A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who has enjoyed the story so far! I know it's kind of an obscure pairing but it had to be done! XD Also, for those of you who were interested in the Diablo 3 playthroughs that I'm running on Youtube, I have decided to do those on a separate channel that will be called Loremaster Talus'ar. Not only will I be posting my gaming playthroughs there but I will also be doing videos solely dedicated to Diablo lore/theories! It's a project I am very excited for so I hope all of you will enjoy it as well.
Disclaimer: I don't any of this business, capiche?
Chapter Eight...The End I Go To
"The humans cannot be trusted. They are born of angel and demon, but demons pervert whatever they touch. The humans are corrupt, and are not worthy of the choice between good and evil. Angels and demons do not choose, as it should be."- Malthael, Paths of Wisdom
Tyrael had given me much to think about and, with his words heavy on my mind, I sought to wandering as I had in my youth. I remembered walking the corridors under my invisibility cloak at night, alone with my thoughts and unseen to all. Especially Snape. I hadn't seen my cloak for some time but I knew it was there, watching and waiting for me in the ether of the air. Waiting for me to command it into being. The Elder Wand lay at my hip as it had since I had come to Sanctuary and the ring had been on my finger for so long that the flesh beneath the band was a paler color than that around it.
Westmarch's citizens had long since gone to bed by now, preparing for early days to scrounge for food from unoccupied store fronts and homes and continue to rebuild. The streets were empty of danger and human alike.
Or at least, I thought they were.
It wasn't until I was halfway down the road heading towards the now cleared bone repository that I saw it. Just the edge of a brightly glowing wing, its tendrils glimpsed just ducking into an alleyway. An Angel? Here? Could it be Malthael come to collect me?
But, no. The wings weren't the near skeletal image of the Aspect of Death's. Then who?
Without thought to the potential dangers or consequences, I gave chase.
Westmarch's streets were blessedly empty of people but rubble still littered and lined the roads from crumbled buildings and other decorative structures. Many of these had been caught up in the fire blasts that had destroyed a portion of the city. Consequently, once I had finished scrambling over them I was filthy and covered in soot. My hands were blackened with ash, dirt and the blood that had stained one handhold. My skin crawled at the thought that I may have just been climbing over someone's crushed body, trapped under there until the rubble was cleared. There was no helping it though.
Suna had been right about one thing and I wanted answers for myself.
Where are the angels? Why aren't they helping us?
There was an Angel here now and I would be damned if I didn't ask them for myself.
I bolted over the last of the debris barring my path, my feet sliding on some loose stones. It was only by the grace of Merlin that my footing held and I was running down towards the alleyway faster than you could say 'Quidditch'. I half expected the angelic visitor to have disappeared by the time my paltry human speed caught up but strangely enough, the heavenly warrior was still there.
That turned out to not be such a good thing.
A single moment after my eyes registered the Angel's presence, a bright light burst from beneath my feet, an arcane sigil carved into the ground. I had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.
I had run right into a trap.
Before I could even take a breath to shout, the world exploded into light and I disappeared, my body leaving Westmarch behind.
~θ~
The light took several long, heart attack-inducing moments to clear from my vision. My pulse thudded like a train in my ears, fear and blindness making my mind run away into terrified memories.
Facing down Voldemort for the last time. Being dragged bodily in front of tearful, scared friends and laughing Death Eaters. The look of smirking triumph on the Dark Lord's face as he watched me disappear within the Veil.
At some point, I had cast a quick 'Protego', though when I had done so was anyone's guess. Fear ruled my logic in that second, at least until my sight began to clear and my surroundings became more and more familiar.
Bright light shone off of every surface, white marble edged in gold. A fountain of water clearer than any other in existence and singing with the loveliness of purity. At the head of it all, standing on a pedestal, was Chalad'ar.
The Pools of Wisdom.
"Forgive me for startling you, Harry Potter." The musical voice came to me from behind and I spun around quickly to behold the Angel at my back.
No, not an Angel. An Archangel.
He had the distinctive larger wings and powerful aura of one of those generals of Heaven. Clad in neutral gray tones, his voice was neither masculine nor feminine and yet, somehow, I knew that the Angel was a male without question. Tyrael was the only other Angel I had ever met outside of Malthael's forces so the identity of this one remained a mystery. His gender, however, narrowed it down to two suspects: Valor and Fate.
"I am Itherael, Archangel of Fate. I have been watching you for quite some time, beloved of my brother."
"Why did you bring me here?" I demanded, unsure if I should look on this new intruder as an enemy or ally.
"I am charged with writing in the Scroll of Fate all things that have been or will be. All things that can be written in the world of Men, Angels and Demons. All things save for the Nephalem...and you." The surprise was as plain on my face as I felt it in my being. Malthael had told me of the Talus'ar and the awesome powers that it contained. To be all but invisible to its omniscience was puzzling.
"That's fascinating and all, but what does that have to do with kidnapping me? Tyrael and Suna are leaving for Pandemonium to stop Malthael soon and I need to be there. I need to-" Save him. Love him. Bring him back home to me.
I didn't know how to finish that sentence. Tyrael would not allow me to go to Pandemonium with them. I couldn't even be relied upon as an effective guide because of the ever-shifting, constantly changing nature of the place. I could only get in their way there, but if I didn't go then how would I have the chance to convince Malthael against his murderous plan? If I couldn't go to where he was, how could I save him from himself?
