Of Light And Shadows

Chapter Forty Eight...

Meeting God was surreal. Jia expected a man with a big white beard, or a woman with long blonde locks, anything other than what was in front of her. Before her was light, a bright, shining, brilliant light that almost hurt to look at.

In the centre of that light was a vaguely person shaped silhouette, barely visible against the radiant glow. She could just make out the hazy edge of six feathered wings sprouting from their back, the tips of which stretched far enough to reach the edges of the light and reveal their dazzling white colour.

But the most startling part of the meeting was the sheer sense of power and presence emanating from the figure, dwarfing the auras of both Lucifer and Michael without difficulty. The pair of them dropped to one knee and bowed their heads respectfully, their true forms manifesting involuntarily under the crackling gaze of their deity.

"Lucifer Morningstar," a voice both whispered and purred, echoing around the inside of Jia's mind like a caress from a gentle breeze. When God spoke it was as though all the voices of the Angels spoke with them. "It has been a long time."

"Yes it has, Holy One." Lucifer kept his head bowed, his black wings shifting closer to his body as though they wanted to protect him.

"I have missed you. Stand, child." The Demon Prince did as he was told, daring to raise eyes brimming with tears of hellfire to the burning aura filling the study in front of him. "I feared sending you here might destroy you. I am glad to see that instead you flourish."

It seemed like they wanted to say more, but then their eyes fell on Jia and she got the sense her soul was being searched. As the oppressing presence touched her mind, the intricate mate bond on her arm lit up like a beacon, coaxed to life by the probing tendrils of light.

"This is Jia, my wife," Lucifer said softly. "I brought her to you so that you could see what the joining of our realms can create."

"The Angelic and Demonic realms should never touch, they are separate," God replied, though they didn't stop probing Jia's soul.

"Jia has access to power we've never seen. She can physically interact with the ley lines."

"Impossible."

"I stopped Jezebeth from corrupting a moon gate and its ley line by sending my consciousness through a moon gate of my own," Jia mumbled, feeling inexplicably ashamed of her blood. She never asked to exist, but this all-seeing God made her squirm with guilt as though the whole thing was her fault.

"How exactly did you do that?" The thousand voices of the deity caressed her skin, the tinge of doubt barely perceptible in their tone.

"I used the ley line under Lanthia's moon gate."

"I see." The deity paused for a moment, scrutinising her with eyes she couldn't see. "Nobody in the history of all creation has been able to manipulate my power. The ley lines are my essence, the tendrils of my soul that underpin all three realms."

"I used one of them to cross over to Jezebeth's ley line and break her hold on the moon gate. She was doing something to it."

"She was corrupting it with her ill intentions," Michael replied when the deity didn't respond. "That was the first time we sensed what they were really doing."

"And what do you think it is that they want?" Lucifer asked the Archangel.

"Satan wants a lot more than we originally thought. He doesn't just want to control the three realms. He wants to combine them."

"Satan was my triumph once," God said softly, a hint of pain in the many murmuring voices. "Had I known what his wrath would lead to, I may have acted differently. I know all. I see all, but somehow I did not foresee this."