They had just come out of their fifth store of the day; Ashley was astonished at the variety of styles and specialty stores, more than she'd ever seen in one place before. As they walked to Spencer's car to deposit more bags in the already full car, she noticed a crowd around a guy dressed all in white. His wavy hair was just past his shoulders and shined with an almost impossible golden blonde. A few women were taking pictures with him and squealing like school girls, the whiteness of his smile could have blocked out the sun in its brightness. Spencer caught sight of where Ashley was staring and chuckled at the crowd.
"That's Mick St. John, one of the High Angels. They're kind of like movie stars around here because they spend most of their time on the Higher Plane and deal with big time assignments on the Mortal Plane. They usually only come here when they have an assignment." Spencer explained. At one time she might have been just as awestruck as the crowd around Mick but that had faded after the first couple dozen years.
Personally, she thought Angels and Demons alike were somewhat full of themselves. Demons more so but still, they both had publicist and if that wasn't self serving, she didn't know what was. While she did admire the good Angels did for mankind as a whole, she could have done without the all the self congratulations they did in the pursuit of moving up the ranks. Was it still as good a deed or miracle if you gave an interview with the Herald about it how great it was and how many people it had helped? On the flip side, Demons were worse; you could find them on just about every talk show on the Plane, touting about how they had been responsible for this disaster or that. She wasn't surprised when Demons did that kind of stuff, she expected it from them but from her own superiors it just smacked of hypocrisy. She held them to a higher ideal, they represented the Light of the Universe, shouldn't they be well more… humble or something, in her opinion.
"And why is that such a big deal?" Ashley asked flippantly, not getting the big attraction. Yeah, he was cute and all if that was your cup of tea but personally why was being a High Angel so important?
Spencer laughed; liking the girl even more if that was possible. "Well, Angels, and Demons, are higher up the chain, they actually get their orders directly from their respective Board of Directors. The assignments they get are on a much larger scale, they affect more than just a few souls, usually a few hundred. Like, Hitler had his very own Demon and even an Angel assigned just to him, not that the Angel helped much, but you know what I mean. Angels and Demons also manipulate the natural world for their own ends. Angels can cause rain in draught areas and other miracles, where as Demons can cause Earthquakes and other disasters."
"What's the Gray equivalent to an Angel or a Demon?" Ashley was curious, there seemed to be quite the hierarchy to learn on The In Between.
"There actually isn't one; the closest would be the Elder Grays. They make sure the balance stays in place and corrects it where needed, obviously on a larger scale than a Gray Fate. They're also in charge of punishing any of the lower levels that don't do their job or break the rules." Spencer started the car, heading towards her dorm.
"They don't seem to be doing a very good job lately." Ashley's voice was so low it could have been missed but Spencer had amazing hearing, as did all beings on the Planes above the Mortal Plane.
"Why do you say that?" Spencer was curious as to how the other girl had seen the world she had just came from.
"It's seemed like there was a lot more bad in the world than good, at least that's all we ever heard about." Ashley stated plainly.
"I can see where you would get that but when we talk about the Universal Balance, it's not always equal, sometimes for periods the Dark Side is up, other times the Light Side, it's part of the cycle but overall, there is a balance, it's just not as immediate as you would expect. Mainly because time is measured by a different standard on the Planes above the Mortal Plane. While a hundred years might seem like an eternity to you, it's really just a short time here. The Planes have been in existence for millions of years." The blonde pulled onto what looked like a college campus. Ashley thought it would be the UCLA campus if she was back in the LA she knew.
"It all sounds very…Star Wars." Ashley snickered, to her it did sounds like something straight from George Lucas' movies.
Spencer took the light joking in stride. She knew the other girl was just trying to make sense of everything and cope in the best way she knew how. "We don't have light sabers, and I wouldn't have taken you for a sci-fi geek."
