It has been several weeks and the hail storm raged on, it was a risk to even set foot outside despite the desperation to find the essentials such as food, fire wood, dried herbal extracts, or even signs of life.

Gabriel sat in a bundle of linen writing his thoughts and concerns on blank pages occasionally watching his parents pace back and forth, mostly keeping watch of the town through the second floor windows since the windows and doors of the first level were blocked with heavy ice.

“Hey, what are you up to?” Johan asked as he settled next to the child.

“Oh! I’m…” Gabriel took several pages to show his father. “Writing my thoughts.”

“Oh my, that’s a lovely rendition of The Knightess,” Johan took his time to view the drawing Gabriel made, a rather muscular female warrior in bares. She had a horn petruding her forehead and her legs resembled that of a horse. “You favor her a lot.”

“Yeah. She is very strong. Which do you favor?”

“Hmmmmmm…” Johan hummed lightly as he skimmed the pages of the ancient book stopping at one particular page. “This one,” Johan pointed at a small child in the image. “The cherub.”

“Why?”

“I always see him as a lost soul, very elusive in this book.” Johan looked throughout the book for a page, the same child on a massive throne of glass. “A child destined for greatness. I think he disappeared to be his own soul.”

Gabriel looked at his father rather confused. “Why do you think that?”

“He never showed up after this page, did he not?” The redhead said with a smile.

“Johan, what should we do?” Asked the concerned midwife, “I haven’t heard of the girls in days, and heaven knows many people are in need of our help.”

“I understand, I just need to think this through." Johan stood up and walked to Grizelda. "If I do go out there during the blizzard with witches running amok I fear for our chances of survival.”

“Do you really think they are that powerful…?” The weary mother asked.

“I used to think they were crazy women stuck in a hysteria but after everything we’ve seen… I don’t doubt them anymore.” Johan said as he stared at the Amesthyn family shield over the mantle.

Gabriel stared at it, it reminded him of the shield one of the characters from his book had. Fingers grace over the pictures of the Knightess, a strange female creature that served the King and his domain. Her legs resemble that of a horse, and a horn protruded from her forehead; she had similarities to the mythical creature called the unicorn.

One of the stories featured was how she conquered the famine wars by herself, earning the entire dead province as the King’s territory. The Knightess relied on her brute strength, her trusted diamond pike and her kite shield with the crescent dent on the left side. She was one of the few if not the only character that does not rely on magic, he thought that perhaps he too could build up her courage and instead of cowering in fear.

He wished he could grow tall as his father and strong as Roy Firestorm to fight the witches that threaten them. Alas, he is small and young and he couldn't do a thing about it. It discouraged him greatly, at times he wished the pressure on his back were blessings from heaven, diamond armor, a ribbon of incantations and a mighty weapon to cast away the demons and witches his hometown so much feared.

He still did not understand how he summoned the courage to even set foot outside his home, let alone confront a witch, but Gabriel now understands the true danger lurking outside his home.

“At times I wish we still lived in Vatican City…” Grizelda said.

“Holy Mother, thou speaketh of irrelevance.” Johan laughed. “While I agree, Italy is far warmer and richer in culture, I was born in this country, you take out the witches and the stupid people and it would be paradise.”

“You lived somewhere else?” Gabriel chimed in.

“Oh, yes!” Johan laughed. I lived here until I turned 10, and because I lost my parents the nuns took me to the capital where I studied my faith. I traveled to Italy to strengthen my studies and eventually I met your mother.”

“Why did you come back?” Gabriel asked.

“Well,” Johan paused, almost as if he were collecting his thoughts.

“There was a catastrophic event in Italy,” Grizelda spoke, “I would rather not get into the ghastly details… but, just know we did it all for you.” She smiled sweetly to Gabriel

The smaller Amesthyn noticed something from the corner of his eyes observing from beyond the clinic. His parents continued their conversation unaware of the aura looming around the corner, so little Gabriel quietly walked to the cellar where it hid.

Gabriel never liked to set foot in the cellar and he was grateful his parents never asked him to go there. It was pitched black below the staircase, but he knows he is staring right at it, and it’s staring right back at him ready to pull him under by the ankles. His skin crawled and his shoulders ached the longer he lingered by the steps, he tugged at his crucifix and one step at a time he climbed down into the darkness.

