What a strange day it was turning out to be.
Chapter Sixteen
The Dream Keeper
The Dream Keeper outstretched his massive wings against the indigo of the twilight sky. Though normally loath to interfere, he knew things had to be sped up. The last dream he sent had opened their minds and their psyches, but they needed another push. Though they had felt the pangs of attraction for each other, they needed to be opened to it more, so much depended on it. If they did not become a team devoted to each other soon, it might be too late. Their stubbornness and fear were understandable, but time was running out. The situation was becoming worse, more lives of those like him were lost every day, lives that should never have been taken. His kind were meant to be immortal, created in the Heavens to glorify their Creator, to protect the Heavens and to watch over humanity. There had been so many wars, and so many of his kind had fallen that now when one of his brothers or sisters died in battle, there was no soul to cross over into Heaven, or to the Underworld. They simply ceased to exist, their energy quickly winked out and extinguished forever. It was unnatural. Energy of any kind couldn’t just disappear, not without transforming into something else. This is why their deaths were often followed by natural disasters; earthquakes, a tsunamis or fires. There were, however, a small number of angels who dedicated themselves to collecting the quickly dissipating energy of the ones who died in battle, trying to preserve their energy in a way, by encapsulating them into objects and placing them in sacred sites throughout the earth. These angels were rare, but when there was a major battle being fought, they always seemed to be there, lying in wait to try and save the essence of those mighty ones of the Light who had died in war.
The Dream Keeper knelt at his altar, facing the West, his silvery blue wings opened wide. He plucked a feather from each wing and then let them fold neatly against his back. Holding a feather in each hand, he lifted them up so that the full moon fell upon them, letting them become "moonstruck" and thus enchanted. Praising the Creator, and with the deepest essence of love and light, the Dream Keeper began his chant in an ancient, beautiful language, his voice melodic and resonant, resonating deeply throughout his sacred space. He programmed a dream into each feather, one for each of the ones on the earth who played a pivotal part, though neither of them knew it. One was innocent, not knowing who or what she truly was, but powerful beyond her understanding. The other was full of bitter hurt and a deep sense of betrayal. Each was one of a kind, and they needed each other. His brothers and sisters of the Light needed them both, and so here he knelt, breathing words of enchanted dreams into each of his feathers, to bring the two of them closer together.
***
In her dream, Annaleah stood with bare feet on the moonlit path, deep in the woods she knew so well, behind the house she shared with Uncle John. The kudzu covered pines and Spanish moss draped oaks gave her a sense of familiar comfort as she gazed upon them. Here she had played since she was a child, learning the mysteries and wonders of nature. She had many fond memories here; One of which was as her only memory of her mother, Elise. Like Annaleah, Elise had loved nature, and Annaleah remembered walking in the woods with her and seeing her long blonde curls blowing in the wind around her slim face. In her memory, she was holding her mother's hand, and they were laughing and singing while trying to find interesting things to point out to each other. She couldn't have been much older than three, as her mother had died when she was four. This memory was sacred to Annaleah, and was one she saved to think of only sometimes, afraid if she thought of it too much, she would distort the sound of her Mother's voice, and of her laughter, one of the only things she had left of her. She wanted to remember it pure and real, so she kept the memory safely locked away in her heart, for the times when she needed it most.
Annaleah walked further along the path which opened into a small clearing far within the woods. A figure stood there, dressed in black and partially hidden in the shadows of the night. A sense of familiarity washed over her, as well as a sense of longing, though she was still unsure of who it was in the clearing. She stood at the edge of the woods, watching him, her eyes drinking in his form, or what she could make of it, and tried to understand what was happening. Her sense of urgency to go to whomever it was standing before her was mixed with a sense of foggy confusion.
The shadowed form moved slightly, the moonlight falling more fully on him, and Annaleah gasped in surprise as she looked upon Sebastian Bainbridge, but he was not as she knew him in her waking life. What little bit of skin she saw was pale and luminescent, as if arcs of light were within him, reminding her of white opals in their brilliance. He was much taller, at least eight feet, but it was neither of these two things that registered the most shock to her. It was his enormous wings. If he were eight feet now, then his wings were a full fifteen, reaching several feet over his head. They were full and glorious to behold, shimmering with a silvery white light that looked as if it were somehow alive. The feathers shone like the quality of his skin, but paler, a silver white so pure it almost hurt her eyes to gaze upon them. His hair was still long and black, but it too shone with its own light, a deep blue aura about it, as if the moonlight had come to life within it. He was beautiful.
Sebastian must have felt the intensity of Annaleah's gaze upon him, for he turned and looked right at her, where she stood trying to hide behind the branches of a small pine at the edge of the clearing. The moment his eyes met hers, she felt her legs lose a bit of their strength, for they were not the eyes she knew in the "real" world, but eyes she felt, without knowing how or why, that she knew intimately. His eyes had no pupils; the whites only held a large, colored iris that was silver and reflective like a mirror. She was frightened for a moment, though she sensed he meant her no harm. What was happening?
