Nocturne

Fallen, what if at last I shared with you a rather private truth?  Would you deem it a beautiful or frightening revelation?  I've spoken of secret things before, but not like this.  Would you even hear me, or understand what you're hearing?  I am more than my Father's most terrible angel.  I think you grasp this by now.  I am mortal, like those you despise.  But I'm also the twilit hush of dawning dusk.  The indrawn breath.  The fleeting glimpse.  I too was a father, once.  And a mother.  The eternal tides of Amnion.  Naught but the trick of my patron's patrons in the end.  The cradle and the life.  The lake and the lake-bed.  Surely I’m not Endymion, locked in dreaming raptures of Selene's ghost-flower?  But perhaps I’m near enough those rhythms of the poet's moon.  Palest silver of the Night Star.  The hidden ecology of all Fay.  More than Man or machine.  Beyond war and tales of war.  I'll say it plainly; this beautiful, frightening revelation.  You never should have raised your fucking hand to the one who carried me.  The one who loved me even whilst heaven itself was burning.  You understand little of the lines you've crossed and the price I will force you to pay.  By the arch of my mother's bow, I swear.  I've had enough of watching you replace priests with wraith-familiars, transforming hideous warlords into kings and queens. Erecting these blood-dimmed chronologies.  Only cowards thrill at tormenting the weak and wounded, using cruelty to conquer.  But hatred is no match for love, or empathy.  I'm going to teach you these things, Fallen, annihilating your intimate sickness in the process.  Even whilst it kills me.  If you're wise you will run to my brother for forgiveness, while you still can.  But you will find no mercy here.  Not when Ka'shayel knows you in these darkest of ways.  Hear me.  The evening and the morning both still belong to me.  Honour your mothers as you would your fathers.  It's too late now for half-measures.  The falling or rising Akasha.  Knowledge of the nocturnal pledge.  What is about to happen has been a long time coming.  A thousand years in the making, in fact.  I don’t think you really understand the nature of hunting, or vengeance.  But you will.  By the light of Diana's star, you will.