The Wrath Of The Forgotten, page 34
part #4 of The Fallen Angels Series
Brigid, on the other hand, she had only limited knowledge of. She knew that she had once taught her, the young Craft Goddess from the backwaters with aims of becoming a Goddess of Wisdom, she had been an apt and able student. It was funny how things changed, she had become the most powerful Goddess in the world with the possible exception of the Chaos Goddess, who turned out to be the Sariel whose journal she had read.
Definitely not one to have as an enemy.
She did like the fact that many of the Divine had drawn comparisons between Brigid and herself, it was a mark of pride. It also gave her hope that she would get along with the Goddess, though only time would tell.
She was leaning towards seeking clemency with Brigid, to serve her as Hecate and Anubis already did. She greatly respected the decisions and actions Brigid had taken to build her empire. Her gambles had paid off fantastically. Sure Britain had recently been ravaged by war, but she could help with that if she were allowed. She wanted to walk amongst the Atlanteans again, to plunder their Academies and the knowledge within. She wanted to do the same thing to Britain’s museums and libraries.
There was no indication which way it might go.
She had also studied the Dragon Empire. She had only vague memories of Izanami before she ‘died’ but she was another she had great respect for, though she felt she was more likely to serve Hera than Izanami. She at least knew what to expect from Hera, she had come up with very little about Izanami. She was an elusive figure in mythology and real life.
Her eyes were drawn to the plumes of smoke now visible in the Egyptian region. What on earth had they done now?
The codex would tell her.
She resisted the urge to run straight to it. She would only overdose herself again. She needed time to digest and absorb the new knowledge she was still processing. Perhaps a walk through the gardens would soothe her.
Sariel stared into the depths of the magma sure that she saw shapes. Something, or many things, was moving within the molten currents. What could possibly exist down here within the superheated liquid interior of the world?
“Something troubling you, Sariel?”
“I am not sure, I think my eyes may be playing tricks on me. I swear I keep saying shapes in the magma.”
Hecate was on her feet in a flash. “Where?”
“It is probably nothing, nothing could survive down here.”
“Don’t be so sure. We thought nothing could flourish within the lower regions of Tartarus, and we were very wrong about that. Who is to say that there aren’t things living down here? We have no understanding of what could be able to survive within the interior. No one else on record has descended this far.”
“Then how did you know that we could get to Gaia’s core?”
“I didn’t.”
Sariel stared at her “you cannot be serious.”
Hecate ignored her “I think you are right, there is something out there.”
Her attention was drawn instantly back to the magma. “Any idea what?”
She shook her head, but they did not have to wait long to find out.
A Dragon swam past them. It seemed to be composed of the magma itself, yet they could tell where it ended and began. It was strongly reminiscent of the Primordial Dragon though more serpentine in body.
“That looked a great deal like the Primordial Dragons.” Hecate studied the little that they could see within the magma.
“I can assure you that I did not make these ones.”
A sense of amusement flooded their minds. The Dragon was connecting with them.
“Are you able to communicate with us?” Sariel asked. The head neared their bubble, the Dragon could swallow them whole if it desired.
A sense of sadness filled their consciousnesses.
“I guess not.”
“It may be from a time before communication was even possible. Remember the Tartarian Primordials could only communicate with each other but we had no understanding of their roars and shrieks, just as they had no understanding of our words.”
It might not have words for her, but she felt sure that she could still communicate. She threw out a line to connect to its mind. She felt it slide right through the Dragon. Amusement flowed across her. Well then, that was not an option.
Somehow she could tell that its mouth, did it even have a mouth? Curved into a smile, or perhaps she perceived that from its amusement. As it did so the Lifestream around them flared a brighter green, but just one stream that was leading deeper into the interior.
She glanced back to thank it, but the Dragon was gone. Thank you. She called out into the bright emptiness unsure if it could even hear or comprehend her.
A flash of joy told her that on some level it had grasped her intention.
Hecate looked at her with new respect “is there anything you can’t do?”
“What do you mean?”
She only laughed “never mind. I guess our path is clear now thanks to the Dragon.”
Sariel looked at the brighter stream “it would seem so, let us see if we can speed this along a bit.”
The shield flared with brown tinges, the magma and Lifestream resonated with green flashes, and they started to move faster. If it was in the right direction they could only guess, they hoped that the Dragon had been benevolent. If it wasn’t, they were screwed.
Chapter 51
Ariel glared up into the stormy skies that continued to empty their seemingly never-ending deluge of water. It had been over a fortnight since these storms had come. The Angels with any gift in weather were busy dismantling Hera’s hurricanes, yet when they tore apart and gentled one there were two more behind it. Even with the gentling of the storms there was still a great deal of rain coming down.
The Mississippi had broken its banks in many places, as had its many tributaries. Sandbagging and solar spells were being used across the USCA to stem the flooding.
