It’s not often I get a summons now. So when the persistent thought continued to return despite acknowledgement and dismissal, I had to take a closer look.
Socheniel?
Aye. Very well. I’ll meet with him.
I walked the house both this side and the other, making sure all was in place before departure. I kissed the Skeletal Flaming Pit Bull of Vigilance on the forehead and departed for neutral ground.
The moment I declared myself ready to receive him, he came. The sky darkened and the stars hid themselves. The creek in the near distance dried up and every scent of water was unmade. The leaves on the trees darkened, shriveled, and fell from the cracking limbs as a a fungal blight embraced them. I watched as the landscape transformed from gentle summer to ashen & dead in seconds. Just before my eyesight failed, I noted how much the landscape looked like the aftermath of a volcano’s wrath. I wondered if Montserrat looked the same.
And then he was here.
Socheniel, the Blightbearer.
I could not see him with normal eyes. But I could feel him. He was the darkness that smothered the landscape. He was the blight that was still twisting and shattering the fallen trees. He was the ash that choked the animals, and the dust that fouled the water. He was holding me in an inescapable embrace.
I was not afraid.
“Hello, my friend.”
«You came.» His unvoice still carried the innocent tones I have always heard from him. I wasn’t sure if he stated the obvious or was surprised I did come.
“You asked. I answered.”
«Thank you.»
“So, what shenanigans are you up to, that you call the Apostate out from hiding?”
I could feel his mirth. It expressed itself as a million fine tendrils of blight curling in one simultaneous movement against my skin. It tickled.
«There is one that would meet with you. But my requirement is that I am present for the meeting and you are in my care for the entirety of it. Do you consent?»
My, how my dear angel has grown. The first time I met him, he was broken, cursed, and outcast. An innocent thrown into the ugliness of imperfections and used in a cruel game. Now I understand our meeting was not an accident. And somehow, this angel turned assassin is tied to me. I remember how I chaperoned his meeting with his betrayer and recognized the same tones of concern in his words. I smiled warmly and settled further into his grip.
“Aye. I consent.”
The devouring darkness that resides under the holy robe of Socheniel poured into me and devoured me from the inside out. Not for malice, but for safekeeping. Whoever or whatever he was taking me to meet, they would not be able to harm me without harming him. And that would not be an easy feat. Before my awareness surrendered to his safekeeping, I had the sense of him being a giant of such proportion that my entire body was nestled snugly in the flesh of his right forearm. His blight has embedded me into his “flesh” and sealed itself over me. I meant to make a snark comparing my travel arrangements to Zeus’ gestation of Dionysus, but once I was physically secure, my awareness was also subsumed.
~~~
I was kneeling in a landscape that was recovering from a near distant disaster. The rocks were still unnatural hues of grey and biologically stained a repulsive green. No mature trees were standing, but the saplings were stretching up to the clear sky as I watched. A creek was undecided about its track in the near distance. It kept flowing in new directions as if it had yet to find its harmony with the hydrophobic silt that still graced everything. Overhead, a bird of prey was circling, watching me while looking for signs of something easier to carry away.
I blinked as I recovered myself. I struggled to remember. I stood, checking myself, and found not a single hair had been disturbed. I looked around for any signs of disturbances, but all I saw were signs of recovery. What came through here, had come and gone, leaving me to awaken with the land.
Still confused, I decided heading to my lair would be the safest action to make. «Yes. You should rest before starting your day. I may ask you to return. You are not obligated to do so.» Socheniel’s unvoice was faint in my mind. I realized if he were to unspeak any louder, he would have an effect on the landscape. Again. Now I understood. I nodded to show as such and left for my lair.
Finding out who wanted a meeting with the Apostate, or why Socheniel was so protective of me, isn’t going to be easy, is it.