Chapter Text
The images swam before her. There were sounds too but they were harder to make out. Shouting maybe? And then screams. She always woke up at the screams.
Shield was there, next to her. Most angels didn’t sleep, but Shield would sit contentedly beside Way whenever she felt the urge to rest. “Are you alright, Way? You were doing that funny thing again, with your eyes closed.”
Way sat up slowly, looked around, blinking. “Yeah, I think I had a, a dream?”
“A dream?”
“I don’t know, it’s like a picture, a story in your mind. Except…”
“Except what, love?”
Way looked at her, “I think it’s a message from Her. I think it’s something that’s going to happen.”
Shield smiled, her gold-flecked cheeks glittering against her long, dark brown hair, “She’s sent you a message? That’s wonderful. What is it?”
Way frowned, “I’m not sure. It’s hard to understand. There’s a book and an angel, but I can’t tell who it is. And then…flames. Flames everywhere”
Shield frowned. “Is it – is it something you’re supposed to do? Or is it a warning?”
“I don’t know.”
Shield patted her hand. “Not to worry, my sweet. We’ll talk to Strength, he’ll know.”
BrightHealer sat in the middle of the meeting room, trying to keep his curly white head down and not to be noticed by any of the Archangels running this morning’s conference. He was excited but nervous that he had been sent as one of the representatives from his team; all the Earth-related teams were at the Coordination Council. There were so many details to work out – maintaining the right oxygen levels, ensuring enough food types for all the species, dealing with the dramatic seasonal changes being planned. His team, the human team, was of course central to the whole plan and he had taken copious notes to bring back with him. The meeting had gone on and on and MercyOfHeaven was answering the last few questions before they would be dismissed.
“Thank you, your Heavenliness, I was just wondering what happens next?” an angel from the terraforming team asked.
“What happens next? What do you mean? We build the Earth, the humans get tested, we shut it down.” Mercy scowled at the questioner, who was looking quite mortified.
Bright found himself raising his hand, speaking out before he even thought it through, “If I may, I think she was just asking, is there another project after that? Do we build another universe? Seems like a lot of effort to just do it once.”
Mercy glared at him and StrengthOfHeaven stepped forward to respond, “I think Mercy understood the question, perfectly, of course. The point is, we don’t ask what happens next. We follow the plan. Alright?” He smiled. “Garden team stay behind, everyone else dismissed.”
Bright could feel his cheeks warmed with embarrassment. He kept his head down and scooted out of the row, bumping into the angel who had first asked the question. “Thanks for trying, “she offered.
“Well, I thought it was a reasonable enquiry,” he smiled back.
“It’s hard to know if any questions are reasonable,” she offered, then nodded and left with her team.
Bright took a deep breath and decided to fly the long way back to the workroom, to clear his head.
It had taken StarMaker three trips. First, he had forgotten the book and had to go back to the workshop. Then he couldn’t find the crank but when he got back, he realized it had been in his pocket the whole time. Then he realized he had put the chart down in the workshop when he had grabbed the book and returned one more time. But finally - FINALLY - he was ready, practically bouncing with excitement as he floated in the firmament. He knew LawOfHeaven was supposed to come and help soon but he couldn’t wait. It wouldn’t be so bad if he just tried to start it up himself, right? He was finding it a bit tricky, though, to get the chart and the crank to line up right, he needed an extra pair of wings. Oh, but there was someone flying by and he called out to them, “Oi….”
The meeting with the Garden team had gone on far longer than Law really felt had been necessary. She rolled out of the room behind ShieldOfHeaven and FlameOfHeaven. Even among the Archangels, she was often invisible. Law didn’t see this as any sort of disadvantage, though. It meant she heard far more than the others realized. Right now, for instance, Flame was complaining, “All we seem to be doing lately is arguing about Earth. And the Garden. One tree, two trees, does it really matter?”
Shield agreed, “Exactly! If the whole point is to make sure humans don’t eat from the trees, does it really matter where we put them?”
Law would have enjoyed following them a bit farther, but she’d had another appointment that morning that she needed to get to.
