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JEDIAH LED AKELA AROUND the bend into a tunnel. The path climbed to his place of solitude, which nested on a higher vantage point. Dislodged rocks from the recent skirmish cluttered the narrow space. Jediah weaved around the wreckage and regarded the scattered boulders with tired eyes. “Watch your step, please. It’s kind of a mess.”
“Meh, it’s not so bad,” Akela said. “I’ve seen bigger disasters in bedrooms.”
Jediah turned to check on Akela. The messenger stared at the broken stones with interest as he passed. Jediah pressed onward. “You, uh, journey through earth often?”
“Sometimes. I recently tried a lemonade someone threw away. Just to see what it tastes like.”
“Lemonade?”
“It’s some kind of juice—except there’s sugar, seeds, and these stringy clearish bits floating around in it.”
Grimacing, Jediah shook his head. “Yick. Sounds tempting.”
“It wasn’t half bad, actually.” Akela’s footsteps hastened as if hurrying to catch up.
Jediah undid his scarf and fingered his forehead. Moist energy still seeped from the gash.
Akela caught up to him and winced. “Ooo.” He hissed through his teeth.
Jediah smiled and waved him off. “It’s just a scratch. It’ll heal in fifteen minutes, I’d wager.”
They entered a corridor to a spacious room lined with dark geodes. Their glazed minerals hid colors in the black like spilt oil under sunlight. Water trickled down the walls in sweet, therapeutic tones.
Jediah stared out through a wide opening in the left wall that overlooked the cave. Attentiveness was one habit he never had to break, and he relaxed further to see his troops accounted for and following orders. He motioned to a smooth boulder that protruded from the floor. “Here. Rest yourself.”
Akela hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Be my guest.”
Akela grinned and plopped himself down. He stretched his legs and rotated his ankles before once again investigating his bag for that elusive letter.
Jediah unbuckled the scabbard straps while he waited. His aching shoulders happily shrugged off the sword’s weight, but he nestled it in his hands and propped it up on the floor with care. Releasing a tired breath, he permitted his hardened wings to soften and stretch.
He turned to find Akela still fiddling with the bag.
Akela grunted and set the satchel aside. “I don’t understand it. I just got this message a minute ago.” Propping his elbow on his knee, he laid his chin in his hand. “Oh, wait!” He bopped himself on the forehead, then reached behind the leather guard that protected his chest. “I put it here for safekeeping.” Pulling out the letter, he immediately handed it to Jediah.
Jediah peered at the parchment in his hands with even greater interest. “Safe keeping? Who sent it?”
“The Almighty,” Akela said with a twinkle in his eye.
Stunned, Jediah ripped it open. His eyes darted over the sparkling ink. His rust brown hair filtered his vision, and he flicked it back.
Akela inched forward. “May I know what it said?”
“Lucifer is planning an attack.” Jediah paused. “Our Lord wants two of his best warriors captured before that happens.” He read further, ensuring there was nothing confidential. “It says... this shall be a secret mission... no one must know, and you, Akela,... are to come along with me.”
Akela bolted up. “Really? What else?” He reached for the letter as though to take it right out of Jediah’s hand.
Jediah jerked the letter back. “I’m getting there. I’m getting there.” His mouth mumbled more of the written words under his breath. “The other members of this company: Laszio, Eran, Nechum, Alameth.” Then, reading the mission’s primary locations, Jediah straightened his back, his mouth slightly ajar.
Earth. We are going to earth.
Jediah’s eyes wandered to stare at a corner in recess while a hurricane of thoughts swirled in his mind. He paced around the room in silence. His hands brushed the wall’s jagged edges, not minding the minor cuts they added to his fingertips.
“Captain?” Akela said. “You don’t look so good. Are you okay?”
Jediah was locked in a trance filled with wonder and aching fear.
Akela approached him, waving a hand in his slanted view.
Jediah blinked, breaking out of his daze. “Huh? Oh, yes. Yes, I’m fine.” His cheeks flushed.
“Well, okay then!” Akela said. “So I’m your assigned messenger now. Can’t wait to work with you!” He offered a handshake, which Jediah accepted.
“And same to you.”
With a big nod, Akela turned toward the exit.
“Wait, where are you going?” Jediah asked.
“I’ve got a few more messages to deliver. Don’t worry. This should only take a minute or two.” Akela stretched his arms and wings.
Jediah smiled in understanding. “Alright. Do what you need to do, but come back, and by all means, tell no one about this.”
“Oh Captain, my Captain. My lips are sealed.” Akela zipped out the door, then right back in. “I promise.”
Jediah cocked an eyebrow. He doesn’t even know when or where our team is meeting yet. Jediah sauntered closer to the door.
