In Exile (Archangel Jarahmael and the War to Conquer Heaven, Book III) (9 page)

THE PRICE

Cerebriel arrived at the Throne Room in the Seventh Heaven early the next morning, anticipating that he could speak with Jarahmael before any of the other Angels arrived. He had hoped to talk to him last night, but he had not seen Jarahmael return from the Earth. All of the Angels in the Heavens had heard Adam and Eve's prayer to the Almighty mentioning Jarahmael late in the day. Cerebriel felt terrible that Jarahmael had broken the “no contact” commandment and was afraid of the consequences for his friend. They had been through a lot together. Cerebriel knew that Jarahmael was frustrated by the unfairness of Luciferael interfering with the Humans, and they had no legitimate way to counteract his influence.

The Orders of Angels filled the Throne Room as the time for the morning ceremony grew closer. Still no Jarahmael. Then came the beginning of the ceremony led again by Michael. Cerebriel looked expectantly for the Almighty to appear with the Thrones and Seraphim behind Michael's entrance, but it was another day that the Almighty and his entourage were absent.

Michael appeared tired this morning as he approached the Almighty's Throne and acknowledged all of the collected Angels. The ranks were still thinned in the Throne Room, seats no longer occupied where the outcast rebel Angels from each of the nine Orders used to attend. Cerebriel noticed Jarahmael's seat remained empty, and hoped that it would not eventually join the ones for the rebel Archangels who had been cast out of Heaven.

Michael took his place on the Throne and the room grew quiet. Before Michael began speaking, he looked at Jarahmael's empty seat, his gaze lingering there as his eyes grew distant for a few moments. Cerebriel instantly wondered if something terrible had befallen Jarahmael as Michael looked directly at Cerebriel and he saw the great sadness in Michael's eyes.

Michael then looked around the great hall and began to speak. “We all heard the prayers that were sent up here to Heaven yesterday afternoon by Adam and Eve concerning my brother Archangel Jarahmael. Jarahmael was a major hero in the rebellion, and we would not be sitting here in the Seventh Heaven if it had not been for his efforts and risks that he took to make the defeat of Luciferael possible. In fact, Luciferael himself would have never left here except for Jarahmael's fight with him at the last day of battle.” Michael looked around the room again, giving the Angels time to reflect on Jarahmael’s accomplishments.

“But Jarahmael has violated a commandment from the Almighty. Although Jarahmael and our noble leader of the Cherubim, Cerebriel, were to observe and protect the Humans, Adam and Eve, they were not to have direct contact. As we all can determine by the prayers yesterday, Jarahmael violated that commandment.” A murmur washed through the Orders of Angels as the violation of the Almighty’s rule sank into their consciousness.

“I have met with the Angels of the Orders of the Virtues. We have been up most of the night discussing how best to handle this violation of one of the Almighty's commandments to an Archangel.”

Cerebriel knew that he would have to speak up and try to convince Michael and the Virtues that Jarahmael was still doing the Almighty's will when he had communicated with the Humans. And he needed to do it now, before Michael continued with his speech. For as soon as Jarahmael was condemned by Michael, only the Almighty Himself would be able to reverse the decision. But there were good and reasonable grounds for Jarahmael violating the commandment. Accordingly, Cerebriel flapped his wings and took flight, hovering in the air to get Michael's attention. Cerebriel could see Michael was surprised that he was being interrupted and it took a few seconds for him to realize that he was being challenged.

“If it pleases my lord Michael, I wish to speak in defense of Jarahmael. He and I have been assigned by the Almighty to watch over the Humans, as you recall.”

Michael did not continue his speech but stopped and Cerebriel could feel him glaring back at him for being interrupted. Cerebriel watched Michael look around the room as he tried to gauge the reaction of the rest of the loyal Angels. Cerebriel did not take his eyes off Michael's and continued.

“Jarahmael and I discovered that Luciferael and other rebel Angels were interacting with the two Humans, Adam and Eve, over the past few days.”

Another murmur of disapproval went through the assembly of Angels.

“You all heard their prayers asking the Almighty for forgiveness and to return them back to their home in the Garden of Eden. You may not be aware that their prayers stopped because of the interference by Luciferael and possibly other members of his Auxilium. Jarahmael and I had investigated why the Humans stopped their prayers for forgiveness to the Almighty. We discovered that Luciferael appeared in front of Eve and convinced her that the Almighty had already heard their prayers and was going to return them. Luciferael and at least one of his rebel Angels did that on two successive days.”

The sound of disapproval rose higher from the assembly after hearing that it was occurring repeatedly.

“Jarahmael took that into account when he decided to speak with the Humans,” Cerebriel continued, the assembly now was reacting positively to Jarahmael’s actions.

“You were with him when he spoke to the Humans?” Michael interjected.

“No, my lord Michael. He had sent me back up into Heaven and he said he was going to follow me shortly.”

“Did you know he intended to speak with the Humans?” Michael asked, his eyes locked onto Cerebriel's face to see if he was lying or telling the truth.

“No, we had discussed it, but I thought he agreed that we should not contact them directly without first speaking with the Almighty or with you, my lord.”

“That was the proper thing to do,” Michael answered. “Have you spoken with Jarahmael since yesterday?” asked Michael.

“No, I was waiting for his arrival last night and when he had not returned, I expected to see him here in attendance this morning,” answered Cerebriel.

Cerebriel watched as Michael looked over at where the Order of the Virtues was seated and saw that they nodded their head in agreement with Michael’s glance.

