Globe Tracers 6: Chaos Storm

Chapter 41: In his Head

Dorn:

I sat by the fire after the sun had gone down. Looking down at the doll in my hands, I continued to fiddle with it, articulating its hand to point off in the distance. It was an action figure of a young boy in a yellow jumpsuit with a red cape, wearing a wizard hat. "I'll stop you demon wizard Narn, this my oath of-" I jumped before I could finish, the toy flying out of my hand and straight into the flames- but by some miracle not being consumed as it came to rest in thin air.

Well- no, not a miracle... well sort of. What is a miracle when you see past the veil exactly? The form of Thor slowly appeared, his hand in the flames. He took the doll up and examined it. "So then Triads have their heroes too I see."

I held out my hand for the toy, which he returned. "I guess you're thinking I'm too old huh?" I asked.

The angel shrugged. "I guess you're over four hundred or so years old. I've lived for millennia and there are beings that see me as a child. I don't bother judging age- let someone more shallow engage in that."

I sighed while putting the toy away in my pocket. "Not really mine anyway. Micron, my son, was just on the verge of outgrowing these things himself before..." I closed my eyes. "You can't tell me where he is now can you?"

"He's either in heaven or he is not."

"So hell?"

"I mean he may just be gone. Understand, there's no more way for me to know than any other random creature."

"Typical angel."

Thor sat down next to me with a curious look on his face. "How does your group know anything about angels anyway? It's rare for humans to speak of us with such assurance."

"We thought we landed at random when we first touched down in this wilderness. Truth is, he was guiding us. The world serpent sent angelic allies to change the trajectory of our ship so that we would land near his token."

"He told you what a token is?" Thor asked, seeming rather shocked.

"He said something about his token being in the ocean and why he can't leave this spot. He never said what his token actually is, nor anything about it being a weakness. He offered to teach Carn a kind of spiritual sensing so he could make a direct contract and they could fight as one. He told us our history- and we rejected him. At the time we landed, he had ten angels serving him and we had to do battle with invisible foes. Invisible and invincible. And thus- seems Jormungandr using angels to force a contract with a mortal is something less than tolerated by the higher-ups. The archangel Gabriel landed in our midst and revealed the battlefield to us. She... or is it he? He and some thirty others routed the servants of Jormungandr. Ever since we have been dealing with confrontations between the servants of the World Serpent and those serving other powers or causes."

"Well- once you've seen past the veil once, Michael's forces stop worrying about if it happens again."

"I see... on a subject of interest, is your group unified that Jessica must leave her family in order to receive your assistance?"

"Hmm... isn't there a god?"

"Yes."

"But you don't serve him, do you?"

"How did you know?"

"Angels that serve him usually seem more occupied with things above than below. They also like to say what must happen, not ask for opinions." The angel gave a side smile to that. "So why not rejoin him?"

"Can't. Too many things have happened. He allowed my former self to die and, even if I could forgive him for that... it's not like he'll forgive what I've done since."