14th October
11:37 GMT -5
How to put-?
"A razher
fascinating piece of bioengineering, no?" Cranius -who wasn't made by Jehovah and is probably the only dyed-in-the-wool atheist here- grins inhumanly as he says it. "We take zhe wings from your late colleague, unt with a
little help from zhe fruit from zhe Garden of Eden, irreconcilable magics become
reconciled."
5:1 "Those wings belonged to Gabriel."
"Yes? He was not using zhem. Zo zhe consent issue might be a little awkward."
"Didn't your superiors throw Gabriel from heaven after he had sex with a Succubus?
"
5:2 "He was sent to a place of punishment to be chastised for his crimes."
"The First of the Fallen made him lick his shoes clean before killing him, and then gave him his
special attention while he was in Hell. I assure you, not having his wings was the
least of his concerns after your superiors kicked him out for what was, basically, an honest mistake.
"
5:3 "If you believe that his chastisement was excessive, why have you committed this.. horror?"
"If I wanted to free Gabriel, I would need to either sneak into Hell or force my way into Hell. I'm not usually very good at sneaking, and I'm not up to taking on all of the legions of Hell by myself. This means that I need allies and weapons. Gabriel's wings and-
" I detach the Ace of Winchesters from my armour and work the lever.
"-this gun were available. And because fighting Hell is something I need to do, I'm going to make use of them.
" I give the gun a shake.
"How many Angels died for the metal in this?
"
5:4 "Many. But she is not some device! She is a horrifying improvement on normal Arch-Fiends, able to walk the Earth with no need for external empowerment! And you have found a way to bestow upon her the power of Gabriel, perverting their holy nature!"
"No. I mean…
" I glance at Sephtian, who seems more than content to let me deal with this.
"We
tried.
" I stow the Ace.
"But it turns out that's impossible. The energies cannot be reconciled.
"
5:5 "Fallen Angels found a way to reconcile them quite well after the Fall."
"Well, Lucifer could not be reached for an explanation on how he pulled
that one off. What
we did was remove as much of Hell's power from her as we could, put her in a thaumically isolated location and then used the Fruit to add other energies. Of course, if you want to
check…
"
I step aside to allow him to get closer.
"Be my guest.
"
Zauriel takes a step closer to the bed, then opens his mouth and… Sings a note that somehow sounds like an entire choral symphony.
It's…
It's beautiful, the sound like the whole world singing in perfect unity…
I…
I reach up to my right cheek where my eye appears to have watered in response.
Ms Blaze's new wings flare slightly in response, but she doesn't otherwise react. Zauriel's eyes widen, but he maintains the song for another few seconds before closing his mouth.
5:6 "You speak the truth. The taint of Hell's magic has been entirely expunged."
"If I'd been lying, I wouldn't have brought you here.
"
He turns to face the rest of us.
5:7 "Do you understand what you have done? You have enabled a being inherently outside God's grace to come within it."
"I don't really care about your god's opinion on the matter, but that was.. broadly what we were trying to do.
"
5:8 "But this was not merely a vainglorious, hubristic claim. You managed it, and committed only minor sins in the commission."
"Do you understand now why I won't repent?
"
5:9 "I should inform my king of this."
"I'm not stopping you.
"
He starts to turn and then stops.
5:10 "But.. I am under orders. I may not leave until you repent."
"Did the Source personally tell you that I need to repent? Or did someone else in the Silver City dispatch you?
"
5:11 "We are all part of the Most High, agents of His divine will. But my particular orders did not come directly from the Mind of God."
"So… Would you say that this capacity was something they didn't know about, and would probably have altered their priorities if they
had known about it? Does it invalidate your orders?
"
5:12 "N-n-no. Orders are sacrosanct, our hierarchy put in place by the Most High. I cannot disobey. Please, I beg you, repent now. Then I can return to Heaven and inform them of what has occurred!"
"That doesn't make any
sense. You can
see this is a good thing, and you're still asking me to say that it
wasn't.
"
His wings
shudder.
5:13 "I just need you to repent of the theft. The use of the fruit as an act of charity is perfectly acceptable!"
"The theft was an intrinsic part of the process. I can't repent one part without repenting the whole process. And I
won't repent the whole process.
"
But I might repent what I'm about to do now.
Maybe.
"Alternatively…
" I take hold of the bowl of pomegranate seeds with a construct and hold them out to him.
"You could
gain the ability to disobey.
"
5:14 "You would ask me to fall…"
"I don't want you to fall. Falling's no good to me. You lose your theurgy, and if I wanted you to stay on Earth I'd have to cut your heart out of your chest or you'd just go to Hell like Gabriel did. And how angry would God actually
be? He didn't
unmake Adam and Eve, just threw them out of the Garden to live according to their own abilities. And from our conversation it sounded like you wanted that
anyway.
"
"I don't want you to fall. I want you to take the freedom that Humans are born with: the freedom to disobey our nominal superiors when they're not in command of all pertinent facts. And once you have that, you will no longer be paralysed. You can tell your superiors what the fruit can do. Heck, you can take a break from nagging
me every so often and go and talk to Ms Coyne. Or just accept that my theft was just and stop bothering me.
"
I walk towards him, smiling empathetically.
"Or you can stand there paralysed until I leave or you're given alternative orders. The choice is yours.
"
Zauriel's right hand shakes as he reaches for the bowl.
5:15 "That is no choice at all."
"It
is. It's just a… Really
obvious one.
"
Zauriel puts a single seed in his mouth, then swallows. He blinks, then staggers and I
reach out to steady him. He looks at me with an expression of puzzlement, then strides from the room.
"That…" Mr Cassidy is staring at me. "That was…
Nasty."
I nod.
"Yes. But it's for the greater good. And
my goddess is rather fond of that sort of thing.
"
