Fic: The Left Behind (Various Angels, PG) 2/6
For full notes and other chapters, please see the Masterpost.
Notes: This is the sequel to A History of Heaven.
Chapter Rating: PG
Chapter word count: 2,079
Chapter Summary: Michael and Raphael have finally decided what to do with Gabriel’s angels. Cariel is the first to be told.
CHAPTER 2:
The Demotion
Cariel stood in Michael’s office, his hands clasped behind his back, wings folded in tight. He kept his head up and his eyes focused intently on the wall directly in front of him, regardless of the pacing of the Archangel around him, or the second seated behind his desk.
Two. Two of them, the only two Archangels left in Heaven. Michael and Raphael were clearly upset, their graces spiking erratically around them. They were talking silently to each other, over Cariel’s head, if the interplay of their halos was anything to go by.
Cariel had lived his entire life in the presence of an Archangel, but he was wholly unprepared for the scrutiny he now endured. Michael and Raphael were nothing like Gabriel. There was nothing soft about either of them, nothing warm, nothing that sparked with laughter or teased or smiled. Gabriel had loved his older brothers, but Cariel had always feared them. Michael and Raphael were power and command, and their will was absolute.
“We should kill you where you stand,” Raphael finally snarled, addressing Cariel for the first time since he had been summoned into Michael’s office. “You’ve always been Gabriel’s little pet. You’ll be nothing but trouble, just like him.”
“You are allowing emotions to cloud your judgment, Raphael,” Michael warned. His eyes didn’t quite track the angel he was speaking to. “Gabriel has betrayed us recently, yes, but he has not been solely trouble.”
“In these past few centuries?” Raphael’s wings beat the air in agitation. “Gabriel has been an absolute menace!”
“Just because he escaped your control doesn’t make him a menace!” Cariel protested, unable to keep silent anymore. Fugitive or not, Gabriel would always be his choirmaster. He couldn’t stand idly by while Raphael insulted him.
“This is not the time for you to act out, Cariel,” Michael warned, imperious and foreboding from behind his desk. “Your life hangs by a thread. The last time we trusted another’s second, he betrayed all of Heaven.”
“Twice,” Cariel muttered. “And Gabriel warned you about him! If you only listened to him, maybe you wouldn’t have driven him away!”
“So this is our fault now?” Raphael stepped between Michael and Cariel, looming over the Seraph to his full height. Ancient instincts, long since battered into submission under Gabriel’s casual rule, reared up within Cariel and he shrank beneath Raphael’s presence, folding into a bow. “You dare to accuse us of-”
“Raphael, that is enough.” Michael stood behind his desk, his fingertips barely brushing the surface. “Cariel apologizes for his insolence.”
“You don’t get to speak for me.” Cariel rankled at his treatment, clenching his hands into fists even as he remained bowed before Raphael’s might. Gabriel had never treated Cariel like this. He had always conferred with his lieutenant as an equal, valuing his word and opinions. Michael and Raphael were barely acknowledging he was a living being, much less one with thoughts of his own!
“Is this how you acted in front of Gabriel?” Raphael sneered. “Did you amuse him with your rebellious words?” His hand closed around Cariel’s neck, reminding the Seraph of the magnitude of difference between Raphael’s power and Cariel’s. The unconventional physics of Heaven made them appear similar in size, usually, but when a more powerful angel chose to be threatening, his true vastness was revealed. “Don’t mistake me for my brother, Seraph. I don’t particularly like you, and I have no vested interest in keeping you alive.”
“I do.” Michael flicked a hand at the pair, easily separating Raphael from Cariel with a small wave of grace. “Gabriel is confused right now, but I do not believe him lost. However, if we were to kill his lieutenant in a fit of anger, we would lose him.”
Raphael seethed on his side of the room, his massive wings slicing through the air again, but he kept his distance from Cariel. Cariel slowly straightened up, massaging his neck ruefully.
“Mind you, Cariel,” Michael said, addressing the Seraph without even attempting to look at him, “should we execute you for suspicion of potential treason, I’m sure we could convince Gabriel that it was warranted, in light of Azazel’s actions. He would understand that we could not keep an angel within these walls whose loyalty was not first and foremost to Heaven and the Host.”
“Is that a threat?” Cariel asked, glaring darkly at Michael.
“Gabriel would be sad if we killed you,” Michael said, finally turning his head to vaguely meet Cariel’s eyes. “But he is extraordinarily resilient, even for an angel. He would recover. You would not.”
