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A Majority Of Angels

By John Rommel

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PROLOGUE

The Prince of the Earth cursed impatiently as he waited for his honored guest. He was not one accustomed to waiting on others and he bristled both at his own eagerness and at the impertinence of his tardy visitor. Surely his guest would arrive soon and not keep someone of his importance waiting much longer. Despite their differences, respect must still be paid. He was, after all, a prince, but even so much more. Over the millennia he had been known by many names: Abaddon, Son of the Morning, Baal, the Bright Star, Angel of Light, Beelzebub, The Prince of Darkness, and Satan among others; but for this meeting he would be addressed by his ancient name; the one he gave himself at the beginning of the ages; the name he would one day use to rule over all of the universe… Lucifer.
He stretched out his massive wings and snarled at the lieutenant standing loyally beside him. “He’s late. Where is he?”
“Patience mighty one. He will be here. He gave his word, and you know how they are about their word.”
Lucifer sneered at the sound of this. Of course he knew. He knew them all too well. He had fought against them for centuries. Battle after epic battle. He knew their every move. He knew their ways and their motivations. He knew the way they fought, the way they thought, the way they acted. And there had also been a time, eons ago now, that he had been one of them; when he thought as they now think. But so much had happened since. So much time wasted. So much of history already written. Still now—now perhaps, all of the wrongs of the past might be changed. Now, perhaps, everything that should have been, will be. It all would depend on his impending guest.
Lucifer smiled and turned to his lieutenant. “Yes, Jareel, he will keep his word,” he said, turning his gaze off into the distance. “I’m counting on it.”
He stared out into the void, the great divide that separates heaven from hell, light from dark, and good from evil. He stared and waited. How many other times had he waited here? Here on the edge of hell, with his armies deployed and ready, waiting to ride into a futile battle against an enemy twice their size? How many times had he seen the blazing lights streak across the emptiness that is the void and known that his forces, no matter their skill and determination, had lost before they had even begun? How many more times had he stood here alone and stared across the void and wondered, what if?
“There,” shouted Jareel, pointing into the emptiness, but Lucifer had already seen it. Off in the distance, a small blade of light, slicing its way through the darkness. Far away yet still brilliant, illuminating the nothingness.
It grew closer and brighter with each passing moment as it traversed the space between them. A beacon of pure white light, shining in a blazing beam, it soon seemed to radiate throughout the entire void, filling the vast space with luminosity. As the light hurled even closer towards them it became almost overpowering. Glowing and shimmering with a radiance so intense as to blind most normal creatures.
Yet Lucifer resisted the urge to shade his eyes, even when Jareel did. He could not give in to the light. He could not show weakness.
The light stopped at a spot a few feet in front of him and began to dissipate. As it ebbed, a being emerged—a beautiful creature nearly eight feet tall with golden hair and shining blue eyes, muscular and perfectly proportioned. A pair of satin white wings were unfurled behind it, making it seem even taller and more magnificent than it already was. The creature came clothed in armor made of pure gold and polished so keenly as to almost beam as bright as the creature itself. And its face possessed a countenance that was beautiful and lustrous, and one that Lucifer had come to detest over the passing of time, until now.
The angel landed, alone, and quickly surveyed his surroundings, but said nothing.
“My old friend,” said Lucifer, his smile trying to match the brilliance of his guest. “You have come.”
“I had told you I would,” the angel said, showing no emotion.
“Yes, of course you did. None the less I'm pleased to see you. You have questions I presume?”
“Many.”
“But you agree with us—at least a little?”
“There is a truth to your thinking that seems undeniable,” said the angel, lowering his wings to a more informal position. “Who is man that God should think so highly of him?”
“Our thoughts exactly. I'm pleased we at least agree on this matter.”
“And who is man that he should be the object of God’s love?”
“Yes,” said Lucifer and he stepped ever so slightly closer to the angel.
“My old friend, there are so many wrongs that need to be corrected and so many mistakes that need to be forgiven. I can only hope that, together, we may be able to bridge this void that separates us all,” he said, sweeping his hand towards the giant expanse.
“But you claim you are doing this to God’s glory, even though you have opposed him all this time.”
Lucifer had prepared his answer carefully to this question, and looked directly into the angel’s eyes. “My dear, lost friend. Once we were banished what other choice did we have? The Most High had set himself against us and had exiled us from his presence. How could we worship a God we couldn't see, especially one that wouldn't receive our praise?”
The angel stood motionless for a moment. “Yes, that seems logical.”
Lucifer continued, “And when we started to pursue our own path in this new reality the Lord had set us in, neither in heaven nor fully on earth, and then have God and our own brothers oppose us, isn’t it logical we would fight back?”
“I can understand why you would see it as such,” said the angel.
“But it all rests at the feet of man,” said Lucifer, “for if man had been worthy of being God’s first love I should never have opposed the Lord to begin with, and we wouldn't be in this current state. And if man had shown the temperament of angels and not given in to sin so easily, I would never have attempted to prove otherwise. Alas, the Lord learned this truth, if only too late. For it is written in the Psalms, ‘God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.’”
The angel shut his eyes tightly. Lucifer could tell he was conflicted and leaned in closer.
“Listen, my old friend, it is because of man that I and so many other of your brothers were taken from you. God was misguided in his actions, choosing to love those miserable creatures over his glorious messengers of light. But now, together, we can right this wrong and prove to the Lord Most High that those whom he banished still yearn to praise him and will do so once we’ve been returned.”
Lucifer tucked in his wings and looked directly at his guest, and in his eyes he could see the pain, the loss, and the confusion the creature was feeling; and he also saw the angel's resistance slipping. It was a look he had seen a million times before.
“We can do this together, you and I. Just like the old days. Together we have the power.” The demon king then stood up straight, his wings held high in a sign of respect. “You are Gabriel,” he said, “an Archangel, one of the Lord's elite. You command three legions. They will follow you.”
Gabriel straightened. “Yes, they will follow me,” he said curtly, “but I will not lead them in opposition to the Lord. I would do this only for the Lord’s glory. The destruction of the sinful creature man would be the ultimate offering to the Most High.”
“Of course. We are in agreement there.”
“But there are questions,” Gabriel said, in a less authoritative tone than before.
“Go ahead, ask me your questions. Then you be the judge of how sincere we truly are.”
Gabriel asked his questions and Lucifer answered them with the same persuasion he had used previously. When these questions were exhausted Lucifer looked at him squarely and asked, “So, can we expect you to join us?”
Gabriel raised his wings, “You can.”
“And you will bring your legions?”
“They will follow my orders.”
“And man?”
“‘Woe to them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished.’”
Lucifer smiled. “I have your word?”
“I have just given it.”
“That is excellent news”
Gabriel flapped his massive wings in a show of cautious approval. “This will make the numbers even,” he said, “but we will need at least one more for a majority.”
Lucifer arched his wings to their highest point like a peacock strutting his feathers. “Leave that to me,” he said and then nodded to his guest and, with a great rush of wind, flapped his wings and flew off into the void, Jareel at his side shouting praises.

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