eri

Audrey was acting strange. It had started around a week ago, after she’d returned from a gathering with Lane and the others.

“I have something in the oven, can you take it out?”

“Sure.” Cassiel fetched a pair of mitts, then opened the oven. Taking out the tray, he asked confusedly, “Audrey?”

“Mmm?”

“Why is there a single bread roll in the oven?”

“It’s not a roll, it’s a bun.”

“Okay? That still doesn’t answer my question.”

“It’s a bun…in the oven.”

“Yeah…”

He wasn’t getting it.

“We have a bun in the oven.”

“Actually, we have a bun out of the oven, because I just took it out.”

Audrey threw her hands in the air out of frustration. “God, you’re impossible!”

She stormed out of the kitchen, leaving one very confused Cassiel with a bread roll (sorry, bun).

“Why don’t you just tell him you’re expecting?” Austie asked.

Audrey scoffed, then mimicked Cassiel, speaking in a gruff voice, “Expecting what?”

“Okay, fair.”

“Scrabble game?” Lane suggested.

“Tried that.”

“Table for three,” Vicky threw out.

“He asked who else was coming.”

“...You’re right, you’re doomed.”

“Hey, do you know what’s wrong with Audrey?”

With a very serious face, David responded, “She swallowed a watermelon seed.”

“What? Are you having a stroke?”

“Did you have a stroke?” Felonia retorted. "I think brain damage is the only thing that can account for your stupidity right now.”

With his fellow demons turned against him, Cassiel went to the one person he could always rely on for advice: Mikael. The archangel was just as confused.

“I’m sorry I can’t be of more help…”

“It’s fine.”

But it wasn’t fine. Audrey was getting grumpier by the day, and David wouldn’t stop spouting nonsense about Cassiel being ‘in the club’ (when Cassiel asked him to elaborate he gave the bizarre answer of ‘pudding’) and ‘in trouble’ (that one Cassiel actually agreed on).

It all came to a head when the Astreans gathered for their monthly dinner. Malek waltzed in (fashionably late, of course) with a package of diapers, which he promptly handed to Cassiel. “I suspect you’ll be needing these.” He then smiled at Bruno, who’d placed himself protectively between Audrey and Malek; he’d never quite warmed up to their former enemy. “An excellent big brother.”

And finally, everything clicked.

(“You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Shut up, Malek.”)

conveniently, there are also seven characters, which is why this was supposed to be an art series with each character representing a sin. but as you will see, it's a bit difficult to only assign one sin per character, hence the rambling...

greed

Audrey: “You always demanded too much. Attention, love, answers…Look where that got you.”

Somnus on the Astreans: “Everyone here is an insanely greedy, sinful creature.”

pride

Mikael weighing lives, seated proudly atop a mountain of corpses

Malek seeing/positioning himself as a god

the parallel between pride causing Lucifer to rebel against god and fall from heaven and the Astreans’ current situation

gluttony, broadly applied as overindulgence

Audrey to Malek: “You take everything from life, I remember.”

envy and lust are obvious with LIs so I'll skip

wrath, associated with a need for vengeance

Raphael blinding the villagers and David slaughtering the rest

All of the Astreans wanting vengeance on heaven

Malek’s anger at the Astreans over Audrey’s death

sloth, using the specific definition of it being a failure to do what is needed

Somnus on Felonia’s servitude: “Forced…She should have slit Azrael’s throat and broken her shackles, not killed innocents.”

“How come you and Eragon never had children?” Vicky blurted out, then shrank back as she found herself on the receiving end of Rebecca’s hard stare. Her mother was radiating disapproval at her rather personal question, well aware of what had sparked it; Eragon’s interrogation of Malbonte was still fresh in both their minds.

Luciana remained blissfully unaware of what was going on behind her back, humming thoughtfully. “Children terrify me. They’re too fragile and unpredictable. Teenagers are easier to deal with.”

Even Rebecca couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. “You think teenagers are predictable?”

“Of course. It’s always the same thing, isn’t it? Love, angst, identity crises, more angst…” She wasn’t wrong. “And teenagers never talk to their parents. I’m in the perfect position to offer some wise words, watch them ignore it, then sit back and enjoy the free entertainment with zero responsibility to intervene.”

Rebecca shook her head despairingly at the older seraph, likely wondering how this woman had survived for so long in a role that required such cold calculation and precision.

As if reading her mind, Luciana remarked, “Eragon is more than serious enough for the both of us.”

