Up close, I could see that the tall, cone buildings didn't appear to made of bricks, like a human building would perhaps be. It was oddly smooth, and it looked almost as if it had been grown from the ground itself.
They were as tall as I had thought when I first saw them, and further away than I had thought I could walk without needing a break to catch my breath. But things were different now - I was different now.
It made me wonder just how big the birds were that I had seen flying in and out of the holes on its surface - something which I soon got the answer to.
The surface of the buildings were covered in huge, gaping holes, several metres across, and at least twice my height. There was nothing particularly interesting within the holes that I could see, just empty space. Though each seemed to be an individual room, built into the side of the buildings. I wondered what possible use they had, though they were the only buildings for what seemed like miles - was this where the angels lived?
As though answering my thoughts, a strong gust of wind suddenly billowed, threatening to knock me over - though naturally, Noah stayed completely upright and unaffected, he barely even noticed. A giant grey shadow accompanied the disturbance, and I ducked in shock at the sheer size of such a thing.
I glanced up in fear, and for a few seconds I saw something magnificent. A giant pair of silvery white wings passed overhead, they were high above us, yet their strength had practically knocked me over. Most stunningly, attached to the giant wings was a girl. Her skin was dark, and it stood out brilliantly against the pale wings. She wore the same white clothes that everyone here seemed to wear, and she appeared tiny against the huge wings. They were at least two metres tall (the silver tips of her wings would drag along the floor if she were to walk with them unfurled) and spanned several metres, and suddenly I understood the reasoning behind such huge holes in the walls.
The girl landed gracefully at the edge of the room, and the wings seemed to disappear within her back.
"Wow." I breathed, suddenly looking at the towers in a much different way. What I had thought were birds, were in fact the angels, flying in and out of their homes. I wondered if there was another entrance to the rooms, if I had been assigned one, how was I meant to get into it if it involved flying?
"Are you okay?" Noah asked, concerned, he reached his hand back down to me (I had dropped it when I ducked). I grabbed it gratefully and allowed him to pull me up to my feet.
Glancing above me at the tall buildings, I took a moment to watch the winged angels swooping in and out of the buildings. There was so many, all fluttering about with ease. The ones taking off seemed to leap out of the rooms, waiting a few seconds before unfurling their wings.
I wondered how it felt, to not be afraid of falling.
"I'm fine." I breathed heavily, trying to absorb the shock of this strange new world. "I just... that's incredible."
Noah frowned as though it was absurd to him, but he had been around angels his whole life - he was one. Wings were nothing new to him. "Does everyone get their own room?" I asked.
He nodded, and gestured to the large building in front of us (the Searchers tower - he was taking me to see his room first, since it was closer) "We made the buildings so that there would be exactly enough rooms for us each to have one. 1,562 rooms in each building."
"So... there are 7,810 angels?" I asked, surprised at how easily the number had come to me. It made me shudder to think how even my intelligence was changing - would my personality change too?
"That's right. So I'm not too sure which room they would put you in." He muttered, "Although your room is G1563, so perhaps they've had one built for you."
I frowned, "Well they must have, right? Angels can't just move out, surely?"
Noah looked uncomfortable at my question. "No... not exactly." Before I could ask for clarification, he spoke again. "It's just through here."
I followed him into the building, through a large archway that was shaped the same as the holes in the walls, only it was the only one on the ground. The base of the tower was pretty large, though the room only contained one thing - a white spiralling staircase that wound up higher than I could see - I couldn't make out where it ended.
"Did you get to choose which room you got?" I asked, running my hand over the smooth handrail of the staircase. The steps were pretty wide, though they were also rather steep. They reminded me of the staircases you might see in a castle, though they hadn't worn away and formed a dip in the centre with age, and they were far cleaner. Though I figured they mustn't get much use considering everyone had wings.
"Not exactly." He explained, "When we were created we formed five lines, it was then that our creator bestowed our gifts onto us - our skills. Each gift was slightly different, that's why the Readers need all of them to make up their council. One can tell if you're lying about possessions, another about opinions. When they're all together, any lie you might tell would be caught instantly. But alone, they are clueless, unless you happen to be unlucky with what you lie about. We were ranked according to the position we stood in in the line. Those closer to the front had a higher rank, with a more useful gift. Our rooms are in that order too, the higher ranks are nearer the top of the tower."
