Angels In The Dust

II. Innocence Lost, Wisdom Gained

It was a lovely day in the half-world that the messengers of God call home. Of course, it was lovely every day, having been modeled on the Garden of Eden, emptied of the mortals only a millennium back... Of course, no one visits it now, considering... I wouldn't want to face Uncle Uriel with that sword of his. I shook my head and chuckled at the thought of any human attempting to pass my uncle while he was guarding the gate.

Pushing that out of my mind, I couldn't help but sigh in frustration. Who cared how nice it was! One would think that a personage of such high standing like my brother would be easy to find! I wondered if flying would be easier, but knew what kind of trouble that would get me into... I spotted him, and ran over to the hidden grove where my brother had obviously decided to meditate for a few hours. "Michael! Brother-"

I stopped to catch my breath as my brother turned to me, eyebrow raised. "What is it, Eleiru?" He sighed as he stood up and looked down at me from a height difference at least a foot, and then added, "Such behavior in one of the First Generation -- have respect for our status if nothing else." The sun glinted as it passed through his long, wavy golden hair into my field of vision.

I stopped and nodded, composing myself by looking down at the green grass and counting... I idly wondered whether wanting to shut up a certain brother of mine was yet further proof of my not being able to become perfect like Michael.

I sighed and looked up, expecting to see his slightly superior expression -- only to be greeted with the kind one that I truly should have expected from my brother. My altogether perfect, and wonderfully compassionate elder sib... not like me, with dirty-blond hair and an attitude deemed too disobedient, too immature-

"Little brother, what's the matter?" Michael studied me with a concerned gaze for a moment, before kneeling onto the grass. Sitting down next to him, I shook my head and looked up at the firmament. I started a little as I felt his hand on my shoulder, but let him move me down so my head was on his lap.

"Come on, Eleiru. What's wrong?"

His hands started to smooth down my hair, just like when I had been a little one. Letting his soothing motions calm me, I pulled myself up. Leaning against him, I put my head against his shoulder and sighed. Pulling away after a moment, I smiled at him quietly. "Michael, why does everyone hate him so much?"

Michael gave me a serious look, and then asked, "Hate, Eleiru? Such a strong word, and applying it to everyone... and who is this person whom you are speaking of?"

I gave him an exasperated look, before answering, "You know who! Tieral... Why does everyone always try to tell me not to be friends with him? Even you..."

Michael sighed, and then leaned back on the grass. "Child, there are things that you do not yet understand. Some things..." He let his long hair fan out onto the ground, and covered his eyes with his hands, shielding them from the glare of the sun. "Do you know what Tieral is?"

Glancing at him, lying there in the grass, I couldn't help but feel a bit of disquiet. For once, he was disregarding the all of those rules that he usually followed with such seriousness... It truly must be distressing information for him to act in such a way. My brother should not look quite so tired.

Michael had told me so many times before that we must never seem weak or argumentative in public. That we, as two of those who had seen the world before the Fall, must follow all of the rules and show restraint in our public conduct. After all, if we, the highest of the high, do not follow the rules set for everyone, how could we expect others to follow? Of course, he always seemed to ignore the fact that the younger angels often don't follow the rules anyway...

I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know anymore, but the question had already been asked. Quietly, I answered him, "Tieral? What can he be, but an angel? He dwells in heaven amongst us... Of course, he can't be too high in stature, not with those strange-colored wings..."

I quieted my rambling thoughts as my brother gave me a stern look and sat up. "Eleiru. You may be the youngest of us, but you are still part of the First Generation. As one who witnessed the the Flood, you have no excuse for not knowing." He shook his head, and glanced up at the sky ruefully.

"Still, it's not all your fault, I suppose. The rest of us have been sheltering you for the simple fact that you are the youngest of the ones who had been made material before the Deluge. The rest of us First Ones had been self-aware during the time when the Serpent crept into the mortals' hearts, except for you... so perhaps we wanted you to be a child still. Though we never told you, all of us saw that you became truly self-aware as God sent his rainbow covenant down into the world, and hoped that it meant something..."

