The War In Heaven: Martyrs, #0

By Allen Saulnier

The War in Heaven is an epic poem inspired by John Milton's, Paradise Lost and the prologue to the vampire series, Martyrs.  This highly stylized novella is separated into two books.  Book I is the origin story of the greatest villain the world has never known.   Satan is the unsung hero, who loses the love of his creator for questioning his place in heaven.  His faithless pursuits soon inspire one third of the angels in heaven to join Satan's rebellion. Book II introduces Lilith, the first woman created by God and the bride to Adam, in the Garden of Eden. When Lilith wakes in hell, she shares her story with the demonic flock. She tells of her defiance to obey Adam and even the messengers sent from heaven. Her persistence to exercise her free will, gets her banished from the garden and replaced by Eve.  The story of Lilith and her curse is enough to win the love of all the ranks of hell. 
 
The War in Heaven dares you to remove the blinding light of faith, so you are free to question authority and can learn to love thy enemy. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: E11even Entertainment Studios Inc.
• Release date: Jun 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215636800

Allen Saulnier

Allen Saulnier is a storyteller of many formats.  He writes for film, TV and novels. His work spans a variety of genres.  His favourite authors range from George Orwell to Stephen King. 

Book preview

Chapter I

Derivation

Satan, draped over a boulder lay, with eyes seeking past the eastern sun.  Often the place was made for Morning Prayer and peace, at morn. Neither peace nor prayer did Satan’s lips make.  In prayer’s previous place and in its stead a question took shape.  All night having been accompanied by strange and ominous dreams that bore no explanation or solution, for the dream's own will, did Satan suffer.  After dreams and in exchange for waking prayer, did linger the gravity of a restless night. So vexing, that Satan remained frozen still in its own echoing trespass, until interruption by Michael, angel of the Lord, did come.

God be praised brother. Michael’s voice found Satan, before the visage was seen.

Satan turned to greet his winged kin. Good morrow friend, Praise God.  The insertion within Satan could not be concealed nor could an absence, that lingered from the question, be hidden. Satan, impregnated by the question’s bitter pain, shown through.

Do speak of thy will, my friend. Tell, for there is a burden carried within thyself this morn.

Tis true and much too clear, for as thou hath identified, I am burdened and contrary to much deciphering, I’ve not as of yet found a manner in which to let down such weight.  The two clasped hands and paid the respects of each other’s company.

Tis why thou art here, seeking this lonely place? Have thou concealed thyself from all others, to shoulder the mass alone? Michael lifted hand to brother’s shoulder, in hopes to raise up his heavy heart.

Satan’s heart would not be raised up. Nay, for it is here that I have concluded my search, abandoned this attempt to resolve the load in solitary strife, coming hence seeking God’s solution.  Satan possessed a growing woe that echoed over and over.  "His presence had been elusive to me, so I did come upon this rock, Tis the last site of my looking." Satan explained.

Untrue great and glorious star, for there is but one other place thou have yet to explore, Tis where thou shalt find the almighty Lord. Michael smiled and with both words and expression, gave back some relief to his winged kin and Chief.  He has commenced work in a new and wondrous hall and has been there from that start.  I shall, if thou wishes, take thee.  Michael opened wings and was to take flight to the place, when he noticed a hesitation and delay in his master.  What is this pause my Chief?  What is it that holds thou fast, delaying thy company with our God?

Satan looked from ground, in which he stood and to his companion, before revealing reason, took in a deep and strengthening breath.  Twas a dream Michael, a dream that has set still my wings and held fast my heart.  Satan sought out something other than his friend to look upon, for a strange and unnamed shame consumed him suddenly.  Last night I dreamt of walking, alongside our Lord.  I travelled and we spoke of many things both great and small.  After a time I shared my thanks to him for our amble and from my reflection of the things in which we conversed, a question was born.  Satan paused, sure that a query would be made by winged kin.  He was correct in his assumption.

A question, pray tell glorious Chief, what question didst thou dream? Michael’s intrigue expanded. 

Satan again found a hesitated heart and something unpleasant seemed to accompany the verb of speaking it. 

Satan, what is this dither that is as new in thee as is the dawn, for never before have I seen such resistance and doubt within thee?  Michael’s concern was both wholehearted and eager to correct the fault.

