The Never Ending Tails
An Echo in the Silence

There has always been a clear discrimination in the Angels’ Kingdom; this cruel discrimination has started way before the first war of the Angels and the fall of Lucifer. It was as old as the angels themselves.

The majority of angels possessed some sort of gift that makes them able to tame the elements of their world; however, a small minority appeared without that gift and was considered inferior ever since. They were considered, “A disgrace to the superiority of the angels’ race,” as the Archangel Michael once described them.

In most of the cities of the Angels’ Kingdom; they were living in poor suburbs, kind of like ghettos underneath the more civilized metropolis built for the elementary angels. The situation was gloomy for the non elementary angels as their places of living were more like tombs, only receiving few rays of sun through the Iron bars of the metropolises’ sewers.

In a way, this minority was on the very bottom of the angels’ hierarchy, but also on its very base. They lived underground, indeed, but their shantytowns were surrounding the very pillars that maintained the metropolises above the ground, and piercing the clouds.

The situation remained unchanged for thousands of years, even after Lucifer was banished to the humans’ world. The instauration of the taboo made the situation even worst, and never the hate for non elementary angels have been so deep and brutal.

All the elementary angels possessed wings of colors related to the element they were born to master; however all non elementary angels had transparent wings, and their wings soon became the worst trait that the elementary angels could think of. They openly argued between them that such a feature is an element of weakness and low status, the very answer to their hate for the non elementary ones.

They are inferior they said, maybe just a disgraceful error of nature or else, why do their wings feel like they are not even there unless one inspect very thoroughly. This could only be the sign of rampant creatures crawling under dirt they all thought. Being the aim of all racism in the angels’ world, it resulted in them being pushed aside and forgotten in their misery while the other angels were living in decent conditions, even luxury for some of them.

The situation was unfair and it stayed like that for a very long time; however, something happened that started a wind of change in the despair of those stigmatized angels. More specifically the Chaos caused by the return of the fallen one: Lucifer and the subsequent Order that followed after he was defeated once again.

On his second attack on the angels’ world, Lucifer was consumed by hate for the ones who banished him, and his rage was about to destroy everything in the angels’ world. He was however stopped by his own blood and flesh: Biliel Stone.

The Lightning angel was the only heir he was ever able to spawn while living in the humans’ world. The boy had been carried by the wife of Cid, the very paladin who caused his demise and fall to Earth. Biliel lived in the bliss of ignorance during years thinking that he was a mere human.

Lucifer killed both his mother and Cid when he was still a baby and he has been fostered by humans. Lucifer’s son eventually came back to his world leading his father there without knowing. He formed the coalition when he learned the secret of his birth and the intentions of his real father. After many sacrifices and losses, the coalition prevailed, and with the fall of the greatest menace of the angels’ world, things needed to change.

Glimpses of hope for the non elementary angels started to appear through the actions of the coalition and its allies. Even during the time of Lucifer’s return, measures were taken to permit to a non elementary angel to attend as a student in Lys’s Angelic Academy: De LaCroix.

During her stay in the academy, she got involved with the founders of the coalition and became one of their closest friends, and most involved members. She happened to be the key of the First Adam’s Power; the power went to her through her heredity as it was first sealed in one of her ancestors. Non elementary angels were denied access to eternal youth through the fountain of Light, and kept on reproducing like humans under the firm control of the Archangels’ Council.

Rare were the angels who knew why the Council was bothering with the stigmatized angels; the truth was that the Archangels chose to transfer the essence of the old God where nobody would search; in the most hated and allegedly insignificant angels. This very devious plan has been sketched by Mikkel Grey, the Seeker Archangel, and have been enforced by the council who only saw benefit in such action.

Lucifer ended up discovering the truth of the non elementary angel of the De LaCroix: Sorrel and tried to suck the power of the First Adam from her through a very painful and uncertain process. After the order returned, this event was decisive in breaking the very long hate the elementary angels display toward their non elementary underground neighbors. The new archangel council finally established an equity that was lacking for eons.

