BEYOND THE RAINBOW

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - THE REVELLATION

The tree fairy's Earth-love-in partied on, and with his own game plan being shot to hell in both directions, Nitas was holed up in limbo between two worlds. He found all he wanted to do was laugh, and that was not at all appropriate. Considering his crushing defeat under Tanouie's pretty little slipper.

"What in Hades is wrong with me?" He grinned, thoroughly enjoying the gyroscopic playback of her wrecking the Beast's business. "She is exquisite. And really doesn't have a clue she is driving every man in the place crazy, the little trollop." Wet and wild, with her flimsy shift clinging to her Venus curves, he watched her cavorting in the rain, as innocent as the children she led.

He kept staring at the book Hattie had left behind. Accidently? Or an unrequested handout? It smacked of breach of protocol. Bias to the dark side? He struggled between desperately wanting to know what it held and not wanting to take advantage of it. He didn't want to defeat the Fairy Queen. That was the upshot of it. But Hattie's parting words goaded him on all kinds of levels. He had nobly resisted taking advantage and spent another long day settling the unrest in Hades as best he could, putting them all on curfew lockdown. It was now going into late evening. Hattie had not recalled the book and he had been staring at it for hours.

After checking the weather patterns and political rumblings, Nitas was satisfied all pointed towards rising discord on all fronts. The cancerous blackness was breaking out all over the planet. He was going to be in a war and a main player. So finally, it behoved him to know the strengths and weaknesses of the other players. Because it was becoming obvious to him that it was no longer a straightforward battle between good and evil. It was certainly a shady business when a Prophet stooped to committing attempted murder. Enemies of the light were rife and in all shades of subversives, the media, the social prejudices and even kid's toys, not to mention the luring vices on the internet. He should know, he inspired a lot of it. So her strengths were of paramount importance if she was to survive. The Beast was slavering to get his hands on her.

Nitas got up from his desk and poured himself a drink from his well stocked bar. When alone, he liked to be just a human here in his private sanctum, it saved his sanity. But he wasn't just a human. There had always been part of him missing. It was time he knew the whole story. Finally he settled down on the black leather couch with the book of origins in his hands. A suspicion was taking on a life of its own in his being. Apart from missions and forays as adopted identities, in his personal story he had no recollection of being a child and had never been interested in looking beyond the veil of his incarnation as the adult Lucifer. That was strange now that he was interested. His brow furrowed. Nitas found the information was denied him through his own mind. But now he had the book. The penny dropped. He grinned.

"Hattie! You devious creature. So what in here is in my best interests to know? And who doesn't want me to know it? Hmm...?" Hadn't she also said that he should seek himself in the scheme of things? He opened the index system, seeking his own origins.

Who was he beyond Lucifer, the prideful, calculating strategist? Apart from a fondness for his twin sister and his brother, the Arch Angel Michael, and the wizard, Kaltazar, he had no attachments, even to his Celestial parents. Yaweh and Mary were Deities in his mind. He only knew them as the planet Heaven. Distant voices in his conscience, when he chose to seek them, which he had given up doing long ago. He and his multitude of siblings were Celestial beings. As he understood it, they were projections of the creator and came to be as counselling Angels to watch over the Prophets, guide the humans and adjudicate the game. But they were supposed to be above it. Nitas found himself questioning that premise, too. Was it only humans that God was playing games with?

"Are you wandering around incognito, too. I wonder? Well I hope you have a seat on the Council, because you'll be one short when I get my hands on Peter's scrawny neck!" He sighed, politics wasn't his thing. He preferred field missions and his main celestial guide, Kaltazar, had trained him, as a loner, in the art of intrigue and the darker elements of the game. He was into wielding power over the dark realm and testing the light to its limits, but not without honour and some validity. There was such a thing as too harsh a light in his opinion. He still didn't think the Celestials were on the right path to understanding the harmony puzzle. He had been vocal about that in their Council and didn't intend to let their purist theories rule him in the final judgement of their so easily damned. The attainment of perfection was a sterile pipe dream, not worth living for, let alone dying to achieve.