Tonight was like any other night.

 

The starlit land was still, but those that crawled over it in droves were anything but. Countless men were drinking away their most recent plunder from a nearby city, and sounds of music and shouts of laughter rang through the starlit valleys, reaching to the edges of the sea beyond.

 

There was only one place it couldn’t be heard. The only place that didn’t join in their celebrations. The king of that place was pacing atop his walls, as if expecting to meet those merry men right in front of the city’s gates. After all the conflict he’d seen, his eyes and ears were trained to expect any sort of threat to his peaceful enclave in the desert, no matter how happy it might look.

 

The king gripped his golden sceptre as he gazed out towards the valley. There were only stars out tonight, but they were crudely reflected in the camps and bonfires far away. Hundreds of small red dots in the distance, each one representing some drunken soul enjoying his captured food and slaves. It had been going on for so long now it was starting to become normal, a night like any other night.

 

In his thoughts the king failed to notice footsteps behind him, light as air.

 

His sceptre flashed a golden glow and its point whipped towards whatever poor soul was at the end of it. However, there was nothing there.

 

The king narrowed his eyes against the darkness, which was not, in fact, because he couldn’t see well in it. He had just come to expect many shadowy tricks out here.

 

“For someone who doesn’t enjoy fighting you have quite the reflexes.”

 

The king quickly spun around again to find a figure with hands calmly clasped behind its back. A heavy deep-purple cloak masked his shape, yet what little of himself was visible under his hood was clearly seen as if it were mid-day. The mysterious man slowly removed his hood, and the king calmly lowered his sceptre.

 

A kind face looked back at him, as if it found a long-lost friend. Which in fact, it had.

 

“Gabriel.”

 

“Shall we sit? I’m not much for parties.”

 

—

 

Gabriel poured steaming tea for the both of them while a lone wolf howled far off, probably hoping to drag some dead animal away from the bonfires. Raising a small fire of their own inside the guard tower in the center of the city was far more comfortable than facing the cold winter air outside.

 

“It’s been a long, long time.” Started Gabriel, warming a clay mug in between his thin hands. He brought it up to his lips. Reef grunted in agreement.

 

“It’s getting hard to keep track how long exactly. Maybe you remember better than I would.” Reef suggested.

 

Gabriel laughed softly, looking down at his mug. “I’ve been busy. I have a lot of responsibilities, you know. Lots of people to meet. Not to sound dismissive, but I didn’t specifically intend on visiting you tonight. Both my jobs happened to meet in purpose.”

 

Reef didn’t seem offended. He knew that he wasn’t the highest on Gabriel’s to-do list, but it still would have been good to hear from him sooner. It wasn’t that it had been so long since they last met, rather that so much had happened he didn’t really know what to do with it all. As if he was reading his thoughts, Gabriel spoke them out loud.

 

“You’ve been busy, I can see. All good things I hope?”

 

Reef almost rolled his eyes, but caught himself when they met Gabriel’s. He was asking earnestly, although he probably already knew the answer.

 

“It’s been a rough few years.”

 

“Tell me.”

 

“Well, being spat out into the middle of nowhere was a start.”

 

Gabriel didn’t respond.

 

“This place is very strange. I have to travel miles just to find a well with actual water. There’s no way to clean the seawater out here.”

 

“Not yet, I’m afraid. Though I thought you enjoyed the sea?”

 

“It’s more that it doesn’t seem to enjoy me. I threw up everything inside me for years just drinking it to survive. Those mountains over there,” he motioned out the window, “they have the good stuff. Some of it’s even frozen, too. You don’t find that under the sun down here.”

 

Gabriel noted that he’d actually met a group of people who dug deep holes in the sand to store ice that they dragged down from similar mountains. Reef laughed at a thought like that. He remembered hauling a similar load many years ago. It seemed like the people out here had figured it out without a lot of help from anyone.

 

Reef looked down at his hands folded in his lap. He lounged against the stone wall, listening to Gabriel’s words but distracted by the far off sounds of celebration.

