Chapter 75
In conclusion, it is apparent that mortals are the innovators of our world, with the limited angelic outliers only making that more evident.
If angelkind is to continue to move forward through time, we must work with mortals on innovation—and provide funding to those inventors who lack such but have groundbreaking ideas that could be of use to us all.
—From: An Essay on Mortality, Immortality, and Innovation by Phoenix Zakriel
Several decades on from the night that had erased the specter of madness that had hung over Raphael since he was far too young, Elena avoided a kick aimed at her head by her tall and very strong “teenage” son. She then kicked out her own leg to sweep his from under him.
He went to the ground on his back with a grunt, immediately scowled. “Ugh! I should’ve seen that coming.”
She held out her hand. “I would’ve been insulted if you had.”
Grinning that huge grin that was pure young Raphael, Nix took her hand and vaulted up to his feet with the ease of the athletic youth he was—a youth who was about to edge her out in the height department, even though he was only just nudging seventy.
Once, that would’ve seemed an impossibly old age to her, but now that she’d spent those years watching her child grow, she felt like it was nothing, the blink of an eye.
Angelic children developed apace with their expected endless lifespans.
“At least Anise’s father still puts her on her ass, too.” Hands on his hips, he caught his breath. “Though it’s not fair that Eh-ma Hannah doesn’t fight—Anise only gets beaten up by one parent.”
Elena laughed. “Is this what you tell your grandmother? That we beat you up?” Caliane had morphed fully into adoring grandmother mode in the years since she’d first met Phoenix—one with a grandson who could do no wrong.
“It’s only the truth,” said her unrepentant scamp of a child. “Also, then Mimi gives me lessons in how to beat you both. She’s teaching me tricks you don’t know. So is Dmitri.” He tapped the side of his nose with a smirk. “Watch out, Mama.”
Elena ruffled his hair. “Bring it on.” She loved how her son was so entwined with the many people who loved him.
Talking of which—“Your great-grandpa called. Said something about a strategy session?”
Nix’s eyes lit up. “Can I go see him this afternoon, please? Greats said he was going to let me sit in on a planning meeting with his ground unit.”
It would always astonish Elena that refined, respectable Jean-Baptiste allowed his great-grandson to call him the singular Greats. It had begun during childhood, when Nix simply hadn’t been able to say Great-grandpa, and never quite ended.
“As long as you complete your schoolwork,” she said. “Per your teacher, you essays have been late twice in a row.”
She raised an eyebrow in a silent “Explain yourself to your mother” statement. It would’ve been “Explain yourself to your parents” if Raphael wasn’t out with their most senior wing. He was acting as the aggressor, so they could practice maneuvers.
In front of her, Nix winced. “I have no excuses. I got caught up in flying drills when Uncle Blue visited.”
Elena fought to contain her smile. Truth was, she’d figured as much—how, she and Raphael had said to each other, could anyone expect a boy as active and energetic as their son to sit inside studying when his favorite uncle was in the city and in the mood to play around with some of his fellow warriors from back before his ascension.
“In that case,” Elena said, “you will finish your schoolwork and write Jessamy an extra essay on all you learned with Illium.”
Nix groaned. “But Greats?”
“You can go,” Elena said, but held up a finger. “However, tomorrow is a full school day.” It was also forecast to sleet, which would make staying inside far easier for her son. “Deal?”
“Deal.” A grin, then a huge hug, Nix all lanky limbs and newly growing muscle. “Love you, Mama.”
“Love you, too, Nixie,” she said, expecting a renewed groan—because apparently the pet name was too “babyish” these days.
But he was in an affectionate mood, just grinned.
“Now,” she said on a wave of love, “I need to beat you up one more time so you can practice that drill before you head upstairs for your lesson with the tech team.”
Nix had plenty of Tower teachers alongside the lessons he took with Jessamy, a number of which he attended “in person” in an obsitru room alongside his six compatriots.
Aanisa was one, of course, then the five others who’d been born in the four years that followed her and Nix’s births. They were a close cohort and, per Jessamy, had been known to cover for each other by doing homework when one of the others couldn’t get to it—or had left it until too late.
“They think I can’t spot it when they do work for one another, but I did not get these wrinkles by accident,” Jessamy had said, pointing at her flawless skin. “But these things they do are what all children do for their good friends, with no ill intent behind it.”
“They’re not taking advantage of Hanaeis?” The youth had the gentlest personality in the group, and while Nix was protective by nature, he was also still a child; he might not realize the import of his actions.
“Hani is ridiculously clever and more than capable of looking after himself, trust me—he told me the other day that he wishes to grow up to be like Ozias.”
Hanaeis came from Titus’s court, with Ozias the archangel’s spymaster.
A quiet laugh from Jessamy. “I do think that young one will achieve his goal—and if you’re worried that he’s doing the work of the others, never fear, they all seem to trade off. Your Nix wrote Hani’s most recent essay after Hani lost track of time while visiting the archives at Lumia.”
The other woman had added, “Talking of essays—Nix’s last essay, that one about mortality and innovation?
Brilliant and quite unlike any topic ever before chosen by an angelic child I’ve taught.
