A Taste of Hell: Eelis

"I know, but--"

"There are two humans I think it would do you well to speak to. Two women."

He eyed Seonaid, and she smiled, a hint of mischievousness in her opal eyes.

"... very well. Do not blame me if it goes badly, Seonaid."

Her grin only grew. "It won't."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Creatures of the afterlife, demons and human souls, did not need to bathe. That included angels. Sweat and the like evaporated into the aether, no longer needed by their reflections. But their reflections were not immune to the lure of warm water and its therapeutic effects. Skin, muscle, flesh, pores and hair follicles, all rejoiced in the sensation of warm water soothing the body. The water sent pleasure through his muscles, and he released a pleased sigh as he sat back upon the bench in the pool. Dressed in only a loincloth, he stretched one wing out to its full length, and then the other, covering the large pool in his wingspan, before he let them relax, half curled to his back, half drifting out against the wall of the pool and the water.

It had been ages since he'd last visited the adult sanctums for a bath. Literal ages, according to the scrying pools. The humans on the surface talked in such strange words now that the Estian language struggled to convey it, and even his latest reflection had needed time to learn the insane lingo. Why did the humans evolve their ways of speech so quickly? Eelis had avoided others for so long, talking was difficult enough without the extreme changes.

What, in the name of all that was holy, did low-key mean?

Sighing, he reached down to the scar at his side where Seonaid had long healed him. No pain, but the scar tissue, forever carrying over to his next reflection, tugged at him with each motion. They all did. Reminders that would never fade.

"I know I am not to blame, not truly," he whispered as he looked down through the water. "I know that I am indulging in pride by indulging in such guilt, as if these circumstances could have been fixed by me and me alone. But..." Pride tormented all the awakened. Demon, angel, human. But why did it insist on tormenting him to the brink of insanity?

An intellectual and emotional disconnect, according to Seonaid, and he knew better than to ignore her wisdom. Utterly frustrating. Why couldn't he be left to his own at his post? If it took him another two thousand years to bridge the gap in his mind, then so be it. This utter insistence that he--

"Geronimo!"

Eelis snapped his gaze up in time to see two figures jump into the water. Two humans with knees pulled up to their chests fell into the center of the pool, and their combined weight and timing sent enough waves to splash up against Eelis's chest high enough to wet his face and hair. He groaned at the two newcomers, and pulled his hand down his face, pushing aside wet strands of his blond hair and water from his beard.

"I assume you're here at Seonaid's request," he said, eying the two humans.

"Yeap!" the first one said, a big smile on her face. A woman, average height for a human; tiny compared to him. She wore, what the humans of the modern era called, a bikini, a skimpy thing of blue that defied purpose, since it left utterly nothing to the imagination. She was also quite lean, with a touch of muscle to her frame. Beige skin and short brown hair, and mischievous green eyes.

"Sorry," the other said. A taller woman, perhaps five eight, but still a tiny thing compared to Eelis's seven foot height. She had tan skin, with black hair in a pony tail. Like her friend, she was also quite lean, with a touch of muscle, but a touch curvier. And like her miscreant friend, she also wore a bikini, white, that left, again, nothing to the imagination.

Clothing picked at Seonaid's request, no doubt.

"I'm Debbie," the shorter one said, and she waved -- with far too much enthusiasm -- as she swam closer to him. The warm water was shallow, and she stood up once she was only a few feet from him. "You're Eelis?"

"He has to be," the other said. "Seonaid said--oh, I'm Sofia." Sofia came closer, not bothering to swim, and came to a stop beside Debbie.

Eelis may have spent two thousand years avoiding contact with the souls of Heaven, but any fool could recognize the body language of two people attracted to each other. The two women stood hip to hip, and the shorter one with the playful grin glanced down at her partner's rather large bust several times. Of course, when she also hooked a hand behind her partner's back and held her further hip, the language of lovers was blatant.

"Let's get this over with then. What did Seonaid tell you must be told to me?"

The two women blinked at each other. Confused, or feigning.

"Your face doesn't match your attitude," Debbie said, grinning. "You look like a sad puppy, you know? Like a... golden retriever!"

"More like a grumpy old golden retriever," Sofia said, shaking her head, and her ponytail bounced lightly behind her. "Which is pretty weird, cause golden retrievers don't have a grumpy bone in their body."

