The Nightshade Guild: Mage You Look by Abigail Kade (if you liked this book TXT) 📗

were forced out of their presence and onto this new plane of existence. They thrived in this place for millennia, content in their existence, until the spirit decided to create humans. The humans were allowed to live in the same place the unfavored servants had always lived. One of them was not happy about this fact and plotted to have them also fall into disfavor. I’m sure you know that story.”

Finn had placed an elbow on the table and rested his chin in his palm in undivided attention while I talked.  When I addressed him, he blinked for a second before answering, “You mean the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden?”

“Yep, that’s the one. Anyway, the one who possessed the snake and got them kicked out of the garden was also banished. Many of the servants in the garden were pissed that the spirit had taken the side of these humans and punished him for wanting to preserve his home. When he was banished, they followed, and a war broke out. Those who followed Satan were banished forever. But there were many unfavored who didn’t join that rebellion. They stayed and sometimes visited the weaker and helpless humans as they made their way in this harsh world the spirit had punished them with.”

“Is that where the Nephilim come from?”

I grinned and reached out to squeeze Finn’s loose hand in his lap in appreciation of him knowing about the Nephilim.

“Yes! Exactly. The servants, or as some call them, angels, found their true mates among the humans after they evolved. And the children of their unions were called the Nephilim. They’re the ancestors of all the paranormals that exist here now. They’ve evolved over the many many centuries, been adulterated or tinkered with through time, but the races of the paranormals can all trace their origins back to these children of angels and men.”

“Okay, so wait a second.” Finn sat back in his chair now and began stroking his beard in thought. “So, you’re saying I’m a descendant of one of these Nephilim?”

Nodding to agree, I reached into the bread basket on the table and grabbed a roll. Finn was taking this much better than I thought, so I felt more relaxed. Breaking off a piece of the soft bread, I popped it in my mouth and chewed. After swallowing, I continued. “Yeah, absolutely.”

Finn stroked his beard in silent thought for a moment, and I kept picking off pieces of the bread and quietly chewing, waiting for him to respond. After a minute, he looked up and asked, “But what does this have to do with you, and why did you mention an ancient Mesopotamian story?”

This was the tricky part.

“Okay, so the servants…”

“You mean the angels?”

“If you prefer, yes, the unfavored angels were living in peace between their home in what you call Eden and the earthly realm. But the spirit wasn’t done with them yet. They didn’t like the half-breeds as they were called. They didn’t like that they were flourishing when they should have been living in complete supplication to the spirit. So, the spirit sent a massive flood to wipe them all out and start again. The flood happened. It’s a fact. There are Greek stories, the story in Gilgamesh’s Epic and the most famous one about Noah. And when that flood happened, the unfavored knew that they had to find a way to make a place for themselves or they might be in danger of being eradicated one day too.”

I paused for a second to give Finn a chance to catch up, and when he did, he grasped the thread of my narrative and ran with it.

“Let me put this in language I’m more familiar with, okay?” I waved a hand and picked up another roll to munch while he talked it all out. “What you’re telling me is that in the beginning, before Adam and Eve, Eden was a place for fallen angels to live because they weren’t allowed in heaven anymore. But, wait, it said it was all created in seven days in the Genesis version.”

I snorted and took a drink of my water to clear my throat. “Uh, yeah. It says all kinds of things that aren’t true. The Bible is the greatest book of fiction ever written in the human world, but even though some of it is based on fact, it’s still mostly fiction. The place you know of as Eden was there for millennia before the humans showed up. But having it fall into a week was a much more concise narrative for the story. I chalk it up to poetic license.”

“And Satan was protecting his home from these interlopers?”

“Yep, that’s the way I always saw it. Was he evil at the time? Who knows? Is he evil now? That depends on which side you ask. There’s always a reason beings do the things they do, and very rarely can it be explained by someone just being inherently evil.”

Finn stopped stroking his beard. Which was a blessing because it was turning me on thinking about that beard when it was caressing my balls yesterday morning. Mmmm.

Focus, idiot! You’re not done yet.

“This is the most fascinating thing I’ve ever heard. Why doesn’t anyone know about this?”

“Hardly anyone knows about us because we’ve been in hiding since the flood, pretty much. After the flood’s destruction, we knew we had to find a safe space for us to exist. The truly fallen who followed Satan were in Hell, the humans had earth, and the angels still serving the spirit were in the spiritual plane. Even the Nephilim children began carving out places for themselves to live and flourish on other planes of existence, just like your Druid ancestors created Galila. We did the same. We took all of our collective strength and moved our home to an alternate plane. You