Thank you for the reviews. It's wonderful to hear that there are people who still think my work is worth reading. This one must be the lousiest chapter I've ever written but please don't crucify me because of it.
Disclaimer: None of the characters appearing in the Tomb Raider games or movies belong to me.
Between Heaven and Hell
She waited a flash of pain but it never shot through her body. She expected to black out but the doorway still loomed ahead of her like nothing was wrong. Only thing she could feel was the coldness as the blade of the last pendulum flew through her like she was air to it or like it was air to her. Even thought she should've been killed at the very strike of the blade she was still alive and kicking. She dived for the doorway, stood up and faced the five nephilim still behind her.
Karel still had his weapon drawn and pointed at her but the only one by his side was the former dissident. The three others had only the last pendulum to pass. It was now or never if she wanted to escape. This could be the best chance she'd ever get. Lara turned around and rushed forward only to hear a scream behind her.
Another of Karel's helpers was forced to find out if the bottomless pit had a bottom as the final pendulum struck through him. The dark smoke she could only assume was the thing's spirit was eagerly eaten by the blade as the body disappeared into the darkness.
The last thing she saw before dashing to the next room was Karel taking his true form, the very same she had seen in Eckhardt's laboratory in Prague. Even though she couldn't see them she could feel the gaze of the entirely black and soulless eyes on her, urging her to stop like his willpower had any power over her. The markings on his face so evident in her mind she ran forward not wanting to face the inhuman creatures that were chasing her.
How come had the blade slain the nephilim but not her? She didn't need to question herself long because of that for the answer was evident - he had been something she was not and she was something he could never be, no matter how hard he'd try. Had it ever occurred to the dissidents that the humans could also find this tomb as well as the nephilim?
There was no more time to give it another thought as she exited the lit hallway into total darkness. Didn't this place have lights at all? This time around she didn't even have a torch, or no matters whatsoever to bring light into this room. The darkness around her was something she'd have to come to know in less time than she usually had. Her only hope was that the nephilim would have to face the same darkness.
She knelled and guided herself with her hands slowly even though she knew she had no time for it. Too much was at risk here for her to simply throw away her life by running around without not understanding where she was and where she was supposed to go. Silently she hoped that she'd step on some kind of a switch that would turn on the lights like in the last room but no matter how far she crawled the room stayed dark. Sighing deeply she stood up and for the first time in her entire life started having second thoughts about always being there to save the world. This far she had been in it because of the thrill and glory it brought but crawling around in the dark erased all the glory of the situation. But perhaps the Halls had something more to offer in their deep, under the volcano, something even she hadn't seen before.
She walked forward leaning to the wall on her left and even though it felt cold, slippery and clammy she didn't let go. It was her only guideline through the room now that the torch she had was gone and Karel had taken the possession of her backpack.
Her fingers landed on something that to her opinion wasn't a part of the wall. It wasn't cold as the rest of the walls and a strange warmth radiated from it, making her hopes rise again. She pushed the object hard and took a step back to see if her act had caused something helpful.
A single high shriek forced her to protect her ears with her hands instead of holding on to something. A shock wave blasted from the wall she had been leaning to just a little while ago as the missing light of the room rushed through the wall to drive away the darkness that had taken the control. The force of the shock wave threw her of her feet and over the edge of the small walkway she had been standing on. Out of reflex her hands reached out to take a grab of the edge as her body went over it. Painfully she dashed against the cold stone and her fingers fought to keep her from falling as her feet sought footholds in the rocky wall.
As she looked up the room was filling with glorious bluish light. It seemed to be coming from whatever she had touched on the wall since she couldn't see its source. Before she could climb up there was a hand in front of her, white and filled with markings telling her instantly who it was on the narrow walkway.
"And what if I refuse?" She asked her usual tone returning. Even when hanging from an edge she had her spirit. What use would it be to show your enemy your fears and let them know that they had the upper hand in the situation? To her it was the very same thing than giving up and letting the nephilim win. No, he would never know how close of giving up she had been while the room still bathed in darkness no source of light in sight.
