Chapter V
The Revolution
The city was so quiet it was frightening. I was tired but I couldn't sleep and all that seemed to matter now was the picture Ismael drew me, hung on the wall. Mivelris was sleeping soundly, but I knew his sleep wasn't restful. There was no one outside, not event a hint of a feather anywhere. This place was dead.
I kept seeing the last night's attacks, Zhankiel's worried face, the panicked Angels, the shouts, the noise...
It was time to get up and go to Zhankiel's house, like he had suggested us to. I shook Mivelris and surprisingly, he didn't throw anything at me for waking him up like this. We got dressed, and left the house without saying a word. I hated this creepy silence, as well as I hated those awful banners everywhere.
As we proceeded higher in the city, we noticed something quite unpleasant: obscene messages had been painted directly on some houses, with what seemed to be human spray-paint. Obviously, Danërael's supporters knew exactly who was on who's side.
--- This is low, Mivelris said to me, as we passed beside a house who was literally covered with insults.
It pained me to see that my friend's house had been submitted to the same treatment: red and black paint stained the otherwise immaculate white walls. We both landed on the small balcony and I knocked three times. We waited, and waited and finally, Zana came to open, but her usually warm welcome had been replaced by a long, pointy sword.
--- Oh, it's you. Sorry, she said, her face lightened by a smile.
She let us in, and after making sure no one was around, she closed the door and locked it. The house was twice as messy as usual, there were papers everywhere on the floor, as well as dozens and dozens of arrows, and beautifully crafted swords and daggers.
--- You have quite an artillery in your living room, I said to Zhankiel when I entered the great room.
--- Malkeb, Saelius! We can never be too prepared, you know. And I'm just dying to catch the little vandals who re-decorated the outside of my house.
Visibly, my Seraphim friend had lost none of his natural wit and he seemed determined to put an end to this masquerade. We sat down in the couches; Mivelris was astounded by the vastness of the house, since he had never set foot inside of it before. Zhankiel spoke of a "revolution" in the angelic Realm, as well as "changes in mentalities" and "a radical new way to control the population". Of course, he spoke of military and politics with as much knowledge as everything else he taught at school, from astronomy to music. With him on our side, there was nothing Danërael could do.
--- So that's pretty much it, he concluded, after a long speech. People don't realise how dangerous he is; he might look like a saviour, but in fact, I can see right through his plans: he wants to create a new society, where Angels would be completely free from obligations towards the humans.
--- That's ridiculous, I sighed. This will never work. I mean, why have we grown into an organised, fair and free society? Because we have responsibilities, and our entire lives depend in the fulfillment of our tasks!
Zhankiel shook his head, sadly.
--- I know, I know... but humans are fools, and they worsen with every day that goes by. If they cared about something else than themselves, we wouldn't be here having this discussion. They are not like us, they are needy creatures. We have nearly no physiological needs, far less material needs, and it is easy for us to find contentment. We don't need power to feel satisfied. If only they knew!
--- So, what's happening next? What can we do? asked Mivelris. The Academy is still under siege?
--- Well, they still have hostages, so we can't get in, stated Zana. The Academy is protected by a strong barrier, which is usually down, but they have activated it, so there's no way of getting in unnoticed. That's for that.
There was a long silence stretch. No one knew what to do, but we had to at least try to put some common sense into people. Zhankiel told us to start rumours, to tell everyone what the real deal was. This would buy us some time, hopefully.
--- Oh, and lock your doors and windows, he suggested, as we were about to leave. You never know what Danërael's fan club will pull off next.
--- We don't have a door nor windows, said Mivelris, dully.
Zhankiel blinked twice and started to laugh. Zana handed us each one a short sword and wished us good luck. On our way home, Mivelris kept swinging his weapon in front of him, like if he was the best swordsman Heaven had ever known. I, for my part, hated violence and knives, so I didn't make a big deal out of it. We passed in front of the Fate Department's tower, which was obviously empty since there was no place to send souls to anymore. It reminded me that I was jobless and that I could use a little bit of extra money in prevision of those troubled times.
