Angel's Lament

Angel's Wisdom

Angels Lament

Hello and thank you for clicking on this chapter of Angel's Lament and I hope you will be entertained by what is happening and I hope in some way to brighten your day. Though I will warn you this chapter is extra short, but I can at least say the next chapter will be out in the next three or four days after this one and it is far more action packed so you only have to wait a little while for more if that is of some comfort to anyone interested.

Chapter 19: Angel's Wisdom

Antros had been asleep for only a matter of a few seconds when he suddenly awoke to the sound of the door of his chamber being pushed open and the patter of mortal feet on stone. Antros immediately knew who had entered based on the sound of the person and their heart rate and so he immediately rose from his bed to greet his Thrall and close friend. Dimitra bowed upon seeing she had her master's attention and offered an apology for interrupting his rest.

Though Antros immediately said back, keeping his voice a bit light-hearted. "I need not rest when work must be done. Now tell me why you have come?"

Dimitra was quick to respond, taking out a letter from her robes and handing it to Antros. He, in turn, took it and read it in the blink of an eye. He then turned his head back to Dimitra and thanked her for her diligence in getting it to him and waved her to go and attend to her other duties. The note had been brief in its contents, it was from acting High Chaplain Effriel stating he requested to speak to Antros immediately. With that Antros knew it must have been important, or it could have been the Chaplain attempting to have Antros meet with him so he might speak to him and ask about or for something unnecessary.

It was always strange to hear from Effriel as he was a man of a different heart. It was often said that High Chaplain Astorath was the embodiment of their Primarchs grief, which was true in many ways as the Chaplain was known for his grime moods and general mournful nature. But it was to Antros, and many other Brothers, that Effriel was the embodiment of Sanguinius joy and humor, as he seemed to be ever happy and always willing to make light of a dark situation. This made Effriel be seen in a bad light by some of his brothers, though none in the Reclusium ever commented on his behavior and never seemed to doubt him, except a few vocal puritans. Antros had once thought the same of the Chaplain but after having gotten to know him after being assigned on many campaigns with him Antros had learned of the duality of Chaplain Effriel.

While he joked and made merry with his brothers he was quick to temper against the enemies of man, which this rage had seen the death of numerous champions of disorder, and to many a Broodlord. It was strange to see him in such different states but it was the nature of Effriel. It was true that he could sometimes be lax in his duties, but he had never been incompetent, nor had he ever been to jovial as to make light of true tragedy.

He was appropriate in his humor, and when it came to the prosecution of his duties, he acted foolishly but it was always a farce self, as Antros had seen when he had looked far deeper into the mind of the Chaplain. This had happened when Antros was asked to ensure the Chaplains' purity after he had been lost for some time behind the line of the Great Enemy, during a campaign. In that time he had witnessed the whole length of the Chaplains life and his every thought. Through that Antros had learned of the deep despair that lay within the foolish Chaplain, that for every joke he told there was a river of tears shed for those he lost, both brothers and mortals.

Antros had seen as well the reason for the Chaplain to be chosen to join the ranks of the Chaplaincy. Before the days when the Indomitus Crusade was called and during the time the Black Rage still haunted the Blood Angels, Chaplain Effriel, though he was only a regular Sergeant at the time, had been on campaign far from Baal in the deep jungles of a world overrun with Ork filth, Effriel had been forced to fight in a bloody battle to hold off against a massive Greenskin offensive, though he and his brothers had one the battle alongside the guardsmen of the planet it had cost all of the Battle-Brothers under Effriel to fall to the Rage all of them turned to beasts unable to tell friend from foe that did not share the Blood of Sanguinius. At that moment Effiel had been forced to slay his own brothers, an act that had nearly broken the poor Astartes.