Four months had passed since Enid had married Lord Arl. Things were going fine for the most part in that way. She was pregnant and showing, which was good, she’d confirmed it was a boy. Unfortunately, there was also a girl which was most definitely not part of her plan. She knew for certain there was only one child of his union with his sister. This did not bode well for correcting the timeline properly and she knew she would have to separate them eventually if they both made it to term. She had other more pressing concerns at the moment. Hazel hadn’t been the same since her trip to Nottingham. She’d been having trouble sleeping and was bouncing between skittish and violent. On top of that a vampire had been stalking Enid for the last several nights. Even as a mortal, with her gift she had no issues perceiving him staring at her through windows and watching her when she happened to be out after dark. He had also been stalking Helen. But the most pressing concern was that Helen’s mother was about to pass away. She’d done what she could to make the woman comfortable but the more she learned of Helen’s childhood the more she realized that the world wouldn’t be missing the woman. She knew from experience even with abusive parents a child still mourns the loss.

Enid sighed heavily before opening the door to the room where Erma was placed when she became infirm. Helen was sitting by the bedside staring at her mother. Didn’t take Enid’s gift to tell the woman was stone cold dead.

“Helen?”

Helen looked at Enid with a tear-stained face. Her brown eyes were bloodshot. The girl rushed to Enid who was shorter than her at this point after her recent growth spurt. Enid hugged her tightly.

“Shh. Shh.”

Helen sobbed into Enid’s shoulder. Enid escorted her to a bench that was up against one of the walls. She held her and looked at Erma’s already cold body. Helen must have been up all night because she fell asleep within minutes of Enid holding her. Enid leaned the girl down on the bench and walked to Erma’s bed and covered the woman’s face. She glanced at Helen’s slumbering form wishing she had her normal strength to just carry the girl to another room, but it could not be helped at the moment. She left the room to summon a servant to fetch one of the priests then returned to sit beside Helen who in her sleep noticed a warm body near by and scooched closer and put her head on Enid’s thigh. Enid stroked her hair gently and Helen settled in her sleep. Enid looked back to the sheet covered Erma and sighed. She was now mother to another child one who would need a lot of support in the coming days.

Enid’s eyes snapped to the door when Father Mathew walked through it. He crossed himself when he saw the sheet covered Erma and approached her. He whispered a prayer and then he approached Enid.

“Poor child. Who will care for her now?”

“I will. I promised her mother I would treat her like she was born from my own womb.”

Father Mathew crossed himself again.

“You are truly one of his messengers.”

“Among other things.”

Enid glanced at Erma’s body then down to Helen then back to the father.

“Father Mathew… this is hardly the time but after what happened last night, you were my next stop after tending to Erma. Hazel is having difficulties and will not speak to me. She seems to have… taken a liking to you. Could you speak to her about her… well attitude lately?”

“Surely I am not worthy of such a confession.”

“Well, you know kids and their parents. She won’t tell me anything. Also, even the pope needs a confessor.”

He nodded.

“I will speak with her. I will prepare for Erma’s funeral Mass. God be with you child.”

Enid nodded to the Father and glanced down at the sleeping Helen. It was going to be a bumpy ride in the near future between Helen’s grief and Hazel’s… whatever Hazel’s thing was.

*****

Enid was bouncing Matilda on her knee. Robert was crawling on a woven blanket on the ground. The twins were eight months old. Enid knew by this time she would never be madly in love with the Arl. This was a marriage of convenience for her. Arl for his part did not seem to understand this. One might think Enid heartless to lead him on but what wouldn’t she do for Eyre? Matilda giggled as Helen landed on her butt after trying to kick too high. Enid frowned at the girl.

“What have I told you Helen?”

Helen looked up at her adoptive mother and threw up some of the sand she’d landed in.

“That I if I lack balance, I lack everything.”

“You speak the words but its like you don’t understand the King’s English.”

Helen pulled herself up and got into her stance again then threw up her hands.

“What use is this going to do against someone with a sword, mother?”

Enid motioned Helen closer to her and offered her Matilda who glomped onto the teenager. Enid looked at one of the guardsmen who was watching Helen train with a smirk. Enid pointed at him.

“You draw your sword and try and hit me, please?”

He looked at the guards around him and then back to Enid.

“Milady?”

Enid sighed and threw up her hands.

“Does no one speak English around here?”

