A/N: PLEASE R/R, and I’ll return the favor…tell me what you think of it…should I continue? Should I stop? Should I write more in my other stories? Well, here goes!

The Downside of Martyrdom

Chapter 1

The room was dimly lighted, and looked for all the world like a plain office boardroom if you didn’t look too hard at it. First off, there was a plain oval table, polished to a bright sheen, with pens and glasses of water laid out at strategic intervals. The floor was carpeted in plain, dark grey carpeting, and the doors were dark wood, with plain, brightly polished, copper-colored doorknobs. That was the first oddity…there were seven doors, not just one or two. The other one was even more startling. There was no ceiling. You could just look up, into the light, and look up, and up, and up…

One of the doors opened, and a girl slipped in. She was young, only about ten, and was wearing a long white dress, and had a slim black ribbon wrapped around her throat. Her hair was very long, and a ginger color, cut to bangs around her face, almost to her large violet eyes. She held a little white flower in one hand, and, once she was seated, placed it into the glass of water closest to her. This would not appear quite so odd, if she did not have little, delicate wings that were little more than a smattering of feathers along her back. This was Renelan, the Angel of Children.

She drummed her fingers impatiently “Where is everyone?” she asked aloud.

“They’re coming. They’re just not as prompt as you are.”

Renelan spun around. “Daanea!” she exclaimed, joyfully.

“Hello, Ren. I missed you; I can say that much.” The Angel of Death took the chair next to her. You could not see her face, it was covered by the black hood of the robe she wore. She held a huge black book to her chest, tightly, which only when she sat down did she release her hold on. “I was just with Cassina. There’s been another battle…so she doesn’t know if…”

“If she can make it?” she asked. “But she hasn’t come to a meeting for at least the last thousand years!”

“Ren, I know you’re angry, but…” Dannea was spared an explanation by the appearance of Aleinara, the Angel of Love. She wore a floaty pink sundress, embroidered with roses along the bottom of the skirt. Her wings were perfectly shaped, and small, and her light brown hair was cropped short to her jawline.

“What’s the matter?” Aleinara asked, gazing concernedly at the little Angel of Children.

“Cassina isn’t coming.” Daanea told her with a whisper.

The Angel of Love raised her eyebrows, understanding. “I know you’re sad that your sister isn’t going to be here, but…there have been some difficulties…”

All three Angels were so preoccupied, they did not notice the entrance of another, just a small cat. He hopped up onto the table, and squinted at the younger Angel.

“Hello, Hallel.” Ren whispered to him.

The Angel of Animals was not much to look at, being a plain, rather small, scrawny grey-and-black striped cat, with only a tiny pair of short stubby wings. However, this was one of the most powerful and influential of the Angels, second only to Daanea, for his knack at telling the future.

“Don’t worry, Ren.” He told the girl. “She’ll come.”

“Really?” Ren asked, and sat up straight as the Archangel entered the room.

He held himself tall and perfectly straight. Wearing a plain white shirt and a pair of ordinary black pants, he was fairly unremarkable as Angels went, with his only distinction being a sword, completely wrapped in strips of white cloth, hanging at his side.

“Aramin” Aleinara said quietly.

“Are we all here?” the Archangel asked, shaking his hair out of his eyes as he laid his sword on the table.

“No.” Daanea said quietly. “Cassina isn’t…”

A body fell from the sky above the table, hitting the wood with a sickening thunk.

“Cassina!” Ren gasped, for it was her sister, the Angel of War.

She lay in the center of the table, her shining gold armor slick with blood, and one of her huge wings tattered and bloody. Her sword lay by her side, where she had dropped it when she hit, the gleaming silver almost obscured by black blood.

“Gargoyles?” Aleinara asked.

Aramin nodded tersely, and reached forward, almost getting his hand chopped off as Cassina revived, and swung her sword with deadly accuracy.

“Whe-whe-whe-where am I?” gasped Cassina, staring around, until her eyes focused on Ren, still sitting stunned.

“Hello, Ren.” She said quietly. “See, I told you I’d come.”

“Who did this?” Aramin inspected her wing wound.

“Aeriel. Somehow he knew where I was going to be.” Cassina winced as Aramin prodded at the bloody feathers. “And he had another Demon with him.”

“This is what I was afraid of.” Aramin tapped his sword. A light began glowing from between the cracks in the white wrapping.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Cassina shook off Aleinara’s worried hands, and slid off the table, slowly making her way over to her seat.

Once she was seated, everyone returned to their chairs, with the exception of Daanea, who had not left hers.

“There is not just one reason I called you all together today.” Aramin glanced around the table. “These kind of events are growing more common…and nobody has ever dared attack the Angel of War before.”

“Do you think he is going to try someone?” Aleinara gasped.

Aramin glanced at her. “Yes. I am fairly certain.”

“It’s a pity.” Hallel said carefully. “I have never liked war…it’s so-time-consuming! And it will be hard without Cassina. But I suppose we’ll manage.”

“Wh-what?” Cassina snapped her gaze over to Hallel, who had clammed up and simply blinked at her.

Daanea sighed, the sound muffled by the black cloth about her face. “Will he never learn…I have always hated these wars.”

Aramin stood up. He stalked around the table to Hallel. “What are you talking about, Hallel?” he asked.

“Don’t ask me. Never ask me. I can never see the endings of anything…just the beginning. The future can be changed, you know, by the people working in it. But this war…this has already been set in motion. My him. Lucifer.”

All the angels shuddered.

“And it will be the greatest war any of us have witnessed.” Hallel gazed at the Archangel.

Aramin looked around the table, with all the Angels seated. “There is a human…”

Cassina snorted with contempt. “A human? Do you remember the last time we trusted humans? Do you remember what happened?”

“Atlantis, I KNOW. Cassina, this human is our only hope.” Aramin glared at the Angel.

“And that’s what you said LAST time!” Cassina stood up knocking her chair back.

“You don’t understand!” all the Angels shrank back from the wrath of those two, who were now shouting at each other from across the table.

“WHAT don’t I understand, Aramin?” Cassina yelled at the archangel. “I was on this council before you even became Archangel. Don’t presume to tell me what to do!” she gasped, and put a hand to her shoulder wound.

Aramin swallowed his angry retort as Cassina sank into her chair, set upright by Ren.

“I know I haven’t been the…wisest leader.” He said quietly. “But I just need you to trust me. This person…he has phenomenal power, more than anyone I have ever seen before. I need someone to keep watch on him, and someone to distract him before we strike.”

“I’ll do it.” Ren said quietly. “And Hallel will too.”

Hallel blinked at her, shocked. “What? I never signed up for this!”

“Good. He is in Columbia University…New York City.”

A/N: WHY?? WHY?? WHY?? Why do all my first chapters come out so TERRIBLY? Well, please review, and much love.

Snake Oil