Vespers (Fields of the Nephilim: Interlude)

Chapter 15

I thought I have lost them through the thick atmosphere. That would have been a disaster for me but then I saw their shadows plummeting towards the empty desert. It was then I also felt myself being dragged down by an invisible force, but it was only the brown haired angel. She had spied me and now had her arms wrapped around me from behind as we descended.

Even as we stood down the sands, she didn’t let go off me like I could escape them or something. It was until the others spoke that she pushed me away from her.

“He cannot harm us Merriel” I heard the other one spoke. As I looked into his face, I recognized those dark eyes. I was standing face to face again with the angels who had come down questioning me before.

“You have the magnificence of your father in you, I can truly see that” he said, as if studying my wings and my face with his cold eyes.

“Who are you to speak of my father like you’ve once shared a drink from one cup?” I said mockingly. I studied the three of them from head to toe. They looked like blood clerics in their crimson and white hoods trimmed with silver and gold.

“Oh but we did. Kahel and I used to stand side by side as we kept our sanctuary away from chaos and evil. This is Merriel and Caden. I am Zeph and I rule the angels of trial”

“So that must explain your goal, is it not? And you are all trailing down Lune’s shadow. What a chase it will be” I continued spitting my words into their face. I see now that they have lost the shadow of Lune.

“Now, now, let’s stop this for a while. We have work to do” the female called Merriel said as she turned her back and walked past us. And to my astonishment, a door was opened beneath the sand leading to a dark stairway. Zeph motioned me to follow her and I did. We went down to what appeared like a hidden tunnel. Several torches lit up as the four of us walked onwards.

“Where are you leading me?” I asked and as I spoke, we halted to what appeared like a hall made of sand stones or bricks. In the far end corner is a door which opened to yet another hall. I was suddenly blinded by the light which illuminated the room and when my eyes grew accustomed, I saw the silhouette of a young angel. Her black hair covers her like a wave of moss. Her lids were closed but I could see her large amethyst eyes inside my mind. Her wings were spread out and frozen as well as her body as she appears to be sleeping as she was made to stand there inside that block of ice. The necklace she used to wear is still around her naked throat.

“Mina….”

“Yes and she is sleeping for years now”

“How’d you found her?” I asked without taking my eyes off her.

“It appears that she was sealed here for some reason. It could be a high rank angel, a Seraph, or it could be Lune”

“Or it could be the devil himself” Caden said as he looked at me. I was stunned upon hearing his words like it was impossible to believe the word would come out of them as easy as that.

“Devil is it? And how so? Why not God? He is the commander of your battalion, is He not?”

“There are still a lot of things you do not know-----“

“But I know what I have experienced in your hands and what I have seen you do in that goddamned Gehenna!” I blurted out which they only accepted as mere fact.

“Yes yes, of course. We couldn’t argue and we couldn’t apologize as well but believe me, there have been a deadly mistake. A lot of things were overlooked. A lot of wings will soon be cut off”

“Along with mine, am I right?”

“Ah, yes if it couldn’t be helped. Along with this innocent girl if the tables don’t turn around”

“What exactly do you want to tell me?”

“When angels were created, they were the messengers of peace, guardians, healers. They naught to neither feel hatred nor love…compassion. Nonetheless as they mingled with humans, things turned out differently. Wings were made to fly back to where they came from but some had plucked it themselves as they run around mortals with their given beauty. Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit or so they say, and angels had questioned this. Why then should You create this fruit if not to be eaten? It is to test them. And why then should You test them? There appeared to be no answer. Do you have any idea about it?” Zeph turned to look at me. I didn’t have any idea.

“But then of course I am wandering off with what exactly I am saying. The point is, we questioned, and questioned until we forgot what we were created for. There was quite a rebellion towards Him, towards His other creation, or towards nothing. Some still obeyed, yet they have gone too far with what they call righteousness. The angels in Gehenna, they still obeyed Him, but they used His words for their own bloodlust”

“Are you saying that you are the ones chosen by Him to save us if you are not one of those who toyed with my kind?”

“You could be amiable you know that?” he said this with a smile.

“You’re either human or angel and that makes the complication. To be honest, what happened there in Gehenna? We could’ve stopped it if we must but there was no order given to us. You are supposed to be stopped but no further instructions on how, and they managed to do as they please…no orders and yet no restraint”

“And you, what were you ordered for?”

“To do what is right. Bring peace in Gehenna once more so as to give peace to heaven and this world. Souls are wandering in hell and we must start with that, it is the fault of the black-winged child”

“So it is Lune that you want”

“And you’re going to find him, would you?” it was Merriel who spoke this time.

“Like I’m your sniffing dog, is that it? And what of Mina?”

“We are going to take her” Caden answered as he was looking at the pendant she was wearing.

“She has his feather around her neck like a talisman. Now I wonder….” I heard him murmured and I couldn’t grasp his meaning.

“Wonder what? Do you really think that Mina has something to do with the devil? Is that so?” and even as I say these I couldn’t help but think of those times when she had opened the cage of the demons in Gehenna and how those beasts flew past her leaving her unscathed like she was invisible to them or that they just wouldn’t touch her.

“Do you really believe in her innocence my child? Do you know how she had killed your own kinds?”

“And that was all your doing! She wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t fighting for her life in your arena! And why’d you call me my child just now?”

“Stop fighting us Cien. Things have changed since you escaped Gehenna. Whatever the case is, we will have to take Mina. Honestly, we know nothing of her. She smells of angel blood and human, but I doubt the necklace around her neck. It smells of demon and Lune” having said this, Merriel drew out her wings and turn to go. The other two did the same and before following Merriel, Zeph once again looked at me and smiled.

“We are not your enemy. I ask you to trust us this time. Heaven needs you, no, I should say everyone. We need to stop Lune’s rebellion. Think about it and we’ll come to you and I’ll give you more details, but right now, we need you to stay away from trouble” he said then walked towards me and planted a kiss on my forehead. Then the three of them were all gone.

I was left alone with the frozen body of Mina and the echoing of my own breathing. I stayed there unmoved for a little longer, until I felt my own knees gave way and I sank down the ground, too tired to move or even think of what to do next.

I didn’t know how long I slept there but when I woke up, nothing stirred around me. Mina was still there in here snow crystal seal. I got up to my feet and stand in front of her.

“Mina, tell me what to do….” I whispered as I run my finger on the cold ice which appeared to me like her coffin. I wasn’t expecting for an answer but deep inside me I was hoping for one. If only she’d visit me in my dreams but it never happened again. I went back to sleep and this time I have managed to let time passed by in my unconscious state.