"Have a seat, Uriel. Take a moment and tell me everything." Zerachiel gestured toward the sofa in the parlor, and the messenger angel bowed his head respectfully. He sat next to Ophelia, his hand finding hers, their fingers intertwining. Victoria poured tea for everyone, and sat next to Ophelia, her master pulling his chair to the small table.
Uriel squeezed Ophelia's hand, comforting himself. "Emilia and Orion have yet to be found. Gabriel is worried about his wife, but once Raphael returned with Remiel, his concerns were a little…diverted. Raphael told us he went to the Great Hall, and he found four Archangels pulling the feathers from Rem's wings. Two were the Twin Archs, but Raphael says he had never seen the other two. He told us that one seemed like he was just following orders, but the other one, the black-haired one, seemed like he was…enjoying it. As if that Arch actually took joy in his task. That one may be a threat to us if the Ruler decides he is going to unleash the Archs on us. I don't recall that man from my time at their battlegrounds, but I will try to find out which Archangel he is."
Zerachiel scowled. "The Ruler ordered Remiel's wings stripped? All because he mentioned our Brother? He's gone mad."
Uriel sank lower in his seat, and Ophelia wrapped her right wing around him, attempting to comfort him. He settled into her wing, closing his eyes momentarily. "I think He has been mad for a long time. Look how He treats you and your Brothers."
"Forget us! Look at your own-"
Uriel cut Zerachiel off, whipping his finger to his lips, a sign to keep quiet about the many whip scars on his back. Ophelia and Victoria glanced between Uriel and their master, curious as to why Zerachiel had stopped in the middle of his sentence. Uriel fretted; Ophelia had yet to see his bare skin, and he worried that she would lose interest if she were to see the decades of scars that crossed his back, the years upon years that the whip had bit his skin.
"The real question is, what can we do about it?" Uriel asked, trying to avoid Ophelia's questioning eyes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Raguel met Jeremiel at the pathway leading up to his home, and the two men glanced at the house.
"I'm sorry your celebration has gone so poorly, Raguel." Jeremiel looked at his feet, his long chestnut hair falling forward.
"It was the thought that mattered. It was a nice evening, until the Twin Archs did…what they like to do. Do you think Orion came back here like I told him to?"
"He better have. Do you really think he did it out of kindness, out of duty?"
Raguel pursed his lips. "He seemed sincere. He had all the weaponry of the other Archs, he could have fought back when I caught him. He surrendered. He didn't try to reach for any blades or weapons, he simply submitted. If he had meant Emilia any harm, he would have tried to fight me."
Jeremiel raised his eyebrows. "It does sound like he was sincere then. I wonder what made him abandon the ways of his kind?"
Orion set down Emilia, having carried her through their realm-travel back to Jeremiel's home, as he had promised to do. "It is as I told your Brother, Seraphim Jeremiel."
The men attempted to hide their start as the Archangel folded his wings back and placed his weaponry on the ground. His blades away from reach, Orion stepped back.
"I promise, I just didn't want her to be hurt. I saw the blade Samael held, and I didn't want her to witness whatever they were plotting. It's always something with the Twins, and it's never good."
Jeremiel glanced at the abandoned weapons, toward his Brother's wife, and to the silver-haired Arch. "Why help us though? We are not your kind."
"With all respect, Seraphim Jeremiel, that should matter little. I've been reading on chivalry, on the knight's code of honor while I've been assigned to Seraphim Raphael. The Ruler wanted me for this assignment to make me more like the Twins, to make me more…or less, I suppose…less of myself. But spending more time with Seraphim Raphael, I became more and more disenchanted with the life of the Archangels. I don't want to be a warrior, a mindless enforcer. I want to be better. When that blade appeared in Samael's hand, I saw the opportunity to be better."
Raguel, having heard Orion's words before, focused intently on what he had to say again, listening for any sign of deception or insincerity. The young Archangel's story had lined up properly with what he had been told, and Raguel began to let his guard down. He turned his attention from Orion, and made his way toward Emilia.
"Are you alright?"
"Of course. Just a little shaken since you told me about my husband. If you are all done questioning Orion, I would like to go inside and see Gabriel." Emilia tried her best to hide her irritability toward the men who stood in her way.
"Certainly, I should have known you would have wanted…my apologies, Emilia." Raguel offered his hand to his Brother's wife, leading her into Jeremiel's home.
Alone outside of the house, Jeremiel still pressured the Archangel for more information. "The Ruler has kept your kin- I mean, the Archs, separate from the rest of the Kingdom for centuries. How many of you are there? Why are you hidden from us?"
Orion paced along the pathway, feeling he was betraying his brethren's secrets, but knowing it was the right thing to do. "There are thirteen of us. You know of the Twins and myself. Unlike the Seraphim, we have three women in our ranks, and they're just as dangerous as the men. We're run like an army, our commander is the Archangel Metatron. He really is a good man, but he takes his job training seriously. He will run us until we're battered, beaten, and bruised."
"Where are you kept?" Jeremiel's question was less of a question, and more of a demand.
"W-we've got our own territory, hidden from the rest of the Kingdom by a large forest. I-I didn't know you existed until late, either, I swear! Since I've come to be, I've only ever known the battlegrounds and our little village home. That's all there was and all there ever would be…until I was summoned for the job guarding Raphael. That messenger angel, Uriel, I really like him, he's been kind to us, he even celebrated with us after the Fall…"
Jeremiel fought to keep his rage contained. "Uriel did what?"
"I-I think it was less of him joining of his own accord and th-that he was making the best of his situation. He had come to the celebration on the shoulders of the Twins, and he l-looked so uneasy. He didn't talk to many of us, he kept trying to refuse drinks, but my brethren are a stubborn lot. He stumbled around until he found me, told me about the summons to the Ruler, and then tried to realm-travel back home a few times, but just kept falling flat on his face. I tried to take him back to my home, but Azazel made me leave Uriel behind on the grass." Orion noticed that Jeremiel scanned his features for any signs of deception, looking so much more like Raguel as he did.
"You swear to me, on Emilia's heart, that you are of no threat to us?"
"I swear."