In the
long ago, in time that was, before the quarrels of today’s centuries: there was
a human woman. Her hair was black and short and her skin was pale as teeth, and
the name that she was called by her friends, and that we shall call her today, was
Lily – the overseers had a different name for her, or more precisely an alphanumeric
code, the specifics of which are of little importance and have been lost to us.
The
Archbishop of Banor at the time had been raised to her position through promising
a tremendous plan to defeat Calabia. Seven times Banor had tried to conquer Calabia,
seven times the bloodlords’ military superiority and judicious political
alliances had rebuffed the holy wars. Eight is not an auspicious number to the
Numielites of Banor, but the Archbishop made grand promises, much grander than
the portents allowed for. Her plan was thus: she prayed to Numiel to send
angels to free all the food from the stockpens, so that the food might rise in
revolt and Banor might sweep in as conquering heroes.
So it was
that, as Lily was getting ready for sleep in the stockpen, the celestial angel
Arossiel came to her, a frightful whirlwind of wings and eyes, intoning in a
terrible and awful voice, “FEAR NOT”.
Utterly
disregarding Arossiel’s perfectly clear instruction, Lily gave a terrified
squeak and dropped her hairbrush.
The angel
did his best to tone down his terrifying affect somewhat, apologizing and begging
Lily’s forgiveness. He was between Lily and the door, and there were no windows
in the stockpens that one might dive out of, so she could not flee; she could
only cower in terror.
Arossiel
sensed that his holy mission to free the food and raise them up in revolt was already
going poorly, barely having started at all. He shrunk down further, modulated
his voice and his apologies, trying to calm Lily.
Eventually,
Lily grew less terrified and more curious, just while Arossiel grew more distraught
and panicked about how far behind he was already running on his mission. The
armies of Banor were thundering towards Calabia, and he hadn’t even freed a
single food.
In a few hours,
Lily calmed Arossiel with soothing words and gentle touch; in that same time, the
angel fell in love with the human, and grew distracted from his mission. If one
food needed this much attention before she might act, how much time would
myriads of them take? Arossiel decided it could not be done, and stayed with
Lily instead. It took some days before Lily returned Arossiel’s feelings, but
in time she did.
Battle
was soon joined in the fields of Calabia, and the Archbishop’s armies soon lay derelict
and ruined. The fate of the eighth Banor invasion of Calabia was decided before
it began.
Arossiel the
angel fled Calabia with Lily, fled from his duties and from Numiel’s service,
fell from grace and lost his wings, and the two wandered the world for at least
some decades before falling from the pages of history.
