Now I didn't intend for this to take a week but I had a lot of issues with this chapter from day one, it's not the best, primarily because I'm not very good with dialogue at the best of times.
But I would rather it not take another week, so without further ado here it is.
You didn't quite manage to just leave your house and trot off to Uriel's unaccosted.
Much as you would have wanted to just shirk off all responsibility and see how things had gone after you were taken out of the fight, you were a Seraph and so had at least some semblance of responsibility.
Even if yours was mostly just seeing how everyone was doing in your flock.
When God created the Seraphs, he decided that as the greatest of his children, they would all lead his weaker and less magnificent children.
All angels were created to be good at something, those who were good at the same things were merged into a flock, A flock was headed by a Seraphim who was 'Ideally' the best at what the flock was good at.
The Seraphim were led by the four great Seraphs, who themselves were led by the Archangel.
The Archangel was the right hand of God, his greatest of Children at any one time, Currently that title was taken by Helel.
When God had decided whos flock would be who's you hadn't even been born yet.
As such, you got left with the Remainder of Sariel's flock who didn't quite fit in with the rest of his Gardeners.
Ironically to some but mostly just depressingly to you, you got the smiths and the jewelers of Heaven.
Due to the odd disparity in what you can do in comparison to your flock you just sorta let them do what they will as long as they told you if anything might catch on fire or something equally devastating within the next few days.
Thankfully things only exploded once every few decades or so.
The fact that you had been helping in all of those cases had nothing to do with it, nothing at all.
Thankfully, however, no one needed your help this time, though young Mairon did say that his newest ring might need some more apprentices to fully flesh out the final product, you can only hope that he gets the help he needs, the ring was turning out quite lovely even as it was right now.
Truthfully, you didn't hate this part of being a Seraph, if anything it just made not being able to create things that much more nice when they actually did, it was like living through them while you did father's more physical jobs.
All told, it only took a few hours to finish up with your flock, before you were able to start out towards Uriel's place of residence.
Uriel's house was… well, his house was actually rather small, it was just the large field it was situated in that was gigantic.
As such getting to Uriel was a chore if you didn't catch him before or after one of the Heavenly councils.
Still, you did like meeting with him at his house every once in a while, he served great drinks after all.
Standing in front of his door you were beginning to have second thoughts about talking to him, however.
While you used to visit each other quite often, the lingering guilt of not quite matching him at anything but just killing sorta ruined any chance of a healthy brother-sister relationship.
You still remember the years when you were younger when he tried to teach you his magic.
It was actually quite similar to how your spears were made, it just required a different mindset than you possessed is all.
There was also the time when he tried to teach you to sing, the birds still haven't forgiven you for that.
So vivid were the memories that it almost seemed like he was standing in front of you with that same old smile of his and his arms outstretched ready to hug you to the brink of suffocation.
...You're ashamed to admit that it took you until he already had you in the air to realize that he wasn't a vivid figure of the past.
"Please let go of me, Uriel." This wasn't okay just because he was bigger than you by a couple orders of magnitude did not mean he was allowed to manhandle you in such a manner.
"Oh, come on sister, it's been six decades since you last appeared at my doorstep, does big brother Uriel not get a hug from little Anath anymore." Him imitating your younger self with the forced baby talk did not lessen the embarrassment of this situation in the slightest.
You did not do hugs, you were Fathers seraphim of war and destruction after all, what self-respecting angel of war let her big brother hug her.
...it was with great shame that you decided that this was a battle that you couldn't win, and so with a great sigh, you hesitantly patted his back in some misguided attempt to appease Uriel.
From him laughing his usual deep and boisterous laugh though it would appear to have won you the day at the very least.
"Ha ha ha, that's the spirit sister." Why did you come here again, surely it wasn't worth this whatever it was.
"Anyway come in, come in, I already have tea on." He's never going to put you down is he, dear father what did you do to deserve this disrespect.
"I would, but I can't seem to gather my footing brother, if only you would set me down for a second perhaps?" Maybe he'll take the hint this time, all you can do is pray and hope.
