He sighed again, but the space around me seemed to warm slightly. “Mother only knows. I was a… child, of sorts, for a very long while. I was the first. Mother always knew She wanted a large family. She got a bit overexcited.” He stopped to laugh. “When the rest of my siblings came along, it grew crowded in the Celestial Realm. So She gave me a task. I was to build Sanctuary as a place for me and my siblings to learn, and grow. And to keep an eye on one of Her favorite projects.”
Earth?
“Yes. She created it out of the excess love that was generated when She gave birth to each of Her Celestial children, the first of the High Angeli.”
The High Angeli all have powers.Telepathy, right? And they can speak the language without the headaches. What else can they do?
“Lots of things. We can control others’ perception of our forms to some extent. Hold onto or even extend moments that are important. Like this one.” I felt a hand slide down what I hoped was hair. “There are some other ancient gifts that fell out of use. We didn’t need them for our work tending Earth, so we didn’t practice them.”
I thought about Earth for a while, and mothers, and children, while he rolled my arms and legs out like clay snakes.Does She love them, Rumple? The humans. Like Her own children?
“She loves every human on Earth as much as She loves me.”
Then why does She make them go to the Abyss?I asked after a while.Why did She ask you to go?
“Motherallowedme to come here,” he replied after a very long while. “And I love Her enough to stay, and care for Her lost ones until…”
His voice trailed off, and I drifted to sleep again as he sang a song of flesh and feathers, softness and strength, and bright spirits leaping out into the void, clad only in ribbons of love and glowing threads of faith. Faith that the Mother of All would catch them before their light went out.
Chapter 5
Righteous
Istood in the Flight Hall, watching as Gavriel spread his wings, leaped out into the void, and vanished. I knew where he’d gone, that the veil separating Sanctuary and the sky above the South Pole of Earth was so thin that even the weight of one feather on it opened a space large enough to fall through. Before, I’d only been allowed into this Hall when I had missions, but as temporary leader of Sanctuary, I was in control of whocame and went from here. The only other way out of the realm was the small portal in the Maker Hall that no Protector would fit through, the one for new Novices on their first trip to Earth.
Not that there would be any more Novices. Mikhail’s state had shaken me to my core. I had no idea losing a mate could wreak such havoc on a High Angelus. It was as if his very soul had been torn out of him.
But of course, it had already been torn hundreds of times, and he had done it to himself. The memory of my one encounter with the soul knife was enough to make me shudder now. The scars that littered his body, gouges in his physical form that were evidence of just how much he had sacrificed to keep Sanctuary going over the centuries—they had sickened me.
They hadn’t sickened Sunny, though. She’d seen the soul smut he’d taken on for Feather’s sake, and the cuts all over him, and instead of reacting, just nodded once. Then she’d demanded a Novice send her cloth, purifying oils, and as much food as the Dining Hall could spare, and begun wiping him down, cajoling him when he woke into taking small sips of the energy-laced water.
Only a day before, we’d all wondered if we would have food or water for long in Sanctuary. With the gate failing, draining our realm of its power, everyone had known what lay ahead: a dwindling death for us all, ending with the Abyss taking over, rampaging through our halls, and moving on to the Celestial Realm itself.
But Feather’s act of sacrifice had halted the leaking of energy, and already I could feel myself growing stronger. Maybe Mikhail would as well, though with Sanctuary drawing on him to sustain it, I wasn’t sure how quickly he might rebound. And I had a feeling losing Feather would be a wound that might never heal.
For him, or for me.
A knock sounded at the door to the Hall, and I took a deep breath, smoothing my features to face whoever was in the corridor. Gavriel had only just taught me the angelic word to open this Hall, and my jaws still hurt from saying it once. I needed to ascend to do my job, and that meant I had to get purified, even with Feather gone. I had put off using the soul knife. But I had no choice; Sanctuary would need a new High Angelus with Gavriel on Earth, and Mikhail fading by the minute. I wasn’t worthy, but I needed to be ready.
“Coming,” I called out when the knock sounded again, and I spoke the word aloud, fighting to control the headache that resulted.
“Feeling unwell, Protector Righteous?” The Protector at the door was the last one I wanted to see. For centuries, he’d insisted on seeing our standing as a competition, and he would not like answering to me instead of Gavriel.
I wiped my expression clean. “Valor, how kind of you to be concerned. What do you need?”
His lips twisted into a half-smile. “I had heard you were unwell. That you had lost your mind, somehow. When I learned High Angelus Gavriel had given you the keys to our kingdom, as it were—the angelic words to this Hall, no less—without examining you for soul damage, I thought I’d come check on you myself. And alert Gavriel to your condition.”
“Gavriel is gone,” I said calmly, ignoring the veiled threat. “You can tell him about your concerns when he returns.”
“And when will that be?” Valor pushed his dark hair away from his face, his gaze trailing down my muddied robes. I hadn’t had time to change, and to my surprise, found that I didn’t care what my robes looked like when there were far more important concerns, like saving all the realms. Though the vague hint of odor that seemed to waft around me as I stood before Valor wasenough to make me want to change before my meeting with the Head Guide.
Valor was immaculately clothed as always, even his wings shining—wait, was that…I bit the inside of my lip to keep from smiling as I realized a small fleck of glitter had found its way onto his wing. He narrowed his eyes slightly, so I may not have succeeded entirely.
“I’m afraid he’ll be gone for an extended mission,” I said. “And I’m perfectly capable of doing as he asked.”
Valor sneered. “You were seen trying to cut off your own wings, Righteous. You are patently not capable of caring for the whole of Sanctuary. You’ve lost your mind, probably around the same time you started panting after that disgusting little Novice?—”
I didn’t even remember pulling my fist back. I blinked, and Valor was lying on the floor in front of me, one hand cupped over his face. His voice was muffled as he protested, his nose already swelling and bleeding onto his formerly clean robe, “You punched me!”