“Thank you for telling us this, Cerebriel. But it will not change our decision. It is clear that Jarahmael knew that he should not have contact with the Humans, yet he decided to do so anyway. It is also clear that he knew the danger in doing so, as he had sent you back here into the Heavens so you would have no direct involvement, and no exposure to punishment for violating the Almighty’s commandment. In doing so, he clearly knew that his actions were not permitted.”

“But someone needed to intervene. . .” began Cerebriel, but he was cut off quickly by Michael.

“That was not a decision to be made by either you or Jarahmael. Do you not think the Almighty knows what to do under those circumstances? Do you know better than the Almighty or me?”

“But neither you nor the Almighty were there!” Cerebriel retorted.

“Do you question the Almighty’s awareness of what is going on with the Humans, the Heavens and the Earth?” Michael continued.

“No, my lord,” answered Cerebriel, realizing that he was engaged in a losing argument. “But there are circumstances, circumstances that demand justice, and that need to be dealt with immediately.”

“That may be so Cherubim, but the delay of a day or a week would not have mattered here. Remember these Humans are already sentenced to death!” Michael answered, making sure he stressed that Cerebriel was but a Cherubim and not an Archangel despite Jarahmael’s affection for him.

“Accordingly,” Michael continued, “Jarahmael is banned from the Heavens. He may wander the Universe and the Earth but he is not to be allowed back up here in the Heavens. The Virtues and I discussed this at length. If Angels are allowed to violate commandments of the Almighty without consultation, chaos will ensue and we have already had enough of that with Luciferael and his rebel Angels. Now let us continue with the rest of things we need to discuss.”

Cerebriel stopped hovering and returned to his seat. He knew that there was little he could do to help his friend now. He had hoped to be able to prevent any of this punishment from occurring. His thoughts were interrupted as Michael continued.

“Last night we discovered another consequence of the rebellion by Luciferael and his rebel Angels. The Virtues and I had been meeting up here in the Throne Room discussing the fate of Jarahmael when we discovered that the Book of Creation and the Book of Life had been stolen from the Throne.” Michael pointed down to the Throne where he was seated.

“We wanted to consult the Books to resolve the issue with Jarahmael, but when we opened up the Throne, we discovered two books that were supposed to be the Book of Creation and the Book of Life.” As Michael was speaking, he arose and opened up the Throne and pulled out what appeared to be two books.

“I know what you are thinking, we thought exactly the same. That the Books were here safe and sound. The truth is otherwise, for when we opened the Books we found that they were fakes composed of the floor materials from down here fashioned to look like pages,” he said, pointing towards the floor. “And they do not contain any writing, except for the covers,” Michael said as he opened the pages the Books and rifled through them, holding up the blank pages for all to see.” And then he continued.

“We know that Luciferael and his rebel Angels had taken over the Throne Room during the rebellion. He must have been able to get the Books out of here during the war or before we overran him and cast him down to Hades,” Michael said as he took the fake books and placed them back into the Throne.

“You may ask—why can't the Almighty replace the Books? The simple answer is that the Books reflect the controls the Almighty put in place for this Universe and a replacement book will not have all the same information that made the Books effective. They will also be affected by the preexisting Books if they are used. Right now Luciferael could control this known Universe, using the information within the Book of Creation. And the Book of Life would give him powers over the Humans and their yet to be born offspring. If Luciferael has these Books in his possession, he could start another war and could succeed.”

This thought made the assembly of Angels cringe. No one wanted to go through that again.

“We must find those Books and return them here to the Throne,” Michael concluded.

Right after the morning ceremony ended, Michael selected Cerebriel to lead a search party of Cherubim down onto the Earth. Accompanied by Michael, they went searching for either Luciferael or one of his fallen rebel Angels. It was a difficult mission to try to find what happened to the Book of Creation and the Book of Life. Cerebriel thought it to be a wasted trip. Finding, much less capturing, either Luciferael or one of his command rebel Angels would not be easy. And if they had the Book of Creation, their powers would be growing daily as they learned the use of the book.

“Where do you think the entrances to Hades and Hell are?” asked Cerebriel as he turned to speak with Michael.

“I do not know. I was only given the power to cast them out of Heaven. The Almighty only told me that Luciferael and his army of rebel Angels were to be confined in their own realm deep within the Earth, after they lost the rebellion. It was to be a large place under the Earth, one in fact that Luciferael had in mind for placing all of us, had we lost the war. It was the Almighty's sense of justice, to place Luciferael and his rebels in the place they intended for us.”

“Hmm, we know that Luciferael would not be giving us a great place, but there is a large expanse where Hades and Hell could be placed and occupy space. Finding the entrance is a whole other story, as there are many places where it could be. There are mountainous caves, underwater caves, volcanoes, deserts with ever shifting sands, and holes that drop down straight into the Earth itself. We also know that Luciferael and his rebel Angels have appeared in the area where Adam and Eve have been living. Let's start there first,” said Cerebriel. He hoped that by being near Adam and Eve that they may be able to find Jarahmael, now that he had been banished from the Heavens.

“Be mindful of the Almighty's commandment of no contact with the Humans,” Michael warned.

“How could I forget, my lord Michael?” Cerebriel responded, bowing down deeply in exaggerated deference.

They turned invisible and landed near where Adam and Eve's cave was located. It was early morning and although the morning ceremony had brought light into the Heavens earlier, the sun was finally rising in the east and waking up the Humans. Looking inside the cave, Michael and Cerebriel shot one another a glance. Slipping outside quickly and out of earshot, Michael became agitated and said to Cerebriel, “They have fire! How did that happen?”