Fragile Glass | Morpheus

Chapter 10

"Valerian... Valerian... Valerian... I must have some books on Valerian root somewhere in this shop." Aziraphale bustled around the bookshop, Morpheus and Crowley sat at a table to the side flicking through the books that Aziraphale had picked out. "If it's a plant, then you may have a book on it at the flat, Crowley? That always was your area of expertise."

Crowley's head perked up from the book he was reading to look at the anxious angel, "Afraid not, Angel. I never did like Valerian root, nasty smell to it." He shut the book, snapping the pages together and placing it on to the ever increasing pile of useless books forming between Crowley and Morpheus. The two had sat awkwardly, a large distance between them. Each as untrusting as the other.

"Well then Mr. Endless, surely if this root is your weakness you must know something on it." The angel was glaring holes into the head of the god that was paying little attention to the angel and demon. Petty squabbling between them would get them nowhere and Astraea may be on a time limit.

"It has never been a problem before. A mere inconvenience." He could practically feel Lucienne's voice in his head telling him that he should be looking into the vortex instead of hunting for a missing angel. Yet, he couldn't find the motivation to go after Rose Walker whilst Astraea was missing. It made sense, he had come to find Astraea's constant presence over the last century to become comforting and had sought solace in her advice. Why shouldn't he ask her opinion on what he was meant to do about the vortex?

"Never a problem? An inconvenience? How dare you. Asssstraea is out there and we don't know where. Thissss inconvenience is blocking us, blocking you, from finding her. How dare you call it an inconvenience when my ssssister is missing." Crowley's voice hissed towards Morpheus like a snake hunting its prey. Piercing and alert.

"She is not just your sister, demon. She is my friend and I will not allow harm to come to her. Do not accuse me of not caring for her when I am sat here just the same as you. I have a kingdom to run and a crisis affecting said kingdom that I really should be dealing with, yet I am here, searching for her all the same." He stood from his seat and peered down at Crowley, the demon shirking away, "So do not lecture me, demon. I am aware that she is missing."

Morpheus sat back down into his seat and continued to flick through the pages of the book he was looking through. Slinking back into his seat at the table, Crowley picked up the next and last book in the pile and began to look through it.

Neither of them had noticed Aziraphale's sudden departure from the room during their spat and continued to work silently without realising the angel's strange disappearance.

"Found it!" The two beings sat around the table, books piled around them, almost hiding them from the rest of the world, jumped in their seats at the sudden exclamation. The angel tumbled back into the room, a cloud of dust following him.

"Found what, angel?" Crowley's head peaked over the mountain of books as the angel dusted off his suit and turned to the pair with a brilliant smile on his face. A large, leather bound tome was tucked under his arm.

"A book!" He moved some of the piled books to the outskirts of the table, tutting when he saw some of the more priceless books carelessly thrown to the side. Placing the book in the middle of the table, Morpheus and Crowley peering over at it, he began flicking through the pages.

"This is Raphael's book of healing." Morpheus looked between the book and Aziraphale's still smiling face, "How did you get this?"

"It doesn't matter, what matter's is that Valerian root might just appear in this book, and if it does, it will have the effects on angels in it as well. How great is that?" He was still grinning.

"Angel, probably best not to be so happy when your sister is missing." Aziraphale's face immediately dropped, clearly having forgotten that that was why they were researching Valerian root in the first place.

"No, no. Of course not." He continued to flick through the pages, searching through for Valerian root. "Aha. Found it. Valerian root is most commonly used to treat insomnia, anxiety, depression and headaches amongst mortals. Amongst angels, it is designed to give dreamless sleep ( A clear immunity to Lord Morpheus' powers ). The leading expert on the uses of Valerian root is the Virtue, Apollo."

"How old is this book, Apollo's not been around for eons." Crowley leaned back in his chair, raising his arms above his head to stretch.

"Seeing as this book went missing nearly 5000 years ago, I'd say pretty old." Morpheus' eyes never left Aziraphale, the angel diminishing under the Endless' gaze. "I keep hearing about Apollo in recent days." Morpheus stated as Aziraphale muttered under his breath about only meaning to borrow the book. "What happened to him?"

"He fell in love with a human prince. He almost fell during the great falling so his wings were already weaker than the average angel's, his sister dragged him back from the edge. Most think that's why his wings shed their feathers. The death of the Prince coupled with his weak wings meant that his feather's couldn't hold on, especially after he neglected them in his grief." Crowley answered before Aziraphale could. "Not much is known after that, he couldn't fly back to heaven without his wings, I guess he must have been living on Earth since then."

Morpheus sat back in his seat, pondering about Apollo. He hadn't known that he had almost fallen, or that he was probably still on Earth. Would they be able to find him and ask for his aid. Or would he reject them as he had been rejected. It must have been lonely, having no one else in your situation with no wings. Immortal with no access to heaven. To paradise. No one to love. Unless...

"So it wouldn't be farfetched to assume that he would want the company of another wingless angel?" Morpheus' voice rang out, pausing the hushed conversation that had started between Crowley and Aziraphale during his silence.