That was a threat. Michael’s gaze was completely calm and sober, but he wasn’t, Cariel realized, entirely sane. The shattered core Gabriel had always fretted about, ever since Michael had assisted in Lucifer’s banishment, still shifted and fragmented further at the very heart of the greatest angel. Cariel had never realized how complete the damage was. His distant, wandering gaze wasn’t because he was bored of the meeting. Michael was holding himself together by the sheer strength of his will alone.
Raphael knew this. Cariel glanced over at the other Archangel. Raphael was once again pacing in agitation, but now that Cariel was paying attention, he could see that the looks Raphael kept shooting Michael’s way weren’t for guidance-they were concerned. Who else knew? The Archangels had been aware, but Michael’s second… Michael didn’t have a second. Ever since Gabriel had settled in on Earth with Jesus, Raphael had been the one stepping up as Michael’s second, despite it being beneath him as an Archangel. Gabriel had known, and he had confided in Cariel, but he had asked Cariel to keep it to himself. From what Cariel knew of Raphael and Marmoniel, he couldn’t see the Archangel of the Air confiding in her.
No one else had gotten close enough to Michael long enough to notice. Cariel looked back at his oldest brother. If he drew this out too long, Michael might not be able to keep up the pretense that he was fine. Gabriel could lie flawlessly, but he had a tendency to collapse if forced to carry one on for an extended period. Michael’s wandering gaze was clue enough that his strength was fading.
Raphael wasn’t angry with Cariel and the choir, or even with Gabriel. Raphael was worried, worried that Cariel would figure out the truth, worried that… that with Gabriel gone and Michael breaking into pieces, Raphael was effectively the last Archangel remaining.
Raphael wasn’t designed to be a leader, same as Gabriel wasn’t. Neither of the secondary Archangels were ever meant to step up and guide all of Heaven. That was Michael’s job, with Sammael at his side. For the first time, Cariel looked to Raphael with something approaching pity in his grace. “Don’t speak for me,” he said quietly. “I am my own angel, with my own thoughts and mind. Do not ever presume to speak for me, and I will obey you. Not as if you were Gabriel-you both know you could never replace him to me-but I will not jeopardize the Host with my actions.”
“Or we could just kill you,” Raphael pointed out.
“Kill me and you face a mutiny from Gabriel’s choir,” Cariel countered, turning to face the younger Archangel fully. “Keep me alive, and I can keep them calm and help them through the transition. I presume you will be splitting them between your choirs? They won’t like it, but I can make them accept it.”
Raphael narrowed his eyes at Cariel, and Cariel spread his arms. “Gabriel liked me because I was capable of leading his choir without his constant attention,” he said. “I’m an asset you can’t afford to lose right now, Raphael. You know I’m right.”
No one had ever dared speak to Raphael like this before in the Archangel’s life, if how the wind picked up around Raphael was any indication. Cariel held his ground, staring the more powerful angel down. Raphael wouldn’t strike him here without Michael’s permission, and Michael was at least still sane enough to be on Cariel’s side.
Cariel hoped.
“You will have to be demoted,” Raphael finally relented. “Fifth-class Seraph, with no hope of promotion.”
That was actually better than Cariel had dared to pray for. He could tolerate being fifth-class, so long as he could remain a Seraph. Demotion any further down would strip him of some of his wings, and he couldn’t imagine life with only one set. Most angels never knew anything better, but Cariel was not one of them. He would honestly rather be dead than demoted so far. “I understand,” he said. “Whose choir will I be assigned to?”
Raphael glanced over at Michael, and Michael answered for both of them.
“Ours.”
“I don’t understand…” An angel could only serve one choirmaster. That had been demonstrated all too clearly with Azazel.
“We are combining our choirs,” Raphael explained, striding over to the desk and putting his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Michael will be the choirmaster of all of Heaven, and I shall be his second.”
“So… exactly how it was when Gabriel was on Earth with the prophets, only official?”
“Yes,” Michael gave a little nod and a pleasant, distracted smile. “I’m glad you chose to cooperate with us, Cariel. You have been an asset to Gabriel all these millennia. We look forward to your continued service to the Host.”
There really was something off about Michael now, in all his words and actions. Was it really so wise to have him ruling all of Heaven? Cariel’s eyes flicked to Raphael, and Raphael lifted his chin slightly. Michael wouldn’t be. He was a figurehead only. The true rule would come from Raphael, for as long as Raphael could sustain the deception.
