Angelos Odyssey

1 The Contract - * * * * Tavon - * * * * I’m lost in a dream again. Drowning, choking as blinding light obscures the world around me. I can’t breathe, then I suddenly can. I can’t see, and then... Dark clouds swarm near, swirling in dizzying patterns and walling me in within a realm far above the Earth. A deep blue sky’s overhead; the Sun beams down, and its bright rays pass through the sea of clouds which makes up the very ground on which I’m standing. Although the light can escape wherever, I cannot. I’m stranded before a great gate, one half of it gold and the other black. Its main doors sweep themselves open before I can even approach. Because they do so, I feel beckoned to move forward. I pass through those gates and enter a field of scarlet grass covered in the morning dew. Not so far away is a pagoda, one with walls of glazed brick and a seven-tiered tower with long, iron eaves and a strange metal sculpture serving as its finial. The sculpture is of a being who looks as though he’s composed of more than one physical form; in fact, hundreds of arms grasping hundreds of spears and swords emerge from the center of the piece to form a perfect sphere around its main body. Up above, the sky darkens. The wind picks up, pushing past as more than a mere breeze. Day becomes night. The pagoda trembles, pressing in and out as if it’s ready to burst. I feel the wind blow much more fiercely; the Sun disappears behind grey clouds, the temple becomes a bloated mirage, and then I can feel the eyes of something glaring at me. Two diamonds of light illuminate the darkness that nearly overtook me, yet a stronger force is lurking closer and closer. Those two diamonds belong to eyes which stare at me from out of the dark storm. I freeze. I know I’m in a dream, but there’s nothing I can do to end it. I’m trapped, and this awful maelstrom keeps pressing in. The monster’s eyes are big enough to barely reveal the outline of a massive head. When the dread diamonds move close enough, I can just make out a gold and silver crest. I sense an oppressive aura emanating from its center. The raging storm breaks. Dark clouds contract and implode like hundreds of stars that spread and move on into nothing. I see the blue sky above me again. The burning Sun highlights a form in the shape of a human, with black wings quivering around a body of pure grey and part physical, part cloud. Its face is featureless except for the two eyes that were glaring at me before—now bearing down behind an implacable expression. In one hand, the grey angel brandishes a long spear; it extends the shaft outward and speaks: “I am the herald of Ishida’s Mandate, the Angel Qizadeus. For the honor of the Angelos Association, let the following knowledge enlighten your future course of action. “In the city of Saizakune, there will be a revolution. One human will become its leader,” the angel says. “Their name is Guin Teram, and this person will become the very reason for the catastrophe soon to occur. “Go then to Saizakune. I, Qizadeus, am your commander as well as the sealer of this contract. Travel there, seek out the insurrectionist, and present me with his head. This is my command; as such, you have under one year to accomplish this mission. Anything less than success carried out soon will not be tolerated.” -