt feverish and hot.
That was the first time I’ve dreamed about anything other than the war for over a thousand years.
He held Riell close. Drean found some comfort and warmth next to her half-naked body. He could not put the vivid dream aside though. It reminded him of his imprisonment and God’s inaction. He felt anger burn within him.
I can’t be angry about that, he decided. God had a reason.
His worries faded, and he sank back into slumber.
* * *
“My loyal seraph, welcome home,” God said when Drean landed before His throne.
“My Lord.” Drean sank to his knees. “It is good to finally be in your presence again.”
Why did you keep me away for so long, Lord? Drean thought to himself.
“What are your wishes?” Drean asked.
“Are you not going to ask why you have been held in captivity so long?” God asked.
“My Lord, I’m not one to question your plan for me,” the seraph stammered.
“Yes. I realize that it must seem strange for me to ask such a question,” God said. “But, can you honestly say that within the many millennia you were held captive you did not question my design once?”
Fear rendered Drean speechless. I cannot speak of questioning God’s authority, he thought. But if I do not, I will inadvertently disobey him. What do I do?
“Angel, speak!”
“My Lord, I did question you while I was in captivity,” Drean said. “However, it was only because you kept me away from my duty for so long.”
“You see, seraph,” God said, “I created angels with a sense of duty and purpose, to do my will, to see it through ceaselessly until the end of their days without question and with a sense of harmony and unity. If they are apart from their duties and Myself, they will undoubtedly begin to feel guilt, sadness and eventually anger because they have been torn away. I kept you in captivity so you would begin to feel these effects.”
God scrutinized Drean’s reaction.
But why would my Lord want me to develop a defiant spirit? Was that not what eventually doomed Lucifer to damnation? The seraph asked himself.
“I do not understand, Lord. But if you will it, it must be right,” Drean said.
“Angel, does it bother you that humans have free will? That they are bound to nothing unless they choose to be?” God asked.
“Lord, I do not consider such things,” Drean said. “I understand my purpose and I live with it.”
“Good,” God said. “Then you will not question me when I say that I have altered your purpose?”
Drean wanted to lift his eyes but stopped himself.
“I am losing my strength, angel,” God said. “I have something I wish to show you. You will be the second being, aside from me to see this. I hope your reaction differs from Lucifer’s. Come.”
God’s throne burst into a door of pure white light, and Drean stepped through.
Empty space was all around him. Drean unfurled his wings but realized he stood as if on solid ground.
“Where am I?” Drean said out loud.
“I suppose you could call it my viewing room,” God said.
“Lord, is that you?” Drean called with some uncertainty, the voice had sounded like God’s but not nearly as ominous.
A humanoid figure encompassed in a white cloak stepped out of the darkness.
“Yes, it is I,” God said.
Drean sank to his knees in genuflection. His Lord had revealed his true nature to him.
“Angel rise. I called you here as an equal not as a servant,” God said. “Rise and come forth.”
At first God’s robes covered His entire body, and Drean could not see His form. His cloak rippled and sank into itself. A slender figure took shape. His sleeves shrank into long arms, smooth hands with unnaturally lengthened fingers took shape at their ends, and the hood of His cloak rounded into a featureless face. He had no eyes, ears or nose. Seven halos of white flame linked together and hovered above His head. Myriads of glowing colors circulated beneath God’s skin like clouds of ink beneath water.
“This is what I truly am. Providing attention to every plane of existence simultaneously is not something I am capable of any longer. Soon my ability to maintain constant supervision over the Earth and the other worlds I have created will cease to exist.” Sorrow was in God’s voice. “My power to sway actions on any physical plane has always been limited, but when I cannot shift planes my ability drops to nil.”
God waved his hand in front of him. Blips of light, like fireflies, blinked into existence and filled the darkness around Drean and him.
“Now, this is the universe I have created, the totality of th
e physical plane,” God told the angel. “What you are looking at now are clusters of galaxies.”
“Galaxies, Lord?” Drean asked, puzzled.
“They are highly condensed groups of stars and worlds,” God said.
Drean stared in awe with his mouth open.
“I can see you are overwhelmed but you will understand it all soon enough.”
