See, I arent't dead! Anyway, here is another little story that has occasionally been blurted out in bits and pieces from my brain. Hopefully you all like.
Disclaimer: Still don't own Tolkien, or any of his works yada yada yada, Original character are mine, if you don't like don't read. This is unbeta'd, I think I have sorted spelling mistakes but don't bet on it, and no I don't make any money out of the results of my imagination.
Anyway
A Story of the Sea
Chapter 1
The silver haired being wondered along the shoreline disconsolately. A bitter smile twisted his mouth as he thought. There was a reason he did not often join his brethren in council. Only he and Nienna had not bound among them, and in his case it was not for lack of desire for one who matched him, completed him in his duty. It was simply for lack of a suitable candidate.
Nienna was neither interested nor suitable. He and she simply did not match. During their time in the Timeless Halls he had not met another of his kind suited to form any form of partnership with and it had not occurred to him when he accepted Atar's request to be one of those who would form and guide this world Atar had created that he would loose any chance at finding partnership.
A marriage between Valar was not the same as among mirrowanwë – incarnates, elves, humans, dwarves, etc. It was not about procreating or anything physical, or even love in some ways. It was partnership. It was about having someone to lean on even as you supported them. A sort of very close friendship. Even Eru did not deny that even his ainur needed someone to lean on, to support and to have with a deeper level of relationship than that that existed between those of their order. Already some on them had 'siblings', brothers and sisters as intended in terms of relationship by Eru. Namo, Irmo and Nienna were siblings as the eldar saw them – though they had a different term in Valarin from that for sibling in the sense the eldar meant the term. They simply used, when not speaking Valarin, the closest available term in the language they were speaking.
For instance the eldar described all of their brethren but he and Niena as married to another of their brethren. Married implied certain things that they did not really need to do and a sort of relationship that the eldar had with one to whom they were partnered that simply did not really happen, or at least need to happen between espoused Valar and maia. Of course it didn't, they had no need to reproduce, they were not physical beings and Eru made any more with simple thought if he felt the need for more of them – not that he was aware of atar having ever done so. They did not even have physical forms naturally, or gender. Any gender applied was simply a construct from when they constructed physical forms for the benefit of those who where bound to physical form.
Even so having a physical had its benefits. He knew that his brethren, both of his own order and the lower order, that were espoused sometimes used fleshly forms to engage in the eldarin definition of marriage for all that they had no need to do so. In his case it was more that it was rather hard to engage in pacing or other similar behaviours without physical form.
There was a sort of decadent pleasure in his pacing along the beautiful beaches of Arda, for all that the lands were not so bright and pure as those lands in Aman. The darkness, the lack of purity, that little edge, the softness almost made pacing along rather more enjoyable. When one was discontent and unhappy, brooding even, one did not want the world around to be perfect, bright and conventionally beautiful. The more rugged beauty – almost in spite of but also because of its imperfections – was more suited to his mood.
As if to aid in his brooding, his brother Valar made the cloudy sky break into a light rain, greying the already grey sky even more. Somehow the rain was most satisfying to his dark, grey mood. He carried on pacing along the rugged, rocky shoreline.
The rain went from light to heavy and before all that long it went from heavy to blistering thunderstorm. The term sturm und drang sprung into his mind for no apparent reason and he knew not where it came from exactly but it fit his mood very well. He carried on his one directional pacing, further along the desolate coast, even as the storm continually worsened.
He did not notice the storm, or the building built into a rock formation that eventually came into view, too caught in his own brooding over his own loneliness to really see anything much. He was brought back to the present and his placing by a loud call coming from said housing.
His silver head shot up and he realised it was an elven sounding voice, though only sort of. It had elven beauty to it but the voice was female. Female and too deep to be an elven female's voice for all that there was the beauty of an elf in it's tone. He had never heard an elleth with a voice anything other than a pleasing soprano before. Elven voiced usually were middling to high in timbre, rather than low as human voices often were, or very low as all voices of that race of his smith brother's, the dwarves or naugrim as the eldar called them.
Startled he looked up. It was then he saw the lone building-come-cave that was along the shoreline he had been wandering up. In it's doorway stood a feminine figure calling to him while trying to keep the door at least semi closed against the storm.
Without thinking he went over to the female who ushered him into her dwelling. Once inside he turned to her wondering why she had been calling him. Once he did he looked at her better.
