“My Lady, can we have a word with you?”, an angel accompanied by three others addressed Lady Hypatia.

“Of course, Berfrid”, she smiled. “I am so glad we meet again, this time under better circumstances”. She looked at his family. “And these must be your wife, Isalde, and the children are Albert and Hilde?”.

They all bowed as she addressed them. “They are indeed, and thanks to you alone”, the man bowed deeply. “The teachers in the apple orchard, the blessed Padmasambhava and his holy wives, have been explaining to us and the others how the real world actually works, how the souls are created, how they grow and achieve enlightenment, and so on. Specifically, he told us what you did, because it was the first such case, how you took from your own soul and gave my wife and children immortality so that they could join me, simply because I begged for you to save them”. He looked her straight in the eyes with such depth of worship that shivers went up her head. “I offered you my soul in exchange, but you wanted nothing. Know this, however. We will forever worship you, every day of our lives, even if we get to live forever. You will forever remain our Saviour Goddess, and our souls are forever yours”, tears started welling up in his eyes, and Hypatia just hugged the man and said nothing.

…

“I am so proud of you”, Lord Azrael whispered in his wife’s ear.

“The feeling is very much mutual, my Lord”, she whispered back.

“When I was overwhelmed, you took control, arranged for my replacement, and brought me to the exactly right people who could actually do something in time, and only because of this immediate and perfect response did anything I wanted to do actually matter”, she kissed him. “If not for you and Lord Shiva, my tears would have amounted to nothing. Only because of your immediate reaction, and his world-tearing power, was this family saved”.

“Be it as it may, you still sacrificed a part of your own soul for them, which makes you legendary and worthy of highest praise”, he smiled.

“And instead of a scar, I got this jewel”, she pointed out.

“Proof that holy acts of sacrifice are never a loss”, he kissed her brow.

“I don’t know if you can even imagine what this means to me”, she was lost in thought. “On Earth, I always had to be in control of myself, because any lapse would be interpreted as female weakness and incompetence. But here, when I lost it, you treated it as a sign of a legitimate emergency, covered for my failings, and elevated the problem to the highest authority, and at no point did anyone think less of me for it. If anything, Lord Shiva took my tears and those poor people’s suffering so much to heart, that he seems to have proclaimed a personal vengeance against Satan. I feel something in me relaxing for the first time, as if I can allow myself to react emotionally, knowing that it’s fine, that you all have me covered. It feels wonderful”, she melted into his side.