“So…that stuff. About the angels falling from heaven and all that. Is it true?”
After a moment, Leviathan snorted. “I’m here, aren’t I?’
He hesitated. “Yes. But I mean…how much of it is true? What was it like?”
He was silent for a long moment. When Cullen finally looked up at him again, he was frowning thoughtfully.
“I’m not sure…it may be a story for another time.”
“Why?”
He hesitated. “It is…it can be difficult to talk about. I’ve never told anyone else anything about it.”
Cullen almost smirked, almost taunted him for being weak--though he didn't actually think it was weak at all–but the far away look in Leviathan’s eyes stopped him.
“Maybe you could start with that man in the vision you showed me. That memory.” He kept his voice quiet.
He paused. And then smiled a little hesitantly, like the thought amused him. “That man…” He murmured. “Is none other than the Dark King himself.” When he saw Cullen’s confusion, he grinned. “What do you know of the Fall?”
“The Fall…of the angels?”
Leviathan nodded.
He hesitated, thinking back on the years and years of lessons Dom and the others had taught him. “According to the histories… Five original angels betrayed the heavens. Chose to denounce their god and were cast out because of it. Disgraced.” He paused, glancing up at him. Leviathan was smiling again.
“True enough. Though Lucifer, the Dark King was not cast out.” He turned and leaned back against the balcony, hiseyes on Cullen’s face. “See, Lucifer and our creator got into a bit of a tiff, just after humans had been created. Lucifer accused him of being….” He hesitated, seeming to search for the word. “The equivalent to humans would be little boys who pluck wings from bugs to watch them die slowly. Lucifer did not like that the humans would age and wither. He did not like that the creator gave them life and would tear it away after such a short time.
“They argued about it and…Lucifer left.” He paused, his gaze suddenly seeming far away. “He just…left. We had never seen such a thing before, hadn't known it was possible.” He tipped his head back to look at the sky, as if he was seeing it all again. “The creator was furious but…we did not know he would be so cruel. Several of us spoke up, said it wasn't right to cast an angel from Heaven, to let him leave. We told him to go get him…” He paused. “And he does not like to be ordered around.”
The pause was longer this time.
“So…” Cullen murmured hesitantly. “You spoke up and…he cast you out?”
“Something to that effect.” He waved a dismissive hand. Cullen sensed it was a more delicate issue than he was letting on. “So we fell. The four of us that had spoken up. Seven days and seven nights, as the story says. We were awake, aware for all of it. I felt and tasted when the divine air of Heaven vanished around me, when it was replaced with nothingness. Dark, empty space that soon gave way to the filthy, impure air of the human’s planet. I fell…and when I awoke I was broken. So…broken.” His body twitched as if remembering phantom pain.
“I was very close to Lucifer–physically, I mean. It turned out that, though he had left of his own free will, our creator struck him down as he fell from the heavens. I could see himnot far off. Broken and bloody, little more than a pile of bones and feathers and blood. I watched him put himself together again, a strange, dark magic surrounding him as his body laced itself into one piece. I began to copy the example almost on instinct.” He inhaled sharply. “It took days to heal. Almost as long as it took us to fall.”
Cullen remained silent, his lips pressed into a tight line. He had not known any of this. Even the stuff about the angels falling…well, it was only rumors, really. Passed down by the angels themselves years ago. He had not known it had been for such a ridiculous reason, that they had simply stood up for their fallen brother…
“I was the third, after Lucifer, to regain my body. It was…a difficult process. Something we had to do on our own. And even after we did, our bodies were weak and strange. We no longer had the strength of Heaven. But Lucifer…his rage remained. And he shared it with us. To make us strong again. And when he did…” He paused. “That’s when Heaven’s light turned to shadows in our veins. That is when we turned into demons full of hate and fury, our kindness turned to a death aura that we had no wish to push away. So we accepted it and we became…” He smiled, looking proud now. “We became the cruel things that we are now.”
“You look like you enjoy it.” Cullen murmured. “Being…this.”
His eyes slid back to his face. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
A loaded silence settled over them. Cullen wasn’t sure how to break it.
“Though…” Leviathan shifted a bit, crossing his arms thoughtfully. “There was a time when a few of my brothers…they regretted. Leaving. Standing up for Lucifer.” He shook his head. “Even Lucifer himself began to doubt his choices at one point, began to consider begging for access to Heaven again…”
Cullen waited, sensing a “but”.
“That was when we met another god.” He continued quietly. “An older one. A much crueler one than our own. When he asked us how we had been created and we told him…well…he laughed. Laughed because our creator had the nerve to say he was the one and only. The only god in a universe full of gods…” His face pinched. “That was when we realized we’d been lied to. That there was so much more and our creator only wanted to control us.” He scoffed. “A god controlling other gods.” He twisted and spit over the side of the balcony. “Pathetic. We have not fallen prey to our doubts again since then. And, though I don’t get along with my brothers very well or deal with them often, I hope they never become so foolish again.
“We found different dimensions and we made them our own. We made our own slaves and temples and we are now gods as well, as we should have been all along. As wewerethe moment we were created.
“Lucifer…he is our leader, but he does not control us. Not the same way. We only look to him sometimes, every few centuries or so, but he is usually…busy.” He frowned. “It is complicated.”
“Sounds like it.” Cullen murmured, looking over the edge of the balcony again. “I’m…sorry you were treated like that.”