 

“You can smell it, can’t you? It’s rancid.” Reef began, obviously disgusted but calm. “Whatever they eat seems to make its way over here whether I want it or not. I can barely handle the smell or taste of pig now.”

 

Gabriel focused on the burning specks in the distance. It was true, he did notice the smell of burning flesh mixed with a myriad of spices. He had to agree whoever made those bonfires had no culinary taste.

 

“Really? I’d say them taking women and children as slaves and sacrificing their children tastes a lot worse than bacon does.” Gabriel offered.

 

Reef paused.

 

“Well, it’s hard to separate those now.” Reef reached over the table for his mug of tea. The smell was infinitely more pleasing than what he’d been surrounded with for the past fifteen years. He gratefully welcomed the change of taste and of company.

 

Gabriel set down his tea and smiled. “It’s almond, if you can believe it. May be a tad bitter for some, but it has a rich flavor once you get to actually taste it.” Reef hummed in agreement, slightly bitter at first but warm and rich later. Gabriel sighed. “I wish those people liked almond as much as I do, it would do them a world of good for their health.” The drunken echoes could still be heard distantly in the background of their crackling fire. 

 

Gabriel paused and shut his eyes for a moment. Reef noticed he was mouthing something, as if quietly talking to someone. Perhaps he really was.

 

After a long moment of silence, Gabriel raised his head to look Reef in the eye again.

 

“Amraphael. Arioch. Bera. So many others all over the world. They all think they are able to rule without any consequences.” The happy shouts in the distance seemed to die down. Reef hadn’t known them to be quiet for anything before. “All kings who think they can take whatever they want, whenever they want and answer to nobody but themselves.”

 

A warm breeze invited itself through the open window of the tower, and the two men suddenly stood far above a sea of war. Hundreds, if not thousands of soldiers were being enclosed into their own camp by a much smaller number surrounding them on all sides. It was as if they were squeezing the life out of them. Shouts of struggle reached the two men high in the air. 

 

Gabriel spoke, but did not look up from the view below.

 

“Consequences come for all, for everyone in alignment and everyone who isn’t. Yet, they all fight it. They try to wiggle their way through a hole in the rock that isn’t really there.” Clashes of metal rang out over shouts of command to move forward. War echoed against the valley far below. The fires blazed on against the inky darkness.

 

Reef remained silent, glancing at Gabriel’s expression. He didn’t seem ambivalent to the fighting, rather he looked as if he already knew the outcome of whatever was happening. From experience, Reef assumed that he already did.

 

Gabriel paused. A warm wind gently swirled around them.

 

“These are the people you’re meant to serve,” he began. “Them.” The war continued.

 

“You know, at one point they didn’t want to kill each other all the time? Oh yes, it was a very long time ago… so long it’s hard for most to remember. They were at peace with each other. They talked with Him similar to how I’m talking with you now. But once they made their decision to stop responding, it’s only gone downhill for them.”

 

Reef listened.

 

“There will be someone to bring them back, though. Someone they can talk with face to face, to laugh and cry with. To relate to them in their own fragile way. One day they’ll be shown the proper way back to a world they thought they forgot about. ”

 

Gabriel considered his words for a moment before continuing. “When I came to you that evening long ago, before you had Paradise taken away, you asked where you were supposed to go. Naturally, you had no idea where you would end up given the only place you had ever been was the Island. You said that your whole world would be gone. But it seems to me like you’ve found a proper place here guiding the ones who would listen to you in this wasteland.”

 

Reef took a minute to respond. “They remind me too much of us at the end. Not you, I mean-” He gestured at Gabriel. “-but how they acted after you left. How we acted. How far we ran away from what we used to be.”

 

“You can tell where someone’s true nature lies when they think they’re left alone. Look at you,” Gabriel offered. “I didn’t tell you when I’d come back, yet I find you thousands of years later, leading an entire city as their king, helping them to try and understand the true way of things.” 

