The Genesis of Seven

by Sara M Schaller

  “That’s fine. Who is Metatron?”

  “Metatron is an archangel and Head of Council. He was not sent to Earth and still dwells in Heaven. He’s an angel of teaching and quite a unique being. He sometimes has visions about the divine wisdoms, and the formation is something he saw in one of those visions. He committed the configuration to paper, and it has been known as Metatron’s Cube ever since.”

  “I never knew that.” Gabriel was surprised.

  “Yes. It’s something only Raziel and I knew about. Well, Father knew too, but He didn’t want others to know. Metatron’s gift is special and rare, so He didn’t want anyone trying to manipulate it. He confided in Raziel and me to protect Metatron when he was in a trance. Anything that came from the visions, we shared with Father, then this knowledge was locked away in the Sanctuary of Teaching.”

  Gabriel nodded in understanding.

  “Anyway,” Zadkiel said, “getting back to the Union, I believe the formation and the location are the only components to the prophecy. However, I haven’t seen the prophecy myself, so I could be wrong.”

  “Then how do you know so much about the process?”

  “In the aftermath of the war, many things in Heaven changed. For instance, all of us were trained for battle. This luxury no longer pertained to only angels of power—every angel, no matter their vocation, was prepared for combat. Father didn’t want any of us caught off-guard again, so He revealed all He could. That’s how we learned about the Union of the Spheres, but out of concern for safety. He didn’t divulge everything.”

  “What happened to them? The objects, I mean.”

  “They were hidden around Earth in various locations. While the objects pose a great threat to humanity, they are an even larger threat if they remain in Heaven. On Earth, they are much safer because they are spread apart, which serves as greater protection.”

  “I can understand that. But what if a human discovered one?”

  “Then we have to rely on human ignorance. None of you know about them, and even if you did discover one, the rational part of your brain would create an inaccurate explanation for its existence.”

  “Or you would simply put it in a museum,” Gabriel offered.

  I realized I should take offense for the entire human race, but their words held truth. “So, what you’re saying is, the objects from Heaven are here on Earth?”

  “With certainty, I know the spheres are on Earth. As for the scepter and the book, I’m not completely sure, but if the book is in the backpack, then the scepter might be here too.”

  “All except for the Castle Key, of course,” Gabriel said.

  “The one that went missing?”

  “Yes,” Zadkiel said. “The Castle Key was destroyed after the war because Father did not want anything locked up in the castle anymore. Besides, if He sent the scepter to Earth, there was no need for the Castle Key any longer.”

  I stretched out my hand. It had grown numb from the intensity of pressing pencil to paper. The car slowed down, and I noticed we were stopping at a fuel station.

  “I should fill the tank up,” Gabriel said, “and you should go find some food.”

  I obeyed. I was getting kind of hungry, and I needed to stretch my legs.

  Several minutes later, I came out of the service station with chips, a sandwich, and a bottle of water. I also grabbed some other snacks since I didn’t know when we’d find food again.

  “I take it you found some food,” Zadkiel said from the front seat as I settled in the back.

  “Yeah, and I went to the bathroom too. Figured I should get that over with before it became urgent.”

  Zadkiel nodded in agreement. After several moments, he said, “You did well today.”

  I glanced at him in the mirror. “Thanks. Are we going to start again?”

  “Not now. I think that was enough for one day. I don’t want to overload you.”

  “Good, because everything you told me requires some processing.”

  “Indeed.”

  Gabriel opened the driver’s side door and took his place behind the wheel again. “Everyone ready?”

  Zadkiel and I murmured our agreement.

  He started the car and steered us back onto the road. I chowed down on my sandwich and felt both of them watching me. Their overprotectiveness was annoying, but I was sure I would get used to it. At least, I hoped I would.

  To break the awkward moment, I asked, “How much longer?”

  “Several hours,” Zadkiel replied.

  “We’re on Highway 94, and we need to take this to Highway 49. After that, it’s mainly back roads. I want to get to Warburton tonight. We can remain in the car until morning and then make our way to the reserve,” Gabriel explained.

