Evenstar (40 page)

Helion reached for her.
 
“Belial, why don’t you let yourself heal so that you can live?”

“I cannot heal and I don’t want to live.”
 
She sank to her knees.
 
When her eyes met his they were empty.
 
“I stay alive to see this through to its end.
 
Lucifer promised me before the war.
 
He gave me his word.”

Helion went pale.
 
“Promised you what?”

“That once we rescued Ladriam, once she is restored, he promised to take my life.”
 
She sagged.
 
“I’ve been waiting a long time to be free of it,” her voice cracked.
 
“I don’t want to live with the memories anymore.”

“Belial, you do not mean that!”
 
He hugged her.
 
“You don’t want to die!”

She leaned on her brother.
 
“I am already dead, Helion.
 
My heart, my soul…this body is all that remains to keep me here.”
 
She hugged him and closed her eyes.
 
“I’m so tired, Helion.
 
I just want to lay it all down and rest.
 
I don’t want to fight it anymore.”

***

Lucifer walked in flame.
 
In any direction he looked, the earth and skies burned.
 
Flames licked the earth clean of living material.
 
He breathed fire; his body made of heat and light.
 
The sun rose in the sky, but he was brighter.
 
In the roar and emptiness of flame, he found solace.
 
His rage died down, and his thoughts returned.
 
He could go back.

A familiar booming drew his gaze upwards.
 

Michael soared towards him.
 
He hit the fire and gasped.
 
He flew backwards.
 
“What is this?”

Lucifer laughed.
 
“Now who does not want to fight?”

“How do you still possess this much power?”
 
Michael followed Lucifer’s movements on the ground below.
 
He gripped his spear, aching to plunge it into his chest.

Lucifer maneuvered between cracks in the earth.
 
“You are the mouthpiece of Him.
 
Why do you not ask Him?
 
Oh, that is right, you do not question, and so you know nothing.”

Michael shook with impotent rage.
 
Heat penetrated the shielding of his pendant and drove him higher into the air.
 

Lucifer contemplated attacking Michael.
 
He was not afraid of another spear wound, but he feared for Dahlia, unsure of what her status was.
 
He had dallied here aboveground for too long.
 
He glanced up at Michael; the Archangel waited for an attack that would not come.
 

Water seeped up from the ground below.
 
Lucifer looked at it, ankle deep.
 
He smelled the sea.
 
He splashed through the water looking for a source.
 

Neptune rose from the ground, his body formed from clear water.
 
“You need to come back.
 
We cannot heal them.”

Lucifer looked from Michael to Neptune.
 
“Take me to her.”
 
He killed the flame around his body and stepped into Neptune.
 
The two vanished into the ground leaving an enraged Michael to scream at the scorched, empty earth below.
 

***

Dahlia felt Furcas around her in the darkness.
 
There was silence, no pain.
 
She reached out, found a hand, and they were reconnected.
 
Dahlia smiled.
 
Where are we now?

Furcas shrugged.
 
I do not know.

A presence joined theirs; it was curious, unafraid, and unthreatening.
 
It paid them no attention.
 
It filled up everything; it was the place.
 
It was young, carefree, and happy.
 
It spoke without speaking, but not to them, to another.

“I am.”
 
The words had force, substance.
 
The place grew heavy as each sound created mass.
 
The spirit roamed without a distinction in time.
 
It reflected, it existed, and it knew nothing but itself.
 
The presence spoke again, “I am.”

YOU ARE.

Furcas and Dahlia froze.
 
Waves of happiness and love shifted from one presence to another.
 
Furcas recoiled.
 
Oh my.

Dahlia gripped him.
 
What?

We are in
your
memories.

“I am Ladriam.”

LADRIAM.
 
A SUITABLE NAME.
 
YOU ARE MINE.

The being of Ladriam rejoiced, but curiosity inexorably joined its happiness.
 
“What are you?”

THE CREATOR, THE ALL.
 
YOU ARE FROM ME, OF ME, WE ARE ONE AND YET APART.

Ladriam had no form, but Furcas and Dahlia felt a focal point, a swirling consciousness.
 
This being, inquisitive, looked around.
 
“Where are you?”

EVERYWHERE, BUT FOR YOU, A VIEW.
 

A pinpoint of light grew to a fire, a flame of white.
 
The glow drew Ladriam in.
 
The feeling of adoration blossomed.
 
She was entranced.
 
“You are beautiful.”

NO, THAT IS YOU.
 
I AM EVERYTHING, UGLY, BEAUTIFUL, STRONG, WEAK.
 
YOU ARE A MIRROR, THE THING THAT SHINES WITH ME.

“I do not understand.”

YOU DO NOT NEED TO.
 
YOU ONLY REFLECT THAT WHICH IS.

The curious consciousness that was Ladriam felt a slight disappointment that tinged the air.
 
“I wish to understand you.”

YOU QUESTION, DOUBT, YOU HAVE FEELINGS OTHER THAN JOY.
 
THIS IS NEW.
 
The greater consciousness paused, considering.
 
Time had no meaning here; it could have pondered for millennia.
 
It sensed her, watched her, and came to desire her difference.
 
I SEEK TO EXPERIENCE YOU.

“What does this mean?”

I DESIRE THIS MUTUAL KNOWING ALSO.
 