God waved his hand once more, and a small portal of light appeared in front of Him.
“Follow me,” he said and stepped through the portal.
Drean followed and was propelled forward. Galaxies flashed past the now horrified seraph. Soon only one galaxy could be seen, and he was on a collision course with it.
Drean closed his eyes and prepared to meet his end.
“Angel, open your eyes,” God said.
When Drean opened his eyes he was not the angel speaking to God, he was an observer, above both the unnamed seraph and God.
“Father!” Drean called out. God made no sign that he could hear him.
His past self almost fell over in shock at the sight before him. A blue planet partially blanketed by white encompassed his entire front view.
Earth.
God moved his hand over the surface of the planet, and streams of color came into view. Drean could see every color of God in them. A small number of streams reached upward until they connected themselves with God, and the rest slithered across the planet.
“This is Faithstream.” God pointed at the streams, and the seraph nodded in recognition. “The Faithstream is essentially the totality of a creation’s faith. My creations, the humans seem to be... misguided.”
“What do you mean, Lord?” the angel asked.
“As you can see, a large amount of Faithstream remains on the planet as if the humans have no need for me anymore,” God said. “My powers as a creator are waning, and eventually they will slip away from me forever.”
God turned to the angel. “Are you ready to receive your name?”
“My... name, Lord?” he stuttered.
“Drean. Yes that will be your new name from now on,” God said. “With this name you will have a new mission, and that mission requires that you have the proper equipment.”
“Lord, what do you will me to do?” Drean asked.
“I require you to think for yourself to make your own decisions in a world of beings who know nothing but believe they know everything,” God said.
Drean wanted to know more, but before he could speak God placed one of His hands on the angel’s forehead. Drean’s clothes melted from his body and were sucked into the palm of God’s hand, leaving him naked.
God’s hand and arm rippled as it received the liquid cloth. The white coloration could be seen inside his body before it dissolved within him.
One by one the feathers of Drean’s wings illuminated. Their glow was faint at first, but intensified by the second.
“You will have free will,” God told him.
Drean cried at the sight of his Father bestowing the gift of free will on his past self.
The newly named Drean groaned as his wings exploded.
Feathers whirled around him. Three pairs of feathers, one for each pair of his wings, branded his back between his shoulder blades before they fell to the ground. Their markings formed a circle.
“My head...” He fell to his knees.
“My child, it is almost over,” God said.
A tongue of flame appeared over Drean’s head and descended through God’s hand into his forehead. God released the angel and stepped back.
“My thoughts, they’ve changed! I feel alive.” He smiled to himself.
“Good, Drean.” Drean could hear a faint glimmer of elation in God’s voice now. “In return for this new gift I have given you, I want you to go to Earth and find what is diverting the Faithstream,” God said. “Be wary of your actions, and be as swift and thorough as possible in your investigation.”
“Father, what of my nakedness?” Drean asked.
God smiled at his question, extended His arm and opened His palm inches from the angel’s head. “You are right, my child, you must be properly clothed.”
Blue and white liquids flowed from His hands. White settled on his upper body into a t-shirt, and the blue settled as jeans.
“I will do this for you, Father,” Drean said. “I feel like I am not going to be in your presence for some time. I will miss you.”
God nodded and kissed Drean on the forehead.
God turned and looked directly at the hovering Drean and stared at him.
Drean blinked rapidly. I know he didn’t take this long to send me to Earth before. Is this a dream?
“Father?” he asked.
“Farewell, Drean,” God said.
“Father!”
His past self became a sphere of light and plummeted to Earth. God, Earth and the star-blanketed universe around them disappeared.
Chapter 18
Leoran stood before the gates of Heaven. They would not bar his entry unless God Himself willed it. He walked straight through them. As soon as he set foot on the other side he could feel God’s worries for Drean and his mission.
Until recently, while they communicated Creator to angel, God’s attention touched some part of him that was still His. It made Leoran feel unconditionally loved. Leoran hated it. It reminded him he was not an individual.
Since God’s mind had grown chaotic, it disturbed Leoran’s thoughts and polluted his head with a loud, aching buzz. He felt like a tuning fork that had just been struck, but at least he was able to maintain control over his emotions.
