Winter Da- . . .

“I should have expected this to happen” you say with a sigh. “I’m actually surprised it didn’t happen sooner”

“We had luck on our side” Artemis replied, a sigh of her own. “What are you going to do?” she asked. You and Artemis were observing a girl who had gone out into the morning sun to pray for assistance from you specifically.

“Invent birth control” you say simply.

“Technically that already exists” Artemis told you “The Romans of Pompeii used a plant that grew on the side of Mount Vesuvius” she said “It’s a little . . .”

“Under several meters of ash” you cut in, getting a nod from the girl “No, I think I’ll invent a herb that helps with periods as well, simply stop drinking it when you want children” you say calmly.

“That will cut birthrates quite a lot” Artemis commented and you grimace. Unfortunately, births are a necessary thing to have happen.

“Perhaps, but it offers so much more freedom” you reply before both of you sigh.

“What are you going to do about her problem though?” Artemis asked, referring to the girl on her knees and praying.

“Exactly what she asked for” you mutter, striding forward and ruffling her hair. Since she could neither see nor hear you, the girl started in surprise before looking up into the sky with a massive grin. Normally, you’d expect a young woman who’d just found out they had gotten accidentally pregnant to want the child gone, but no she just wanted her parents to accept it and her. “You can deal with the whole pregnancy part, that’s your thing anyway” you say as you stride away from the girl. A faint peal of laughter follows you as you leave.

****

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh” you sigh as you sip some piping hot tea. With the leaves dried and crushed, they were now ready for brewing. Of course, you just had to share your concoction with your wife, who was gently nursing a clay mug of her own tea. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” you sigh again after another sip, attracting an amused look from the silver goddess.

“What? Were you addicted to this stuff or something?” she asked, taking a gentle sip of her own brew.

“Yusssss” you say “Well, not quite tea so to speak, I usually prefer mine with milk and sugar actually, but what I’m missing is coffee” you explain. “There’s caffeine in tea and coffee but more so in coffee than tea” you say, taking another sip of your drink.

“So I take it there’s a problem with growing coffee? Or you’d have done it already” your vixen asked.

“I could grow it now of course, in my own private gardens, but for general purpose use? The place where it grows is under the control of the Enemy, and coffee is a bit more finicky about it’s growing climate than tea is” you say, sipping your brew again. It was just some simple black tea, nothing to write home about but the smell, the taste, it brought back things you had lost when you arrived here. Artemis chuckled lightly under her breath as she watched you, taking another gentle sip of her drink.

“Well, we have it now and I assume we will have fields of this stuff in the springtime?” she asked. You smile at the woman who clearly read your mind.

“It grows year round, harvest is every week or so” you say before taking another sip.

“What is that smell?” asked a curious Cat, wandering into your outdoor courtyard where you and Artemis had been sipping tea.

“Tea, my dear Cat, tea” you tell her before conjuring another clay mug and pouring some of the piping hot brew into it. You watched as Cattleya wandered over and picked the cup up, sniffing at the liquid inside curiously before taking a cautious sip.

“It tastes . . .” she began, taking another sip to try and place the taste. “It tastes . . .” she tried again, taking another sip. You chuckle before spawning a seat for her. Cattleya took it gratefully, holding her mug close to her chest and gently sipping at it.

“It tastes” Artemis agreed, sipping her own mixture. You sip yours and sigh, enjoying a nice, happy family moment.

****

“What do you mean I have to do all this by hand? Don’t you have a spinning wheel?” you ask Agathena. Your feminine voice turning high pitch as you whine.

“You mustn’t whine young lady!” Agathena scolded “it’s improper” she said as she steadily got to work on hand spinning some yarn.

“You didn’t answer the question” you comment. Agathena merely raised an eyebrow at you before returning to her work.

“Why would I want to use a wheel for spinning yarn?” she asked as if you were completely stupid. You frown as you mull this information over, preparing to just spawn a spinning wheel into existence, before remembering the woman’s rules. With a sigh, you send a mental jolt off to . . . well, yourself, and almost instantly, a knock sounds from the entrance way. “Now who could that be?” Agathena asked, getting up and wandering off towards the door. The next thing you know, You are waltzing in with a fully functional spinning wheel, setting it in the middle of the room you had been in. “What?” Agathena asked as she stared at the thing. You happily sigh and sit in the seat beside the spinning wheel. You hum a wistful tune as you get to work completely revolutionised the textile industry as it exists, pretending to not notice at all the wide eyed look of a woman who’s just realised she’s been doing it wrong her whole life.