Cariel swept out his wings and ducked into a bow to the pair of Archangels, hiding his concerns between false fealty. “I look forward to working with you both. May I return to my… to the remainder of Gabriel’s choir now?”
Michael took his seat again, flicking his fingers in Cariel’s direction, already distracted by a report on his desk. “You may go.”
Cariel nodded briefly and left the tower as quickly as he dared. He still wasn’t fast enough. Halfway back to Gabriel’s tower, a sudden gale swept him off his path and tumbled him into one of Heaven’s forests. Swearing and cursing, Cariel attempted to untangle his wings from the snarled branches. The task was made all the more difficult by the hostile presence of an Archangel perched on a nearby branch, watching.
“Is this the sort of show that amuses you?” Cariel spat at Raphael, buffeted by another gust of wind.
“More than rebellious words, yes,” Raphael answered, and Cariel would have laughed if he hadn’t been the subject of the Archangel’s amusement. So there was a sense of humor somewhere in Gabriel’s twin. “You saw.”
Cariel stopped struggling, looking over at Raphael. This was more of what he was accustomed to from Gabriel, this look as if the Archangel was genuinely seeing him. “Michael’s… damage? Yes.”
“You will not speak of it to anyone.” Raphael narrowed his eyes at the Seraph. “Michael may speak up for you when you’re in front of him, but I can assure you, he’s already forgotten. If I told him you died in the course of your duties, he wouldn’t question me.”
“You know the big difference between you and Gabriel?” Cariel asked, struggling against the tree again. He managed to get one of his wings free. “One of the differences, at least? He never threatened me. He asked. And I’d obey, because I loved him.”
“You don’t love me,” Raphael retorted. “I don’t have your loyalty. Why bother asking when I’ll have to threaten anyway?”
“Because I still might say yes.” Cariel pulled a second wing free and used them to help push himself away from the branches. “For your information, Raphael, I’ve known Michael was broken for centuries. This is just the first time I got close enough to see for myself.” He looked over his shoulder at the Archangel. “Gabriel told me. Even before Jesus. I haven’t told anyone else, and I will continue to keep it a secret.”
“See that you do.” Raphael flashed away with one last firm wind to shove Cariel back into the trees. He flailed among the leaves, cursing the Archangel’s name under his breath.
Next...
Notes: This is the sequel to A History of Heaven.
Chapter Rating: PG
Chapter word count: 2,079
Chapter Summary: Michael and Raphael have finally decided what to do with Gabriel’s angels. Cariel is the first to be told.
CHAPTER 2:
The Demotion
Cariel stood in Michael’s office, his hands clasped behind his back, wings folded in tight. He kept his head up and his eyes focused intently on the wall directly in front of him, regardless of the pacing of the Archangel around him, or the second seated behind his desk.
Two. Two of them, the only two Archangels left in Heaven. Michael and Raphael were clearly upset, their graces spiking erratically around them. They were talking silently to each other, over Cariel’s head, if the interplay of their halos was anything to go by.
Cariel had lived his entire life in the presence of an Archangel, but he was wholly unprepared for the scrutiny he now endured. Michael and Raphael were nothing like Gabriel. There was nothing soft about either of them, nothing warm, nothing that sparked with laughter or teased or smiled. Gabriel had loved his older brothers, but Cariel had always feared them. Michael and Raphael were power and command, and their will was absolute.
“We should kill you where you stand,” Raphael finally snarled, addressing Cariel for the first time since he had been summoned into Michael’s office. “You’ve always been Gabriel’s little pet. You’ll be nothing but trouble, just like him.”
“You are allowing emotions to cloud your judgment, Raphael,” Michael warned. His eyes didn’t quite track the angel he was speaking to. “Gabriel has betrayed us recently, yes, but he has not been solely trouble.”
“In these past few centuries?” Raphael’s wings beat the air in agitation. “Gabriel has been an absolute menace!”
“Just because he escaped your control doesn’t make him a menace!” Cariel protested, unable to keep silent anymore. Fugitive or not, Gabriel would always be his choirmaster. He couldn’t stand idly by while Raphael insulted him.
“This is not the time for you to act out, Cariel,” Michael warned, imperious and foreboding from behind his desk. “Your life hangs by a thread. The last time we trusted another’s second, he betrayed all of Heaven.”
“Twice,” Cariel muttered. “And Gabriel warned you about him! If you only listened to him, maybe you wouldn’t have driven him away!”
