Those present in the penthouse had awaited the arrival of the food in tense silence. Lucifer had disappeared behind his bar, and his eyes went from Chloe to Alexander and back. He was at a loss here. On the one hand, the betrayal of the detective, even if she seems to really regret her actions. On the other hand, this mysterious young boy, claiming to be his son, was unknown to him and at the same time so familiar. He could not wrap his head around all that had happened since that kid came flying into his penthouse the previous evening. Mazikeen sat in a seat but was not fully present; her brain was trying to piece together what Alexander had just done for her. He had given her her freedom. Something she thought impossible for a Demon. He even made her a princess of Hell and gave her access to the throne. She had connected with it for a short time and felt the immense power hidden in it. It scared her, and at the same time, it was a thrill, as she had never felt before. Chloe and Linda were engaged in a silent conversation. Only Trixie and Ella seemed to be having a more or less pleasant conversation if the smiles on their faces meant anything. After the pizza and cake had been delivered, Alexander had retreated to the balcony with a few slices. He hadn't been able to resist the urge to pester Lucifer a bit as the food snob the Devil was and had ordered a pizza Hawaii. The Devil's facial expression was priceless when he opened the box. It only got better when Trixie unhesitatingly claimed half the pizza, and Alexander retreated to the balcony with the other half. He needed some time to think and needed fresh air. He had tapped into the power of thrones of Heaven to force Amenadiel and Remiel to their knees, establish his Devine power over them, and then banish them from Earth. However, this was not without consequences. He had not been in this universe long enough. His bond with the thrones was still far too fresh. It had cost him energy, and he felt tired. Alexander was lost in his thoughts and only noticed he had company on the terrace when a plate with a large piece of chocolate cake was presented to him. He looked beside him and saw Trixie standing there with one of her typical smiles on her face. An equally big smile appeared on his face:
"Thank you, Beatrice."
"You're welcome."
She gazed at him intently for a moment, as if attempting to comprehend his essence. She liked what she saw. He was a head taller than her, with long, wild blond curls down to his shoulders and the greenest eyes she had ever seen. In those eyes she saw warmth but also mischief lurking about to break through. As if he was constantly looking for an opportunity to pull pranks. He was so different from all the boys she knew at school or the sports clubs she was a member of. She asked:
"How old are you, Alex?"
He forked a large piece of cake into his mouth, looked out over the city, and once his mouth was empty, he answered:
"Thirteen in a few weeks, and if I understood correctly, you will have your twelfth birthday in a few weeks."
She nodded vigorously, stuffing a new piece of cake into her mouth and trying to ask a new question at the same time. His smile turned into a smirk, and he said:
"Sorry girl, I didn't understand you very well. You'll have to repeat yourself..."
She turned a little red in the face, and once the cake was swallowed, she repeated her question:
"Are you staying here in LA or do you have to go back home soon?"
He let his gaze travel over the city skyline again, sighed deeply, and answered quietly:
"I'm staying in LA for now. I'm more or less obliged because I can't go back home for the moment."
Her next question proved that the bluntness that children have within them had not quite yet outgrown her even though every day she seemed to be turning more and more into an independent teenager, ready to conquer the world:
"Why can't you go back home?"
He looked straight into her eyes and saw only genuine curiosity there. He replied:
"I'll tell you more about that later because those in there are just about dying to fire a million questions at me. Let me put it this way: from the moment I showed up here, I have been bound to the universe. Practically, I can go anywhere: Heaven, Earth, and Hell. But my home is not part of this universe, and since I am now bound, I cannot go back. In a few months, maybe weeks if I'm lucky, when I have been here a while and have gotten used to the power of thrones, I will be able to return home for a few hours. It just takes a lot of energy to travel home, and I definitely don't have that right now."
Trixie thought about that for a moment and asked:
"Do you miss home?"
He nodded but didn't answer directly. He quietly ate the rest of his cake, and Trixie did the same. Just about shoulder to shoulder, they stood on the balcony looking at the silhouette of the city. She heard him say softly:
"I miss my mom and dad and my twin sister Casiel very much. This is the first time I have been so far from home, being all alone. It's all very strange, and to be honest, I'm scared."
She gave him a nudge with her shoulder and said smiling:
"You're not alone, silly. I saw how Maze looked at you, but also Ella, and I want to be your friend too."