It’s clear that while Nix is immortal, he has a deep understanding of and empathy for the mortal world, thanks to you and the descendants of your family. ”
They were doing it, Elena thought today as she helped Nix practice, raising their child to be a confident, loyal, caring, and disciplined young man.
She was still thinking about it later that day, after he’d flown off to meet his great-grandfather. The Legion, of course, kept watch on him in that subtle way of theirs, positioned on various rooftops and in the trees.
Never a presence that smothered, never a guard that crushed.
That Nix still considered them playmates and friends was a testament to how well they’d done their task.
The last time the entire cohort of children had been in the city, the Legion had even learned to play sky games with them when the group complained that they didn’t have enough players to make it exciting.
Needless to say, the entire thing had made the newscasts…
and it had made Elena remember another sky game, another time when the entire city had watched the skies as angels played.
Once, the memory would’ve twisted her up for all she’d lost, but today, she smiled because that day had been a wonderful one, a memory she’d add to her continuing catalog of what Nix had named her Memory Codex.
He often asked to listen to a new part of her Memory Codex, but knew never to attempt it without asking. Because some memories were too private or too dark for him at this point in time. Their boy had grown up knowing of Belle and Ari, Beth and Marguerite and Jeffrey.
He also knew that a rogue vampire had murdered Ari and Belle.
But they’d left it at that. He didn’t need to know the details of the nightmare images that had haunted Elena for so many years—she didn’t want him to ever live that horror, especially not through her own words.
She’d spoken them into the Codex only because she’d realized she couldn’t limit her memories to just the good, but that was as far as it went.
We’re getting it right, Archangel, she said now, reaching out to Raphael with her mind. Raising a damn good kid.
Indeed, hbeebti. I can see him from my position over the ocean—he flies like a warrior. His flight skills have improved in bounds since the year past.
He’s growing so fast. Her heart caught. Soon, we’ll have to let him go.
A few more decades yet, Elena-mine. We will not worry them away.
No. She exhaled. I’m going to work in the garden, after which I have a meeting with the new Guild director.
To this day, it still struck her as wrong to see someone else in what would always be Sara’s position to her, but that was her private struggle. In public, she honored her best friend by always treating each new director with the respect due their status.
All the directors knew her by the time they ascended to their position—she ensured that by being an active part of the Guild.
Despite that, a couple of the previous directors had been hesitant about calling on her, but the fact was, Elena was hunter-born, the hunt in her blood.
She needed to use those skills, that energy, or the unfulfilled impulse would tear her apart.
Which was why she made it a point to have these meetings.
“I can’t die at a vampire’s hands,” she’d say with bluntness learned through time. “Don’t send one of your mortal hunters out to catch the frothing-at-the-mouth monsters. Send me.”
I’ll be out for considerable time with the wing, Raphael said. Izzy has come up with a new technique he wishes to show us before he returns home to Illium’s territory tomorrow.
Elena missed having Izzy in her Guard, but she wouldn’t change that for anything—because Elena’s loss was Eve’s gain.
It had been a delight to watch her tough hunter sister fall for her loyal, earnest, and all-in lover.
Eve remained a tough cookie—but no one could doubt that General Eve Deveraux loved Sector Commander Izak.
She’d been known to haul him down for a very public kiss now and then, just to make certain the world knew of her claim.
Izzy was always delighted by it all.
His departure from New York would’ve left a hole in their capabilities if Tarielle hadn’t applied to join the Tower at the same time.
Having trained at Caliane’s court, Sameon’s cousin had then served Zanaya, followed by Elijah and most recently Suyin, before she’d decided to relocate to the Refuge for a century to study with the healers—it turned out she had a minor healing ability.
“But the warrior in her is stronger,” Keir had commented after she joined the Tower. “Still, she’s now an excellent field healer. An unusual trait in a battle commander, but a useful one.”
Elena had known Tarielle since she was a child, and the now-grown angel had fit into their forces like a missing piece.
“I think she’ll stay with us,” Sam had said of his cousin. “She told me she’s never felt as at home in any other court.”
Elena had a feeling Sam might be right.
After pulling her hair back into a tail, she flew off the Tower to sweep over the city.
It had morphed into a lush green place with towers that rose up into the sky, their walls covered with plants, the balconies overflowing with blooms in the spring and summer.
Winter meant a snowy white landscape, the rivers covered with floes of ice in the extreme, extreme cold that had begun to hit a couple of centuries ago.
The floating habitats, however—one of which she flew past just then—could continue to have greenery in the winter months, thanks to the shields that protected them. However, one thing they’d discovered when the habitats first went up was that New Yorkers didn’t like living in a seasonless location.
So the shields had been modified to only come up around the edges in order to keep the habitats livable for non-angels, with the top left open to the elements. It also meant the winged could fly in and out at will, instead of having to wear small devices that would open up “doors” in the shields.
The tech had been further improved when the weight of snow had to be taken into account—and there was to be no shoveling any extra onto the city unless it was an emergency, and even then, it was strictly regulated.
Vivek always spent time in a habitat when he visited. Elena’s fellow hunter and Illium’s spymaster remained fascinated by the technology that had first come to life in Raphael’s territory—and where the newest innovations in the field continued to be made.
“Ellie! Ellie!”