Chapter 50
Our aeclari have a small being of their own.
Will it enter the world as a full being?
Or will it become?
We have never had aeclari with a small being.
The first aeclari—
No, their being was not yet in the world when we returned to the deep. It was still becoming inside the consort.
—The Legion
Legion, come, meet our son.
The Legion stirred with excitement. It didn’t matter if they were based in the Refuge or in New York—they experienced it as one.
The ones who stood guard by the Medica didn’t all turn, for that would expose their aeclari. They didn’t need to all turn. They were one.
It was the Primary who turned and stepped to the large open wall where the consort stood with a tiny bundle in her arms. Sparks of wildfire yet lingered in the air, but as it didn’t seem to alarm the aeclari, the Primary did not consider it a threat.
He came close enough to look down at the face of the child in Elena’s arms. “He sleeps?”
“For now,” Elena said with a grin. “He was awake ten seconds ago.” She held out the babe.
The Primary—the Legion—all took a step back.
The Primary looked at Raphael, saw no glow to his wings, no fury in his expression.
“You are my Legion,” Raphael said. “You are part of me; this I know. You will end yourselves before you harm our child. This we both know.”
The Primary looked at the child again. “We do not know how to…”
“Just hold him like I’m holding him,” Elena said, “but only if you’re comfortable with it.”
The Legion whispered furiously among themselves. This was a new experience. No one gave them children to hold, far less newborn angels. They were not designed for this.
You have become far more than we ever dreamed when you first rose.
The first aeclari had said that, had given them leave to continue to grow beyond their purpose. Continue to become.
So the Legion held out their arms in the form of the Primary, and they accepted the tiny bundle that represented trust beyond anything they had ever known, and they held it exactly as Elena had shown them, and they stared down as one at the child who had come from their aeclari.
He has not yet become, was the consensus. He will grow as we grew.
We would like to see this.
We have not watched any new being become over their entire lifetime.
It intrigued them. But far more than that, they felt their duty. This was why they had risen—to protect the child of the aeclari. And it was what they would do.
“Hello, child of the aeclari,” the Primary said, speaking for all his brethren. “We are the Legion. We will protect you until you have become.”
The child’s eyes opened for a fraction of an instant, and in that instant, the Primary saw the familiar, the sparks of life that were the aeclari.
The Legion sighed, understanding now.
Not the aeclari, but truly of the aeclari.
Treasured. Precious. To be…loved.