He nudged her with his hip, causing her to giggle, and he said:
"Thank you, Bee. I would like that very much."
He took her plate and fork from her and asked:
"Are we going in? I think it's time to feed the wolves."
With this, she laughed out loud and nodded.
Everyone had taken their seats back in the sitting area. Lucifer still as far away from Chloe as possible. Alexander stayed upright and said:
"Okay, I get that you guys have an incredible amount of questions right now. As promised, I'm going to answer those questions as best I can. First, however, I want to call someone in who can help me with some of the questions because she was there when some of it happened and so is better able to answer them. Please give us a few minutes. It's not that we want to ignore you, but she has information for me that I absolutely need to hear first."
He looked Ella sincerely in the eyes and said:
"Dear Ella, please don't be too hard on her. As far as I am concerned, you may feel free to hit her with your shoe later, but keep in mind that for her everything was new too, that she was scared, and to tell the truth, we know that idiotic behavior seems to be the rule rather than the exception when it comes to Lucifer and his siblings."
Ella looked at him strangely and totally uncomprehending. Alexander closed his eyes and folded his hands together:
"Azrael, it's time. Can you please join us?"
Lucifer sat looking at him wide-eyed as he uttered the name. Just as when Remiel appeared on the scene, those present first heard the sound of a pair of large wings, and then a new Angel appeared in the penthouse. She was rather small in stature, appeared to be of Asian descent, wore her hair in a bob, wore glasses, and wore what appeared to be a dark brown dilapidated cloak. Lucifer turned a little paler at the Angel's appearance; one could hear Maze growling and Ella's voice asking almost pleadingly:
"Rae Rae?"
That question made Lucifer even more confused than he already was because apparently the Latina knew his younger sister. Alexander and the new Angel seemed to ignore them for a moment. Rae Rae smiled broadly at the boy but became serious a second later. She made a bow in his direction and said:
"Welcome home, my Prince."
Alexander nodded in her direction and replied:
"Thank you, General. I assume the puppets are dancing in the Silver City after I dropped Amenadiel and Remiel in front of the palace?"
She got another broad smile:
"That's putting it mildly. The marker you placed on Remiel and the fact that Amenadiel can no longer use his wings and also has no more divine powers was quite a shock."
"Amena-idiot told his story to Michael and Gabriel?"
"Yes, My Prince. He complained and demanded that Michael gather the Celestial army and go to war. Michael told him, not so friendly, that it is not a good idea to demand anything of him. The general let his fear mojo flare at full strength in the throne room; that was enough to get everybody very quiet very fast. He made Amenadiel kneel in the throne room in front of all present and reminded him in no uncertain terms who is in charge in Heaven in Father's absence. He placed both of them under house arrest for the time being pending Father's judgment."
"So far so good and beyond?"
"Michael held an emergency consultation with Gabriel, Raphael, Zadkiel, Laia, Metatron, and me. The decision made is the one you requested and expected. He had Gabriel send an emergency message to Father. The decision that has been made and that the entire Host has to abide by under penalty of falling, or worse, is; Since Father did not intervene when you appeared Earth and you have the power to cause an Archangel to fall that for now it must be assumed that your presence is Father's will. Further since you are the son of Lucifer everyone must recognize you as the rightful Crown Prince of Hell. Lucifer no longer wants to be King and renounces the crown that you have now claimed and so Heaven recognizes your claim to the kingship of Hell. As the de facto King of Hell your word is law as far as Hell is concerned. The deal Father had with Lucifer at the time of the Job debacle also remains in place for now. That deal can only be broken by Father so you have dominion over the humans as a whole. Further, Michael has made it very clear that as the son of Lucifer, in the absence of Father's judgment, you take over the title of Prince of Heaven from your father. That is as far as Michael could go at this time My Prince. Without word from Father, he could not and would not recognize your father's old title of Crown Prince of Heaven at this time this to keep the fragile peace in Heaven."
"Okay, we had taken that into account. Did Grandpa respond to Gabriel's message?"
The Angel took a deep breath and said:
"Yes, but as usual, rather mysterious. His message to Gabe was that he would return when the time was right and that Michael should keep doing what he was doing. That message was spread among the Host. As you would expect, the two main camps reacted exactly the same, both convinced they were right in their thinking. Father's message and the reaction of both camps did nothing for Michael's general mood, I'm afraid."