YOU, THIS PART OF MYSELF, IS MOST CURIOUS.
 
I SEE IN YOU SOMETHING NOT IN THE OTHERS.

“Others?
 
What does this mean?”

KNOWING OF THAT DOES NOT CONCERN YOU.
 
IRRELEVANT.
 
YOU ARE PERFECT, YET NOT PART OF THE WHOLE.
 
YOU ACT AS ONE APART, YET YOU ARE MYSELF.
 
I DO NOT YET UNDERSTAND YOU.
 
I FEEL A SENSE TO JOIN YOU, YET AS SEPARATE, NOT AS ONE.
 
TO BE ONE WOULD TO NOT HAVE YOU.
 
INDIVIDUAL.
  

Furcas wrapped his arms protectively around Dahlia.

“Individual?”
 
Ladriam moved within her realm, a bodiless consciousness, always orienting on the light that is God.
 
“I seek only to do as you wish.
 
I sense unease.”

YOU SENSE…THAT YOU CAN SENSE, THIS IS SPECIAL.
 
I MUST THINK.

The light faded.
 

Dahlia shivered.
 
What the fuck.
 
Do you understand what is going on?

Furcas nodded.
 
To understand this I think you must see something else.
 
Let me share.

They fell into Furcas’ long memory.
 
Light and cold took over from dark and warmth.
 
An electric chill snap brushed against their forms.
 
Dahlia’s eyes opened to Heaven.
 
Her mind could not process it.
 
The consciousness she embodied joined with Furcas’; they overlapped and became one shared entity.
 
He directed her view through his memories.
 
The choirs of angels in Heaven.

Myriad angels filled her sight, beings of prismatic light and sound.
 
They sang and soared in a place that had neither sky nor ground.
 
Two-winged they were perfect, beautiful, different in appearance yet the same in goal and emotions.
 
They were a harmony of unending song.
 
She knew contentment as Furcas had felt it then.

From this sight, she found distinctions, seven angels with four wings.
 
Dahlia recognized them,
Andrealphus, Paimon, Michael, and Berith.
 
The others she knew only from her dreams.
 
Furcas’ memory supplied their names,
Selaphiel, Jegudiel, and Barachiel.
 
The original Archangels.

The Archangels flew together, their movements mirrored, complementing each other.
 
Dahlia looked to their faces.
 
They were blank.
 
Different in appearance, but something in them was the same.
 
Each Archangel carried a different aspect of the whole.

The choirs parted and Lucifer the six-winged passed overhead.
 
His face was not blank, but thoughtful, full of ideas.
 
Dahlia heard Furcas’ thoughts.
 
He was individual and yet not.
 
He was connected to Him, but had his own thoughts.
 
Lucifer and Him shared a mind, they were aware of everything, they talked and sang in unison.
 
Lucifer was the first, the companion.

Dahlia watched Lucifer, ever graceful and bright, fly on.
 
She followed his progress.
 
Where is he going?
 
What was he thinking?

I do not know the latter, but he was travelling to the throne.
 
He summoned Lucifer.
 
He gave Lucifer a purpose other than an ear and mouth.
 
Then he split from Lucifer, severing their connection.
 
Lucifer was directed outward, we did not know out existed before this.
 

Lucifer lost his form in a flash of light.
 
The hosts of Heaven turned, sensing that their Primangel had left them.
 
The seven Archangels came to a rest near young Furcas.
 
She questioned him.
 
What were you then?

Furcas responded with a smile in his thoughts.
 
A guardian, a singer, and only that, just one of the countless angels that worshipped without thought.

The sky erupted in light and song.
 
Dahlia watched the creation as Furcas had.
 
Colors and heat blanketed the sky in a rainbow aurora.
 
The singers in Heaven ceased, breathless.

The seven Archangels blinked in unison, they breathed in harmony, and stepped apart as individuals.
 
Young Furcas’ eyes were drawn to Paimon.
 
The Archangel looked at his hands, then all around him.
 
His eyes stopped at Furcas, he seemed curious, then looked away captured by another new sight.
 

Dahlia felt Furcas’ emotions, his vision, the love Furcas had instantly fostered for the Archangel.
 
Paimon looked back at the newly created universe, his eyes fixed only on it.

Furcas smiled.
 
He was so perfect then.
 
Utterly fascinated by what Lucifer had done.

Dahlia watched the Archangels stare at the sky.
 
But they all weren’t?

Time passed in a place without time.
 
The angels watched the universe unfold, the creation of stars and planets.
 
Berith, Andrealphus, and Paimon unfurled their wings and leapt out of Heaven, leaving Michael, Barachiel, Selaphiel, and Jegudiel behind.
 
Michael was torn, wanting to go, yet pensive.

Furcas smiled.
 
Those three, their curiosity got the better of them.
 
And they saw.

***

Lucifer arrived at the Sanctuary doorway.
 
The second generation Lilliam focused on breaking the shield.
 
Paimon waited in the doorway, staring at Furcas and Dahlia.
 
The others stayed in the room outside.
 
Whitney, Tracy, Celeste, and Jacob huddled together in a nervous, exhausted knot.
 
Apple stood stoically.
 
Berith held up Andy.
 
Belial paced as a terrified looking Helion watched over her every movement.