Michael looked at me gravely, and then motioned for me to follow him. I walked with him the short distance it took to get to the still pool inside the cluster of trees, and knelt down beside him. He motioned at the water, and an image appeared. I looked at him curiously, before asking, "Why are you showing me the Earth?"

"Look, and see." Gazing into the pool, I saw two angels I had never seen before fly down into the lands of man. Both of them were invisible from the sight of the mortals as they cloaked themselves in the shadows of the twilight, and made their way to a small oasis in the sands. "This was after the Fall of Man, in the days of Jared, he who begot Enoch."

Michael froze the image of the two angels, and then showed me another scene. A stark mountain at the edge of the desert, bare and high. Upon it was gathered a crowd of angels, including the two from the previous scene... "There are two hundred to be exact, little brother. This is the summit of Mount Hermon." I nodded, and he let the vision continue.

From the very top of the mountain, one of the angels levitated himself up and held out his hand. He had a great voice- one used to leading, to commanding.

/"We have all sworn the oath, all of us who have gathered here. Let no one abandon this pact, and let us go down and do what we have sworn to do."/

I watched in fascination mixed in with a little apprehension as they all rose from the mountain upon great wings and flew down to the humans. "Brother, what-" He hushed me, and dissolved the vision. He let the first one resume, and I saw the two angels from before flutter in the darkness to a small house in a small village.

"The taller is Sariel, the shorter, Uzza. Two who pledged to that pact upon that mountain. Two, who were once our brethren."

I couldn't take my eyes away, but I had to ask in a voice that sounded stricken even to my ears, "Once our brethren? What do you mean? How can that be-" I stopped myself from asking anymore as I saw the door to the house open within the vision.

A young woman asked a question in a quiet voice from behind the slightly open door.

/"Who's there?"/

Sariel answered in a melodious voice, /"It is I, Anah."/

The woman rushed out, and embraced him tightly. Smiling, she led him back into the house, while Uzza went to a house only a short distance away, to be greeted by another woman the same way.

"Brother, wha-" I stopped myself again, as I heard the pain-filled voice answer my unspoken question.

In a tone so full of sadness and regret, he told me, "They are two of our brethren who fell into sin. Taking wives upon the earth, they ushered in the corruption and defilement of the world before the Flood which cleansed all of that away."

I looked at him, at his terrible, fierce blue eyes that sorrow had turned to darkest indigo, and I couldn't help looking away. No matter that he was my brother. He was, and always would be Michael. My too-perfect, too-caring brother... but also a Power.

He had been one of the Archangels who had stood before God's Throne, who had truly felt His majesty. Always willing to be one of erring humanity's protectors because he hated the way that humans had lowered themselves, then and now, by sinning, by disobeying...

My gaze was lured back by the pool, which now showed another time, in the same place. From the house of Sariel's woman, I could hear screams of pain and anguish ring in the night. I started, alarmed, but Michael laid a hand on my shoulder, telling me to keep watching without a word. Soon, the screams ceased, and a cry of a child rang out in the night.

"No!" I jerked away from Michael, and stared at him in horror. "They could not have done such a thing! Such a forbidden, terrible thing-"

Michael watched me for a moment with his saddened eyes, before pulling me back down to where I had been sitting. "Quiet, Eleiru. You asked a question which must be answered in full." I nodded with some trepidation, and couldn't help wondering if I should have left well enough alone.

"Angels, as you know, were created by God's wish to have material messengers to his creation. We are to guide, to help, to guard... For some, He allowed us a kind of family so that we may understand the bonds that bind the clans that dwell upon the Earth."

