Post by Arsenal on Feb 8, 2024 14:07:48 GMT -8
This was the most afraid she’d ever been.
Even moreso than when her coach had threatened to throw her off the team and basically end her life as she knew it if she didn’t keep doing as he told her when she was nineteen.
Even moreso than when he had done it anyway because he’d become bored with her and decided she needed to be taught a lesson for being boring.
Even moreso than when her parents had found out what she’d been doing and took the school’s side instead of hers and left her adrift on the street.
This was different. The Children of Nephilim had taken her in when no one else would and had become the family she had always searched for. When the schism had first started, she’d listened to Valdemar and shaken her head. He wasn’t really speaking against their Lord. But he had kept it up, and so had the other of the eleven Watchers who seemed to be listening where the others did not.
Tamiel had listened, more than she really originally intended to.
At first, she’d only meant to be a sympathetic ear. She’d thought if Valdemar could just get the words out, he would let go of the ideas he was saying but then he kept going. The ideas seemed to spread like a virus and when he had made his challenge, she had found herself as one of the two he knew he could call.
They hadn’t been home, no one knew they had gone with him.
Tamiel had hoped the split would last long, that Valdemar would see the error of his ways or that their Lord would see his and the family would be reunited. She had clung to that hope even when Sathanas was recruited even though that should have been a red flag to her. She had even clung to it when what was technically her home had been destroyed.
Now she felt trapped in between the two halves of her family, trapped by a betrayal on both sides that only one even knew about at present. It had been Tamiel that had warned those at the estate of Xaria Linette of what was coming. When the time had come, she had found herself unable to just allow the children to become casualties of a war they were supposed to be protected from!
That call had outed her to her Lord…
What could she do now? He knew she had wavered, that she had done the unthinkable and gone with Valdemar in his transformation into Lord Appolyon. What would happen if Appolyon found out it had been her?
What should she do now?
Tamiel looks over at the pile of burner phones sitting on her hotel room bed and squeezes her hand closed. The phones had fallen into her lap while on a mission for both Lords. She was supposed to be watching a reformed man in Baltimore for her Lord, waiting to see if Sathanas would make a move on him. Of course, she knew Sathanas was already there, ready to make the very move she was supposed to try and prevent but in walking the street near the target’s apartment, she had come across another, a man selling burner phones on the street for drug money and his face was one she’d seen. They were supposed to send him for reeducation and so she had directed him to a place she knew Sathanas and his demon squad would be able to take both men and kept his stash of burners for herself. They were clean, they were unconnected to anything and no one knew she had them.
It was like finding a pile of gold.
Tamiel: “Try…”
She stares at the phones and picks one up. It only took a few seconds to set it up and she quickly dialed a number very few would know. The number rang only once and an irascible voice answered.
Voice: “How...did you get…”
Tamiel quickly cuts the voice off.
Tamiel: “Hi…”
The voice goes quiet and then audibly moves from wherever the woman it belonged to was. Tamiel hears a door open and then close.
Voice: “Does anyone know what you are doing right now?”
Tamiel takes a deep breath.
Tamiel: “I don’t know what I’m doing right now.... I…”
She pauses and shakes her head.
Tamiel: “I’m lost… I’m so scared of everyone right now…”
The voice goes quiet for a second and then comes back sounded intrigued and yet skeptical.
Voice: “Why me?”
Tamiel sucks in a breath knowing what she must sound like.
Tamiel: “Who else? The Angels will all hate me, the Lord… “
She slumps onto the bed, sitting heavily.
Tamiel: “Oh God…”
The voice softens.
Voice: “Is anyone else on whatever mission with you?”
Tamiel shakes her head.
Tamiel: “No… low profile stuff only at present. I’m not even supposed to check in again for another couple of days.”
The voice pauses, seemingly taking this all in.
Voice: “You can’t run. If you do, they will know it was you and make a point of hunting you down. The safest thing you could do right now is go on like it’s all business as usual.”
Tamiel shakes her head, the tears coming in earnest now.
Tamiel: “How can I watch as they do the things they’re gonna do? Valdemar doesn’t care about innocents. He’s perverting our beliefs the same way he said our Lord was! The children… I just wanted our family… I…”
Unable to find her words, Tamiel slides off the bed and falls to her knees.
