The Sloth of Heaven, page 9
part #2 of The Fallen Angels Series
Her entrance at court had gone extremely smoothly, better than Sorcha had thought it would. Her gifting of the Unicorns was unprecedented and had won her the heart and spirits of the Fae. While her place had been somewhat ensured by her engagement to Cathair and her patronage by Brigid, it had not been certain. Sorcha was beyond pleased with her smooth assimilation into the Seelie Court. She was also pleased with her effect on Cathair. The whole court had noticed how happy he was.
She felt a pang of guilt, here she was in a magical palace falling in love, but she smothered it with sense. Her father would only be happy for her. He had struggled to have happy relationships in the public eye or to be loved for the man beneath the royal. Cathair was royal, in more a constrictive way than she was. She was more of a figurehead, beloved by the British people, unwilling to let go of their past. It was something they were proud of. For the Fae, however, the Royals were royals, they commanded and they served.
While the marriage had been forced upon them, they were both happy with the arrangement and were very much in love. They were a good match, and they understood each other well. They still had far to go but they were well on the way. They were both royal and understood the need for a public front, they also understood the need to break down those walls behind closed doors. He also captivated her as no other man had, perhaps it was the Fairy blood but she thought it was the man himself. One of these days she would get around to thanking Sorcha and Brigid, but not before the wedding.
She puttered around her rooms with the slowness of those on holidays, which she was though she wasn’t doing much mourning. But her dad would forgive her, for she would soon pick up the heavy mantle of rulership. In a way that he had never had to bear it. She was the long awaited Queen that Britain had been waiting for, ever since Queen Elizabeth II. It seemed Britain ever prospered under its queens. And the public adored her and knew she took her responsibilities to heart.
She was startled to find the Australian lad James waiting for her in her receiving rooms. He sat with his legs crossed underneath him on the couch as he read a novel. He looked up at her with sparkling brown eyes and a bright smile. He just seemed to always be so happy, a smile never far away from gracing his face. Though she was probably the same these days.
“Can I help you, James?”
“Quite the opposite your majesty, I’m here to show you around the palace.”
Her eyes lit up, for she had only seen a little of the Otherworld Palace. She had seen the throne room, their apartments and a few gardens but very little else. Cathair didn’t have the time to show her around during the day, he was far too busy with all his princely duties.
“Prince Cathair asked me to show you around the palace because his hectic schedule does not allow for it. He also thought that a Human might understand your interests more than one of the Fae. He also reasoned that I would be able to deal with your deluge of questions better than a Fae.”
She smiled at that, for it was something he mentioned often. While the Fae as a whole were affectionate and loving, they were also quite cold and poised. They liked to touch, caress and have physical contact but asking questions was something they did not do. She believed it was pride, for ignorance was abhorrent to the Fae. To them asking for a lot of information was shameful. Yet for a Human it was encouraged. This difference put the Fae on the uneven ground, for she and James had no qualms about asking lots of questions. They felt no shame, and so shot off a deluge of questions that unnerved the Fae. They weren’t quite sure how to deal with these inquisitive Humans.
“But don’t you have your own tasks and lesson James?”
He shrugged “Not really, Human magic is vastly different from the Fae’s and together we are still struggling to understand my magic. It doesn’t help that all the mages were hunted to extinction and all the wealth of knowledge destroyed by the Angels. I am among the first mages, let alone sorcerers in the world in over a millennium. The Fae haven’t even managed to scrounge up a single hearth witch to help me. It would appear that Human magic is completely dead and has been for a very long time. Not even diluted versions have persisted. We are brand new.”
“So it’s a lot of stumbling along blindly.”
“Pretty much, which does not sit well with the Fairies, they like to know things exactly. This gap in their understanding frustrates them a whole lot more than it frustrates me. We usually practice until their patience runs out then I’m free for the day. And sometimes for the rest of the week as they search their archives and pass some data onto the Atlanteans to analyse.”
“Wouldn’t the Atlanteans understand our magic? After all aren’t they some variant of Humanity?”
“You haven’t seen an Atlantean outside of their armour. They might look Human, but just like the Vampires or Were, they are no longer Human. They are very different. In the case of the Atlanteans, they are more akin to the Fae, probably the generations of interbreeding. They have but a passing similarity to Humanity. It is true that they were once Human, and have retained some similarities in their nature.
Humanity evolved naturally as a project of Prometheus and Gaia. They were animals that evolved into a sentient species unlike the Fae or Nymphs, who were spirits who were then housed in flesh. Now Atlantis was like Lemuria and Mu, group projects of many pantheons working together, but Atlantis was the oldest, and the longest lasting. It was started by Primordial Gods who have long since returned to the Lifestream. They took early Humans and put them on Atlantis. They taught them how to hunt and farm, they helped them form a language and develop writing. It was an experiment that worked fantastically. Atlantis was the first true civilisation to ever exist. As such it drew a lot of interest. Primordial Gods, Gods, Angels, Fairies and Nymphs flocked to it. They were the extent of the races back then.
