Greener Pastures

7: You Feel

One additional joint trip to the kitchen later, Carter and Tuck once again sat in the living room, the silence now bordering on suffocating. The two both wondered who would be the first to breach it, and neither were surprised that it was Tuck who took the plunge. "Ok, how about you ash the questions," he suggested with a gesture in her direction. Then he gestured to himself, adding, "Then I will answer to the best of my ability. Though, I suggest starting from the bottom of the sequential totem pole."

Carter thought for a moment but quickly succumbed to hysterics-level laughter. I've literally got so many questions, you've got no idea. Why the hell am I here? What were those monsters? What the hell exactly are you? And that doesn't even cover everything! Who were the people with the big shiny wings? And everyone else?"

Tuck blinked, more than a little overwhelmed. "Well, I wouldn't call that sequential totem-pole order at all, but that's fine. I'll just start from the beginning, and you can ask about anything I missed.

"First of all, I should probably start with Guardian Angels. Wait, no, I think we've been using just 'Guardians' for the past few centuries. I don't know. Anyways, Guardians are, as you know, people who died. The offer is open to most good people that die regardless of religion, but it's definitely most popular with those who aren't generally religious.

"We've got sort of a ranking system here. The longer you're here and the more Charges-- you guys-- you work with, the higher you rise on the scale. It's also what helps you present your Aspect; Guardians develop according to an element they affiliate with. It affects your Winging and where you go to live when you get them. There's Lux, the Lights: Umbra, Dark: Pyr, flame: Aqu, water: Geo, earth: and Aer, weather. I've been between Aqu and Aer for centuries which is why my eyes are weird-- Aspects affect your eye colors, too. It's weird and complicated.

"The Council consists of Guardians that, when Winged, develop Iridescence. They've got their regular Aspect, but instead of getting standard wings for that Aspect they get the pretty shiny ones. When that happens, they're promoted to the Council. It's pretty rare, so there's no telling how long a Guardian will be a part of the Council. They have special abilities we don't and can do more in general.

"The Nightmares are basically the opposite of us. While we try to help our Charges positively, they have a more negative approach. Every Charge has a Guardian and a Nightmare, though, if the Guardian is doing their job right, the Charge can go through dozens of Nightmares in a lifetime. Our job consists of smiting them when we can.

"And, of course, there's the Prince. He's been their leader since before my time here, so I don't know much about how he was. It's rumored that he used to be a Guardian once, but he was Fallen-- basically, when a Guardian gets their wings shorn and they're thrown to the Dream Realm, where the Nightmares live, to get killed so they can reincarnate. I never learned what he did to have Fallen, but it must've been pretty bad, they don't take Falling lightly here.

"Point is, instead of dying when he Fell, he convinced the Nightmares to accept him as their leader instead of dinner, and now he directs them against us in revenge. He's been a pain in the ass for forever at this point. Though I did hear that the Shade throne used to be his, the empty Counsel throne, which makes sense. He was an Umbra, after all. I also heard that instead of getting Iridescence, he had Onyx-- it's even rarer than Iridescence, and it gives you black shiny wings instead of white ones." Tuck paused to sigh, for just a moment. Carter was startled by the sudden sound of silence, almost too startled to notice Tuck's murmurings: "I heard his were the most beautiful anyone's ever seen. I wish I could have." Then he shook off his moment and continued his lesson.

"Anyways, this is where you come in. Since becoming part Nightmare from living there, the Prince was given a Charge, which he can use to fight us. The Prince has been waiting centuries to have revenge on Guardians for what they did to him, and using his Charge could get that done at last."