Death: Martial Law

If I had expected any sort of answer to my question, what the General levelled at me was certainly nowhere in my mind.

“Antikhristos,” I breathe. The word is sour on my tongue. It tastes of rotting human flesh and ruin. “Would not any of us Four have sensed--”

“Who beyond yourself and Famine knows?” Michael frowns.

“All,” I reply, blinking to reign in my surprise. “The Four all know, have all seen.”

“That is more than Gavri’el has shared,” the General sighs. He motions to his side, “Tell me.”

We walk circles around the innermost sanctum as I recount all that has occurred since I first happened upon Hyun. I withhold nothing from the General -- I would never deign to do so, as it would be little more than a fruitless endeavour. As the commander of armies of Heaven, any information could be useful information.

Michael asks few, yet pointed, questions, and when I finish all that I have to say, the General is quiet a moment before exhaling a slow breath.

“Your disquiet is not unwarranted,” he finally says. “Even my siblings and I feel it: the creeping sense of some kind of event -- an inevitable end of the current line.”

“Gabriel said nothing of this to me,” I say.

Michael nods, “Unsurprising. Until a decision had been made, my brother would not stir the Four until it was deemed an inevitability.”

“Our own concerns are unnecessary to Heaven -- even when he insisted upon following me--”

“Ah, yes,” Michael shakes his head. “That was on orders: a final observation report, though I do believe he took some enjoyment in your company.”

He was the only one.

“Gabriel has been regularly observing Hyun?”

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“Yes,” Michael nods. “Periodic observation in addition to all his other duties.”

“I see…”

The General lifts one brow, “You have a question.”

“I have more than one, sir.”

“One of them, I’d wager, being why I am here instead of my younger brother.”

I nod, “The purpose of your visit -- or, rather, the content of my orders is the crux of that question.”

“Do you have any other questions before I deliver those orders unto you?”

I pause and take a slow breath, “Then as to the presence felt by Famine, who--”

“Uri’el,” Michael shakes his head. “He desired to see the...wanted to see for himself.”

Uriel. The Light of God -- though better to have been called the Wolf of God, with his flaming sword and violence-thirsty grin. That would certainly explain the presence Famine felt. I have only glimpsed the middle archangel from a distance, and even in remembering I feel something shiver down my spine. A terrifying sight to behold when he was in battle -- I believe it was with another fallen sibling of his. Yes: Ramiel. If Uriel is the battle-hand of Michael, so is Ramiel the battle-hand of Lucifer.

Admittedly, there is, at times, a beautiful symmetry to Heaven and Hell. And now they are going to come to a head...with this Hyun at the very center of it all.

“What orders, General, come now from the might of Heaven?”

Michael stops our slow walk and turns to face me full-on, drawing himself up tight. Formality returns and I feel myself still, ready to march to my orders from God -- for no other could command the General.

“Special circumstances are being invoked with regards to your duties,” the archangel says. “You are to be there for the antichrist and shepherd him forth from the Earth. Quaerite, et invenietis.”

Quaerite, et invenietis.

Seek and find.

I bow, low enough I feel the bones that decorate my spine pull and stretch.

“The word of God is law,” I say.

“Do not delay.”

A call to arms. A rush of wings. And then silence. The General is gone and I am alone with my purpose.