Symphony
(Song of the Seraphim, Book Four)
Author's Notes: I originally intended to keep this secret for quite a while (up until around Book 18 in fact; kind of scary I'm planning this so far in advance.) However, I have decided to unleash fuel for flames and such a bit earlier. As such, I will admit it.
Song of the Seraphim is a self-insert. Even more heinous, it's a self- insert that will follow some of the worst cliches there are; super-powered main characters better in many regards than the originals, multiple romantic entanglements, and worst of all, divine intervention to fuel it.
So let your barbed words and arrows of greek fire fly; I will weather all and endure.
Prologue
Anubis sighed as he reset his conical monk's hat. He'd only been personally involved in this little project for relatively twenty three years, no long period for an immortal. Still, he was already getting curious. What on earth was so important about the Shadowlight?
As he opened the gate preparing to exit the viewing area, he found himself staring down the barrels of the divine equivalent of a side-by-side sawed- off shotgun. Said sawed-off shotgun in the hands of a VERY pissed off looking Falaris. Not that it was immediately apparent; deities of the night were big on that whole, 'calm, mysterious, and unflappable' thing.
Deciding against bothering with words, Falaris delivered both barrels, sending Anubis flying (and incidentally leaving a very nice crater in the wall across from him.) Still unflappable, Falaris calmly reloaded the gun with a charge of his divine darkness (as opposed to normal buckshot) as he watched Anubis start painfully pulling himself out of the rubble. "Where is Trent?"
Anubis groaned quietly as he hauled himself out of the rubble. "I was going to check on him now."
Falaris raised the gun, putting the dark energy blast between the monk's legs. "I took the liberty of checking; the time-line you're heading for is one involving the Sailor Senshi and the continent of Endiness; the kingdom of the winglies and the dragoons. There is nothing involving either elves or any race of dragon he could be in that universe. Try again."
Anubis winced as watched the gun being reloaded for a third shot. Just because he was technically an immortal didn't mean he was immune to pain. And he certainly wasn't a god either. "I don't completely understand what's going on myself. I take my orders from the Almighty, and he informed me that my charge would be in the indicated time-line. He did NOT say that it would be Trent, but as yet he was the only one who I was watching over."
Falaris shook his head, holstering the gun. Gods didn't lie very often; at their power level, it was too easy to tell when it happened. As such he'd believe him, but he still wanted answers. "You know more than you're letting on. I want to know PRECISELY what is going on."
"Very well," spoke a new voice.
Falaris stiffened, involuntarily shifting back to his divine form of the night sky personified. "I...I never intended to demand such of You..."
The Almighty smiled. "I'm not unhappy, though I am curious as to this fascination you have with the elf."
"He is one of my followers. More importantly, he is one of the few followers I have left who aren't genocidal manaics. He is one of perhaps sixteen men or women that I consider worthy of my following."
The Almighty nodded at Falaris's forthright answer. "Very well." With a wave of his hand, seven images swam into view. "You have already seen the three trials that Trent Shadowlight, the dragon/dark-elf fought through. His purpose however is far greater than a simple elf can manage."
Falaris coughed into his hand. "With all due respect, he's an elf, a half- dragon warrior/mage, and one of four dragons kings after his reincarnation. He doesn't strike me as the simplest creature."
The Almighty smiled once more. "True. Still, there are those who wish for his power and experience to continue growing, to a purpose of our own choice." He pointed to the other six portals. "The one you consider Trent will be put through a multitude of trials before his true test and purpose will be made clear. During these trials, he will be reincarnated or shape- shifted through seven different identities; Trent was merely the first."
Falaris paused, squinting at one image in particular, the last. Not that his vision suffered; it was a good euphimism for someone who ever hung around mortals, and it actually helped his mystic senses. "This dimensional overtone...I recognize it." He frowned as he looked to the Almighty. "Why would you wish to reincarnate him as someone from the world Null?"
