I was going to wait, but the quick response to this new fic surprised me a lot! I'm happy, but I had wanted to hold on a bit longer to this next chap, oh well. So for those that celebrate Valentine's day, and those who does not, here is another chapter!
Chapter 4:
After talking to Jasper, Lucas decided to contact Talia, because someone needed to speak to the vampire that was not helping his own cause. She landed within a moment, proving that she had been back to the angel plains, all of her, and not only part of her. She landed as an angel inside the living room. Her white dress, long and flowing as her hair rested loosely down her back. Her forest green eyes took in the room and the few myths present. When they landed on the one she was supposed to talk to, she smiled. "Ah, Edward, just the one I needed to speak to. Please come with me," she said and held her hand out for him to take. "Don't worry, I'll bring him back before he has to go to school," she told the rest as she clouded herself in bright white light together with the vampire that took her hand, if a bit cautiously.
Edward found himself standing beside a wide stream. Sunlight hit his skin, but he was not sparkling. He felt different, here, surrounded by this otherworldly nature. Plants he'd never seen before, and other colors he never would be able to describe. His skin was no longer as white as it had been, and looking into the stream, he fell backwards in shock as his once golden eyes met green again. "What did you do?" he asked, looking up as Talia came up to him.
"I'm simply showing you the skin you long for. As we are in a different stage of the plains, we won't be disturbed here. Your gift won't distract you," Talia told him, making a large cobweb appear in front of them. "This is your life's tapestry. It is not yet finished, and your life could end here." She pointed to a strand that seemed to fall down and out from nowhere. She saw his confusion and changed the tapestry to resemble a rug with many different pictures of certain significant events, from that it was simply golden as the thread kept going. The version she now showed him, the thread stopped within an unfinished picture. "You see better now?" she asked.
Edward nodded slowly and then other tapestries appeared. Different shapes and lengths.
"This is just a few possibilities of your life, there are way more. But I want you to understand that the smallest of decisions can make a difference. Now…" Only one was left, and was in the middle of a weaving process. "This is your life up until this moment right now. What has happened until this point. You make your own choices of how you wish to lead your life. Whether it be in happiness and contentment until the day you die and find rest. Or with depression and misery, and of course all the other between. As of right now, I know of your self-harm, and by that alone, you are falling dangerously close to a darker path."
Edward said nothing as Talia moved around and pointed on events and what choices had led to certain paths that had been taken.
"I want you to understand something," Talia then said, and her green eyes took on a glow as she had the last tapestry disappear as well. "You are a vampire; you were meant to be one. You were even given a mate. Instead of embracing these gifts and your second chance of life, you fell into darkness of your own making. You did not even try to change when you met her. Vampires can change, despite being frozen. You gain years of experience and get to see the world around you change, and experience those. You chose not to. By your choice, yes, you have brought this on by yourself. However, it will not help to blame yourself. The past cannot be rewritten. The only thing you can do is go within and find out what would make you happy. Not your family. Not Bella. Not Lucas or any other angel. You owe it to yourself to find your own happiness, whether it be with or without a soulmate. All hope is not lost even if Bella does not choose you. It depends on how you decide to go forward."
"What do you mean by that?" he asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed.
"It is part of the possibilities. If she severs your bond, you are free of a hurt bond. Depending on your choices you could still find a mate in the distant future, but that is quite far into time, if she severs the bond. If she doesn't, and you rekindle your relationship, you'll get your happily ever after anyway, and had I been you, I would not have taken it for granted then."
"She must choose either way," Edward whispered. Not sure how to feel about everything Talia had told him.
She let a hand rest on his back and let his tears that would not come, fall freely. Drop by drop they fell into the stream. She felt Ariel's presence before she even approached and she barely nodded towards her sister.
"You won't remember everything from this encounter, Edward," Talia said at last. "You might feel at ease, knowing that either choice has a possibility for your own happiness. Maybe it can be the boost you need to embrace your life a bit more. There is always hope, even with a hurt soulmate bond. For both parts. Go with this knowledge." She kissed his cheeks and stepped back as Ariel stepped forward.
"Rest," Ariel whispered and rested her palm over Edward's heart. Bright light engulfed him as he was sent back to earth and his home. She turned to her sister. "Even if you gave him hope, will you let him have her if she wants him?" she wondered.
Talia smiled as Erlos came out from the shadows of the trees behind them. "Of course not. Lucas has finally a chance at happiness and we can give it to him. We are going to do everything we can to make her want to sever her bond to be with him instead. If she can see her possible future with him, she will have it. Edward will get his mate as well if he can change his ways."
"Not everything he is and stands for is wrong," Ariel pointed out.
"No, but Lucas deserves this chance at happiness. Eventually, his will lead to yours too."
"I'm not sure how I feel to be fated to a vampire. How does that even work?" Ariel asked, her tone a bit grumpy.
"Can you not just be happy you have a possible mate?" Erlos asked his sister.
"Possible is the keyword here. Just as it is for Lucas," Ariel responded.
"It will work," Talia said. "When the bond severs, Bella's will be connected to Lucas. Edward will not feel it at first if you give up your wings at once. You'll have to wait a few decades, and then he has to change you of course."
