Nyx took Sariel’s hand and the next instant they were standing in a dark gothic styled room. The floor and walls were all black marble veined with white and silver. The veins were the only colour. There was no furniture or decorations, only a pool taking up most of the room. Strange geometric shapes stabbed up out of the water. There were no light sources, only a soft predawn glow, her eyes quickly adjusted to the near absence of light.
Nyx led her to the edge of the pool, and they both knelt down. “Magic is the lifeblood of the planet, it runs in our blood, and some believe it is the blood of our spirits. Magic is incredibly varied, and it can respond differently. The best way to think of magic is as something living, if you use it according to its nature it will respond and if you use it against its nature, it will backlash. It can be unpredictable, and it can become your greatest weakness.”
Sariel nodded, she had learned as much. Magic was very enigmatic.
“You must learn to understand the nature of your own magic, to embrace it in its entirety. Mine is of the night, everything that belongs to the night is within my power. From the sky to darkness to dreams.”
She studied Sariel “your powers are incredibly varied. You have the powers of the Elder Angels, you are in your own right a powerful Arch Angel and as such have a rare and powerful type of magic. But you also have the powers of death and night from this side of your family. We don’t know the specifics of your mother’s powers but from her father you have inherited powers of the sun and sky.” She stopped and looked at the water before continuing “your strongest trait will either be your Angel powers or your death magic. You will explore all your facets in due time. I have taught you about the sky and shadows, Thanatos has taught you about death and Hecate has tried to help with those in between. But there is still much undiscovered about yourself.”
She held out her hand, it was slowly lost beneath thickening shadows. “This room is a focus for the shadows, within here you will find it exceptionally easy to reach your powers.”
She dropped her hand “You know how you reach your powers, it is especially easy in anger or desperation, but you still find it difficult without that emotional help. Knowing your powers will make it far easier.”
She placed her hand over Sariel’s heart “this is where most agree magic starts in the body, it is believed that our heart and mind is where our spirits are tethered to our bodies. The mind stores our memories, but our hearts give us our emotions and our magic. It is within your heart that the core of your magic exists.” Her clothes vaporised into black mist, not so very long ago Sariel would have been horrified, but living with so many of the Classical Gods and their subjects had desensitised her to nudity. She was no longer the little sheltered Angel she had once been.
Nyx pointed to her own heart, it could clearly be seen as a black branching blob on her pale skin. She blanked her skin, ensuring that is was unmarred and then allowed her magic to spread. Sariel watched as the darkness quickly spread through the blood, veins and capillaries being traced by darkness across her ivory skin. “It is by our blood that magic infuses our entire body, and we as Gods can control and change our bodies based on our powers. We are less physical than mortals, we are more magic than body, whereas mortals are the opposite, their magic conforms to their physical forms.”
She was suddenly behind Sariel, her hands gently grasping her shoulders as she whispered in her ear “To know your magic you must know yourself and open up all your heart.” She pushed Sariel into the dark water, the splash was loud but short-lived. She barely registered that her clothes were gone as she struggled to roll over. Wings were more of a nuisance in the water. She floated in the dark water, looking for her great-grandmother, but she couldn’t see her. Slowly the grey light started to darken, the strange geometric shapes started to move, sharp shadows at the edges of her vision. But she was unafraid, even as the water started to move.
“Open you heart Sariel, within this place you can safely dive within your core. Remember who you are, live your past and dream your future. Know your heart like no other possibly can, embrace the inner darkness.” She heard the whisper but the room had fallen into darkness with a few soft lights. She saw darker shapes moving and knew they were the statues. She allowed herself to be swept this way and that, allowing herself to relax as her body adjusted to the rhythm. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes, focussing on her heart and its constant beat.
She slipped down to her core, surprised at just how easily she did. But then she had used her magic many times before, the path was now there to follow. Slowly she felt her powers unfurl from their containment, both her tentative control and the lingering traces of Gabriel and Michael’s spells. She drew out tendrils of power and directed it back into the path, opening it further. In the darkness of her core, she was suddenly bathed in light and radiance, warmth flooded her, and she was awash in power.
Let your power flow through your entire body Sariel, direct it along the natural pathways.
Hearing Nyx’s voice Sariel rose slightly from her core, her mind was with her heart, and her magic was brimming over. She held it back, hesitating for a moment before she gradually released her hold, pouring forth into her bloodstream. Another part of her mind registered that her body was filling up with power, her senses growing stronger.
Then she let it all go, a tsunami of magic erupted from her heart along her arteries. Every drop of her blood became infused with her magic, and her mind spread throughout all her magic. She was everywhere within herself, part of every cell and fibre of her being.
Light flooded her senses as darkness swallowed them. She was lost, everything was happening all at once, she couldn’t tell which way was up or down, where she was. She was awash in her powers, flooding along her own body, losing senses.
Suddenly her consciousness slowed and stopped in a dark space. She could feel her magic and her blood flowing around her, but she floated within a void. She was in the eye of the storm, the very centre of her being, where she could direct all her magic without being washed away. She realised her magic wasn’t raging anymore, it was unfurling, growing, building, she wasn’t entirely sure what it was doing, but it seemed to be getting stronger and vaster.