"Ms.Croft." Karel started mockingly. "Did you really believe I couldn't do this without your assistance?"
"Then why am I here?" She asked, breathing faster as her fingers began to loose their hold on the edge. She would hold on as long as it took, even though in the end her fingers would bleed.
"How could I say it the best." He laughed still not able to express any emotions with the simple gesture. "You're the backup since I don't like surprises."
Not ready to die yet she reached for the hand of the nephilim trying not to think how disgusting it was. Of all the beings she had met during her career the nephilim were the only ones with a heartbeat that didn't even have a bit of a soul in the human sense of the word. They had a spirit of some sort, yes, but they totally lacked most of the feelings she thought humane. There was nothing to erase the darkness from their hearts.
The nephilim pulled her up like she weighed nothing at all. When she was standing on her own two feet again she took a look at where the light came from. The wall on the side where she was standing was painted with multiple colors and the angels the painting portrayed had dressed up in similar colorful fashion. A name was embroidered on each of the angel's clothing. There was laughter on their face and sadness in their eyes, a small glimpse of something not angelic. Was it a hint or remorse or yearning she couldn't tell but these angels weren't happy in their given form.
The bluish light shone from the rocks embedded into each angel's chest. Was this an attempt to show the goodness in them, a tint of blue shining from their chests, their hearts. There was an enormous conflict between the shine of their hearts and sadness in their eyes. These beings weren't happy no matter how good and pure they were. Perhaps some of them had seen or felt a glimpse of a mortal life where the fear of death forced humans to live like each day was their last. Maybe the same angels had been envious of the human heart, not good and pure, but filled with life in a sense that was foreign to them. Was this what had driven them into deserting their principles? Just because they wanted to feel something they weren't supposed to know existed? But how can you miss something you never had? How could they dream of having a human heart if they had been angels all their lives?
As she turned around she faced another wall, dark and grim, with only a little grayish light shining from the hearts of the beings she believed to be fallen angels. They didn't have horns nor had they long tails with an ace of spades in the end. Their skin wasn't red and on their face there wasn't an evil grin. They weren't so different from the beings on the other wall. The major difference she could see was that instead of having a smile on their face the fallen angels were expressionless and their eyes were empty - the sadness had abated.
Humans had a tendency to yearn for immortality, eternal life and a life without sickness. The angels had wanted to feel the same as the humans, not contented in the limited range of emotions they were given. Had the two species thought that together,in between them, they could create a race free of diseases and death but still have joy in their hearts?
The more she looked around the more clearer it came to her that there was no other way out of this room than the one they had arrived from. The narrow walkway went around the round room and in the middle there was another gorge reaching down into something that she was unable to see and without Karel she might be heading down toward the bottom. A single spike reached up from the nothingness like it was reaching for something in the roof.
There had to be something in this room she hadn't noticed yet, some kind of a mechanism to operate an ancient door or another way out of the room. After all the scales were supposed to be in here. She turned to study the wall on which the angels with pure hearts were painted to find a hint, something, anything.
And suddenly she found it. Behind the painting seemed to be writing of some sort and to her surprise she understood it - it was Hebrew. Someone had painted on it either to make it unnoticeable or just harder to find. The beings that had designed and built the Halls hadn't been overly afraid that someone would find it one day. Perhaps they had believed that the last of them to fall would take their secret into their grave.
She heard the overly familiar clicking of a gun and knew she was once again at the wrong end of the weapon. She glanced at Karel who was now holding the gun like it was his new best friend. His patience was growing thin, she could feel it, and silently she was glad over the fact. It seemed that he hadn't learned to be patient no matter how many years he had been given.
She turned her attention back to the text hidden behind the painting and began to read aloud.
"From heart to heart and soul to soul
They believed being able to transfer the glow
That was once a gift from the above
Not meant to the creatures living below
Greedy for something not meant to them
Descended did they down from heaven
Believing to find a beautiful haven
Only to end up in place worse than hell
Cry after cry, tear after tear
Knowing they had lost everything dear
And only created something to fear
Realizing their mistake most severe
The time they had lost they can not get back
The mistakes they made always darken their path
The glory of the days past their descendants will lack
Living and dying feeling the wrath."