"And the searchers? How are your gifts different?" I asked, eagerly. "What rank are you?"
"I know a searcher with the gift of finding gold. Though she is ranked quite low, gold isn't considered valuable up here. It's hard to say what our gift is, it feels more like coming across something by chance than by following an instinct. We think that Travis can find things that are rare, one of a kind, Jasmine finds things that are purposefully hidden, that don't want to be found, and me, well, we think that I can find things that are associated with danger. That's why we were chosen to look for you, because we thought you fit those descriptions."
I took a deep breath. "You were the first one that found me, in the lake. Does that mean... that I'm still dangerous?"
"No." He shook his head, "Just because you were associated with danger doesn't mean you were dangerous, it was probably more because you were in danger, from us. We just didn't realise it at the time. And it only worked because you were in danger at that moment, it wouldn't work now, now that you aren't in danger - you're safe."
"But if you knew that I was in danger..." They were angels, were they not supposed to help someone in need? "Was that why you stuck around me?"
"It doesn't work like that." he shrugged, leading me up the stairs. I wondered how far up we would go. "We have no idea if we have found something that matches our gift. Like I said, it's just chance. Like me finding you in the lake, I did it without thinking. Although at that time you were also in danger of drowning, so I figured that's how I managed to grab you so quickly."
"Right." I frowned. "Are you still good at finding other things, then? Or just danger?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. We can still find other stuff, but whether that's down to a gift or from trying to find things for so many years, we aren't sure. The readers are good at picking up on lies from reading body language, from doing it so many years. The guardians are good at helping people because they have a lot of practise. The knowers are smart because they devote their life to study, and the Cordials are kind to everyone, their specific gifts are harder to understand, more subtle. It's easy for them to see how they might help someone, they tend to pair with specific personality types in humans."
"Okay... and Acacius? What was his?" It felt like we had been walking a while at this point, far longer than it should take to ascend regular stairs.
"Well, he's a Guardian. They aid the humans that are still alive. I believe he was gifted with something to do with companionship? He was sort of like a cupid, I suppose. A matchmaker. Though not always love, sometimes just friendship. He was good at bringing humans together."
"And so... my mother." I shuddered, "She was lonely?"
"She must have been." He confirmed. "Though don't think too harshly on his methods, like me, it's barely even an instinct. I think perhaps that he and your mother could be soulmates, if such a thing does truly exist. I don't believe he would have gotten so involved if not, his goal was always to help."
Soulmates exist? I blushed, noticing the quick look Noah had given me over his shoulder as he had explained. I hated to jinx anything but... it was odd how what Acacius did had brought myself and Noah together, given his apparent gift.
I tried not to think about it, though they had told me I was allowed to have relations with angels, I wasn't too sure about Noah's stance on it. If he even... liked me in that way.
As we went up the stairs, each floor was contained by a circular wall encasing us, and littered with 5 or 6 doors, leading to each room. Each had a number printed on its exterior, indicating whose room it was. I sensed we were nearing the top, given we had just passed the 1,300th door. Which made me wonder just how high a rank Noah had, although his gift did seem important, so he must be pretty highly ranked.
The more we climbed, the less doors I saw on each floor (I suppose because the building got narrower). "Where will my room be?" I wondered, if my number was higher than the others.
"All the buildings had a store room at the very top, so I'm guessing you'll be in there." He told me. "I'm not sure if you'll be ranked among us though. Ah, this is mine." He stepped off of the staircase, gesturing to a door in front of us labelled S0005.
I stared at the label for a moment, as though in slight disbelief. He was ranked the fifth highest Searcher because of his gift? There were two other doors on this floor, since the building narrowed the higher up we got. We must be pretty high now, though somehow I hadn't tired myself out after the endless stairs.
I had to repress a shudder, it was so foreign to me, the new things that my body was capable of. It was still rather unnerving to find out that you weren't what you thought you were - human.
Noah opened his door (white - like everything there), it opened smoothly, almost as though it had been recently oiled, though I knew it was older than humans themselves.
He held the door open wide for me and gestured for me to enter. I took a hesitant step in, and was a little blown away at the sight of the huge empty wall on the opposite side of the room, even though I had been expecting it.
They looked far larger up close, and it was almost difficult to believe that Noah had wings that were large enough to require such space to fit into.