“But Milady, you have no armor.”

“Are you scared?”

“No milady, not of a woman. I mean, I’m scared I’ll hurt you, Milady.”

Enid’s eyes narrowed he was definitely going to feel this in the morning.

“Come or I’ll make sure you’re the one cleaning up the stables.”

The other guards who had assembled to watch Helen training because a girl learning to fight amused them jeered at him and urged him on. Finally bowing to peer pressure, he picked up one of the training swords and approached Enid. She frowned at him.

“God help your future wife you think that’s how you handle a sword.”

He tightened his grip his knuckles turned white.

“God help you if you think you need to choke it to death.”

The onlookers were now laughing at his expense he lunged at Enid with the training sword. She dodged to the side grabbed his wrist and spun behind him sweeping his legs out from under him and he landed on the ground with the heavy sound of chainmail hitting dirt. He looked around himself completely confused how he got into this position. Enid twisted his arm until the blade fell out of it and put her soft boot against his throat and stabbed him in the gut with the wooden blade she’d just acquired from him. He groaned in agony. Enid looked at Helen, then down to the guardsman who realized he was now at the lady’s mercy.

“Do you yield?”

He slapped his hand against the dirt and Enid released him. Enid looked down at him and then to the other guards.

“Thank you for the help in training Helen.”

Enid approached Helen and motioned for Matilda back. Robert had stopped his crawling on the blanket and was staring at the guardsman who was still gathering himself before trying to get up. Helen gave Matilda to Enid. Enid took her seat again then looked up at Helen.

“That is what use it will be against someone with a sword. You are smaller and you are faster. Use their strength and weight against them. Blade training will come later, once you prove you don’t need one. Try again. Remember balance is the foundation of everything.”

Helen sighed and took her stance again. Enid heard footsteps behind her and she glanced up. It was Arl. He wrapped his hands around her shoulders and looked down at Matilda then to Robert. His eyes went to Helen as he watched her kicking one of the straw stuffed training dummies Enid had crafted. He spoke quietly.

“I hear you embarrassed another one of our guards today.”

“He embarrassed himself, dear.”

He looked at Helen again.

“I try never to question your ways, my love, but are you sure training her is for the best?”

Enid looked at Helen.

“Yes. She is meant to join me.”

“And what of our daughter? Will you train her?”

“Of course.”

He frowned.

“She is of noble birth. She has other responsibilities.”

“She is my child. She will know how to fight.”

“And our son?”

“Should I be here when he is old enough, he shall learn to fight as well.”

“You speak like you will leave us. The Lord would not ask you to abandon your children, surely.”

“Child.”

“What do you mean?”

“Matilda cannot stay, Robert had no sister.”

Arl frowned and looked at his daughter.

“And I have no say in this?”

Enid glanced up at him.

“Do you have a say when a storm comes?”

“No.”

“Then why would you have a say in this?”

He frowned but nodded in response to her logic.

“I am sorry, time must keep its shape, her being here could change lives beyond counting.”

“Your being here could do the same.”

“Yes, it very well could but the difference between her and I is that I can perceive the rightness and wrongness of actions in the greater tapestry and my sense says she comes with me, and our son stays with you. I do not wish to leave him, but I am as powerless against the coming storm as you.”

“And Helen?”

“She will live. She will see things you can only imagine and at some point, she will do something for me I cannot perceive yet. But she is important.”

“What will I tell Robert about his mother and sister?”

Enid glanced up at him.

“We have time, Arl. We have time.”

He sighed heavily and nodded.

*****

Matilda clutched her mother’s fingers tightly. The toddler was refusing to let go. Enid smiled down at her and pushed her long curly red locks out of her daughter’s teary eyes.

“Shh. Stay with Helen and Hazel you will be safe.”

“Mama. Danger.”

Enid kneeled in front of her she smiled and showed her fangs.

“No. Mama is the dangerous one.”

Enid kissed Matilda on the forehead. She looked to the sleeping Robert who was in Hazel’s arms. Matilda released her mother’s hand staring at her mouth. Enid stood up and pressed her finger along the chest seam of her Atlantean armor. She looked at Helen and then Hazel.

“Keep everyone safe girls. Mom’s gonna go put the bishop in his place.”

Hazel frowned at her mother. Enid put her hand on Hazel’s cheek and smiled up at her daughter.

“You are helping.”