--- Thank Heavens that our home is intact! sighed Mivelris when we arrived at the apartment. I dropped my dagger on the desk and started looking for a nice bottle I had found a while ago. My roommate decided to follow Zhankiel's advice and got out a hammer and a few nails, to patch us a door of some sort. I pulled the old, used curtains on our windows and went on the roof to take my pretty Altacian flag down of the metal flagpole.
--- I hate that, I moaned while putting our most valuable possession in a wooden crate. I feel as if we were moving away. Hey, I'm going to Yui's place to see if I can get something for that bottle.
--- Okay, be careful, mate! Oh, and while you're there...
I turned around and faced him: he looked tired but he gave me a feeble smile.
--- Why don't you tell her, he continued, with a sad voice. Tell her she means a lot to you. You might never see her again.
I swallowed painfully, and went back to rub his hair. It was in time like these I was happy to have such a good friend. Never did he let me down.
--- Thanks, Miv. I don't know what I'd do without you.
I grabbed my bottle and left, something strange hanging at the corner of my heart.
*****
Strangely, Yui's house had been spared by the vandals and the windows were wide open. I landed on the balcony and knocked three times, before she came to open. I was a bit taken aback by her radiating smile.
--- Er... malkeb, Yui, I mumbled. Am I bothering you?
She was simply beaming and I wondered if it could be because of me. Her amber eyes were glowing so brightly it was almost scary.
--- Malkeb, Saelius! Come in, come in! There's someone I want you to meet.
I entered, a bit confused, and followed her and her long red skirt in the living room. Sitting in a couch, was a tall and handsome Angel, with perfectly combed brown hair and piercing grey eyes. When he got up to greet me, I felt like if my legs were going to run away from my body: he was too powerful, too imposing to be real. Yet, he smiled. Good, I said to myself, Yui found some allies to counter Danërael's rising.
--- Ah, you must be Saelius, the bottle provider, he said with a sophisticated accent. Yui spoke greatly of you.
I shook his hand, wondering what the hell was happening to me. Something was wrong, my angelic intuition was yelling in my head and I felt highly uncomfortable.
Yui smiled more and finally said:
--- Saelius, I'd like you to meet the Angel of the day, mister Mischav.
At this very moment, my heart stopped beating. The room became blurry, and noises slowly went away. Still smiling at me, he said:
--- Such formalities. Call me Danërael.
Don't panic, don't panic, I said to myself. Yui is friend with a national traitor and you just shook hands with the Angel who killed all of the Council members. Don't panic, and don't drop the bottle.
--- Pleased to meet you, Danërael, I said painfully, trying my best to keep smiling.
It must've sounded terribly fake, but I didn't care. I just wanted him to go away. He had no business with MY Yui.
--- It seems he found you quite a nice piece, said Danërael with his annoying sweet voice.
Yui stared at the bottle, but she seemed distant; her eyes were glowing because of him, not because of that object I was holding. I felt so ridiculous. She smiled at me, and said softly, like if she was talking to a scared little kid:
--- Oh, I'm sorry, Saelius... see, I set my priorities elsewhere than in bottle collecting. I have to keep my money for other matters. I hope you can understand.
That was it. No more job, no more money, no more house, no more food, no more Yui. I wanted to yell at her; I was truly mad for that cheap trick, but her wonderful eyes forbade me to. I sighed and remembered what Mivelris told me. I took a big breath, gathered my courage and stared deeply in her warm eyes.
--- I understand. Can I have a word with you? In private.
I eyed Danërael coldly, but he didn't seem to care at all. Yui, a bit confused, showed me to another room.
--- Is there something bothering you? she asked me, on a worried tone.
I lowered my head and handed her the bottle.
--- Have it. I don't care about the money anymore.
She seemed stuck in between many feelings, and her face was full of questions. I was completely destroyed to see her with that guy and I felt as if it was really the beginning of the end for the rest of the Realm. I had to get used to the idea that Yui was no longer on our side. She took the bottle without arguing and put it on a shelf, between books and scroll, like if it was nothing more than a random dust collector.
--- Thank you, Saelius, you truly are one of a kind...
