The next morning, as announced, Gadriel came to pick up Aleks. Unfortunately, the excursion was conditional. No matter how reluctant Aleks was, he had to put on an angel's robe. With a grumble, he gave in. In addition, his angel shackle was hidden with a spell. Aleks quickly realized why – a prisoner would hardly walk around freely.
Together they walked towards the kitchen, where there was a large empty area, but no door far and wide.
"Gadriel, how are we getting out of here?" Aleks asked curiously.
"One thing you need to know about our sphere is that it doesn't work like the human world or Hell. We don't all live next to each other in one large area. Our seats are arranged on top of each other, like plates standing on top of each other. You get to the capital or other seats by flying, but usually we travel through portals," the angel explained, calling one. Unlike the demonic portals, the portals of the angels were gates of light that one passed through.
"When can angels create these?" Aleks asked the angel. Can I do that too? If so, it would be a way to escape, assuming he got rid of that shackle.
"Angels learn this very quickly," Gadriel said.
"And how do you create them? I mean, do you just think 'Portal, appear'?" Aleks replied, hoping to get valuable information.
Gadriel didn't seem to think anything of it and answered bluntly. "Young angels are taught by imagining that they are reaching for a ball that is in the place they want to travel to and pulling it towards them."
Aleks nodded. Very good, I can work with that.
When Aleks didn't ask any further, Gadriel nodded in the direction of the angel's portal. "Shall we go?"
"Let's go!"
Together they stepped through it and the next moment they were standing in a large paved square. Numerous angels with wings walked over it. Aleks spun in circles and saw what Gadriel had described to him. Around him were thousands of small and larger houses on top of each other on cloud-like plains, from some of which angels took off and flew.
Wow. "Where is Raphael's residence?" Aleks asked, still overwhelmed.
"The residences of the archangels are in the highest sphere and only angels of their rank or with special permission can enter them."
In other words, the VIP area, which is difficult to reach.
After tearing himself away from the sight, Aleks looked around here on the ground. He saw numerous shops and stalls to his left. On the right were two large buildings, the length of which he couldn't estimate. They had to be huge.
"The great building with the many columns is the divine library, where the knowledge of the world is written down and preserved. The other great one is the divine hall where the archangels hold their meetings and talk to the gods. The area on the left in front of us is the shopping area and if we go straight down the street we will get to the museum. There you will most likely meet many young angels who are going on an excursion from the school," Gadriel explained.
Wow, even angels go to school. He had to let it all sink in first. A light wind pulled on the hood with which he had covered his blond hair. Together they walked in the direction where Gadriel had located the museum. Aleks watched the angels around him and he noticed something – all of them had unfolded their wings.
"Can't angels retract their wings?" Aleks asked, which was probably wrong, since Samuel could do it too.
"No, that's not the reason. Our wings are a kind of status symbol that we are proud of. Moreover, there is no reason to retract them." Gadriel pulled in his with a jerk. Had he only done this so that Aleks didn't feel stupid because he couldn't let out his own?
Even though they were given a few questioning looks, no one spoke to them. They walked to the museum, while Gadriel happily continued chatting and explaining the area to him. Soon a large building with a sky-blue façade and black crosses appeared on it.
"The façade is intended to make it clear once again that this museum is intended to be a memorial. In the war at that time, many angels died or fell. The relatives were able to mourn them and it was a warning never to start such a war again. Angels don't often have offspring, which is why our children are so precious. It was a terrible loss for our race and took us thousands of years to recover from it," Gadriel explained.
They stopped in front of the huge entrance that welcomed them. They walked in and came into a huge hall. Aleks was astonished. With the angels, everything was more expansive and large. Sure, with wings such a track is no problem.
The floor was made of brown marble and the ceiling was very high and contained glass round elements from which natural light shone and illuminated the hall. This hall was more like a chessboard. There were lots of square islands on which works of art, artifacts or other exhibits were placed – all surrounded by glass. However, there was a clear path marked along which one could walk. Directly in front of him, they went to the right, the beginning of the historical journey. The first island contained several paintings portraying the revolt of Lucifer, as well as a feather of the archangel. The pictures were very detailed.
Then he walked on and saw writings and pictures that described the war and Lucifer's fall. At this point there were three paths, each leading to the war on the three spheres, i.e. in Heaven, Hell and Earth. First, he went to the island across the sky. A long wall of black marble appeared, and thousands of names were carved in white on it. Carefully, he ran over the stone and quietly read the names. One name caught his eye. Samuel. What is that?