Colours came back to her, was she seeing this or was her mind filling the details in with other senses? Bright sunlight invaded the space, pushing the shadows away to the edges. She floated halfway between bright sunlight above her and darkness below. Wind blew around her bringing with it the eerie song of the dead, it was stunning. Stars started to twinkle in the darkness below, she smelt rich loam and sea spray. A rhythmic thrum filled the space, was it a heartbeat? Flowers and leaves danced past on the wind, adding their scents to the mix. Thunder roared as lightning rent the air, fire bloomed, lava erupted from the darkness, blood splattered through the air staining white clouds. There were the sounds of screams blending into beautiful songs. She felt power, ancient power stir and shake her. She should have been scared seeing the maelstrom of her magic, but she was unafraid. This was everything she was, and she would not be denied her birthright again.
She summoned all of her powers, flooding the eye of the storm with her magic.
Nyx crouched at the edge of the pool watching as Sariel started being consumed by her magic. Darkness flooded the water, she had expected no less, her and Erebus’ blood ran strong in her veins. The darkness wrapped itself around the statues, smothering and choking them, only to shy away as they were suddenly flooded with brilliant sunlight. This room had never seen the light of day, those with sun magic only ever managed to make the statues glow, they were composed of darkness. And yet now they could have belonged in Heaven, light speared the shadows in the furthest corners, but it could not pierce the darkness of the water.
Then to her utter surprise, green lights started shining from within the dark waters, green vines growing upwards from them and twining around the statues. The statues quivered, flashing between green and white light, struggling to reflect which mag
ic. Why was Sariel exhibiting the powers of Gaia strongly? Clouds grew across the water, lightning dancing between them and the statues. All the colours of the rainbow flickered across the water’s surface and the statues’. Then the statues went berserk trying to reflect the kaleidoscope of Sariel’s powers.
Nyx stood transfixed as she recognised the powers of light and darkness, life and death, air and earth, fire and water, Heaven and Hell, Angel magic, God magic, Primordial magic. She could feel the Apocalypse and the Chaos that had birthed her. The room shook with undiluted powers, then it shook violently as the statues burst into flames. That couldn’t be right, the statues had been consumed by her magic, they were now purely magic.
The water swirled, drawing Sariel along with it. She floated around and around, passing through the magical statues. Above the light and clouds mirrored her passage. Nyx crouched transfixed as she watched primal powers condensing in the room. A crash of thunder and the water was heaving upwards, throwing Sariel upwards into a mix of water, clouds of fire and lightning all wrapping around her. Shadows and rays of light added themselves to the mix.
There was a pressure building in the room, bearing down on her, causing Nyx to start laughing maniacally. Why did Sariel feel a Primordial Goddess? She and her siblings were the last Primordial Gods, how was it possible that her own great-granddaughter, an Angel demigoddess at that, could have these powers?
There was a deep rumbling somewhere, and everything exploded. Nyx was swept away in forces she had not felt in over a million years, she surrendered to Chaos.
Sariel groaned as she rolled over, everything ached, and her mind felt stuffed with cotton wool. She heaved herself up gasping at the pain in her arms. As she stood up, she wondered vaguely why she was naked. Then she looked around.
She stood in an empty semi-spherical pool ringed irregularly with glowing pillars. She remembered that the room had been a bastion for darkness and true enough it was thick and deep beyond the pool. The ceiling however and the space above the pool was awash in a rainbow of lights pouring off of the magical pillars. Soft dappled sunlight appeared here and there across the pool. It seemed completely different and yet she knew this was the same room she had come in with Nyx.
She glanced around looking for her great-grandmother. She spotted her crumpled against a back wall, dark tendrils reaching out from the thicker shadows to caress her. She ran over to Nyx ignoring the aches and pains to kneel down next to her. What had happened to her? She looked almost dead, there were no black tracings over her pallidly pale skin. And her hair hung as normal hair, Nyx’s hair was always shadows. She shook her gently, but she didn’t respond.
She was worried now, Gods never passed out against the walls, let alone Primordial Gods. Desperate she grabbed her, haphazardly teleporting out of the room and into a suit of armour. Her screams quickly brought people running, Nemesis and Hecate easing Nyx out of her grasp and took her to her rooms. Hades followed with an incoherent half unconscious Sariel.
“What in the name of Hell happened?”
Nemesis and Hecate both shook their heads, they had no answers to his questions. They had never seen Nyx like this before, they wouldn’t have thought it possible. She hadn’t even been this bad during the War.
“Could it be something Sariel did?”
“I doubt it. She doesn’t contain the powers to match a God, let alone a Primordial Goddess.”
“Then what happened to the both of them? Something happened, we all felt it. The whole Underworld probably felt it. The castle felt like it was going to collapse.”
“There is no logical explanation.”
“There is” the three of them looked up from Nyx as Erebus and Tartarus glided into the room, they were, even more, darkness than they usually were. “The power that shook the realms was the power of Chaos. That is why she lies prone like that, she has been exposed to the raw powers that birthed us.”
“Chaos? But that has not been seen or felt since well before Gaia entered her second most recent slumber.”
