Excerpt:
In Heaven, the Lord’s angels trembled with anticipation, their wings of living light vibrating with the unease and excitement that precede great expectation. They had no place at the Father’s table and no access to the information that would soon descend through the celestial hierarchy, yet they knew that the Riders were about to be chosen.
It was a legend that had endured throughout all universes, and now they were living it. It was becoming life, becoming substance. At last, an idea was becoming time, becoming choice, becoming a trial:
As it is in Heaven, so shall it be on Earth?
The Father summoned three of His Sons before the Council: Jesus, John, and Paul.
“My Sons, you have been chosen for this mission.”
The three searched the faces of the Council of the Wise, and from their loving gaze they understood that the Elders had complete faith in them.
Jesus knelt before the Father.
“Father?”
The Father motioned for Him to rise.
“Speak, My Son.”
“Father, grant me leave to choose the fourth myself.”
The Father turned toward the Council. Each of the Twenty-Four Elders gave a slight nod of approval. The Father looked back at Jesus, questioningly.
“Whom will you take with you, My Son? You know that it has been written since before time itself: each of you three shall fulfill his mission, but in the end, the most tested of all will be the fourth. The end shall depend upon him…”
Jesus lowered His gaze, striving for a moment of inner stillness, seeking in that perfect silence of the spirit to hear His own inner whisper. A tear slid down His radiant face.
“The Fourth Rider shall be Vezina.”
The Twenty-Four Elders sighed, but their vote had already been cast and the decision had been made. Only the Father could decide otherwise. For a mission of such importance, the Elders would have chosen a spirit who had never failed, who had never strayed from the path of light, who had never known hesitation.
Jesus studied their faces and understood.
“Holy Wise Ones, I see that you do not approve of my choice.”
Solomon rose to his feet, and his serene voice carried through the ether.
“With all my heart, no, Son. Vezina may well be our greatest disappointment. Shall we place such a mission in the hands of a spirit so fallen?”
Jesus persisted.
“Father?”
The Father of Lights surveyed the Council once more.
“So be it, My Son. Let it be according to your will.”
Vezina had no place at the Father’s table, however, and so the three Sons of God had to descend into the Fifth Heaven, where the Dacian priest was atoning for his sins, in order to inform him of his new mission.