Gabriel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
impudentsongbird) wrote2012-08-20 08:38 pm
impudentsongbird) wrote2012-08-20 08:38 pm
Entry tags:
let me be the one you call / if you jump I'll break your fall
1 | into the breach
2 | finding skulduggery
3 | retreat to the tunnels
4 | into the cacophony
5 | sanctuary in the cathedral
6 | reuniting old friends
7 | kenspeckle's new patient
8 | holy water and disinfectant
9 | objecting to china sorrows
10 | the roadtrip
11 | baffling guild
12 | shenanigans at the safehouse
13 | reassuring fletcher
14 | valkyrie's intervention
15 | solomon's revelation
16 | visiting the edgleys
17 | recalled to the sanctuary
18 | guild's confusion
19 | gabe is busted
20 | the psychic tattoist
21 | envisioning the cacophony
22 | angel's first migraine
23 | the morning after
24 | china and solomon
25 | detectives' council of war
26 | china's foolishness
27 | the collector dethroned
28 | finding crux
29 | skulduggery's vileness revealed
30 | sorrows in aftermath
31 | finding equilibrium
32 | the devil's number
33 | at the carnival
34 | meeting authorities
35 | solomon's confession
36 | the stray soul
37 | sanguine unsettled
38 | solomon's choice
39 | a cowboy underground
40 | in scarab's basement
41 | striking midnight
42 | craven contested
43 | emergency services
44 | on your feet
45 | and don't stop moving
46 | easy recognition
47 | a deuce of an evening
48 | engines roaring
49 | compromising judgements
50 | solomon's conflict
51 | axis turning
52 | thinking circular
53 | blasting the past
54 | reviling vile
Book Five: Mortal Coil
55 | sanctuary unsanctified
56 | shudder unravelling
57 | catching an angel
58 | layering dimensions
59 | dead men meeting
60 | when it rains
61 | power plays
62 | sing on gold
63 | the valley of death
64 | grand aspersions
65 | no evil feared
66 | new days rising
67 | angelic neuroses
68 | step-brothers working
69 | the many sorrows of china
70 | peacefully wreathed
71 | tarnished gold
72 | the secret in darkness
73 | magical intent
74 | scars worth keeping
75 | benefits of a beau
76 | grand magery
77 | lighting the darkness
78 | old dogs and new tricks
79 | flouting traditions
80 | drawing lines
81 | brothers and sisters in arms
82 | channelling angels
83 | return of the carnies
84 | the death bringers
85 | meriting agelessness
86 | knick knack, paddy
87 | give a dog a bone
88 | americans propheteering
89 | the right side of honour
90 | tailored shocks
91 | hosting angels
92 | elders anonymous
93 | rediscovered strays
94 | changings and changelings
95 | a state of reflection
96 | adding hope
97 | the devil's truth
98 | dead mens' hospitality
99 | lives half lived
100 | next to godliness
101 | devilish plans
102 | beached angels
103 | lights of revelation
104 | heroes worshipped
105 | new devilries
106 | angels under the yoke
107 | brains frozen
108 | father, mother, daughter
109 | parental guidance recommended
110 | driven round the bend
111 | ongoing training
112 | privileged information
113 | reasonable men
114 | passing the buck
115 | gifting magicks
116 | strengths and weaknesses
117 | immaturity's perks
118 | priests and prophets
119 | scaling evil
120 | blowing covers
121 | marring an afternoon
122 | lie detection
123 | five-dimensional pain
124 | reliving nightmares
125 | taking stock
126 | sampling spices
127 | sleeping prophets lying
128 | rueful returns
129 | dead men reunion
130 | medically-approved hugs
The life of an angel was a contradiction in changes and stability. On one hand, they understood very well the way the cosmos was shaped by events within it. On the other, they stood at one step apart from it—or at least had, for a very long time, up until their Master's recent wager with Lucifer. Changes in the recent past had, even for angels, been fast and turbulent, but there were none that concerned Raphael more than Gabriel's abrupt reserve.
In the aftermath of the wager Gabriel had been almost the only one to know where their Lord was at any given time, a fact which had put the Archangel very firmly under Lucifer's radar. Raphael had joked that Gabriel ought to arm himself with more jokes or worse clothes to drive the fallen angel away; Michael had offered the peace of the Garden Coast. (Rafe thought his idea was better.)
