I saw this morning, morning’s minion...
Jason's apartment was fairly spacious. In fact, it appeared to have originally been 2 two-bedroom apartments. The kitchen, dining room and living rooms from the two apartments had been merged. This had resulted in a fairly large kitchen, a dining room that could fit 10 comfortably and a spacious living room filled with chairs and couches. There was also a combination library and study that was filled with books of all types, including an impressive collection of Medical references and Occult lore.
Three of the bedrooms contained two beds, while Jason's own room had a single large bed. The bedrooms each had a door to one of two bathrooms. There was another bathroom off the living room and dining room. There was a small wash room, with a washer and dryer, off of Jason's room.
There were a number of closets about, all seemed filled with clothing in various sizes and other necessities for people without a home. The whole place was like a hotel in some sense, and yet made to be as comfortable and 'home-like' as possible.
Jason was apparently used to having guests. Many times in the past he had brought home those who have lost theirs to a fire or man-made disaster, or given shelter to those he was protecting. Other times exchange students or friends had slept here. And of course the occasional Angel had been through on their way somewhere.
The place was sufficiently large that several humans could sleep comfortably away in the rooms, and any number of angels could conduct quiet war meetings happily in the front lounge area, with the view of the city before them.
Jason plopped down into a comfortable chair. "What a horrible day. I wish I could be optimistic that today will be better, but I fear that it will be even worse...if that is possible." He shook his head and was quiet for awhile.
Suddenly he smiled. "And yet, it was quite possibly the best day of my life." When Lynne gave a questioning glance he continued. "Ever since the fall I have hoped and prayed for Ashikel. She was one of my closest friends before the War, and I had hoped for the day that she would be redeemed. And today was the day. She might be gone forever, but at least she left an Angel."
The other angel listened quietly and then nodded with a glimmer of understanding. "I'm only sorry that we weren't there sooner, that things didn't work out better. Maybe you just have good taste in friends.." she smiled quietly. "I.. think its sometimes instructive to see how people can change when they are given the chance. Maybe it would be nice to see it more often."
She looked as though she might say more but instead turned back to the window, studying the lights outside in the darkness of predawn. When she spoke it was in a quote
'I saw this morning morning's minion, kingdom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn drawn falcon...'
Jason finished for her "... in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he run upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckel! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion. !"
He smiled "The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins"
Lynne laughed softly, "You recite poetry so much better than I do! I don't even remember which of my friends showed it to me but I always liked it. Something so bright in the words... I like to think we could be like that..."
She added, after a moment, "Thank you," and it seemed heartfelt.
Jason sighed, "Well, we better start thinking about what to do next. We can follow after Raphael, using his/her heart to track her/him. But I am not sure how well the three of us would fare...actually, come to think of it, I am pretty sure I know exactly how well we would fare." He gave a mirthless smile.
Lynne nodded. "I was thinking about that myself. I was advised to speak with him, but there doesn't seem much point in throwing our lives away unless we have a good chance of success. As far as tracking goes, I wondered if Karen had already attuned to him anyway.." she waved a hand, "Something about her aura. The main thing we can do for him now is to keep the hearts safe -- I've been turning it over in my mind and unless we can think of some stunning plan I just don't feel up to storming the gates of hell." It was something of an admission of failure. She was given an instruction which she couldn't carry out.
"Did you have much time to think about what Yves said to you though? I didn't want to press Josh too hard last night but I can't really think how to interpret it all."
Jason nodded "I have at that. I am not positive what to think, except that things are seriously wrong. He mentioned that the tether was not broken that was sought. But I have no idea what he meant. He mentioned the Second Horseman, War, meeting the one given his own name, I assume Michael who is the ArchAngel of War. The Fourth Horseman, Death, descends onto the right hand of the Bringer of Light, Michael again, and becomes true to its name."
Jason sighed "Most of that certainly seems to indicate that Michael is a pretty central figure in what is going on. Then there was mention of the last dragon, Satan, holding the key. Also that 'that which is written has been re-written' which probably has to do with the fact that the Revelations of John being undone. I have no idea what is meant by 'from the ethereal skies shall the paths be made open.' Although Michael was mentioned again after that."
Lynne skimmed through her own scribbled notes and dotted in a few more. She nodded to Jason's comments and twirled a pen between her fingertips. "Ethereal skies... am I too literal minded if I think that might mean something out in the Marches?"
