Rose arrived home and turned off her phone. She prepared a cup of coffee and sat down in her backyard, looking at the starry night. She felt as if a truck full of doubts had hit her at 100 mph. The most crushing question was weighing on her shoulders: Was she really adequate for being an Emissary?
Memories of the first days at the training camp flooded her. She remembered vividly the state of panic everyone was in when three very dangerous men started attacking them out of the blue. When they were all on the floor, defeated, the tallest and prettiest—the one that went after her with some crazy martial moves—stepped forward. He explained that it was necessary to set the boundaries on the first meeting. According to him, everyone was now ready to listen to him carefully.
"Crazy bastard," she said then and still thought the same thing. He had a very peculiar way of doing things, and his welcome speech was no different. She could clearly hear his cheerful voice while talking to all of them that day as if it just happened yesterday.
"Welcome everybody. My name is Locious, and I will be your substitute martial arts teacher. I know everything that's happening, and everything I'm going to explain now will feel surreal. You may think I'm crazy, which maybe I am." He said with a smile. The man on his right laughed softly as if finding it really funny, but the most serious one rolled his eyes, annoyed. The ones that had been kicked in the ass gritted their teeth.
"Anyway, think of your experience here as a year-long course. This camp is the Academy, and we are going to be your teachers. Don't worry about the real world because you will only come here once you fall asleep. Our amazing people are in charge of creating a very realistic and self-sufficient doppelgänger to take your place so no one will notice you are gone. Once you go back and wake up you won't remember anything that happened here."
There were so many doubts and so many things he wasn't saying. What was the point of taking them there? Why couldn't they remember a thing?
She didn't really buy the whole thing, but still, there was something that intrigued her. She didn't know exactly what it was, just that she wanted to know more.
"This is a different plane of existence so you can't leave," he said and paused. The people around her started gasping for breath, full of worries. But not sure why, she knew he was just messing with their heads. What a dickhead! She thought but didn't say anything and just waited.
"Hey hey! Don't panic. You can't leave BY yourselves. We can send you back. However, once you go back, you won't ever be able to come back. You will forget everything about us, this place, and the reason why you are here." He grinned once again, but this time he did something no one was expecting.
A pair of golden wings erupted from his back. They seemed to shine and the feathers were different kinds of gold, as if intricately joining together to create a breathtaking map. Some people started crying, others fell to the floor, and others became living statues. She was one of those, completely hypnotized by the ethereal and magical beauty.
"If you choose to leave, you will never know the truth behind your selection to be a part of this training. If you don't care about that, once we finish you can tell any of us and we'll send you back. If you are brave and want to find out more, you can stay." He smiled once again, and the whole Arena went silent.
All the people there were unsure of what to do with the information they had just received. She had a lot of questions and wondered when would be a good time to start asking them. But when she was about to raise her hand, the serious man next to Locious took a step forward.
"My name is Dyaion, and I'll be your teacher of History. I'm in charge of telling you who we are, the rules around our world, and of course, the most important piece of information you want: WHY you are here." He explained. His warm eyes and calm voice showed that he would be a good teacher. Rose liked him automatically. After finishing his presentation, he fell back in place, and the other man started talking.
"My name is Phaeria," he started, and while he was talking, his hair changed colour and length. His eyes lost their shade, and his body shrunk. Everybody stared in awe at the short curvy woman with long white hair and big purple eyes that stood in his place.
"I will be your Magic teacher. I will teach you about disguise magic, chants, and the foundations that allow this plane to exist." She said dryly and didn't offer any other explanation. Just looked at them as if they were first graders and she was made to take care of them.
The three people in front of them were at wholly different levels. One of them looked rebellious but obviously carried the strongest power. Dyaion was the person she would run to if she needed advice or reassurance. Phaeria looked like a fairy, magical but dangerous. The kind of person no one would stand in her way, either due to fear or because she would burn them in their place.
"What you should know is: The whole Universe is layered. We have the physical level, where you live and all its objects and elements. The spiritual plane, where Heaven and Hell are. But there is a third one which belongs to none but at the same time, to all. This place is called Aethium Umbra, and despite it has not been fully explored, the two main territories are the Angels' training camp and Purgatory." She explained very efficiently, and in a way that someone like her who wasn't really academically gifted understood the complicated layered System.
After the presentations, not even one of the people there chose to leave. They all accepted the training, moved by the novelty. Actually, no. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't only the novelty.
Locious, Dyaion, and Phaeria were tempting with their words but threatening at the same time. It didn't go against the freedom of choice principle directly because people still had the chance to leave, but they showed their cards and made it really difficult to decline. Locious showed the eternal and unbelievable of the world; Dyaion intrigued them with the logical things, and Phaeria showed them the power and the magic. Either you were focused on violence, rationality, mythology, or strength, you had a reason to stay.
Suddenly the moon shone in front of her, taking her out of her reverie. The temperature had dropped while she was thinking about last year; it was probably past her bedtime. She got up and after turning all the lights off she went to bed. She was so tired and emotionally drained that she fell asleep almost instantly. However, her dreams were not the calm she expected. In her dreams, she found herself reliving one of the most crucial lessons from Dyaion.
"So let's first talk about the reason you are here. As Phaeria has already explained, we are in a different plane of existence. But before we start with the reason, there is something I need to explain about the Hierarchy of Heaven." He said, and she listened to him closely.
She wasn't sure if it was his sweet and paused voice, his honey eyes that seemed to reflect everything around him, or the way he dressed up, with his long dark blonde hair always tied up in a messy bun that reminded her of her grandma's style. But he was, for her, the physical representation of harmony, and she could never stop listening to every word he said.
