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In the Beginning, Heaven
Despite her rank, Dagiel was easily unnoticed. She was a small, red haired Virtue with grey eyes and silver gracemarks decorating her face, and amongst the crowds she worked with she often blended in. Whenever she tried to speak, she was often ignored. When the other Virtues did hear her, they often dismissed her ideas. The worst thing was when she would share an idea, be ignored, and then someone like Zuriel would bring up the same idea, take credit for it, and would get praise and applause from everyone else. Dagiel hated Zuriel.
With all that, it was no wonder that Dagiel closed herself off and kept away from the other virtues. She was incredibly intelligent, and knew resolutions to problems that had been plaguing other angels of her rank for a long time, but nobody wanted to listen to the solutions so that was their loss.
For the most part, Dagiel stayed in her little corner of heaven and created all on her own. Nobody came to bother her, so she got to let her creativity flow. She mostly created water creatures, but not just any water creatures. Dagiel had a specific knack for creating the weirdest animals one could ever make up; deep sea sharks with mouths that they could shoot at their prey to catch it; ugly looking fish with rows of sharp teeth and a lantern attached to their head to lure in unsuspecting fish; and giant crabs with spindly legs that could grow up to twelve feet.
Despite having the tendency to be ignored by her coworkers, Dagiel’s creations always passed inspection and were approved for earth. The Almighty liked the Virtue’s imagination, and decided that She had big plans for the unnoticed Virtue.
-
Dagiel was given a mission. She was meant to go up a few tiers in Heaven to help out some Archangels with a capital A and a regular archangel. She had to admit she was nervous, as they were the highest ranking angels and for some reason she had been called to their assistance. What did they want with an overlooked Virtue like her?
When she got to the meeting place, she found three Archangels standing around a tilled field prototype. Well, two Archangels standing around the prototype while another one lazed on the ground playing with an apple prototype. One of the Archangels, with fair skin and long tresses of chestnut hair, turned to face her when she walked in. Their bright blue eyes crinkled at the corners as they smiled.
“Ah, you must be Dagiel.” They said. “Come in, don’t be shy. Your reputation precedes you.”
Dagiel nodded, a lump growing in her throat.
“Yes sir, Virtue Dagiel at your service.” She crossed the room to them. The second Archangel didn’t look up from the prototype, earning a nudge from the first.
“Ariel, acknowledge our guest!” The first chided.
Ariel, as they were called, stood up straight and faced Dagiel. They were a heavier set angel with bronze skin and chocolate colored hair and eyes.
“So sorry, Virtue Dagiel.” The lower ranking archangel gave a little curtsy.
“And you too, Samael.” The first Archangel kicked the one on the ground, a statuesque angel with ash blonde hair and blue eyes. Dagiel stiffened at the sight of the prince of heaven, and at the fact that the other Archangel had kicked him like a dog.
Samael groaned and stood up.
“Jeez, M. Give me a break. This is boring. Also, I told you, it’s Lucifer now.”
“Whatever. At least show some respect to this Virtue who has come well out of her way to help us.” The first Archangel—‘M’ apparently—put an arm around a still stiff Dagiel.
“To help you two, maybe. I’m going to find something else to do.” Lucifer said, slinking off. ‘M’ growled. Ariel cleared their throat.
“Now, if we may get to the issue at hand.” They cautiously interrupted.
“Of course, of course. What seems to be the issue?” Dagiel asked. ‘M’ took their arm off Dagiel. Ariel gestured to the prototype, inviting the Virtue and the Archangel to stand next to her to them.
“I’m working out how to develop Agriculture to teach to God’s new creations.”
“Agriculture?” Dagiel asked.
“It’s going to be a method of growing food on their own.” ‘M’ said. “Instead of having to go out and scavenge for edible plants all the time, they can bring the seeds to their homes and grow their food right near their homes. Then they only have to leave their families to hunt for food.”
“And There’s more control over what you get, too. Let’s say a human doesn’t like potatoes, then they plant other food that isn’t potatoes and grow that instead.” Ariel followed up.
“It seems pretty solid to me.” Dagiel said. “So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that we can’t get the plants to grow fast enough, and we’re trying to figure out a way to grow them sustainably and quickly.” Ariel replied.
“None of the other Virtues wanted to help, so the Almighty told me to send for you. Apparently your services come highly recommended.” ‘M’ said with a grin. Dagiel blushed.
