The Sloth of Heaven, page 39
part #2 of The Fallen Angels Series
He was silently thankful when the clouds let pour their vast bounty of rain, racing along the streets and flooding into the river. Carefully guided with his magic the water rushed along the empty riverbed, built over in many places due to the eternal lack of rain. Buildings were knocked down, but any inhabitants were safely lifted out of the raging waters. It surged into the scar marks of the barrier, sweeping away the remaining embers, and surging along the cuts until it gushed out into the sea.
The molten metal and rock flying about in circles descended towards the now mighty river, greater than it had ever been before. Blocks aligned over the river as the molten metal flowed in between. His magic raced along in a bright blaze of orange, sealing the blocks together and crafting the molten metal into extravagant designs. As the metal sung out in musical peels, bitumen flowed across the bridge, connecting it with the roads on either side of the border.
And so the border was removed between the two states now belonging to the Heradmantium Empire and the cities of San Diego and Tijuana were ceremoniously connected as never before. Several bridges bloomed along the river which continued to thunder along with magical intensity, stripping away decades of neglect that had clogged up its dried bed. A soft and gentle rain fell down across the combined cities as even more magical constructs appeared helping to reforge the two cities as one. Across the bridges already flowed Gorgons and Minotaurs intent on bringing San Diego to heel.
When he stepped back down from the observation deck, Kyle saw approval in Catherine’s face as she nodded and wary respect in many of the Gorgons. He had made his mark, now he would have to live with it.
“You have done well Arch-Sorcerer, it is likely we will have need of your skills before you move onto New Orleans.
He nodded wearily, he had burned through a lot of power and it would take him some time to recover before he could transport himself to New Orleans to act as defender.
Chapter 26
Brigid honed in on the imperious and continual summons at the edge of her territory. Who thought they could summon her and that she would drop everything to answer? She was bloody busy. She was busy nurturing the Lifestream in the British Isles and the provinces of Australia, Canada and South Africa, all slow and time-consuming processes. She also had a brewing civil war to contend with in India as well as the bloody civil war already raging in Pakistan. She had to keep an eye on Hecate and Samael to ensure that their activities suited her. Hecate she had very little to worry about, Samael she had a lot to worry about. While he had quickly and efficiently annexed South Africa, it had come at a high cost. Three hundred thousand people, with no distinction between them. He had reaped Daemons along with Humans.
She also had to occasionally check in on Sariel, Victoria and James to ensure that they were all safe and content. It made her feel like a mother. Sariel was still having trouble comprehending the world of the Gods, a world she now belonged to. She had to look out for her Protégé. Whatever had her brother and Gabriel done to keep her so naïve? Victoria thankfully was wearing her power and duties like a second skin, but then she had access to a lot of help. Cathair was standing steadfastly by her and giving her all the personal support she needed while he organised conquest. James while slightly older than Victoria wasn’t so at ease with power as she was. She had been raised to be a queen while he had been plucked from obscurity and made the First Sorcerer of the Empire and Sorcerer-General of the Royal Province of Australia. He was not used to all the responsibilities and duties of running a country. Especially with Australia and New Zealand being joined into the Royal Province of Australia, he was backlogged with all sorts of issues.
While the governments were not being particularly helpful to him, he did at least have Atlantean and Daemon advisors to help him. Even some of the Humans were starting to prove useful to him. He was struggling but she saw great things ahead of him. He just needed help in the meantime.
Then there was India. She had to keep touching base with Anjali, who still had a chip on her shoulder. If it continued, she would need to be replaced. Which would be a pity because she was the most powerful Naga and she had a practical cunning suitable to be a future Sorcerer-General.
Then there was the approaching Purge, of which she was layering the spells at every chance she could get. Unfortunately, it required vast amounts of power that left her exhausted. She was putting her Divine body through a lot of strain even for one composed entirely of magic. She also had to remedy the weather issues in Canada caused by Hera’s unnatural storms across her empire. There was also the impending invasion of Singapore marking the first real territorial conquest for the empire.
And someone thought they could just stand there and keep summoning her? By the time she materialised in Calais she was extremely irritable and she made it known by appearing in a blaze of fire.
A God she did not recognise stood at the water’s edge staring across the English Channel; at the white chalk cliffs of Dover, once again returned to their natural beauty by her. The toxic sludge that had dominated the Channel for years had scoured and blackened the chalk into the disgusting colour of diarrhoea. The ferry between the two countries had nearly ceased because of the chemical hazards.
But the return of the Channel to full health with regular, clean sea water and the sudden deluge of people trying to cross the Channel had made it essential for the ferries to be running again. The port streets of Calais were clogged with Daemon upon Daemon of all varieties eager to reach Great Britain. After Victoria’s coronation and the announcement of the impending Purge safe passage had been offered to all Angelic Worshippers wishing to leave. There had also been safe passage offered to all Daemons seeking a new life in Great Britain and the Seelie Court.
