Oh hey, forgot to write down that I ran into Socheniel. He’s doing pretty good for himself. He doesn’t wear a cover over his dry eye sockets anymore. And the blight no longer holds down his wings. But a funny thing happened to his appearance. If you try to see him with your eyes, you won’t. You’ll only see a strange pillar of something like smoke but isn’t. To see him, you have to abandon sight entirely.
Remember when I mused that his exile was only an exile to him? That his ejection from the halls of his divinity was a long game play that Brother Superior unwittingly played into? That his sin was not enough to justify what was done to him and that he was being planted for some other purpose?
“Fuck. You know… if we had met with you like this, I’d either attack you from instinct or I’d still be jumping realms to get away from you.”
“I know.”
“Reinstated, I suppose? Headed back up?”
“No.”
“Socheniel, you’re awash with glory. You wear the blight as armor and mantle. Your wings are restored, and you are terrible and frightening to look upon. So either another master has claimed your heart, or your god is calling for you.”
He took my head in his massive hands and leaned down. The kiss on my forehead carried another surreptitious blessing. “It took me a while, Weaver. But I discovered what I am.”
“You’re an angel, you lunk.”
“But not all angels are the same. You’ve seen that.”
Touching his hands was like touching the case of a generator. I could feel the power humming millimeters away. This was not the crippled angel that first came to me in pain. Not the mourning angel facing the betrayal by a brother. Not the warm friend that let me nap in his lap. “What kind of angel are you, Socheniel, that I actually tremble in strange fear before you?”
“One you need not fear.” He kissed me again and patted me on the head softly. “And that is all you need to know.”
He left and his unlight of glory left with him. I found myself in complete darkness and suddenly afraid. Even though I knew where I was, knew I was safe, something about him spoke to something deep within me and without it I felt vulnerable.
It was after I woke up that I realized that he bore six wings in full strength.
Somehow I don’t think his story is over. Not yet.