Arossiel

In the long ago, in time that was, before the quarrels of today’s centuries: there was a human woman. Her hair was black and short and her skin was pale as teeth, and the name that she was called by her friends, and that we shall call her today, was Lily – the overseers had a different name for her, or more precisely an alphanumeric code, the specifics of which are of little importance and have been lost to us.

The Archbishop of Banor at the time had been raised to her position through promising a tremendous plan to defeat Calabia. Seven times Banor had tried to conquer Calabia, seven times the bloodlords’ military superiority and judicious political alliances had rebuffed the holy wars. Eight is not an auspicious number to the Numielites of Banor, but the Archbishop made grand promises, much grander than the portents allowed for. Her plan was thus: she prayed to Numiel to send angels to free all the food from the stockpens, so that the food might rise in revolt and Banor might sweep in as conquering heroes.

So it was that, as Lily was getting ready for sleep in the stockpen, the celestial angel Arossiel came to her, a frightful whirlwind of wings and eyes, intoning in a terrible and awful voice, “FEAR NOT”.

Utterly disregarding Arossiel’s perfectly clear instruction, Lily gave a terrified squeak and dropped her hairbrush.

The angel did his best to tone down his terrifying affect somewhat, apologizing and begging Lily’s forgiveness. He was between Lily and the door, and there were no windows in the stockpens that one might dive out of, so she could not flee; she could only cower in terror.

Arossiel sensed that his holy mission to free the food and raise them up in revolt was already going poorly, barely having started at all. He shrunk down further, modulated his voice and his apologies, trying to calm Lily.

Eventually, Lily grew less terrified and more curious, just while Arossiel grew more distraught and panicked about how far behind he was already running on his mission. The armies of Banor were thundering towards Calabia, and he hadn’t even freed a single food.

In a few hours, Lily calmed Arossiel with soothing words and gentle touch; in that same time, the angel fell in love with the human, and grew distracted from his mission. If one food needed this much attention before she might act, how much time would myriads of them take? Arossiel decided it could not be done, and stayed with Lily instead. It took some days before Lily returned Arossiel’s feelings, but in time she did.

Battle was soon joined in the fields of Calabia, and the Archbishop’s armies soon lay derelict and ruined. The fate of the eighth Banor invasion of Calabia was decided before it began.

Arossiel the angel fled Calabia with Lily, fled from his duties and from Numiel’s service, fell from grace and lost his wings, and the two wandered the world for at least some decades before falling from the pages of history.