"Where should I go, and who would have me now? I am cast off from both Heaven and Hell...envoy to no one, and a member of no house." He stopped his flight in the flickering dark and sobbed when something moved in the dark.
He wiped his eyes and gained his composure, straining to see between shimmers of light and blackness, intuition alerted him that he was not alone. He turned to his rear, then quickly to his left and right, peering deep to eye what accompanied him in the darkness. And then a voice spoke to him.
"Have no fear, little one. I will not harm you--yet."
"Who art thou? Show yourself!"
The voice's tone changed to one of sadness.
"I am hurt Iblis. After all, that we have been through together, I would have thought you would have recognized me by now."
A light then shimmered before his path and the flaming tendrils moved away from the presence of a large Harada that occupied the room. His Elomic armor was imposing and his eyes glowed with the crackle of lightning, and Iblis stood in terror, realizing he had walked straight into his former captor – Zeus.
"I have been watching you since you arrived back on Earth. I will report to Lucifer that I have secured thy information, but first, you will tell me what I need to know or I will watch you succumb to the sands of Time and thy life shall float as a vapor before my eyes." Zeus then waved his hand and Iblis was caught as a fly in a web of temporal power.
Iblis tried to run, tried to fly back to the group, but the trap held fast. Caught in a bubble of temporal power, his every movement were but centimeters in the direction he desired to travel.
Zeus floated next to him and spoke. "You forget that I am the master of Time here. I can leave you here and return in a century and you would have found yourself moved but one foot. Just imagine, a century of running in the dark of Hell's intestine, clamoring for an escape that does not exist. Thy cries for help never finding escape from the temporal vacuum that now exists around you. But your actions are predictable, so I offer thee a choice...a choice to live, or to die while Hell suckles upon thy stone."
Zeus touched the floor and the room came alive with eyes from ceiling to floor. Then he expanded the temporal field and the tendrils that reached for Iblis slowed to an infinitesimal crawl.
"See? Some of us hath the power to traverse Hell without harm. Yea, we must be cautious, but in the end, she is but a beast. A beast who, without Charon, is tamable. But you...well needless to say I do not need Grigoric sight to know what will happen to you. For Hell now knows of is alive to your presence, and when I close the temporal field that now holds the creature at bay, I will be long gone...and you, well you will be soon be gone." Zeus laughed.
Iblis's eyes locked in terror on the centipede-like eyes that rose from the floor... eyes that now fixed on him. Acidic salivating tendrils suddenly reached to snatch him into Hell's clutches. Zeus laughed as he circled him and smiled. "Wouldst you like to go with me and tell me where I might find Jerahmeel? For I know he seeks the master's weapon and Lord Talus."
Tears began to stream from Iblis's eyes, frozen in a microscopic march of time as they slid down his face. Tears of surrender.
"Yes," he whimpered, trapped like a fly in the web of a towering spider.
"Very good," Said Zeus. "I so much enjoy our times together. Come, let us go."
Zeus then took Iblis into his arms, exited the hallway, and removed the temporal barrier around the area. Hell immediately flooded the chamber with eyes, magma and flaming tentacles that reached for occupants no longer there, and Zeus grinned as he took his escaped captive, prisoner, once more.
* * *
Enoch paced intently before Elijah. "He hast lied!" he said.
Elijah listened intently allowing Enoch to finish his explanation. Waiting for him to calm down.
"The king is none other than the traitor who collaborated with Lucifer. He is not Nephanos!" Enoch muttered to himself, almost oblivious to Elijah's presence. "And the people – the people think he is Nephanos, but if indeed he is not Nephanos, where is the true king?"
"The real issue is how to confront this treachery," Elijah said. "How to reveal the ruse. Hast thou heard anything about your friends? Are they unharmed?"
Enoch waved his hands in exasperation. "They are captive in a hold unbeknownst to me. Our host tells me that they await execution... execution for a crime they did not commit. Pssfftt. Gabriel and Metatron would never steal. It is beyond their imagination to do so."
Elijah stroked his beard. "And of this thou art sure? Angels are not beyond the temptations known to man."
Enoch harrumphed. "I have known Elohim. I have seen the renegade, Lucifer, firsthand when he sent his assassins and Charon to destroy me and my family. I have also noted angels are a most honorable people, and though there is a host of them on Earth arrayed against our people, Gabriel and Metatron are not so. I would stake my life on their honor."
