by E. S. Mercer
However, my father was confused and angered by the fact that we could reverse what he had done so easily. His powers were invincible and any ‘spell’ he may have cast had never been able to be undone by anyone, except for Samiel. And he knew it couldn’t have been his brother’s doing, because he had hindered Samiel from using any of his powers against him.
He fled to Aljann to consult his counsel, demanding that I be locked away in the castle as a prisoner until his return. It didn’t take long for Gabriel to free me, planning an escape to Cimmeria, where we hoped to get Samiel’s blessing on our union, and ask for asylum. But my father returned home sooner than we thought and banished Gabriel alone in the mortal realm this time.
My father kept me locked in my room, demanding that I remain under guard at all times. The only time he came to speak to me himself, was to bind me of all my power and cast a million and a half spells on me. I didn’t know what any of them were for, or even why he tried. I honestly didn’t have strong enough powers for him to want to take them from me. Then, he stopped coming around. He would send my mother or one of the council members to speak to me.
Finally, my mother, got up the nerve to defy my father and help me escape to the mortal realm to look for Gabriel. But, by the time I had found him, he was an old man and not long for his mortal life.
The good news is, when a mortal body has outlived its usefulness, it is reborn into Caelum. Not as a newborn baby, however. The best way to describe it is a reset. If a person was an adult when they were banished to the mortal realm, they would come back to Caelum as an adult. They would regain their ‘wings’ and continue their life. And since time works differently in the other realms, a mortal lifetime could be a mere moment in Caelum.
Some mortals were banished for many lifetimes. It was a punishment my father had decided on after tiring of the same people coming back and defying him. And the more severe the crime, the more lifetimes or ‘cycles’ as they were called, they would get. They would live and die as a mortal, with their essence being transferred to a fetus upon death. They would not remember why they were sent there or who they were in a past lifetime. They would do this repeatedly until their sentence was complete and once their cycle was broken, they would finally be able to return to Caelum as themselves and carry on with their lives.
When I found Gabriel, he had only had only been sentenced to one cycle and was able to return to Caelum shortly after. But, we didn’t learn our lesson and soon both of us were sent down to live a couple cycles as mortals. Even if we found each other, we grew old and died together, knowing we would find each other again in another life.
When I finally returned home, my father had become even more strange than before. His behavior was erratic, as demonstrated by severe paranoia and a weakness in his power. He would mutter to himself when he thought no one was listening, carrying on about the prophecy and the found child.
He even called a truce with his brother so they could hold up in the council’s chambers in Aljann and discuss whatever was bothering them. Shortly after he returned was apparently when I was sent to the mortal realm this last time, stripped of more than just my memories. I lost my identity, my ability to understand the power within me and this time, even when Gabriel banished himself to the mortal realm to find me, I could not seem to get it back.
Why did Gabriel banish himself you ask? As long as anyone has their ‘wings,’ they are still tethered to Caelum and my father. Once someone stripped of them, however, he no longer has direct access to you. The tethers, which sustain eternal life, also act as a beacon and a connection between all those who have them. Gabriel found out why I was sent to the mortal realm and knew that he must stay under the radar to help me. Problem is, he meant to only strip his wings and somehow, whoever helped him, sabotaged him, stripping him of his memories as well.
Samiel, who hadn’t been right since his wife’s death, even became more erratic than usual, surrounding himself with the most elite of his Guard and bouncing back and forth between Cimmeria and the mortal realm to insure I started remembering things. Unlike his brother, he wanted me to remember, but for very different reasons. Reasons I wouldn’t learn until later. When I wouldn’t remember fast enough, he altered Michael’s memory, putting him my path and hoping he would have the same effect on me his brother did.