Tamiel: “Somebody help me… PLEASE!!!!!!”
The voice quickly answers.
Voice: “You know that family is probably fractured beyond repair now…”
Tamiel nods sadly.
Tamiel: “Yes… I also know I can’t come back home…”
Voice: “Is that what you really want?”
Tamiel leans over, still on her knees, her face pressed to the floor.
Tamiel: “Yes… I’m sorry, ok? I’m sorry…”
The voice goes silent for a second and then comes back sounding compassionate.
Voice: “You really fuckin’ mean it, don’t you?”
Tamiel hears the door from earlier open and a second, more familiar voice greets her ears.
Sariel: “Tami?”
Tamiel can barely hold in her scream.
Tamiel: “Sara?”
Sariel: “Redemption calls. Brightness wields fame when God is gracious. When the crow finds the flower, the fallen will heed the call.”
Tamiel sits up on her knees and tries to compose herself. Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes as she steels herself.
Tamiel: “I love you, Sister.”
Sariel’s answer comes swiftly.
Sariel: “You are loved, Tami.”
The tears start to roll down Tamiel’s face as she hears the door again. The first voice returns as Tamiel tries to wipe her eyes.
Voice: “Are you going to be able to do this?”
Tamiel nods slowly.
Tamiel: “I have been called…”
She pauses as she tries to hold everything within herself again.
Tamiel: “Why are you helping me?”
The voice sighs heavily.
Voice: “Look, the world thinks I’m a raging fucking bitch and half of them probably still think I’m a raging cocaine fiend too. Hell, that was probably true at one point but just because the world thinks it, doesn’t make it the truth. I know what it feels like to be at war with yourself and with your family at the same time. But this is what family does. We look out for each other and when one is lost, we do not cast them into the pit and watch them roast in the ninth circle. We reach out and offer a hand…”
Tamiel nods slowly.
Tamiel: “Thank you, Ashley…”
Ashley Kenyon: “You know you gotta break that phone now, right?”
Tamiel nods as she sniffles.
Tamiel: “Yeah, I have others.”
Ashley Kenyon: “Call me again in a couple of days, we’ll work out a code for you to use when messaging on the phone they can see so it’ll look like you’re bullshitting us the way they want you to, ok?”
Tamiel nods, a small smile coming to her face as she feels the warm embrace of family and purpose taking hold again.
Tamiel: “Can you… can you ask… him…”
She trails off, not daring to finish her question. Ashley’s voice returns with a comforting, almost motherly tone to it.
Ashley Kenyon: “I will.”
Tamiel nods slowly, gratefully.
Tamiel: “Thank you.”
The call ends and Tamiel sets the phone down, knowing she’ll never be using this one again.
~ The Children’s Compound ~
Ashley Kenyon stares at her phone in stunned disbelief.
Ashley Kenyon: “Fucking hell…”
The door behind her opens to emit her best friend and tag team partner, Aerynn Maguire.
Aerynn Maguire: “Whot bae goin’ on, Ash? Sara jess came back in lookin’ distressed…”
Exhaling heavily, Ashley turns to look at Aerynn.
Ashley Kenyon: “Tami called…”
Aerynn’s eyes go wide in both shock and anger.
Aerynn Maguire: “Whot did tha tart want?”
Ashley looks back to her phone still unsure if she really believes it herself.
Ashley Kenyon: “To come home…”
Aerynn can’t believe her ears.
Aerynn Maguire: “An’ ye dinna bae tellin’ her tae blow it out her arse?”
Ashley shakes her head, almost in slow motion.
Ashley Kenyon: “No… no, I did not…”
Aerynn’s eyes narrow skeptically.
Aerynn Maguire: “And why th’ fuck not?”
Ashley slips her phone away and looks to her partner.
Ashley Kenyon: “You should have heard her, Rynn. That poor girl is scared like, staring down a loaded double-barrel twelve gauge scared… she knows she’s caught in no man’s land right now.”
Aerynn nods slowly.
Aerynn Maguire: “Ye bae faelin’ fer her then?”
Ashley nods quickly.