Alexander shook his head for a moment and asked:
"Do you have numbers for me, General?"
"Yes, My Prince. Roughly fifty percent are on our side. They want renewal, a new leader who will lead them into a new future. Thirty percent, including Michael, are neutral. What they want above all is peace and absolutely no schism in Heaven. The rest fall under the heading of zealots. All they want is Father back on his throne and an end to Lucifer once and for all."
"And the logical consequence is that now that they know of my existence, they also want an end to my existence."
Rae Rae didn't say a word, just nodded. Alexander turned to the rest of those present. Before he could speak a word, Lucifer jumped up and said in a raised voice:
"You want a new revolution in Heaven! You want to replace Father!"
The boy looked him sternly in the eyes and said dryly:
"Remind me to introduce you to my Dad, Mister Morningstar. Maybe he can get it hammered into your head that assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups. I'm not at all keen on starting a new revolt in Heaven. The first one didn't go very well, I seem to remember from Sunday school. And why do you winged idiots think revolution or war is the only answer? But now that you are standing up in front of the class and after proclaiming for millennia to anyone who wants to hear you out that your Father is doing everything wrong, tell us what would be so wrong if someone wanted to make real changes by setting aside the old guard?"
Lucifer pondered the question. Yes, as far as he was concerned, his Father had completely missed the mark with his approach to Heaven, Hell and Mankind. Yes, he wished it could be done another way, but a revolution to sideline God—that was something he could not support. He looked at Alexander bewildered and said softly:
"But the questions you just asked and the things you said seem to indicate a power grab."
Alexander nodded and replied:
"Seems so, yes. But no! You are so proud of that huge fortune you have accumulated on Earth that you have such a gigantic understanding of business. Okay, let's put it in terms so the people present can better understand it as well. We have The Universe Incorporated. And it consists of three divisions: Heaven Ltd, Hell Ltd, and Humans Ltd. The board of directors of Universe Inc. consists of God, and the rest of the table are all executives of Heaven Ltd. The president of the board of directors leads Universe Inc. as an absolute autocrat. The board members dare not contradict him, or they are expelled from the board and exiled to Hell Ltd. Do you follow so far?"
Lucifer nodded, and Alexander continued:
"Each of the three Limiteds is a shareholder of the Inc., but all the chairman seems to care about is his power, his orders, and his vision for the future. Humans Ltd. and Hell Ltd. are worse off because they are not even represented on the board of directors. It doesn't take a genius to understand that this method of managing the entire company cannot continue indefinitely. All I am doing, Mister Morningstar, is making sure I have enough of the shares/votes on my side to make sure the chairman is faced with a choice at the next shareholders meeting. Or he is going to set a new course that takes into account all shareholders and their needs and wants."
Lucifer squeezed his eyes to slits and asked softly:
"Or..."
"Or here, take this gold watch and this cigar as thanks for services rendered, but it's time for you to retire..."
Alexander went behind the bar and poured a glass of tequila for Rae Rae and a glass of tomato juice for himself. That was when Ella made her voice heard:
"Rae Rae, it's obvious you're not a ghost. But why, why did you let me believe you were a ghost all these years?"
Alexander snorted from behind the bar, and Azrael blushed with embarrassment. The little angel wrung her hands and looked down, her glasses sliding comically down her nose as she said softly:
"I'm so sorry, Ella, I shouldn't have lied. When we first met at the scene of that terrible car accident, I was in shock. You were still alive, but you could still see me. Living people don't normally see me when I'm doing my job. But you did; you spoke to me and asked me who I was. I didn't know what to say, so I told you I was a ghost. I thought you could see me because you were a child. Children are much more open to the supernatural than adults, and I didn't want to frighten you. Your soul radiates so much light, and you are so... hmmm... bubbly. I was just drawn to you. I shouldn't have, but I kept looking you up, and you just kept seeing me, even as you grew older. In the end, I didn't want to lose your friendship. You were the first human I made friends with, and I didn't dare tell you who I really was for fear of losing you. I am Azrael, the Angel of Death. I guide the souls of people stuck on Earth to the afterlife. People are afraid of me and want nothing to do with me because of what I do."
The little angel had tears in her eyes and said almost unintelligibly:
"I'm so sorry, Ella..."
