It started with a neutral terrace in the middle of anywhere. I had been called there by a neutral messenger, so I thought all would be… well… neutral. ~sigh~ Nope.
The messenger led me to the middle of the terrace and then retreated from me to a designated spot. It was then I remembered what such messengers used to be (and in some places, still are) called. Angelus.
The plain and simple angel sang a perfect note announcing our arrival. Above it and to my left, a ball of light appeared and morphed into another simple angel who also sang a perfect note in a bass timbre, this time slightly higher above the first. Before I could turn to flee, more angels appeared, each one above and to my left of the one before. When the spiral returned to where it started, that angel was not only a full body height above the first, but sung a note an octave above as well.
The song was entrancing and I found myself unable to move away because of it. When my knees buckled at the beauty of it, the first angel, the messenger that brought me there, grabbed me by my cloak and lifted me off the ground. Ke handed me over to kir partner on kir right, who handed me to kir partner, and so on. By such movement I was brought upward through the air, in a spiral ascension surrounded by light and sound.
The light and sound receded and I felt myself lowered onto a hard surface. I managed to get to my knees before yet another angel came before me. But this one was not like the others, and when ke appeared in glory, the assault on my senses overwhelmed me and I fell quite disgracefully at kir feet. Ke withdrew kir glory somewhat so I was able to once again struggle to rise to my knees.
Ke didn’t have a face. Of all the nonhuman parts, this disturbed me the most. Instead of a face, ke had a tall sloping bone shield. It reminded me briefly of the game Silent Hill. Ke bore no wings, but was surrounded by a visible aura that was simultaneously thick with floating eyes and clear showing the reflection of the eyes on the other side of the aura. The robes of kir office were deep crimson red, the color of oxygenated blood, and was also covered in blinking, moving, observing eyes on every surface and hem.
Eyes no longer squick me out anymore. It was this angel’s face that kept threatening to undo me. Or rather, the lack of face. The flat and smooth surface that looked like old and worn bone but was over a foot tall. That shit just ain’t right.
“Have you seen enough?” The angel had no mouth but still I heard a voice. It sounded like a composition of all the flooding waters and all the howling winds and all the rumbling rockslides and all the roars of fires and every scream from every child’s nightmare at once. It made a nice diversion from the face. But I could not answer. My mouth was sealed closed.
That made me angry.
But not angry enough to overcome the near stupor the angel’s presence caused in me.
It opened it’s… eyes? vision? I don’t know. I just know the angel focused its attention on me, and the act of doing so caused the bone shield to be illuminated as if a spotlight shone directly upon me. “Ah. Of course. You must be released first.”
The angel reached out to me, reaching through the aura of eyes, and extended a finger made of light. The end of the finger was tipped with fire. It was now that I noticed the angel was holding a tablet in kir arms. I noted wrily it was slightly smaller than an iPad. If I wasn’t held captive by the angel’s glory, I would have make a snarky comment about angelic tech.
The talon of fire pierced my forehead easily, filling me with a searing light that almost chased away my consciousness. At the moment I thought I could bear no more, I heard the angel say with solemn clarity, “Boop.”.
Boop.
BOOP?
The finger withdrew and I fell forward once more. But this time I was able to quickly spring to my feet. “BOOP! Ah hell naw!, No you didn’t! You did not just have a jagged shard of my spirit ganked and hauled up a spiral column of angels and dropped in front of you like rags just for your too damn many eyed fuckface to fucking boop me like a fucking spoiled toddler!”
The angel was amused at my own temper tantrum. How I could tell despite the lack of body language and the complete lack of relatable facial features, I do not know. But I knew. Ke was smiling at me. Chuckling even. “You are correct. I didn’t. But I needed you to burn off that anger of yours before I get started.”
I shut my mouth before I spoke completely out of turn. Ke did have a point. My first reaction to surprises is always a violent outburst. Considering my very large and unwieldy chip on my shoulder regarding angels, I’m surprised I didn’t take a swing at the old chap. “Oh. That makes sense. Well. You have my attention and my anger is back to a low simmer. So. What’s up?”