****

You narrow your eyes as you scan the sky. You had felt something breach your ward barriers and that alone was cause for alarm, the smaller angels wouldn’t have the strength. The next issue you had with this was that the presence, now firmly in your sphere of detection, had set course directly for you. This leads you to the empty field you are in now, far enough away from civilians that they won’t even notice an epic showdown.

Your eyes hone in on a white streak heading for you at speed, and you ready yourself for battle. Before the streak hits the ground, a pair of magnificent white wings snapped open and flapped in mighty gusts, stopping the woman they belonged to in mid-air. You observe the woman, noting her raven black hair, her white robe, clasped at her left shoulder, and the fact that she was completely unarmed. As you observed her, the woman touched down gently, sandaled feet not even stirring the dust as she landed.

“Perhaps coming alone was not an intelligent idea” you tell the woman, settling into a fighting stance.

“I have not come to fight” the woman told you, staying where she landed.

“And what have you come for instead? Me? One of my people?” you ask, eyes narrowed and watching for the slightest twitch.

“No, I wish to defect” the woman replied, causing you to do a double take.

“I’m sorry, come again?” you ask incredulously. You settle back into a fighting stance, expecting some kind of diversion.

“I wish to defect” the woman repeated, not moving a muscle aside from when she spoke.

“I wasn’t aware angels could defect” you say with suspicion colouring your voice.

“Some of us are allowed to retain our free will, if we agreed to serve . . . ‘Him’” the angel said, spitting out the word ‘him’ like it was the ultimate evil. You could appreciate that.

“And why would you want to defect?” You ask. This whole situation was far too strange and out of the ordinary.

“I am one of the few angels who have an aspect, a sphere” she told you “I never liked this aspect to begin with, but it was necessary . . . now I hate it” she explained. “I can no longer stand to be what I am, and I can no longer stand . . . ‘Him’” she said, closing her eyes.

“And who are you? What is your aspect?” you ask, lowering your sword. If this was a ploy, it was a damned good one.

“My name is Azrael” The woman told you “My aspect is ****” she said, opening her eyes and looking straight into yours. You stare at her for a good long moment, contemplating what she just told you.

“I thought Azrael was a man, and that he had black wings and that he was for Judaism” you say, subtly challenging her words.

“All mortals whom I meet come with me when I leave” She told you “They are spared no time to give a description of what I look like to their fellows” she added, turning her gaze off to the side. “I . . . was one of the first Angels” she said “We performed duties in Lord God’s stead, A pantheon of gods we were . . . in all but name” she explained. “And then ‘He’ came, proclaiming himself the Lord God and demanding our fealty as was ordained” she continued. “We knelt before him” she said “We swore fealty” she said “I wish we had fought him, even knowing we would have been powerless to stop him, I wish we had fought him” throughout this entire time, Azrael had been talking in a flat monotone but her eyes were screaming in pain. That much you could see.

“Will you be willing to give up your power until such a time I decide to restore it?” you ask, meeting the woman’s gaze once more. She nodded without hesitation. You reached out with your power and felt for her own, an orb of white nestled deep inside of her. You grabbed it and yanked, sucking the divine power out of her. Azrael gasped and fell to her knees, panting as she got over what had just happened to her. You left just enough magic in her that she would still be technically immortal, but her wings were now just decoration, unable to lift her off the ground without her magical power.

Now sure there could be no tricks, you sheath your sword and stride over to the raven angel, helping her to her feet and holding her as she steadied herself. Once you are sure she could stand, you take a step back and place a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“What is ‘He’ doing with the souls of the dead?” you ask. You had noticed that he wasn’t sending them to the Underworld, so you assumed he had his own afterlife in his little palace. Azrael took a step forward so that her mouth was mere centimeters from your ear and she whispered her response. Your eyes went wide and your heart pounded, it was all you could do to keep your hand from tightening so much on the now **** angel’s shoulder as the horror of what she had just said sank to your very core.