An ebony finger points skyward, emerging from the center of Node. Known simply as The Gate, it disappears into the clouds, massive spokes extending from the immense structure to stretch through the streets of the largest human city. No one knows who built the towering obelisk, but all are aware of those who have been entrusted as its caretakers. They call themselves The Maat. Otherworldly creatures, their humanoid forms move with an unholy speed and grace, their bodies little more than quicksilver fluid inside a malleable membrane. Pierce that membrane and they will die. Wielding a living...

What if everything you thought you knew was wrong? We're taught in Sunday School that angels are benevolent beings who watch over us, who love and protect us at every turn. Yet the Revelation of John from the Christian Bible states that it is the angels who will pour out God's wrath on humanity, murdering billions of people. If you were an angel and truly loved those you watched over, could you destroy them, even if God commanded you to? And if you couldn't, who would God send to do the job in your place?

In a final stand of old growth timber, a stranger is found shivering in a patch of new snow on a hot summer day. The world has changed from the one he knew; society has stumbled and the rural areas have lost their connection to the rest of the country. Over the last sixty years, a culture has grown amidst the myths of the world before, developing its own beliefs around the ever present cycles of nature. Those who live within the shadows of the ancient trees have never seen a television or an electric light, they have never watched a plane climb into the sky or listened to voices echoing from...