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Present Day

Coffee addiction must be a real thing, but more than that, it must be a super real thing, because the first thing I did after finding out that my long-lost magical ancestor was the baseline for the stories of Zeus’ rutting habits was to go make some damn coffee. That drink might just be the bedrock of my sanity. I mean, I know there was a whole pitcher of it on the table in the main room, but I just had to go through the motions of making some more. Conjuring water to fill a stone pot, heating water in the pot by touching the rune for ‘heat’ with a finger full of mana, pouring it into the big french press I saved before everything went to hell, carefully pouring a large helping of Baileys into the bottom of my mug and smelling the lovely combination of heavenly flavors as I strained the coffee to make the most comforting drink ever invented. And there I stood at my granite counter, slowly sipping the first bit of alcohol that I’ve had in weeks, and Holy fuckin Moly did it taste good!

I could see Merlin through the doorway still sitting at the table with Reeanth gushing over his every word, fangirling hard as he laughed and drank just had a jolly ole time. Dude, I know shit. Maybe I can play the family card and get some info for once that is actually useful. Gathering my wits steadied by a liberal amount of the good stuff, I made another Irish coffee for Merlin, collected my butt and sat it back down at the table with authority.

“So what’s really going,” I asked as I slid the mug over to him. “You shagged a bunch of people way back when, and now you’re here?” I didn’t let his sheepish face keep me from a bit of a rant, although Reeanth’s glaring may have slowed it down a touch. “Seriously Merlin, I get that we might be related, but it’s gotta be like the grandmother’s, boyfriend’s, third cousin to the umpteenth power. What gives?”

“Yes, what gives Merlin?”

Goosebumps bigger than softballs ran down my spine at those words, because I couldn’t tell where they came from. I’m not gay, but that was the weirdly most sexy voice of a masculine flavor that ever spoke, and those weren’t even words meant to seduce. It put the Mr. Clean voice to shame.

“That’s not funny Gav’riel,” Merlin said, calmly sipping his coffee, focusing his eyes at a spot several feet above and off to the right of me. “I can talk to my descendants some if I want to, especially the ones that actually show some potential.”

“You know the strictures of the BAN!”

“If the kid’s not an idiot, he’s already figured it out.”

I kept real still. I didn’t feel anything with my magical senses, just heard the voice from nowhere.

“Besides, angelic paladins? Really?” Merlin’s eyes hardened. “Or are you going the route of your fallen brethren?”

“CHOICE IS NEVER VIOLATED!” Bright light bereft of pressure and sound exploded behind me. My body froze as my eyes tracked what could only be described as perfection stepping into reality. The masculine humanoid floated ominously towards Merlin, it’s white and golden wings not flapping. The pressure in the room dropped, as if a compressed storm was psyching itself up for a prize fight.

Merlin’s eyes sharpened as he spoke, both his gaze and tone vying for the right to shred the Angel. “Except for mine.”

Continuing on as if Merlin hadn’t said a thing, Gav’riel said, “Besides, We of the Host have not bestowed neither boon nor judgement in this realm for several millenia.”

“Dude, this shit is nuts,” Gungnir whispered to me audibly as a cartoonish picture of me sneakily backing away popped into my head. “Let’s get while the gettin’s good.”

The laser focused ire of the intruder broke off from Merlin and landed on me. “Necromancer!” Gav’riel shouted. Turning back to Merlin, it pointed its oddly shaped weapon that appeared out of nowhere at him. “Since when does the Protector of Man sit with the defilers of the dead, the slayer of souls?”

My quiet backing up got a lot louder real quick as I turned and sprinted for the tunnel leading to the under-river bolthole. My magical senses barely let me know in time that something invisible but definitely made of magic barred my way as my body reacted to my panic. Planting one foot while pivoting blindly towards the only direction not blocked off put me right back in front of what could only be an angel, and one that for some reason didn’t like me.

Awesome power erupted where the thing was, light and sound and power all beautifully choreographed to carefully let me know how pitiful and small I was. The lightshow blasted me into the magical walls behind me, to which I bounced off of and landed on my chest. An awful tearing sound in time with something getting ripped off my shoulder didn’t herald good news.

“Don’t you see Merlin? A necromancer. One of your brood, which would make him the most powerful of them if given time.”

Slowly and painfully propping myself up on my elbows, I saw that the warrior made of light was holding Gungnir who had been attached to my armor just a second ago. I couldn’t even feel the mental link while Gav’riel’s hand cradled my weapon.

“Look again,” Merlin chuckled, “Not only did you harm a mortal, but that’s not even what you think it is. Damn y’all have gotten dim for all the light you put out.”

I could see the angel’s field of vision as light shot through with purple and green emitted scanned the ball. “This is a soul Merlin! Or, at least a part of it. The human must have eaten the rest of it already.”

“Look at the human Gav’riel, and then look a bit deeper. Tell me, who’s soul does it remind you of?”

The green and purple lights left off scanning Gungnir and turned to me. Suffice to say, it wasn’t pleasant. It was the combined experience of a doctor lasering a patient closed after surgery and a dentist all up in your mouth examining your gums when you know you haven’t flossed as much as you should have, and then add your mother’s worst nagging on top of it.