"Annaleah," Sebastian said, his pale, full lips smiling at her. He opened both his arms and the full span of his large, beautiful wings to her, radiating a sense of love, one which washed over her so completely that she felt hypnotized by him. The swelling of her heart became a flood of emotions, as if she had known and loved this creature for longer than she had even known herself, had known life or breath. Nothing made sense, and so she let go of sense all together and went with her emotions, which were so powerful they drove her out of her place behind the small pine, and towards Sebastian in the clearing of the woods.
As Annaleah moved, she noticed her feet were not her own feet, but those like the creature which called to her. They too, were pale, but instead of lit from within with a silver light, they radiated with a warm, pale golden fire, little arcs flashing here and there. As she walked, she noticed her body felt different in stature, not the tiny five-foot frame she was used to. She too, was much taller, though not quite as tall as the creature Sebastian Bainbridge had become. Moving seemed more effortless, as if her intention to move fueled her forward more than the movements of her feet. She was confused, but too blissful in her state of emotions to let the confusion settle in and ruin it.
Finally, Annaleah stood face to face with the strange and beautiful being that Sebastian had become. He looked down at her with a serene and loving smile on his lips, his silver eyes soft and gentle despite their otherworldly qualities. The moment seemed to last forever, emotions and meaning conveyed wordlessly, carried into her heart and mind, filling her with a deep, living sense of passion and longing. It washed over her and through her until it became all she could think, all she could feel, reverberating in each heartbeat, exhaled with every breath. Finally, she fell towards him, into his arms, consumed, on fire with longing for nothing more in the world but to be held by him.
Sebastian caught Annaleah neatly in his arms, and encircled her in his wings, holding her so close she felt she could melt right into him and together they would burn as one being. Tears came to her then, spilling down her cheeks and falling onto her breasts, a silver light coming from them as they fell. Sebastian opened his wings then and placed a finger under her chin, tilting her he
ad up to look into his mirror eyes. As she saw herself in them, glowing and alive and beautiful, it felt so very right. Sebastian wiped the tears from her eyes, slowly, gently and with great care. His eyes never left hers as he bent his head down, until right before the moment when he caught her lips with his, and everything in the world ceased to exist but their kiss. In that sacred, glorious moment, as their lips pressed together, she was pierced to her heart with all-consuming adoration, and from behind her she felt a great motion, as if she had moved something with a great weight on her back. Confused, and a bit shocked, she broke the kiss, turning to see what was happening behind her.
Sebastian laughed despite her apparent confusion and said, "Oh Annaleah my darling, did you forget?"
Feeling a bit betrayed by his laughter when he could plainly see her distress, Annaleah asked, "Did I forget what?"
At this Sebastian outstretched his magnificent wings to their full height and length, blocking out the sky and the moon hanging therein.
"Your wings Annaleah; you forgot you had wings."
Chapter Seventeen
Mesmerized
With a sharp intake of breath, Sebastian awoke in the perfect darkness of his room. As he listened to the thunderous galloping of his heart, his mind spun as he tried to understand what had happened in his dream.
He trembled as he regained more consciousness, and though he willed himself to stop, the tremors continued to pass through him, wave after wave. It was no use to fight them, and he finally resigned himself to their grasp, gritting his teeth in frustration that he had lost control of himself.
Fragments of the dream washed through his mind. He had found himself in the middle of a clearing in a moonlit forest, in a form he had not taken in countless years. Feeling his wings on his back, the familiarity of their weight and the wind rushing over them in the coolness of the night had brought back memories both comforting and terrible. He had stood there, looking around him, wondering why he was there, and why he was no longer in human form. Before he had the chance to form any answers, he saw her. He thought of the luminescence of her skin as she walked from the shadow of the trees, the faraway look in her eyes before it came to her who he was, and the gaze of adoration in them after she did.
He recalled the warm flood of an emotion he had not felt in so long. It overcame him, radiating from his very soul as she glided to him, her golden wings gently folded behind her back. He hadn’t fought the feeling, but had welcomed it, even enjoyed it as it filled him.
It wasn’t likely for him to let his guard down in waking life, but those who worked in the Unseen knew dreams were another matter. His dreams were an opening, a means to get his attention when there were few other ways of doing so. They certainly held his attention now.
Closing his eyes tighter as he remembered his dream, he fought with himself. He wasn’t ready to let emotions weaken him, as beautiful and tempting as they might be. Yet part of him wanted nothing more than that, to let the tenderness he felt from her wash away the bitter hurt in him, to be freed of his burden by the touch of her lips on his. It required trust, and that was something he wasn’t sure he had to offer.
Something was going on in the Unseen, something with remarkable importance. There was no other explanation for it. There was too much going on in too little time for it to be anything but guided by the hands of those who had once been his brothers and sisters. He knew Annaleah was a central part of it, but why her? Why was this beautiful woman-child so important?
And beautiful she was. Though his heart was scarred and he had all but forgotten the tenderness of raw, unadulterated emotion, the powerful elation he felt when he saw her in the dream was undeniable. He remembered how he had wanted to rush to her, to sweep her up in his arms, to kiss her until there was no more doubt in his heart. He would have done so, if he could have taken his eyes off of her. There had been a power and intensity when their eyes met, a linking of the spirit in a way that was more intimate than the touching of flesh.
