Page 11 of The Human Element (The Human Element Collection #1)

Lorelei

Lorelei looked around herself, still impressed with how exactly Daemon got them First Class seats on a plane back to London; he tended to brush over the part of his well-off means or methods, which she felt, if a being has been around long enough on Earth, one could suspect he’s got investments and ways to acquire wealth.

Lorelei had never flown first class before, and she was not used to the large comfortable seats that allowed her to turn to face Daemon’s, or the impeccable service of the cabin crew that delivered a large plate of meats and cheeses for them to snack on.

Not to mention the Bellini she was contentedly sipping.

They were the only ones in First Class, which she mentioned to Daemon who reservedly muttered a bunch of nonsense to the effect of “ Must’ve not been a busy flight, love. ”

When the flight was announcing its takeoff and no one else joined them in first class, she watched as he downed the remainder of the bourbon he was drinking before he answered her most recent question about who Magnus was.

“Magnus is an oracle I’ve known for many centuries.

We met back in ancient Greece when I was doing some work out in Delphi.

He was studying under Pythia, who was the Oracle of Apollo—The Greek god of the Sun.

When in reality, Apollo was actually ArchAngel Michael, who was acting as Apollo, relaying messages to the Oracle Pythia.

This was common at the time, many of the stories behind Gods or Goddesses were angels.

That was before the ArchAngels started pulling back on their influence over humanity in such a manner.

Early human civilization needed a lot of help back, it was frequently a nasty business. ”

“What were you doing there?”

“I was on a guarding tour. A lot of the major ancient cities were hubs for demons hiding in disguise trying to upset the balance, which was easy to do back then. My mission was to keep an eye on the city and eradicate any demons who happened to pass through in hopes of causing trouble. Anyways, I met Magnus there and stayed in touch after I left the city. It wasn’t until many, many years later that the little worm came asking for my help. ”

To hear Daemon speak in such a demeaning way about an oracle made Lorelei raise her eyebrow at him. He chuckled as he saw her look of confusion.

“Magnus is a pretty good oracle, as oracles go. But he was never like Pythia who was getting direct messages from an angel. Magnus is more like a knock-off in that arena. Easily manipulated and not good enough to discern whether his messages are coming from the good side, or the bad.”

He paused for a moment, trying to think of how to explain it to her.

“Not all oracles are powerful ones or have the Sight as well as others might. Some, like Pythia, were in good graces with Heaven and therefore her Sight was enhanced and was in direct contact with who she thought was Apollo. Pythia was also a powerful meditator, often going into trances for hours at a time to Divine her prophecies. Having the power to see the future as a human isn’t common, but it is common for those who do, to be in such a fair standing with Heaven for angels to feel the need to enhance the oracles to see what is truly meant to occur.

In other words, as I mentioned to you before, demons are deceptively good at taking on the form of not only humans, but giving off the notion that they are other-worldly or in this case, angels themselves.

They know the lingo, they know what humans wish to hear, and they know that even a low-level oracle can be steered in the wrong direction if they don’t catch on to where their visions are coming from. ”

“If that’s the case, I can only guess that Magnus is not one of those highly gifted oracles and he was led astray by a demon.”

“Bingo! Magnus for the most part is a shit “Seer” and has never used his abilities for the greater good; he only ever used them to get ahead in life. And being that way on top of being a terrible oracle, is a one way ticket to getting yourself into some serious trouble.”

Lorelei mulled over what she was learning about Magnus and was starting to question why Daemon had picked him to go to. It wasn’t looking like he was going to be much help to them.

“What was it that you helped him with?”

“It’s a pretty humorous story, in my opinion.

Magnus hopped around after training under Pythia and began working as an oracle for all sorts of historical figures…

I was over in Belgium, which in the grand scheme of things, was a shit place to be at the time.

I still don’t understand why we didn’t take the bastard out entirely to begin with, but those weren’t my orders. So much loss… ”

He didn’t have to say what was going on at the time for her to guess where he was going with his story.

With her extensive history backlog, within seconds she recalled what historical event was happening in Belgium over 200 hundred years ago.

Meaning if her calculations were right, that would be near the year 1815.

And what big thing happened in Belgium around that time? The Battle of Waterloo.

“The Battle of Waterloo was around that time, huh?”

She watched as Daemon’s face filled with surprise.

“Yeah, it was. Man, you are full of surprises, how did you guess that?”

