Uriel’s curse was drowned by the unending applause and chanting. By Celestia it’s just a nomination and guess what! It’s only TEMPORARY! Uriel thought. At first, she had thought her deep distrust for Luciel was borne out of a combination of subtle jealousy at Luciel for being a perfect mate for Michael, and prejudice over the fact that Luciel had the tainted essence of a Shemsu, even though she, Uriel, had repeatedly told herself her sentiments were based on instincts. However, it was clear to her that her instincts were not only valid but true! Luciel was up to no good for the realm. Uriel did not feel guilty anymore for being responsible for Michael’s tardiness at his own farewell speech. The bonding had been ‘for good luck’, Uriel had told him. Just want you to have something to remind you of home.
Uriel wondered if Luciel knew of her involvement with convincing Michael to fall. If Luciel did, she did a phenomenal job at hiding her feelings and playing these mind games with Uriel was probably Luciel’s idea of psychological torture. Uriel shook her head! Luciel was too emotional to put up such a wonderful act. Regardless of whether Luciel knew of her involvement or not, Uriel was aware her task had taken a more serious turn because Michael, fallen or returned from his fall, was in grave danger… and so was Celestia!
Finally, the moment came for Michael to fall. He chose a spot that looked like an edge to nothingness.
“From now onwards, this location will be called ‘The Edge’,” Michael said. “It is from this location that our brethren will fall, should they choose to.”
Michael walked slowly towards The Edge. He wondered what would happen once he fell. He wondered if he was making the right choice. He wondered if he would ever regain his memory. He wondered what would happen to Celestia while he was away. As he wondered, he recalled Uriel telling him to focus on something that could be engrained into his subconscious. So Michael let go of his worries. He had to find a point of focus. Focusing on his relationship with Luciel was not enough. She was a great mate, but… He needed something that held a stronger bond with him. Perhaps something that was tied to his purpose.
Michael arrived at The Edge and stopped walking. He could feel the eyes of every angel and archangel on him as well as the emotion that came with them. He stared at the nothingness that lay below. He heaved his shoulders and closed his eyes. He was about to leave home and a strong feeling of nostalgia suddenly washed over him. Michael was so lost in thought that he did not hear the approaching footsteps until he felt a hand on his left shoulder. He turned around and locked eyes with the archangel he loved. She bore her essence in that look she gave him. Without words, she bid him good fortune, reminded him how much she loved him and planted a deep kiss on his lips.
As Michael kissed Luciel, he felt a sense of letting go. In that moment of letting go, he found his mantra; the message to imprint unto his subconscious.
Celestia is my home! Celestia is my home! This is not my home! Celestia is my home!
Michael hugged Luciel as he engrained his mantra into his subconscious. He released her but she would not let him go. He kissed her on the cheek and then on the lips again. And as Luciel kissed Michael back and her chest ached with longing, Michael let her go and fell backwards into the nothingness below.
The feeling of falling was beyond surreal. Many realms zipped past him as he fell. His body was on fiery pain. The amnesia came in waves and with each wave of amnesia, the pain in his head increased sharply. His wings burned away with the final wave of amnesia. When he was close to his final destination, his body turned into a ball of fire. As he entered the atmosphere of the blue realm, the flames changed colors from yellow, to pale blue and finally to white. In those white flames, his former identity, his angelic essence, underwent an esoteric recycling into a new being with the esoteric signature of the new dimension he had just fallen into.
***
Adamou awoke in a transparent solid object. The transparent object slid open and he sat up. To his left lay a woman in a similar object. Hers slid open as well and she sat on the edge of the platform, the same way he did. Adamou tried to quickly familiarize himself with the alien surroundings, but instinctively felt the need to protect the other creature. The other creature looked like him, with only minor physiological differences. After a few attempts at introduction and getting to know each other, Adamou had instinctively mated with the other creature and in that moment of mating, Adamou and Lithilia had formed a bond that would transcend their time and dimensions.
