Testament of An Archangel

Chapter 11 Part 1

Things went along quietly for quite some time after that. We all dispersed and returned to our tasks. Despite Lucifer's show that he put on after Lillith's acceptance of her mate he never really recovered his former joy about things. He completed what he had to but his creations lacked that extra bit of perfection that had always been his hallmark before. He rarely spoke to any of us and seemed to be completely avoiding me. Gabriel and I were caught up in devising creatures that could survive in a truly harsh environment that went from sub freezing temperatures to scalding and back again in a two day long cycle on a world far away from where Lillith and Adam resided. We were somewhat stumped when Gabriel decided to broach the topic of Lucifer's depression.

“Has he spoken to you yet?” Gabriel asked.

I was distracted by the task at hand and didn't understand at first, “Who?”

“Lucifer.”

“No,” I sighed, “I have been trying to give him time to come to terms with what happened but I am not sure if that's the best way to handle this anymore. He seems to be getting worse. Uriel said that when they were working together recently that Lucifer refused to speak about anything other than the task they were doing. Elohim seems to be handling things better but I sense some sort of deception there. He and Michael have become inseparable which bothers me. Seraqual mentioned to me that Elohim has become rather dismissive of he and Raguel as well.”

“Yes, Raphael mentioned that to me as well.” Gabriel replied, “Perhaps you should go to him Remiel. Raphael and I have tried to get Lucifer to confide in us but he refuses to. Raguel has made a point of trying to stay near him but Lucifer finally made it clear that he did not need to be watched over. I have checked in on Lillith and Adam...”

“You have?” I interrupted. I was surprised that he had done that. I had as well but had not mentioned it to anyone.

“Yes, they seem to be doing fine but when she is alone she tends to look up into the sky and speak his name.” He looked away from me as his aura shifted restlessly. “She misses him.”

“I know. I have seen this as well. The agreement cannot be changed though. It would just put us right back where we were.”

When his gaze fixed upon me again the amount of guilt and pain that haunted his face took me by surprise, “What's wrong brother?”

“Michael and I, we should have paid much more attention to what Elohim was thinking and how obsessed he had become. I feel as if we could have stopped this or at least made it much less divisive. We would have given him a docile creation and not pushed the boundaries like Lucifer did. Perhaps Elohim would have grown tired of trying to create something so complex. Honestly Remiel, without Lucifer's help Elohim would have struggled to complete her. Even with Michael's help Adam is not nearly as refined as Lillith. We should have humored Elohim and kept an eye on him. We...” he trailed off into silence and looked off into the distance.

“It is not entirely your fault Gabriel.” I tried to comfort him.

“Perhaps not but it feels as if it is. I rushed to condemn Lucifer for doing that which I chose to dismiss. I was condemning him with my words but in my mind I was condemning myself. Look how this has hurt them. Lucifer may never recover, who knows what Elohim is really thinking and Lillith longs for the one being she should never have been allowed to have feelings for in the first place. It will never be as it was, we will never  truly be a family again.”

I saw an opportunity in Gabriel's words. As far as I knew no one had really apologized to Lucifer for attacking him in the days following Lillith's awakening. I'll be the first to admit that how he had handled the situation was lacking a large amount of tact or even concern for the rest of us, but as Gabriel pointed out, all the rest of us had failed to learn the depth of Elohim's obsession. If any of us had said yes to helping Elohim, Lillith, if she had even had been created at all, would be a much different creature and Elohim and Lucifer's immense arrogance driven personalities would not have had a direct confrontation.