Still…
“Was Mammon beyond redemption, then?” Yah questioned.
“I could find no soulmate for him. He had only love for himself left, and I think he disdained the very thought of humans and demons joining. Sometimes, my love, there are those that cannot be helped,” Luce gently responded.
Yah sighed. Yes, there were those that were beyond redemption. It had always been that way for mortal souls, but it had not used to be so for the immortal.
“Do you think we do more harm than good?” Yah asked. “Do you think we are selfish?”
Luce leaned back in his chair, staring intensely at Yah.
“Would you have all of this disappear?” Luce asked, waving his arm so that the wall behind them became a view of the universe. “Yes, there is pain. There is torment. There is grief and sadness, and there are those who are lost. But there is also love, there is also hope, and joy, and happiness. Would you see all that disappear?”
Yah stared at the stars and planets, the great creation that had begun so very long ago.
“Sometimes, those that are lost manage to find their way home,” Luce added. “Is that not what we are doing? Allowing souls to find their way home, to find their other half?”
Yah looked over at Luce and chuckled. “You are truly the devil on my shoulder, Luce.”
Luce laughed with them, and eventually they both turned to stare back at the wonder of the universe.
“You just had to go and create free will,” Luce muttered. “It really does make everything quite a bit more complicated.”
Yah smiled softly at that. “It was free will that brought you to my office, Luce.”
Luce looked surprised at that, and Yah took some pride in still having a few surprises for the old devil.
“Did you think I brought you here?” Yah asked.
“I did,” Luce muttered, looking a little put out. “I thought my urge to return again and again was your doing. I must admit to being a little grumpy that it wasn’t. I liked the idea of you wanting my presence here with you so much that you ordained it.”
“I did want your presence here. I still do. But I would never have forced you, Luce,” Yah answered. “I wanted it so much that sometimes I wondered if I had forced it without even meaning to,” Yah confessed.
“Oh Yah,” Luce murmured, reaching out but stopping just short of touching their face.
Yah closed their eyes, and they imagined that hand upon their face, gently touching their skin. It was a beautiful dream.
“You hugged Kushiel,” Luce stated.
Yah opened their eyes and looked over. They did not sense jealousy from Luce, but then they didn’t know everything about their devil, either, just as Luce didn’t know everything about them.
“Kushiel has forgotten the old taboos. His soulmate has grounded him in the flesh, as well,” Yah admitted.
The hug had been an indulgence. Yah didn’t think they’d felt touch since this universe had been created. They hadn’t known what would happen when they’d reached a hand out to Kushiel, but they could not help but do it. The urge had been too strong, and the joy at being touched… it had been too great to resist. Yah frowned, hoping that they had not offended their devil.
“I am glad you got to have that touch, my love,” Luce assured them. “I would wish that all your children would forget the old taboos. You have been too long without affection.”
“I have you,” Yah whispered.
“You do. And I am not one of your children, either,” the devil smirked, winking at Yah.
To be touched in the way that Luce spoke of… Yah could not let themselves imagine such a thing. They turned back to the wall where the view of the universe resided, gesturing to it.
“In order for the universe to continue, some free will had to be given even to immortal souls. It has made things… trickier,” Yah admitted.
“Yes, I should have realized,” Luce agreed. “I trust you, though, Yah. I trust whatever you have had to do. Just as you have trusted in me.”
Yah waved their hand, then, and the scene changed. It was now a boardroom, and identical looking angels and demons sat at a long table across from one another in identical chairs.
