Juvenile Orion Fan Fiction ❯ Fallen ❯ Heavenly Kingdom ( Chapter 7 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: DesertIllusion 
Was the angel before him truly there, or was he simply a hallucination?
Anime/Manga: Juvenile Orion Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 06.11.2007 | Updated On: 07.23.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 295 | Status: Completed
Was the angel before him truly there, or was he simply a hallucination?
Anime/Manga: Juvenile Orion Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 06.11.2007 | Updated On: 07.23.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 295 | Status: Completed
Though the majority of disputes are usually settled locally, the god and his advisors deal with large disputes that may concern the entire angelic race or threaten the leadership of Heaven. The god summons the offender to appear before his Council of Advisors to testify to his innocence or explain his actions. Angelic judgment is as harsh as Nature’s, with only three outcomes: pardon, exile, or death. Of the three, exile is the most common, death the second, and pardon an extremely rare event. However, the methods by which exile is carried out often results in death and thus, is as dreaded by those being judged. It is even possible that death is the most preferable of the three choices. Pardon is so rare that the summoning is often thought of as an immediate execution. However, exile strips an angel of his dignity and the newly dubbed shaytan is cast into space without supplies. Though they are usually cast off ships nearby planets, few shaytan actually survive long enough to retain some thread of life by the time they arrive on the surface of the planet. Even if they survive to that extent, they are not necessarily released near hospitable planets and some die even after surviving their fall. Thus it is not difficult to understand why most angels awaiting judgment prefer to be sentenced with death with little dignity as opposed to one with dishonor.
Fallen
Chapter 7
Heavenly Kingdom
By Illusion
“Iblis, thou art summoned by the god, Azrael, to appear before the Council of Advisors with your subordinate, the missionary Gabriel.”
The commander faced the entourage of guardians that had arrived from Heaven.
“What issue has called for a summoning?” he inquired, narrowing his eyes slightly.
“The report submitted to the Lord disturbed members of the Council,” the leader of the guardians answered. “Some respected members believe thy methods questionable in strength and efficiency, especially with the growing lack of supplies returning to the colony.”
“And what of my subordinate?”
“According to the report, the missionary Gabriel substituted another angel’s name in the place of the god’s,” the angel recited.
Iblis’s aura turned icy. He could sense some of the lower angels shrinking their auras to avoid the cold. “Very well. I shall summon the missionary Gabriel and arrive at your ship shortly.”
The guardian nodded curtly before taking off towards his ship. A flutter of white feathers followed after him as his entourage rose after him. Iblis’s eyes narrowed into slits as he walked away from the docking platform.
“What are Gabriel’s missions for the next hundred years?” he asked Gabriel’s direct superior, a low-ranking commander.
Thor frowned as he tried to remember. “Only one to the area where the humans call the New World.”
“Reassign that mission to another,” Iblis ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
Iblis swept away from the officer to search for the missionary. He stayed grounded throughout his search and kept his aura at a medium size, hoping to keep a low profile. As he approached the viewing platform, two white figures came into view. A bluish tint from the blue planet outside the large window of the platform made the white cloth glow slightly as Iblis approached.
“I thought you would come here,” Michael said as he felt Gabriel approaching. “You take an interest in astronomy?”
“Not particularly,” Gabriel answered as he landed next to other angel. “The planet is just so round compared to Heaven.”
“Mm.”
“You have befriended Israfel.”
“I have,” Michael said. “He is the first to over look this.” He gestured to his auburn hair.
“Israfel is a very accepting angel.” It was a meaningless sentence. Everybody who came in contact with the gentle hearted missionary knew of his overly trusting nature just by a brush of his aura, but it filled the uncomfortable silence.
“He has stopped referring to you as Jibril.”
“It is inappropriate now that we are no longer cherubs.”
“He feels he is holding you back from your goals.”
“Preposterous.” Gabriel stared out at the planet suspended in black nothingness. “I have no ultimate goal.”
“And thus he feels guilty,” Michael said. He watched the clouds swirl in the planet’s atmosphere, random, shapeless strings of fluffy white spinning in eternal spirals of confusion. How fitting. They almost resembled Gabriel and Israfel’s thoughts. He suppressed a bitter smile.
“Why?”
“That is something you must discuss with him.”
