“Michael, Raphael, are you seeing this?”, a large angelic being called his friends.

“We do indeed, Gabriel”, answered one of them, “But to see is one thing, and to understand it is quite another. It looks like those two newcomers are having some kind of a rapid initiatory phase, or explosive growth, of the kind I have never witnessed before”, concluded Michael. “How is this even possible?”

“I have some ideas, but I’m not sure if they are any good. We’ve seen them visited by Lord Shiva and Lady Lakshmi, when they had a private conversation away from our sight, and all four of them came out to make a proclamation of the dangers of having anything to do with that new world that was recently opened for incarnation under unclear circumstances of a demonic rebellion. After that, the two Gods departed, and those two, apparently husband and wife, remained here, always together and talking only to each other. My understanding is that they have some special relationship with the Gods, or they are themselves Gods in disguise, having a lila, which would explain the extreme energy outbursts of the so far unseen magnitude”, he concluded.

“I don’t know who they are, but I’m observing their outward appearance with great care”, reported Raphael. “They started as perfectly normal beings of blue vajra; the man much stronger than the woman, because she looked like a typical newcomer, while he looked like a mature angelic being of greater wisdom and experience. I could feel some of his thoughts from the distance, and I feel great respect for his maturity and attitude, as he reminds me of Lord Shiva; straight to the point, truthful, able to cut deep into any problem and make reality bleed from it. I love him, honestly. The girl is smart, loving and beautiful, and their paired up instantly, and they seem to be great for each other because they both started growing like crazy since. I’ve never seen such speed of evolution, but that is perhaps due to some sadhana they are performing, and they seem totally absorbed and concentrated in it. I can’t tell what it is, but they grew from normal blue to deep indigo blue very quickly, and now they are deep ultraviolet/magenta, which is the highest frequency I can still perceive, personally. If they continue with this, they will leave my sphere of perception very quickly”, he concluded his detailed report.

The others nodded respectfully, “You are very thorough, my friend, and your precision is greatly appreciated, but how this is possible, is still a mystery”, Michael shrugged.

…

Azazel noticed how both he and his wife evolved from blue through indigo to ultraviolet, as their deep contemplation of the Gods they adored became so deep, as they started perceiving the true nature of the Gods as their own, in a way. He understood with relief that some of his qualities, that he thought were sad relics of his demonic past, that would have to be transformed into something better, were in fact very similar to the mental tools of Lord Shiva, and he also felt how the Lady beside him started spreading her wings like a butterfly leaving the cocoon, accepting aspects of her own greatness and Divinity while adoring and praising the greatness and Divinity of others.

And then the veil within their hearts broke in earnest, and he lost the concept of difference between himself as a being, and the unmanifested Absolute on the other side, flowing in both oceans simultaneously, knowing that it is all him, allowing it to shape him in total surrender, shaping brahman to his will, understanding that the woman beside him is going through the same process and that they both woke up, for the second time, and he couldn’t say what they were now, but he knew they are husband and wife still. They felt the veil of light towards the Relative and willed it to shift, and they emerged in a different reality, opening their new eyes to see the four Gods greeting them.

Their consciousness and power now an ocean without limits, they knelt together before the Gods to salute them and offer their worship, only to hear Lord Vishnu address them:

“Rise, Lord Azazel, Lady Karuna; for there are now six Great Gods atop all of Creation. Praised be your wisdom, devotion, courage, intelligence and perseverance, for they are limitless and peerless. There are now three Divine Couples in our family”, he finished and bowed before them, as Lord Shiva offered Lord Azazel a military salute and a hug, and Lady Lakshmi curtsied to them both and proceeded to hug her daughter, beaming with happiness.

“It’s interesting how several days ago I was talking to that idiot Sanat Kumar, who dreamed of becoming a God by reducing everybody”, Zee told Mahadeva. “I guess my approach was more fruitful in the end, Father”, he laughed, as Shiva clapped his shoulder and invited them all for a cup of coffee.

Azazel was deep in thought. Around him, there was a whole heavenly world of crystalline souls involved in their own affairs he knew nothing about, very much the same way it was a day ago, but now there was a significant difference.

Now, he didn’t care.

It’s not that he didn’t care about those beings. He did, which was strange because he didn’t know any of them personally, but they were obviously someone who mattered to the Gods, and someone very much like himself and his wife. But earlier, he wanted to know them and be informed about what they were doing because he thought his spiritual progress depended on it, as it seemed a logical way forward.

“Sweetheart”, he turned to his wife, “I think I know what we have to do now”.

“What do you mean?”

“We wanted to find our way around this new world in order to figure out what to do next, because that seemed like an obvious thing to do”, he whispered in her ear, as she lay comfortably nested on his chest. “But we already know what to do next; truly, we already started, and it already bore good fruits, and now we just need to continue doing it in earnest”.

