The Known/Unknown Quantity

Chapter 180: A Cautionary Tale

Chapter 180: A Cautionary Tale

The monolith hadn't dismissed Aziraphale outright. He just tinkered in the engine. Acting preoccupied, he wasn't about to extrapolate on the last comment. The angel waited patiently for more, then irritably asked," Well?"

"Well, what?'

"You can dream?"

"I can dream. That is all. After much planning I realized it was too risky. The universe would notice."

"Mr. Law!" Aziraphale proclaimed, trying to control his growing temper. "I feel a bit led on!"

"Oh?"

"Well, you were all bravado a moment ago. Now you sound rather hopeless of either option!"

"I just know the universe. You'd have better luck with petitioning the Almighty. Or did you try that already?"

The angel bumped his head underneath the bonnet and yelped, holding his crown. Law looked up at him. "I see. Do you still speak to Her often?"

"All the time, in prayer."

"She doesn't answer back."

Law raised up and grabbed the bonnet, giving the angel just enough time to bounce away before it could come slamming down on his head. "What about your sins?" He flourished a rag from his overalls and started to wipe his hands. "I know angels have them, despite what they might think. Surely the Almighty answers you when you pray for your sins."

The angel's voice fell low, switching to the baritone," I reserve those for the carpenter, and the personal ones for a demon in tight pants."

"Uncircumcised?"

"How dare you!"

This made Law shutter with laughter. "He is, and you know it. So, you do have an attachment to him. How sweet." He paused and studied him. "Is that your kink? Demons? Have you discovered they are all like that?"

"How the Hell should I know!" Aziraphale fumed, seeing this was getting him nowhere. "It's not like I go around checking!"

Law chuckled more. "Just one demon then. One being you've always loved, and you've been attracted to no one else. That is a very rare thing. Very few of us understand that kind of love. I and my bride, for one. And we would do anything for each other, and whatever family we had, if we were ever permitted to have one."

Aziraphale found he was staring at Law's dirty rag. Honed in on it in fact. "You aren't allowed children?"

"There is less room in the universe for them than there are for the Nephilim," Law said conversationally, looking down at the rag too. He balled it up for a moment. "And before you ask, we can't just abandon our posts like you did. We woke in the universal mind. We are bound to it, for as long as the universe lives."

"My sympathies," the angel answered somberly, ignoring the "left your posts" bit, "But here is a duty I cannot dismiss."

The smile came back on Laws massive face, and he gaphawed and pointed. "I like you, angel! You are different, and single-minded. I wish I could help, really, I do. But it's impossible. This is too much change, too many variables. It would become a law. I cannot sneak around for the universe would see and by then a petition would be useless. I would be destroyed, and replaced."

"Then, that leaves asking."

"It won't work."

"There are children involved, suffering thru no fault of their own!"