Bough -- Logs

Azrael stiffens, all laughter gone. "Ah, so this is how it is to be, is it? It will not be that simple, little goddess. I am not like other angels. I am a Throne! And you will not find me bound so easily!"

Jareth can feel himself trembling with anger and fear and the whisper of Lilith in his mind telling him that Azrael is frightened somewhere deep inside. She does not yet play that card.

Inanna murmurs amusedly, "True, you are indeed not like other angels. You are far more of a blowhard, and resistant to logic or reason. Now. Are we clear so far? I will have your oath on this.

I am stone. I am earth, unyeilding, unemotional, eternal. I am not the tempermental volcano, I am the mountain. Hepheastus thinks, making his face impassive, hard, folding his arms, just watching. Eyes focused on Azarel, seeing nothing but him. Certainly not seeing the bodies of his loved ones in his mind.

Azrael's hands seem to creak as he clutches the scythe, and the grinding sound seems to be coming from his bony teeth. "... No... I will not... submit to your will, goddess! My god... is El-Amon-Re... not you!" The effort is clearly tremendous for him to say that much, however.

Inanna tilts her head thoughtfully at the angel, "I do not demand your worship, angel. I demand your oath." Her voice is almost gentle as she murmurs, "Come now, the sooner you oblige us, the sooner you are free again. Give me your oath."

Azrael becomes extremely agitated, his hands clenching his scythe tightly enough to make the wood creak. "No! No, I shan't! I have power and responsibility and authority as a Throne and there's nothing you can do to take that away from me! You... you shan't make me take such an oath! You mustn't!"

The goddess raises an eyebrow, "Why?"

Jareth shakes his head and steps forward, the voice of Lilith whispering through the young bard's lips. She murmurs his True Name and says, "You are fighting this too hard, child. Even you, passionate and loyal as you are, know that there is far too much work for simply one Throne of Death. Relax and quit fighting us so hard. Let us help you."

Hephaestus looks at Inanna, at Jareth, at Azrael. Maybe...maybe he can do more than just be calm. Maybe he can make the strengths that he gained while mortal can help him here. He focuses on the angel of death, then, and makes a call. Calm. he thinks, reaching out with his mind. Taking all his power, the raw power burning through his veins, and making it into a huge hand...but not one to strike, rather one to sooth the angel's...ruffled feathers, so to speak.

Azrael collapses to his knees in the circle, hood covering his skull head. "I will be destroyed if I obey such an oath, goddess!" he stammers out. "I will have... will have... failed... my god and my creator." Bit by bit, his voice is calmer, his tone less blustering, his conviction weakening. "He will destroy me and set another. I will have become more of a... liability than an asset."

Oddly, that does more to soften Inanna's tightly controlled rage than all the previous bluster. She says gently, "How will you have failed him, Azrael? We do not wish to directly attack your deity. We wish only that you stop attacking Raven."

Azrael is silent for a moment; calmed by Hephaestus, brought down from his bluster by Lilith, and teetering on the edge of the oath to Inanna, he is quiet for many long moments. "If I... If I disobey him, and assert myself free from him. I will no longer be his Throne. If I am not his Throne, his psychopomp, then I am nothing."

Lilith's voice is almost aching with compassion, "Child, you are everything. We are not the tools of our creators, we are their children and children are meant to break free and make a better life."

Norris's brow knits, the much more forgiving young man coming out, even behind the visage of the earth god. He doesn't want to feel compassion for this one, he who is a representative of everything that he hates about El-Amon. But he keeps his will on Azrael, so others can convince him to work with them.

Inanna murmurs quietly, "Also, I doubt he has directly ordered you to attack Raven. You were fine enough before with her taking her mortal souls, and you taking yours. We wish you to return to the condition you existed in previously. How is that disobedience?"

Hephaestus rumbles in thought at Lilith's words, taking something away from that. He knows what it is to be a child, born of Hera, protected and nurtured, but growing in his own right, becoming his own man, finding his own strength, making a life.

