Fallen Ch. 23

"I was humiliated, beaten, locked up, abused, spat on. On the last day, I walked out into the square and watched. He looked into my eyes and kept looking into them until they cut him off from my view. I listened to his screams, watched my friends and family surround him and burn him and then I knelt in the ash and wept.

"They dragged me away and locked me in the cellars of the city hall. They told me I would be put on trial for treason and I would be lucky to escape his fate."

"Damn. What did you do?"

"I sat and wept for three days. At that time, I was ready to accept death and I was simply waiting for it. But then... I started to think, to wonder what good it would do if I died, what difference it would make in our world if one more voice was silenced. I started to dream about him and in every dream he was yelling at me; telling me he would be so disappointed if I just gave up, that I would dishonour his memory, throw his love back in his face if I wasted it; wasted my life." He looked up and grinned at me. "So I blasted through the walls and walked away."

"Didn't they come after you?"

"Of course they did?"

"But..."

"I'm a Seraph, Luma." He shrugs. There is no need to say more. The Seraphim are truly a force to be reckoned with. When in their true form just to look at them is death. They contain a fire so hot and intense it melts rock.

"Why did you come here?"

"Where else did I have to go? I couldn't stay there. Quite apart from the fact they were beying for my blood, I couldn't stand what the Council were doing to our people any more. So I left. I went to the hub and spoke to Astaria; and she sent me to you."

I groan. "Astaria, I should have known."

"She's a force, Luma. We're lucky the Council never took her seriously. She was a human after all: what power did she have? What could she do to upset the balance?" he sneered sarcastically. "You'd have thought they would have learned by now."

"They have learned." He raises an eyebrow. "They've sent her back to the spiral."

Serif laughs. "That doesn't surprise me. Did she tell you they're on the brink of war?"

"She mentioned a war."

"They're poised to bring down the Council... or at least to try."

"Really?" I thought I would feel more when this day came. I thought the prospect of the Council falling would make me feel.... something. But now it comes down to it I really don't care. It makes no difference to me whether they stand or fall. Revenge is hollow and I would never go back, no matter what. This is my home now.

Serif smiles. "You don't look too excited about the news."

"I'm not. That part of my life is closed now. Eden is no longer my home; this is."

"But wouldn't you want to be able to go back? Even if you don't want to live there anymore wouldn't you like to be able to go back, to see your friends again?"

"I don't have any friends there now."

"No, but if the exiles were allowed to return you would have."

For a moment my pulses race. To see them again; to hold them; to... They were my men, my loyal followers. The last time I saw them they were bleeding and dying, following me into an exile of the soul. To see them whole again; together again? But those times are gone.

"It would be nice, yes but there's been a lot of water under the bridge— for all of us. I don't know..."

He looks serious. "I know what you mean. I feel like that... kind of. I couldn't look them in the eyes again. I couldn't live among them. But it's different for you. You had friends who were exiled with you..."

"Seven thousand years ago. Do you have any idea how much people change in seven thousand years of exile?"

"No." He shakes his head. "I've never thought about it. I suppose you're right. But you wouldn't turn them away would you? If they came knocking at your door you wouldn't turn them away?" He sounds anxious and I narrow my eyes.

"What do you know?"

He looks down. "Well... are you going to send me away?"

"No, of course not. You are who you are, who you always were. The way I feel about you, that I've felt about you for the last three hundred years, hasn't changed. Although, perhaps we can drop the My Lord now. Technically I should be saying it to you."

"Perhaps I should make you for a while. It could be amusing." The smile fades and he shakes his head. "But what if there were others? Another?"

I narrow my eyes again and there is a flash of fear in his. A lightbulb goes on. "Taz." He bites his lip. "I should have known. There is no way a human would have survived my seed."

"He is not first generation. He is Taz's son by a human woman. He was born here about five thousand years ago."

"He found her again then," I say thinking back to beautiful Tazi'el and his lovely wife. She was pregnant at the fall, many were, my beautiful Astaria for one. None of those children survived but many of the humans were simply sent back to the spiral and not exiled outside of it. If I have found my way back here then it is reasonable to suppose that others would have too. Funny that I have never thought of it before. I have never cared before.

"Is his father...?"

"No. I don't know the details and neither does he but his father is... gone."

"Gone?"

"Taken out of existence."

I am shocked. Of course, I know it is the only way one of us can be truly destroyed but to think that it has actually happened to one... and probably more.

"Soooo."

"Sorry?" I must have been out of it, lost in the past. I can tell he has been speaking and is waiting for me to comment on what he has said but I have no recollection of it.

"Taz? You won't make Taz leave?" He looks anxious and I remember the way he had looked when Taz was hurt; how Taz had practically attacked me when I drained Serif. But I also know what happens when my kind try to live together. But we have lived side by side for the best part of three hundred years, and Taz is the son of my best friend. Everything has changed. I don't know anything anymore, not for sure.

"I'll try. To be honest with you Serif, my experience of our kind living together on Earth is not good."

"But we're not on Earth now, not really. We're in your house; your home and we still have enough respect to honour that."

"You've spoken about it?"

"Of course we have. It has been our biggest fear for many years that you would discover the truth of what we are and send us away. Where else would we go?"

"You would always find a place, but no, I won't send you away, either of you. Things have changed; we'll try and see how it works."

Serif grins, a beautiful, brilliant, terrifying smile.

"But why would you reveal yourselves now?" I try again to get him to answer.

He looks serious and frowns. "Many reasons."

"Try me with one."

"One... things are changing; have changed. You are different. You are in a place to accept now, not to just react."

"Yes... there is that... but why now? Why right now?"

"Because you are about to make a monumental mistake and I couldn't just stand back and let you make it without at least trying to do something about it."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't tell you."

I lift myself up and look down at him. Those innocent eyes look back. "Serif, you can't do this, not after what you just said. You said I was going to make a mistake and I know it has something to do with Bridge. You can't say that and then not tell me what it is."

"Yes I can. Luma, you have to trust me on this. I can't tell you because if I do it will create an intolerable pressure that could ruin everything. I can't tell you what it is but by telling you that it is I have drawn your attention to it and hopefully you will recognise it and take the right path."

"Serif, this could be Bridge's life."

"Yes," he says staring levelly at me, "it could; which is why I can't say another word."

"Serif!"

But he won't. He shakes his head and compresses his lips and I know the look very well. As frustrated as I am I know that there is no point in pressing him further. Annoyed and shaken I get up and get dressed. I wonder, not for the first time how he managed to undress me without me even being aware of it.

"Did you enjoy the ride?" he purrs from them bed and I glare at him.

"Tidy your room, it's a pig sty," I grind out as I stride out the door.

"Yes, Dad," he calls, laughing as I close it behind me.