Derek stood up from his computer as his stomach told him it was time for a break. His son, Jordan, was once again filling the air with expletives from where he sat in front of the television in the front room playing a video game. The moon disappearing had not troubled his son for more than a few hours. He had gone back to playing his video games, oblivious to anything else in the world.
Derek shook his head as he moved into the kitchen. Concerns about the disappearance of the moon had only lasted a few days in the media. It had been over a week since its disappearance and nothing of consequence had happened, despite some of the conspiracy theories online that claimed it would cause a world-wide calamity because life on earth had become too accustomed to the constant gravitational pull as it cycled around the world. They claimed it would lead to mass lunacy as the chemical balance in biological organisms became unstable. Yep, mass lunacy. He shook his head again with a wry grin.
As he reached for the fridge door, he suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of vertigo. He stumbled and fell against the fridge, grabbing his head as he felt a sense of Déjà vu flood his mind.
"Dad, what's going on?" he heard Jordan ask in a panicked voice.
Derek opened his mouth to reply just as the house around them vanished. He was suddenly standing in a white plane filled with other people. It went on as far as the eye could see. He gasped as a feeling of intense love and comfort coursed through his body, bringing with it a sense of euphoric bliss. An avalanche of memories crashed into his consciousness like wrecking ball; memories of so many mortal lives, of the time before mortality when they lived in the light realm. He gaped as he finally realized where he was and what had happened. He had been trapped in the mortal realm in an endless cycle of incarnations, denied the option of returning to the light realm upon death.
Other angels around him were experiencing the same epiphany, staring around themselves in wonder. A beautiful dark-haired angel standing in front of him smiled beatifically at him, silver tears filling her eyes.
"Can you believe we are finally back?" she choked out in a half-sob. "I thought we were going to be stuck in that hell forever. It feels so good to be filled with light again!"
"I wonder what happened?" Derek spoke musingly, relishing the powerful light suffusing his angelic body. "Were you on Earth?"
She shook her head, still smiling as tears ran down her cheeks. "I was on Glykon 3. It was an endless nightmare I couldn't even escape from by dying. I never thought angels could be so cruel."
"Other angels?" Derek repeated questioningly. 'Not demons? We didn't have any angels until the last few months."
"You didn't have angels torturing you on Earth?" she asked in surprise. "I just imagined they were everywhere."
"Wait, you had angels torturing you?" Derek stared at her in confusion. "Why would angels torture humans?"
"For just about any reason," the woman responded with a shudder. "Not groveling convincingly enough, missing your quota in your vocation, displaying a lack of fanaticism, being late to a worship service...the list goes on and on. They found reasons if they were bored."
"When you say tortured, are we talking about making you listen to boring sermons?" Derek inquired with a growing horror. "Or they actually physically tortured you?"
"We had to go to purging rooms, where they used devices to inflict as much pain as possible while keeping you alive," she responded, shuddering again at the memory. "They claimed the pain purified us, and that if we died with any sins then we would spend eternity in a purging room called hell."
"Angels did this to you?" Derek demanded in disbelief.
"Yes, angels," she confirmed, looking at him peculiarly. "You didn't have the same treatment on Earth?"
"No!" Derek exclaimed emphatically. "We just lived normal lives with boring jobs. We didn't even see any angels until a few months before this. The angels that did show up were good angels. Well, they were Seraphim. They rescued children who had been taken by criminals and fought the demons who had apparently taken over our world. From the sounds of it, the demons were preferable to angels."
There were a dozen angels listening to their conversation, most of them nodding agreement with the woman as she described her ordeal. Derek stared at them in pity as he tried to imagine what incarnation after incarnation must have been like for these angels. There was one angel that looked unnerved by their conversation, edging away from them. The man had a sickly expression, in spite of the positive light filling his meridians.
