Rebellion

“You need to pick your friends better,” said Alice as the door opened.

“And you still need to learn some respect, child,” said Michael from the other side of the doorway.

He was standing in the middle of the room, his hands on his hips and his wings open, watching her.

And she had absolutely nothing to say. All she could do was stand and look at him... at the face which had followed her through her dreams and her nightmares for months. A face which had haunted her in every crowd and made her look for eyes filled with fire. Eyes which peeled back everything she was and saw beneath it all.

Michael was watching her and she was afraid.

And he knew it.

“That’s it, is it? You won’t respect me, but you fear me?” He laughed, and his laughter bounced off the walls, filling the room with sound. “Well, it’s a start.” He beckoned her into the room, and her feet obeyed, stopping in front of him. He walked around her in a circle, slowly surveying her, and she could feel his mind crawling over the surface of her own, weighing and measuring and examining everything he found.

“I’ve been following your progress, Alice. And what progress it’s been,” he said. “You’ve been busy. I heard about Murmur. I was impressed. Not as impressed as I might have been if it were say, Purson, but I hear someone else took care of that.” His gaze flitted to Vin, just inside the doorway, who gulped audibly. Michael gave up on orbiting Alice, heading instead for Vin. “You again. You think I haven’t been watching you, too?”

Vin held his head up and met Michael’s gaze, but said nothing. The Archangel narrowed his eyes. “Hmm. Still have spirit, I see. I remember why I liked you. Yes. You can stay. And you...” He spun back to Alice. “What am I to do with you? I take it that you’ve considered my warning? I told you to think about your priorities. Your place in the world. Have you?”

“You tell me.” Alice’s voice shook a little more than she would have liked, but she still sounded confident enough. Sort of.

Michael threw back his head and laughed. “You hear that, Gabriel? Isn’t she infuriating?”

It was only then that Alice realised there was someone else in the room. Another angel, this one leaning against the far wall, close to a table heaped high with papers and scrolls which spilled onto the floor around it. His wings were clipped, shortened, and the feathers were not the same shining white as Michael’s, but the scruffy grey of Vin’s. And his eyes, when he locked them on her, were full of fury.

“Hello again, Alice,” said Gabriel. His voice could have cut glass. Alice shivered. Even more than Michael, this was what she had been dreading.

After all, it wasn’t every day that you got an Archangel demoted. Especially not one as vengeful as Gabriel.

A sudden crack of lightning outside the windows lit the room as Gabriel glowered, but Alice didn’t move. She didn’t know what else to do. If she flinched, Gabriel would see just how afraid of him she was. And that was not going to happen.

“Good girl,” said Michael, straightening his shirt sleeves. “Alice, you never fail to impress me. Infuriating you may be, but impressive.” He made a sound that might have been another laugh, or perhaps not. “Gabriel, behave, or you’ll go back to the dungeon. And I don’t think any of us want that now, do we?” He waved Zadkiel and Mallory into the room. “Mallory.”

“Michael.” Mallory’s voice was flat.

“You’ve brought me Xaphan, I hear?”

“It’s complicated.”

“So I gather. You understand it’s a trap?”

“I had a feeling it might be.” Mallory nodded.

Alice twitched. “A trap?”

“What would I want with the girl’s brother?” Michael asked. “Have you ever known me to be that petty?”

“So you don’t have him?”

“Oh, no. He’s here. But as my guest, not my prisoner.”

Hearing this, Vin brightened. “Where is he?”

“In his rooms, I imagine. As I say, he’s not a prisoner and he is free to come and go as he pleases. Zadkiel brought him in. He was helping me with something.”

“With what?” Alice asked with a sinking feeling.

“With you, obviously.” Michael replied, looking straight at her. “He was helping me find a way to convince you to come here. Which, apparently, he’s done. And which begs the question of what exactly Xaphan is up to. Tricky, tricky Xaph.” He glanced at Zadkiel. “They’re secure?”

“Brother Phillip has them.”

“Good. I don’t like the timing, but in that case I don’t think there’s too much to worry about. You doubled the guard?”

“Twice.”

“Mmmm.”

“I had a suggestion.” For the first time since she had met him, Alice thought Zadkiel sounded unsure of himself.

“I know what you’re going to say, Zak. The answer’s no.”

“But if you reinstate the Earthbounds...”

“I said no.”

“Tactically, it gives us the numbers.”

“Enough! I said no!” Fire erupted from the floor between Michael and Zadkiel, and everyone jumped back, apart from Zadkiel, who simply rolled his eyes.

“Why do you have to be so pigheaded, Michael? Always.”

“Because I make the rules. Not you.” Michael spat back. “And they’ve always served well enough before.”

“This isn’t like before though, is it? And you know it.” Zadkiel was shouting now, jabbing his finger angrily at Michael. “This isn’t like anything that’s come before.”

“And, given that it’s like nothing that’s come before, you’re basing your theory that sheer weight of numbers will save us on... what, exactly?” Michael snapped

“On nothing! On hope, alright? Is that what you want to hear?” Zadkiel snapped back, kicking out at the air in frustration.

The flames on the floor died down, and Michael sighed. “I understand, Zak. I do. But this is my responsibility.”

There was a long, heavy silence. Finally, Zadkiel said, “Don’t mistake responsibility for martyrdom, Michael,” and turned on his heel, leaving them. They heard his boots echoing down the stairs.

“I’m sorry,” Michael said to no-one in particular. “As you can see, things are a little... tense. Zak’s – Zadkiel’s – instincts are good, but he’s overlooking the most basic fact. Lucifer knows exactly how we think. He knows every move we will make before we make it. He knows that if I reinstate the Earthbounds, our numbers will outweigh his; why do you think he’s been so busy with the world? A nudge here, a whisper there... and he has the humans rushing towards their baser nature, tipping the balance in his favour.” He opened his arms as if to illustrate his point. “Everything I do, he can predict. But it cuts both ways. He knows us, but I know him. We know them. If he has set a trap, with the balance against us, it’s almost inevitable that sooner or later, it will work. Which is why we’re doing it the short way.”

“You wanted to see how it pans out.” Alice couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. It almost made sense, but not quite. But then, it was Michael saying it.

“Exactly. You bringing Xaphan here: it happened because Lucifer wanted it to happen. What I want to know is why.” He shrugged. “And the quickest way to find out is to let things follow their natural course.”

“What then?” asked Mallory. His face had settled into an expression Alice could only describe as ‘stony.’ “What if things don’t play out how you expected they would? What if you’re wrong?”

“Then I’m wrong. But tell me, Mallory: what choice do I have?” Michael paced the floor. “I have Lucifer’s