That was all there was written on the wall. She eyed through the rest of the wall to find a single marking more but there were none to be found. She glanced at the angel's hearts again thinking if they could be removed. Not asking for a crowbar or something similar she hurried to the other painting where the fallen angel's blankly stared at something only they could see.
Her eyes scanned the other painting carefully trying to search something underneath it like in the other painting. There were names embroidered on these angel's clothing also. It took her far more time to see anything behind this one because the grayish light was dimmer than the bluish one showing how much light these beings lost by doing wrong.
There was writing behind this painting too, but it was much smaller and much harder to notice. This one they had wanted to hide for some reason. She could guess it perfectly well, even the beings that had built this place had came to the conclusion that what it held in its depths was not to be found again. The writing was still in in Hebrew which helped immensely since she probably couldn't have understood the nephilim language if they had one.
She had already understood that she needed to change the places of the hearts to get into the next room, perhaps this text would tell her how.
"In a dark heart there is no light."
It was only the one simple sentence but now she understood the names embroidered on each angel's clothes - pure and fallen alike. But how could she know which ones had fallen and which ones had not?
She bit her teeth together knowing that she had to ask help from the nephilim standing in front of the painting across the room. Quickly she looked through the names on the painting of fallen angels before she finally turned to look at the other one.
"What are the names of the angels in that one?" She tried to keep her voice down not wanting to cause anything that could make the place collapse on them. She wasn't sure if it'd kill the nephilim so there was no idea in throwing her life away just like that.
Karel seemed surprised. He probably hadn't expected her to co-operate so willingly, not even if she was forced. Maybe he had expected her to fight back so that he'd have a reason to take her life. After a few seconds he signaled one of his remaining companions to check the names on the painting.
The man moved walked slowly toward the painting, searching a name from each of the angels robes.
"Arphugitonos, Armaros, Rumyal, Gadiel, Baraqel, Barachiel, Azazel, Kokba'el!" The man soon yelled back at her.
Eight. There was eight angels in both paintings. That meant that there needed to be as many wrong ones in them. If there were three fallen angels in the painting about heaven there needed to be three angels from heaven in the hell. So they needed only to know how many wrong names there was in one of the paintings.
She went through the names on the painting of hell once more:Habriel, Yephiel, Aristaqis, Basas'el, Farris, Pendroz, Betryal and Uriel. Now how could she tell which ones were in the right place?
She remembered some of the names from what she had studied about nephilim while Kurtis had been hospitalized but her knowledge alone wouldn't do. She needed to know all the names, not just a few of them. As far as she remembered Aristaqis was a fallen one and thus he was in the right place but there still were seven to choose from. Seven angels that could belong in heaven instead of hell.
"Ms.Croft! How long is this going to take?" Karel yelled from across the room with a bored voice.
"Faster if you would assist me. Some of the angels in that painting do not belong there. Which ones?"
She couldn't believe her eyes. Karel turned to look at the painting but perhaps he wanted to get the scales so much that he didn't care if he had to help the feeble mortal a bit.
"Five!" He yelled back at her.
Five. That was just great. Out of the seven she had left in her painting she had to pick five. She didn't want to ask it of him again. Habriel, Yephiel, Basas'el, Farris, Pendroz, Betryal and Uriel, she went over the names she had left again. Betryal…it did have a certain hint of betrayal in it and in the end, what was there to loose. She yelled Karel to separate the hearts of the ones that didn't belong there as she began to separate the ones she thought were wrong. As far as she was concerned Betryal could stay.
If she had learned anything in the religion classes in school the Uriel was one of the prime angels and belonged without a doubt in heaven. Gently she took the stone pretending to be his heart of his chest and was surprised that she didn't need to pull at all. Even though separated from the wall the stone still held its grayish glow like it itself had generated the light. Gently she put the hear on the walkway and continued what she had been doing. Habriel, Yephiel, Basas'el, Farris, Pendroz. Of those five one didn't belong in the group, it belonged to the painting it still was attached to.
