Affirmed by Josh Moger

When the first human reaches nine Forces... you'll understand.

You see... the Raising of the Fist was Uriel's supreme statement.

It was his primal cry of rage against the hubris and blasphemy of Lucifer. Lucifer had dared go against God. Lucifer had spoken falsely. Lucifer had killed... the Voice.

Uriel remembered the first time he hear the Voice. He remembered how the Words had spun him into existence.

He remembered the first Word he spoke at his creation...

"Uriel."

Not just his name, it was the Truth that his creator had spoken to him, repeated by Uriel as his first Truth. Uriel was his name and his purpose; his Purity was the Truth that he had known from his beginning...

The Purity of the Symphony... that which he had seen so much of, had helped form, had guided with Michael, Gabriel, David... and even Lucifer... now under attack...

For some... for Uriel... it was too much.

Uriel remembered the argument that Lucifer had used:

"The humans... they are not of the kind that we are... they are ugly. They fight amongst themselves, they have no common goal, no common existence. See how they create gods of stone and wood to worship. They know not what true Purity is. They cannot even comprehend the Truest of purities, the Symphony."

"What you say is True, Lucifer. But what I shall say now is also true, for I can only speak of the Symphony that is what God shows unto me: that the humans are not to be interfered with. I confess that I do not understand, but then, God has not granted me the right to understand. I suppose I shall see in time what purpose the humans serve, but only when and if God so deems it right for me."

Lucifer had turned away at that time... but spoke as he left:

"You have patience, my friend... but patience is not always a virtue."

Uriel's mind was torn from his thoughts as he felt a pain in his left side. He twisted his head around and looked with surprise at the dagger that protruded from his silvery flank. As his tail flicked up to grasp at the dagger and wrench it from his side, he saw the angel that had put it there...

"Lucifer... why?"

"Because I do not share your virtue of patience."

Lucifer laughed as he bore himself aloft and into the air, his once shining wings already growing dark and losing their feathers to reveal stretched skin.

Uriel stared at the dagger... the betrayal was all the more intimate as he realized it was made with the very blade that he had given Lucifer almost 4 billion years ago, when the Earth had finally been finished. The blade was made from a piece of the first ore that had been forced into existence by David and Gabriel's machinations. Uriel gripped the dagger and held it up, his own blood trickling down the blade onto his tail.

"THIS CANNOT BE!"

Uriel felt a new pain in his side, a spiritual pain, a pain that twisted throughout his serpentine body, wracking him over. It was the first dissonance that he had ever felt and it only served to reinforce in his mind the reality of God and the supreme Purity that was His Symphony. But Uriel had now become impure, he had become dissonant. And so... he realized what he had to do... how to cleanse himself and all of Heaven of the taint that Lucifer had brought into existence.

But he didn't fly into battle.

Rather... Uriel knelt down and prayed to God. He prayed of his hope for understanding correctly. Then he asked God that if it is as he understood... could he too be made as such.

And Uriel heard something that he did not hear again for almost 20,000 years...

He heard the Voice...

"SO SHALL IT BE."

Uriel dropped the dagger as his tail became immaterial, as did his entire being... he felt his celestial body, his very nature, even his interpretation of his Word change and be re-shaped into something new...

Uriel stood on two bare feet, his skin glistening black in the flames that surrounded him. He looked at his arms and hands... things he had never known before. He could feel long hair framing his head. And his wings... Where once there was silver, now was there obsidian.

And Uriel swore oaths to God, and as he swore them, he felt his nature become permanent and ever dedicated to God. At that moment, he felt stronger in his faith than he had ever felt before.

Uriel had become the first of the Malakim. Others would soon follow.

But none realized what had truly transpired.

None understood or had even heard what Uriel had asked of God.

Uriel had not simply changed his angelic nature.

Uriel had become at once something less and something far more...

He had become something ugly next to his once graceful, serpentine body, but he had also become a living statement of faith and purity of his belief in God.

His belief that God understood something of humanity that Uriel did not.

His faith that God would one day show Uriel what humanity could become.

His conviction that God had formed humanity for a purpose.

And his question was simply that...

If Uriel had correctly understood what humanity would one day be.

Its okay if you don't understand now. None of the angels understand. Yves knows. Michael... perhaps understands. David, said to be the second of the Malakim, understood, but wouldn't say anything. Laurence... Laurence is both so far away from and yet so close to the Truth.

You'll figure it out.

Yes... when evolution brings the world the first human child of nine Forces, you'll understand...

And when that child unfurls her black wings for the first time...

It will be another statement of Purity.