“R-Right. I uh. I might have an idea.” She said, gears turning in her head. Suddenly, a light clicked on and she reached into her bag and pulled out something slimy and wet.
“What in God’s name is that?“ Ariel asked.
“It’s a salmon.” Dagiel responded, matter of factly.
“You just carry around these things in your bag?”
“They’re a blueprint species. Now, watch closely.” She slapped the fish down onto the table.
“In order to make fish work right in their respective environments; I had to fill them with amino acids and oils, and of course proteins because they’re animals, and all meat is protein. But fish are particularly full of them.” Dagiel paused, waiting to be interrupted but to her surprise both the angels were listening with intense curiosity. The chestnut haired one had sparkles in her eyes as they looked at her. She continued, ignoring the blush growing on her face.
“I’ve worked with fish more than I have plants, but in many of the plants that I’ve worked with I’ve found that they tend to like dead things. In particular, dead animals.”
“Dead animals?” Ariel asked, intrigued.
“Dead animals are huge, untapped reserves of nutrients. Types of nutrients that plants can’t get just from sunlight and water alone. Keep in mind, the type of soil is also important. If you try and stick a plant in soil they don’t like, they pitch a fit and die.
Anyway, plants love dead animals. Their favorite thing. One of my coworkers buried a shank of elk next to an oak tree and only a short while later we came back to find that the tree had literally absorbed the thing. We found the bone inside the trunk.”
“Extraordinary.” ‘M’ breathed, as if they were getting ideas.
“So what I propose is that for the plants you have in mind here, bury dead fish alongside them. Humans have digestive functions and need to eat, so for greater efficiency bury the parts they can’t eat like the head or tail. Or if they have a sick fish that would make them sick but not the plants, but bury the whole thing. The plants will go bananas over it.”
Ariel took the salmon and shrunk it down, then put it in the soil between two of the sprouts and turned on the Timelapse. The three angels watched in amazement as the plants began to shoot up faster than any other sprouts in the area. Lucifer walked in in the middle of this, and quickly put together what was going on. Ariel turned off the Timelapse.
“It can probably work with any fish, but you’re welcome to put in a request for some of my models to experiment with.” Dagiel said. ‘M’ smiled.
“Absolutely genius. Thank you for your assistance.” They thanked Dagiel, shaking her hand before turning to leave with Lucifer.
“Well, well, well. Looks like Mom was right in recommending her services after all, huh, Michael?” Lucifer asked ‘M’. Dagiel froze up.
“Oh yes. We might have to call on her for any future endeavors. She’s clearly a very bright angel.” The prince of heaven agreed as they left the room.
Dagiel stood there, processing what had just happened, when Ariel spoke.
“Well, looks like Michael likes You. Take that as a compliment. It’s better to be her friend than her enemy.” They said.
Dagiel stood there silently in shock, red in the face. After an eternity of being overlooked and talked over and never listened to, she’d found someone who hung on her every word and had faith in her. And that someone was one of the most important someones in their world, and now in Dagiel’s little world as well.
-
Dagiel tried very hard to see Michael again. She desperately wanted to get to know the Prince of Heaven, but found that their schedules never made anything more than a brief hello possible. It saddened her, not being able to see the angel who had suddenly lit up her entire dark world with just a few kind words. But Dagiel couldn’t dwell on those feelings. She had a job to do.
Dagiel did, however run into Lucifer many times. Though he never spoke directly to her, she found they had much in common. He was also often overshadowed and overlooked by his family, and often reached out to angels who had been through the same thing.
There were a growing number of angels who were displeased with the way heaven was being run, but weren’t listened to. Dagiel found herself among them, and found herself questioning her role in the heavens. She had tried very hard to be good, but about 99% of the time (according to her calculations) it was never good enough.
Lucifer promised the angels that they wouldn’t be overlooked anymore, that they needed to make things better for everyone through any means necessary, and the overlooked Dagiel hung onto every single word.
-
No angel wanted to fall, even before they knew what the aftermath of falling would be. That was certainly true in the Great War, right before the world was completed. No angel wanted to fall, and many of them would do whatever it took to make sure to not fall.
-
All of the angels still loyal to God had fought valiantly, but none were mote cutthroat and skilled than Michael. She had been the one to weaken Lucifer himself enough to cast him out of heaven, but she had made a mistake. She had turned her back to him while he was down.
Lucifer, angry and bitter, had given one last metaphorical middle finger to his family as he fell.
“Don’t… leave… me….” Lucifer grabbed his twin sister by one pair of wings, and pulled her down as he fell.