Enid turned around and walked out of the secret passage she’d led the staff, and her children too. She was a vampire, full of blood and ready for battle. The bishop and his troops really didn’t stand a chance. She was at her full power now. Hell, even if she wasn’t she was fairly sure Apollo and Sariel could make a medieval army into a smoldering pile of corpses before they could do much damage. She hoped to head it off though. She’d killed enough crusaders in her long history. She pulled the shadows around herself and lept into the moonlit night. She landed by the cathedral. She could hear Father Mathew pleading with the new bishop to rethink trying to arrest the Lady of the Keep. She could hear the bishop losing patience with him. The last statement was basically he would burned with the lady should he keep it up.

Enid had heard enough she walked inside the cathedral proper. She shimmered into existence the blue energy wings extended from her armor. She wore Sarah’s face. Several of the crusader army’s leadership were here. One approached Enid as he did so she reached out her hand and flung him into one of the walls cracking the stone and breaking most of his bones. When the next approached he was obliterated in a flash of divine light. She’d formed the Seraph’s staff and blasted him in one fluid motion. The other three crusaders fell to their knees as did Father Mathew. The fat bishop stood tall looking at the others.

“This is a minion of Satan. Why do you grovel before it?”

Enid didn’t say anything she just walked up to the dais and stared down at the bishop. Her Sarah form was almost six feet. The bishop’s arrogance wouldn’t allow him to understand the depth of his predicament. It was that same arrogance that had led to this conflict. She narrowed her eyes.

“You dare presume to know God’s will toad?”

“You are no angel, you a temptress from hell! As the Lady of the Keep is and her devil spawn children.”

Enid reached out her hand and lifted him into the air with her telekinesis and slammed him into the massive crucifix that dominated the church.

“You can kill me, but I will not give you, my soul!”

“I don’t want your soul worm. Nor does God. You’re going to Hell if I have to open the portal myself. How many women have you forced yourself on? What of your vow of chastity? And what of the children you’ve coveted? I see the stain of your sin. No, your soul is going straight to my fallen brother.”

Enid released her hold on him, and he slid down the crucifix into a crumpled heap on the floor. She pointed the staff at him, and the tip started to glow brightly. The bishop was shaking now his heads in front of him. Father Mathew moved between her and the Bishop holding up his hands. Enid frowned.

“Move Father. He’s not worth it.”

“Seraph! Stop. Lady Sarah. Please. Show mercy he has learned his lesson.”

“He’s raped children! Some things cannot be forgiven!”

“The holy book teaches that all can be forgiven. The crusaders have witnessed your glory Messenger of the Lord. They have witnessed God’s wrath through you. Now let them witness his mercy.”

“Was he going to show Lady Sarah or her children mercy? Where was the Lord’s mercy there? Or when the boy he last touched cried out for God and the only answer received was him!”

Enid saw her face reflected in Father Mathew’s eyes. Her own eyes were not hers they were glowing white. She stumbled backwards. She didn’t feel like a vampire at the moment she felt like something entirely different. She felt her form starting to unravel as her mind touched something infinite. She fell to her knees leaning on the staff. She shook her head and concentrated on keeping the Sarah face on. Father Mathew breathed a sigh of relief. Enid pulled herself up her form had solidified again, and she felt like her vampiric self. She pointed the staff at Father Mathew.

“If he is still here after the sun leaves the sky tomorrow, I will return, and you will all suffer the punishment for his crimes. That is the mercy God offers you this night.”

Enid shot one of the stones willing it to appear as if a crucifix had been burned into the stone. She looked to the crusaders and lept into the air hovering their wings extended from her armor.

“Come near the castle, the lady, her children or any of its denizens you will face four of God’s host. It will be like Sodom. Do not make the same mistake they did.”

She pulled the shadows around herself and vanished. She landed gently and stood there watching the reactions of those she’d left alive. The three knights were talking amongst themselves. As Enid listened to them, she learned they were not willing to risk the wrath of God, especially for a pedophile of a bishop. Their conversation drifted to the fate of said bishop. Their prevailing opinion was that it was them or him and they definitely wanted it to be him. Enid was fairly sure her family was safe from harassment now, so she made her way out. She waited until the conversation became heated to leave so they would be distracted. She lept up into the air.

