Post Chapter Four Gabriel

The moon was beautiful, hanging high in the sky and singing to the stars.  Silver glowing embers fell from it like rain, rolling across the ocean of night sky and disappearing into the cosmic lights that appeared only once every few moons.  Gabriel loved the sky when it was like this. There was such peace that hung above.

“Can you hear me, Warden?”

He hummed. The stars were talking again. Playing. Skipping from planet to planet. A smile stretched across his face. What a beautiful world. There were too many who took the world for granted. The beauty that could come from just stopping and observing their surroundings. Life had gotten far too fast for the likes of such pleasures.  Gabriel himself had forgotten the sheer euphoria of just looking at the sky.

“What even happened? You are covered in blood! They’re all dead, Warden. All of them!”

Laughter bubbled from his throat. Once, when he still lived within the Knowing’s embrace, he had sat upon the wisps of a hymn and watched the souls born from the clouds.  They were so small then. Little tiny specks of glimmer that emerged with such hope and life. Gabriel wondered how they were all doing. Undoubtedly they had gone on to do such great things.

Such great great things.

He would too. Very soon, he would add himself to that list.  His name would be one of the eternal songs throughout the realm.

“That’s not his blood. I don’t see a scratch on him. I– I think– oh… oh no.”

The Knowing had a mantra. One that everyone lived by. You had to get dirty to do good. It was taught to them from the time they emerged but it was only something put into practice when becoming a soldier.  Gabriel hadn’t thought he wanted to be a soldier. It wasn’t on his path.  But now he could see that the Knowing had other plans for him.

He fell to become this. 

It filled him with such joy to know he was not cast out for wrongdoing, but to make him stronger. He simply had to pass his trial to come back home.

“What did you do? What happened?”

“None of them are alive.  There’s fifteen…. Twenty? I– it’s Serene and… oh by the gods. Falon. Falon’s dead as well.”

“Warden!”

Rolling to his side, Gabriel rose to his feet. There were people standing in front of him. Three of them, just standing in the middle of a star of bodies.  Reaching out, he placed a hand on the nearest one's shoulder. Some new recruit. Another one of the nameless that had trained under him. He felt marginally guilty for not taking him and countless others under his wing.

“It’s okay,” he told them calmly. “All will make sense soon enough.”

The man looked at him with bewildered eyes. “Warden, what happened? Were you attacked? Were they?”

Gabriel shook his head with a small chuckle. “They needed to be purged. But that’s okay. They are within the embrace of the Knowing. They will be reprocessed and given a second chance.”

“His sword,” the whisper came from their right.  “It’s dripping.”

Gabriel turned to the voice, a young woman with slicked back hair and horror in her eyes.  “Yes,” he nodded. “They will be honored. I will wipe their blood in the ocean.”

“You did this?”

With a final pat to the man's shoulder, he turned. He had things to do. Others that needed purged. So many unclean souls and it was his job to take them and give them new purpose. It was what the Knowing had sent him here for. He had been a fool to believe that he had been cast aside. So many years had been wasted, thinking that he was unloved. When in reality, he was the most loved of all.

“Warden, don’t you walk away. You are under arrest by name of the Velvet Guard.”

Gabriel stopped.  There was a sigh that was singing in his chest. A whisper in his ear. He thought they were clean. He had felt their aurora and they had felt insignificant. But the Knowing was saying different now.  But that was okay. One day, they would see.  Sometimes, a life was worth sacrificing for the better of the world. 

Gripping his sword, he turned, raising it as he looked at the three guards. “May peace be upon you.” Before they could react, he lunged forward.