Angel Dust by Aurora Morgenstern (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📖

I see the small shadow of a pleased smile. Together we walk outside and strangely enough I don´t feel the cold at all, the jacket is realatively thin so I should at least feel a little cold. I throw a questioning look at Michael who answers the question before I can even ask it. He may be pushing it a little, but it would seem more than ungrateful to make a fuss now after he gave me such a gift.

"I enchanted it to preserve body heat, it´s quite a useful enchantment to have especially in winter. Believe it or not even in heaven it gets cold", I try to picture angels wearing parkas and home knit granny sweaters, little angels gathering around a fire and making christmas cookies. 

"Do angels celebrate christmas?", I wonder out loud which leads to another question of where angels might buy christmas presents. 

"Off course we do, Christ is as important to us as he is to humans, but we celebrate it a little differently. For example we don´t really do christmas trees or stockings. We still give each other gifts and spend time with family if we have any, but it seems more meaningful", he explains patiently and I wonder wether he has any family apart from his brothers, but I don´t dare to ask. It would seem too much liek prying and I´m not as comfortable with him as I would be asking Nathaniel. When we reach the edge of the plateau, i can barely see the ground despite the sky beginning to lighten up. Michael points to a point farther upwards and it takes me a moment, but then I see a small brilliant sun ray coming up in the distance from the field. From then on the sun begins to rise more rapidly, painting the sky a light/greyish blue that is inercepted with smaller tufts of cloud in rose and almost pastel yellow colours. The ground becomes easier to see and I begin to notice that the village is covered in a thin layer of fog, giving it a somewhat mystical, dream like quality. It seems like a secene from a fairytale to me. It´s quite simply the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. I stare and stare all around me, drinking in the sight of my first sunrise in heaven, cursing myself for not having had the thought of watching one before. 

"Are you just going to stand there forever or do you want to go and fly?", Michael asks his voice sounding unusually playful.Come to think of it he is behaving quite oddly this morning in contrast to last night. Could it be that he truely is sorry and that this is a somewhat concession to me? Let´s not read too much into it, shall we? I don´t need a second invitation from Michael, I take a few steps back to get a good running start and leap of the edge. I enjoy the sensation of falling and I admit that I push my luck a little, opening my wings as late as I dare. The wind is sharp and cold in my face, but the few sunrays of the morning warm my wings and fill me with a joyous sensation. the jacket holds true to Michaels words and I don´t feel the cold wind at all where it covers me. I turn my head to watch Michael jump instead of a straight up start, his wings are pressed tight to his back and he races toward the ground almost too fast to bear watching in his swan dive. He opens his wings mere meters from the ground as always and shoots upward with a radiant, almost childish grin on his face. I like seeing him this way, carefree and happy, no trace of his usual facade of stern discipline and responsibility. I understand then why he took back on his punishment, he knows what it´s like to feel trapped and I curse myself for not having noticed it before. The weight of the world lasts on this mans shoulders on a daily basis, his world is so different from the ones I used to belong to and I haven´t managed to open my eyes to that. Off course he has to be stern with me, how else could he demans the sort of respect he needs from other angels, how else coudl he demand their loyalty. I understand also why he thinks he can just take whatever he wants, why he thinks he can demand this respect without having earned it just yet. He believes there is no need for him to earn it, he is at the highest point of a hirarchy that you can possibly achieve. Leader of the archangels, only god above hima nd from what i ahve heard god doesnß´t interfere much. There is two sides to the coin and maybe even an archangel doesn´t always do things for the right reasons. Thinking about it makes my head hurt so I shift my focus back to just watching him fly until he catches up to me. The sun catches and is reflected by the gold dust on his wings and his hair is getting tangeled by the wind. He doesn´t seem to mind and the grin on his face doesn´t vanish. We fly in a silence that is somewhat comforting, there is no need for words at all and for once I don´t feel uncomfortable at all saying nothing. For the first time since I began to learn how to fly I see other angels in the distance, a pair of them coming towards us. I don´t recognise either of them, but one of them bears the sort of small resemblence that only a brother can have to Michael. The angel has wings of a light gray shade and I can see traces of silver dust on them. I briefly wonder what exactly the dust on the wings is for and notice that it can´t be for flying since I don´t have any dust on mine. His hair is short and curly and strawberry blonde, giving his face an almost cute look rather than the stern hardness of Michael´s face. I can hardly make out anything else from the distance. The angel at his side is rather short, but yet athletically built with a hard jawline and short brown hair. To my surprise they are holding hands and look rather lost in each other, could it be that they are a couple? But wouldn´t that mean...I feel a surge of happiness run through me as I realise that there is no way I am wrong about this, unlike a lot of scholars and self proclaimed prophets. Michael sees them to as he stops in mid air, in a standing position, still flapping his wings to keep himself in the air. With some difficulty I manage to mimick his actions and find that I can stand in the air like him, however unlike Michael I don´t look as casual and graceful doing it and hardly manage to stay in the same spot. The angels approaching us slow down facing us and copy Michaels actions. The angel with the grey wings nods at Michael and then turns to me, eyeing me with a clear curiosity and interest that makes it evident he knows who I am. He doesn´t extend his hands due to the rather difficult state of all four of us somewhat standing in mid air more or less. His voice is astonishingly deep when he speaks, but very pleasant to listen to. 