I know not the origin of hesitation Michael, but the question that has so perplexed me, seems odd and trespassed.  In the dream when I brought forth the words to complete the riddle, I suddenly found I was alone and in his absence.  Like in waking life, our Lord and only God was nowhere to be found.  I woke thereafter. Satan fell back into reverie with the dream's description and recall.  

Dreams are the inspirations of our plan, fear not their telling Satan.  Let us hence forth and seek the peace that has concealed itself from thee, on this fine and glorious day. Michael again lent hand to guide Satan to the Lord.

Yes, thou are correct in thy counsel, for where the question was left unanswered in sleep, it will find resolve in woken query. God is great and good and his answer will make short work of this mass, on shoulder lay. 

Satan rose up and through aid of winged strength, took flight alongside Michael, winged kin and brother true.  The two androgynous beings soared down from the precipice on high and passed the many shelves that Heaven bore.  Wondrous wind, carrying warm and gentle light of morning’s sun. Light did fall upon both angels and Heaven’s fields. The fields that light didst fall, bore a deep, blue green. Blades dancing to the glory of the morning’s song.  Angels two, winged past forest, rich and made thick by bounties of fruit and leaf, bursting bright in colour and girth, a speckled leafy ocean of emerald, that too, churned in wispy air.  The angels glorious flight, exceeded only by crystal pools and silver streams. Clear and pristine waters passed over gentle rock, that toyed and played with reflected sky, passed by the glorious shelves that Heaven made, Satan and Michael did go to a most wondrous and colossal hall. 

As the crisp warm air bore them down, Satan gave thanks for the divine gift of flight, and how it would not allow itself to be neglected, or made inglorious in any manner or shape.  Something perfectly kinetic and stirring could be felt in the nature of travel and it made the conduct of motion perpetually desirable. 

Satan, in thinking upon said Heavenly gift, thought. How good all things created are.  Set in place with such righteousness and pristine intent.  So level is everything that is shared in existence and how balanced in perfection each thing sits.  In thinking of each thing, all things placed, Satan found a level of peace, For the dream and the question has also found a place in Heaven and being placed so, must in addition, have balance and perfection, since God has allowed it admittance. The thought stayed silent in Satan’s mind.

Satan’s foot came aground on the lowest step of the great hall and with touchdown the previous anxiety was able to rendezvous with him, despite the visage of the marvellous flight.  Satan held back once more.

Satan, what terrible thing has such a mighty hold on thee?  Fear not, for thou art the greatest and brightest star in all of Heaven. Thou were the first light to grace the skies under God.  The first angel, the primary creation of the Lord our God, and therefore, the most trusted child amongst his children.  Thy question, although foreign here amidst the paramount, is welcome, for God alone allowed into thy mind, said dream. Tis he who has created all things both great and small and thus, even perplexed question, made in ye.  Michael stood several steps above Satan and hesitated, only to share concern.

Satan found some relief in comparable reason, but the logic seemed too quick and simple, which led Satan to continue with uncertainty.  Michael, there is a barrier that I cannot find will to pass, it keeps me from myself and from the Lord.  I know not the course in which I must travel. I see not its reason, nor intent. I know not of its origin and cannot conjure the will to push it out of me.  This thing is a worried defect in my grace. I cannot seem to see past the error.  Satan looked up at subordinate angel Michael, as if he were the wiser one and more learned.

"If this new thing, this original creation, that we shall call fear, outweighs thy faith in God, then thou hath just and worthy cause to yield here, but alas, I know thee Satan to be the most loyal in thy devotion and piety to God. So come and put thy fears to rest.  Let go the weak and feeble strength of it, for it is thee alone who provides it muscle to hold thee.  Let go and come to the Lord.  Hath thou ever found disappointment in meeting or council with the almighty God?"  Michael did best to sooth his radiant Chief, but now infected too, sensed something sinister lurking in the pause.  Though words held fast to conviction, tone and execution gave way to minor doubt.  Despite his unfit sermon, Michael extended once more an arm and hand, welcoming in part, the burden, if only to the summit of the hall’s front stair.

Satan seeing aim in Michael’s words pushed forth a smile and joyful expression over a sombre frown and reached out at Michael’s hand.  Two brothers and winged kin, did climb together to great and golden doors of the extraordinary hall.

