Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 90404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
And also, I assumed they took their pleasures among the women of the conquered lands like all other soldiers did. But then, my sons always were a peculiar lot. And they were certainly too monstrous to seduce any of the easily frightened human women into bed willingly.
But it is such an obvious oversight that I can only smack my forehead for not attempting it sooner. Of course, the intermingling of angel-kind and the humans of this plane is how beings such as I came to be in the first place. Granted, the angels were beautiful when they first came, and human women were happy to offer their bodies to such creatures, especially since they assumed my forebearers to be gods.
They called the offspring of these unions such as me Nephilim in their sacred texts. We were worshipped and lived lives of such glory back in those days. Before, one by one, we were either killed off or retired to the eternal plane during the ascension. But I knew the eternal beings took the rest of my brethren more from duty than desire, and in that other plane, there would be no true glory for me. Not like I could have if I remained, the last of my kind.
So I stayed behind. But I was not powerful enough on my own. I needed soldiers.
Does it leave a bitter flavor on my tongue to realize it is me alone who is the donkey who cannot procreate? For oh how I did try.
Instead, I was forced to be a thief, to steal the light from beyond the gates. And then I used up almost all the creative force left inside myself to fashion these children of mine.
These ungrateful, backstabbing sons who never appreciated the sacrifices I made to give them the greatest gift of all: life and existence on this sumptuous earthly plane.
Ah, but a father’s work is never done, it turns out.
And now, a Grandfather’s.
Long have I watched my sons from afar, regaining my strength. All these centuries after they betrayed me, I have waited, diminished. And oh, I have watched.
Times have changed, and I allowed it. I knew one day, something would shift, and our true glory could finally be obtained.
And look, here it finally is.
Wastefully, they imprisoned themselves in that castle, allowing the world of men to thrive. Allowing glory to pass them by. Fools.
So I could hardly believe the day I saw my son bearing the small human woman in his arms as he flew her back to his castle tomb.
When she fled him days later, I laughed, and went to intercept her without fully knowing my own mind as to what I would do with her. Except I felt in the air that finally, finally, change was on the wind after our long stasis.
It was arriving right on time, too, for I had almost regained my full strength after my long convalescence. My son may not have killed me, but he had diminished the life force within me from a blazing fire to a mere ember in the ashes. And it has taken this long to rebuild the flame to full light.
I am now ready.
But all thoughts on how I might use the small human woman as a captive against my son evaporated as soon as I caught her scent and realized the fool had managed it!
She was with child.
There would be a new generation.
Oh, how I gloried. That which I was never able to do—recreate the perfect angelic specimen—he had done by foolish happenstance! Through fatherhood, no less. He, who should not be able to procreate at all!
So I protected her, remaining a kindly stranger only so that when she went back out, she might continue back to him, and bear him the child.
My plans are not so short-sighted as to take the child as a baby… though I was tempted. The suffering it would inflict on the son who wounded and meant to kill me… oh it was so tempting.
But if the past two hundred years have taught me anything, it is patience.
For why would I stop at only having one new soldier in my army when a vista of possibility has suddenly opened before me?
My sons need consorts. And considering how long it has taken one of them to find himself a mate, I will not trust them to the task.
After all, Creator-Father knows best.