A Gluttony Of Faith

by Steven Lindsay

  Aisling sat into the chair and eyed up the food before her. She used her magic to transfer bacon and sausages but kept looking around. “Do we have any steak?”

  “No, but we can get you some?” Victoria waved to a server “Can we get a steak for the Princess please.”

  “Certainly, your Majesty, and what would you be after Highness?”

  Aisling nibbled her lip “venison, medium rare.”

  He glanced at his queen who nodded, the palace was well stocked up with game to feed the Fae Royals.

  “Unusual tastes this morning my dear.”

  “I am feeling rather ravenous.”

  Brigid appeared in a haze of green mist with Sariel, both of them sat down to join the Royals. There was nowhere else in the world were Gods so casually spent time with mortals.

  “There was an unusual shift in Avalon last night, do you know what it was Sorcha?”

  “I felt it too, but I have no idea. Though the power reminded me of the Father?”

  “The Father?” it was a term that appeared occasionally but all the non-Fae had no idea who it referenced.

  “He is who Avalon started the Fae with. It was his blood that was used with her earth to quicken the bodies that housed the spirits. It was he who mated with her, and their offspring were given to the Royal Bloodlines to strengthen them. We do not actually know who he was, though. We had presumed that he had long since returned to the Lifestream with Avalon.”

  “Are the bloodlines so important?” Sariel asked in her ignorance.

  “Our bloodlines are everything, it is what binds all the Fae together. We inherited it from Avalon herself, and it flows strongly through the Royals. We, in turn, make a promise to keep our bloodlines strong, often forsaking love to ensure that our line remains powerful. It is our duty to ensure that every Queen is as strong as she possibly can be because we are the pillar of which all Fae depend on.” She rounded on her daughter “Which is why you have to stop shunning the nobles. You need an heir Aisling.”

  “Not this again mother.”

  “Yes, this again. We are so few, there is only you and me. You are the end of the line Aisling, should you die then the Fae are lost, our bloodline is lost, the Seelie Court is broken and all oaths nullified. Anarchy will reign in Avalon as the races fall apart once again, the very bodies which house our spirits could decay and render us back into the spirit races we once were.”

  “It will not happen.”

  “No, it will not. You will accept the advances of one of the Nobles, and you will bear him a daughter.”

  “No mother, I will not-“

  “You will obey your Queen!”

  “I’m already pregnant!”

  Sorcha faltered where she stood, everyone else was stunned into complete silence. Even the Gods.

  “Pregnant?”

  “Yes mother, I am pregnant. The line will not end with me.”

  “Who is the father? How did I not know of this? How could you be so careless? We need a strong Queen.” More than any of them realised.

  “We will have a strong Queen after me, one of our strongest perhaps. The father was a God sent by the Father himself. I felt his powers last night, he gave an offering which my child has accepted. My daughter will be strong, very strong and she will keep the bloodline alive.”

  Sorcha sat there in stunned silence until Aisling placed her hand on hers. Sorcha clasped onto it with glowing hands, a smile slowly grew across her face. “this is wondrous news, oh Aisling” she threw her arms around Aisling in a most un-Fae like action.

  Aisling was stunned, the Fae were not a warm people, and it was often said that the Fae Royals were carved from ice and yet here was her mother and queen crying in delight with her arms wrapped around her. Now more than ever she was curious to know what Sorcha had seen of the future.

  Aisling found it strange to be hugged by so many people and to see such genuine delight and openness on the faces around her. It was strange how much her life had changed.

  Brigid pressed her hands across her belly “A strong queen indeed. The child quickens in the womb with great speed. The father was very strong. But who was he?”

  “He never told me his name.”

  “Hypnos,” Sariel said as she too pressed her hands to her belly “And Tartarus. Hmm, interesting.”

  “But those are not Celtic Gods, they have no connection to us?” Sorcha was most confused.

  “Oh Tartarus has a great connection to you, he is the Father.” Green magic flared at her touch and swarmed around Aisling “oh yes, he has much to do with you.” She glanced at Brigid, who nodded and produced a crystal chalice. They cut themselves and poured their blood out, metallic green in Brigid’s case, she seemed most surprised at the dramatic change and bronze coloured for Sariel with a multitude of other metallic colours in it. Sariel was less surprised than everyone else, she knew that Chaos was enacting changes on her. The two types of blood casually blended together in the chalice.

  “For the future Queen.”

  Aisling accepted the chalice with trembling hands, this was indeed such an honour. She could smell the potency of both their blood, Brigid’s was almost the same as Avalon’s blood now and Sariel’s was rich in so many ways.

  Her baby would grow fast and strong. The Fae bloodline was assured.

  Chapter 46

  Gabriel looked at the readings on the holoprojectors as she made her rounds through her laboratory. Is was far busier than she had thought it would ever be only a few months ago. The repealing of the ban on her creations had brought life back to her laboratory, which in turn had brought some life back to Eden. Not much, but enough that it was no longer just her.

  Her modern laboratories were a far cry from her alchemist’s workshop that she had first started creating in. She had come a long way in that time.