“Indeed Chaos itself or channelled through Gaia has not been felt, but its power is everywhere. No this is different, someone else was able to channel the powers of Chaos.”
“Channel Chaos? Even the Primordial Gods trembled before the power of Chaos, who could possibly channel it?”
They both looked pointedly at Sariel.
“No, she couldn’t, she is only an Angel.”
“That is where you are wrong” they all turned as Nyx opened her eyes, they were glowing with speckled light, they looked akin to black opals. “Sariel is more than an Angel, she is more than a Goddess. She has within herself the nearly undiluted powers of myself, Anu and Gaia. She has the undiluted powers of both her parents and their parents. She has the power over everything, she is a supreme Sky Goddess and has within her magical spectrum all the basis of life and death, creation and destruction. She actually has the powers of Chaos deep within her core. She has full access to the powers of Chaos.”
She turned to look at her great-granddaughter, sleeping peacefully next to her on the bed “She is unlike anything before her, Elder Angle, Arch Angel, Daemon, Demigoddess, Goddess, Primordial Goddess and other. She undoubtedly has other untapped potential the result of her strange breeding.”
“But it isn’t possible. No one holds that much power.”
“She does.”
Hecate studied Nyx, there was something she wasn’t sharing “What are you not telling us?”
Nyx sighed and looked Hecate in the eyes “She can summon the Apocalypse by herself.”
That caused an uproar, people were yelling and screaming. It was chaotic, everyone was scared and confused. And rightly so. The Apocalypse was a power unique to the Angels, such was its power that it required the Seven Arch Angels to release it and once released it was beyond the realms of control. The Angels had used it in the War to horrific effect.
“Silence” Erebus roared. It rocked the room into silence. He then turned to his sister “How can you be so sure Nyx?”
“Because I felt it in her magic. It is there embedded in her rage. I was testing her in the Dark Sanctuary, and it was unlike anything I have ever seen before. She opened up quickly, reaching into her magic and embracing it utterly. Light was cast from the statues themselves, pure sunlight and rainbow.”
“But they are composed of shadows.”
She nodded “I know, imagine my surprise to find one of my Dark Sanctuaries flooded with not just sunlight but fire and lightning, so much light and yet the shadows were always at the edges. The light could not pierce the dark water. Many things flashed before my eyes, talents we all hold in this room, but the most surprising was Gaia’s, Chaos and the Apocalypse.”
“She can channel Gaia?”
“Yes, it is why she is marked like us brothers. Gaia awoke enough to quicken her spirit.”
“What do we do with her?” Hades asked.
“Love her,” Nyx looked around the room keeping their gazes until they turned away. “She is our family and has accepted us. It is time we accept her, completely. Whatever the future may bring she is part of the family. She has powers we can only begin to comprehend and with them she will be a force to be reckoned with, but she has no reason to strike out at us. We had better not give her reason to, for she is probably the single most dangerous person on this planet. But she is still a very naïve young woman.”
She nodded her dismissal to them before she slumped down into the bed. Sleep was quick in coming for her, she was still so weak. She readily fell into the shadows of her mind.
Next to her Sariel opened her eyes to look at Nyx. She was scared and worried, she was a dangerous threat to the world. She could summon the Apocalypse by herself. Heaven would hunt her down for that. Her family spoke of Chaos, she knew little about it other that it was the powers from which Gaia, Nyx, and the other Primordials were born from. It was the parent of the planet, a force beyond understanding. She could channel its powers, it chilled her t
o the core.
She pushed away such heavy thoughts and snuggled up to Nyx, who loved her without reservation. She felt safe next to her, and she fell quickly into blissful sleep.
Something was different, something in the feel of the city. Hera climbed out of her bed, calling in a thick fur coat. She was somewhat unused to this cold weather of New York, and she drew strange looks if she wasn’t properly attired. The weather shouldn’t bother her as a Goddess, but she had to remind herself that the city wasn’t hers and was currently feeding upon Primordial magic. This cold would affect everyone less powerful than a Primordial.
But something had changed. It was as though the city was giving her more power.
She walked out through the balcony door, looking through the masses of falling snow to try and pinpoint the source of the change. But in reality, she didn’t know the city well enough, and it was too big to try and analyse with her current amount of power the city was giving her. Her interest quickly waning she turned back inside and was surprised to find a Maenad approaching in the elevator.
With the vanity of most Goddesses, she eyed herself in the mirror before adjusting her appearance. Her hair fell sleek and shiny, her skin glowed, her nightgown and coat turned into an elegant dress, and a small circlet appeared on her head. She relaxed regally on one of the couches and magically opened the door as the Maenad approached.
Slightly surprised she walked in and bowed deeply to Hera. The loyalty the Maenads gave her was deeply heartening. Hera inclined her head and beckoned the girl.
“My Goddess the Matriarch sends her regards and hopes the current actions are to your desire.”
“Which actions are those?” She calmly tried delving into the girls mind, but it was a whirlwind of activity. Some people naturally were difficult to read because their minds were always jumping between several topics at once. She could freeze them, but it would hurt the girl.
The Angels' Pride Page 23