The hall, magnificent in every aspect and angle, climbed up and skyward.  Divine and mighty columns sheltered the archway.  At base a marble support each, was carved a mighty beast to someday be named, lion.  Beyond the archway, two golden doors, both ten and one feet high, stood.  Inset upon golden doors, thorough illustration of garden, with set in centre, two glorious trees did dominate said scene.  What lay beyond the golden doors, had yet to be revealed to Satan, Chief of angelic kin and angel Michael, subordinate to Chief.

Approaching golden doors, Satan and Michael went, though before the attempted call did accomplish their will, the one mighty door on right did swing, silently ajar.  Burst bright past the doorway, came a gloriously great and paralysing glow.  Such intensity the beam, that column, floor and ceiling was filled with illuminating and dazzling radiance.  The prophetic welcoming so abrupt stopped both angels as though the invitation was surely misconceived or coincidental.  From inside came the angel Metatron, God’s most beloved angel next to Satan.

Stop! Metatron’s voice commanded with low and thunderous tone and with such volume did make its authority, it could not be contested. Yet, voice and tone bore no discontent or fury, instead came with a gentle power of impossible denial.  Michael and Satan both advanced no further at strange and strident influence.  Though Satan, whose very rank exceeded Metatron’s, felt compelled to obedience, for such a command uttered by any ranking servant of God, would never be uttered without warrant or permission.

Be gone from here. Enter not this place, for it has been denied to all but the Lord and thy present speaker.  Again the voice bellowed and with it an ability of unmerited influence.

Michael, perplexed, yet ever devout began to turn and away, stopping only in seeing that Chief Satan made no intent to follow in retreat.

Metatron, beloved Seraphim, turn not thy Chief away, for I seek counsel with the Lord, our God.

Stop!  Advance not Satan.  It is thee who is denied.  It is thee who shall not obtain company with the Lord, our God. It is ye who are from this day, refuted!  The weighted words hammered down in both decibel and direction.

Once the words fell silent, a sort of kinetic motion took up in word’s stead and was sprung at Satan, for he felt something massive move away from him, its departure confused gravity and Satan staggered, if only slightly so.  With balance barely kept in check, Satan felt compelled to query further still. His lips readied the words to ask.

Stop!  Speak not!  Again Metatron commanded his angelic Chief.

Michael, not knowing how to console his Chief, nor feeling correct to partake in such council, made no speech, in either regard.  He would not, in heart, mind or spirit question his maker or a servant of the Lord, yet despite his obedient makeup, felt equally hollowed on behalf of his brother, Satan.  He felt so, for it was his proposal and plan to carry out the task that led them to the great and wondrous hall.

Satan stood idled and fevered.  Never before in all of Heaven had a single angel been denied companionship with the Lord.  The Lord’s presence, always having been offered and free to acquire without permission or patience, was suddenly denied.  Satan remembered the latter branch of his fabled dream, an absence of the Lord that concluded with Satan’s solitaire.  The feeling of doubt and fear that he had awoken to, was once more revived in him.  Twas suddenly anew in him and any hope to banish it, temporarily dissolved.  Unlike the vague uncertainty of dreaming, the most recent moment was compounded by the vivid truth of woken reality.  This new encounter was no dream to which one could awaken from.

Satan, fearing more than the denial of God’s company, but disobedience of his command, turned quickly and without additional retort.  He and Michael walked back through the archway and into the open sky.  Once out from the hall's great columns, the golden doors did shut, taking with Metatron the marvellous light therein.  At the lowest steps of the wondrous hall, Satan and Michael did cease authority’s instruction to retreat. 

At which Michael did turn and to Satan, a face of regret and discomfiture did offer. My condolences and apologies I offer to thee my Chief, for misguided I directed thee.  In our attempts to speak with our Lord, on this morning, I spoke out on past command, and did not foresee this new rule, learned here at the new and wondrous hall.  I humbly request thy mercy and forgiveness this morn.  We shall return when our gracious Lord summons us forth or he moves to a place where old rule still applies.  Michael bowed, lowering his head respectfully to Satan, who paid little attention to comforting and consoling words, spoken.

Oy, apprehend not thy advice offered me, for it was sound and true at the time Twas administered and no forewarning could be found by thee, in giving it.  In truth tis I who has neglected the prologue of this meeting’s attempt.  I dreamt of this outcome, ignoring its fate.  I am the guilty party and it is I who shall extend my regret in making thee accomplice to such an act. Satan’s stumbled words were sincere in their recourse to Michael’s apologetic attempt.  He too bowed in an attempt to right the wrong done by him.