She was tall as any elleth with hair that at first appeared dark brown or maybe black, it was hard to tell in the low lighting, but when she moved to look at him, the damp hair shimmered with the bluish silver that marked the Lindar or the Telerin as the other elven races called them. It was odd to see dark hair with that shimmer, something he was more accustomed to seeing on white blonde hair. The next thing he noted was features that were, for lack of a better description, a little bit more solid than the average elf's. Still sculpted and beautiful but, well, more solid. He could think of no other way to put it. High sculpted cheekbones and sweeping eyebrows with that were most definitely beautiful but there was a solid earthiness that was not common to elves. Elves had sculpted features but with an otherworldliness to them. That otherworldliness was not present in this strange female's face. Equally her build was just a little bit too strong of form, not quite willowy enough, to be that of an elf. It was too curvy and feminine for an elf for all that she had delicately curved ears. Ears that, like the rest of her was elfin but not quite.
It took he some moments to realise the obvious. She must be a peredhil, part human and part elfin. Which begged the question as to where she had come from. He knew of no union that could have produced her. His brethren kept close eyes on those of mixed race for, even if elves and men did not truly get the significance of such progeny, he and his brethren knew the significance of the term hybrid vigour. The blending of elf and man, or maia and elf, or whatever, produced remarkable people. There was no example of such a mix that was not important to the entirety of Arda, Ea even. So how was there a peredhil here that they knew nothing of?
Such speculation was pushed away when she offered him her hospitality, and a towel. He had not noticed being soaked. He was lord of the Sea for Eru's sake. Water meant little to him. Even so he happily accepted the towel and hospitality and it finally occurred to him that the reason she had called to him was that she had seen a figure caught in the storm and, not knowing it was a being that would not care at all, had called to offer shelter. Deciding to pretend, as the fana he wore implied, that he was simply a lost elf caught in a horrific storm, he happily accepted her hospitality.
As he settled in he resolved to get to know this unknown peredhil, to find out how she came to be and why she was living so far from civilisation, be it elven or human. He had after all chosen this place to be in his loneliness because there was no-one there. However, this peredhil mystery was more than interesting enough to offset any loneliness for the nonce.
XXX
He spent a number of moons with the peredhil maiden and made a close relationship with her. He was more than mournful when he was finally forced to leave her home. As such he made many promises to return to his fair lady as soon as he could, after he gave up on convincing her to come with him, at least in the immediate future. He had not given up altogether.
It was not to be however.
As they say, things happened.
Starting with the reason for his recall to his duties as Lord of the Sea was that one peredhil all the Valar were aware of had begun his fateful journey and was now well on his way to the undying lands. He had intervened before leaving her house when Elwing, the other peredhil they knew of to still be alive, had cast herself and that cursed jewel of Feanor's into the sea to save the princess. Just after he left his lady he returned her to her true form on her husband's ship and the journey began, jewel lighting the way. By the time the two peredhil were at the shores of the blessed realm, he was where he should have been all along, though not with who he wished to have with him. It was just in time to be called to council with his brethren and act like of course he had been where they expected him to be all this time.
Much time later, after the launching of Vingilot into the skies and the sending off of the host of Maia and Elves that fought under the banner of the Valar, he was able to sneak back to where he had left his fair lady.
The first thing that tipped him off to the fact not all was right was the fact the door hung off its hinges. Paling, he rushed up to the house. It was gutted, clearly having been set on fire after it had been raided. Frantically he searched for remains. Sighing in relief he found none. If she was dead, it was not here that she had died. Slightly calmer now he put together the pieces he could see left after the fire.
After some time searching he hissed in surprise. There was a cot in the bed room. A badly damaged one, so much so that it had taken him a while to place the purpose of the simple contraption that was falling to pieces where it had been burnt. He only really got it, and its true significance when he found other things, things that had been protected by the hardwood box they had been contained in. Things like swaddling, a toy, a teething ring – things he was only distantly acquainted with from the times the Kings of the Eldar had presented their young to the Valar.
It took a little longer to put together the fact there was no evidence of anyone other than his lady and this child that had been living there with more information. He unceremoniously and rather ungracefully sat down as shock and the obvious conclusion hit him.
Then he became frantic again as he realised there was even more at stake than he had thought.
Without further ado he began to track, or attempt to track, what had happened. He called to his servants who kept him informed, far beyond that of even his Lord, to find what had happened to her and the child.
XXX
It was some time later they reported back to him in his halls under the sea. He had been distracting himself from his worry by following the ongoing war closely. It was not cheerful watching but it was most definitely distracting.
His servants painted the picture of what had happened for him somewhat tentatively, something he instinctively knew was not good.