Many of the Gods mated with the Humans, as did the Nymphs and Fae, who themselves were more divine than mortal, due to their own interbreeding with the Gods. As a result, Atlanteans have a level of divinity akin to the Fae or Angels, despite the time that has passed since Atlantis was destroyed. They could completely kill a God if they so desired. They have come to believe that this may have been the reason Poseidon tried to destroy them.
The Atlanteans were once Human but very quickly became so much more. The amount of Divine blood flowing through their veins turned them into super-Humans. They grew taller and far more intelligent, their magical abilities exceeded even demigods. They had cities all across their islands with advanced manufacturing and flying transport before Humanity had developed agriculture and metal working.
Out of the three civilisations, it was the longest lasting, started well before the others and lasting well after they had been destroyed. But nothing is forever, especially when the Gods are involved.”
“That was how they came to Britain wasn’t it? Because Poseidon destroyed Atlantis and those who fled sought sanctuary here.”
“Yes, back then Britain was considered little more than a backwater. By the time Atlantis was destroyed Humanity had become civilised which was something the Fae were considered to be lacking in. They didn’t have cities and tended to live wild despite their considerable power. Where at least many of the Nymphs visited Human cities and aided Human development, the Fae, on the other hand, stayed wild and were notorious for defending their territory from Humans. They had nothing to do with the Humans that came to their islands. Only Gods seeking a fun time with the Fae came, or those interested in magical experimentations. The Primordial Goddess Avalon had made her garden to which Gaia frequently visited. Britain was a place for magical wonder but little else.
To the Atlanteans, there was no safer place. Overlooked by the Gods as a whole they pleaded their case to Queen Luigsech. Now she was a smart and cunning queen, she was the daughter of the God Lugh, but she hid the Atlanteans from even him. While the Tuatha De Danann were busy annexing Ireland, she had united all of Britain under one Seelie Court. All the Gods were hunting down the Atlanteans, even the Angels had been set on the hunt for them. And yet this wise queen took their fealty and hid them away, initially on the Islands of Orkney, before setting up new colonies on the Shetland Islands and the Hebrides.
She was a tactile genius, the Angels gave Britain and Ireland a semi-thorough check, as did the Gods that graced the halls of the Fae and the Gardens of Avalon. While all of Fairy Britain and Ireland had been united under Queen Luigsech, the Human tribes of ancient Britain remained uncivilised. Beyond the Fae halls, Britain was seen as a backwater useful only because of the Fae. No one checked it thoroughly enough, for no one thought that the Atlanteans could even be hiding on the island, let alone flourishing.
They built the first cities Britain ever had. It was in Britain that they slowly rebuilt their destroyed civilisation. They bred a little with the Fae, an obligation of the Seelie Court, and in doing so, they recreated themselves. They are the Atlanteans, the Defenders of the Fae and still the most advanced civilisation the world has ever seen.”
Victoria sat for a bit and absorbed the weight of his words. She had had no idea that the Atlanteans had such a rich and varied history. Or that servants of the Gods could be so cunning under their master’s noses. Queen Luigsech had been a very smart woman. It made her all the more curious about the Atlanteans. “Can I see the Atlanteans?”
“Of course, they are soon to be your defenders.”
She raised an eyebrow in question.
“You are marrying into the Fae, which gives you authority over the Atlanteans, and you will soon be the Empress of the British Empire. Under Brigid’s command, the Fae will become public, and the Blue Guard will aid in Britain’s imperial expansion. As will the mages and sorcerers that the Fae train.”
“You’ll be fighting?”
He looked surprised “Of course. I am the most powerful sorcerer in Brigid’s claimed territories, the least I can do to repay her for the power she granted me is to use it in her grand design. That is if I actually manage to master my powers. If I do, I will be able to completely affect the outcome of battles.” He fell silent for a moment before rushing on “I sometimes can’t believe that magic actually exists, that Gods and Fairies and Angels are real. But then I open my eyes and see it all. I see the small amount that I can actually do. I always dreamed of having magic but never imagined it could be possible. I never dreamed that I would meet Fairies, let alone live with them. I always wished that some of the myths were true, but I never thought that nearly all of them were. And now I am a loyal servant of the Goddess Brigid, I will serve in your armies, and I don’t even have to hide my true nature. I have divine acceptance of me, which I never thought possible. I can actually have faith in a Goddess that accepts me.”
“Your family do not accept you?”
Cold anger filled his eyes “No, my parents are religious nuts, they threw me out of home when I came out. After they tried beating it out of me.”
“Oh my God, that’s awful.”
“It didn’t end so badly, I went straight to the police and filed charges. They helped me get in contact with my grandmother, who my mother had stopped speaking to when she was younger. Turns out my great aunt was gay, but she wasn’t as lucky as I was. She was raped and murdered for who and what she was. It was one of the reasons my grandmother left the States and came to Australia. She always told us when we were younger that she would love us no matter what. My parents didn’t like that, or the fact she wasn’t Christian. She was into crystals and such.”
“James, I make you this promise now. I will not allow such hateful and bigoted behaviour to go unpunished within my empire. It will be just and fair.”