Lorelei felt a flush threatening to turn her cheeks a bright red at his semi-compliment.

“My father worked in a museum. He was the one who gave me a love for history and I used to read book after book on various topics. So I put two and two together.”

Lorelei saw that Daemon was making an effort to refrain from smiling at her, seeing his eyes shift over her momentarily before he responded again.

“Well, Magnus was working as Napoleon Bonaparte’s oracle.

A lot of Historians say that his oracle was some manuscript found; a book actually; but in reality, it was a person.

Anyways, Napoleon was a superstitious man and seeing as Magnus was…

well the slimy little git he is, I wasn’t surprised to hear he took that position.

Magnus aided Napoleon by telling him the outcomes of his battles, and up until Waterloo, he divined correctly and was seen in high regard by Napoleon.

But, he wasn’t clever enough to see past the lie of the vision about the Waterloo outcome.

A demon named Charun was the one behind the false vision.

By the time Magnus realized his mistake, he knew he would be killed by Napoleon if he stuck around.

He came to me, knowing I was in Belgium and begged for me to help him get away and start a new life somewhere else.

He wanted me to use my thrall to make Napoleon forget Magnus was ever his oracle, to concoct the tale of the oracle book that everyone knows of today, so that he wouldn’t come looking for him. ”

Lorelei furrowed her brows, confused. “Why did you help him? If he was doing bad things, why help someone like that?”

Daemon rubbed the back of his neck, “I didn’t do it without cause, the higher angels already knew the war was coming to an end—but Magnus would be killed if the ArchAngels found out.

I guess I didn’t see a bother, I felt for the bugger—he was wrong, absolutely, but he was also an idiot, and not all idiots deserve immediate death.

Especially since Napoleon was being dealt with.

I told him if he ever divined for another person with that much power and authority again, I’d hand him over to the ArchAngels myself.

He happily accepted my conditions. Now, he only does minor divining for lowlifes and people concerned that their boyfriend or girlfriend isn’t their soulmate.

That kind of thing. He isn’t much harm to anyone anymore, trust me, I keep tabs on him. ”

Lorelei finished off the last bit of her Bellini and set the empty glass down.

She still was finding it difficult to wrap her head around the fact that Daemon had been around for thousands of years, even though he only looked to be in his mid 20s.

His silver hair lightly brushed the top of his shoulders, falling over his left eye again, and she got a little lost in watching him.

Not realizing that she was doing so until he made eye contact with her again and a tiny hitch in her heartbeat brought her back to reality.

His gaze into her own was piercing, and familiar.

Ever since she first met him, Lorelei had this persistent inkling inside of her that she wasn’t able to shake.

It was as if she knew him before; in another time.

Yet, she was positive that couldn’t be the case. They had never met before.

Lorelei pretended to shuffle around something in her bag afterwards, afraid he knew she had been staring at him.

But out of the corner of her eye, as she grabbed her lipgloss from her bag, she saw that he, too, continued to watch her.

And it made her heart race for what felt like unknown reasons.

After applying it, she cleared her throat and tried to carry on with the conversation.

“If he isn’t that great of an oracle then, why are we going to him? I’m sure you know of…” She paused to think of the right way to phrase her next thought, “More qualified ones who might be a better chance at helping us.”

A look of defeat washed over his face, and even though it was only for a split second, only a breath’s worth of time, Lorelei still caught it before he put on his signature carefree charm once again.

“You see, as a Fallen, many oracles are too scared to interact with me. They think if they do so, their abilities will start to become tainted and they will end up being less useful to those they serve or divine for. But Magnus has always been a bit slimy, so I know he will be unwilling to keep his curiosity to himself when it comes to our situation. He’s also the only one scared enough of me to actually sit down and chat with us. Plus, he knows he owes me.”

He finished by giving a smug smile that made Lorelei wonder just how powerful he was before he fell...and how powerful he still was today.

As the thought formulated in her mind, the flight attendant came over the intercom to announce their arrival to Heathrow Airport.

The next phase of their journey was now setting in motion.

They had to get to Magnus, so he could hopefully tell them how Lorelei can unlock the secret to saving humankind.

From what Daemon said, getting some answers from him looked promising.

Lorelei’s mind was someplace else entirely as they grabbed her luggage and made their way off the plane.

Talking to Magnus was the easy part. But what of the rest of the mission?

With both Hell's and Heaven’s eyes upon them at full force, who's to say they would even make it to Magnus’ alive?