The little Latina got up from the sofa, walked over to Angel, hugged her, and said:
"I can see you're sorry, Rae Rae; that's OK, but please don't lie to me in the future. Even if it's to protect me, okay?"
Azrael looked at her wide-eyed and asked in surprise:
"Does that mean you want to stay friends with me? That you are not afraid of me?"
The little Latina replied:
"Girl, if I am not afraid of your brother, the big bad devil, then I am certainly not afraid of you. And yes, I want to stay friends because you mean a lot to me."
Tears ran down the little angel's cheeks, and she returned the hug with all her strength. Alexander saw the little Latina turn red in the face, and Alexander said, amused:
"Rae Rae, a little softer hug, please; if you keep this up, Ella's name will be on your list. Cause of death: cuddled to death by the angel of death".
The angel's eyes widened; she looked at Ella startled and let go quickly. Doc Linda and Trixie laughed out loud at the horrified look on Rae Rae's face, which was somehow funny. Ella grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the sofa, and they sat very close together. Ella asked:
"Wait, the accident? Were you there to collect my soul?"
The Angel shook her head and said:
"No, the souls of those who died in the accident did not need help. Your name did appear on my list, but it flickered a few times and then disappeared. In the eons I have dedicated to this job, I have come to refer to it as a false alert. Sometimes it happens. Not often, but it happens."
Ella absorbed the answer, and Alexander returned to the lounge and sat down on his barstool. When he spoke, the attention was on him again:
"Well, let's get this question hour started, shall we?"
It was Lucifer who fired first:
"You say you're my son, Rae Rae believes it, and even Michael doesn't doubt it, if I understood everything Rae Rae said. But how can that be? It's hard for me to believe."
The boy chuckled and said:
"Believe me, it is just as hard for me to believe that I am your son, Lucifer. That's why I asked Rae Rae to be here. What I know about it is what I was told later, when I was a bit older. Rae Rae was more or less there, so she knows firsthand. But let me tell you, when I was seven and one part was explained to me, I was pretty pissed off at you, Lucifer..."
Suddenly the Devil seemed like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck, and he stammered:
"Because I wasn't there for you as your father?"
Alex shook his head gently and replied:
"No, because you are an idiot. Don't worry, I don't have a father complex like you, and rightly so, after all I've heard about Grandpa. No, I grew up in a warm nest with Casiel, who is a few hours younger than me. I'll tell you about her later; for now, suffice it to say that we feel like twins in everything. Cas and I were brought up in a family where Mum and Dad were present, and we never lacked for love or attention. We also have a heaven full of older sisters and brothers. As the absolute youngest, the babies of the family, we were pretty spoiled and pampered, but in a good, productive way. Mum had no problem laying down the law when we threatened to walk beside our shoes. If we thought we were an ounce better, more important than the rest of our siblings. Mum and Dad are full of love, but above all, they are very fair."
Alexander sighed deeply for a moment. It was clear to all that he was struggling every time he spoke of his home and family. Not surprising for a teenager of thirteen who had been temporarily cut off from everything he had ever known and was entering a completely new world. He pointed at Rae Rae:
"Perhaps it would be better if you explained what happened that made me grow up in another universe?"
The little angel nodded and jumped up:
"To make that clearer, I must first go back in time two thousand years to the time when Father completely retired to his private quarters. It was shortly after Lucifer and Yeshua had spent days together on that stupid mountain before descending and being arrested by the Romans. Knowing what was going to happen caused something to break in Father, and he completely isolated himself to work on something new. Only he knows what that is. He appointed Michael as the general to lead the rest of us angels. Father first restored the power of the Demiurge in Michael before he disappeared to ensure that his leadership could in no way be challenged by figures like Amenadiel or Uriel. One of the first assignments Michael gave me was to spend some of my time at the Gates of Hell and on Earth. He instructed me to monitor Lucifer at all times. Lucifer and Michael are my favorite big brothers, and I wanted to re-establish contact with Lu a long time ago, but he was so full of bitterness and hatred towards anything to do with Heaven and Father that I was afraid of his reaction and a fight. So I stayed in the shadows. The short holidays he spent on earth were always in different places. That is, until he appeared in Florence, Italy, at the time of Lorenzo De Medici. He became friends with Lorenzo, even confessing who he really was, and Lorenzo and his children accepted him completely. Since then he has returned to Florence on a regular basis. Thirteen years ago he returned for a short visit to check on his finances and put some of them in order. A long weekend during which he met Francesca Muri Dei Medici, a descendant in fact. Without going into detail, as there are children in the room, the two of them had a great time. A few months later, I had to go back to Florence to collect a soul from a local hospital. There I noticed the essence of the Lightbringer while being absolutely certain that Luci was sitting on his throne in Hell at that very moment. It turned out that Francesca was pregnant. I immediately told Michael. Who in turn sent Raffa, hmmm, Raphael, to Earth to check that all was well with the pregnancy. The baby was perfectly healthy, but there was something wrong with Francesca's body, something even Raffa could not do anything about, and the poor young woman would die of complications during childbirth."
