Present time…
The creature squinted into the dark. In the distance he could see flames burning in clusters. It was hot, very hot where he lay. All the figures around him threw a faint orange light into the room. He was sweating which was odd. He felt terribly weak and he did not know what to do. He focused on his surrounding for any footstep he might hear. There was deathly stillness around.
"Your senses are controlled by me here, Samael. Do not strain your ears." spoke a deep voice from someone within the shadows. The Angel of Darkness had never been afraid of Shadows. Yet now he was. The voice seemed familiar somehow but it did not belong to the General. "I never thought I would see you like this." smirked the unknown voice.
"Who are you?" cried the frightened winged creature.
"How could you forget your cousin Samael, the cousin you exiled from your domains? You are in my dominion now and at my mercy" sounded the voice of the creature coming out of the shadows. The creature was humanoid. He could be passed for the most beautiful Man on Earth. He had the perfectly crafted face, perfectly clear complexion and crystal clear eyes. His eyes were the perhaps the most striking feature about his face. His irises were not rounded but elongated like that of a snake. Those were the only things that gave him away. Recognition came to the weakened creature gradually. "Lucifer"
Back in the Sixth Heaven
Cassandra had started to get back some of her memories. She remembered her mortal husband and his faith. She remembered how she had left him out of fear. But she failed to remember why she went to him in the first place.
Samael when trying to kill her had failed but his darkness had seeped into her mind clouding the goodness that there was and covering everything with fear and prejudice. Love no longer held a place there, not for her husband and not for her child to come.
She was a guest in the house of Raphael, the house that her parents once wished her to be wed into. The woman who had brought her here was Ariella, who was Raphael’s servant. The legend of the twin healers did not in reality possess the allure and charm of a myth. Ariella and Celia were conceived of the same womb but were born with marks different from that of their parent’s. That is a rare occurrence in the world of Angels when the female directly bears the mark of her mate from birth. While one bore the mark of the ruler of the seventh heaven, their native planet, the other was destined for a lower planet. Unwillingly to accept a position lower than her twin she had been clouded with jealousy and blinded by Samael into seducing the man her sister was betrothed to. She had pretended to be her sister and consummated the mating with her sister’s mate. Raphael was her betrothed. When her parents found out what she had done they demanded a sacrifice of her in return of giving her life. That sacrifice was her the-then mate. She convinced her mate, her sister’s betrothed, that she repented her mating with him and wished to return to her own betrothed. Raphael was requested to redeem her to her carrier self. The process was partially successful. Her ties with her mate were severed but she remained a healer, unable to take up a mate or return to her old one. Soon she fell ill and gave birth to a still born child. From then on even her healing touch was assumed cursed. Only her sister still trusted her with it. She remained a servant in the house of Raphael, her once betrothed, only to run errands. She had served as Guardian Angels for most of her life and that too successfully but every time that she returned she met with the same prejudice from everyone around her.
Cassandra had listened to her story and sympathized with her. No one made her sacrifice her marriage but the marriage only seemed a burden to her. However she did not wish upon herself Ariella’s fate and she turned to Raphael for it. Once her child was born she would ask Raphael to redeem her as well as the mortal she was bound to.
Back in Hell
Lucifer smiled a sly smile. It had been a long time that an Angel had fallen so low as to be his guest. He was enjoying his new guest’s plight, powerless, writhing with the pain of humiliation. He had seen from the shadows how a human had risen on wings to defeat the mighty Samael. Was that the next step in evolution or was it some of God’s old tricks? Still he was human and subject to human follies. He had followed the man and had observed his follies. He was a devout man, too devoted to the purpose of God. His resemblance to the watchdog of God was remarkable. He was the splitting image of Lucifer’s arch enemy Michael and it was too much of a coincidence. Then one day he saw Michael’s mate go visit the mortal disguised as a human. That is when Lucifer decided that this creature was a pawn in the human-lover Michael’s attempt of overthrowing the Angel’s at the hand of the paltry humans. He could not let his brethren suffer for the folly of Michael. But there was very little he could do from his exile. His only hope was that Raphael would be too tempted to redeem Samael, his own twin brother. Whatever action he had to take had to be through Samael.