Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

1: Unfellable

"Not at all. But I will keep to what I have promised." It was hard to drop the formal speech after an entire day in the presence of the superiors. "It is my duty."

"Ease up Nic." It was almost second nature for Dohn to remind me to relax at this point. "Why don't we head to the baths? One last time before your journey. Fust can come too, if you'd enjoy that more than my company."

Dohn, among others, was fairly convinced Fust and I had coupled in the past. This was entirely ungrounded and false, but the rumors always persisted. Dohn was mostly joking with me, as was his nature, but there was always the sense that he thought part of it true. I was wholly chaste, as was any good angel, and had no impure desires.

"A bathe will ease my nerves, yes." I said. I wasn't very nervous, but Dohn seemed to be. Besides, with Enae on my footfalls I wasn't going to be heading anywhere interesting.

In the outer spheres of Heaven, the bathhouses are more or less sheds over ponds, with minimal heating. In the inner circle the bathhouses were just that: houses that were baths. I had access to the best one in Heaven, the one built right into the Church Tower. The first floor was all superior housing, but the basement was devoted to the bathhouse. The walls were light grey stone, and the entire floor was a pool. It only got about chest deep, and the water was kept a comfortably high temperature.

We stripped out of our clothes, folding them and placing them in one of the designated brick storage holes. Then we got it- Dohn was right, it did help me relax a bit. I almost felt like melting the moment I got in. I couldn't remember a time I had felt such warm water.

My time to relax was soon cut short, however, the moment Dohn pointed out the presence of the Arch-Angels.

There were four Brothers of Blood, and five Arch-Angels. And while I had seen them all, once way or another- Percial lurked in the library, Uriel was often out and about, everyone had been healed by Raphael at least once, Gabriel usually addressed the troops and I had just met Michael today- seeing them all together rightfully frightened me. I felt like I should have been bowing at the sight of them.

"Even they look relaxed!" Dohniel whispered to me, as to not bring attention to us. It was true. They all looked distracted, or else resting, and I soon put them out of my mind as long as I kept to the opposite side of the bath.

The typical purpose of resting at the bath is to gossip. And even here, among my betters, there was much gossip to be heard. I didn't know any of the speakers or the discussed, however, so most of it was lost on me.

"Haven't you heard about Eo and Marvial?" As usual, couplings and fellings were the height of conversation no matter what tier of society you belonged to. I guess none of us could get enough of sin and punishment.

Some of the more daring had other topics in mind- women, usually. It was a huge and purposefully daring move to discuss women so close to the Arch-Angels, especially in the sort of way these men were going on about them. The women, few as they were, were our sacred superiors. And these men were acting like nothing less than demons! I felt thoroughly offended by their lack of respect, but didn't dare to speak up.

And even then, there was short sort of murmur among the gathered, and when I turned around I saw two of the women had come to join in the bath. As custom, everyone nodded their head down and kept entirely quiet until they had entered the water and waded over to join the Arch-Angels. I looked up- there was Cassiel again, our military chief, and Chilial, the messenger.

Along with Victory and Humility, there were four women in Heaven. They carried the divine power of knowledge that we would never understand, and it was their duty to keep Heaven strong and safe. Because of this they were never allowed to leave, of course. It was a common gripe of Cassiel that she wasn't allowed to do any battlefield surveying or commanding, despite training all the soldiers. But it couldn't be helped- she was not allowed to die.