The Angels' Pride

by Steven Lindsay

  The first to fall to her magic, with no warning, was Asterion. He was the original Minotaur, born from the unholy mating of Queen Pasiphaë and a sacred bull of Poseidon. He had been locked away in the Labyrinth and fed Athenians until he was killed by Theseus. She stripped the Curse from him, not caring about being gentle for she could feel his violent nature. Then again it had been determined by his predatory lifestyle and a life deprived of love and affection. She laid him to rest where he had stood, giving him gentle dreams.

  The Centaurs had some sense of her approach, she burned pure white, a completely unnatural light in Hell. There was nothing they could do to stop her or defend themselves, Hell had afforded them no powers. Their only task was to shoot any who tried to climb out of the boiling river of blood. The stench was horrific.

  She was gentler with them, the Curse was stripped from them slowly and carefully. They might be violent by nature, but that was born from a warrior culture and the need to protect. She was particularly gentle with their leader Chiron, who was completely undeserving of his fate. The Gods had honoured his life and sacrifices by making him a constellation. The Curse of the Angels had pulled him from his resting place and cast him into Hell.

  She swept across the river, extinguishing its flames and calming the raging blood. She could feel its nature, it was fed by the Rivers of Death, but it was a perversion she wished she had the time to fix. It was a waste of time and magic while the Curse remained.

  Once she passed the river, she entered the next ring of the Violence Level but here she slowed, and her powers became gentler. The anguish and sorrow of the field’s victims pulled at her hardened heart. She might have covered it in ice to protect herself, but it was still the innocence and caring thing it always had been. She had seen the cruelty of Hell, unimaginable to her in her naivety. She had been horrified at what had been done, beings twisted beyond their nature and undeserving people punished.

  Simurgh, Chiron, Bahamut, and Kujuta were the innocents that instantly sprang to mind. Poor beautiful Simurgh turned into a monstrosity, poor gentle Bahamut and Kujuta fused together in eternal torment, poor loyal Chiron ripped from his rest. Then there were the countless Daemons and Humans suffering for their natures. The injustice of it all tormented her, she could not leave them trapped in Hell, but how was she to free them?

  The field was densely populated, perhaps nearly as densely as the Heresy Level but instead of corpses or bodies, there were only twisted brown bushes and trees. They were the victims of suicide, cruelly denied their bodies.

  For the first time since she had burst through the Gates, she stopped moving, overwhelmed by the anguish of these poor tortured souls who had sought death to ease their sufferings. They had not known that greater suffering awaited them.

  Tears rolled down her face as she poured her powers through the field. As her powers spread through the field, she learned the story of each and every victim, before releasing the spirits from their barky confines. The sorrow and despair of their lives seeped into her, she lived so many of their memories with tears rolling down her face. So many of the victims had suffered rape and abuse in their lives with no hope of an end. They had sought the release of death only to be tortured for seeking that release. There were other tales as well; killers who could not bear their guilt, people who had destroyed their own lives through gambling, sex, alcohol, and drugs. There were lovers who could not live on without their loved ones, parents too bereaved and grief stricken to think rationally, many who could not forgive themselves for one thing or another. There were those who had ended up destitute. Those who had been driven to suicide by bullying, harassment, shame and sheer hopelessness. Then there were those who had ended their lives early rather than endure the wasting pain of fatal sickness.

  Yet they were all punished eternally, unable to move or defend themselves as they were eaten again and again by the Harpies.

  Tears continued to roll down her face even as she saw the trees and bushes crumple as they released the trapped spirits. Their transparent blue-white faces turned to her filled with utter devotion. She could, unfortunately, do no more for them while Hell was still bound by Gabriel’s Curse. But at least for the moment, she had given them peace.

  Which was all they had ever sought.

  She was confused by the presence of the Profligates when their nature was the same as the Prodigal she had encountered in the Greed Level. She seriously began to wonder what kind of man Dante had been and if his beliefs were typical for his age. Then again the Middle Ages had been a particularly violent era in which the Church had only grown in power.

  She calmed the dogs tasked with chasing them, buying them some rest also. As for the Harpies that infested the Suicide Woods she was less gentle. Her power slammed through their minds, angry at their treatment of the poor spirits before she realised her error in judgement. They were as Cursed as everything else in Hell. They were a race descended from Divine blood, one of the multitudes of semi-Divine races that had existed before the War. They had been exterminated by the Angels then their spirits denied rest within Hell. Their spirits were enslaved to torture the souls of the dead in Hell.

  They had been trapped in Hell long before Dante had come through to reshape it.

  Guilty of her anger she sent them all to sleep, allowing their bodies to gently land on the ground. She carefully moved through the spells Gabriel had wrought on them, surprised to find older curses on them. Who else had cursed them?

  She skillfully unravelled all the curses laid upon them, easy with her powers flowing so freely.

  Their change in appearance was dramatic. Their Hell forms were truly Demonic; they had the typical Demon wings, but these were fused to their arms. Their hands and feet were long stabbing talons suited only to cutting and tearing. Their bodies were somewhere between reptilian scales and insect chitin, hard flexible and shiny. They ranged in colours from black, grey and purple to red and green. They had truly been terrors of the skies.

