Page 24 of The Morning Star
“There was this big battle, and all the angels accidently got banished.”
“Accidently?”
“Well, some of them got banished on purpose. The others, not so much.”
“Banished, as in forever banished? Or temporarily?”
Here’s where I didn’t look like such a badass. “I think it’s forever. I’d hoped to find some way to reverse it, but so far I haven’t come up with anything. I get the feeling even if something negates it, much like what happened with you Ancients, it might be in a million years or so.” Yep. Total screw up, that’s me. How could I make this sound like maybe a part of me actually knew what the fuck I was doing here? “In my defense, it was my first banishing. I’m sure with time and practice, I’ll be better at limiting the scope and effect.”
“You plan on doing this again?” Doriel’s voice was breathless and a bit faint. “Banishing, that is?”
“Well, I hope not, but never say never. It’s good to have that tool in my arsenal, just in case. Never know when, as the Iblis and the ruler of Hel, I’m going to need to banish someone. Or someones.”
“I see.” She abruptly sat down in one of her chairs. “So the Angels of Order are banished and cannot enter Aaru. The former Angels of Chaos can now enter Aaru, but have devolved to the point that they can no longer shed their corporeal forms and live as beings of spirit. No one can truly have Aaru. Basically we have all been damned, our punishment for the sins of pride and anger.”
When she put it that way, it did seem like the biggest fuck up in the history of fuck ups. I’d hoped to find a way to restore Aaru to the angels, but lately I’d wondered if that was really the right thing to do. The Ancients could never fully go home again. Ever. The demons had no interest in Aaru. As it stood now, the only beings that had any chance of returning to heaven were the newly formed, like Lux.
Why should the Angels of Order be able to return home, when they’d denied the same to the Angels of Chaos for nearly three million years? They had banished half of the heavenly host and stuck by their stubborn punishment past the point of no return. The Ancients would never be the same again. And none of the Angels of Order had lifted a finger to help them. None of them had stood up to the archangels, to the Ruling Council, and told them they were a bunch of fucking dickheads. None.
Maybe they deserved to be banished. Maybe they deserved to suffer the same fate they’d condemned the Angels of Chaos to nearly three million years ago. At first I’d been desperate to see my beloved and his siblings back in Aaru, but after I’d heard what had really happened at that last battle of the war, I wasn’t so eager. I adored my Gregory, and what he’d done to his brother and all those angels wasn’t anything I needed to forgive him for. But as for their return to Aaru…well, I was willing to let that rest in the hands of fate.
“So Remiel and his buds are still wandering around up there?” I asked Doriel. “I figured they would have come back to Hel once they realized there was no glorious battle.” Well, that and the fact that they were stuck constantly recreating a corporeal form that was repeatedly disintegrating. That would get old fast, in my opinion.
“Remiel has been back a few times, but he is trying to ensure they have a firm hold on Aaru in case the angels return. He’s been making noises about making an attempt on the human world. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to meet with you.”
I sucked in a breath. Was it Remiel? Had it been Remiel who’d killed those enforcers? He’d been well known in Aaru before the fall. He had served under Samael. It’s possible he was talented enough to fake Samael’s energy signature enough to pin this on the former Iblis.
And he was sly enough to know how that would play with the emotions of the other archangels. They’d hesitate to act. They’d try to make peace. And that would give him the perfect opportunity to take down the very angels that would stand in his way of power.
But I couldn’t let him take the human world. It was bad enough that the angels were going to micromanage the humans and ruin everything that was cool and awesome about the other side of the gates, now there was a good chance the whole thing would turn into a gigantic battlefield. There probably wouldn’t be much left once two powerful armies tore each other apart. Armageddon, indeed.
“When? Do they have any specific invasion plans?”
“It’s just talk right now,” Doriel told me. “They need to figure out what sort of threat the Grigori pose to any effort. Then they need to figure out the human world. Most of these Ancients haven’t crossed the gates in over ten thousand years. They have intel, but I’m pretty sure some warmonger’s tale about the workings of nuclear weaponry isn’t going to convey important things like battle strategy. No one knows what human alliances are, if they’re capable of banding together to defend against an attack. Seven billion beings with sticks and stones isn’t something any demon wants to face unprepared. Seven billion of them with what could be lethal weaponry is definitely something no demon wants to face unprepared.”
Just talk? Did part of their intel gathering involve killing off some angels and Grigori and gauging the reaction? Or was there some other Ancient beside Remiel with this great idea of world domination?
“So Remiel hasn’t begun? He hasn’t formulated and acted on a plan to individually lure Grigori enforcers to their deaths, or kill tens of thousands of angels?”
She gave me an odd look. “You’d need to ask Remiel that. I got the impression that they were still in the planning stages, but I could be wrong.”
I really didn’t like that expression on her face. “So where do you stand in all this?”
“I’m awake. Aaru is no longer home to me. I’ve always enjoyed humans. Could be fun wresting this world away from the angels. And think about what amazing poetic justice that would be? They took Aaru from us. They forbade us from crossing the gates. And now we do the same to them.”
“But the entire heavenly host is there,” I warned her. “All those winged fuckers. You’re going to end up holding a burned-out barren world at the end of this war. If the demons and angels don’t destroy it fighting, the humans surely will. They like explosives. They’ve got weapons that are capable of destroying the huge angel-created gateways. I’m pretty sure they’ve stockpiled enough of them to blow most of the solar system to bits.”
“That is something that would need to be considered before any overt attack took place. Not all of the army would be warmongers. Some Ancients prefer a quick surgical strike, something devastating enough to force the angels out without causing too much damage to the planet. And the humans…perhaps we could locate their weaponry and neutralize it before they do something stupid.”
Up until recently I’d been a demon, and even now I still identified as one, even though technically I was an Angel of Chaos. But I didn’t want to see the angels in the same position we’d been in for nearly three million years. Flipping the situation wouldn’t help resolve the anger and bitterness between us. I’d made some progress, having all that torn apart by another war wasn’t the solution.
Was this Remiel testing the waters? Or some rogue fucker who’d decided to take Remiel’s idea and run with it? To find that out, I’d probably need to talk to the Ancient himself, and hope that he would be honest about what they were planning, and currently doing.
“Are you sure Remiel isn’t a little further along in this plan of his? Because there’s some asshole with a gang running around the human world right now trying to take out angels,” I told her, purposely downplaying the issue. “If it’s not one of Remiel’s guys, then who is it?”
She shot me a puzzled glance that seemed more than a bit contrived. “How should I know? You’re in charge of Hel, not me. I’ve got no idea what demons have banded together or what their plans are.”
“This group is headed by an Ancient,” I prodded. “Someone capable of leading a diverse group of demons and gaining their loyalty. Someone with enough power to transmute an angel if they managed to catch one. There aren’t that many Ancients left. I’m assuming you guys all talk. If it’s not Remiel, then who is it?”