“I cannot face him. He will follow me. He must make his own path to follow.”
“He wants your guidance.”
“For what?” Gabriel felt as though something within him was sinking. “I have nothing to offer him. He has made me to be something I am not. I am just another angel.”
“In his eyes, you are his mentor.” Michael paused. “You have always been with him, have you not?”
“Always.”
“Then you can understand why he feels as he does.”
He suppressed the urge to close his eyes. “I can’t… allow him to see me as I am. No goals, no meaning. I don’t want him to see how hollow I actually am. I see how the humans live on my missions and all I can think of is how he would fit in there. Where one is free to live and not merely exist.”
He turned to the auburn haired angel and the two made eye contact for the first time and a moment of understanding passed between them.
“Gabriel.”
The connection broke as both glanced at their commander. “Sir.” They bowed.
“Gabriel, you have been summoned to Heaven.” The missionary’s face remained stoic. “We have been ordered to leave immediately.”
Gabriel glanced at Michael.
I will stay by Israfel.
Thank you. “Yes, sir.”
The door of the ship opened and Gabriel dropped out of the open hatch after Iblis. He instantly felt thousands of eyes fixing on him and fought to keep his aura steady. Never before had so many angels of various levels of society judged him at once. Is Rayyu here? Lafayel?
The angels flanking his sides stopped, as did Iblis and his escorts. Azrael rose from his place on the docking platform to meet with them, extending all six of his large wings in flight. Piercing silver eyes remained stoic and pale golden hair trailed behind him in a loose ponytail. Once level with them, he remained suspended in the air with powerful sweeps of his wings. His aura, burning hot, expanded and seared through Gabriel’s body, yet he could feel that the god kept the most of his power within himself.
Iblis approached the god as he had done centuries before: lowered aura, head bowed, hand over his heart. Azrael regarded the commander for a moment before turning. Iblis remained still before his torso bent into a stiff bow. He pushed himself back to his escorts and together with them, dropped down to the platform. Gabriel and the angels around him followed silently and the crowd below cleared a space for them to land. Iblis lead them towards the barracks as angels shrank away from him. He walked with light but proud steps, head held high, ignoring his public disgrace.
Gabriel focused on his commander’s proud back, unwilling to see the faces of the angels observing him as he made his way towards the barracks. He heard shuffling as Azrael and his advisors landed and could almost feel the respect emanating for the god as opposed to the discord toward his rejected commander.
He followed behind Iblis silently, even as the commander entered an unfamiliar section of the barracks. The doors were placed in larger intervals and fewer feathers scattered the floor of the corridor. His nest was next to Iblis’s and was slightly smaller than the standard size despite the larger volume it could have occupied due to the smaller number of nests to volume ratio.
“Thou art to reside here until thy sentence,” one of the guardians informed him. “Immediate attendance is expected when the Council summons thee, but until that time comes, Heaven’s grounds are open thee.”
“I understand.”
The guardian nodded once before turning and dropping out the door. The others followed him, opening their wings to catch the ever-present current and gliding away. Gabriel waited until they were out of eyesight before making his way to Iblis’s nest. “Commander?”
A sudden chill passed through him when he lighted at the edge of the nest. He shivered violently and grabbed the edge of the doorframe to keep from falling. “Ah, Gabriel.” Iblis’s voice was casual as he sat facing the inner wall of his barrack. “Reacquaint yourself with the colony. You will have little opportunity to do so once the Council summons us.”
Gabriel, nodded stiffly, but his fingers remained latched to the doorframe. Let go, he commanded them as the cold seeped into his core. Slowly, laboriously, he turned his head to look down at the almost bare floor of the corridor. His wings remained furled and his fingers frozen at the edge. For the first time since being a cherub, he was afraid to let go and fall. Let go. Spread your wings, and the current will bring you back up. The freefall lasts only for a moment. Let go. His body was rigid and his joints began to ache with his awkward position, the sudden terror, and the awful, awful cold, yet he remained paralyzed and he knew he would die.
“Gabriel.”
Let go. Let go! LET GO! He wrenched himself away from the nest and felt himself enter into freefall. He twisted himself around and forced his wings to open. The steady gust of wind caught his body and lifted him up and away from the open doorway. Gabriel steadied himself and hugged his arms to his body, looking back at the dark square. He curled more into himself. Only his wings remained extended, keeping him from falling. He shuddered as the cold ebbed away leaving a shadowed frost.
