Mission Log, Day 19, Tuesday, September 21st, 1999
There is an old saying, that only a fool wishes for excitement. Well, if we have been guilty of wishing for it, then it has certainly found us.
We left the Laurencians behind to trek deep into the mountains in search of the Roc. They tried to follow us, but Matt and Alaric stayed behind to hinder them while the rest of us took wing (as birds, dragons, whatever) and carried Arashiel the dog along.
The Roc was a little more inclined to talk on this visit, but soon enough I realized this trip was mostly about Arashiel wrestling with the Tapestry's future. She asked Rook what she should do ("Do what you think is best"), and also asked me. So I told her, about my interpretation of the Prophesy I was sent to prevent, on my determination to find a solution and not a fix. "I think this is the first right decision I've made in 500 years." That may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but nevertheless an indication of my certainty that unraveling the Tapestry was the right thing to do.
Not to say that I am unaware of the certain trouble unraveling will cause in Heaven, but that I am prepared to face whatever consequences my actions generate, calm in the knowledge that I am doing what my Bright Lady would wish. Besides, I feel very keenly that the fate of the Tapestry will have more far-reaching effects than our own reward or punishment. The destiny or fate of dozens of annihilated species, the forces that could tip the scales of the War, even Heaven's own accountability for a policy of so-called "Purity" which continues to this day could be brought into motion by this decision. Not surprisingly, forces on both sides aligned themselves against us to take the Tapestry, that they might put it to their own purposes. We only wished to give its inhabitants a second chance to choose. So, as one of my fellow angels said, "Better to ask forgiveness than permission."
Of course, I didn't say all of that. I just said that I believed unraveling the Tapestry was the right thing to do, and believed it at the very core of my being.
She knew it. She already knew it had to be done. I don't think any of us convinced her of anything. I think she just wanted to hear all the old arguments one last time. She decided she wanted to speak to Kariel, weaver of the Tapestry, and that meant pulling it apart to release her.
The Far Marches seemed a safer place to unravel it than on the corporeal plane, but getting there could be very dangerous. I imagined agents of Dominic and Laurence lurking on every gold-paved street corner, just waiting to snatch us up and take the Tapestry into custody. But the Citadel of Fire was not far from the Marches, and Gabriel would not likely tolerate their presence in her home, so we agreed meet up with Irad in the Ether and I ascended to my heart, taking the others with me.
Ah, my heart. We appeared on a path circling the inner crater of the volcano, next to a little clay pot in a niche in the wall. I lifted it in my circling rings and peered inside with a smile. Yep, still there. My heart. Flawed though it may be, it glowed fiercely in my presence.
Not much else in that niche. A ragged faded scroll: my first message delivered as a fully-fledged Ofanite. A curved nicked blade: my faithful companion during the Crusades, and only grudgingly forsaken for an infidel's clumsy sword when Arnu and I infiltrated their ranks. The bloody tip of a pike, one of thousands found on the way to confront Vlad Tepes, the Impaler; on this particular pike hung the eyeless, raven-pecked form of a good friend, murdered by Arnu's prize Soldier of Mutilation as a message to the Turks...and to me. A leather-wrapped sacred arrow bundle, given to me by the generous Black Kettle of the Cheyenne for good luck in battle; in retrospect, I wish he'd kept it. Missing were my hatchets, still in Giles' care.
I took all this in in a moment, for the others were already anxious to get this over with. Getting to the Marches was easy, but it was only through the merciful kindness of Allah that we slipped through the Guardians at the border and into the Far Marches undetected. None of us are terribly familiar with the Ethereal realm, and we merely stumbled by dumb luck across an ethereal forest where the leading unicorn agreed to let us unravel.
Seems too easy, right? Right. I just spied five demons headed our way, Djinn, Balseraph, and several Calabim. Is the Tapestry unraveled yet? No. The process is slow, each creature necessitating a brief summary of the circumstances of its release. I fear Rook might bolt to take the demons on, but his new found temperance has also made him amenable to fleeing, at least until the Tapestry is no longer a concern and we can dedicate ourselves fully to a fight. So we run, or fly, in my case, deeper into the Far Marches.
And where in Hell is Irad?
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