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“Missolis was one of the first Twice Damned, she has suffered and worked hard to get us here. Everything is war to her, but you have to understand, war has been her entire existence. She does not know how to lay down her sword and enjoy herself, even for a moment. To do so, she believes, would be to invite ruin into the sanctuary she has built.”
“She is very protective, that much I could tell.”
“We weren’t always so well set up and protected. There was a time, not that long ago, where we existed as nomads out there in the wastes being hounded by Hellions, Ravagers, and their Overlords. Now we have something worth fighting for.”
“So, is it that you don’t want to leave, or that you don’t think I should leave?”
“Both.”
“Ok, I can understand you not wanting to leave the home you’ve fought for, but why are you going to try talk me out of leaving?”
“I could tell you it’s suicide, that none who have ever attempted to escape this realm have succeeded.”
“You were once an angel, Malachi. You know that no demon would be allowed to walk the Earth freely, definitely not in a human host.”
“And what has changed now? You say angels have corporeal form, and that perhaps demons have the same, but if any here have escaped and survived host-less since your Fall, we have not heard of it.”
I took a deep breath, then sighed. “Look, I didn’t ask you to risk your lives for me. I only asked for the way out of this place so that I could take it, alone. If you’ve spoken to Missolis, then you know why I have to go—why I don’t belong here and likely never will.”
Malachi nodded. “I understand your determination, but you are wrong.”
I frowned. “Wrong?”
“Sarakiel… you won’t find much love for humans or angels down here, any grace we had we lost long ago. Many of us are here because we loved the humans too strongly, some of us are here because we loved God, or Lucifer, too strongly. We broke the rules in some way or another, whether well intentioned or not. You, and the other angels, may think you are better than us,” he pointed toward my fingers, “but you are not.”
“I…” my cheeks flushed, and the heat rose in my chest. I was embarrassed and angry at the same time, but ultimately knew he was right. We had free will on Earth, as they did in Hell, but what had we used it for? To sin, overindulge, and kill.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “I’m not better than any of you just because I have some Light left, and I can’t pretend that I went through the same thing you all did. I wasn’t broken before I was thrown into the Pit, although Medrion tried. The angels on Earth… they’re only now coming to terms with things that your kind have been born into, but I know they can do better—we can do better.”
“You think they deserve our help?”
“I think they deserve a chance, and they won’t get one if Lucifer is allowed to run around and corrupt everything. They need our help to have that chance.”
“Where were they when we needed help? We dragged ourselves through the walls of that Pit and survived the rigors of Hell to build this place, this sanctuary—and we did it on our own. We aren’t running anymore, Sarakiel. We aren’t being slaughtered in the wastes like animals or disintegrated by angels up on Earth. There is life to be lived here, joy to be found.”
“Joy… in Hell…”
“You must forget what you think you know of Hell. Yes, we have struggled, and yes, this realm takes from us the very thing that once made us angels, but it took us in when Heaven rejected us. This is our home, and it can be yours as well.”
“How did Hell even… happen? God only made the Pit.”
“You think God is the only entity able to create anything?”
“Well, yes.”
Malachi shrugged. “Some demons tell of the first angels to be thrown into the Pit following Lucifer’s rebellion. Their pain and their rage was so great, that even God’s prison couldn’t contain them. Their anger granted them strength enough to break through the walls and emerge, reborn, into a realm created purely of their torment and Lucifer’s despair.”
“You’re telling me angels built this place, then?”
“Hell was not built; Hell is a consequence, a reflection.”
“If the first demons willed Hell in to being, why can’t they make it a better place?”
“Immortal entities can hold grudges for a very long time. It is not simply a case of wishing things to be better, but of taking action, turning the tide of misery and bitterness that pervades. That is what we fight for here, and you…your presence reminds us of what we once were, it gives us something to strive toward.”
I shook my head. “You’re asking me to abandon… everything. Abandon all hope and just settle here, with you and your people.”
“I am. Not because I have a burning contempt for the lands above ours, but because I think you can do more good here than there.”
