The Consequences of Falling [AngelicGrace & Bathos]

Midael knew, the way some men knew that winter followed autumn and clouds begat rain, that denying the Father's command was tantamount to falling and being cast evermore from His nourishing presence. He knew this, effortlessly and without doubt, yet when his brethren sought him out and told him about the task at hand, denial was his instinctive response.

"No," he said, and the wrongness of those words sent planets, yet unknown to Man, shattering into clouds of dust. His brethren drew back from him at once, and he sensed the collective, abject terror in their hearts.

Gabriel was the only one who did not flinch away, but gathered Midael to his breast and whispered a song into his ear, the words of which were tender and soothing. When it was finished and Midael was slumped against Gabriel's tear-stained shoulder, he said to Midael, "In all His infinite wisdom, my brother, He chose you. You must go."

Midael turned his eye on the Earth then, and there was no song that could have eased the desolation he felt. To descend to the mortal realm, to cross the ephah and be made flesh, was a burden that had been suffered by many angels, both lesser and greater than Midael himself. There, they walked among humans, in all their sin and filth and ingratitude, and it was there that a small few had lost their way. For it was one thing to pledge to God an unyielding loyalty to Mankind, and it was quite another to witness firsthand their sacrilege and abominations, murders and greed and idolatry, and not feel envy and resentment in one's heart.

That fear was only secondary, of course, to the great well of sorrow he felt, that he could not name so long as God was the Alpha and the Omega.

"Go," Gabriel said again, fiercely, as if the Metatron himself had lent his power to the command. And so it was, with a heavy heart, that Midael fell to Earth.

His arrival was heralded by a storm, his celestial light concealed in a fork of lightning, the impact of his body against the sea swallowed by a clap of thunder. He sank limply beneath the surface, his new human eyes open and fixed upon the blustery sky, until unconsciousness stole away his torment.

-----------

God, Midael later found out, would not suffer a fool, not even an angelic one. Naturally, he was fished from the water by a well meaning sailor, who expertly revived him and put him to bed without a single comment on his state of undress. (For he was born unto flesh for the first time, and naturally was wearing what men called a "birthday suit".) Midael considered smiting the sailor for the inconvenience, but when he lifted his hand with intent, he found that his wrath was at once diminished. Instead, he thanked the man for his assistance and dematerialized before his eyes, which, in retrospect, was probably more cruel than simply ending his life.

He appeared again in a store called Macy's, where he acquired clothes in the form of dark jeans, a soft, black sweater that reminded him of down, and black loafers. In the dressing room--where the sales assistant had ushered him wish a great sense of urgency after she'd spotted him--he spent long minutes transfixed by what he saw in the full length mirrors all around him.

This is vanity, Midael reminded himself as he stared wonderingly at his human form, but he felt no pride over what he saw and knew that God would forgive him this one mild sin.

His eyes were of the greatest interest to Midael, for these were, in his own estimation, the great downfall of Mankind. Their doubt, their inability to believe in anything that did not reflect spectral color, was born of their eyes. Midael studied his intently, noting the faint lines in the corners, the inky blackness of his lashes, the vivid, ocean blue of the irises. They were such a small thing, to cause such a catastrophe of faith.

His nose led straight and narrowly down to a mouth, full of straight, white teeth. Beneath it, his chin was square and lightly stubbled, and it wrinkled when he concentrated very hard. So did his eyebrows, which were almost as black as his eyelashes, and just a few shades darker than his hair, which he considered to be the same brown as the freshly tilled earth.

Not that he had ever witnessed moist soil first hand, but he found that he had all kinds of earthly knowledge stored away in his memories, and assumed it was gifted to him by God. For instance, he knew when he looked at himself that he was six feet tall, though he'd never before had any use for measurements of distance. He knew he was of average weight, though more physically fit than most, and that a man his size should be able to lift some two- to three-hundred pounds.

He also knew he could lift that many times over.

When he was dressed and finally ready, at last, to enter society, Midael left Macy's and appeared, within the same fraction of a second, on the sidewalk clear across the city, directly in front of a tall office building. Every floor, Midael noted as he tipped his head further and further back, appeared to be made of dark, reflective glass, and the building reached so high that all that Midael could see was in shadow. It blotted out the sun.

