Burning Fire

Chapter 6 - The Reaping

My father stood up and looked at the ceiling. He muttered words I could not catch and a pentagon made of fire alighted.

“Agite Tenebrae Abyssi, Ensis Incendens! Et Incendium Caliginis Umbrae Inimicitiae Destructionis Ultonis! Incendant et Me et Eum, Sint Solum Incendentes! Incendium Gehennae!”

The earth shook, and a sharp gust of wind blew across the room, blowing away the remnant of the dog-like creatures.

“Come Forth, Darkness of the Abyss, Burning Sword! And the Conflagration of Mist, Shadows, Enmity, Destruction, and Vengeance! Set her and me aflame, burning to our foundation! Hell fire conflagration!”

The wind came faster, harder than before. Darkness settled over the large room until I could barely see Gabriel. Wispy mists creeped into the room and wrapped themselves around my body, holding me still against the ferocious winds and cold.

“What are you doing?” I tried to shout, but the mist closed around my mouth, holding me helpless, cold, battered and gagged. My stomach turned, I felt like I was going to be sick.

“Agite Tenebrae Abyssi, Ensis Incendens! Et Incendium Caliginis Umbrae Inimicitiae Destructionis Ultonis! Incendant et Me et Eum, Sint Solum Incendentes! Incendium Gehennae!”

He repeated his chanting and despite the wind, darkness and the mist, his voice was still strong.

Unwavering.

The Darkness retreated just as it came, the wind recoiled and the smoke was gone. The silence was deafening. But the darkness was not gone entirely nor had the mist or the wind and that intangible feeling of sickness and pain. They were gathering right at the center of the room, like a ball of dust gas coiling and turning, forming shapes.

A terrible whine split the silence as the forms solidified

Four gigantic horses formed out of the smoke, or I think they were horses. Their general shapes suggested they were, but these were not the type of horse you see grazing in a field.

They body was leathery, as if stretched over a canvas. Their wings, for they had wings, were twice as long as their bodies and in their eyes there was hell. Red and fiery molten, they stared right at me- all four of them. They had metal looking spines running from the tip of their heads all the way down their necks

I stepped back trying to see beyond their eyes, beyond the smoke coming out their nose to the riders. There were four of them I realised. Each examining me as if I was I was the last bones in a starving world.

“Oh this is not good” I muttered but I stood my ground. I tried to convince myself that I was safe even against these monstrous creatures. My father was here- he would protect me, right?

Wrong!

My father walked in front of the four horse men and got down on one knee. He bowed his head and kept it there as if waiting for something.

“Rise Gabriel”

That voice was so terrible, like the scrapping of nails on a board or the sound of metal being twisted. Like the sound of a thousand deaths.

“You do not bow?” said the voice that belonged to the shadowy-looking man on the largest horse. The horse, white in colour, shifted its focus and attention from my father towards me.

“My lords, I apologize; she is new to this world and she does not know her place” it was so strange listening to my father grovel. From the little time I spent with him I knew that he was not a groveler, he was a leader and it felt . . . undignified to see him kneel in front of someone like this