Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

6: Caught in the air

 Tecie again was waiting just around the corner. She didn't need to prompt me to speak. I just fell into my thoughts, which I suppose must have been a bad sign: I was emotionally compromised. And exhausted, too, from my dealings with Moll. So what if she hadn't killed ten of my kin? She had killed two. Two lives, always precious, lost to that demon. There was nothing to be celebrated when it came to monsters.

I was dumb in deciding this now, I realized, because I had unwittingly become close with Tecie. Never friends, of course, but close enough that I held little against myself for talking with her casually.

"I can't believe you thought 'Creed Lavender Fardier' sounded even remotely like a real name. And I'm surprised the administrator bought it."

"I panicked. I am not fond of my choice either, but that is for the best. Easier to shed the identity later."

"Actually, Creed is a real first name. It's a rare one though. Where'd you pull it from?"

"It's a word firstly." In Heaven, we had a creed. It was Michael's creed, of course, and one we all knew by heart. I didn't realize it until now, but that must have been where I took the name Creed from.

"Well it's terrible, and you should be ashamed." I had a strong dislike of sarcasm. It was nothing more than lying and expecting no repercussions for your words. But frustratingly enough, I did not particularly care.

"What's up with Moll?" I asked with a sudden outburst of melancholy. I didn't like her much, anymore, but there was still that sinking feeling I had about her.

"What's up with Moll? Well- Hm. She's just- Hm. I guess it's hard for me to really say." Tecie seemed enthusiastic, however. "She's a hot topic at the moment though. They chose Michael- Withers, that is- for the position of the Scorpio after a years of debating. They picked Moll last month. And she's a completely fresh face too- sure, there's been plenty of speculation now that she's in office, but before no one would have guessed she'd be chosen. She's just so- Hm."

"You seem to follow this gossip quite readily."

"There's not much else I can do at the moment. I mean, we can't exactly gossip about television shows and world happenings anymore. This kind of local level stuff is all we have. And it is fairly important."

"Angels gossip too, sometimes, but mostly about each other. I do not care for it."

"There's far too many of us to talk about each other on a first name basis, so it's nice The Few exist as a common group of people we can share for speculation. Which reminds me, on the subject of Moll- do you know she has a kid?"

"She said she had just given birth."

"Yeah, to her second child! Can you believe that?"

"I take it demons don't normally have kids?"

"It's actually illegal. We don't have enough resources to raise children from birth until usefulness. If you do, there's a ton of fines and you're entirely responsible for schooling and care. It's ridiculous."

"So Moll has children." There were a lot of implications behind that fact.

Tecie seemed stuck on the previous topic though. "I mean, if the government wants to discourage kids, fine, place a heavy fee. But if you keep the punishments going, the kid's just going to get stuck with lackluster education and a sense of boredom."

"I get the feeling this is personal for you."

"It is. I mean, I am a child of this city."

Tecie was uncomfortable, though familiar with the subject. And I was uncomfortable too.

"We should get you new clothes now. And all that other stuff."

I was unenthusiastic, but agreed.

I trusted Tecie to make the decisions for me. She chose all my clothing, and it was only with her heavy prompting that I tried it all on. I found it incredibly restrictive and gaudy. Angelic clothing is mostly white and loose sitting, and very soft.

I did not want a haircut either. Not like I had much hair, of course, but Tecie still insisted I change it around. Hair was mildly sacred to angels. The women only cut theirs in special cases. Men weren't honored with having long hair, of course, but we still took the act of cutting it to be a sacred act of familiarity between friends.

A woman cut my hair until it was nothing more than bristles. Afterwards, Tecie suggested we get it dyed as well- but that again felt like a terrible idea. But I knew she was not to be denied, and that I would just have to accept whatever color she picked out.

She chose an unnatural shade of orange. I thought I looked ridiculous and terrible with this new hair and new clothes.

"Come to think of it, we should have done this before getting your papers filed. But I mean, they haven't taken a photo for your ID yet. Oh! That's something else to take care of."

She dragged me from one place to the next until my knees ached. I had a picture taken, signed a number of things and talked to a number of people. I did not remember most of it, and let Tecie handle all the work.

Finally, as night began to set in, she took me to the place that was going to be my new workplace.

"Since you don't have any real... talents, they've put you in a trainee job. You're not getting paid, just being given a place to stay and free meals. I'll get you out of that part though. You just have to show up for work. Which, in this case, is farm work down in Greed."

"Greed?"

"Oh, all the lower levels are named after sins. Don't worry. It's not too important. It's just a dumb tradition."

I liked farming though. If you weren't a soldier in Heaven, you were probably a farmer. When we ran low on soldiers, we trained our farmers- since we were losing people, we didn't need the extra food anyway. I had been a farmer, once, though for how long I couldn't recall.

Tecie took me to a glass atrium at the edge of the city's walls, and from there we took a long tunnel down to the floor named Greed. Tecie promised there were elevators to use during work hours, but I didn't think the trek had been that bad.

The halls here were narrow, dark and dusty. The ceiling looked ready to collapse, and the people wandering here- a mix of temporary humans and low-paid employees- looked miserable. Tecie had to use a map to even find where I was to be working. The halls were that winding and awful.

I liked the place the moment I stepped in. The air was fresh and smelled of plants. There was a sort of fog in the air. A tiny patio overlooked a couple large fields, which faded in the distance and looked infinite.

A stout woman in blue was sitting beneath a lovely tree. She shook my hand when she met me. "You must be Creed. I'm Elizabeth. You'll be working down here tomorrow, doing whatever we might need. It's not the worst of work, but often there's a lot that needs to be done."

"I've done this before."

"That's good. You didn't have it listed on your profile, but yes, that's good. We'll let you work more independently then."

And we moved on again. I was feeling quite tired with the day so far, and insisted we head straight home. She was reluctant, wanting to take me out to eat somewhere. But I remained steady. Moll had taken all my energy- I suppose it may have been one of her demonic powers. I couldn't be sure.

I showered that evening, and then stared at myself in the mirror. I was wholly unknown. And that night, I had no dreams.