Testament of An Archangel

Chapter 12 Part 1

“No Remiel, I cannot allow that. That would only make things worse, more out of balance. It's complicated enough as it is. Thank you though.” He collected himself, composed his features and continued, “From what I have been able to discern, the spark I gave her will stay connected to me for as long as she lives. It also creates an open line of communication between her and I similar to how all of us speak to each other. She seems to draw strength from me when she is upset. I appear to get some back when I become troubled but it is not the same type of energy as what she pulls from me. I have been working on trying to find a way to minimize the amount and affect it has on me but so far I have not had much success.”

“How much is this weakening you?”

He shrugged and his left eyebrow arched, “I am not sure. My tasks have suffered as of late more because of the amount of time I have spent trying to make sense of all this more than actual weakness.”

“You have managed to conceal this somehow. As bound together as you are now I should be able to feel it much more than I am. The fact that Seraqual has not had another breakdown is also testament to that. How?”

A hint of the old Lucifer came back into his eyes, his aura shifted to a vibrant shade of purple and rippled briefly around him. “Skill, pure skill.”

Prior to Lillith I would have been irritated at his words, yet this time they made me smile. I had missed him too. “Would it be too much to ask you to elaborate?”

“Look again at the lines,” he requested. When I did I was stunned, nothing the chaos that I had seen earlier was evident in the world around me. I saw his line, entwined with hers as I had seen earlier when Seraqual had pointed it out but it looked like that was the full extent of the distortion. There was no real hint as to the depth of it, how she was able to take energy from him, the shared emotions they were feeling. I looked closer, “You are using lines from the plants and animals to mask it. How?” Every living thing has a connection to everything else, Lucifer had devised a way to make the connection between he and Lillith look like something else entirely.

“I am not shifting them, fear not, I am not creating more chaos, I promise. I discovered that I could create an image of those lines and drape it over ours. It is challenging as I have to constantly take into account what is around me and make sure it matches well enough. The image seems to mute out the reverberation of the distortion that even Seraqual's acuteness is fooled well enough. This has been one of the main reasons I have been keeping my distance from all of you recently. I had to..”

I had managed to process, at least in part, what I had seen when it hit me, “You had to hide this, lie to us again. Correct? Have you truly learned nothing?”

Red tinged flashes appeared in the air around us, he closed his eyes and looked away. “No, that is not what I am doing. How could I tell you what was wrong without knowing the full extent of the situation?”

“Lucifer. You make it much harder to believe those words when you have put such effort into hiding the problem.”

“I..” he stopped speaking, terror took hold of his features, his arm shot out like he was trying to catch something, “Lillith!”

“What's wrong?”

“She's falling into the canyon!”

He started to shift to save her when I stopped him, “No! You stay here. The agreement must hold. I'll go.” I shifted before he could argue with me about it, followed her line and caught her just before she hit the raging river.

“Remiel!” She screamed when I appeared and stopped her downward momentum.

At that moment I knew that I, like Lucifer, cared far too much for her. I no longer saw her as a just creation of ours that once brought to life we allowed to live whatever life it could. She had become something akin to family to me, which made me culpable in destroying the balance. It pains me to admit it but I considered letting her fall. She would hardly be the first animal to fall into a river and drown and her death would solve so many things. Then I looked into her face.

She placed her arms around my neck, “Thank you! Thank you!” She held on so tight it is probably a good thing I don't actually require oxygen. She shook as I held her, her eyes wide with relief and a few tears slid down her cheeks. So vulnerable, so innocent and trusting. I could no more fail her than I could my brothers.

“I have her,” I sent to Lucifer, then spoke to her. “Are you harmed?”

“No.”

We were hovering over the river, I looked up and saw Adam standing on the edge of the canyon looking down. I started drifting up towards where he was standing and he fearfully backed away. “What happened?” I asked Lillith as we rose.

Her usually open and honest face became clouded and she averted her eyes from mine. “I fell. I was collecting some plants on the edge and the ground moved underneath me.”

Admittedly my brothers and I had only recently started to lie to each other but I knew what the signs were. For Lillith, who was still so new, to feel that she should hide something from me was worrisome. I halted our ascent. “That's all that happened? You slipped?”

She shifted nervously in my arms. “Yes Remiel.”

I certainly wouldn't force her to talk. I resumed our progress and once we got to the top set her on her feet.

Adam was standing several feet away and he refused to look at us. “Please, please, do not be angry with me wise one. Please,” he stammered. “She refuses to listen to what I say and thinks that what you tell me is false.”

I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and looked at Lillith.

“Adam,” her tone was harsh and filled with frustration, “This is Remiel, not the one that you say talks to you. I keep telling you there are several of them and now you know the truth.”

Adam's brought his eyes up to look at her, his lips curled in disgust but there was fear in his eyes, “Quiet! You will anger him. If this one is not who speaks to me than he is the enemy and you should have nothing to do with him. I have told you how they betrayed him, the one who made us.”

I was speechless. It took me several moments to come up with even the simplest thing to say, “Adam, I am Remiel and am hardly your enemy, nor did I betray anyone. Who is this that speaks to you?” I already knew but I had to keep speaking to try to calm my quickly rising anger. “How does he speak to you?”

Adam remained silent and turned away from me, Lillith answered for him. “Adam says he speaks to him in dreams other ways and just calls himself our creator. I told him that Lucifer and Elohim both created us..”

“Do not speak that name!” Adam shouted.

“Which name?” I asked.

Lillith wrapped her arms around her chest, dropped her eyes away from me and hunched her shoulders forward. “Lucifer. Adam says our creator says Lucifer is evil and not to be trusted.”