Oh, now he's just walking you towards the back porch with you in his arms still.
"I'm just making sure you don't run away this time, dear sister."
How can he say that with a straight face, it's not okay, nothing about this is okay damn it.
"I won't run away if you would just set me down please."
"That's what you said last time Anath, You're really bad at lying you know." You were going to kill him, damn the consequences you were going to kill him if he didn't set you down right n-
You were interrupted by your thoughts by you squealing as he dropped you onto a seat overlooking the back half of his lawn.
It was just as you remembered it, with that same vast lake in the middle that he taught you fire magic on or the same dead spot of grass where you crashed one of his chariots.
While you were reminiscing you failed to notice that Uriel had left until he had sat down a tray of freshly brewed tea on your lap.
You absent-mindedly siped at the tea as you both gazed out past his lawn and into what was, and what could have been.
"Thank you."
It came out almost as a whisper, nearly too quiet to be heard.
"Oh, for what, dear sister?" He looked at me while saying this, his eyebrows quirked up.
"For saving me, I'd be dead if it wasn't for you showing up when you did." The events of yesterday seemed like they had all happened in haze almost as if it happened in a dream more than anything else.
"Hmph, well you saved me right afterward, so I say we'll call it… even, does that sound good?"
"Yea, Yea that sounds wonderful Uriel." I was strange to talk this much to him after all this time.
For a time you just sat silently next to each other, drinking tea and just enjoying the company more than anything else.
"Do you know what happened to the two that we saved?" You had almost forgotten to ask after your earlier conversation, but, well you can't deny that you had been curious as to how they were doing.
"Who?" he paused as if to remember who it was you destroyed an entire civilization for.
"Oh, yea those two, they left heaven not to long ago, something about wanting to protect a… Gilded mesh or something, I wasn't really listening much, to be honest with you."
It took you a bit but after a long half a minute of glaring at him, he relented enough to tell you why he wasn't listening to the council meeting that must have happened while you were out.
"Look I was more worried about you, okay, I don't what I'd do if you were seriously hurt after taking a hit for me."
You gave him a dubious look at this.
"You mean more to people than you think Anath, there's no need to get all depressing about it."
He punctuated the end of his sentence by messing up your hair, undeterred by the fierce glare you gave him of course, the fiend.
After this, there was silence for a time until it was broken by him letting out a great sigh.
"You know, there were quite a few humans that escaped Babylon."
You would assume so based on the fact that you were the one to let them out of the city.
"Some were even soldiers, they were there fighting you with their gods."
You took a moment to remember the events as best you could but well you always got like this when doing things you'd rather not, blurring it out and just forgetting it as best you could.
"They have stories of you now."
That was a strange look he was giving you, perhaps this was more important than just telling you that some humans had escaped Babylon.
"The apocalypse they're calling it, the end of the world." He had ended the sentence with his arms outstretched and his voice flaring out dramatically.
He then gave you a sad look as he started to stop being so overly dramatic.
"They're saying that at the end you will be there ready to usher in a new age, ready to finish off the rest of this world."
Ahh, yes that was a thing wasn't it, perhaps you had finally managed to make something lasting.
Fitting that it was a legacy of fear and destruction.
"Ow!" you had been slapped upside the head by him.
"Now now, no need to to be thinking like that, there was nothing that you could have done better in this situation."
You couldn't help but disagree with him, after all, you being who you were there was probably something that somebody who wasn't a complete failure of a Seraph could have done that you would ha-
"Agh… will you stop hitting me!" Standing up to whirl around and look at him as you shouted at him.
"Just as soon as you stop thinking like that dear sister."
Sigh it was hard to stay mad at Uriel whenever he acted like this.
"I know, it's just hard to not let these things bother me is all."
"Hey, it's alright nobody is going to blame you for that, Anath."
Oh, he was messing your hair up again.
You'll forgive him this time.
Only this time however, next time he'll get punted across Heaven for it.
After couple more hours of just enjoying your time together before life made meetings like this inconvenient again, you were about to head home when Uriel abruptly stood up with a sound of elation.