  Realizing I needed to waste away more time before I could really sleep, I placed my notebook back in my duffel and took out the puzzle booklets. As night fell, I grew tired and closed my eyes, but I couldn’t sleep fully since my biological clock was out of whack. Darkness surrounded us, and the car headlights were our only hope of seeing anything. After a short time, I realized we had stopped driving and must have made it to Warburton like Gabriel planned. Peering at the time on the dashboard, I saw it was almost two a.m. Instead of trying to force myself to sleep, I sat there with my eyes closed, hoping morning would come soon.

  I must have dozed off again, because when I opened my eyes, sun was streaming in through the window. I sat up in the back seat.

  “Where’s Gabriel?” I asked Zadkiel, who now sat on the driver’s side.

  “He’s in there.” He pointed to the building we were parked in front of.

  Outside the window, a sign read, “Warburton Roadhouse.” Gabriel came out of the facility talking to some man who had short light brown hair, a brawny figure, and a fuller face with some facial hair scattered across his chin. They parted ways, and Gabriel headed for the car while the man walked to a parked pickup truck.

  “He’s hoping to find out how to get to the reserve,” Zadkiel said.

  “I thought we knew.”

  “We do, somewhat. It’s off in that direction but it’s not exactly open to visitors.”

  A wave of heat poured into the back seat as Gabriel got into the car. “Follow him,” he said as he settled in the passenger seat.

  “Who is he?” I asked.

  “His name is Matthew. He works at the reserve. He can take us there.”

  “Does he know Uriel?” Zadkiel asked, steering the vehicle in the direction of the truck.

  “Yes, he does, but he goes by Uri here.”

  Smirking, I asked, “Uri what?”

  Gabriel shook his head at my amusement. “Uri Reed.”

  I chuckled. “Reed?”

  “Clever,” Zadkiel said.

  “How?”

  “Well, I simply created an anagram, but Uriel seems to use his Celtic tree sign as his last name,” Zadkiel explained.

  “Celtic tree sign?”

  “What did I tell you about being open-minded?”

  “I am! But what is that?”

  “Remember when I told you about each of us having an affinity for certain things?” Gabriel piped up, keeping his eyes on the truck.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, each of us is also associated an astrological sign. In the Celtic culture, those take the form of trees rather than constellations. While a reed may not be a tree, it is still an object of nature.”

  “Okay, I can understand that. Are you associated with the constellations too? I mean, you must be, right, since each of you has the symbol tattooed on your wrist?”

  “Yes,” Zadkiel said.

  The truck braked in front of us at a barricaded entrance. We waited as Matthew showed the guard his badge and pointed to our car. Then, the truck proceeded forward, and the guard waved us through.

  We continued to follow the truck until it pulled into a small lot in front of a building, where we met Matthew by the entrance.

  “So, you blokes are all lo
oking for Uri? I didn’t know he had any brothers. Let’s go and see where he is,” Matthew said, guiding us through the door and clocking in behind the main desk. Two women looked up from their work. “Sheila, Daisy, either of you know where Uri is?”

  “Yeah, he’s out checking on a vandalism incident. There was sign of a fire and debris left everywhere. He went out a while ago. Not sure how long it will take him.”

  Matthew looked at us. “Well, there’s your answer.”

  “Do you mind if we wait here for him?” Gabriel asked. “There’s been a family emergency, and we have no way to reach him.”

  “Sure, make yourself comfortable.” Matthew pointed to some chairs.

  “Thanks.” Gabriel smiled as Matthew retreated to his office.

  We all sat down next to each other. I reached for a magazine from the pile on the table and skimmed through it idly for several minutes before standing up to walk over to the wall of glass windows. Outside, the desert was a landscape I’d never encountered before. All I could see for miles was red dirt and low, brushy foliage. The temperature was unbearably hot, so I could only imagine what it was like at sunset when the landscape turned redder and started to cool off.

