(Untitled)

[smokes_and_lies]

Date: Febuary 6th, 2001 (immediately following Berith's arrival)
Setting: Berith's room, Raguel's room
Status: Private - Berith, Raguel [Complete]
Summary: Did you forget how it began? I haven't.

Comments

[weary_justice]

It wasn't hard to recognize the presence for what it was. Certainly it had been a long time since he had last felt it. Certainly it was changed, in some ways, from that which he had known. It mattered little.

In the stillness of that which he was rapidly coming to think of as his room, Raguel sat quiet and still, and if his heart wished to race or his breathing to catch, he carefully forbade them to alter any of their placid pattern.

Raguel's job was never ending, and although, sometimes, he felt as though his purpose was greater than the mediations to which he was constantly set, it was nevertheless true that he was very busy. For this reason he had already taken an assistant and was considering choosing one or two more. Tsadkiel was already proving a great help in dealing with smaller disagreements and complaints, leaving Raguel greater time to properly tend to larger matters

[smokes_and_lies]

The voices went quiet, and Baraqiel set to work.

"The answer is simple. Antares will not sing the song in the presence of the choir, as it is not his business to do so. But you cannot stop him from singing it on his own; God gave him a voice to do with as he would. You have no say in how he uses it."

It was all too simple really; why could they not see it?

And as a murmuring broke out over the group, Baraqiel caught a pair of eyes on him and quickly bowed his head. He was about to be scolded, surely, and he was not pleased with himself for it. Everyone knew what Raguel's arrival meant in any sphere. It was not his place to act in Justice's stead, and he had not meant to.

[weary_justice]

It was a fair decision, one which Raguel would most likely have given himself, although what impressed Raguel more was the ease with which it was spoken, the grace of it. Neither disputant found quarrel in the judgment, but also they found no quarrel in how it was given, or by whom.

Raguel stepped forward lightly, offering a smile of greeting to the other angel.

"That was well spoken," he said. "I could hardly have done better. May I ask your name?"

[smokes_and_lies]

"Baraqiel," he answered instantly, his eyes still lowered. Wait, he was being reprimanded? It sounded rather that he was being... complimented? How did that follow?

"My judgement could hardly be sound as your own, for it is not my function," he told the Archangel. And when he finally looked up he found that smile to be... jarring. He had not known it was possible for Justice to smile for he had never heard tell of it. Yet it was a comfort and he could not help but smile back slightly.