Sure enough, Akela returned quicker than a Yo-Yo. “I just remembered... if I need to finish more last-minute routes before we embark, at what time and where is our group rendezvousing? Did the message tell you?”
Jediah chuckled. “I have all the information. I’ll brief you once you get back, but right now, you’ve got work to do.”
“Right... right... okay, then. Bye!” Akela disappeared in a flash and a gust of wind.
Jediah pushed out a long breath. Keeping that angel focused was bound to take some doing. He returned to his window, relishing his privacy. Times of solitude helped him think best, and much was on his mind.
Something panged inside. Something incomplete and broken. Something he never could fix. “I’m going to earth,” his thoughts repeated. I’m going to earth. He pondered his life and fully realized he had watched the Abyss with such unbroken dedication for so long, he couldn’t tell how many millennia must have passed since he last saw anything from the first realm—the mortals’ realm.
Thrilling anxiety pressed his chest. His hands tingled from warmth and cold.
He took off his scarf and wetted it against the damp walls. Sitting down, he dabbed his wounds. The cuts stung but just as quickly eased in the cool, but that horrible panging deep inside refused to leave him alone.
How long have I been trying to distract myself from this?
His inner being cried out, yearning for relief, but only one word echoed in his soul that seemed to give it any respite: Salvation—the most wonderful word every angel understood but could never experience. Once again, Jediah imagined how freeing that gift must feel. That undeserved, crisp sensation of your filth reeked soul being washed clean and pure... God on the inside... your body His temple... sin’s curse and all its guilts undone... to bear the blessed Mark of the Trinity.
For a moment, Jediah’s emotional sickness lifted. “For God so loved the world,” he recited to himself. His mind filled in the blanks before he jumped to a separate Bible passage. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” His emotional sickness returned, and he swallowed as he added, “For all men.”
Jediah couldn’t count how many times he reminded himself of that fact. Angels knew God as Creator, Friend, Master, and King, but to know Him as Savior—that sounded so wonderfully different yet beyond their farthest reach.
All angels knew renouncing their loyalty meant to walk the demon’s path. It was a one-way road. No return. Yet God saw fit to grant sin-cursed men, lost at birth, a means of escape from eternal death and expulsion from guilt. They could return.
But why can’t we? Shaking his head, Jediah berated himself for daring to ask that question again, and yet it was all he could think about. What if this mission is my chance to learn what being redeemed is like? What it means? How it feels?
His curiosity boiled, taunted, and even frightened him. “Too many risks,” Jediah told himself. “Too many risks.” He’d be spotted easily if he fraternized with humans while trying to find his answers. He was the Keeper of the Abyss. Demons would swarm him and steal the Abyss’s key on sight. He shuddered to think of Apollyon rampaging again, especially now. No wonder God called this to be an undercover mission.
Jediah shook his head. I can’t partake in redemption anyway. So why bother? I probably wouldn’t understand a thing.
Wringing out his scarf, he ordered himself not to entertain the idea any further, but that lingering malaise in his being continued to haunt him. It wouldn’t leave him alone, and it never had for five thousand years.
***
The demon huffed and puffed. Paranoia spurned his tiring wings to keep stroking. Overcome with wariness, he glanced behind himself as often as he dared. Already he forgot how he managed to sneak in and break open Apollyon’s gates undetected. Not that he cared to remember it. Jediah was that close to entrapping him with the rest.
Night covered the Romanian landscape. The city lights of Cluj-Napoca drifted beneath him. White headlights and red taillights trailed each other as cars wound between buildings like beetles. Even as high up as he was, the demon could hear the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan zoo, yet his sights were on the blackened forest just beyond the suburbs.
Reaching the tree line, the demon clamped his wings together and dropped between the leafed clusters. He then re-opened his wings, parachuting for a soft landing.
Hoia-Baciu Forest’s trees didn’t grow straight. They were twisted and gnarled as though they had grown in pain, writhing in their infancy. The atmosphere, thick and heavy, stifled breath and smelled of terror. Even the full moon had not the power to lessen the gloom. For fog choked out its silver sheen.
Hearing the voices of his kindred, the demon followed them to their source. They came from a clearing the locals called the Devil’s Heart. Most humans feared to come near it. A longstanding demonic presence had forever stained its soil. Only stubbled grass could live. All else, whether tree or bush, couldn’t even set root there, for the discordant music of worship demons had forbidden life. It furthered the Sin Curse for miles, and though some fools attempted planting sprouts, they’d only find them shriveled and dead in weeks.