He stared. Was the angel before him truly there, or was he simply a hallucination? His hand slid off 36’s trunk in shock. “Gabriel.”
The angel nodded at his name. His robes were slightly more elaborate, his hair down, and his aura more corrupted with time, but it was the same cherub that he and Calandra had hatched centuries ago. “I wanted to see the meliads,” he said quietly.
36 nudged her branches against Rayyu. Speak with him.
“You… accompanied Iblis?”
“Yes. We await the Council’s summoning.” He approached the couple and began to stroke 36’s branches. Her leaves rustled in her ancient whisper. “I wish I could understand what the meliads say,” he said. “I believe they hold much wisdom.”
“They do.” 36 curled one of her soft branches around the missionary’s hand. A memory of a meliad’s branch encircling Gabriel’s small cherub’s hand flashed through Rayyu’s mind. “Their life spans are generally longer than ours. They have gathered much wisdom that has been passed down from mother to daughter.”
“Is that why you decided to remain a nurse?”
Several centuries ago, the reminder of his low position in the hierarchy would have insulted Rayyu. Instead he merely made a soft noise of agreement. He was tired. And old. So old.
Speak with thy cherub, 36 insisted. Can those eyes not see his yearning for reconcilement? Both have been wounded, Rayyu, and the time to heal has come. Speak with thy cherub.
“What did she say?”
“She approves of my choice.” A rustle of leaves. “You await the Council?”
“Yes.”
Rayyu paused. “And… is Israfel well?”
“He is safe,” Gabriel replied. “He and I have advanced to the highest missionary positions. One more victory and he will be a commander.”
“He is powerful.”
“Perhaps…” Gabriel glanced around the nursery.
“There are only meliads here, and they keep our secrets for us,” Rayyu assured him.
The missionary nodded, though he remained apprehensive. “Israfel may be God one day,” he whispered. “I cannot reach the expectations you set for us, but Israfel can. He is powerful and his life is not threatened.”
“If you return to the fleet…” he hesitated. “Vow that if you should return to the fleet, you will make Israfel God.”
“I shall try.”
“Do not try. Vow to me.”
Gabriel’s green eyes bore into Rayyu’s purple ones. “I vow that if I should ever return to Iblis’s fleet, I will make Israfel God of Heaven and all its colonies.”
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Al lusions and Explanations:
Thor: He’s the Norse Thunder god. Don’t ask. It was the first name I thought of.
36: She’s mentioned in chapter 1 and makes an appearance in chapter 2. As you can see from this scene, she’s one of the meliads Rayyu tends to and seems to be his favorite.
Rayyu understands what 36 is saying mainly because he works with meliads every day. It’s only natural that he would learn their language.
Posted: 11 June 2007
Next Post: 2 July 2007
Fallen
Chapter 7
Heavenly Kingdom
By Illusion
“Iblis, thou art summoned by the god, Azrael, to appear before the Council of Advisors with your subordinate, the missionary Gabriel.”
The commander faced the entourage of guardians that had arrived from Heaven.
“What issue has called for a summoning?” he inquired, narrowing his eyes slightly.
“The report submitted to the Lord disturbed members of the Council,” the leader of the guardians answered. “Some respected members believe thy methods questionable in strength and efficiency, especially with the growing lack of supplies returning to the colony.”
“And what of my subordinate?”
“According to the report, the missionary Gabriel substituted another angel’s name in the place of the god’s,” the angel recited.
Iblis’s aura turned icy. He could sense some of the lower angels shrinking their auras to avoid the cold. “Very well. I shall summon the missionary Gabriel and arrive at your ship shortly.”
The guardian nodded curtly before taking off towards his ship. A flutter of white feathers followed after him as his entourage rose after him. Iblis’s eyes narrowed into slits as he walked away from the docking platform.
“What are Gabriel’s missions for the next hundred years?” he asked Gabriel’s direct superior, a low-ranking commander.
Thor frowned as he tried to remember. “Only one to the area where the humans call the New World.”