"I know what we can do to brighten up your mood!"
"Huh?" you were very eloquent when someone just randomly started shouting weren't you.
"No no, listen I know what to do."
"What's gotten into you brother?"
You were smiling, it felt nice considering you didn't manage to work up the want to do this often.
"Come on, we have somewhere to be!"
He said this while he was dragging you by the wrist towards the door.
"What, where are we going?" you managed to get your wrist out from his hands while you were asking him this.
"To the town Anath, we are going to make something."
He sounded very happy about setting Heaven on fire, it almost struck you as funny.
"And what are we going to make, Dear Brother?" You said this in as sarcastic a tone as you could manage.
"Well, Dear Sister, we are going to make…"
He gave a pause as if to build suspense for an audience that wasn't even here.
"An Answer!"
What.
"What."
Clearly, he wasn't in the mood for your perfectly reasonable questions based on the way you were being dragged again.
"I'll explain on the way come on."
"A force multiplier?"
"Yes, that's what I said."
By the time you got to the center of the city that Uriel lived somewhat near to, he had managed to explain that though he had won the fight against the gods you had fought above Babylon, it was not a clean victory and more than a few of the two winged angels that had come to his aid had been hurt in the process.
"Isn't magic supposed to do that though?"
"Well, yes but not everyone can do magic particularly well."
He pointed at you for an example of this, it was true you were not magically inclined, it wasn't that you didn't have the potential, you had that in spades, you just couldn't get the right mindset down.
"So what do I have to do with this?"
You were curious as to why he thought you had anything close to magic.
"Simple, if not everyone can shoot lightning from there hands, then those who can't will throw a spear at the enemy instead."
So he wants you to ignore what Raphael wants and just teach people how to weaponize God's light.
If it makes Raphael mad, the world can only be a better a place for it.
"Alright, so how are we going to do this?"
He took in a deep breath and just shouted for all to come and gather around.
Now normally nobody would care, but if a Seraph was yelling at you to show up in the middle of town the only sane reaction you could have was to start sprinting.
Such was the case when you already had quite the sizable audience surrounding both of you within the minute.
"How am I supposed to teach everyone this?"
"Well you'll start with me then we'll go from there."
He smiled at you as he said this in as casual a manner as he could.
"Oh, al-alright well lets start then I suppose."
All things considered, Uriel took to the spear rather easily, after all the difference between his fire and creating the spear was mechanically not particularly different
When you used magic it was rather simple, it was all about the intent, you could be able to reproduce all the circles you wanted to burn down a building, but if you didn't actually want to burn down that building than even the best circle ever produced wouldn't save the spell.
The spear was different though, while you needed the intent to use it that was the only thing needed to actually start forming it, it was just wanting a weapon and then reaching inside yourself and forming the light that God made your body and soul with into that weapon.
It was almost like praying to father, only more tangible in its results somehow.
By the time you and Uriel had gotten close to finishing up with the rest of the angels, the moon was already starting to come out in the sky.
As you were finishing up with the last few who were still struggling to pick it up, you had noticed a sound coming from the sky.
It sounded almost like someone yelling.
Was it getting louder?
"Uriel!"
Thinking about it, it almost sounded like Metat-
"Uriel!"
Oh, it was Metatron, why was he shouting for Uriel.
"Hello Metatron, how are you today?"
Once he had landed it became clear that he had come here in a hurry, his usual pristine hair was all over the place and he was breathing heavily.
"Not now we don't have time," he took a second to gain his breath before standing up straight again to tell you exactly why he had flown halfway across heaven seeking out Uriel.
[ ] He comes bearing an order from father to gather at the throne room.
[ ] He comes with a message from Micheal asking for help with something urgent.
[ ] He comes from eath with grave news, of a powerful enemy that threatens to tear down heaven itself.
None of these options happen simultaneously, so there is no worry of helping Micheal only to let the enemy of Heaven just gain strength.
You're just choosing what Metatron has to say to you and Uriel.
Tell me what you think about the chapter.