The angel smiled again and I stopped having an averse reaction to the bone shield face.
~meanwhile~
“A… an…” I’m shuddering as if from chills, fever, or both. Ravens are gathered on top of my body. Bones clatter under me as the carefully made pyre is undone in my thrashing. “Angels.”
They know. They had snatched a shard of me before I had left with the disguised messenger. I hadn’t thought much of it then, because they’re ravens. Always snatching souls. And because they are Ravens. My Boneyard masters always have rights to me. Did they know what the messenger was? Most likely. I had the sense the shard snatching was a prudent measure, a safeguard in case things went foul with the angels.
They had a pyre already prepared with a hollow shaped to my body when I arrived. Quickly they tried to bury me in more bones, but the searing finger of light and fire was felt even into the Boneyard and I threw off all the covering bones. It took all of them just to keep enough body weight on me so I would not flee in panic. I was only beginning to recover myself.
I mouth the word “angels”, again. My eyes are open but blinded as if light seared but the only sources of light here are far away fires. I’m crying and trying hard not to panic. “An… ang…. a…”
They know.
My shrieks are answered by their calls.
~meanwhile~
The pallet was made of cushions and soft cloths. Delicate and fragrant perfumes floated between layers of resin smoke. A gentle light graced everyone present. Though the sun was near vertical, the room appeared touched by dawn. Along the curved wall of the round room were numerous people, covered in hooded white robes, kneeling and bowed as if praying. Four people, also in hooded white robes, were kneeling at the pallet as if at the compass points, holding on to lengths of soft but strangely sturdy cloth. A fifth person was between two of them, also kneeling, but whispering words of comfort to the thrashing and restrained woman held tight to the circular pallet by restraints of soft but sturdy cloth.
They didn’t see what she saw. They didn’t feel what she felt. They had assembled here to beseech and interact with angels, but none of them could see or hear them. They only saw the sunrise hues that accompany the angels.
She saw them. Clearly. The eyes and the mouths and the mouths in the hands and the eyes in the feet and the wings and the immense presences that filled every space from just above the bowed heads to the vaults of the high and open ceiling. She saw them, and she was utterly terrified.
They were too much like Those That Hurt Her. Too much like Those That Pulled Her Apart. Too much like pain and unmaking and acidic possession that melted the mind and too much fire too much fire too much too much…
~~~
Other Boneburners are there. Many of them do not understand how the fallen Boneburner could be plagued by anything in the middle of the Boneyard. They are working quickly to imprison her in bones. The Ravens are calling loudly at her. Her face is contorted in fear. Her unseeing eyes are open in panic. She can hear the Ravens, but she can’t respond. There is too much fear holding her in place.
The Ravens suddenly change their call. The other Boneburners scramble to get away from the ungainly pyre in response to the warning.
The throat of the fallen Boneburner clicks as a fit nearly breaks her. Her body falls lax. She takes a deep breath and unleashes her terror.
~~~
The angel has thrust its hand into the captive woman’s chest. The flesh is burning. The flesh is not burning. There is the smell of earthly resin. There is a fragrance that hints at a greater sensation but to the unenlightened reeks of fear.
To give those assembled the interaction they wanted would require the angel to fully possess the human acting as intermediary. But none of those attending would be able to withstand the weight of the glory of even the least of the angels that came. They did not want to touch this… unsanctified host… but they could see the scars where their brothers had once been. This one could bear some of them. But not all. It was enough.
The woman’s body was locked into extreme poses. There was no need to use the restraints to keep her in place. She could not move her extremities even if she had the presence of mind to want to. To others, she appeared to be suffering an epileptic fit.
Except for the very physical fire that lapped from her mouth as she spoke under the control of the dominating angel.
What was said, she was not consciously present to know. The angels found her to be a very good conduit for their messages despite the inherent filth of her mortality. But everything mortal wears and fades. No matter what the strength and endurance was present at the start, it always fades. The fire no longer flowed from angel to mouth. Her body was taking from it. Her bones were seeping the heat from what the angel forced into her. This surprised it. Human bones should burn to ask in such flame.