"Quite possibly" Jason agreed "I'm just not sure what to do about it. I guess if we meet up with any of Novalis' servitors we can ask them."
Jason's mood seemed to take a turn for the worse at this point "Then there is the comment about the Lamb, Jesus, not holding the scroll, and that Israfel has been forsworn." Jason sighed. "Not very heartening news."
Jason paced for awhile, thinking about what had happened. "Like I said, I am not sure what all of it means, but there are a couple of things that seem to be obvious. Michael is a big player in what is going on and all is not going according to God's plan."
"Maybe the plan has changed," Lynne frowned. "Just because we don't understand the plan doesn't mean its broken. That’s heretical thinking and I don't find it very helpful." she stabbed the pen into her notebook as she scribbled more, unhappy at something.
Jason said, "I could attune myself to Hablashim's secretary and see which celestial is planning to kill him. But I don't really want to do that unless someone else is around who has a bit more combat experience. Or we could go looking for some other Angels. Nathaniel for one."
She nodded to that. "Its really partly curiousity that put me on his track. I was half-thinking of suggesting we just go to Notre-Dame, try to find some of the angels we know are meeting there and drag the information out of them somehow. Its the most likely place to find Nat anyway -- he works for Laurence, or did." This time her eyes darkened, "I want to know what's going on, Jason. I /really/ want to know. I don't.. want to waste time unnecessarily .. but its just trying to work out which the most important bits are. Sure, I could try to find this woman doctor who spoke to him when the quiet hit but I don't know what she'll be able to say. I like to work off my instincts and.. I just don't have one at the moment."
"I am wondering if Nathaniel is OK. I wonder if he is not still around here some where."
"I don't much like combat -- with Karen's help we didn't have too much trouble taking out the pair of demons last night but if there were more than that all bets are off. Could we not just grab this guy and keep him with us anyway, without you needing to attune to him? As long as none of us are the celestials who are going to kill him that should be OK?" Her grin was lop-sided.
Jason shrugged, "I suppose we could, but that might alert those who we are attempting to trap. I would not mind spending the day getting some essence back. I fear that I will need it."
Lynne stared at her notes for awhile before flipping the pad shut, as if searching for answers that just weren't there. "That does sound a lot more practical than most of my ideas," she admitted. "Here's a suggestion then. Today we stay here in New York, we need to wait for Karen anyway and it does make sense for you to work on your essence. If you have a stunningly good day maybe we could donate some to Selindeal, because I know I'd like to hear more of what a seraph has to say. I could use the song of tongues to speak to her if we need, but I don't really want to disturb her unnecessarily. Josh and I will see what we can do about tracking Nat, as best we can. How does that sound?"
"That sounds like a plan." He smiled "Even a good one! The perfect Essence day for me would be a philosophical discussion from 6AM to 8AM, work from 8AM to 4PM, a CPR class from 4PM to 8PM, and 6 hours of studying between then and the following dawn. If you can help with the philosophical discussion, you have until 8PM to investigate. I'll do what I can in terms of contacts and such for you. How does that sound to you?"
The other angel listened to Jason's description of his perfect essence day with a mixture of curiousity and bemusement. "I see you have it all planned out," she grinned finally. "That will suit me fine. I'm just trying to think what manner of philosophical discussion I might be able to help with that would be interesting for you. I've always been quite interested in jurisprudence, if that counts. We used to spend time discussing the relationship between the rights of the individual and the requirements of the state, how and whether it is necessary to ensure the greatest good for the greatest number by curbing those individuals who wish to act against the common interest and I always had quite an interest in utilitarianism myself."
Her tone turned more reflective as she spoke, almost nostalgic. "Is the tyranny of the law worse than the tyranny of the masses? Or ... if you like I could give Josh a shake and you could talk to him about the morality of taxing alcohol." This time she grinned with a gleam of teeth, "I know he gets quite heated about it and he must have had at least 5 hours sleep by now."
Jason sighed "Any discussion will do. We can discuss recent events and their possible implications, or the choices we have made and what they affect. I am always interested in seeing someone else's point-of-view. It has been a long while since I have had a good discussion with another Celestial... except Ashikel, who always seemed to be on the other side of the spectrum. I guess the other angels around here got a bit tired of me after awhile." He gave a remorseful shrug.