  Yet the removal of their Curses revealed creatures nearly entirely different. They weren’t even Human sized, being slightly less than half her size. Their small bird bodies were no different to any other bird their size, ranging in colours and plumage greatly, but all their necks were crowned by small Human heads. Their faces were gentle and serene, reflecting their Classic Greek beauty. Their brown or black hair fell free behind their heads.

  They seemed so peaceful sleeping. Yet she was not fooled, they had always served as the punishers of the truly guilty.

  She released her spells feeling far calmer than when she had entered the Level. She had done a lot of good, even if it would not last.

  She floated further into the Level.

  The third ring within the Violence Level started where the old forest had ended. The flat stony ground changed into burning sand dunes with fire drifting down from above. A quick magical scan revealed three groups of people, those lying in the sand, those sitting on it and those wandering about in groups. Her magic easily revealed their natures.

  Those lying in the sand were Blasphemers, those apparently violent to God. It was a varied group of angry Christians, Jews, and Muslims who had been unhappy with their lots in life. They were more numerously made up of those who had not belonged to the Angels and were made to suffer for their lack of faith.

  Those sitting were the Usurers, and she got the distinct impression that there had been a steep increase in their numbers in recent decades. She wondered why charging interest on lent money was a sin before God, but she had given up trying to understand the Angels religions and Dante’s image of Hell. She felt sorry for them, the modern world was structured around lending money and charging interest on it. She vaguely wondered if every bank owner or manager ended up here even if they had committed other sins. She would have thought they would have been victims of Greed, but here they were in this lower Level.

  It made no sense to her.

  The last group was far more numerous than the two other groups comb
ined, and she found them to be extremely diverse. They were the Sodomites. The vast majority were Incubi and Succubi, but all the races were represented. She was disheartened to discover that most of them were simply there for the sin of being Bisexual or Homosexual.

  It was unjustly cruel to punish someone for something that was perfectly natural and could not be changed. Yet she knew this to be her brother’s handiwork. Gabriel was ambivalent about sexuality, she loved Michael and couldn’t care less what others got up to sexually so long as they were married. Michael, on the other hand, hated any deviation from Heterosexuality. She had never questioned it before, but now she wondered why he hated it so much.

  There were a surprising number of Heterosexuals as well, which confused her until she probed deeper. She blushed when she saw people’s memories. She had never had sex, so seeing through their memories felt very strange. It was even stranger because she had so little experience with it at all, it was never talked about in Heaven. Though her time among the Greek Gods had taken away the mystery of it. She might be innocent, but she was no longer ignorant. They had believed sex was a natural and integral part of life. They had no qualms discussing it.

  The memories taught her many things, the overriding factor being that these people were connected by similar sins. The sin of the penis not entering the vagina exclusively. Having spent so much time in Hades, she was confused as to why this was perceived as wrong. She had been party to many conversations about the wide range of sexual practices and had accidently seen more than she had meant to on numerous occasions. The Greeks were very open minded about sexuality and sex. To her mind seeking pleasure didn’t seem like a sin, but what did she know? She had never had sex to make such judgement calls.

  It seemed particularly prejudiced against homosexuals, they couldn’t have heterosexual sex. Why was it so wrong to express love in the only physical way available to you? She couldn’t understand it at all.

  She was utterly repelled by some of the Sodomites, though, they had truly earned their place in Hell. She quickly shied away from the memories of the paedophiles, their memories sickening her with the merest glimpse of their memories. It wasn’t about love, affection or physical connection. It was horrific and wholly unnatural. Because of them, many of their victims were now residents of the Suicide Ring.

  It was completely unjust that they had been painted with the same brush as those whose only crime was love.

  There wasn’t much she could do, though. Resigned she simply floated through the ring extinguishing the flames. Then inspiration hit her. She probed back through the Level finding the Harpies, dogs, and Centaurs. Speaking to them she gained their assent as she marked the paedophiles for who they were. Flaming collars marked them all from the innocent. She just could not leave them mixed among those who had genuinely committed no crimes.

  She extinguished more flames as shrieks started to sound out behind her. She smiled in satisfaction as the Centaurs, Harpies and dogs started rounding up the paedophiles and driving them into the rivers of blood. They did not deserve the respite she had bought the others. What she had seen had truly sickened her to her core. She didn’t know if she would ever get the images out of her head, but she had a good understanding as to why so many victims preferred suicide to living on.

  Conveniently the Guardians found merit in the new task she had set them. But she also felt the strain of her actions. She had changed so much of Hell, but the Curse was not broken and already it was trying to claim back what she had cleansed. She could feel the fear of millions, perhaps billions flooding Hell as they saw the Curse seeking to reclaim her territory. She had overextended herself so much, drawing upon reserves she hadn’t even known she had. She was sure she had died in the mortal sense but because she had not been drained she had remained. As to how she had regained consciousness with more power...she was at a loss.

  She hurried on. Such strain on her was not good, it made her weak to Hell’s attacks. She could feel the Curse bearing down on her. It would do no one good if she became Cursed herself. All her work would be undone, and any chance of curing Hell would be lost.

