Darksiders: Among the Shadows (Book 2)

What Happened in Heaven Stays in Heaven

Pulling up on Betrayal's reins, Damiana looked into Zareal's cell in intrest. The Council ordered her to guard his cell until his punishment was determined.
'This can take hours, weeks, months, damn this is gonna be boring...' she thought, jumping down from the saddle.
"Hello, Zareal." She chirrped, lightly banging on the cell's bars playfully.
"So happy to see me die, you sadistic-" Zareal mumbled, examining one of his long, dark purple feathers.
"No, I need to ask you a couple of questions."
"I told the Council of what I did."
"Yeah, but these are my questions and they don't concern you, per say."
Zareal glanced back at Damiana and raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, shoot."
"Do you know of Muriel? She's an angel and you were an angel and I heard you guys know everyone up there."
"Um, okay?" Zareal rolled his eyes.
"Muriel was the Angel of God, an archangel, actually. Legend has it that the Creator himself created Muriel in his own image...but that's just a legend."
"Anything else?"
"Well...she did give birth to the antichrist, you. I think she's the sister of Abaddon, I'm not entirely sure." He finished, crossing his arms.
"Okay...what of do you know of her involvement in the War between the Nephilim and Heaven and the Horsemen?"
"She was one of the leading commanders, of course...wait, you saw this when you kept fucking up the chronosphere." Zareal sucked his teeth and continued looking at the wall.
Damiana sighed deeply and leaned against the cell bars, slowly slidding down to the floor.
"What's Heaven like, is it like it is in the human Bible?" She asked.
"No, not even close...Heaven like the Human realm, maybe even worse. There's rules for everything and for everyone. I hated it up there." Zareal snapped, frilling and unfrilling his wings in impatience.
"Kinda figured, all the angels I met were uptight."
Zareal nodded and stood up to pace around his cell, fearing his punishment.
"What was she like?"
"Muriel? From what I know, She was an embarrassment to Heaven; pitying the demons, humans, and even the Nephilim. She even rescued a hellhound and kept it in her abode in Heaven. She was definitely a weird one..."
"Why were those things weird, when I was younger and learning with the humans, angels were supposed to be like that."
"Well...I never really saw Muriel, lesser angels such as myself never really saw archangels or anyone higher than us for that matter. But I heard stories, and fron what I heard, Muriel was an excellent warrior...odd," Zareal scoffed, leaning against the bars nonchalantly.
"I never heard of a soldier of Heaven with that mindset being as strong as she was."
"You seem to admire my mother." Damiana said quietly.
"Of course, she's a REAL angel, you never really see those these days."
Damiana stood up and leaned against the bars, coming almost nose to nose with Zareal.
"Take me to Heaven, I want to see this for myself."
"Bars, remember? Plus, the Council won't like when they see their guard dogs disobeying them."
"I'll get you out, just take me to Heaven, I don't know how to get there and my brothers sure as hell won't take me." Damiana demanded in a hushed tone, almost begging the smug Angel.
"Of course, for a price, however."
"Anything-"
Zareal smirked and reached through the bars, snagging Damiana's round face with his hand. He brought her head to the surface of the bars and reached over, suprising the Horseman of Darkness with a small yet passionate kiss. Damiana's eyes glew bright in embarrassment and she tore away, looking at Zareal in shock.
"Wow, never thought you would let your guard down." He snickered, watching the blush creep up Damiana's face.
"Don't do that!" She hissed, putting her hand on her cheek.
Zareal smiled devilishly and shook his head.
"Keep your guard up and I won't."
Damiana sighed angerily and stomped out of the room.
"Be ready in an hour, the Sun is setting." She said over her shoulder.
★★★★★★★★
Damiana rolled her eyes as she tried to whittle the damaged leather from Betrayal's saddle to replace it. Betrayal looked up at Damiana from across the pasture and shook its head. She was going about this for about an hour, and she was doing it the wrong way.
"Dammit!" She hissed, shaking her hand when the blade scratched across the surface and sliced her fingertip.
"Having trouble?" Death said, walking up to Damiana.
"Nooo, I'm just sitting her cutting my finger 'cuz I'm bored."
" Seems to me my sarcasm is growing on you.
Oh, well, you did it before." He said, turning to walk away.
"Wait, no, come back!" Damiana called, looking up at Death with a mock puppy face.
"Why are you doing this anyway? War usually does that for you..."
"I want to learn how, when, like, you guys aren't near me and I need to do this." She answered.
Death nodded once in understanding and moved Damiana over, quickly setting off to repair the saddle. Damiana watched in silence, cursing herself when she realized her many mistakes.
