He didn’t know how he knew that, but he knew it.
“Cass!” he cried out, gently shaking the man, checking to be sure. There was no response. Cass’s body was there, but his soul was somehow… gone. Panic was taking hold of him, but then he felt something sort of rush in, and Cass sat straight up, only he wasn’t alone.
Kushiel didn’t know how else to explain it. It was Cass, but it was more, and it felt somehow familiar.
Cass’s eyes turned to Kushiel’s, and even with just the dim morning light filtering through cracks in the curtains, Kushiel could see that Cass’s eyes were not his own.
They were black.
“Kushiel, Rigid One of God, Angel of Punishment, the gods have a message for you,” Cass intoned, and his voice was somehow not quite right either. “Out of jealousy and greed, a demon has taken what was yours to watch over and hidden itfrom you, but the way is no longer yours alone to navigate. The gods have gifted you with a new way forward. You only have to see the light within what surrounds you. Those that represent strength, wisdom, and justice shall guide the lost ones to a new life.”
With that, Kushiel felt something depart the room. Cass blinked and gasped, and his eyes looked normal again as he pressed his hands to his chest.
“Fuck, I hate that part,” Cass mumbled grumpily.
Kushiel wrapped Cass in his arms, squeezing tightly. “You scared me, Cass. You were just… gone,” Kushiel whispered.
Cass reached up and patted his back. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Kushiel. I didn’t think about that part. We had a little chat before he did the whole oracle thing. You must have been freaking out.”
“A chat? You were only gone for a minute, maybe less,” Kushiel responded, breathing deeply, still holding onto Cassius. If it had been longer, Kushiel didn’t know what he would have done.
Cass just hummed thoughtfully. Finally, he said, “It was definitely longer than a minute, but perhaps he warped time or something because he knew you’d worry. He seemed fond of you.”
“Who was it?” Kushiel asked. The other presence had seemed familiar, but it did not feel like Yah, and he could not think of anyone else capable of using an oracle. Unfortunately, he also didn’t trust any other angels that were strong enough to do such a thing.
“Lucifer,” Cass responded.
Kushiel reared back in shock. “Lucifer? As in the head of hell?”
“Yep,” Cass replied. “He called you ‘our’ Kushiel and said he felt like he had shared custody of you. I’m assuming he meant with Yah, since you’re an angel.” Cass shrugged at that. “I’m stillkind of pissed, though, because I think he knows which demon took the lost souls and didn’t stop it from happening.”
Cass recounted his entire conversation with Lucifer, and Kushiel took it all in. Kushiel did, oddly enough, trust Lucifer, yet it stung to know that Lucifer had let the souls be removed from Erebus. Still, the devil was right, it had gained him Cassius.
He wasn’t sure how much import that statement had for Cassius, but it gave Kushiel hope beyond all his expectations. If Lucifer had somehow engineered their meeting, and had actively wanted it to happen…
Of course that could be because, as Lucifer had said, together they would find some new way to redeem souls that were not beyond redemption. It also, Kushiel supposed, made sense that a demon would be envious of redeemed souls or greedy enough to not want to let souls leave hell. Kushiel had always thought that Erebus was solely under his purview, but that didn’t make sense, did it? There had to be a demon who had control of that area or was supposed to watch over it, and Kushiel had the strong inkling that it was an upper level demon of either greed or envy, or perhaps both. Kushiel didn’t know all the Princes of Hell or all the Infernal Kings, but he had connections, and it gave them a starting place to look.
Still, the fact that Lucifer had wanted them to meet… Kushiel couldn’t help but think of all the demons who had soulmates. All the meetings that had been somehow arranged. Oh, how he hoped, even though he knew it was probably a foolish hope. What had he done to deserve one such as Cassius?
But he would still hope.
As for the rest of the message… It didn’t quite explain what Kushiel and Cassius were supposed to do once they found the souls. Kushiel had the impression it would be something that hurt him. He didn’t mention that to Cassius when they talked about Lucifer’s comparison to lancing a wound though, sinceCassius clearly thought the great pain that Lucifer spoke of had been the souls being removed from Erebus. Kushiel didn’t think that was it, however. He hoped he was wrong, but he didn’t think so.
He would do whatever it took to help all those lost souls, no matter the pain. The only thing he couldn’t abide was thinking it might hurt Cassius, and he would do all he could to avoid such a thing.
“The part that I don’t really get is the whole ‘light within what surrounds you’ part,” Cass commented. “There’s light in literally everything.”
Kushiel looked at Cass, surprised. “Everything? Surely he means souls, and only people have those.”
Cass laughed. “You afterlifers. Sometimes you lot are literally blind to whatever doesn’t affect you. It probably made it quite easy to make ghosts something you can’t normally see or remember. Yes, everything has light within it. I would say every living thing, but even things that aren’t living were usually once living. Of course, something that’s been heavily manufactured has very little light. A warehouse isn’t on the same level as a forest, but even a warehouse isn’t completely devoid of light. It was once made of living things. Although even things that aren’t totally living have light. The earth and rocks themselves hold the tiniest bit of light.”
Kushiel was shocked. “But… but surely when Lucifer spoke of light, he meant the soul.”
“Hmm… I’m not so sure. He obviously knows how the universe works, and he knows about ghosts, so he isn’t as narrow in his vision as the rest of the afterlifers. The universe is made up of light, Kushiel. Light and darkness, I suppose. But that’s for physicists and gods and devils to think about. All I know is that the guides he spoke of don’t necessarily have to be people.Or even ghosts. Although I’m not sure what else they would be,” Cass pondered.
Kushiel considered that. He didn’t know quite what to think, but he also knew that redeeming the souls was the second problem.
“We must find them first, whatever the rest of his statement means. You would think he would have been more helpful,” Kushiel grumbled.