"You're right. That's why it's so strange! He doesn't look like he should be so grumpy, but he is."

God, if you're listening, give me the strength to deal with fools.

"If you're not here on Seonaid's request, then leave me be. This sanctum is reserved." And Heaven could produce infinite to satisfy the ever increasing divisions of souls. God forgive him, sometimes he thought of the humans as the humans thought of locusts.

"Don't worry, ya big grump," the littler one said. "Seonaid sent us, yeah, like Sofia said. She thought we might have some input that could help."

"Mhmm," the slightly less little one said. "She didn't go into any details, but she said we have insight into something you should hear."

Debbie nodded. "Heavy stuff."

"Heavy stuff, and things we might be able to shed some light on."

"Seonaid also said you were gorgeous." Debbie, with a massive chipmunk grin, waded closer, and stopped in front of his legs. "Damn you're huge."

"I am average height for an angel."

"And angels are huge!" The tiny woman leaned closer still, gawking as she looked between his wings, before her eyes settled on his torso. She bit her bottom lip.

And her partner promptly slapped her on the thigh.

"Debbie you're drooling."

"Shit, sorry." The chipmunk stood up straight again and half turned toward her partner, but she continued to sneak glances at him. His body, specifically.

It wasn't unusual. Angel reflections were all the epitome of human beauty, grand and majestic. And while rapholem and mikalim did not have that absurd allure of gabriem, their reflections were gorgeous nonetheless. Angels accepted that, and had no reason to mind that their reflections drew the eyes of enthralled souls. Such was the will of Heaven.

At the moment, however, Eelis very much wanted these two humans to simply be gone.

"I've only been in Heaven a year, you know?" the chipmunk continued. "Angels are so... wow."

"We died on the same day, dumbass. I've been here as long as you." Sofia rolled her eyes, but despite her obvious annoyance with Debbie, she pulled her dark ponytail over her shoulder, and gently combed her fingers over it as she also sneaked a few glances at Eelis's body.

"Visit one of the other adult sanctums for sex," he said, "if that is what interests you."

"We have!" Debbie said, grinning brighter. "Several times."

"Several dozen, dozen times. Slut."

"You were with me every time, bitch."

Sofia rolled her eyes again, but leaned in and set a kiss on Debbie's cheek. "Sorry Eelis, but Seonaid sent a couple of very forward women to talk to you. And looking at you now, I can see why. You are totally a closed book."

Eelis frowned, but said nothing. Which sent Debbie into a fit of giggles.

"Ask us how we died," the littler one said.

He was tempted to say no. But, if he did not play along with this silliness, Seonaid would not give him back his freedom. She'd given him a trial he had to suffer through, and he'd suffer through it, if only so he could have his peace and quiet on the wall once again.

"How did you die?" he said, voice a grumble, eyes on Debbie.

She stood up straight, and saluted. "Line of duty."

He raised a brow, and looked to her friend.

Sofia stood up straight, and saluted. "Line of duty."

"You two were soldiers?"

Debbie nodded, and swam to his left. Once there, she stared at his left wing, which was much larger than her, and her gaze slid along it with awed eyes.

"I was a medic. Sofia was a private. We both died in a gunfight. Same city."

Sofia sat on Eelis's right, nodding as she looked up at him. With him sitting on the pool's bench, the water barely reached his sternum, but it splashed up against her collar bone and shoulders. She leaned forward as well, enough to avoid touching his right wing with her body. She had more respect than her chaotic lover.

"I... did not expect you two to be soldiers." It did explain their fit prime bodies, though.

"Cause we all gotta be grumps, right? Like you? Covered in scars and smoking cigars, wearing wife beaters?" Debbie giggled and shook her head. The crass word choice made Sofia roll her eyes, however.

"Seonaid says you have survivor's guilt."

Eelis gave Sofia a single glare, and she froze, gulping and staring up at him. But she did not retreat from him either. Brave, for a human.

"And you two do as well?" As if humans could understand, with their short lives, and an afterlife that cared about them. As if--

"Hell no," Debbie said, sitting down on his left, mirroring Sofia. "We died, duh."

"What my dumbass girlfriend means, is we were some of the first to die. When shit got bad, we went down."

"We did our best."

"People died with us."

"And if our comrades had done better, we could have survived."

