“If you ever die again, I’ll kill you myself”, Hypatia’s frustration flashed through her teary eyes as she hugged Grace. “We almost died of grief”.

“I’m sorry, Mom”, Grace looked guilty in the happiest way possible.

“Young Lady, you certainly put us through some very hard moments”, Lady Shakti smiled and embraced the girl, when it was her turn. “Your way of becoming a Goddess was certainly the most painful, heroic and risky, out of anything I’ve seen. Every one of us feels we would die instantly to follow our husbands in death, but you actually did it”.

“Also, since your perfectly pure innocent heart broke once, and through no fault of your own, but due to providence of God, it is now the sacred place of the world, in which the Will of God will reside”, she turned her eyes inwards, and a golden fire danced above her finger, and took form of a Jewel of such power everybody shivered at the sight. The Jewel entered Grace’s heart, and she gasped and her eyes flashed gold as it integrated with her soul.

“Your heart never desired anything that wasn’t in accordance with the Will of God. Therefore, from now on, your heart is the Will of God”, Lady Shakti spoke her verdict, and bowed. Shivers went up every God and Goddess present, and a flurry of newborn souls exploded among them.

…

“So, can I have my job back?”, Grace smiled at Azrael. “How long have I been away, anyway?”

“It was always yours”, he bowed. “It’s seventeenth century now. You haven’t missed much. What we expected to happen, unfortunately did. The Turks advanced and established themselves on the Balkans. The Church has degraded morally and intellectually. A new schism formed, called Protestantism; great intolerance and religious wars ensued. Europe discovered a new continent, the one where they cut out hearts from the prisoners of war as sacrifice to their gods. Spain, England and France have colonies there now. There were advances in science, but unfortunately it all seems to be connected to the godless attractor of Satan, and is full of hatred of God and everything transcendental. Their basic assumption is that God doesn’t exist, and if something seems to be caused by God, it’s wrong and you need to look for the actual causes. Since people attributed things to God too casually in the past, in order to signal virtue and avoid using their brains, this actually seems to produce results”, he smiled. “And there are four new Gods. Other than you and your husband, that is”.

“Wow! Who are they?”, she jumped.

“Paul and Caterina, and Chiara and Bernard”.

“Well, that’s actually expected”, she smiled. “What are they doing?”

“Bernard and Chiara are Judges, Paul and Caterina are teachers”, he nodded approvingly. “Both couples are doing a wonderful job, as expected”.

“What are the qualifications for the job of a Judge? If it is possible, I would like to join my wife there”, Carol gave Azrael a shy look.

“You are quite qualified, but of course you would need some on-job training first, and you would need to be approved by the highest authorities”, Angel of Death nodded.

“You are approved”, smiled Lady Lakshmi.

“Thank you, Mother”, Carol bowed. “And thank you also for saving our lives down there”.

“You are very much welcome, my son”, she nodded.

…

“What does it feel like?”, Kay pointed at Grace’s golden heart.

“Incredibly peaceful”, she smiled. “It doesn’t feel as if my heart was different than before, but I feel… trusted. God put his confidence in me, knowing that I will always do the right thing. It makes me feel so happy, acknowledged and safe, that I can’t describe it”, she sighed. “I would expect being scared of myself now, second-guessing my every desire, because what if I wish for something rashly and do something wrong? But it’s nothing like that. It makes me so peaceful and balanced, that I am for all intents and purposes without desires. I wish only to remain in that state of balanced happiness, where God can reside safely in my heart, because I’m trustworthy. As this is all I desire, every desire I am ever going to have is going to be rooted in that”.

“And a birdie told me that it’s the two of you that actually worked the hardest on saving us”, Carol grinned. “Everybody else was grieving and in shock, while the two of you were brainstorming”.

“We were brainstorming because we were grieving and in shock, and that’s our way of dealing with pain”, Azazel smiled. “Our minds just kept trying to find solutions, until eventually we landed something that made enough sense to run it by Father”.

“We just couldn’t accept the fact that Grace was dead. It was something so much against the nature of God, that we just refused to accept it outright”, Kay shivered at the memory. “Perfectly innocent angels who are beloved by all, and on a steep trajectory to Godhood, don’t die because they did nothing wrong and just followed the Will of God. If they do, it must be the Will of God for them to be saved in some greater plan. Some could call it denial, but denial of things that don’t make any sense is actually a pretty good idea”.

“I certainly agree with you”, Grace smiled and hugged the girl. “Thank you both for not accepting reality”.