She had, much to his relief, got out before the orcs came, sensing them and having taken the child and run. She had gone along the shoreline for a long time before finding another marauding band of Morgoth's minions. She just had time to hide her child before she had been killed.
That news had caused his heart to jump into his mouth in horror. A single crystalline tear ran down the ancient silver face and his hands gripped tightly around the arms of his throne. But he could not give in to grief yet, and so he pressed on for information about the child. That was where things became both hazy and just a bit strange, even by the standards of a higher Ainur.
A being, for lack of a better term, had coalesced round the child, protecting it from being found during the attack. It had then taken the child up in arms that formed solely for the purpose of picking the child up and then both being and child had disappeared.
He had rather urgently asked about the being, what could they tell him about who or whatever it was who took the child?
They had hesitated, looking at each other for support it seemed. A most un-maia-ly behaviour. Rather hesitantly one ventured that the being was unfamiliar in some ways but in others, well, it felt like one from the timeless halls. When pressed it was ventured that the closest thing the being felt like was, well, Atar. It almost wasn't quite but they weren't sure. Whether it was atar or not, it was trying to be inconspicuous, which was why it was hard to place. The one thing they all agreed on was that the being was nothing other than purely good. He had sighed in relief at that.
The question of course, that begged, was who was it that had taken the child and where?
XXX
Anna leant back, long glowing hair falling over the rocks. She completely ignored the admiring looks she received from a number of people with her on the excursion. It was the end of a research trip and they were all enjoying a rest before going back to the university to collate their findings.
Gemma, fellow oceanographer and the only other female on the trip sat down beside her.
"So beyond finishing writing up our info, do you have any plans for after we get back?" Anna shook her head absently.
"Beyond checking on those genealogy enquiries I put out before we left? Not really." Matt, another member of the large expedition, sat down beside her. Anna resisted pulling a face, knowing that he was probably trying to find a way to flirt, despite over the last several months she had shown absolutely no interest in him.
"Genealogy enquiries? You're trying to trace your ancestors?" He asked, tone believably interested.
"Nope. I'm adopted. I'm trying to find hide or hair of who the bloody hell my blood parents were. My adopted parents are oddly vague about adopting me and don't seem to even remember a lot of the details. There is also a lack of paperwork about it, its weird and very annoying." He snorted with laughter, as did Gemma. Suddenly he went white, staring at the horizon.
Anna quickly rose and turned to look at whatever it was that got that reaction and went white herself.
Out of what had been a clear ocean, was baring down on them a huge wave. A part of her wanted to wallop herself for mentally listing off the scientific detail of the phenomena, even as she was frozen by the sight.
Suddenly the part of her that had always been called to the sea welled up and reacted even as her brain short circuited.
Gemma and Matt turned as some primal part of their brain sensed something beyond their ken and slowly, so did the rest of the party on the shore.
Anna was standing, floating about a foot off the rock, with a sheen of blue surrounding her. Turquoise eyes which had always had a sort of life and glow to them now shone as they fixed on the encroaching tsunami and that odd silver-blue sheen in her dark hair was far more evident than it had any right to be.
Power spun round her as she tucked her chin down and appeared to stare the tsunami down.
Water seemed to bubble as the huge wave stopped still where it was nearing the beach, increasing in size as it did so.
No-one on the beach was exactly sure what happened next. The wave almost seemed to rear back before collapsing in on itself loudly. There was an almighty crashing sound as the wave folded down into the sea and there was splashes of water. Nonetheless not a single resulting wave reached the beach as the water began to flatten out and the sea returned to its previous calm.
Silence fell.
"Well, I think that made finding your parents more complicated, and much more important."
Anna blinked from where she had landed back on the rocks she'd been reclining on all of maybe five minutes ago, if five of the longest minutes of her life. Gemma was standing next to her with an utterly stunned look on her face. It was evidently the shock talking.
A glowing figure coalesced behind the girl as Anna continued to blink in surprise, the shock setting in.
"Lady Anna?" She turned to the voice without a thought as she heard her name. In front of her was a tall being that was only vaguely human, mostly just lights. "I think you better come with us."
"Why?" She asked reflexively. The being smiled.
"Because the people of this world, should they find out about this might not be very healthy for you to be around. You have unleashed your heritage and in months to come it will burn through more and more, changing everything from your physiology upwards. It will soon be clear you are not human as your heritage will break the illusion placed to protect you. I think you do not need telling why it would be bad for the humans to see that. We will take you to the place we live, a people akin to your father's people and train you in your heritage." She stared.