He smiled “I know. You will make a great queen. You have a heart and see people for who they are. And we will finally shake off the archaic beliefs of the Angels.” He gazed off into the distance before looking back with a smile “besides what fool is going to be homophobic to the mages when most of us are homosexual. The magical might of the Empire depends on keeping the mages happy. Therefore, we cannot be denied our Human right to love.
Ominous words that she thought would prove prophetic. The world was in for great changes. At least some good would come out of it, Human rights would be enforced throughout her empire. But it would have a heavy price in blood.
For the first time, she was beginning to see the cost of the future. War was bloody and brutal, she had guessed that because it would be magical and fantastical that it would be different. The future didn’t quite seem real when they were talking about Fairies and Angels. But it was real, and war was coming. And war was war no matter how it was fought. She had brought this war to her own people in order to save her life.
She started crying into her hands. James stared in horror, what on earth had caused her to cry? He crossed over to sit next to her, hesitantly resting a hand on her shoulder. “Um, Victoria what is the matter?”
“It is all my fault. So many people are going to die and it is my fault. I condemned my people to die just so that I could live.”
He was completely lost. “What are you on about, how did you condemn them to die?”
“I was drowning and Brigid saved me, the price was for the change of religion in Britain. It was all so surreal and I wanted to live so I agreed. Since then I haven’t really thought about it, I’ve been too busy being continually amazed by the miracles occurring all around me. But now I see the cost of my actions. My people are going to die, fighting in my name for the deal I made to save my life.”
“Well, that is one way to look at it.”
She looked up at him with puffy red eyes.
He waved his hand around “On the other hand you now know the truth about the world, about the Angels and their religion and the War of Heaven. You know why the wars that are going to hit the world, and they will happen anyway, are occurring. You have probably given your people the best chance. The Gods and Angels are cruel. The Gods demanded sacrifices and the Angels condemned millions to death and torture. Brigid at least is not so akin to the other Gods. She actually cares about her people. A very rare thing in the Divine, let alone the Gods.
Would you rather that Britain was destroyed in the War of Heaven or that it stands as a bastion of truth. Your decision will make Britain very powerful, you will become very powerful. True people will die, quite possibly in the millions but you will liberate much more from the Angels’ slavery, you will help unite huge portions of the world. Freedom isn’t free, and peace carries a heavy cost.”
He sighed before leaning in closer “The fact is Victoria, you are a leader and leaders must make hard decisions. Your decision has been made, but there is very little to stop you from throwing a spanner in the works, you could betray Brigid. Except you haven’t even thought of this because you know your decision is in Britain’s best interests.”
That struck a chord within her. She hadn’t considered betraying Brigid. She didn’t live with fear, Brigid had never threatened her, but she had no idea what might happen if she broke their agreement. She knew that great wealth and power would come to Britain again and that the medical and technological advancements the Atlanteans could share, as well as the magical aid of the Fae could make Britain into a superpower. She knew that with Brigid Britain would never face drought and that the harvest would never fail. In this age, the Age of Angels the world was literally falling apart, having the security of food was not something to pass up. Droughts and flash floods seemed to be playing leapfrog with each other. Hurricanes had been savaging the coasts the world over. Polar ice was retreating further and further, low-lying land had been lost to the oceans while wildfires ravaged dry and temperate areas.
No, he was right. Her decision had been made, and she believed that it was indeed the right one. But people were going to die because of her decision. All their lives would be on her.
“Besides Victoria, look what the Angels have done to Pakistan, they have enacted a purge against all non-Muslims. The death toll continues to rise. Brigid reached out to save who she could, what other Angel or God would do that? Look at the United States, Hera’s mark is there. The murder and disappearance rate has skyrocketed to unbelievable rates. Sightings of mythical creatures have become a nearly daily occurrence. All the mosques have been burned down and now over a quarter of the churches have been burned down. In the US, that is a huge number. Religious/racial tensions are running at an all-time high. Rioting has occurred in many cities, public order has broken down in others. The States are in turmoil, and it has spilt over into Mexico. Do you see such bloodbaths in Britain? No, because Britain is quietly undergoing the transition that you are in control of.”
He stood up, pulling her with him “Come with me.”
The next thing she knew she was standing on a windy hill looking down at a Human town. It was freezing. “Where are we?” she asked struggling to keep the agitation out of her voice.
“It actually worked!” He was smiling like a lunatic “Oh, what? We are in Orkney. This is where the first Atlantean city was built after Atlantis was destroyed.”
“I don’t see anything.”
He smiled drawing his hands through the air elaborately. As he did so, it was as if a veil was pulled back from across the wind-scoured landscape. The open grassland and cliff tops were suddenly dominated by a towering city spearing high into the sky, sparkling serenely in the sunlight.
It was simply stunning. Victoria was lost for words. Skyscrapers of incredible shapes and remarkable beauty rose high up into the sky, merging and separating, even entwining around each other. There were pyramids, spheres, open flowers and cubes, and more she didn’t recognise. They rose very high into the sky as if they were embracing the Heavens. She could see shapes flying between the towers or walking over the multitude of bridges crisscrossing at all heights. It was almost like seeing a fairy-tale palace on a city-wide scale and turned futuristic.
