ANGELORUM

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"Abba," the boy asked, "how did you know I wanted to leave?"

The mentor, still smiling, effortlessly replied, as if he had heard the same countless times before:

"If you remembered your name, that must be your psyche, nay, your soul: it must be calling. Something it lacked, something it had left behind: it has resurfaced. You are compelled to revisit this distant existence. You cannot find it here. You must go."

"But abba!" the boy cried, "I don't understand it! Why would I want to leave you, my brothers, my sisters? You have all brought me so much joy, so much love. Yet... there is something I cannot place. It is not here. Why?"

Zechariah knew this feeling. It was the void. He was nearing it. It was a whole nothing. A proper nullity, an absence, Abyss. It was the worst thing in the world.

The father stood up, and took a seat next to his son. Sinking into the cushion, he wrapped his arm around Zechariah's shoulder, comforting him.

"This is an inevitability, child. Equilibrium, stasis. All things tend to equilibrium. All things reach a state where it becomes desirable to never change again. Unthinking compliance and compromise to the blissful state of things: that is the eternal trap set before us. This entropy of the mind... this is our death. Yet, do not despair. An equally inevitable principle continues to pervade the world."

The teacher looked his student in the eyes.

"The antithesis to death, what else can this be but life! And it is our only life. For when an angel "lives", he must die, as a necessity of time and weakness of the angelic flesh. But equally so shall he be eventually re-birthed, like the stars above. Rescued. This is the cycle of which we partake, until time eternal. Do you understand?"

It was all a bit too much, Zechariah shrugged. The ancient one chuckled.

"That's alright. Just recognize this: there is now a fire kindled inside you. An animating force is compelling you towards the unknown. Do not be complacent! Grab on to it as if your life depends on it. It does. Seek the answers your heart desires, no matter where they lie. Take the risk of having any risks at all!"

Zechariah nodded, then stared at the floor below.

"I will miss you abba."

"I will miss you too."

The master hugged his pupil for some time.

After the warmth of embrace yielded the desired state of comfort, Zechariah was finally poised to ponder further:

"I won't be gone long, I think."

His abba smiled.

"What is long to us, child?", he jokingly remarked.

"You know what I mean", the boy replied.

"I surely do"

...