Derek opened his mouth to ask him where he had been, but an aura unlike anything he had ever felt suddenly washed over him. It supercharged the light already charging his meridians. A flying angel with a familiar face had appeared up in the air above them. A moment later, seven additional Seraphim appeared with Aria. The aura he had felt from Aria was suddenly magnified as the additional Seraphim joined her, their combined auras washing over the horde of angels like a tsunami. Derek nearly fell to his knees as the feeling of love overwhelmed his body.
Clarice drifted away from Aria a few feet as she slowly turned in the air to view the endless see of angels. The woman next to him stared up at them with fear in her eyes, dropping to her knees. The action was repeated by almost all of the angels for as far as they eye could see. Clarice frowned when she saw them prostrating themselves.
"Why in the world are you all down on your knees?" Clarice asked in a dry voice that carried across the endless sea of angels. "I didn't think angels got tired of standing?"
Calypso moved up next to Clarice, looking down at the angels sadly. "You have all been treated more horribly than I can put into words. We apologize for the horrors you have all been through. We should have spent more time with you before we created the mortal realm, so that we could have seen the kind of abuse you suffered from the other Seraphim and higher angel classes. We were naive and didn't realize the kind of evil that lived inside of so many people. We have all paid for that mistake, I'm sorry to say. It breaks my heart that you have all suffered so much due to my neglect. The ones responsible for harming you have been removed from power, and in many cases, removed from life. We have reset all angels to the same class. There are no more Dominions, Archangels, or Cherubim save for those who have shown true compassion and a willingness to help their fellow angels. Going forward, angel ranks will be attained by your good deeds and level of compassion. Anyone who hasn't experienced mortality will begin incarnating into the mortal realm when we have finished speaking with you. We have modified mortal bodies so that they have a much higher pain threshold, as well as the ability to consciously turn off pain, once the body is aware of the damage. All angels who have already experienced mortality will never have to return unless they wish to. Going forward, there will only be seven Seraphim. The ability to kill other angels has been removed from the Cherubim. There will be no requirements for formality or deference among the ranks of angels. Please, stand up. You will never need to kneel in our presence. Going forward, angels will be known as beings who embody love, comfort, compassion, and a dedication to the light. If you have any questions about anything, please do not hesitate to ask. If you need something, think of one of the Seraphim and ask your question. Our new Seraphim are Eric, Emily, Alice, and Lexi. We are here to serve you, so please do not be shy if you have questions or need help with anything."
As she finished speaking, there was a sudden flash of light as a large number of the angels throughout the crowd suddenly vanished. Derek noticed that the man trying to sneak away was one of the angels to have vanished.
Derek looked back up when he heard the angels speaking, this time among each other but still clearly heard.
"Do you know how hot you look when you take charge like that?" Clarice told Calypso with an appreciative grin.
"It's a good thing we aren't big on dignity," Aria muttered ruefully.
"I could totally tell that you were digging it too, Aria," Clarice said accusingly. "I'm pretty sure you were even more turned on than I was."
Aria sank her face in her hands and groaned as the skin on her neck and face flushed red. "Can we go now, please?"
"Someone might have some questions," Clarice told her in a reasonable tone of voice. "We just changed reality, so they might want to ask us something before we leave." Clarice floated away from Aria and Calypso and slowly rotated in the air. "Does anyone have any questions? And before anyone asks, no, I am not single. I'm with Calypso and Aria. Aside from that, does anyone have any questions?"
There was a shocked silence as the newly returned angels tried to reconcile the image of all powerful Seraphim with the mischievous Clarice and blushing Aria and Calypso. Lexi raised her hand into the silence, resulting in a snort of amusement from Clarice.
"Are you seriously raising your hand, Lexi?" Clarice asked with an amused smile. "You should probably dress up as a sexy schoolgirl if you're going to be raising your hand."
"Clarice, I think you're freaking them out too much to ask any questions," Lexi informed her dryly. "They think we're just a bunch of supercharged crazies now."
"That would be an accurate assessment," Clarice nodded her agreement. "That doesn't mean they can't ask some questions anyway."
