The Sloth of Heaven, page 48
part #2 of The Fallen Angels Series
“We won because we had a cause to fight for, whereas the Gods stood divided and saw it as an idle amusement. It was only when their own pantheons were crushed they realised their foolishness.”
“Cause, what bloody cause? You sought power plain and simple!”
“Perhaps, but think of Aphrodite. Remember what she subjected her servants to and remember the brutality in which they killed her. Michael tore her apart and all the others were right behind him. They tore her to shreds and kept tearing. They tore apart her very spirit and drank it up. The sheer brutality of it shocked all sides and made them wonder just what some Angels had endured.”
“We did not come here to argue the past. What has been done is done. The Angels won and the Gods lost, but the War has restarted again with different lines. Come let us sit like civilised people” Brigid swept her arms wide and an ornate table with chairs appeared. She sat down at the head of the table.
Thanatos glared at her, Samael didn’t dare but Lilith had no problems asking “And what are you doing here? You are not family, you are no relative of Samael’s and you are not one of my sisters.” At least she hoped she wasn’t, she had thought having three sisters was more than enough until she discovered that Inanna and Ereshkigal were also her sisters. She really didn’t want to discover any more.
Brigid met her look levelly “Sariel is my Protégé.”
That surprised most of them. Sariel glanced around, she was only half aware of what it meant. She had heard the term used, and she knew that Brigid was her Mentor and had taken charge of her training. She was her guardian and had a say in her life but she wasn’t fully aware of all it entailed.
“The most powerful Goddess in the world has taken on an Angel as her Protégé? What the Hell are you trying to do? As if the War wasn’t complicated enough.”
“Sariel came to me seeking protection and I willingly offered it. I care little for Angels, it was your kind that imprisoned me and changed me through their damned manipulation of faith but Sariel should not be judged on the actions of her kind or even her parents. Sariel is innocent of your and Samael’s sins, why should she pay the price? She is an extremely gifted, young and only recently Ascended Goddess. She is ignorant of much of the world because of her brother and has very little understanding of the ways of the Divine. She is an innocent in a very dangerous game she does not fully comprehend, she needs time and protection to come into her own.” She smiled at Sariel, who had sat down next to her, Tiamat’s head had settled on the ground on her other side, giving her a feeling of protection.
“As for the War, Lilith, you are correct it is complicated and it is only going to get worse. The Gods are few, the Angels many but divided. Heaven was divided into three factions before the Peacemakers and Fencesitters were cast out of Heaven and Cursed. They will want revenge, but that does not necessarily mean that they will work together or want to work with the Gods. You and Samael both once understood the need to reconcile with the Gods, but that may have changed and the Gods may no longer want to reconcile. Add to the mix the Fae, the Nymphs, the Naga and the other Divine Races standing with the Gods who have their own scores to settle with the Angels. I also doubt that many of the Gods will work together, we have ever been selfish creatures.”
“I believe that any cast into Hell or Purgatory will rise up against Heaven but you are correct I doubt many will work together. Even within the same factions there are lingering resentments.” Lilith gave a very pointed glare at Samael.
“Are you still going on about that? For Heaven’s sake, it was millennia ago.”
“You slept with all of my sisters! And you even got them pregnant.”
“You had left me and besides it’s not like any of the offspring were Angels, they were all Daemonic bastards. If I remember correctly, it was something you loved to flaunt at your sisters, that you had managed to bear a full-blooded Angel with me, and having done it twice I imagine it is something you will flaunt again. You cannot blame me for getting caught up in your vicious sibling rivalry.”
“I never slept with your brother, there are some lines that are not meant to be crossed.”
“Really I thought you loved to dance your way right over those lines. And the only reason you didn’t is because he is far more loyal than your sisters and because he unnerves you.”
“Like you can talk, you’ve crossed every line that God or Angel could think of. You slept your way through more than half of Heaven in order to get the duties you wanted. Heck, you birthed the Incubi with the sheer number of mortals you fucked.”
“Don’t be such a hypocrite Lilith. You did the same God damned thing, that’s what drew you to me, we are two of a kind. I may have fathered the Incubi but you mothered most of the Succubi, after all, they call themselves the Lilin after you. You are their origin, the original Succubus, who left Adam only to return and seduce his sons.”
“You seduced his wife.”
“Because he spurned you, he had to pay for the insult.”
“I am perfectly capable of extracting my own revenge. I didn’t need your help.”
“But you liked the fact I did it. You loved the fact that Eve had been seduced away from the Council’s plans and that she bore bastard Lilin. Just as you and your sisters bore Adam, Seth, Cain and Abel’s Lilin bastards.”
“Fine, I did. I was touched, Heaven knows why. You were mounting just another woman.”
“Just like you were riding other men. Because you know I did it for you. Because I broke the Council’s plans, plans we had helped shaped to get back at Adam’s treatment of you.” He sighed deeply, his shoulders and wings sagging “face it, Lilith, we have ever done the same as each other. For all the hurt we can’t help but return to each other and help each other.”
She shook her head gently “Heaven knows why?” but she didn’t disagree or argue.