I wanted to kiss her. I really did, but I knew it would just mess things up so I took her hand and said softly, not letting go of her orange glare:
--- We're facing hard times, Yui. Just promise me you'll be careful.
She clasped her other hand around mine and whispered:
--- Hard times? Barely a necessary revolution.
She kissed me on the cheek and left the room.
*****
I didn't care where I was going, as long as it was far away from that wretched, cursed city. With no more job, there was no way I could pay the rent. I didn't know what to do. This was all that guy's fault, that stupid Danërael! He poisoned everyone's life, but yet, they all saw him as the saviour! The sky was of a blank white, and I was looking for a quiet spot to free my mind; instead of heading directly towards the surface, I decided to do some high altitude flying for once. The cool moist of the clouds was sticking to my skin and I felt a bit better. I used to do some pretty wild stunts when I was younger, in Altacia: there was a lot of space to fly around the few houses and Altacians racers were renowned to be the fastest flyers in the Realm. I had lost a bit of my flexibility during the years but I still enjoyed doing loops and free falls, just for fun. That's how I eventually lost sight of Heaven and spotted a strange flying object, in the distance. Puzzled, I stopped my fooling and picked up the pace to see what it was.
After ten minutes of sprinting, I hovered around what seemed to be a floating anchor, slightly smaller than myself. I had never seen anything like that in the sky before, and what was even more bizarre, was the fact that I couldn't understand what was written on the metallic pane. It was some kind of angelic dialect but I had never read it in books. I could sense a magical generator inside, but other than the tiny mechanism that made it float, there was some other system inside its iron shell. If Mivelris had been with me, he would've guessed immediately what it was; unfortunately, I was a far less good mechanic, so it took me a few minutes to discover it was actually emitting a magical signal towards the earth. I filled my fingers with magic and waved my hand under the anchor: at my surprise, it revealed a thin red line, that lost itself in the clouds below. I was so intrigued that I completely forgot about the problems in Heaven and decided to follow the magical chain all the way to the surface. I plunged down and, holding the link, I passed through the thick layer of cloud, and headed towards the small Swiss village, just a few hundred meters below.
Where could it lead to? What was so important it was chained to the sky? My answer came quickly, and as I let go of the chain, I put my glasses on to make sure that the Angel who was seated in a vast field of flower was really who I thought it was.
No doubt about it, it was the Angel-Spirit of the Earth.
Nervanael.
My stomach suddenly twisted inside of me: I remembered that this guy was an insane criminal but it was too late. He had spotted me.
I landed carefully a few meters away, and regretted that I forgot Zana's dagger on the table, at home. In the bright sunlight, he seemed even more colourful than the first time I saw him, in the forest.
--- Er...malkeb, Nervanael, I said on a shy, almost scared tone.
He stared at me blankly, with his uneven eyes. He was holding a purple mountain flower in his hand, and spun it between his long, bony fingers. My nose suddenly started to tingle and I couldn't help but sneeze loudly enough to provoke an avalanche.
But what I heard was far from an avalanche: Nervanael was laughing.
--- Heh, I guess I'm allergic to flowers, I giggled. I sneezed again and I started laughing myself.
Without that stoic expression on his face, he seemed almost...nice. He opened his mouth, like if he was about to say something, but nothing came out. He seemed frustrated and looked at me with sad eyes.
--- What, what's wrong? I asked.
He opened his mouth again, and it looked an enormous task to babble those few sounds:
--- ...Ne... ne... niesant varkel...to...anyone...foust so, so lange.
--- ...What? I don't understand.
It sounded like an old dialect. Or maybe he was just rusty. I mean, he probably didn't talk at all for some years. Still, I was surprised by his way of speaking.
--- Ne, he said while pointing himself, niesa nost... spoken to anyone foust veschay lange.
I concentrated a bit and hit my head with my palm.
--- Ooooh! I get it! You haven't talked to anyone since a long time! How long have you been down here? Okay, um, let me rephrase this... you sound like my old Latin teacher. He used to say old quotes all the time. I know, you must understand some earth language! In Swiss, we speak French. Français?
He nodded joyfully and got up. I took a few steps back, but I can't say I was really scared.
--- Alors, depuis combien de temps es-tu sur la terre?
