Solace (Asteria Trilogy Book 1)

by Alaina Katherine

  “Good morning, Goddess.” Gabriel bowed his head slightly.

  “Good morning,” I smiled.

  “I am sorry I was not awake sooner but I was up fairly late last night waiting for you. I was certain you were going to wake up sooner than this.”

  “Yeah, me too. I’m surprised neither of my parents woke me up,” I commented.

  “They checked on you a few times. Don’t worry about school for yesterday, I took the liberty of calling them to let them know you were sick and would not be coming in.”

  “Thank you,” I replied before excusing myself to go primp in the bathroom, I’m sure that after sleeping over twenty four hours I didn’t look particularly attractive. After showering and changing out of the clothes that I had slept in I felt much more awake. “Do you want breakfast?” I asked Gabriel when I returned to my room.

  “That would be nice.”

  As we walked through the dining room to the kitchen I noticed a paper on the table designated to where my parents and I left notes for each other if we ever needed to. I read over the note quickly. Apparently my parents had come home to find me asleep and hadn’t wanted to wake me since they were under the assumption that I was really sick.

  “That’s convenient at least. Now we can return to Aether and you can meet some of the other angels,” Gabriel remarked once he had finished reading the note over my shoulder.

  “Oh, great,” I mumbled.

  “Is something wrong?” he drew his brows together.

  “I just had nightmares about failing miserably as a Goddess. Being in charge of a whole world is pretty terrifying. What if I mess up? What if I end up destroying the human race instead of the fallen?” My eyes grew wide with horror at the thought.

  “Relax Sage, you will do just fine,” Gabriel chuckled.

  “Well I’m glad that you all find me so amusing when I have panic attacks,” I grumbled.

  “You all?” he questioned.

  “Yes, all you angles seem to enjoy laughing at my expense.”

  “It is merely because your fears are so ridiculous. We all believe that you can handle whatever is going to happen.” Gabriel tried to reason with me but I still wasn’t so sure. “You’ll prove us right, I know you will.”

  My stomach chose that moment to growl really loudly, causing Gabriel to have even more laughs at my expensive.

  “Maybe it’s time we get you that breakfast, huh?” Gabriel smirked. I just glared at him before stomping into the kitchen.

  “For that you can serve your own breakfast,” I said as I poured myself a bowl of cereal.

  “Maybe I’ll just eat something at my house when we go to Aether,” he replied as he scrutinized all of my processed foods.

  “Suit yourself,” I said as I brought a huge spoonful of cereal to my mouth. “So, any warnings before I meet these people today? Because you so should have given me a warning about Michael.”

  “Nope, no warnings. No one else has the personality that Michael does.”

  “Okay good, because I don’t think I can handle any more people like him.”

  I finished up my breakfast, fed Storm, and then Gabriel and I flew the treacherous (to me at least) trip to Aether. This time we landed in front of my Temple as opposed to the humungous gates from yesterday. I suppose those gates were merely a precaution seeing as yesterday nobody knew who I was and today I was a Goddess. While we walked from my Temple to Gabriel’s house various angels would give me a slight bow or nod whenever I passed them.

  “Are they always going to do that?” I asked, feeling a little uncomfortable about all the attention.

  “No, not always, they are doing it as a sort of welcome home. They will always show their respect to you though.”

  “News really does travel fast around here. Everyone already knows right?” Gabriel just nodded his head in reply.

  I took a moment to look around me. All of the buildings were made with stone, though none of them were made with the same stone as my temple was. The sidewalk beneath my feet was made of cobblestone; it veered off in various directions at some points. Everyone walked to their destinations, there was not a single car, not even a horse and carriage. The grass around the sidewalks and buildings was lush and filled with various trees and blooming flowers. The sky was the same blue as it was anywhere else except the sun seemed a little more golden here.

  “No one here has their wings out but you,” I pointed out to Gabriel.