Sariel glanced at the others in concern, she hadn’t realised there was such resentment between her parents. There went her visions of a happy family unit.
Nyx chuckled at Sariel’s shocked concern “Don’t worry my dear they have always been like this. We have come to the conclusion that this is their foreplay.”
“What is foreplay?”
There was a chuckle before her mother answered, “All those delicious things that lead up to sex.”
Sariel didn’t understand “As in like hugging and kissing?”
She was not prepared for the shocked looked from her mother “Oh dear Heaven, you are a virgin!”
“Yes” why was that so surprising? One was meant to be married before sex.
She looked around the table apprehensively unsure what to make of her family’s stunned faces. Her parents looked absolutely appalled, she felt sure they wouldn’t have even blinked an eye if she had stripped naked and danced on the table. Nyx and Hecate looked at each other in concern, Thanatos was looking at her as though she was some strange new specimen. Brigid looked at her with what could only be recognised as pity and even the two Dragons had turned to stare at her in surprise.
“What?”
Her parents leant in close together, completely unaware of their proximity to each other as they stared at her. “You mean to say you have never had sex at all?”
She shook her head.
“Gaia save us all. What in the name of Hell are they doing up in Heaven? A virgin Divine! Whoever heard of such a thing?” her father was completely appalled “What the Hell have Michael and Gabriel done? The Divine are promiscuous by nature, imagine depriving you of sex all your life.” He paused as he calculated how old she was, his face grew even more outraged “Heaven forbid that is nearly two thousand years without sex!”
All the Divine shifted uncomfortably around the table, their eyes meeting each other’s but not hers.
“It surely can’t be that big of a deal?”
It was her mother who answered “but it is. As Divine beings, we represent all aspects of mortals, specifically Humanity. In many ways, we are more animalistic and driven by baser needs than they are. We are different and yet similar, more primal. Even as far back as the Primordial Gods and earliest spirits, there was the need to bond, to connect, to reproduce. As they developed bodies and mimicked life it became hardwired into our very essence. Life is driven to reproduce, to create and while we don’t often feel the need to reproduce the need to have sex is far greater in us than in mortals. It is how the Angels came to be more populous than the Gods. Most of us don’t even remember our first time, we’ve been having sex nearly our entire lives. In many instances, it is a mark of friendship, a way to ease boredom or to advance through the ranks and stand out.
Your father and I both spent years experimenting and sleeping with a variety of races to get the skills we have. Sex was often a currency in Heaven.”
“That sounds awful. What about things like love? Sex is meant to be special.” Lilith glanced around the table before she answered “It can be. Sex with certain people can be better than you could even imagine” she flicked a glance at Samael, who was smiling at her “but you have to remember that sex evolved a long time before love did. Love is a rare thing in the animal kingdom, monogamy is not advantageous so to speak. Promiscuity is highly advantageous, it forms connections between the parents. Mixed offspring can help form connections between pantheons and in many instances has helped birth new species. Your father and I appear to have started the Lilin, along with my sisters, Zeus is considered the father of the Angels and Inanna the mother, Avalon birthed the Fae, and Kadru birthed the Naga.”
Hecate continued “It also mixes power around. Look at yourself, your parents are the by-products of flings, so are you and Michael. Most of the Angels are. The Divine do no easily conceive, but those that are not monogamous often have more offspring because their chances of conceiving go up because they are exposing a variety of different pairings, and if one is right, it will form new life.”
“Among the Divine, sex is as natural as breathing, well except for the Gods, sex is more natural for us. Our unions achieve great things, new life or combining of magic and when magic combines strange new things happen. A great many things can be the by-product of flaring magical energies during sexual encounters. But let us leave this for now and return to more pressing topics.” Nyx smiled at Sariel, who was looking highly overwhelmed and put out.
“But she is a virgin” both Samael and Lilith exclaimed, they shared a brief, rare smile at each other.
Sariel leapt on Nyx’s lead “Everyone always told me you were blonde and their descriptions differ a great deal.”
Lilith looked a little startled “this is my Demonised form and considering that I am a far cry from the Angel I used to be, I have kept it as a mark of my endurance. But I can show you what I used to look like.” Her image shimmered, dark brown hair gave way to a shower of blonde curls, her pale skin darkened and her red eyes turned into warm liquid amber that seemed to reflect even the smallest glimmer of light. Her body shifted as well, becoming less curvaceous and more petite. It was then that Sariel saw a great deal of herself just with different colourings. Her mother was beautiful in every sense of the Angels’ definition. Even her white and gold wings were far more gold than white, a rare occurrence.
“You are beautiful.”
Her mother smiled “Yes I am, as are you, Sariel. You may have your father’s colouring but your looks are a reflection of mine.” She walked around to lean down next to Sariel, summoning up a mirror before them.
They looked at each other in the mirror and Sariel finally understood how beautiful she was. Apart from colouring she had her mother’s face, the same delicate features, the same almond eyes. Her skin might be porcelain and her mother’s caramel but the skin was just as flawless. She had the same long eyelashes, the same curve of lips with a hint of a smile.
She watched her mother shift back into her Demonic features but this time she saw the similarities between them. Lilith’s body had more curves now but the face was still the same, though somehow cast in a more erotic way.