“You have to give her credit for her ingenuity. There are few Gods who would use the forces of nature to help them win the war. She is starting to understand the effect morale has on fighters.”
Ariel flicked her eyes at her cousin in distaste “You sound like you admire her.”
“I do in a way. I appreciate her adaptively and recognise the danger she poses.”
“Such words would be best not mentioned near our detractors, they would use you relationship with her against you.”
Gabriel laughed, loud and cruel-edged. “My relationship with her? My only relationship with Hera is on the battlefield.”
“She is your grandmother.”
“And Isis is our great-grandmother. The blood of Osiris and Horus runs through our veins, and the blood of Zeus runs through mine. How do you think we became so powerful? More God blood runs in our veins than Angel. The gifts I have are the direct result of the blending of Hera and Isis’ bloodlines. I am that pantheon hybrid the Gods long talked about but never dared to complete. I represent the next step in Divine evolution. Besides everything Hera does shows me what I am capable of.” She raised a hand, sunlight flooded upwards. It burned a hole through the clouds, and real sunlight poured down.
“It will not last long, but there are other things we can do to attack her empire.”
“We have no strength in weather or earth Gabriel.”
“No we do not, but we have other talents.”
“Like what?”
Gabriel tutted “what did we do to the Egyptian Gods when they threatened out people.
A slow smile grew across Ariel’s lips “the plagues.”
She nodded “exactly, the plagues. Now some of them are not so useful, no one is scared of eclipses anymore, but some of them will prove most useful.”
“A plague of blood would terrify them.”
“Perhaps or perhaps not if the reports from Utah are anything to go by. Never mind the mounds of dead traitors in Central Park, besides all that blood will come down the Mississippi.”
“Oh, it will too.” She paused to think “we cannot count on Abaddon to cull the firstborns and frogs aren’t really going to worry anyone. Locusts! We need locusts.”
Gabriel slung an arm around her cousin “indeed we do Ariel. Think, if they savage up through the Great Plains and swing back towards the coast then America’s breadbasket will be stripped clean. It won’t matter that Hera’s lands are richer and more fertile than we can hope to make ours. What use are empty lands?”
“When do we start?”
“Now, dear cousin” violet bloomed around Gabriel’s hand as she waited for Ariel to give her power, she did so with a savage smile.
Pink and violet magic flared out across the northern parts of Texas, it rippled through the ground and in its wake the ground started to shift. Billions of locusts were crawling their way out of the ground, yet these were not the young hoppers, these were the fully mature adults, and they took to the wing as the wind blew them northwards across the border into the Heradmantium Empire with its lush, fertile lands.
Even after the two Angels had left, the ground still continued to shift and jiggle as billions more locusts continued to pour out of the ground. They meant to starve the empire.
Power flared within the ripples of green. Why could she see green? Everything was black.
She wasn’t seeing she realised, she was sensing it with her magic. When had her magic returned to her?
It shifted beyond her control and Inanna was drawn back down into Simugh’s hellish memories.
Lucifer roared into the maelstrom, loud enough to eclipse its sound if only temporarily. Flames bathed his form as darkness danced under his pale skin. It was moments like this he couldn’t tell if he missed his olive skin or not, but he was loving his black wings. His mismatched hair suited him he had decided, it was a mark of individuality. No other God or Angel had gold tossed black hair, his wings while special he vaguely remembered seeing other Gods with black and gold wings. It did not matter, they were his, and he would show the world what they meant.
His pride was growing again.
He had been broken down, stripped bare of his vanity but he had realised that not all of it was bad. He had to accept all of himself if he was ever going to hope to be what he had been before the Fall.
It was just as Sariel had tried to tell him and Hypnos and Erebus continued to emphasise. He had a great deal of potential, more so than he had originally had. He was no longer an Angel, he had become a God within his Curse. Gabriel didn’t realise it, but she had given access to so much power.
He could feel it now lurking within his depths like a dog that had been hit too many times. In a way he supposed it was true, he had spurned this magic so many times since he had regained lucidity. Was it any wonder it hid from him? Now he could see the merit of it, it was incredibly powerful, it would lend great strength to his other powers and would empower him to new heights.
He just had to embrace it.
He wasn’t ready for that step yet.
There would be no going back once he opened those floodgates and he was aware that changes would occur to him. To accept the magic was to accept the faith that came with it and faith could reshape Gods and Angels. If only he weren't trapped in Hell, he could read up about Satan and determine whether the risk was worth it. The problem was, though, he had paid very little attention to the Human perception of Satan. He knew that there were a few others that shared that mantle, he was not the sole wielder of this magic. His own Mentor had the same burden to bear. Unfortunately, he couldn’t ask Samael how he bore it. It was a pity, Samael always had profound insights into magic, and life in general now he thought about it.
He missed Samael.
Damn Sariel and her curse. Damn his sister and her curse. What was it with the women in his life that caused them to curse him so?
