by Nathan Parks
“I chose to be a part of this clan because I understand that the future belongs to you, the Fallen.”
She threw her hands up in disbelief. “None of you ever get it. You just don’t see it. Oh, how I am glad that my mind is not confined like yours.”
This was one of the reasons he hated her.
“You see, Drake, it has nothing--let me emphasize that word for you--NOTHING to do with any of you. You are a nothing, but a tool or pawn. We use you.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm and hatred.
He could feel the anger inside starting to rise like mercury on a hot day. “What do you mean you ‘use’ us?”
She jumped down from the stage and sat down on the edge of it.
“Take this chick from last night.”
“The one in the ritual?”
“Yes, her. What do you think last night was all about?”
Drake shrugged his shoulders. “I take it that it was a ritual of some sorts and also Arioch’s way of bringing another person into the Family.”
She laughed and pushed herself up and away from the stage. She began to walk around the tables with an air of smugness.
“Ah, you see, Halfling, your knowledge is so small. Last night was one more step toward this clan’s becoming its own stronghold, our own branch within the hierarchy of our kind.”
“You lost me.”
“My point exactly, Drake. You don’t have a clue why you were even brought into the Family.”
She placed her hands on the top of the table and looked over at him with her eyes burning with strength and hatred. “I remember a time when your kind was nothing but fodder for us. You were toys. We would lure the likes of you with promises, and, before you knew it, you became another statistic.”
“How ‘Law-and-Order’ of you,” he scoffed.
“I don’t agree with what Arioch is doing now, but I will go along with it. You would do yourself a favor if you would embrace the understanding that you are still being used and submit to it, and then you will live.”
He was getting fed up with her sarcastic tones and threatening remarks.
“If you have a point, then get to it. If you don’t, then I believe this conversation is over.”
“You will find out in due time,” Denora toyed.
He was done. He put his hand up to wave her off and turned to walk away.
Chapter Twenty
Denora scampered after Drake.
“The girl you questioned about--the one from last night? She is fine for now; but, over the next nine months, she will be experiencing all kinds of new changes. We will rise in power.”
He stopped and took in what she was saying. He whirled around to face her, and she relished the look upon his face as the meaning sunk in.
“Are you saying?”
“She is pregnant. I told you: all of you are just puppets, tools for the clan. She will birth a new generation, a completeness of our clan to prove to Adremalech and the Morning Star that we are Clan Arioch!”
“Are you saying . . .”
He didn’t know how to even say it. “She is going to have Arioch’s child?”
“Give the jackpot to the enlightened mortal!” she mocked. “It has been attempted two times before since the casting out; but Arioch has studied Marduk’s mistakes, and we will become our own clan within the Family.”
“Can’t you do that on your own without the offspring?”
She shrugged. “I am sure we can, but with this offspring, our clan can be in line to fulfill prophesy and actually alter the power within time. We could become the line through which Legion returns.”
“Legion?”
“He was one of our greatest ancestors, but he was destroyed by Jah and was banished into the abyss. That was bad enough; but, within the battle of strength, he was cast into the closest avatar he could find to escape. That was a herd of pigs.”
Drake choked down a laugh. Who would imagine a hero’s last reprise being a herd of pigs? “What prophesy, though?”
“It was prophesied that Legion would return through the coming together of mortal man and the Fallen. He would indwell that being and would draw in both the Fallen and mortals in a peaceful union to overpower Jah and the Host.”
“Sounds like Armageddon to me.”
“It is similar to the mortals’ account of end times, but we know that we will have the upper hand. Even Jah will not be able to hold us back from changing time and holding control in the mortal and immortal realms.”
Drake ran his hand through his thick hair.
“Wow, you’re right. I had no idea of the magnitude of all of this. What can be the downfall? I mean, what happens if Adremalech and the Morning Star will not allow us to become our own branch of the Family?”
“Then you could say it would be like Armageddon. We have enough Familiars, clan members, Fallen, and even cells that are hidden that will rise up; and a clan war of a magnitude that no one can imagine would be on.”
“Arioch would go against the clans?”
“And win.”
“Does the Alliance know anything about this?”
“No one does.” She leered at him. “And no one outside our clan will know until the time is right.”
He nodded.
*****
Kadar left The Broken Tear frustrated, but far from giving up. Things had been on a roll in his favor, but as an Assassin he knew never to take for granted one’s surroundings. The other night, as he had left his meeting with Adremalech and Arioch, he had begun to strategize a plan. He could sense the power struggle that was starting to take place between the two demons, and he felt that if he could capitalize on that, it might be to his advantage. Never had he imagined such a landslide of fortune to hit him.
As he had exited The Vortex that evening, Kadar had been approached by an acquaintance with some shocking information that had taken him for a spin. An individual from the ancients had reemerged, and he brought news that affirmed what Kadar had begun to realize about Eve. He also brought information that, if Kadar would use it wisely, would truly win Eve over. There had also been rumors moving through the underground that Marduk had escaped the abyss and was sending the call for his offspring to return to him.
