In the Shadows of Fate

by Rick Jurewicz

  "There was a fracture in the early 1700s in the Order of Sanctity, according to what few sources could be found, and none could be accurately verified. A small faction within the Order became a cult like following, basing their beliefs on what is written in the Caducus Oraclum. This faction broke off from the original group, taking with them the original documentation of the Oraclum; these papers that lay here before us now."

  Miranda felt cold. Even worse than that, she felt guilty for just being alive. If it had not been for her being so hell bent on discovering her past, only to find out her past was tied to some twisted devil cult, she believed that her family would still be alive.

  "So, I would imagine that it was my family that became this devil worship cult that stole the Oraclum and disappeared," she said bitterly.

  "Don't be too harsh just yet, Miranda. This is not 'devil worship' like you've seen in the movies or heard of on the television news. The beliefs that are based on the Gospel of Lucifer in the Oraclum are far from that."

  "I don't understand...what makes it any different?" she asked.

  "The Gospel of Lucifer describes a very different story than that of Dante's, Milton's, or that of the rest of the Holy Bible, and it pre-dates all other known documentation of the fall of Lucifer."

  "But Lucifer still fell from the grace of God? He is still God's enemy. Excuse me if I can't see how that could be a good, positive thing," said Miranda, with an increasing harshness in her voice, though not intended to be directed at Dr. Vikhrov himself.

  "This is true," said Dr. Vikhrov, noticing the tension in Miranda voice. He glanced briefly to Jake before he continued. "But the reasons given by all other accounts make the difference more evident." Dr. Vikhrov started with the first page in front of him.

  "Allow me to paraphrase a bit. The text is lengthy, and it has been a while since I have actually gone through it word for word. Lucifer was the first, and by far the most powerful of all the angels. He was glorious and beautiful, and loved God as much as God loved him. After him came the rest of the archangels. There was Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Azriel; all great servants of the Lord God, but none so much or as well beloved as Lucifer. It was Lucifer who first brought the light to the Heavens and the Earth, by God's command. Lucifer commanded the angels in their duties, faithfully serving the Lord and never bowing to any feelings of personal glory or desire. Through the hands of the angels, the world took form and shape, and life was given and flourished. The ground became fertile, and the skies provided cleansing and nourishing waters from above."

  Vikhrov moved from page to page slowly, and Miranda and Jake listened intently. Jake still was having trouble grasping what he had fallen into, while Miranda listened with cool conviction to absorb and make sense of all of it.

  Vikhrov continued. "After the angels had done their work for the Lord, He intended to put this new world into the hands of its intended caretakers. It was to be in the hands of man. This took Lucifer and the others by surprise, but they of course obeyed without question. Lucifer, however, although obedient, watched what was happening with great scrutiny. What he found, to his great interest, was that God had granted man a freedom unlike any that had been given before. He had created mankind, and through the multitudes of angels, crafted a beautiful and lustrous world for them to be given, and all that was asked in return was for their love and devotion to Him. All else was theirs to do with as they chose, with only the Lord asking to obey laws He had set forth for them. Never before had Lucifer seen such a thing. All he had ever known was love for his Father, and servitude to Him as well. For the first time, he felt envy for something; but it was not the glory and throne of God. He envied man. He envied the freedom to live their lives on their own. He approached God, and asked him why His loyal servants, the angels on high, were not offered this gift of freedom for all of their service and loyalty to the Lord. God told Lucifer that it was not the duty and purpose of the angels to have such freedom, and in return they remain always in the presence of the Almighty. Lucifer bowed to the Lord and accepted this, but still chose to watch mankind with even greater scrutiny. God left mankind alone, and would only intercede in the affairs of man when prayed to through acts of prophecy and miracles. The angels were also commanded to not interfere or mingle with man. When given an order by the Lord, the only choice for an angel of the Lord was to obey.

