A Savior's Worth (Book #3)

Chapter Forty-Four

"... before I was Ashton Ward, I was known as... the Angel of Healing."

Elouise almost lost her strength again. She had quickly accepted that angels indeed existed, and that the previous guardian was speaking to them, that her mother's belief in angels had been justified. However, now she had to believe that he was an angel, and that he was standing right in front of her and Eldon.

"That is," Ashton continued, "until I decided to be reborn as a human so that I could protect the Warrior Angels' chosen savior."

It had to be real. After everything they'd been through, it couldn't be completely preposterous, could it?

Or was she merely pathetic for wanting to believe all of this? Eldon's skepticism seemed quite reasonable here. Still, it was only fair to listen to at least listen to Ashton.

Ashton blinked, averting his attention to the ground. "The angels, along with the Great Holy Deity and the Five Goddesses, are responsible for creating life throughout the kingdoms. It started here in Aristol, though. Perhaps that is why Aristol is always destined to such terrible fates." He paused, flashing them an apologetic smile.

"And the reason we are known as the protectors is because we are the only species with powers that can help fight against any threats that bestow our kingdoms. Of course, it comes with a few limitations. For instance, we cannot interfere with human matters because direct contact with them can cause... problems. In that sense, our powers can be a bit wasted. However, we discovered we could at least bless a human with our powers and grant them abilities. But, you see, it cannot just be any human. We found it works best if we bless an unborn child. We first tried this with a human who you may know as Anita."

Elouise's heart leaped.

"Each of us angels possess a single ability," Ashton continued. "Four of us gathered together to bless the first child to ever be born in Aristol. As she grew older, we realized we had succeeded with her. We were relieved, because we now had at least one soul in the kingdom who could protect everyone if something went wrong..." Ashton's smile quickly dwindled, replaced with a look of guilt and shame.

Elouise felt a bit lightheaded as she attempted to process everything. Her mind jumbled from one question to another. Then Eldon voiced one of them for her.

"So, somethin' went wrong?"

"In total, there are nine angels," Ashton elaborated. "And I am not the first one to have been reborn as a human. The Angel of Invisibility was. As a human, he was named Zander and he did not remember who he was, but he discovered his power around the age of ten. Since he could make himself invisible, he mostly used his ability for mischief behavior. We allowed him, because he was not causing any true harm... until one day he did.

"He was eight years younger than Anita, but once he was twenty years old and Anita had officially been declared the leader, Zander became envious of the attention she received. He often spied on her in secret, hoping to gather information he could use against her. What he discovered, however, was that she could do magical things, and he envied her more, because his power was the one thing that had made him feel special.

"So, after he realized the most beloved woman in the land had powers of her own—and more than him—he grew angrier. Fortunately for him, he also discovered there were others who despised Anita. He figured he could use these people for his revenge, but Anita was made aware that rebels were rising, and she banned them to the northern western corner of the land. She called this area the Outlands—a place where she could send the punished and keep them away from her people. Zander did not give up there, though. He encouraged his people to rise and fight back, and they did. They constantly crossed the border and terrorized Anita's people, earning themselves the name of Interlopers."