Michael put a hand on my head, and smiled down gently at me. "We are brothers because God willed it that way. All of us in the First Generation feels related, in our own kind of family, because He wished us to know the feeling of kindred to a group. We feel that for all other angels, of course, but we have been granted a gift of brotherhood for our service."

Michael held me for a moment, before letting me go. With a voice full of affection, he added, "And He granted me a special gift of a little brother for me to protect... perhaps for my guardianship of the humans upon Earth, or some other reason. After all, who can know Our Lord's mind? To us, He gave us these bonds of love and family, and to all angels, He gave the same gifts He gave humanity. Free will was one of those."

Michael glanced down at the pool, and his eyes saddened again. "Free will, so that the ones who were unsatisfied went and did what they did. Those two hundred had been the Watchers, Grigori, charged with guarding humanity. Instead, they rebelled, and took daughters of man as wives. They filled the Earth with their offspring -- great giants, who tore from their mother's wombs with hurtful power. The Nephilim."

I gazed down at the resumed vision, and saw the land full of pain and sickness as the Nephilim took control with their mighty strength and half-angelic powers. "Men worshipped them as gods, and our fallen brethren took more women to wife, as did their half-breed sons. Finally, He ordered me to do what must be done."

My brother had turned his face away from me, and was clutching at the grass...

"Brother-"

He glared at me with a ferocious expression. "Silence, Eleiru. The tale must be told in full. Do you understand?" I nodded dumbly, seeing for the first time the warrior behind my kind brother.

"I asked them to repent. I pleaded with them, and begged them, but none would budge. They had pledged an oath, they said, and they would not break it. Instead..." He stopped for a moment, and waved his hand at the pool. I looked into it, not wanting to see my brother's face the way it was...

/"Repent, my brethren! The Lord has condemned you to your just punishment, if-"/

I saw a great crowd assembled before my brother. Almost instinctively, I knew that this was all of the fallen Watchers and their children. I couldn't help but stare at the Michael of the past, who was in the garb of a warrior, of a judge. There was great power in his voice and visage, as if the light was about to burn through him bearing judgment...

/"You know our answer, Michael..."/

Sariel, the leader whom I had seen before, stepped up and smiled at my brother lazily. Walking over to him, Sariel laid one hand on Michael's cheek, and then added, /"Always His lapdog... come join us, and be free. Michael..."/ The worst thing was the terribly stricken, vulnerable expression on Michael's face, which thankfully lasted only a moment.

Pulling away, Michael gazed at the assembled angels and their offspring. In a quiet, intense voice, he replied, /"There was an offer made to any who wished to repent- do not forget that. The Lord has spoken, and it is thus. All your offspring must perish, and all of who had been charged with Watching over humanity and disregarded that ruling must be punished. So it is."/

All of the crowd shifted uneasily, before Sariel spoke out again in that arrogant tone. /"There are too many here for you to beat easily, Michael. We are all your family, and we know your limits."/ The tone of the crowd became hostile again, as the group started to surround Michael.

/"Never doubt the power of our Lord, Sariel. Never. It is too late now..."/

Michael bestowed upon all of them a saddened gaze, before his expression became coldly blank -- one of an arbitrator, a judge. I couldn't help gasping as I saw my brother's wings spread out, letting him rise up above the crowd. Before any others could pursue, Michael put out a hand and cried out in a thundering voice.

/"My Brothers! Come!"/

Suddenly, in a flash of light too intense to be looked upon, they were there. I stifled a cry as I recognized all three of them -- my uncles, the ones who had held me and played games with me when I had been younger... There, as with my brother, they were almost unrecognizable. Girded for war, as Guardians of the sacred corners, they surrounded the crowd of angels and the Nephilim, and somehow, none could doubt the outcome, even with the odds being four to the horde.

All four of them raised their hands in unison and took on expressions of intense concentration. There was nothing said or done for a moment, making the crowd start to shift and mutter.

Then the light flared in Uriel's burning sword, at the North quarter. Making a slash from left to right, he let the flaming weapon spit out strands of light that burned above the crowd. He smiled grimly and passed it to the East.