Leoran. You just returned from checking on Drean?
Yes, I did, Lord.
How is he?
Well, Lord, he is progressing. He has made some allies that could prove useful to Your cause.
Indeed! This is good news. When do you think Drean will be ready?
Soon, Lord.
I am glad that you can be my eyes, Leoran. I do not know how much longer I can hold myself together.
Lord, what can I do to serve you?
Leoran, the core of my being is deteriorating. If it remains in this body much longer even the Faithstream will not be able to restore me.
What do you wish of me, Lord?
Come to The Sanctuary.
Leoran unfurled his wings. He looked about him as he flew.
It’s so quiet. Most of the angels are gone.
God had converted His angels into energy to alleviate his core’s breakdown. While it saddened Him to convert them to save Himself, they were His creations. It was necessary to preserve the greater good: He would do what He had to. Only the most necessary angels remained: Powers to escort souls, cherubs and The Tower of Knowledge.
Leoran flew into The Sanctuary, knelt in front of the Throne of God and lowered his forehead to the tile.
“How is your face, my son?”
“It pains me every day, my Lord.”
“Stand, Leoran. Take off your mask. I want to look at you while I say this,” God said.
“I am at your disposal, Lord,” Leoran said and removed his celestinite facemask.
The Throne’s winds scalded the black scales on his jaw and cheeks.
“I wish I could erase my decision to stand with Lucifer, so I could be more suitable for you.”
“I do not. If your past were different you would not know what you know. You would not be who you are. That is why you are suitable for me at this moment, my son.”
“Thank you, Lord.”
“Know that I am sorry for what I have to do, Leoran, but sacrifices must be made.”
“Yes, Lord, I understand,” Leoran said.
Leoran remembered when God’s body had shimmered with myriads of unfathomable color: now God’s indicative color had turned dull and gray. His skin drooped off of His bones. He became translucent, revealing His skeleton and the core of His being: a bright ball of prismatic light the size of a fist. It existed beneath the center of God
’s forehead.
“It is unsafe for my core to remain inside this dying shell. I need to use you as my vessel until Drean returns to Heaven.”
“Of course, my Lord.”
Leoran looked resolute on the surface, but beneath fright shook him. He had thought he had known fear, but as he stood there with tears in his eyes, he knew it would be the first and last time he would truly feel afraid. He was going to die. There was nothing he could do about it.
“Good, this will only take a moment.”
God’s core burst from the center of His forehead. His husk crumbled, and Heaven’s winds scattered them. The ball of light hovered in front of Leoran and bore into his forehead.
Leoran cried out. Unfathomable pain washed down from his forehead and flooded his whole body. Heat and cold coursed through every pore of his being, and soon he could not respond to his misery with any kind of conscious movement. He twitched, whimpered and begged it to end.
Then he felt it: the power of God’s essence, His core.
Leoran felt God’s feeble attempts at invasion: pin pricks in his mind. God lightly grazed the doors of his consciousness and tried to seep into it. Leoran realized what this meant, and a wide grin spread across his face.
Leoran, what are you doing!?
Leoran felt God try to escape, suffocated Him with his will and pushed into the core itself.
Leoran, stop this! I command it! God’s will bludgeoned every facet of his being. Leoran almost lost consciousness for a moment, and God pushed back at him.
No, this is mine now, Lord.
Leoran fought to maintain his hold over God’s essence and connected with the core.
Leoran, I beg of you... stop this.
Goodbye, Father.
Please, my son.
God’s voice faded and died off, and there was no resistance when Leoran dove into the essence of his former Father. Leoran writhed on the ground once more from the perfect ecstasy that God’s power brought him.
I feel whole. I was meant to do this. This power was meant to be mine! While this portion of my Father’s majesty makes me the undisputed ruler of Heaven and Earth, Drean needs to finish his part of the original plan. God’s core will still not last long without the Faithstream, and there is much more power to be gained. Leoran chuckled at that thought. I wonder if I can contact Drean from here.
From Heaven To Earth (The Faith of the Fallen) Page 12