Azrael is quiet again for a moment, then he looks to Lilith, doffing his hood; no longer is his the spectre-skulled visage Jareth remembered from before, but that of a middle-aged man, of sober brow and curled, pale brown locks. "This is who I am," he says, empained. "I am not like the other angels. They answer to him through their superiors. I... I am an instrument of the Divine Will directly and if I go against his will then he will take from me his favor and my life." He looks to Inanna. "This is how it is disobedience: It is by his will that I am a Throne. So entwined within my being is that, that I cannot return to who I was before. Ask Raven! Once she was but a trickster, and now she is a Throne of Death. She cannot go back to how she was! She is an aethyr who has stood upon the far shores of Hades. You do not turn away from that."

Inanna patiently repeats herself, "I doubt your deity directly told you to attack Raven, especially since you were fine enough with the arrangements before. What changed?"

Jareth thinks, [The Metatron.]

Azrael says, "She changed everything." He points to Jareth/Lilith. "When she brought him back from Hades. I see now why she did. But even so, no mortal soul has returned from Hades but by reincarnating."

Norris blinks in surprise.

Mikal asks, "Brought� who back? Her mortal form?"

Jareth says, "Me, Rabbit. When I died, just before Badger left us. "

Azrael ssits back on his feet, scythe on the ground. "And so... I pursued Raven. If I could be the only Throne, then I would be that much more valuable to the Architect."

Inanna shakes her head bemusedly, "How is Raven accountable for Lilith's actions?"

Azrael says, "It is the mortal way to die and be reincarnated, not die and be brought back to life without first passing to the Far Shores!

Inanna shakes her head again, her smile wry, "And yet she is not mortal alone, as you yourself noted."

Norris opens his mouth, and closes it. "He suspected." he suddenly says, from Hephaestus's mouth. "El-Amon. He suspected that Jareth was more than he seemed. He wanted Azrael to catch the rest of us, if we also fell."

Inanna glances inquiringly over at her companion, "Why do you say El-Amon? It has been El-Amon-Re for some time now."

Azrael opens his mouth... then closes it. "I did not suspect that much," he says, through gritted teeth; apparently he has not as much strength of will now to refuse that question, at least. "I knew she thought you special in some way. But not that your soul was that of a god."

Inanna glances between the two entities, then sighs and shakes her head, "All right, now neither of you are making sense."

Hephaestus waves a hand. "Name doesn't matter." he says, covering his mistake. "For what we know now, I might well call him Zeus, and smack him over the head with my hammer for old time's sake." he rumbles. "You asked what changed, Inanna. And what changed is when Raven made an exception for Jareth, the Architect wondered why. He set Azrael to take in all mortal souls, because he hoped that if we died, he could capture us. Hold us. Prevent us from re-entering the Wheel."

She starts laying out her questions precisely: "Hephaestus, why do you use the deity's abbreviated name? Azrael, who is 'she,' and why are you so insistent that a mortal -- even a mortal with a deity's soul -- must behave precisely like a mortal?"

Inanna snaps in exasperation, "Yes, names do matter, Hephaestus! They matter critically!" She wheels to snarl at the angel, "Who do you think you are, Azrael, to be making decisions on your own without asking your deity personally?! You have not spoken to him in millennia -- have you?! None of you have -- you have lost El-Amon, haven't you! The only thing you get to talk to is Metatron!"

The smith god faces Inanna. "She, as in Raven. Azrael knew that *Raven* thought us special." He doesn't respond to Inanna's protestation, though...he made a mistake, not using the god's full name, because of their suspicions...he didn't want Azrael to know. And he was just trying to cover his mistake.

Azrael looks -- somewhat -- uncomfortable. "I speak of Raven. And...." He does not immediately answer, then he looks away. "The Metatron speaks for El-Amon-Re." But even as he says it, the discomfit in his voice is clear.

Jareth shakes his head, "You don't believe that."

Inanna has had it with deceptive angels -- she straightens up and roars at him, "ANSWER ME!"

Azrael cringes, then shots back, "NO! I HAVEN'T!" In a roar of anger he throws the scythe far from him, out of the circle but not at anyone. He whirls again to face Inanna. "NONE OF US HAVE! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR?! ARE YOU SATISFIED AND PLEASED NOW TO KNOW THAT WE ARE ALONE?!"

In the moment that Azrael breaks like that, Lilith bursts forward out of Jareth as if to protect the mortal boy.

Hephaestus staggers under the fury, the angel's anger even overcoming his will...but perhaps, it is not that much of a surprise, considering his own discomfit.