Elijah nodded. "That is good to know, for it yet may come to that."
Enoch looked at his peer curiously. "What do you mean?"
"I have been in the company of the Seraphim for many a day now and have studied these people. It would seem thy time in Heaven was to learn from the angels, whilst I was being tutored by the Seraphim. Thy devotion is akin to my own for them. They are, as you say a great people. Their passion for El is hot and ignites all that you see. They are desire, and yeah even lust, but in a sanctified form that serves El. This I have learned whilst among them. It may be that to unite our brethren we must be prepared to lay down all."
Enoch considered Elijah's words. "El commanded me to bring you back to Michael and the heavenly city."
Elijah nodded. "And the Lord Yeshua hath made known even before thy coming that this false king's time hath been weighed in the balance and found wanting, for I was commanded to accompany you to the heavenly city."
Enoch sat down, clasped his hands and wrung them as he spoke aloud, "What is it that you propose we do?"
"We will offer Camael one last space to repent," Elijah replied. "I will tell him El has commanded me to go to the heavenly city and see to Gabriel's people."
"And if he refuses to release you?" Enoch said.
"Then we will know that he is false, but to secure our plan, thou must acquire something that will expose him. You said that when you were with Camael blew into one of the instruments, and when he did so, the rest glowed and sung as well?"
"Aye," Enoch said. "It is as you say."
"Then of a surety, he is the craftsman behind them, for the Seraphim are as the breath of God and when they blow into whatever they craft their fires lite their instruments. Each is unique to its maker, such that none other can blow it unless it is made especially for them for I have learned that their sigil is in the flames. We must, therefore, provoke him to reveal himself," Elijah said.
"How?" said Enoch.
"You will take the horn of Malakim and with it blow, and when thou doest so, it shall reveal its maker. If Camael is indeed posing as Nephanos, his own creation will give him away."
Enoch looked at Elijah, scrunching his face. "How am I to acquire the horn? Camael had Sherkanim strip Gabriel, and I am sure he holds it with the rest in the throne room. Surely a move to prevent Gabriel's people from being called to give aid."
Elijah smiled. "Go to Camael's chamber as before, for it will be there that you shalt find Gabriel's horn. Find it, and take both his horn and one other."
"What would that be?" replied Enoch.
"You must take one of the seven trumpets of judgments."
* * *
"Report," said Michael.
Argoth turned from the open projections on the wall and stared at the horror on Michael's face. Red eyes betrayed him as he gaped at Yeshua's forced march through the streets of Jerusalem. And alongside the images from Earth were projections that showed His people in the streets of the heavenly city, screaming in pain for the lack of rational thought. The Withering's work featured in terrifying display.
Argoth held a scroll in his hand sealed with a ribbon of blue flame, and he walked towards Michael and spoke.
"A courier from Nephanos hast delivered to Janus this letter. Janus said the Seraph courier recorded the arrival of our party in Aseir, but reports misfortune hath befallen them."
Michael accepted the letter, broke the clay seal, placed it in a display and set it afire. And when he did so, words appeared thereon and it voiced a message from Nephanos.
Hail, Chief Prince. It hath been many days since we have spoken. I have been informed of thy ascension by Eladrin and wish you and your people to prosper and good health.
Be it known that thy ambassadors have reached us, but one Grigori hath been lost to the beasts under the mountain. Those that remain solicited us to heal the affliction of thy people. In sorrow, we cannot dismiss the Withering from thy kind for the thing is of El, and who can remove that which the Lord Himself hath allowed?
Even so, it is with further sadness that I must report that two of thy kind have been found guilty of guile. The charge was theft of a Trumpet of Judgment. You knowest as well as I that El intends to unleash these weapons upon the works of Lucifer and his kind. We have recovered the stolen weapon in the stuff of thy servant, Gabriel. He and the other called Metatron have thus been condemned to die in three days' time, their lives, therefore, will be given as a penalty for thy disdain for of contacting me via royal protocol and their illegal incursion into our realm. This will satisfy our law in lieu of war with thy people. Thou wilt accept my judgment, Michael of the Kortai, or we will consider the covenant between our peoples broken, and remove the fire that animates thy stones from thy people's breasts in accordance with our treaty.
This is my will, and this is my law,
Sealed and signed by my own hand.