Lucifer could be heard gasping and asking softly:
"Is she... is she in..."
Rae Rae looked at him warmly and said:
"Rest assured, Lu, she is in heaven. Father never denied anyone access to Heaven because they hung out with you or were friends with you. Most of the people you called friends are in heaven. Francesca is a special case. Our little brother told me to bring her to him and The Magdala when the time came, and his family took her under their wings."
"The Magdala?"
Linda asked, not understanding. The angel nodded vigorously and said:
"Yes, Mrs. Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the Magdala."
Doc Lina's eyes widened and she said:
"I didn't know that was a thing."
Ella said enthusiastically:
"I went to Catholic schools all my life, and I never heard of a Mrs. Jesus."
"He can explain that bit of theology much better than I ever could."
And she pointed to Alexander. The boy grinned and said:
"Are you sure about this, dear Ella, that you have never heard anything about it?"
She thought for a moment and then said:
"What I do remember is that Mary Magdalene would have been some kind of fallen woman, a discreet description they used for a prostitute in those days."
Alexander's eyes went cold at these words, and he said:
"Not only that, Ella. Something as simple as a widow starting a relationship with a man, even if it was a purely romantic relationship based on mutual love, was enough to label that widow a fallen woman in certain circles."
He took a big sip of his drink and began to talk:
"I know that Catholic schools pride themselves on their Bibles, and yet there are many indications in this Bible that the Magdala was much more than what people now think. Remember that Jesus was born into a Jewish community two thousand years ago. So it makes no sense to read that passage as a modern non-Jew. You have to look at these passages through a two-thousand-year-old Jewish lens."
Ella looked at Alexander and realized that she had always read the Bible from a modern point of view. That she had never really seen it as a text thousands of years old, written by the Jewish people who had very different customs and meanings from today's modern Western man."
He drained his glass and went on:
"You could say that the reason I came into existence thirteen years ago was a girl of sixteen somewhere in Judea who lived two thousand years ago. She was desirable as a wife for several reasons, the right ones and the absolutely wrong ones. Two men were eligible to marry her. One was only interested in the fact that she was from the House of David, and the other was only interested in her beauty and personality, in the girl as a human being; he did not give a damn about all the rest. One, a true zealot who spent his time in the wilderness preaching the words of God and hammering out the strict words and laws of God that were open to little interpretation. The other, a man of love, warmth, friendship, forgiveness, and openness to all."
He looked deeply into Ella's eyes and asked:
"Do you have any idea who I might be talking about, dear Ella?"
She nodded so hard that her ponytail danced up and down in glee:
"I think you are talking about John the Baptist and Jesus."
"Quite right. Both were also from the House of David. So a union between two branches of the old royal house could potentially form an important new dynasty. Coincidentally, most Jews saw both men as prophets. By the time the girl was to be married, John was the more prominent of the two, so it was decided that she should be his wife."
Alexander looks at Trixie and says mischievously:
"Nowadays we look disapprovingly at this kind of arranged marriage and girls of sixteen marrying against their will. But back then it was the most normal thing in the world. Women and girls had very little say in the decisions their families made about their future. People's life expectancy was much shorter, so at sixteen you were considered an adult. If you'd been born in those days, you wouldn't have had a sweet sixteen party to look forward to, Bee. A car was also out of the question, maybe a goat or, if you were lucky, a camel..."