She bit her teeth together and slowly seperated Farris' heart from his chest waiting for the roof to fall or something similar but nothing like that happened. Four out, four to go.
Wishing to find a hint, any kind of hint, she stared at the four remaining angels that still had their hearts in place. She examined their eyes - nothing, she examined their faces - nothing there either, she examined their clothing but that remained the same as well.
Taking a deep breath she removed the closest heart to her, Habriel's heart, and still the room remained whole. Yephiel, Basas'el, Pendroz. How could she decide between the three of them. One of the three was a rotten apple, a snake, a traitor and she had to guess who it was. Of all the things she had studied during her years she hadn't believed she needed to know the names of the fallen angels.
"Ms.Croft!" Karel's annoyed voice echoed from across the room. "Aren't you ready yet?" Then there was the thing she had waited to hear - the clicking of his gun and the barrel was pointed at her. No matter how fast she moved after he had fired the weapon wouldn't matter - it'd find its goal anyway.
"In a dark heart there is no light."
She remembered the line she had translated only a few moments earlier. Which of the three was the dimmest? Now that she really looked the heart of Basas'el didn't even seem to glow the grayish light the other two did. Hoping for the best she pulled out the other two - and the room remained still.
Two of Karel's men came to carry the gray hearts to the other painting and the traitor dissident brought her the light blue ones that still glowed the bluish light. The source of that shine seemed to come from withing the stones.
"Here you go, Uriel.! She said as she placed the last pure heart in the last empty socket. Karel and his two helpers had finished the heaven a while ago and the dissident had been left to watch her. He still had his gun pointed at her like she would run away.
The hearts in the angels chests first shone dimly but as seconds flew by their shine grew stronger as if being in the right chests would've made them beat again. From every heart a single ray of light, either gray or light blue, left and they met in the middle of the room blasting the room full of blinding whiteness. She was forced to cover her eyes with her hands and turned her back to the light as if it would've helped. The rays of light formed one, crimson red, that shoot out from the middle of the room to the wall left from the painting of heaven.
Disclaimer: None of the characters appearing in the Tomb Raider games or movies belong to me.
Between Heaven and Hell
She waited a flash of pain but it never shot through her body. She expected to black out but the doorway still loomed ahead of her like nothing was wrong. Only thing she could feel was the coldness as the blade of the last pendulum flew through her like she was air to it or like it was air to her. Even thought she should've been killed at the very strike of the blade she was still alive and kicking. She dived for the doorway, stood up and faced the five nephilim still behind her.
Karel still had his weapon drawn and pointed at her but the only one by his side was the former dissident. The three others had only the last pendulum to pass. It was now or never if she wanted to escape. This could be the best chance she'd ever get. Lara turned around and rushed forward only to hear a scream behind her.
Another of Karel's helpers was forced to find out if the bottomless pit had a bottom as the final pendulum struck through him. The dark smoke she could only assume was the thing's spirit was eagerly eaten by the blade as the body disappeared into the darkness.
The last thing she saw before dashing to the next room was Karel taking his true form, the very same she had seen in Eckhardt's laboratory in Prague. Even though she couldn't see them she could feel the gaze of the entirely black and soulless eyes on her, urging her to stop like his willpower had any power over her. The markings on his face so evident in her mind she ran forward not wanting to face the inhuman creatures that were chasing her.
How come had the blade slain the nephilim but not her? She didn't need to question herself long because of that for the answer was evident - he had been something she was not and she was something he could never be, no matter how hard he'd try. Had it ever occurred to the dissidents that the humans could also find this tomb as well as the nephilim?
There was no more time to give it another thought as she exited the lit hallway into total darkness. Didn't this place have lights at all? This time around she didn't even have a torch, or no matters whatsoever to bring light into this room. The darkness around her was something she'd have to come to know in less time than she usually had. Her only hope was that the nephilim would have to face the same darkness.