With a heavy sigh, he headed inside.

The day was starting to finally turn into dusk and Kiera wanted to get herself out of this office and back to where she was a bit more comfortable. She was slightly starting to grow bored with trying to get this man to do what she wanted at this point and sometimes he didn't listen to her, which only infuriated her already dangerous temper. The world, unfortunately, did still have too many good souls on this mortal realm for her liking. She was, after all, almost pure evil and it was funny how she had still retained her beautiful angelic appearance. It seemed to only throw everyone off from her malicious ways and she was somewhat thankful for that, but she had never failed to adore her own appearance. Even as an angel in heaven she had adored her appearance and flaunted it perhaps a touch too much for God's liking.

Kiera had been one of God's angels, perhaps not one of the very important ones, but she had still been pretty powerful on her own. She had believed in more of what Lucifer, The Morning Star and the most well known Fallen Angel there was, and when he had fallen from heaven, there had been a few who had followed him. She had been one of them. She was probably his most beloved follower and that was why that he entrusted her with such projects as corrupting the good souls of men. It made her smile darkly, her lush ruby lips curving as she looked out the window of her office.

She had managed to retain a beautifully angelic appearance even while she had a darker look to her amazing beauty. After all, how many demonic women were ugly? Most were beyond the normal range of beauty to seduce and corrupt the souls of humans. Mostly men, as well. Of course, she was different than the other demonic women because she had been an angel, but it had been too long since she had been an angel.

Her hair and lips had been the only two things to change about her appearance when she fell from the Heavens. She had midnight hair that fell in layered waves across her back and hung around her shapely hips. For the majority, most men fell for her entrancing golden, almost orange, eyes and lush, inviting ruby lips. She was almost unusually pale for a woman like herself, but she had always been that way and it strangely only added to her exotically innocent beauty. There was always a constant malice behind those eyes, but when she truly wished it to be so, they could show kindness. However, that normally was nothing, but a ruse.

Her assignment here on Earth was to turn a politician named Brody McGrew onto the path of darkness. He was basically marked by the beast. There was the mark of the beast on his scalp and she was sure that his parents, at one time, had seen this. She was sure he was trying to make up for the dooming mark by doing good for his country, but Kiera was his advisor and she made sure to convince him to do things that caused more problems than were a solution. He had not seemed to notice because among many of the other things, she had also managed to seduce him as well. It only made her more pleased that he was a married man with two children. It had not been much of a difficult task to seduce him into her bed and it only made her assignment that much easier.

At this time of the day, she was waiting for him to join her so that they could go over a few things that he needed to sign and then they would go to her home and he would usually stay the night. She did not truly enjoy his company, but it was necessary to gain his trust and she definitely had managed to do that at this point.

The secretary looked Midael up and down and up one more time with unguarded heat, attention landing ultimately on his face and Midael noted, with dispassionate curiosity, This is lust.

He stood on the thirty-first floor of the massive building, in a cozy little waiting room furnished with leather chairs and various potted plants. The vegetation was all comprised of plastic and, standing in the midst of so much glass and steal and synthetic wood, Midael wondered if humans somehow found these lifeless replicas to be superior to the ferns and trees that grew naturally up through the dirt. Certainly, the modern Man had developed some mass aversion to soil, with their catchy phrases like, 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness.'

Midael didn't find that little proverb particularly amusing.

"You say you have an appointment?" the secretary prompted again, and Midael lifted his chin and looked down the bridge of his nose at her. "I don't have anything on the books."

"Look again," Midael said, still wondering at the voice that came with this body. It was deep and stern and without any inflection whatsoever.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Smith. I'm afraid I just don't have anything." She truly did look apologetic, but Midael suspected that was only due to a strong desire to copulate with him.

"Look," he said slowly, as she must not have understood him the first time, "again."

"I don't--" She frowned and looked down at her computer monitor. "Oh, my, this is so embarassing. There you are, two o'clock, Mr. Midael Smith from ..." The woman flushed scarlet from her hairline to the neck of her blouse. "From the governor's office," she said in a tiny voice.

Two-thousand years ago, Midael would have simply opened his palms and revealed to the secretary the great, white light of His glory and she would have fallen to her knees to worship an emissary of the Lord, and willingly done his bidding.