The day ahead seemed planned and organized. The few brief hours before the dawn passed in discussion and occasional lighter conversation, and slowly the brightening sky heralded a tingling wash of golden sound, as Dawn began to breaks gently across the eastern sky. A flux of essence filled the two angels, bringing the new day's energy to them. All felt well, as though finally all was as it should be. And of course, this was when something went horribly wrong.
The sound grew, and grew, and grew, amplifying louder and louder, until the very firmament itself, the very framework of reality, shook and trembled at the celestial vibration. Yet the mundane world stayed as always serene and still.
Like static whining between stations, like feedback drowning out all music, like the feeling in your feet as a train approaches a station, it rushed towards the two, building to crescendo. The positive force was tremendous and almost deafening.
When it hit, it was too loud to make out specifics. Perhaps this effect was even by design. It was just so intense as to prevent easy identification. Nevertheless, both angels recognized a signature within it, from an event earlier this century. The noise and the after effect was similar to the one felt after the Tunguska incident in Russia. Neither Jason nor Orli found out who was responsible for that event, or why, but both knew that the reason came from on High. Not since then, or before that, incidents like Sodom and Gomorrah, had such an effect been felt. It was the mark of tremendous celestial energy focused entirely upon one corporeal place, for the purpose of utter destruction.
That the mundane world did not even feel different because of it seemed somehow wrong.
The event came, not with the speed of the Symphony, but delayed, keyed in and locked into the sound of the sun rising over the earth.
Jason crumpled to the floor as the violence erupted across the Symphony. He rocked back and forth feebly holding his hand against his ears in the vain hope that it would somehow numb the sound that ripped through his mind.
After the wave passed he was slow to get to his feet. When he finally did he dab a finger in his ears to make sure they were not bleeding, seeming slightly surprised when he found that they were not.
Looking over at Lynne he said "And I thought the Silence was bad!" then he started to chuckle uncontrollably. It turned into fits of laughter and he ended up rolling once again on the ground, unable to control himself.
Eventually he regained his composure.
His companion wasn't laughing. As the wave of disturbance ripped through the city she straightened, using the window frame to steady herself, and for a moment her eyes unfocused with concentration. Emotions crossed her face briefly. Pain, fear, loss, disappointment, concern; but she wasn't laughing. As the worst force of the noise passes she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, as if trying to centre herself again. Its not clear how aware she was of Jason's reaction, but when she opened her eyes they are clear again, but troubled.
"So much death brought to us on the dawn, and so much destruction" she whispered, barely coherent. "I heard a fierce judgement in it, someone has been judged and found guilty, but the punishment didn't harm the guilty. It.. killed a lot of mortals." There were welling tears of crystal in her eyes. "Jason, I don't know who did that. It wasn't my master, and.. they killed a lot of innocent people and still didn't get the person they were after. I felt.. two disturbances, both huge, but the second one was smaller. Somewhere in the USA, from the distance, West Coast maybe? And.. " she shivered this time. "I don't know how but the noise was delayed. Whatever it was happened yesterday -- maybe yesterday morning. I wasn't even in the country then(!) What’s the point in us trying to do anything? None of this makes sense..."
She sat down heavily and held her head in her hands, evidently quite badly affected by what she has discerned in the disturbance. "Neither of them took out the guilty party, but so much destruction, so much death. How can that be fair?"
All traces of laughter were gone from Jason now. He sat down next to Lynne. "They did it with *very* careful planning. I sensed one or more disruptions occurring within about 5 miles of each other. The noise was dampened by an Ethereal Song of Shields on a huge scale. One that covered about a 10 mile diameter. The song used the 'dark before the dawn' as its obscuring mechanism, and the waves of disturbance rode the dawn itself. I estimate that the event was triggered 2-4 hours before dawn. Only an ArchAngel, or someone more powerful, could have pulled off the Song, the Effect, or the original incident. I sensed the song coming East, and a very little South from here. I would guess that anything as dramatic as the effects must have been on the Corporeal Plane would be on the news." Jason picks up the remote control and turns the TV on to CNN.
"It is possible that Israfel was the target, or Dominic, or Yves. I don't know, but it had to be someone pretty important. It would not surprise me if Michael was involved, from what Yves said. And possibly that is why Karlial was protecting me from Michael's notice."
