What a night! What a time of terror and triumph. I would never have thought at the beginning of this day that I would have done so much.
I had just returned from patrol last night when I was called urgently by Ruhamah back to the training field. When I arrived, I was astonished to find many Cherubs and Guardians there, all silent and cowed before Salathiel, whose aura shone with a mighty fury. I had never before been frightened of our Elder, but I was frightened now.
I was almost the last to arrive, and no sooner had the last few of our number come than Salathiel spoke, her voice terrible to hear. “The Fallen have dared something tonight that they have not for many years,” she said. “They have taken one of our own.”
A shudder went through the gathering, and I watched as the fear and uncertainty among us changed to anger matching Salathiel’s. I was not angry yet, only shocked, for I had not known that this was a possibility in this war. To be taken prisoner by the enemy? Surely not, for we take no prisoners ourselves. The battle is too fierce for that.
“It was a trap they set for our sister,” Salathiel went on. “The Violences were many, and they waited like cowards through a battle, until Ananiah was weary and no longer on her guard.”
The name went through me like a spear, and I began to feel the anger myself. I moved through the crowd to find Ophell, who was stiff with worry and rage, and stood with those who were supporting him.
“They leapt out of hiding and carried her away before her companions could stop them. They were quick and they were careful, and now it is not known where they have hidden her.” Salathiel clenched her fists. “But this, my sisters and brothers, is how we know that the Enemy does not control his forces. Such a canny and clever leader would never have done something so foolish, for now we go on the hunt.”
There was a roar at that, and I was caught up in the fierocity and the sound, spreading my wings wide as if I could fly that moment.
“Cherubs, arm yourselves,” Salathiel commanded. “And you scouts, take your orders from your trainers and fly swift and wide. Let any Violence or Apostate that is abroad fear us tonight! Let the young fools cower and wait for us to destroy them! And let us bring hope to our sister and our friend, whose part in the battle will not end tonight!” She lifted her hand, and the wind lashed around all of us and took form in a gleaming lance, its point a cold front, its shaft a lonely howl. “Fly now!” Salathiel cried, and we did.
We took wing into the night, sweeping down into the warm darkness, flying not by sight, but by heart. Ophell led the way, for having been Ananiah’s partner for so long, he knew her best, and I was his shadow. Many other scouts went behind us and beside us, more than I had ever seen at once, sweeping wide to cover more ground. For many hours we flew without rest, seeking for just the slightest hint of her spirit until Ophell drew up in the night, weary and despairing.
“Do not give up, my brother,” I urged him. “We can find her and we will.”
“And will we have found her in time?” he asked. “What if they have already killed her? What if I will never see or speak to her again?”
“You are killing hope yourself before the enemy has even had a chance to,” I said, perhaps more harshly than I intended. I took hold of Ophell’s arm. “We will not stop until we know that there is no chance to save her.”
He looked at me then, and some of his fear and grief was altered to concern. “At least you should go back to heaven and rest,” he told me. “We have been searching for many hours, and you were at work a long time before that. I cannot lose a second partner tonight.”
“I will not leave you when you need me, and you do,” I said. “I know my own strength, and I will not overextend. I believe that we will find her well before I need to rest.”
I was telling the truth, but Ophell was still worried for me, and that new worry sharpened his mind. “We can search more efficiently than we have been,” he said. “I have been a fool to think that the creatures would allow her spirit to still sound on the wind. They would have hidden her more carefully than that, or else our seniors would immediately have known where she had been taken.”
“Then what would they have used to hide her?” I asked. “We can search for that instead.”
Now Ophell smiled, and his anger showed through in a dreadful anticipation. “Anathalie would be proud,” he said. “They will hide her with selfishness and fear and greed. Wherever these feelings are most concentrated, there we will find our enemy.”
And so we took flight again, this time seeking out darkness instead of light. I believe that our own sense of darkness, our fear and anger and yearning for justice, helped us in this search, rather than hinder it. Anathalie would be proud, indeed.
At last we came upon a shrieking of just the feelings we had been searching, and we came down into the bright lights and crowded excitement of a casino, turned into terror and horror under the guns of a group of thieves. This gathering, forbidden in this time of sickness, had no recourse to justice, and so greater freedom was given to greed, and they turned on one another in avarice.
Any other night, we might have tried to stop the gunmen from loading money and jewels into their bags. Any other night, we would have intervened, disarming them, sending them running. But this was only a shield built up by the real enemies, and we had a greater battle to be fought.