Either way, even though their Master was fair hidden, every angel knew that they had only to ask Gabriel and the Archangel would pass on a message.
Then Gabriel had simply blipped off the radar himself. Poof! Gone! No one had noticed at first, because, well, they weren't exactly in constant connection. It was just when Raphael had taken a whim to seek out his younger brother that he'd noticed it, and let it be, because there was absolutely a reason for it. Gabe did not just off and vanish, except that once with his self-exile, and that didn’t count.
But when Gabriel had come back, he had been strangely agitated and yet close-mouthed. The younger Archangel had vanished off to wherever their Master was hidden for a long chat Raphael was dying to have listened into, and yet couldn't (but only partly because it would have been rude). Now he was here, floating among the stars and examining a black hole with unnerving intensity.
For a time Raphael watched without letting on that he was there, but eventually Gabriel spoke. “I’d rather you came to join me instead of lurking, brother.”
Absolutely refusing to feel chagrined, Raphael let himself manifest with an arm around Gabriel’s shoulders and ruffled the younger angel’s hair. Gabriel threw a fond, longsuffering glance up at him, but there was something in his eyes, something distracted and sharp, which indicated that Gabriel still wasn’t truly present. Raphael only wished he knew where the other Archangel was.
“Just wondering what you’re doin’ all the way out here,” he said teasingly. “There’s a party going on down there on Earth, Gabe.” There was always a party going on down on Earth. “You oughta be down there bobbin’ for apples and switching up party-hats!”
“I can’t,” Gabriel said quietly, with a sort of seriousness Raphael had, for all Gabriel’s literalness, rarely heard from him. So Raphael fell into the same seriousness, lost his playful accent, and spoke directly.
“Why not, brother? You’ve been reserved of late. I conf—I’m worried for you.”
For a very long time Gabriel said nothing and stared into the slow-turning swirl of the black hole. Raphael waited patiently, his arm still companionably across the other Archangel’s shoulders. Eventually Gabriel spoke. “Did you know, Raphael,” he said, “that the universe you see around you here isn’t the only one our Master has created?”
Raphael was so startled that he couldn’t answer. That wasn’t what he was imagining. He hadn’t been sure what he’d been imagining, but that wasn’t it. “I’m not sure what you mean, Gabriel,” he said after a moment. “Our Lord told me the story of Creation not all that long ago, and he never mentioned anything of the kind.”
Gabriel nodded. “He told me that story as well. And then He asked if I really wanted to know details.” He hesitated. “I … admit, I declined. It’s something He said—about faith. I decided I didn’t need to know details. But it’s true, nevertheless. Just beyond this …” The Archangel reached out his hand and touched that gossamer and unbreakable fabric that supported reality. “There are other universes, even with different versions of us.”
“Different versions of us?” Raphael repeated, appalled and uncertain and entirely confused. How could that be possible? What could their Master want with more than one of any of them? What was going on? Where had Gabriel gone in that time he’d vanished? Then something occurred to him and he smiled with relief. “This is a joke, right?”
Gabriel looked up at him and smiled back with such a gentle understanding that for a moment Raphael felt very small indeed. “No, Rafe. I’m not joking. It was a shock to me too. That isn’t the point, though.”
“Isn’t it?” Raphael asked, feeling as dazed as an angel possibly could, especially when he wasn’t even inhabiting an actual physical body.
“No.” Gabriel returned to watching the black hole intently. “I met some people from other realities. One of them is in a kind of Hell, and he very much does not deserve it. I promised him that, if I could, I would save him from it.”
Which did not in the least explain why Gabe was staring at a black hole, let alone a million other questions Raphael would have liked to ask and for which he couldn’t find the words. Finally he found one. “How?”
“First,” Gabriel said with a sort of tranquillity Raphael had heard in his brother’s voice a million times but never after delivering so turbulent a piece of news, “I’m going to jimmy open a crack in the door through this hole.”
Raphael stared at Gabe, and then at the black hole, and then back at Gabe. He opened his mouth to ask whether their Master knew he was planning this and then closed it, because that was a stupid question. He opened it again to query if Gabriel had asked whether he could go around lifting the sheets and then realised that was also a stupid question, because whether he had or not, their Master probably would have told him to do what he felt was best.
It was equally clear that Gabriel very much planned to go through with this, no matter what Raphael said, and really, did Raphael have the right to object? Surely if this carried a risk, their Master would have already forbidden Gabriel from making the attempt?
