"Gabriel, Michael, Uriel! Come
meet your newest sibling!"
"Yes, Lord!" Answered a trio of voices.
Aziraphale peeked at Heaven through God's fingers until it was gently set down. Heaven was very bright. It was also very bare, full of great open spaces. Aziraphale huddled as close as it could against God.
"Don't be shy. Gabriel is one of my archangels." God urged, nudging Aziraphale forward until it stood in front of a tall archangel. It was wearing what Aziraphale assumed was a human form with dark hair and purple eyes.
The other two hung back, their forms different in places from Gabriel's own.
"This is the Principality Aziraphale." God told Gabriel, the name getting a reaction from the archangels, slight as it was. Aziraphale couldn't place it, too new to the concept of human bodies with all their various facial expressions. It didn't make Aziraphale feel good to see it though.
"Get Aziraphale a body before going down to Earth. Aziraphale is to be the Angel of the Eastern Gate, and the Guardian of Eden." God said, running Her hands over Aziraphale for the last time as She made ready to leave. "Take Sandalphon off of Tree duty immediately. He scares Eve."
"Yes, Lord." Gabriel said in a tone of voice that Aziraphale didn't like either. It didn't want to go with the archangels. It wanted to stay with their Mother, and return to the everything nothing of Her workshop.
"Oh, before I forget." God paused as She pulled something from nothing. "This is for you, Aziraphale. Here is your sword to do with what you will. It is a very special sword so use it wisely."
"Thank you, Mother." Aziraphale said, earning a look from Gabriel. Aziraphale did its best to hide that it didn't like the sword. Swords didn't seem very kind to Aziraphale. "I'll take good care of it."
"Of that, I have no doubt." God chuckled, the creator of everything sounding very amused about something.
"Lord..." Gabriel began to be cut off.
"Off you go." God said in farewell, already off to bigger and better things. "Oh, and Aziraphale?"
"Yes, Mother?"
"Remember what I told you." God said, and then She was gone. Aziraphale tried not to cry about it. It wasn't sure what all of its eyes would do if it started bawling.
"What was that all about?" Gabriel asked, doing his best to sound more authoritative than cross. Michael and Uriel were also staring Aziraphale down, much to its distress.
"Mother made me promise not to tell." Aziraphale said, looking nervously back and forth between the archangels.
"We address God, the Divine Creator, as our Lord." Michael corrected, the archangels striding off without even a background glance toward Aziraphale.
"Or as the Almighty." Uriel coldly added.
"Ah, yes. Sorry, it won't happen again." Aziraphale said, wondering what that was all about. God hadn't seemed to mind.
"So...Aziraphale," Gabriel startled the new being out of its own thoughts. Aziraphale didn't like how Gabriel said his name, like there was something wrong with it. "What exactly are you supposed to do on the Earth that merits a weapon created by the Almighty Herself?"
"That is a great honor for one such as you. Only archangels have weapons made by the Lord Herself." Michael expanded after noting Aziraphale's lack of reaction.
"I'm meant to inspire and protect the humans." Aziraphale said, scared and more than a little confused. Gabriel didn't like it. The other archangels didn't like Aziraphale either. It had no idea why. Aziraphale's being sank even further as they were joined by another archangel.
"Sandlephon, come meet Aziraphale, the reason you're permanently off apple duty now." Gabriel said, and there it was again, the reaction, the bad one. The archangels were upset with him.
"Praise be." Sandalphon smiled, the expression looking unpleasant in ways Aziraphale couldn't understand just yet. "Let's get this one a body already, and get on with it."
"I like the initiative! Excellent forward thinking as always." Gabriel said, making Aziraphale wonder what the archangel was praising the other for. God had told them to do just that moments before. "So what model do you want to go with, Aziraphale?"
"Model?"
"For simplicity's sake, do you want what Uriel and Michael have, or what Sandalphon and I are going with?"
"Does it matter?" Aziraphale asked, looking back and forth between the archangels. They looked like they all had the same number of limbs and eyes so Aziraphale couldn't really tell if there was any advantage between the two.
"Of course not, but the humans think it does. You can always change it up if you need to." Gabriel sighed impatiently, the other archangels exchanging looks.
"If it doesn't matter, just pick one for me." Aziraphale decided, a base form appearing before it.
"Hurry up, and get in. You can adjust it to look however you like later." Gabriel shooing Aziraphale toward it. It hid its amusement as it settled in to its latest corporation. Nesting doll indeed, whatever those were.
"What would this make me?" Aziraphale said looking down at itself with new eyes, the one pair of them. That was a new sensation to get used to.
"Male. You'll get used to all its disgusting features." Gabriel said, snapping up a set of white robes for the Principality. Another snap, and they were all up on a great wall that overlooked a dessert on one side, and a lush garden on the other.
"Well, this is your post. Don't let us down." Gabriel said. Aziraphale thought it should have sounded like an order than a warning.
"Don't disappoint us more than you already have." Michael sighed as she studied the Wall and Garden with a critical eye.
"You're nothing like him." Uriel added, her demeanor remaining as frozen as before.
"Shame really." Sandlephon snorted, his voice full of contempt.
"Who? Nothing like who?" Aziraphale asked, bewildered as he searched the archangel's faces for answers from cold eyes and grim mouthes.
"Didn't She tell you? No? Too bad for you." Gabriel said, "Well, you have the honor of being named after a fallen archangel, Raphael, the former Archangel of Healing."
"When the Almighty said she was making something in honor of him...well, let's just say we were expecting something more. Something...not you." Michael said with a dismissive gesture.
"A Principality to honor an Archangel. Absurd." Uriel all but hissed out.
Why's he got a sword?" Sandlephon asked, studying Aziraphale in a way he didn't like. He wondered if he was going to have to fight off Sandlephon to keep his sword.
"He's meant to guard Eden with it." Gabriel sighed, not needing to put to words how much he thought the sword was wasted on Aziraphale.
"And all you got was a horn." Michael smirked, earning herself a look from Gabriel. Micheal has a sword forged by the Almighty herself. She liked to tease Gabriel about it.
"Seems a waste, but better him than any of us. I've spent enough time here." Sandlephon grimacing in disgust at the Garden. "One of those humans actually tried to talk to me."
"Better than Raphael's staff though." Uriel pointed out, much to other archangel's distress.
"No one's seen it since he Fell. Probably took it to the Pit with him." Sandlephon muttered.
"Enough!" Gabriel snapped, the others falling silent. "Aziraphale, you have your orders."
And with that, they were all gone, Aziraphale left alone on the Wall.
"That I do."