Not take the heat into the marrow as water rushes into a sponge.
The captive woman’s fit breaks into a series of chattering shudders. The angel withdraws its hand as the woman’s instinct recovers and rejects the forced intrusion. She takes a deep breath and unleashes her terror.
~~~
The fireball has softly embraced the bone pure surrounding the fallen Boneburner. The others, having moved to safety behind the Ravens cover their eyes in reflex as others in the distance wonder about the sun on the wrong horizon. The Ravens are silent as the fallen Boneburner’s fury works itself out in relative peace and quiet. They do not chastise her for her outburst.
Her fury is legitimate and can not be withheld.
They know she must be allowed to express herself somewhere, somehow. Let it be here, where she can do so in safety. Rather than in that other place, where she is not safe.
~~~
The angels have begun to slowly withdraw. The human vessel below them has sealed herself off from them. They could easily overpower the soul that guards that body, but at the cost of destroying both. They are not allowed to go that far. This time. The session is over. They are leaving.
The restrained woman is screaming incoherently now. Wild shrieks that throw no words against the ears of those unmoved on the chamber floor. The fear and anger is carried by the timbre of her voice. They understand the audience is over and now they are suddenly afraid of the price for what they have been given and can not return.
It cost them only money to attend, they thought. They were warned that their debt was not yet paid, but they had assumed the balance would be in tangible goods as well. But now the woman’s screams pierced them. Each tone adding another mark to the register.
The angels have almost completely faded. As their presence withdraws, the captive woman recovers more of her senses. The fear is gone. The anger is nearly completely faded. Her eyes are pouring a constant stream of tears but her wits shine harshly within them. She doesn’t remember why she’s here. She doesn’t remember what happened.
She only remembers she suffered what she did because of a bargain struck between her and an angel. A faceless angel surrounded by chords of harmony but speaking in tones of disaster.
She will collect her due some other time. Right now, it was time for rest. She sighed, closed her eyes, and her form dissolved from the chamber as the angels did the same.
~~~
When the fire collapsed upon itself in the Boneyard, what bones remained were covered with a dark ash. Of the Boneburner left within, there was no trace. Only indistinct lumps of heat shattered bones, incinerated marrow, and ash.
A bone fell. The clattering launched the Ravens into a cacophonous descent onto the middle of the smouldering wreck. The focus of their attention shifted. A fleshed hand burst through the collapsed layers. A Raven alighted upon it. Talons and fingers curled firmly around each other.
I pulled myself to a seated position without letting go of the Raven. I was howling as I cried, but it was from pains I was quickly forgetting. I knew I had just experienced a terrible horror that I couldn’t remember. Instead of trying to remember, I focused on what was at hand. Literally.
I have never held a Raven before. I have had them hold me. Have had them perched on my extended fingers. Have been in raven form myself and being among them. But I have never held a Raven. I blinked through my tears and tried to stammer something resembling speech.
It wasn’t required. The Raven in my hand flicked away my tears as fast as they appeared. Fully naked in the ash, I was vulnerable to all the approaching talons. But they all landed on me so as not to hurt me.
I was tired. I had a haunting memory of angels on the periphery of my mind. But I also have a Raven in my hand. I released my grip.
The Raven continued to hold my hand.
I felt like I passed an arduous test.
Lethargy reclaimed me. The ash compacted softly under me as I fell again.
The songs of the conspiracies chased me into deep sleep.
~on waking~
“That fucking fuckfaced motherfucker bullshit speaking sunnavabitch GOD FUCKING DAMN YOU TO ALL LEVELS OF HELL YOU TRITE ASS MOTHERFUCKER! THIS SHIT AIN’T OVER TAINTFACE!”
I woke up expressing my opinion of the “bone shield” angel and the not quite remembered bargain I made with it. Going to need more coffee than usual to get through the day.