“I’ll come with,” Raphael said at last, and this time when Gabriel glanced back the younger Archangel’s expression was startled. A moment later that expression shifted into grateful apology.
“I’m sorry, Rafe, but I’m not entirely certain I’ll make it through, and we can hardly leave Michael here alone.” He grinned. “Did you see what he was wearing last festival day on the Garden Coast? He hasn’t moved out of the eighteenth century yet. How would he possibly handle the rest of the world?”
Raphael laughed out loud, warm but startled, and the sound of it rang through space. Gabriel chuckled quietly beside him, and for a few minutes there was just companionable humour that faded into an equally comfortable silence.
Still, Raphael had a lot of questions. How did Gabriel plan to find his friend, let alone the universe he was in? How was he going to get back? What would he do if he met another version of himself? Or, worse, Lucifer? Finally the Archangel just asked, “Have you figured out how to crack open the door?”
“I think so,” Gabriel said, considering the black hole. “Once I figured out what to look for. I wouldn’t have gotten even that far if it weren’t for some things our Master said.”
Which meant that, in some fashion, this expedition was sanctioned by their Master, Raphael translated, and something tense in him relaxed. “Something do to with this drain here, I’ll bet,” he said, falling into his casual accent once more. “Gonna rip out the kitchen sink, li’l brother?”
“Just to see what’s hiding underneath,” Gabriel said with a grin.
“I’ll try’n keep it open for ya,” Raphael promised, and Gabriel sent him a smile which lit up the very space around them with its brilliance.
“Thank you, Rafe,” he said, and straightened. Raphael took his arm away as Gabriel lifted his hands, not exactly stepping back so much as giving Gabriel space. The youngest Archangel didn’t often reveal his power, but it was always a sight to see, a song to hear, when he did.
As it was now. Gabriel’s voice started deep, lifted high, split and wove and became more melodies than one would think a single being could possibly sing at once. The sound of it made Raphael’s heart soar, made him want to fly and laugh. It was so deep, so light, so resonating that it was physical; it touched the slow turn of the black hole and made it, for just the briefest of moments, still. In that moment Gabriel sent a carefully-aimed bolt of energy into the heart of it.
It was the kind of sight Raphael hadn’t seen in thousands of years, a play of physics and metaphysics which he hadn’t thought possible, let alone imagined. There was an eruption in the centre of the black hole, where gravity was condensed; the cascade of energy plumed upward and was dragged back down as quick, a tear in the fabric of the reality not allowed the time to widen or become a danger.
Raphael didn’t even know Gabe had moved until the younger Archangel was gone, he was so busy staring in awe. With a start the Archangel stretched out his senses and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of his brother shooting toward the hole at speeds few angels could have achieved through such a gravity well. Raphael certainly couldn’t have.
How, he suddenly wondered, was he meant to keep that open if he didn’t even have the speed of thought to track Gabriel’s movements through it?
Desperately the Archangel cast about for something to jam in the door, as it were. There was some dark matter nearby and with a thought he fashioned it into a spear and pitched it toward the centre of the black hole. It struck just as Gabriel flitted through the crack nearly wholly collapsed in on itself; the star’s gravity caught it, pulled it in, and plugged the opening like a metaphysical sink.
Slowly Raphael made every part of himself relax. For good or ill, Gabe was gone on this quest of his, and now Raphael should probably go and round up some of their younger siblings to guard the area. Just in case.
