Two ²

"Thou art endeavouring to amuse me?"

Beside me, Raphael sniggered, much to my father's exasperation. The angel had tagged along with him to pass the news to me. I suspected Michael insisted on his being there to help calm me down in case I took the news badly. As the humans liked to say: no shit Sherlock.

"If you want to speak English, at least use the normal one," Michael the archangel sighed, rubbing his temples. I imagined I must be annoying him. Good, because the news I just received was ridiculous.

"I shall speak in any manner I see fit," I declared.

"Be that as it may, Ariel, there is no room for your denial. You leave the day after tomorrow."

This was even more devastating news. I fixed my father with a hard stare, all playfulness seeping from me. The air of finality in his voice told me that no matter how I protested, it would be futile. After all, he was just a messenger of the Will. Defiance had to be saved for the big guy. Raphael seemed to read my mind, moving to block my way just as I attempted to storm past them.

"Ari, you don't want to meet Him in this state," Raf warned, wings flapping twice with the effort of keeping me in place.

"He shouldn't have dictated my life then," I retorted.

"It is His will."

"I have a will too." I leaned back, disrupting Raphael's balance and pushing upwards with my legs to launch into flight. God was going to get an earful from me.

Having been the only angel procreated by Michael and a soul who was ascending, I was the first angel child in the Celestial Realm. The residents there doted on me all throughout my growth, and that was a good three centuries. Still, fairly young compared to most of my angel companions. Which was what I assumed I was going to be: an angel, a messenger of my god. Not the bride of that rotten pest living in Hell's Seven Circles. I spent my entire life watching angels watch over the humans, witnessing them in battle against Beelzebub's armies, picked up their training. My initiation was to be on the second night of my fourth century. I was so close to becoming a full-fledged angel, just like my father.

There was not supposed to be this sort of unfairness in heaven, only on earth. I was not supposed to feel rebellious and I never have, until now.

"My lord." I swept past the blooming irises, cornflowers, daffodils and birds of paradise into the garden. He was under a tree, sitting quietly with a serene smile on his face. I dropped to my knees, head bowed respectfully. "Glory to You, my lord most high."

"You have come to speak about your marriage arrangement," he rumbled, the voice in my head and yet reverberating through the air. He was in his human form.

"I was raised to be an angel," I began.

"You were raised to do my Will."

"How could Your Will be such unfairness?" I was being petty. Part of an angel's job is to heed orders with no question because no one is above our god but did that also apply to this situation?

"Sit with me, child," he beckoned. I did, folding my legs beneath me and looking to him expectantly. "Do you know why I have nine orders of angels?"

"To carry out different tasks," I responded. My lord offered me another smile and I realized the ambiguity behind his words.

"But I am not of any order." There was no mistaking the sadness in my voice, something no angel should feel.

"My child, your duty has always been to me. And your fate as an angel is to be this. I allowed you to exist because of this."

"So I am... an offering?" I was not sure how I should be feeling about that. It was a great honour to be able to serve my god in such a selfless way. On the other hand, I wasn't going to be killed. I had to give up my home and name and those sacrifices were heavy burdens on me.

"One that I have chosen." My god's voice turned gentle. "You protest, but you have already accepted your task."

He was the ruler of the Celestial Realm for a reason. Tears pricked my eyes as my mind slowly processed what my soul had already decided. I could never resist the commands of anyone who had authority over me, much less my leader. My existence was only valid thanks to him and therefore it should only be fit that I give everything I have to him, even if it goes against everything I am.

"I am your servant," I said in a cracked voice, standing up and bowing. "Let Your Will be done."

That was the prologue, the whole act before I found myself plummeting down from the Realm, past ascending souls, past Earth and into the first of the Circles of Hell. The heat could not touch me because I had done no wrong and I was immortal but it was horrifying all the same to see walls of flames and rivers of blood. To hear the wails of the damned, to see atrocities carried out before my eyes, uncensored. I slowed to a stop next to a charred tree and a burning soul, frightened when it reached out to touch me. Hell was more brutal up front than the glimpses I was used to from above. My only consolation and strength was the promise of strength from above and knowing that I was carrying out my task as an angel of the Realm.

"You have come," a voice said. My wings folded in on themselves immediately upon perceiving the pure evil that spoke to me.

I turned to face my future, bracing myself for the monstrosity that I had to deal with from now on.

"You're not hideous," was my first sentence.

He laughed. "Neither are you, my love." The devil made me a deep bow. I couldn't tell if he was mocking or not. "I hope we get well acquainted before the wedding."

Such politeness. I tried to maintain mine too.

"As do I. What do I call you?"

"I have many names, lamb," the demon in the form of a man informed me. "You may call me what you wish. I do not have a preference." He raised an eyebrow at me, a very human-like expression. I picked up on his inquiry.

"Ariel."