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The office of the Archangel of the Sword was not particularly large or ostentatious. It had a desk with a comfortable chair, a few more around the room for the various physiognomies of any angels that might come by, some Christian religious art on the walls, and a few bookcases with relevant works such as theology, philosophy, tactics, or weaponsmithing. (Works dealing with psychology were a fairly recent but important addition.) There was a wide window in the granite wall open to the air, through which the Light of Heaven streamed through. There was a rug or two in neutral shades on the floor.
There were also two large files for "In" and "Out" next to the desk. To the occupant's annoyance, "In" always vastly outnumbered "Out", even if his secretary did her level best to winnow down what needed his personal attention. There was also a large stack of folders dealing with the same on top of his desk, weighted down with a glass paperweight that had recently appeared in the office.
All in all, it really was surprisingly... mundane for the office of an Archangel, let alone the Commander of the Heavenly Host. Remove a few of the obviously odd things like the stone walls and Seraph chairs and add in an annoying desk tchotchke like those damn annoying clacking hanging steel balls or some awards in acrylic, and it wouldn't look terribly out of place on Earth. If the manager had an unusual attachment for war, things with blades, or religion anyways.
The chair was currently occupied. The occupant had just sent off a Tongues to two particular individuals and was waiting outwardly calmly, hands folded in front of himself, trying to look as Archangelic and Commanding as he could.
Inwardly, though, he suspected he was going to regret the summonings rather shortly, and was fighting an urge to fidget his wings. He was losing.
He did not have to wait long. There came a very enthusiastic knock on the office door.
"Enter," Laurence called out. He didn't look particularly surprised.
The door opened, and a sizable Malakite came into the office. He was tall and black-haired, built to slaughter demons and wield greatswords. His Word hung about him like a banked fire, the Word of Righteous Vengeance. He was the Grand Master of the Order of the Eternal Sword, and there were few angels in Heaven that the horde feared more.
Of course, the Horde did not actually know Peliel personally. He came bounding into the room like a golden retriever that had just slipped its leash and saluted with enthusiasm. "My Lord!" he said. "You summoned me!"
The Archangel of the Sword gave him a smile. "That I did, King of Righteous Vengeance. We're waiting on the other I summoned. Have a seat." In contrast, while he also had black hair, Laurence was much shorter and more slimly built and physically did not seem imposing, although his nature as a Superior and the controlled, fierce focus of the Word of the Sword put the lie to that. "I think the Sergeant Major said he had something to wrap up first."
Peliel sat down immediately, still somewhat at attention. He said cheerfully, "I was just at my heart when you called, fortunately! Resting after a successful hunt! The Order of the Eternal Sword's record is perfect, again. The demon thought to flee to his heart, the coward. As if I have ever let that stop me!"
Laurence gave an internal sigh. Well, at least no Princes decided to take notice this time. "Glad to hear it. And... no, you never have." Which is why the standing orders but uh, never mind that. "I'm glad to hear you took care of the problem. No major issues accomplishing things?"
Peliel shrugged. "It was a demon of Lust, my Lord. Andrealphus does not guard his heart rooms properly! One djinn only, and he ran for help. By the time help arrived, I was done, of course. I left before they could swarm me."
"He never does," Laurence replied dryly. "Too busy promoting his Word to actually guard the Servitors of it. I suppose that might mean he cared about them. Excellent work, though."
Peliel beamed at him. "Thank you, my Lord! I must say, I always enjoy the opportunity to take to the hunt myself! Commanding angels is of course rewarding. But not quite the same."
"You're welcome and... No. It's not, is it? I admit to missing it." Laurence smiled a bit wryly. "Administrative work, I admit I could do without. But needs must." Anything he might have said was cut off by another knock on the door, this one far more on the no-nonsense than the enthusiastic. "Enter."
Peliel got rather quieter and looked to see who arrived. He still seemed in good cheer.
The door opened and admitted a gigantic Cherub shaped like a grey wolf with thunderhead-colored wings. He used one hind leg to shove it closed. For some reason, the Cherub also had a lit cigar hanging out one side of his muzzle. He shifted it over to the other side as he headed over. "General. Colonel."
Sergeant Major Samuel, Cherub of Purity, trainer of most of Heaven's commissioned and non-commissioned officers and maimer of a significant amount of them, quite possibly the most terrifying non-Archangel on Heaven's side, looked from Laurence to Peliel blandly and chewed on his cigar. "Sorry for the late; some kid screwed up. Had to get it fixed."
