TCL

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At Barachiel’s airy castle in the Dul Valley of Sealiah Isle everything was complete in preparation for the Council of Royals. Queen Aurra’s serving wench Lamassu attained to the astonishing situation of having nothing to do and perched in a nook looking down upon the great hall to watch the nobles when they paraded in. She was joined by Gabriel and they shared a sweet kiss. Their short, wild affair had been entirely bewildering to her. Gabriel seemed to know everything about Lamassu. In bed there was not a single awkward move, as though they had been married for a lifetime and Gabriel had returned to start all over again. Lamassu was already in love with this white-horned boy who was so beautiful because che was also a girl.

For hez part Gabriel adored how Lumassu communicated only with music. Che thought it wa a shame Michael insisted B’nei Elohim who died take their afterlife in a different world. Lamassu would have been a natural in Hunky-Dory, a better songwriter than hez sister Dory even, although Robyn certainly had a better voice. Lamassu sang,

“I sing of woe brought by those of black beard, when noble ones stood against what they fear’d. Just close your eyes to see them meet the king. Mark two slave women who watch all unseen.”

Gabriel said to her, “Technically I’m not a woman, but never mind that, it’s your art, right? By the way, if anyone catches you here avoiding work Queen Aurra has a pet whipping tree somewhere that will render the skin on your back into bloody ribbons.”

“Now Gabrielle is one slave woman’s name, and Miss Lamassu is her female flame. They shirk toil in the valley castle, as Uriel walks before hez vassal.”

Indeed King Uriel of House Bellon had entered the chamber first, accompanied by Princess Dafla. They looked none the worse after their long flight east on the dragon Demonstroke to the Dul Valley. Barachiel excluded all weapons from the council chamber save for the Dragonthorn alone, in the possession of Dafla, which she wore in a scabbard on her back. Lamassu sang:

“Born to rule Jelaket as king, yet queen-gentle hez words do ring, Valiant like the men of old, fair like a bust of purest gold.”

Ophan Nithael followed King Uriel into the chamber arm-in-arm with hez spouse Losna. Jan, both of them they looked less a married couple and more like nearly identical twins.

“They rule distant Vaska where I was born. Queen Aurra greets them with no trace of scorn. Yet their bitter clash of arms claimed her son, and is fresh in the minds of everyone.”

Hashmal Phanuel entered then, alone, as the final delegate of the House of Bellon. He dwelt at the head of navigation on the River Sabik, nigh to the Wall of God. Lamassu sang:

“Alodra the source of oxen and gold, all guarded well by Phanuel the Bold.”

Samael made his entrance without pomp, in a gait that showed forth that hy was at heart a J1

soldier. Certainly Samael knew that any league of kingdoms forged in this council would be far stronger than the Adanites alone and it was anyone’s guess what he would do about it. Lamassu had never seen the stocky and brash Adanite Emperor before, but something about him seemed to frighten her a little and halt her flow of verse.

House Sala entered Barachiel’s chamber. At the side of Queen Aurra walked Royal Consort Duke Evandr. Gabrielle knew Lamassu was being entirely sarcastic when she sang:

“Who rules the city of my birth? Aurra Firegem, Queen of mirth!”

Following Aurra and Evandr was the Countess Ayani, the recently widowed wife of Aldred Firegem, which made her the most eligible bachelorette in Heaven. Many at the Council noted the continuous eye-lock Ayani had with Hashmal Phanuel, who was already seated at the table. For hyz part Phanuel returned the gaze of the willowy and now, apparently, the flirty Ayani. Something was obviously happening there. Lamassu was slightly disgusted because it had been less than a month since Count Aldred’s death. Gabriel knew Lamassu lived for saucy drama of this sort, and indeed she recovered her voice. Remembering the finest horses in Heaven were bred in Ayani’s city of Locotin in the coast range of Rammon, Lamassu sang,

“Heeding no more her grand prize winning stallions, Ayani now seeks two-legged medallions!”