“How did you two end up together, anyway?” Vicky asked. “You’re so…different.”

“The same way you met Lucifer, and Rebecca met Winchesto. The Academy.” Luciana smiled, reminiscing.

She’d known of Eragon of course, who hadn’t? The only heir to the once great Empyrean. Many pitied him, but more hated him; his father and brother had paid for his survival with blood of those they were meant to protect. Those left orphaned – like Luciana – were all too aware of the heavy cost of his escape. But she saw no point in casting blame, and acknowledged him as just another element in the dreary backdrop of the Academy. Years passed like this, each of the angels floating in the other's orbit without really being pulled in. Then, halfway through their schooling, an assignment set the two on a path of collision.

“Eragon and Luciana, you’ll be up against…”

Luciana didn’t bother to catch the demons’ names, far more concerned with her ‘partner’. She didn’t harbor ill will toward him, but that didn’t mean she was deaf to the complaints (and in some cases, tears) of all those who’d been forced on missions with him before. But her fears were unfounded; thanks to Eragon’s scarily efficient work ethic, they completed their task with plenty of time to spare, and the angel surprised her by agreeing to her request to spend the rest of their allocated time exploring the human settlement they’d landed in.

“The king built this just for his wife,” Luciana told him, pausing to admire the terraced gardens.

Such a wonder was an amazing feat in and of itself, and only made more astonishing by the dry sands that surrounded the oasis. The engineering and irrigation was comparable to the highest echelons of Heaven; the name Gate of the Gods really did seem fitting. Hearing nothing but silence, she turned to see if her partner was still there, or if he’d finally gotten bored of her and left. His quick reflexes stopped them from crashing into one another, but didn’t spare the objects in his hands, the figs scattering across the ground.

“Oh!”

Using her tunic as a makeshift basket, Luciana hastily gathered the fruits.

“Leave them, there are plenty more–”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She awkwardly carried the bundle to a spring of water, then began carefully washing the small fruits. “It takes a lot of effort for things to grow in the desert. We shouldn’t take it for granted.”

Luciana tried to hand the figs back to Eragon, but he stopped her midway.

“I picked them for both of us.”

“Oh, well…”

She accepted half of the bounty, sitting in the shade provided by the pergola. After a moment, Eragon joined her.

“What else do you know about the humans here?”

Luciana readily launched into the history of the region, regaling him with myths and legends. It was the beginning of a ritual: Eragon would find the local delicacies and Luciana would entertain them with stories while they enjoyed them. The tradition would persist over the centuries to come, far beyond the city where it originated, even as their relationship changed. But for now, the angels simply enjoyed the sweetness and sunshine.

Mikael was a light sleeper. The habit was ingrained in him after years of service as chief of heaven’s army. So when Audrey lurched from their bed in the early hours of the morning, the archangel was right behind her, holding back her hair as she heaved over the toilet bowl.

He rubbed soothing circles on the woman’s back, pushing aside his own concerns. It was only when she leaned back against his chest, exhausted, that he allowed himself to fully focus on the burst of power he sent seeking through her body for the cause of the sudden illness. But there was nothing to be found.

The discovery had him tensing, recalling the last time his powers had failed him - when he’d hurried to heal her after the incident with Furius, and he hadn’t detected the poison lying in wait. The poison that had her choking on blood alone in the garden while they all fought, meters away and oblivious.

“Mikael?”

Her soft voice brought him back to the present moment.

“I can’t heal you,” he admitted. “I don’t know why.”

“That’s because there’s nothing to heal.”

He frowned, confused. “I don’t understand.”

“Try using your powers again. Don’t try to heal me, just…feel.”

Bemused, he obediently followed her instructions. The light coursed through her body once more, feeling like the warm summer rays. The archangel was about to give up and demand an explanation, when he picked up on some sort of flicker. Unconsciously, his hands followed the movement, encompassing her stomach. And the realisation hit him like a freight train. “Audrey, you…”

“Surprise?”

“How long have you known?”

“Only around a week. I was planning to surprise you on your birthday, but obviously he had other plans.”

Mikael’s next words came out slightly accusingly. “He?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling it’s a boy.” She smiled a little shyly. “I thought we could name him after your brother.”

Mikael exhaled, long and deep. “I think he’d like that.”

The couple finally stood up, leaving the cold bathroom tiles for the warmth of their bed.

As they nestled together, Mikael whispered, “Thank you, Audrey. For giving me a family again.”