Chapter 21 | A Revelation for A Angel part 2

Pentagram City Sewers

Joshua sat atop a large broken piece of rubble as he tended to his arms that were bare to the outside, already he could feel the onset of the flames within him threatening to ignite into the air; it took some willpower to keep the flames at bay, the bandage were just an added part to help him lessen the need to focus his attention on the fire that would threaten to engulf his being.

As Joshua used a new set of gauze to rewrap his left arm, he stared back at Raziel while the angel himself seemingly sat on a small pillar of water that was no doubt the machinations of whatever the angel was doing. While he wasn't overly familiar with the wider pantheon that was the lord's angels, the angel that sat in front of him that easily towered over him by a few heads definitely came off as a holy being.

Raziel, the angel, called himself along with a title of 'Keeper of Magic'. While he slowly continued to wrap his arm up to carefully make sure it was taut and secure, the angel stared back at him with an equal measure of curiosity.

Once Joshua eventually tied the gauze up to his wrist, he carefully wove the wrapping up between his fingers and and around each one. "So…" Joshua decided to break the ice, while causing the angel's face to finally shift to that of attentiveness, showing he had Raziel's attention as the two of them looked at each other. "What do you intend to do now?" he asked while finishing up wrapping his left arm.

The angel pursed his lips, while his face now minus his eagle mask, showed four eagle like eyes that narrowed at him all at once, "I do not know, this is unprecedented." he remarked with some anticipation in his voice, before reaching up to scratch his chin with his finger, "But I will need to make this known to the others." he answered with a furrowed look on his face, "And Seraphial will definitely not enjoy hearing Father actually sent a prophet to our afterlife realm…"

A bit miffed at being called such a thing, as it felt too heretical by his taste and standards, Joshua narrowed his eyes back at Raziel while he spoke to the angel, "The Lord Almighty did not send me as a prophet." He denied the angel, and earned a surprised look from Raziel, "Nor would I ever define myself one or be seen as one." he said, before remembering the last bit of what the angel of magic implied.

While Joshua reached into his vest to pull out a new tape of gauze to begin on his other arm, Raziel nodded at Joshua denial of being called a prophet, "That's fair, but it was the first thing that came to mind, as it reminded me of those stories from the bibles we have stored up in heaven." he remarked with a rueful smirk on his face, while palming his hands onto his knees, "And I've always felt sort of jealous those other realm were able to have Father's presence bask there."

Joshua paused as he rewrapped his right arm while looking back at Raziel with a straight look, "So what Adam said is true." he remarked, while earning a raised eyebrow from the angel, "The Heavenly Father hasn't been around for some time in this afterlife."

Raziel curled a lip of amusement at Joshua as he bent forward a bit while he continued to sit on his pillar of still water, "Really, now? Adam said that? I would have figured he'd be more vulgar about the father's absence."

Joshua resumed his rewrapping, while a part of his bare right hand lit aflame momentarily, causing him to mentally will it back down and calm back into his body, Raziel on the other gave the brief lapse of Joshua's willpower against the flames that threatened to burn his body eternally. "He was more expressive during the meeting…" Joshua answered while reaching up to finish with his right hand, "But I suppose I am at fault on that as well, as I let myself goad the man into an argument with me. It was quite unbecoming of me. Especially after witnessing the biblical Adam be a caustic man."

Raziel's mouth twisted into a frown, as the topic of Adam was pressed, "Well…" he worded out while looking sideways a bit, "I'm sure you'd be in his shoes as well, after seeing your descendants devolved into such a mess you see these days."

As Joshua finished pulling the wrapping taut over his right arm, he looked straight back at Raziel with a look of uncertainty, "Speaking from experience, and a partaker of sin, yes, Human's have a cruel streak. It wasn't until later in my life after feeling the humble flames of my near demise, that I returned to the light of the lord."

"And yet, Father sent you to this realm's hell…" Raziel mused while giving Joshua a critical look with his four eyes.

Putting his tape up from tapering his wrapping down, Joshua looked back at Raziel with an unflinching gaze, "The Heavenly Father gave me a choice in the matter, and since my purpose in life was done, I resolve to renew myself through a new purpose and covenant with the Lord himself in the afterlife he chose to send me too."

Taken aback by hearing the human had formed a covenant with the Heavenly Father, Raziel couldn't help but pull out his Tome from within himself, and a quill in the other, before opening it up to write into it, "And what was this covenant you formed with Father?" he asked eagerly, while earning a confused look from Joshua.

"Ah." Raziel coughed into his fist while letting his Tome sit on his lap, "While I am indeed the Keeper of all Magic, I am also what you human's call a secretary to Father…in the loosest terms mind you." he expressed with an amused face. "And I'd like to record what Father ordained you to do for this realm of Heaven and Hell."