She knelled and guided herself with her hands slowly even though she knew she had no time for it. Too much was at risk here for her to simply throw away her life by running around without not understanding where she was and where she was supposed to go. Silently she hoped that she'd step on some kind of a switch that would turn on the lights like in the last room but no matter how far she crawled the room stayed dark. Sighing deeply she stood up and for the first time in her entire life started having second thoughts about always being there to save the world. This far she had been in it because of the thrill and glory it brought but crawling around in the dark erased all the glory of the situation. But perhaps the Halls had something more to offer in their deep, under the volcano, something even she hadn't seen before.
She walked forward leaning to the wall on her left and even though it felt cold, slippery and clammy she didn't let go. It was her only guideline through the room now that the torch she had was gone and Karel had taken the possession of her backpack.
Her fingers landed on something that to her opinion wasn't a part of the wall. It wasn't cold as the rest of the walls and a strange warmth radiated from it, making her hopes rise again. She pushed the object hard and took a step back to see if her act had caused something helpful.
A single high shriek forced her to protect her ears with her hands instead of holding on to something. A shock wave blasted from the wall she had been leaning to just a little while ago as the missing light of the room rushed through the wall to drive away the darkness that had taken the control. The force of the shock wave threw her of her feet and over the edge of the small walkway she had been standing on. Out of reflex her hands reached out to take a grab of the edge as her body went over it. Painfully she dashed against the cold stone and her fingers fought to keep her from falling as her feet sought footholds in the rocky wall.
As she looked up the room was filling with glorious bluish light. It seemed to be coming from whatever she had touched on the wall since she couldn't see its source. Before she could climb up there was a hand in front of her, white and filled with markings telling her instantly who it was on the narrow walkway.
"And what if I refuse?" She asked her usual tone returning. Even when hanging from an edge she had her spirit. What use would it be to show your enemy your fears and let them know that they had the upper hand in the situation? To her it was the very same thing than giving up and letting the nephilim win. No, he would never know how close of giving up she had been while the room still bathed in darkness no source of light in sight.
"Ms.Croft." Karel started mockingly. "Did you really believe I couldn't do this without your assistance?"
"Then why am I here?" She asked, breathing faster as her fingers began to loose their hold on the edge. She would hold on as long as it took, even though in the end her fingers would bleed.
"How could I say it the best." He laughed still not able to express any emotions with the simple gesture. "You're the backup since I don't like surprises."
Not ready to die yet she reached for the hand of the nephilim trying not to think how disgusting it was. Of all the beings she had met during her career the nephilim were the only ones with a heartbeat that didn't even have a bit of a soul in the human sense of the word. They had a spirit of some sort, yes, but they totally lacked most of the feelings she thought humane. There was nothing to erase the darkness from their hearts.
The nephilim pulled her up like she weighed nothing at all. When she was standing on her own two feet again she took a look at where the light came from. The wall on the side where she was standing was painted with multiple colors and the angels the painting portrayed had dressed up in similar colorful fashion. A name was embroidered on each of the angel's clothing. There was laughter on their face and sadness in their eyes, a small glimpse of something not angelic. Was it a hint or remorse or yearning she couldn't tell but these angels weren't happy in their given form.
The bluish light shone from the rocks embedded into each angel's chest. Was this an attempt to show the goodness in them, a tint of blue shining from their chests, their hearts. There was an enormous conflict between the shine of their hearts and sadness in their eyes. These beings weren't happy no matter how good and pure they were. Perhaps some of them had seen or felt a glimpse of a mortal life where the fear of death forced humans to live like each day was their last. Maybe the same angels had been envious of the human heart, not good and pure, but filled with life in a sense that was foreign to them. Was this what had driven them into deserting their principles? Just because they wanted to feel something they weren't supposed to know existed? But how can you miss something you never had? How could they dream of having a human heart if they had been angels all their lives?
As she turned around she faced another wall, dark and grim, with only a little grayish light shining from the hearts of the beings she believed to be fallen angels. They didn't have horns nor had they long tails with an ace of spades in the end. Their skin wasn't red and on their face there wasn't an evil grin. They weren't so different from the beings on the other wall. The major difference she could see was that instead of having a smile on their face the fallen angels were expressionless and their eyes were empty - the sadness had abated.
