Lord Yama entered his wife’s ‘office’, bringing coffee to cheer her up.

“My love, what’s wrong?”, he was immediately at her side, as he saw tears streaking down her face.

“I just tried to comfort an angel who returned from earth”, she tried to control the sobs enough to get the words out.

“He was a serf somewhere in Europe. He lived with a young wife and two small children. The winter was hard, and they hadn’t eaten in three days. The children kept crying from hunger, and his wife was too weak to get out of bed. He had enough and went into the woods with a bow to hunt a deer. The lord’s men caught him and threw him into a dungeon to be hanged tomorrow for poaching. He pleaded with me to please help his wife and children, who are certainly going to die without him. He said I looked like a good and holy lady and he will give me his soul in exchange, if only I helped his family. He said that Satan came into his dreams in the dungeon, and offered him a deal: sell me your soul, and I will take care of your wife and children. He was afraid and started praying to Jesus and Mary to save him, because Satan gave him the sense of cold fear and terror. They hanged him in the morning, of course. He told me he’d make that deal with me, because he felt I was good and kind, and he had no problem with his soul belonging to me.”

“I comforted him as much as I could, restored his memories and sent him to recover, but I couldn’t do anything for his family. I know they are dying from cold and hunger, because the wife is too weak to go into the woods and collect twigs for fire. I just keep waiting for them to come here and ask me why God didn’t answer when they kept praying for help”, she sobbed.

Azrael held her in his arms and comforted her as much as he could; he closed his eyes and called for one of his lieutenants. An angelic woman appeared immediately.

“Grace, would you please be so kind as to take over from my wife? She’s not well”.

Grace took in the sight, curtsied and nodded, and shooed them away with a smile as they shimmered out.

…

“So that’s what he’s been up to. Purchasing premium assets at bargain prices”, Lord Vishnu nodded, gnashing his teeth in fury, as Jesus was comforting Lady Hypatia.

“I just wish I could do something for them”, she sobbed.

“Oh, you just did”, Lord Shiva pointed at her tears, end of the world flashing in his eyes.

“You just did”.

Black fire wisped over his hand, and her tears sparkled and vanished, as the world shook from within.

“What did you do?”, Jesus looked at him, stunned.

“Oh, I broke his world some more, and sent her tears as comfort to the suffering souls, so that they would know that God is with them, and resist temptations of Satan. I can’t do more at this time, so this will have to do”, Shiva growled.

“That, my son, is why he is our great comfort in hard times”, Vishnu smiled at Christ, who stood there in shock.

“Oh wow”, whispered Hypatia. “Wow…”

“They came?”, her husband asked.

“Yes. They say they were starving and freezing after the father didn’t come home, but blue light of God came into their hearts and they prayed to it to help them and save them, and it became one with them as they looked at their bodies from above”, she whispered, made a hand motion, and three small angelic beings shimmered in. “Go to your father and husband, he’s waiting for you”, she smiled and sent them away.

Jesus stood there in shock. “I don’t know what I just witnessed, but all praise to both of you, regardless”, he looked at Shiva and Hypatia.

“What just happened, my son, is that her tears latched onto the barely nucleating souls of that angel’s dying family on Earth, guided by her intent and power of Lord Shiva, and as they identified with them and prayed through them, their identities merged, and through death they returned to our wonderful Lady here, who could have just integrated them into her own being and acquired their memories. Instead, she sacrificed a small part of her own enormous spiritual power to give them independent life, thus saving that family in the only way that matters, because saving physical bodies just delays the inevitable. And, of course, the karmic effect of her generous and compassionate sacrifice is that her own soul grew greater, by this large deep blue jewel she just got”, Vishnu pointed.

Jesus just bowed deeply and silently to the now glowing Lady, and to Lord Rudra, who gnashed his teeth as he thought about Satan, and how their ‘conversation’ would go, when his time came.

…

“He’s building attractors”, Lady Shakti whispered into Shiva’s ear, as she massaged his shoulders to get him to relax. His thoughts were full of righteous anger and murder, and he was tense like a compressed spring.

“He’s acquiring souls of the most powerful kind, now that they are suffering terribly there, and are sensitive to temptations; and he obviously needs them for something. Most likely, he’ll build things that will seduce souls deeper into his darkness by glowing with true light, and he needs sources of true light, that will indicate the sense of fulfilment in various deserts where people will come to leave their bones”, she mused, as she kissed his neck from behind.

“I will strip flesh off his bones as he screams in darkness of his own making, where nobody will hear him”, Shiva murmured menacingly. “I will visit all the suffering he caused upon him sevenfold”.

“And I will help you do it, and then make you coffee”, she nodded as she kissed his ear.

“He’ll get what he is due”.