  “I’m sure they are trying not to scare you since you are not used to seeing people with huge wings on their backs,” Gabriel said before turning down a path that led up to a two story building made of some sort of cream stone that I assumed was his house. He simply turned the knob on the door to open it. “Here we are, this is my home.”

  “You don’t lock your door?” I puzzled.

  “There is no need to here. I should let you know though that Michael lives here as well so he could walk in at any moment.”

  “Wonderful,” I rolled my eyes.

  Gabriel led the way over to his quaint kitchen where he began chopping fresh fruits into a bowl for his breakfast.

  “You should try the fruits that grows up here, they’re delicious,” Gabriel suggested before popping a strawberry into his mouth.

  “Maybe some other time. I can’t really eat much when I first wake up.” I scrunched up my nose at the thought of eating at this moment. “So who am I going to meet first?”

  “First, I am going to take you to meet Uriel. He is the one who is in charge of the prophecies.”

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

  “I’ll explain on the way,” Gabriel said as he washed his bowl and put it away.

  On the walk over to what Gabriel called “The Archives” he explained to me what exactly The Archives was. He told me that Uriel was an angel who had a gift for interpreting visions. When a prophet had a vision, Uriel would meet with the prophet (back on earth of course, since humans were not allowed up here) and document the vision and then write down the meaning behind the vision as it pertained to the angels. It turned out that prophets occasionally did have visions that had nothing to do with the angels at all, visions that were simply about the human world. The Archives was where all of these documented visions were stored.

  Once we had climbed up the steps of The Archives there was a man standing at the door with a clip board in his hand.

  “Salve, Gabriel!” the man cried. It was the second time I had heard that strange word. I made a mental note to ask Gabriel what it meant later. “This must be Asteria’s incarnate.”

  “Indeed it is, Arafiel,” Gabriel replied.

  Arafiel, just like all the other angels walking around today, had his wings retracted. He was tall and lanky, so unlike all the other angels I had met so far, though I’m sure he was just as powerful as the rest of them. His blonde hair was tied back in a similar fashion as Michaels had been. He handed the clip board to Gabriel who quickly scribbled on it, all the while Arafiel was staring blankly at me.

  “What?” I demanded causing Arafiel to turn his gaze downward, embarrassed that I had caught him staring.

  “Let’s go inside, Sage.” Gabriel ushered me through the door of The Archives.

  Once I was inside I took a moment to look around the spacious room. The walls were covered with filing cabinets and book shelves. I walked over to one of the shelves and ran a finger along the spines of a few of the books. All the books were bound in leather and looked ancient and I assumed that if I were to open one I would find that it had been written by hand.

  “This place is magnificent,” I muttered, staring in awe around me.

  “Indeed, perhaps one day Uriel can give you a tour of it, but for now we shall just introduce you two.” Gabriel smiled.

  “I’m afraid that won’t be possible Gabriel.” I jumped at the sound of another woman in the room. I turned my attention to the owner of the voice. An older woman stood before me, her pale hair was cut just at her shoulders a
nd every now and then when the light would it her hair there would be streaks of silver that showed her age. Though she was old, her face was not that of a winkled elderly woman instead, what gave the inclination to her age were her eyes. When you met her gaze you could sense the wisdom behind them and her sharp features only enhanced this.

  “Hello, Sandalphon,” Gabriel said with a slight bow of his head. “This is Asteria’s incarnate Sage.”

  “Greetings Sage.” Saldalphon’s face softened as she smiled at me. “It is wonderful to have you back, Goddess.”

  It was really weird how I was being shown so much respect from people, let alone angels, who barely knew me.

  “Um, it’s good to be back?” I couldn’t really think of any other response to her comment.

  “She’s an amusing one isn’t she.” Sandalphon grinned. I just turned to glare at Gabriel who was trying hard to stifle his laughter.

  “So everyone seems to think,” I begrudgingly remarked.