Now he needed to make an appointment.

"Yes," he said evenly. "I am from the governor's office. I am here to discuss the possibility of your employer making a bid for the State Senate seat next term. I would organize his campaign. I am an expert in these matters." Midael spoke as if he were reading his words off a script, which, incidentally, wasn't so far off from the truth.

"Well," the secretary said, "he's in with his adviser at the moment. I'll call him. It'll be just one moment."

"Thank you," Midael said.

Kiera smiled and looked down at the time on her expensive watch. She took the papers that she had for Brody to sign and walked out of her office. Her office to his took her right past the reception desk and she smiled at the woman behind the desk, but there was something in the air that made her body and muscles tense. She did a quick glance around the room as she walked and she saw the cause of it. She didn't need to be in her demonic form to see what that man was. Her usually warm golden eyes iced over immediately as she looked at him and walked into Brody's office. It had always been a matter of time before God sent one of his stupid servants to lead this man down the wrong path, but Kiera had been with this man for several years and most of the damage had already been done. After all, he was having an affair with her and that was more than enough to send his career spiraling down into flames.

She smiled as warmly as she could manage at Brody as she walked into his office. "Hello, Mr. McGrew. I have some papers for you to sign about that new bill." she said in a voice that was like warm, melted chocolate. Her voice was pure seduction if there had ever been one, but she knew that if that angel walked into this office, she would not sound so pleasant. She had a feeling that he had infiltrated himself with some other politician, but Kiera wasn't going to be detoured from her goal.

She walked over to Brody and she placed down the papers on his desk. "I absolutely think that this is a wonderful idea to do this, Mr. McGrew." she purred softly. It was a new bill for passing a law to make prostitution a legal job occupation and it suited Kiera's needs perfectly. The more prostitutes in the world, the better because more men were cheating on their wives and going to sluts for their sexual fantasies. She was more than thrilled that she had managed to make him see her way of things and he had managed to persuade the other members of congress that it was a valid concern and it should be made legal. Somehow, Kiera just felt like she was being almost too good at her own job. But the fact that one of those blasted holy creatures were here it was going to be a difficult time to keep Brody underneath her control.

Something in the air shifted while Midael was waiting. Something insidious and sour filled up the room, for a moment just long enough for Midael to turn his head and catch a glimpse of black hair and a closing door.

Demon, his mind supplied, and his heart sank. He knew it was inevitable that such a creature would find its way to this would-be Anti-Christ, but he was hoping he would have the benefit of first contact.

The secretary went on hailing Mr. McGrew on her intercom, but Midael's interest had already moved on. He followed the demon trail, ignoring the secretary's nonplussed exclamation of "hey!" He went to the door, pressed close as he hesitated before twisting the knob. His heart rate was elevated, he noticed. His breaths came more quickly, too, in smaller puffs. He felt sweat dampen the skin of his palms and an erratic, crackling energy moved through his limbs.

Stress. This is my body's reaction to stress. Midael wondered how many times in the past he had felt such an emotion, but lacked the proper tools for detection.

"Mr. Smith!" the secretary snapped, and she had a wrath all her very own now that Midael had broken her prim protocol, but he dismissed her without a gesture, and pushed on into the room where the demon had just gone.

The room he crossed into was a large one, set in the corner of the building with walls of plate glass. The city stretched out beyond them in both directions, a forest of right angles and steel girders, a tribute to the ingenuity of Man. Behind a wide mahogany desk, there sat Mr. McGrew, only now he was getting to his feet and looking ready to toss Midael out on his ear.

And standing beside him.

And standing beside him.

Midael swallowed, clenched and relaxed his hands.

Standing beside Mr. McGrew was the source of his greatest distress. There it was, with hair and lips and a body made to bewitch. Midael had sat alone in quiet contemplation since the dawn of Mankind, and all of it was over this creature and her kind. A toxic mix of sorrow and hate and terror and bile rose up in his throat and he stumbled back, pressing the door shut behind him just as the secretary was rushing forward to make her apologies.

