The Secret of Heaven...intro...

Legend holds that when the Seducer of Souls arrived on the shores of the New World, he had been followed by a shadow that cursed the gods, and stained the souls of men.

In the Age of Discovery, explorers sought wealth and power for their kings. They had brought with them their languages, their customs, their diseases, and their faith. A plague that later decimated the natives In Nomine Dei, and cast a shroud of secrets and corruption over the world of men.

They could be seen from the beaches when their vessels appeared on the horizon. The shadow of a storm that crept across the ocean like an omen of death, for the natives did not understand what was coming and what lay hidden in the land of their ancestors.

The ambitious Bishop Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca had convinced the Crown of Castile to commission voyages into the New World in search of gold. But what he sought proved far more valuable to the Holy Office than the greed of men. After years of expedition it had been established that the rumors of the Treasure of Heaven were true, and the labyrinth known as The Chamber of Spirits lied waiting to be discovered.

The shadow that pursued the Seducer of Souls had assured the bishop that he was doing God’s work. He was the angel Sariel, and charged with saving the souls of the dead from the Adversary of Heaven. Now, as the slain fell to the explorers, their bodies cast into pits of fire, the Seducer gathered the souls of those who had not been deceived by the agents of the Cross.

Every day fewer souls remained and more had been convinced to accept a prophet as a god. However, as it had been previously agreed, the former turned out to be the worthy ones and the latter would envy them for eternity.

When the Seducer of Souls arrived in the New World, he found a child—too young to tell his tale—had been left as the last of his tribe. The Fallen Angel cared for him, and reared him in secret, and when he came of age he appointed him as gatekeeper of the Chamber of Spirits.

Over the years they called to him, the Children of Heaven. First Sariel, the shadow that followed the Seducer of Souls; their voices echoed in his dreams. “For God and Heaven, tell us where it is!”

The boy divulged nothing. For he understood that evil had crept into Heaven, and the Message of God had been lost again.