Ashley Kenyon: “The last time I heard anyone that scared of anything, it was a little girl who’d hired us to investigate her own father knowing that if daddy found out…”
As Ashley trails off, Aerynn nods understandingly.
Aerynn Maguire: “So, whot happens now?”
Ashley exhales heavily again.
Ashley Kenyon: “Severus Snape…”
Aerynn’s eyes go wide in shock, this time mingling with horror.
Aerynn Maguire: “Ye dinna…”
Ashley nods.
Ashley Kenyon: “Me and Sara… gonna go talk to the big man next.”
Aerynn nods as Ashley walks off. A minute later, she comes to where the leader of the Children of Nephilim is taking a break from a workout.
Ashley Kenyon: “Did Sara come talk to you yet?”
Just as the words finish leaving her mouth, the aforementioned Sariel walks into the area as well.
Sariel: “Tamiel.”
Lord Lucifer: “Speak.”
Ashley Kenyon: “She called me. I’ve only heard that kind of fear once before…”
Lord Lucifer: “And?”
Ashley Kenyon: “That little girl I told you about, the one who knew her father would take her down to the basement if he found out, Tamiel sounded just like her.”
The shirtless man nods slowly.
Lord Lucifer: “Where does she stand?”
Ashley Kenyon: “Sara asked her if she was willing to go back in and be our eyes. She is to call me to work out a code in two days after she checks in with Valdy to keep up appearances with him. She is terrified that you will excommunicate her...or worse…”
She pauses and nods to Sariel.
Ashley Kenyon: “You too…”
Lord Lucifer: “Do you believe her?”
Ashley and Sariel both nod.
Lord Lucifer: “When she calls back, give her a test. If she passes, she is made whole again.”
Sariel bows her head.
Sariel: “Yes, Sire.”
The Asian woman turns and takes her leave. Ashley pauses and nods to their leader.
Ashley Kenyon: “Thank you…”
The man nods back, a smile coming to his face.
Lord Lucifer: “Do you see now?”
Ashley nods in return.
Ashley Kenyon: “I do…”
Lord Lucifer: “The prodigal sister comes in from the wilderness…”
Even moreso than when her coach had threatened to throw her off the team and basically end her life as she knew it if she didn’t keep doing as he told her when she was nineteen.
Even moreso than when he had done it anyway because he’d become bored with her and decided she needed to be taught a lesson for being boring.
Even moreso than when her parents had found out what she’d been doing and took the school’s side instead of hers and left her adrift on the street.
This was different. The Children of Nephilim had taken her in when no one else would and had become the family she had always searched for. When the schism had first started, she’d listened to Valdemar and shaken her head. He wasn’t really speaking against their Lord. But he had kept it up, and so had the other of the eleven Watchers who seemed to be listening where the others did not.
Tamiel had listened, more than she really originally intended to.
At first, she’d only meant to be a sympathetic ear. She’d thought if Valdemar could just get the words out, he would let go of the ideas he was saying but then he kept going. The ideas seemed to spread like a virus and when he had made his challenge, she had found herself as one of the two he knew he could call.
They hadn’t been home, no one knew they had gone with him.
Tamiel had hoped the split would last long, that Valdemar would see the error of his ways or that their Lord would see his and the family would be reunited. She had clung to that hope even when Sathanas was recruited even though that should have been a red flag to her. She had even clung to it when what was technically her home had been destroyed.
Now she felt trapped in between the two halves of her family, trapped by a betrayal on both sides that only one even knew about at present. It had been Tamiel that had warned those at the estate of Xaria Linette of what was coming. When the time had come, she had found herself unable to just allow the children to become casualties of a war they were supposed to be protected from!
That call had outed her to her Lord…
What could she do now? He knew she had wavered, that she had done the unthinkable and gone with Valdemar in his transformation into Lord Appolyon. What would happen if Appolyon found out it had been her?
What should she do now?