Humans had a tendency to yearn for immortality, eternal life and a life without sickness. The angels had wanted to feel the same as the humans, not contented in the limited range of emotions they were given. Had the two species thought that together,in between them, they could create a race free of diseases and death but still have joy in their hearts?
The more she looked around the more clearer it came to her that there was no other way out of this room than the one they had arrived from. The narrow walkway went around the round room and in the middle there was another gorge reaching down into something that she was unable to see and without Karel she might be heading down toward the bottom. A single spike reached up from the nothingness like it was reaching for something in the roof.
There had to be something in this room she hadn't noticed yet, some kind of a mechanism to operate an ancient door or another way out of the room. After all the scales were supposed to be in here. She turned to study the wall on which the angels with pure hearts were painted to find a hint, something, anything.
And suddenly she found it. Behind the painting seemed to be writing of some sort and to her surprise she understood it - it was Hebrew. Someone had painted on it either to make it unnoticeable or just harder to find. The beings that had designed and built the Halls hadn't been overly afraid that someone would find it one day. Perhaps they had believed that the last of them to fall would take their secret into their grave.
She heard the overly familiar clicking of a gun and knew she was once again at the wrong end of the weapon. She glanced at Karel who was now holding the gun like it was his new best friend. His patience was growing thin, she could feel it, and silently she was glad over the fact. It seemed that he hadn't learned to be patient no matter how many years he had been given.
She turned her attention back to the text hidden behind the painting and began to read aloud.
"From heart to heart and soul to soul
They believed being able to transfer the glow
That was once a gift from the above
Not meant to the creatures living below
Greedy for something not meant to them
Descended did they down from heaven
Believing to find a beautiful haven
Only to end up in place worse than hell
Cry after cry, tear after tear
Knowing they had lost everything dear
And only created something to fear
Realizing their mistake most severe
The time they had lost they can not get back
The mistakes they made always darken their path
The glory of the days past their descendants will lack
Living and dying feeling the wrath."
That was all there was written on the wall. She eyed through the rest of the wall to find a single marking more but there were none to be found. She glanced at the angel's hearts again thinking if they could be removed. Not asking for a crowbar or something similar she hurried to the other painting where the fallen angel's blankly stared at something only they could see.
Her eyes scanned the other painting carefully trying to search something underneath it like in the other painting. There were names embroidered on these angel's clothing also. It took her far more time to see anything behind this one because the grayish light was dimmer than the bluish one showing how much light these beings lost by doing wrong.
There was writing behind this painting too, but it was much smaller and much harder to notice. This one they had wanted to hide for some reason. She could guess it perfectly well, even the beings that had built this place had came to the conclusion that what it held in its depths was not to be found again. The writing was still in in Hebrew which helped immensely since she probably couldn't have understood the nephilim language if they had one.
She had already understood that she needed to change the places of the hearts to get into the next room, perhaps this text would tell her how.
"In a dark heart there is no light."
It was only the one simple sentence but now she understood the names embroidered on each angel's clothes - pure and fallen alike. But how could she know which ones had fallen and which ones had not?
She bit her teeth together knowing that she had to ask help from the nephilim standing in front of the painting across the room. Quickly she looked through the names on the painting of fallen angels before she finally turned to look at the other one.
"What are the names of the angels in that one?" She tried to keep her voice down not wanting to cause anything that could make the place collapse on them. She wasn't sure if it'd kill the nephilim so there was no idea in throwing her life away just like that.
Karel seemed surprised. He probably hadn't expected her to co-operate so willingly, not even if she was forced. Maybe he had expected her to fight back so that he'd have a reason to take her life. After a few seconds he signaled one of his remaining companions to check the names on the painting.
The man moved walked slowly toward the painting, searching a name from each of the angels robes.
"Arphugitonos, Armaros, Rumyal, Gadiel, Baraqel, Barachiel, Azazel, Kokba'el!" The man soon yelled back at her.
