Chapter 4: Revelations: Part One_Blood Divine Series

Chapter 4: Revelations: Part One

Joan watched as her charge made his way back to the farmhouse.

Adam had come far from the young man that she’d first met. Looking back, she remembered how she had asked if there was another Adam in residence when she’d first met him, an action she now regretted. He’d seemed so ordinary back then. Not weak, but . . . unremarkable? It was something of a harsh description, but the first time the French saint had seen her charge there had been nothing to suggest just what a unique being he was.

Now things were different. His power was growing, he was developing his skills, and, more than anything else, he looked the part he was beginning to play.

A wry smile touched Joan’s lips as she moved to follow the demigod. Adam’s new appearance was going to be of use to him once he returned to the wider world, shallow as it might seem. Mortals were more likely to take heed of someone who was obviously of divine blood. As for gods and immortals, his beauty was going to be almost as much a factor in his interactions with them as his power would be. Far too many deities could be influenced by an attractive face. Of course, many gods had little restraint in the face of someone they desired. Mythology was rife with examples of gods and goddesses desiring someone, and not being willing to take no for an answer. Her charge might be no helpless mortal to be plucked like a ripe apple, but still . . .

The reborn soul dismissed her train of thought as she entered the farmhouse and made her way to her room. Such worries were unproductive, not something she could do anything about at this moment. What she could do was find out new information that might be of aid to her charge.

Reaching into one of the lower drawer of her bedside table she pulled out an old leather-bound bible. She took out a piece of folded parchment, one with a number of circles filled with Enochian characters. Spreading it out on her desk she sat before it, her fingertips placed on certain runes as she channelled her power into it. In response the intricate design lit up, golden light running through the circles and the symbols as they took her power and used it to fulfil the function they had been made for.

Joan only had to wait a few moments before she felt a connection form. The design she was using was an old one, one learnt from books that had been meticulously guarded and preserved in the secret vaults beneath the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. When the Black Sun ended, and the divine returned, the ranks of the Faithful of the Lord had sought out writings and works that were once thought simply the labours of the mad. By the time Joan had descended, there had been some few among them that had begun to learn the mortal magic of Heaven from them. This was one of their greatest accomplishments, a seal that permitted communication regardless of other angelic spells that might interfere. It was not undetectable though, so the reborn saint had not used it before.

Now though . . . not only honoured Hadriel stood guard, now there were also the goddesses Athena and Kali. If the communication should be intercepted and an attack launched on this location then Joan would honestly pity the fools that tried.

Joan did not quite hear the words in her mind, but the meaning came through easily enough.

Samuel had been one of the first mortals that the resurrected soul had encountered after her return to the flesh. He was a studious man in his late forties, pale from too much time indoors and balding early due to too much work. He was earnest in studies of the rediscovered holy magic and had achieved considerable success. To be sure, he lacked any sort of destructive or combat power, but in matters of scrying or divination he was surprisingly potent. It had been this magic that had led to him being highly placed among the faithful who had offered their aid to the angels. When Joan had descended he had been her principal point of contact with the organization.

Joan had to bite back a sigh as she listened to the tirade of questions. Samuel was not a bad person, of that she was sure. However, his piety and zealousness made him somewhat difficult to deal with. As a living saint, he practically venerated her. She was uncomfortable with such a level of reverence, feeling unworthy of it, but that she could have borne without comment. It was his eagerness to clash with the perceived foes of the Almighty that concerned her.

His intentions were not malicious, but as a dedicated academic he had spent the majority of his life in libraries and archives. To him, the world was as black and white as the tales of daring believers and flawless angels he had read about his whole life. This blindness to the greys of the world concerned the resurrected saint but was not something she was in a position to do anything about, not with the other claims upon her time.

She replied, pausing for a moment to consider, then deciding to share some minor details.

There was a pause, and Joan could feel the echoes of emotions bouncing down the link to her. This sort of connection was not meant to allow such an empathic bond, but with the intensity of the emotions on the other end, it was happening regardless.

The French saint could feel the edges of a roiling maelstrom, a mixture of outrage, disgust, guilt and bewilderment, all swirling around a central point of iron will that remained in control. It was not the first time she had felt such a mixture of emotions from her ally, but she still couldn’t help but feel a certain disappointment at it.

Samuel had been brought up to fully embrace the belief that the Almighty was the only true god. To him, the return of the other pantheons had been a call to arms, a chance for the forces of heaven and the faithful to finally destroy these ‘false’ gods. To learn that these other deities were not only to be left alone but were actually acknowledged by heaven as being true gods . . . it had been hard to swallow. Indeed, it seemed he had not yet fully managed it.