Lynne did seem awfully impressed at Jason's reading of the disturbance, and she nodded gratefully as he flicked on the TV, settling her hands in her lap. She twisted and untwisted them as the news broadcast filled the room, but finally they lay still.
The news was blaring about some form of natural disaster currently affecting the River Jordan in the Middle east, a flash flood of unprecedented flow that was affecting the region. The death toll the story estimates was frighteningly high.
A few moments more of this, and of the international aid response being attempted, then the commentary changed back to local news. And the big report of the morning revolved around a pair of explosions in the early morning of yesterday in the city of Los Angeles.
There were pictures of what could only be described as utter desolation. Two areas, less than two miles apart, were viewed from the air. Small amounts of rising smoke were visible from both, but what was most remarkable was the complete lack of any structure or building remaining in either location, in what must have been a moderately built up area of LA, close to the Santa Monica Freeway and near LA municipal college. The larger of the two rubble zones was a crater one hundred and seventy yards across, completely obliterating four city blocks, with a damage radius beyond that of only a few more feet. The smaller was about sixty yards across, with similar lack of debris beyond the confines of the devastation.
The commentary intruded upon the angel's speculation.
"At this time the cause of both explosions are unknown. The fire department refuses to rule out any possibility, except that gas mains have been ruled out. However, a terrorist bomb attack has not. No claims have been made at this time by any recognized terrorist agency. The estimations of deaths are placing the numbers between two thousand and three thousand at this time."
"Not since the Oklahoma bombing has anything like this been seen on American soil. It has been estimated that the explosive force of the first of the two detonations was equivalent to one thousand times the explosive force of the Oklahoma bomb. The explosion itself was seen as far away as seventy miles. Others recall the flash in the early morning sky, but not much more."
The camera cut to a view of a wide eyed Spanish woman.
"... It was terrible. I was coming home from the night shift, when /flash/, like a camera. I looked in the direction, and there was a ball of flame for a moment, like nothing I have ever seen before, so bright. Then, poof! it was over. A few moments later, there was a low boom, but nothing more. It was so bright, I could see my shadow from it! Then, a couple of hours later, I was sitting up watching the news reports, when... Flash! it happened again, this time over to the side. I rushed outside, and saw that rising ball of flame, and the mushroom cloud in the early morning light. Then that low rumble again, this time a little smaller."
Cut back to the announcer.
"At this time, experts have ruled out the possibility of this being some form of Nuclear accident, and no radiation about usual has been detected. This from Officer Anastasia Logos of the LAPD last night..."
Cut to a small woman with a shock of red hair, dressed in a dark trenchcoat. Both Jason and Lynne start with surprise. It was unmistakably Gabriel, the Archangel of Fire.
"I would urge all citizens with houses in the area to remain calm. The damage has been confined to the explosion areas, and no harmful chemicals or radiation has been found at either site. We are working with the presumption that this may be an occurrence of a meteor impact, an extremely unlikely event and one that is not likely to repeat itself... or so I have been informed by authorities greater than mine. The emergency services have the situation under control. An emergency line has been set up to answer all questions about the tragedy. Any further queries please direct them to this line."
Cut back to the announcer.
"More information as it comes to hand."
There were more shots of the area, this time with close-ups. The police had set up a line and were not letting anyone closer in than it, although there was a press barricade at various points around each location. The national guard had been called in to help patrol the area.
The close ups resembled nothing so much as the surface of the moon.
Jason clicked off the TV. "Well...I guess that just about covers that. On the plus side, it won't happen again. On the minus side, that's what they said about a certain forty day, forty night occurrence a few thousand years ago. Next time I wish they would decide not to do these things *before* doing them the first time."
This coaxed a bit of a smile out of his companion, "No kidding! Shall I tell Gabriel that or will you?" She mimed someone throwing a thunderbolt and managed a brief uncharacteristic giggle.
"I wonder if that was true about it not happening again, or if it was just what she was telling the mortals. It doesn't do much for my confidence to know someone so .. ahh stable and reliable is on the case."
It was Jason's turn to chuckle. "Well, I doubt any mortal would believe that a meteor hit the Earth and now the Fire Marshal can definitively state that higher authorities in the Fire Department are confident that there won't be another. That had to be for Celestial consumption. In case I didn't mention to you earlier, she was the one who Ashikel saw dismantling the demonic tether she was guarding."