Ananiah was alone, as much hostage as the patrons of the casino, who huddled quivering off to one side of the room. Their fear formed such a blind that even so close to Ananiah we could scarcely see her, but I knew that she was shaking not with fear but with anger. She has a brave spirit, that sister of ours. But we could also see that she was wounded, and we felt the sharp spirits of her captors all around her.
Ophell gave a great cry and lunged into their midst, and they scattered, shrieking. Somewhere around us, a gun went off, and chaos burst free from its tenuous restraints—people began to flee, shoving and scrambling over one another, while the thieves retreated to one another and screamed for control that was long lost. All around us our seniors were descending to the battle, their weapons burning in the air, and the enemy were shrieking with rage. They could not oppose the Cherubs, but in that moment all of them stood between me and my allies, and I was blind and struggling after Ophell.
Then there was an icy hand on my chest, and I froze, feeling somehow that this hand was familiar, that the enemy face that I could not see was one that I would recognize—
And then the wind rushed around me, blasting the Violences back, and I turned to see Salathiel, magnificent in her rage. There was a savage beauty and love in her face as she came forward, and the enemy keened with grief and fear. With one wing, she swept me aside, somehow infinitely gentle. And there, safe in her shadow, I watched as she stretched out her weapon over the heads of the enemy.
“You who have taken what is mine,” she said, and her voice rang throughout the world, “speak now. Why have you done this?”
They scrambled over themselves, begging for mercy, spitting excuses. How strange it was to hear their voices for the first time—they were like oil, like scraping metal, like cracking ice. It wasn’t our idea, they said; we would never have done such a thing, we could never have dared.
“But you did,” Salathiel said, silencing them again. “At whose orders? Your master would never have told you to do this. His greatest Apostates, or his Breakers, perhaps, but never any so small and useless as you.” There was so much scorn in her voice that even overhearing it made me feel sick.
They spoke a name, then, and that same feeling of familiarity and horror swept through me. I had never heard it before, but still I felt that I knew it somehow.
Asoharith.
For just a moment, I thought that Salathiel’s gaze flickered towards me, but I must have been imagining it—in her anger, the force of her gaze would have knocked me over. “And who among you is Asoharith?”
There was a cringing silence. I thought then that the leader was only too frightened to speak.
“So be it,” Salathiel said softly. “You have spoken the crumbs of truth that were left to you. There is nothing left for you now but to feel my wrath, and despair.”
She lifted her lance again, and with a single wail they ceased to be, torn to pieces and scattered on the winds. And then there was silence again, with Ananiah in Ophell’s arms, both gazing up at Salathiel with wonder.
I can still feel the heat of battle excitement in me when I think of it. I had the privilege of seeing our Elder at war, something I think I will remember in my dreams even after I have gone down to live on Earth. Thanks to Salathiel, there were no injuries on our side, aside from Ananiah herself. She is safe with the Healers now, and Ophell is hopeful that she will bear no long-term scars from her ordeal. Such a result is better than we might have hoped for.
And yet Orison and the others are uneasy. When he came to check on me, I could see this and asked him why.
“Much troubles me this night, Asa’el,” he said with a sigh. “This bold and vicious move, and the fact that the perpetrator of it escaped.”
I felt a shock. “Asoharith got away? I thought that they, too, had been destroyed.”
“The Fallen are great liars, but they must be far stronger than a simple Violence to be able to lie directly to the face of an Elder. No, even to save their own life, Asoharith would not have been able to remain silent. And Ananiah tells us that one among the number did slip away in the chaos.” He shook his head. “It worries us greatly. To have done such a thing and survived may have granted Asoharith greater attention from their Master, and I fear we have not heard that name for the last time.” He looked me in the eye, and I could see his worry and anger there. “Promise me that you will have a care out there, Asa’el. This Asoharith will have seen you tonight, and that may make you a target in time to come.”
“Who would care to strike out against me?” I asked, surprised. “I am no more than a scout.”
“For now,” Orison said with a smile. Then he bid me to rest and went on his way.
His unease has affected me as well. If he thinks that we have not seen the end of this, then we almost certainly have not. I wonder who this Asoharith is, and whether it was they who laid hand on me today. Maybe that sense of recognition was the knowledge that I have made an enemy, and that this is only the beginning of the fight. I suppose that one way or another, I will find out.