“You mean, worship the Gods, and love each other?”, she whispered back, looking at him adoringly.

“Exactly. And boy, do we have material for it now. I can’t put your Mistress out of my mind. I don’t know what I expected; as a demon, I thought Gods were distant, indifferent assholes who show up only when someone needs to be killed, but that seems to be merely demon lore, nonsense they believe to make themselves look good. I also thought they promote arse-kissers because they are that pathetic, but that is a complete and utter misrepresentation of reality, to the point where it is hundred percent harmful and zero percent true. What is actually the case is that Gods are all about worship, and worship is something you can’t even imagine unless you have tasted it, because it’s not a normal thought or an emotion; it’s a breakthrough of the Absolute, unmanifested God, right into your heart, because it wants to express its true nature, which is reality-consciousness-bliss, and as you see the truth of a holy being, and speak this truth, it is necessarily worshipful, and it is necessarily blissful, and the more you do it, the more you grow spiritually and the greater reality, consciousness and bliss you feel. You, for instance; why are you the way you are? You are beautiful, honest, truthful, straightforward, intelligent and blissful. You didn’t become like that by thinking like the demons do – which is, inventing slanderous lies about their betters in order to make themselves feel falsely superior. No; you found a Goddess to serve, you asked her questions, she told you stories, you believed her and you benefited. You became clear, bright, beautiful and wickedly smart, which is why I’m in love with you”, he kissed her temple, as she blushed from all the compliments. “Your Goddess is amazing. She’s amazingly powerful, in magical and mysterious ways that make her potentially invincible and fatal to any enemy, and yet you saw how she is. She calls you her daughter, she’s proud and protective of you, she’s caring, kind and lovely, and she looks at her holy brother with the same worshipful wide eyes as we do. And Lord Shiva, I don’t even know where to start. He’s so kind, constantly trying to put everybody at ease and find good things to say about us, to boost us up, although he obviously knows of all our failings, but he brings them up only to show us how far we’ve come. To me as a former demon, and as a warrior, it’s so impressive to see how deeply strategic he is, how much thought he puts into understanding the problems, understanding how his enemies think and being multiple steps ahead of them. He’s devious in the best possible sense of the word, completely unlike what the demons would think the good people are. They think good people are naive, stupid, gullible and weak. I don’t know where they actually got that, because the Gods are incredibly good, I guess ‘holy’ is the proper word, but they are wickedly smart, strategic, calculated, clairvoyant and strong, and there’s an obvious blade of infinite sharpness and hardness hidden from sight, but if someone wants to fuck with them, it comes out faster than you can blink. I don’t know if you can appreciate my description, but I find it so amazing that I can literally drink bliss from worshipping them in my mind like that. It is absolutely delectable”, Zee purred.

“I think you are absolutely delectable, my husband”, Kay nuzzled his neck. “As you talk about Gods in this manner, and I take in your energy, I feel so excited I could explode in a burst of light. I think you are right: we do have everything we need for the way forward. We have Gods to worship, we have the knowledge they gave us that we can apply, and we have each other to love and talk to, so that we can sharpen our ideas and get to the truth more easily, and cover for each other’s weaknesses as we strive towards perfection. There are no distractions, there is nothing else to do, and even if there were anything else to do, this spiritual practice would be preferable and more enjoyable”.

“Why are all those people staring at us?”, Zee turned around and scratched his head.

“Oh, you’re right. Wow. They are staring at us because we are glowing with such power that it’s outshining the rest of the world, apparently”, Kay blushed.

“And we are having another growth spurt, apparently. Oh well. Are we going to allow them to watch us and possibly benefit from learning what we do, or do I teleport us into that coffee lounge that my Lord thoughtfully left there when he left?”, Azazel winked.

“No, let them watch, I don’t mind, and if they benefit from the insight, it would please me very much, as this is not something I would want to keep to ourselves. I’ll just blur out any intimacy between us, so that they can’t resolve it, because that part is none of their business”, she smiled mischievously. “Praised be the most holy Gods, who taught us this devotional sadhana”, she whispered, choking up from ecstasy and clarity of consciousness.

“Indeed”, whispered Zee, drinking the nectar of devotion and glowing from such ecstasy that he thought he would burst into a supernova and die if it were to grow any stronger.

“Lord Shiva!” “My Lady!”, Zee and Kay scrambled incoherently.

“It’s all right”, Shiva raised his hand and smiled. “We just came to congratulate you, and possibly explain a thing or two, since you seem to be alarmed about something”, he winked.

“My Lady, I hope you’re not offended that I got married without asking you first”, Kay said sheepishly. “We sort of just clicked and it just happened”. Then she remembered something else. “And our connection seems to be based around our mutual worship of Lord Shiva, while I’m your student. I don’t know how to explain this, and I don’t know how proper and loyal this is towards you”.