'Null,' as it was called, was one of the original template worlds of the multi-verse. Many preferred to refer to it as, 'the literary world' due to the fact that a huge number of its inhabitants were gifted into seeing the random shifts in infinity; most were expressed as anything from animated children's series to adult films. Many of the worlds were simple spin-offs of Null itself, expressed as live-action movies. Some others were comic books, others novels and short stories. The most prolific however were those from Japan.
The Japanese seemed to have some kind of strange link to the extra- dimensional overtones and harmonies; there were thousands who knew of the alternate worlds. The alternate universes were most often expressed from Japanese view-points; often as either an animated series or a series of Manga. Finally, there was the biggest proliferation of alternate universe writings in all of existence. Fanfiction.
It was curious, but a great many individuals who would normally have been unable to tap into the creative energies and express them suddenly gained the power simply by coming into contact with the more common, 'original' template world's writings. There were untold millions of these strange worlds; everything from where the space-pirate Ryoko was actually one of six saber marionette specials that ended up with the Japoness boy Keitaro Urashima, to the world in which instead of anthropomorphic animal-like creatures called pokemon there were partially human females who had to be 'tamed' regularly by their trainers, to worlds in which the shape-shifting martial artist Ranma ended up becoming a Herald of Valdemar. The possibilities were truly endless.
The long and the short of it though was this. Null itself is an almost insufferably boring world; compared to all the magic and hyper-technologies and magical girl sentai teams that proliferate the other universes, Null has nothing. The only thing it had for it was the great creativity that seemed to coalesce in its sub-dimensions.
That, and that it more often than not provided excellent candidates for various adventures; Self-Inserts they were called. Many of the more chaotically-aligned gods loved to drag unsuspecting authors of fanfiction worlds and drop them into other analogues. The native american trickster god Coyote had done this no less then eighty two thousand, four hundred and thirty three times.
Now back to the story.
The Almighty turned to regard the image of the person there. "This...individual is best suited to be one of the major incarnations for 'Trent.' He will be vicariously experienced with each and every one of the worlds that are being used. More importantly, due to the memory blocks this soul-chimera won't be acquainted with his true life history for literally millenia. He needs to have some kind of grounding in the various worlds if he's to have any chance of reconciling his true nature."
Falaris quirked a grin. The Almighty wasn't anywhere NEAR as vengeful or wrathful as many portrayed him; certainly he didn't mind even mortals being familiar with him. It was nice to have that in a ruler. "Not to mention that the people of Null ARE about the most flexible, adaptible people in some of the multi-verse."
Anubis snorted disparaginly. "They'd have to be; I don't think they've managed to make it beyond ten years without some major war."
Falaris chuckled; now that the safety of his 'charge' was out of the way, he didn't mind relaxing. He peered into the still-present viewing gates to take in the nature of what the Chimera would end up. Chimera seeming to be the best name for him until he finally chose one for himself. "So let me make sure I understand this. By the time he's done, he'll be part human, part demon, part elf, part dragon, part angel, part wolf, and part cyborg?" He shook his head in amazement. "I pity whoever has to map THAT geneology."
Anubis gazed around as the portals rewove themselves. His previous intention had been to find the nearest convenient portal and set it to view this 'sailor dragoon' timeline, but then HE didn't have nigh-unlimited power. Which made it nice to have more powerful people around to make his plans more convenient. "It appears that incarnation number two is ready."
Falaris whistled. "A former seraph? THIS could be interesting." Settling himself, he conjured up ambrosial popcorn.
This could be fun.
--------
Yue stared in absolute horror at what was left of the Moon Kingdom. It could be aptly summed up in two simple words; not much.
The giant spires of alabaster that had woven themselves into columns and domes adorning the lunar surface had been blackened and reduced to nothing but rubble, chunks of rock and stone littering what had once been the gardens of the royal family, transplants from the once-fertile moons of Saturn and Uranus. What had once been excruciatingly carved bas-reliefs on the slate roads of the Imperial Capital were now nothing but so much dust.
