The palace of sand was crumbling, burying a whole troop of new messengers beneath it. Apparently Menes had sent them again to seek out and summon the desert deity to his palace. Alaïs watched the death of the party from the air. The messengers were suffocating under piles of sand. They were too weak to climb out of the rubble.
Let them sleep! They would never wake up! Alais had long ago noticed that, unlike dead angels, humans didnt come back to life. But their dead bodies can be used as a shell.
Not a moment after the death of the messengers, black spirits emerged from beneath the sands and seeped into the nostrils and eye sockets of the corpses. The dead bodies hissed. They rose to serve Alais. And yet she couldnt even remember the names of her dead legionnaires. Nevertheless, barely had they had a chance to come back to life from the darkness of non-existence, they were coming back to her. Human bodies were a ridiculously rotten shell for disembodied demons. Its a shame that once the bodies are fully rotted, the spirits will have no place to dwell. Theyd have to find new shells.
What if you put the souls of dead angels back into peoples bodies, and theyre still dwelling? Alais pondered.
That would be difficult, Remy said. Dead angels are attracted only to dead flesh. As long as there isnt a human corpse nearby, they cannot be summoned out of the darkness of non-existence.
You could try a rite of summoning, Alais said tensely. You catch a living man, and Ill use my sword to mark his body with angelic signs.
Remy immediately obeyed the order. Another of the kings messengers was beating in his claws, while Alais tore his clothes off and drew the signs of the rebellious angels on his skin with her blade. At first it seemed that the experiment was about to fail. The unfortunate man lost his mind as soon as the angelic signs appeared on his body. The messenger convulsed for a long time, and then he gave up the spirit.
It is a weak flesh! Alais kicked the body with the tip of her golden sandal, and the corpse suddenly twitched, convulsed. Something was tearing at it from the inside. The rib cage burst. Black claws ripped from the gutted flesh. In less than a minute, the monstrous creature stood before Alais, hatching out of the messengers body like a shell.
Are you Zeno? Alais recoiled, recognizing in the black freak the former golden-haired angel. It became unpleasant to look at. She turned away. The Angel Legion had become an army of monsters. But now she knows a way to bring back to life those who died in the fall. It doesnt matter that they come back as monsters. What matters is that her army will become stronger. They need to prepare for the next war. In the deserts they got only a temporary respite.
The next traveler who appeared in the desert was not a rider. He ruled a foursome of horses, while he himself stood in a strange contraption with wheels.
A chariot, Remy called the vehicle. Noble men ride in one of these. Your ward, Pharaoh Menes, likes to ride in one.
Do you think its another message from him? Alaïs soared into the air and intercepted the chariot at a gallop. The reins were in her hands. The horses bucked. The bewildered charioteer fell into the sand and stared into the face of the angel. He must have mistaken her for a deity, too, for he was stunned. Good thing he didnt yet know how dangerous and cruel angels could be. Otherwise he would have run without a second thought.
Alais grabbed the wretched man and ripped his throat open with her claws. Only then did she take over his chariot as the new owner.
Its a good thing! Handy! Pity there werent more of those in Heaven, she whipped her horses. The chariot started moving. The ride was like flying. Swirls of sand surged beneath the powerful wheels.
A grim shadow flew behind the chariot. Alais could no longer remember the last time she had seen that shadow. The shadows enormous wings covered the sun.
Do you like human toys? The shadow asked softly.
Yes, I do!
Human things are practical, but not perfect. They lack heavenly brilliance.
So its well worth giving humans something new to invent. I want a chariot of pure gold like that!
It will be unusual if you want to appear to mortals.
And if it is beautiful, I want to dazzle them like the sun, but our sun is frozen in gold metal. And human inventions are very comfortable.
Your demons teach people what to do. You sent them to them yourself. Dont you remember?
They seem to have overstepped their authority, things like that are only worth doing for us.
Alais rode slowly, then faster. The ride felt like flying. The wind whistled in her ears.
They werent angels now. It was time to change their names, as you had. Its unfortunate, the new name makes it hard to get close to you, it contains magic.
It has to be, Alais agreed, but something wasnt right. She could feel it in her skin.
A trail of blood ran from the chariots wheels. She seemed to have driven over a corpse that her servants had finished eating.
Some sort of procession was approaching. It was time to call her warriors to the feast. She had already prepared to call out to them, but suddenly she felt something
People are coming to worship her. So it is not honorable to attack them. She is a deity after all, not a desert robber. Bandits were the most common thing they caught to be eaten.
There were no bandits in the procession. Alais could not understand whether these people had been sent by Pharaoh Menes to worship her, or whether they themselves had heard about the miracles that were going on in the desert and had come to look for a deity here.
She did not ask them, but rode in her chariot past the fallen crowd. The people were enthralled by the sight of the winged creature driving the chariot.
Are you flattered by the worship of men? Dont you long to slaughter them all? The shadow behind her was nervous.
Alais herself didnt know what she wanted today. Feeling like a deity turned out to be nice. Alais had power: she could do something good for people, show them some nice magic, but her monstrous servants swooped in behind her, and the procession of worshippers was gone in a matter of moments. The monsters wanted blood. Alais watched their revelry indifferently. Then she drove over the corpses.
The chariot left a trail of blood in the sand. The wheels were stained with the blood of the wayfarers. Red lines in the sand joined together in a bizarre pattern. It made the sandy plain look like a carpet.
Suddenly Alais felt something grim on her soul. She was used to treating people as people treat livestock. Humans are food for her legionnaires. If you compare humans to angels, humans are irrational. The heavenly race and the earthly race are too different. So why did it seem to Alais today that there were those in the crowd of wayfarers who were worth paying attention to?
Alaïs shook her golden curls stubbornly and grabbed the reins tighter. This was no time for melancholy. Morale is what counts. She had yet to fight another war. The more nourishing her warriors are, the stronger they will become. And the food for them is people. For some reason, cattle and birds did not attract the fallen angels. But animals, like people, are made up of meat and blood. So why are they not suitable food for the fallen angels? Something is not right. Theres something special about humans. But why is it? Of all the humans, Alaïs only liked Menes. Maybe we should go to him now. Or is it too soon? How long had it been since hed won? Alais frowned. Time was measured differently on earth than it was in heaven. Every moment here was equal to a year. Remy, who often flew over territories inhabited by humans, reported that while she had been resting in the desert, the humans had already had many generations and civilizations replaced.