“Of course I’m not offended, my daughter. In fact, just think about it. How big do you think this world is?”, Lakshmi nodded encouragingly

“I don’t know, really; I just came here, and after meeting Zee, it kind of didn’t seem important anymore”, she blushed. “But probably millions of beings, and I don’t know how to measure size, but it sort of seems endless”.

“Billions of beings are more likely”, Sri nodded. “And how likely do you think it would be for you to just happen to meet your husband in your first day here, completely at random, because you just happened to be the closest?”, she smiled mischievously. “You of all people should know how luck works”.

“Oh! You mean, it was your blessing that we found each other instantly?”

“Of course. I do care about you, you know.”, Lakshmi rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee.

“Lady Lakshmi, I am honoured to meet you”, Zee started, while Kay was still taking in her revelation. “I must apologise for not having much of experience with Gods, other than my Lord here, but could you please explain this to us, because I have no idea how your power works”, he scratched his head.

“Well, it is probably the weirdest out of all four of us”, she nodded. “You see, it’s something like this: I see something good and I approve. This creates something like a convergence nexus; imagine it like space around that thing being bent, so everything good rolls downhill more easily towards it. Fortune, luck, wealth, serendipity, good circumstances, meeting the right people at the right time, and so on. Likewise, if I see someone who is sinful and offensive and I dislike them, I withdraw my blessings and their lucky star turns into a black hole, so to speak”, she grinned. “The power of Lord Shiva is straightforward and obvious. Mine is more of the sort where you just happen to meet your girl on your first day here because she just happened to be close to you when you wanted to ask for directions”, she smiled innocently at Zee.

“I kind of see what you mean, my Lady, and I am extremely grateful for your blessing, and I’m also relieved that you approve of us”, he bowed.

“You two are very good for each other”, she nodded. “You are both very intelligent, so you’ll do well together. Also, your characters blend together perfectly; her gentle cuteness and your warrior ethics and ages of experience. I approve”. She took another sip of coffee, as Kay beamed from relief and gratitude.

“You are indeed very good for each other. Did you have a look at yourselves lately, by any chance?”, prompted Lord Shiva.

“We grew larger and more powerful!”, exclaimed Kay excitedly. “Zee, look at us, we are almost twice the size we were when we met!”

“How is that even possible?”, wondered the former demon. “Lord Shiva, would you please explain this phenomenon, because you obviously understand it and I am too new at this to even dare guessing?”, he scratched his head.

“Do you remember what I told you about the accretion process, and how souls attract free kalapas in a kalapa-rich environments such as the astral nursery?”, Shiva started, and Zee nodded. “Well, that’s not all there is to it. Sure, for the young astral souls, it is a dominant method, but for larger souls, its effects are negligible, because, obviously, there aren’t enough kalapas around to grow a vajra being to twice their initial size in mere hours, or eons for that matter. There’s another thing going on, and if you think about it, it is obvious. You see, in places of strong presence of sat-cit-ananda, the veil between the Relative and the Absolute becomes more permeable, and, basically, the Absolute leaks through in form of a kalapa shower, or a fountain. For one thing, every crystalline being such as yourself is a strong presence of sat-cit-ananda in the Relative, which means that the centre of your soul, your own heart, is a place where new kalapas are far more likely to leak through into the Relative, than some more general place, like the space around you. Also, the strength of that breakthrough depends on what you are doing. Devotion and worship of a God focuses your consciousness on an object of such great correspondence with the unmanifested Absolute, that it essentially creates a rip in the border between the Relative and the Absolute right in the middle of your heart, through which a huge flood of kalapas, the stuff of God, floods into your soul and instantly integrates at your highest energy level”, Shiva finished, and returned to his coffee.

Zee and Kay were completely astounded. “So does this mean that when we worshipped your holy person, my Lord, and admired your deeds and your perfect character, not only did we become unbreakably attracted to each other, but our souls also grew immensely due to the influx of new kalapas our devotion produced in our hearts?”, Kay asked, wide-eyed.

“Exactly. Why else do you think we Gods hang out together so much and can’t seem to stop praising each other? The same principle applies to us, as well. As we praise each other, we understand more of the Absolute as it manifests through the other God-person. Someone foolish enough to curse or criticise a God-person would, likewise, close themselves to everything that makes that person great, and this would diminish and destroy their soul rather than grow it.”

“So, when Lady Lakshmi praised you and your holy wife, and I was wholly consumed by awe and worship, this didn’t just transform the substance my soul was made of, but also created a flood of new particles right inside my heart, which I felt as a flood of worshipful emotion that overwhelmed me completely, and thus filled any lack of mass that I had in my evolution up to that point?”, Kay said in wonder.