Yue was used to destruction and carnage; you didn't make it far as a warrior otherwise. Even so, this was beyond what he'd imagined possible. Beryl and her invincible shadow had been something to fear, but he never in his most horrified dreams have thought that she could have done such damage.
He took a deep breath, forcing calm back in with the thin, now sharpened air. Yue had been the Knight of Loyalty; he would do whatever proved necessary to the one he had sworn to. If that oath-bearer was gone, he was at loose ends. If Serenity lived, he had a duty to fulfill.
Closing his eyes, he allowed his other senses to be brought into play. He'd never been the strongest; oh, he could have battled nearly any of the forces of his kingdom to a stand-still, even perhaps a few of the fully- empowered Senshi. What had made him so useful to the throne however were his senses; he'd allowed himself to take pride in his ability to know the terrains.
He stiffened at the faint whisp of energy he felt from within the ruins central to what had been the great palace. Snapping upon his great white pinions, he shot towards the rubble.
What he found was his Queen.
Yue winced at the sight as he blasted the rubble away with midnight blue energies, kneeling besides her now free form. "My queen?"
Serenity coughed weakly at the voice, looking up. "Yue?"
He gasped in relief, funneling his energies towards healing her. "What happened?"
Serenity coughed painfully as a minute bit of strength returned. "Beryl attacked...too strong...Saturn..."
Yue felt his blood temperature drop. "Saturn? You unleashed Silence?"
Serenity nodded painfully. "Metal'la proved to great for any other means. Saturn was the only choice."
Yue felt tears flow. He remembered the shy, gentle child who'd been given the unenviable burden of holding powers sufficient to ravage entire worlds at the cost of her own life. "What happened then?" Why wouldn't the energies hold? Serenity's life-force had flickered, but it was just draining him now.
The queen waved aside her knight. "Save your strength Yue. You were never a healer; even if you were, our greatest would be insufficient here." Sighing, she resumed her narrative. "Saturn's attack proved enough to hold off Metal'la long enough for me to employ the crystal. I was able to drive her back, but not before..."
"Before Beryl finished the kingdom," Yue finished succinctly for her. "What of the remaining Senshi?" One in particular.
Serenity sighed. "Dead. All died to buy me the time for my attack." She coughed again, this time blood accompanying her exhalation. "My attack will reincarnate them in a later age, where they are needed."
Yue stared as his queen finished death's journey in his arms. Laying her gently down, he slipped back to some of the rubble, deep in thought. Serenity worried him little; the people of the moon kingdom had a habit of not staying dead for too long. She'd likely reincarnate in a few millenia; death was nothing he'd worried about in her case. The problem lay in his oath to her over four hundred years ago; "As long as the sun shines, as the tides flow, and as long as the Laws are held in truth, I will serve you."
She might return, but it was not certain. The nine Senshi however, including the heir to the moon kingdom, would arise sooner or later. As such, that was where his loyalty now lay.
They would return, that was assured. The only trouble was when. It would be no trouble to him if they ressurected ten years from now; a decade here or there was little trouble to someone who didn't age. A century would grow tedious, but he could stand it. But what if they didn't arise for millenia? He would be unable to wait that long; he was only somewhat realistic but he did know his limits.
So he had to find some way to wait for them, as long as necessary.
--------
The farthest that you can get in the solar system without leaving it completely is the moon of Pluto. Nearly half as large as the frozen planet itself, it has been surmised that it was actually a former moon of Neptune that seperated along with the planet itself. Still, the distance from the sun to Charon was over forty times the sun's distance from earth.
It was what Yue called home.
Charon Tower was nothing special as far as the Silver Millenium kingdom went; a simple shard of rock crystal fifty meters tall and ten wide; nothing compared to even the abodes of Phobos and Deimos. Still, it suited him.
