Pure Soul Book 2

2.

Clattering, clanging, and banging can be heard as we drop all our stuff onto the black and white tiled floor of what I think humans call a kitchen. “Everyone should have a room of their own. Take your belongings up those stairs there and grab a room,” Baraqiel says with an arched eyebrow and a nod of his head towards said stairs. “After that go to the dining room for a briefing.” Having picked up my bags I dash to the steps, clambering up them loudly as I climb. Once on the landing of the second floor I glance over the railing to get a better view of the home. Gasping, I stand shocked by my surroundings! This place isn’t a house; it’s a freaking mansion! If I were to give a guess I’d say probably just over 5,000 square feet. Turning my head, I peer down an extremely long hallway. The first three rooms seemed dull, drab somehow with their grey or tan painted walls. However, the fourth room (the second on the left) had some zest about it. The walls were a powder blue, the floor is what appears to be white marble with royal blue and gold colors swirling throughout it. Looking at the bed I imagine it would be the kind of set up a princess would request.

There is a four-poster bed set between two walls in the further corner of the room with netting draped across and fairy lights set within it. I’m not typically a girlie girl but it’s like a childhood fantasy come true. Grinning from ear to ear I walk into the room and make my way over to the bed where I deposit my duffle bag on top of it. Next, I remove my sword leaning it against the wall between the bed and nightstand. After this I walk over to the white oak dresser placing the daggers, I had strapped on either forearm upon it. Taking the head gear off, I sit it down on the dresser as well before looking into the mirror that adorns the furniture and remove a hair tie from my right wrist gathering my long black hair from off the middle of my back, I pull it into a high ponytail leaving only my bangs to fall across my forehead.

“Cassiel! Where is that girl?” I hear Zadkiel shout from somewhere below. “How does one manage to be late when they are already where they need to be?” He is grumbling about this as I walk into the dining area.

“Aw, did you miss me Z?” I ask, tapping him twice with my right hand against his upper bicep as I pass by him. He sighs but chooses to ignore my question. I snicker at him as I claim a seat next to Ana. Baraqiel sits down just as Zadkiel stands up from the chair he had been sitting on.

Clapping his hands together, Zad rubs them back and forth a couple of times and then says, “Alright, listen up, laid on the table is a file for each one of you pertaining to the element we are searching for. Make sure you have read it in its entirety before we leave tomorrow. We will reconvene here at O-five hundred. Take the rest of tonight to read and understand the file provided to you. It is of utmost importance that you know how to handle the element Astatine. Do you understand?” Collectively we stand saluting and saying ‘yes sir’ in response. “Okay then, you are dismissed.

Picking up the manila folder that had been laid in front of me, I flip it open and begin to read the file as I leave the dining room:

ASTATINE – PRONUNCIATION: /ˈæstətiːn, -tɪn/ (ASS-tə-teen, -⁠tin),

APPEARANCE: UNKNOWN, PROBABLY METALLIC

MASS #: [210]

Astatine is a chemical element with the symbol At and atomic number 85. It is the rarest naturally occurring element in the Earth’s crust, occurring only as the decay product of various heavier elements. All of astatine’s isotopes are short-lived; the most stable is astatine-210, with a half-life of 8.1 hours. A sample of the pure element has never been assembled, because any macroscopic specimen would be immediately vaporized by the heat of its own radioactivity.

The bulk properties of astatine are not known with certainty. Many of them have been estimated from the element’s position on the periodic table as a heavier analog of iodine, and a member of the halogens (the group of elements including fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine). However, astatine also falls roughly along the dividing line between metals and nonmetals, and some metallic behavior has also been observed and predicted for it. Astatine is likely to have a dark or lustrous appearance and may be a semiconductor or possibly a metal.

Characteristics

Astatine is an extremely radioactive element; all its isotopes have half-lives of 8.1 hours or less, decaying into other astatine isotopes, bismuth, polonium, or radon. Most of its isotopes are very unstable, with half-lives of one second or less. Of the first 101 elements in the periodic table, only francium is less stable, and all the astatine isotopes more stable than francium are in any case synthetic and do not occur in nature.

The bulk properties of astatine are not known with any certainty. Research is limited by its short half-life, which prevents the creation of weighable quantities. A visible piece of astatine would immediately vaporize itself because of the heat generated by its intense radioactivity. It remains to be seen if, with sufficient cooling, a macroscopic quantity of astatine could be deposited as a thin film. Astatine is usually classified as either a nonmetal or a metalloid; metal formation has also been predicted.

Natural occurrence

Astatine is the rarest naturally occurring element. The total amount of astatine in the Earth’s crust (quoted mass 2.36 × 1025 grams) is estimated by some to be less than one gram at any given time. Other sources estimate the amount of ephemeral astatine present on earth at any given moment to be up to one ounce (about 28 grams).