“You are exactly right, and I see what my lovely sister meant when she praised your intelligence. You are indeed one smart cookie, and I am happy for my son for finding such a great partner”, Shiva smiled and nodded at her, and Lakshmi also smiled approvingly, to Kay’s great embarrassment. “We do, however, have another matter to discuss, which is why I brought Lady Lakshmi here. You see, there has been a small conspiracy, and she was somewhat left out, for which I apologise, and which I’m about to correct momentarily.”

“Recently, my wife brought my attention to a problem we were starting to have in the astral nursery. You see, one would expect souls to be born, go through the accretion cycle, crystallise and move here, with others of their kind. However, that is something that happens with the majority of souls, but not all of them. Approximately one third of all souls aren’t really making significant progress and basically just stand there like bloody idiots. A minor percentage, one in a hundred or less, turn demonic, or worse, turn into conceited fools of false spirituality. Both demons and fakers grow into large astral monstrosities, like my son here, and they stay in the astral nursery, thinking of ways to alleviate their boredom, usually in various harmful ways, like bullying beautiful souls such as his bride here. The problem we’re having is that the demons aren’t going anywhere, the fakers aren’t going anywhere, the retards grazing aimlessly aren’t going anywhere, but the best souls are filtering out relatively quickly as they attain crystallisation. The result is obvious – that plane becomes disproportionally filled with assholes and idiots, which at some point starts to affect the evolution of the newborn souls, which get to be surrounded by bullies and bad examples, which will eventually hinder all progress and completely stop evolutionary processes in new souls, and we’ll be forced to just reset the plane by killing everybody there and starting anew. This, however, seemed like a radical and inelegant method, so I came up with a solution nobody likes, but which seems to solve all problems, unfortunately at the cost of introducing new ones”, Shiva finished.

“Oh, so that’s what’s been going on. Let me guess: you created that Jewel, the artefact of Creation?”, Zee offered.

“Yes. The idea was to allow for the creation of new worlds, where we would funnel demons and idiots so that they no longer overcrowd the nursery and inhibit evolution of new souls. However, that can’t be something either of us Gods would make, for obvious reasons”, Shiva grinned.

“Right. Demons would instantly distrust it and none of them would get near that thing. Imagine your enemies making something and saying it’s a perfect new world for everybody they dislike. Of course it must be a trap of some kind”, Zee grinned back.

“And that’s why Karuna is so fortunate to have you as her husband, my dear”, Lakshmi smiled. “You are experienced in demon-lore and know how they all think, which is why you can guide her properly and help her evade all kinds of pitfalls she would otherwise be vulnerable to, in her gentle innocence”.

“I do understand the point Lord Shiva is making, though, and the conspiracy he mentioned probably also includes my husband, who has been conspicuously absent lately?”, she prompted.

“Indeed”, Shiva nodded. “As soon as my wife and I created that artefact, he came to visit and warn us. It was quite a sobering experience, let me tell you, as he showed us the consequences our actions had across both Time and Eternity. The carnage was extensive, and I’m afraid we lost some Eternals as well, not just demons and idiots. Also, lots of young souls were lost. However, the end result was even better than we expected, which is why we didn’t immediately backtrack on our plan, and instead proceeded with Lord Vishnu’s guidance and cooperation”, his face was grim. “As soon as he made it clear what is to happen, we instantly bowed to him and gave him the veto rights, but he declined and instead offered his support”.

“Likewise, when I felt that Lord Vishnu worked with the two of you on something, I immediately gave you all my blessings without even knowing what it was, because anything you three are working on simply cannot be other than for the best, knowing the holiness of your character”, Lakshmi bowed to Shiva. “But still, you said that we are going to lose Eternals, and this troubles me greatly. Those are our children, my Lord, like those two here. How could this happen?”, she whined worriedly, as Zee and Kay looked at each other with great concern.

“It troubles all of us, my Lady. My wife was as troubled as you are right now, and Lord Narayan looked grim as well. I have been feeling terrible about it ever since we set it in motion, and I am incredibly grateful for your blessings, Lady Lakshmi, for they might be the only thing that saves us from a great disaster, finds us a way towards success and guards us from error”, he brooded darkly.

“However, I rendered the core of the Jewel out of the Will of God and for the greatest good, which ought to guarantee this quality of the final outcome, and Lord Vishnu did show me how some of our children fell. Unfortunately, they were arrogant in their greatness and enlightenment, and thought no evil could befall them if they remain true and strong, and such mindset is a terrible match for the kind of a world that demon had designed. Some of them even dared him to do his worst, thus removing the shield of dharma that would have otherwise protected them from abuse, and the demon is nigh-omnipotent in his realm. As you can imagine, they were broken, some outright destroyed, since the world in question is designed to deprive them of both their powers and the insight into God, making it seem as if that tiny world is the totality of all reality. The humble ones, who were used to hardship, humiliation and suffering, fared exceedingly well, and even grew due to accretion of karma caused by their unjust suffering. Those who grew in our world without being truly challenged, unfortunately, not only were deluded, harmed or destroyed due to their arrogant and imprudent approach, but their souls were also used to power the illusions and traps of that place. We lost some Eternals, but gained new ones, of the completely new soul-structure; on one hand, they are less elegant and clean in their spiritual makeup than the old ones, but they are somewhat like our former demon here – wise due to his experience with evil, able to recognise traps and pitfalls, and humble due to his own prior failings that taught him not to take things for granted”, Shiva finished.