Michael screamed and clambered for the clouds, trying to get away from his grasp. She had dropped her flaming sword in the confusion and couldn’t defend herself, and that all but sealed her fate. Michael fell, dragged down by her brother. His hands burned her wings where he touched them, burning her feathers and flesh. She tried grabbing onto clouds as she fell, but couldn’t escape. She could see her little brother, ever-loyal Gabriel, flying after her, but he was nowhere close to catching up.
What happened next, Rabbis would say was solely by the hand of God. This is incorrect. What happened is one little, overlooked Virtue, in her final moments as an angel decided that she couldn’t let the first angel to ever give her the time of day fall to such a horrible, unknown fate.
Dagiel subtly manipulated her fall, falling in the direction of Michael and Lucifer, and rammed into Michael as hard as she could. Michael was knocked free from Lucifer’s grasp, and in the confusion allowed Lucifer to grab her own wings, thinking she was Michael. Michael was able to gain wind under her three pairs of wings, and stop falling as she began to fly away back to the desperate arms of her youngest brother. Dagiel took in the image of the angel she’d developed affection for one last time, and accepted her fate with a newfound jadedness as she fell with tears in her eyes.
-
Dagiel and Lucifer hit the hottest pool of boiling sulfur, and their old wings were lost to them. Lucifer’s once glorious three pairs of flamingo-pink wings were reduced to one pair of red and black tattered draconian ones. Dagiel’s old silver seabird wings had now been warped and manipulated into silvery blue-green draconian ones as well.
“What. The fuck. Did you do?” Lucifer groaned.
“Wasn’t my fault… the wind sent me colliding into her. You should have dragged her down here, give her a taste of her own medicine.” The former angel formerly-known-as-Dagiel choked out. Lucifer paused for a moment, and seemed to believe her lie.
“My apologies, Virtue. I didn’t mean for this… to happen. Your wings….”
“Don’t care. You can make it up to me.”
“How?“
“Give me a ruling position, even if it’s just a Duke or something. Ensure that nobody will ever ignore me again. My voice will be heard throughout the halls of our new kingdom.” She demanded. Lucifer let out a choking laugh.
“Your wish is my command,” then, he bestowed a new name upon the former angel. “Duke Dagon.”
-
1431, Honfleur, France
Dagon was in the English territory of France, and while Crowley was stirring up trouble in Spain, she had decided to come up to the surface herself for a quick temptation. Start a riot and cause some more political dispute. She didn’t expect, when she got there, to see an extremely familiar angel sitting by where the River Seine met the sea.
“What the heaven are you doing here, wankwings?“ She barked, making her way towards the angel.
“Don’t you know this is no-man’s land? Our jurisdiction.” The angel didn’t answer. It didn’t rain that day, but now that an occasion that called for rain had passed, clouds were gathering on the horizons. It was going to be a big storm.
“Hey, angel, you listening?” It was then Dagon stepped on something glass, and noticed quite a few bottles around the rock where the angel was sitting. Oh. That explained it then.
“What the heaven are you getting drunk for, Michael?” Dagon circled around to Michael’s side to look at her face.
“I thought your lot didn’t sully their bodies with gross-“ Michael was crying. Genuinely crying. Not deep, grief-wracked sobs, as she had used all of those up hours ago. But defeated, quiet tears that stained her face and demanded to be drowned away by alcohol that only caused them to flow more. Dagon felt a twinge of pity in her decayed heart, but her pride was still dominating her.
“I can’t leave you here like this. It’s dishonorable. Humans are dumb and they might do something to you.” She reasoned. “Wouldn’t make for a fair fight once you’ve sobered up.”
Dagon stood up and grabbed Michael by the arm, slinging said arm over her shoulders. Michael was limp and defeated, barely protesting as her head lolled onto Dagon’s shoulder. Dagon did her best to ignore the large blush that came over her cheeks, over 5,000 years repressed, and half carried Michael to a nearby inn to let her sober up in a place more private.
-
Michael woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. All three pairs of her wings were fully out, and she couldn’t remember getting them out. She couldn’t even remember how many bottles she’d gone through the night before, well over 7 she should think. She felt a firm bed underneath her, and realize she didn’t remember getting to an inn. Her heart started to race and she sat upright in bed.
“Calm down, M. Nothing happened.” A familiar voice said from across the room. Michael turned and saw Dagon with her wings out braiding a few strands of her red hair to play with it.