Ithereal interjected, cutting through my thoughts with the efficiency of a scalpel, "You will help no one by going to Pandemonium with the Nephalem. That is her path, not yours."
"You don't know that! My magic could help them! You don't know anything about me!" I shouted, feelign unreasonable even in my anger but it just felt so good to be angry for once. The helplessness was the fuel but it was the fire of anger that warmed my blood for the first time since this whole disaster had begun.
Rather than being angry and my outburst, the Archangel's aura softened with what could only be interpreted as a fond smile, or at least what passed for one on a being without an actual face.
"Oh, Harry. You have always been one of Fate's rare chosen. I have watched over you long before you ever came to Sanctuary, from the day were conceived within Lily Evans' womb. I knew even then that you would be destined for great things. You were always meant to be exactly where you are."
All of the suffering that I had experienced growing up, all of those centuries within the Void, Voldemort. All of it had been watched over and preordained like some weekday sitcom. Emotion welled up inside of me, all vying for control at once. Rage, sadness, helplessness, shame. For an instant, rage won out, as old and comfortable as it had felt in my youth when I had been prone to childhood arguments and spats. Lashing out at cosmic deities though? Even Ron would have hesitated on that one.
"If you're so all knowing then you should know how this whole conflict ends!"
The Angel's amusement faded in the face of my accusation. He paused for a long moment, studying me intently as I tried to pull together the pieces of my scattered and fragile emotions. At long last, Ithereal nodded.
"I do. That is why I have brought you here. I am entrusting only you with this knowledge, Harry Potter. Not even my brothers and Auriel know what the future will hold for the Heavens." He pierced me with that all-knowing gaze once more and even without being able to see it, I could feel the weight and seriousness of the situation settle heavily on my shoulders. "I have brought you here because I believe you are the only one who can stop what is to come. My brother, Imperious, would disagree but I have seen what is to come. If Malthael and the Nephalem are allowed to do battle against one another, the Nephalem will be victorious."
My stomach turned to ice at the ramifications of what he meant. All of my anger drained out of me in one cursed breath. For the second time tonight, I wanted to sob in frustrated hopelessness. The powerlessness sucked at me. Suna would win and my Angel would lose. And losing meant...
'In death, there is peace,' I heard him whisper in the depths of my memory. I almost begged Ithereal to stop, to tell me no more. The words stuck in my throat though, trapped under the weight of responsibility and love.
"Malthael will die and because of his actions, Diablo and all of the seven Evils of Hell will be free to walk Sanctuary once again."
Everything Death would have worked for, everything he would have sacrificed, would not only be for nothing, but would set free the very darkness he wished to destroy.
"If you foresaw all of this happening...why didn't you stop him from becoming the Aspect of Death in the first place? Why not convince him before he even left the Heavens to stay? Why not prevent all of this before he even changed in the first place?"
It was a fair question. Why hadn't Ithereal stepped in and prevented all of this? Were all Angels just complacent? So caught up in their own side of the struggle that they could care less what happened to anyone else? Tyrael being the exception, of course. Why?
"Did Malthael tell you how Angels are born?" He had. "Only four times in all of the Scroll of Fate does an Archangel change from one thing to another, one of those four being Malthael's change from the Aspect of Wisdom to Death. Another example is Tyrael and his casting off of his divinity to become the mortal Aspect of Justice. Only the Crystal Arch can compel an Archangel to become something new. Even now, Tyrael is beginning to hear the Arch's call to change again, this time to take on the mantle of the Aspect of Wisdom where Malthael once stood."
Slowly, I was beginning to see where he may be going with this long winded history lesson. However, the conclusions I was coming to only left me more confused and with more questions than before. Wisdom, however, had taught me patience and the virtue of silence.
"Only the Arch can control such a thing. Do you understand? I believe that it was not Malthael's choice to become the Aspect of Death but the command of the Crystal Arch itself. His views on humanity are all his own, but becoming Death? That is not a choice that an Angel is capable of making for themselves."
"But why force him to change? Why then?"
Ithereal's aura was smiling again but this time it was soft and saddened.
"I believe it was to find you. I think that the Arch cold sense the Master of Death in the Void and, knowing that any Aspect of Death would inevitably be bound to you, ensured it. Malthael and your union was decided long before you came to Sanctuary, I believe, and the Arch sought to bring you here for a purpose: to stand at my brother's side and to bring this conflict to an end at last."
Great things, indeed. But wasn't that what the Sorting Hat had said to me when I was just eleven years old?
'You could be great, you know!'
I didn't want greatness or power or destiny. I simply wanted my love back at my side. My ultimate question had been pulling down my heart and soul throughout all of this revelation and at last, it came spilling out without thought or remorse. It was the question Suna had voiced to Tyrael only hours ago, the same question that I had asked myself time and time again since then.
"Ithereal, where are all of the Angels? Why are they not helping us to bring this to an end for themselves? Why haven't you done anything to help?" If there was a tone of accusation in the last of my words, then the Aspect of Fate didn't seem slighted by it. Instead, he merely gave that smile once more.
"Don't you see, Harry? I just have." He stated plainly, almost mischievously.
Without another word, without so much as a 'by your leave', Ithereal disappeared in a flash of angelic resonance leaving me behind in the closed off and abandoned Pools of Wisdom with no way out.
I was trapped.