Nearing the clearing, the demon swallowed. He knew Lucifer waited for him along with his Captains and their messengers. Distracted, he bumped into a guard.
The soldier promptly throttled him. “What are you doing, angel scum?”
“Wait! Wait! Wait! I’m not an angel!” Realizing he forgot to remove his disguise, the demon wiped the fake face off, and his bright red soldier’s uniform faded into an aged maroon.
“Let him pass,” Lucifer chided, as he glared from a distance. “We were expecting him.”
The guard bowed low in piety. “Apologies, sire.”
The demon got up and brushed his clothes, tidying them up. He passed all the Commanders at present to throw himself before the Devil’s feet.
“Well?” Lucifer growled. “Was your mission successful?”
“Yes, great one. I infiltrated the angelic ranks during their assembly, penetrated Apollyon’s cell, and incited the jailbreak. Just as you commanded.”
“And?”
“And-”
“Stand up, for fool’s sake!”
The demon flushed cold and leaped to his feet.
“I can’t hear you with all that groveling.” Lucifer folded his arms and cocked his eyebrow. “Now tell me. Is it true what they say about Jediah’s key?”
“Yes. The rumors are true. His wings control the cells and bars. I saw it in action myself.”
Lucifer’s eyebrow rose higher in mild interest. “Interesting. And how many guards are there?”
“About a hundred.”
One captain pounded his fist in triumph. “That’s hardly a legion. We can lay siege on the Abyss tonight. Let us strip Jediah of his wings and free our brothers!”
Lucifer backhanded the officer’s cheek. “Fool. It’s not that simple. Jediah would chain and lock you and your troops up before you reached the doorstep, Captain Zivel.”
The small demon chuckled at the officer’s embarrassment, but lowered his eyes. “And it’s about to get harder.” The whole counsel suddenly leered at him. He had spoken out of turn. “I-I’m sorry.”
“You will be,” Captain Zivel threatened.
Lucifer waved a hand, silencing him. He squinted his eyes. “I will overlook your offense, imp. If your information is worth something.”
The demon shuffled his feet. “Jediah won’t be there. He’s been assigned to a covert operation on earth.”
Murmurs spread throughout the council.
Lucifer’s wings draped his shoulders as he folded his hands in a thinking position.
Zivel stepped forward to address the assembly. “So he’ll disappear, and the key will disappear right along with him to who know’s where!” he declared. “We must act now!”
Once again, Lucifer silenced Zivel and ordered him back to his place with one gesture. He pointed at the demon. “You.”
Feeling extra small, the demon shrunk back.
“Do you know anything more? What is Jediah’s mission?”
“He’s been tasked with arresting two of our key warriors, sire. But I know not whom.”
“You don’t know?” Lucifer’s neck sprouted scales beneath his collar. His teeth sharpened, and his irises shrunk to slits.
Falling backwards, the demon shielded his face. “But- but I do know one who’s going with him.”
“And I should care why?”
“It’s Akela.”
The demon peeked through his fingers. Lucifer’s being returned to normal, but his biting eyes still dug into him. “Akela you say?”
Grasping that glimmer of hope that he might escape the Devil’s wrath, the demon nodded. “Yes. Still ever the flying circus, that one.”
Lucifer said nothing. He instead folded his hands behind his back and paced around the group in a circle. “Moriel,” he called.
A tall and lean messenger stepped forward. “Yes, sire.”
“Has your master, Yakum, finished his work yet?”
“Almost, my prince. Malkior is still gathering data for him from the world’s hospitals as we speak.”
Lucifer nodded. He rubbed his chin. “Our gift to mankind is almost prepared, but we’re too few yet to unleash it at large without Apollyon’s troops. We need that key.” The level of perceptive thought could be clearly seen churning in Lucifer’s furrowed brow that dipped deeper and deeper.
Raising large, impressive wings, Captain Zivel brandished his sword. “Then let’s take the key now before it’s too late.” He licked his lips with hunger. “I’ll make Jediah squeal.”
“No,” Lucifer countered. “We discussed this. I need him.”
Captain Zivel’s eyes narrowed, displeased with his master’s answer. “No. No, I refuse to work with him again.”
“You can, and you will!”
“We’ve tried recruiting him for centuries,” Zivel argued. “He’s refused to see me since the age of gods. He never listened to you before, sire, and I highly doubt that’s changed.”
Lucifer laughed to himself. “Everything changes, Zivel. Besides, I’ve got a feeling your old partner will find this job a bit more... agreeable to his personal tastes.” Straightening himself, Lucifer raised his raven wings. They fanned and crowned his head like the back of a high throne. “Head for Mexico immediately, Captain. High time you paid your old accomplice a visit.”