Time passed quickly, as Scott began to lose consciousness. The memories lost during his recent draconic reincarnation began to reappear and forged new pathways. While some of the information he learned about the beginning of time in this reality and his place in it became blurred, his recent life events returned completely.

The ambrosia had healed his fractured and damaged psyche, reconnected it with his soul memory. Even so, his level of comprehension was only that of a normal man turned dragon when he awoke. There was only so much truth that his mortal, yet strangely immortal, mind could comprehend at one time given his current stage of development. Exploration of the memories of those creator beings, the garden they made, and other such tidbits were not fully available. Only further awakening would bring them fully to light. Given the changes within his psychology due to his current level of awakening, further comprehension might cause him to disregard mortal life altogether. That was the greatest danger of the deep knowledge. While there were other certain side-effects, the more he learned the less he would be concerned with mortal life.

For now, his current life beckoned him. Slowly, his eyes opened. Though, as he did so he recalled a bit of lore learned in his youth during the time he spent in church on Sundays. God had forbidden Adam and Eve only one thing. They should not eat of the tree of knowledge. The concern was that they would become like god and know everything. Left unspoken was the reason why that was a problem. Who could live a mortal life with all its joys and hardships while ultimately knowing that it amounted to little more than a masturbatory fantasy?

As Scott’s eyes stared listlessly up at the ceiling, he finally understood some of the dangers of that story. The more he learned, the more he could never unlearn.

In the story, Eve had been tempted into eating the apple. The storytellers made a big deal about her being naked because they were a bunch of prudes who hated tits, or something, but the truth was that it was more of an allegory. Adam and Eve were no longer able to remain in their paradise but had to suffer and toil as mortals.

As far as Scott was concerned, the story was backwards. Their acquisition of ultimate knowledge made it impossible for them to believe in the dream, to live the life of a simple mortal doing simply mortal things. They were granted the knowledge of the greater existence and could no longer live as they had because it was impossible to be too intrigued by life and its many restrictions if one simply ignored those restrictions.

This thought led him down a different mental avenue. For the longest time he had been filled with a barely restrained loathing for the so-called gods. Yet, now that he had learned what he had learned, he felt only pity for them.

“Children who know too much to ever fit in properly, but know too little to do anything about it… It’s no wonder that they pretend to be mortals and play games with them,” he said softly. “Restless children incapable of dreaming deeply enough to believe in mortal existence…”

“They’ve been expelled from the garden for their own good, but can’t really sleep,” he said softly. “Frightened, unable to fully comprehend existence without their father and mother to guide them…”

A strangeness fell across his face. The lingering memories of the primordial era continued to fade from his conscious understanding, much like a poorly remembered dream. Yet, he knew that having learned of such things before, he would always be a different person.

The passing of one moment to the next carried with it the passage of memory from his thoughts. In truth, for the first time he was glad to lose his memories. The further he distanced himself from the ultimate truth of existence, the more he began to think of his current life. Soon, things began to matter to him again. He grew slightly concerned about the state of his life and the friends who know doubt suffered due to his mental breakdown.

Scott sat up in his luxurious bed. He was still in the palace of Lord Hades. His memories were faded, but he recognized what that meant at least now. The god and goddess who welcomed him into their home were his Hades and Persephone. He had appointed them to those roles in the previous era. They were part of his abyssal legion, just as the other seraphim that watched the abyss up to a certain point had their own divine legions.

“These gods are not the same as the youngest of the children. They are my angels… and I am their… seraphim commander? Is that it?” he asked himself. Hades and Persephone were titles for their position. Though, the love they bore was real as they had spent a long time working together and continually dreamed of mortal life together whenever they incarnated. It’s why he had chosen them for the position.

The word seraphim conjured conflicting images in his head. One was that of a six-winged being of burning light as might have been expected by the version of him that he vaguely recalled as the Scott in his creation myth, the man who had crossed from his world to save an angel. The other image was of a being who looked demonic. Scales, fangs, twisting horns, and six bat-like wings. This latter image shifted into a more familiar form, that of a giant brilliantly shining gold dragon.

The burning one. The fiery serpent. Highest of the angels, Seraphim. “Dragons… in this reality made in the image of my memories, the highest order of angels not to include the original three created are seraphim… the first dragons.”

In all honesty, the primordial existence was a hodgepodge of several religions. Nature spirits born of chaos. Dragons. A highly simplified angelic hierarchy. At the top of the roster was Logos and Eros, the father and mother. Below that was Noct-El who existed as his own thing and acted in a manner akin to Prometheus in Greek legend. He brought the flames of knowledge and it changed the world. So, this made Scott something akin to a titan in that respect. Older than the gods, but not necessarily any stronger than the creators. The first angels created were three brothers. Their names escaped him at the moment, as the memories were fading. Yet, they were the

“Who will cast off their pristine white wings and take up this charge…” whispered a fatherly voice inside his head as those memories continued to fade.

“I will,” said Scott quietly. However, the voice did not reply. He had returned to far into the dream that is mortal life at this point. Even the primordial images in his head had faded to nothing. For a moment, he struggled to recall the ancient past as though he were attempting to recall a dream that he had upon waking.

Eventually, the memories faded to a point that he could scarcely distinguish them from an idle fancy and reality. It took a tremendous effort of will to get out of bed, but he knew that he must do so. Life felt empty. Pointless. Yet, there was a sense of necessity to what he did now. Somehow, he needed to find a reason to continue to live. If not for himself, then for the people that mattered to him.