The Fall

Chapter Three

Alta spent the next morning in the courtyard drawing out sigils, she had stayed up the whole night studying the ritual for giving the angels their powers back. They were anxious; with their powers they were capable of everything, the only thing stopping them from returning to heaven was the way in, which had been locked. She wiped the thin layer of sweat that had begun to appear on her brow as she finished the final symbol and stood to her feet, appraising her handy work.

"How are you doing?" It was Alex's voice that brought her back to the present. She turned to see him strolling out of the temple to join her. He nodded his head in approval at the chalk sigil. "Very good."

"I just hope it works." Alta fussed, she didn't want to let them down, not when they had come this far, a new hope to believe in.

"It will." Alexander assured her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and giving her a light squeeze.

"How did you know?" She felt the need to ask, "that I was a prophet." Her thoughts when back to what he had said the day before, how he had known she was the one.

She let Alexander lead her over to the stone bench and lowered herself onto it beside him. He smiled fondly at memories she didn't have, "We waited so long," he started, gazing out over the hills as the sun rose up above them, "we started to believe we would never find someone who could read Enochian, someone who could help us. And then when you were born," he looked down at her, "we all felt it, a pulling to you, we walked for miles, days on end until we found you, wrapped up in that little pink and cream blanket in the nursery, you were all alone."

Alta listened with bated breath as he told the story she had always wanted to hear; how she came to be. "My parents?" She asked.

A shadow passed over his face, "They were horrid people, they locked you away, you were on the edge of death when we found you." Alta couldn't believe it, didn't want to believe it.

"But.." What was she supposed to say, she didn't know her parents, she wasn't even sure what parents were, but she knew deep down they were meant to love you unconditionally. "I don't understand."

"They never wanted you," he said softly, "they handed you over without question." Tears pricked at her eyes, not for the parents she wished she had, but for the abandonment that had been cut into her from the very beginning.

"Don't cry little one," Alexander shushed her, wiping a stray tear away and lifting her chin so she was looking into her eyes, "you had a dark beginning, but now, here with us, all there is left is light for you."

Alta wanted that to make her feel better, wanted her brothers and sisters to be enough for what she was deprived of, but there was still that void inside of her that said something was missing, and she had never felt it until she found the hidden Enochian books.

"Enough sadness for today," Alexander decided, "we will do the ritual and then I will take you in to town for lunch, just you and me." He said with a warm smile, the infectious one that Alta couldn't help but return to him. He was right, even though she was taken away from her real family, it had brought her here, to the people who loved her.

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Ezekiel was the first to step into the center of the sigil, half bravery and half desperation; he wanted to be whole so badly that he would willingly take the risk of Alta messing up and doing damage to him. He locked eyes with her as they stood ten feet apart, the book of the angels gripped tightly in her hands as she read over the Enochian text. "Are you ready?" She asked him. Ezekiel had to hold back the urge to roll his eyes at her; of course he was ready.