The words came heavily, my lips feeling like lead, tears streaming down my cheeks. I had fought against the likes of Michael, Asmodeus, Lucifer even, and yet never have I felt such overwhelming emotion. As I lay within the embrace of my creator, within my Father, it was as though everything vanished, there was no world but the personal world between the two of us. I guess, I wasn't very wrong, for I remembered the time before I fell from His grace, He told us stories and in those stories, He told each and every one of us that we meant the world to Him.
"Nonsense, my son. If you don't deserve this, no one does."
"I have sinned against heaven and against you. How...?"
Before I could finish my sentenced, I choked on my own tears. The warmth was ridiculously welcoming and touching.
"Your sins are not important at all. What's important is that you are My son and I never forget my children, no matter what they have done, for they are as I said before, the world to me."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ammitiel smiling.
"But...But....Father, Lucifer had killed me. He must have! He cleaved my body in two! How?"
At this, God let go of me and rose to his full height, an awesome image of power and authority. When he spoke again, his voice boomed over all of heaven,
"My boy, I tell you solemnly, even if the whole world wants you dead but I want you to live, believe me, you will live until your body rots away by the passage of time!" God smiled. "That, or you die of boredom, but you'll live, yes..."
"Father!" Ammitiel gasped.
God laughed loudly, but it was beautiful in its own way.
"For too long the people on Earth have viewed me as judge and master, it is time they saw me as a Father. And for the world to see me as a Father, my very own children must see me as a Father. Besides, do you not like My humour?"
Ammitiel and I exchanged uncertain looks. A slight frown appeared on God's face. I could have sworn I heard him mutter under his breath,
"Kids these days..."
At that moment, someone entered the Heavenly Court, accompanied by St Peter, the gatekeeper of Heaven. She was dressed in a long white dress which hung off her shoulders. A crown of white roses rested on her head. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, unable to believe what I was seeing. St Peter brought the girl to where Ammitiel and I were standing, bowed and left the room but not before giving me the thumbs up which gave the message, "Welcome home."
"Hello, Xaldin." Amalia said with a wave.
I looked back and forth between Ammitiel and Amalia.
"If you're you, then who's she?"
"She's Amalia." Ammitiel replied with a chuckle.
"But I thought you were her." Confusion growing in my head.
"I was."
"Then...if you're here, how is she there?" It was just too much.
God chuckled softly. With a little shake of his head, he turned to Ammitiel,
"Ammi, help your brother. It's time to reveal the details of our agreement so very long ago."
Ammitiel nodded and turned to me.
"You see, Xal, when you fell, I agreed to give up my wings, that you already know. However, Dad didn't like the idea very much but I never stopped bugging Him."
"That she did." God replied with a sigh.
"Anyway, I cut Him a deal. For as long as you remained a fallen angel, I would live a mortal life, die, live another mortal life and die again. The cycle would continue until you achieved redemption."
"And what if I never achieved redemption?"
"I would have been stuck as a mortal on Earth for eternity."At the look of concern in my eyes, she quickly added,"but the thought of failure never crossed my mind. You're my brother, I never doubted you. It took you awhile, but you you finally came back anyway."
I couldn't help but smile. Such faith.
"That still does not explain how Amalia and you can appear here at the same time."
"I was Amalia but Amalia was never me."
I frowned.
"The many years in hell burned away a lot of my brain cells, can you speak in a way I can understand?"
"It means, silly, that Amalia was just a vessel. No offence!" Ammitiel turned to look at Amalia and raised a hand which Amalia returned in kind. "You can say that I possessed her body with my soul and for as long as she lived we were one body, two souls. The same goes for St Joan of Arc and all the other people I used to be."
"Oh..."
"That's all you can say? "Oh?" "
I shrugged and smirked at my little sister. Suddenly, Amalia's body glowed brightly and I watched in awe as wings started to form from her shoulders. She flexed her new muscles like they were always there and touched them, obviously fascinated by the feathery texture. Two more angels came into the Heavenly Court, a woman and a man,both strangely familiar to me. Tears filled their eyes and smiles split their faces. Upon sighting the couple, Amalia started to move towards them but stopped midway to look back at God. He gave her an approving nod and she made a beeline towards the couple. The three of them embraced each other tightly and I knew at once that they were Amalia's parents. Amalia turned away from her parents to give one last deep bow to God and flew off with her parents.
"A new member of the Angelic Choir it seems." Ammitiel whispered to me.
God turned his loving gaze back to us.
"Well, now that THAT'S settled, time for the real proceedings."
I looked at Ammitiel but even she looked puzzled this time.
"You know, I never really LIKE the number six..." God spoke in dreamy tone.
Raguel and Ramiel, the two archangels who attacked me not too long ago flew into the Court, landing beside me.
"Sorry for attacking you," said Raguel as he offered me his hand. Ramiel did so as well.
I took both hands and shook them.
"All is forgiven."
Michael, Gabriel and Raphael entered the Heavenly Court together not long after and landed beside us.
God gazed at the seven of us gathered in front of Him, his eyes beaming with absolute pride. He cleared his throat, which sounded like the rumble of thunder.
"I prefer the number "seven". It has been too long since I've had a full set of archangels." Comprehension dawned upon me. My throat went suddenly dry as God's eyes fell upon me. "Xaldin, would you please step forward?"
I took a step forward and stood before the Creator.
"Xaldin, you have shown through your return to Light that all creation has a chance for repentance if they only embrace it. I appoint you as the Patron of Repentant Sinners. Any violent objections?" He looked about the Heavenly Court. Surprisingly, Michael raised his hand.