The little Amesthyn stood still for a slight moment when he heard clicking of heels just a few meters away, someone or something was definitely in the cellar with Gabriel. With that, his body ached and weight heavily with each shallow breath the little one drew.

There was a cold breath right in front of his face, it laughed. This was far more foul than any witch. This wasn’t human. Gabriel lifted his hands and screamed, a spear shot through his hands and pierced through many things till it shattered against the wall. It rained shards of purple glowing ice, bringing clarity to the dark room. There was a figure standing in front of Gabriel, unmoving. It smiled.

The little Amesthyn scrambled up the stairs and locked the door of the cellar behind him. Gabriel, almost crumbling in his stance, stared at his hands covered in purple, glimmering dust. He had no idea how that happened but now troubling thought sank into the pit of his stomach. “It can’t be…”

“Gabriel?” he heard his father call him. Suddenly it dawned on him that the cellar is filled with the purple ice shards. He had no idea how to explain it to his parents. Within moments, Grizelda and Johan stood in front of the disturbed child. “What happened?” the worried father asked.

Gabriel almost failed to speak, “N-nothing, I almost fell….” he was a bad liar, he was sobbing as the weight over his back overwhelmed his small frame.

“Johan… his shoulders…” Grizelda pointed out in a sharp whisper. Gabriel turned his head to his right shoulder almost jumping into a panic. The child’s shoulder was covered in purple ice, growing rapidly almost towering over his 5’7” mother.

“Awww…” Johan reached a gentle hand but Gabriel flinched and slapped the hand away. More purple ice shot through his cold fingers and pierced the wooden walls.

Mother and Father stood beside themselves in awe. Gabriel covered his face as tears spilled from his blue eyes. His shaky knees gave up and Gabriel slid against the door. “I’m sorry…! I don’t know what happened…! Please don’t hang me!”

“Whatever for, my sweet prince?” Grizelda asked softly kneeling in front of him trying to get his attention.

“I am a witch…!” Gabriel screamed and clutched at his painful back. Many glowing hands rested on the painful skin. A swell of light blinded the child as his beloved mother prayed lightly, easing his pain. “You are not a witch, Gabriel…” Grizelda suddenly said with a chuckle after her incantation. “You are an Amesthyn…”

“But… I…” Gabriel looked up at his smiling parents with deep confusion stirring his mind.

“She is correct, the Amesthyn Bloodline is no joke. To be honest, we wondered when would your powers sprout,” the redhead said. “You are not wicked. I am sure everyone will speak the same.”

Johan laughed, “This reminds me when my powers started to bloom, yours is obviously vastly different from mine.” The redhead palmed his hands and prayed in a foreign language. A chill went down the child’s spine as butterflies bloomed and fled from thick scarred hands. The wings slowly dissolved into stardust and sank into Gabriel’s skin, feeling lighter and sleepy.

“Don’t be afraid of it,” Grizelda chuckled. “Just embrace it.”

Both parents helped the child to his feet and walked down the hallway into the clinic gathering their medical equipment and up the stairs following a strange trail of black feathers. They reached a door down the west wing, an omnipresent warmth and aura loomed behind it. “What are we doing…?” Gabriel asked.

“We want you to meet someone dear to us,” mother Grizelda replied.

Johan knocked on the door, “Your holiness Seraphim, may you allow us venture to your sanctuary?” the red redhead asked. It was too formal for Johan to use. Gabriel rarely heard his father speak that way and when he did, he only spoke that way when an angel was in their presence.

“Come in…” a low voice said from beyond the door. The room was lit by a single candle which was close to dying out. A powerful aura surrounded the presence sitting on the bed. Both Grizelda and Johan walked side by side and bowed in one knee in front of the bed of the patient.

He was surrounded by crows and feathers and a crown of dried laurel leaves and rose petals sat on his blond hair. “You need not to address me as Seraphim anymore,” the man spoke, his hand graced his mother’s cheek and his mother lifted his father’s chin. “I am graced with your kindness…”

“We are humbled to serve you,” Grizelda said. “Not for your status, but to return your kindness…” she said with a smile as she looked at Gabriel. Johan quietly signaled the boy to approach them.

“Roy, this is our child, Gabriel,” Johan said. “He recently awoke to his new powers.”

The small boy lifted his gaze from the ground and stared in awe.

The man’s blue eyes mirrored an endless reflection of the cerulean sea. Extensive rich silver tresses cascade down his broad shoulders and torso chiseled by a great Greek artisan obsessed with every line and crevice, never ignoring any angle or curve in his entropic being till reaching perfection.