There were large numbers of Humans leaving the port assisted by French Authorities. The relationship between France and Great Britain had continued to worsen following Victoria’s coronation. The Western World had condemned her and Britain’s actions and the intended Purge. But with the collapse of America into civil war, there was not the usual busy body to interfere with international affairs. Britain’s sudden health, wealth and advanced technology paired with its population more than doubling had made the European powers impotent. They denounced Britain but took no further action, for it had suddenly become a super power. They offered asylum to any Christians, Jews or Muslims fleeing persecution in Britain and pumped them for information.
France was in a particularly difficult position because Calais was the closest city to Britain. Whole hordes of Daemons had descended on the city seeking to cross the Channel. The ferries and Channel Tunnel were running at full capacity around the clock to deal with the sheer numbers of people. Daemons all over Europe and even beyond were desperate to get into the British Isles before the Angels returned. They sought the safety of herself and the Seelie Court.
But not every Daemon was happy with how things were run in the British Isles. On the Isles of Avalon, the Seelie Court had always ruled the magical world and always would. She gave her full support to Sorcha’s rule and actions. But many of the Daemon races were not used to being directly ruled or expected to follow certain rules. Already a large number of Daemons had been executed for breaching the laws of the Seelie Court. For many Humans, this was a comfort because they had been executed for killing Humans for sport. The initial rising tensions had been soothed by the hard-line approach. Humans were beginning to appreciate that they had truly been offered equal footing alongside the Fae.
The Fae and Atlantean presence in Calais were very strong, brought in under special permission from the French Authorities to deal with the sheer number of Daemons. France would deny it to the other European powers, but it was glad for their presence. The police and officials who usually dealt with passengers and asylum seekers were ill-equipped to deal with Daemons and most were terrified. The Fae, Atlanteans and whatever Daemons and Humans had come with them from Britain had set up shop to process and warn the Daemons seeking British soil. All supernatural activity in Britain was under the control of the Seelie Court, those who broke ranks or defied the Queen’s will were dead. And yet still people thought they were a law unto themselves. They didn’t comprehend just how organised and far-reaching the Fae’s presence was.
Once across the Channel there was a much larger processing station where all the Daemons were shipped off to different barracks. It was the initiative of the new prime minister that all asylum seekers would serve Britain to get their citizenship. Sorcha and Victoria had agreed immediately.
But Calais and the processing stations had no idea how to deal with a God. And not knowing who he was did not put her in the best position to deal with him. But she studied him and thought she could draw a possible conclusion. He was very pale skinned, with wavy black hair at a shaggy length, one pair of jet black wings that reflected no light. His violet eyes were filled with pain despite his magical mask and efforts to hide it. She had always been gifted at sensing people’s pain, Divine or mortal, it had made many Gods uncomfortable around her. It was why she could integrate so well into mortal affairs.
Her initial anger cooled to irritation, especially when she felt his spike of unease. Any of the Gods that remembered her would remember a young Mother Earth Goddess more interested in her people and land than the politics of Heaven. She hadn’t been weak but she hadn’t come close to the powers that Hera or Isis had wielded. She had been born of average strength and increased it throughout her life. But now she was more powerful than anyone else in the world. Her rapid conversion of Britain and the subsequent annexation of Ireland, Canada, Australia and South Africa along with the religious disputes in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia paired with Fae worship had shot her powers up to dizzying new heights. She had always felt the difference between herself and Hera but now she was the more powerful one.
She was far more powerful than this God. His powers were entirely his own, not supplemented by faith, but they were old. He was an old God from an old line, the son of a Primordial she sensed. And if he was who she thought he was then her intuition was correct. Death was a powerful force in the world and those who wielded it were never weak. The Gods and Angels who had the gift of Death were always among the naturally most powerful. One only had to look at the family he had produced.
“Thanatos,” she said coolly. If he was surprised that she knew who he was, he gave no signs.
“Brigid” he replied solemnly. She got the impression that he was always solemn. Death Gods usually were, it seemed to be a by-product of the fear mortals and even other Divine treated them with.
She waited for him to speak, he was the one that had summoned her. She let her attention focus on the ferry leaving Calais, little magical fireworks and flashes showed that someone with magic was delighted to be approaching Britain. She wondered just how many people had left Britain and how many had entered. She would have to ask Victoria. Humans always had such numbers, their governments loved statistics.
“I want to see my granddaughter.” He finally spoke drawing her attention back to him. So that was his source of pain, his guilt. There it was a vast void of guilt over the family betrayal. Though honestly, she and any other Divine would have done the same.
Except Sariel.
Such innocence in a Divine was unheard of, it was also difficult to navigate around. She had the strangest notions about things. Her family had certainly used her but they had hardly betrayed her. They had trained her and prepared her. If she hadn’t been so naïve, she would have seen what they were doing from the start. And when it came to the breaking of Hell’s Curse, any and all actions were acceptable. No price was too high to pay.
“And who might that be?”
“Don’t test me, Brigid, I know you have Sariel.” He snapped.
She raised an eyebrow and in a cold, calm, female voice she replied “Or what? What will you do to me Thanatos? We both know I am far more powerful than you and remember your granddaughter is my guest, it is unwise to threaten me while she is still in the equation.”