"These are the names of the deceased and fallen angels. All the members we lost in this terrible war, one way or another," Gadriel said with a sad expression on his face.
Aleks looked at him with compassion. Had Gadriel also lost someone? Silently, they walked on and saw a group of seven little angels standing in front of a larger female angel. Aleks listened to her voice.
"And here, my little ones, you see a picture of the fall of the then Archangel Lucifer. He stood up to our supreme God and was punished. He was the first fallen angel and, unfortunately, not the last. In this war, Lucifer led many of our angelic warriors to death or damnation," she explained, and the children hung on her words.
"So the war broke out between demons, humans and angels...", but Aleks no longer listened. If only they knew that this wasn't the reason for the war. Aleks moved on to the area for the humans. There were also pictures and frescoes, as well as writings. He read them carefully until he came across the following sentence: "Some divine treasures were saved from the possession of the humans and returned to their original place."
"Gadriel, these treasures, what they're talking about here. Where are they?" Aleks asked the angel.
"They're in the back of the hall. Do you want to go there?" he asked kindly and Aleks nodded. They walked on together and the small group also continued.
Together they stopped in front of an island where the treasures were displayed on different pedestals. They were old masks, jewelry, weapons, boxes and caskets and much more. Aleks patiently looked at each one and tried to find out which one had belonged to the god Degei. This collection spanned four islands and on the third, he felt a slight tingling sensation, but couldn't make out what triggered it.
After an hour, he had memorized most of the treasures, but didn't know which one was the camouflaged key. He had to figure it out. They must have recorded it somewhere. But where? Aleks was lost in thought.
Michael walked up to the small group of young angels, who greeted him joyfully.
"Dear Sire," the female angel greeted him with a bow and the children also bowed their heads in awe. The archangel smiled.
"Are you studying diligently?" he asked the little ones, who nodded enthusiastically.
"Sire, may I ask you something?" a small young female angel with long brown curls and dark green eyes asked.
"You were present at the fall. How was it?" she asked curiously.
Michael smiled and replied, "It was a dark time..."
As he spoke and the children hung on his every word, his gaze wandered and lingered on the wingless back of a male angel. No wings? That was unusual. When he turned around, he froze. Light blond hair and blue eyes appeared, but what threw him off track the most were the facial features. Sayenne?
A pluck tore him out of his torpor. Had he stopped talking? He continued, but when he looked again in the direction of the stranger, he was gone. Had he imagined that?
Aleks had found a solution to his problem, although it could be described more as an approach. Where was the knowledge of artifacts kept? In the library, of course! If there were original, unaltered records anywhere, it was in the divine library, and this was, as luck would have it, also here in the capital of angels.
Gadriel had agreed to show him these as well. They walked back that way and soon the great white stairs and columns of the library appeared. Above the huge entrance was a golden fresco with the inscription, Knowledge is power, knowledge is freedom. Aleks couldn't help but smile, as this was literally true for him.
Next to the library were the divine halls, but they weren't allowed to enter them without concent. They crossed the large pillars and in front of them stretched a huge collection of books over an area of more than two football fields and so many floors that Aleks became dizzy just looking up. Incredible. The floor was made of white marble, as were the walls, and long red carpets stretched across the corridors between the large wooden shelves in which thousands of books had been neatly placed. Each course belonged to a subject area or topic.
"Over here are the general education topics," Gadriel said, and they walked to the wooden staircase that led to the higher floor. There were several of them in every corner and in the middle, so that you could switch between the floors. Again and again there were table islands with seats, where many inquisitive angels sat with open books.
"The second is dedicated to special topics such as war and combat tactics or healing techniques. The third of our history, the chronicles of families and the birth registers. In the fourth, demonic records or literature concerning the demon world, and in the fifth, the corresponding for the human world.
They walked up to the fifth floor, then they saw that there were guards on the staircase to the sixth. Aleks looked at them confused. "Here we go to the floors to which only higher-ranking angels or angels with a special permit have access. The supreme is reserved only for the archangels."
Aleks was amazed, but he had the uneasy feeling that the answer to his question was up there. He looked around on the fifth floor and saw that Gadriel had been approached by another angel. Then he went to him briefly and said, "You don't have to supervise me. We can also meet at the exit, because I can't escape from here either way."
Gadriel made a guilty face for a moment, but he knew Aleks was right. There was only one exit, and he hadn't seen his friend for a long time. He nodded briefly and went downstairs with the other angel, where they sat down next to the exit so that he had it in view.