  Now her laboratory was filled with different Divine creatures. Her cloning capsules worked around the clock, waiting only for her to insert souls for the creatures to be finalised. She was thankful Eden was so close to Hell, it made her life a whole lot easier.

  She was still surprised that Lucifer had done nothing to prevent her, but then again from all reports he was suffering from Chaos poisoning. And some of the Angels said that luck was against them.

  They had certainly had some major setbacks. Pakistan was an absolute disaster, she still couldn’t believe Michael’s stupidity. They had all seen what had happened to Washington DC. That was, however, a mark of their success. The Heradmantium Empire had lashed out before the battle had shifted in their favour. The UCSA might have faced Hell on Earth, but it was still standing.

  For now.

  Now it faced a new threat beyond that of the raging hurricanes and Army of Nightmares that Hera and her pantheon sent against Ariel’s forces. Now disease was spreading its insidious way through the Humans. While normally none of the Angels would care, now was not the time to suffer losses of any kind. Humans would shift away from them in increasing numbers if they felt abandoned.

  They could no longer leave Humans to themselves. They had already seen what happened when they were left to their own devices. Faith suffered, and they could not afford that now.

  So it was that she, the highest Arch Angel, the most talented creator of Chimeric organisms in the history of the Divine, was working on cures and vaccines for Human ailments. It demeaned her, it galled her, and yet it was necessary. A lack of cure could turn the War in Hera’s favour, and she was loathe to do that. She would give Hera no advantage.

  She had deduced several things from her studies. For one thing, the diseases were not new, and hence, there were already some cures and vaccines floating around, which made her job a great deal easier. On the other hand, these diseases had been mutated by magic to be far more insidious and deadly.

  Despite her expectations, they lacked any trace of Hera’s magic. While she didn’t know who it belonged to, she sensed the magic of two Angels. One she hazarded would be Agrat’s, but she had no expe
rience with Lilith’s sisters. But the other she had no idea, though she doubted it would be too long before their mark was felt elsewhere.

  She would be waiting.

  She was nothing if not patient. A virtue that the other Arch Angels lacked, though Jophiel showed hope. As gifted as her cousin was, Ariel had very little patience, Uriel had even less patience. She had thought Michael sensible, but he had shown that his patience could shatter. Raphael was not so weak in that regard, but his patience was wearing thin unifying Israel and also dealing with the Caliphate now that Michael had been demoted. She felt sure Azrael was patient, but she honestly had no idea. She knew very little of Michael’s uncle other than that he voted as Michael did and was rarely in Heaven. The other Angels feared him. He was their silent support, and she liked that about him.

  Perhaps she should ask Azrael about the plagues in the UCSA. He seemed the most likely to understand them. He was, after all, a Son of Death. The problem was tracking him down.

  Raphael sighed as the Angels reported. It didn’t matter who it was; Noah, Mohammed, Abraham, Adam, Moses or Jesus. They all bore the same tales. Despite their divine command, the Caliphate seemed intent on using their power to destroy Israel. That could not be allowed to happen.

  As it was, he was struggling to weed out the Demons in Israel. They slipped in and out of the shadows, killing Humans and Lesser alike. He had quite the disaster on his hands, not that he could tell Gabriel that. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Michael was looking after the Caliphate still, but now he had both to look after, and they were far too complex to handle, which was why he had called in the Prophets of Islam and Patriarchs of Judaism to assist in controlling them. Yet still people baulked at the command for the two nations to coexist peacefully.

  He didn’t care if there were centuries of bitter hatred and resentment. They would bloody well do as they were told or their numbers would be thinned. Sometimes he understood why Gabriel saw things the way she did. He didn’t like it, but today he was beyond caring. Humans were so frustrating, more so than the Angels.

  He dismissed his underlings, he had no desire to hear any more of their failures, his failures. Perhaps he would ask Uriel or Gabriel to assist. They knew how to put the fear of God into the populace. Gabriel lacked Uriel’s sadism, but she had a far greater finesse, she truly knew what made mortals cower in fear. She knew how to enforce a lesson. It was why she had risen so high.

  He certainly knew he was no match for Gabriel, no Angel was. Not even Michael, and he was the likely second candidate or Ariel. It was hard to tell, they were both powerful Angels. He was under no illusions, he, Uriel and Jophiel sat on the bottom most rung of the Archs power. Gabriel sat by herself at the top. No matter what the Council thought, there was no removing her. She was the power that had helped the Angels win the War. Once again it was her power and creations that were preventing them from losing.

  He looked out at the Griffins soaring above Jerusalem. They were truly majestic creatures. Gabriel was a truly talented woman.

  “Beautiful aren’t they?”

  He turned to smile at Nuriel as she came to stand beside him. He pulled her into an embrace “not as beautiful as you.” He brushed her hair back behind her ear as he kissed her on the lips. Their moments might be fleeting, but they meant the world to him.

  “Bad day?”

  “Bad month” he sighed again.

  She laughed as she teleported them into his bedroom “then let me cheer you up.”

  He knew exactly how Michael would react if he found out about their sexual relationship but he didn’t give a damn. Nuriel was his, and he savoured every inch of her. He saw no sin in sex, how could he when with Nuriel he was in paradise?