*****

By the twin’s fifth birthday Enid had grown comfortable again. She hadn’t felt the pull to leave and was starting to think maybe she had been wrong maybe could be with Robert while he grew up. Helen was now a six-month-old vampire. She had taken to it like a fish to water. The blood had enhanced her natural gift. If the arguments between her and Hazel were any indication, it appeared Hazel was over whatever had affected her. Enid brushed out her black hair. She’d long since been a vampire fulltime at night. So though she prepared to sleep she wouldn’t, the cost of immortality for her was the inability to sleep unless he was extremely injured.

She tugged her brush through a tangled bit of her curly hair then her eyes flicked to the mirror when she saw a shimmer on the wall. She stopped her brush and turned to look at the stone wall which seemed unremarkable again. She shook her head and tugged on the brush again then saw the glimmer again. She snapped around. This time the light grew brighter, and an image started to form. It was a tall man with white skin and glowing eyes. His hair was silver, and his back held most majestic wings she’d ever seen. He wore a golden breastplate. And a massive sword was sheathed on his back He looked down at his hands then to Enid.

“You must open another portal now, quickly.”

Enid placed the brush down. She’d faced far too many fallen angels to be scared of an actual angel. Especially just an image of one. She couldn’t sense his physical presence in the room.

“You couldn’t even come yourself hmm?”

The voices caused Arl to stir in his sleep and he nearly hit his head when he sat bolt upright seeing another angel in his midst.

“You are being insolent and emotional. You have a task, do it.”

Enid looked him up and down.

“No.”

The angel blinked at her. He looked confused and his wings twitched at her answer. He opened his mouth to speak, she interrupted him.

“You heard me: No. I’m done being God’s errand girl. Go tell your boss to get fucked. I’ve got five-year-old twins, a newborn vampire and I do not sense I should be leaving yet.”

Arl found his voice as the angel took a step back from Enid, he appeared quite speechless at her response.

“Sarah, what does he want?”

Enid held up her hand to Arl, still focusing on the angel in front of her.

“You heard me, go on, get.”

She made a shooing motion with her hands. The angel looked even more flustered he sputtered a few times before speaking.

“This is impossible. You have a task you will do it. There is no choice. Another has fallen. This madness you are suffering needs to stop. You do not need blood. You do not have a choice. You are the one chosen for this task.”

His voice became tinged with anger. Arl spoke again.

“He sounds angry, maybe…you should do as he says.”

Enid looked back at him.

“Shush, I’m telling him to leave.”

Arl blinked at Enid like she’d lost every bit of her mind. The angel was fuming now.

“Your human emotions are clouding your judgment sister! Your purpose unravels as you sit here twisting it up in knots!”

“How can I be twisting it into knots and also letting it unravel? Speak sense. Who are you anyway?”

“I am Michael! You will do as you are told!”

“Since when have I ever done that?”

“The future perishes and is reborn as we speak in the betrayer’s image!”

“You need to calm down. I am not going anywhere I have two five-year-olds and a newling vampire. This is not the right time.”

“This is the only time!”

“Then you go do it.”

He sputtered again apparently utterly aghast at her attitude.

“Oh, you’re angry because you can’t do it. All trapped there safe in Heaven while I sit here idle in your opinion. You’re jealous. Here is this little mortal creature fixing what Michael the right hand of the creator cannot.”

Michael looked like he had lost all sense of peace about him. She felt a hand around her arm, she looked back and it was Arl.

“Sarah, you are a hunter of angels who have gone down this path before, do you want to become like them?”

She blinked at him having forgotten he was there in the heat of the moment. She turned back to see Michael’s face suddenly calm and serene. Even though he was a figment a fraction she could feel the peace invading her mind and soul. His tone had changed to that of a caring father speaking to his wayward child. He spoke in the English of the time.

“My child. How lost you have become again. Hiding from what you know is inside you.”

The subtle tone of disappointment and the overwhelming sense of love she felt in his words caused her to weep.

“You continue to lie to yourself Enid Aurelius, Empress of the Eternal Night for that is just one of your aspects. You touched it recently and it frightened you. You felt what you truly were when you unleashed your righteous wrath in my name. Let the blindness you’ve cast over yourself fall away and see the truth.”

In the serenity brought by the presence before her she saw what she’d blinded herself too for months. She should have left already. She had been here too long and she was causing more harm then good. All of her self-righteousness and her arrogance melted away. Her soul laid bare. She felt her heart beat again and she collapsed on the bed she looked up at Michael, but she knew it was God she spoke to.