"I´m Uriel and this is my consort Phillip", he introduces himself. Phillip seems to be a rather Mundane name, to be honest I never expected an angel to have a name like Phillip. I do a short wave and introduce myself.

"Hey, nice to meet you. I´m Felice", at this point I have grown accustomed to my new name and made my peace with the fact that I´m not Katherine anymore and maybe that´s a good thing. Maybe in time I can forget about my human life...the fact that I am even considering that shocks me. Why would I want to throw away everything that makes me who I am? The answer is simple, because I am scared and I am sick of being scared and weak. Uriel eyes me with an obvious interest and I am quick to put on a smile. To my surprise Phillip smiles back at me, a shy small smile. I have to admit he is quite cute and I can see that the two of them are very happy together. An awkward silence follows and it lasts until Phillip whispers something to Uriel who makes a quick apology that they have places to be and fly off together. The reason for their departure is quite obvious but neither me nor Michael dares to say anything, I really don´t blame them. Michael rolls his eyes in mock annoyance but I can tell that secretly he is happy for his brother, he just has to play tough man. 

"Play tough man? Felice, if I didn´t know better I would think you´re disrespecting my authority once again", his tone is light and humerous. 

"Wouldn´t dream of it", I reply jokingly and I earn myself a brilliant smile from him that I am sure would make a lot of woment week in their knees, admittedly I am not completely immune to its charms either. I shake my head and quickly focus my thoughts on something else in the knowledge that he can read my mind and I don´t want to give him that satisfaction. My wings begin to throb and with a heavy sigh I let Michael know, today he doesn´t take any detours but takes the fastest route and lands in the backgarden. He holds onto me just a second longer than necessary and I am unsure wether that is a good or a bad thing. Michael tells my I am free to do as I like until one o´clock so I withdraw into my room, feeling the best I have in days, to draw. 

 

I stand infront of the big marble tower, anxiously clutching the hem of my shirt and biting my lip. I am about to meet the most important and possibly most powerful beings in creation. I swallow heavily and watch Michael to distract myself a little. He is kneeling infront of the door, whispering words in some unintelligeble language. Suddendly there is a small flash of flight and a small semi circle of runes begins to glow infront of the doorway and the door swings wide open. I take a step back just in time to avoid getting hid by the door. The room we enter is much bigger than possibly from th proportions of the towers exterior, but at this point buildings that are bigger on the inside are my smalles concern. To be honest the enrd within me rejoices at the thought that maybe the inspiration for the Doctors Tardis on Doctor Who stemmed from soemthing like this. I wouldn´t put it past the angels to have pulled a couple of strings and whispered some words into unssupecting people´s ears. For a split second I also remember the shows eerie villain of the weeping angels and make a quick prayer that the inspuiration for that was just some random mad thought. The room has no windows and the floor is made out of a deep black material while the walls are radiantly white. The room is shaped like an hexagon with two doors facing each other. One behind me and the other door big and sturdy, just a couple of big steps away. The door facing me is guarded by two stone angels and so is the door behind me as I note with a look behind me. Every other of the four remaining sides of the hexagon has a small alcove with a statue inside it. The statues "guarding" the doors