Later, Adamou and Lithilia moved to a location outside Keni’s domicile, which they called the Garden of Aiden. There, they lived happily until Adamou started having dreams and the unshakeable feeling that something was amiss. Adamou would dream of a place where creatures of similar features like his dwelled and had wings like the fowls that flew in the air. Their mannerisms were different too. Adamou even thought that he had seen such a creature one day when he was out fetching wood by the stream. The creature was standing a few steps away from him and she smiled at him. He recognized her in one of his many dreams. But when their eyes met, the creature had disappeared. Adamou had brushed it off as nothing, but the gnawing in his gut begged to differ.
And even these dreams about this place with the winged creatures did not feel like his other dreams did. They felt real, like he was there or had been there. They felt as if he was seeing them through his eyes. He felt they were more like memories. But he could not understand this feeling and he preferred not to share them with anyone yet, not even with his father, Keni. It was best for him to keep quiet for the meantime until maybe he could find an explanation for these experiences of his. However, just when he thought he was starting to get accustomed to the whole situation, the strangest was yet to come.
One of the winged creatures was constantly mating with him in his sleep; in his sleep! Adamou thought it was a dream; a confusing but pleasurable dream. The wet, or sometimes dried and sticky, evidence on his crotch testified to the contrary, though. Thankfully, Lithilia was always sound asleep. Sometimes, he would ‘dream’ about mating with this winged creature more than once in one night. Changing his garments every night was becoming infuriating. He got so frustrated with the situation that he decided to start sleeping naked, much to Lithilia’s delight because, as it turned out, she too was insatiable in that area.
Alas, Adamou and Lithilia had lost an offspring, which had plunged Lithilia into a very deep, dark psychological turmoil. It was getting increasingly difficult for Adamou to help Lithilia in her time of psychological and emotional distress, while taking care of his own situation at the same time. He had done his best but unfortunately, his best had not been enough. One night, he had seen two female winged creatures having an argument in his private chamber while he lay next to his wife. Or he thought he saw these two, female, winged creatures. How he was even able to see and hear them was a mystery to him. One of the winged creatures was the one who was always mating with him in his sleep and the other winged creature was the one he thought he had seen by the stream that one time. Their names, he had learned, were Luciel and Uriel respectively.
“You’ve broken the rules, Luciel!” Uriel fumed. “You were not supposed to interfere in any way!”
“I have NOT interfered!” Luciel argued fiercely. “He’s never conscious and he thinks it’s a dream.”
“But it’s affecting him already, can’t you see that?!” Uriel rebutted. “He saw me at the stream! He actually SAW me and he has seen you too a few times! The fact that he does not yet understand what’s going on does not necessarily mean that he is not feeling it. You of all people ought to have realized that in the first place.”
“I know it’s affecting him,” Luciel replied less fiercely, as if she was admitting fault. “But I can’t just stand by and let him be with another woman like this. Michael is mine and mine alone! I don’t care whether he is in another form or not. He’s still my Michael and no one else should have him.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing, Luciel!” Uriel threw her hands up in the a
ir.
For a moment, she was too stupefied to say anything. Finally, she regained her composure.
“So you abuse your power and risk jeopardizing everything for Michael because you can’t control your jealousy?” Uriel asked resignedly. “Was that why you deliberately let his mate see you on top of him that one night? Was it about you marking Michael as yours? Are you now in competition with a being of lower vibrational frequency?”
Uriel took a few steps towards Luciel.
“Is this how low you have stooped?” Uriel sneered and glared at Luciel defiantly.
Uriel did not care anymore about the mission. She had had enough of Luciel and her petty sentiments. Luciel may be acting supreme leader, but she, Uriel, was Michael’s guardian. Better yet, she was Michael’s best friend. And may she be damned by Celestia if she let Luciel do anything to hurt Michael anymore!
“You really are his guardian,” Luciel said.