Following Ayani was her kinsman the Baron Alastor Firegem of Thorgram, who was also eligible for marriage, but his ever-wandering eye made marriage impossible. When his dalliances annoyed his mother she would send him abroad. By now he knew Heaven better than any who lived. Lamassu found the man easy enough on the eyes. He was as brawny as any angel of greater stature, but always smirking, as though frozen in perpetual boyhood. Of him she sang,

“Alastor’s a feast for many a talebearer. Whomever he’s with, he finds the next much fairer!”

The city of Thorgram was nestled in high hills that formed a fence between the fertile heart of Rammon and the narrow coastal plain along the shore of Thalury, amid a vast forest of gopher trees. Perhaps Alastor was so boyish, Gabriel thought, because he ruled a city made of tree forts.

Michael entered next with hyz growing family. There hy was, thought Gabriel, his own grandfather, a bit more well-dressed on this occasion than usual, but still at heart just a glassblower’s son, in union with an eloah who typically shunned formality. Gabriel’s mother Leliel walked in front of Michael, but sha was just four years of age. On the previous loop of this council, the one that ended so badly, Gabriel had marvelled how he was seeing his mother in the flesh for the very first time. On this loop Gabriel had time to marvel how Leliel, the tireless running doll, had somehow been tamed to a slow walk. Che also recognized hez grandmother Lilith, of course, walking next to Michael. Gabriel thought her to be a dark thunderstorm that had somehow been frozen as a long-legged yin. Sha was attired in the gray and black lines of a Fallen Angels dress uniform, a recent thing which had appeared as the Sealiah colony took root.

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Leliel seated harself sha methodically removed a white scroll from a fired clay cylinder and prepared quills in what was taken to be a precious parody of an adult scribe. Lamassu sang,

“I thought the child would sit and fidget, now I think she is really a midget!”

Hashmal Raphaela, second-in-command of the Fallen Angels, followed Lilith wearing an identical dress uniform. Sha walked beside Ophan Barachiel while they held hands. The two had grown quite close in the months they were left with little to do but watch the frontier with Adan. Barachiel’s island kept the people of Rumbek well-nourished, and many more besides. The Sealiahg was a great blessing but perhaps not all thought so. Lamassu sang,

“The more the soil yields in Dul Valley, the more we toil in Ophan’s galley!”

Uzziel of Elketz entered then at a deliberately stately pace. His city lay west in cattle country, where the animals raised were driven throughout Magodon to be slaughtered. Lamassu sang,

“Check your soles before further you roam, I caught a whiff reminding of home!”

When Uzziel reached the place where hy was to sit, hy did not take hyz seat, but said rather, in a loud voice, “Lords and ladies, please rise to your feet, Metatron king of Rumbek is come.” Nearly everyone complied with this rule of etiquette. Only Samael remained seated. Cherub Metatron entered the chamber through a massive door behind the head of the long table where hy was to sit. Lamassu sang,

“Fishers circle the island in a ring, all of them subject to Metatron King.”

“Your pardon, Lamassu,” Gabriel said, “there is a thing the Lord Michael has said I must do.” Since all eyes were already on Metatron, Gabriel started there. Walking to the king’s side, che inverted his leather pouch to show here was nothing inside, then restored it. After that che reached in to withdraw a crystal goblet of chilled golden wine and set it on the table before the king to gasps and applause. Not a single drop had been spilled. Gabriel repeated hez magic trick down the table on the king’s left-hand side, omitting wine only for Leliel. Gabriel moved along and produced more goblets of what would be called a crisp, oakey Chardonnay in hez own time. After a time that was far more brief than if Gabriel had poured wine rather than pulled full goblets from hez leather pouch, everyone had been served. Gabriel then stood at a distance from the king with a goblet of wine in hez own hand.

Cherub Metatron said, “To the lords and ladies of Kemen, I welcome you.” Hy deemed it more mannerly to raise a glass in the direction of someone than to point a finger. “Queen Lilith of Salem and har husband Lord Michael have been my honored guests on this isle for over two years.” The king glanced at their child, who was busy inscribing all that he just said. “With them came their daughter Leliel, who even now is marking down the words I say here, and har mother insists Leliel does not merely play at being a scribe.”