Raphael, who was his father’s most trusted advisor and General of the Praesidion Guard, only defected after finding out why I was sent away and the plans both Samiel and Hyperion had for me. He was tasked by Renu and the Council with keeping his father away from me while helping me find what I had lost...myself. He vowed to do so at all cost, knowing what that could mean for him in the end. He employed the help his brother Ramiel, his second in command and his sister Uriel, knowing they would go to the ends of the earth to protect their brothers. Something Raphael understood to be just as important as protecting me.
The moment Aljann fell, they fled to the mortal realm and found us. They didn’t strip themselves of their wings, however, since their tethers should have allowed them to keep their strength. Like all Cimmerian’s and Lumenarian’s alike, Samiel’s children didn’t have the same power as their father. Hyperion made sure no one could tap into a power he felt only he should possess. Their power came from incredible strength, the ability to heal themselves, speed and wit. Something they felt was much more necessary than the possible danger they could have faced by staying connected.
“It will only be a matter of time before they find us,” Raphael said to Gabriel and Michael. “We must take her to the Renu so that she understands what it is we are fighting for.”
“Why can’t we just tell her?” Michael asked. “This would make everything a lot easier.”
“Go ahead and try,” Raphael replied. “Most people can’t even say her name, never mind repeat the prophecy.”
Michael tried to open his mouth, but nothing came out.
“He made sure none of us could repeat it,” Raphael said. “He doesn’t want anyone to know.”
“And you think The Premier can?” Gabriel asked.
“I know he can, he is the one that told me,” Raphael replied. “Hyperion doesn’t think he would betray him.”
He grabbed his brother’s shoulders, “Which is exactly why we need to get him to do so.”
“He isn’t going to help us,” Uriel retorted. “He only told you to save his own hide.” “Yes, you are probably right,” Raphael replied, “but we need to get him to understand that this is bigger than all of us and that telling her is the only right thing to do.”
“If we get Ryan to help us, then Renu will,” Gabriel said, understanding his brother’s plan.
“Exactly,” Raphael exclaimed with a smile. “Ryan would do anything asked of him when it comes to her.”
“We all would,” Gabriel said quietly. “Tell me about it,” Michael agreed.
Chapter VIII
“Can you please explain to me again why you or your brother can’t end this once and for all?” Lilith asked as she watched her lover get dressed. If her tone wasn’t indication enough, she made sure to slam the covers around to demonstrate how irritated she was with the entire situation.
“You have been completely obsessed and distracted by the Princess and it’s affecting us,” she continued, crawling to his side of the bed and laying her head on his back. “I miss you Samiel. I miss your lust for me and for power.”
“There is no us,” Samiel muttered, as he bent down to put on his shoe. “I use you because you let me so easily.” He stood up and turned faced her. He was planning on ending the sexual part of their relationship, since boredom was setting in. It wasn’t fun for him anymore, and she was right, he had lost his lust for everything. But when he turned, Lilith’s face was not hers, morphing itself into that of his flawless Arabella, as she sat, silently beckoning him with her piercing blue eyes.
“Oh Arabella, I miss you,” he whispered, caressing her face. “My love, I can’t do this without you.”
“You do need me,” Lilith replied, ignoring the fact that he wasn’t talking to her. All Samiel heard, was Arabella speaking back to him.
"Why are you ignoring me?” she asked her beloved. “Do you not love me?” Samiel sat on the bed next to the woman he thought he had lost for eternity.
“Oh my sweet Arabella,” he cried, placing his forehead on hers. “I have not forsaken you I promise. Everything I do is to avenge you.”
She lifted her hand to his face, pulling back to look him eye to eye. “You have become lost without me,” she whispered in a soft, motherly tone. Her grip on his face began to tighten. “You have become wretched and weak.”
“It isn’t my fault,” he choked, losing all control of his emotions. “Hyperion has taken everything from me! He took you from me. Our children, they are gone. They have lost all faith in me and my powers have vanished.”
He began to shake with rage, “I am nothing!” he cried.
