‘But you long for it.’
‘Terribly.’
On the third year, the star reminded Dina — though he’d done this many times before — to study human history, but the angel distracted himself with a new language.‘I will get to it soon, I promise.Star.’He didn’t know his name.‘There are so many ways that the humans write.Some of it is so similar to the way we’ve written in the past.It’s like they’re repeating our history.’
‘For the angels, the world ended twice.Once, when God created the stars, and a second time when Satan fell.The humans have suffered an end when it all flooded.They must all know to burn now.’
As Dina tried to sleep — at some unknown hour in maybe the fourth or fifth year — he lay sprawled on the cot, thinking of a story he’d read of a princess in a tower, trapped, waiting.‘She was beautiful with long, endless hair.One day, a prince heard her singing, and he tricked her into letting down her hair before climbing up to meet her.’‘He must’ve fucked her.’‘That’s a sin.’‘But it’s what humans do, and it’s what the sinners do, and what the fallen angels do.You’re a sinner.What’s stopping you from doing anything?’‘God will be angry at me.’“He will be angry at you no matter how you act, Dina.’On the sixth year, Dina recounted another children’s story to the star, and the star framed it as a tale of lust once more.Dina listened longer this time, one hand over his stomach, thinking and also not thinking.
‘You should know some of the evils of the word,’ said the star, ‘before wickedness is gone forever.’
‘But won’t I become wicked and God will do away with me too?’
‘You will be done away with no matter what.You know that you’ve died already, Dina.You will die again.Eternal life is to die an infinite number of times.’
On the seventh year, the star offered his name, which was Apsinthos.
‘The world should end, the world should end.’
‘You will do it.’
‘God will be happy?’
‘I will be happy.’
‘I do like you.Very much.’
The eighth year — the languages with the most numerous speakers in the world were perfectly known to Dina now.Impatient, however, Apsinthos began to urge Dina: ‘That is more than enough now.You need to visit Earth.You’ve spent enough time here.Human life is so short.What has been mere seconds to us has been enough for millions of births and thousands of deaths on Earth.You must leave.’And so when Enoch next opened the latch and called out, the young angel hurried to look up at him, veil gone, hair frayed, unwashed for days, eyes bloodshot.Parting his lips to ask if he could be let out now, but Enoch shuddered at the sight of him, told him he’d send down a bucket of water.The next time that Dina begged, Enoch insisted the young angel was not done.
‘We’re losing time.Dina.Dina, the world’s apocalypse will be halted by those who don’t understand why it must end.You must leave this place.’
‘The world must end.The world must end.’
‘Attack Metatron!’
‘Beneath his skin, he is like chariots, fire, and wheels.I am nothing but wings.He will make me dust.’He slept little now, a plate of food untouched and stacked with another full plate at the front of the desk, which already was buried in a disarray of paper, ink, books, scrolls.‘And I am to serve him.When he stepped into Heaven, the Lord’s booming voice called out for us to serve him.’
‘You must act, Dina.’
‘I’m sorry.I’m sorry.’
And it was on the tenth year of the youngest angel’s imprisonment that archangel Uriel finally returned.He did it with a detesting, exhausted sigh as he landed by the great fountain at the center of the eternally divine city.Then, he looked all about himself, saw some white-robed angels who'd been passing by, who all staggered to a stop to bow and intertwine their hands together in respect.If Metatron had done some good, Uriel supposed, it was that the other angels now seemed to appreciate the stern, scornful prince of wisdom some more.Their old Uriel had never struck them or snarled, at least not in excess, and he was an angel like them, not a man who argued angels were not capable of thought and were all instruments for human salvation.
An angel took Uriel’s arm — tight, urgent.
Tilting his head to the side, the eldest of the heavenly host quirked a brow at a smaller angel of wavy hair, the color of almond, gathered into two braids.His face was freckled extensively — instantly, Uriel thought of Dina — even if this was clearly the archangel Gabriel.Like everyone else, he donned a colorless tunic, but a rebellious white lily was tucked by his left ear, whispering, humming.“Uriel—” the youngest prince called, his brows curved in worry, his pale pink lips opening, then closing.“You’ve returned from Earth.”
“Yes,” said Uriel briskly, looking to their surroundings again to see the same Heaven he’d left years ago.It was quite the contrast to the deplorable plane in which the living humans toiled; a part of him was still shuddering at all that he’d witnessed.“What is it?”Uriel tore his arm away, swallowing thick.‘That is why you sent me to Earth, isn’t it, Father?To see and to shudder?’But Uriel had shuddered in Heaven, too, in the last many centuries.Every time he noted all the new homes that the angels had built, sitting empty and waiting for human to fill them — Uriel would feel all his blood run cold.“Do you have a message for me, messenger?”It could have been a joke, or it could have been an insult; Uriel wasn’t sure.
Gabriel said, “I need to talk about the state of the Earth with you.Hardly an angel in Heaven knows how frightening humanity has become, but— There’s something else that I needed to tell you about.Immediately.”Uriel made a noise of affirmation just as he took the first steps, relieved to feel the road of Heaven beneath his sandaled feet again.“It’s about Dina.”Then, Uriel stopped once more but maintained his gaze down the road, toward a crowding of angels headed somewhere, likely to a temple to pray or feign praying as best they could.“Metatron hasn’t let him out of your house in years.I saw Dina arrive from… Well, he said from the stars.Metatron wasn’t pleased with him, and he dragged Dina away.When I confronted Metatron, he told me Dina was being reclusive, is all.”Uriel sighed harshly, and then he murmured that he would deal with this.“Ah, good.I thought I needed to tell you immediately because I know that you care about him?—”
Scoffing, Uriel unfolded his wings.“Is that so?”Then, he took off back into the air for a flight that lasted mere minutes.The door was ajar when he arrived, flaring the prince’s already simmering anger, and he threw open the entrance and shouted, “Metatron!”Slamming the way in behind him, he immediately moved through the hall, face twitching at whatever that old man had done now.Uriel soon found him in the seating area before the library and didn’t waste a second: “Explain to me what I’ve been told.”
Lounging on a divan, Metatron was scribbling on his parchment — sentences on something regarding human language.He lifted his gaze, then furrowed his brow.“Welcome back.”
“Gabriel tells me that no one has seen Dina for several years.”When the man-angel scoffed, Uriel grit his teeth, hardly felt himself move before he found his fists around Metatron’s robe, and he found himself pulling him off his seat harshly.“Don’t be obtuse.He came back from the stars, and you’re punishing him.I gave him the order to go, Metatron.I’m a prince.I was the first prince.I was the first angel.Tell me where Dina is.”
Staggering, spitting, then laughing in utter bewilderment.“So it is true?You sent Dina to lose his mind?”Metatron shoved him back, and though Uriel stumbled, he did not let go.“Don’t be an idiot, Uriel!I locked him up for his own good.He returned from the stars speaking in riddles, whispering, making no sense to anyone.He spoke of the stars telling him to act.”