into the breach | finding skulduggery | retreat to the tunnels | into the cacophony | sanctuary in the cathedral | reuniting old friends | kenspeckle's new patient | holy water and disinfectant | objecting to china sorrows | the roadtrip | baffling guild | shenanigans at the safehouse | reassuring fletcher | valkyrie's intervention | solomon's revelation | visiting the edgleys | recalled to the sanctuary | guild's confusion | gabe is busted | the psychic tattoist | envisioning the cacophony | angel's first migraine | the morning after | china and solomon | detectives' council of war | china's foolishness | the collector dethroned | finding crux | skulduggery's vileness revealed | sorrows in aftermath | finding equilibrium | the devil's number | at the carnival | meeting authorities | solomon's confession | the stray soul | sanguine unsettled | solomon's choice | a cowboy underground | in scarab's basement | striking midnight | craven contested | emergency services | on your feet | and don't stop moving | easy recognition | a deuce of an evening | engines roaring | compromising judgements | solomon's conflict | axis turning | thinking circular | blasting the past | reviling vile
sanctuary unsanctified | shudder unravelling | catching an angel | layering dimensions | dead men meeting | when it rains | power plays | sing on gold | the valley of death | grand aspersions | no evil feared | new days rising | angelic neuroses | step-brothers working | the many sorrows of china | peacefully wreathed | tarnished gold | the secret in darkness | magical intent | scars worth keeping | benefits of a beau | grand magery | lighting the darkness | old dogs and new tricks | flouting traditions | drawing lines | brothers and sisters in arms | channelling angels | return of the carnies | the death bringers | meriting agelessness | knick knack, paddy | give a dog a bone | americans propheteering | the right side of honour | tailored shocks | hosting angels | elders anonymous | rediscovered strays | changings and changelings | a state of reflection | adding hope | the devil's truth | dead mens' hospitality | lives half lived | next to godliness | devilish plans | beached angels | lights of revelation | heroes worshipped | new devilries | angels under the yoke | brains frozen | father, mother, daughter | parental guidance recommended | driven round the bend | ongoing training | privileged information | reasonable men | passing the buck | gifting magicks | strengths and weaknesses | immaturity's perks | priests and prophets | scaling evil | blowing covers | marring an afternoon | lie detection | five-dimensional pain | reliving nightmares | taking stock | sampling spices | sleeping prophets lying | rueful returns | dead men reunion | medically-approved hugs
no subject
Her and the other nurse. Solomon wondered what had happened to him.
"Just because she's leaving," he continued, "doesn't mean she's converting to anything. Just that she's smart and open-minded enough to listen to alternative reasons."
The sigils were bright, bright enough to obscure some of the lifestream's movement outside the door. It was still impossible to miss the way the light pulled inward and darkened, as if a living shadow moved through it. Or like black food-dye in water, billowing this way and that due to the currents. It was thin around the edges. Blurring, as if the dye was slowly dissolving into the water, and if diluted enough it would all disappear. Remaining, in some form, as a past event--but no longer influential. The blurriness wavered--uncertainty.
"Your appointment, Elder Wreath," Tipstaff said from the doorway, and then withdrew without a word. He was, Solomon thought, adjusting really rather well to the eccentricities of his new Council.
"Appointment?" Dexter asked. "Where can I get an appointment like you? I mean, come on, Sol, you've got China. You don't need another one. Can I have her?"
"If she wants to leash you, Vex, she can be my guest," Solomon said tolerantly, but glad the man had chosen to be ... well, himself. The billow of dye in the nurse's soul was made of surprise, but the wavering of that uncertain fear had the potential to make his eyes ache. Dexter's immaturities at least had a tendency to set people at ease.
"Why, speaking from experience? Is this something all the Necromancer ladies specialise in? Should I get out my notebook again?"
"Well, if paper's all y'need, man ..." Raphael grinned and Dexter let out a surprised laugh.
"Have I mentioned that I like you?"
"Hey hey, don't make your new girlfriend jealous now."
Aha. That glimmer, that shine of light through water on the warm stone beneath. Light and warmth always equalled humour. It was faint, and startled--but it was there. Good. That would make this easier.
"Don't mind the children," Solomon said mildly. "They haven't quite grown up yet. Please, take a seat. Assuming--" He glanced toward Erskine, amused and with a raised eyebrow. "Assuming there's actually one in here, seeing as the Reveller has a tendency to sit on the desk."
"How can you tell?" Dexter asked.
"A chair rattles. A desk thuds."
Oops. The nurse sat, but in response to his words the dye drew in and darkened at the centre, in a way that didn't create more of it but just deepened what was there. Shame. "Cl--Elder--S- sir?"
Her voice was small. A voice Solomon knew, now he wasn't drugged up with pain. Not someone who was an equal--probably one of the many acolytes he mentored. Back before he started seriously looking for the Death Bringer. Back before he took on single apprentices.
He wracked his brain for a name. A nurse, but not a Necromancer; no true healer in the Temple had come from the outside because they needed to be properly indoctrinated, without the active use of Necromancy. Solomon had always vaguely wondered why that was. Now he knew. Without Necromancy's addictive hold, indoctrination was the only way the High Priest had of keeping the healers and the Sensitives in check.
There weren't many true healers in the Temple, though. Not since Pierce had proven that Necromancy could be used for surgery--not that there ever had been, really.