She chuckled at his joke, and he continued:
"John spent most of his time in the wilderness preaching about hell and damnation, after which he could baptize the people he had frightened enough with his nonsense. The few times he went home, it was to receive his young wife in his bedroom and to provide an heir, shall we say, in a not-too-gentle way. During these visits, he also took to heart the word of the Torah that it was okay for a husband to beat his wife if she did something that was not in accordance with the teachings of the Torah, or even if he just suspected that she was not being submissive enough. So he regularly beat her black and blue because, in his eyes, everyone but himself was sinful and against the words of God. He was such an egocentric prick that he really believed he was God's gift and therefore the only one worthy of God. He even had a problem with Jesus but had to swallow his criticism because Jesus had his own following, and Jesus was educated, highly educated. Every fiber in John's body was firmly convinced that women were the cause of all sin because Eve had tasted the apple."
Laughing, he said:
"If he had thought about the whole apple thing like a normal man, he probably would have hated women a lot less. Come on, be honest; Adam was hungry; his wife had something to eat, and she was naked. Does anyone really think that Adam thought the situation through?"
He heard giggles from several sides, especially Trixie's girlish giggles, and came to the conclusion that he liked that laugh very, very much.
"Once it was so bad that for a moment they feared for her life. Not that John cared; he just went back to his place in the wilderness to continue God's work. To paraphrase a line from the Rocky movies, if she dies, she dies. If Jesus hadn't been there to use his healing powers, it would have ended very badly. Too bad for John that karma tends to show up from time to time to deal a bit of a spanking. What goes around, comes around. In John's case, Lady Fate arrived in the form of his wife's best friend, Salome. And Salome was rather pissed off that her friend had been beaten nearly to death by what she saw as a half-savage religious zealot. Salome, as you may know, was King Herod's stepdaughter, and he was particularly fond of the girl. As well as being a princess, she was a follower of Jesus. John had made the wrong enemy. The man had a big mouth, no filter, and no fear because he thought he was speaking in God's name and would be protected by Him. Herod may have been unhappy with John and what the man had to say about his marriage to Salome's mother and about the mother as a person, but he left him alone. The king had no desire to deal with a bunch of insignificant zealots who had no political, let alone military, power. Salome, that was a completely different story."
He smiled very broadly.
"Damn, that must have been a feisty girl, a girl after my own heart. I must find her one day and have a talk with her, hihihi."
Those present could clearly hear the mischief in the boy's words as he said this.
"The end of the story is well known, John's head on a silver platter as a gift to Salome. Meanwhile, his young wife was pregnant with a son for whom John had chosen the name Matz, or Gift of God. The young widow married again not long after Matz was born. The happy groom? Anyone want to guess?"
There was silence in the living room, and he answered his own question:
"Well, none other than Jesus of Nazareth, and the young woman in question was Mary Magdalene, aka The Magdala. Now ask the first person you meet on the street, and they'll tell you that the Bible doesn't say anything about a marriage between those two. However, the Bible is a book written by a committee. But more on that later. In the Bible we can find a number of passages that paint a clear picture of the relationship between the two. I will only quote the most famous passages. But there are also more than enough clues in the Gospels found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Archaeologists and theologians have scientifically determined for some time that they are authentic for the period and therefore not forgeries. The so-called Nag Hammadi Scrolls and the so-called Apocryphal Books. They are as authentic as the four gospels of the Bible, but there are many more. Simply put, they are the writings that were not included in the New Testament but have been scientifically proven to be authentic. How do we know they are authentic? Well, apart from the scientific tests that have been done on the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as carbon dating, we know of their existence because they are mentioned in other early Christian documents and writings dating back to the first century. Jesus was a rabbi, what we would call a theological teacher and priest in one. A rabbi about thirty years old in the Judea of 2000 years ago, traveling around unmarried and in the company of twelve men and no women. That would have raised a lot of suspicion and even more gossip. A rabbi was expected, nay, required, to be married. The chances that he could have laid the foundation for his movement with such a lifestyle are virtually nil. The apostle Peter, who is considered the first pope, Jesus is said to have told Peter that he was the stone upon which he would build his church. He was the first to have a problem with Magdala. When I look at the state of that church today, I don't know if Jesus said that to Peter as a blessing or a curse. Remember, this man denounced Jesus 3 times, and yet the man himself told him that he would be the one to lead the movement. Either Jesus was a bigger man than me, or he meant it as a curse, just as I would have. Mary's closeness to Jesus led to tensions with Peter because of her gender and Peter's envy of the special lessons Jesus taught exclusively to her and not to the men. I wouldn't be surprised if Paul drew inspiration from Peter when he penned his infamous letter to Timothy, which relegated women to the periphery of the church for nearly two millennia."
