Fantasy

Chamuel, Archangel of Lost Items

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Chamuel winged his way through the shining streets, always loving how the light played off of the beautiful, pristinely white surfaces. Even after a thousand millennia of dwelling in the City of Light, he never felt his sense of amazement lessen as he gazed down at the Almighty’s greatest city.

His enjoyment of the view was cut short, however, as he heard the voice, slightly tinny, in his ear. “Chamuel, please, tell me you’re almost here.”

“Yes, yes,” he replied, speaking over the Angel Band, directing his thoughts out specifically just towards Eremiel. “Touching down now.”

Casting one last glance back at the beautiful city behind him, Chamuel soared over the Gate of Heaven, ornately crafted out of pure, shimmering mother-of-pearl, standing ten cubits tall-

-and closed. Hmm. That was odd. Continue reading →

[AGttA] Chapter 4.2: Eremiel’s Feud with Rocks

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Continued from Chapter 4.1, here.

Read it from the beginning, starting here.

Axiom 4: Keep clear and open communications.

Eremiel grumbled to himself as he drifted along, following the same path that he’d traced out for the last two months.  The grumbling was odd, particularly because Eremiel hadn’t noticed how odd his grumbling truly was.

Angels don’t grumble.  What is there for them to grumble about?  They are the beloved of God, the chosen messengers who carry his Word far and wide, to all reaches of the Heavens and the Earth.  They get to sit and attend with their creator, the most Divine One.

In short, they have the kind of job that would make a recruiter bite a pencil in half.

There’s no reason for an angel to grumble.  Besides, even if one of them did entertain thoughts that cast doubt on the incredible kindness and munificence of his employer, he had only to remember what happened to the last angel to raise a few quarrelsome points, and he’d quickly change his tune.

And yet, despite all of this, Eremiel grumbled to himself as he floated onward.

At the moment, he was growling about a small rock. Continue reading →

Clockwork

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I made my way through the press of bodies towards the back of the tavern, my heart pounding. None of the men milling about spared a second look for me, but I still shrank away from their incurious looks.

There. Set into the back wall of the building, a bare wooden door – and a huge, hulking bouncer leaning against it, his arms crossed.

I moved closer, my heart pounding in my throat. He had to have strains of ogre in his ancestry. No human possessed arms so big, such gray skin. His hand could easily close on my head, and likely pop it like a grape. I nearly turned and fled, my courage all but exhausted, but forced myself closer.

He looked down at me, his heavy brow furrowing. “Yuh?”

“Hextech,” I choked out through dry lips. “I need to see him.” Continue reading →

[AGttA] Chapter 4.1: Twang!

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Continued from Chapter 4.0, here.

Read it from the beginning, starting here.

Axiom 4: Keep open and clear communications.

Huddling behind a rocky outcrop, Alice and I did our best to not move, breathe, or make a sound as the angel drew closer.

I had a dozen different thoughts running through my head, all of them competing with each other and screaming over the others in a wild attempt to be heard.

The angel was going to sense us.

The shadow wasn’t deep enough.  It could see us as soon as it turned its head.

We were going to die.  

Alice smelled strangely good, pushed up against me.

The wires weren’t going to stop the angel.  It was a creature of God, after all – how could it fail to break through a few strands of cable from a hardware store?

I really had to cough.  My throat tickled.

We were really going to die, right here. Continue reading →

The Girl with Purple Eyes, Part II

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Continued from Part I, here.

“Magic.”

I glared across the table at the woman sitting there, her eyes not meeting mine as she toyed with her cup of mead. “Magic,” I repeated. “You can use magic.”

Purple eyes flashed up at mine, anger and distrust warring in her irises. “Yes.”

I took a deep breath, and then let it out in a whoosh as I realized that I didn’t have any real response to this. “Good gods, woman, what have I gotten myself mixed up with?” Continue reading →

[AGttA] Chapter 4.0: Traps

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Continued from Chapter 3.3, here.

Read it from the beginning, starting here.

Axiom 4: Keep clear and open communications.

So, one question: how do you go about capturing an angel?

The question proved to be a lot harder than I, or even Alice, anticipated.

The answers, however, began with a trip to the hardware store.

“What are we doing here again?” I complained as I tried to adjust the straps of the backpack slung over my shoulders.  We weren’t even halfway through the store, yet, and Alice had already loaded me up with at least twenty pounds of stuff.  “And why do we need all of this crap?”

“We need data, Jack,” Alice replied immediately, not stopping.  I watched as she paused to hoist a spool of thick wire, and groaned as she turned to me, holding it out to me.  “We can’t make bread without flour.”

“We’re making bread?” Continue reading →

The Girl with Purple Eyes

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My eyes caught the girl as soon as she stepped into the tavern. She couldn’t have looked more out of place if she’d been draped in glow-worms.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one to spot her arrival, her appearance, and I knew it. All around the dim, damp, musty room, the scum of Calaphel shifted in their seats, hands straying towards weapons.

We all sensed wealth, and we hungered for it. Continue reading →

[AGttA] Chapter 3.3: A Plan to Stand

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Continued from Chapter 3.2, here.

Read it from the beginning, starting here.

Axiom 3: Search for other survivors.

When I finished telling my story, I looked up at the girl, waiting for her to say something.  Maybe she’d congratulate me on doing such a good job of surviving in this hellish landscape, I considered.

“That’s it?” she asked.

“Thank you, it really was a lot of hard- wait, what?”  Okay, that wasn’t what I’d expected.

She looked around at the interior of my little home base.  “All you’ve done is sit here, eat canned beans, and just wait for something to happen?”

“I think I’ve still got some cans of tuna or taco meat-” Continue reading →

Almost Real

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I gazed out at the world in front of me, beauty and serenity for as far as my eyes could see.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” piped up Serena, standing next to me. I felt the warmth of her hand as it slipped into mine, saw the shadows shift a little as she adjusted her grip on the lantern in her other hand. “So much possibility.”

“It is beautiful,” I replied, trying to clear my mind, to think of nothing but the world that lay in front of me, open for me to explore.

How long would it last? I knew that time worked differently here. It could pass faster, here. Entire lifetimes, I’d heard, could fly by in the span of just hours. Would that happen to me? Would I last long enough?

I hoped so. It all seemed so real, so perfect. I could almost believe it. Continue reading →

[AGttA] Chapter 3.2: A Rude Awakening

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Continued from Chapter 3.1, here.

Read it from the beginning, starting here.

Axiom 3: Search for other survivors.

The girl didn’t wake up gently, as I’d imagined that she might.

In my imagination, I saw her eyes slowly fluttering open, settling on me.  “Oh, you saved me,” she’d cry out as she slowly looked around at my fortress.  “And wow, you’ve totally prepared for this Apocalypse really well!  How can I possibly convince you to let me stay here, where you can guard and protect me?”

“Oh, I’m sure that we can come to some situation,” I’d gallantly reply, moving over to her and thoughtfully dabbing her brow with a wet cloth.  “But I do have to warn you, I only have one bed at the moment.”

“I’m sure that we can make something work,” she’d reply, looking up at me with soft, warm eyes, her hands reaching up to pull my lips down to hers…

At least, that’s how I thought it would play out… Continue reading →