The decision was taken to build Asilia, A prototype city that would be to home to a whole community of non elementary angels. It was indeed a very small step, but it was something that needed to happen; Change was on the way, but it couldn’t be brought from a day to another and a slow pace was a better option for everybody.

The new council wanted to give the non elementary angels some sort of independence so that they would be able to fuse with the kingdom and gain an equal status. Asilia was to become a model to define the best way to proceed further. The experience was held for a year. 90% of the population selected to live in Asilia were non elementary angels and a minority of 10% of elementary angels were chosen as well to give the elementary angels a perspective on how it feels to be a minority. The elementary angels were chosen for their open mind and their persuasion skills that the council believed to be the key to eradicate, or at least pacify the very long racism of the metropolises’ inhabitants. By doing so, the new archangels hoped to conciliate all the angels and bring peace and tolerance among them.

Adam Mir was one of the non elementary angels chosen for the experiment; he was just twenty four years old, around the same age elementary angels get to use the fountain of Light.

He felt less impressed by those ‘changes’ than his elders at first, thinking that it was only some kind of trick that would make his people look like fools once again. However, when he was chosen to be part of the Asilia experiment, he never felt happier. He was finally able to move from the dump where he spent his life, in the undergrounds of the southern city of Ethos. Living on the same conditions than the other elementary angels was an exciting and intriguing possibility for him.

The day of the inauguration, a Sephirots’ Legion came to Ethos aboard the Scarlet Eagle; the giant flying ship came floating on the sea of clouds and stopped on the north port of the Metropolis. The ship came to transport the chosen non elementary angels and their belongings to Asilia where everything would be better than it ever was for them before.

Adam didn’t own a lot; he only took a small bag that held all the belongings he judged important: A golden clock he had found when he was six in the eastern crater located few miles from ethos, the dark brown full of holes cloak that still kept him kind of warm during the cold nights and a book about elementary angels code of life that he had started reading with hate, but ended up loving when he knew he would go to Asilia. He let his old rotten and torn cloths behind as he was promised new ones in Asilia.

He left without turning his head back to the city where he grew up. There was nobody left there that would care about his experience anyway.

The trip took two hours. The distance from Ethos to Asilia was enormous indeed, almost three thousand and five hundred miles, but the Cherubs technology was very cunning and very advanced; the flight system of the Scarlet Eagle and all the other Ships of the council fleet was faster than any other transportati on system of the kingdom; even faster than the Steam Bolt, the fastest cloud train ever to pass through their sky.

Adam was sent in the North East sector of Asilia called Twilight Garden. He lived in a modest flat for singles. It was very small considering where the elementary angels lived, but way more personal space than Adam ever had, it even had a great view on the valley of clouds.

A brand new life and a brand new experience; I can finally see the clouds bellow me, he thought the first time he saw that landscape. Of course, the stay in Asilia wasn’t only limited to accommodation; Adam also had the right to education. He enrolled in the Cherubs branch, he dreamt of creating big machines that would make life better, things as big as the Scarlet Eagle or the Steam Bolt. Many successful non elementary angels have been used as servitors of cherubs and even such a low status has put them out of the ghettos. Adam wasn’t really sure about how hard it would be to become an actual cherub; he was motivated for sure, but wasn’t completely confident about having the skills to go all the way.

Adam spent a quite first year; he had some troubles to adapt to the cherubs program though as it was requiring more focus and wit than he was ever able to display before. His days at the Academy were peaceful otherwise.

After the first year, the Archangel council decided that the experiment of Asilia was a success; they decided to open a chance for more people to go there and in that respect, they put more restriction for a potential stay. Adam wasn’t sure of what to do anymore when he received the news. He needed to show better results to stay at the Academy and subsequently insure his stay in Asilia or move on the higher levels of the other Angels’ cities. His doubts were higher than ever, and a grim feeling of falling back into his old situation started to haunt him.

