Sariella Lui

I did wonder why I could not remember so much of my past, and now I have the explanation.

The boy that was once left behind, now filled in the blank spaces in my memories, and I had access to the years that I was still sane and normal. I had forgotten all these times of laughter and games, the cure to my anxiety — — what a shame!

I could feel his presence, I remembered how we used to hold our hands together in times of mischief, and I also remembered how the two of us would lie down side by side of each other, every time after we quarreled over a misunderstood tale or an over-appreciated gift from the relatives.

We were inseparable until he suddenly went missing.

Tears flowed down my face as I sobbed quietly for a few seconds, then I put myself together quickly.

"Any headache or such?" Nikolai asked politely and coldly, waking me from my trance of indescribable satisfaction, "dizziness?"

"Nope, I'm fine," I fixed my bangs behind my right ear and wiped my face clean.

I could still manage to control myself for a while.

"So, do you remember us now?" Michael waved.

I turned to him and tried not to smile, "No, I don't. I don't remember the time you pushed me into the sandpit, and I don't remember the time that Nelson broke my rosin."

Nikolai seems confused — — his eyes could speak! Such an amiable introvert.

"Rosin for the violin bow," I explained, "We were in a hurry and you threw my rosin to me at a distance, right before I need to go back to the quartet."

"Oh, right! You couldn't catch it and it smashed into pieces!" Michael burst into laughter and Nelson joined in quickly.

"Oh, man! You hold grudges for long," Nelson laughed and shook his head, "but still, it's so nice to know each other again."

"Alright then, we can proceed," Nikolai took out a tablet from a stylish briefcase and leaned towards me.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well," Uncle Fernando slowly made a turn to the right, "the Paladins! Your dad was one of us too."

"My dad had mentioned that. So, what kind of organization is that? Like a brotherhood or ...associations of amateurs, or... Nah, I don't get it."

"Let's get going, just a brief introduction," Michael agreed.

Nikolai raised his eyebrows and showed me a photo of a badge on his tablet.

"Roughly translated, the Sacred Order of the Paladins of Eden," he pointed towards letters on a badge, which had a sword in the middle, behind it was a tree, and the tip of the sword pierced through the body of a snake, "S-O-P-E."

"Soup," Uncle Fernando commented as he turned the steering wheel.

"Não é sopa!" I laughingly replied, "ok, I get this, the snake is satan, the tree... Eden, is it?"

"Nice one," Nikolai continued, "Our Order mainly focuses on providing training to the gifted, and setting the balance among the interference on Eden."

"Eden?" I frowned, "interference?"

Nikolai shifted his eyes from the tablet to me, and said, "Eden, the paradise from which Adam and Eve were cast out of."

"I'm very confused."

"What's your gift?" Michael leaned forward, holding onto my seat, asking.

"Gift? Oh," I held my hand in the key-sign, and the three boys let out a soft exclamation of mutual understanding.

"Key-bearer," Michael seems excited, "me too."

"These gifts are given to us by our guardian angels, who were all fallen angels before," Nelson added, "People like us, are a covenant between God and the fallen angels, as an act of remorse and repentance.

"The fallen watchers, at the time of Noah," Uncle Fernando said.

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"I still don't get it," I whispered.

Nelson rolled his eyes.

"Quick conclusion" Nikolai swiped the screen, skipped to an old drawing, and pointed to that very robust, medieval drawing, "The ones kneeling on the grounds, had torn wings behind them, they are the fallen ones at the age of Noah, you understand? Noah, who built the arc?"

"Yup."

"Some Angels had mercy and pitied them, and these were all seen and heard by God. At that moment, sins had polluted the world, even the flood could not purify it perfectly, for sins had also polluted the descendants of the fallen."

Nikolai swiped again, and this time, a picture of a single page from a book, written in a foreign language.

"Egrigori and Nephilim, that's how we named the descendants, among one of them, an unknown one simply found a way to sneak into Eden, and polluted the paradise. The devils tried to conquer the polluted lands and increase their territory, and the fallen angels, who wanted to go back to heaven, were assigned as the frontline soldiers in this battle."

I replayed the words in my head and was bewildered by such a story.

"Thank you! I think I understand now."

"Бомба," Nikolai swiped on his tablet quickly, showing portraits of several people.

"So, in our Order, we divide all the gifted into twelve houses, each house named after an Israel tribe, the twelve tribes in the Old Testament. Do you have any idea?"

"The twelve sons of Israel, is it?"

"That's right, the twelve brothers. The blessings from their own father, and blessings later bestowed upon the descendants, by Moses, are basically how we divide the gifted. Except, all team captains will be considered a Judah as well as a member of his or her original house."