Erlos laughed loudly. "You make it sound so simple."
"I do believe that our creator gave me this power for a reason."
"Soooo, I will be feeling a mating bond and not able to act on it?" Ariel was starting to feel more annoyed with her family.
"No, of course not. Not fully before you give up your wings. Don't worry, I'll tell you when the time is right. Before that you'll be busy with a few new family members." Talia shrugged.
Erlos' purple eyes blinked and then he turned his head to the side. "I feel something amiss."
"Here?" Ariel wanted to know.
"No, with Lucas. Of course here!"
The three angels felt the stirring in their mind of new information being programmed in and they fell to the grass. Feathers in disarray as they all sat up, clutching their heads. Erlos muttered something under his breath as he rested on his arms, golden wings stretched out from his back. Ariel's gray wings shuddered as she stretched them and retracted them into her back. Talia let hers rest against her back as she met the eyes of her siblings.
"This was unexpected," Ariel muttered as she went through her memory.
"You don't say," Erlos added, a bit dryly.
"It doesn't change much, except that I need to meet a few from our family in Seattle," Talia said. "I won't succumb to any bond before Lucas' is assured."
"We're some of the oldest angels around. It was due time that we got to rest from the hunts," Erlos pointed out.
"I'm not sure I would call it rest," Ariel then said, barely containing her snort.
"When all is in place, I will happily accept my fate and live out my days," Erlos pointed out.
"This is all we have known, throwing in a lot of new urges and feelings isn't going to change much, except that we will end up with different lives. Who will be gifted as us and able to help out in the way only we can?"
"Talia," Ariel started. "Even if you, Erlos and Lucas remain on earth for a time, I will still be here. I will keep an eye out for which of our siblings inherit your gifts, and I can help them. I know you best. Until the time is set, I will stay, and at least we will meet again one way or another." For Lucas and Erlos it would be when they would find rest. For Talia and herself it would be as vampires. They had made a choice to ensure one of their brother's happiness. In turn their creator revealed their own soulmates and where they would be. The path had pretty much been set as far as the creator was concerned. Would they now go back and take a more passive role? Not likely.
Being four of the oldest angels left came with its own perks and problems at the same time. How many had they not guided through the years? How many had they not helped and given a better life. How many of their siblings had they pushed in the right direction of their own soulmates?
"Remember, no one tells Lucas," Talia then said while helping to braid Ariel's long brown hair.
"About which part?" Erlos wanted to know.
"Everything for now. If any of you see him, obviously if Edward found more peace, then we did help him with that. If nothing changed, we tried. No sharing our own possible soulmates and how. We do not know who they are after all, well, except for Ariel, but that's years ahead if that happens, no, when it does. Failure is not an option."
"We're angels Talia, we won't fail," Ariel muttered.
"As long as we cause no harm," Erlos muttered.
"We have not caused any harm so far in our existence, we're not starting now," Talia replied drily.
"Creator would not gift us this new knowledge if we were," Erlos continued. "It would more likely be that we forgot a lot of this so we could not change anything at all."
"Change and change. There is no changing. We're steering a bit," Talia said.
"It's odd. I can feel love in different forms. Even the romantic kind amongst humans, but it has never had me longing for something similar. Now that I know my mate is close, that has changed."
"Oh, Erlos, you've always been a romantic, whether or not you've seen it yourself," Ariel teased.
"Are any of us going to address the demon issue in all of this? They're going to be thriving in Seattle soon, and we don't know why," Talia then said.
"Mm… There's not much we can do about it yet. Lucas needs to keep his wings until that has been taken care of," Ariel said.
"We have other siblings," Erlos pointed out.
"You really want to drag Silver and Gold into this? Or Gaia? I can keep going, but they relish too much of the fight. They're still quite young," Ariel said.
"What about Ty, Merissa, Caliste, Gabriel, Daniella?" Erlos suggested, only naming a few more.
"Ty, Merissa, Caliste and Gabriel are in Canada with several of our other siblings at this moment. Daniella is in northern Norway. Silver, Gold and Gaia are in Finland. The only free ones are us, several newer angels, and Daniel, Clarisse and Fredrika, whom should stay and train our younger siblings together with Ariel," Talia explained, giving him a pointed stare. They were all scattered well out over the world after all.
"So, until then, Lucas will need to keep his wings as he's still one of our best warriors against the demons. Erlos and you, Talia, will join him when the time is right, and I will help out when the moment is there."
"Actually, Erlos need to keep a bit closer to Lucas. He can only influence so so much from these plains. He's going to stay with the Cullen family." Talia smirked.
Erlos' purple eyes widened. "No, come on. I don't need myths to give me weird stares."
"Not yet," Talia then said. "I'll tell you when to leave here. For now, you should find a comfortable position and tune in on our brother dearest."
"It's a good thing Lucas does not know," Ariel muttered.
"One day he will," Erlos muttered and flew away from his sisters. He found a spot by a beach on this level of the plains. He let himself into the sand and closed his eyes as he focused on his brother, feeling his energy signature.
"I'll watch over you," Talia whispered as she stared out at the soft waves hitting the shore.