As Sebastian remembered their kiss, he parted his lips, trying to relive the moment when her mouth had first pressed over his. His heartbeat quickened once more, and momentarily forgot his vow to himself to never love, to never trust again. For just this brief moment of time, he told himself, he would allow for this simple pleasure, this gift from the Unseen.
Something changed in him as he did so, and in his mind’s eye he envisioned a silver blue feather gently falling through the air, illuminated by the moonlight.
Then Sebastian knew, it had been a dream sent by the arch angel Gabriel, the Dream Keeper.
If Gabriel had taken the time to send this message to him, whatever else it might mean, Sebastian knew one thing for certain.
War was coming.
Chapter Eighteen
Nephila the Jorogumo
Annaleah roused briefly from her dream, and finding herself in her bed, felt a pang of disappointment at leaving Dream Time. She could still feel the tingle of the creature's lips on hers. The creature...Professor Bainbridge? Since she had met him, she had tried hard not to look at him as anything but the moody, intense man she had just begun to teach with. She had to admit however, that try as she might, she had begun to see him as more than that. Closing her eyes, she permitted herself to think of him as something more, as a man, and as an attractive one at that. He did have a nice, full mouth, and his eyes, though dark as night and holding a strange power that puzzled her, were also in their way, quite handsome. His voice was low and his accent was rich and mysterious, and his particular way of enunciation was eloquent.
Annaleah smiled, the afterglow of her dream still full in her mind and spirit. She willed herself back to sleep to see if she could again meet the creature that the professor had become in her dream.
***
Once again, Annaleah found herself in the woods, still on the path, a little way from the clearing. The energy of the atmosphere around her, however, was not the same as it had been before. The moonlight did not lend its beauty here, nor its essence of serenity. Shadows, thick as syrup, clung to the trees, undulating in a way that made her feel dizzy. There was a sense of danger hanging heavy and thick in the air, a feeling that she was being watched by someone with evil intentions.
In bare feet, Annaleah spun around in a circle, willing her eyes to see into the inky darkness of the thick shadows, to find what or who it was that watched her. She didn’t notice the silence around her was absolute, until she stepped on a twig and heard it crack under her foot, sending her heart hammering thunderously inside her chest. Looking down at the path she stood on, she saw what appeared to be several black specks move from the grass of the woods onto the path itself. Some were large; some no bigger than her fingernail. Only a few came at first, and then more followed, until there were many, all moving toward her.
"What in the world?" Annaleah thought to herself, as she watched the dark objects, trying to make out what they were. When realization hit her, fear struck her like a slap across the face and adrenaline surged into her blood. They were spiders. Hundreds of them, all crawling as one toward her, their insectile legs moving them closer to where she stood. Though she loved all of nature, she strongly disliked spiders. They never seemed natural to her, as if they were alien creatures dropped off by some evil otherworldly people to terrorize humanity. They had always frightened her, and now they were here in a horrifying hoard, moments away from converging upon her.
Annaleah ran. With every muscle in her body and every thought in her mind, she ran with as much energy and purpose as she could. She hoped to find the Professor in the clearing, waiting for her, to save her. Her bare feet hit the earth with almost no sound; the only thing she could hear were the movements of thousands of legs, the scuttle of carapaces on earth, and the threat of mandibles clicking behind her. The shadows in the trees coalesced into forms she could now make out, and these were even more terrifying. More spiders, some as large as her head, dropped from the branches and joined their brethren on the pat
h moving towards her.
With a burst of speed, Annaleah made it to the clearing, where she saw a form hunched in the middle of it, motionless. She ran to the form, not noticing that the spiders had stopped at the edge of the woods, not coming into the clearing itself. As she approached the figure, it threw off its silky black cape, and stood up, startling her. A beautiful Asian woman stood before her, smiling wickedly. Her long black hair shone in what little moonlight the crescent moon and stars offered. Her skin was smooth and seemed to radiate a golden hue, though her skin itself was pale as alabaster. Her lips were stained scarlet as if with blood, a stark contrast to the fairness of her skin. Her deep brown eyes were lined in kohl, her lashes long and full. She wore a black and yellow silken kimono with intricate golden embroidery, and a silver pendant at her throat in the shape of a spider.
"Expecting to see someone else?" the woman asked Annaleah, smiling even more broadly before throwing back her head in maniacal laughter. Annaleah was frozen, too terrified to speak. The woman stopped laughing, lowered her head again and, smiling once more, looked Annaleah in the eye as she moved closer. "What's the matter girl, cat got your tongue?" The woman walked around her, slightly hunched forward as if she would lunge at any moment. "I see you have met my children, yes? They come out when it will rain, and also, in times of war. They were only trying to say hello, and you ran from them, you rude girl! You have offended my babies, and so you have offended me. Are you prepared to make it up to me?"
"Leave her alone, Jorogumo!" said a strong, feminine voice to their left. At hearing this, the woman before Annaleah spun towards the voice, her expression one of pure wrath.
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