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Metatron turned hyz hand holding the wine goblet to where Samael aremained seated, both unmindful of the traditional decorum in the presence of a king. Metatron said, “It is well that the ruler of the Adanites, Lord Samael, has also made hyz appearance, that hy may see we do not conspire against hym in secret. Lord Samael has come to us in the extraordinary way that some among us have seen before, as he is of the seraphim and can travel anywhere in Kemen at once.”

The king looked along the table and said, “Baron Alastor Firegem of the House of Sala has also come, yet he did not need to travel far, as he was on an errand laid upon him by his mother.” At that Ayani could not help making a sharp chuckle, to her own sudden embarrassment.

Metatron had intended to mention Ayani next, but her short eruption of mirth did not suit the words hy had prepared touching the recent death of her spouse Count Aldred. Annoyed, the king passed over Ayani and introduced instead King Uriel of Jelaket and hez daughter Dafla. “I think in all of Heaven the only means of travel more unusual than the one employed by Lord Samuelis to come here the back of the last surviving dragon, even as the nobles from Jelaket have done.”

Metatron’s eyes moved further up the table. “We are also honored to have with us here Ophan Nithael of Vaska and also hez spouse Losna. They traveled by means of the avatar of Elyon which whisked them over the wide expanse of Thalury, the Wall of God, and most of Magodon. We have with us also Hashmal Phanuel and I am told hy was the traveling companion of Baron Alastor. The both of them had perhaps the most arduous journey of all who have attained to this council chamber, for they went by foot and by steed, and took the better part of a year to arrive.”

The king turned then to hyz own delegation. “I am pleased to see my son Hashmal Uzziel is also here today,” hy said. “He is come from Elketz, the nearest city to Rumbek west of the Nine Mile Wall, yet hy spent the better part of the summer riding here, as this Heaven where we dwell truly is great in extent.”

Metatron then introduced Raphaela of the Fallen Angels, who sat between Uzziel and Barachiel. “Of har doings on the eastern marches of House Larund to the sha no doubt has much to say, for indeed events there precipitated this very council, which is, I think, unique in the long history of Heaven. Yet it is long overdue. The question before us is nothing less than this: Will there be lasting peace in Kemen?” Such must be foremost in the thoughts of Queen Aurra Firegem of Rammon, and Duke Evandr, and the Countess Ayani, who have come to this council still deep in grief.” Metatron raised hyz goblet to all, and the lords and ladies seated at the table raised their own in reply. “As we trot out our grudges at this council may we resolve to forge something truly lasting, that Count Aldred’s otherwise useless death becomes significant in an enduring way.”

Then the King and all the attendees quaffed the wine, save for Samael, who remained seated and did not share Metatron’s sentiment. There were gasps around the table, but not at the rude non-action of the Adanite seraph. Rather, the gathered noble lords and ladies marvelled how the wine was somehow still as chilly as an icy mountain stream after being poured from Gabriel’s wineskin. Even Gabriel joined them in the toast, standing near the King, and Lamassu thought it supremely unfair che was not rebuked for drinking on duty. But Gabriel was quite finished with J4

