Book 3 of the Salvation series, and part 3 of Act 1

The realm of He’aeven has always been influenced by prophecies, but when one speaks of the end of everything, it will be a race against time to interpret what is written, and to save the multiverse.

After the fall of Aegis, Ezekiel has been made the new Paladin of Innarius. A position that gives him the ability to go anywhere, but at a grisly cost. Now, he has to find a way to balance his task, keep his identity hidden, and find out what the demons are up to, all while the nations war with each other.

Meanwhile, Lahatiel searches to find a way out of her unique predicament, dealing with an unstable, unpredictable Sin. Allies and enemies to the angels appear from unexpected places, while Envy and the other Sins begin to make their move.

They will fight to avoid, fix, or change their destinies. But can prophecy be changed? Or are their fates written in stone?

Preview:

A sudden splash of ice cold water woke Ezekiel up.

The moment he gasped for breath, someone punched him.

His head snapped back only to slam into something solid. Stars spun in his vision, while voices rang muffled in his ears. He could not see where he was, but he knew at least that he was suspended off of the ground. His hands were tied above him and he could not feel the ground beneath his feet. Trying to open his eyes, he was met with a spinning room, so he had to squeeze them shut again. His head ached both from the inside and from the outside.

Someone grabbed Ezekiel’s hair and forced him to look at them. Concentrating, Ezekiel managed to get his vision to focus enough to make out a soldier, wearing the red uniform of Mayrilset. “You’re not so tough now, are you?” the soldier growled before punching Ezekiel again. “You’re just lucky she wants you alive!” the man spat angrily before shoving the angel back against the wall.

Another blow landed against Ezekiel’s sore cheek and he slumped against his restraints. He felt drained, figuratively and literally. Using up all his energy had left him aching all over. It had been too long since he had properly recharged and with all of the running, all of the fighting over the past few days, he had used the last of it to fight Lahatiel. Another soldier had their turn shouting at him, something about a fight at a place that he did not know. Then there was a blow to his ribs. Then another.

Ezekiel tried to ignore the soldiers as they berated him, trying to focus instead on recovering his energy, but as soon as he began to concentrate he was hit with another bucket of ice cold water. Then he was punched again.

The soldiers were trying to get a reaction out of him, but Ezekiel remained silent, refusing to give them anything, despite how many times they tried to beat it out of him. With his energy all but gone, he could not use his aura to defend himself from their attacks. He felt every blow.

The torture continued for a few hours, though being so close to unconsciousness a few times, Ezekiel could not keep track of exactly how long it actually lasted. Or when it ended. The next thing he knew, a pair of soldiers were dragging him by his shoulders somewhere. They travelled down a long corridor, stopping only to open the door at the end, before the soldiers then lifted Ezekiel up and unceremoniously threw him into the room. Ezekiel hit the ground hard, face down against the cold concrete. He heard the guards close the door, but he assumed they were still in the room with him.

Looking up through hazy vision, Ezekiel noted he was in some kind of scratch built office. There were chairs around the outside of the room, facing inwards and in the centre of the room, to the right of where he had landed on the floor, was a large desk. The place looked like a larger version of General Marsden’s office.

Struggling onto his hands and knees, Ezekiel had to force his body to respond. He felt slow and lethargic, almost numb. Not to mention covered in bruises. He would have loved to speed up his healing, but without sunlight to help him recover his depleted energy, recovering naturally would be a long process. Being soaking wet was not exactly helping either.

“So you are the one who has been causing so much trouble,” came a female voice from behind the desk. The woman stood up and walked around the desk, though all Ezekiel could see of her was a pair of black military boots with gold trim. They stopped right next to him. “You seem to be having some trouble there, here let me help you,” came her voice from above him.

The woman took a step back and someone grabbed Ezekiel by his uniform jacket, then all but threw him into one of the chairs. The soldiers who had brought him in laughed.

Ezekiel looked up at the person he had been brought to see and waited for his vision to clear. There was a woman standing there, looking at him with a look of slight amusement on her sharp features. She had shoulder length ash-blonde hair and bright intelligent eyes. As far as Ezekiel could tell, she was only half dressed in a Mayrilset uniform. Dark pants with red dashes down the side, a dark skirt over that, and a plain shirt. This was kind of strange compared to everyone else Ezekiel had seen so far, who had all been in strict full uniform. The only thing that seemed to fit, was her plain white shirt and the decorative epaulettes, the symbol of her position.

The woman pushed her fringe out of her eyes and sighed. “It is hard to believe that someone as young as you could cause so much trouble,” she said, taking a step back and leaning on the desk in the middle of the room. “But I guess if any one person could tip the scales, why not someone who would be underestimated.” She watched Ezekiel with an interested look on her face but waited for him to reply. When it was obvious he was not going to, she continued. “So you must be quite skilled, to have lasted this long.”

