Despoiled Radiance (Interlude) (Original) (Patreon)

Themes: No Sex, Ditzy Valley Girls, Grating Dialogue

Word Count: 2,138

Summary: In which we get a look at the inner most sanctum of the Heavenly Realms, the Angelic Intelligence Department... and its new co-leaders. Just to remind you all this is actually a Space Opera masquerading as a fantasy story.

Interlude  

Far away from the Fortress World, far from the spot that an Archangel had just fallen to a cackling Imp Lord, sat the Heavenly Realms. A territory awash in splendor and gold, the main holdings of the Light were beautiful to witness. If only their shining majesty could reach the borders of their space, they just might be able to finally stop the constant incursions of the Dark. 

Unfortunately, the Light was centralized and those at the outskirts of the Heavenly Realms were left with barely any defense against the encroaching Darkness. Only the border worlds deemed crucial

However, here at the center of those beautiful shining realms lay Celestia Prime, the home world of the Light and all its glory. The planet basked in the radiance of the Goddesses Incarnate day after day, and it showed by just how much the denizens that lived on its surface prospered. Celestia Prime was a world full of glowing crystals and golden structures, wide walkways and open airspace that say angels both young and old flitting through the air.

It is on this world, the jewel of the Heavenly Realms, that young angels and young archangels, and even, some whisper, young goddesses, are groomed for their positions in the war against the Dark. More specifically though to this particular tale, it is on this world that one can find the Angelic Intelligence Department. The Angelic Intelligence Department or AID as it was called by most in the heavenly host had its head office positioned on Celestia Prime. Where else would the few beings of Light that in turn operated as spooks be safest after all?

In the end, the head office for AID was located under what appeared at first glance to be a mountain or perhaps a pyramid. In reality, it was in fact a massive set of communication arrays, sprouting up thousands of feet into the sky in order to reach out and grab communications from all across the Heavenly Realms. It was here in the heart of Celestia Prime that angels worked tirelessly in a massive workspace, large, elegant and filled with glimmering crystals and other sorts of equipment. The floors were marble and those who worked in AID were proud of their positions, proud of their work.

Except… for one thing. The doors to the main office were suddenly flung open as two young Archangels just on the cusp of adulthood walked into AID like they owned the place. Which, to put it in polite terms, they basically did. As the young nubile women giggled to themselves, heads rose and angels have all ages and backgrounds looked upon their bosses with no small measure of dread.

AID was always led by two Archangels. And, because it was deemed a safe environment, set in the heart of Celestia Prime as it was, the leaders on high deemed it right and proper to make that two YOUNG Archangels. Every ten years, the leadership of AID went through a cyclic change and two new, wet behind their ears Seraphs showed up to take charge.

As Vanessa and Isralia looked around their new digs, angels averted their eyes, everyone going back to their work before the two young beauties could lock gazes and find fault with them. When the Archangels saw this, they each smiled and looked at each other, giggling yet again. It was a fun feeling, having this much power. Just because they were born as Archangels, they got to lord their superiority over angels twice or even ten times their age!

It was glorious, and the two nubile Seraphs immediately launched off the ground, floating through the air of the wide open office up towards the enclosed perch that operated as the command center for AID’s leadership. For them as it were, now. The only way to get to their new office was by flight, but both Vanessa and Isralia were wonderful fliers, making it quite easy to make the ascent. Once inside, they were careful to close the door. Then, Vanessa turned to Isralia, they both grinned widely… and then they squee’d loudly, something that every angel below could hear, since the office was not in fact soundproofed.

Coming together, the two young Archangels clasped hands, intertwining their fingers and giving each other a long, deep, totally platonic smooch on the lips before separating. Where Vanessa was a little on the short side with blonde curls and blue eyes, Isralia was taller by almost a head, her own hair raven black and reaching down to the small of her back, her own amethyst eyes glittering at the joy she saw in Vanessa’s.

“We did is Izzy! We finally did it! Out of our entire class of twenty, WE got chosen to lead up AID!”

“Yep! It’s all ours Vannie! But of course, we were totally the right choice. The Goddesses of the Light so made the right call when they picked US. You and me, we’re like, the best of the best when it comes to espionage and stuff!”

“Oh. My. Light. You are sooo right! We’re gonna show all those dummies back in class that leading AID is the way to go! Dead end assignment my cute little behind! How can they not see that, like, intelligence is sooo key to our success? The Light definitely needs to be sneaky sometimes, just like the Dark! It’s just, ridiculous that they think we’re the worst in class just because we got assigned here.”

“Yeah, for realsies. It’s more like, the Goddesses can see how special and important we are and put us here because this is where we need to be. Like, maybe we can turn the reputation of this place around. We’ve just got to show everyone that AID is super-duper important!”

Vanessa nodded along with Isralia’s last statement, her eyes practically sparkling. Then she looked around their office. No sooner had she broken her gaze then a message came in on a nearby monitor. Letting out a delighted gasp, Vanessa practically ran to the monitor and looked the message over, reading it out loud as Isralia came up behind her to read over her shoulder.

“It’s our first intelligence report Izzy! Says here that something strange has developed on a Demon Fortress World.”