The same devious and evil smile that Uriel had seen so many times crawled on Luciel’s face. Uriel steeled herself, preparing for the worst, if came to that.
“I am his guardian,” Uriel replied and took a step closer. “And I’m doing my job, without any reservation and I mean ANY reservation!”
Uriel gave Luciel another defiant look, daring her to try anything stupid.
Luciel felt more stupid and foolish than ever before. She felt the blow and the error of her ways. She was not fit to be leader if she could not demonstrate any emotional maturity. She dropped to her knees and bowed her head to the ground. Uriel let a few moments pass by before she spoke again.
“I will make you a deal,” Uriel offered. “This stays between us, if you agree to let Michael be. He must undergo this process without any influence. His instructions were clear and we must follow them. ALL of us must follow his instructions, acting supreme leader or not! Do we have an agreement?”
Uriel realized it was the perfect scenario to have Luciel on a leash. Luciel would forever be in Uriel’s debt once she accepted the terms of the agreement. Uriel preyed on Luciel’s ambitious nature and weakness for Michael to turn Luciel into a puppet. Luciel’s enormous ego was enough motivation for her to accept Uriel’s terms. If word about her indiscretions got out in Celestia, she would lose the foothold she had been struggling to build during Michael’s absence. Luciel lifted her eyes up slowly and saw Uriel had extended her right hand. Luciel nodded and took Uriel’s right hand.
Together, they teleported back to Celestia, as Michael tossed and turned in bed. It was another night of having trouble with restful sleep, or so he thought. And while Michael tossed and turned in his sleep, Lithilia was wide awake. Neither Uriel nor Luciel had realized that Lithilia had witnessed their spat this whole time. And that was the night when Lithilia declared the winged creature called Luciel a mortal enemy. Lithilia did not know how just yet; but somehow, someway, she would make this creature pay for what the creature had put her and her mate through. And why, for Aiden’s sake, did these creatures keep referring to her mate as Michael?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
PRIDE AND BLIND AMBITION
LUCIEL PACED BACK and forth in her domain. She was furious; more at herself than at anyone else. She had let her emotions get the better of her and now, Uriel had her in the palm of her hand. Uriel of all people! First, she turned Michael into her plaything and now Uriel had her, Luciel, by the wings! Damn it! She wanted to scream and let her anger out, but that would draw attention to her domain. Bad publicity was not on her list of priorities at the moment.
Luciel crashed into a seat she summoned from the floor. She missed her lover so much. By Celestia, she loved Michael! She was joyful he reciprocated her love for him, though his best friend was that conniving, slippery-tongued, and not-so-nice-name archangel called Uriel. Anyway, that was in the past. She heaved her shoulders and leaned back in her seat facing the ceiling. She really missed her love and she could not wait for him to return. She missed him so much that she could not even stand him being with another woman, whether he had amnesia or not.
And blast the rules! She would break them over and over for him. She had broken them before and intended to keep doing so, whether Uriel caught her or not. After all, were rules not meant to be broken? That was why she had gone back to visit her love many more times even after her agreement with Uriel. On one occasion, she had even let the mortal, Lithilia, witness her straddling and working her hips on Adamou. She wanted the mortal to see and observe and know who Michael belonged to. She was marking her territory and she took immense and sadistic pride in witnessing Lithilia’s path to paranoia. The poor creature could not understand what was happening to her and Luciel could not care less.
She had not stumbled across Uriel during her subsequent escapades to the lower realm. Excellent! She was becoming better at slipping out of Celestia undetected. But why did she even have to be so mindful about Uriel in the first place? Why did she have to be mindful of anyone at all? She was the archangel supreme! Well, acting archangel supreme. Still, that title made her the Number One, until Michael returned, anyway. Damnation! She was not Number One, in any logical sense! But as long as Michael was still in existence, as long as Michael was still archangel supreme, she would always be Number Two. And that must change; somehow, someway, that must change!