"But..." The figure smiled.
"I'm afraid it is a little late. We have just finished modifying your colleagues memories and are just placing them to complete the illusion, as well as removing all inconvenient evidence. To all in their world, you were lost at sea from that tsunami but by freak chance the rest of them survived. You will be mourned here but you will be among your own people." She stared at him, for lack of a better description of the being before her. The being realised he wasn't going to get an answer and leant in, taking her arm.
"Come, now." He said, voice totally inhuman and otherworldly. Before she knew it she was somewhere like nowhere she had seen before and the shock finally fully kicked in and she blacked out.
XXX
Anna woke in a room that could only be described as otherworldly. In some ways it wasn't even a room and she had a feeling its existence was more for her benefit than the beings who had made it. Within seconds of her opening her eyes one of the light beings she had seen before feinting coalesced in front of her.
"Ah, Lady Anna, you awaken!" She blinked at the being, not sure exactly what to say. "We were beginning to worry about how long you have been unconscious. We are aware the fact your mother was an incarnate weakens you but the humans who feint from shock seem to awaken quicker than you have, though we thought the excessive use of power before your body is used to it might have also exhausted you but we do not know that much about how incarnate bodies work, especially since your father was not incarnate and your mother was a mix of different types of incarnate beings and the human side is not really cut out to be powerful as the elven side, let alone the power gifted to you by your father, who..."
"I'm guessing you don't need to breath?" She asked dryly. She was still very much in shock and had so many question to ask, but that had to be the longest and most rambling sentence she'd ever heard. The being stopped and blinked at her.
"No, we are not truly incarnate so have no need for such functions as breathing." Anna raised an eyebrow at the being, who sounded slightly affronted.
"You speak like you are part of a hive mind." That seemed to confuse the being who instead of answering gave her the impression of a taken aback look for all that they hadn't formed a physical form that actually was detailed enough to have any type of expression.
Anna smiled sardonically.
"You always say 'we' not 'I', like you are not personally an individual entity. A hive mind is the term used when there are many beings but basically only one mind between the lot of them." The being seemed to consider that.
"We are not, as you termed it, a hive mind. We are not gifted free will as The One granted those who are incarnate. There is some individuality but not to the level of the people you have been raised round for our will is that of our lords and through them The One but we are not simply extensions of our lords' minds for if we so wish we can rebel and have independent thoughts and suchlike but we do share what I suppose in the human tongues would be called a telepathic mind link with all our fellows so we are much more a joint than you are accustomed to." Anna nodded.
"Which is why you speak as if you are not use to it very much. You are used to just thinking a thought and everyone else knowing what you are thinking. You have rarely had to put thoughts into words before have you?" The being gave the impression of shaking its head mutely. "So what are you anyway, and where am I?"
The being seemed taken aback for a moment again. It was like it didn't know how to respond.
"I forgot you would not just know, and we have been forbidden from drawing you into the mind web by The One. I will try to explain in words then." It was clear the being didn't like having to formulate its thoughts into words.
"To use human word, though they are misleading for they carry the prejudices of humanity, I am an Angel and this place is Heaven." She blinked at the angel in stunned disbelief.
"Right." She said flatly. "Erm..." She got the hint of a patronising smile.
"I forget you know nothing of who or what you are or your history. I shall give the abbreviated version for the sake of helping you to understand before we can teach you all in truth. In the beginning there was The One, who was thought itself and an entity which could think as much as it was thought. The One thought of the universe and so the universe was so. Once The One had thought the universe into being He thought the first choir into being and they added to the melody that was his thought and added harmonies as the One thought them into being. Then her created the second choir into being and we added our voices to the tune. Within the universe The One created He created worlds and groups of the First Choir would leave the Timeless Halls, the place outside the universe from which we worked on building the universe to his thought. With them would go some of the Second Choir to act as servants and aids to those groups of the first choir. Your father was one such, a group who incarnates have name Ainur, The first Choir of the group being known as Valar, and the second choir as Maia. We here are another such group. The first Choir here you would know as the Archangels – what I earlier referred to as our Lords for the human tongues have no better word to describe our relationship for all it is not that accurate. The second choir are merely Angels. Each group have a place outside but connected to the world we steward for The One. Heaven is the term humans have given our place, before creating all sorts of legends mixing up the home of the Angelic peoples with the place their souls are destined to go upon their death." Anna nodded.
"You said my father was basically another world's version of an Angel, or Archangel, you didn't specify which but also implied my mother was only part human but that other part was something else not celestial. What are they and how come I am here, and was raised in a world not their own?" The Angel paused for a long moment.