Inanna sighs softly, a small relieved smile on her face, "Yes. Yes, actually... I am." She's still standing tall, with her aura shimmering powerfully around her, as she adds, "Because... that means it is not your deity who is a vicious, cruel, thoughtless bastard. It means someone else is using you all." Her smile gets coldly thoughtful as she adds, "And it means... we have common cause, angel -- even if you do not realize it yet."

Azrael seems to collapse inward on himself, looking warily at Inanna as he pants. "Explain?" he asks, tiredly but not aggressively.

Lilith is panting a little, having been badly startled by the outburst, but she says, "We don't wish to destory El-Amon-Re, Azrael. We wish to find and heal him."

Inanna smiles, settling down comfortably cross-legged in front of the angel and outside of the circle, "Where is El-Amon? Hephaestus spoke true, I believe, in drawing our attention to that. El-Amon-Re is the entity with Metatron as his voice, yes? We were told... by someone I shall not now mention that Re is also part of Metatron's name. So if El-Amon is not the same as El-Amon-Re, and Metatron is connected somehow with El-Amon-Re, and none of you have seen your deity in a very long time..." she smiles, "then doesn't it seem logical that Metatron is doing something wrong? Wrong enough that it cannot allow El-Amon to come forward and back up its current commandments in his name?"

Azrael looks to Lilith, then to Inanna. "Perhaps. He has... been absent before, though. Might it not be a long absense?"

Inanna smiles coolly, "You don't believe that, do you?"

Lilith shakes her head, "I was his lover, Azrael. You know this is not like him. Harsh, yes, but never this... psychotic... and never gone for so long."

The smith god muses. It's hard, he supposes, for Azrael not to want to accept this lie, to lie to himself, if he cannot stand on his own...so dependant on the Architect for support and love, and meaning.

Azzrael looks away. "no. No, I do no t believe it -- least of all when Lady LIlith says it is not him."

Inanna nods slowly, waiting for Azrael to ask himself the logical next questions: if it's not El-Amon, then where is the deity? and what has Metatron done to him?

Azrael frowns. "But... where is he, then?"

Inanna murmurs softly, "That question... perhaps Metatron should be asked that, hm? Although... unless it is compelled to speak, I doubt it will wish to give up that information. After all, that would be the end of its reign, yes?"

Azrael says softly, "Yes... yes it would be."

Inanna nods quietly, "Then it would seem you need the True Name of Metatron, yes? And I would hazard the guess this is more important than chasing Raven around, no?"

Azrael clenches his hands. "Lady Inanna... if I go against he who holds my leash... I may not have much to say in the matter. I may not have much life for long."

Inanna considers, then smiles faintly, "Then it would seem we do indeed have common cause, Azrael Throne... because we too wish the True Name of Metatron." She grins, almost mischievous, "Perhaps we could come to some... mutually acceptable accommodation?"

Hephaestus struggles not to laugh at the look on Inanna's face, een given the seriousness off the situation.

Azrael looks consideringly at Inanna. "Perhaps... perhaps. What do you propose?"

Inanna thinks for a long moment... then she holds up her fingers, counting off her points, "First, we need you to leave Raven alone. Deposing her as Throne simply aids Metatron. Second, Metatron's name has three parts. We have two of the parts, and we will soon have the last one. What we need then is the order they go in. Do you know that? Can you do that?"

Hephaestus's eyes open wider, and nods. Yes, that would be a huge help.

She adds thoughtfully, "Finally, do you know how we might swiftly find the stone from Gan Eden that was used as the foundation stone for the walls of Jericho?"

Azrael thnks. He shakes his head. "I can leave Raven alone, yes, But I know nothing of Metatron's name. But...." He frowns. "This is the first I have heard of something from Gan Eden being in the Dreamtime."

Inanna smiles warmly, "Excellent! Thank you for agreeing to leave Raven alone. You might not want to mention us either, so we can find Metatron's name, and discover what it has done to El-Amon, right?" She doesn't mention Gan Eden again, waiting for the angel to mention his perplexity when he's ready to.

Azrael opens his mouth, then closes it, blinking. "I... I do not know if I can promise that. He may... question me."

Inanna says, "By he you mean Metatron? It is not your deity, Azrael. It does not command you, does it?"

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Last modified: 2008-Oct-04 19:17:18

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