Infinite Lives

A Chapter by Elana Ashwood

Prologue: Heaven on High

Azaruth was an angel like every other one, with red hair and green eyes. He was eating lunch and watched the souls of kids playing with the angel kits. It always brought a small smile to his face knowing that they were happy here in heaven. It was sad that most would never see their parents again, but it was for the best. Those parents that don’t get into heaven were bad for their kids.

Aza took another bite of his salad, and something shifted. He felt dizzy and faint all the sudden as his head started to feel like it was burning in the pits of hell. He was confused, he had never been to hell, or felt pain, so how did he know what they were? What was going on?

You just ate from the fruit of knowledge…

Azaruth wanted to deny the thought, he didn’t even know where it came from, it was just there and it was undeniable. But, how did he eat the fruit of knowledge without realizing it?

It was in the salad…

He couldn’t deny it this time, he heard the voice in his head loud and clear. Aza knew what this meant without the voice in his head. There were stories about what happened to those that tried to eat the fruit of knowledge or power, even without the knowledge he gained. He was going to be exiled from Heaven.

For good reason, knowledge is as destructive as power…

Aza’s eyes opened wide at that. He never thought about it that way. He never thought about much before, really. Blissful ignorance. Aza giggled and shook his head before standing up. He looked up at the sky to the palace in the center of heaven. Looking back down, Aza took his plate and duped it in a trash can.

It goes all the way to hell…

‘Well that is nice to know, though that voice is going to get annoying.’ He thought as he opened his wings and flew up, enjoying them while he still had them. ‘Fallen angels don’t deserve to fly, isn’t that right?’

But who said that you have fallen?…

Azaruth ignores that thought, not wanting to know if it was his own or the fruits. Instead he concentrated on the wind through his wings and the feeling of gratitude for getting to fly one last time, before landing at the castle gates. No one guarded the gates, no one needed to. No human ever got this far if they had negative content, or any content at all. Angels…other angels… were ignorant to it. They were blind to its existence till a human asked about it, then quickly forgot about it once more. Arch angels are the only ones that knew about this place.

As Aza passed through its empty hall, He could see the beauty in its silence. When he walked into the throne room, my eyes caught that of a mortal woman with an angel’s halo. The only one worthy of such a thing, was the mother of heaven, Marry. She smiled at him and walked towards him. “You are brave to come here, instead of running from your Fate, young star spirit.” She fixed his halo and stepped back just as the holy trinity walked in. She went back to her spot as God sat down on their thrones.

Azaruth bowed his head to them as they began to speak. “Raise your head, you are not here in front of us because you are being punished. You did not seek the knowledge that you have been unwillingly granted. Though you must understand the consequences.” The father spoke.

“Heaven is created through balance and peace. You having the knowledge of the universe disrupts Heaven at its core. The longer you are here, the more chaos it will cause here.” The son explained.

“As such, you will not be able to stay here. As you didn’t willingly eat the fruit, you will get to keep your halo and wings, though both will lose their holy shine. You will still be immortal, just not in the same way. You will live your life over and over in different worlds. You will spend a year of purgatory after each life.” The holy spirit stated. “You will not be born with your memory, but gained it. How, you will gain it, we can not say, because not even we know that.”

Aza bowed his head again, “Thank you, all of you, for letting me keep my wings. I am truly grateful for all you have done for me,” he told God as he raised my head once more. Aza wanted to say more, but was unable to before the clouds under him fell away.

Falling through the sky felt like he was sinking into the waves of the seas, and he couldn’t use his wings. The weight was too much to bear as his visions blurred. Pain filled his senses as he changed. Azaruth was no longer an angel, nor was he a fallen one. He was something new entirely.

You're a broken star spirit…

He smiled, as he liked the name the fruit of knowledge gave him. He closed his eyes as eternity was lost on him forever…