He lowered his head and my smile vanished. He understood what I said but he seemed pained to answer. He showed me six fingers.
--- Six years, it's not so bad!
He shook his head and articulated, in a clumsy French:
--- Six cents ans.
I removed my glasses and rubbed my eyes.
Six hundred years. Nervanael had been on the Earth for six hundred years.
He was immortal, due to his fusion to the Earth's energy.
No wonder I had never heard of his case before; he had committed whatever crime over six centuries ago, so it's obvious it wasn't in the papers! I wondered why Yui neglected to tell me that aspect of the story. Perhaps she forgot. Or perhaps she was ashamed...
He looked old, so old, even though he had an healthy tan and rosy cheeks. I noticed that many scars ornamented his wrists: he probably tried to commit suicide more than one time, I thought sadly. Humans sought immortality, eternal life but didn't know what it was to feel like if everyday was a waste that led to nothing. Life was pointless without the hope of dying. Even Angels died eventually. And yet, we didn't know what awaited us after our departure, not more than humans knew what their death was like.
The flower he was holding was still fresh and full of life, like if he had just picked it up. That Angel was life itself: his aura didn't surround him like ours did, but it emanated directly from the ground around him. His glare was distant and cold, as if his soul was dead since a long time but his body remained.
--- Nervanael?
He stared at his flower absently and I had to repeat his name to have his attention. Clearly, he had lost it over the centuries but I was amazed at his peacefulness and most of all, his incredible health. The energy of the Earth kept him alive and healed all of his wounds.
Even those he had inflicted himself.
--- Why are you here? Why have you been named "Angel-Spirit" when you are considered... a criminal? I demanded, burning with curiosity. There were so many questions I wanted to ask him that I didn't care if I had to go through a slow process of translation to understand everything. He looked at me with his wild eyes and frowned.
Once again, his voice was raucous and sounded bad, like a very used and badly tuned violin.
--- Well, you don't want to know what's going on in Heaven. I have more chances of finding friends down here than up there, in that power-hungry city. So, why are you here? A friend gave you those clothes?
I was talking about the grey, used shirt he was wearing, as well as the matching pants; they were in shreds, but those were the clothes worn currently, in the Realm. They must've been given to him recently, I thought.
He was about to say something, answer my questions hopefully, when he was shaken by a violent gasp. I quickly backed away, as he was strangled by something invisible. I then understood; the anchor in the sky was probably moving and dragging him along with it.
Infuriated, he grabbed the chain, that was now visible and brighter than ever, and started pulling as strong as he could. I watched the scene, helpless, as he seemed to suffer a terrible pain. I thought he was about to abandon the struggle when he opened his immense rainbow-coloured wings, and pulled the link with all his might; the ground below his feet blackened and a vast radius of flowers and vegetation suddenly crippled and died. His face had the most angered look I had ever seen, and sparks came out of his hands with a cracking sound, as he clasped them around the chain.
Strangely, no sound came out of his mouth, even if his face was twisted by pain; I wanted to help him, but I knew I could be of no use against a solid magical link. Plus, to tell the truth, I was paralysed by fear.
In one last, ultimate effort, he dragged the now fire red rope and felt on his behind, exhausted. I saw the link loosened and wondered how he had done it.
He was without a doubt, a very powerful being.
Panting and observing his blackened fingers, he glanced at me with worry and regret.
--- Are you okay? This thing drags you everywhere? That's awful!
He looked down and told me it was still pulling, and that he'd have to leave shortly, because of the pain it caused; in fact, if the anchor---which emitted the beam that kept him connected to the Earth's core---got too far away, the link between him and the planet faded and caused terrible sufferings.
--- Ne can nost... nievel froum... Terra...
I think it meant he couldn't separate himself from the Earth. The thing was, his anchor was moving east, while Heaven travelled west. We had to part. But before we did, he asked me my name. I was so startled it took me a while to answer:
--- ...Saelius. Saelius Lalsaria.
He smiled feebly, scanning me with his bright, but lifeless eyes.
--- Nervanael Lemervische. Do nost...call ne Angeli-Espiris... it is nost a title for ne... ne... do nost...deserve it.