"Your father is one of fifteen Valar, including the Fallen One. Your mother was what is known as a peredhil. She is half human, half elf. As for how you ended up here, well, that is a long story of which the angels only know the last part. The One brought you to us as a young baby and told us we where to find you a good and safe foster family. We were to watch over you and ensure a safe normal upbringing for an incarnate child. The only time we were to intervene was if you showed your non-human heritage. In that case we were given a range of conditions of what to do depending on what happened. As an adult when it showed through, the order was to bring you here and begin training you. We do not know what we are to do once you have been taught all we can teach you of your Ainur ancestry." Anna nodded.
"So basically because I did something very weird involving that tsunami my life amongst the humans has been close up entirely and I am now going to spend however long learning how to be part celestial?" The Angel nodded. "Sooo… Why am I not being returned to my father's people to be trained among them? Why here? Hell, why wasn't I raised by my father in the first place. Presuming there was a good reason for that and me being raised by some random humans in another world with no idea of most of what I am generally, now that life has been set down and put aside why am I not being shown back to him and his fellows for training or whatever? I presume I am expected to mindlessly follow whatever plan has been put down for me." The angel seemed shocked at the rant.
Anna though, now over her basic shock and having skipped straight past disbelief (a part of her instinctively knew it was true and it was a little hard to disbelieve the obvious evidence in front of her own eyes – she was a scientist, her reaction wasn't to deny something it was to poke at it until she understood what was going on), was getting rather annoyed.
"But, this is the course The One set down for you!" Anna gave him an unimpressed look and pointed to herself.
"Free Will. The One had me raised human, and if you pay any attention you know we don't deal well with predestined paths. We're not sheep, we do not follow along blindly. I do not appreciate you closing down my life for me, no matter who ordered it. Now you have what I want is to know the family I have been looking for since I have been allowed to search. I know I need training but I would much rather get that from my kin, people who have more connection to me. The only reason I can think for keeping me away is there is something going on the keep me away from them. But if that is the case tell me, explain to me and give reasons why staying here and letting you train me instead is the best option. I will not follow orders blindly." She got a distinctly affronted feeling from the angel, as well as a sort of sense of patronising superiority which angered her even more.
"You do not know how to leave and we will not show you." She gave the being an unimpressed look.
"Be aware if I am to be a prisoner I am going to do everything in my power to bring the definition of living hell to Heaven. I am more than capable of being the biggest pain in the proverbials you have ever seen to the point you beg my father to take me off your hands. I will not be sitting through any classes, or doing any one thing you want me to until I get a proper real explanation for why I should and should you try to keep me prison I will show how much of a Hell child I can be until I get what I want. Clear?" The Angel was gaping at her, there was no other word for it.
She noticed at that point that she had somewhere along the way, probably quite recently, stood up and was wearing the most antique looking night gown she'd ever seen.
There was a hint of a challenge from the Angel, who had noticed her look at the hideous garment. With a frown she concentrated on it. Within a moment or two it changed to a far more comfortable pair of trousers and blouse that were also far more complimentary. The Angel blinked at her in surprise and she gave a smug look of triumph at not having needed to have even a small trick like that explained. There was a long pause.
"Come." She smirked slightly at the clearly annoyed and angel and her little victory as it was clear that the angel had decided it was above their rank to deal with a stroppy and uncooperative half-valar.
XXX
It was some time later the Angel had shown her to what she could best describe as a chamber for all it fitted none of the things that humans thought of when the word was used, though office probably did a similar job for explaining what wherever she was was.
The being in the chamber when it sensed her presence and coalesced into physical form actually took on a human appearance, even as he turned to the being that had guided her through this place that followed no human rule of space.
"Thanks you Sachiel, you may leave us now." Sachiel simply ceased to be there and Anna assumed that not having a true physical form, that angels could simply think themselves somewhere else. It would be fun to see it she could do something similar, though the fact she was basically incarnated due to her mother made her suspect that even if she could that it would be a lot more complicated than for a celestial being. On the other hand it was definitely something to investigate since she had a feeling it would be her only route out of here if an angel wasn't going to take her.
The new angel didn't speak straight away, preferring to observe her for a long moment and so Anna returned the favour. The form this one had taken was classical to say the least, tall with wavy shoulder length chestnut brown hair and a finely muscled figure that frankly made him look like he'd just stepped out of one of the slightly more militant religious paintings you tended to see in churches.