"Call me whatever you want, Saffron," he said, and was rewarded with a leap of dual surprise and pleasure.
"Yes ... Sir. I, um. Where do Necromancers' souls go?" She blurted out the last words in the manner of someone who wasn't sure they wanted an answer but couldn't resist the lure of it either.
"Why does it matter?" he asked. "You're not a Necromancer."
"No, but ..." She hesitated, and if she did anything or looked anywhere he couldn't tell.
"But?" Gabe said softly and encouragingly, giving her that devastatingly gentle smile even Solomon hadn't really been able to resist. Someone like Saffron Sweetgrass, a true healer, didn't have a chance. She, and others like her, were the nearest things to gentle the Necromancers had. Most of the others called them 'weak', too weak to take the measures necessary to even keep themselves alive. Too weak to murder.
"But I live there," she whispered. "If something happens to Necromancers' souls, something other than what they believe, why wouldn't it happen to mine too?"
I live there, present tense, and yet they believe, a distancing phrasing. That was very interesting.
"And?" Solomon prompted her this time. "Do the others know you're here?"
"No. No one's been allowed to leave the Temple except on business vetted by the High Priest or Cleric Quiver."
Aha. Solomon smiled and saw Gabe grin broadly out of the corner of his eye. If Quiver was turning it would all but cripple Tenebrae's powerbase. Good. "Quiver sent you out on business, didn't he?"
"He said Cleric Solus said we needed medical supplies," Saffron said softly. Even though we didn't, went so completely unsaid that it was almost audible. It was certainly visible, so much so that Solomon almost raised his hand against the reverberations between them and in the room.
"And yet here you are," Solomon observed softly. "Why?"
"Because you're here," Saffron admitted. "Souls are important. The Temple taught us that. If they weren't, we wouldn't be so afraid of what happens to them. So if Solomon Wreath leaves because of something he discovered about what really happens to them, then--"
Dexter was laughing. Solomon threw him a look very much like the one he'd thrown to Erskine and Skulduggery. "Why, Prophet Wreath," Rafe said innocently and with a huge grin, "you have a fan."
"Rafe," Merlin said mildly from where he was still examining the walls, though Solomon could see in his soul the attention he was still peripherally paying to the conversation. "Shut up."
"And don't call me prophet," Solomon muttered, not exactly feeling embarrassed but rather awkward by the title in front of a woman who had left everything she'd ever known just because he'd done it first. In spite of all the teasing, he'd, well ... it had been teasing. He hadn't taken it seriously. At all.
And he still didn't want to. He was a crippled man taking on far more than he could possibly handle for reasons beyond him, seeing as it apparently wasn't helping protect him from assassination attempts. The very last thing he needed was for people to actually start expecting some kind of spiritual protection from him as well as physical leadership. He'd spoken to this woman directly, encouraged her to think past the Temple's teachings while in the middle of a pained stupor. That was the only reason he felt any obligation to her at all.
"Morwenna Crow left the Temple without much trouble," he said a little sourly, still refraining from actually scowling at Rafe. (He frowned, though.) "You aren't actually a Necromancer. You'll be fine."
Saffron said nothing, but her soul ... did something. It didn't darken, but it pulled together, condensing and withdrawing. Gabe's light reached out in response. Solomon sighed before the Archangel could say anything, but Rafe cut in before he could speak up himself.
"Tenny's takin' Sol's leaving pretty bad, ain't he? You'd think he was jealous."
Saffron giggled a quiet, startled giggle that cut off into equally startled silence. As if she'd just done something taboo. Which, in the Temple, she had. Tenebrae took himself too seriously for that.
"Not really," she said self-consciously. "I mean, no leaving the Temple except on business. I thought--I was afraid--I mean, Dragonclaw ..."
"Tenebrae," Solomon said, "has a long history of disliking being crossed."
"But you did it."
"I'm a masochist." He wished she wouldn't keep making excuses for him. He didn't want her respect. He certainly didn't want what he suspected was coming remarkably close to hero-worship.
"I saw you fight Lord Vile." The words were so abrupt, more abrupt even than her beginning, and their unexpectedness made Solomon stiffen. After a beat Saffron continued more hesitantly. "I was there. When the High Priest made you duel. You were the only one to survive. If you can ... I mean, Lord Vile ... and then stand up to the High Priest ..."
Dammit. He wasn't going to get out of actually investing in helping her, was he?