Chapter Text
It was dark, it was cold, and anyone caught in this storm was likely to die of frostbite or pneumonia. Anyone with common sense would stay indoors, or somewhere warm at least. So the fact that a 16-year-old kid was walking out in the middle of a blizzard would make anyone worry, but no one was around. He's in the middle of nowhere. Honestly, he can't tell if he's on earth or not. He stops, and he looks around. There was no snow, no howling winds. Just an endless void of nothing. Something was scratching at the back of his head. His identity, what was it again? Who is he? He shakes his head, he had enough common sense to try and figure how the hell he was going to get out of this place.
The boy begins to walk again, this time with a more defined purpose. He comes to a door. On the door's face was a carving of a figure with short, messy hair, wearing a loose tunic that goes down to their knees. Sprouting from their back were three pairs of wings stretching out behind them with a waterfall in the background. He blinks, the image seemed familiar. There were no expressions on the figure's face but it felt like the boy knew them. He reaches for the latch and opens the door, and a flash of light happens before everything went dark.
Gabriel woke up with a start, sitting straight up in his bed. He checks his surroundings and is relieved to see that he was still in his room, that it was just a dream. Gabe sighs and gets out of bed to get changed, it was graduation day. The day where half angels are promoted to full angels. For weeks now, Gabriel had been hearing no, sensing, something. A voice that was sound and feeling at the same time was making its way to Gabriel's mind from a place called the Elemental Caverns. You're able to pick where you go to be promoted, and while it's a place you can choose, only a handful of fledglings go to the Caverns because it's a place to go if you're aiming to go straight to Archangel status, and that handful was usually made up of the hot-headed jerks that think they run the place. Perfect mindset for an archangel from what Gabriel has seen. It's not an easy feat, the last archangel was created over three billion years ago. That's a long time, even for angels.
Gabriel's fingers skim over the hilt of his blade. It was going to be imbued with new power just like him today. Gabe wasn't going to the caverns because he wanted the power, or that he thought he should be the one in charge. No, that voice was calling him there and he wanted to figure out why becoming an archangel would just be an added perk.
Gabriel finished getting dressed, groomed his wings a little, and climbs up to the roof. He could already see other half angels and fledglings making their way to the pantheon to start their day. Gabe jumps off and unfurls his wings and joins the masses. There were a few other angels that were a bit higher in rank flying with them, probably mentors or nestmates. Gabe touched down right in front of the gates of the Pantheon and made his way inside. He sits on one of the mats closest to the right side of the room and waits.
After a speech from Raphael, the fledglings were all separated into groups based on where they were going for the day. No names were called as the fledglings were supposed to know where they were going, and so Gabe was able to blend in rather easily with the group of hopeful maybe-archangels. The flight to the caverns was short, maybe five minutes, and as the group went they spoke idly amongst themselves. Gabriel took the rear of the group, honestly not wanting any of them to find out he was there or why he was there.
They touched down and lined up quickly. Now that he was here, Gabriel's anxiety seemed to calm down and get worse all at the same time. He realized that he wasn't anxious but just nervous, maybe a bit scared. He shakes the thoughts from his head and sits with the rest of the group. An angel that Gabe hadn't met before stood in front of them, telling them the basics about the day and about what was about to happen. It was simple, today was a coming of age ceremony. They would go into the caves one at a time and when one came out they'd be given their new rank based on their Grace, then they'd rejoin the group and the next person would take their turn.
The first angel goes in, it barely takes a minute before they came back out. They were announced as an ordinary angel. They can get promoted of course but it seemed they rushed into the caverns without really making a thought out decision. After that is was just angel after angel, some full angels some High, some even got demoted to Seraph.
Then it was Gabriel's turn. When his name was called the chatter in the crowd went silent, and the nerves almost took over again. He almost didn't get up, but he collected himself with a sigh. Standing up Gabriel made it a point not to look at anyone in the crowd. He made the stop everyone else had and knelt before the person overseeing their part of the ceremony before taking a deep breath and taking the step over the ledge into the chasm-like mouth of the cave.