An Angel's Heart

Angels and Demons

Arthit walked slowly through the room, noting the cookie-cutter-exactly-like-everyone-else decor. Minus a few small additions and the amazing amount of mess, this room could belong to any human. Any boring human. Yo would have hated this mess. Though he never would have been allowed to move into this room anyway because there was a complete lack of security. It had taken less than 30 seconds for Arthit to break in. Of course, demons always thought they were invincible, so making sure there were protection wards would never have occurred to them.

Walking around, he saw piles of dirty laundry, burnt homework pages, and a strange mirror with a rune on the face. He took a picture with his phone and sent it to the angel's demonology experts. The mirror could be a communication device and Arthit couldn't risk some demon realizing that an angel lived right across the hall and telling all her friends in hell.

How this particular demon was able to get a room right across the hall from his brother, Arthit didn't know. He would have to have a word with the team that was used to rent premises for angel tenants. They clearly weren't doing enough research about the neighbors. Which was why Arthit had been sent down so quickly in the first place.

Examining the contents of a drawer, he found a picture. The demon occupant of the room sitting next to a tall demon, someone that Arthit knew well. Anyone else seeing the picture would think it was just an exceptionally pretty girl sitting next to her older brother, her father, or perhaps a close family friend. But Arthit knew better. As a Throne in the ranks of heaven, he was well acquainted with the methods that demons used to disguise themselves in the human world.

(Author's Note: According to Matthew Bunson, the corresponding order of angels in Judaism is called the abalim or arelim/erelim, but this opinion is far from unrivaled. The Hebrew word erelim is usually not translated "thrones," but rather "valiant ones," "heroes," or "warriors." The function ascribed to erelim in Isaiah 33:7 and in Jewish folklore is not consistent with the lore surrounding the thrones. ... Thrones are sometimes equated with ophanim ... They mete out divine justice and maintain the cosmic harmony of all universal laws. In this case of this story, I have decided to use them as warriors for God and as ophanim who mete out heaven's justice.)

The man in the picture was in fact one of the demon princes and Pring was his daughter. What was a second generation princess doing attending a university in the human world? Princesses were held in high esteem, envied for their ability to tempt and persuade members of the opposite sex. They were only sent to the human world for missions of the greatest importance.

Arthit closed the drawer harder than he meant to, and as it slammed shut, he realized someone was turning the lock to enter the room. Trying to use as little power as possible, so that he might not be traced, he blinked himself into his brother's room. It was lucky that he'd already introduced himself or the angel defenses would have torn him to shreds for attempting to enter uninvited.

An angel's home was directly linked to the heavens and, therefore, guarded most vigilantly. In addition, this was Yo's home. The Cherubim would have added extra precautions to protect the most beloved of the Seraphim in the heavens.

(Author's Note: Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae offers a description of the nature of Seraphim: "The name Seraphim does not come from charity only, but from the excess of charity, expressed by the word ardor or fire. Hence Dionysius expounds the name Seraphim according to the properties of fire, containing an excess of heat. Now in fire we may consider three things. First, the movement which is upwards and continuous. This signifies that they are borne inflexibly towards God. Secondly, the active force which is heat, which is not found in fire simply, but exists with a certain sharpness, as being of most penetrating action, and reaching even to the smallest things, and as it were, with superabundant fervor; whereby is signified the action of these angels, exercised powerfully upon those who are subject to them, rousing them to a like fervor, and cleansing them wholly by their heat. Thirdly, we consider in fire the quality of clarity, or brightness; which signifies that these angels have in themselves an inextinguishable light, and that they also perfectly enlighten others." I have used them in place of the kind of angels you might think of who alleviate human suffering, sing in the heavenly choir, and inspire humans to greatness.)