“But what could possibly be the outcome that is so great, that it justifies all of this?”, Lakshmi insisted, her face still showing deep concern.

To this, Shiva just looked at her pointedly, and put his finger in front of his lips, making her know it’s a secret and he’ll let her know in due time and in private, so she just relaxed, quite content with that.

“But what do we do now, Lord Shiva? We wanted to warn the souls here about the dangers of that new world Sanat Kumar had devised in his madness and evil. Is that the proper thing to do, knowing what you know about the consequences?”, Azazel asked, his voice shaking.

“By all means, we shall warn them, and all of us together, to give greater authority to the warning, because they would be unlikely to heed it were it just the two of you. However, you can imagine what’s going to happen. Some will see it as a challenge to their faith, strength, discernment and devotion. They will disregard the warning, and their story will come to a bad ending in Time, I’m afraid. However, from what I’ve seen, this is unfortunate but necessary, because they are the souls that evolved without sufficient wisdom and humility, like trees that managed to grow tall only because they never faced any wind. Fear of consequences needs to enter Heaven, I’m afraid, and there’s no easy way to do that”.

Kay held Zee tightly and whimpered.

He was out of his element, to put it mildly. It’s not like he was a young, inexperienced person. He watched generations after generations of souls be born, mature and attain enlightenment, while he watched, grumbled and brooded darkly in his ignorance and stubbornness, until, finally, he had that fateful talk with Sanat Kumar, who was so incredibly bat-shit crazy, that Azazel finally stopped to think about his situation, and realised that he’s standing on the edge of that abyss himself, and was looking into an embodiment of his immediate future if he doesn’t get his shit together. He listened to that basket case rant and rave for a few more days after that; about the Jewel, about the opportunity, the once-in-a-lifetime chance to finally break free from the trap the Gods set for them, how he’s going to create a proper world, of equality, without God, where souls will have to join together to become God together rather than each grow individually, and if his heart was in it, he’d probably tell him that chopping everybody’s heads off ain’t no way to become taller, but he didn’t give a shit anymore, because his thoughts were elsewhere.

He planned to do the most radical, out-of-your-mind thing imaginable. He’d call the most dangerous, most powerful person he ever saw, and ask him for instruction, because what he was doing for eons just wasn’t cutting it anymore, and his only other alternative was to become what that demon next to him was: a completely unhinged, raving lunatic.

And now, he was in what he was told to be one of the Eternal Worlds, surrounded by beings of crystallised spiritual light, mostly in various frequencies of blue, and he was one of them.

He wasn’t the smallest, or the palest, by any means; in fact, he looked like he was pretty much in the middle of the spectrum or slightly above, but he was for all intents and purposes a newborn baby there, and he needed someone to talk to, someone who’ll show him the ropes of this place. Sure, he could call Lord Shiva as he was promised, but he didn’t want to waste it, or annoy the God. He didn’t have his head so far up his arse not to notice that Shiva was worried, tired and under a heavy burden of all the things he was doing, and, worryingly, they had something to do with that Jewel and Sanat Kumar’s scheming. The fact that the Lord was so kind as to go out of his way completely to talk to him and guide him to enlightenment, despite his personal troubles, struck Azazel as something extremely precious, that spoke volumes about the God and his character. He was kind, compassionate and nothing he would have imagined a being of that power to be. No, he wouldn’t bother the kind and graceful Lord with something as unimportant as finding his way around. He’ll just ask someone here.

He looked around and saw clusters of beings communicating, involved in their conversations, but then he spotted a girl standing alone, and looking about as lost as he felt. “How do I instantly know it’s a girl, if it’s a crystal of blue vajra?”, he asked himself. Probably the same way he instantly knew how a cloud of white fluff in the astral world was male or female. It was just obvious, and it communicated itself instantly, together with thoughts and emotions. This, at least, didn’t change with enlightenment; one would expect everybody to be the same, having the same boring ideas, meditating on something, but nothing of the sort. They were just bright, pure, hard and dense and yet made of brilliant light; they had a purpose, but each their own, and they were perfectly, brilliantly individual. So, he approached the brilliantly individual but seemingly confused and lost girl standing there.