“Reassign that mission to another,” Iblis ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
Iblis swept away from the officer to search for the missionary. He stayed grounded throughout his search and kept his aura at a medium size, hoping to keep a low profile. As he approached the viewing platform, two white figures came into view. A bluish tint from the blue planet outside the large window of the platform made the white cloth glow slightly as Iblis approached.
“I thought you would come here,” Michael said as he felt Gabriel approaching. “You take an interest in astronomy?”
“Not particularly,” Gabriel answered as he landed next to other angel. “The planet is just so round compared to Heaven.”
“Mm.”
“You have befriended Israfel.”
“I have,” Michael said. “He is the first to over look this.” He gestured to his auburn hair.
“Israfel is a very accepting angel.” It was a meaningless sentence. Everybody who came in contact with the gentle hearted missionary knew of his overly trusting nature just by a brush of his aura, but it filled the uncomfortable silence.
“He has stopped referring to you as Jibril.”
“It is inappropriate now that we are no longer cherubs.”
“He feels he is holding you back from your goals.”
“Preposterous.” Gabriel stared out at the planet suspended in black nothingness. “I have no ultimate goal.”
“And thus he feels guilty,” Michael said. He watched the clouds swirl in the planet’s atmosphere, random, shapeless strings of fluffy white spinning in eternal spirals of confusion. How fitting. They almost resembled Gabriel and Israfel’s thoughts. He suppressed a bitter smile.
“Why?”
“That is something you must discuss with him.”
“I cannot face him. He will follow me. He must make his own path to follow.”
“He wants your guidance.”
“For what?” Gabriel felt as though something within him was sinking. “I have nothing to offer him. He has made me to be something I am not. I am just another angel.”
“In his eyes, you are his mentor.” Michael paused. “You have always been with him, have you not?”
“Always.”
“Then you can understand why he feels as he does.”
He suppressed the urge to close his eyes. “I can’t… allow him to see me as I am. No goals, no meaning. I don’t want him to see how hollow I actually am. I see how the humans live on my missions and all I can think of is how he would fit in there. Where one is free to live and not merely exist.”
He turned to the auburn haired angel and the two made eye contact for the first time and a moment of understanding passed between them.
“Gabriel.”
The connection broke as both glanced at their commander. “Sir.” They bowed.
“Gabriel, you have been summoned to Heaven.” The missionary’s face remained stoic. “We have been ordered to leave immediately.”
Gabriel glanced at Michael.
I will stay by Israfel.
Thank you. “Yes, sir.”
The door of the ship opened and Gabriel dropped out of the open hatch after Iblis. He instantly felt thousands of eyes fixing on him and fought to keep his aura steady. Never before had so many angels of various levels of society judged him at once. Is Rayyu here? Lafayel?
The angels flanking his sides stopped, as did Iblis and his escorts. Azrael rose from his place on the docking platform to meet with them, extending all six of his large wings in flight. Piercing silver eyes remained stoic and pale golden hair trailed behind him in a loose ponytail. Once level with them, he remained suspended in the air with powerful sweeps of his wings. His aura, burning hot, expanded and seared through Gabriel’s body, yet he could feel that the god kept the most of his power within himself.
Iblis approached the god as he had done centuries before: lowered aura, head bowed, hand over his heart. Azrael regarded the commander for a moment before turning. Iblis remained still before his torso bent into a stiff bow. He pushed himself back to his escorts and together with them, dropped down to the platform. Gabriel and the angels around him followed silently and the crowd below cleared a space for them to land. Iblis lead them towards the barracks as angels shrank away from him. He walked with light but proud steps, head held high, ignoring his public disgrace.
Gabriel focused on his commander’s proud back, unwilling to see the faces of the angels observing him as he made his way towards the barracks. He heard shuffling as Azrael and his advisors landed and could almost feel the respect emanating for the god as opposed to the discord toward his rejected commander.
He followed behind Iblis silently, even as the commander entered an unfamiliar section of the barracks. The doors were placed in larger intervals and fewer feathers scattered the floor of the corridor. His nest was next to Iblis’s and was slightly smaller than the standard size despite the larger volume it could have occupied due to the smaller number of nests to volume ratio.
“Thou art to reside here until thy sentence,” one of the guardians informed him. “Immediate attendance is expected when the Council summons thee, but until that time comes, Heaven’s grounds are open thee.”
“I understand.”
