Glowing pinpricks of amber stared from abyssal black eyes set in a pale sharp face. Raising a long fingered hand tipped with crimson nails bright dancing flames lit up the empty cold hearth that the being wrapped in white furs sat crossed legged on a similar fur rug in-front of. Bright flames cast sinister shadows across the inhuman creature's visage. Bright orange hair with streaks of gold seemed to glow with the light of the flames.
"I wilt admit, to my curiosity as to wherefore one of your kind would come to me, an archangel no less." Despite the closed off expression, the being's tone was warm and pleasant though with a soft rustling pitch, eyes still fixed upon the fire.
There was nothing said for several long moments. The being received no response and continued to gaze into the flickering dancing fire, slender fingers through it, showing no signs of distress even when his whole hand seemed to have been pulled in by a tendril of orange blue fire, accompanied by whispering laughter.
"...Well can't say I was expecting to visit you either, Tricker of gods." A shadow in the corner of the room shifted.
Amber pinpricks flickering with their own fire burned with amusement despite the cold stony expression on the god's face. "You may know me as Tsalmaveth angel, come sit with me."
"Only if you call me Gavri'el." Was the flippant response, even as a thin frail looking young girl dressed in a bright golden dress detached from the shadows and sat cautiously next to the god that stared unashamedly at the archangel.
Gavri'e's vessel was a tiered looking girl with thin dark brown hair, hollow cheeks and a small nose dotted with freckles. Amber eyes lingered on the faint rashes visible on the archangel's vessel, marring her face and thin bare forearms. Thin lips turned downwards at the corners, the god turned to the fire once more. His expression blank but eyes dark.
"You know why I have come." A slow nod was the archangel's response. "I wouldn't have come unless I had no other choice, everyone is always fighting, there is never a moment of peace between Micha'el and Hêlêl, Rafa'el is withdrawn and somber, and Father-"
Giving the archangel a side eyed glance, the god waited motionlessly. Gavri'el continued. Honesty given through then need to speak and be listened to. "I could not stand it any longer, they keep fighting, always at the throat of the other. I didn't know what to do, I have no message to pass on, so I wasn't needed, but to remain on Earth-"
Arching a single brow Tsalmaveth turned his head fully to stare at the archangel in the visibly steaming vessel beside him. Said archangel was a shimmering force writhing beneath translucent skin.
In the silence that followed the only sound was the cracking of burning wood and soft whispering laughter from the dancing flames that Tsalmaveth returned his gaze to as the danger of the archangel's vessel spontaneous combustion passed.
"...You do realize little angel, that for what I think you are implying I couldst easily kindle you to ashes." It was a rather softly spoken statement, equal parts warning and curious, with a sibilant consonant. "Your brethren would be unable to find you, cloaked as you and this place are from prying gazes. None are aware that you are here."
The youngest archangel stilled completely, retreating deeper into herself when crimson tipped claws pressed with deceptive gentleness on either side of her vessel's face. The pinpricks of amber were blown wide, the black only a faint darkening at the edge of the god's dispassionate eyes that penetrated dull bronze, to look into Gavri'el's multiple fear filled eyes.
It was too little too late as Gavri'el questioned her decision to visit this god of all creatures with such a request in mind, she hadn't even voiced it, but it didn't matter, it was obvious what she was going to ask. There were other candidates that she could choose. Some easier than others to convince or even willing.
Others would attack before speaking, or they would be like the Bound One, half mad and starving as he was, Tsalmaveth was at the bottom of the candidates Gavri'el had thought of. He was also the best fit out of all of them as the archangel's vessel and could as easily contain her.
After the brief glimpse if the god's true form the archangel had before reveling herself, she had no trouble believing Tsalmaveth would not succumb to her grace, if he could be convinced to say yes, and not devourer her.
Tsalmaveth considered the archangel for several long moments, grip slowly tightening before he drew back in a slow controlled manner claws returning to nails.
Hands once again passing into the fire that had taken the form of a winding serpent, a gamboling colt, and a clumsy looking hound playing with a small humanoid looking child.
So that was the source of the laughter, Gavri'el hadn't noticed with the sheer presence that Tsalmaveth gave off.
"I have children angel. In every iteration, the one thing that never changes is mine failing of them, loyal to Odin as I a-was. As I was."
A soft huff at the near slip that Gavri'el didn't dare point out. Eyes darkened, amber once again pinpricks vanished, hidden by the darkness in the god's eyes, a bitter smile touching the being's face as the shades within the fire laughed and danced, carefree and joyous.
"I always failed them. Even now. What is worse, their fates woven by the Norns? Or reducing them to this?"
Gavri'el said nothing, half wondering if the god even remembered that she was there and immediately discarding the thought. No matter the state of his mind, Tsalmaveth was dangerous and not to be underestimated.
Eyes flickering to the dancing shades in the flames to the glazed over dark eyes of her companion Gavri'el was unsure what to do, that would hopefully not end with her death. The archangel shifted her wings nervously when the god visibly began to breathe, clawed hands clenching.
"I hated this,"
A jerky gesture towards himself, the circular patch of white fur rug, the small hearth with the playing shades, and the thick palpable darkness surrounding them.