Star hadn’t noticed the other angel leave. He hovered there and stared at the nebula until he had completely lost track of time. Which, being a fairly new idea, was rather easy to do. But as he sighed and turned to finally go find PraiseMaker and his friends, Law came rolling up over to him.
“Oh dear, did I miss it?”
He smiled. Law could seem intimidating at first, being an Archangel and all, but he’d found her quite kind under her witty exterior. “Yeah, another angel popped by to help.” He absentmindedly swung his crank, remembering how glorious that first explosion had been. “Looks great, doesn’t it?”
Law nodded, “Very good work. I do wish I could have seen it. And have you checked, are the parameters within the expected ranges?”
“Yup, everything’s spinning and reacting just like we planned. Should see it start heating up in 3 or 4 millenia. Though,” he frowned. “I heard it all might get shut down before that. Doesn’t make sense. I thought I’d go ask VoiceOfGod about it tomorrow.” He wasn’t exactly sure when tomorrow was, but it was one of the new time words everyone had been throwing around.
A concerned look passed over Law’s face. “I’m not sure VoiceOfGod will have the answers you want.” She paused, clearly thinking something over. “Have you met LightBringer before? He may have information you are interested in-“
“Yeah? That’d be brilliant!”
“Star!” she got his attention. “He may have information you are interested in but,” she frowned, “take care with what he says. Some of his ideas are…unorthodox.”
“Sure, sure, ok, I’ll be careful.”
Law bit her lip, wondering if this had been a mistake. “And we’re doing the Horsehead nebula next?”
Star smiled, “Yup, the chart’s almost finished. And I promise I’ll wait for you this time to crank her up!”
Bright finally made it back to his team’s bustling workroom, far later than he had planned – and far more distracted than he'd ever imagined he could feel! His encounter with the red-headed angel in the firmament kept replaying in his head – the angel’s excited smile, his enthusiasm, the absolute beauty of his new creation. He wondered how he might go about meeting him again – he didn’t even know his name!
“Where have you been, Bright?” ConstantHealer asked curiously, interrupting his thoughts.
“Oh, it was the most amazing thing, Constant! I flew into an angel from the cosmos team and I got to help start up a – a nebula!”
“A what?”
“Enough chit chat!” BrotherOfHeaven had come into the workroom. He stopped, hands on his hips, gold tooth flashing as he grinned at them. “We are behind schedule, angels, and I’m not about to hold up the Earth team! Besides, the cosmos team are hacks who couldn’t cut Earth-quality work. Just making pretty pictures for the beings WE are creating.”
He turned to JustWord and dropped a scroll before her. “Your limb proportions are all wrong - start over!”
An uncomfortable silence fell as Brother walked past their benches, to the far side of the room to harangue the rest of the team.
WiseHealer ventured a whisper, “I don’t even know why Brother is the Archangel for our team. I don’t even think he likes the idea of humans.”
Constant whispered back, “Just likes being the big shot, I think.”
Bright turned to Just, “Do you want some help with the limbs? I’m not very good with the maths, but we could sketch them out together, get a sense of it?”
Just looked up with a grateful smile, “Would you, Bright? Your drawings are always so lovely - it would be a big help.”
Way was down the hall, where Shield had told her to wait. She nodded at Flame as Shield took her leave and joined Way.
“Here’s Strength now,” Shield said, giving Way’s hand a quick squeeze. The Supreme Archangel was the last to leave the meeting room.
Shield approached him confidently, “Can we walk you back to your office? You’ve met WayMaker before – she had an interesting experience I wanted to get your thoughts on.”
Shield prodded Way to go ahead and she explained the vision as they walked. Strength chuckled as they reached the entrance to his suite and shook his head.
“And you think this - dream? - is a vision from Her?” He looked at Way with what he considered to be his kindly look. “If I had a feather for every Angel who thinks they have a message from Herself, well - I’d have a big pile of feathers! Now, enjoy this ‘dreaming’ - but don’t worry any more about it.”
Shield beamed at him and clasped her hands together, “Oh thank you, Strength! See my dear, I said the Supreme Archangel would know, didn’t I?” She took Way’s hand and walked out. “Don’t you feel better now?”
Way smiled and tried to nod, somehow not feeling as reassured as Shield wanted her to be.