IN> "The Waters will Rise!" setting: Mephits

[-=|horsefly|=-]

Although Nathaniel, Cherub of once-The Waters and once-Knowledge, now
a fretting Servitor of Faith, was the first to sight a Mephit, or
Puddles, as former Servitors of The Waters call them affectionately,
he was far from the last. Joseph's well in Samaria, despite thousands
of years worth of conflict, has remained an oasis amid a strife-torn
region. Though no longer assigned to the area, he still makes it his
business to stop by as often as he can. Of course, a century of
disgrace and suspicion while he was relieved of corporeal duties keeps
him much quieter about his research. When he finally got back to
earth, he hoped and prayed for a sign of the creature he'd seen a
hundred years prior. The village hadn't changed much, and the well
remained. After a few days' worth of observation, he noted a child who
helped fetch water for the women each morning. The same child was
always sodden, no matter how hot the sun shone down. Mustering his
courage, Nathaniel had approached the well at midday and whispered the
name of his old Superior.

"Why have you returned here, Nathaniel?" asked a slight figure, robed
but barefoot, behind him. She stood only as high as a water jug, but
the eyes were as he remembered them, like newly cut sapphires.

Taken aback, the Cherub, bowed low, "I seek to return to your service,
Most Swift."

A soggy hand on his hip drew his attention. "I am a puddle of my
former depth, old friend. The Word called me back, and here I remain.
I purify The Waters now. How or when I will ever be as I once was... I
know not. Keep safe and quiet, old friend. Obey your Archangel, and
keep me in your prayers." The girl before him dissolved into sea foam
and crested over the well, splashing into the depths below.

Charged as he was, Nathaniel distinguished himself in Raphael's
service before her sacrifice ended Legion's threat, but he always made
a point of searching out and documenting any sightings of strange
children near waterways. Indeed, during the Purity Crusade, he came to
blows with angels bent on destroying Nyads and other water-sprites. A
few he even saved. The results were generally disappointing, but as
he's searched through the ages, and conferred with other angels
formerly of The Waters, a portrait has formed with more and more
confirmed sightings in recent centuries.

Typically found near a beach or well, just as often by a river or
lake, Puddles take the form of spindly children with large, wise blue
eyes. They seem content to keep the waters clean, to provide
sustenance for dehydrated creatures of any species, and have been seen
reveling in thunderstorms and frolicking in hurricanes, just as often
as sitting contemplatively overlooking a placid lake. They do not, for
the most part, involve themselves in the War, and sightings among
angels who never served The Waters are rare. A Seraph running for her
life near a riverbed, cornered by a demon and out of essence, found
him suddenly gurgling behind her, inexplicably coughing up water until
he drowned on dry land. Looking around, the angel saw only a child in
the shallows, who winked at her before disappearing in water
impossible to dive underneath.

Mephits, called such after their affinity for water, have been sighted
in the frigid wastes of Antarctica as well as the steam-baths and
sweat lodges of corporate types and indigenous peoples. The creatures
appear briefly, making certain the water is used to benefit life, and
that respect is shown for it--they also demonstrate a capacity to use
it in its various forms: freezing and thawing water as need be,
heating it to boiling, and all without seeming effort. Just as often a
human will report being saved from drowning in the sea only to be
rescued by a smiling, diminutive child. The greatest gift these
creatures possess, so far, is the capacity to clean pollutants--germs,
filth, oil slicks, and in one noted case, a burst container of spent
uranium rods in the wastes of the former Soviet Union--at the cost of
their own blood and Essence. One has taken up residence in the pools
at Lourdes; miracles are reported more often in that pool than in
others in the last decade. All attempts at resonance have been blocked
with Superior-level ineffibility, and the one reported sighting of
Malphas trying to possess one ended in a thunderstorm that sent every
celestial for miles into Trauma--including the Demon Prince of
Factions....

-- 
-=|horsefly|=-

"It was a different time: a time of blood and guns and killings.... It
was a time when killers needed saints, for so much of God's
good work was being done."
        --SAINT OF KILLERS #4, Garth Ennis