Charmed. Cole and Phoebe Guardian Series.How quaint the ways of paradox?

Charmed. How quaint the ways of Paradox Chapter 18

Part 2: Promises,promises,promises

Chapter 18

"How quaint the ways of paradox; At common sense she gaily mocks" (Gilbert and Sullivan. Pirates of Penzance)

For Francesca it was a simple thing, in all the history of the eons the universe dominions and the realms, there was the Great Plan, the one that defined the order of Good and Evil and the Great Plan said that all must be in balance to the proper order. And the proper order to the realms that Francesca knew and beyond, was that Good should prevail in balance with Evil and Good prevailed when and only when it was countered and tested and held to account by Evil. And if Evil was not strong, then Good faltered and failed until it perverted and collapsed. The balance must be maintained and it was because in the realms and dominions and the universe itself, Good was held to account by its eternal battle with Evil. On its simplest level Good fought Evil and for the balance to remain Good must win. Just.

And at each level, realms and dominions and universe and beyond, there were the Guardians, those who protected the balance, ensured the supremacy of Good, protected the innocents caught in the battles and held the great powers of Good and Evil to account. And at every level, the Guardians of the Great Plan, the protectors of the innocents caught in its realisation, the arbitrators of the wisdom were always, always the fallen angels, the followers of the dark calling, who found their way back to the path of light. Because they and they alone had the knowledge, the understanding, to withstand the temptation to evil. Only those who had walked away from the darkness were safely immune from its allure. Only those who had walked through the fire of their own making to find the path to the light, were able to resist the pull of the insidious pleasure of evil. Only those who understood Evil and rejected it could resist the seduction of the great power needed to maintain the balance.

And because in the Great Plan, at all levels, in realms and dominions and the universe itself there was the need for balance, the protectors, the Guardians, the dark angels who found their way back to the light were advised by the creatures of pure Good, at all levels, called by the name they chose, angel, archangel whitelighter, and the flaw of the Great Plan was that because it was held in balance, the failure of Good or Evil, the shifting of balance at any level in all the realms and dominions and Universe was the shifting of the whole plan, played out over and over again in far realms or higher dominions or the universal stage. Good Fought Evil and Guardians dark angels ensured that Good won. Just..

...

Those who were called to serve in the Great Battle, to ensure the Great Plan unfolded as it should, came to their calling in many ways. There were the fallen Angels who battled their way through the fire of their own making through pain and tragedy, there were those who shone strong and bright answering the call to Good in a short and spectacular mortality, proving themselves in the conflicts and battle and wars by their good deeds, and there were those who came to their calling simply because they endured.

Francesca had endured, by the standards of her time, a long and hard life before she found relief in her calling to serve. She had been born during the rule of Charlemagne by the time of the earth realms, demon realm below and the realm of light above, 783, the time that was known in the history of the earth realm as the Dark Ages. The 5th daughter and 8th child of peasant farmer who lived and worked in a village south of Rome, close enough to know of its existence and far enough away not to care.

Francesca had been born under a holy star, other children born in the village that year died from all the things that children died of in those far away times, but she was a child healthy and happy, loved, admired, beautiful. At fifteen Francesca had been the prize of the village desired, fought over, provocative, beautiful. It was not to last. She caught the pox, smallpox, badly, and it left her marked, scared and ugly and worse, rejected by those who had sought her beauty.