The kind of fear Peliel inspired in Hell was an entirely different and interesting experience from the kind the Sergeant Major did; the old bastard didn't even need a Word to find ways to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate people that annoyed him, and they tended to find this out a bit too late for their own good. Some of them were angels. All of them didn't remember the experience fondly and there were a lot of them; he'd outlasted three Commanders of the Host, after all.
Samuel looked around, decided a humanoid chair was the best, and went into the vessel-image of a sixty-something human in fatigues that seemed composed of part wire and part boot leather, still munching his cigar under a grey buzzcut. He hooked the leg with a foot and plopped down as soon as Laurence said he could be seated.
"Sergeant Major," Peliel greeted cheerfully. And then he looked at Laurence, clearly curious why they had both been summoned.
"Righteous Vengeance." Samuel nodded back at him and also looked at Laurence, wondering what was up.
Peliel said after a moment, "Well, my Lord, we are both here! And ready to listen!"
Laurence straightened up and leaned forward. "All right. To start, I have to say that barring extenuating circumstances, none of what is said or discussed here leaves this room. At all. This operates on a need to know basis, and both of you need to know. The fewer people that know it, the lower the chances of Hell finding out. Understood?"
"Yes, my Lord," Peliel said. "I will not breathe a word!"
Samuel nodded. "Got it. So. What's the skinny?"
Peliel listened attentively.
"The 'skinny', as you put it, Sergeant Major, is: You are aware of the recent attunement developed by the Exemplar of Choice, yes?"
Samuel nodded. "Yeah. The answer to the Game's Humanity attunement? 'Course. I filtered some of the candidates to you. Trying to tell War to keep the hell off the lists, he's got enough already. But you know Mike, he gets pushy."
Peliel listened with interest. The new attunement had been news. He, too, had heard of it.
"I'm... rather aware of that." Laurence fought an urge to roll his eyes. The distributor of said new attunement had made her displeasure with it known. Loudly. Profusely, Profanely. "I'm going to moratorium him pretty shortly whether he likes it or not. But that's neither here nor there."
"So. What's here, then?"
"The reason why this is secretive." Laurence internally braces himself and elects to rip off the bandage in one go. "I've consulted with Lightning on the subject and given what Jean has told me, I see no reason not to do this." He draws in an unnecessary breath. "Pending the Lady Exemplar's approval, I'm going to put a factor of myself under the Silent Running attunement."
Peliel sat up even straighter. He said, too loudly, “My Lord! What a marvelous idea! Imagine all the things you will learn, as a human! But. But I hope all of you will not be human? Only one manifestation? So you might smite Hell with the rest!”
Samuel blinked. "What." The information percolated. "Scuse me." His cigar shifted.
The next second, he was in full Cherub form leaning across the desk, mouth full of fangs, blasting directly into the Archangel of the Sword's face so loud his hair flattened against his head and his feathers ruffled, "ARE YOU OUTTA YOUR FUCKIN' MIND?!!"
Laurence calmly wiped spit off his face. "Ah. No, and no, on both counts." That's about what I thought was going to happen.
Peliel said loyally, not in any way made less enthusiastic by Samuel getting out the fangs, “I am sure our Lord has thought through the implications! He merely must tell us all the contingency plans he has put into place!”
Samuel returned to vessel form and sagged back, wiping his hand across his face. Somehow his cigar hadn't fallen out of his mouth. That took talent. "The hell. You kids. You fuckin' kids." He gave a deep, aggravated sigh/ groan that sounded a great deal like a wolf snarl. "Yeah, you better, because this is special. Cough up, kid."
Laurence privately was relieved that he had an Archangel's eardrums now, because the last time he'd gotten that as a Servitor his ears had rung for the better part of a day. Celestial tinnititus was no joke. "First off, to more fully answer Righteous Vengeance's question, no, only one manifestation of myself will have this activated on me, so yes, I'm certainly going to be available for smiting purposes with the rest. No, Sergeant Major, I am not so foolish as to put all of myself on this, as yes, this would be the first time it would be performed on a Superior. No, I am not out of my mind. There is a reason I consulted with Jean first. I know it's risky."
Peliel said, “And the Archangel of Lighting thinks it is possible, and will not carry over to your other manifestations?”
Laurence nodded. "It shouldn't, no. The Kyriotate resonance is one thing, what we as Superiors do is another. I may lose input from that part for the duration, but the rest of me will be carrying on as normally. Lightning checked it repeatedly. The most I'll lose is some resources and runtime."
