Sigillum ex Fatum [UNDER EDITING]

Chapter 37

I was so startled when she spoke I jumped quite badly. Her voice was deep, throaty, and gravelly. I wondered if her voice had always been so husky, or a byproduct of screaming and not speaking for years.

I wasn't about to ask.

Malael watched me, blinking serenely, waiting for me to answer.

"Seraphin," I stuttered. "But you may call me Sera."

She drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair, eyes sliding to the side. After a moment she looked back at me. "Thought so. I thought you were the one they carried out that day."

I nodded.

"What brings you here to my humble abode, Sera of the seraphim, whom I owe my life to?"

"What? Oh no, you don't owe me anything—"

"Please. A good swarth of the angel population owes you for their lives in one facet or another, given recent events."

"You owe me nothing, Malael. I wouldn't dream of it. Never."

She surprised me with a closed-mouth smile. It wasn't friendly or pleasant though.

"Then what brings you here, Sera of the seraphim?"

I opened my mouth a few times and faltered. I was torn. I didn't think it would be this difficult. I also didn't imagine I'd be conducting this conversation in a warm, welcoming house that was like a little slice of Eden itself with her son cowering behind a chair.

"If it pertains to what happened," she said darkly, "I have already been interrogated."

I clenched my fist immediately. "Certainly no one interrogated you! Tell me their names, immediately, and I shall—"

Malael chuckled once more and held up her hand. "I misspeak; questioned me. They treated me quite well and gently."

"They better have," I muttered, glaring off to the side.

"Your dedication and protection of my well being amuses me."

I cocked my head to the side. "Why?"

"I do not know you. Surely I was just another job to you."

At first I was incensed by the words. Then all at once it dissolved into sadness. I came to her and dropped to my knees before her, taking her hands in my own. I was holding back tears as I gazed up at her.

"It saddens me you think you think so lowly of your worth! Absolutely not. The second your story was told to me, I was spurred into action. You don't know me, but I was going to help one way or another. I am not the type to sit idly by, nor am I the type to be told no. If I am going to do something, no one can stop me."

A smile ghosted her lips." What do you want from me, Sera?"

I sat on the back of my legs, hands in my lap. "Truthfully I am unsure if I can move forward with it."

A proper smile hit her lips. "You are sweet, Sera. I know you mean me no ill will. Speak."

Taking a deep breath, I got to my feet and sat back in the chair across from her. Her son peeked out at me. Curiosity struck me then. I craned around to see him and he darted back, one brave eye peering out at me, the rest of his face and body concealed by the chair.

"Does your son have a name?"

Her son disappeared behind the couch.

"No," she answered. "Surely you did not come here to inquire my child's name?"

I splayed my hands. "We plan to seek revenge on Belial, who was behind all this misery. Is there anything, anything at all that might—why are you laughing?"

She tilted her head back and tears coursed down her temples. Malael shook her head before looking at me. She didn't even bother to wipe the tears away.

"Revenge? Hasn't there been enough of that?"

I was dumbstruck.

"What is the point? A tit for a tat. Where does it end? Where is the line drawn? This squabbling, I am so, so very sick to death of it. Creatures such as myself, like my son, and now humans, are swept up in this awful mess."

I still was dumbfounded.

"I am not naive enough, Sera, nor delusional enough, to think angels and demons might ever be able to live in harmony. But this fighting? This continued never ending brutality and suffering?"

Malael leaned forward, her eyes looking at me intensely. "When will it stop?"

"I don't know," I told her urgently, "but that is exactly why I sit here before you now. I want this all to end. Any information you might bestow upon me can help this all end—"

She laughed bitterly and sat back in her chair. She looked out the window. "You're as bad as the rest. Be gone with you."

I felt like I had just been slapped. "What?"

She glared and her damaged wings flashed with white lightning. "I said you are no longer welcome here."

I scrambled to my feet. I felt hurt, disappointed. Regretful. I bowed deeply. "I am truly sorry to have bothered you. Should you need anything, ever, I am at your mere beck and call."

"I won't need anything, not from the likes of you."

My wings slumped. I nodded once and made my way to the door. I was about to open it when I received another surprise.

"Sera, sir?"

I turned around. Malael's son stood before me. He was unclothed but seemed unbothered. Now that I got a good look at him, several things surprised me. First was how handsome he was. He was good looking in the traditional sense; I felt like he would be the perfect subject for someone to carve a statue from. He had some freckles on his face.

Second were his eyes. I hadn't noticed it at first, but they were two different colors. They were both brown, but his left eye shifted from brown to purple and sometimes to gold, and then back again. I had never seen anything quite like it, and I was immediately Intrigued.

Last was his voice. I assumed he could not speak. Instead he spoke in a pleasant voice, ethereal, light. Very angelic but also decidedly not. It's difficult to describe, but there was a strange human undertone to it.

"I apologize for my mother," he told me softly.

"No, no, she has been through a lot. You have been through a lot. I never should have come calling."

He shook his head. "I want to help, though. Might I tell you the only things that may be of significance? And if they aren't, I am sorry for wasting your time."

My heart ached for this angel before me. I felt my brow furrow sympathetically. "Please—there is nothing you can do or say that would be wasteful of my time."

His wings have a fluttering twitch. For whatever reason, he suppressed a smile. Once his emotions were under control, he spoke.

"Two things stand out in my mind," he said. "One is that Belial always transported directly into our cell. Everyone else came in through the door."

That did seem odd. I would have to think on it. "And?"

"My heritage is tainted."

"How so do you mean?"

"He has three fathers."

I jumped at Malael's voice behind me. She stood in the doorway between the sitting room and the flowered room we had spoken in. Her arms were wrapped around herself.

I was confused until I remembered that angels procreation is different than mortals. If an angel baby is still in utero, their parentage can be sired from many different males. It's extremely rare, but it's a bit like cats; cats can have kittens of the same litter from different fathers. However, instead of producing different colored kittens, angels produce a single angel with multiple paternal DNA and a singular maternal source.

"I became pregnant with him via my husband, an angel whom they killed when they abducted me. In Hell they brought in a human to rape me. Finally I was raped by Belial himself."