"At first, but 'twas the best I could do, can do, a puppet cut from strings it relied on to heavily, just because it saw enough of the script to want to escape the plot, and for all the so called freedom it gained, still lost, still trapped."
Father. She felt an overwhelming amount of empathy for the suddenly vulnerable looking god. It was the only reason she did something that she knew Micha'el would have spent the next millennia screeching at her about had he been there.
If the eldest archangel had been there, blood shed would have occurred so maybe she wouldn't have been able to extend her grace out to the god, and wrap her arms around his middle in a physical and metaphysical hug.
The dark bitter sensation that came with touching her grace to the god made her shiver was almost enough for Gavri'el to fly away with her tails between her legs. Never look back at the dark pocket of nothingness were Tsalmaveth and his brood remained cut off from all of time and creation.
Until the lost and vulnerable image of the god clutching his furs to himself flashed in her mind. Absently the archangel noted the furs were very nice under her vessel's fingers, smooth and soft. It still amazed her how things felt when connected to a vessel.
"My sympathies for the situation you are in." After a moment Tsalmaveth seeming to wilt slightly, the dark essence just underneath his avatar seeming to lose some of its bitter edge and skirt outwards to brush against her grace. Gavri'el shuddered but did not withdraw.
"Oh?" it was a soft sigh, seemingly resigned and undeniably exhausted. Gavri'el wondered at Tsalmaveth's expression, but she wasn't dead yet, so the god wasn't too upset. Probably. "Of course you can assist me, at a price that once paid, left a useless shade of what I once was, and my children..."
Within her vessel Gavri'el's grace roiled angrily as she arched her wings at the thought of reducing the god to such a state.
While obviously broken, from what she had seen, there was still a burning will to carry on within Tsalmaveth, not quite pride or honor, but that desperate primal will to live for another. To prove them wrong, that yes you could protect them.
It disturbed the archangel more that she wanted to admit that there was no will to live for himself, as if it had been simply removed. It shouldn't be possible.
"I refuse to allow that." It was just that simple.
There was no way that she would allow the god to sit forgotten slowly wasting away to protect his children from the fate that awaited them because of prejudice of others, and the machinations of higher powers. Even if it might result in her death. Were the sudden determination came from Gavri'el had no idea.
The god seemed to slowly loose the coiled tightness that had been ever present since the beginning of their conversation. The oppressive weight that had been pressing upon her from the beginning evaporated, taking the strain she hadn't noticed go with it.
"In truth?"
"I wouldn't lie to you."
"The Father of Lies has been gifted his fair share of them."
"No, well that too. You deserve some honesty without any deception."
"...Angels are all about justice and blunt honesty then?" The dark cool essence of the god mellowed out, reminding Gavri'el of stale mead instead of bitter charred wood and vinegar. The angel found the rotted fruit like tang more tolerable.
Not that there was much she could have done with the dark tendrils of the Bound One's essence coiling loosely through her grace. The archangel strangely enough felt for the most part the extreme invasion was nonthreatening, her grace was doing the same to her current vessel's soul.
As if aware of the thought, the dark tendrils lingered near the brightly glittering soul that was oblivious to the intense scrutiny it was under.
Before Gavri'el rising worry forced her to act, the darkness receded back into the god's motionless avatar. Tsalmaveth didn't continue the probably semiconscious act of breathing after a loud exhale, both being knowing it was pointless and unnecessary.
"All iterations are similar yet different, all leading to the same place despite how far each of us stray from the paths already set down by those who had gone before. Blind despite seeing it so many times, insane after so many pointless attempts to change what cannot be changed.
"He was frowning from the dark raspy tone he had taken.
"They still follow him, the Terrible One, each and every single time, even when he makes the same mistakes. It never ceases to amaze me how they all continue to blindly follow the Strings despite how it always brings them to their Doom."
Gavri'el disliked philosophical talks like this. Fate the future, what could be or could have been. The irony was not lost on her.
"How long it took The Sly One to realize how pointless everything was I am unsure, I see now though. The place for one such as I is not as open."
Then there was a surge of primal fear through the archangel's grace as all light vanished. The avatar of the bound god was almost burning despite the cool clamminess of its skin, a contradiction that caused her grace to roil in unease, the obvious supernatural nature of it.
Almost without realizing it, she slowly opened her eyes, staring at Tsalmaveth with her true sight instead of her vessel. Gavri'el shuddered feeling small under the thousands of amber pinpricks, each with the diameter of her wingspan or greater. Narrowed.
She could barely make out the massive form that was covered by in comparison small orange red dots. A single large eye with concentric ripple like patterns gleamed almost as bright as the silver fanged nightmare of grin, a ghastly horizontal slash across a cruel face. Then the Originator of Deceit spoke.
"Let us form a...Mutually beneficial deal."
Note/update
First story so far, working on the next chapter/sequel. Tsalmaveth is a OOC Loki, from MCU with some Norse elements after several iterations after Ragnarok has occurred. Gavri'el, Micha'el, Hêlêl and Rafa'el are Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer, and Raphael from Supernatural, before the fall.
Sorry for anyone expecting a new chapter. fixed some mistakes that I noticed. I will probably finish the first chapter from Tsalmaveth's pov by friday and post sometime this week.