hez appointed task for now. Che polished off hez crystal goblet of wine and returned to the high nook where Lamassu waited. The Cherub Metatron bade everyone to be seated. Then hy struck the bell that was set before hym and the council began. By late afternoon the council of Royals had degenerated into something resembling a criminal trial of Lord Samael. A chain of seemingly endless accusations were made against House Gerash, yet Lord Samael said nothing in his defense. Queen Aurra Firegem spoke first, lamenting the death of son Count Aldred. She said, “I was already deeply immersed in mourning. The news of Aldred’s death travelled faster from the field than the bier carrying his pierced body. Yet it was not until I saw the stricken face of my husband, Evandr, that I submitted fully to my grief. And I saw that Lord Michael had come with him, and hyz eyes were filled with sympathy for my loss. Then, too, I spied Hashmal Phanuel of House Bellon walking behind the procession, and I asked my husband, ‘Did we prevail in the battle after all? Is the lord of the province of Alodra our prisoner? But my husband said, ‘Nay, Aurra, upon the death of our son Phanael laid down hez arms of hez own accord. The Seraph Michael has brought hem hither for an audience before the throne under a truce-bond.’ Phanuel prostrated hemself before me. Che offered hez deepest regrets for the death of my son, and che offered to give an explanation, if I was willing to entertain one. ‘But it is war’, said I. ‘What is there to explain?’ And the hashmal said to me in reply, ‘Yet it is a war that never had to be, Your Majesty.'” The queen looked across the table. “Will you now, Hashmal Phanuel, tell the Council what you said to me at the time?”

Phanuel said, “As you command, Your Majesty. Lord Samael came before me in Atria not long ago. Hy rolled out a map and told me, ‘Behold, Hashmal Phanael, this is the isle of Danya. Do you not agree it should belong solely to House Bellon? For you have ever been mariners while the Gold Beards are more the farmers. They should be content with the vale of Loenna, puissant lord. Is not House Sala is sticking a finger in your eye when they hold on to Danya?’ If you will ladies and lords, know that Danya lies westerly across the wide expanse of Thalury, nigh much more to the lands of House Sala than to Alodra, indeed it lies across the very mouth of the great river Loenna that winds through much of Rammon. Yet despite this fact of cartography I accepted Samael’s argument at the time, so cunning was it phrased. Then every bit as skillfully, Lord Samael, by degrees, changed the object of his counsel from Danya to the superbow.’ At my own request Lord Samael brought out this superbow for my inspection. Hy told me, ‘The superbow is made of gopher wood between a layer of sinew to the fore and horn to the rear, all held together from glue made from boiled horse hooves. The bowstring is made also of sinew from the shoulders of oxen.’ My eyes fairly sparked at the sight of the thing. And when I fitted an arrow to it I deemed that only the mightiest warriors in my army could draw the string fully back. When I released the string the shot flew half again as far as from any other bow. So I told Lord Samael I would purchase a thousand of these weapons. And why should I have not? Have not each of our kingdoms done the same for centuries, one House against another, or two Houses together assailing one, but never, and how odd this now seems to be, all three Houses simultaneously rising up against the Black Beards?”

Duke Evandr rose to say, “I thank you, Phanuel. If you recall, I drew your attention to a curious mark on your superbow which is also stamped on every weapon we have purchased of Adanite J5

make, not excepting the compound bows that settled the recent battle in our favor. When my cavalry met your own you had somewhat greater numbers than we, but my forces were armed with bows curved in curious shapes which allowed the archer to hold the string back without growing weary. That in turn gave them sufficient time to take a carefully considered shot.”

Phanuel said, “I was forced to break off the engagement or face a mutiny by my own cavalry. But it was not soon enough to save the life of your son, to my everlasting regret, Noble Ones.”

The queen offered Phanuel a gentle smile, but her eyes were moist. She said, “My son is gone and he cannot be replaced. Yet now we both see Samael has been playing a double game.”

King Uriel Bellon stood to speak. “In the days before I was constrained to accept the dragon Lord Samael came to my palace. He carted off much Bellon gold, and left in its place a forest of long pikes made from a new admixture of metals that could pierce any armor in my inventory. He assured me it would pierce even the mail of the Brown Beards. Yet the summer campaign proved otherwise. The yeng and nephilim of House Larund were not caught by surprise. I was met on the approaches to Elketz by the ophan Gadreel and hyz entire infantry clad with immovable plate armor that was curiously able to turn aside the allegedly irresistible pikes you sold to me. So friend was turned against friend with no small loss of life, and no one benefited except the arms merchants of House Gerash.