"Is the fate of the cosmos really in the hands of a couple of bimbos?" a sarcastic voice called out from somewhere in front of Derek. There was a gasp of shock that rippled through the sea of angels at the man's words. It was obvious who it was, as angels pulled back from the man like he had a virulent disease. They revealed a tall angel with golden hair and a sneer marring his angelic features.
Derek had half expected one of the Seraphim to blast the offensive angel with holy fire or something. Instead, Clarice chuckled evilly and dropped down to land on the ground in front of the man.
"Hello, Lendrake," Clarice greeted the angel with a sweet smile. "It's good to see that even after going through mortality you are still a complete bastard. Did we pull you back to the light realm too soon and ruin your incel party? Let me guess, you couldn't figure out how a girl could fail to fall in love with a guy who has the charm of a slug, am I right? Something tells me that you're never going to move up from the rank of a base angel. Even after mortality, compassion is a foreign concept to you."
Lendrake flushed an angry red as he glared back at her. "Compassion is for the weak. You corrupted the realms and created a system where the weakest imbeciles become the most powerful. It's an affront to the natural laws and will fail spectacularly. I'm going to be there to dance on the ashes when everything burns down around you."
"Are you telling me that you actually know how to dance?" Clarice asked in a voice of stupefied shock. "I've got to see this. Can you bust out some moves and show us right now?"
"Still the same arrogant bitch," Lendrake snarled, attempting to spit at her before realizing he didn't have the ability as an angel. "Do you think you can escape the judgement of God just because you scammed your way into power through treachery? You'll be judged just like everyone else in this powder puff party of freaks."
"God, huh?" Clarice asked, struggling not to laugh. "Which god is this one? I really hope he has a beard and likes braids, because I'm pretty sure the one you are thinking of is a closet gay that would love to have you genuflecting on your knees in front of him."
Lendrake let out a roar of rage and lunged at Clarice. She didn't bother moving. She stared at him with a bored expression as he grabbed her throat and squeezed with all of his might.
"How's that working out for you?" she asked in a dry voice, unaffected by his attempt to throttle her. "Do you need me to tilt my head back a little more? Maybe you just need to go play at the gym some more with your incel buddies and get stronger."
He let out a yell of frustration and swung at her face. Again, she didn't move, letting his fist crash into her chin while she smiled back at him with amusement. The blow didn't move her head in the slightest.
"Has your brain been so addled by mortality that you forgot angels are invulnerable?" Clarice asked in a pitying voice. "Seriously, you need to work through some issues before you end up like Rendimus. He really messed you up."
"He was a greater Seraph than you'll ever be!" Lendrake shouted angrily. "You had to resort to cheap trickery to usurp his place."
"You mean like using the divine instruments on him like he did to us?" Clarice asked flatly. "Yep, that was pretty tricky."
"He'll be back, and a lot stronger than you were," Lendrake grated, his face a mask of loathing. "We'll see how much you smirk when you're back in mortality with my foot on your neck."
"I hope you are really patient, Lendrake," Clarice told him with a mocking leer. "Because I'm going to enjoy watching you wait for that time."
Lendrake spun around and tried to shove an angel out of his way. The shove barely budged the man, and he had to go around him with a snarl.
"Why is she leaving him alive?" Derek muttered disbelievingly. "He's going to be nothing but trouble."
"Because we don't execute people for not playing nice," Clarice answered him. Derek flinched as he saw her staring right at him through a sudden parting of angels as they moved out from between the two of them. "That's why we made the new rules to govern behavior. He's pretty much the weakest angel in the entire realm and always will be unless he changes his ways."
She looked around at the still kneeling people and a flicker of exasperation crossed her features. She began walking up to people and pulling them to their feet.
"Seriously, people, why are you groveling at me?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "You're making me feel like some kind of silly emperor. Oh, that gives me an idea. If I strip down and run around naked, will I be the emperor with no clothes, or will you all feel silly enough groveling in front of some naked chick that you'll stop doing it?"