  While I daydreamed, a burgundy Jeep Wrangler pulled in. A man hopped down from the vehicle and slammed the door shut, then strode toward the building with a purposeful step. He was quite short—at least, compared to Gabriel—and wore cargo pants and combat boots, with sunglasses covering his eyes and a baseball cap on his head. No one could miss the long red hair peeking out from underneath it.

  Before I could announce his arrival, Uriel strode through the front door and went straight to the desk. “We definitely have a problem,” he said in an Australian accent. “Whoever was here last night, they were illegal campers. Can you pull up any camera footage? Maybe we can see them somewhere along the perimeter.”

  “Sure thing, Uri, I’ll get to work on that. You have some visitors,” Sheila said, drawing his attention to us.

  When Uriel turned and saw Gabriel and Zadkiel, he grimaced. “What are you doing here?”

  “Coming to find you,” Zadkiel said.

  “Considering the message I received from you, I thought you’d be expecting my arrival,” Gabriel said. “Then again, Zadkiel wasn’t too keen to see me either.”

  Uriel strolled closer. “I take it he coaxed you into coming.”

  Zadkiel shrugged. “Yes, but I realize now that we are needed.”

  He sneered. “I can’t understand how we’re all of a sudden needed now, but we weren’t needed yesterday or ten years ago. I’m not about to waste my time gallivanting all over with no purpose in sight. Now, please excuse me. I have work to do.” With a shake of his head, Uriel returned to Sheila.

  I was in no mood to put up with this. “You better wait just a minute,” I said in my most intimidating tone.

  Uriel turned to face us again.

  “We flew seventeen hours to come find you, then drove another eighteen just to get out here in the middle of nowhere. And if that wasn’t bad enough, we’ve got to repeat that trip to find the others, so we are not leaving this room without you.”

  Unfazed, Uriel tipped his head back slightly to take a hard look at me. “Who are you?”

  “Jordan. The sign you’ve all apparently been waiting for.”

  Uriel eyed Gabriel.

  “Let me explain,” Gabriel said.

  “Please do.”

  “Perhaps not in front of them?” He gestured to Sheila and Daisy.

  “You’re right. Follow me.” Uriel led us down the hall and into an empty meeting room.

  Zadkiel closed the door behind us once we were all inside. Then, Gabriel enlightened Uriel about everything that had happened.

  He shook his head. “The Sacrarium never knows when to keep out of things that don’t involve them.” He eyed me in accusation.

  “Hey, don’t look at me. I’m not one of them.” I paused. “Well, I might have been, but if I was, I didn’t know.”

  “Uriel, Jordan is someone we can trust,” Gabriel said.

  “He was obviously someone they trusted too.”

  “Yes, but what’s inside that bag has nothing to do with the Sacrarium and everything to do with us. I think Sister Helen used Jordan as her messenger because his lack of knowledge would essentially allow us to trust him. Her deepest regret in not training him actually turned out to be a saving grace.”

  Zadkiel nodded. “Now, we’re able to teach him what he must know. The proper way,” he emphasized, looking pointedly at Uriel.

  “Hmm.” He didn’t seem convinced.

  “Why do you distrust them?” I asked.

  Uriel glared at me.

  “Notice I said them, not us.”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust the Sacrarium, I just don’t want to be associated with them. We have nothing to do with them,” he explained, scrutinizing me. “Is that backpack the reason why you’re here?”

  “Yes,” Zadkiel answered for me.

  Uriel’s jaw tightened, and he visibly swallowed, gearing himself up for the inevitable. “Fine. I’ll come with you.”

  “Just like that?” I was stunned.

  “You’re obviously not going to leave without me. Besides, I understand I have a duty to fulfill.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “You’re both readily agreeing to join me on this adventure now, yet when I called, every one of you refused to come.”

  “I think that’s because we didn’t realize the severity of the situation,” Zadkiel said.

  Uriel nodded in agreement. “Seeing the kid and feeling the energy of whatever is inside that backpack is certainly more compelling than a simple message to gather together.”