  She could not allow that to happen.

  The black Bentley roared along the motorway, leaving far behind the city of London and all its duties. Inside sat Victoria II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And by Brigid’s plan a whole lot more. Sitting wearing mourning black she bore more than a passing resemblance to her ancestor whose name she carried. On either side of her sat Prince Cathair and Princess Aisling of the Fae. All sat in complete silence.

  The car was on its way to Victoria’s country estates in Scotland, which incidentally was within Fae territory. They had already argued about whose land it was when they set out.

  Victoria sat in silence remembering her father’s funeral. She had hated sitting through the Christian ceremony, but she hadn’t been able to have it changed. He had been blessed by a God that didn’t exist, in a place holy to those who had killed him. Would she have to endure the same Christian pomp for her coronation? She would have to ask Brigid, surely she had other intentions.

  It struck her that what she and Brigid planned to do would divide Britain. Christianity was its major religion with various sects. There was also a great deal of Muslim immigrants. But she would stamp them both out if it was the last thing she did. The Angels would gain no power from her land and people. But that was Brigid’s goal also, and she had the powers to make it so. Britain would be free of the Angels’ grasp.

  But who would crown her instead of the Archbishop of Canterbury? What would she hold instead of the orb? Could it even be held at Westminster Abbey? She hoped despite its religious taint it would still be used. It was where her father and those before him had been crowned. There had to be some way to make it acceptable to Brigid. Yet she knew that Brigid was not the major obstacle. She had the British public, parliament and the Churches of England and Scotland to worry about also.

  She was the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the Defender of the Faith and yet here she was planning on stripping it of its power and banishing its teachings.

  She hoped to Brigid that they could pull it off. Otherwise, her reign would be remarkably brief. She had no desire to contest Lady Jane Grey as the shortest serving monarch. It was a fitting comparison, England had been torn apart by religious differences and intolerance in her time.

  The world really hadn’t come that far.

  She felt a burning hate towards the Angels and to a lesser degree the religions that empowered them. But did she really want to ignite a civil war by denouncing and banning Christianity? What would happen to the Churches of England and Scotland? All the churches, abbeys and cathedrals? What of the people? What if they refused to accept her decree? What would she do with them? She couldn’t very well kill them. It was unthinkable. She didn’t want to mount her throne bathed in blood, never mind all the Human rights it would breach.

  She hoped Brigid had the answers. Wherever she was.

  “Why does the sky look like it is on fire?” Victoria asked of the Fae.

  They both snapped around to look at where she was pointing. Up in the evening sky, fire was spreading through the clouds and clear sky alike. High in the sky, an ominous crucifix burned.

  “The Angels have lit the Fires,” Aisling muttered before she dashed off. As soon as she was out of the sight of Victoria’s servants she disappeared.

  Victoria watched her vanish before turning to Cathair. He looked deeply troubled. “What is going on?”

  He sighed heavily “The Angels know Britain is sealed off from them. That is why they light the Fires. It is a warning of Divine Retribution that will descend on us. That they have done it so blatantly in the Modern Age shows just how deep their fury runs.

  “What kind of retribution?”

  He looked at her like she was stupid “The Fires of Heaven, the Apocalypse, and its Horsemen, the Greater Demons and the Demon Horde, or sending Human armies a
t us. Their options are many and devastating. It is the herald of great death and devastation from the Angels.”

  “Then why on earth did we activate the spell?”

  “Because they would have sensed the spike in power that Brigid’s presence is having on the land. It bought us more time and will help shield us. The Fires have been lit, but no attack has come yet, nor will it until they are surer of their position.”

  He wandered off inside the manor, and she was left feeling frightened and vulnerable. She had expected the Fae to be steadfast in their resolve, but they seemed strangely accepting of an inevitability she had not been warned about. Couldn’t they have acted more assured for her sake?

  She needed the comfort of Brigid’s presence and assurance. She was the patron of Britain and Ireland, she wouldn’t let them fall. Would she?

  “No, I will not allow the Angels to sully my land any further, but it is nice to know I’ve been missed.”

  Victoria spun around to see Brigid standing behind her accompanied by the most surprising and incredible thing she had ever seen- real Unicorns. She threw herself into the Goddess’ arms, taking Brigid by surprise. Brigid was truly touched. It was her nature that set her apart from the other Gods and Angels, it was also what had made converting her loyal worshippers so difficult. The other Gods had called it a weakness or an amusing temperament, but she had always had far more Humanity in her than any other full Divine being. Even more than the other Mother Goddesses who embodied life, then again life was harsh, and some of them were quite uncaring.

  Other Gods and Angels waged war with little or no care for the cost in mortal lives. Sometimes they didn’t even care for the cost in Divine lives. She knew she could never be that callous, just as she knew that hundreds of thousands, even millions of people were going to die for her. The Second War of Heaven would surely erupt soon, the lines were already being drawn up. Britain was safe for the moment, but Victoria needed to be on the throne for the spell to be at full strength. Once she was crowned Britain, and its colonies were in for some turbulent times.