"You can stay for one night," he said, thirty years ago.
-/-
The forest was beginning to bleed into a more organized garden. The path beneath his feet was still carpeted with arboreal detritus, but it seemed more path-like than the forest trail he'd been walking on. On either side, too, the trees were beginning to thin out, with hedges filling the gaps between them.
Aziraphale was starting to flag when he heard singing. Not good singing, mind you, rather, it was the sort of singing that one did when one was completely alone and very happy and singing solely for one's own pleasure. The sound gave him a burst of energy and he hurried around the corner, following the voice- around a curve in the path, another corner-
The singer turned out to be a nun. Aziraphale came to an abrupt halt at the sight of her, singing quite happily to herself as she plucked the flowers from the hedge and placed them in a basket dangling from one arm.
A nun in a goblin city. Well, now he'd seen everything.
He cleared his throat in an attempt to interrupt her, and then a second time when that didn't work.
When it didn't work any better the second time, he said, "Excuse me, dear lady," in as loud a voice as manners would permit. This, finally, got her attention: she gave a startled gasp and her basket fell to the ground.
"Saints and demons preserve us," she said. "You gave me quite the fright, Master Fairy!"
"I do apologize," he said, hurrying over to help her gather her basket of flowers. Once they had been gathered (he noticed as they did that she didn't seem particularly interested in keeping the flowers from being harmed), he smoothed down the front of his waistcoat as best he could despite the tearing and said, "If you'll excuse my asking, ah... well, are you really a nun?"
"Oh absolutely," she chirped. "I'm Sister Mary Loquacious, from the Chattering Order of St. Beryl. It's a pleasure to meet you~ Master Crowley said you might be coming along at some point, and look, here you are! Imagine, Master Fairy coming down my path of the Labyrinth! Gracious, though, look at you! I'd always imagined fairies to be wee little things with butterfly's wings, but you're a proper man-sized, aren't you?"
She held out a hand, and Aziraphale took it, a little bewildered. "Yes, I... yes," he said slowly, brain doing the necessary reordering that came from a first encounter with one of the Chattering Order. "That is to say, fairies are... anyway." He broke off, trying to follow the chatter, and said, "My dear, if I may ask, why is there a nun in a goblin city?"
"Well I live here, of course! Well, not here , obviously, I actually live nearer the wall, Master Crowley says it's vital that we all stay as far away from the tower as he can get us, but it's really nice at the wall, he made us a new convent and everything, and even gave us a door into the mortal realm and says that we can go back out and live with the mortals again any time we like, but of course we all like it here so much that we're very happy to stay, except on Thursdays when we go out bicycling. We could just bicycle in the labyrinth, of course, but it always just plays bicycle race on a loop when we do and we all get rather tired of hearing the same song on repeat the whole time. At least in the mortal realm we can listen to something other than Queen."
"Um." Aziraphale wished he still had his magic: he desperately wanted to put her to sleep, at least for a moment. He could see why Crowley would want her as far away from his tower as possible, at least. "Okay. Let's see if I can get a short answer from you- why is there a convent of nuns in a goblin city?"
"That's a very long story," she said. "You see-"
"On second thought, no, I don't want to know."
"Are you sure?"
"My apologies," he said, because she looked hurt, "but I'm in a hurry, you see. I need to reach the tower before-" He checked his timer. "-just under nine hours, or I will lose my godson forever. It's very important, and I do not have time to listen to a long story of no consequence to my quest."
She nodded. "Yes, of course, I understand." After a beat, she added, "Would you like me to take you there?"
"Would you?"
"Of course! Just let me-" She set the basket of flowers down beside the hedge, and held out her arm in a companionably way. "All right, come along. It's actually not that hard to navigate, once you get used to it."
-/-
As they walked, Sister Mary chattered endlessly at Aziraphale, including her explanation of her order and how they came to live in the goblin city. It was not, in fact, a long story, once it was trimmed down from her telling of it, so we'll summarize it here:
Some twenty or thirty years ago- Sister Mary wasn't sure, and in a general sense the nuns had ceased to count or care how long they had lived in the timeless city- they had been living in a Satanic convent in the mortal realm. It was a nice convent, and the Sisters were all a cheery lot, quite a far cry from what one would expect of Satanic nuns unless one had spent any time whatsoever around Satanic nuns.
Crowley had so happened to leave his city near the convent for awhile, for reasons known only to himself, and when a fire had caught in the convent, trapping most of the order within, he'd allowed them sanctuary in his city to escape the flames.
After that, they'd sort of just... stayed. He hadn't really intended for them to stay long-term, but their convent had been utterly destroyed and they had nowhere to go, so he'd just let them keep on as long as they liked. He'd even, as Sister Mary had said, built them a new convent in the city wall, and gave them their own exit so they could come and go as they liked.
(Privately, Aziraphale thought maybe he was hoping they'd leave, but it was very interesting that even though he'd made it clear as day that he didn't like them around, he still allowed them to live there as they liked.)
"And so, we live here and keep the labyrinth for him, and it's all very lovely, you know."
"I'm certain," Aziraphale agreed. "If you'll pardon the question, what were you picking those flowers for?"
"That? Well you see, Master Crowley gave that hedge specific orders to grow white roses for if you came through, but it went and got confused and grew red roses instead, so I was snipping off the flowers so it could grow new ones before he found out. He does shout so much when the plants don't listen, and it's so dreadful to listen to. They will tremble so."
"My dear, I think you may be mistaken," Aziraphale said, grabbing her pause for breath as an opportunity. "This forest feels no fear for your master- only love."
"Well of course it does!" she said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "He takes good care of it. Oh, he'll make his noises," she added, when he looked about to remind her of her earlier statement, "but we all know he wouldn't really follow through on his threats. He takes very good care of us, and as for the plants- well, they're metaphysically tied to him, aren't they? He can't hurt them anymore than he could hurt himself, literally, so they make a good show of being afraid to make him feel better and then just go on growing prettily for him." [1]
As they walked, Aziraphale felt the now-familiar tingle that told him Crowley was approaching. He looked up, but saw nothing, and when his gaze dropped back down Crowley had appeared in front of them.
"Master Crowley!" Sister Mary gasped, and curtsied, and took off. "I was just leaving!" she called over her shoulder as she fled.
Goblin and fairy watched her flee, and once she was gone turned their attention back to one another. Aziraphale spoke first.
"You know, when most people talk of crowds of virgins being lured into goblin cities, I don't think a sisterhood of Satanic nuns is quite what they're picturing."
Crowley snorted. "Virgins?" he said. "Don't know much about Satanic nuns, do you? Breaking vows is what they're good at. Also, I didn't exactly lure them in here. I did them a favor and I'm still paying for it."
"She spoke very highly of you," Aziraphale said. "Why did she run away?"
"Because I've given that lot orders that they aren't to come near me. Can't handle the chattering, how you stood it long enough for her to get you this deep in the labyrinth is astonishing. So angel," he added, returning to his habit of orbiting Aziraphale as they spoke. "You've got eight and some change hours, and you're still not anywhere near my tower. Ready to give up yet?"
Aziraphale pursed his lips, and then turned and began walking again. "Of course not," he called over his shoulder. "I've still got eight and some change hours."
-/-
[1] Sister Mary is incorrect here, actually, but more on that later.
-/-