Ezekiel groaned in reply, partly from exhaustion, but also partly because his lack of skill had landed him in this position. Letting himself work to the point of running completely out energy was his biggest mistake. Next time he would take Nadia’s advice more seriously, if there was a next time, He hoped they were not at that base when it was attacked.

The woman did not seem to notice his concerns, she continued without batting an eyelid, “you obviously do not like it though, all this fighting that is, all the death.”

Ezekiel sat up straighter, her words hitting close to home. “How did you…?” he asked groggily, before stopping himself. She was probably just guessing, probably to get him to talk to her the way her soldiers had. Even if it was a very close guess.

Instead of replying straight away, the woman smiled. “Ahh, so you do speak, I was beginning to believe you could not.”

That was not the response Ezekiel had expected. He raised an eyebrow.

She chuckled, “you are wondering how I could tell right?” Not wanting to give his thoughts away, Ezekiel nodded slightly. She nodded slightly in return. “Most people dislike fighting, even those who are very good at it. I just guessed that since you were young, that is what the groan was for. But do not worry, your secret is safe with me.”

Ezekiel doubted it. Whether or not she noticed his disapproving look, the woman ignored it. “So, white-haired one. Do you have a name?” She was being awfully polite considering the circumstances. Maybe it was an act to get him talking.

Ezekiel glared at her before answering.”What does it matter to you, you probably will not let me live beyond today.”

She imitated a crestfallen look, that looked remarkably real in Ezekiel’s current state. “Now what gave you that idea?” she asked sternly.

“Your men gave me a pretty good idea,” Ezekiel said tilting his head to the guards who were standing over at the only door. Threats had been a part of their torture, and he was just realising now that they had been blaming him for their failures over the last couple of days.

The woman took a deep breath. “Did they now,” she said, glaring at the men. The group of soldiers snickered. “Well, it was not in my plans at all,” she said rather nonchalantly, directing the comment to the men at the door. She turned back to Ezekiel and smiled. “I will just have to remedy this little misunderstanding.”

Standing and turning toward the soldiers, with a flurry of movement that Ezekiel could not currently follow, she produced a metal object from her hip, then replaced it again. In that fraction of a second, the object created a deafeningly loud bang, before one of the men from across the room fell over in instant excruciating pain. The instant agony that Ezekiel could sense from the man was scary. It had happened so fast.

“Now get out of my sight!” The woman barked at the men furiously. “And from now on, no one tortures my captives unless I say so!”

Ezekiel was stunned as he watched one guard drag his injured comrade out the door. The genuine anger radiating from the woman was just as surprising. Straightening her shirt sleeves, then tucking one errant strand of her hair behind her ear, she turned to Ezekiel as if nothing had happened. “Now, white-haired one, about your name.”

Ezekiel looked between her, and the blood that was now staining the wall. “B-but, what? Th-They…” he stuttered, unable to quite comprehend what had happened.

With a wave of her hand, the woman dismissed it. “They are of no consequence. Unfortunately, in my position, you have to rule with an iron fist, or no one will respect you. Which means people disobeying orders, which means an unsuccessful campaign.” She leaned forward, “now young one, I will have your name, but if it makes it easier on you I will give you mine as well.”

This time Ezekiel opted to stay silent, letting his surprise speak for him.

“Very well then,” the woman said standing. “I am General Alexandria Di’Leyvren.” She gave a short half bow.

Ezekiel was taken aback. This was the woman he had been warned about by a few people. But although callous to her men, her demeanour was rather friendly to her captive. With all of his aura senses fuzzy at the moment, he was not sure if his senses agreed with him that she was not what she seemed, or not. She was staring at him expectantly.

“Ez-” Ezekiel began, but he quickly coughed to mask his slip. “It’s,” he corrected, “Zeke.”

“Now, that was not so hard, was it?” Alexandria said smiling.

Ezekiel stared at the floor. Something about this woman’s eyes scared him, especially when she was grinning like she was. Chancing another quick look, he looked up to see her merely watching him with patient intrigue. Her eyes showed a bright intelligence, but were two different colours. One eye was incredibly blue, while the other was a pale orange-red colour. Ezekiel looked away again, putting his palms over his eyes. He shook his head and tried to will his senses back to normal. When he looked up, she was still studying him.

“So, Zeke,” she said resuming her lean against the table. “Why do you fight?”

He looked up, then at the floor again. “I do not know,” he whispered. It had been one of the things he had been thinking constantly about for the last… however long, and he could not even give himself a straight answer.