“Hi, I’m Azazel. I’m sorry to bother you, but I am completely new here and utterly out of my element. Would you please be so kind as to explain a thing or two about this place and its people? Also, what’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

The girl looked at him and smiled shyly. “I’m Karuna, but everybody except my Mistress calls me Kay. You say your name is Azazel? I’m sorry if this will sound offensive, but isn’t that a demon’s name?”

“You can call me Zee; it’s less of a mouthful and most call me that anyway”, he smiled. “I am, or as a matter of fact, I was indeed a demon, until, well, right about now. I decided that my demonic existence is an evolutionary cul-de-sac, and gathered enough courage to approach Lord Shiva and asked him to teach me, right when he was having tons of problems of his own and it was probably the worst timing in the world, but he was extremely kind and patient with me, guided me through knowledge of spiritual particles and their aggregation, and I attained crystallisation during that first conversation with him, so here I am now, completely out of my element and bothering strangers”, he grinned mischievously. “You mentioned your Mistress; who is it and what do you do?”

“Hello Zee”, Kay smiled angelically. “That’s quite a story, and I truly commend your courage. My Mistress is Lady Lakshmi, wife of Lord Vishnu, and she’s usually called Fortune, Wealth, Luck or Grace, because that’s what her spiritual aspect is. I’m her worshipper, or bhakta, or maid-servant, depending on the occasion, but mostly a student who uses every opportunity to be in her company and learn”, she laughed. “I attained enlightenment and crystallised into vajra a few days ago, when she was describing her relationships and experiences with the other Gods, and the spiritual impact of that conversation was such, that I started crystallising in the middle of it, believe it or not. I can see that I’m quite a bit smaller than you are, and also of lower specific energy, so I’m curious as to how that may be, if you say you’re completely new here?”

“I think we may actually know each other from before, in the astral nursery. You’re the one they used to call Karen, bullying you for being so pedantic and obsessed with duties? Remember that huge cloud of darkness and gloom that laughed at your discomfort sarcastically from a distance? I’m afraid that was me, and please accept my apology for that. I was quite an asshole”, he admitted sheepishly.

Her eyes turned wide. “You are that Azazel? The greatest, oldest demon? Oh!” But she recovered from her surprise quickly enough. “I think I understand now. Your spiritual mass was enormous for the astral plane, because you grew horizontally for eons, since your demonic impurities didn’t allow for ascension on a normal evolutionary timeline, and since you had so much astral mass at the point where you renounced your sins and approached Lord Shiva, that explains your greater size and advancement now”, the girl successfully picked up the loose ends.

“You are exactly right, Kay, and, if I may say, you are exceedingly smart to pick it up so quickly; I greatly admire your intelligence”, he bowed.

She responded with a curtsy and a smile. “Thank you, Zee. You are very kind, and if I may say, there is absolutely nothing demonic in your person any more. In fact, I like you very much, and I hope we can be friends”.

“I would like that very much as well, my Lady.”, he bowed again, to which she blushed.

“Please, tell me more about Lord Shiva. My Mistress told me a few tidbits, and even that was enough to make me ecstatically worshipful of him to the point where I simply crystallised and attained enlightenment. Is he indeed as kind and as powerful as she said?”

“I don’t know what she told you, but I expect she knows him much better and for far longer than I do, so I can only tell you of those two experiences I had with him. The first was when one of my demonic friends decided he had enough of life and challenged Lord Shiva to a duel. I thought I knew what power was until the Lord appeared, and I am embarrassed to say it, but I shit myself on the spot out of sheer terror of his presence”, he shuffled his feet, while Kay giggled cutely.

“He killed my friend on the spot, absorbed his corpse into his own body, and vanished from my sight”, Azazel finished.

“Were you not mad at him for killing your friend?”, Karuna was curious.

“Not at all. Ashanti was proud, arrogant and foolish. He challenged the God; Shiva answered his challenge with all the propriety and dignity of a warrior, he won fairly and gave Ashanti an honourable death. That is one of the two acceptable outcomes of every battle, and in a battle with a God, it’s the only possible and expected outcome. I had no ill will towards Lord Shiva. I was, however, terrified by him beyond measure, and I had immense respect for his power and the manner in which he conducted himself. He was endlessly more powerful, and yet he treated this as a proper duel, rather than garbage disposal. The honour he gave his infinitely inferior enemy made me respect him as an incredibly honourable person, which is why I eventually managed to gather enough courage to talk to him and ask him to teach me”, Zee finished, in deep contemplation.

“This is fascinating, and I must admit that I’m unfamiliar with those honour-based relationships between men, although I find that very sexy, especially the respect involved”, she giggled. “It looks like a very virtuous way of conducting yourselves, without pointless grudges or vindictiveness.”