Looking over at Lynne he asked "So what shall we do now? If you would like to philosophize for a couple of hours, per our original plan, I'm sure we could manage it simply but theorizing on this latest string of events. If you think it would make sense to go out there we could be on a..." Jason pulled a book from a nearby bookcase and deftly flips to a page and scans it "...10:30 flight to LA that arrives at 1:21, or a noon flight that gets in at 2:49. Both leave from JFK, which is about half an hour from here." He shrugged. "Still time for a conversation either way...."
Lynne nodded to Jason and considered briefly, wiping absently at her face with an impeccable handkerchief and rearranging spare strands of hair without seeming to think about it. "When in these situations, I usually like to try to weigh up each option. If we stay here then we have the opportunity for you to restock essence and me to track down Nat, who may not even be in New York at all. On the other hand, I can't believe any celestial on the planet will have missed whatever happened in LA, so even though its a cold trail and whoever was the target of that.. um.. celestial judgement isn't there (and I'm sure if it had been me I would have made tracks rapidly), people are bound to go there. So I'd say lets do it, and just get the first flight out. One of us can give Karen a ring -- if she doesn't call us first."
She added more enthusiastically, "And there'll be plenty of time for conversation. Here, on the plane or both! I'm just.. wondering what we'll do if it turns out that particular judgement came from a higher source than an archangel.. but we can cross that bridge when we come to it."
Jason nodded "That is true. However, I have had a great deal of success in the past by not doing the obvious. I would think that LA would be the last place that the perpetrator would be. And I would wager that several ArchAngels have, or will, be there looking around. What they can't find will probably be lost to my perception. But possibly by searching out clues here we can find out things while others look elsewhere. Essence would certainly be nice, but I think that there are some other benefits to staying here. Nat could be a clue, Hablashim's secretary another, Karlial may get back in touch with me. I don't know. If I were to go to LA I would want to get an ArchAngel or two to help us get Raphael back from Hell. That is a bit more immediate to me than chasing someone an ArchAngel or better couldn't take out."
She listened to what Jason was saying but Lynne's gaze was drawn to the window and out to the horizon. "I understand," she said. "My main objective is to find out what has been happening and I just don't feel as though I have a good lead here, but it does seem that things are moving in LA. 'Could be a clue' just doesn't feel as strong to me as seeing the Archangel Gabriel produce sound bites on TV. Do you think we might be able to enlist some help for a rescue attempt to hell?" She doesn't sound as though she is joking.”
"What I mean is... I'd rather not spend too much time here if nothing seems to be leading anywhere -- you could give Karlial your number if he wanted to talk to you? I ... think I'd like to be on a plane out there today -- maybe not the first one but by this afternoon I could have done a sweep of the hospitals. I only had one lead to Nat anyway and it was a very tenuous one. Unless by then there’s some compelling reason to think that being here will unearth more information then I think that I will go. I understand if you'd rather stay here and look after things for longer than that, its just.. I need to know."
She took a breath and added, "Perhaps it would be better if we left the hearts with you."
Jason got up and goes over to a desk in the corner where he began writing as he spoke "Tell you what. You check the hospitals," having finished writing he handed Lynne a list of hospitals and contacts "While I call up Karen and see what she would like to do. It is possible that she had not heard the news yet. I'll book you and Josh, or all of us, on American Airlines flight 3 leaving today at noon and arriving in LA at 2:49 PM. If you don't mind leaving Josh with me, I can get a point of Essence back. That gives you five hours or so to check out the hospitals. Sound good?"
He handed Lynne a MetroCard (good for subways and buses) and a bus and subway map with the locations of the hospitals marked on it. The hospitals were numbered in the order that it would be quickest to visit them, ending in Queens a couple miles from JFK. He will also offered US money.
Lynne nodded briskly and directed a bright smile at him. "Sounds terrific. How have I ever managed without a librarian to organize me?" She seemed happy to be busy and scanned over the documents in a quick, practiced manner.
"It'll probably do Josh good to have the morning off anyway, I'll leave him a note. Now, don't forget that mortals need to eat from time to time..."
She scribbled a few brief words on her notepad to the effect that she'd be back later before tearing the sheet off and folding it up, then she pulled on a coat and paused for a moment by the door. "Thanks Jason, I do appreciate this."
She slipped out and closed the door behind her quietly.
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