Something changed that subsequent Year though, Adam felt under the pressure of the work at the Academy and he let go of it all. At that moment, he was rarely getting out from his flat, consuming angel dust all the time. It was a quite strange substance that was spreading all around the angels’ Kingdom, even reaching Asilia and was found pretty much everywhere on the valley of clouds.

The dust was a shiny powder that opened the gates of perceptions and let its consumers see the world around them differently. It wasn’t a really harmful substance, but too much of anything was always leading to dramatic results. After a long seclusion, Adam finally decided to take a look around and make the best of what he thought were his last moments in Asilia. He started to attend gatherings that he felt would be a great experience and met a group of elementary angels that were quite different from others he met on his first year.

The gatherings were formed of free spirits from all the races of angels that truly and honestly believed in equity and diversity. The first person Adam met in the gatherings was Rachelle, a lightning angel with sparkly white short hair and high beauty only met by her witty personality. Electric was a perfect word to describe Rachelle, she was very energetic and her face was as perfectly shaped as the ones in the art of the old time. When Adam met her, he was quite high on angel dust, so for the first time in years, he decided to take a leap of faith and talk to her. Rachelle was there with a friend of her: Mikael, a water angel wearing roundish glasses and with a constant expression of beatitude; his face was shining intensely as he seemed to be constantly enjoying everything he was seeing or doing.

Adam started to hang out more with the two, they spent their time taking angel dust and having the greatest talks; addressing topics Adam could never dream of discussing out loud during his previous miserable life. Adam had the chance to meet other angels through Rachelle and Mikael: Savael and Andel, a married couple composed of a wind angel and an earth one. They were both born on the same region and are the product of more cohesion in the organization of the angels’ society.

Adam also met Hael a young female fire angel that was quite charming with her goofy attitude and her trust in her ideals, and Emiel another water angel who was a quite bizarre person but somehow likeable; she was in a way the mascot of the group. For the first time since his arrival to Asilia, Adam felt truly at peace. He finally belonged somewhere and this new situation made him forget about the guilt of letting go of his obligations. He enjoyed his adventures with his new friends which were usually enhanced by angel dust.

A little while after meeting the group, Adam was introduce to a new person, another angel that he has seen around in Asilia but never had the chance to meet. Her Name was Ashes and she was the only light angel Adam ever met. Of course, he already knew about the light angels: the purest and most gentle ones of the elementary angels; the ones who kept order in the heavens and guard the souls of humans while they transited to their next step in the multiverse.

Ashes was one of the rare of her kind to live out of Heaven; she moved in the new city of Polaros that was built as a part of the peace plan with the Demons’ empire. The society of demons was still under the tight control of High Demons dictators who went corrupt after the first war of the angels. During the time she went there, and by a curious coincidence, she happened to witness uprising in the demons’ major cities including Polaros where the population couldn’t bear the insane regime of the High Demons.She was deported to Asilia for a limited time and ended up entering in contact with the group.

The first time Adam saw her, she had something special to show the group; a strange crimson powder. Mikael was very excited to know more about it, as much as Rachelle, Hael and Adam. The three others weren’t that much curious, but they decided to try it as well. The substance was commonly called demon’s beard, it was extracted from a plant that was only growing in the demons’ territories. The effects were quite incredible; way different from Angel dust. The name of the powder was misleading as it had a very peaceful and quite impact on the taker. The group felt united through the experience on a level they never reached before; it was like all their souls were one. The only group that achieved such a state before through natural means was the one Biliel Stone belonged with, and it took them years to get there.

Adam and the group shared their days hoping that time would freeze and let them be, but at the end of the year, they all had to go. Saying good bye was the hardest thing Adam ever had to do; however, they all promised to meet again sometime in the future.

He realized that choosing to be a cherub was a foolish ambition that he couldn’t get through with. He discovered though that he was more skilled with words that with machines; he decided to change his specialty and opted for the more diplomatically driven throne formation. He wanted all those of his kind to experience the bliss he experienced, and swore to become the voice of change, the non elementary angel who would bring balance between his people and the others.