She continued pulling people up, filling the area with awkward blushes and nervous stares. The other Seraphim were just floating above her and watching with amused expressions. After she had convinced several dozen people to stand up, she started making introductions.
"Hi, I'm Clarice," she told a woman with long orange hair that draped over her shoulders in waves. "Of course, introductions are kind of unnecessary, since we can see each other's names in our auras. So, Laurin, what's your favorite kind of music? Were you on a world that had music, or was it one of those shitfest worlds run by angels?"
"Um, it was Jazz, before I got stuck in the mortal realm and music disappeared, Seraph" Laurin said shyly.
"Bzzzt, wrong!" Clarice declared sternly. "My name isn't Seraph, it's Clarice. Now, say it."
The woman's breath caught, and she stared at Clarice in consternation. She probably had a lot of programming to undo before she could bring herself to say a Seraph's name. Clarice just waited, watching her expectantly. When Laurin realized that Clarice was just going to stand there until she said her name, she finally caved.
"Clarice," she whispered, barely audible.
Clarice looked around in confusion. "I think I heard someone say my name. Maybe? How about you demonstrate what saying it out loud sounds like so that whoever whispered it will get the hint."
The woman stared at her helplessly for several seconds while Clarice stared back at her with a mischievous grin. The grin seemed to give the woman courage.
"Clarice," she spoke in a more normal tone of voice.
"Well done!" Clarice congratulated her, pulling Laurin into a hug. She gasped as the power of Clarice's aura flooded her meridians with light, her eyes glazing over.
"Okay, Laurin likes jazz," Clarice announced with a triumphant smile as she released the woman. She turned to the next angel, a man with blonde hair and broad shoulders. "How about you, Deardrin, what kind of music do you like?"
Deardrin had been standing since she had pulled him upright before speaking to Laurin, but he looked ready to drop back to his knees at the earliest opportunity. He stared at her anxiously with nervous blue eyes. "Symphonic, your exal-"
He cut off as she stuck a finger to his lips. "You better have been about to say your exultant variety of music, because my name doesn't start with "your" or have "exal" anywhere in it. My name is Clarice. Let's hear it."
He swallowed nervously, looking around at the other angels for some kind of lifeline. Expectant faces stared back at him with no help at all. Clarice started tapping her foot impatiently as she waited.
"Clarice," he mumbled, looking down at the ground.
"I'm up here," Clarice informed him gently, raising his chin up so that he was looking into her eyes. "My name, please?"
"Clarice," he said slightly louder, his eyes captivated by her swirling nebulas.
"Excellent!" Clarice smiled widely. "Deardrin likes symphonic. I'm a big fan too. Maybe we can get Calypso to host a concert for us sometime."
Clarice continued moving through the crowd of angels, asking questions about hobbies and interests. Derek was one of the few former Earth humans and was more familiar with Clarice after seeing her on various YouTube videos, as well as the livestream where she had informed them of the moons impending demise. When she reached him, she smiled with relief.
"You must be from Earth," Clarice noted as she observed his behavior toward her.
"Yep, Denver as a matter of fact," he answered casually. "I watched your livestream with my son when you were announcing your intentions to blow up the moon. He was convinced you were playing a prank."
"Yeah, I get that a lot for some reason," Clarice smirked. "For some reason, people just don't take me seriously."
"I wonder why," Derek replied dryly.
Clarice shook her head ruefully. "Well, we'll see how long it takes to convince the other angels that we're just people and that we are all equal, regardless of responsibilities or class."
"We have eternity," Derek pointed out with a small smile. "I'm sure it will eventually sink in."
"We've got some new and interesting things on the horizon for everyone, so I'm guessing it won't be a big deal for much longer," Clarice told him with a mysterious smile. "It's going to be as crazy to angels as discovering angels was to humans."
Derek raised his eyebrows, intrigued. "You're just going to dangle that in front of me, huh?"
