Chapter 125

I awoke, or at least I think I did ... the memory of the how is fuzzy now, the who, not so much. Anyway, I’m going to tell this how I remember it, which isn’t necessarily what happened, but when Heaven is protecting its secrets, mere mortals, including Mages, simply have to deal with what they want you to remember.

I was sitting at a campfire. It was warm and the sky was filled with stars, more stars than I could possibly believe. But, then again, I think that might have been kind of the point. I wasn’t supposed to be somewhere I could believe in.

Opposite me though was someone I could definitely believe in...

“Thea?”

“Yes, my love,” she replied with a radiant smile.

“Am I dead?”

“Tricky,” she replied with a grin now.

“OK. Er ... what on earth are you wearing?” I asked, somewhat bemused.

“I told them I looked like a blancmange in this. I wanted jeans and T-shirt. But, oh no, I have to look ‘heavenly’ for the mortal soul ... that’s you by the way, John,” she replied.

“Angels interfering?”

“Like you would not believe.”

“What on earth for?”

“Stuff I can’t talk about. Sorry, John.”

I concentrated hard and snapped my fingers, Mary Poppins’ style, and suddenly Thea was in a simple white T-shirt and jeans.

“Ooh, I didn’t know you could do that here,” she laughed.

“Neither did I. I just assumed I could,” I said and went to her as she stood and we hugged and kissed for a while.

“I missed you,” I finally said.

“I know,” she murmured, eyes downcast. “For now though, we have a short time until things are readied.”

“Readied for what?”

“Explanations I think. I’m just one of the rewards for a destiny achieved,” she replied.

“But you can’t stay?”

“No, John. But we can say goodbye properly.”

This is one of the areas where it gets fuzzy, but we did say goodbye, and yes, we did make love a final time, but mostly I just remember Thea and her beautiful smile.

I awoke, the campfire was still burning but Thea was gone, yet I didn’t feel sadness or regret, simply a deep satisfaction that she was OK and that we’d meet again in the fullness of time. Sitting opposite me this time was Jerry and another Angel and this one looked like someone had stuffed a broom handle up his bum. Well, that’s the impression he gave anyway.

“Jerry,” I greeted him with a nod.

“Greetings, John. This is Michael,” he replied.

“I kind of guessed that from what others have said about him,” I replied. “Greetings, Archangel Michael.”

“I should smite you from existence for your lack of respect,” was all Michael said.

“Rather doubt you’d want to deal with Jude if you did,” I replied, then blanked him.

“Quite,” added Jerry, whose eyes were twinkling somewhat.

“So, why am I here? As far as I’m aware I died and Oonagh passed through the exit, which means she won,” I stated. “Not that meeting Thea again wasn’t appreciated.”

“That wasn’t the test,” Jerry replied.

“It should have been,” Michael added with a grimace.

“Are you questioning our Lord?” Jerry asked him with a raise eyebrow.

“Of course not!” Michael retorted.

“The test was to see who would be prepared to stand and face a far greater threat to the Earths, not who could get out first,” Jerry replied, ignoring Michael’s comments. “The Guardian would have fed on the souls of all, if freed. Its powers are limited in the labyrinth to doing God’s will.”

“I couldn’t let whatever the hell it was out.” I answered. “Oonagh might have won, but at least humanity and the other sentient races would be alive, even if slaves. That thing was hunger personified and it was only in that chamber that I stood a chance of stopping it, so I decided to do that.”

“Even at the cost of your life?” Jerry questioned.

“A price I was prepared to pay, trusting that those I loved would survive the hell of Oonagh’s reign to come,” I replied.

“You know nothing of Hell,” Michael snorted.

“Why’s he here?” I asked.

“Authority figure to sign off on the result,” Jerry shrugged, getting a frown off Michael.

“So what happens now?” I asked.

“Well, we heal you. You then get a few options,” Jerry replied.

“A cure for the Drow poison?” I requested politely.

“Has already been given to Mage Rowenna,” Jerry answered. “That was already promised. It isn’t an option.”