Nephanos King of the Seraphim.
Michael inhaled heavily and let the flaming document slip through his fingers and to the floor. He propped one elbow on the arm of the chair and leaned his forehead into his hand.
Argoth allowed a moment before he spoke. "There is more, my prince."
Michael raised his head in anguish. "Say on."
Argoth hesitated. "My Watchers from Azaziel's regiment report that even now, our Lord submits Himself to the evils of men. To what end is still not entirely clear, but He allows Himself to be handled by Adamson." Argoth paced, visibly distraught. "Thus, after all of our attempts to prevent the death of God, the vision that you saw of the Lord on a cross hastens its march toward fulfillment I am sorry Michael, but unless Yeshua turns from His present path, there seems no way to stop the Lord's crucifixion."
Michael mulled Argoth's words over and stroked his chin.
The Chief Prince speculated turning over in his mind what thoughts and actions could have put Gabriel and Metatron in such harm's way as to face execution? He knew the head of House Malakim would never risk another war, but would first give himself over to falsehood and execution before he would allow such an event to befall his people. Michael calculated the outcome of open hostility with the Seraphim, and all calculus ended with decimation. El's word concerning the schisms treaty was inviolate and would not be broken. He would not go back on His word, for the accord was clear. If Michael sent a squad to rescue his fellows he knew that they would all be destroyed.
Michael stared at the floating images, watching as Yeshua silently endured His treatment at the hands of the humans. He noted his master's eyes, the tenor with which He carried Himself, and in that moment, Michael closed his eyes tightly and prayed aloud.
"El, I have asked that this cup pass from me, but I see now what I must do. Know that I am want to do this thing. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done."
He opened his eyes and turned to face Argoth who watched with curiosity.
"Argoth, there is a third option that hath escaped all, yea even Nephanos. An alternative that would spare our brethren and cease hostilities with our people."
The Grigoric leader stared at the angelic commander of the Elomic Legions. "Then you, my prince, see even more than the Chief of Eyes. What do you propose?"
Michael sighed. "I will go – and will surrender myself in their stead."
Argoth stepped back, stunned. His brow furrowed. "Art you mad? Do you think it a mean thing to surrender yourself – the appointed head of our people to dissolution?"
Michael lowered his eyes in contemplative thought, then returned his gaze to Argoth. "There is no other way, for it was by an angelic leader's hand that the Schism was genesised, and it will be by this angelic leader's hand that it be sealed. For was it not I who gave Lucifer suggestion that if we could have the instruments the Seraph possessed that we could obtain victory? Through my vocalization, Lucifer took with duplicity that which was not ours? Is it not fitting that I should bring resolution to that which caused Heaven's rift so long ago?"
Argoth harrumphed. "Perhaps, but the division of Kings by El was done to prevent us from contaminating one another. He has not given any apparent sign that His mind has changed. How dost thou know that your decision to breach their domain will result in that which ye desire, and not further provoke Nephanos and his kin to all out war?"
Michael bit his lip and thought deeply on Argoth's words, "There is one thing that is certain. In three days' time, the Withering will have completed its work, and unless El relents we are already a people dead. I go that we might have life. For even now the Lord of Hosts moves to lay down His own for a future that cannot be seen by Grigoric sight. If He is willing to do this, how much more as a son should I do as He sets example before us? I go not knowing what will befall me. I have learned from Enoch that one must walk by faith and not by sight. Therefore, I will not stand idle and allow my people to be cut off. You will thus make this record for all of Heaven to know, Argoth. I go to offer my life that I might save all. Do this for me, please, and if I do not set eyes on thee on this side of the Lord's will, I trust that I shall see thee again in the next."
Argoth was taken aback by the power of Michael's words and nodded. "Then let the thing be as you say."
Michael smiled in appreciation. "One other thing I command. As I am thy Chief, it falls upon me to give stewardship to the Legions. As all Lumazi are tasked at the moment, this leaves thee to watch over Heaven and to perform the will of the Lord in all things. I know that you do not wish to be burdened with leadership in this way, but do this thing and see Heaven prosper in thy hands."
Argoth frowned, sighed, and nodded his head. "If you do not return, I will submit to your word until El establishes another."
Michael smiled and stepped back. His halo glowed and flared, and the Chief Prince faded in a flash of light...gone to offer terms of peace in hopes of averting another war.