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Innocence Lost
Alfred's consciousness floated above a scene from Arella's past.
She was sharing this with him so that he felt like a sort of dream spectator. As Ebenezer Scrooge had been presented with the shadows of his life by the ghosts of Christmas, so too was Alfred now being presented with the life of Arella.
He hovered above a group of bedraggled youth in a rundown tenant of Gotham, chanting around strange symbols painted on the floor in some bizarre millennial ritual. A young Arella, or Angela Roth as she was called then, stood in the center. Except for the curl in her hair, she could have passed for Raven at this age. Alfred could feel the tension in the air, the dark ambition of youth combined with the brashness of gamblers.
Alfred watched as dimensions suddenly parted, and a handsome, golden man stepped through into the world. He felt Angela's pride and fear as the stranger – a perfect physical specimen - took her by the hand, smiled and led her to the bedroom, as in a dream. Alfred did not follow her. He stayed in the room with the sniggering children, dreaming of their dark rewards, oblivious to the obvious.
Once used, Angela Roth was left discarded, unconscious in the bedroom. Alfred watched as the young disciples (whom Angela later believed had deserted her) obediently followed Trigon into the void beyond to meet an early, terrible demise. This was the reward of fools.
Alfred jumped to an alley four months later. Somehow, Angela had learned the terrible truth and feared what was growing inside her. Trigon was the scourge of a thousand worlds. She now sought to end her life, and the life of Trigon's unborn child. But as the devil had appeared before her, she was now visited by an angel, a matronly angel named Azar. As the most desperate soul on Earth, Angela had been granted access to Azarath, to be its next citizen and become Arella, 'messenger angel'.
Months passed and Arella lay in the birthing bed while the skies of Azarath turned black and a cold chill embraced the land. The second native child of Azarath was born and there were some that believed this was an evil omen. Some believed that Arella had not cast out her negative emotions and desires, but instead expelled them during childbirth into a daughter named Raven.
Alfred then found himself in a scene ten years later as Raven studied with the great priestess, Azar. Learned to control her emotions and suppress the passions and hatred her father thrived upon. Her entire existence was a journey to distance herself from her father and all he represented. Still, she was scorned, avoided, ostracized due to her parentage.
Finally, Alfred viewed Arella's memories from today. A giant red figure, full of wrath and fire standing at the border of Azar. Then an onslaught of… things, terrible to describe, tearing apart humans like wolves let loose on lambs. He felt Arella's terror, but also her tempest of rage… resistance. She fought - the only soul in Azar to fight.
It was then that he was released from the shared visions to find Arella staring up at him. She began to explain…
"Please understand that Azarathians viewed their bodies only as mere containers of consciousness. True consciousness is far greater than flesh and blood. Trigon chose his army well… these demons tore apart the body only to free the soul... Like a walnut.
They eat souls.
A thousand conscious Azarathian souls, terrified for their immortal lives, fled into the only safe harbor they could find…
The entire collective of Azarath, one thousand lives, each hundreds of years old… now reside in my daughter. Her brief twenty-two years buried beneath millennia."
Author's Note:
Another of those back-fill chapters for readers not familiar with Raven's (and Arella's) background.