"Where's Sera?" whispered Jonah to Muriel as the cadets sat on their uncomfortable stone stools, readying themselves for the next intimidating lecture.
"She's 'debriefing' the cadets that were at yesterday's-" Muriel spoke until she was cut off.
"-Thanks." Snapped As. Both Jonah and As had a tough time sleeping the previous night, but As was definitely showing his sleep deprivation more outwardly. Jonah had learned to cope with it when he worked for Mitzrael, long hours in the forge makes one appreciate any sleep they can get.
"Sorry" whispered Jonah to Muriel, Muriel shrugged, she had never met Michael, but knew that As and him were close.
Just as Muriel was about to say something, the gates to the courtyard swung open. The cadets sprung into an alert and respectful posture with their head facing forward, they all relaxed a little when Phanuel came into their view. He was clearly just as sleep deprived as the two cadets, with tired looking eyes and a damp gloss of sweat on his dark skin. He greeted the students with a small wave and a nod before getting right to business. "The barracks are back in working order, and as such, you may all return there tonight." Jonah was a little disappointed, he relished in the comfort of his old bed, even though it didn't help his sleep much. "We are asking all cadets to please come forward if you have had any previous correspondence with Michael over the last few weeks. It is of vital importance." Jonah glanced at As, whose head was now slumped down, probably thinking about that damned letter. "The Lieutenant could not be present for today's lesson, so I will do my best in her stead. I haven't been in this profession as long as the Lieutenant has, but I am confident in my ability to make you learn something today." Phan let out a deep breath, his stress clearly evident as he wiped the accumulating sheen away from his brow.
Phanuel began rummaging behind the stone slab of a desk he stood behind until he pulled out a small globe set. The center globe was of the Earth, its continents drawn in green while the vast oceans were in blue. The globe was attached to an old bronze base by a metallic rod, off that rod shot out two more rods holding satellites that could rotate around the model independently of the Earth. The one closest to the earth was a small marble, Beulah. The further orb was the Moon. Phanuel gripped the globe, one hand on the base and one on the earth's north pole, he twisted the sphere counterclockwise and the mechanisms inside the base clicked and wound like a music box. Once he let go and set the globe flat on the stone slab, the earth and its two partners began a rhythmic dance around each other. The earth rotated, bringing the moon along with it, tidally locked. Beulah did not rotate and it orbited the earth at a slower pace than the moon. Every full rotation, all three bodies would become aligned for a short period of time and then become incongruous again. During the third full rotation, Phanuel stopped the globe's spin with a finger right as the three celestial bodies aligned.
"The ninth hour" began Phanuel, his finger still stopping the mechanism. "that is when the firmament is at its weakest." Jonah had read all about astronomy in Metatron's scrolls, but never had he heard a mention of 'the firmament' before. "It is during this single hour of morning that we can venture to and from the Earth below freely." Phan lifted his finger and allowed the cranking gears to continue spinning the globes. "And once that hour is up, all contact with Beulah from earth is severed until the next ninth hour."
Jonah was curious, like usual, and couldn't stop himself from asking, "excuse me, sir. What is 'the firmament?'" He found that there was a lot he didn't know before joining the Service... 'privileged information', he supposed.
Phan exhaled, probably hoping to get through the lecture smoothly with no questions, but he inhaled again and answered, "I suppose you wouldn't know. The firmament is the barrier that keeps Beulah separated from the earth, God closed it near the time of the fall." He let the globes spin once more until they aligned, he placed his finger down again. "When the moon and the sun are aligned with Beulah – at the ninth hour – the firmament is weakened by the opposing forces on either side, that means you only have one hour to gather." As glanced at Jonah, knowing what they were both thinking: 'Michael had been gone on Earth for about three full days before anyone found out what had happened.'
"During that single hour, on earth, we are at our most powerful. With a clear connection to Beulah above us, divine energy is able to travel more freely. Once that hour passes, you will be stuck on earth until another full rotation occurs." Phan let the orbs rotate once again, stopping them after another rotation. "During that time, between the tenth hour and the next ninth hour, your tether to the holy city cut. You will not be as strong physically or mentally, your stamina will decrease. If you remain long enough, the more human elements of your soul may begin to rear their ugly heads."
The cadets were silent. As broke the silence a moment later; "Sir, have you ever been caught on Earth after the ninth hour ends?" Phan took a deep breath in.
"No..." began Phan, his tone very serious, "but I used to know someone who did. We were on a routine mission, a lion gathering... we were cadets like you. Things went wrong and we got separated so our supervisor couldn't bring us back together. We waited and waited until the last second, hoping he would arrive at the rendezvous point before it was too late." Phan looked at each of the cadets directly in the eyes. "He didn't. When I got back to Beulah with my supervisor, we had every empath trying to trace him, and when we finally got a hit during the next morning's ninth hour... he was lying dead in a gutter." Jonah instinctually glanced at As, he could see a slight downward curl to his lips, as if the image had made him queasy... Jonah watched as the spinning globe's gears slowed, clicking to a gradual stop.
Phanuel finally dismissed the cadets and Jonah hurried over to Metatron's study, maybe he knew more about what happened to Michael? When Jonah opened the door to the study, he was greeted by a tired, disheveled looking Metatron, his wisps of hair whipped every way across his head. He sat hunched over at his large wooden desk, staring intently at a scroll. Parchment was strewn around the room haphazardly. "Hello," Jonah greeted, he began gathering the displaced scrolls into a more orderly stack. "Is everything... alright?" He asked this despite the state of the study showing the obvious answer was 'no!'