"Father..."
"You object?"
"N..No...I for one completely agree."
"In that case, why do you raise your hand?"
"Erm...with all due respect, Father...I know that You've been trying to add humour to Your image...but...violent objections?"
God shifted uncomfortably.
"Yes, well, anyway, are we all in agreement that Xaldin be inducted into the Holy Guard of Archangels?"
There was a general buzz of agreement.
"Very well, Xaldin, from this day forth, you are one of the seven who stands before Me in the Heavenly Court! A guardian of my children everywhere and a bearer of my Light."
"I accept, Father."
A huge sword appeared in God's right hand. He was about to speak again but held back his tongue. He looked at Michael who frantically shook his head. God gave a long, disappointed sigh.
"I thought of knighting you the Medieval way, but....I guess not..."
Instead, God gave me a nod and I stepped back in line. God motioned to my sister who stepped forward.
"Ammitiel, when the Great War had ended, you chose to sacrifice your wings, in hopes of helping your brother return to Heaven. Your sacrifice had brought you countless torments but in the end, you tasted the sweetness of success. You are an inspiration to us all, to women everywhere, and to siblings. Your strength and power rivals even the strongest of my archangels and now, I bestow you the honour of joining the Holy Guard, to be one of the seven who stand before Me in the Heavenly Court, and the first female to be an archangel, the Gift of Light."
Ammitiel bowed her head as she answered,
"I accept."
"In that case, it is settled! The seven of you are the new Holy Guard! Michael, the leader, Protector of the weak, Gabriel, the Bearer of Good News, Raphael, the Medicine of God, Xaldin, the Patron of Repentant Sinners, Ramiel, the Mercy of God, Raguel, the Friendship of God, and Ammitiel, the Gift of Light."
The seven of us spread our wings and raised our hands, a symbol of absolute loyalty. The smile on God's face was well, do I have to even describe it? It spoke volumes on its own.
"Now, you are dismissed and may leave. I have to contact the Pope regarding the changes in the Holy Guard. And no, Xaldin," God said as he saw the sarcastic look on my face, " I'm not joking. How else do you think the Vatican knows which Saint or Angel is patron of what." And with that, God disappeared in a flash of light.
"Wait, He's not really going to meet the Pope personally is he?"
"Nope," Raguel answered, "just in his dreams."
"But need He do this personally?"
"Well, He DID say that we all mean the world to Him, so yeah, when He visits dreams, He makes them personal."
I nodded slowly and turned to Gabriel.
"Hey, Gabe, I think something is wrong with the prophecy you gave me."
"Really?"
"Yeah, well, you said that "The time of war was near at hand" , well, that I understand. I single-handedly waged war against Lucifer and nearly won, mind you. And the second verse, "light and darkness upon one man", yeah, I was a fallen angel and now I am an archangel, so that's that."
"Good, good...continue." said Gabriel as he nodded, smirk upon his face.
""In death and sorrow spreads his wings", Amalia's death made me go after Asmodeus, so that's accurate too. What I don't get is the last verse. "To defeat himself, the King of Kings". I certainly don't remember defeating anything NEAR the category of king. So, will you care to explain?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Whoever said the prophecy was about you?"
"What?You said,"
Gabriel held up a hand to silence me. "I said, I was here to deliver a prophecy to you that CONCERNED you, not ABOUT you." "Pay attention next time would you?" he added with a wink. "And no, don't ask who it's about because even I am not sure. I'm just the delivery guy."
I felt like my tongue was abruptly cut. My cheeks must have been burning, it HAD to be.I shook my head and started to walk but I felt that something was still missing...something important. Then, it struck me.
"Wait, we're the seven archangels!"
"Erm, yeah...that's just what Dad just said, right?" Raphael answered.
"But then, what about Haniel?"
The silence was deafening. The bright spark on everyone's faces dampened and disappeared. The other archangels all looked to Michael who looked genuinely sad.
"Xal, join me for a walk in Eden. Please."
Puzzled, I joined Michael as we flew towards the Garden of Eden, the place where Adam, the first man was created. We landed on the edge of Eden, the fine borderline between Heaven and Earth.
"It happened two days ago. We are all sad and shocked by this, God especially. This is something that hasn't happened for a long time."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, dreading the inevitable answer.
"Haniel...has fallen."
"H...How?"
"When you burned my painting, Haniel decided to submit fully to the Dark Side." Michael quickly added, "It's not you fault," as though he had read my mind. "Haniel chose to fall so that he could possess the power to avenge Uriel and kill you."
"Where is he now? He wasn't in hell the last time I checked."
"Honestly, we don't know. We fear that he...."
"That he what?"
"We fear that Haniel might become something beyond the normal fallen angel."
"No...impossible...."
"On the day Haniel fell, Gabriel had a vision. The face was blur but he saw a Nephilim."
"But, God had already eliminated the Nephilims during the time of Noah!"
"That He did. But nothing was done to prevent them from returning."
"You fear that Haniel has become a Grigori."
"We cannot be sure yet, but yes, that is a possibility." Michael motioned to me to follow him. "And that's not even our biggest problem. I'm glad you're back with us because we have a major problem."
"What's that?"
Michael took me to the edge of Eden, where the clouds were swirling about below. Michael swiped his hand across it and the clouds parted to reveal the sky. My eyes bulged with horror as I saw the condition of the sky. All over the sky, there were spiderweb-like cracks. It was as though the sky was a fragile piece of glass near breaking point. I looked at Michael and he confirmed my very thoughts.
"The sky and Heaven itself is falling."
-END-