Yue checked various gauges and dials of the machinery at the very pinnacle of the tower as his preparations wound to a close. He regarded the deceptively simple contraption; little more than a circular pedestal beneath a kind of circuitry chandelier. Crude, but it would serve his purpose.
Yue was not one of the people of the Silver Millenium; he'd never admitted to anyone what he was, and no one had ever asked the coldly aloof knight of loyalty what he was.
How do you explain an archangel who CHOSE to leave heaven?
Even if you ignored the huge, white-feathered wings that could sprout from his back, he didn't completely pass for human. He was too...otherworldly. He stood at almost six foot four, a slender lean man weighing in at only one hundred seventy pounds. His hair was waist-length, a silvery fall of almost metallic white; his skin neither pale nor tanned.
In the end however, it was his eyes that advertised his inhumanity. A strange dark blue, slit-pupiled and flecked with silver, they resembled nothing more than the sky just after sunset.
Yue sighed as the preparations ended on the machine. One of the problems of being an angel was that you couldn't sleep; you could rest, and you could stay still, but an actual submergence into your subconscious was beyond their reach. As such, he was forced to find another means to keep him out of the way.
Activating the time delay, the white-clad knight stepped to the center of the raised pedestal and waited. He didn't have long; liquid silver began to seep upward from his feet as the circuitry hanging above him began to crackle, drawing motes of light into a column around him.
Yue took a final breath as the silver traced itself over his face, sealing him within. For all the world's view, what had once been Yue Legatum was nothing more, save this strange, too-lifelike statue where he had once stood.
He'd been careful in devising this; the sensors of his tower would wait until the power stirred. The silver would last eons, until he was meant to emerge.
Now all that was left was to wait.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Oh the horror. To be forced into admission of this fanfic's nature, a self-insert of all heinous things.
Well, now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoyed. This wasn't so much a start to the story as a way to set the scene, and explain what is yet to come.
P.S. I don't intend to update this until after Descant is finished and I've actually written Book Three, Bolero. Until then, I hope you're a slayers fan.
Author's Notes: I originally intended to keep this secret for quite a while (up until around Book 18 in fact; kind of scary I'm planning this so far in advance.) However, I have decided to unleash fuel for flames and such a bit earlier. As such, I will admit it.
Song of the Seraphim is a self-insert. Even more heinous, it's a self- insert that will follow some of the worst cliches there are; super-powered main characters better in many regards than the originals, multiple romantic entanglements, and worst of all, divine intervention to fuel it.
So let your barbed words and arrows of greek fire fly; I will weather all and endure.
Prologue
Anubis sighed as he reset his conical monk's hat. He'd only been personally involved in this little project for relatively twenty three years, no long period for an immortal. Still, he was already getting curious. What on earth was so important about the Shadowlight?
As he opened the gate preparing to exit the viewing area, he found himself staring down the barrels of the divine equivalent of a side-by-side sawed- off shotgun. Said sawed-off shotgun in the hands of a VERY pissed off looking Falaris. Not that it was immediately apparent; deities of the night were big on that whole, 'calm, mysterious, and unflappable' thing.
Deciding against bothering with words, Falaris delivered both barrels, sending Anubis flying (and incidentally leaving a very nice crater in the wall across from him.) Still unflappable, Falaris calmly reloaded the gun with a charge of his divine darkness (as opposed to normal buckshot) as he watched Anubis start painfully pulling himself out of the rubble. "Where is Trent?"
Anubis groaned quietly as he hauled himself out of the rubble. "I was going to check on him now."
Falaris raised the gun, putting the dark energy blast between the monk's legs. "I took the liberty of checking; the time-line you're heading for is one involving the Sailor Senshi and the continent of Endiness; the kingdom of the winglies and the dragoons. There is nothing involving either elves or any race of dragon he could be in that universe. Try again."
