We Dream of Hope

The War

Nadia didn’t want to hurt Sera’s feelings, but the food provided was tasteless. It was green, rough, and watery. Sure, it said “green beans” on the label, but it tasted more like watery chewy grossness. She still ate it, just to seem polite, but she made a mental note to turn it down in the future. Odion seemed to like it. Nadia saw him eat his so fast it spewed out the sides of his mouth and dripped down his neck. Maat seemed to be the same way and Nadia was starting to think it was just her. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to eat canned foods? 

“Takes getting used to. I know, but it’s better than nothing.” Sera winked at her, “Don’t worry I’ll teach you how to shut your mind up. It’s hard to do when no one teaches you.” She glared to Odion, “Even harder with unwelcomed listeners.” 

“Oh no! I mean I did my share of invading his mind as well, but don’t get me wrong he never overstepped-”

“Not true.” Ma’at interrupted

“Okay, so he has a bit, but he helped me a lot and saved my life, so honestly, I really don’t care.”

“Not true.” Ma’at again tossed her opinion into the mix.

“Fine, whatever, still.” She was exhausted, “You know what, just teach me what to do. Also, can you undo what I did to Odion?”

“What you did?” Sera looked at him confused, “He seems fine to me. Maybe not as strong as he should be but altogether quite the wolf don’t you think? Strapping young lad,” she winked but the comment wasn’t received well by anyone and she shrugged, “Oh well, must just be in the genes I guess.” 

“Yeah, well, he was a wolf. I accidentally turned him into a human a few days ago, so you see he hasn’t been able to turn back.”

Sera burst out laughing, “That light did that? Oh please tell me it at least killed a demon as well,” she continued to laugh hysterically, “You mean to tell me you exposed yourself to this entire continent over him?” 

“It wasn’t just that.” Odion seemed a little embarrassed to say anything else.

“No no no.” Sera broke from her laughter, “Trust me, it’s not that funny, I mean you did manage to kill at least one demon from that heaven light right?”

“She doesn’t even know what you are saying.” Ma’at seemed exhausted, but really wasn’t trying to down pay Nadia, she just knew they weren’t going to get anywhere dancing around what happened. “The demon’s gone, well at least we think he is. He disappeared after the light faded.”

“Oh no.” Sera looked at her like there was a terminal illness spreading too quickly, “Nadia, seriously? I mean, I’m sorry.” She straightened herself before doubling back to explain, “See being a blood angel you have abilities. That light is pretty much the end-all for a battle but man it takes a lot out of an angel. It’s called Heaven’s Light. It’s strong but only as strong as you. Honestly, I’m not mad at you, but I mean at least you disintegrated the demon.”

“Blood Angel?” Nadia never heard the term before and Sera tossed it out like it was common knowledge.

“You do know about your mother right? I mean you’ve heard about how powerful she was.”

“I mean, I just grew up thinking she was a strong general, I was never told she was an angel, I kind of just found out about that a few days ago too. I mean I never grew wings or anything.” She went back to her dreams and everything that had happened. 

“You’re stronger than you know. You’ve just been fed second-hand information.” Sera seemed upset, but at her, at the situation. “So you know about the war right? The demons all claimed victory over twenty years ago. Before that, there were three sides.”

“Three sides?” Even Ma’at was interested, “I thought there were only two.”

“Toward the end of the war, there were. See at the beginning there were three.  First the angels, they were the messengers sent down to fight the disease and plagues that were destroying the humans yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill. Well, to do this they created the half-beasts, which you know about. Well, some of the angels also had children, though they had to follow some rules to that. Then there were demons, they were widely considered the evil party. They offered the world in exchange for your soul. The demons were run by Lucifer who had created them. He did this much like how the war beasts were made. Finally, there was earth. This was made of the magical creatures already present on earth that hated the angels and demons. They believed that they held no place and wanted to see them leave. The Medjay, witches, oracles, and other such natural earth powers were part of this side.”

“So what happened?” Nadia was interested in this, she had only ever heard tales of the final battle and she could only hear those ten stories so often before she knew them by heart. This new tale was her history, she needed to know more. 

“Well, the demons started to cheat. Lucifer started to create demons in a more birthing way. So his blood creatures mixed again with his powers and the original full-blooded demons were born. Now as this was happening the angels found out. So one angel Gabriel decided to curse Lucifer. He made it so Lucifer could only ever have one of each demon by birth. Well, it ended up badly for Lucifer. The Earth side, decided to use this curse against him and sent in a spy to weaken the bloodline. She ended up, by Lucifer’s own accident, giving birth to a demon only he was a half-blood. With the terms of the curse, Lucifer had no option but to accept that he would never have all seven types of pure blooded demons. So at some point, Lucifer found out about the curse Gabriel planted on him, and boy let me tell you he went berserk. This is what really caused the war to get nasty. Lucifer started to target the angels; he figured if he killed them all, then the curse would break. He almost succeeded, but the angel’s power is transferred across one big network. So when one angel was on the brink of death they sent their power back to the network where the other angels picked it up. With the angel side growing weaker by the decade, the earth side and the angel side decided it was better to group up. The angels who were almost extinct agreed that if the demons were defeated then they would make a treaty and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo happened. Anyway, they banded together and fought. The demons hardly stood a chance. Unfortunately, Lucifer was crafty, so he let us think we won. This all came to a bloody end twenty years ago when he made his final push. See that night he killed the last angel, Hope…” She trailed off a little more upset by everything, “ Lucifer, after Hope’s death claimed victory in absolution. He figured there were no more angels around that could fight him but that most certainly changed when you sent off that light. That light a few days ago, that showed him an angel was still very much alive. One that I saw was clearly fighting a demon, so he is going to be coming to figure out what exactly is happening. Which trust me will lead him to where you were.”

“I mean, I didn’t intentionally do that.” Nadia felt terrible, now everyone on the mountain was in danger even more, and what did she do? She just caused the problem and left in the same night.

“No, I know, you didn’t. But right now we need to get you guys in a better position. Honestly, you are lucky you came down the mountain when you did. It's the off-season for the demons so they aren’t traveling around as much. If it were any other time of the year, you guys wouldn’t have made it this far.” Sera looked them all up and down trying to assess the situation she was skilled in combat, but this group was going to require more fine work. They had the right bloodline, just years of never having to work their power left them feeble. “First, we need to fix Odion.” She looked at him apologetically and smiled. 

“Why me first?” He took it as an insult, if he was first he needed more help, but honestly, he thought he was doing fine for what situation was given to him. 

“Because dear boy, you are hopelessly lost. Girls, you make yourselves at home, I’m going to take junior out and give him a good talking to. When I get back, Nadia you’re going to need to be relaxed and clear-headed, I’m going to teach you how to control your mother’s war beasts.” She skipped away without any direction to Odion who knew better than to just let her leave alone. He followed her out the window, less peppy and graceful, but it got the job done.