"You had your blades repaired?" Death asked, looking at the Twin blades in intrest.
"Yup, Custos did it for me." She answered absent mindedly.
"Custos?" Death asked.
"Yeah...?" Damiana bit her lip.
"You have a way with men, Damiana, I don't particularly care for that." Death said sternly, stopping to glance up at Damiana.
Damiana sighed dramatically and looked up at the sky impatiently.
"Are you expecting to be somewhere?"
"Um...no?"
"Well...do you mind staying up tonight with us? I know you usually pass out in a couple of hours..."
Damiana smiled and almost nodded yes, but slowly remembered why she was having Death fix her saddle.
"Um, no thanks...tomorrow night maybe? I feel kinda tired now."
"Oh," Death mumbled, finishing the last repair of the ancient saddle.
"I'm sorry."
"No problem, I'll see you in the morning, goodnight." He said, handing the saddle back to Damiana.
"Do you require my assistance with assembling it back?" Death asked, watching Damiana struggle with the weight of the saddle.
"Nope, I'm fine, thanks." Damiana dismissed, dragging the saddle behind her.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
'Dammit,'
"Zareal, keep DOWN!" Damiana hissed, motoning for the fallen angel to fly down closer.
"Wouldn't you be happy if after being cooped up for days and to finally be let free?!" Zareal laughed merrily, diving down to meet Damiana's height on horseback.
Damiana rolled her eyes and sighed dramtically.
"When are we to get to Heaven, anyhow, my brothers will get suspicious."
"Oh, we didn't need to ride out this far to get to the White City." Zareal smirked, easily matching Betrayal's long strides.
"What?!" Damiana pulled back on Betrayal's reins.
"I'll open the portal to it now." Zareal landed softly next to Betrayal.
"Betrayal should trample the HELL out of you right now!" Damiana hissed, crossing her arms.
"Calm down, mi a more, I just wanted to be free for a couple of minutes." Zareal rolled his golden eyes.
The fallen angel slowly walked up to the stone wall beside him, brushing away the winding leafy tendrils from its smooth surface. With Damiana only a couple of paces away, Zareal slowly traced ancinet runes with the sharpened edge of his armored finger into the surface. When the runes slowly began to glow a bright orange, Zareal looked back at Damiana and smiled devilishly.
"See, I wasn't lying to you,"
Damiana rolled her eyes and went towards the swirling portal, now showing a projected image of a serene white city. When she passed the smug Zareal, Damiana's hidden blade clicked from its hiding place in her wrist gauntlet and she quickly placed the blade at Areal's throat.
"Your guard isn't up," she smiled at Zareal's suprised look.
"I swear, if you even think of tricking me, you'll deal with the brotherhood." She warned, trying to be intidating.
"Big deal, just go." Zareal said in irritation.
Damiana glared at Zareal and slowly went into the portal, keeping the fallen angel in her peripheral.
★★★★★★★★★
Damiana stumbled from the alleyway and held her head, trying to stabilize her balance. The full moon shone bright in the night sky, its light bathing the tall graceful buildings of the White City;
Heaven...
"Wow...where is everyone?" She asked Zareal, who stumbled behind her.
"Its nighttime, what do yoy think?"
"Angels sleep?" She asked in awe.
'From what War and Strife told me, the White City was always hustling and bustling with angels...yet its so quiet.'
Zareal gently pushed Damiana forward and began walking towards a a random edifice, large and imposing.
"You coming? I'll show you what your mother looks like!" He called over his shoulder, scanning the skies for armored guards.
Damiana quickly skipped over to his side and trotted alongisde the fallen angel, mind flooding with questions about this new land.
The two quickly came up to a tall statue of a female angel, large sword in a lowered positon, guarding the enterance to the library.
"This is that old guy's library, Az- Laz-"
"Azreal?"
"Yeah, that one, this is one of his libraries. From what I understand, Azreal admired Muriel and unlike most of the angels here, believed her to be innocent and refused to have Heaven destroy this statue." Zareal explained, gazing up at the angel's stone face.
Even though her face was constructed of the smoothest of marble, Muriel's features radiated a warmth; a friendly, love type of warmth.
Zareal absentmindedly put his hand on the tip of Muriel's toe, still gazing up at her.
"So...he must have something on Muriel in there." Damiana muttered, looking at the golden doors.
"Whoa...why?"
"Zareal, I need to know about my mother...please?"
Zareal rolled his eyes and walked up to the door, slowly easing them open.
"Shall we?"
~~~~~~