“Your colouring suits you. Those eyes of your father have always fascinated the world.” She ran her hand’s through Sariel’s hair as they came away they fell into loose ringlets “Now you really do remind me of me when I was younger.”
Samael had come to stand on her other side “You do look a lot like your mother.” She studied her father who at first glance she resembled so much. She had his violet eyes, just as he had Thanatos’ s. His hair was black as night, as were his wings but they did not have the iridescence she had. Michael had inherited much from him, she only really had his colouring.
“But you stand out because of my colouring. I imagine people commented on your and Michael’s pale skin and dark features a lot.”
“Quite frequently. We stand out a great deal compared to other Angels.”
“It was the same even back in my day. Azrael and I stood out compared to the darker skin tones of the other Angels.”
“The Angels mostly being sired by the Olympians or Near Eastern pantheons received their darker skin and golden features. Very few of the Northern Gods mated with Angels, they were usually far more interested in the Fae or Elves. The only species that were truly a mix of all the Gods were the Atlanteans, Lumerians and Nacaal of Mu but they were obliterated from the planet by the very Gods that had spawned them. Well, so we thought but apparently the Atlanteans are flourishing all over Avalon’s Isles.”
Lilith started “The Atlanteans survived?” she smiled cruelly “good for them, it did always seem like such a waste.”
“It was. But don’t get any ideas, Lilith, the Atlanteans have no love for the Angels and are utterly loyal to the Fae.”
“Strange that they would once again serve a Goddess when it was the Gods that had sought to destroy them. However did you manage it, Brigid?
“Good fortune. The Fae gave them sanctuary behind the backs of my pantheon but they didn’t really serve us. We were merely interlopers into their realm. But now they need Divine protection. Our relationship serves us both well, more so than I would have first believed.”
“Are you worried about them turning on you? It was after all why Atlantis was destroyed.”
“I never knew why it was destroyed, I had always presumed it was just another of Poseidon’s destructive impulses.”
“He feared the power of the Atlanteans, strange considering that they didn’t really have much magical power. He really should have been far more worried about the Angels, of all the Divine races they were the closest to our powers. And they actually rebelled, and won.”
Samael looked at his old Mentor “The Atlanteans were content and they were destroyed for no other reason than a God’s paranoia. Countless Nymphs, Angels and Humans were raped by the Gods. Whole empires were destroyed for the Gods pleasure. All the races underneath the Gods were but pawns for the Gods’ pleasure no matter how destructive, debauched or cruel. Is it any wonder that we rebelled? When we did, we were not alone in seeking our revenge against our masters. Angels, Nymphs, Satyrs, Naga, Sorcerers, Elves and other Daemons, stood together in extracting revenge against what had been done to us all.”
Hecate nodded sorrowfully “indeed, Samael, our reign was marked by all manner of sins and injustices but then so has the Angels’ reign. They turned on their allies, wiping out the Naga, Elves, Sorcerers and nearly all of the Nymphs and Satyrs. The Gods’ reign was depraved and decadent but the Angels’ reign has been far more destructive.”
“That was certainly not our original intention. Gabriel strayed far from our original plans. We could never have foreseen the genocide that would follow the division of Heaven. Indeed, Lucifer and I tried to reconcile the differences between the Angels and Gods, but then we were betrayed and cast out of Heaven. Gabriel and her faction then brought about the genocide of so many of the Divine and Daemon races.” Both he and Lilith shook their heads sorrowfully. He had had such optimistic dreams and she had believed in his vision.
“That reminds me, Sariel, do you know what happened to Lucifer after Hell broke loose?”
Chapter 34
Samael studied Lucifer as he lay floating in his medical sphere. He too had changed since his imprisonment in Hell. His white and gold wings had half changed to gold and black. His hair was a mixture of blonde and black, the black suited him better. His bronze skin was splattered with pale skin. He wouldn’t be out of place in his own family. “So Gabriel used his own powers to build the Curse?”
“Yes. Genius really. He could not use his own powers because they were constantly being fed into the Curse.”
“Oh yes, she was always exceptionally brilliant. Both of them were, their mother Israfel was extremely proud of them both. They are similar to you and Michael in that their powers were unique and exceptionally strong for Angels. Both of them would have Ascended given time. They both were studious and had very cunning minds, able to disseminate whatever problems they came across. It was one of the reasons why I took Lucifer as my Protégé, his mind was brilliant and his grasp of magic, politics and people was uncanny. He was also a skilled warrior, serving many War Gods with Michael. They were once firm friends but he was given preferential treatment to Michael because of his other uses. I believe it was one of the many things that led to the rift between them.
Gabriel was a wholly different matter. Unless exceptionally gifted in the arts of war female Angels were not taken on as warriors, while many were just as skilled as the males they had to be exceptional to be taken. Strange and silly really. Gabriel is no legendary soldier, nor did any God take her on as one but she picked up the skills to be an able warrior. The usual option left to female Angels was to be a sexual plaything or attendant. From an early age she showed strange gifts and a brilliant mind, she made herself valuable in different ways so that her contracts would not be sexual.”