Alex quoted Paul's words in a thick voice, as if he were a stern teacher of old:
"Let a woman learn quietly with all submission; I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but she must be silent."
He took a sip from his glass and said:
"Idiot! Peter was uncomfortable with the apparent contradictions in Jesus' teaching. On the one hand, he said he was not there to take away a single word of God, but only to add to it. So everything in the Torah that came before him retained its divine value. On the other hand, he gave Mary Magdalene knowledge that he did not even give to his male disciples. Moreover, he approved of Mary teaching others in the movement and could often be seen watching her in silence. Even then, a small group within the movement considered Mary Magdalene the most important of the disciples, not Peter. A belief that some still hold today. Peter once asked Jesus why he valued the Magdala more than his 12 male apostles and why he kissed her on the mouth so often in public. An unmarried man kissing a widow in public. In those days? Unthinkable, because at worst they would both be stoned to death. The high priests of the temple could have eliminated Jesus in a much easier way than through Pontius Pilate. All they had to do was prove that he was an unmarried man having an unchaste relationship or doing unchaste things with a woman. He would have ended as a sinner to God's laws, and his movement would have bled to death. Who would want to be a follower of a known sinner? However, they never accused him of having an unchaste relationship, even though it was common knowledge and could be seen in public that he kissed a woman on the mouth. Why would they do that if he was not married to that woman?"
He paused to manifest another glass of juice and then continued:
"Who sat at the foot of the cross at the crucifixion? Right, Mary Magdalene, while his mother and a half-sister stood at a distance. How do we know this? The colors of their veils. Not only is the entire crucifixion described in the four gospels, but many people wrote about it and described the colors of the veils of the women present. Unfortunately, all of these other texts were left out when the Bible was compiled at the first bishops' conference in Nicaea in 325, where they had to come up with a unified Bible at the request of Emperor Constantine. As said, the Bible is a book compiled by committee. The Roman Empire was a hodgepodge of different faiths. Christianity had grown from an obscure small group under constant persecution to the most influential but divided into separate groups. And believe me, once they gained that position, they held on to it tooth and nail, not hesitating to persecute and murder followers of other religions in turn. The emperor wanted to restore order to his empire, and at the urging of his mother Helena, who was a devout follower of Jesus, he decided to make Christianity the first true state religion. To do this, he needed a single text to which all groups would adhere, the Bible. Of the dozens of gospels, four remained, and The Magdala disappeared as much as possible from the whole story. Mary, the mother of Jesus, always wore blue. Mary Magdalene always wore red. Something you should know very well, dear Ella, with your excellent Catholic upbringing. During the Renaissance, hundreds of works were created that emphasized the color of the veils. Many of these artists could be considered rebels. They could give the middle finger to Rome in their works, without words, by openly showing their knowledge of the Magdalene, and the Church could not possibly criticize them without entering into a debate in which they would have to acknowledge the importance of the Magdalene, along with the possibility of marriage. This is how Botticelli, De Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and others framed them. Who sat at the foot of the cross at the crucifixion? Who washed and anointed the body at the burial? Mary Magdalene, while the other women mourned from afar. According to Jewish tradition, and certainly at that time, it was and is always the wife who washes her deceased husband. Had he been unmarried, his mother and sisters would have done the job. A complete stranger washing an unmarried man for his funeral? Impossible! All this information was removed from the Bible as much as possible, but the information was never really lost. As much as the church tried to suppress this science, it was never forgotten and can still be found in museums around the world. Paintings by world-famous painters. To name just a few: Raphael, Giotto, Botticelli, and Michelangelo. All gave the woman with the red veil, The Magdala, a more prominent place than the woman with the blue veil, Mary, the mother of Jesus. Who was the first person he sought out after rising from the dead? The Magdala! In fact. A little strange, if you ask me, if the Magdala meant as little as the Bible and the Church would have us believe. I would think that if someone could rise from the dead, the first person you would want to glimpse would be someone really important to you. And who could be more important than the person you truly love with all your soul, the person who was your true soulmate? But that's not all. I have another bomb to drop on this sacred House. We already know that Mary Magdalene had a child with John, a son named Matz, she had a daughter with Jesus named Sara, and at the time of the crucifixion, she was pregnant with a son they would name David. It is Sara and David who were the beginning of what is now called in certain circles the Holy Bloodline. My mother, Francesca, is a descendant of Sara. But the Divine power in that bloodline originated much earlier. For that, however, we have to go back much further in time."