Anubis winced as watched the gun being reloaded for a third shot. Just because he was technically an immortal didn't mean he was immune to pain. And he certainly wasn't a god either. "I don't completely understand what's going on myself. I take my orders from the Almighty, and he informed me that my charge would be in the indicated time-line. He did NOT say that it would be Trent, but as yet he was the only one who I was watching over."
Falaris shook his head, holstering the gun. Gods didn't lie very often; at their power level, it was too easy to tell when it happened. As such he'd believe him, but he still wanted answers. "You know more than you're letting on. I want to know PRECISELY what is going on."
"Very well," spoke a new voice.
Falaris stiffened, involuntarily shifting back to his divine form of the night sky personified. "I...I never intended to demand such of You..."
The Almighty smiled. "I'm not unhappy, though I am curious as to this fascination you have with the elf."
"He is one of my followers. More importantly, he is one of the few followers I have left who aren't genocidal manaics. He is one of perhaps sixteen men or women that I consider worthy of my following."
The Almighty nodded at Falaris's forthright answer. "Very well." With a wave of his hand, seven images swam into view. "You have already seen the three trials that Trent Shadowlight, the dragon/dark-elf fought through. His purpose however is far greater than a simple elf can manage."
Falaris coughed into his hand. "With all due respect, he's an elf, a half- dragon warrior/mage, and one of four dragons kings after his reincarnation. He doesn't strike me as the simplest creature."
The Almighty smiled once more. "True. Still, there are those who wish for his power and experience to continue growing, to a purpose of our own choice." He pointed to the other six portals. "The one you consider Trent will be put through a multitude of trials before his true test and purpose will be made clear. During these trials, he will be reincarnated or shape- shifted through seven different identities; Trent was merely the first."
Falaris paused, squinting at one image in particular, the last. Not that his vision suffered; it was a good euphimism for someone who ever hung around mortals, and it actually helped his mystic senses. "This dimensional overtone...I recognize it." He frowned as he looked to the Almighty. "Why would you wish to reincarnate him as someone from the world Null?"
'Null,' as it was called, was one of the original template worlds of the multi-verse. Many preferred to refer to it as, 'the literary world' due to the fact that a huge number of its inhabitants were gifted into seeing the random shifts in infinity; most were expressed as anything from animated children's series to adult films. Many of the worlds were simple spin-offs of Null itself, expressed as live-action movies. Some others were comic books, others novels and short stories. The most prolific however were those from Japan.
The Japanese seemed to have some kind of strange link to the extra- dimensional overtones and harmonies; there were thousands who knew of the alternate worlds. The alternate universes were most often expressed from Japanese view-points; often as either an animated series or a series of Manga. Finally, there was the biggest proliferation of alternate universe writings in all of existence. Fanfiction.
It was curious, but a great many individuals who would normally have been unable to tap into the creative energies and express them suddenly gained the power simply by coming into contact with the more common, 'original' template world's writings. There were untold millions of these strange worlds; everything from where the space-pirate Ryoko was actually one of six saber marionette specials that ended up with the Japoness boy Keitaro Urashima, to the world in which instead of anthropomorphic animal-like creatures called pokemon there were partially human females who had to be 'tamed' regularly by their trainers, to worlds in which the shape-shifting martial artist Ranma ended up becoming a Herald of Valdemar. The possibilities were truly endless.
The long and the short of it though was this. Null itself is an almost insufferably boring world; compared to all the magic and hyper-technologies and magical girl sentai teams that proliferate the other universes, Null has nothing. The only thing it had for it was the great creativity that seemed to coalesce in its sub-dimensions.
That, and that it more often than not provided excellent candidates for various adventures; Self-Inserts they were called. Many of the more chaotically-aligned gods loved to drag unsuspecting authors of fanfiction worlds and drop them into other analogues. The native american trickster god Coyote had done this no less then eighty two thousand, four hundred and thirty three times.
Now back to the story.