Raphael nodded as he received it, and on his face was an expression of infinite sorrow as he shaped the threads into a bright net. He nodded once, the pain bright in his eyes, and then passed the net to Gabriel, before handing him the sword.

Gabriel gave the crowd a sad, gentle smile as he took up the sword and the net. Firmly, he threw the net into the crowd, binding all of the Fallen within it. As they struggled within the binding, Gabriel held the sword in front of him, feeding the net its power. Then, with a great shout, all three knelt to Michael.

My brother lowered his arms, and cried out, /"Let His will be done!"/ With that cry, his right hand went up, and took up the sword, passed to him by Gabriel kneeling in front of him. He closed his eyes for a moment, and stiffened. When he opened his eyes, he seemed filled with infinite light and power, and his expression was one of terrible purpose.

Quietly, sword raised, he went down to the net, and slew all of the Nephilim within it. Angel of Death, of Judgment, he ignored the cries of the ones who were dying, and of those who had sired them, and performed his task. The task placed on him by the Lord, and which he had no choice but to fulfill.

"At the end, I was the one to take the two hundred to their place of punishment. Who else but I? After all, God Himself had used me as his tool in cleansing their sins from the world."

I couldn't look at my brother as I gazed down at the image of slaughter within the waters. Finally, I couldn't take any more and plunged my fist into the pool, rippling the picture there. But his bitter words rang in my mind.

"Brother. I -- I'm not going to say anything. I have-" I looked at him for a moment, the two conflicting pictures of him creating havoc within myself. Finally, I looked down, and asked quietly, "I think I would rather have not known... but why is it no one else seems to, either?"

My brother looked down at me with almost bitter eyes, and asked, "Do you really think we need this shown to everyone? Those of the Second Generation, never mind the Third, would take it entirely the wrong way... There are enough that fall, so that to show them this is unthinkable. To show anyone that so many of the First Generation became such corrupt beings- it would shake Heaven's foundations to the ground."

"I- I see... I guess." I tore at a few grass blades, before I looked up, adding, "But why? What does this have to do with Tieral?"

Michael sighed, and replied in a tired voice, "More than anything else, little brother, it has everything to do with Tieral. Watch."

The ripples from the pool had cleared and it showed my brother in a dark, horrid place. Chaotic and burning, it was obviously a place of torment. There, Michael was accompanied by another; a great, glowing being with such power-

I couldn't help yelping. "Lord Metatron!?" I gazed at my brother in amazement. "Ever since the mortal Enoch was taken by God, and was transformed into the Seraph Metatron, I thought that he always stayed at His right hand! What is the Recorder of the Book of History doing in-"

Michael patted me on the head, and replied, "Shh, child. There is more to see."

Glancing back, I see my brother stop in front of one suspended upside down within the dark, flaming prison. Utterly naked, without any defenses, the form and person was still familiar.

/"Sariel..."/

Sariel moved his head toward Michael's direction wearily, before he let himself fall back.

/"Hello, Michael. Come to gloat?"/

Metatron stepped up, and Sariel's expression became blank and rather afraid.

/"Sariel. One of the angels who had been before the actual throne of God. Your children have been killed, your degradation washed away by the cleansing Flood. Now, in his infinite mercy, the Lord has decided to give pardon to any who wish it. Do you repent?"/

Metatron's wise, guileless expression gazed at Sariel until he had to look away.

/"Repent? Why should I repent truly living, instead of being a slave? I found a woman whom I loved, and had children I cared for. Great, beautiful descendants. You destroyed them all, but I will not repent their memory!"/

Metatron gazed at him with a beguiling gaze that turned piercing and knowing. "So be it. It is recorded, here, now and forever." He nodded once before going on to the next prisoner, leaving Michael alone with Sariel.