Eelis snapped his gaze toward Debbie. How dare she say such a thing? But, despite how she flinched, she kept her smile, and met his gaze.

"What Debbie means, is shit went bad, because people fucked up. People failed to do their job, and people like Debbie and me died because of it. Caught up in a meat grinder."

"It was bad. We didn't go down in a blaze of glory."

"I didn't get to fire a shot," Sofia said.

"I didn't get to save a soul," Debbie said. "And we didn't die quick. We bled out, torn up."

"Same where I was. Caught out on two sides, got shredded, and it was hours before anyone could secure the position. Bled out before helped arrived. Last thing I heard was the screams of my friends. At least one of them was crying and begging before they died. Nightmare stuff."

"Same here. It was... it was bad, Eelis. Sofia and I, are textbook examples of the shit other soldiers feel bad about. We checked the scrying pools. The people who lived through that day are fucking wrecked, drinking themselves to death."

"A lot of them are in therapy. Every one of them feels guilty." Sofia tugged on her ponytail over her chest a few times, soft tugs, a nervous tick. "It fucking sucks, seeing them tear themselves up, especially cause every one of them is convinced they don't deserve to live after what happened."

"And the worst part is," Debbie said, "that yeah, sure, some of them made mistakes that got people killed. But not one, not fucking one of us blame them, you know? And I've talked to the others who died, found them up here, and they agree with us. I mean sure, the dude's down there on the surface, still alive? They messed up and gut us killed, but none of us actually blame them. None of us want them to feel guilty. Not a fucking one of us is angry or bitter toward them."

"We died. It was part of the job. We knew damn well going in that mistakes could happen. I look in that scrying pool and see my mom and dad, and they're wrecked too. And sure they blamed our commanders at first, but that past. Now everyone is recovering, except for the people that blame themselves. They're all spiraling down into this pit of guilt none of us want them to."

"Christ -- sorry -- if we could help them, we would. But... but we're up here, and they're down there, dying on in the inside."

Sofia reached across Eelis's lap, and took Debbie's hand long enough to give it a squeeze. "Some day they'll be up here. We can wait, long as we want."

Eelis looked between Sofia and Debbie, mind reeling as their words cut him down, and down, and down.

"You don't hold the ones who failed you accountable?"

"Nope!" Debbie said.

"Nah," Sofia said. "I mean I did when I realized I died. But that anger lasted maybe a day? One look in a scrying pool to see what was happening, and any hate or anger I had just went poof, you know? Jesus -- sorry -- how could we be angry with them? They tried, they really did. And that's all anyone can ask for."

It hurt to hear these words. And that was why Seonaid picked these two humans to speak with him. Not because of any similarities; they had none, in personality or circumstance. Seonaid sent them, because they could say the words Eelis knew his dead comrades couldn't. It was silly. Eelis knew his comrades would have said these words, he knew that before ever meeting these two humans.

But there was a difference in knowing something, and experiencing it.

He sighed, nodding, and let the tension in his body go. Instantly, both women did the same, and they leaned back against the pool wall, and his wings. Normally that would be beyond annoying, but Seonaid's little gamble had paid off, and he could no longer summon the anger that normally boiled under the surface of his skin. It was still there, and it would take time to cool, but he could not bring himself to unleash it upon these two women. If anything, they were cooling him as well. Perhaps Seonaid had been correct in more ways than one, and humans were worth speaking with, to--

"Seonaid also said we should see if you'd be willing to fuck," the littler one said, chipmunk smile in full force. "I think the gabriem really have a thing for sexual healing. Some of these sanctums are nuts! Like, I've seen some crazy stuff when I was alive, but I ain't ever seen six dudes literally fucking one girl -- angel -- at the same time. Or six girls fucking one dude -- angel -- at the same time."

Good Lord, please, give him patience.

Sofia nodded. "I think most of us were thinking, if there's a Heaven, and if we get to go to it, it's probably not going to be filled with fucking all the time."

"Sexuality is one of the deepest aspects of being alive, one of its greatest pleasures. It is not inherently evil."

"Fucking right!" Giggling, Debbie pushed off from the pool wall, and stood in front of him. Sex wasn't evil, but her grin was. "So, you wanna?"

"Slut," Sofia said, but she laughed as well, and swam up to her lover to embrace her from behind.