Just then a bell was heard to sound somewhere in the castle marking the time of the evening meal. Lord Samael resumed hyz seat after King Metatron struck the smaller bell before him. Then the king slapped hyz hands sharply, twice. That was the signal for Lamassu and Gabriel to serve supper. The Council of Royals paused in their grim deliberations to enjoy the hospitality of Ophan Barachiel and hyz kitchen. Gabriel approached each one of the the guests around the council table once again with wine. When che drew near to Michael and Lilith che said, “My Lady and my Lord, I am the herald of Bat-El, and I crave audience with you in a more private setting, as I was commanded that my words must be for your ears only.”

Michael weighed Gabriel’s words. Here was a mystery. Hy could not deny that Gabriel was, indeed, a member of the B’nei Elohim, as he had the white horns, even as he and Lilith and Leliel did. But why had Bat-El not yet spoken of hem, directly, daughter to parent? Michael said to Gabriel, “We will receive you in our chambers later tonight after the evening meal.”

Gabriel bowed and said, “I thank you, Lord.” Che resumed hez role as Barachiel’s wine server.

In the private chambers of Michael and his family Gabriel knelt before hez lord, then rose and came quickly to hez point. “I know, Lord Michael, that you wonder how I can claim to be the herald of Bat-El, when she is yet so young, yet I speak the truth. There is a thing you do not yet know, and even Bat-El herself does not yet know it, in this time.”

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Michael brightened as the mystery resolved itself and said, “You’re from the future!”

Gabriel said, “Yes, Lord. Your attempts to teach Bat-El to open a fold-door have not failed. She has an additional degree of freedom available to her that you haven’t taken into account.”

“Why has niot the Bat-El of your time contacted me directly, mind-to-mind?”

“She is not absolutely certain direct contact could remain undetected by Samael, Lord. There is always a bifurcation, you see. Two separate time streams result from every contact, an original where the contact never happened and a new one where it did. Bat-El says this unforeseen power is of infinite value. She says none of the other elohim in the City of Stars has reported its like. Both Bat-El, and yourself, in my time, have decided it would serve them better that neither Samael nor Belial know of it until the very end when it is too late. So they dispatch B’nei Elohim such as myself to relay messages to past versions of themselves.”

“Yet the bifurcation still happens, nonetheless, when you deliver the message?”

“Yes, Lord, but such a communication lies solely in the mind of the messenger, so Keter and Da’at remain absolutely ignorant of it.” Michael considered this silently. Gabriel looked down at Leliel then, and said, “Hello, Leliel. I’m the child you haven’t had yet.”

“That makes sense, at least,” Lilith said. “if nothing else you have said can be understood. I thought you had my cheekbones.”

“Also, dear grandmother, I have the eyes of my human father.”

“How far down the timeline have you come?” asked Michael.

“From very near to the end,” Gabriel replied. “Let us say about thirty-three hundred years. But do not be dismayed. You will leap over those centuries yourself. Bat-El does not permit me to say much, lest you are diverted onto an unproductive stream, other than to say have no fear of the events of this council when you see them play out. All will turn out well in the end.”

On the morning of the second day of the council other nobles of the monarchies in Heaven rose one after the other to weigh in on the matters brought to the forefront by Queen Aurra the preceding day. Ophan Nithael Bellon rose to say, “Recently the Lord Samael came to me bearing pikes of cunning make, with a second section that fit inside the first, such that the enemy might be lured in close, thinking it to be a simple spear. Pressing a trigger released the second section on a spring with sufficient force that if the butt were anchored against the saddle of your horse it could penetrate the armor of any foe. Lord Samael assured me that at the very least it would knock cavalrymen down from his mount. Within a week I took delivery of a thousand such pikes, and Lord Samael disappeared with much of my gold. In the spring when the snow had melted from the hills and the ground was dry enough to campaign the Baron Alastor Firegem made his usual provocation under force of arms, but things did not go as Lord Samael intimated to me J7

when we carried out our transaction. Would you, Lord Alastor, be willing to tell the council why that was so?”

