"Well, yes," Gabriel admitted with a gentle smile, perhaps not entirely oblivious to Tanith's reaction but choosing to ignore it. "I'd been to America before, but for the colonists, it was entirely new land. What they were doing took daring and courage, and although I can't countenance a great many of their choices while they made the journey, it was in many other ways glorious to behold."
He tilted his head a little, just enough to catch Ghastly out of the corner of his eye, and the smile quirked up into a measure of amusement. "Eden didn't come first," the Archangel said. "It was cultivated by the Ancients. After my fallen siblings were banished to Earth, Lucifer and his ilk created a ... a metaphysical dungeon, I suppose you could call it, so they didn't have to walk the planet surface. But the others, the ones who repented, took the beauty already on the Earth and made it greater."
Gabriel sighed and shook his head, and then winced, pressing a hand to his temple. "Of course, Lucifer couldn't bear that," he said, his mouth drawn rather tightly. "He did everything in his power to see it destroyed. In the end, he succeeded--but only partly. Remnants of it were left hidden all across the globe, and many of the Ancients' descendants settled in such places as caretakers."
There had already been Native American caretakers fostering the Garden Coast, but once it became clear that America was to be colonised, it seemed prudent to ensure the Europeans and Native Americans of the blood should be joined in friendship, rather than risk Lucifer inciting a war over that most precious of territory.
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He tilted his head a little, just enough to catch Ghastly out of the corner of his eye, and the smile quirked up into a measure of amusement. "Eden didn't come first," the Archangel said. "It was cultivated by the Ancients. After my fallen siblings were banished to Earth, Lucifer and his ilk created a ... a metaphysical dungeon, I suppose you could call it, so they didn't have to walk the planet surface. But the others, the ones who repented, took the beauty already on the Earth and made it greater."
Gabriel sighed and shook his head, and then winced, pressing a hand to his temple. "Of course, Lucifer couldn't bear that," he said, his mouth drawn rather tightly. "He did everything in his power to see it destroyed. In the end, he succeeded--but only partly. Remnants of it were left hidden all across the globe, and many of the Ancients' descendants settled in such places as caretakers."
There had already been Native American caretakers fostering the Garden Coast, but once it became clear that America was to be colonised, it seemed prudent to ensure the Europeans and Native Americans of the blood should be joined in friendship, rather than risk Lucifer inciting a war over that most precious of territory.