  "Lucifer watched over the centuries and witnessed through man the birth of sin and became disgusted at the way man so callously abused the gifts the Lord had given them. This made him want such freedom even more, so that he could show the Lord how truly it could be appreciated. He went to the Lord once more, proclaiming how mankind had fallen into sin and were not deserving of the gifts he had given. The Lord then proclaimed that he would live as they do, and spread the word of hope and love to all, so that all who repent shall be forgiven and can live beside the Lord forever. This angered Lucifer even more. Now these souls could live forever by His side, as the angels have done for all time, yet he felt the angels must serve as slaves while man was to receive the joys of eternal Heaven.

  “In the Lord's final day on Earth as a man, Lucifer came to him once more and pleaded with him to grant him the freedom that he has granted for all of mankind. The Lord once again told his Morning Star that his place lies in the Heavens as the commander of his legions of angels. Lucifer left in anger. His heart was full and heavy, for as much as he loved his Father, a resentment had grown within him that could no longer be contained.

  "When the Father returned to the throne of Heaven, Lucifer pleaded one final time with Him, and God denied him for a third and final time. In the time that the Lord walked the world of man, Lucifer prepared for the possibility that he would be denied a final time, and convinced one third of the angelic host to follow him as he left the kingdom of Heaven upon the Father's return. As Lucifer and his followers marched towards the outland borders of Heaven, they found that the rest of the angels of Heaven, remaining loyal to the Lord and led by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, blocked their way. Only then did Lucifer draw a sword from nothingness and present it against his brothers, as did all who followed behind him. In turn, Michael and the others did the same with all manner of weapons similar to the weapons of man. The first and only war ever to take place in the kingdom of Heaven raged on for seven days and seven nights. The Lord wept at the loss and destruction, but most of all he wept knowing the love and torment in the hearts of his sons, both fallen and remaining.

  “It was Michael who struck the final blow that ended the war, defeating Lucifer in battle by shattering his sword with a mighty crash that echoed across both Heaven and Earth. In the end, the defeated angels were cast into a shadowy void where they could see the world of Earth through the dreams of man, but could never share in the freedoms and wonders and joys of mankind for all of eternity. Any angel that remained in Heaven held the power to open a gateway to this place called Hell, but after this day, no matter what sympathies would be felt for their fallen brothers, no angel dared to ever defy the Lord God again, knowing full well what their fate would be."

  Miranda and Jake sat silent for several seconds before it had fully occurred to them that Dr. Vikhrov had stopped speaking. He looked up at them and gave them a brief smile. Miranda took a deep breath and looked down at her hands folded tightly in her lap.

  "Miranda," Jake said, placing his hand on Miranda’s wrist. She looked to her left at Jake, who then turned to Dr. Vikhrov. "Doctor, would you please excuse us for a moment? I need to discuss something with Miranda in private. It'll just be a minute."

  "It's no problem. I have nowhere else I need to be today, and given this day’s revelations, I personally cannot be happier that you have come here. Please, take your time," said Dr. Vikhrov.

  Jake stood up and stepped out of the office with Miranda following closely behind, wondering all the while what Jake needed to say so suddenly. Jake stopped several feet from Dr. Vikhrov's office door, far enough where he felt they cou
ld have the privacy that they needed.

  "Jake, what is it?" she asked.

  "I need you to listen to me, Miranda. Those stories on those pages, as fascinating as they may be, are not worth anyone else getting hurt for. Not you. Not me. Not anyone. Now you know what they are, and I have no doubt that they are very valuable pieces of history, with a price tag that so far has at least four people’s lives on it; maybe even more. We need to get these to the police and wash our hands of them," Jake said in a hushed voice.