 

The fighting below seemed to be coming to its end. Some of the victors appeared to chase down those in the camp who tried to flee into the valley, while the rest came to the rescue of their captured families. The shouts of violence were replaced with those of joy and reunion. 

 

Reef took note of Gabriel’s gaze that appeared to be fixed to a specific man.

 

Gabriel gestured down to the scene below them. “They’re my other job, Reef.”

 

“I told you about them before the City was taken away. They’re who you chose to mirror when you decided to come to Paradise. And afterwards, you came to live among them. You chose to learn about the world through their eyes, hands and feet. And most of all, minds. This is why I brought you up here: to see things a little closer to how I’m able to see them.”

 

Reef hummed in acknowledgement. “Good to know you can fly while I’m stuck on the ground.”

 

“Well, my job comes with privileges as long as I stay employed.” Gabriel laughed, then his face turned contemplative once again. “Your deal was different. You wouldn’t remember. Not fully, anyways. Limits of the human mind, after all.” Gabriel came to a realization and laughed. “I guess we’re both in the same boat, so to speak!” Gabriel suddenly felt very old in the darkness of the night. “You’ve spent a lot of time with them lately. Your want to lead them in the ways I told you about is admirable, and you’ve done well so far with the instructions I gave you. Some might say a model example.” Gabriel began, meeting Reef’s eyes. Suddenly, they were carried away on the breeze to the shadowy glow of their fire, safe inside Reef’s tower again. Quiet chirping of insects hushed the midnight air around them.

 

“Tomorrow morning, you will have a visitor. It is the man who you saw lead an army and destroy that entire camp with barely enough soldiers. He is one of the most important people you will ever meet in this world, and your model example will lead him to become one for his people in return. I hope you understand what I mean.”

 

Reef was silent, but took in every world with a deadly serious expression. This wasn’t the first time he would be given an important task by Gabriel, and he suspected this would not be the last one. “After tomorrow morning, you will have new employment. You will leave this city and the people you have been leading, and you will wait for my instructions.”

 

Reef was shocked, but did not show it. He’d spent so many years at his post here, guiding these people and keeping them out of harms’ way while they were surrounded by so many other bloodthirsty cities in the valley. Gabriel noticed his thoughts.

 

“Are you surprised?” He probed, knowingly.

 

“Yes, but…” Reef stopped himself. “I guess it’s easier just to go along with what you say. I’ve seen what happens when we don’t.”

 

Gabriel smiled in the firelight. “Well, it’s just not about what I say, it’s about who’s asking me to say it.” Reef knew there was always some sort of meaning to what Gabriel told him, even if it sounded a little too cryptic to understand at first. Things worked out in the end. Gabriel stood up and motioned toward the door. Reef followed him, and they both took a stroll atop the city’s walls again.

 

“They have a name for you in this city. Melchizedek. You and I might say Euma-mi. A king of peace. It’s a good reputation to have, try and keep it.” They both paused atop the stone wall, looking over the valleys and the seas far beyond.

 

“I don’t know how long it will be until we meet again, so I’ll leave you with a piece of advice. Don’t rock the boat. You’re going to see a lot of unbelievable and amazing things happen because of tonight, and it’s very important you let them happen. Let me take care of the human side of things. I’ll let you deal with the more… otherworldly threats.” Reef knew exactly what he was referring to. The goddess who Paradise spit back out, and whatever she decided to throw his way.

 

Reef agreed to his terms. Gabriel smiled.

 

“We’re going to do great things! I’ll be back soon.” 

 

And with another warm breeze, Reef was alone again. Nothing but the insects and crackling of torches was to be heard. A golden hue of morning slowly crept over the hills and spilled onto the city, and Reef could have sworn he saw the silhouette of a man waving to him from the top of the highest mountain in the distance.

 

Soon…

 

Reef sighed, and traced his steps back to the tower where he began to cook himself breakfast.

 

Today would be a day unlike any other day.