Dancing on Sword's Edge: Prologue
Night flows over Eden the same as it does everywhere, the sun completing its journey across the sky and the dusk sweeping in after it. The light fades away to return again the next dawn, leaving the stars to shine like tiny drops of its essence across the velvet darkness.
The sky was streaked with a pale gray of clouds, but the moon was bright and full, its milky light bathing the world in an ethereal glow. It was a perfect summer night, warm, but not quite so, with enough of a breeze that the temperature was bearable.
Insomnia had hit the archangel Michael this particular night, and so it was that midnight found him out on his balcony, lounging in a cushioned chair. He had a book with him, a novel he had been meaning to read for quite a while, but now only leafed through idly, skimming the pages occasionally by the light of the moon and that which streamed out of his bedroom through the uncurtained half of the glass door.
It was the perfect time to get some reading done; he hadn't had enough free time lately. And yet, there was nothing he wanted to do more than curl up and go to sleep. Even if it was outside. This respite was going to last the better part of two weeks, anyway, he reasoned, and would have plenty of time to read during that time.
Absently twining his fingers in his golden curls, he set the book down on the ground beside the door and lay back, half-lidding his crystal blue eyes. A feeling of restlessness ran through him for the umpteenth time that night and he fought the urge to get up and wander around the sleeping estate.
"Aye, Kami," he grumbled, closing his eyes completely. "Even Raphael must be asleep by now."
His partner, bookworm that he was, managed to go through unreasonably thick books in the space of a few days. He had a new novel in hand every week, it seemed. How he managed it and was still able to function everyday, Michael had no idea. (1)
'I've got to wring that secret out of him one day,' he told himself with a small smile.
He wondered briefly at how Raphael was doing at the moment. They had both been given leave at the same time, although the other archangel had chosen a shorter amount of vacation time. The Valhalla base--and the academy located there--was left under the command of the archangels Uriel and Zadkiel. (2) Raphael was due to return a few days before Michael and would assume the role of commander until his superior's return.
They really needed this break, the two of them. Over a year before, word had come suddenly from the High Council that Valhalla, an island that floated in the skies above Eden by unknown means, was to be the site of a new military outpost. The island had previously been the site of the prestigious academy for Eden's elite; the school, where brilliant children, usually of royal and noble descent, were educated--the Prince Royal, himself, was currently enrolled there--was to be kept running, albeit under the 'new management' of the military. The order had not come as a total surprise; the subject of war had been gossipmonger fodder for quite a while now.
Things had been hectic at first, the archangels charged with command of the base having had to configure an acceptable system for both military and civilian presences. The location of the academy could not be moved, the people of Eden against such an act; it had been there far longer than anyone could remember, a landmark in angelic history. Besides, the current military leaders--himself included--were all graduates of the school. He, for one, liked the idea of going back to the school, even if it was to run it and not attend, though he knew his and the other archangels' roles were to be more of overseers while the current headmaster was more or less still in charge.
A shadow passed across the moon, far too fast for a cloud. He sensed it when the light against his eyelids disappeared for a moment and opened his eyes. Scanning the skies with his clear, blue gaze, he found nothing unusual with the world.
'Must've been my imagination.'
He was about to relax again when a black shadow raced across his line of vision. So instead, he sat up, instantly alert. That had definitely not been imagination. The atmosphere obtained an air of foreboding and shivered involuntarily, sweeping his gaze around, searching for the shadow.
"Daitenshi Michael." (3)
He turned halfway and looked up. Perched on the roof was the vague shape of a winged being. Feathered wings the black of a bottomless pit curved around the figure, throwing his features in shadow. But the archangel knew this visitor, had recognized his voice.
"Asmodeus." (4)
Michael blinked at the new voice that named the visitor. Immaculate white wings spread, another angel had suddenly appeared in front of him, arms outstretched in a defending stance. The moonlight glinted off the newcomer's sword so the ancient runes that ran across the whole length of the blade glowed.
"Ra...phael...?" Michael murmured, brow furrowing the slightest in a small, confused frown.
"Tsk, tsk." Asmodeus stood, his wings moving slightly so the moonlight fell on his face, revealing the smirk playing upon his lips. "So I didn't lose you, after all. I really must be getting rusty."
"Don't you dare come any closer," Raphael growled; he face was expressionless, his voice with no inflection whatsoever, yet his words were heavily laden with anger and contempt nonetheless.
"Now, now." The demon gave a mock-pout. "I didn't come here to have any fun this time, Raphael, with you or dear Michael there. I just wanted to have a little... talk."
Michael stood uneasily, mind whirling in confusion. The other archangel moved a wing in a restraining gesture.
"What do you want, Asmodeus?"
"I want nothing," was the blithe reply in that strangely captivating, lilting tone. "Not this time, anyway. I just have some news I thought maybe you might want to hear."
The blonde tried to move around his second-in-command, but Raphael kept him back with a look. "Then tell him and leave, demon," he ordered coldly.
"Oh, Raphael, stiff as ever. I thought you were supposed to take vacations to loosen up."
"Talk, or I'll silence you forever, Asmodeus."
"Hasty, aren't you? But then Michael won't find out what I want to tell him. I don't think he'd like that one bit." Before Raphael could reply, he continued smoothly, "After all..." A small, mocking laugh. "It concerns someone dear to him, someone very close to his heart."
"What?" Unheeding of his partner's glare, the crystal-eyed archangel went forward. "What are you talking about? What's happened to Chihaya? What have you done with him?"
Confusion flashed through the Asmodeus' depthless, black eyes for a second. "Chihaya? ...Ah, yes, that pretty, little child. I'm afraid you're wrong, Michael-sama. We have a charge of yours, my dear angel, but not the one you think."
Without warning, the demon leapt into the air, black wings flaring, and wheeled off into the darkness. Michael felt his companion tense, as if to follow, but laid a calming hand on his arm. Relaxing at the touch, the archangel glanced at him, sheathing the sword in a scabbard that hung at his hip.
"I don't think he was lying."
"Neither do I," replied Raphael after a moment of silence. "And that's what I'm afraid of."
"He said they have... And he didn't mean... I..." He sat down in the chair suddenly, face pale. "And that means..."
His second-in-command gazed at him, storm-dark eyes impassive. Raphael said nothing, only waited for him to continue.
"What he said... He meant..." he murmured. He paused before, in a bleak whisper, he uttered, "Kagetsuya."
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1: He strikes me as this. ::shrugs::
2: Zadkiel, in biblical lore, is one of Michael's two chieftains and one of those thought to be an archangel.
3: Daitenshi - archangel
4: Fallen angel in biblical lore. Demon of casinos. ^_^ Has a connection with the archangel Raphael