There was to be a meeting soon. Kadar smiled to himself. There would be a meeting; but if he was able to continue to move the strings to this orchestra without being noticed, that meeting would be unlike anything that Marduk or the Nephelium would be expecting.
“A new generation is rising up, Ancient One,” he sneered. “You should have stayed in exile.”
Kadar walked about a block down the road to where he had parked his crotch rocket; and, with a quick motion, he was on it and headed down the road. His mind was racing! Could he really be able to play all the pieces just right to turn them all against each other? He didn’t know everything that Arioch was planning; but he knew enough to understand that the rock in the pond was being dropped, and the ripples were going to be the size of tidal waves rushing through time.
It was all floating around like a large jigsaw puzzle: Arioch building his own throne of power; the Alliance attempting to protect and hide a young lady who seemed to hold all kinds of mystery; Adremalech showing a large interest in the same young lady; and now information that Marduk had escaped. There was one individual that would set everything in motion: Eve--and she didn’t even have a clue.
“If I can get everyone else to bypass her and start going at each other, I might be able to orchestrate the diversion I need in order for us to start the ball rolling toward our role in the prophecies,” he mused.
He really could see where he could pull this off; but, then again, it all depended on . . . who else, but Eve? He smiled.
*****
She sat with her knees tucked up to her chest and her back against an old gargoyle, a very strange ornament, it seemed, for the heart of operations for an angelic force. She had zoned out and, honestly, just wanted to stay that way. How could she even think about returning to just being
“Eve, a tattoo artist”? What did all of this mean? Could she fly? Really? Hey, if she was part supernatural, did she have any unique powers?
She wasn’t sure how long she had actually sat upon the edge of the roof, but she could tell it had to be close to noon. The sun was beating down hard on her. Megan had still not returned any of her phone calls, and sleep . . . well, that was out of the question. She had been up all night, and she felt that she might be up for a week of nights. She watched as people came and went from the building. Some would leave in pairs, and others would disappear into the maze of the city alone. She wondered who were the supernatural and who were just normal people; but, then again, who was normal? She leaned her head back and allowed her body to soak in the rays. She couldn’t remember the last time she just stopped, let the world go by, and catch her breath.
“Ironic that in the middle of all this chaos is where I find the time to do such a thing,” she mused to herself.
“So, is what they say about You true?” she asked, looking upward. “Do You really hear when people just speak into thin air?” She felt foolish. She had said prayers as a little girl, but now as an adult it seemed very childish to speak out into the unknown, empty space.
“What do you think? Do you think He can hear you?”
Eve snatched her eyes open. It was Isaiah, the one they called Preacher, standing beside her. “Well, if I tell you, Preacher, would it get back to Him? Maybe He wouldn’t like my answer.”
He laughed a small, but strong, laugh and then sat down. He hung his legs over the edge and looked out over the cityscape.
“Well, maybe; but, you see, if He can hear you, then don’t you think He already knows, no matter what you tell me?”
“You got a point, Preach; you got a point.” Eve sat up and allowed her legs to swing over the edge like his. “So, what’s next? Do I start allowing my head to twist around and spit out green spew? Do I start shooting red beams from my eyes or levitate objects through the air?”
There was a pause for a moment, and then he looked over at her. He had never really just stopped and looked at her. She was attractive, but seemed so alone.
“Eve, honestly, we don’t know.”
“I don’t get it. You see, that is the part I don’t understand about any of this. If all of this is a big chess game of supernatural beings, what can we do about it? Why isn’t someone just walking up to the ones making the moves and asking them, ‘Hey, what in the world are we doing here’?”
“Because it is all about choices, Eve. Let’s take you and me, for example. We both could be sitting here; and, all of a sudden, I jump from this roof. What do you think would happen?”
She looked at him and then at the pavement a few stories down. “I would take it that you would be dead, unless part of my abilities as this creature thing you all talk about is to save you.”
Isaiah smiled a big, broad smile and shook his head. “No, I don’t think that is what it is about, but your first part is most likely correct. I would most likely die. Now, was that part of the ‘chess game’ as you like to call it? Was it predestined that I jump from here and die? If so, why? What good did it do?”
Eve shrugged. “I don’t know. That is my point. What good is any of this?”
Isaiah went on, “Or was there a different plan for me out there, but I was allowed to have a free will to choose, so I chose to jump? Now, in that choice, I affect a change in time; and, in that, there are repercussions that affect many other people. Does that mean that what was planned for them isn’t going to happen, or was it all part of the game?”
She was getting aggravated, because this was going nowhere; and she wasn’t in the mood for riddles.
“Come on, Preach, you’re going to lose me here in a second.”
He displayed a face of understanding and paused for a second to put it all into a small thought.