Warm fingertips barely graced the pale skin causing a painful sting making the boy recoil, “Ouch!” Gabriel palmed his cheek as he took several steps back, Roy never lost sight of the frightened boy. The cleric sat on the floor in front of the smaller Amesthyn. Gabriel made eye contact with the crow sitting on Roy’s shoulder. It nuzzled close to Roy's neck as it slept and ruffled its feathers. “You have a lot to give, Gabriel,” Roy suddenly broke the silence.

“I agree,” Johan said as he unloaded the basket onto the nightstand.

“Our sweet Gabriel will become an important man in the near future,” Grizelda said with a prideful smile as she slowly undressed the cleric, it spooked several crows to land on the bed frame.

“I do not doubt it in the slightest…” The cleric said as he attempted to stand, Gabriel held out his hand however the cleric tugged at the crucifix from around Gabriel’s neck.

There was an awkward silence as the child gawked at Roy. “I used to think I lost all faith, I just misplaced it…” Roy said.

“Misplaced it…?” Gabriel whispered, but it was dismissed by his parents.

“How are you feeling today after waking up?” Johan asked while holding a book in his hands.

“I am fine, I just wait for my wounds to heal,” Roy answered.

“Do you normally sleep for this long?” Grizelda asked as she straightened the bed sheets.

“I am not sure, how long has it been?”

“A month,” The midwife said.

Roy just chuckled at the answer. “I resurrected earlier than that but, this is indeed normal.”

Johan grinned as he jolted down the responses. “I was looking for answers to this witch pandemic but heaven doesn’t know anything in the slightest,” Roy added.

“Heaven…?” Gabriel cut in. “You went to heaven…?” They all looked to the child who sat there in pure confusion, all the grownups glanced at one another with hints of worry. Roy looked back towards the window as if concentrating on something.

“Yeah, heaven, where I get my orders from,” Roy said suddenly. “But it is not the same as what the holy scriptures depict--”

A shrill cry coming from outside caught the party’s attention. Johan and Grizelda rushed to the window, “Oh dear lord…” Grizelda gasped.

“We need to get her inside…” Johan said as he lifted the window open.

Many things happened at once, the storm rushed in frightening the crows into a nervous spiral, Gabriel lost his balance but Roy caught him just in time and Grizelda threw a rope to Johan and Roy, both helping her rappel down into the cold snow.

Within moments of hearing her signal, both men tugged at the rope and up came a screaming woman and Grizelda came from behind sealing the window shut.

“Get it out of me!” the young woman screamed. “Please, I don’t want to die!” She stood on her four limbs groaning in pain.

“Please hold on, Alice,” Grizelda hushed, helping Johan clear the bed to lay the poor girl down on her back.

“Rip this demon out of me!” Said the girl known as Alice clawed at her stomach. “It’s killing me!”

In the midst of chaos, Gabriel was whisked off his little feet by the calm and strong Roy Firestorm. Gabriel was carried down the first floor and into the living space where he once nestled in warm blankets now accompanied by the kind cleric.

The screams of the girl were hard to ignore, and Gabriel once again felt useless as he stood idle as the world moved without him.

“You are very cold…” Roy commented and draped his robe of feathers over Gabriel. “what powers do you have?” he asked.

“I am not sure… they look like ice… kind of like this,” Gabriel scrambled through his pages and handed the man a drawing of jagged ice.

“...I see you were blessed with many talents. Your artistic skills are superb.” Roy carefully returned the page to Gabriel. “Interesting, fate is funny when it needs to be.”

He was a strange man, but there was something about him that gave Gabriel a piece of mind when he was in his presence.

“I misplaced my faith…” Roy said quietly as he stared off into the wall. Gabriel craned his head to look at the stoic cleric. “You help me find it…” he answered.

So many things jumbled the boy’s mind, he knew his name, but he couldn’t fathom what sort of powers this man possessed. Even his sword was beyond anything he’d ever seen.

That’s when it suddenly struck him. The blade was made of red glass, almost like rubies. Cutting clean through every surface. The formal greeting… It almost didn’t make sense.

Gabriel finally turned to Roy and whispered a familiar phrase he must be used to by now, “Who are you…?”

Roy glanced down at Gabriel before he answered, “when you are older, and you see hell in person, I will tell you.”