“It’s ok Sam,” Lilith answered, still thinking he was talking to her, “you still have me!” “Find Evangeline and beg her to give you your powers back,” Arabella continued. “She can fix all of it. Help her remember so she can help you take revenge on her father. Gain your strength back.”
“That is what I am trying to do,” Samiel replied, wistfully. “She won’t remember.” Arabella’s face began to harden as she looked deep into her husband’s eyes. Her skin began to gray, pushing through a grotesque web of black veins and scars. But he still couldn’t see anything but the beauty he remembered. “Then make her remember and then take her power too. Absorb the full power of the Una Vis and rule the world.”
“I don’t want that, do I?” Samiel asked the phantom face. “I just want my life back. I don’t like feeling human. It’s…” He paused to find the right word. He felt dirty, weak and a ghost of his former self. “Disgusting,” he sighed.
“You want to avenge me. You want to destroy Hyperion. You want to be what Evangeline will never allow you to be.”
“You are right,” Samiel replied, caressing the vision of a corpse. “You will help me, yes?”
But before he could get an answer, Arabella vanished, leaving him bewildered and an oblivious Lilith to continue her one-sided conversation.
“Of course, my darling,” Lilith responded, pulling the dazed man into her arms. “Just tell me what you need.”
Lilith’s gravelly and harsh voice startled Samiel, snapping him out of a daze and into a fit.
“Arabella,” he cried, pulling away from Lilith.
“Lilith,” she replied in a pathetic tone as she pawed at him. “I am Lilith.”
Samiel pushed himself off the bed, ripping his arm out of the grip of a woman who had unapologetically latched on to him.
“What are you so afraid of?” she barked. “I am not afraid!” he snapped. “I was never afraid of her,” he continued. “Her father acted out of fear. Everything he has done to her is because of his cowardice and disquietude.”
“I was talking about us!” she cried. “Why are you afraid of us.”
“All along I have tried to help her remember, hoping she would help me, but she won’t. She won’t help me. I need to take her power for myself!” He began to pace with madness as the voice of Arabella resonated from the deepest recesses of his consciousness. “I have to take Evangeline’s powers as my own. I must absorb the power of my mother, the Una Vis.”
“What?” Lilith asked. “Evangeline has the power of the Una Vis?” “She is the Una Vis,” Samiel growled. “She is the physical manifestation! She is the found child, the one from the prophecy.”
“And now you want to kill the mother of all creation?” Lilith scoffed. “That is ballsy!" Lilith didn’t let the news, although shocking, deter her from helping him achieve his goal. After years of being his confident and lover, she saw herself as the one who would save him from himself. If she needed to help him become the Una Vis, then she would do it. Then, maybe he would see her true worth.
“So, do it now, before she can stop you! I doubt she needs to remember who she is to access her power!”
“I can’t!” Samiel cried. “She doesn’t have it!”
“What do you mean she doesn’t have it?” Lilith asked. “You just said she is the Una Vis!” “She was, I mean, she is,” he responded, trying to choose his words. “They aren’t gone, I just can’t find them. When I searched her, I couldn’t find anything that connected her to them. It’s like he erased her completely.”
“So…” Lilith started to say.
But the door burst open as her brother Malachi came running in.
He addressed the man who refused to be called King. “Great Father,” he called out. “King Hyperion has vanished.”
“What do you mean vanished?” Samiel asked his centurion. “When Aljann fell, he entered the mortal realm and just disappeared,” Malachi replied. “Rumor has it that he has lost all powers and has gone into hiding.”
“Impossible,” Samiel mumbled, changing his attitude and losing his adolescent behavior. “I would feel if he lost them. They are not gone, just weakened, severely.”
He turned to Malachi, who was now joined by the rest of Samiel’s elite guard, The Praesidio.
“Maybe he is weak enough for us to deal with. Take Molloch and Danyal and find the opening to Caelum. I must speak to Abraxas at once.”