Samuel blew out a frustrated breath. "Fine. Great. Fantastico. Glad to hear your Ethereal Forces aren't too on the blink. So, the ten thousand Essence question: WHY?"
Laurence responded simply. "Wittenburg."
Peliel said, "I am all in favor of your mission, my Lord, but you have been much better with humans since Wittenburg! And that only happened once!"
"Not just Wittenburg, Peliel. Just the...most telling one. And just because it happened once doesn't mean it can't happen again. That's the problem. 'Much better' isn't the same as 'good enough'. It's still not good enough." Laurence looked wry. "And to forestall your questioning my sanity, intelligence, or some combination of them again, Sergeant Major, there's at least a couple of my Oaths coming into play here."
"Guess." Samuel sounded sour. "The damn perfectionist no cutting corners one. Referrin' back to your answer to Peliel. And... hell. Use the best weapon in the arsenal? If the Exemplar's new toy is considered one."
"Exactly."
Peliel said, "Well, my Lord, if your Oaths indicate it must be done, then it must be done! How can we assist you?"
"Cover for me, as necessary," Laurence said. "As I said, other than you two, nobody in the Sword is to know this is going on. It would be far too easy for Hell to target the factor of myself under Silent Running if there was a leak. I intend for it to look as though nothing unusual is going on while this is happening, but I'll have fewer resources free to answer invocations. Not by a huge amount, but there's going to be a difference. We're all going to have to minimize the cases where I'll need to be invoked to get around it. Myself included. I'm trying to rearrange with a limited window to do it in."
Peliel sobered a bit. He said, "The Order of the Eternal Sword does make many demands on your time, my Lord! The demons panic and call their Princes. Would it be wise to recall the order during this important event? They will be rather bored, but no one will ask questions if I put hunting on hold."
Laurence nodded. "Thank you for anticipating that, Peliel. It shouldn't be longer than a week, so I don't anticipate that being seen as particularly unusual. Now, if there's a particularly egregious offender we need to deal with post-haste, I'll make a judgment call." He gave a wry smile. "There won't be that long for them to be bored in, at least."
Samuel was sitting there during this, wafting disgruntlement and cigar smoke. "Yeah, yeah, I'll see if I can keep the trainees and new-fledges on dirtside outta trouble. Not kick over any anthills, all that crap. What's the timeline on your great experiment?" He narrowed his eyes as his former trainee looked cagey. Laurence didn't do cagey well. It boded Bad Things.
"Once I get the Exemplar's permission?" Laurence hesitated. "Three days."
"You ARE OUTTA YOUR FUCKING MIND—" Samuel's lupine jaws sprayed as much enraged spit as the last time.
"Sergeant Major. Enough." Laurence's voice cracked like a whip. Samuel subsided, growling a bit, and plopped back into his chair. As he was still in his native Cherub form, this didn't work too well. "I am quite aware this is a short turnaround time, thank you. And I am not pleased by it, either. But this may be the only opportunity I have for quite a while to do something about it. And we cannot afford me misinterpreting humanity again in a way that truly could critically damage the War. Not now. Look at what happened to the Exemplar!"
Peliel frowned slightly. "It is short notice to recall everyone. There are hunts ongoing, my Lord."
Laurence sighed and pinched his nose. "I'm fully aware of it. We won't start new ones and wrap up the ones we can. I'm not going to be completely discommoded, just slightly. At any rate, this spreading pandemic is going to be causing problems in that regard anyway. Which is exactly why I have to do this so quickly. Hell may not be stabbing each other in the back as vigorously by the time it passes. I don't like it any more than either of you and there's going to be no perfect solution."
Peliel nodded. He said, “It is a bit harder to hunt demons during a lockdown, yes. The humans question why you are on the streets. I can order the hunts to hurry up. If you like, sir, I can finish them myself. I am always happy to assist my angels with a Hunt! And, well, it would get it done quicker.”
Laurence seemed a bit relieved. "That would be a great help." He pauses. "Your orders still stand as given, though. No unnecessary risks completing hunts. I don't want to lose any of the Eternal Sword, and I definitely do not want to lose you. Understood?"
Peliel looked wounded. "My Lord, I would never forget your orders! No fighting Princes. Retreat from Hell when I am outmatched. I always follow orders."
Samuel, now equipped again with a butt that fit in a humanoid chair, muttered something grumpy about creative interpretation of orders. Laurence fought rolling his eyes. Oh, how did he fight rolling his eyes. "Good. Just... remember that. Life is complicated enough right now we needn't complicate it further."
