This should have been a lovely evening for Kate to relax while sparing with some of the HEMA club members, but instead she was trekking through the Deep Abyss passing ever more oppressive feeling magical defences.

“This is remarkably scary.”

Apollyon nodded. “I never liked this place. Not the Deep Abyss but this prison.”

The group travelling through the caves was quite sizable. Kate, Apollyon, Azazel, War and Envy were accompanied by the demonic scribe Treason, the two archangels Raphael and Michael and the ophanim scribe Truth.

“I would like to keep our visit down here short, I really don’t like this.”

“You’re fidgeting. We can turn around and leave this to the inquisitors.”

“No, no… I want to be there.”

“If you’re sure. We will head back the moment it becomes too much, okay?”

“Okay.”

 

By the time the group reached Gabriel’s cell, Kate had been nibbling away at her sharp nails. Azazel approached the glass cube suspended over a massive chasm, not unlike the isolation cell under the ruins near the library.

“Gabriel.”

“High Inquisitor.”

“We know pretty much everything that went down during the human template project. We know about both sabotages and your involvement. I implore you to answer our questions truthfully, if you don’t, I will tear the truth from your mind. Do you understand?”

“I do. Ask.”

“Did you know about God’s sabotage when you worked with Ptahil to implement hers?”

“No.”

“Did you intend to enslave humanity?”

“Yes.”

“Did God ever find out about your plan?”

“No.”

“Why would leaking your conversation with Abatur and Ptahil about potentially sabotaging the template have harmed God’s reign?”

Gabriel let a brief smile flash across his lips. “Because it would have allowed to me take credit for everything. To pre-empt your next question, leaking it now would harm my reign. The opinions have shifted, the other angels want humanity to follow us of their own accord. Not an efficient idea but it would allow us to, what do the humans say? Rub it in? Our shared children chose a side, that must sting.”

“Eh, don’t get your hopes up too much. Your plan now was to use the current political unrest in the heavens to unite the angels under you.”

“Obviously.”

“And Lilith being freed put us on the path to figure the sabotage situation out. With the information about your sabotage public, the other angels wouldn’t follow you.”

“You are sharper than you look.”

“You wanted to build on God’s legacy with that. If it came out that he wasn’t as all-knowing as he claimed, that would also put your power as his self-proclaimed successor into question.”

“Mhm.”

Azazel glanced at the scribes taking notes. “That leaves one last thing I want to know. Why break into Yushamin’s hidden office?”

“That armour friend of hers.” Gabriel let out a short laugh. “I thought she knew what it was. I certainly didn’t. It was an uncertain factor in all this.”

“So, you broke in to see if she knew what the armour entity was and found out that she didn’t. You were then confronted by them.”

“Yes. They were more powerful than I expected, but I managed to flee. The two recent traitors can tell you the rest.”

“And they have. You gave me everything I need, I’ll leave you to the others before telling you your ultimate fate.”

“Why isn’t the Godkiller here?”

“I offered her to take her here. She declined. I quote: ‘let him die without seeing me again. He is not worth my infinite time.’ That must sting.”

Gabriel just shook his head.

Kate, meanwhile, had been prying her way into the archangels' minds while they were distracted. There was an answer she wanted that someone like Gabriel, or even the more reasonable Raphael, would never give. Why pursue power so fanatically?

The answer was simple for all three archangels present. They were afraid. So incredibly afraid of what others would do to them if they fell down the angelic hierarchy. All because they couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting to subjugate those weaker than them. There was only one logical choice in a world where it’s either rule or be a slave: force your way to the top. The archangels and their positions were a perversion of the angelic need for order.

Angels didn’t lack empathy as it might so often seem, no, angels and their society under the Elders was filled with empathy. Truth, their scribe, remembered it all. Everyone found their place and worked to better society to the best of their abilities. Every angel knew what they could do and where and they were happy. Except the archangels and their closest followers. They feared that someone would take their place away, they wanted to secure their positions without having to trust anyone else. The only place that can be secure in that way was the very top. One violent act begat another and after a few centuries, the old way of life had been eradicated. But still, the fear remained. That’s why they all followed God. They feared what he could have done to them.

Kate stepped a little closer to Apollyon.

The old devil noticed. “Are you okay?”

“No…”

“Shall we leave?”

“Please.”

Apollyon nodded at Azazel and guided Kate out of the prison. The last thing the two heard was Raphael asking some prying questions about Gabriel breaking the Treaty.

About halfway up the caves, Apollyon broke the silence between the two librarians. “Did something happen down there?”

“I dug into their minds. All of the angels there. I thought I wanted to know why they were so horrible.”

“And you found your answer.”

Kate simply nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really, but I’ll tell you what I found out. The archangels can’t imagine people not being horrible, they are fundamentally unable to trust and so they fought their way to power to not have to trust to keep their place. Now they just have to defend it and keep everyone else down. No one above them to pick their replacements, just their own need for control. Whenever I feel a mind, there is a place that is foreign to that mind, a place that belongs to everyone you care about. I look at you and see a little spot for me, for all the other librarians, for the high commanders, a spot for each of your friends. When I looked at Truth, his mind was like that too. But Gabriel, Raphael, Michael… there is nothing there. That part of them is empty, hollow and cold. It’s painful.”

“I see. I understand why you don’t want to talk about this. Where do you want to go once we are out of here?”

“Just home. I just want to go home and maybe have a piece of chocolate.”

“Of course. Do you want me to be there with you?”

“Please.”

“I will be there for you for as long as you need me.”

“Thank you. How does this place not get to you… I feel like my brain is on fire.”

“It does get to me. But you used your magic within the damping fields, that does hurt. It will get better once we are out of here, but right now there is nothing I can do to help you. Even trying to use magic to ease the pain will only make it worse for both of us.”

“I’ll survive, it’s okay.”

“Hm. I could kill you, that would make the pain stop and you would wake up in a few hours at home.”

Kate forced a smile. “I appreciate the sentiment but let’s not. Getting killed by you once was enough.”

“Of course.”

“I’m almost annoyed that I’ll miss Gabriel’s reaction to whatever Az decides to do with him.”

“That sounds like she didn’t tell you.”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Gabriel will be stripped of his rank and belongings and will be forced to work on the reconstruction of the heavens' outer settlements until every single one of them has been rebuilt. Then we will reconvene with whatever government the angels have by that point and decide his future from there. Azazel told me that Michael estimated the rebuilding of the just the closest towns would take over two millennia. They don’t just need to be built up again, they need to be salvaged, re-planned, re-organized to see who will even move in there and then reconstruction can begin. Whenever there is nothing to physically do for Gabriel, he will be under house arrest. The inquisitors will check in every few months to see if the angels stick to their end of this agreement.”

“That seems fair.”

“I agree.”

Kate made a pained noise.

“I can and will carry you if necessary.”

The young Nightmare shook her head. “No, I’ll be okay. I’ll be okay... It’s not much further, right?”

“A few more minutes until I can teleport us to your home.”

“I think I can manage that.”

“Don’t force yourself, I am here and ready to help you.”

“It’s my turn to be the stubborn one. I’ll manage.”