The Fallen. Midael felt sick, like something in his belly was twisted and blackened. It broke his heart to see it. There was a time, before Man, before the casting out of their brightest star, when the Fallen were whole. They were happy, and they loved and were loved, in a way that only angels could know. (Until Judgement Day, when the hordes of men, in all their ingratitude, would descend on the holy New Jerusalem like locusts in a feeding frenzy. Then they, too, would know what it meant to be loved.)

Midael puzzled over this feeling, this wash of grief and disgust. He was caught between two instincts. There was a part of him--and even he could not say how large that part was--that wanted to shed the skin he wore and banish the she-demon from the Earth. There was another part that longed to unfurl his wings and close them around her, sing into her ear in God's tongue, and tell her until she believed it with all her heart, You are missed. You are loved.

But neither were his mission, and all this could be contemplated in greater detail another time, like when the apocalypse had been averted and he was safely returned to the solitude of the cosmos. So Midael straightened up, cleared his throat, and said evenly, "Mr. McGrew. I am Midael Smith, from the governor's office. It's so very good to meet you. May I have a moment of your time?"

Kiera straightened when that thing entered the room and her eyes iced over again to a cold and distant golden color. She couldn't tell Brody who and who not to talk to even if she was his advisor because he was still part of the government. She stood there as he finished signing the bill and handed it to her before greeting the man.

"Hello, Mr. Smith. It is nice to meet you, but may I inquire as to what business the governors office has with me?" he asked politely. Brody was a tall and elegantly handsome older man. Kiera had no problem sleeping with him because he was not a bad looking man, but neither did she take great pleasure in having sex with the man. She stood there dressed in her pencil skirt that was a dark navy blue and white button up blouse that was perhaps unbuttoned a little too far, but she normally kept it that way only in the office. She was staring at this Midael with clear disdain written all over her features. She didn't want this man interfering with all of her hard work and it seemed as though he was going to do just that.

((Sorry it is short, I am getting tired. >.<))

"It's very simple," Midael said evenly, doing his best not to eyeball the demon and looking directly at Brody. "An opportunity has recently arisen. One I think you'll both"--and at this, his attention alighted briefly on the woman--"agree is in the best interest of your future."

Midael took a few steps further into the room, his ultimate destination being the leather button-back chair facing Brody's desk. "A position will soon be opening in the State Senate and, if you are willing, Governor Winston would like to lend you his support. Should you choose to accept, I would go to work immediately on your campaign and, though my salary would still be in the care of the Governor's Office, I would act as a member of your own staff. I can have an office up and running by the end of the week."

Midael paused and, though he didn't know what ultimate harm would come of him working closely with the demon, he knew that he must ascertain her nature. "Naturally, I would need access to your adviser."

Kiera felt her own spine tingle as she felt such anger at the mere fact that she would have to work with that creature. It upset her beyond words and she felt her body become more frigid than it had been before. Working with a creature like that was only going to mean problems and she didn't want any problems right now, but it seemed as the Almighty one knew what this soul meant. She knew that he must have known that this soul was worth much more than most of the other souls on Earth, but Kiera had bad news for him. This man was already under her power and she would not give that up.

She didn't know what Brody was thinking at the moment because he was kind of just sitting there, looking quite shocked. She smiled softly and leaned down to Brody, her long hair falling over her shoulder seductively. "I think it is a good opportunity Brody" she said encouragingly. She knew that her words helped him out more than anything did because after all, she was his mistress and there were times she wondered if he hadn't fallen in love with her. Which it actually helped her cause if he had, but she also found that somewhere inside of her she didn't want to break this mans heart. As usual, her weaker side would still cause problems and she just pushed it aside as she stood back up and looked at Brody.

Brody smiled as he heard Kiera's words and then looked over at her. Kiera smiled and nodded softly. On the inside though, she was slightly rolling her eyes at the ridiculous notion that this man couldn't do anything without her approval, but it was still a good thing at this point.

"Alright, Mr. Smith. I am willing to accept this offer" he said politely.

Kiera knew that this would only help her to continue to corrupt his soul if he went up in the political positions that were and it was making her slightly happy. The only downside of this whole entire thing was having to work with that stupid creature. She knew he would oppose many of her positions and demands and that was going to be a problem, but surely it wasn't something that she couldn't deal with it, now was it?