Missouri stood measuring her appearance in the mirror's reflection, but she saw nothing, her conscious wasn't allowing her to pay any attention to something as trivial as her reflection. This was insane! No wonder humans weren't exposed to this life, she thought about the millions of people who cling to the sole teachings of religion in hopes that their God will do what's best, praying for their God to allow his angels to watch over them. If only they knew how flawed it all was, that no one was truly listening or even cared for anything other than their damned war!

Missouri's temper rose, how can angels and the Council not care what happens to humans, are they so cold, they wouldn't even have cared about her if she wasn't needed by their adversary. Unable to confront her inner dealings, she purposely stalked out of the room and directly to the roof where only Muriel stood. The angel, with her heightened sense of importance and cold stare, pinned Missouri with her gaze.

 Hadriel knocked on the door lightly and silently waited for it to allow him entrance. The door flew open without a sound and one of the angels guarding the door ushered him in. He was respected and known throughout the seven heavens as the Council's most trusted and competent soldier. So it was no surprise when the angel guarding the door and the others within the room, bent their heads slightly in reverence.

Heaven was not what religion described it to be. There was no throne room for God, there wasn't a God, nor was it paradise. It was a place of constant work, angels of all rank and disposition were always about. But in this particular room, there were two dozen angels that were heaven's second line of defence in case his end was penetrated.

That was the basic makeup of heaven, a huge house with millions of rooms each with different orders of angels, who were responsible for different things. Angels were even ranked, but Hadriel was not high up in that system he was just a solider, not as important as many other classes of angels.

Heaven was just a world filled with angels, and as much as humans would want to believe otherwise, the angels were not perfect, they were not merciful or kind, hell they were also filled with pride and envy and greed, they were not that different from humans, the only difference was that they were kept within limits, humans on the other hand had the greatest of gifts; free will.

Hadriel walked out of the room and through the corridor of the stone building. Whenever he was home he would always inwardly cringe at the thought that, to humans Heaven was all light, but in reality it was a gothic world of darkness, which he always thought, mirrored the life of every angel in its care. Hadriel could hear the sound of his feet echoing as they collided with the floor. He could have easily bared his wings and fly but, he need this time to think. 

There was something Varcan said that kept replaying itself to Hadriel. "I have a message to deliver." It immediately sparked some curiosity with Hadriel and made him realise that Varcan was not the sole reason for Missouri's wanted abduction. There was a lot more happening out of the angel's sights and he was going to find out what it was. Varcan was King, he needn't report to anybody, and the way he looked at Hadriel was as if he possessed a deadly secret.

"Can I help you with something?" Muriel spat. Whoa! That's a lot of venom!

"No, I just needed some air, is it alright if i stay here or am I disturbing your solitude?" Missouri spoke sweetly. The angel stared blankly with just the right hint of hostility that any person would swiftly return to where they came from, but Missouri wasn't to be intimidated, she'd been through hell in her life so this angel would have to try harder. 

"You don't like me much do you?" Missouri stepped closer to Muriel and was unexpectedly rewarded with curiosity and shock. The angel had obviously hadn't thought that Missouri would be so direct. Her eyes lowered and a sigh escaped her lips. "It's not personal; your natural position is below ours."

Below them? What time period was the angel from? Wasn't equality supported by heaven? Missouri opted to throw out all she knew about religion, she, and every other human being was obviously misinformed. "You think yourselves superior?"

Muriel bore a look of annoyance, "Why do you ask so many questions?" 

"I am just trying to figure stuff out, if I don't I might go insane." Missouri replied. 

"Yes and that would be unfortunate indeed." Missouri spotted the sarcasm but wasn't bothered by it. "We are superior, look at the millions of people who go through their entire lives with beliefs that they truly find no fault in when in reality they have given themselves up to lies and silly inventions. You choose to believe in anything as long as it would mean some sort of profit for yourselves. People don't give themselves over to their Gods in love or loyalty, they just want a secured position, they want their own personal gain." Muriel was forthright. "We life by the truth, we don't slaughter our own kind over trivial matters, we are simple creatures with simple tasks, our lives are filled with purpose, how many humans can say the same?"

"Being simple creatures with simple tasks must put a strain on you, humans may not be informed truthfully, but our lives are not filled with constant battle and an everlasting war, we experience joy and love and many other wonderful things." Missouri didn't know why she was tiring to defend humans; she spent most of her life hating the most she met.

"There is also pain, suffering and about a million disgraceful acts that they commit." Muriel spoke distastefully.

Missouri could only shake her head, neither in agreement nor in disagreement.  "Can I ask you something else?" 

Muriel scoffed, "What?" 

All of a sudden Missouri felt ashamed to inquire what she wanted to know, surely it would be an invasion of privacy. "Well go on!" Muriel encouraged.

"Are you, uh- You and Hadriel- are you too-" Missouri knew she was being foolish but she knew Muriel understood exactly what she meant when her eyes widened.

"No. And you must never ask me that again, Hadriel is our leader, he is brilliant in war but he is cold and unfeeling. Hadriel does not, nor ever will long for such a commitment. I will not answer anything else." Muriel turned away, Missouri was about to speak when two shadows flew in from the sky. 

"Hey there sleeping beauty, weren't you supposed to wait for me to kiss you awake?" Leo was amused as always, and Missouri felt the urge to laugh, for a kid he possessed a warm spirit that was hard not to like. The other angel, shot him a 'be quite or I'll do something look' Missouri wasn't sure what angels did to other angels as a form of punishment so she just left it as 'something.'

"I am Satael, are you experiencing any pain?" He had kind eyes Missouri thought, and a sort of warmth that was genuine and without pride.

"I am not, thank you for asking." She replied kindly, but all thus time her head was reeling, how could Muriel say that Hadriel was cold, weren't they all cold? Missouri sure thought that Muriel was, so why say such a thing?

Hadriel exited the house and made his way to the garden, the Council always made it their meeting place. 

"Ah Hadriel, you have arrived." The most outspoken of the group, Ayil spoke. "You requested my presence?" His voice was neutral. 

"We wanted a progress report on the girl." Raziel spoke this time, he was the most aggressive of them and to Hadriel, the angel had an over inflated sense of his importance, and he acted as if none were above him or his equal; and not even his fellow Council were not exempted form this belief. The other two angels that completed the Council were Jeremiel and Michael. Michael was always quite, Hadriel didn't even think he ever heard the angel speak, whereas Jeremiel was purposely silent and calculating, of all the angels, Hadriel always found something off about him.

"She was attacked again last night and in my attempt to save her, I too was captured." He spoke fluently.

"How did you escape?" Jeremiel asked. 

Hadriel didn't pause for a second, "After Varcan left with instructions to kill me and take the girl away, the angels under my command freed us and destroyed the demons. We disposed of thye bodies later that night."

"So the girl is safe? Is there any assumption that you have formed?"  Raziel's voice boomed.

"Yes the girl is safe. I have not been aware of anything that could help with our investigation. I just know that Varcan is up to his tricks once again." Hadriel spoke convincingly.

"If you had killed him when you had the chance, this may not have happened." Raziel spoke again.

"Varcan was not my responsibility; it was not my Cathedral that was invaded. That right did not belong to me." He looked at them all squarely in their eyes and made it clear that he was not to be intimidated nor made to take the blame for occurrences he had no control over.

"May I leave now?" With the nodded approvals of the Council he swiftly turned around, bared his wings and flew with a speed unmatched by anything or anyone.