  Miranda turned from him and walked to the other side of the hallway. Despite the incredible story that they had just heard from Dr. Vikhrov's vast knowledge of the Caducus Oraclum, Miranda felt that nothing had been revealed of any deeper meaning that made any more sense of her parent’s death. Someone wanted those ancient scripts because they were worth a lot of money to the right people. Either that, or someone wanted them so they could make sure that they would never be seen again. Either way, she felt cold and empty. Somewhere deep inside, she wanted to believe that if her parents and her brother had to die for this - for something that she had inadvertently set into motion - that it would mean something more than a motive drenched in simple greed or self serving idealism.

  "You're right, Jake. I'm sorry I dragged you into any of this. We can do whatever you think is right," she told him, her head lowered towards the floor. Jake saw Miranda now in a way that he had never seen her before. She looked helpless and defeated, which was not a sight that gave him any sort of good feeling at all, despite the relief that he was feeling that they could be rid of the damned parchment pages.

  Dr. Vikhrov stepped out of the office and looked down the hallway towards the two of them, and just stood silently staring for several seconds before Miranda noticed the almost dumbfounded look on his face. She walked towards him, concerned at first until she realized that the look in his eyes revealed something else might be going on.

  "What is it, doctor?" Miranda asked, a spark in her voice revealing that some of the waning vitality she had was beginning to find new life.

  At first, he said nothing, looking nervously around to verify for himself that they were well and truly alone in the vast basement hallway. He silently beckoned them back into his office with a wave of his fingers, and once inside, closed the door behind them and took his position back around his side of the desk. He sat down, and placed his fingertips gently on the two pieces of parchment that sat in front of him on the desk.

  "These two final pages are not part of any of the copies that I have ever come across before. I believe you might be in possession of the entire Caducus Oraclum as it was originally written," said Dr. Vikhrov. There was a feverish enthusiasm in his voice, and it was evident to both Miranda and Jake.

  "So, what exactly does that mean? There is more to the story?" asked Jake.

  "Not to the story as it has happened thus far. What I've told you; more precisely, what this has told us, is what has happened already. What remains here, and has been lost to time until now, is the tale of what is to come. These last two pages contain the prophecy that was rumored to exist back around the time when the Order of Sanctity was divided. I believe this it what actually divided the Order."

  "What does it say?" Miranda asked anxiously.

  Dr. Vikhrov placed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, and peered down at the miniscule script on the parchment.

  "Please be patient. I had translated and gone over the rest of all of this before many, many times, but this is all new, and I have to take care in translating it correctly," he told Jake and Miranda.

  Miranda unconsciously reached over and grabbed Jake's hand on his lap. Jake gripped it back, all the while trying to be supportive, but fearful Miranda might find something new in all of this that could change her mind in turning the documents over to the authorities. Dr. Vikhrov commenced in translating the prophecy, while the two of them sat in silence as he began to speak.

  "The Lord God, on high over all, vowed after the fall of his most beloved angel, to leave mankind to himself, along with the guidance and teachings that he had left to them, and so bequeathed all of his angels be forbidden in interfering in the world of man from that day forward. Faith would be the only guiding force now that would be in the hands and hearts of man, and their lives and their sins would be of their own making. God would hear the prayers of man, and serve them through their souls and their faith, but no force of Heaven would henceforth act upon the world of man. Any act by any angel, interfering in the world of Hell or Earth, would be punished by the Lord on high."

  Dr. Vikhrov stopped momentarily, running his finger along the next few lines and then, gently tapped his finger upon the parchment.

  "This," he stated, "is where it really seems to get interesting."

  He continued on. "Cast into the darkness and fallen, the Lightbringer foresaw the coming of one who, not of Heaven or of the Earth, was beyond the reach of the touch of Heaven's wrath or power, as decreed by the Lord Himself, and who would hold the key to set free the Morning Star, so that he could bring forth into the world the enlightenment that was denied by God to mankind. This chosen one would hold the decision by their own free will, as granted by the Lord God, to leave Lucifer in his dark confinement, or to set him free to grant his knowledge and bestow upon mankind its true deserve."