“Indeed. Grudges are something that would occur if someone handled things in a disrespectful manner, but if all propriety was observed, a duel to the death gives honour to both sides, both the victorious and the defeated”, he nodded. “Lord Shiva gave my friend an honourable death, and he treated me with incredible patience and kindness as I approached him. I must have been a mere bug to him, from his Divine perspective, and yet he smiled at me, called me “son”, sat me down and talked to me at great length, guiding me with his energy and blessings. I don’t know what other Gods are like, for I hadn’t met them, but Lord Shiva is an absolutely amazing person”, Zee glowed deep blue.

Kay glowed back sympathetically, and approached close enough to hold him in the embrace of her blue aura, drinking in his higher frequency of energy. “Your story sent shivers of bliss through my soul, Zee, because this is exactly how my Lady described her experience with Lord Shiva. She said he feels so incredibly powerful, he could be the scariest person in the world, and yet he is always so kind, polite, gentle and always looking for an opportunity to bless, praise and shower you with gifts, that always feel undeserved”.

Something special passed through Azazel. “Kay, I know we know each other very briefly, but I feel something special when I’m near you, something I’ve never felt before with anyone else. I love you, and I admire your spirit and intelligence greatly. I don’t know how those things work here, but Gods exist in couples, and I would want nothing more than for us to be married like that”, he blushed.

“It is probably too soon, and we barely know each other, but I feel the same way, Zee. I accept, and I would very much like to be your wife”, she glowed and melted into him, as he embraced her.

“Why is it that we feel so connected, and after such a short acquaintance?”, Zee mused.

“I think it is our devotion and admiration for the Lord, my husband”, she glowed. “We both attained enlightenment out of this devotion, and as we both felt it, our mutual connection became too strong and too right to resist”.

“I think you are right, my darling wife”, he smiled. “It is something Lord Shiva explained to me, that the kalapas in our souls react very strongly to powerful sources of sat-cit-ananda, and our mutual devotion to the Lord made us such powerful sources of God’s presence, that the particles of our respective souls willed us to be forever connected”, he beamed, and they held each other like that in a blissful eternity.

…

“Zee, what do you think about that new world that was created recently? It is said to offer great potential for spiritual growth – literally, that we can become Gods there. Also, it is said to offer experiences of the sort that cannot be replicated anywhere else?”

“That’s a firm negative, my love. Absolutely not. I know the demon who created this new world using the Jewel of Creation that is presently in his custody. I know nothing of that new world, but I know a lot about its creator, and to say he’s no good would be the biggest understatement ever. In fact, his deranged evil, egomania, paranoia and other ways of being a completely fucked up basket case convinced me to ask for Lord Shiva’s blessed guidance, lest I end up like Sanat Kumar, who himself is a deranged maggot and yet wishes to be thought of as a God”, Zee shivered from the terror of his memories.

“Oh”, Kay was shocked. “I didn’t know that a demon made that place. And you say you know him, and he’s really bad?”

“I know him alright. He’s much smaller and younger than I was, and yet he was incredibly ambitious, pompous and conceited, almost as much as he was cowardly and spiritually insignificant. I was fascinated with him and kept his company because he seemed to be the worst person I had ever met, and as such he was something interesting and out of the ordinary, that alleviated my boredom, and listening to his ravings made me feel better about myself, until a point where I understood that the difference between the two of us was a mere matter of degree, and not of essential quality. So, instructed by the worst person I’d ever known about what was to be my fate unless I fundamentally change my nature and my ways, I sought guidance from the best person I had ever known, which is Lord Shiva, which was the most blessed decision of my life, since it caused my redemption and salvation, and through which I also met you”, he blew his wife a kiss, which she took in and shivered in giggles.

“Thanks for the warning, Zee. To even think that I considered that seriously; it must be a blessing of Lady Lakshmi that I have your guidance in this matter, because this information would be completely unknown to others. And speaking of that, do you think it would be a good idea to inform others about what you know about Sanat Kumar? We wouldn’t want them to get trapped in something a crazy person designed using a powerful artefact created by the Gods, would we?”, she spoke worriedly.

“You do have a point, my sweetheart. Sanat Kumar is obviously spreading false propaganda about his creation, and knowledge about his true nature is limited to a very narrow circle of people, all of whom are, or used to be, demons, in whom he had confided, or merely talked to himself out loud so that he could worship the sound of his own voice. However, I think this is seriously above our heads, and we should first consult the Gods”, his face became serious with concern.

“So, what is it that you two newlyweds wanted to talk to us about?”, Lord Shiva said, appearing from a shimmer in the surrounding space, dragging along a laughing Lady Lakshmi, who had all the appearance of a star-struck fangirl, as Zee and Kay froze in shock.

“Oh come on, thaw the fuck down, kids, let’s sit down, have some coffee and discuss this”, Shiva rolled his eyes and wielded a room, a sofa and a coffee set for four.

