Chapter Text
Heaven was an absolute mess.
Angels were screaming everywhere, surprise and disgust filling their voices as reality dawned on them: angels had been visiting hell once a year just to murder demons.
And as if that weren’t reason enough to panic, one of those demons had ascended and now stood before them all, holy chains securely fastened around his wrists.
Sera was not handling it well.
While Emily tried to calm the angels and convince them to visit Hell once more to “make things right” and “fix things,” the older Seraph looked like she was barely holding herself together. Soon enough, she began questioning the sinner before her—a man who called himself Sir Pentious, whose snake-like appearance disturbed the angelic eyes analyzing his every movement— about his arrival.
Surely, it had to be a mistake: perhaps Peter had left the door unsupervised, or maybe this was a bad joke from the Morningstars, right?
Except it wasn't. And no one knew how to deal with that.
Not like they had time to process the truth either way, because now they had to deal with Lute crashing out over the entire ordeal.
How professional, thought a soul at the back of the room, tucked carefully where no angel bothered to look. She huffed softly. This won’t end well.
That soul had many opinions on the matter, but she had learnt long ago that voicing them led nowhere if what she had to say did not align with Heaven's narrative. No—they never listened. She had made her peace with that, finding solace in the fact that maybe one day, Heaven would be forced to change.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she only came back to reality when a blinding, golden light flooded the courtroom.
The Speaker of God had arrived to resolve the matter.
How convenient.
At least she was effective and, after a long, tragic story from the former sinner, Sera finally grasped the concept of redemption, and Sir Pentious was officially welcomed into Heaven.
For a moment, the soul in the back believed the meeting was finally over and that she would finally be able to slip away, go home, maybe take a long bath after the brutal weeks she’d endured...
But Lute started crashing out again.
It was exhausting most of the time. Usually, Lute didn’t throw tantrums like this, since Adam had kept her in check, but with him gone… well. Heaven would have to adjust.
This time, though, it wasn’t quite as draining. Not for the soul in the corner. No—this time, in the middle of her outburst, Lute declared herself the Leader of the Angelic Army.
Poor, delusional girl.
Lute caught the sound of a mocking chuckle and, if she hadn’t been too busy arguing about Abel being the rightful new General, she might’ve started an entirely different fight with the soul that had laughed.
She would've started a fight with that soul for anything, honestly.
In the end, Sera handled it diplomatically. She dismissed the court, sent Emily away with Sir Pentious, and instructed Abel to prepare for discussions regarding the arrangements and adjustments required after his father’s death.
Sera will probably rip her a new one later, the soul thought. I would love to see that.
Still, she loved the idea of going home even more. She turned quietly toward the exit, silently hoping—praying—that Sera wouldn’t assign her anything just yet.
"Intercessor, don't go yet."
Her prayers, as usual, went unanswered.