Alastor rose at the bidding of Nithael to say, “As you command, Lord Nithael. The simple reason is that Lord Samael forewarned us of your new pikes by displaying one to me. But I was not to worry! Hy was willing to offer a special price on new bronzes shields made in the shape of a flattened cone that would turn away these pikes quite readily, and they also had many metal hooks embedded in them which would grapple the pikes at the spearhead and rip them from the hand of our foes. And the rest you know, Ophan Nithael. The field was ours that day.”

Ayani, the widow of Count Aldred, then rose to say, “With the leave of all present I would venture to say Her Majesty Queen Aurra and my kinsman Alastor were not the only peerage of House Sala visited by Lord Samael on a time. Before my husband Count Aldred fell in battle Lord Samael brought tidings of Ophan Nithael building many portable pontoons designed to bridge the bridge the mouth of the River Loenna in the place where it flowed into the sea and divided Rammon from Gerazan. But the officers of Aldred’s army insisted there had been no hint of this construction, so he had not been panicked into buying the Adanite catapults Lord Samael was offering to repulse the supposedly immanent attack.”

Nithael said, “Lord Samael did offer to sell us prefabricated pontoons, Lady Ayani, which were in the holds of the same ships, no doubt, that contained the catapults. But following the earlier debacle against Baron Alastor I was not tempted to buy any of them. I suspected yet another trick. If Lord Samael told you we were building them, it was manifestly untrue.”

Ayani replied, “So you said to us, Ophan Nithael, through your ambassador. It was clear even before this council was convened that some of the peerage in Heaven had already begun to see through Lord Samael’s lies. But without a formal agreement not one of us can be assured we will not be assailed by a foe bearing some new contrivance of weaponsmiths in Adan.”

Uzziel of Elketz spoke of a skirmish with Erel Raddai, a sharp row between nobles of the same House, and neither one knew at the time what had been the cause. “In hindsight we see it is always Larund against Sala, Larund against Bellon, Sala against Bellon, even brother against brother. And curious how Samael seems to be omnipresent in all this, pointing out problems we never knew we had, and ever with a remedy on hand for immediate sale.”

Lilith rose to speak herself. “Lords and ladies of the council, some time ago I forced a hard border on Lord Samael, which has also been ratified by Cherub Metatron. The Adanites must never march in force to the west, nor I east. As a consequence I must remain in perpetual exile from Salem. But King Metatron has been gracious to grant me and my family, as well as the force I commanded and all their consorts, to dwell on this beautiful island. My husband Michael assures me once a seraph’s word is given there can be no repentance, and indeed this is why Samael could depose my brother only by open warfare and not a simple decree. Lord Samael’s unbreakable word has also sidelined the dragon named Demonstroke, but only in such a way that depends on the steadfastness of King Uriel’s daughter. The fate of all Heaven hangs upon Ophan J8

Dafla never breaking that trust. I want to impress upon all of you, likewise, how important it is that any covenant we undertake here must be executed every bit as faithfully as the seraphim carry out their own covenants. We can put a stop to Lord Samael’s designs with a union of kingdoms, but only if we never break faith with one another.”

Michael stood up to add, “House Gerash has from the beginning been especially devoted to Samael, and while angels and nephilim are peculiar to Kemen, humans are from the other world where Elyon reigns absolutely and was from human stock that the angels and nephilim of Kemen were begotten. This world is a poor imitation of Earth. There are islands on Earth with more land free of ice than exist in all of Heaven. Elyon wants for nothing here. But there is Belial to consider. Poor Belial has not even a thin ribbon of land on a world of ice to rule as his own, only scattered mountains of ice and rock tumbling in the void, and his living avatar, must settle for whatever dregs in Heaven are left to hym by Samael. I am certain that Samael has already begun to set his designs in motion, and I think you will soon discover why he has manoeuvred to keep the other three Houses off balance and at each other’s throats. Hy can no longer assail you with hyz main force, as Lilith said, but hy can send assassins at will, and burn through the ruling nobility until he finds one more to his liking, and outfit that one to adventure abroad.”