"Yep, cause I'm a tease," Clarice grinned impishly. "It was nice to meet you, Derek. I'm sure we'll bump into each other occasionally. We can go incognito when we want to, so you'll never know if you're talking to one of us, mwahahaha."
Derek chuckled, feeling a growing fondness for their restored Seraphim. Normal angels like him had certainly never seen a Seraph. They never came down to the lower light realms. It was still strange to see them here, acting like it was no big deal.
Clarice ascended up into the sky to rejoin the other Seraphim. Derek smiled wistfully as he watched Aria and Calypso pull her into a hug before they all vanished. Things were definitely going to be different with the new Seraphim being more involved with regular angels.
"I can't believe you got away with talking to a Seraph that way," the woman next to him breathed in amazement.
"Weren't you listening to them?" Derek asked, raising an amused eyebrow. "That's exactly how they want to be treated. They are humble people and more concerned with people treating each other with love and compassion than deference."
"I know they said that..." the woman trailed off with a bemused expression. "But it just seems so unnatural for them to be treated like equals."
"That's because we were conditioned by the old Seraphim, Cherubim, Dominions, and Archangels to believe that nonsense," Derek replied with a growing sense of disapproval. Until he had been trapped in a mortality loop on Earth, the idea of equality never would have occurred to him. Equality probably wasn't a thing in worlds controlled by angels, from the sounds of it. He suddenly remembered something Clarice had said.
"Do you know what Clarice meant about angels being able to see each other's names in auras?" he asked the woman curiously.
"I've heard that the Seraphim can see every person's name in their aura," the woman replied musingly. "I never knew what to believe about Seraphim, considering how wild some of the stories were."
"She seemed to think we had the same ability," Derek commented, then looked closely at the woman next to him. He peered at what he could see of her aura. After a minute of staring, he made out the name, Danatie. "Is your name Danatie?"
She blinked at him in surprise. "Yes, how did you know?"
"It's on your aura, just like she said," Derek answered, feeling his own sense of surprise. He had stared at angel auras for millions of years and never seen a person's name on it. "I wonder if this is another change they made when they rewrote reality. I'm not sure why they would make it so that everyone can see each other's names on auras, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that way before."
"I wonder what other little things have changed," Danatie murmured, pursing her lips thoughtfully.
An angel was making her way through the crowd, greeting people as she meandered through. She was tall, with bright red hair and green eyes. She looked familiar. He had probably met her before mortality, but his perfect memory was drawing a blank. She was stopping to chat with people for a minute or two before moving down a few people. He stared at her aura, curious what her name would be. Aurora. He frowned, not having any recollection of meeting any Aurora's before.
"Hi, you must be Derek," Aurora greeted when she reached him. "The one that Clarice was talking to, right?"
He felt Danatie stiffen slightly at hearing the Seraph's name used and had to repress a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm Derek. You must be Aurora, based on your aura."
"Ah, you already discovered the names showing up in auras," Aurora had a pleased smile as she stared at him. "It's kind of nice to be able to know who you are talking to without needing to go through the introductions, isn't it?"
"I have an introverted sister who avoids meeting new people just because of the awkwardness of the introductions," Derek reminisced with a smile. "Well...had a sister. I guess she's just another angel somewhere up here. I'll need to track my son down and see how he's doing."
Aurora's face had frozen when he mentioned his introverted sister hating introductions. It was gone in a split second, but it was curious. "Yeah, it's going to be amazing to reconnect with family members now that we're back here finally, isn't it? Being a parent seems to leave an imprint between angels. I still think of the angels who were my parents as my parents here."
"The mortal realm definitely leaves a strong impression on an immortal mind," Derek agreed with a fond smile. "I'll have to see if I can find my parents. I wonder if there is something similar to a social media system on Earth where people could go to find all of their old family members."
"Hey, that's a great idea," Aurora exclaimed with a jubilant smile. "We should ask the Seraphim to install something using the divine instruments."
