The Gathering

VIII: This Breach of Trust

            Jonah and As nearly melted as they entered the hot water in the bathhouse's marble basin, the warmth entering deep into Jonah's sore muscles, "Hey... what're those?" As asked, pointing gently at the scars on Jonah's back. Five distinct gashes that had scabbed and healed into five distinct off-color scars. 

"Oh, I was 'too slow' for Mitzrael..." As looked horrified, he knew Mitzrael was a 'hard ass' but he didn't think he was that brutal... As took a look around Jonah's torso, spotting the bruises he had gotten from sparring with Muriel. The purple, green, yellow, and blue ran together like ink on Jonah's paper-white skin.

"Shit..." As hadn't known the extent of Jonah's incarceration, he didn't much like talking about it. "I had no idea..." 

"Its okay," Jonah turned his back away from As, now feeling self-conscious. "They don't hurt anymore, I shouldn't have stolen." he attempted a chuckle, but it sounded more like an uncomfortable cough. "Let's change the subject", he suggested, "I promise I'm okay." Jonah felt conflicted, he was appreciative that his friend was concerned for him, but he didn't want to feel like a burden that As needed to worry for.

 "So," As began as he splashed his face off with water, changing the subject as Jonah had asked, "How excited are you to go to Earth for the first time?" As dunked his head under the water to wet his hair.

"Very!" replied Jonah, "I've read so much about life down there, it's about time I saw it for myself." Jonah sat on a ledge and let the hot water attempt to relax him. He had figured that training to be a gatherer would require less physical exertion than training to be an archangel, but he was sadly mistaken. "You've been down there before, how was it?"

"It was incredible!" As' face beamed, "My father took me to a city called 'New York', Jonah, you can't imagine how many people were on the streets!" Jonah recalled the central district of Beulah at its busiest; a hundred and fifty angels at the most, the entire city was only inhabited by a few thousand. "The lights, the sounds... just the feeling of being in that city was almost electric." Jonah had never seen this much wonder in As' eyes, he had read about the sheer volume of people in cities like New York, but he imagined that seeing it with his own eyes would be incomparable to the written accounts. "Do you think we'll be going to New York to gather?"

"I doubt it," Jonah replied as he began to float on his back, "that would be the most 'lion' gathering I could think of; that many people around to be alerted... we'll probably end up in a small village or something, a place with only a few humans, somewhere we won't draw too much attention."

"I remember my father telling me about his first mission as an archangel." Jonah had probably heard this story before, he wasn't sure as every story As told about his father kind of blended together, but he acted interested because he knew As loved recounting his father's exploits. "He was sent to a village where the humans survived by catching fish from the sea, God himself had given him the mission, told him to tell the humans to flee, a big storm was coming and he didn't want them to get hurt. But the humans didn't listen, they attacked my father, but he fought back! And to think, he was trying to help them..." As used his arm to swell up the water in the basin into a wave, splashing Jonah in the face. "The storm destroyed everything, there were a few of them who listened and survived, he was ordered to go back and reward them after the storm passed, benefits for the faithful I guess. Well, when he went back down to give them directions to new land where they could settle, build a new village, the humans attacked him again! Blamed him for causing the storm!" As seemed so outraged about an event that had taken place thousands of years ago to someone else. "One of the survivors was the strongest, most fearsome warrior the village had ever produced, he challenged my father to a duel! One slice!" As made a slashing motion across Jonah's chest "Right in half!" As laughed heartily while Jonah chuckled. "Now, this was before we had a time limit on Earth, so my father sat the village down and made them all swear before God that they would listen to him from that day forward. By the time he left, he wasn't just a hero, he was a conqueror!" Jonah had definitely heard this story before, the slicing motion accompanied by 'right in half!' rang several bells in his mind.