Ramiel

Ramiel lay on the space around the podium for huge statue in the Garden of Reflection. The garden truly earned its name. It had magnificent flowers of various kinds which lent the feeling of calmness to the setting. The mirror-like pool was ever calm with floating cherry blossoms. It was a great place to be at anytime, yet it was a place which always saw little to no visitations. As Samael put it, it was a place were the lazy and irresponsible went to avoid their duties mentally and physically. Ramiel could often be found in that part of Heaven, the floating Domain, a lot of times. He had tried explaining the reason he came there to Sameal once and had become doomed to regret it ever since. "Sometimes one has to find a way to clear up thoughts that makes one less efficient in one's duties." He had used those words because he knew the ever serious Sameal would never understand or take kindly to him telling him the main reason why came around those parts. Ramiel had always loved experiences and stories. Before Heaven had decided to end all contact with the rest of the world, he had developed the hobby of gathering stories and experiences from various parts. He had acted as a diplomat to heaven, visiting various cultures, learning about their ways, and even doing the frowned upon act of participating in various kinds of decadence. In the pursuit of his hobby, he welcomed debauchery. Little at first, then he had taken in more, and more, and more, until what was once a curious hobby became an obsessive addiction. Angels were a specie known for their self control, and such a showcase bothered on taboo. An angel was not to soil his body, or his mind, and Ramiel's acts, did both. Heaven's standing on acts he liked to do never did stop him from engaging in them although he did so very secretly. His lifestyle also didn't stop him from performing his duties so he didn't attract much negative attention. It allowed him to continue all he did while still carrying out his duties as a diplomat. After the Great War, Heaven had decided it had had enough of the other species on the planet. They had dragged heaven into many of their problems, and had corrupted a lot of angels. After lending their hand in preventing the destruction of the planet, and possibly the Galaxy, Heaven washed its hands of the rest of other species, ordered all angels back to heaven, and had used its advanced technology to make what was now called the floating domain happen. The only concern of Heaven became its own advancement, and being the species which they were, they had truly made great strides ever since. Very few angels like Ramiel missed the world beneath. He would have likely stayed back if that were an option. He was great at finding out things due to his dealings as a diplomat and he had learned that the order was absolute and that serious actions would be taken if disobeyed. The information turned out to be true. Heaven's last action on the ground was tracking down and exterminating angels who had decided to disobey the order for immediate return. The rationale behind the execution was to prevent such angels from sharing knowledge which could alter the balance of power among other species . Knowledge that could possibly turn out to become a threat to Heaven's strength of the hierarchy of species. Ramiel couldn't explain it to Sameal. He couldn't tell him how much he missed hearing the ecstatic moans of females he spent nights with. He couldn't explain the pleasures he derived from hearing stories from other species. Sameal could never understand how much he missed, and why he missed them because for Sameal, these emotions and pleasures did not exist and shouldn't for a normal and proper angel. How could an angel who thought of the cultures of other species as irredeemably backward and vile ever understand. Ramiel had tried to change his behavior after the departure. He had told the best earth stories he had heard, tried to get approval for the manufacture of pleasures such as wine and pulled pranks to get some respite, but the atmosphere snuffed out any attempt to introduce any aspect of the other cultures Ramiel had experienced. "There you go again, you embarrassing fellow. You were never like this until you became a top diplomat centuries ago. Whatever virus you got during your travels doesn't seem to want to let you go. Attend to your duties Ramiel. You are of high rank. Be a good example to the younger ones and stop being a drag", Samael said as he left in his ever dignified swift and purpose-filled strides. The anger welled up like a storm inside of Ramiel. He felt dead inside, he couldn't think angrily enough how wrong Sameal was about a lot of things he assumed and said about the cultures that had nourished his soul. Still, he stood up, jumped off the statue and started heading toward the stunningly polished Platinum door when something odd happened. He felt a slight chilly breeze in heaven. It felt like he was back on Giwau beneath Heaven for that moment. He quickly turned around puzzled and hoping to set his eyes on a possible explanation for the what had just happened. There was nothing behind him. He gave a befuddled look around and still nothing. He sighed and continued heading toward the gate. "Do you wish to feel ..." came to him in a low tone when he was about close to gate. He turned around sharply this time. If anyone had finally decided to prank him after all these years, this was definitely not the way and Ramiel didn't find it amusing. "Show yourself!", Ramiel commanded curtly. There was no reply. He waited a little more while his eyes looked around the large garden trying to pick out a figure. He walked briskly toward to statues in sight and looked behind each one. There was no one. He went beside the mirror of reflection and found only silence and normalcy. The deeper parts of the garden also had no one to offer him. He was a little puzzled. Was he so sad that he was now starting to imagine things? Was Sameal actually right about him housing a virus? He stayed behind for some minutes before he started to walk toward the gate again,and exactly at the same point he had been when he heard it the first time, he heard the voice even clearer. "Do you wish to feel alive, Ramiel of Heaven!" This time it was unmistakable. He was being spoken to. The first time he had assumed it was a person who spoke. But hearing clearer, what he heard the second time was actually a mixture of various voices speaking in perfect unison. All voices were coarse and slow in speaking. He also noticed where the voices came from. Within him. The voices had sounded in his mind. He was panicking a little. But Ramiel had always been a curious cat. For the first time in a long while, he was faced with an experience that was out of place with unrelentless monotony that had become a part and parcel of Heaven. He would see this through. The voices had also hit him with the right words. He was very desperate to feel even a little as alive as he had felt when he was an active diplomat to Giwau. He replied in a low apprehensive tone mixed in with a little cockiness "What if I do?" "And who are you anyway?", He added. There was no reply. Minutes passed. And still nothing. Ramiel did not want to entertain the thought that he would be Heaven's first insanity case after so long. The voices came back, dispelling his fears. "Go to the crypt of the Black marble door. Find your way into the Forgotten Chamber. You may yet feel alive, son of Heaven." The air in the garden was less dense after that. He knew there wouldn't be anymore communication. He slowly digested what had just happened. He could feel his heart pounding in excitement. The experience or put more honestly, a new experience was what he had been hoping for for so long. He had just then gotten reminded of the true taste of this feeling he was experiencing. He loved it and like the addict he was, he did not plan on staying away from the pleasurable feeling of breaking rules or in his present case, possibly breaking rules soon. Although he felt himself floating in all the excitement, he had the frame of mind to understand implications of what the voice had just said. The voice had mentioned the Black marble door and the crypt inside it which was one of the most revered parts of heaven. It was home to a lot of beings, creatures and things which heaven did not think should have a place out of the prison it held them in. Ramiel was quite old, but a lot of the creatures and things in the Black marble prison outdated him by a lot of years. He had read about some of the things and creatures inside. Heard about some of them from the older ones even. Giwau, the planet they were all on still existed, because many things in the prison were safely locked away from sight.