Nikolai continued as he gestured, "Michael is a knight of Gad and a Judah, Nelson is a warlock of Naphtali, I'm a Joseph, Sir Fernando is a Benjamin and Judah..."

He swiped quite quickly as he introduced the twelve leaders to me.

"I don't think I can remember them all at once," I gasped.

"You'll have to," Michael said.

"Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Gad, Asher, Isacchar, Naphtali, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, here are the twelve tribes and... oh, be careful of this man," Nikolai pointed at an unfriendly looking man, "Sir Vulture, head of Judah, be careful not to offend him in any way."

Nikolai waited patiently until I nodded, then swiped his tablet again, "Take a look, Scorners."

The photo of the monster gave me a fright at first sight, and the boys laughed at my gasping.

"Ok, if I may ask... we are protecting Eden from these monsters, am I correct?"

"Not only that, you'll have to kill it at first sight," Nikolai said.

"So that's the training I'll receive? To kill Scorners ?"

"That's the point," said Michael, "we all are trained to kill them, and something else."

"Something else?"

"Here," Nikolai swiped again, and on his tablet was the photo of the Tooth of Leviathan. It consisted of two short spears — — No, wait, the blades were long, I guess they were supposed to be a pair of swords in a way.

Anyway, one half of that thing was right in my arsenal, safe and sound, guarded by a mean fallen watcher.

Nikolai continued, "The Tooth of Leviathan, now there's two, so, well, teeth? I'm not good at grammar— — anyway, these two weapons, are the lost sceptres of the leader of Hell. We'll have to retrieve it, and destroy it."

"Ok, so, what about the covenant? I'm sorry but I'm a bit slow..."

"That's the reason why we are gifted," Nikolai took off his glasses and pinched his slightly hooked nose-bridge. He winked his eyes slowly, and I saw his sky-blue eyes turned into emerald green in a wink, another wink and his eyes became normal again.

" In short, I've got several traits, and basically, I'm a psychic. This is the gift from my guardian angel, thus I named myself Zmei."

"Our gifts are for preserving Eden," Nelson moved a bit closer to us, "we're at war with hell."

"The evil is reaching out for more territory, Eden is their target. The fallen angels are carrying out their atonement, volunteering as soldiers, but we need more soldiers than we estimated," Uncle Fernando said.

"So this is like a recruitment of an army."

"Well... It's actually much more complicated, but, well, go on, children, check her out for me, will you?"

Nikolai held my hand and shook it gently, clearly in a trance, mumbling a foreign language.

"She didn't learn any form of combat," at last, he commented," it's gonna be rough for her."

I heard a scoff, I guess it's from Suriyel.

Such a meanie.

Nikolai added," But you can survive."

"Hey — — Did your father show you how to summon your weapon?" Michael crawled up from the backseat and asked.

"He did, " I replied as I moved towards the window, exposing my arm under the sunlight, the shadow on my thighs are clear and pure.I did as my father and Suriyel taught: the sign that imitated the turning of a key, as the gesture to summon weapons from my arsenal.

Black flames lit up my forearm, and quickly died down, leaving both my forearms covered by a vambrace.

The vambraces were steel-colored, with strokes of gold at the rim and branches of olive and pigeons lightly carved as a background; the Chi-Rho symbol of Jesus carved at the middle, stained with scarlet paint, covering most of the armor as a console to the soldier.

"A fine piece of art," Michael leaned on Nikolai's seat and commented.

"Look, the mark of the couter, here at the elbow, is a lion. That's a symbol of Judah," Nikolai studied carefully, "I believe this is your heritage."

"Hhm, yeah, I think I have to take it down," I began to yank the couter, "I'm not a Judah, right? Only team captains."

"You can custom made another pair of couters for them," Michael suggested.

"Yup, right after you had sworn allegiance to your house," Nelson echoed with his suggestion.

"I believe it's for the best," said Nikolai, nodding, "don't yank so hard——"

"Sariella? Try flexing your biceps." Uncle Fernando said suddenly.

I did as he told while the boys burst out laughing, including Uncle Fernando.

"Hey!" I sulkily lowered my arm, realising how funny I looked just now.

Still, I heard a metal sound so crisp and clear through their thundering laughter, and to my surprise, a knife of width an inch clicked out at the outer side of the vambrace, a silver lining at the edge.

"Remember, do not disgrace the symbol of Chi Rho," Uncle Fernando took a glance of us from the rear mirror, put on a stern face, and continued, "DO NOT disgrace the symbol, bear in mind."

"Yes, uncle," I replied.

"Alright, children, sit tight, I'm gonna speed up."