四面楚歌
shimensoka
“Surrounded by enemies.”
~Japanese proverb
Horus
"Give me the bead!” she screams.
I laugh. “Give me her tails.”
"You worthless piece of shit!” Apophis kicks the ground with her feet and stomps off.
Again.
Again.
Again.
“Don’t you tire of this?” Sariel asks in a bored tone. I half expect him to yawn. Angels and their dry sense of humor. At least I have him.
“No.” I shrug. “What else should I do with my time? I have friends protecting her, and I made a promise to return. I’ll bring her tails back, and I’ll bring her bead too.”
Sariel crosses his arms. “I have to admit, I’m impressed. In our time, we’re now closing in on two hundred years, and you’ve never wavered.”
“Why would I?”
"Do you know my father?" he suddenly asks.
I frown. “Um, the Creator, I think? You are a fallen archangel, after all.”
He nods. “Do you ever wonder why a fallen archangel wasn’t punished the same as others?”
Now that he mentions it. “I just assumed you were too high up in the heavens.”
"Gods.” He shrugs. “Sure, the Creator made a race of angels but so did the gods… mine was from the line of Ra. Certain angels have certain jobs, the ones that come from gods watch like the all-seeing Eye of Ra or some might say Horus.” He smiles. “The rest of the angels, the warriors, they are from the Creator.”
I'm stunned stupid. “How did I not know this?”
“It’s not common knowledge. Besides, what would it help? We are all the same species, but some of us have a little extra. The sons of gods were promised that if their immortality ever failed, they would be given one more chance. I took mine in saving my son after my fall, and somehow I ended up here, taking one more chance to save the fallen. I think maybe the Creator thinks I’m even, so I’ll try one more time.”
“Try what?” I jump to my feet.
Sariel smiles and walks toward the mouth of the cave. “Kings.” His whisper is both loud and soft.
Four of the fallen kings of Heaven walk forward. Each of them in chains tied to the very riverbed they’re bound to. All of them have black eyes, orange hair and are wearing golden armor that shines so bright it’s hard to look at them.
"Angel.” Ashtaroth raises his red-tipped sword. “You dare call on us?”
Sariel smiles. “His prison sentence is another hundred and fifty years at least. What if I offer to take it?”
The kings are silent, Mazzaroth, the zodiac fallen angel, steps forward. “We don’t allow trades in the Abyss unless the Creator allows it. And he has been absent for centuries.”
"And have you called for him?” Sariel asks arms spread.
“We don’t dare!” Arcturus says, the man known for being a beast, both angel and demon, both fallen and pure. His skin is that of a bear, his wings tattered at his sides while his bald head shines with gold reflecting the heavens. “We do not call him down to the darkness.”
Sariel smiles. “Then would it be fair for darkness and night to call light?”
Ashtaroth frowns. “You dare trick us?”
"He has the bead. He’s god of the sky and god of the night. Could he not, just once, call down the Creator? And ask to be set free?”
"We are a void,” Ashtaroth says. “Even if his eye burst with the light of a thousand suns, unless a miracle happens, the darkness shades us from the heavens. If he wants to leave this place after coming voluntarily, he must trade.”
I nod my head. “Fine. I'll trade.”
"What?” Sariel grabs my arm. “What are you saying?”
"Take my other eye; both together are more valuable than one. Just give me the nine tails of the fox and let me leave.”
“And the bead?” Ashtaroth asks. “She will want it; she won’t let you leave.”
"She can have me.” A voice sounds. A familiar voice. I pray I’m wrong. It isn’t worth this sacrifice. No story should end this way, with pain upon pain and weight on his shoulders, not after being reborn. “I’m sorry, Horus, I promised to watch, and when I did, I saw this. The demon goddess can have me again. Take me, take my power, let him leave with the tails, with the bead, let him have his peace.”
“He is a star again!” Ashtaroth says in disbelief. “He was redeemed! He watched her; he watched.” He falls to his knees. “His star never chose to fall into The Abyss the first time. But this time… this time, Watcher, Bannik of the Mountain, has chosen to fall. He has chosen. Sacrifice.”
Before I can scream no, Bannik is swirled up into darkness yet again. His own hell, the one he just fled, consumes him and tugs him deeper and deeper into the darkness of the Abyss. He doesn’t fight it. A tear slides down his cheek. A small smile follows as his body jerks down into the mud; his face is all that’s left. “Make it worth my sacrifice, god of the sky, and if you have more power, I wouldn’t mind a constellation, even if it is just two stars.”
He’s tugged through the ground, the mud, and beneath while Sariel yells and is thrust back into the land of the living, able to look up to the stars, while the worst of us is pulled back into the depths of the Euphrates.
Sariel and I hit the riverbed with a thud, and the window to the Abyss closes, sliding down into the running water.
Sariel crumples next to me and looks up. “I’ll return, I’ll tell the story—”
"Do that.” I nod, then grab his hand and point it toward the sky. “And when you speak the words, show them this.”
I create a constellation of Bannik.
On his knees.
Sacrificing himself for a fox.
A fallen.
And a god in Hell.
And at the tip of the crown, I place on his head, I create a falling star and point it straight toward Heaven as Sariel is called back home.