"That…" Raziel continued speaking with a sly look to the side, "And passing off knowledge to Humans, it's always nice to see the fruits of what I inspire the humans to configure up with my help."

"...Besides the atomic bomb?" Joshua drawled out with a stoic look at Raziel.

"...it was a misjudgement on my part, I'd had hoped humans would be inspired to use that knowledge to power their cities." Raziel sighed deeply while pinching the bridge of his nose in defeat.

Joshua blinked once, before addressing Raziel with a dry tone, "I am reminded of the saying, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'." he quoted, while earning an exhausted look from Raziel as the angel looked back at him.

"Let's…let's just get back to what sort of covenant Father made with you." Raziel pleaded with a distasteful frown.

"Very well then." Joshua agreed with a slow nod, "But like all scriptures, he was a little vague, yet succinct. 'You shall wait in hell for a time. There, a child will come bearing a request, heed her, for the path of redemption for sinners lies through her' ."

"Hm…" Raziel mused as he wrote into his Tome, "That does indeed sound like him…most of the time…" he remarked with some amusement.

"Most of the time you say?" Joshua asked as he watched the angel Raziel finish writing into his tome before putting it away.

Raziel looked back at Joshua with some hint of amusement in his four eyes, "Father likes to act more…differently in this realm…compared to his other worlds…"

"...How different?" Joshua followed up with a question while eyeing Raziel with a look of uncertainty.

For his part, Raziel gauged his reaction, before speaking back to him with an even look, "Does that hellborn daughter of Lucifer enjoy singing and dancing like her father?" he inquired while expressing some hidden amusement behind his eyes.

"...Well the gospel does encourage to sing to his glory and son…" Joshua remarked with some understanding flashing in his eyes, "I wouldn't put it past the lord of creation to enjoy such pastimes."

"Yeah, well…" Raziel clicked his teeth while allowing a fond expression to be expressed with his lips, "The last time he visited us before he gave us the figurative keys to creating this realm, he had us all enjoy a nice show tune dance with him."

After digesting that bit of info, Joshua narrowed his eyes at Raziel, "So what Charlie read to me was true…" He began to presume. "You angels created this plane of existence."

"It wasn't easy." Raziel's smile tightened, "I still don't know how father does it all the time with his infinite worlds, heavens and hells."

Joshua simply gave Raziel a look as he stood up from his seat of asphalt, "I don't think you need me to tell you that no one can never truly grasp the depths of the Almighty's brilliance."

Raziel chuckled with mirth as mirrored Joshua by getting up from his seat of water, before letting it collapse to the sewer waters. Grimacing to himself, Raziel twisted his head around a perfect one eighty and bent backwards to look at his rear, causing Joshua to look at the Angel with a raised brow.

Raziel returned his head back to the front to look back at Joshua with an embarrassed smile, "I actually forgot we were in a sewer the whole time…" he chuckled awkwardly while rubbing the back of his head and looked down at Joshua from his height.

Joshua looked around at the sewer they stood in, "I've been in worse places." He commented back, while earning a confused look from the angel, "A story for some other time, perhaps." He looked back up at Raziel's face, "In the meantime, I do believe we both have places to be." He remarked, while pulling out his flip phone that had survived the entire ordeal, the brand of the phone said 'Nokia' on the top part of the phone.

As Joshua flipped his phone open to check the digital time, Raziel nodded in agreement with the sinner as he pulled out his touch-screen phone, "Ah, you're correct, we've talked long enough, and while Sera doesn't exactly outrank me in any capacity, she will begin to worry that the duty she entrusted to me has gone over the allotted time it has usually taken one of us angels to capture a stray soul." The angel explained as he put away his phone and gauged Joshua's reaction.

"Usually?" Joshua pressed for one final question as he put his flip phone back into his vest pockets, "So I wasn't the only one the lord has sent?"

"Well…" Raziel looked up and around in thought, before back down to Joshua, "I'm not sure if Father purposely sent them here from time to time, but I know he has sent a few of his faith books that ended up on our Earth."

"...I see. Then I look forward to when we can converse once more, Sir Raziel." Joshua bid the angel his parting goodbye with a nod. "This has been quite an illuminating talk," he remarked.

As Joshua watched Raziel's form shimmer away, an idea formed in his mind, "Ah, one more thing, if you'd please." He asked, while Raziel halted his exit. "Would you perhaps help support Charlie's Hotel idea?"

Raziel stared back at Joshua with amusement shining in his four eyes, "Do you think you even need to ask?" he inquired, before disappearing from Joshua's sight.

Other than the sound of the running sewage, silence permeated the tunnels Joshua stood in as he glanced up and over at the hole he and Raziel created in the brief scuffle, before he looked around to notice there wasn't an access ladder of any sort. "...perhaps I should have waited to change my gauze." he mused as he glanced down at himself to notice he was practically drenched in sewage, with some trash hanging off his shoulders from getting slammed into the waters by the angel.

