The Gathering

II: The Scribe and the Empath

            Metatron appeared from some deep hollow in his castle of ancient scrolls, his hair was just a few wisps of white, his eyes a bright, piercing blue. An air of joviality usually followed the old man, accentuated by his portly figure and his rosy cheeks. He wore plain robes with no noticeable adornments. He was relatively old, not as old as Samael or Raphael, but old as far as Jonah was concerned. Metatron had been tasked with keeping records of everything God did, said, or thought. He had become God's only confidant and his oldest friend. After things went wrong and God was gone, Metatron became a recluse, poring over the records he had taken trying to find the cause of God's demise - a task that he still fruitlessly undertook in secret. Gabriel had ordered all of God's personal records to be locked away, but Metatron couldn't resist. Gabriel had no use for a scribe, so Metatron took to recording events that were told to him by those who travelled to Earth, Jonah had read and reread those scrolls seemingly a thousand times, absorbing every aspect human culture and society he could get his hands on, it was so foreign to him, so distant and alluring.

Metatron had been Jonah's mentor ever since he relocated to the inner city, he had known Jonah's father from his own time in the Father's Service and felt sympathy for Jonah's situation. Perhaps the shared sense of loss of a father figure bonded them. Even though they rarely talked about Jonah's father or about God, Jonah could almost sense that Metatron shared a similar feeling of absence, an absence and a void that both of them were still working to understand, perhaps that also motivated Metatron to forgive his theft.

"Today was your last lesson with Samael?" asked Metatron, even though he knew the answer, he just wanted to hear more of what Jonah had learned about gathering, a subject that always piqued his attention.

"Yeah, tomorrow we're meeting with Seraphiel, and by the end of the week I'll have been to Earth!" Jonah said with excitement apparent in his voice and a rather toothy smile on his face, but Metatron detected some trepidation as well. Metatron thought for a moment, reviewing the situation, there was something he had to prepare Jonah for, but didn't know how to bring it up, as he usually didn't with information he probably shouldn't be divulging.

"Before you go to Earth for your first gathering, make sure you come by my study." Metatron instructed, his voice sounding more serious than his usual tone.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Jonah, easily able to detect the change in Metatron's cadence. Metatron paused, he clearly wanted to say more than he had, but was being very careful with his words.

"I don't particularly like Seraphiel's... methods." Metatron said plainly, pausing to deliberately select his words. Jonah looked both quizzical and concerned with what he was hearing, he trusted Metatron's advice more than anybody else's, and if Metatron didn't like Seraphiel's 'methods', he wanted to know why.

"What... don't you like about them?" Jonah dug for more information, knowing full well that when Metatron spoke this seriously, he was holding something back - usually secret knowledge that Jonah shouldn't know.

Metatron sighed, "Before Our Father... died, he conducted gatherings differently." Metatron scratched his head, shuffling through his thoughts, deciding which were appropriate to share and which he should keep only to his scrolls.

"You mean he used reapers?" Jonah asked, Metatron's face shifted again, this time to slight alarm.

"You can't tell anybody I told you that!" Metatron blurted out, "It was foolish for me to even mention it." Metatron turned his back to Jonah, thinking even harder about how to explain what he meant without digging himself a deeper grave with his loose lips.