Incarnation | Wandering Stars Volume One

Chapter 1

THE BORDERLANDS OF THE ETERNAL REALM

Shards of light were scattered like wounds across a crimson sky, converging over the western horizon. The vibrant display was all that remained of the Holy One's manifestation in this place along creation's spectrum. Somewhere beyond the jagged mountain peaks, past a multitude of worlds invisible from this perspective, the city of the Holy One marked the end of the Eternal Realm where the blazing illumination of His righteousness dwelled. But here, on the Borderlands of the Temporal Realm, the nothingness of the Evil One cloaked the land in darkness.

The desolate terrain below passed by in a blur. Ahead, the glowing forms of the winged Iryllurym moved silently through the mist which clung to the recesses of the landscape. Their ethereal bodies were nearly motionless, gliding with a gracefulness that defied the blinding speed at which they flew.

At the rear of the formation, Sariel nodded to his own soldiers, giving the silent order to ready their weapons. Through the eye holes of his sleek helmet, he inspected the indistinct structure of his gauntlets and breastplate. At other points along the spectrum, the luminescent armor would have a more substantial existence. The Borderlands, however, had long ago become a place of loosely-contained shapes and colors. Reaching to the small of his back, he unsheathed a pair of vaepkir, the famed weapon of the angelic soldiers of the sky. Each elegantly curved blade now ran across the outside edge of his forearms, extending beyond his clenched fists at the front and his elbows at the back.

All around him, Sariel's soldiers indicated their readiness, but he could feel uncertainty hanging in the air like a suffocating fog. Their unanswered questions still rang in his ears and they were looking to him now to make sense of what they were about to do. One wing of Iryllurym, forty-nine in all, had been assigned to this joint operation. They were to fly low and fast into enemy territory and come about to approach the demons from behind. Meanwhile, the angelic ground forces of the Anduarym would meet the enemy head on. It seemed simple enough. But Sariel's seven-member team was normally assigned to smaller, strategic missions. Their quick-strike capability was better suited for removing enemy sentries and laying the foundation for advancing ground troops, not for a standard military action such as this. Like many recent orders he'd been given, he knew it wasn't an intelligent one.

The larger formation began banking to the left and Sariel followed, struggling to shove his emotions and insubordinate thoughts back into a place where no one could detect them. What his soldiers needed now was confidence and assurance. Behind the protective barrier of his helmet, Sariel opened his mouth. The air around him seemed to come alive as a single tone, crystal clear, grew in volume until it filled the spaces between him and his soldiers. One by one, each winged angel added a harmonic tone, joining the skalagid, a Song of Understanding. Immediately, their thoughts were melded together in a form of group-communication far more efficient than words.

"Stay close to me," he told them. "Do what you do best. Fly fast. Strike hard. Eliminate the enemy. Give them a taste of your vaepkir and let the Marotru regret their unfaithfulness to the Holy One!"

At once, the spirits of his friends were lifted. Their wings seemed to move with greater agility. The tension drained from their muscles, even as the grip on their weapons tightened. And now it was Sariel's turn to experience the benefit of empowerment that came with shared understanding. For ages, they had relied on one another. Fought side by side in countless battles. Through it all, the strength of their conviction and the solidarity of their purpose is what had kept them alive. Sariel now felt invincible, just as they did.