“Ok, here it is; but I don’t know if this will make any more sense to you. Eve, let’s say there is an action that is set in motion, no matter what it is, moving in a specific direction. But then, that motion comes across something in its path that will deflect it and cause it to be redirected. Does it stop it from moving? No, but it does change it some. Does that mean that the action was wrong in the first place? No, it just means that something changed it, but we will never know what it would have been like if it had not been deflected. So, we are all affected by that deflection, be it good or bad.”
She shook her head. “Still doesn’t show me anything.”
“There is a plan that was set in motion. No matter what, that plan is moving forward. Now, my jumping off this building may not have been a part of that plan, and it may change the pattern of it all; but the plan is still in motion. We all have choices to make, Eve; and those choices will never only just affect us.”
She now was starting to see what he meant.
“I don’t know why all of this is happening right now, and I don’t know what is next,” Isaiah went on. “What I do know is something is in motion; and through it all, each of us will have choices to make, just like we do every day. The most important thing is to remember that no one can make a choice for us, but everyone can be affected by that choice.”
“Do you ever question God?” Eve asked bluntly.
His words came to a sudden stop. He just sat there, studying her. This question was very direct and pulled out of thin air. He didn’t even have time to mask his feelings. She watched as a cloud crossed his face, and she already knew the answer before he ever spoke.
“Yes, I do and, at times, more often than others.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, both of them lost in their own thoughts and wonders.
Chapter Twenty-One
Leah stared at a number of computer screens as she leaned back in the swiveling computer chair. Her mind was racing as she attempted to process everything. She had been around long enough to know that nothing was rarely as simple as it seemed, and she was trying to find the key that would piece all of this together. The more she thought and pondered, the more she kept coming back to the idea of going before the Arch Council. This was not something that was done just on a whim, and rarely did a personal audience with them ever really happen.
She could feel a cloud of confusion, a dissention, a dark power moving; and yet, no word on any impending attack or battle came forth from the Arch Council. She didn’t understand any of this.
What was going on? What did Eve have to do with any of this, or did she? She had to be a part of this, or why would her presence be revealed now?
She closed her eyes and allowed herself to quiet down and meditate. She allowed herself to silently call out into the void between mortal and immortal, the space between beginning and ending: eternity.
“I need an audience. I am putting in my request, and I ask that it be quickly. I am unaware of what is going on, and I believe there is danger in not fully understanding.”
In the darkness of her eyes being closed, she sensed a voice acknowledge her request. It would be a messenger, or maybe a smaller archangel, that would accept her request and go before the Arch Council for her.
“Your request is recorded, Leah. I will go before the Council and return as quickly as I can with an answer. Be prepared. If they grant you an audience, then you must be ready.”
Leah understood the process and the ceremonial rhetoric that must happen. To others it may seem pointless; but there was an order established before time was started and, in that, chaos was controlled. Chaos would lead to a chance for the shadow to creep in, and then even more would become part of the Fallen.
She opened her eyes once again and stood up from her chair. She stretched and then switched off a couple of the monitors that were just wasting electricity. All she could do now was wait, and that was never something at which she was very good. Of course, there was that saying, “Patience is a virtue.” Maybe it was meant only for mortals, for what kind of idea was that for someone eternal? You could literally wait f
orever, and that wasn’t really fair to label as patience.
Leah looked over at the clock and realized that she was going to be late for her weekly conference with other leaders from the Alliance throughout the globe. It was their chance to update each other on events in the different regions and, also, to see if there were any trends that may provide an idea of what the Fallen may be trying to do, if anything, globally. It usually was very uneventful, but there were a few pockets that were very active, especially in the Ukraine area. She could have had one of those assignments but, no, she was given this small cell here to lead. She felt, in a way, it was the Council’s way of showing their disapproval of her not choosing to move up in the ranks.
Leah headed down the hall toward the conference room where they would link up via satellite. She could hear voices coming from inside the room already, so she knew that most likely Ki had already done a check with the host site, letting them know they were on. She just did not feel like doing this today. She was tired, worn out, and just really getting to the point where this was no longer enjoyable. She remembered the times where she existed for the next battle against the clans, or guarding a new Nephelium or world leader. Maybe she should just hang it all up.
Leah entered the large conference room. In the center was a large, metal table with muted lights around the edges, and the room was dim for optimal lighting for video teleconferencing. There were microphones strategically hanging from the ceiling, and several flat panel plasma screens at the other end of the room would project the various conference members through satellite links.
Most of her leadership team were there, including Ki, Gideon, and Troy. There were also a few members who ran elite sections of this group for specific missions. She smiled inside as she looked over the faces that were looking back at her. They all were a really good team, and she knew they were why she kept doing this.
“Sorry I am late, everyone. Anything of importance yet?”
Ki shook his head. “No, not yet, but the Ukraine team has a few questions for you. They wouldn’t ask until you got here.”