  “Sage, Sandalphon is Metatron’s wife,” Gabriel explained. Though the words seemed normal enough, the inclination behind those words was that Sandalphon was a pretty powerful woman up here. She would have to be in order to be in the position to be Metatron’s wife considering he was the Elder angel here, in charge of keeping order. But wouldn’t I be more powerful than all of them? I was after all their Goddess. “The two of them were the only Angels who were not born as Angels. They were born human prophets but the Goddess admired them so much that she decided to turn them into Angels.”

  “No need to brag for me Gabriel.” Sandalphon gave a little shake of her head. “Anyways, enough about me. When will the welcoming ceremony be?”

  “I forgot about that actually, I suppose we should do it when Sage is actually living up here,” Gabriel replied

  “I certainly look forward to it. Now I must go, I have business to attend to.” She gestured over to a small office like room off to the right where there was an intimidating high stack of papers sitting on a desk. “It was wonderful to see you again Asteria. Sage.”

  At that Sandalphon headed for her office and Gabriel turned towards the door we had come in from.

  “We will just have to meet with Uriel at another time,” Gabriel said, holding the door open for me.

  “She never said why we couldn’t speak to him though,” I commented.

  “He is probably with a prophet at the moment.” Gabriel shrugged.

  We walked together in silence for a few minutes before I asked Gabriel something that had been bothering me quite a bit since learning that I was supposed to have visions.

  “Gabriel, when am I going to have a vision? That first one was more of a nightmare.”

  “Have patience,” Was his aggravating answer.

  “But I’m the Goddess of visions, should I have had a whole bunch by now?” I queried.

  “Maybe there just isn’t anything going on for you to have a vision about. Or maybe Asteria is giving you time to adjust to all of this,” he gestured around us with a swoop of his arm. “Before giving you a vision.”

  “What do they feel like? Will I know beforehand that I’m about to have one?”

  “I don’t know, perhaps we should introduce you to another prophet who can answer those questions for you.”

  “So who are we going to meet now?” I asked. Gabriel simply nodded to a group of three angels in response to my question.

  All three of the angels had their wings out and resting against their backs, which was strange since everyone else had put theirs away while I was here. The two girls were almost exact physical opposites of each other. One’s wings were the color of champagne diamond with long wavy blonde hair that almost matched it perfectly. The blonde one’s skin was also fairly pale, a milky color almost. The color of her skin almost seemed to radiant light off of her, this in addition to all of her other features made her look exactly as one would expect and angel to look. The other girl’s wings were the color of uncut garnet, dark with a red hue and when her long bone-straight hair hit the sunlight just right it had that red hue as well. Her skin was tanned, and that in combination with her dark hair made her look more like a woman form the Amazon as opposed to an angel. The third angel that was there was a man whose skin matched that of the Amazon girl. The color and shine of his wings reminded me of cream moonstone, though dreaded hair that hung midway down his back was a dark brown. F

  “Gabriel!” the dark haired girl waved over to us, her eyes growing wide with excitement when she saw me. “You must be Sage,” the girl said as she and all the others stood up to greet me.

  Now that the two girls were standing side by side I could see even more contrasts between them. The dark haired girl was at least five inches taller than the blonde. The dark haired girl also had a fair amount of curves where as the blonde…well, didn’t, she was as skinny as a twig. The boy’s height almost rivaled that of the dark haired girl but he seemed to have an inch or two over her and of course he was built similarly to Gabriel and Michael which probably meant he was a protector angel as well.

  “Sage this is Raphael, Azrael, and Seraphiel.” Gabriel introduced as the three bowed their heads at me. Even the girls’ names fit with their appearance. The dark haired girl was the one that Gabriel introduced as Azrael which seemed like such a fierce name that fit with her looks. The blonde haired girl was the one named Seraphiel which I thought was a nice angelic name to accompany her looks.

  “Sage, did you know that you can watch T.V on the internet!” Azrael enthused.

  “Um, yes. I do that a lot actually,” I answered not quite sure what the intention of that statement was.

  “That is amazing. We were just discussing how creative Terrigena are,” Azrael explained.

  “What does that mean,” I asked.