The guardian nodded once before turning and dropping out the door. The others followed him, opening their wings to catch the ever-present current and gliding away. Gabriel waited until they were out of eyesight before making his way to Iblis’s nest. “Commander?”
A sudden chill passed through him when he lighted at the edge of the nest. He shivered violently and grabbed the edge of the doorframe to keep from falling. “Ah, Gabriel.” Iblis’s voice was casual as he sat facing the inner wall of his barrack. “Reacquaint yourself with the colony. You will have little opportunity to do so once the Council summons us.”
Gabriel, nodded stiffly, but his fingers remained latched to the doorframe. Let go, he commanded them as the cold seeped into his core. Slowly, laboriously, he turned his head to look down at the almost bare floor of the corridor. His wings remained furled and his fingers frozen at the edge. For the first time since being a cherub, he was afraid to let go and fall. Let go. Spread your wings, and the current will bring you back up. The freefall lasts only for a moment. Let go. His body was rigid and his joints began to ache with his awkward position, the sudden terror, and the awful, awful cold, yet he remained paralyzed and he knew he would die.
“Gabriel.”
Let go. Let go! LET GO! He wrenched himself away from the nest and felt himself enter into freefall. He twisted himself around and forced his wings to open. The steady gust of wind caught his body and lifted him up and away from the open doorway. Gabriel steadied himself and hugged his arms to his body, looking back at the dark square. He curled more into himself. Only his wings remained extended, keeping him from falling. He shuddered as the cold ebbed away leaving a shadowed frost.
He stared. Was the angel before him truly there, or was he simply a hallucination? His hand slid off 36’s trunk in shock. “Gabriel.”
The angel nodded at his name. His robes were slightly more elaborate, his hair down, and his aura more corrupted with time, but it was the same cherub that he and Calandra had hatched centuries ago. “I wanted to see the meliads,” he said quietly.
36 nudged her branches against Rayyu. Speak with him.
“You… accompanied Iblis?”
“Yes. We await the Council’s summoning.” He approached the couple and began to stroke 36’s branches. Her leaves rustled in her ancient whisper. “I wish I could understand what the meliads say,” he said. “I believe they hold much wisdom.”
“They do.” 36 curled one of her soft branches around the missionary’s hand. A memory of a meliad’s branch encircling Gabriel’s small cherub’s hand flashed through Rayyu’s mind. “Their life spans are generally longer than ours. They have gathered much wisdom that has been passed down from mother to daughter.”
“Is that why you decided to remain a nurse?”
Several centuries ago, the reminder of his low position in the hierarchy would have insulted Rayyu. Instead he merely made a soft noise of agreement. He was tired. And old. So old.
Speak with thy cherub, 36 insisted. Can those eyes not see his yearning for reconcilement? Both have been wounded, Rayyu, and the time to heal has come. Speak with thy cherub.
“What did she say?”
“She approves of my choice.” A rustle of leaves. “You await the Council?”
“Yes.”
Rayyu paused. “And… is Israfel well?”
“He is safe,” Gabriel replied. “He and I have advanced to the highest missionary positions. One more victory and he will be a commander.”
“He is powerful.”
“Perhaps…” Gabriel glanced around the nursery.
“There are only meliads here, and they keep our secrets for us,” Rayyu assured him.
The missionary nodded, though he remained apprehensive. “Israfel may be God one day,” he whispered. “I cannot reach the expectations you set for us, but Israfel can. He is powerful and his life is not threatened.”
“If you return to the fleet…” he hesitated. “Vow that if you should return to the fleet, you will make Israfel God.”
“I shall try.”
“Do not try. Vow to me.”
Gabriel’s green eyes bore into Rayyu’s purple ones. “I vow that if I should ever return to Iblis’s fleet, I will make Israfel God of Heaven and all its colonies.”
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Al lusions and Explanations:
Thor: He’s the Norse Thunder god. Don’t ask. It was the first name I thought of.
36: She’s mentioned in chapter 1 and makes an appearance in chapter 2. As you can see from this scene, she’s one of the meliads Rayyu tends to and seems to be his favorite.
Rayyu understands what 36 is saying mainly because he works with meliads every day. It’s only natural that he would learn their language.
Posted: 11 June 2007
Next Post: 2 July 2007