Joan could feel sympathy, after all, she had been in a similar situation when she first learnt of the existence of other pantheons. In her life she had been devoted to the Lord, she had lived her life according to his teachings and those of his son. She had followed his teachings, and that had included the Commandments that He had passed on to Moses. To learn that successive generations of translation and interpretation had caused some of them to drift from their original meaning had been a bitter pill to swallow.

The First Commandment stated that there was no god save for the Almighty, or at least that had been what she had been taught. It had been difficult to learn that He was not the only god as she had believed, but rather that the Commandment meant that he was the preeminent god of those ancient people with whom the Lord had made a covenant. It did not preclude or deny the existence of other deities, only that those of the covenant could not place them above the Almighty.

It was a truth Samuel was having trouble coming to grips with, but Joan knew he was at least trying. Perhaps the knowledge that some of those gods were now her allies would help him in coming to terms with the the reality if their situation.

Letting another unfortunate comment pass, Joan chose to continue to the reason that she had contacted the church-associated mage.

She explained.

He stated,

This . . . this was the problem with Samuel. She had asked for a task to ease Adam up to the next level, and the academic immediately suggested thrusting them into a hungry bear trap.

Africa was currently a mess, the continent worst impacted by the return of the deities. The northern portion of the continent was faring best, due to the return of many Egyptian deities that had acted in the best interests of their old country, and then extended their influence westward.

However, the further south one went the less stable the situation became. Central Africa was home to several gods that simply wanted to restore the untamed wilderness they remembered from their rule. Then there were the warlords. More than a dozen demigods had found their way to the increasingly lawless portion of the country.

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For the time being, most of the world regarded that portion of Africa as an example of how bad things could get if the gods and other immortals showed no restraint. On an international level, the policy was to be hands-off, the majority of the continent serving as a location the wilder gods could travel to if they wished to abandon civilization.

No, the French saint had no desire for her charge to get tangled up in that mess.

Joan attempted to be diplomatic in her response, knowing that the unsuitable suggestion had not been offered in malice. In truth, she had been expecting something like this, though the foreknowledge did little to dispel her slight exasperation at the scholar’s well-meaning blunder.

Contrition coloured the communication as Samuel apologised.

His last sentiment seemed to be directed more to himself than to the reborn saint, and Joan had the distinct impression that he was shuffling papers on his end. She could all too easily imagine him combing through the piles of reports that he often kept heaped on his desk, the method he used to organise them more complicated and arcane than the magic he studied. The thought brought a smile to her lips just before the wordless communication began again.

Samuel informed her, satisfaction tinging the link between them.

The resurrected soul slowly nodded, the meaning of the gesture passing through the link as easily as if she had spoken aloud.

When monsters had returned to the world along with the gods, dragons had come with them. As creatures closely tied to magic, they had also been banished to other planes. So far, the ones that had returned were extremely rare, but as with all other beings of myth, their numbers were slowly growing.

Dragons were among the highest tier of monsters, in that they were both beasts and thinking beings. True, some of them allowed their bestial nature to take over, but others were every bit as intelligent and cunning as the wisest fey. This meant that they were far too dangerous to handle like another ‘normal’ legendary race.

In many ways, dragons could be regarded as the apex of mortal life, though they were ‘mortal’ in the loosest sense of the word. Dragons were creatures that didn’t grow weaker with age, rather they only grew larger, stronger, and more powerful with the passage of time, and they were not weak to begin with.

More than that, their personalities tended to run the range from evil tyrants to benevolent sages. They could be solitary hermits, or choose to join other factions for reasons of their own. As such dragons were prized allies to any that could gain their service or loyalty.

If Adam were to investigate this new dragon it did not necessarily mean they would come to blows. Dragons had lived in relative peace with human neighbours before, each race giving the other space and no conflict arising. If he could broker such an agreement it would go a goodly way towards establishing a reputation as a negotiator. And if it proved malevolent it could serve as fodder to build his reputation.

She replied.

Samuel sent to her, tinges of uncertainty clear in his communication.

Well, that was even more interesting, in its own way. The Courts of the Fey were powers that needed to be respected. They might not be on par with a true pantheon, but they had the advantage of numbers, and the royalty of each court possessed power sufficient to match even a strong god.

The actions of the Summer Court were not too unusual, if it was them who were abducting children. In ancient times they would take children, exchanging them for gold, or leaving changelings in their place, the stolen child then being adopted into some fey family.

Rescuing such children would be within Adam’s current capabilities, especially with Joan and Athena to advise him. His magic would be sufficient to capture the fey without killing them. Once held it would be possible to ransom them back for the children. It was a promising path, save for the fact that actually finding the members of the Summer Court might prove difficult in the extreme.