Eelis had to admit, the swimsuit invention 'bikinis' were alluring to watch, playful evolutions of wear he'd seen from Greek souls, thousands of years ago. Not unlike the potram clothing of many angels, as well. And while humans would never carry the perfect beauty and grace of an angel, they were gorgeous little creatures nonetheless.

He was no gabriem. It was not existential to his being to want to help the human souls of Heaven, to soothe their wounded souls until they were ready to move on. But, he was still an angel, and no angel could ignore the desire to care for them at least a little.

After several minutes of watching the two women, and how Sofia hugged Debbie from behind while teasing her body with wandering fingers, Eelis sighed. How long had he avoided the approach of others? Human and angel alike, neither had touched him in so long. An angel could contain their mind, their desires, their thoughts, for thousands of years, but now that he sat here, talking with two women, warm water gently lapping against his body, he could no longer suppress his inner thoughts.

"Alright," he said, a small smile sneaking onto his face he could not suppress. "I submit." He was tired. Tired of Seonaid's pestering him, but also, tired of being alone.

~~♥♥♥~~

"Yay!" Debbie wasted no time, stripping out of her bikini with all the grace of a two-legged dog. If not for Sofia helping, Debbie would have fallen; her clothes did not have string knots, unlike Sofia's. Naked, the thin woman's small breasts pointed at him with hard, pink nipples, and like most angel reflections this century, she didn't have a single hair on her body below the neck.

Without bothering to ask for permission, Debbie swam up between his legs, and reached down through the water to begin undoing his loincloth.

"Seonaid says you should just sit back," Sofia said over Debbie's shoulder. She too had come closer, and licked her lips as she looked him up and down. "Just relax and let us take care of you."

"Not terribly angel of me," he said. "Angels take care of humans, not the other way around."

The littler human took a moment to adjust her short brown hair, before she finished unwrapping the one piece of clothes he had. The hunger in her eyes was positively animal.

"Well, Sofia and me are awesome, and Seonaid says we're cool to help others. You're not the first person we've helped out. First angel though." The littler human purred as she ran her hands down his shoulders, his chest, his abs, and down his smooth pelvis to slowly wrap her hands around his girth.

He was an angel. All angels were not only taller than humans, but proportionally larger, wider and thicker, with the frames to support it. They looked like large humans, with white wings earning most angels enormous wing spans. For an average height, thin human like Debbie, he was much, much larger than her.

The differences didn't stop there. Angels were well endowed. Extremely.

Debbie giggled openly as she tried to touch finger and thumb around his girth, and couldn't. Slowly, she stroked his length, and squirmed between his knees as she experimented with different grips. With each moment, her breathing grew faster, and her eyes drifted from his face, his chest, his abs, and down through the water to watch her own hands work on his shaft.

"You ok?" Sofia said. It took Eelis a moment to realize she was asking him.

"I am an old creature, Sofia. I have had sex with many humans and angels in my life."

"Yeah, but that was a long time ago. If you want Debbie to slow her slutty ass down, just say something."

He smiled lightly to the tan-skinned woman, nodding. She returned it, blushing as she combed her ponytail once more, before she undid the knots of her bikini, exposing her own naked body. Like Debbie, her past as a warrior meant she was both lean, and carried some muscle, but not enough to hide feminine curves. Her breasts were quite larger than Debbie's, and she pressed them into her friend's back after swimming closer, and hugging her lover from behind.

"Sex in water really sucks, on Earth," Sofia continued. "Had a dude once tell me it was like fucking a wet rubber balloon."

"But not up here!" Giggling again, Debbie turned her back to him, set her hands on Eelis's knees, and hopped up. She came back down still between his legs, her own feet touching the pool floor, but now her butt pressed to his abs, and his hard shaft stuck up from between her thighs. With a shivering groan, she slid her ass down his abs until her tiny sex pressed against his girth.

"The sanctums were created to--"

Debbie gave his side a gentle slap, before she ground her hips up and down against his length, rubbing her hot, soft flesh against him. "We know we know. To please horndogs like me."

He wanted to correct her, but it was easy to see with a rambunctious creature like Debbie, he'd be better off letting her think what she wished. Sanctums had many purposes, but cleaning the body was not one of them. No angel or soul created body residue that lasted beyond the moment. Sanctums with hot pools such as this one were meant to relax in, and if desired, to have sex in.