“So this is our fault now?” Raphael stepped between Michael and Cariel, looming over the Seraph to his full height. Ancient instincts, long since battered into submission under Gabriel’s casual rule, reared up within Cariel and he shrank beneath Raphael’s presence, folding into a bow. “You dare to accuse us of-”
“Raphael, that is enough.” Michael stood behind his desk, his fingertips barely brushing the surface. “Cariel apologizes for his insolence.”
“You don’t get to speak for me.” Cariel rankled at his treatment, clenching his hands into fists even as he remained bowed before Raphael’s might. Gabriel had never treated Cariel like this. He had always conferred with his lieutenant as an equal, valuing his word and opinions. Michael and Raphael were barely acknowledging he was a living being, much less one with thoughts of his own!
“Is this how you acted in front of Gabriel?” Raphael sneered. “Did you amuse him with your rebellious words?” His hand closed around Cariel’s neck, reminding the Seraph of the magnitude of difference between Raphael’s power and Cariel’s. The unconventional physics of Heaven made them appear similar in size, usually, but when a more powerful angel chose to be threatening, his true vastness was revealed. “Don’t mistake me for my brother, Seraph. I don’t particularly like you, and I have no vested interest in keeping you alive.”
“I do.” Michael flicked a hand at the pair, easily separating Raphael from Cariel with a small wave of grace. “Gabriel is confused right now, but I do not believe him lost. However, if we were to kill his lieutenant in a fit of anger, we would lose him.”
Raphael seethed on his side of the room, his massive wings slicing through the air again, but he kept his distance from Cariel. Cariel slowly straightened up, massaging his neck ruefully.
“Mind you, Cariel,” Michael said, addressing the Seraph without even attempting to look at him, “should we execute you for suspicion of potential treason, I’m sure we could convince Gabriel that it was warranted, in light of Azazel’s actions. He would understand that we could not keep an angel within these walls whose loyalty was not first and foremost to Heaven and the Host.”
“Is that a threat?” Cariel asked, glaring darkly at Michael.
“Gabriel would be sad if we killed you,” Michael said, finally turning his head to vaguely meet Cariel’s eyes. “But he is extraordinarily resilient, even for an angel. He would recover. You would not.”
That was a threat. Michael’s gaze was completely calm and sober, but he wasn’t, Cariel realized, entirely sane. The shattered core Gabriel had always fretted about, ever since Michael had assisted in Lucifer’s banishment, still shifted and fragmented further at the very heart of the greatest angel. Cariel had never realized how complete the damage was. His distant, wandering gaze wasn’t because he was bored of the meeting. Michael was holding himself together by the sheer strength of his will alone.
Raphael knew this. Cariel glanced over at the other Archangel. Raphael was once again pacing in agitation, but now that Cariel was paying attention, he could see that the looks Raphael kept shooting Michael’s way weren’t for guidance-they were concerned. Who else knew? The Archangels had been aware, but Michael’s second… Michael didn’t have a second. Ever since Gabriel had settled in on Earth with Jesus, Raphael had been the one stepping up as Michael’s second, despite it being beneath him as an Archangel. Gabriel had known, and he had confided in Cariel, but he had asked Cariel to keep it to himself. From what Cariel knew of Raphael and Marmoniel, he couldn’t see the Archangel of the Air confiding in her.
No one else had gotten close enough to Michael long enough to notice. Cariel looked back at his oldest brother. If he drew this out too long, Michael might not be able to keep up the pretense that he was fine. Gabriel could lie flawlessly, but he had a tendency to collapse if forced to carry one on for an extended period. Michael’s wandering gaze was clue enough that his strength was fading.
Raphael wasn’t angry with Cariel and the choir, or even with Gabriel. Raphael was worried, worried that Cariel would figure out the truth, worried that… that with Gabriel gone and Michael breaking into pieces, Raphael was effectively the last Archangel remaining.
Raphael wasn’t designed to be a leader, same as Gabriel wasn’t. Neither of the secondary Archangels were ever meant to step up and guide all of Heaven. That was Michael’s job, with Sammael at his side. For the first time, Cariel looked to Raphael with something approaching pity in his grace. “Don’t speak for me,” he said quietly. “I am my own angel, with my own thoughts and mind. Do not ever presume to speak for me, and I will obey you. Not as if you were Gabriel-you both know you could never replace him to me-but I will not jeopardize the Host with my actions.”
“Or we could just kill you,” Raphael pointed out.