***
Adamou had lived for close to a millennium, in Earth Realm terms, until finally he had awoken to his true identity. He had remembered his origins and why he had fallen. Thus, after making all the necessary arrangements, he had said his final goodbyes to his descendants. His partner, Eva, was wrought with sorrow but he promised her that even as he journeyed into the next life, he would never abandon her nor would he ever forget about her. His words had offered very little solace to her very badly broken heart, but she was a most remarkable woman. Alas, in his final moments, he kissed his descendants and mate, told them he loved them very dearly, lay back on his pillow and closed his eyes. And as the consciousness that was Michael left the form that was Adamou to return to Celestia, the form that was Adamou died very peacefully.
Michael had returned to Celestia and all of Celestia was excited to have him back. Luciel was very happy to have him back as well, but she was more than a little distracted. She was unsure if Michael remembered her interfering while he lived as Adamou. Or if Uriel was going to tell on her to Michael. A thousand questions and scenarios ran through her mind until she decided that perhaps it would be best to worry about such things at a different moment. This moment called for celebration and excitement and Celestia be damned if she missed out! So she would just have to put up her best show yet and join everyone else in hailing the return of their fearless leader.
Later on, amidst the mutual debriefing sessions between Michael, Luciel and a few other top archangels including Uriel, nothing was either insinuated or revealed about any knowledge of interference with Michael’s stay in Earth Realm. Luciel was mostly relieved and pleased that Uriel seemed to be true to her word. She might not be so bad after all, Luciel thought. In her mind, Luciel rubbed her chin but nodded physically, almost imperceptibly. She just had to brace herself for her fall. Although she was very afraid and would have chosen not to fall if she could, she would go ahead and fall regardless. Michael had sealed his stance as archangel supreme and if she wanted to eventually earn the same respect and loyalty as Michael, she would have to do the same, at least.
Luciel claimed she was ready. She claimed she was tough, in the face of everyone watching and in front of her lover. She claimed she feared nothing, and she claimed it was because of all the valuable pieces of information that Michael had provided for them. Also, she claimed she was not afraid because she was focused on the fact that she was honored for the opportunity to be of service to her brethren. She decided to end her speech before it sounded like a campaign speech. Michael was the first to applaud and Luciel was not sure if he was just trying to cover for her or if he really meant it. In her mind, she slapped herself in order to stop
her mind from going on an analyzing rampage. When she returned from her fall, her first line of business would be to stop overanalyzing everything.
Luciel bid everyone farewell, smiled, blew a kiss at Michael, turned around and walked towards The Edge. And with each step she took, her panic increased. She certainly was not ready. She should have been honest about it and sought more help from her lover. She wondered if her brethren could tell she was panicking. But even as she felt the pressure build up within her, she heard Michael’s voice. He assured her that everything would be fine. He assured her that soon, she would have nothing to worry about because she would not remember anything. All she had to do was take that step and fall. It was that easy and the rest would follow. She was grateful for his words of encouragement and even as she was grateful, she was filled with the feeling of incompetence. Her feeling of incompetence gave way to a very misplaced anger. And in her anger, without thinking of anything else, Luciel fell!
She fell, and fell, and fell. As she fell through the various dimensions and her angelic form was consumed away, her anger grew and grew. She was angry at herself; for being so weak, for not being strong enough. She finally admitted that the source of her weakness was from one angel and one angel only: Michael. Emok was right; if one wanted something, and it could not be given, one would just have to take it for oneself. There can be only one archangel supreme and for her to be archangel supreme the other had to be eliminated. It was that simple!
Luciel felt her memory fade and disappear slowly. She screamed and held on to her new-found purpose for just a few more moments. Even if it were the last thing on her mind before she finally lost it all, she would hold on to it; because, in her fall, she had found a new purpose. She had found a new reason to continue existing. Luciel’s final thoughts before the amnesia smothered her in an eerie darkness she had never ever experienced in her entire existence was that she would become archangel supreme. And if that meant ending Michael, her lover and mate, then so be it.
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