His shoulders stooped before he squared them and met her gaze with his slightly unnerving black-violet gaze. There was something dark within his eyes, something that flickered through the violet. “You would not harm Sariel. She is too valuable to you.”
“Every price can be met” she paused “but no I wouldn’t hurt Sariel.”
“I want to see her.”
“And she doesn’t wish to see her relatives. She has made that quite clear. You should speak to Hecate, she would be able to tell you all about Sariel’s avoidance. But I can pass on your wish to see her.”
He nodded.
“For a price.”
He glared, but it was the done thing “of course. What do you want?”
“Knowledge. I want access to your knowledge about death.”
He hesitated to say yes. They both knew that he had vast amounts of knowledge about death. There were none who knew it better, except perhaps Gaia, it was why he alone wore the title of Death. He had learned from and aided the transformation of the Maidens of Death into the rivers that bore their names; Acheron, Styx, Lethe, Cocytus, as well as Styx’s lover Phlegethon, who had been the Primordial God of death and fire. The five of them had represented Death’s various connections to the world of life. It was he who had helped ease their return to the Lifestream and in doing so created the five rivers that flowed through the Underworld. There were other smaller rivers he had helped create also.
He knew so very much and that knowledge was dangerous in the wrong hands, but he needed to see Sariel, to explain, to pacify. He needed his guilt eased, he wanted his granddaughter back “Fine.”
She held out her hand and shook his in the Human manner. Finishing off with a nod. She really had been among mortals too long.
The island was a beacon of life. It was overflowing with it. Lilith could feel it resonating within her, feel it flowing out of the island’s rocks and into the surrounding ocean. There she knew it was mixing with the flow of Brigid’s powers to bring a vibrancy to the ocean that had not been seen in nearly a hundred years. She had read the articles and history about it. The Atlantic Ocean, along with the others had been empty of all complex life after the ever rising toxicity killed them off. Cetaceans, sharks, cephalopods, seals and large fish had all become such rare sights that it was assumed they were extinct. The fishing industry globally, along with the whaling and sealing industries had collapsed along with the ecosystems they were so dependent on.
And yet she had seen on the news pictures of whales, fish shoals and seals appearing around the British Isles and Iceland. Both countries were now exporting fish, earning a killing on the global market for a delicacy that had become rarer and rarer. The only fish on the global market came from Japan’s aquarium laboratories, but the success rate was very low.
Lilith glanced at the potted plants all around the terminal, all of them in a blooming frenzy. Leaves and flowers seemingly dripped off the plants, such was the intensity of the Lifestream encircling Iceland. Even the people looked extraordinarily healthy, there was a shine to their hair that nearly rivalled those of Divine blood, their skin was flawless and they all walked and worked with an easy energy. Laughter pealed through the air as kids played their games and adults indulged in being carefree.
There was a vibrancy that had relaxed people. The hard days were over.
There was, however, a small sense of unease from people, and looking at the news reports flashing along the walls she could understand why. Yet again there had been Dragon sightings. Only ever two, and always the same two. The sightings had begun before the island had started healing, so many were calling them lucky or nature spirits. Considering the revelations that occurred during Victoria’s coronation people were far more accepting of the supernatural. Well, more accepting of its existence if not its proximity. Few doubted that they were actually Dragons.
In the current state of affairs, it would have been ridiculous not to. A sea serpent had appeared in Copenhagen. Great Britain was abuzz in Fae and Daemon races. The USA was burning amid the rising power of Hera and her Army of Nightmares. The dead were walking in the Middle East. There were Demons spotted all over Israel and Jordan while in China and Japan an Empress and Emperor had been crowned and the clock had been turned back for them. Old institutions were falling before the rising power of magic. Gods and Angels were walking about in the streets of some places. She did not hide what she was in Amsterdam, but now she had put on a glamour and magically suppressed her wings. An unpleasant and slightly painful action.
Lilith didn’t want an incident or to be recognised while she was here. She just wanted to find out the source of her connection. Sariel and Michael were vague notions in her mind, she knew they were alive but nothing else. She could feel Naamah far, far away, Agrat was much closer and she could feel changes occurring to Eisheth. She wondered if she knew she was pregnant. But there were three other connections she did not understand. What family did she have left? One was incredibly faint, it barely registered. The other was being suppressed so it was also weak. But the third was a strong signal, whoever it was wanted her to find them. Which was why she was here in Iceland instead of Amsterdam.
The Lilin and Sirens could handle things for a while, civil war wasn’t likely to break out in the short time she would be here. At least she hoped not, but it did seem unlikely even with the unease and sweeping changes affecting the country.
They had shown their face to the world, which mostly hadn’t really noticed. It was Victoria’s coronation that had truly shocked the world. Everything since then just confirmed what was already known. But in the Netherlands, it had caused all sorts of unease. The fact that Daemons made up the majority of Amsterdam’s population had not gone down well. There had been an influx of Humans to try and counteract it. She had taken control of the city in no uncertain terms. The city was hers and if not it would be returned to the half-drowned waste it had been before. Its prosperity was because of her, the Lilin and Sirens.
