Children of the Archangels

CHAPTER 31: THE MISSION BRIEFING

The church erupted into anger. How come two students from the same small house got chosen, and worst of all, they were both doves? This was an outrage. The chances of that happening—the drawing had to be fixed.

Then an icy cold whistle blew through the church. It skidded off of the walls and shot into everyone's ears, tearing through their eardrums and forcing people to cover their ears and shut their mouths.

The church was silent again, but the frustration still filled the air.

Meanwhile, Luke didn't know what was going on until faces looked at him. A couple of people next to him shoved him out of the pew, and Luke was forced to stand up in the aisle with all eyes on him. Few of the eyes were friendly. One out of every ten eyes looked at him with something slightly less than disgust and something more pitiful.

Meanwhile Sirius was motioning for Luke to come up towards the altar. Luke followed in silence and tried to keep his head focused on Sirius's arms rather than the hundreds of eyes trying to turn him into stone.

At this point, Luke forgot about questioning why me. This was destined. He remembered in D.C. having dreams about a special garden. He remembered seeing Michael, Kevin's brother, who was chubby and nice, leading him by hand to a cove where weird creatures lived and large trees grew. He still wasn't sure if what he saw in his dreams months ago reflected this Garden Run.

But it may come close to jogging back some memory of the day when he was given his powers by Uriel.

When he stepped up on the altar, the Dean cleared his voice. "The first two students have been chosen out of the general population." Those last two words got a couple of groans, but they knew better than to voice their dissent. "Now onto the Tempest."

The Dean walked over and made sure he chose the slip for this one. He covered his eyes and dug in, rummaging through the bowl of black slips. He tugged at one slip that contained two stuck together and shook it loose leaving just one. He unfolded the slip and stared at the name.

The Dean seemed to chuckle, but it looked like the kind of sadistic chuckle you make when you're having a pretty bad day and then a bird comes from out of nowhere to shit on you. "Victor Leos."

And suddenly the crowd's anger seemed to diffuse. They looked like they didn't know who to be sorry for: Luke or Nil.

And for the first time since nearly killing him, Luke stared Victor in the eyes as he walked towards him and took the spot next to Luke. Victor didn't seem angry. He put on a very neutral face—the face of a leader.

Two first-years and a Tempest who had a thing against mentally challenged people. This was going to be an interesting Garden Run.

"These three men have been selected to escort Nil on the Garden Run. In place of Archbishop's Mosaé's absence, Father Quique will lead the blessing. Right hands forward."

Everyone in the cathedral extended their right hand forward as if half-way between a salute and a reaching out to grab the shoulder of the person in front of them.

Father Quique walked up to the three of them his hands extended above their heads. Sirius and Victor bowed their heads, and Luke followed their cue.

"Oh heavenly Father, we beseech you to grant your servants safe passage to the garden of our fall in order to save one of the lost sheep of your flock. Amen."

"Amen," the crowd repeated. However, not everyone in the crowd agreed with what the priest had said. Some would say Nil was not a lost sheep, but a bird migrating to the light of God.

The Dean closed the meeting and dismissed the crowd. He then led Luke, Sirius, Victor, and Nil to his office to provide further explanation of their mission.

The first thing the Dean did was gulp down a sip of whisky before acknowledging, "This is probably the most haphazard group we've ever sent on the Garden Run."

What a vote of confidence, Luke thought.

"I think we can make it work," Sirius said. He was such an optimist.

He pointed at Luke and Victor, "Sirius I'm not worried about. He can handle himself. But you two, I need to know that your beef between each other is over or at least frozen for this mission."

Luke and Victor exchanged looks. Luke couldn't read what Victor was thinking. He still held a neutral look that didn't give away anything, and Luke thought it was hard for someone who routinely looked like everyone annoyed him to maintain such a confident stare—confident that Luke wouldn't be able to figure him out.

Then Victor reached out and patted Luke on the back and smiled. "That's all in the past. I won't let that jeopardize our mission." The pat felt rough as if there was a bit of a challenge behind it. Luke knew that pat meant he wasn't over the whole killing each other thing, but hey, Victor started it.

"Good," the Dean said and then turned to Luke awaiting a response.

Luke was quiet for a bit but spoke the truth. "I still don't trust you, but I'm willing to put aside our differences for the mission—that is if you don't try to kill me again."

"Hey," the Dean growled. "None of that. No passive accusations, no instigation, no intimidation. You three need to work as a team, and you Victor need to be a leader like the Tempest you are. Otherwise I can have you demoted down to Generalitat. Do you understand me? I want everyone here back in one piece or I'll freeze your bodies and thaw you out on the front lines of battle against Satan's army."

Victor nodded at such a specific threat. "As long as my subordinates are willing to follow orders, I can guarantee everyone's safe return." Victor was able to redirect the shade over to Luke without even looking at him.

The Dean turned towards Luke and Sirius. "I know you two are a talented pair of doves, but you need to respect authority as well. Follow what Victor says and make sure Nil is saved from the Gaze."

Luke and Sirius nodded, but Luke raised a question. "I'm still confused. What are we supposed to be doing exactly?"

"I'm getting to that." The Dean pulled out a map that seemed to have been used by different navigators for hundreds of years. It crunched as the Dean unrolled its waterlogged edges to unveil a map covered in snow.

"That's Antarctica," Sirius pointed out. "I never thought..."

"Don't get ahead of yourself Sirius," the Dean said. "Now, this is in fact a map of Antarctica, and although this lump of paper doesn't look like much, it will guide you to the entrance to the garden."

"A garden in the middle of the coldest continent?" Luke emphasized to highlight how crazy that sounded.

"Yes, just as this school is hidden in the Rockies, this garden is hidden in the snowy landscape of Antarctica. Now, you will take some supplies and travel via a Transport Cave over to Antarctica. There, this map will come in handy. It will act as a GPS. You just speak the name of a member of your group and then call for the garden to appear and it will show you the way. The blinking dot is you, the stationary dot will be the garden."

"Luke Sanchez," Sirius repeated and touched the map to test it out. But nothing happened.

"It only works once you are in Antarctica," the Dean explained. "Once you find the entrance to the garden, the supplies we will provide to you will come in handy. You will have seconds to activate the boat, so I suggest you activate it before crossing the threshold. Then you must sail into the cove of Lover's Mount and make your way towards the inner sanctuary. Be careful with the wildlife. Most won't harm you, but there are some species there that may..."

None of this junk was making sense to Luke. Lover's Mount, magical boats, inner sanctuary—what made this garden so special?

Then he thought back to what Father Quique said during the blessing, "The garden of our fall." A bell rang in Luke's head and he wasn't thrilled at the conclusion he reached.

"We're going to find the Garden of Eden."