"Where you going to introduce yourself? I am fairly sure you already know who I am." The being smiled, perfect pink lips curving with amusement.
"I am Michael, child." She raised an eyebrow, deliberately hiding the slight awe.
"Most powerful of the Archangels, leader of the heavenly host and original warrior?" He smiled sardonically at her.
"Indeed. I think you might have thrown Sachiel a little, he isn't used to people who don't do what they are told, he is a reasonable healer as well as warrior but he doesn't deal with incarnates very often. Though I would have thought watching over you for your entire childhood would have given him a little more clue about the fact that you were not likely to follow blindly." Anna snorted.
"I noticed he seemed to have issues. You at least speak as if you are a separate entity." Michael smiled at her.
"It is not uncommon amongst the second choir of angels to speak as such, especially Kerubim who are primarily warriors so tend to have more closely joined mind." She nodded thoughtfully before raising an eyebrow at Michael.
"So did Sachiel pass on our little conversation which sent him running for the manager?" Michael actually laughed at that.
"Yes he did." Anna raised an eyebrow at the Archangel.
"Talking to you is like trying to hold a conversation with a brick wall." Michael smiled wickedly.
"Well it was you who brought up being a pain in the backside." Anna grinned. Instead of answering she concentrated for a moment to see if she could manipulate her environment. The result was a comfortably spinning chair, which she promptly sat on and a desk, which she dumped her feet on. She crossed her arms and looked up at the amused seeming archangel. Another chair appeared on the other side of the desk and he reclined gracefully in it with a beautific smile.
There was a long silence as they just sat there waiting to see who would break first. After some time Anna grey bored but was very much unwilling to give in. She was more than capable of being stubborn when it suited her and she was fighting on the back foot right now.
Instead she began to explore her power a bit, playing with it by making little illusion, summoning and creating items randomly (including a literal storm in a teacup, just because), and then playing with them using what she basically saw as magic for all it hadn't been called that.
As she mucked around she caught a somewhat pained expression on Michael's face. It was interesting to note that she could simply sense his expressions and wondered whether that was because he was an archangel or because he was rather more fully incarnate than Sachiel had been. It was at that point she decided to go a little bigger and sent out her senses somewhat instinctively to see if she could sense the weather systems on earth, or the oceans she had long studied.
"Please stop, before you do some real damage!" Anna grinned at the exasperated looking archangel.
"I was only looking." She said innocently, resisting a grin at his expression as he rolled his eyes and sighed.
"You are not experienced enough that I trust you not to accidentally change the world weather systems or something. You are also far to powerful to be stopped if you much something up and sorting it out would be an obscene amount of work and incredibly difficult considering how ridiculously powerful you are." Anna raised a mischievous eyebrow at him questioningly. Michael sighed.
"You are the daughter of Lord Ulmo, lord of the seas of Ea, which is the world he and the other Valar were given stewardship of. Your mother was a peredhil, half elven, half human. We know nothing of her beyond that and the fact the elven part of her ancestry was of the clan most associated with Lord Ulmo, the Telerin or Lindar as they themselves prefer to be know, though the former name is the more often used format. The One, the entity that creates all and humans often refer to as God, brought you here in his guise of the holy spirit and have told us little regarding you personally." Michael sighed and rubbed his head again.
"We do not know for certain why The One removed you from that world to be raised here, or why he wished for us to be the ones to train you but I suspect that it is because that world is embroiled in what you might term as a god war. I have only been told this because of my position as Leader of the Heavenly Host. If everything goes too badly I may have to mobilise my armies." Anna winced.
"Okay, I will admit that is a pretty good reason to get me out of there. What more can you tell me of this war?" Michael seemed to relax a little as she seemed a tad more cooperative.
"Of the First Choir sent to that world there were originally fourteen…" Anna leant back and listened intently as the archangel told her of the creating of her Father's world, of its marring at the hands of Melkor and of the elves and later humans, and through to the present day. It was sobering and saddening to listen to the tale of what one could do to so many millions. Once Michael was done he looked up to her and found her giving him a serious look that seemed somewhat unaccustomed on the beautiful face.
"Teach me to fight, and to use my magic. I will not fight you as long as you promise to make sure I am able to do as much as I can, that I have the potential to do, to help my people – all my peoples. Oh and that once I am ready you will let me go there to help." Michael nodded with an approving grin.
"I think I like you. Melkor won't though. I intend to turn you into his worst nightmare, and one he won't see coming." The two shared a grin as they very much saw eye to eye, neither noticing the sense of pleasure from somewhere beyond even heaven at their agreement.