Ella said:
"Okay, but before we go any further back in time, I think you should back up a bit and explain to us how it is that you grew up in another universe. Not only are we curious how such a thing is possible, but I think it's important for Lucifer to know how it is that his son did not grow up on this earth. Why were you hidden from his sight?"
He smiled and replied:
"You are right, dear Ella, we have strayed a bit. Although the history of the bloodline is important and will surely return, for it still seems to play a large part in what is happening today. Why that is, God notwithstanding, or in this case maybe God in all his mysterious acts knows pfff..."
He nodded to Rae Rae:
"Would you perhaps like to finish your story from the point where we were distracted by Francesca's parentage?"
The angel nodded as energetically as Ella, and her glasses slid back to the tip of her nose, much to Alexander's and Trixi's amusement.
"Sure. Okay, as I said, I noticed that Francesca was pregnant and that the baby was Luci's son. I rushed back to Heaven and Michael's office."
She chuckled for a moment as she said:
"You know how serious and straight to the point he can be, Luci. When I told him the news, I thought for a moment I had to bring Raffa in because it looked like he was having a stroke. I had never seen the vein on his temple get so big and red. Well, to cut a long story short. Raffa went to Florence, scanned Francesca, and diagnosed the sad news. Then there was a secret emergency meeting with Gabriel, Zadkiel, Metatron, and Laila. Michael wanted to keep Alexander safe at all costs. Not only because he had such an important place in the hierarchy due to his descent from Lucifer. Unless Father ordered otherwise, Alexander, by virtue of being the son of the Lightbringer, was the de facto Crown Prince of Heaven. His existence had to be kept secret at all costs. Remiel hates Nephilim, as you just saw during her unannounced visit, and along with Amenadiel and the rest of the Zealots, she would remain a danger to the baby. That was when Laia came up with the possibility of the multiverse. Michael gave his blessing to Gabriel to try to contact the Gods of a universe that would be friendly to Alexander's arrival. Gabriel, as the Messenger of God, could communicate with the messengers of other universes, which was convenient in this case. It was the first time this had happened, but it was necessary for Alexander's life. A pair of gods responded positively. During childbirth at the time of Francesca's death, I took Alexander's soul from her baby's body, and Gabriel took it to the other universe. The God and a very pregnant Goddess lovingly took him in, made a new body for him, and a few hours later Casiel was born, and the rest is history".
Not understanding, Lucifer asked:
"But why? Why all the trouble? I thought Michael hated me since the rebellion, that everyone in Heaven hates me. Then why bother saving my son from the fanatics?"
Rae Rae shook her head and said:
"Sometimes you are a real idiot, Lu! Mi doesn't hate you; he never did. He was just endlessly disappointed in you for your rebellion, for once again rushing into something without considering the consequences. The consequences for yourself, but also for the others who took your side. Mi knew all too well how short Father's fuse was and that it could end very, very badly for those who participated in the rebellion. Whatever we may think of Mother, however cold she could be at times, it could have been much worse without her intervention. Ever since Michael, on Father's orders, let you fall into hell, he has not been the same. Having to carry out that punishment by a divine order he could not refuse has caused him immense pain and suffering. With the exception of Gabe and me, he has maintained a distance from everyone, and since Father vanished and left him in charge, he has essentially lived in seclusion and solitude.
Doc Linda, being the therapist that she is, concluded from Rae Rae's words that Lucifer was by no means the only one in Heaven living with the trauma and consequences of the so-called parenthood of the two gods. Meanwhile, the angel's story continued:
"Every day he has to walk on thin ice to keep the sweet peace. Half of us angels, if not more, are on your side, Lu. They want renewal, freedom, and peace. But the Zealots, Amenadiel's camp, make it anything but easy. They want to make short work of Hell and Earth. They want to cull the Demons and end Humanity, convinced that it is all a failed experiment, not worthy of Father's attention. Michael is torn back and forth between the two camps on a daily basis. Were it not for the fact that he is the most powerful of us, that fear is his mojo, and that he possesses his share of the Demiurge's powers, there would long ago have been an open war in Heaven between the two camps, with Humanity at the center of the battlefield!"