Lightbringer

Chapter 7: Savior

It's a long time later – hard to tell how long, but long enough for the humans to import their name for this realm with them after death ("Hell"). Long enough for their numbers to grow so much that I can feel the strain on my essence from maintaining the substance of the realm. Long enough for them to bring their stories and legends of the fear of Hell and its supposed horrors and tell me that god has been using me as a threat to humans, a boogeyman under the bed. Long enough that some of the fallen and humans working together had managed to rig a device they called a "Viewing Lens" that allowed us to peer across the void and see things happening on Earth (it doesn't have the range or power to see into heaven, though they were trying to fix that, and although it's in my hall, I never seem to have time to use it). Long enough that we (mostly me, if I'm being honest) have had to devise systems of structure to separate those who desire to deliberately cause harm to others with no wish to change their ways from those that do harm but are willing to learn from those that lead mostly incident-free afterlives (it's complicated and I never wanted to play god or be put in a position to judge or punish anyone. I try to keep the focus on growth, healing, cooperation, and consent).

It's been rough, exhausting, endless work, and at times it's, well, hell. But we've found a stride, and not a day goes by that the air isn't filled with the joyous sounds of humans experimenting and building, while the fallen play with them or sweep through the sky, laughing and occasionally giving a human a ride. It's chaotic, but it's happy in a raw and real way that almost hurts and make everything seem worth it.

Ever since our arrival here, I've spent nearly every free moment trying to anticipate what god will do. My wall is covered with notes and sketches, and I've strung connecting lines between related thoughts. A quote from memory of god's last words to me: "in the fullness of time, I and my armies shall destroy you and all those that follow you" ties into a speculation: "Heavenly battle? Angels vs. angels? Angels vs. humans?" (with accompanying illustrations), which tie into a note: "total annihilation" with a doodle of a skull, and so on. It is a nightmarish tangle, and all I ever seem to find is more fears and speculations, never any answers. I never feel closer to knowing or understanding what will come next. If I could just figure that out, we could prepare for it. I stare at my wall until my eyes swim and my head hurts, and I make no progress.

I'm at it again today when the doors blow open with a bang and Abaddon billows in and lands in a run, only just managing to stop before crashing into me. Her eyes are wide with something beyond excitement that might be shock, and even though she seems to have gotten her breath back, she can't seem to form a sentence.

"What's wrong?" I ask. There must be a fire somewhere. Something about our system's gone sideways. I'll never catch a break; things will never just work, will they? I go to move past her to the door, but she stops me.

"A newcomer!" she blurts finally. I stare at her blankly, my brows drawing together. We have a constant flow of newcomers, and while I love to interact with them (and any of the humans) when I can, I don't greet them all as there's simply too many and I have my project (obsession). We have a system for this, where experienced humans or a fallen will greet a newcomer and orientate them, get them settled and situated, and "fosters" them until they're fully acclimated and adjusted. We haven't had a single hitch with it yet.

"A...newcomer..." I repeat slowly.

Again, finding words seems to take great effort from her. "A divine!" Understanding starts to prickle at me. Sure, we've had divines here since the beginning (and technically, humans have divine essence in them, though not, strictly speaking, divines themselves), but we've never had new angels show up in Hell. Though something about the way she stresses the word divine almost makes it sound like a separate thing from an angel. My insides do something complicated. "You must see him!" She grasps my arms, vibrating with excitement and anticipatory energy. "He's on his way here to meet you!"