  "This, I believe, is what the past generations of your family, and all of those who followed with them, had been searching for and waiting for ever since they broke away from the Order of Sanctity. It wasn't just about worshipping a fallen adversary of God. It was waiting for the one that could set him free upon the world," said Dr. Vikhrov, the enthusiasm practically gushing from within him.

  "Doctor," said Miranda. "What exactly did they think would happen if Lucifer was set free?"

  "The prophecy hints that he may bring great knowledge to the world. It might be the cure for disease or the secrets of great technologies. The very intricate craftwork of the fabric of the universe itself. Even more so, the very revelation of his existence to man would cause the greatest upheaval to the religions of the world like no other thing has done since Christ himself walked the Earth."

  "But what if it's all a lie?" Jake muttered, looking to Miranda. Dr. Vikhrov narrowed his eyes skeptically at what Jake might be implying.

  "I'm not saying that I think you are wrong or misleading in what you've told us, doctor. I'm not even saying that I think these documents aren't truly ancient religious artifacts of enormous historical value. I can't even believe at this point I am taking this where I am going to, but what if they actually are a message from Lucifer? The Lucifer. If that was actually true, then what has everything that man has even known about him taught us? It's that he is the devil. The father of lies. If such a being existed that could open some magical portal and set him free, then why in the hell should we believe that anything good could come of that? It could all be his grand trick just to be set free," Jake blasted, with a steady anger rising in his voice.

  "Jake..." Miranda started, and Jake held his hand up to stop her. Dr. Vikhrov abruptly leaned forward; Jake's sudden movement disturbed him, and he wasn't sure what Jake would do. Jake rose suddenly from his chair and stepped away from Miranda.

  "No, Miranda. Why are we sitting here, listening to these stories? I know you, and you know that neither one of us has even cared a day about religion or the Bible. Yeah, I believe in God, because I choose to, not because of what some book tells me I should believe or how I should act. So how is this bullshit any different? Tell me!"

  "Why are you doing this?" asked Miranda, standing from her chair and stepping closer to Jake. His sudden reaction was confounding her, and she didn't know what the best way was to calm him down. She had seen him angry before, and she had been the cause of it more than a few times. But this was...different.

  He turned around to face her, and she could clearly see there was fear in his eyes.

  "Something isn't right about this. I don't know what it is, Miranda. T
here is something very wrong about all of this. I have a bad feeling. I can't put a finger on where it's coming from. All I know right now is it's scaring the hell out of me," Jake said, with a tremor in his voice.

  "Jake," she whispered to him, close to his face. "You do believe this, don't you?"

  "I don't know what I believe," Jake whispered back. "What I do know is that I have a very bad feeling; there is some dark shit going on here. I am not scared for me. I am scared for you. And right now, we need to figure out where we are going to go, and what our next move is going to be. Because for the first time, I am starting to realize that at least for now, we have to keep moving. If there are people that know what is in that prophecy, and they believe it, I have no doubt that someone either wants it for themselves, or wants to make sure that no one else ever knows what is in it, and that includes making sure anyone who may have come across it never tells anyone what they may know."

  "I think," said Dr. Vikhrov, "that perhaps there have been some things that you haven't told me?"

  Miranda turned to Dr. Vikhrov, who was looking disconcerted at the young man and woman.

  "My real name," Miranda started, with a hint of shame in her voice, "is Miranda Stratton, Dr. Vikhrov. I am sorry that I wasn't up front with you. Gale is my birth family's name, and it is where the parchment pages came from indirectly, but I have never met my birth family. As far as I know, they may actually be dead and gone. My adopted family...the only family I have ever known, was murdered yesterday, and I believe my having the Caducus Oraclum might have something to do with it."

  Dr. Vikhrov sat in astonished disbelief at what Miranda had just told him. He closed his eyes for several seconds, and then raised them and looked at Miranda. He rose slowly from his chair, and reached out his hands toward hers. She was taken aback, but placed her hands in his, as Jake watched standing by their side.