“Pah!” Michael snorted.

“Does he really have to be here?” I asked.

“That isn’t an option either,” Jerry chuckled as Michael looked even more offended, as if that were possible.

“So what are the options?” I asked.

“Well Oonagh in chains, for one. An eventual place on your Council of the Wise. Power, glory, fame, stuff like that,” Jerry replied.

“No thank you.”

“You cannot refuse!” Michael thundered.

“Just watch me.”

“You must be rewarded!” he tried persuading me, though it still came out like a threat.

“I have my reward. Róisín will recover and she bears my child. What else could I possibly want?”

“Oonagh’s head on a stick?” Jerry asked with a grin.

“Much as I’d like that, I suspect it would happen eventually anyway. She’s pretty much on her own now and I can’t see her ever rebuilding her power base without it being challenged,” I replied thoughtfully.

“It would,” Jerry replied with a nod. “So tell me, John. What could you possibly want that heaven could provide? Please don’t ask for the dead to be restored, that isn’t an option,” he added.

“I wish it was. It’s broken Morgana’s heart to see so many of her friends dead,” I replied.

“Her reward will come in the form of twin daughters,” Jerry revealed, getting a frown off Michael. “It will heal her heart.”

“I’m glad to hear that. But there’s nothing I want that I don’t already have,” I replied.

“Told you he’d pass,” Jerry said to Michael.

“He just lacks imagination,” Michael replied.

“I lack imagination?” I chuckled with a huge grin when I looked at Michael.

“You passed the final test, John,” Jerry chuckled.

“Bet you there’s another one along the line,” I laughed.

“There are always tests, John. But no more to be had here,” Jerry replied. “You’ll be restored to Earth and you can take Oonagh with you. I’m pretty sure Verenestra will want a word with her over what she did to Arwen.”

“Yes, I rather suspect she will. I’m going to presume Oonagh’s neutralised,” I agreed.

“Same principle as the cuffs you use, but designed for Fae,” Jerry explained.

“Won’t she just will herself to death?” I asked.

“Removed that too,” Jerry grinned.

“This hardly seems like a fair test. Oonagh is what she is after all,” I mused.

Jerry handed me a parchment, it was written in old Fae, but I found I could read it with no problem, another gift I suspect.

‘In the fullness of time the Queen of all will face her Nemesis.

He will be of the prey, but with power.

She will know him without knowing.

He will turn all against her.

In the end a choice will be made, a destiny chosen.

Choose wisely, oh Queen.

Let not your people face abomination.’

“I can see why she would have misinterpreted this,” I said with a wry smile.

“Yes, prophesy is like that. It’s only understood afterwards for a reason,” Jerry replied.

“Big whopping clue in the last line though,” I chuckled.

“Only if you believed the Guardian was the abomination and not your Nemesis,” Jerry nodded.

“What would have happened if Oonagh killed the Guardian?” I asked.

“An eventual Daoine Sidhe renaissance,” he replied.

“From my point of view the world is better off without them,” I shrugged. “What of the Drow?”

“Not my problem; yours, or rather Verenestra’s,” he grinned and handed me a comfortably handled chain.

“Jerry, would God have really let that thing out?”

“He doesn’t work like that. There was no possibility of one of you not dealing with it,” Jerry shrugged, though for once didn’t look too sure of himself, nor did Michael.

There was a shimmering and Oonagh was there with us, looking confused and rather fearful.

“The cuffs also limit her strength, John. So don’t worry on that account,” Jerry added.

“I won!” Oonagh finally cried out. “I won!”

“First out wasn’t the test. The test was to fight the abomination,” Michael told her. “You were informed that only one of you would leave, but we never said they would be the winner.”

“But I fought him,” she replied, pointing at me with both hands linked by the cuffs.

“He’s abominable, but not an abomination,” Michael replied neutrally.

“That was an attempt at humour, I believe,” I chuckled.

“You’ll never prove it.”

“But the prophesy!” Oonagh wailed.