Peliel said, "My Lord, I only stabbed Baal once, and that was before you gave me that order! I haven't fought any other Princes. And I always retreat once there are twenty demons trying to kill me. I am good at retreating!"
"And once was the only amount you would ever stabbed any Prince if he'd landed that hit on you. And... remind me, how many Worded demons at once did I say was the limit?"
Peliel said glumly, "One, my Lord."
Laurence puffed out a breath. "Good. Keep reminding yourself that. I like it when you remind yourself that. It means many things. Such as preventing the entire Sword from having to see your name added to the Wall. From preventing us from having to see that added to the Wall."
"Or me havin' to remind you the Word of Righteous Vengeance don't cover me whalin' your ass, kid. Which is my option for preventin' that." Samuel added. He was still looking quite disgruntled. "Speaking of, I'll supply myself to the Eternal Sword if it looks like things are getting outta hand."
Peliel said sadly, "My Lord, I will follow orders. I always follow orders. I will not get myself killed. It would be most inconsiderate of me. And I suppose that the Hunts we have lined up currently would certainly be over quickly with both I and the Sergeant Major dealing in the miscreants."
Laurence's wings twitched. "Good to hear. Give him a Tongues if it looks like things are turning against you. Invoke me if it comes down to it. I will still be available, just stretched a bit thin. Speaking of which. The other reason I'm letting you both know is if things get out of hand with the factor of myself under Silent Running. It may be that the Exemplar will alert you in that case and will need defense. She's not a combatant and you both are. And it will cause significantly less disturbance than having to get another Archangel in down on the Corporeal."
Peliel perked up slightly at this, although he still looked like a large Belgian Malinois that had just been kicked by its beloved owner. He enthused, "I would be thrilled to come to your aid, my Lord! Surely whatever demons threatened you would be no match for both me and the Sergeant Major!"
Laurence gave him a slight grin at that. "That was the whole idea. There will be a covert security detail and the Exemplar keeping watch, but I trust you both to get the job done without knowledge spreading to the rest of the Sword. Security reasons aside, I don't want them also concerned about my welfare while this is going on. Any other questions?"
Peliel considered for a moment. He said, "You will tell us, my Lord, if any complications arise during the experiment? I know you have planned it carefully, and Lightning has approved it, but plans seldom survive encountering reality."
Laurence nodded. "Without a doubt. And I'm very aware of that adage about best laid plans."
Samuel raised a hand. "I got one."
Laurence turned to face him. "What is it, Sergeant Major?"
Samuel crossed his arms over his chest and gave him a look. "Why the fuck are you like this?"
"God has a sense of humor?" Laurence responded blandly.
Peliel said loyally, "My Lord, I think you are excellent just as you are. Do not listen to the Sergeant Major."
"Of course, you would, you great lumpin' mess. You're both nuts. He just hides it better. I thank the Almighty every damn day I didn't have to deal with you two together or'd I'da pulled out my fur." Samuel dropped his forehead in his hand. Meanwhile, Laurence was trying not to radiate a suspicious amount of innocence.
Peliel agreed, "I am grateful Lord Uriel did not place me beneath you every day. You are absolutely no fun."
"That's me, kid. The Death of Fun. Which is better than the Death of You. Someone's gotta be the sane one here. So, anything else you need to drop on me?"
Peliel looked as Laurence. "Yes, my Lord. Do you need anything else? Otherwise I will go assist with those hunts as agreed upon."
"Nothing else as of this moment. I'll let you both know as needed." Laurence gave them both a nod.
Peliel got up from his chair and saluted. "Then if I am dismissed, my Lord, I will go attend to my order."
"Indeed. You're both dismissed. Let me know how things are going."
Peliel bobbed a nod and left the room with a bound in his step, his boundless enthusiasm not at all reduced by the Sergeant Major calling him a nutcase. But it was Peliel. That was to be expected.
"Right." Sergeant Major Samuel got up from his chair and gave the Archangel of the Sword a rather more informal salute. "Time to see if I can keep the Sword from exploding from another of your harebrained schemes."
"As always." Laurence responded. "I'm sure Uriel would expect no less."
Samuel rolled his eyes and exited out, staying in vessel just long enough to use the doorknob before resuming
Cherub form and a low level of grumbling. He also took the cigar smoke with himself as well, much to Laurence's private relief.
With both of them gone, Laurence took a private moment to say "Well, that could have gone worse."
Then he banged his forehead on the desk a couple of times as therapy, before taking another factor of himself away to the Home Office. With luck, the Exemplar of Choice was in and willing to listen and agree to his proposal.