Greys IV - Chains

Chapter 21 - Siren Song

Malachi stayed stoney-faced as he sat rigidly next to me, silent and stoic across from the woman who had abandoned him to Baraqiel, who had left her son to be raised by a monster.

"To survive? Aren't you Irin? Can't you protect yourself? Fight?"

Her head turned slightly, but not like Malachi's or my Pair's used to, not in a smooth, canine way. Hers was more foreign, inhuman, the movement too incremental and disconnected, like clicking gears.

"We are not all warriors," she stated simply, as if I should know already, her irises a smoky blue-gray now. She continued when I stayed silent.

"We did not all fall the same, for the same sins. Some fell for temptation, many for power, some for curiosity or lust or arrogance, and others for love. That is why I left. So yes, I am Irin, but no, I cannot survive against Heaven's fiercest warriors."

Her chin turned to Malachi, then the door in sudden, jerked movements, and when her attention landed back on me, I knew what she reminded me of. She was a spider, waiting in the center of her intricate web, plucking strings and listening to the vibrations to see which of her plans, her futures, was coming to be.

"Well then, mother, tell me a story."

My voice stood on the precipice of cold, though some part of me felt pity for the being in front of me. She beamed regardless, showing too many teeth, before shifting her weight to lean forward slightly, like an eager child with a secret.

"Bezaliel, your father, was always mine, my pairing, even before the fall. I was content, but he was curious by nature, always so curious. Baraqiel was his cohort, his companion, and he always had a silver tongue. So when he spoke of shadows and darkness on Earth that were far greater, darker and deeper, enough for Bezaliel to drink from forever, to live in, my love was tempted. He went and I followed.

For a time we were happy, we showed the Humans so much, taught them what else could be, showed them choice, showed them power, possibilities and futures and all the things they couldn't imagine. But the Earth corrupts. I saw him less and less as he spent more of his time in the dark, somewhere I could not follow. And over time, everything fades, even his memory of me, my love of him, it faded and was thinned and paled by this wretched place. Eventually, he lost himself in the shadows, or found a different part of himself in them perhaps, but he loved them and them alone. He had no space for me any longer. That's what the Earth does, it warps what Heaven creates, what was meant to be."

Her eyes flashed black for a moment and the air felt like it had been pulled from the room, but then she turned her neck, little clicking cracks following the arrhythmic motion. She folded her hands in her lap neatly and continued.

"No matter. Time continued and I found other diversions on Earth. We all did. Ever marching on to every future, this moment, any moment. Heaven is constant, but here, here things can change, things are always changing. And I can see them all, so many paths. That is where I found my purpose, in the strings that weave together time, what will happen and what may. What I made to be. Those were beautiful times. The starburst of time, paths forward and sideward, down and back. Time is a beautiful thing, is it not?"

She spoke melodically again like she was just a breath away from a song. As rough and hitching as her movements were, her voice was just the opposite - smooth and flowing. Her broken motions put me on edge, but her voice soothed that tension away. It was a strange feeling, a dangerous game as my instincts tried to decide which sense to listen to.

She gave a small shrug when no one replied to her musing, the movement seeming more arachnid than Human or Angel.

"I knew so much back then, saw so much, I saw everything. And when I saw my Bezaliel after eons apart - I went to him. I found him. I once again tamed darkness and the vast night sky that holds the stars and the void of space, that will consume all one day. I held it in my hand, him. He was mine again, if only for a night, embracing in the shadows he loved so much. But the Earth corrupts, and we were not what we once were. Then news of Baraqiel's child reached my eyes, and I saw Penemue's future, I saw him rip her apart while she was still stained with birthing blood so no one could claim the baby but him. And when I looked at that little infant, into his fathomless eyes, I saw a hundred thousand futures. It nearly blinded my Gift. So much was changing, flickering past, so many new strings, new choices, and paths. It wove together into a terrifying picture.