Legends of Forlienne

Chapter III: After the Fall

 Damnatus was not the only angel to fall. At the beginning of their creation, the seraphim numbered three hundred, with one hundred serving each of the three generals. They were bound to their leader in heart and soul. They were created to follow, and follow they did.

When the general who the strongest legion served, so, too, did they. It's possible that they didn't have a choice. The biological bond they shared with their commander may have forced them to follow him into the darkness.

What's more likely is that they chose to go with him. They were and always had been loyal to him, not Safrehk. Safrehk didn't inspire loyalty, not in the way his brightest star did. When Asali fell, his soldiers followed.

In their creation, the seraphim were given no options. They would follow their general and their god, and they wouldn't ask why. Upon their severance with the sun god, Damnatus gave them something they had never had before: a choice.

He stood on a stone in the middle of an open field, and he addressed his new subjects. He told them to leave, if that was what they desired. He told them that if they left, he wouldn't punish them, and he wouldn't pursue them. He said that, in that moment, they had the option to leave forever.

But he also warned them. He warned them that should they leave now, they would not be allowed to return. He warned them that to stay now would be to swear eternal fealty to him to serve and follow with all the loyalty they would have given Safrehk.

The newly fallen seraphim gathered around their leader, and they listened. They listened and, for the first time in their lives, the made a choice. There were those who would come to regret it, but nearly all of those hundred seraphim chose to remain with he who had led them for so many millennia.

Four seraphim left. Damnatus, true to his word, did nothing. He did not punish them and he did not pursue them. He allowed them to spend their immortal lives how they wished. It may be that to let them go was the last kind act of his too long life.

The other ninety-six seraphim stayed. They vowed to stand by his side for eternity and protect him with their lives and their souls. To break this vow, Damnatus proclaimed, would mean agonizing death.

Those who had already betrayed him, Damnatus decided, would die as well. Damnatus made a vow on the day that he fell. He swore to himself that he would destroy those who had cast him down from the heaven he had known all his life. He would destroy she who had cast the spell and she who had supplied it. He would destroy the seraphim who had sold him out to Safrehk, and he would destroy the sun god.

Even with his immense power, he could not kill a god, but he could take away from him everything he held dear. He could tear apart his fragile reign and steal from him his celestial throne. Damnatus vowed revenge.

Not long after this was sworn, the youngest of the three seraphim generals learned of his eldest brother's fall. Suyikti was the only one of the generals who felt any real loyalty to their godly father, and he viewed the fall as a betrayal. He didn't care that Damnatus had had no choice, or perhaps. He could only see that someone had turned their back on his father. That day was the first time in his life Suyikti did something without the permission of the sun god, and it was his greatest mistake.

Suyikti went after Damnatus. Who can say what his intention was, but it was likely murderous. Whatever he wanted from the encounter, he certainly didn't get. Suyikti took his entire legion he controlled, all one-hundred who were blindly loyal to him, to confront his wayward brother.

It was a massacre. The seraphim couldn't hope to compete with their newly darkened brethren, and they were annihilated. Those who were not slain were taken prisoner, and it is said they underwent torments unfathomable to the human mind. It is not known what became of Suyikti, but he never did return to Safrehk's golden palace.

It is said that the story of Damnatus has not yet been entirely told. It is said that he still lives, planning his revenge and waiting for the right moment to exact it. These tales may be true, and they may be false, but for the purpose of this collection of legends, we need not pursue his story further. 

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Author's Note:

One of the first books I ever began to write was the complete story of Damnatus, from his creation to his eventual death. I had to stop because of the numerous plot holes, but I may start again once I've gone through and rewritten the plot.