“Her well being is guarded with shadows, your shadows Lucifer. Shadows you wish to darken
each and every time you enter the Bliss.” Rafael pauses, perhaps to give Lucifer a chance to defend himself, but there is nothing but agonizing silence. My brother still stares at the ground in front of him. Rafael steps back and continues. “It is by unified decision that you are to be cast out, Lucifer. You are no longer a Guardian. You are no longer a Prince of Heaven.”
My heart beats until their words are drowned from my ears.
No, it can’t be
.
“Is this the punishment for curiosity?” But Lucifer offers no further argument and rises to his feet, fists clenched. He will not fight their sentence because I’ve seen it in his eyes. This is what he wants. This is what all those hours of Reflection have led him to – this yearning to touch the untouchable, seducing the darkness that allows a human to become so fragile. This all along has been his Bliss.
A dark smirk pulls at his mouth, and suddenly, the mood of the Gathering shifts.
I move closer at the edge of the trees, tensely poised to throw myself at the Arch’s feet if
Lucifer asks them to reconsider. But he is laughing. A deep, relieved, unfamiliar ring emanates from his chest.
“Yes, cast me out!” he laughs. “Rid Paradise of the one whose heart is black and corrupt because your little pool of water says so, but mark my words, for the sentence you give me is your own. My desire to understand what lies below Heaven will be my power. The human is stronger, more complex, than you give her credit for, and I am the only angel who understands that harnessing such beautiful chaos will garner power.”
Everyone gathered is silent. Apprehensive. How foolish they were to have thought Lucifer would be quietly accepting.
The fire at the center of the Gathering spews purple flames and all at once infuses the air with the smell of rot and fury. The ground quakes, weaving a tremendous crack across the stones, splitting them apart, sending a few scrambling for balance, but nothing is louder than the ripping, the
breaking,
of what could only be Lucifer himself.
His back bent, Lucifer leans over in agony. His white wings unwillingly unfurl from his shoulder blades, shooting up and out, expanding as the feathers ignite into flames. In moments, the flames burn out, leaving his once beautiful wings thick with the blackest ash.
My heart is in my throat. The others are frozen where they stand, unable to comprehend what has just gone so horribly wrong, and my brother stares at them with fury in his eyes.
Rafael raises his mighty sword as the others shield their faces. “This is what you’ve become!
This is what you truly are!”
“No!” I shout, rushing forward, but I am too late. A brilliant light spews from the tip of the blade, blinding Lucifer, swathing him in the darkness he has chosen over the light we all abide by. He will never see Heaven again.
His eyes bleed as he runs his fingers over them, but there is nothing he can do. From now on they will be of no use to him.
A low sound comes to my ears and I want to run to my brother, but to my surprise it is not a sound of pain. It is laughter again, rising, building, mocking us all. Staggering to his feet, Lucifer clumsily reaches the tree line where I’ve been standing, and I am no longer hidden from the Council. He cannot see me, but somehow, he knows I am here.
“Hadrian,” he whispers hoarsely. “Avenge me.”
***
The whites of his eyes are gone completely. There is nothing but black, darkness, hatred. I open my mouth, but he does not wait for my response. He turns sharply to face Archs he cannot see. Rafael’s sword is still again, and I brace myself against the sturdy trunk of a tree for what will surely be the end of my brother, and the end of all I’ve ever known Heaven to be.
Lucifer dodges the white light that streams freely from the sword and hurtles himself over the edge, the very edge that separates Heaven and Earth. I tear away from my spot among the trees and peer over the clouds into the great void. My eyes frantically search for him, picturing his body as it freefalls, picturing what will happen when he touches the Earth, and just when I think I’ve spotted my brother’s body, his ebony wings still against the rushing wind, there is a flash of light so bright I need to look away. I peer over again, my eyes stinging, and all I can see is a single star streaming across the morning sky toward an unsuspecting world below.
Panic builds behind me, followed by strange lapses of movement, as everyone, the Seraphs, the Archs, the Thrones, struggle to collectively grasp what has just happened. From the corner of my eye I see Gabriel and Michael touch Rafael’s arm, urging him to let the sword drop to the ground. It falls with metallic clatter against the rocks.
“What did he say to you?”
Comes a voice behind me, and I turn to find Talan, wide-eyed, eager, his hand clutching the empty scabbard as he always does. Mid way through his training, he is the youngest Angel of Death I have ever known among the Guardians. Strong and silver haired, as if he is made of the very willow I stand beneath, he is moons away from earning his own right to a weapon. His dark eyes tell me he wishes that day were today.
I don’t answer him. I don’t know what to admit. I’m not even sure if Lucifer did indeed ask anything of me, even though I can still feel the resonance of his voice ringing in my head.
“Avenge me . . .”
I ignore Talan, which clearly annoys him, and walk closer toward the Conveniō, taking in all that is around me. The broken stones, thrones turned over, the endless blue that lies beyond the edge where my brother’s body had just thrown itself. I dare n
ot look again for if I do I fear what I will see. I fear what I will do. Part of him has been left behind and lives in me; it is a fury that surges deeply. It is alien, and for the first time ever, I am fearful. This is not who I am. I fight against it, turning away when I feel the others turn their focus to me. Someone approaches and I twist around sharply believing Talan to be more of a pest than ever before, but it isn’t Talan, and I’m silenced by Rafael’s sincere interest in what he finds behind my eyes.
“The pool has spoken. You shall take Lucifer’s place among the Archs.”
A scurry of argument threatens to rise behind us but Rafael’s raised hand puts an end to it.
“It will be so,” he nods, leading the others away from the Gathering. I stand alone, my footing unsure upon the broken ground, and know with all my heart that I have no choice but to accept this new fate.