The woman laughed, “I do not believe that,” she said smiling again. “I think you know why, you simply do not wish to share.” Even if that were true, Ezekiel simply did not want to fight. Even if he did, he did not want to fight in a war with humans. Something told him though that ‘hiding from demons’ was not a very good answer. “Either that, or you have not figured it out yet,” Alexandria guessed from his silence.

Ezekiel nodded, while he searched his mind for an answer to give her.

Alexandria made a thoughtful expression, tilting her head to one side slightly, her finger on her lips. “Let us see,” she began. “You do not like fighting, so it is not for the thrill of it. You do not seem like the patriotic type, so it is not for duty’s sake.” Even though she was just guessing, Ezekiel watched her with interest as she spoke. He forgot his own thoughts for a moment, he was too enthralled by her voice. “It would not be for monetary gain. There is nothing to be gained from your current position anyway.” She seemed to focus for a moment and Ezekiel waited to see what she would say. “Hmm, being as good as you are, you might be hunting someone…” Ezekiel held his breath, and for a moment believed she might have figured out the task he had been given. “No, that would not be your purpose for fighting now, would it?” she asked, mostly to herself. Ezekiel realised what she was getting at and was about to say something when she continued anyway. “You must be doing it for someone or something else,” she said. “You are protecting something!”

Ezekiel’s thoughts flashed to his friends and the reminder that he had failed to protect them. He felt a sharp stab of hurt and guilt, it was the only reason he had agreed to fight in the first place. Biting his tongue, he tried to remain neutral so he would not give anything away, but he was too late.

“Ah ha!” the General exclaimed, moving away from her desk. “You are a protector,” she added, moving closer to look him in the eyes. “It makes so much sense to me now. You fight to save others, and to protect.”

“I-I I do not know…” Ezekiel began, trying to change her mind.

“Do not try to deny it white-haired one, it is written all over you,” she said smiling again. “But, the question remains. What, or whom, do you protect? Hmm?”

Ezekiel tried to look away, tried to empty his mind and ignore the things she was saying, but found he could not, her eyes had him fixed.

“Do you fight to protect your home? Your friends perhaps? Or your family?” she said, firing questions at him quickly. “Do you want to save something, or someone in particular? Or perhaps you are fighting to save everyone from the horrors of war.”

That last sentence forced Ezekiel looked away, a hundred images of death and destruction flickering across his mind’s eye in an instant. At that moment, he saw angels and demons fighting and dying. Humans fighting amongst themselves, as well as many of the deaths he had caused himself. He did want to protect everyone from the fighting. He wanted it all to stop, he hated that there was nothing he could do about it. Tears began welling up at the corner of his eyes as he remembered the sight of the Innar base that he had not been able to save, he blinked them away quickly.

He turned to stare at the woman in front of him with as blank an expression as he could muster. She had fixed him with the exact same stare.

Ezekiel had to suppress a shudder, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.

The General was the first to break the silence. She took a breath and then smiled as she went back and leant on the desk once more. “Very well, Zeke,” she said pleasantly enough. “You may keep your secrets, I do not need to know what you protect, merely that you do is enough for me.”

Ezekiel exhaled a breath he did not know he was holding. His head was swimming, so many thoughts were running through his head. He tried not to let them show.

“You know,” Alexandria began again. “I am glad you are a protector; it explains a lot, and it makes things much easier for me.”

Confused as to why she would admit that, and why it would help, Ezekiel raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Alexandria chuckled, though it seemed forced, like she was not used to the sound. “There are many kinds of people in this world, Is-” She coughed on the word. “It’s,” she corrected, “…full of people who have different beliefs and reasons. Especially when there are wars involved.” She shifted a little, almost uncomfortably. “War is a very gruesome thing,” she said, running her hands over her folded arms. She shook her head and continued, “there are many reasons why someone would choose to partake in it. Some reasons are nobler than others, of course. But on the battlefield, all these reasons come to a clash.” She sighed. “I am glad to know that there are people out there like you. People who fight to save something. Not just people who are out there to kill the other side.”

Shifting in his seat, Ezekiel watched the General for a moment. He could not believe she was the person behind everything. This did not sound like the terrible woman he had been warned about. General Marsden had even told him she was conniving and vile, though now that he thought about it, he admittedly he could not trust that man’s judgement. He had used his position to get Ezekiel to agree to becoming Paladin, which was almost as underhanded as he seemed to suggest this woman was. But then he remembered the sense he had gotten from Adam when he had talked about her, he had been disgusted by what he had heard, but that could have all just been rumours he had heard. This woman seemed like she had been straight forward with him so far, and the things she said actually made a lot of sense to him. Maybe what the others had heard was just rumour, and she had worked hard to get to this position.