King Metatron rose to close the council. “Lord Michael, your words are weighty and must be pondered deeply. Know that we here in Rumbek have also played the fool for Adanite arms merchants. This city has water barriers protecting us on three sides, and the Nine Mile Wall protects us from being assailed by land on the fourth. Yet at times in centuries past we have ventured over the Wall of God, and even crossed Thalury to assail the Gold Beards. Once, during the reign of my father I crossed the ice bridge and passed through Salem to Ganelon and thence to the capital in Adan, a journey that took the better part of a year. In Ganelon I saw some of the finest bottom land I have ever seen. Much of Adan has soil so deep and rich it is nearly black, yet there are few crops, save weeds. East of the city Salem everyone who makes a living is either employed to make weapons directly, or they are employed to keep alive those who do. Their livelihood rests entirely on keeping us at each other’s throats. This must come to an end.”

Finally, after enduring the whole council in silence, Samael rose to speak. “Review your own history, O privileged ones. Can you remember  a  single battle between your kingdoms and House Gerash? Or even hearing about one? You cannot, and if you scratch a little deeper you will find that it  was not for lack of trying. We clipped your little seedling attacks before  they could proceed beyond a simple skirmish and take root. How were we able to  do this time after time, you ask? Very simple. House Gerash, you  see,  always retains the newest and best arms for its own defense. If ever House Gerash should find your so-called Union of Kingdoms standing at cross-purposes to our interests, beware.”

Dafla stood up then, drawing the diamond sword Dragonthorn  from  its jewel-encrusted scabbard strapped to her back. She said, “Lord Samael would do well to remember House Gerash is not the only Family which can bring unmatched weaponry to the field of battle!”

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“Nay, daughter!” said Uriel, “your king now commands you! Restore the sacred blade to its place!”  But the eyes of al the members of the council were on the blade, which no longer gleamed, but had taken on the dull color of piss, and was now marked by a web of fine white cracks through and through. Only Dafla herself glared at Samael and had no idea the blade had deteriorated thus.

“I begin to wonder why I was summoned to attend this Council,” said Samael with a dry tone and a look that feigned innocence. “To receive threats, and weapons brandished in my face, it seems. Do you recall, Your Majesty, when I said leaving my dragon in your keeping was like an investigation in natural philosophy, and Queen Lilith told you I was merely making a joke? I was not joking. As a matter of fact, I never joke. A maid of the House of Bellon has indeed broken the glassware, as you can all now see.”

Dafla looked up at the Dragonthorn and saw how had become ugly and rotten. Dismay twisted her face. Events had spiraled out of her control and she felt her stomach had become a knot.

“Nor was I joking when I said the strength of Dragonthorn depended upon the continuing purity of the woman who held it. No, King Uriel, when you told your daughter the diamond blade could bend all others to her will, that was the real joke, yet little Dafla believed it was true, and why not? Everyone around her took your cue and played their part to carry out your ruse, including, I must admit, even myself, when she dismissed myself and Queen Lilith from your presence, and once more when she came to me alone in--”

“Lies!” Dafla raised the blade and moved within striking distance of Samael in abject defiance of her father’s command. She said, “The Father of Lies must give account for all the loved ones we have lost!”  And she brought the blade swiftly down as though to cleave the Adanite Emperor’s head in twain.

But Gabriel, who was standing next to Samael entirely by intention rather than by chance, brought up a silver platter che was using to retrieve wine goblets as a pathetic shield to try to protect Samael. To everyone's surprise the Dragonthorn shattered against Gabriel’s makeshift silver barrier. Dull yellow shards of the desecrated blade fell to the floor of the council chamber like so much broken crystal.

“Foolish girl,” said Samael, “you never had the power to persuade anyone to do your least bidding, and if King Uriel thought to make you believe that so your life might be a little more pleasant as you waxed old in your spin sterhood, then more fool che!” As Samael spoke the dragon was seen to hover outside the chamber on great strokes of his articulated wings. With Demonstroke's smoking open mouth menacing the royals none dared hinder the hysterically laughing seraph from mounting the dragon to make good his escape into the air.