"We have five kinds of group here; anyone coming in is tested and then assigned to study the area in which they show the most aptitude. The groups are Gatekeepers, Weavers, Hunters, Guardians, and Researchers. You will learn more about them later," Lilith explained to me as she led me along the corridor of one of the wings.
"Sounds like Hogwarts," I couldn't resist saying.
The Centre was quite big – three wings reached backwards from the main building, into a large old garden with huge trees. In one wing was the staff dormitory, Lilith's office, and the private cafeteria, and the two others were in spa use. The Magellan Spa visitors could not enter the corridor leading to the private wing, which was the westernmost one. The gate was in the lobby on the westernmost wing, which you could not enter freely, even from the private wing. Every door leading to the great hall was locked, including the cafeteria's, and only opened when someone looking through a surveillance camera pressed a button to open the door. I had not noticed them at first, but there were four guards in the lobby, each sitting in their own glass cubicle.
Lilith opened the heavy door to her office, which was situated on the front side of the building. She could see everyone approaching the Centre and spa from her desk by the window– no wonder she was out to meet us as soon as we arrived.
Daniel was in the office, sitting in an armchair with his long legs stretching in front of him. He was reading a book. A very big, old book. Despite its size, he balanced it in his hands in a way that made it look weightless.
He rose out of his chair in one fluid, catlike motion. The movement was balletic. There was so much strength in the movements of his muscular athletic body.
"Yes, let's go." Without saying anything more, Lilith raised her hand and with one quick movement slashed the air in front of her.
When I say she slashed it, I mean that literally. An opening appeared in the air, as if she had cut paper with scissors.
"Woooo…!" I stepped back, breathless with surprise.
Right… as if I wouldn't have been scared to see all the laws of physics broken in front of me? But, not wanting to show weakness in front of Daniel again, I tried to appear unafraid, and even took a step forward to see better. I walked around the slit, understanding now what Diana had been talking about before. The slit disappeared from sight, when I went behind it, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. When I came back to the "front" of it (for lack of a better term), it was clearly visible again. Impossible. Yet…it was similar to the big gate in the lobby. My head whirled at the concept that time and space were physical things that you could cut through.
"Did you just create a gate of your own?" I asked.
She extended her hand and I saw something that looked like a finger cover from a mummy. It was of some transparent, slightly rose-colored material that I did not recognize.
Daniel stepped through the slit in the air, and vanished from the room. Lilith beckoned me to follow, and I braced myself and followed Daniel. Lilith was the last to walk through, after which she repeated the slashing motion with her hand. One moment I saw her office, the next it was gone and we were in another space that looked like an old library. And a huge library at that.
Bookshelves were towering towards the high, high ceiling. Worn sets of stairs led to the upper galleries. Tall ladders were needed to reach the uppermost books on all the galleries whilst the medium height shelves could be reached with the help of the step stools that were scattered all around. And everywhere you looked there were books, thousands of books, sitting in neat rows, stacked up on tables, crammed onto the hundreds and hundreds of shelves. The corridor where we were standing seemed to continue so far into the distance I swear it disappeared into a haze.
I saw two people nearby, sitting at reading desks, concentrating fully on what they were reading. I recognised one of them, a boy who looked like he might be Indian, as a member of the group who'd been sitting at Daniel's table in the cafeteria. I was sure any researcher would give their right arm for an opportunity to investigate a place where time stood still.
Daniel shook his head, amused.
"That depends… " Daniel's expression was unreadable.
Lilith sat on a little couch in the library and patted it for me to sit too. I did. It was quite a relief to sit down on something surprisingly solid and real.
She waited for the information to sink in.
She patted my hand. I must have looked shocked.
Lilith paused and Daniel took up the story.
Daniel opened the book he had carried with him from Lilith's office and placed it on my lap. It showed stone wall panels of winged Assyrian gods.
I leafed through the pictures in the book. Angel statues, winged gods and goddesses. I noticed Isis there and almost as a reflex my hand rose to touch the pendant hanging under my shirt.
"OK… But what about the gates? Who created those? The Nephilim? And if so, why was there a need for these gates, if they already had the Keys?" I pointed at the rosy colored finger cover Lilith held very carefully on the palm of her hand.
I looked around in the library. I realised that there were many more people than I had first noticed. They were leaning on the bookcases, or sitting at little desks scattered everywhere, wherever there was a big enough space. And everyone was reading silently or writing notes.
Lilith and Daniel glanced at each other. They were clearly trying to reach a decision.
For a moment I wondered what was so extraordinary about my very ordinary parents. I saw Lilith quickly glance sideways at Daniel.
"OK. Shoot. Tell me what this dangerous, ancient thing is. Some sort of weapon?" I asked.
"No, it is knowledge. A book," Lilith patted the book on my lap.
That was something to muse over… For a short, hysterically amused moment, I wondered what mother would say if she knew. But her knowing anything about this was an impossible thought in itself, so I discarded it.
"But how can you know for sure that such a race as these angels actually existed? Aren't they also imaginary creatures?" I realised even as I spoke that I was going to have to revise my interpretation of "imaginary." I stared at a picture of the "Mystic nativity" painted by Sandro Botticelli. A ring of angels was flying over the stable, three angels sitting on the roof, and angels hugging people and pointing at the manger. The angels had wings of different colors.
"They might not be what you'd expect them to be. Much of they way they look in the pictures and reliefs is a human invention, of course. But they did exist here once. The Nephilim are a living proof of this. They inherited a lot of their physique from their ancestors," Lilith explained.
I wasn't exactly in a place to deny everything they'd said, having stepped through the gate. And having seen my dead friend with my own eyes, and touched her with my own hands, even if it only was for a fleeting moment. Still there was too much to assimilate in one sitting. I had never been religious, and considered angels to be like fairies – pretty, and not real. Like the angels in Botticelli's painting.
"We are," Daniel said and spread his wings.