"I don't exactly have them on speed dial," Derek responded with a wry smile. "Besides, I'm sure they have way more important things to do"
"They said we could just call out to them any time we needed them," Aurora reminded them, her green eyes full of excitement. "I think you underestimate how useful that system would be. So many people would find that worthwhile. So many connections have been made with other angels over the eons of reincarnating. Let's call them."
"Wait!" Danatie cried out in panic. "We can't just summon a Seraph."
"Sure we can," Aurora disagreed with a delighted laugh. "They said we could."
"I'm sure they didn't mean that literally," another man commented dubiously.
"Calypso, can we talk to you?" Aurora spoke out loud, her eyes sparkling.
The angels around them stared in horrified fascination as Aurora waited expectantly. They didn't have to wait long. Calypso popped into place in front of her, a smile on her face as she faced Aurora. Her Seraph aura blanketed the area around them for miles, making it clear that a Seraph was back. Silence spread across the multitude of angels as they listened to see what had brought a Seraph back so soon after they had left.
"Hello Aurora, can I help you with something?" Calypso asked, her voice friendly.
"Derek had a brilliant idea that I wanted to share with you in case you could help by using the divine instruments," Aurora answered with an excited grin. "We were talking about trying to find family members from the mortal realm and he mentioned how nice it would be to have something similar to social media on earth to help people find their loved ones."
The angels around her were gaping in shock at the sudden appearance of a Seraph, and then horror as Aurora asked her to use the divine instruments for them. Derek nearly laughed at the expressions, remembering when he would have been just as shocked before he had gone to Earth.
"That's a really good idea," Calypso beamed at Derek, raising the positive energy in the area with her smile. "I'll go talk to the others about it and we'll come up with some ideas. Off of the top of my head, I'm thinking some kind of virtual interface that can appear like a heads-up display. We could have everyone linked to a centralized server where they could connect to have holographic video calls. We could integrate a browser into the heads-up display where people could access angel-net."
"Angel-net?" Aurora repeated doubtfully. "Maybe digital realm or something. I'm not sure angel-net would hit it off. It sounds like a kid with a butterfly net trying to catch angels."
Calypso burst out laughing at the visual, raising the ambient light levels by an order of magnitude. "Okay, digital realm. Or maybe E-realm? D-Realm?"
"Sure, something like that," Aurora agreed with a nod. "Thanks Calypso!"
"No problem," Calypso pulled her into a hug. "I'm glad you called for me. Don't hesitate to call again in the future. We're here to help."
"Okay, it's a deal," Aurora winked at Calypso and received a return wink before Calypso vanished.
"Did that really just happen?" Danatie breathed in disbelief. "You just called a Seraph and asked her to play a divine instrument for you."
"Do they seem like the kind of people that have a problem with that?" Aurora asked intently.
The angels around them shared thoughtful glances. Derek stared at Aurora curiously, feeling a suspicion grow in his mind as he observed her satisfied expression. Clarice had just told him they could appear incognito and mingle with them unnoticed. As he had the thought, Aurora glanced over and met his eyes. She very deliberately winked before moving on to visit with more of the other angels. Derek watched her go, feeling a lightness in his heart as he imagined how different the future was going to be for angels.
Calypso had seemed very confident that she could replicate the internet of Earth, even improving on it using integrated heads-up displays with holographic imaging. Just how much could they actually do with these divine instruments? What kind of reality did they live in where a musical instrument could build a complex computer network that linked all of them together? The more he thought about it, the more he wondered what the big reveal was that Clarice had hinted at. He had been a software developer for the last fifteen years of his mortal life. He had worked on large language models for some of the AI systems on Earth for several years and had a pretty good idea of what the distant future held for humans. Could they already be in a simulated reality? Had it taken him millions of years and a short blip of his overall lifespan as a mortal on Earth to finally make the connection?
He sighed as he turned back to speak with Danatie. He hoped she could overcome her awe of the Seraphim and start seeing them as people.