Tamiel looks over at the pile of burner phones sitting on her hotel room bed and squeezes her hand closed. The phones had fallen into her lap while on a mission for both Lords. She was supposed to be watching a reformed man in Baltimore for her Lord, waiting to see if Sathanas would make a move on him. Of course, she knew Sathanas was already there, ready to make the very move she was supposed to try and prevent but in walking the street near the target’s apartment, she had come across another, a man selling burner phones on the street for drug money and his face was one she’d seen. They were supposed to send him for reeducation and so she had directed him to a place she knew Sathanas and his demon squad would be able to take both men and kept his stash of burners for herself. They were clean, they were unconnected to anything and no one knew she had them.
It was like finding a pile of gold.
Tamiel: “Try…”
She stares at the phones and picks one up. It only took a few seconds to set it up and she quickly dialed a number very few would know. The number rang only once and an irascible voice answered.
Voice: “How...did you get…”
Tamiel quickly cuts the voice off.
Tamiel: “Hi…”
The voice goes quiet and then audibly moves from wherever the woman it belonged to was. Tamiel hears a door open and then close.
Voice: “Does anyone know what you are doing right now?”
Tamiel takes a deep breath.
Tamiel: “I don’t know what I’m doing right now.... I…”
She pauses and shakes her head.
Tamiel: “I’m lost… I’m so scared of everyone right now…”
The voice goes quiet for a second and then comes back sounded intrigued and yet skeptical.
Voice: “Why me?”
Tamiel sucks in a breath knowing what she must sound like.
Tamiel: “Who else? The Angels will all hate me, the Lord… “
She slumps onto the bed, sitting heavily.
Tamiel: “Oh God…”
The voice softens.
Voice: “Is anyone else on whatever mission with you?”
Tamiel shakes her head.
Tamiel: “No… low profile stuff only at present. I’m not even supposed to check in again for another couple of days.”
The voice pauses, seemingly taking this all in.
Voice: “You can’t run. If you do, they will know it was you and make a point of hunting you down. The safest thing you could do right now is go on like it’s all business as usual.”
Tamiel shakes her head, the tears coming in earnest now.
Tamiel: “How can I watch as they do the things they’re gonna do? Valdemar doesn’t care about innocents. He’s perverting our beliefs the same way he said our Lord was! The children… I just wanted our family… I…”
Unable to find her words, Tamiel slides off the bed and falls to her knees.
Tamiel: “Somebody help me… PLEASE!!!!!!”
The voice quickly answers.
Voice: “You know that family is probably fractured beyond repair now…”
Tamiel nods sadly.
Tamiel: “Yes… I also know I can’t come back home…”
Voice: “Is that what you really want?”
Tamiel leans over, still on her knees, her face pressed to the floor.
Tamiel: “Yes… I’m sorry, ok? I’m sorry…”
The voice goes silent for a second and then comes back sounding compassionate.
Voice: “You really fuckin’ mean it, don’t you?”
Tamiel hears the door from earlier open and a second, more familiar voice greets her ears.
Sariel: “Tami?”
Tamiel can barely hold in her scream.
Tamiel: “Sara?”
Sariel: “Redemption calls. Brightness wields fame when God is gracious. When the crow finds the flower, the fallen will heed the call.”
Tamiel sits up on her knees and tries to compose herself. Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes as she steels herself.
Tamiel: “I love you, Sister.”
Sariel’s answer comes swiftly.
Sariel: “You are loved, Tami.”
The tears start to roll down Tamiel’s face as she hears the door again. The first voice returns as Tamiel tries to wipe her eyes.
Voice: “Are you going to be able to do this?”
Tamiel nods slowly.
Tamiel: “I have been called…”
She pauses as she tries to hold everything within herself again.
Tamiel: “Why are you helping me?”
The voice sighs heavily.
Voice: “Look, the world thinks I’m a raging fucking bitch and half of them probably still think I’m a raging cocaine fiend too. Hell, that was probably true at one point but just because the world thinks it, doesn’t make it the truth. I know what it feels like to be at war with yourself and with your family at the same time. But this is what family does. We look out for each other and when one is lost, we do not cast them into the pit and watch them roast in the ninth circle. We reach out and offer a hand…”
Tamiel nods slowly.
Tamiel: “Thank you, Ashley…”
Ashley Kenyon: “You know you gotta break that phone now, right?”
Tamiel nods as she sniffles.
Tamiel: “Yeah, I have others.”