"Huh? Oh!" Metatron looked up from his work, his eyes bloodshot both from hyper focus and a lack of sleep. He began to attempt to tidy his desk. "Y-yes, I'm fine, just tired is all." Metatron knocked over his inkwell, but Jonah anticipated it and caught it before it could overturn. "Thank you." Metatron said weakly, placing some scrolls back on a shelf. As he set down the inkwell at its usual place, he noticed with alarm a piece of parchment thrown atop the small oil lamp that illuminated Metatron's tedium. To prevent it from catching on fire, Jonah snatched the paper from the lamp, he glanced at it... there were two sets of overlapping writing on the scroll, one the usual ink black and the other a lighter brown, he watched as the brown grew lighter and lighter until it vanished, leaving only the ink black writing on the papyrus. Metatron noticed Jonah's confusion, "Ah! Invisible ink!" he snatched the scroll from Jonah, "activated by heat, a great method of subterfuge... but sadly a great fire hazard as well." Jonah grabbed his stack of now more organized scrolls off the floor and put them on a shelf as well.
"As stopped by last night – so did I, actually – and we couldn't find you." Jonah said as he cleared off another scroll from a cushion and sat down.
"Yes! I was summoned by Gabriel last night, had to transcribe statements from a few unfortunate earth-goers." Jonah could tell he wasn't divulging the entire truth.
"Did they talk about Michael?" Metatron sat down in his chair again, reclining as if it were much more comfortable than it was, its old wooden frame creaking against his modest weight.
"I'm afraid so..." began Metatron, shaking his head, "such a shame." Jonah had to know more, all the commotion of Phanuel searching the barracks, the letter, Sera's absence, none of it made sense, neither Phan or Metatron were telling him the whole story and he knew it.
"What attacked them? I heard Phan say 'counteroffensive?'" Jonah was careful in measuring his tone, he didn't want to spook Metatron away from disclosing more details.
"It was..." began Metatron, once again trying to filter his knowledge, as not to tell Jonah something he shouldn't. Jonah hoped that this attempt at concealment would go about as well as all the others. "Seraphiel had instructed them to investigate an... incident that occurred on earth a few weeks prior." Metatron shuffled some parchment in his hands, probably to illustrate the parchment being shuffled in his subconscious.
"Incident?" Jonah asked the inevitable follow-up question, he tried to sound nonchalant, pretending to be glancing through a scroll.
"Top-secret, I'm afraid" began Metatron, clearly trying to shut down this line of conversation. "At the orders of Gabriel himself... in fact, it's still under investigation, so I cannot comment." Metatron was firmer than usual when it came to secrets, this one wasn't coming loose no matter how much Jonah pried.
Jonah stopped his faux-nonchalance and looked at Metatron, "I'm worried.... If something attacked Michael and the others... Is As going to be safe? Muriel? Am I safe?" His voice ascended several octaves as his concern grew.
Metatron returned Jonah's glance, he inhaled deeply. "Earth is never safe." Metatron's words were unusually harsh and pessimistic, "Michael isn't the first of us to perish down below and he won't be the last... the earth is a dangerous place for us, there are those who wish us harm. That's all I can tell you." It made sense to Jonah although it still made his head hurt, 'If we're so powerful and above humanity, what can hurt us?" It was a question he could not answer. "You can take some comfort in knowing that most of these... occurrences happen during reconnaissance missions conducted by the Archangels, not on gathering missions." Metatron realized he must've scared Jonah a little, his tone was much friendlier and calm.
"I know the Service is dangerous..." began Jonah, shifting backwards in his cushion, trying to relax himself, "I just don't think I realized it until now."
"Ah, regrets?" questioned Metatron.
"N-not exactly" stumbled Jonah, it wasn't that he regretted his choice, not at all, going into the service had been a blessing, rather, getting out of Mitzrael's forge and into the Service was a blessing. "Just, shaken up and... weirdly kind of numb."
Metatron looked contemplatively at nothing in particular, "Jonah, you're a good kid. Your father certainly thought so too,. You don't have to prove anything to him or to me... just do your best." Jonah's father, Sandalphon, had been an Archangel like Michael, between the two of them being an Archangel now carried a one hundred percent fatality rate in Jonah's mind.
"Did my father ever regret becoming an Archangel?" asked Jonah, they didn't talk about his father much, but whenever they did, Metatron always had some new insight to share.
Metatron brushed his cotton-like hair into a more manageable shape with his hand, "No, at least not that I knew of." He sighed "Your father knew the risks and I'm sure Michael did too. It doesn't make their passing any easier, but take solace, they died fighting for a cause bigger than themselves: restoring peace." This kind of talk brought Jonah back to Gabriel, he had said such similar niceties to Jonah right after his father passed, 'he died a hero!' Gabriel would say. 'Seems pretty selfish to me, not very heroic to leave people behind forever for some mission on earth...' he thought then, and those thoughts still rang true with Metatron, but he held his tongue. Jonah knew that he was only trying to comfort him. He actually believed Gabriel had meant it.
Walking back to the barracks through the busy twilight streets of the Central District, the pedestrian chatter filled Jonah's mind but he registered none of it. 'A cause bigger than themselves: restoring peace...' Metatron's words played in his mind 'he died a hero!' Gabriel's words joined the cacophony of Jonah's thoughts. Then he remembered As... 'My father says that falling in combat in the name of God is the most noble thing you can do...' he had told Jonah that a few days after his father died. Barachiel had also told Jonah some approximations of this before... it never made him feel much better. 'Restoring peace... in the name of God..." Jonah wondered if restoring God to life could even bring peace... he had read so many of Metatron's scrolls regarding the seemingly endless wars humans have fought throughout their history, millions of deaths and no signs of stopping, with or without God's intervention.
By the time Jonah had reached the barracks, As was already deeply asleep in the bottom bunk, Jonah silently ascended the bunk's ladder and swiftly fell asleep.