Eight. There was eight angels in both paintings. That meant that there needed to be as many wrong ones in them. If there were three fallen angels in the painting about heaven there needed to be three angels from heaven in the hell. So they needed only to know how many wrong names there was in one of the paintings.
She went through the names on the painting of hell once more:Habriel, Yephiel, Aristaqis, Basas'el, Farris, Pendroz, Betryal and Uriel. Now how could she tell which ones were in the right place?
She remembered some of the names from what she had studied about nephilim while Kurtis had been hospitalized but her knowledge alone wouldn't do. She needed to know all the names, not just a few of them. As far as she remembered Aristaqis was a fallen one and thus he was in the right place but there still were seven to choose from. Seven angels that could belong in heaven instead of hell.
"Ms.Croft! How long is this going to take?" Karel yelled from across the room with a bored voice.
"Faster if you would assist me. Some of the angels in that painting do not belong there. Which ones?"
She couldn't believe her eyes. Karel turned to look at the painting but perhaps he wanted to get the scales so much that he didn't care if he had to help the feeble mortal a bit.
"Five!" He yelled back at her.
Five. That was just great. Out of the seven she had left in her painting she had to pick five. She didn't want to ask it of him again. Habriel, Yephiel, Basas'el, Farris, Pendroz, Betryal and Uriel, she went over the names she had left again. Betryal…it did have a certain hint of betrayal in it and in the end, what was there to loose. She yelled Karel to separate the hearts of the ones that didn't belong there as she began to separate the ones she thought were wrong. As far as she was concerned Betryal could stay.
If she had learned anything in the religion classes in school the Uriel was one of the prime angels and belonged without a doubt in heaven. Gently she took the stone pretending to be his heart of his chest and was surprised that she didn't need to pull at all. Even though separated from the wall the stone still held its grayish glow like it itself had generated the light. Gently she put the hear on the walkway and continued what she had been doing. Habriel, Yephiel, Basas'el, Farris, Pendroz. Of those five one didn't belong in the group, it belonged to the painting it still was attached to.
She bit her teeth together and slowly seperated Farris' heart from his chest waiting for the roof to fall or something similar but nothing like that happened. Four out, four to go.
Wishing to find a hint, any kind of hint, she stared at the four remaining angels that still had their hearts in place. She examined their eyes - nothing, she examined their faces - nothing there either, she examined their clothing but that remained the same as well.
Taking a deep breath she removed the closest heart to her, Habriel's heart, and still the room remained whole. Yephiel, Basas'el, Pendroz. How could she decide between the three of them. One of the three was a rotten apple, a snake, a traitor and she had to guess who it was. Of all the things she had studied during her years she hadn't believed she needed to know the names of the fallen angels.
"Ms.Croft!" Karel's annoyed voice echoed from across the room. "Aren't you ready yet?" Then there was the thing she had waited to hear - the clicking of his gun and the barrel was pointed at her. No matter how fast she moved after he had fired the weapon wouldn't matter - it'd find its goal anyway.
"In a dark heart there is no light."
She remembered the line she had translated only a few moments earlier. Which of the three was the dimmest? Now that she really looked the heart of Basas'el didn't even seem to glow the grayish light the other two did. Hoping for the best she pulled out the other two - and the room remained still.
Two of Karel's men came to carry the gray hearts to the other painting and the traitor dissident brought her the light blue ones that still glowed the bluish light. The source of that shine seemed to come from withing the stones.
"Here you go, Uriel.! She said as she placed the last pure heart in the last empty socket. Karel and his two helpers had finished the heaven a while ago and the dissident had been left to watch her. He still had his gun pointed at her like she would run away.
The hearts in the angels chests first shone dimly but as seconds flew by their shine grew stronger as if being in the right chests would've made them beat again. From every heart a single ray of light, either gray or light blue, left and they met in the middle of the room blasting the room full of blinding whiteness. She was forced to cover her eyes with her hands and turned her back to the light as if it would've helped. The rays of light formed one, crimson red, that shoot out from the middle of the room to the wall left from the painting of heaven.