He supposed that wasn’t fair, Sariel hadn’t really cursed him. She had been angry at him, and in hindsight, he could see why. She loved him. She kept trying to reach out to him in different ways with a complete lack of skill. It had made no sense to him, she was the daughter of Samael and Lilith, she should be well skilled in the arts of seduction. It had taken him a long while to remember that she had grown up under Michael’s care.
His service to Aphrodite had changed him. He had been a young and reckless soldier, willing to try most things as he had. They had been firm friends for centuries, but that had started to fall apart as Michael fell into the depths of despair under Aphrodite. She had been a twisted Goddess adept at breaking aspects of her servants. She certainly had with Michael.
Michael had enjoyed the company of female Angels and Goddesses, and had had no problem with being invited to their bed but even from an early age, he had shown an aversion to any male advances. Not uncommon but unusual in the sensuality of Heaven. Aphrodite had taken that one dislike and honed it into hatred as she forced him into being raped again and again. She had paid the price for it, Michael had torn her apart with a savagery that many of the Gods had not seen before.
It had also caused a transformation within him. He became ultra-conservative, he adopted the strange notion that some Angels believed that sex outside of marriage was sinful. Lucifer found the idea laughable but then he had never been raped so who was he to judge?
He should have intervened earlier but like so many things he had been concerned with his own advancement. He had left behind his one friend, though in his stead he had become the Protégé of Michael’s father. Samael was such a wise one, troubled and angry but brilliant.
By the time he came back to check on Michael the transformation was complete, and he belonged to Gabriel. He always wondered how Gabriel had managed it, she had been far more self-centred that he had ever been and far more aggressive in her rank climbing. She had been the golden child of Heaven, the next demigod anticipated to Ascend. It wasn’t a question of if but when.
Somehow she had formed a partnership with Michael and then even stranger, she had married him. He had given his blessing, after all, what else could he do. It’s not like it would stop it if he hadn’t. Gabriel and Michael were their own beings, and he controlled neither of them.
The distance between them had only grown, both of them had twisted into something new. They hungered for power, or more to the point Gabriel did and Michael supported her in everything she did. She had become his everything.
He had fought alongside them in the War of Heaven, and he knew what they could do. Michael had always been a skilled warrior and during the War be became a brilliant general. Gabriel had always been a highly skilled magic wielder, she showed just how brilliant she was and became and Arch Angel. He and Michael would follow, but she had been the first from the younger ranks to gain that title. It was no wonder, she was brilliant.
He wondered if in a different world where they had been close siblings if he would feel great pride for her achievements.
Now it was too late, she had cast him out of Heaven and transformed him into a horrible beast. He had spent over a millennium trapped within madness while contained within Hell. Now that the Curse had been broken there were ramifications Gabriel had not been aware of. She surely could not have been aware of how powerful its citizens would become or that the ruler of Hell would gain not just their faith but mortals too.
She had made a mistake. A rare thing.
It made him smile as the sounds of the maelstrom thundered back in. He was going to use this mistake against her in every conceivable way. He was going to help bring her down, and she would pay for what she had done to him.
He roared again into the maelstrom, giving himself into his anger and frustration, letting his magic feed on his emotions. Hell rumbled in response.
Its master was finally starting to take control.
“It never changes much does it? And yet it is ever changing.” Hecate looked at the swirls of magma beyond their shields. She studied the filaments of the Lifestream and the various rivers and threads that made it up as it continually split and joined.
“We have been given a rare glimpse of what lies beneath. The heart of the Lifestream so to say, though we are nowhere near the heart yet.”
“How can you tell?”
“I can’t, it's just a feeling I have. I think we are still a great distance away from Gaia’s core. I think that the closer we get, the more we will truly understand just how powerful Gaia is.”
“I remember when she walked the earth, even then she had been terrifying in her power. Some of the Gods were such fools to think they could command her, yet she was so detached from it all. She must have been suppressing her powers.”
“Or perhaps just touching a small amount.”
“Either way, it is indicative of just how powerful she is.”
“Why are you surprised? She is the planet, does it not make sense that she should have power the equivalence of everything within it combined.”
“You know Sariel, you see things with such clarity.” She turned back to look at the Lifestream, how had she never applied such logic. Why had she never seen what was so clear to see before now?
Chapter 52
Nyx looked up as Thanatos, Samael and Azrael walked into the room. The family resemblance between them was striking. Same pale skin, black hair and violet eyes. They had similar builds though both Azrael and Samael were more muscular than their father’s slimmer form. Samael was the sexualised version of the three, he exuded sexual desire in a way that neither his father nor brother had ever managed, or wanted to.
None of them looked happy to have been summoned. Samael and Azrael at least were busy, so had reason to be annoyed. Thanatos had no distractions, but he was often grumpy.
Their expressions smoothed when Hypnos walked in with Brigid and Lilith.
“What is going on mother? Why have you summoned us?”
She placed a hand against her chest “it was not I who summoned you. Follow me.”