The Almighty turned to regard the image of the person there. "This...individual is best suited to be one of the major incarnations for 'Trent.' He will be vicariously experienced with each and every one of the worlds that are being used. More importantly, due to the memory blocks this soul-chimera won't be acquainted with his true life history for literally millenia. He needs to have some kind of grounding in the various worlds if he's to have any chance of reconciling his true nature."
Falaris quirked a grin. The Almighty wasn't anywhere NEAR as vengeful or wrathful as many portrayed him; certainly he didn't mind even mortals being familiar with him. It was nice to have that in a ruler. "Not to mention that the people of Null ARE about the most flexible, adaptible people in some of the multi-verse."
Anubis snorted disparaginly. "They'd have to be; I don't think they've managed to make it beyond ten years without some major war."
Falaris chuckled; now that the safety of his 'charge' was out of the way, he didn't mind relaxing. He peered into the still-present viewing gates to take in the nature of what the Chimera would end up. Chimera seeming to be the best name for him until he finally chose one for himself. "So let me make sure I understand this. By the time he's done, he'll be part human, part demon, part elf, part dragon, part angel, part wolf, and part cyborg?" He shook his head in amazement. "I pity whoever has to map THAT geneology."
Anubis gazed around as the portals rewove themselves. His previous intention had been to find the nearest convenient portal and set it to view this 'sailor dragoon' timeline, but then HE didn't have nigh-unlimited power. Which made it nice to have more powerful people around to make his plans more convenient. "It appears that incarnation number two is ready."
Falaris whistled. "A former seraph? THIS could be interesting." Settling himself, he conjured up ambrosial popcorn.
This could be fun.
--------
Yue stared in absolute horror at what was left of the Moon Kingdom. It could be aptly summed up in two simple words; not much.
The giant spires of alabaster that had woven themselves into columns and domes adorning the lunar surface had been blackened and reduced to nothing but rubble, chunks of rock and stone littering what had once been the gardens of the royal family, transplants from the once-fertile moons of Saturn and Uranus. What had once been excruciatingly carved bas-reliefs on the slate roads of the Imperial Capital were now nothing but so much dust.
Yue was used to destruction and carnage; you didn't make it far as a warrior otherwise. Even so, this was beyond what he'd imagined possible. Beryl and her invincible shadow had been something to fear, but he never in his most horrified dreams have thought that she could have done such damage.
He took a deep breath, forcing calm back in with the thin, now sharpened air. Yue had been the Knight of Loyalty; he would do whatever proved necessary to the one he had sworn to. If that oath-bearer was gone, he was at loose ends. If Serenity lived, he had a duty to fulfill.
Closing his eyes, he allowed his other senses to be brought into play. He'd never been the strongest; oh, he could have battled nearly any of the forces of his kingdom to a stand-still, even perhaps a few of the fully- empowered Senshi. What had made him so useful to the throne however were his senses; he'd allowed himself to take pride in his ability to know the terrains.
He stiffened at the faint whisp of energy he felt from within the ruins central to what had been the great palace. Snapping upon his great white pinions, he shot towards the rubble.
What he found was his Queen.
Yue winced at the sight as he blasted the rubble away with midnight blue energies, kneeling besides her now free form. "My queen?"
Serenity coughed weakly at the voice, looking up. "Yue?"
He gasped in relief, funneling his energies towards healing her. "What happened?"
Serenity coughed painfully as a minute bit of strength returned. "Beryl attacked...too strong...Saturn..."
Yue felt his blood temperature drop. "Saturn? You unleashed Silence?"
Serenity nodded painfully. "Metal'la proved to great for any other means. Saturn was the only choice."
Yue felt tears flow. He remembered the shy, gentle child who'd been given the unenviable burden of holding powers sufficient to ravage entire worlds at the cost of her own life. "What happened then?" Why wouldn't the energies hold? Serenity's life-force had flickered, but it was just draining him now.