"We have three tiers when talking about servers of Heaven. The Angels, like Locious, are the Primal power in our world, and so they are Tier 1. Then we have the Angelic Beings, like myself, Steven—who you are yet to meet—and Phaeria. Tier 2 are born humans but we could say that they ascend. We'll later talk about the power, rules, and limits that come within." He paused as if remembering something unpleasant, but after a brief moment he continued.
"Third, we have the Tier 3, and those will be you if you finish your training. Tier 3 are called Heaven Emissaries or Ambassadors. The whole year you will spend learning will help you to work as agents on Earth for Heaven. You'll learn how to defend yourselves, how to help Angels, and how to investigate. However, you won't be in danger as your main task is to remain humans, not to become super heroes. You will be different from the normal humans, but your work will be done from the Shadows, as Angels have for millennia." He lifted his hands and made a triangle shape with his fingers and continued talking.
"Imagine the basis of the world as a tripod. If one breaks, the tripod is useless. Demons, Angels, and Humans are all the legs of it. One can't work without the other." He concluded. He was so amazing: he could tell you that you were going to be practically a servant for the Angels, but at the same time he could easily reassure your importance for the system.
"What happens after a year?" one of the younger girls asked, and she looked around timidly. There were all kinds of people there: people from different nationalities and ages, social status and education. There were so many that they were divided into groups so they could learn everything the right way. But there were no children or elders, which was one of the things that Rose was dying to ask.
Another strange thing about the place was that there weren't any language barriers or physical limitations. There was one man who said he was a war veteran and was missing a leg. Even though his arms didn't grow up unless he used conjuring magic, he could fight better than all the others with all their limbs intact. As if the power went beyond their physical capabilities. As if the source of it was based on an inner strength and not their body.
"Such a good question. After the whole year passes, you will go through a testing. If you pass the three stages: the physical, spiritual, and magical, you will be given the opportunity to work as a Heaven Emissary. Your memories of the whole year will be restored, and you will be able to choose if you want to work at the headquarters office, in the streets as informants, or as worldwide agents under the supervision of a Tier 1 or 2 Angel."
For Rose, that didn't sound so bad. She thought they would send them directly to fight demons in Hell. So, what was she going to do if she passed? Would she stay? Did she really want to be part of that world, or would she rather go back to her office job with her know-no-boundaries boss? The fear of not passing was also depressing, and she wondered what happened to the ones that didn't pass.
"However, if you decide not to accept or you fail the testing, you will be sent back to Earth with no recollection of what happened for a year. You won't retain any of the physical and magical skills you earned. You will live your normal human life, never to be involved in this world again."
Which wasn't a bad option either. If they passed, they could accept or not. If they didn't, they wouldn't remember their failure. It didn't matter how she looked at it; it wasn't a bad deal. Either she passed or failed, there were no real consequences for her.
"What does the spiritual test mean?" she asked, suddenly curious about that. There was a part of her that was sure that the spiritual test and the selection process were connected, and she needed to know all the facts for her peace of mind.
"Yet another crucial question. And, it has to do with the selection process. You were selected and brought here because someone in your family line worked at some point for the Angel Society."
The whole room opened their eyes in shock. So many questions suddenly flooded their minds, but Dyaion stopped them before they could start talking.
"Wait! We'll have time to work out who in your family it was. Right now, what you need to know is that there is a book being kept by the Angels where every person who has ever worked for the Society is recorded. Every year we scan the books for the descendants of those people. The reason why is that even though you lose your memories if you ever leave the Society—because yes, you are not tied to the Society forever—there is something that's changed in your DNA. Like an angelic fingerprint, which can be passed through the bloodline. Right now, you are borrowing the power from the training camp and us to access magic. Once that fingerprint is activated, you will use the power from your bloodline. It doesn't mean you will have superpowers, as I said before. Usually, only Tier 2 are able to wield special abilities, but it means that without it you can't work on Earth as you won't have a magic source."
The more explaining he did, even though clear, the more doubts filled Rose's mind. She wondered who in her family could have fit the role of an Emissary, and no one came to her mind.
"And that's why you are tested on the last day of the training year. As activation can take up to a whole twelve months to be noticed, and Angels can't come and go every day to test you, all possible candidates are brought here for that period of time, and then they are tested. I will also tell you about the trackers who are in charge of—"
Suddenly Dyaion's figure lost neatness, and his voice became a whisper. Rose wondered, "Was she dreaming? But it was so real." She felt the warmth of the sun, the tickling sound of his voice, the fear of failing, and the uncertainty of her future.
"Rose!" A cold wind carried the words to her ears, and recognizing the owner of the voice, she turned around. She found herself face to face with her grandmother. She was the person who, according to the books, was the carrier of the DNA and to whom she owed the place where she was now, but her grandmother's sweet smile and her sad eyes weren't there. Her face now was distorted by fear and worry.
"Rose! Take it... Use all of it," she said, and her bleeding hand trying to reach her shocked Rose to the bone.
"No! Nona! No! Let's heal you! Phaeria can heal you!" she shouted with her heart in her throat. She had already lost her once; she couldn't lose her again. But her grandmother denied with her head and walked to her with uneven steps.
"You have to... trust me... trust my blood," she said, but when her hand made contact with her own body, suddenly loud bangs started to sound in her head, and the image of her grandmother blurred until there was only her in the middle of the dark.
The last knock came with a voice she automatically recognized, and she abruptly opened her eyes.