Darned to Heck

Remiel

~Heaven~

"Elerial, what a pleasant surprise." I was greeted warmly by Paschar, the archangel of vision upon my arrival at the gates of knowledge. Paschar was the tutor of Remiel and would have known about my visit months before I had even made the decision to come. This decision had of course been by the pure chance of my own apprentice overhearing rumours whilst studying. But with Paschar there was no such thing as chance, or surprise for that matter.

"Surprise I doubt, but I still hope that my visit will be pleasant." I smiled at my old friend and he embraced me cheerfully.

"There are definitely surprises still to be had my friend, the reason you are here is quite enough proof of that."

We began to walk side by side towards the place I assumed Remiel currently resided, enjoying each other's silent company for a while before I spoke.

"Do you believe it then? I mean to cause no offence but Remiel is young, do you not feel that he is mistaken? Surely what he says cannot be true."

Paschar paused at the arched entry to the carved white stone building and regarded me with determination.

"I believe in many things Elerial, and one of those is the reliability of Remiel's visions. But I can perfectly understand your scepticism, after all what he has seen is quite impossible, I myself am still struggling to rationalise such a vision."

"Perhaps the vision was interpreted wrongly?" I tried again, hoping for some sort of agreement from my companion.

"It's a possibility," Paschar allowed, only for the sake of pacifying me "but you can ask him about that yourself, we're here." With a light tap on the strong pale wooden doors of the structure he opened them without waiting for a response, he then followed me inside and shut them with a quiet click behind us.

The young angel Remiel sat cross legged in the centre of a room whose arched ceilings gathered at the centre in a large high dome. This dome presided over a wide circular space beneath, and was held up at regular intervals by five strong white pillars. A round hole in the top of the dome flooded the room with an ethereal golden light, casting long shadows over the relaxed features of the seer and onto the complexly patterned mosaic floor of interlocking pearl and stone beneath him. The high tops of the pillars were intricately carved and the panels of the vaulted ceiling were exquisitely painted with scenes of visions, miraculous in both their craftsmanship and accuracy.

"Master," Remiel spoke, opening his eyes to reveal irises of a shockingly clear glacier blue. His voice was soft and uttered in hushed tones like wind brushing over the leaves of trees on a summer day, honey blond hair fell in fine tousled curls about his face and shoulders and he exuded a strong sense of knowingness that was entirely unique and quite incomparable to any other of Paschar's many apprentices.

"Remiel." Paschar smiled fondly at his most promising student. "I have a visitor for you."

His quick blue eyes flickered to my face, such a delicate transparent blue that seemed to see right through me almost before he had even looked at me. My doubts over his vision melted away instantly under his gaze, and were replaced with growing dread. What this young angel had seen had been no mistake, and it had not been misinterpreted either.

"I know." He smiled in a faraway way, now seeming to look past my physical form to something that I probably would not be able to comprehend. "Hello Elerial, I have been looking forward to your visit."

"As have I Remiel." I replied, stepping further into the room "I'm sure you are aware of the reason behind it?"

He nodded and I sighed a little, sure I was not going to like what he had to tell me.