The room appeared completely empty at first, not one thing littered the floor. Except the room was practically full of things, too many for me to count. Each wall was made up of shelves, each of varying height and depth, and full to the brim with objects. They were practically bursting with the amount of trinkets crammed into them.
Slowly, I walked over to one of the walls, peering into one of the shelf spaces to look at what he had. They seemed to be random objects, and the only things I had seen here that wasn't made of that dazzling white substance. All of the objects had something in common - they were from Earth. I could see a small clamshell, a perfectly preserved daisy, a scrap of heavy looking paper (parchment?), there was a sparkly chunk of what looked like a ruby, even a small jar full of dirt. Anything you could possibly think of, seemed to be here.
"Why do you have these?" I asked, running a gentle finger over the smooth surface of the ruby.
"We can get anything we want up here, if we make it out of the cloudsoil and the mist. But it doesn't quite compare to the things found on Earth, things that are formed completely naturally. They have a certain beauty. All the angels collect them. We think of them as... souvenirs. We bring something back each time we visit Earth." He explained, walking over to join me, to see what I was looking at. "I got that stone when we were searching for a couple of humans who were lost in a cave. The Guardians asked for my help on that one."
"No bed?" I asked, gesturing to the wide, empty space behind us.
He shrugged, a small smile on his face. I froze for a moment looking at him, it was a little cheesy, but I couldn't help the warm feeling that flooded my stomach when I saw him smile. I would have said that he made me knees feel weak, but that wasn't true - they had never felt so strong, so sturdy.
"Angels don't need to sleep, or rest. Our rooms are simply to store possessions, a place of our own." He explained, and walked over to the far wall, the one that gave such an excellent view of all of Heaven.
I followed him cautiously, the drop scared me, but I didn't think that he would let me fall.
It was true, the view up there was breathtaking. The steep drop below me was terrifying, but I tried my best not to think about it. From here, I could see much further out into the distance, longer down the island than had been possible on the ground.
If I strained enough, I could make out a golden glint far in the distance, though I couldn't see any shape to it. Was that the gates of Heaven? I squinted, but I couldn't see the gold again, as hard as I tried. "It doesn't scare you, the drop?"
"No." He frowned, as though he had never even considered it to be a scary thing. I guess he had no reason to - he could fly. "I have never met an angel afraid of falling."
"Figures." I laughed, "Why would an angel be afraid of falling?" I could only see one of the other angel buildings from this view, though there weren't as many angels coming and going from it as there was in the Searcher tower.
"That's the Guardian tower." Noah noticed my gaze. "Where your room will be."
"Right at the top." I sighed, thinking of the long walk down and back up again.
"We can take a short cut if you like." He suggested, moving so that he was stood behind me, his chest about an inch away from my back. I shivered at the close contact.
"Okay." I nodded, wondering how exactly there was a shortcut between the top of the two buildings.
"Do you trust me?" He asked quietly, like he was expecting a negative answer.
"Yes. I trust you." I replied, looking over my shoulder so I could see his face. He was looking down at me, a soft smile rested on his lips at my answer.
He reached down and took my hands in his, so that his left hand was holding my left hand, and his right holding my right.
I was stood so close to the edge at this point that my toes were hanging over the edge, but I felt safe, with Noah's firm grip holding my hands in place, I felt no danger of falling.
"I need you to jump." He told me. I looked back at him in shock, expecting him to be joking, though his expression was completely serious.
"Off the edge?" I asked, trying to compose my hysteria.
"That's right." He nodded, and before I could object, he started doing this thing with his thumb, rubbing gentle circles across my own thumb. It seemed to flood me with warmth, and I turned back to face the drop with a new perspective.
I did trust Noah. I trusted that he wouldn't tell me to jump if he wasn't completely sure that I would be okay, that he would catch me afterwards. Most importantly I was more sure of myself, my body was different now, I had changed. I was capable of things I had never been able to do before.
I could be brave enough to jump off this ledge.
"Okay."
And then I did it. Almost like taking a step into the empty air, I could suddenly feel myself falling, the fresh air blowing my hair out behind me like a fan. And there was Noah, falling with me, his hands still tightly holding mine.
Until he let go.
I wasn't an angel. I couldn't fly. I could only fall.
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