Ashley was slightly offended until she saw the teasing grin on the other girls face. "I'm not, Kyla made me watch it with her." At the mention of her sister's name, Ashley got quiet. She felt guilty for hardly thinking of her or her parents since she had…arrived on The In Between.
Spencer sensing the change in the other girl's mood quickly changed the subject. "This is Los Angeles' Light Academy. There are other ones all over the world in most major cities."
"Great, even in the after life I still have to go to school." Ashley rolled her eyes, pushing the depressing thoughts of her old life out of her head as they pulled to a stop in front of what she guessed to be Spencer's Dorm.
Spencer had lived in St. Catherine's Hall for the last 50 years. Before that she had lived in St. Michaels until she was promoted to Head Light Fate for the Lower Light Fates.
"It's not what you're thinking. This is just the place where new Light Fates live until they're promoted to Higher Light Fates, and then they get to move on." Spencer decided to leave out the fact that Ashley was her final assignment for promotion. If all went well then she'd be promoted to a Higher Light Fate. "There is a basic training type class that all new Fates have to go through that's a couple months long but a lot of your training will be on the job."
"Wait, so I have to go to school?" Ashley signed, even in the afterlife she couldn't get away from school. She looked around as Spencer lead her through a common room area and over to some stairs.
Spencer laughed, "No, you don't have to go to school, you only have to go through the training for which ever path you choose. Then you live at the Academy unless you have somewhere else to live but only Higher Fates get houses, so unless you know any of them to shack up with, it's the dorms." Spencer opened a door and lead Ashley into her room.
Ashley nodded while taking in the blonde's room. It was bigger than any dorm she had seemed. It was more like an apartment, a cozy one but bigger than she had expected. There was a couch with a TV on one side of the room, with a bed against the wall across from it. On the other side, closer to the door was a desk with a computer. Book cases lined the wall by the TV, stuffed to capacity. The walls were white with various paintings hung up, done in vibrant colors creating a nice balance so that the white wasn't overpowering.
Spencer set the bags in her hands down on the coffee table in front of the TV. "This is home, sweet, home." She took the other bags in the brunette's hands and set them down on the couch, as the table was already overflowing.
"It's nice, bigger than I expected." Ashley sat down on the chair in front of the computer while Spencer rummaged through the bags, looking for the few she had gotten.
"Thanks, it's nothing fancy but it's home." Spencer smiled over at Ashley while she put her new clothes into the closet.
Ashley felt her stomach flip sure that no matter what was wrong, Spencer's smile could make it better.
"You can have the bed and I'll take the couch." Spencer pulled an extra blanket out of the closet.
"No, I can't make you sleep on the couch in your own room." Ashley protested, she didn't want to inconvenience the other girl.
"It's not a problem." The blue eyed Fate assured her. She wanted the brunette to be as comfortable as possible, even if it meant sleeping on the couch herself. It was a small price to pay if it made the shorter girl feel even a little better. Spencer knew that the first night was usually the hardest, that's when you finally got a chance to think about the fact that life as you knew it was completely over.
"Let's just see how it goes later." Ashley didn't want to continue politely arguing with the other girl about the sleeping arrangements hours before they even went to bed.
"Alright," Spencer gave Ashley an undecipherable glance, "are you hungry? We could go to the cafeteria and get something to eat."
"Is cafeteria food here anything like cafeteria food that I'm use to?" Ashley asked with a shudder. She's never known any cafeteria to have decent food, ever.
Spencer slightly tilted her head, a small smile on her full lips, considering Ashley's question. "Depends on what you're use to."
Again Ashley's stomach flipped, 'How is it possible for anyone to make tilting their head into the most endearing thing ever?' "Let's just say I've never met a cafeteria I would eat at by choice."
"Ah, just so happens that you are in for a treat, most food on The IB is excellent. Our chefs and cooks have had a long time to practice." Grabbing the shorter girl's hand, Spencer led her out of the dorm room and towards the cafeteria across campus.