“His own soul?” Gav’riel said, “What depraved and ignorant idiot would be dumb enough to use their own soul in making a tool?”

Merlin chuckled again. “Apparently, ‘one of my brood’.”

Gathering my courage, or my stupidity, I growled at the angel, “Then fix it.”

“What?”

“I said, fix it,” I answered, “If I’m so dumb and depraved, and I fucked up, then fix it, but in a way that Merlin over there would approve of. I take it from y’alls conversation that one of you messing with a mortal maybe has some dire consequences, so you owe me. Fix it or owe me a favor.”

“You dare to command me, Third of the Host, the Herald of the Most High, the Horn of all the Seven Heavens!”

Merlin’s laughter nearly drowned out Gav’riel’s outburst. I never thought I’d see a historical figure spray coffee out through his nose. “Oh ya got him him by the small hairs now boy!” Merlin roared, his feet kicking as if he were being tickled, “Take him for all he’s worth! Angels don’t get themselves twisted up very often!”

Gav’riel’s glare evoked the image of a thousand burning suns while thunder boomed from everywhere and nowhere.

“You know what,” I said, “Fuck it. Don’t fix it, fix my wife.”

“What?” Confusion stopped the impotent rage of the angel. “What wife? All bonds of matrimony are recorded in the Book and sung for eternity by the Seraphs, but no such cord wraps your heart.”

Pointing up at the root of the fledgling World Tree that adorned the center of the room as it plunged down into the earth, I kept going, my voice getting more intense. “My wife! She was my fiance, the love of my life, we were going to get married in two months before this stupid apocalpyse happened and now she’s in a FUCKING TREE!”

Merlin’s laughter cut off. Painful silence ruled as I took a moment to gather myself. The painful ache in my chest deepened with every beat as all the hurt I had pushed down in order to survive began clawing its way back. “Just bring her back. Please.”

The illuminated glare of Gav’riel’s gave softened. “Of all the things you could ask for from the Host, you ask for this? All the possibilities of power and you ask for the redemption of another, one who’s fate or heart isn’t entwined with your own?”

“Uh, Gav,” Merlin interrupted, “This is one favor you can’t grant.”

My pain whipped me around. “What d . . “

“Not your fault boy,” Merlin interrupted again, “He hasn’t even taken a look yet. Trumpet boy, you’re a bit confused here. His wife isn’t that lady over there.” Merlin’s finger was pointing at the fainted figure of Reeanth in the doorway of the kitchen. “She’s up there.”

Gav’riel looked up. Like the thunder, the raw ambient noise that accompanied the Heralding Angel, soft music reminiscent of a soft rain at a funeral emanated from the core of the being of light.

“Yeah, I figured,” Merlin said sadly, “Nothing we can do but wait.”

“He didn’t even say anything,” I said as I slumped to my knees. Gav’riel knelt beside me.

“You heard my sorrow, the music that called to your own tortured soul?” he asked.

I barely nodded as I tried to look Gav’riel in the eyes. It was too intense, but not in the way of burning your pupils, which it almost did. There was too much truth there, like my soul was not ready to step up to an angel’s. It hurt in the way that a judge looks at a convict, already knowing that the convict is guilty with every sin and unclean part laid bare. This light wasn’t kind, it just was, clean. The way bleach cleans, by killing everything.

“That music is the only thing angels and humans have in common. It is a higher form of communication that we use consciously.”

“That’s enough Gav’riel”, Merlin cut in, “He’s too young to be that close to you. You might harm him further.”

The light dimmed considerably as the Host vanished from sight. “I haven’t left,” a voice spoke as Merlin and I looked around. “But the wild sorcerer is right, on many accounts. I have made more than one mistake here today, a first for me. I cannot help you with your mate, but do know that she is safe and in very good hands. Nothing less than one such as I can get near her, it’s rather remarkable that you can. In regards to the favor, as you asked for someone else’s soul instead of your own, I’ll grant you two boons. Both of which though, I shall choose.”

Gungnir, laying on the ground at my feet in spherical form, went dark. A flash of light immediately followed by an entire orchestra’s symphony packed into a two second packet washed over everything from the invisible form of Gav’riel.

“The first boon is the restoration of your soul fragment from your weapon with your own. The weapon still works and doesn’t need any enhancement that I can give. The benefits of having yourself whole after all of your trials are many, but the one you will notice the most is that your well is much larger than before.”

The ache in my heart where my wife resided pulsed hard enough for my flesh sorcery to instinctively check that I wasn’t having a heart attack. Nope, just fresh emotional pain, or is it soul pain?

Gav’riel kept going, interrupting my thoughts. “The second is a healing of your companion and a tidbit of knowledge. The higher star known as Astraea, the one who violated the Strictures by harming you. I have been allowed to let you know that she has been encumbered. If she strikes at you, she may only do it through her mortal followers, and even then she is weakened. I have spent too long here. Merlin, a word.”

Another flash of light and both the Angel and Merlin were gone. Absent the awfully brilliant being of light, cooling shadows regained their supremacy as I look up in shock from where I knelt and looked where my wife rested in her arboreal cocoon. “Hey babe, got some good news. You’re safe enough that I don’t actually have to worry about you as much. And, I got it on pretty good authority too.”

A deep bark cut off my monologue.