“Abraxas?” Lilith challenged. “Abraxas is the one who betrayed you is he not? He betrayed us all.” “Yes, but with Hyperion gone and Renu betraying him to my son, Abraxas will be the next in charge. He will have taken the throne,” Samiel argued. “It is time to create an alliance with Caelum and finish this once and for all. Find Hyperion and take him out before Evangeline awakens, then we deal with her.”
*****
I stood on the edge of the crystal lake, breathing in as much of the fresh air as I could while I tried to remember for myself what the truth really was. But I couldn’t, instead, when I closed my eyes, I saw Michael and Gabriel and I felt immense love and pity for them both.
“Ramiel, right?” I asked the reticent man standing five feet behind me. True to form, although my back was facing him, he nodded silently, yes.
“How do you remember it?” I asked. “Is it what they say? Am I really with Adam?”
“You mean Gabriel,” he grunted. “His name is Gabriel.”
“Right,” I said, adjusting my feet. “Gabriel. Am I with Gabriel?
“Since as long as I can remember,” Ramiel responded. “It’s like you picked him.”
“I picked him?” I asked. He came down and stood beside me. “There have been so many different people who fell in love with you over the years, but he seemed to be the one that made most of an impact.”
“And I am not your cousin?” I asked. I needed reassurance. “No,” Ramiel responded, stopping to choose his words, or at least remember something he was not supposed to remember. “You were not born of Seraphine’s loins.”
“Her name is Seraphine?” I asked. No one had ever spoken her name.
He nodded silently. “And I am with Gabriel?” I asked, trying to get him to focus on me. His eyes wandered with his thoughts, and then he went silent. He just nodded again and went back to standing guard.
I kept focusing on the ripples in the lake and questioning what I knew. “You can’t tell me love is just something you can conjure in a spell. Michael loves me, beyond the insatiable lust, I can feel it.”
“We all love you,” Ramiel muttered under his breath. “None of us can help ourselves.”
“What did you just say?” I asked, getting close to him. “We all love you,” he repeated through gritted teeth. His raised his hand up just enough to touch mine and then dropped it quickly. “Man, woman-- it doesn’t matter. Anyone who meets you falls in love with you. Head over heels, painfully and forever in love with you.”
I could feel his desire to act upon his feelings and the discipline it took to keep himself from doing so and I asked, “Wh
y?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “But what makes it worse for all of us is knowing that no matter what happens, you only truly love Gabriel.”
He raised his hand again to grab mine when we were interrupted by the sound of tires storming over the loose gravel on the road just above us. By the sound of it, a fleet cars were barreling towards us.
“Let’s go,” Ramiel demanded, grabbing my arm. He pulled the sword from his side and called out Raphael’s name. But, by the time we made it to the doorway, the rest of Samiel’s children, or “the Fallen” as they were known, were already outside, swords in hand and ready for battle.
“It’s ok, it’s just the Renaldi’s,” I blurted, as we joined them. I don’t know how I knew, they were still a distance away and all the windows were tinted.
“Are you sure?” Raphael asked, pulling me behind him.
“I think so,” I tried to reassure him. “Yes, I can feel it. Ryan is in there.” Raphael had enough faith to believe me, ordering his siblings to lower their swords. But, when the cars finally arrived, all three of them just sat and idled for a moment, making him nervous once again.
When Ryan finally got out of the first car, Raphael loosened up a bit and when his parents stepped out of the second car, Raphael completely stood down..
“Ryan,” I called out, running towards him. “You are ok!” “I am fine, just a couple of scratches and bruises,” he said, pulling down his right sleeve. I saw a bandage on his right forearm and began to focus on it. “Honestly, Ness….,” he stopped to take a breath before correcting himself. “Eva. I am fine.”
He turned back towards his parents who requested we get inside the house immediately.
“But we need to see your father, Ryan,” Raphael begged, stopping Ryan on the steps. “We need Renu’s help.”
“Your father?” I asked, catching up to them. “Alistair is not your father?”