Ashley Kenyon: “Call me again in a couple of days, we’ll work out a code for you to use when messaging on the phone they can see so it’ll look like you’re bullshitting us the way they want you to, ok?”
Tamiel nods, a small smile coming to her face as she feels the warm embrace of family and purpose taking hold again.
Tamiel: “Can you… can you ask… him…”
She trails off, not daring to finish her question. Ashley’s voice returns with a comforting, almost motherly tone to it.
Ashley Kenyon: “I will.”
Tamiel nods slowly, gratefully.
Tamiel: “Thank you.”
The call ends and Tamiel sets the phone down, knowing she’ll never be using this one again.
~ The Children’s Compound ~
Ashley Kenyon stares at her phone in stunned disbelief.
Ashley Kenyon: “Fucking hell…”
The door behind her opens to emit her best friend and tag team partner, Aerynn Maguire.
Aerynn Maguire: “Whot bae goin’ on, Ash? Sara jess came back in lookin’ distressed…”
Exhaling heavily, Ashley turns to look at Aerynn.
Ashley Kenyon: “Tami called…”
Aerynn’s eyes go wide in both shock and anger.
Aerynn Maguire: “Whot did tha tart want?”
Ashley looks back to her phone still unsure if she really believes it herself.
Ashley Kenyon: “To come home…”
Aerynn can’t believe her ears.
Aerynn Maguire: “An’ ye dinna bae tellin’ her tae blow it out her arse?”
Ashley shakes her head, almost in slow motion.
Ashley Kenyon: “No… no, I did not…”
Aerynn’s eyes narrow skeptically.
Aerynn Maguire: “And why th’ fuck not?”
Ashley slips her phone away and looks to her partner.
Ashley Kenyon: “You should have heard her, Rynn. That poor girl is scared like, staring down a loaded double-barrel twelve gauge scared… she knows she’s caught in no man’s land right now.”
Aerynn nods slowly.
Aerynn Maguire: “Ye bae faelin’ fer her then?”
Ashley nods quickly.
Ashley Kenyon: “The last time I heard anyone that scared of anything, it was a little girl who’d hired us to investigate her own father knowing that if daddy found out…”
As Ashley trails off, Aerynn nods understandingly.
Aerynn Maguire: “So, whot happens now?”
Ashley exhales heavily again.
Ashley Kenyon: “Severus Snape…”
Aerynn’s eyes go wide in shock, this time mingling with horror.
Aerynn Maguire: “Ye dinna…”
Ashley nods.
Ashley Kenyon: “Me and Sara… gonna go talk to the big man next.”
Aerynn nods as Ashley walks off. A minute later, she comes to where the leader of the Children of Nephilim is taking a break from a workout.
Ashley Kenyon: “Did Sara come talk to you yet?”
Just as the words finish leaving her mouth, the aforementioned Sariel walks into the area as well.
Sariel: “Tamiel.”
Lord Lucifer: “Speak.”
Ashley Kenyon: “She called me. I’ve only heard that kind of fear once before…”
Lord Lucifer: “And?”
Ashley Kenyon: “That little girl I told you about, the one who knew her father would take her down to the basement if he found out, Tamiel sounded just like her.”
The shirtless man nods slowly.
Lord Lucifer: “Where does she stand?”
Ashley Kenyon: “Sara asked her if she was willing to go back in and be our eyes. She is to call me to work out a code in two days after she checks in with Valdy to keep up appearances with him. She is terrified that you will excommunicate her...or worse…”
She pauses and nods to Sariel.
Ashley Kenyon: “You too…”
Lord Lucifer: “Do you believe her?”
Ashley and Sariel both nod.
Lord Lucifer: “When she calls back, give her a test. If she passes, she is made whole again.”
Sariel bows her head.
Sariel: “Yes, Sire.”
The Asian woman turns and takes her leave. Ashley pauses and nods to their leader.
Ashley Kenyon: “Thank you…”
The man nods back, a smile coming to his face.
Lord Lucifer: “Do you see now?”
Ashley nods in return.
Ashley Kenyon: “I do…”
Lord Lucifer: “The prodigal sister comes in from the wilderness…”