I nodded and told him he was getting used to the new alphabet quite quickly.
I also promised I would come back, but it didn't have much effect on him; he had been alone for so long that the few Angels he had known during his stay on Earth were only passers-by. Everything was so ephemeral for him... nature changed and seasons went by, tirelessly, like his old and bored soul. How terrible it must be, I said to myself.
The chain was getting visible again, and formed a perfectly straight line, disappearing in the clouds. Nervanael, the only Angel allowed to be named "Angel-Spirit of the Earth" took off and disappeared in the foggy horizon. Funny, I thought, he wore such a nice title, and yet, he didn't even like it.
I smiled and decided it was time to get home.
*****
I stopped on top of the Eiffel tower to regain some strength, and took this occasion to observe the Parisians in their little night-time activities; a couple was walking home, hand in hand, and he just waited the perfect occasion to propose to her; a homeless kid was settling for the night, under a bridge; the French metropolis was quiet but never sleeping. Sometimes I wished life was as intense up in the sky, I wanted to see Angels really happy: we weren't really feeling creatures and it was almost a trend to hide our emotions. Reason over emotion, always. It was like that.
Feeling a little rested, I took off and headed west, where I knew I'd find the flying citadel. It didn't take me too long to cross the English Channel. The British country-side was magnificent with his hills covered with a thick mist. On my way up home, I met some Angels who were vandalising a field: they were writing obscene words from about a hundred meters above the ground, with their magic. The angelic alphabet was mainly made of circles, dots and lines, as well as some various patterns, which led humans to think that those symbols in their fields were the manifestation of aliens. Of course, when freaking humans out had began to be the funniest sport around, the number of crop circles started to rise, at the Academy's despair. I had my share of fun a few years ago, but it grew old.
I then noticed something that made me laugh. I approached the vandals and yelled at them:
--- Hey, you! You made a mistake! It's spelled with two e's!
They looked at each other with anger and I headed up, laughing. Poor fools, I thought. I passed the magical barrier behind the immense floatation ring and plunged in the city, eager to find the comfort of my home. The banners had increased in number and a strange agitation was shaking the city. The papers welcomed Danërael to the head of the Academy, but something in the headlines was wrong: it looked fake, as if the angelic press had been submitted to some sort of censoring. In any case, Danërael got what he wanted and perhaps life wouldn't be as bad as I thought with him around. I mean, I met the guy and he seemed somewhat decent, despite his anti-humans policies.
I arrived home and found Mivelris and Dulciane asleep in the chair, pasted to each other like the lovers they were. I smiled sadly, removed my shirt, and mechanically headed towards the little desk covered with papers to see if there was anything important. I gasped when I spotted the dreaded brown envelope on top of a pile of sheets: the last notice of the rent! I had completely forgotten about it! I had no more job and since Yui was not an option anymore, I had to find something, quick!
--- Hey, Sal, I heard, behind me. Mivelris and Dulciane were rubbing their eyes, and yawning like if they had just had the most restful sleep ever. I didn't know what they had been doing together all that time, but I knew for sure it wouldn't have catastrophic consequences: poor Mivelris was completely infertile, like a good portion of the Angel population. I didn't know for Dulciane but it didn't matter much anyway.
I told them about my encounter with Nervanael and they listened religiously.
--- So he's that old? said Dulciane after I was done with my story. That's incredible! Poor guy, he must be so lonely...
She clang at Mivelris' arm and I said to myself: "He's not the only one..."
I told my roommate we'd have to make a few sacrifices until I could find another job. He looked at me sadly and suggested we sold some stuff, like the record player, as well as some others, mainly worthless junk.
I thought of selling the beautiful red carpet under the suspended chair. It brought my family to my mind, and I even asked myself why I didn't go back to Altacia to live there. But then, I felt a slight attachment to Heaven and concluded my place was here, with my friends and...Yui.
--- Are you okay, pal? asked Mivelris with worried eyes.
--- Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. I'm just not sure of what will happen to us from now on. Everything's going so fast...
Outside, everything was like a great celebration. If only they knew there was nothing to be happy about...
© 2002 Tsuki