Thou art forgiven, for how could one know the prophecy that the proceeding dream did tell? Twas but a dream, and that dream any angel in all of Heaven may have had. What is more certain than my forgiveness’s authenticity, is the forgiveness that we shall receive from the Lord.  Go Satan. Think not too hard about this morning’s happenings.  All will be right again, if all is not already.  Michael bowed a second time and went away from Satan to attend to his angelic duties and incorporate a redeeming prayer and penitence to the Lord into such.

Satan descended from the steps and once at the foundation turned back to observe the ostentatious hall.  The size and presence loomed over him and left him feeling tiny and insubstantial.  Then as if a downpour of water opened above. Satan recalled the words Metatron, which in boisterous nature spewed forth. "Stop, advance not, Satan.  It is thee who is denied.  It is thee who shall not obtain company with the Lord our God. It is thee who are from this day, refuted!"  The words so mighty and magnificently mean, did come.  They arrived with unwarranted recourse and distant reasoning.  In addition, the new commandment offered nothing in way of condolence or commiseration.  It was simply and unquestionable, denial.

It is thee who is denied? Satan reviewed with a cumbersome heart.  From this day, refuted?  At that recall’s instant, a new temperature was born and its first position was within Satan’s virtuous skin.  A cool at that very moment did surround Satan’s body, and cold’s existence entered the universe for the first time.  Twas an experience so innovative and cruel, that Satan toppled almost completely over.  He dipped to knee and reached a hand out for support on the bottom step that up to the wondrous hall did lead.  Dark hair spilled around Chief’s shoulders and over forehead went, concealing teary eyes.  Never before had an angel felt grief’s icy hand, never before had sadness entered into Heaven’s hallowed realms, and in God’s first angel, it sprung to life.

What is this solitude?  He prayed.  What is this ever gutting loneliness thou have sentenced in me, my Lord?  Should I go from thee, my God?  Am I never to return, my all mighty Father?  Why have ye turned me from thy glorious gaze?  What have I done to thee, my Lord?  I hurt, my God... Satan shut fast his trembled lips and made still his staggered mouth.  With a watered gaze, he pushed newborn tears aside. Looking atop the stairs and at the great and mysterious hall, he had been denied by lesser kin.  Shame rained down on Satan in gallons of crippling current, with downpour came, the weight he had felt before, and gave birth to a new and greater weight.  So much was the new burden that Satan longed for the previous hurt.

Satan’s shame gave birth to a conclusion of obvious evidence.  So ashamed am I, my God.  I sought an answer to a question and seeking it has given birth to a quintuplet of sin.  Shame is my companion now, my friend and ally until I repent such unfaithful conduct.  I am penitent and will go from thee, until once again summoned.  Forgive me, oh Lord. I will declare my iniquity. I am sorry for my sins. I go from thee.  Satan lowered head to ground and pressed his angelic face on the floor beneath the steps at the mouth of the wondrous hall.  Once at the lowest possible position made, Satan waited humbly, kissing lowly stone, if only to show his new and worsened position, in hopes to prove his place and restore favour from God.

He rested on the lowly position for a time and then, when the feeling of filth consumed him, went hastily to clean himself with chastising seclusion.  His wings lifted him and with every winged motion, flight grew evermore cumbersome.  He felt insipid and vacant.  So concave was this mood, that he made several attempts to rest along the way to isolation.

On his journey, Satan passed the emerald forest, speckled with dulled fruit of every colour.  Forest, now shadowed and decreased in temperature and tone, gave no invitation to the shamed Chief of angels.  The gentle current, now still on what was once a wavy field of green blue, passed Satan’s sight. The idle wisp, settled and unwelcome to Seraphim’s search. Crystal current over rock, seemed murkier and too cold for touch or taste, forcing Satan onward.  Eventually Satan found a place of solitary and silence and in such seclusion an angel, first born, could weep and pray for forgiveness.

Twas on the lowest stone and cliff of Heaven, Satan went. There on the flat he laid smooth for the day’s entirety. When wailing subsided, he rose and looked at the tear stained stone.  His hands altogether placid, and they went, moving with an ambiguity and clumsiness.  His legs trembled beneath him