“I am sorry father.”

Arl’s gasped he was in the presence of God and he was naked. He scrambled to cover himself yet comfort his wife. Michael’s image moved forward and looked down to Enid.

“We all lose our way daughter. Even me. A parent’s love for their child can blind even the most rational of minds. I know this feeling well. Forgive your brother Michael for he is frustrated and fearful for what is to come. Your great work is almost complete. Your sacrifices and heart aches, your children’s sacrifices and heart aches have been mine as well daughter. Now remove the last blind fold from your eyes and see the whole truth of yourself, know yourself. You are Seraph, Highest of the Host, you are the Beacon of Life. The Aspect of All. Avatar of the Universe. The Pillar on which all creation resides. Take up your mantle once more.”

Enid could feel something struggling to escape from within her she didn’t meet God’s eyes. His shimmering hand slipped under Enid’s chin, and she felt the slightest bit of pressure nudging it upwards.

“Take your true form daughter. Know your truth; Know the cost it brings.”

Enid couldn’t contain the energy welling up within her. She floated above the chest at the foot of the bed her hair floated above her, and she felt her scars burned away and then something pressing to be released from her back. There was a flash of light. She must have screamed, or Arl had, because the door burst open, and Helen and Hazel had rushed in only to find two angels. One was just over six feet tall with long black wings that seemed to hold the whole of the universe within them. Galaxies swirled within them, and within those floated stars and planets. If one stared too long they could find themselves pulled into the void of space. Her hair was long and flowing long past her waist and made of pure light. Her eyes had no iris they were just brilliant golden orbs of light. The other was of course the image of Michael. Helen’s gift told her what she saw. She fell to her knees and wept tears of blood. Hazel lacking the extrasensory perception of her adoptive sister started to lunge forward only to be held back by Helen’s strength. Hazel looked down at Helen.

“They took mother!”

“That is mother in her true form. And that is God.”

Arl was weeping openly as well looking up at the woman whom he married. He had longed to see her true form in all its glory, and it was so magnificent he could only weep at its beauty. Enid barely perceived any of this. Her mind was expanding exponentially as was her non-physical being. She could hear the pattern of a pulsar galaxies away. The whispered prayers of the Sauroids in the Temple of the Universe. She was everywhere and everything at once. Her hands were starting to vanish as reality just became an extension of her. Her wings were no longer black feathered things but the coronas of a white super giant. She was infinite. She could feel and see twisting arcs of energy Purple, Blue, Green, Black all intertwined. For a brief instant she knew all the secrets of creation. She felt gashes in the fiber of her being. Fester wounds that needed to be cleaned out. Stitched up. Then her mortal mind started to break. She felt her sense of self vanishing into oblivion being subsumed by the infinity that was her true self. She screamed again, though she could not hear or feel it. Then four voices spoke at once pulling her back to the room her mortal form had once occupied.

“Mom?”

“Mommy?”

“Mother?”

“Mama?”

As her mind reformed her body solidified again. She blinked and looked around the room. Their voices reminded of her of who she was. Mother. Empress. Mortal. Vampire. She looked at God. His lips cured into a small smile.

“Now you see daughter. Now you understand. You are infected and you instinctively seek out and destroy the infection and heal your wounds. Your mortal children are at risk no matter when and where they are. Everyone’s children are at risk. Even your brothers and sisters.”

Enid blinked at him.

“Why would you take this from me?”

“I took nothing and gave you nothing you did not already possess. My words simply helped you push past your fear. You already knew your name. You are being of many dimensions now my child. You are the Archangel Seraph; You are Enid the Empress. Enid the mortal. Sarah the Demon Hunter. Seek out the hollow under the Cathedral alter. You will find what you need there. Go and fear not, I will tend to my grandson as I have tended to all my grandchildren. Even the ones who were too stubborn to listen.”

His eyes drifted to Hazel before the image shimmered and vanished. Enid looked down at herself and realized she was now covered in shimmering platinum armor. Her son rush towards her and clutched onto her leg. How she wished the armor would go away so she could hold him. As she thought it the armer shimmered out of existence leaving her in a simple white dress. She kneeled down and scooped up Robert. He reached out for her wing.

“They’re soft.”

Enid smiled at him and kissed him. He blinked at his mother.

“You are an angel.”