  Josephine stared at the piece of paper in front of her. James had handed it to her mid-way through their conversation. He had continued on as though little else had happened. Xiang appeared to not have even noticed that he had given her the paper. Then again he noticed little else when he was learning magic. He was a far better student than her.

  He was so much more driven than she was. She wasn’t quite sure how she had ended up a sorceress, yet here she was in Adelaide, Australia, learning magic. She and Xiang had been selected by James because they were the next powerful behind him. While it was certainly a large drop from him to them they still stood above the others in the empire, and that was saying something. She still didn’t believe that she was that powerful, she had seen what some of the mages had done, and she knew she couldn’t replicate it.

  She crushed the paper in her hand as her frustration overwhelmed her while reading the information. So Seamus was alive and in Australia. She wondered how he was doing before she swore to herself that she didn’t care. What was she to do with the information?

  She didn’t want to see him. She wanted to punch him. She wanted to do so much more. She wondered if she could with her magic.

  She realised James was watching her with his studious brown eyes. She read them and was a little aghast. There was no refusal in them. He would give her time, but she could do what she wanted with the information.

  It made her wonder if he had been cheated on too to be so understanding. What had he done to his ex?

  Chapter 47

  Sariel walked along the crumbling pathways that littered Hell. Around her green glimmered in the mist. The Lifestream was always drawn to her presence here. As were the spirits that wanted to fade into it. She had made numerous springs to help the trapped spirits fade away. It was fortunate for them that the Curse had been stripped away, and all their torture had been stopped. But the memories would never fade, so their torture would never leave them until they had returned to the Lifestream.

  She pitied them, and she grieved for them. But they were among her greatest achievements for she had freed them. No one would ever be able to take that away from her or ruin that. She had freed billions of tortured souls and let them begin to fade back into the Lifestream.

  Many of the springs had turned permanently green from the amount of spirits collapsing into the waters for many had lived well beyond what their spirits could endure. She had given them peace.

  And they, in turn, tried to give her peace. Her springs were filled with the beautiful strains of singing. Many spirits in the process of fading were overjoyed, their songs were enough to lift the mood of all those around.

  Hell was far from being a wonderful place, but it was far more pleasant than it had ever been.

  But for once she was not in Hell to help the souls of the Damned. She was here simply because Lucifer was.

  She saw him standing on a precipice looking out across the varied gloom of Hell. He was bathed in fire, he was finally starting to gain some small control of his powers. She didn’t have the heart to tell him just how far he had to go. He was most reluctant to accept her help and yet he stared at Lilith in surprise and with envy when she used high magic.

  She didn’t understand. She had asked her mother if it was a male thing, Lilith had laughed and said it was a pig-headed thing so yes.

  He was a truly attractive man. Tall and broad shouldered, with six gloriously black and gold wings. He had managed to settle his appearance, and it suited him well. Gold and black hair crowned a face set with dangerous violet eyes, yet she found them alluring. He had a rare casual smile that made her just want to throw her arms around him. He was also well dressed in black.

  Say what you will about Humans but they knew how to dress themselves, and their Divine.

  “Does it tell you its secrets yet?”

  He glanced at her small smile and knew she was joking “not yet but perhaps one day it will.” He casually wrapped and arm around her waist, and she leaned into him. It was new and strange but comfortable for her. She couldn’t believe just how natural it felt.

  “What brings you down here?”

  “You do.”

  “Oh?” he glanced into those suddenly shy eyes and smiled. Gently he reached across and kissed her, feeling her
melt into him. She was so eager for him and yet she seemed to go about showing it in the strangest ways. Why not initiate? It was very common among the Divine.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck but after a while pulled back to look him in the eye. “You spend a lot of time down here by yourself.”

  “It is my realm, whether I want it or not. The least I can do is get to know it. You probably know it better than I do.”

  “Hell tells me all of its secrets, as do all its inhabitants.”

  He realised she wasn’t joking “wait, it really speaks to you?”

  “Of course, there is not much in this world that does not speak to me in some way. Hell is no different, and it seems…fond of me, I guess you could say.” She looked at him “does it truly not speak to you?”

  “No”

  “But you are its ruler, it should speak to you.”

  “Well, it doesn’t.” He answered in annoyance.

  She looked at him sadly, grey threads spun out around her and out into the landscape. She felt the whispers pass through her and knew Hell’s secrets. “I can help you.”

  “No thank you.”

  “But you need to hear what it has to say. Gabriel is stealing souls.”

  “I already know that.”

  “Then you must do something about it, these souls need your help Lucifer.”

  “I am doing all I can to stop her.”

  “Let me help you, I can stop her. Heck, I can help you stop her. Lilith is nearly healed if you let me I can heal you.”

  “I don’t need your help.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “No, I don't.”

  “Why won’t you accept my help?”

  “Because I don’t want your help! Just leave me the Hell alone and stop meddling!”

  Her arms snatched back from around his neck as she staggered backwards. Even as he had said it, he had realised he had been too harsh. Pain flashed across her face, followed quickly by anger. It was in that instant he saw both of her parents in her, and he grew afraid. He grew terrified when her eyes changed from violet to Chaos brown.