“It’s so strange”, Shakti mused. “They are completely convinced that you killed that demon, without provocation and out of the blue. They even have two witnesses. They are completely convinced of what they saw, and in an emotional turmoil over it”.

Shiva sipped coffee and thought about it. “Their perception is unreliable because it is completely clouded by expectations, preconceptions, prejudice and other impure emotions. They don’t distinguish between what they actually saw, and their interpretation thereof. Eyes are an unreliable witness when the heart is impure, as they say”.

“What they actually saw, and I know because I tapped in, is that the demon approached you, the two of you sat down and talked, the demon started changing colour from black to white, and then brightened up significantly, started phasing out, and then disappeared completely, with you following suit. Even if someone didn’t know what exactly happened, the correct conclusion would be to state one’s ignorance: we don’t know what happened, and that’s that. The correct next step after that would be to either ask someone who is likely to know for an explanation, or try to figure it out in some other way, but it feels like they start with a narrative, and they just shoehorn everything they see into it. As I said, it’s strange”, she concluded.

“I know. One could say that the obvious way out of their misapprehension would be for someone to tell them what actually happened, but you know what they would do. If I said it, they would respond that it’s a lie and I’m an untrustworthy murderer. If you said it, they would say you’re covering up for your murderous husband and you should be ashamed of yourself. If Azazel said it, they wouldn’t recognise him since he’s a crystal of vajra now, which they couldn’t even see with their astral eyes without him taking a lower form as we do, and then they would say it’s an obvious deception by the Gods, who are obviously worried about consequences of their actions if they are trying to cover them up so much. You just can’t win with those people”, he smiled.

“No, because all their problems are intrinsic; however, Azazel is an example that shows that miracles can happen. And, also, that on your worst day you are still the best person in the whole world”, the Goddess smiled at her husband, who grinned back and blew a flurry of rose petals at her instead of an answer.

“I did get how Azazel came to change his mind, though”, Shiva continued. “He talked to Sanat Kumar, and saw how deeply deluded, insane and warped that one was, and thought “How am I any different?”, and that worried him and made him think about what could actually be done about it that would be constructive, rather than continue mixing questionable perception, ignorance, paranoia and resentment, until he became as unhinged in his insanity as Sanat Kumar, or those other demons that periodically challenge Gods to a fight and have their careers come to a quick end. He didn’t like those prospects, and so he explored the alternatives, and he’s now an angelic being. But his ability to distance himself from his situation and look at it clearly was already a sign of significant progress, of detachment which is the root cause of all forms of liberation. People think detachment is to not care about things, but no, detachment is to look at yourself and think, ‘what the hell am I doing?’”, he continued, tapping his finger absentmindedly on the empty coffee cup, which his wife understood as a call for a refill.

“Which brings me to something else”, she said. “Do we know what the hell we’re doing?”

“I surely hope so. We wanted to funnel all the demons and idiots from the astral nursery into the honeypot of doom. Mission accomplished – there’s now an active demon revolt and they are jumping into it head first as we speak; Sanat Kumar seems to have rendered his hellhole. From what I can see, his primary parameters were to limit powers of individual beings, so that he won’t feel like an imp anymore. He set it up so that he inhibits everybody’s memories so that his sandbox looks like the One True Universe. He’s also making the presence of God as dim as possible while still having a workable Universe and not a pit of darkness. He’s also having all sorts of safeguards intended for evading any responsibility for the outcomes, which is of course alarming. Also, both Time and Eternity are in turmoil and actively reconfiguring, and I see that the outcomes are good, but much between now and then is in a blur. One of the reasons seems to be that the Jewel itself can recursively edit time until he gets what he wants, the way you can, and Sanat Kumar is issuing new commands that increase the likelihood of a good outcome for him. But he sees that the eventual outcome is his failure and death, and that everything he did increases the glory of God, which makes him panic, as he now suspects that he fell for a trap, which in fact he did, but it’s too late now and he’s totally and irredeemably fucked”, Shiva grinned with dark satisfaction.

“Your special sauce is yummy”, Shakti nodded.

“Careful, my love; I can almost see the yellow feathers between your teeth”, Shiva’s grin widened.

She pretended to check, smiled, and blew a flock of canaries at him, as he laughingly swatted them away.

“The Jewel can edit time, but only before any souls actually incarnate there. At that point, it anchors into reality, so there’s a limit to what he can do. After that point, he needs to use pressure and influence, trying to coerce events, but that’s unreliable and he gets increasingly desperate even before the point where we step in to finish it”, she corrected. “Which brings us to my least favourite part of this whole ordeal”, her face darkened.

“I’m with you there, but think about the outcome”, he prodded.

“You mean, we get to have a vacation?”, her face rose hopefully.