"What is he going to do, pluck her feathers one by one?" Crowley had sat forward in his chair now, gazing at Morpheus.

"He wouldn't have to." Aziraphale dropped to cup he was holding, the pottery smashing onto the floor at his feet.

"If you are going to accuse my sister of being wingless you can leave now Lord Morpheus." Aziraphale's voice came out cold, as if it was the worst thing he had ever heard.

"I am accusing no one, I am merely stating a fact. I was with her as they fell, negelected after 100 years of confinement." Crowley had waved a hand and cleared up the mess from the cup, his face had paled as he heard the fate of Astraea's wings.

"Even after 100 years of confinement, her feathers should not have shed. Apollo's shed because they were touched by hellfire, weakened after he almost fell, Astraea did no such thing." Aziraphale hissed almost as if he was imitating Crowley, though somehow, the angel was more terrifying than the demon.

"That I cannot answer, I have no idea on the fickleness of angel wings." Morpheus sighed and placed his head in his hand, confused at how Astraea's wings had shed if Aziraphale said that they could not.

"I can answer that." Crowley's voice was practically a whisper as he slouched in his seat, hiding his form from the scrutiny of the angel and Endless.

"Well go on, dear." Aziraphale's voice was calming, edging Crowley on.

"I promised I would never say, unless it was an emergency. I suppose this would class as an emergency. I'm sorry, angel... During the great falling, Astraea... Astraea almost fell. She was closer to falling than Apollo was, the archangel Uriel had to drag her away from the edge." Crowley couldn't meet Aziraphale's eye.

"No... No, I don't believe you. Why would she do that? She has always loved being an angel, she has always loved God. She never questioned the creator or the plan. She wouldn't do that." Aziraphale had sat down, his legs buckling under him.

"She... She tried to follow me. I wouldn't let her angel, I wouldn't let her fall." Crowley had knelt down beside Aziraphale's chair, holding his palm in his hand and running his thumb across the skin.

"No... No, you only met 3000 years ago, I introduced you. We went for oysters. You didn't like each other." Aziraphale looked down at Crowley's face.

"No, we... we met in heaven. When I was still an angel. We were friends, best friends. I was questioning the creator and then Lucifer came along preaching about all the feelings I had been feeling. I knew that I had to follow him. I didn't think of Astraea at the time, she was my friend and had expressed her concern, but I was so enamoured with the movement that I didn't care. I followed Lucifer anyway. As a result, she followed me. She said that she'd follow wherever I would go. I asked the archangel Amenadiel to stop her if she was to follow me, he didn't get to her in time and she made it to the edge, she was going to jump after me. She had grabbed my hand to stop me from falling, I could see her wings singeing as mine burnt to black. Uriel came up behind her, having seen what she was going to do, he grabbed her and pulled her away and I fell. When we met again, 3000 years ago, I was so happy to see her, but she felt that I had abandoned her. She was angry and upset. Rightfully so, I did leave her, and I regret that every day, but we've slowly become friends again over these last few millennia. Not as strong as we once were, but at least we're friends again. Her wings were weakened by the hell fire, it's why she has those grey patches that look like the sky. They were burnt by the fire. Weakened." Aziraphale didn't talk, he just removed his hand from Crowley's and placed it in his lap, turning away from the demon. Crowley couldn't help the look of hurt from crossing his face.

"So we're looking for Apollo, yes?" 

__________


"How did therapy go this time?" Jacob and Astraea sat in the car on the way back from Dr. Lohan's office. Jacob hadn't spoken since they had entered the car, sitting in silence.

"It went well. We talked." Jacob had brought her a flask with her tea in it, she sipped on it as they drove.

"Yeah? You look like you've been crying. What were you talking about?" Jacob's hand moved from the steering wheel to her thigh, squeezing once. She didn't like it there, but it was Jacob, he was her friend.

"Just the hallucinations." It wasn't uncommon for them to talk about her sessions, he always liked to know about what she and Dr. Lohan talked about during them.

"Yeah? Which one was it? Tea with the angel? Being imprisoned with the God? Or was it almost falling?" He didn't look at her, his eyes focused on the road, but his grip on her thigh tightened."The lullaby." She took another sip of her tea, her eyes feeling heavy.

"The lullaby?" Jacob's eyes flickered over to her in concern.

"Yeah, Crowley sings it to me when I can't sleep. It's nice." Jacob hummed as she closed her eyes, leaning her head on the head rest.

"Go to sleep, Astraea. I hope that it is dreamless." Jacob's voice muttered out before she completely succumbed to sleep. The slow lyrics of Crowley's lullaby left her lips as her mind turned dark and sleep overtook her.

Pais Dinogad, fraith, fraith,o grwyn balaod ban wraith.Chwid Chwid Chwidogaith.Gochanwn, gochenyn – wythgaith.

A/N

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0SNo9ovKotchVx7oK8NVYW?si=976ba03bd87a4699

Fragile Glass Playlist^^^