  “What, Terrigena?” Azrael questioned in return.

  “It means earth born,” Gabriel answered before anyone else could. Azrael rolled her eyes at Gabriel interrupting our conversation.

  “Anyways, welcome Sage. So tell me, what’s it feel like to be a Goddess?” she continued.

  “I basically feel the same as I did before I was informed of this, the only difference is that now I have panic attacks over the fact that I am supposedly responsible for the entire human race,” I responded with a sarcastic smile.

  “Sage is under the impression that she will not be successful as our Goddess,” Gabriel explained at my rudeness.

  “I’m sure you will be great.” Seraphiel finally spoke. Her voice came out so soft and lyrical.

  “I keep trying to tell her that but she won’t listen to me, maybe she’ll listen to you, though I highly doubt it.” Gabriel rolled his eyes.

  “I don’t understand how everyone is so certain that I am capable of this when none of you even know me.”

  “We trust Asteria, and she chose you. She has never let us down so why would we begin to doubt her now?” Raphael said meeting my gaze with stern, dark eyes. I stood up straighter and squared my shoulders under the intensity of his gaze. His look was so powerful and his voice so sure that I finally began believing that maybe, just maybe, I could after all not fail miserably at this.

  “So,” I said, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence that had ensued after Raphael’s statement. “Are all of you Protectors as well?”

  “Yeah, though none of has us been graced with having our charges turn out to be Goddesses.” Azrael pouted slightly.

  “Be grateful, they tend to be snarky,” Gabriel joked. In reply I pinched Gabriel's arm.

  “Gabriel,” came an unexpected voice from behind us, causing me to jump. “We need to speak. You still have not informed me of the decision.” Oh, Metatron, wonderful.

  “Of course, let’s walk for a little while.” Gabriel turned away with Metatron, leaving me alone with the other three angels.

  “So, wait, you don’t always have to be with your charge?” I asked in Gabriel's absence.

  “Nope, we have a connection to them so i
f anything goes wrong we would know,” Raphael explained.

  “And we do have to check in on them every now and then,” Seraphiel added.

  “And if we think there is some sort of threat of course we will stay in Terra with them,” Azrael concluded.

  “So I’m the only one under twenty four seven watch then.” I sighed.

  “Well of course you are, you’re Asteria, and we can’t risk anything happening to you,” Raphael reasoned.

  “So Asteria, I see we have come to something reasonable.” Metatron smiled at me as he and Gabriel reproached.

  “I suppose so.” I didn’t smile.

  “I have the perfect place for you to live when the time comes, let me show you it.” Metatron was beaming.

  “We’ll see you later then, Sage.” Azrael smiled at me and at the same time gave Metatron a pointed look when she said my real name.

  “It was nice meeting you all.” I smiled before turning to Gabriel to link his arm within mine.

  The three of us were silent on the walk over to the house Metatron wanted to show me mainly because I was still upset over Metatron freaking out at me yesterday. I mean, did he really think he could just get away with making me practically give up my life? And I wish he would stop calling me Asteria all the time, my name is Sage and if he wants me to be his Goddess then he better get that straight. Gabriel gently squeezed my hand, sensing that I was upset.

  “Here we are!” Metatron gestured to our left, practically bouncing with enthusiasm.

  I looked up at the house with my jaw hanging open in what was, I assumed, to be a very unattractive manor.

  “This is not a house!” I blurted, finally managing to shut my mouth.

  “It is a bit much, Metatron.” Gabriel grimaced.

  “It’s beautiful! I don’t know what you are speaking of.” Metatron gazed up at the “house” in awe.

  The “house” was made of what I assumed was Limestone and had to be about four stories high. It had what looked like crystal windows and a huge oak door. The thing was very beautiful, Metatron was right about that but it looked more like a museum than a house, and in fact it reminded me slightly of Vizcaya in Miami, Florida. I’m sure that if I were to walk around to the back of the house I would find an ornate garden that I would probably get myself lost in.