"...Definitely should have waited…" Joshua noted to himself, before trudging off through the muck to find an appropriate exit out of the sewer.

Heaven

Seraphiel was desperate trying to reign in her anxiety as she sat at her desk, while Raziel sat on the other side with calm look on his eagle face, the other Seraphim having arrived back and into his angelic form…after using a bit of his powers to clean himself off from the taint of hell…and from what she saw when he had arrived into her office, the smell of sewage.

As she inhaled while leaning her elbows on her desk and pressing her palms and fingers against each other, she exhaled to calm herself as she looked directly past her hand at Raziel, who gave her a bemused look. "Raziel." she spoke in a clipped tone while narrowing her eyes at him, "I did not ask for you to act on your own accord, I asked you to find that stray soul, and send it back to its home realm!" she said tersely with a sharp look in her eyes.

"Yes, and father's wishes supersedes your order…that, and you don't hold authority over me, sis." Raziel crossed his arms at her as he leaned back in his chair, giving Seraphial a relaxed look as he conversed with her.

With an annoyed look, Seraphiel placed her arm down while keeping her other arm up to snap her fingers. In an instant, the chair beneath Raziel blinked out of existence, leaving the Angel of Mysteries, Secrets and Magic without a chair to sit on.

What she got however was her fellow Seraphim still sitting on nothing but air with his legs crossed, and giving her a more bemused look. "Come on Sera! It's just one soul, and Dad sent him, just let it go!" he rolled his eyes at her.

Seraphiel slammed her palms down onto her desk and glared at the fellow Seraphim, "That's not what I want, I don't want father sticking his nose into this realm. That was the agreement we had with him!" she yelled.

"Yeah…" Raziel drawled out with a knowing look, "But you know him, he can't help but want to help his children."

"That's the thing though!" Seraphiel argued back with a fierce look, and leaned forward to continue glaring at Raziel, "We're doing just fine without him! Without him, we've managed to maintain order within the system, as well as keeping the majority of our angels from falling, unlike most other heavens!"

"Are you trying to say dad doesn't know what's best for us?" Raziel accused Seraphiel of while inspecting his talon-like hands like one would inspect their fingernails. "If I didn't know any better, he only wants to help humans, especially the sinners of our realm's hell."

Serapiel groaned as she wilted a bit and palmed her face with her hands, before speaking through them, "He always has a soft spot for the humans, even the bad ones." she said with a muffled voice through her hands.

"...so are you still gonna attempt to deport that stray soul?" Raziel asked idly while giving his fellow Seraphim a curious look.

Seraphiel parted her fingers to stare directly at Raziel with a glare, and slid her hands off from her face, "Are you gonna stop me from pressing the issue?" She challenged. "We have no precedent for this, it could ruin everything we've worked for!"

"Ruin what, Sera?" Raziel rebuked back at her with a tired look down at her, "All we have to show for is a lenient system of heaven and hell, especially hell given the state of how other hells punish sinners, and less fallen angels than the other realms."

Just as Seraphiel was about to open her mouth to argue more with the other Seraphim, the door to her office was knocked on, followed by the voice of one of their youngest Seraphim, "Sera! You busy?" Emily's voice muffled through, before the doors opened to show Emily in her angelic form. "Oh, you are busy…oops…" Emily bashfully smiled at the other Seraphim in mid argument.

As Raziel glanced at Seraphiel, who mouthed silent words of 'this argument isn't over', Emily made a surprise sound as she saw Raziel, "Oh, Raz!" She gushed while rushing over to greet the Seraphim, "I haven't seen you in over a century!"

With one final shared pointed look between Raziel and Seraphiel, Raziel turned around to greet Emily while crouching down to meet her at eye level, "Heya squirt!" He greeted her while reaching over to gently pat the young seraphim on the shoulder, "Look who grew a few inches!" He teased her.

Emily, who couldn't help but puff her cheeks out in annoyance, playfully slapped her hand against the older Seraphim's hand on her shoulder to brush it off, "I'm not some mortal child, you know!" she argued, while earning a humorous laugh from Raziel.

"But you do have the mentality of a young adult equivalent, I'll give you that." Raziel replied back cheekily.

"Hey!" Emily stomped her foot at Raziel, before both smiled at each, "It's good to see you though, you're always busy!" Emily remarked, earning a smile from the older Seraphim.

While the exchange between the two Seraphim was going on, Seraphiel was beside herself as she watched the conversation play out between Emily and Raziel. In the back of Seraphiel's mind, she had serious doubts about letting the stray soul go as it pleased, especially if it involved her father.

She didn't doubt his machinations, but it did hurt to know he didn't trust her and the rest of the angelic pantheon in handling all of creation without him.

Perhaps she should have gone down by herself under a guise? 'Ugh, just the thought of stepping foot down there is giving me conniptions.' Seraphiel thought to herself with a wince.