“Kill me and you face a mutiny from Gabriel’s choir,” Cariel countered, turning to face the younger Archangel fully. “Keep me alive, and I can keep them calm and help them through the transition. I presume you will be splitting them between your choirs? They won’t like it, but I can make them accept it.”
Raphael narrowed his eyes at Cariel, and Cariel spread his arms. “Gabriel liked me because I was capable of leading his choir without his constant attention,” he said. “I’m an asset you can’t afford to lose right now, Raphael. You know I’m right.”
No one had ever dared speak to Raphael like this before in the Archangel’s life, if how the wind picked up around Raphael was any indication. Cariel held his ground, staring the more powerful angel down. Raphael wouldn’t strike him here without Michael’s permission, and Michael was at least still sane enough to be on Cariel’s side.
Cariel hoped.
“You will have to be demoted,” Raphael finally relented. “Fifth-class Seraph, with no hope of promotion.”
That was actually better than Cariel had dared to pray for. He could tolerate being fifth-class, so long as he could remain a Seraph. Demotion any further down would strip him of some of his wings, and he couldn’t imagine life with only one set. Most angels never knew anything better, but Cariel was not one of them. He would honestly rather be dead than demoted so far. “I understand,” he said. “Whose choir will I be assigned to?”
Raphael glanced over at Michael, and Michael answered for both of them.
“Ours.”
“I don’t understand…” An angel could only serve one choirmaster. That had been demonstrated all too clearly with Azazel.
“We are combining our choirs,” Raphael explained, striding over to the desk and putting his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Michael will be the choirmaster of all of Heaven, and I shall be his second.”
“So… exactly how it was when Gabriel was on Earth with the prophets, only official?”
“Yes,” Michael gave a little nod and a pleasant, distracted smile. “I’m glad you chose to cooperate with us, Cariel. You have been an asset to Gabriel all these millennia. We look forward to your continued service to the Host.”
There really was something off about Michael now, in all his words and actions. Was it really so wise to have him ruling all of Heaven? Cariel’s eyes flicked to Raphael, and Raphael lifted his chin slightly. Michael wouldn’t be. He was a figurehead only. The true rule would come from Raphael, for as long as Raphael could sustain the deception.
Cariel swept out his wings and ducked into a bow to the pair of Archangels, hiding his concerns between false fealty. “I look forward to working with you both. May I return to my… to the remainder of Gabriel’s choir now?”
Michael took his seat again, flicking his fingers in Cariel’s direction, already distracted by a report on his desk. “You may go.”
Cariel nodded briefly and left the tower as quickly as he dared. He still wasn’t fast enough. Halfway back to Gabriel’s tower, a sudden gale swept him off his path and tumbled him into one of Heaven’s forests. Swearing and cursing, Cariel attempted to untangle his wings from the snarled branches. The task was made all the more difficult by the hostile presence of an Archangel perched on a nearby branch, watching.
“Is this the sort of show that amuses you?” Cariel spat at Raphael, buffeted by another gust of wind.
“More than rebellious words, yes,” Raphael answered, and Cariel would have laughed if he hadn’t been the subject of the Archangel’s amusement. So there was a sense of humor somewhere in Gabriel’s twin. “You saw.”
Cariel stopped struggling, looking over at Raphael. This was more of what he was accustomed to from Gabriel, this look as if the Archangel was genuinely seeing him. “Michael’s… damage? Yes.”
“You will not speak of it to anyone.” Raphael narrowed his eyes at the Seraph. “Michael may speak up for you when you’re in front of him, but I can assure you, he’s already forgotten. If I told him you died in the course of your duties, he wouldn’t question me.”
“You know the big difference between you and Gabriel?” Cariel asked, struggling against the tree again. He managed to get one of his wings free. “One of the differences, at least? He never threatened me. He asked. And I’d obey, because I loved him.”
“You don’t love me,” Raphael retorted. “I don’t have your loyalty. Why bother asking when I’ll have to threaten anyway?”
“Because I still might say yes.” Cariel pulled a second wing free and used them to help push himself away from the branches. “For your information, Raphael, I’ve known Michael was broken for centuries. This is just the first time I got close enough to see for myself.” He looked over his shoulder at the Archangel. “Gabriel told me. Even before Jesus. I haven’t told anyone else, and I will continue to keep it a secret.”
“See that you do.” Raphael flashed away with one last firm wind to shove Cariel back into the trees. He flailed among the leaves, cursing the Archangel’s name under his breath.
Next...