Riot

The Grand Deception

"I don't taste any alcohol in this" she said.

"That's because there isn't any in there to taste," he responded. At Azrael's put out look, he continued, "Don't look at me like that. You're my little sister and one of the youngest of the host. I'm not giving you alcohol."

The young archangel rolled her eyes, but she conceded to her brother's decision. Besides, even Father was hard pressed to change Lucifer's mind once it was made. Instead, she gestured for Lucifer to sit down beside her.

Lucifer sat down and Azrael turned to look at him. "I'm not sure you'd believe me. In fact, I'm pretty sure you won't." Her brother requested that she let him decide for himself. So the Angel of Death explained who Luciel was and how her disappearance caused a rift between their Parents and sparked their Mother's war against humanity.

"You've got to understand," she started, "A bunch of this I only heard after the fact when our Parents requested my assistance. Do you remember those handful of centuries when Mother's light was particularly bright and colorful?"

Lucifer nodded his confirmation. "Yes, I even started a betting pool on whether or not Mother and Father had created another archangel. I bet Gabriel that They did. After all, She always did shine brightest when her and Father's joining surprised Them with a new angel." Lucifer paused for a second. When he realized how that sounded, he hastily added, "Not that She didn't appreciate and love those like Amenadiel who were created with Their combined Will."

Azrael laughed a bit and shook her head at her favorite brother. "Yes, well, I suppose you technically did win that bet. Our Parents did interweave Their lights again and form a new archangel, but this one was done purposefully. The newest little archangel was also a test run for future siblings. Instead of forming physically grown, Luciel was to grow similarly to the humans of other universes They created together. Mother even carried this one within Her light as she developed." Azrael shook her head, her eyes tearing up. "Uriel, of course, noticed the creation of new patterns and investigated. I was still quite young and restless then and followed him out of curiosity. After all, this universe didn't have humans yet so I had no responsibilities at the time. We, well, stalked Mother and She sensed us following Her. She then pulled us aside and told us the good news."

Mother had taken a physical form to walk through Heaven's main garden. As She went, She straitened a few of Her children's feathers and played with the others around Her. The youngest group of angels without flight feathers made a game of jumping off of the tallest trees they could climb. The Goddess would then catch them with a bit of her power and gently float them to the ground, tickling them before letting them go.

Azrael's own fluffy wings twitched. That looked fun and she desired to join her fellow fledglings. The archangel shook her head. No, she wanted to find out what was wrong with Mother first. She watched as Mother lowered a few more batches of angels to the ground before announcing Her departure and warning them not to jump off of trees without Her or Father there. Mother then disappeared in a swirl of lights and appeared discreetly behind her and her brother.

Mother's essence surrounded them in a hug as She greeted them. "Uriel, Azrael, I noticed you following me today. Is something worrying you, my angels?"

Uriel explained how he noticed new patterns forming and how Rae-Rae joined his effort to see if She was alright after he tracked the new patterns back to Her. Azrael added that they were worried before falling into into her Mother's light, begging Her to tell them what was wrong. The Goddess soothed Her daughter and brought them to Her study. She settled with them on a couch by the window currently looking out on Samael placing stars in the void below Heaven. She told Azrael and Uriel about the existence of a new archangel and how she would be different. After the explanation, both Uriel and Azrael looked in wonder at the center of the rainbow strands of light woven in among Mother's usually pure golden light. They hovered their hands above the source and enthused over the newest sibling.

The present Azrael finished her description of her discovery of her the newest sibling before continuing with the less happy parts of the story. She explained how one day a very tense God and Goddess called her into Their office. She explained how They asked her to help Them search the universes for Luciel.

"Wait!" Lucifer interjected, "How do you lose a baby archangel to a different universe? She certainly wouldn't be able to fly yet and she wouldn't have your ability of slipping easily among universes."

"Do you remember how Mother kept the peace among our siblings and calmed us all down from feeling our Parents' first fight?"

Lucifer shuddered at the reminder of that time. It was terrifying and angels of every age, even Amenadiel, had been scared. The whole of Heaven shook with the fight and the ever present light dimmed. The scariest part though had been what came just before the fight. A shrill ring cut through the universe, stilling everyone, and giving voice to Mother's sadness and rage. It was a sound none of them had ever heard and wished they hadn't.

"What happened?" Lucifer asked in a strained voice.

"Just before that fight, Mother and Father had been observing Their new creation (our newest sibling) before introducing her to us all. However, our Parents hadn't wanted to leave all of us without at least one of Them walking among us so they took shifts watching Luciel. During one of Father's turns, He took her to His workshop. He was so into creating the souls of this world's humans that He didn't sense Luciel leaving His side to crawl around the shop. She got into something she shouldn't and fell through one of the many universe doorways."

"Is that why Mother turned on humanity? Because dear old Dad was working on their souls whenever He lost her?"

"Eh, it's part of the reason" Azrael said. "Michael, Uriel, and I helped Father and Mother look for Luciel. A short time later Father returned to us and called off the search. We tried to ask why but He wouldn't tell us."

Lucifer made an exclamation of disgust. "Of course He bloody wouldn't." Lucifer looked appraisingly at his sister. "I'm assuming, Azrael, you didn't leave it at that."

"Uh, no. I figured I wouldn't get Father to explain so I tried asking Mother but She, She-"

"She withdrew," Lucifer finished for her.

"Yeah," the Angel of Death confirmed solemnly.

Lucifer and Azrael sat there in silence, both contemplating the whole situation. Lucifer himself was in shock. All of this time he thought that Mother distanced Herself from him and his siblings because She was being petty over Father spending so much time on humanity. But now he knew the truth. Mother was dealing with searching for Her missing child. Of course, She didn't have as much time to entertain the rest of them.

When Lucifer finished his revelation, he captured his sister's attention. "Azrael, did you ever get an answer from Mother?"

She nodded wordlessly before saying, "I caught Mother just before She completely shut Herself away from us in grief. She told me that Father had located Luciel, but refused to bring her home. He told Mother it would infringe on humanity's free will. You see, Luciel was adopted by some humans in the universe she fell into and had already been targeted as a rival by another human. He refused to interfere in the path that had been set."

"Surely," Lucifer said sounding strained, "Mother could have and would have stormed that universe and taken back Her child, free will or not."

Azrael shook her head. "I asked Mother something similar. She said that Father somehow cloaked Luciel from her because She searched that universe and didn't find her."

Lucifer took a big sigh and asked one final question. "And the couple who adopted Luciel, what did they name her?"

Azrael looked her favorite brother in the eyes and said, "Harriet Amaranth Potter."

Many miles away said girl was flying on her broom over the North Atlantic Ocean. Maybe there would be another universe veil where the one in her original universe was. She just wanted to go home and get away from this weird universe with individuals who felt magically strong but were definitely not witches. She wasn't able to save Sirius but she would save the world he died for.