Castiel did not need lecturing on the matter of War, or archangels, he thought he had a rather good grasp of?the whole subject himself. But Lucifer's cunning speech did remind him of something. The whole thing, that tree nonsense, whatever things came out of it, strange new races, it almost swayed him, until his objection to Lucifer's lecturing tone reminded him of the truth as he knew it.
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He may not be the most humane of all the angels, but did respect the Father's great work and his own duties required his presence on earth often enough. He did not remember a single darkly growing Tree, the way Lucifer was painting the picture, but a number of tall tree surrounded not only by the imaginary Adam family but by other numerous tribes, and having no?problems cultivating the Trees whatsoever.
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And as far as other races were concerned, Lucifer was?either rewriting the entire history of humanity and this world, or?referring to an entire different period. When Castiel was?freely roaming the less inhabited vistas of the human past, he did notice hints of other races but even then,?however powerful they may have been, they were hiding their other self from the human tribes that had deadly weapons even then, and greater mystical prowess to boot.
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Perhaps Leviathans and Behemoths would not have cared one bit about the numbers of human warriors that?would rise against them, but the higher races already vanished from the face of this world even back then, with few traces left and inaccurate legends to supplement the truth. So, most of what Lucifer just said, about virtually everything, was at least partially?untrue.
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The angel of the war would once dismiss his entire diatribe as fake, but knew to think?in terms of a somewhat greater complexity these days. Lucifer must have mentioned the art of War on purpose, as if he wanted to encourage Castiel to see through the deception he so artfully crafted. And it?has been very effective until then, Castiel started experiencing the vision of what the Fallen Angel?has been mentioning as if he witnessed them himself. He started believing in them. So then, perhaps there was some half truth behind his words, some intention neither he nor Halbrek managed to decipher yet.
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Perhaps crafting the illusion, and encouraging Castiel to break it at the same time was part of?the madness to his method.?As an Angel of the Lord, he was accustomed to simply accosting that which was so patently false, as a protector of imperfect human vessels, he?sometimes had to be careful in what he said, and the angel of war did not know which applied more?in this case. If he followed his idea that Lucifer wanted him to break the?illusion of the semi truth of the past, then perhaps Halbrek should be encouraged instantly to do the same. After all, she probably did not care about humans quite as much?to distinguish between the truth and her leader's fabrications.
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"So, this must be classical Lucifer then," Castiel softly reprimanded, with?a hint of a smile he could otherwise display to demonstrate his triumph at unearthing the truth.
"I just realized that I was agreeing with you, with your version of the past, until I remembered it differently. All your talk of war, the need for our help and yet you are lying to us, about something, aren't you? I cannot figure out what is his game, Halbrek, but maybe now that you know he has not been forthright, you can figure it out, since you know him better," the angel firmly stated, not worried about challenging a superior being no matter the cost.
Kat