  Sensing slight tension, I stepped in. “Okay, now, let’s not rehash the past. We have four more of you to find.”

  “Agreed,” Zadkiel replied.

  “You’re right,” Gabriel said.

  “I suppose. But I’m not about to do all that driving. We’re chartering a plane out of here and getting on our merry way.” Uriel shook his head.

  “We could have flown here?” I exclaimed.

  “No, not you. But I have connections.”

  Uriel opened the door and left. We followed as he strode down the hall to speak to Sheila, telling her about our need for transport. She called for a small plane from one of the regional airports to come pick us up that afternoon and take us back to Perth.

  “The plans have been put in place,” Uriel said when he returned to where we stood aimlessly by. “Come with me, and I’ll take you to the bungalow. You can relax there while I pack.”

  Well, this was going much better than I thought…

  18

  Satan

  Hell, Present Day

  “Let me see those papers again,” Tabitha said. “I can’t remember one of the lines.”

  Astrid searched the table for the divination parchment that rested next to her arm.

  “What part could you possibly forget?” I asked. I’d memorized every line without glancing at the page once.

  “Something or other about bleeding,” Tabitha remarked.

  “The moon bleeding,” Astrid corrected.

  “Right, the moon bleeding. What do you think it means?”

  “I was going to ask you that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “A blood moon.”

  “Oh, a blood moon!” Astrid nodded. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Because you’re not as brilliant as you think,” I mumbled.

  “Hey!” Tabitha scowled and pointed a finger in my face. “You were the one who wanted our help. Now you have it, you better treat us properly.”

  “I don’t know if I need your help anymore,” I said. “I wasn’t expecting the divination to be so easy. I thought we’d need more sorcery.”

  “None of this makes sense to either of us. What part of Astrid’s divination is so easy to you?”

  I stepped away and stared off into the distan
ce. Cradling my hands together, my left finger absentmindedly stroked the area between my thumb and forefinger where the scar from Lilith’s bite was permanently etched into my skin. The wound was from our first encounter in Eden.

  “That’s because it isn’t about anything that pertains to either of you.”

  “Do you care to explain?”

  Sighing, I gestured for her to take a seat at the table next to Astrid and explained the divination, line by line. If they knew what it meant, they might be able to help me repair my portal quicker.

  “‘Trapped in a fiery Hell, Lord Satan suffers in where he fell.’ That obviously refers to me and my situation, the fact I’m unwillingly trapped down here.”

  “We knew that much,” Tabitha said.

  “Yeah, we’re not stupid,” Astrid added.

  I glared at the two of them, and they fell silent. “The next verse, ‘The bloodline causes this to be since blood ties are the key.’ The bloodline, meaning the Son of God, who some refer to as Jesus, is what imprisons me here. I’m not entirely sure what ‘blood ties are the key’ means, other than that they’re important.”

  Tabitha and Astrid nodded in agreement.

  “Then, ‘You to her are bound forever until ties are dissevered,’ must signify the descendant is a female, and I’m bound to her and trapped in Hell until our connection is broken.” Lost in thought, I continued on. “‘The descendant that walks the Earth is a force stronger than any other birth.’ I must not have the ability to journey to Earth because the descendant is stronger than any others who came before her. ‘The one that makes your imprisonment be must be vanquished for you to be truly free.’ This implies she must die in order for me to be liberated.

  “The next part outlines what needs to be done to allow me to travel through the portal once more. ‘A temporary fix I can see as long as you listen to me. An amulet must be made to grace the place where the cross once laid.’ I must listen to Astrid’s instructions and make an amulet, one that can hang around my neck where I used to wear the cross. ‘Three things are needed for you to be freed as stated in this creed. A feather black as night. A matching one that is white. Your blood shall seal the deed when the dark moon bleeds.’ These are ingredients—a black feather, a white feather, and my blood. I must combine them together to form the amulet when there is a dark blood moon.”