Isralia gasped and moved to another screen, bringing up a map of the galaxy with all its borders. The side of Darkness was pretty… dark, but the important worlds were still clearly marked. Seeing what her compatriot is doing, Vanessa calls out helpfully.

“It says its Fortress World #4 bee-tee-dubs!”

With that information, the dark haired Archangel now co-running AID finds it in no time and gasps again, pressing her finger down on the planet in question.

“Wow! That’s all the way in the deepest parts of demon territory Vannie! I didn’t even know we had angels out that far!”

Vanessa smirked easily, planting a fist on her hip and cocking it out.

“Oh yeah, we totally do! But uh, that’s not where this report came from; it apparently came down the grapevine through one of our deep cover agents on a demonic supply route! I guess maybe the harpies on this Fortress World devolved or something?”

That causes Isralia to scrunch up her brow in confusion.

“So some demihumans got dumber? Demihumans are already dumb Vannie, I’m not sure why that’s worthy of going in an intelligence report that’s meant for the heads of AID!”

Vanessa’s smirk turned into a wide grin.

“That’s just it Izzy! According to this report, the harpies devolved when they developed some sort of holy trait! This is all a theory apparently, but according to this, there’s a new task force being formed up to deal with “Hostile Holy Hens!”

Isralia pauses. She looks at Vanessa. Vanessa looks back. Abruptly, the two of them burst into laughter, doubling over and nearly crying with mirth. It took both young Archangels several long moments of vocal joyous laughter before they eventually managed to calm down. Of course, by the time they did so, their eyes met again and Isralia had a twinkle in hers.

“… Hostile Holy Hens.”

Vanessa broke immediately and together they laughed uproariously once more at the incredibly silly bit of alliteration. Eventually though, they did each calm down enough to take things a teensy bit seriously. Vanessa shook her head as she and Isralia re-read the report together, her blonde curls bouncing back and forth along with her.

“I seriously can’t believe that demons are having difficulty with their own foot soldiers.”

Isralia just shrugged an arrogant smirk on her face and confidence in her tone.

“Just goes to show, like, how cool the Light is compared to the Dark. Give some holy traits to a demihuman and suddenly it’s a match for a demon! Hah!”

There’s another long pause as Vanessa stares at Isralia with wide eyes and Isralia realizes what she’s just said, staring back with equally wide eyes. The two young Archangels step up to each other, wide grins on their faces.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I dunno, are you thinking about what we did last night to celebrate this promotion?”

Isralia went scarlet at Vanessa’s words, glancing away and mumbling beneath her breath even as the shorter blonde giggled and hugged her tall friend. Vanessa was definitely the extrovert of the pair, but she was pretty sure she’d been an absolute boon to Isralia, because the more introverted girl went out of her way to copy and mimic everything Vanessa did. Fake it till you make it, right?! Still, to waylay Isralia retreating into her shell, Vanessa threw the poor dark haired Archangel a bone.

“For realsies though, I totally am thinking what you’re thinking Izzy. If we can find a way to make more of these Holy Hens, we can sooo prove that AID is a super important part of the Light’s battle with the Dark! Maybe we can do more than devolve some harpies! Wouldn’t it be great to see a Pig Orc firing a beam of light from its nostrils or something?!”

The hilarious imagery did exactly as intended, causing Isralia to snicker and giggle at the thought as she nodded, still a bit shyly, but with a broad smile on her face. Smirking and mentally patting herself on the back for a job well done, Vanessa turned back to the task at hand.

“First things first, we need to get more info on this! Like I said earlier, we totally have angels on that world, it’s in the report. Apparently we even have an Archangel there!”

Her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she worked, the curly haired blonde Seraph’s eyes darted across the screen as she brought up the information she needed.

“Gabriella. That’s a pretty name. Ooh, and she’s been working with AID for over a hundred years Izzy! How cool is that?!”

“That’s pretty cool… she must be like, super experienced Vannie. So how do we get in contact with her?”

Pressing her lips together tightly, Vanessa furrowed her brow.

“Looks like her yearly text only report came in two months ago saying she was okay. I’m going to send a message back. What should it say Izzie?”

“Um, whatever it is… no gushing?”

Vanessa glanced back at her blushing friend and then smiled and nodded.

“Good call, I was totally going to do that, but we’re like, super important big shots now. No gushing it is! Just gonna ask for the basics here.”

Slowly, Vanessa began to type the message out, speaking it as she did so the entire while.

“Hello, Archangel Gabriella. We have heard about demihumans with holy traits showing up on the world you are currently working on converting. Is this your doing? How did you do it? We require all information you have on this work as soon as possible, so that we may in turn create more Holy Hens of our own for use against the Dark. Please respond asap, your new bosses, Archangels Vanessa and Isralia.”

Glancing back at Isralia, Vanessa got a wide smile and two thumbs up. Two was definitely better than one, so with a sense of finality, the young nubile Archangel pressed the send button.

There was no way for her to have known that Gabriella, her platoon of angels, and all of their equipment had been compromised. There was no way for her or her co-head of AID to know that they’d just sent a message to the enemy, giving said enemy a direct line to the leadership of the Angelic Intelligence Department. 

There was no way for Vanessa or Isralia to know all of the misfortune that would soon be headed their way. Leading AID had just become a whole lot more dangerous.