Alexandria was studying him. “What?” she asked, seeing his expression.

Frowning, Ezekiel shook his head. “Nothing,” he said as evenly as he could. “I was just thinking.”

“Thinking what?” she asked, genuinely curious. “You can be frank with me child, no one is going to hold your opinion against you here,” she said with complete seriousness. “In fact, it would make a change to hear an honest opinion for once,” she added with a smile.

Ezekiel held her gaze for a moment, scared more than anything in the honesty of her smile. He could see it in her eyes. “It is just…” he began. “You are just not what I expected.”

She laughed at this, a very real and honest laugh. “The number of times I have heard that,” she said between breaths. Once again, she took a deep breath to calm herself. “Do not worry child, I have heard all the stories. About the General dictator of the evil slanderous military nation. About how we supposedly kidnap children in the middle of the night, turn them into murderous soldiers, then let them loose on the world. I have heard it all, and worse. I have been called many things because of it.” She laughed again, “I am proud to disappoint you white-haired one, but I am not of those stories.”

“That is, not what I meant,” Ezekiel countered.

“Oh, and what did you expect?” Alexandria asked.

Since they were talking about it, Ezekiel figured he might as well be honest. “Well, I guess I did not expect you to be… so philosophical? Or nice… I guess,” he admitted.

She chuckled, “so you expected me to be the cold hearted bitch that your commander tells everyone I am?”

Ezekiel did not answer, but she knew she was right. They both knew he did not have to answer.

Alexandria walked around her desk and took a seat behind it. “No, I am not that person,” she said more seriously as she leant back on her chair. “Stories like that are made up, to make it easier to convince people that they are fighting the right people. If they believe that the leader of the ‘other side’ is evil, then fighting against them must be okay. Never mind that fighting against the nation might not be okay.” She leant forward again, fixing Ezekiel with an even stare. “But I ask you this. is there ever a ‘right’ reason to fight someone?”

It seemed a simple question, but Ezekiel had to really think about it. “Err… I do not know,” he said eventually. It was something he could not answer easily. It was a debate that he had studied back in Heaven. Logically a reason could be given, but morally, it was a grey area.

Alexandria nodded once, “as expected of one so young.” She studied Ezekiel a moment, then continued. “Let me put it to you this way,” she said simply, gesturing with her hands. “Two men meet on the battlefield, both with different views and beliefs. But due to their orders, they must kill one another. They do not know each other, but they fight because they are told that their opponent is evil.” As she explained, her words kept Ezekiel listening intently. Her voice was even and controlled, almost melodic. “One might want to protect his family, and in doing so he has come to cross swords with someone who might be wanting to merely save their land. To protect his home from invaders. But is either of them wrong?

Or are they both justified?”

“I do not know, they both have good reasons,” Ezekiel admitted. “I guess… But…”

“But?” Alexandria urged.

Ezekiel lowered his head, then whispered, “I do not think anyone should be made to fight.”

“Ah ha! right you are!” the General exclaimed, causing Ezekiel to look up. “No one should have to fight. but if they choose to, for their own reasons, then it is justified. At least to themselves. It should not be because they are told, but because they chose to.”

Ezekiel digested this. It had often been a point he had been trying to make sense of. “You are right,” he said slowly. “But then why do we have wars?”

Alexandria leant back on her chair again. “That is the question isn’t it,” she said flatly. “And that is the one that people like myself have to find the answer to. I guess sometimes, that someone cannot fight for his or her own reasons without help. It all comes down to how noble their cause is.” She folded her arms in thought.

Ezekiel was almost hesitant to ask, but after everything this woman had said, it did not seem right not to ask. “Why do you fight?”

With a sigh, Alexandria stood up. “Unfortunately, I can not give you my reasons.” She seemed bothered by the statement, and would not look Ezekiel in the eyes as she headed over to the door. She stopped with her fingers on the handle, and did not turn to face him when she spoke. “I wish I could tell you, but the time is not right. Perhaps you will find out soon enough.” As she opened the door, two armed guards entered. “Take him to the holding cells,” she ordered simply.

Reluctantly, Ezekiel stood and followed the men from the room.

“Just remember why you do what you do,” the General said as he passed her.

Surprised, Ezekiel turned to get a look at the woman, but the door had already covered her face. The men guarding him gave him a shove further down the hallway, stopping from saying anything. The led him through the base without a word, leaving him to question what Alexandria had meant, and ponder the points she had made about people fighting each other. They arrived shortly at a room full of prison cells at one end of the base and Ezekiel was shoved into one. The guards locked the door on him, then simply left, leaving him alone with his thoughts.