“I didn’t think it was fair game to take you down while you were sloshed, so I brought you here to sober up. You threw up twice and then passed out.”
“Oh…” Michael said shakily. She drew her knees to her chest.
“I’m sorry you had to see me in such an… undignified state.” She said. It was clear her mind was elsewhere, and she wasn’t up for a fight—which was unlike her.
“What got you so shaken up anyway, wankwings?” Dagon asked.
“Get a minor demotion for being an asshole?” She laughed. Michael didn’t laugh and was quiet for a moment.
“I lost someone yesterday… someone very important to me.” Dagon stopped fiddling with her hair. She hadn’t expected that.
“Oh.” She was unusually quiet. “I’m sorry…”
“Not your fault. You’re Not one of those English.” Michael sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her sleeve. Dagon decided to make a move, and slowly crossed the room to sit in front of Michael.
“What was their name?” She sat down on the hard mattress.
“Jehanne.” Michael replied, a spark of fondness in her watery, red eyes.
“Were you and her like…” Dagon couldn’t find the words. Michael shook her head.
“Oh, Lord, no. No, nothing like that. Although I’d expect nothing less vile to come from the mind of a demon.”
“Hey! I’m trying to listen instead of discorporating you, wankwings! Give me some credit! I don’t know jack shit about your dealings!”
There was silence between them, except for the rain pattering on the window.
“They burned her at the stake yesterday. She was only a child. Only nineteen.” Michael explained.
“Had so much life left to live, only for it all to burn away… and it was my fault.” Michael buried her face in her hands. Dagon, unsure of what to do, reached out a hand to place on Michael’s arm.
“I’m sure it wasn’t—“
“Sh-She was just supposed to be a m-mission, but I-I had to go and g-get attached. I-I couldn’t even d-do anything, I was told not to do a-anything. I had to watch her b-burn.” Michael sobbed.
“They d-didn’t even b-bury her. Just threw her into the Seine. Sh-She probably hates me now…”
“Hey, I’m sure she doesn’t hate you. Come on, that kid probably died thinking about how she gets to see you again. She’s probably upstairs looking everywhere for you.”
“Y-You think?” Michael asked with a sniffle, looking up at Dagon.
“Yeah. That kid made a big name for herself in these parts. As much as I hate heaven gaining another soul on us, that kid was heading there from the start. You taught her well. She’s probably going to dismantle Gabriel’s office looking for you if you don’t get back there soon. Take a rain check on the fighting until you’re yourself again, hm? It’s only fair.”
“Thank you…” Michael smiled a little, wiping her eyes.
When her eyes were relatively free from tears, she looked at Dagon’s wings.
“That’s funny.” She muttered.
“What?” Dagon asked.
“There’s a handprint shaped burn scar on your upper wing, like someone grabbed it.”
‘Shit’ Dagon thought.
“Lots of wing grabbing going on in hell. Cesspool down there. You know how it is.” She tried to brush it off.
“Except I have the same scar on my lower wings.” Michael said, the gears in her head turning.
“During the fall, my brother grabbed me by the lower wings and tried to pull me down with him. But someone knocked me out of his grip… But I think you know that, don’t you, Dagon?”
Dagon’s face turned bright red.
“So it wasn’t the Almighty after all, but you… Now what reason would you have for knocking me out of the way?”
“It was a mistake!“ Dagon lied, trying to preserve her integrity as a demon even while she was being caught.
“Unless a certain lost Virtue wanted to help the first angel who actually listened to her and valued her. Isn’t that right, Dagiel?”
Dagon pushed herself away from Michael as soon as her old name left her lips, and Michael knew she was right.
“How many times have you saved me now, Dagon? How many times have you kept me from falling, even at your own loss?”
“Shut up!”
“I thought it was a fluke. When we were in heaven, it was everywhere. Easy to misread. For millennia I thought ‘I must be sensing someone else, demons can’t love’, but I was wrong, wasn’t I?” Michael put her hand on Dagon’s.
“You didn’t just fall on the day of the war, did you? You fell a while before that, didn’t you?”
“Stop that!”
“I’m sorry, ma cherie. Sorry I couldn’t see it before. But I see it now. I’ll do this on your terms.” Michael pressed a gentle kiss to Dagon’s cheek.
“Thank you, for last night and back then.” She smiled a little. And then, at once, the Archangel Michael was gone, leaving a demon who had long since given up hope in her wake. And now, it was that former Virtue’s turn to cry.