/"Sariel..."/

Michael utterly lost tone must have penetrated through the pain-filled fog, for Sariel smiled up at my brother and attempted to move his chained hands to reach Michael.

/"Michael... I wish you had joined us. You don't know what life really is, the way you are. Truly, I will not repent."/ Then, Sariel's expression turned serious and dark. /"You murdered my children, Michael. You know I cannot forgive that... so I will ask this of you, and you will do it for me- you know you must. Find my child."/

Michael replied in an incredulous tone /"But-"/

Sariel interrupted him with a curt voice. /"She was not like the others-- a good woman, she was. I disguised myself as her husband, because she would not do anything to go against God's will... terrible of me, but I got her with child. My child, the only one to survive. Find her, and save him. He is of Noah's tribe as well."/

Closing his eyes, Michael started to reply, /"I can't-"/. But then he quieted, and nodded once. /"Sariel. We went together, at the beginning of this world's making, to Our Lord's presence. For that, I will try... but I cannot help the child. You know that."/

Sariel nodded wearily, and then whispered, /"He will be different -- you'll see. He is more like me than any of my others -- I could feel it as he quickened inside of Iscah. He is the one I vested all my power in, at that moment of conception -- my true heir. He will have the Free Will to choose Heaven if he wants, won't he?"/

I turned my back to the pool, and asked my brother the question with my eyes. He nodded quietly. "Tieral, begotten of Sariel and Iscah. One of the Nephilim -- the only one of the Nephilim to survive, who chose instead to become an angel instead of living on Earth. At the age of 13, he ascended into the lower heavens, on the wings given to him by his father's hopes. Their color is a mark of his mother, who was known for her exotic violet eyes."

"How -- how is it that I never-"

Michael looked at me with fierce eyes, and snapped, "No one knows! They know he's an odd one, and so the young ones gossip like children behind his back. But no one except he, and the other Firsts know. Now, all of the Firsts know, and that knowledge is not going to reach any others, or change the fact that he's your friend, right?"

I started to say something back, but I saw the expression in his eyes, and nodded meekly instead. "Of course! Tieral is my friend, no matter what! But... he knows?"

Michael hesitated for a moment, before replying, "He knows that he is different, but he does not know why. One day, I will tell him. When he truly needs to know what we took from his mind, the day he reached one of the Watchers placed at our gates."

"Took... No. Oh, no. Please, tell me-" I stopped myself short, and saw why he had not wanted me to know any of this. I felt much older than I had been a scant hour ago, and I saw exactly how much of a burden knowledge was. Saw why my brother had wanted to keep me away from all of this.

Perhaps I had been blinded by the mortals' perceptions of us as nearly godlike beings... perhaps I hadn't wanted to see. Still, to not have realized any of this -- I saw why my brother had been so exasperated, and yet so protective of me at the same time. It would have been nice to stay in the dark, but once I knew, I couldn't give up such knowledge.

I stood up and knelt down on one knee in front of my brother as befitting his rank. With my right hand a fist at my heart, my forehead at my right knee, I acknowledged him as I had never done before, as the one who had stood before the Lord, as the one who had been a conduit for His righteous rage... That day, I bowed down to one of the great Powers, and knew it as truth.

Still, he was my one and only brother. "Michael... I see why, now. Now that I know, I see. Still, I'm still going to be Tieral's friend, if only because I see he needs one now more than ever. Okay?" I smiled up at him as I stood from my genuflection, and was rewarded with a genuine smile that was reflected in his eyes, untouched by the burdens I had seen in them earlier.

"Definitely okay, Eleiru. Truly." He nodded, and stood up as well. He gazed back down at me with a more serious look. "Any other reasons?"

My own smile slipped as I gazed back down at the now-still pool. "Because you need someone close to him at all times to monitor him. Someone that he trusts, so that if there is any danger. Right?" I didn't need to look up as he nodded, but I leaned against him anyway as he put a hand against my shoulder.