Any astatine present at the formation of the Earth has long since disappeared; the four naturally occurring isotopes (astatine-215, -217, -218 and -219) are instead continuously produced as a result of the decay of radioactive thorium and uranium ores, and trace quantities of neptunium-237. The landmass of North and South America combined, to a depth of 16 kilometers (10 miles), contains only about one trillion astatine-215 atoms at any given time (around 3.5 × 10−10 grams). Astatine-217 is produced via the radioactive decay of neptunium-237. Primordial remnants of the latter isotope—due to its relatively short half-life of 2.14 million years—are no longer present on Earth. However, trace amounts occur naturally as a product of transmutation reactions in uranium ores. Astatine-218 was the first astatine isotope discovered in nature. Astatine-219, with a half-life of 56 seconds, is the longest lived of the naturally occurring isotopes.

Isotopes of astatine are sometimes not listed as naturally occurring because of misconceptions that there are no such isotopes, or discrepancies in the literature. Astatine-216 has been counted as a naturally occurring isotope but reports of its observation (which were described as doubtful) have not been confirmed.

Sitting cross-legged upon the bed I stare at the papers fanned out on the comforter in front of me. I feel overwhelmed, information overload essentially and truth be told, I don’t understand half of what I just read. The parts that I did understand still flash across my mind; immediately vaporized, an extremely radioactive element and I wonder how we are to go about handling the element once we have tracked it down, and more importantly; how can it be turned into a weapon to destroy demons, Fallen angels and whatnot.

Thinking about the pure unadulterated power lying dormant within the element causes a shiver to run the length of my body and I quickly gather up the papers and stuff them back inside the folder. I sit the folder on the nightstand and then I allow my body to fall back on the blankets, my head against the pillows before letting a sigh pass through my lips. Just as my eyes close, I hear a knock on my door. Rolling onto my side I shout across the room, “who is it?”

A second later the voice on the other side says, “it’s me, Dan. May I enter?” This causes me to smile because the formal tone he is using is so not like him on the regular.

With a burst of laughter I respond, “yes, of course you can come in silly.”

The door creaks open and then Dan peeks his head in. “Yeah, um, ‘B’ sent me up to inform everyone that food will be ready in about ten minutes.” As he tells me this, I maneuver myself into a sitting position so that I can see him properly.

“Oh... Well, thank you for letting me know. Is that all you wanted?” I give him a Cheshire-cat like grin and then a wink. Slowly, almost shyly he walks into the room and shuts the door behind him. As I hear the latch click into place I stand up from my bed. Three strides have him standing in front of me appearing breathless.

“Hmm, we don’t have time for what I would like to tell you, or rather show you...” Dan grins before wrapping his right hand behind my neck pulling me to his lips. There’s only about one inch difference in our height so he only has to bend his head slightly to meet me for the kiss. I growl against his mouth and push my bottom lip into a pout as he pulls away from me. A second later I’m all smiles though as I hear him whisper, “later tonight though, yeah?”

Nodding my head, I watch him leave, shutting the door behind him as he goes. About thirty seconds later I leave the room as well because I’m freaking starving and very intrigued to know what Baraqiel has whipped up for us to eat this evening.

Ananiel catches up to me about halfway down the hallway and we make our way down the stairwell together. “Stars above I’m starving!” She claims as we get off the last step and turn the corner so that we can go into the dining room. “What in the world have you made for us ‘B’ that smells absolutely divine!” Ana asks as she skips over to a vacant seat.

“Agreed, what is that heavenly smell?” I chime in. Even though the table has been set with dishes and silverware, Baraqiel hasn’t brought the food out yet. Being the smart asses we are, we begin to pound the table with our fists and chant “bring out the food, bring out the food!”

From the kitchen we hear ‘B’ shout, “nothing but a bunch of animals! Quiet you heathens! I’m coming.” He walks through the archway that separates the kitchen from the dining area carrying a heavy-duty cooking sheet piled high with roasted chicken, sautéed green beans, and baked sweet baby carrots. Looking around the table I can’t contain the laughter because we are all drooling as he places the tray in the center of the circular oak table.

Baraqiel takes his seat at the head of the table and looks at all of us, “well, what are you waiting for? Dig in!” No sooner than he says this do we all begin piling our plates full of food. The silence that had fallen upon us as he walked in broke as we all began to chatter with mouths full of food. Everyone was talking with everyone else around the table, laughing, cracking jokes, telling stories but somehow every time I happened to look across the table diagonally, I managed to catch Daniel looking at me seemingly oblivious to the conversations going on around him, especially the one Turiel thought he was having with him.

Dan staring at me as he is, causes a blush to creep up my neck turning my cheeks tomato red. I mouth ‘stop’ to him, making my ocean-blue eyes as wide as possible so that he knows I’m serious, and then I turn my attention to my plate where I stab a green bean with my fork trying to stop the not so appropriate for sitting around a dinner table thoughts from consuming my mind.