***
Beneath me is a fleeting moment humans call morning that wells a deep purple mist rising from the earth, fading into the sky, where it will seep into the void, and become lost. Somewhere down there is my brother. Millennia have passed
, but I know he is alive. And all the while I feel as if something is pulling me there. It is in this moment where I too am condemned to the Bliss.
The clouds thin
, revealing the patchwork panorama of a small town still sleeping beneath the indigo dawn just blooming toward the east. Somewhere down there is my charge, a quiet man with a good heart. Nearby sleeps a little girl, her fists clenched tightly against her pale pink nightgown.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why the Archs would give such a simple man the responsibility of being the Eighth Gate, why he must be guarded so closely, but Rafael tells me it is my job as Guardian to watch, that all will be explained in time. Just as the heavens were forged by a mighty hand, so were the division of the Gates and their purpose.
Just midway through my Reflection sentence, the soft approach of footsteps catches me off guard. Turning, I am struck by the curious light in the pair of eyes staring back at me, the deepest violet, they appear almost black. Vayne tilts her head, trying to see through my silence. I see why Lucifer found her beautiful. Her red and gold feathered wings catch the rays of the sun, mesmerizing me.
“I know what Lucifer asked of you,” Vayne speaks with such a softness I almost don’t depict the secrecy that hides beneath her words. Her voice is mesmerizing, making everything around me feel as if it is moving. The breeze has now died, yet her fiery red hair still blows on its own accord. There is a look in her eyes I cannot quite fathom. If Guardians knew love then she could most definitely have loved my brother, but Vayne has always drawn questionable attention to herself, and Lucifer had always sought out anything that went against the grain.
I want to trust her, because what I see in her expression is much like what I’d seen in Lucifer’s; an illusion that I might possibly be drawn closer to what’s become of him, and suddenly, I am tempted to tell her everything - about what I saw in his eyes as he came out of the Bliss, how he watched the others, how he tried to understand them because he was drawn to the darkness they harbor. How he instilled his own dark opinions in the young soul he was supposed to protect.
“He went straight to her, you know, straight to the one who opened his eyes,” she tells me.
The memory of Rafael’s sword strikes me as if I too was dealt the blow that blinded Lucifer for all eternity. I clench my jaw and look at her. “He no longer has eyes.”
“Ah, but that’s where you are gravely mistaken,” her own light up at this notion, causing the black of her pupils to grow even darker. “He sees what we choose not to.”
I shake my head.
“Look at this, Hadrian,” Vayne’s arms are spread wide. “How they watch you, always seeking Lucifer inside you, always trying to learn where they went wrong.”
“Archangels aren’t meant to fail,” I tell her.
“Ahh, but they do, don’t they. Your brother was an Arch, and that’s where the others are wrong. He didn’t fail, he succeeded. He’s exactly where he wants to be right now.”
I cannot help myself and my eyes trail to the edge. Lucifer’s words ring through my head. I picture my brother in darkness, serving an eternal sentence, waiting, and suddenly I am filled with temptation.
A curious smile forms upon Vayne’s lips. “It’s right where they want you to be, as well.”
Her comment lashes at my back, and I turn away from her, wondering what she knows that I
do not.
“Why do you think they replaced him so quickly? Did you earn the title of Archangel? Did you not see the faces of those who have worked so tirelessly to prove themselves to the Seven, only to watch it simply handed to you?”
Vayne steps in front of me. “You are the Watched now, Hadrian. You are the Seven’s link to the darkness Lucifer has come to desire,” she urges. “Prove your brother is right. Prove the Gates are so much more than the Archs ever believed in the first place.”
Smiling, she backs away and before my eyes, she is airborne, her arms shrinking to become tiny wings, her face elongating into the rest of her body. She is in flight, beautiful, wicked, and not a soul in Heaven seems to pay mind to her as the raven she becomes dives into the clouds below after her long lost love.
I make no attempt to move from the Bliss, and I suppose part of me wishes for Rafael and the others to return. But all is quiet. As if I’m left here on purpose to struggle with my own thoughts, and I cannot help but wonder if Vayne’s words ring true; that the Archs are
somewhere nearby, watching to see what I will choose to do. Even with the passage of time, do I still feel compelled to follow him?
Vayne's words still echo in my mind as I remove myself from the Bliss and stretch my limbs. I walk forward, slowly, feeling where the pearlescent clouds touch the sky. I don’t look back. I don’t say a word. My body is weightless, white wings turning gray against the heavens. My decision solidifies . . . and I fall.
There is a burning fire that consumes me, confuses me, and I hear voices crying out to me. Wanting me. Needing me. Tempting me. Too many wishes—too many to decipher. I am overwhelmed and lost. Where is Lucifer?
EARTH
T
races of my brother are everywhere, and my head throbs from the constant chaos as I search for him. Screams. Despair. Death. The smell here is sour, as if decay has somehow tried to sweeten itself.
Humans can be despicable, ugly creatures, yet I seem to understand why Lucifer is so enamored; why there is a need to change them, as a Guardian might desire. The air here is deceivingly toxic, and I find I lose myself quickly to its effects. Something dark laughs inside me.
It grows the longer I stay surrounded by earthly horror and hate, and instead of fighting it like I know I should, I willingly invite it to take root.
I have a shadow. Talan follows me nearly every day, and although I try to lose him, it is to no avail. We don’t speak, only watch one another closely, and I’ve come to learn that as he develops his own skills, I am hopefully closer to finding my fallen brother.
Talan closes his eyes, as he has done so many times today, and it can mean only one thing.