The queen waved aside her knight. "Save your strength Yue. You were never a healer; even if you were, our greatest would be insufficient here." Sighing, she resumed her narrative. "Saturn's attack proved enough to hold off Metal'la long enough for me to employ the crystal. I was able to drive her back, but not before..."
"Before Beryl finished the kingdom," Yue finished succinctly for her. "What of the remaining Senshi?" One in particular.
Serenity sighed. "Dead. All died to buy me the time for my attack." She coughed again, this time blood accompanying her exhalation. "My attack will reincarnate them in a later age, where they are needed."
Yue stared as his queen finished death's journey in his arms. Laying her gently down, he slipped back to some of the rubble, deep in thought. Serenity worried him little; the people of the moon kingdom had a habit of not staying dead for too long. She'd likely reincarnate in a few millenia; death was nothing he'd worried about in her case. The problem lay in his oath to her over four hundred years ago; "As long as the sun shines, as the tides flow, and as long as the Laws are held in truth, I will serve you."
She might return, but it was not certain. The nine Senshi however, including the heir to the moon kingdom, would arise sooner or later. As such, that was where his loyalty now lay.
They would return, that was assured. The only trouble was when. It would be no trouble to him if they ressurected ten years from now; a decade here or there was little trouble to someone who didn't age. A century would grow tedious, but he could stand it. But what if they didn't arise for millenia? He would be unable to wait that long; he was only somewhat realistic but he did know his limits.
So he had to find some way to wait for them, as long as necessary.
--------
The farthest that you can get in the solar system without leaving it completely is the moon of Pluto. Nearly half as large as the frozen planet itself, it has been surmised that it was actually a former moon of Neptune that seperated along with the planet itself. Still, the distance from the sun to Charon was over forty times the sun's distance from earth.
It was what Yue called home.
Charon Tower was nothing special as far as the Silver Millenium kingdom went; a simple shard of rock crystal fifty meters tall and ten wide; nothing compared to even the abodes of Phobos and Deimos. Still, it suited him.
Yue checked various gauges and dials of the machinery at the very pinnacle of the tower as his preparations wound to a close. He regarded the deceptively simple contraption; little more than a circular pedestal beneath a kind of circuitry chandelier. Crude, but it would serve his purpose.
Yue was not one of the people of the Silver Millenium; he'd never admitted to anyone what he was, and no one had ever asked the coldly aloof knight of loyalty what he was.
How do you explain an archangel who CHOSE to leave heaven?
Even if you ignored the huge, white-feathered wings that could sprout from his back, he didn't completely pass for human. He was too...otherworldly. He stood at almost six foot four, a slender lean man weighing in at only one hundred seventy pounds. His hair was waist-length, a silvery fall of almost metallic white; his skin neither pale nor tanned.
In the end however, it was his eyes that advertised his inhumanity. A strange dark blue, slit-pupiled and flecked with silver, they resembled nothing more than the sky just after sunset.
Yue sighed as the preparations ended on the machine. One of the problems of being an angel was that you couldn't sleep; you could rest, and you could stay still, but an actual submergence into your subconscious was beyond their reach. As such, he was forced to find another means to keep him out of the way.
Activating the time delay, the white-clad knight stepped to the center of the raised pedestal and waited. He didn't have long; liquid silver began to seep upward from his feet as the circuitry hanging above him began to crackle, drawing motes of light into a column around him.
Yue took a final breath as the silver traced itself over his face, sealing him within. For all the world's view, what had once been Yue Legatum was nothing more, save this strange, too-lifelike statue where he had once stood.
He'd been careful in devising this; the sensors of his tower would wait until the power stirred. The silver would last eons, until he was meant to emerge.
Now all that was left was to wait.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Oh the horror. To be forced into admission of this fanfic's nature, a self-insert of all heinous things.
Well, now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoyed. This wasn't so much a start to the story as a way to set the scene, and explain what is yet to come.
P.S. I don't intend to update this until after Descant is finished and I've actually written Book Three, Bolero. Until then, I hope you're a slayers fan.