Children of the Archangels

CHAPTER 49: AN ARCHANGEL'S TALE

The Archangel Uriel was the hottest old man Luke had ever seen—literally.

The heat from his sword and wings increased the temperature around Luke a couple of degrees. He wasn't sure how to react—thankful that his adopted angel saved him, or angry to finally see him make an appearance after all this time. He had so many questions to ask he didn't even know where to begin.

"We have a couple of minutes before the animals reanimate themselves," Uriel said as he sat on one of the decapitated heads from the cherubim statue. "Start firing, no pun intended."

Luke was taken aback. The calmness of Uriel's character, it was so unexpected. The images he saw in his dreams—the Uriel who cut off the tongue and wings of his pupil for betraying him—where was that Uriel? Not that he wanted to see that Uriel now, but he had been an unknowing accomplice to stealing the fruit from the garden and probably deserved punishment alone for allowing Alpha to eat fruit from the tree.

"You know, few children get to meet their patron angel, let alone have a chat with them," Uriel said. "Don't waste the opportunity."

"And why is that?" Luke asked. "Why don't you take a more active part in your adopted children's lives?"

"Because we have zero clue on how to be human," Uriel said. "We angels have few faults. We don't understand what it is like to starve for we have never been hungry. We don't understand the idea of poverty for we have never been poor. We don't understand the concept of pain for we rarely experience injuries..."

"Except the one you dealt to Jorahel," Luke interrupted and immediately wanted to take that back. He expected Uriel's wings to explode into flames, his face to turn angry, his sword to cut through Luke.

But what he got instead was the dimming of the fire in his wings and a sideways glance as if Uriel couldn't bare staring at his past. "If there is one thing we all share—human, angel, and God alike—it's emotions."

Luke expected more, but Uriel said enough with that sentence. Uriel was angry, and anger can lead to rash decision-making when unchecked. Even God showed emotions. In the Bible, he flooded the entire Earth and allowed one family to survive because everyone else was sinning just a bit too much. It got Him angry. He even admitted that He was a jealous God and thus preferred if people worshipped Him and not false gods.

Yet, He shows His love for all by sending His only son to die so that people can be redeemed.

"So, it was a mistake?" Luke finally concluded. "Your anger made you do something you regret."

Uriel shook his head. "I believe all things happen for a reason. In order for him to recognize the gravity of his sin, he had to be punished."

"He stole the Book of Life," Luke recalled. "He said it was unfair that God withheld so much knowledge from us, from humans."

"Knowledge can be dangerous, like medicine—a little can cure ignorance, but too much can cause an overdose of pride. Just look at my brother Lucifer."

Luke's mind staggered at the idea that Uriel was related to Lucifer—the devil himself—the mastermind behind sin. Yet he could imagine that at least all of the archangels were directly related somehow.

But enough of the angelic backstory, Luke needed to know the answer, "Why me?"

Uriel knew exactly what he meant. "Your eyes, they were unique."

"My eyes?" Luke did have a unique pair of eyes. His eyes were different and kids at school used to either poke fun at him or fall in love with him because of them. His eyes were teal, and people always wondered if he leaned towards blue or green.

But compared to Sirius's eyes changing as he teleported people and Alpha's beautiful green-gold eyes, he thought his was pretty lackluster.

"A child with the eyes of the cove shall decide the path the eternal struggle will go."

"Wow," Luke thought sarcastically. "That explains everything."

Uriel smiled, and for a second, Luke had witnessed a pleasant emotion, something he thought the angel would have never shown. But the smile quickly dampened like a fond memory that vanished. "It was among the last words the Lord said to me before He disappeared."

Luke thought he had some dirt or animal dust in his ears because he swore he heard that last part incorrectly. "What do you mean disappear?"

"A complicated matter," Uriel waved the issue aside and just as he did the dust from the ground slowly started to be carried off by an unknown breeze and Luke knew that what Uriel had said earlier was coming true. The animals were reforming.

But Luke still had so many questions and this issue of God's disappearance was not one to be dropped and tabled for another discussion. This was serious. If God was not here, then who the heck was?

"This is the final resting place of the extinct," Uriel pointed out. "They cannot be vanquished here, only quieted for a moment." He stood back up and the fire in his wings erupted like the engines of a jet. He extended his hand to Luke. "Come, I shall fly you to your friends."

Luke didn't deny a free ride from his archangel—dad? He still wasn't sure what Uriel's title was in relationship to him. Was he an arcdad? Angel-Pop? Papa Angie?

Okay, maybe not the last one.

As soon as he grabbed Uriel's hand, he felt like he was shot up a towering rollercoaster—like the tallest one he rode at a popular amusement park in New Jersey with his Vietnamese father. His head was blasted back, and he was lucky he didn't catch whiplash and die. The graceful hand of Uriel cradled Luke's head just in time to prevent it from rolling off of his body.

They soared over the Sliding Hills and the Field of the Forgotten in a matter of minutes. As they approached Lover's Mount just before Gold Mound Beach, he spotted Sirius and Victor/Jurgen going at it. Jurgen was utilizing his Earth-bending skills to annoy the heck out of Sirius. He ripped the ground loose beneath Sirius's feet as if he was standing on a carpet. He shot boulders of rocks at him and even used Lover's Mount to his right to make it rain stones upon him. Sirius managed to dodge the bigger ones, but was pelted by many of the smaller ones, and he utilized Absorber to cut through many of the boulders shot at him.

Sirius teleported from one area to another, getting within striking distance of Jurgen. But Jurgen always remained one step ahead. When Sirius disappeared, Jurgen started moving haphazardly. Sirius couldn't choose a perfect spot to appear. He'd always appear either a couple of inches off to the left or just a few feet behind. In either case, such repeated use of his ability drained him.

As Luke got closer, the fight seemed to be at a standstill, both fighters experiencing fatigue.

"I will leave you to settle this dispute on your own while I handle the rising army of the extinct." Uriel was possibly hinting at the appearance he made briefly in Luke's clouded vision back when he first fought Victor during combat training. "I suggest you stop him before the day is up, otherwise Lover's Mount will kiss and seal you inside the Garden."

"For how long will we be trapped if we don't make it out in time?"

"Just succeed, don't entertain the option of failure," Uriel advised as he lowered his descent a good distance away from the fight.

As they touched down atop the sand dunes, he let go of Luke and strangely, Luke felt invigorated by the ride as if the warmth from Uriel's aura gave him an adrenaline boost.

Before Uriel could leave, Luke asked one final question that had been nagging him in the back of his mind ever since he found out he had two dads and learned of his opportunity to attend SGA. "Who are my real parents?"

"You'll find out soon enough...if you survive this."

And with that, Uriel took off towards an arising army of forgotten animals to send them back into extinction once again.