God's Gone AWOL

[5] Pad Thai Served by the Devil

"Tell me a bit about angels," Hazel asked.

The Cupboard was open for business, but of course there were no customers. It was the early afternoon, so Hazel had woken up and was now pestering Frances while they were trying to work. Frances didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, they actually looked quite happy to have somebody to talk to. However, at the subject of angels, their attitude changed slightly.

"Angels?" they asked, "There's one here in the room. Go talk to him instead,"

The human glanced over to the couch.

Atticus wasn't listening to their conversation at all. His attention was fully on Bentley, who was still buried in the cushions of sleep. A few moments prior, Atticus had noticed that Bentley's red hair had come loose from it's usual style. He knew that she typically liked to keep it up and out of the way, so he had started absent-mindedly braiding it while she slept. Being the perfectionist he was, the rest of the world had practically dissolved on his end.

"Whenever I ask him about anything, he either ignores me or starts rattling off like he's talking about video game lore," Hazel said bitterly, "I wanna hear another person explain things for once,"

"Alright fine, can't argue with that." Frances set down the jewelry they had been examining, "Did Atticus ever explain the way Heaven that is structured?"

Hazel shook her head.

"Okay, well you see, Heaven functions... kind of like a human military—"

"I have no idea how militaries work either," she interrupted.

Frances nodded in approval.

"There are different levels of authority. And the boundaries between them are really rigid and clear. You have the kinda ground-soldier folks. You've got corporals, sergeants, officers, lieutenants, generals, all those titles, right?"

"Sure?"

"Well it's similar in Heaven. Most angels are just foot soldiers. They serve in these things called 'choirs' which are smallish task-forces commanded by a singular higher-status angel. If Heaven needs an army, they can just put together a couple hundred choirs and fight off whatever legion Hell has. —But beyond the regular everyday soldiers, you have a whole bunch of other titles. Some are civil positions, like managing inter-realm affairs, but most are military. So there's archangels, principalities, powers, virtues... it goes on for a while.

"There's like a whole tier list of authority. But since there's no money or democracy or anything, the only way to kinda level-up is through just proving your worth and dedication to Heaven's cause. Meritocracy style. Some angels make it their life-long goal to reach the top, but some are pretty content with where they are.

"It's a pretty rigid system. You've always gotta watch your step because there are so many rules associated with each position of authority. And interpersonal relationships are a huge thing. Nobody really cares if you make friends or anything, but if you get on the bad side of one of your superiors, moving up in the ranks is nearly impossible. It's mostly built on loyalty and fear, and you can only really gain anything if you're useful to others. You've also gotta really obey everyone and do exactly as your told or else you can get in serious trouble,"

The hands braiding Bentley's hair faltered for just a second. Then they resumed.

"That's why The Fall was such a big deal," Frances continued, "Cuz' Lucifer was an archangel, which is almost as high in the divine chain of being as it gets, there wasn't much anybody could do to stop him when he rebelled. He was already extremely powerful and extremely influential. All the angels who didn't like the status quo quickly clung onto him,"