I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Uriel sort of reminded me of a frat boy with tits. Admittedly, that brought some very strange thoughts to my mind, but I ignored them as I stopped in front of Sam’s shop. Smoke was pouring from the chimney, and I could hear clanging inside.
“Just inside, I think.” I pointed to the Blacksmith’s shop. “This is her place.”
“What’s she doing?” Uriel asked, inhaling sharply. “It smells like smoke and metal. The Sam I knew wouldn’t be caught dead doing manual labor.”
“Oh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at Uriel. “She’s totally into the manual labor thing.”
“I don’t believe you for a second. Sammie was always a little princess complete with ribbons and bows.” Uriel smacked her leg once. “It always made me want to see her get down and dirty if you know what I mean. Why this one time I saw her in the shower…” Uriel whistled.
“Right,” I said, knocking on the door, and when there was no immediate response, I pushed the door open.
Sam stood with her back to the doorway, her two apprentices busily working on something I couldn’t discern.
“I’m busy,” Sam said, not bothering to look up. “Leave your order with Gwen, and I’ll get to it,” she paused, glancing at a kitten calendar on the far wall, “fucking never.”
“Sam, it’s me,” I said, and at the sound of my voice, she whirled around.
“Arthur?” Confusion flashed across her face as she stared at me. “Why are you here?”
“Sammie? Is that you?” Uriel cried, pushing past me, only when she saw Sam, she stopped in her tracks. “You’ve changed.”
“I had to change,” Sam said, taking in the big angel with one quick, dismissive look. “I fell, remember?”
“It isn’t for the better. Not really, anyway.” Uriel moved closer, surveying Sam like she was a sideshow attraction. “Where’s the makeup? The frilly dresses? The bows?” She squinted at Sam. “Where’s the Archangel of Death?”
“She died when she fell out of Heaven you big lug.” Sam crossed her arms over her chest and blew a lock of pink hair out of her face. “I’ve had to improve, adapt, and overcome.”
“So you became a blacksmith?” Uriel asked, right before she reached out and poked Sam in the shoulder. “Not a dressmaker or a home decorator?”
“Wait a second,” I said, glancing from one to the other. “You mean to tell me the Archangel of Death used to dress in ball gowns and wear makeup?” I tried to picture it and couldn’t.
“With frills!” Uriel added.
“It wasn’t my finest moment,” Sam said, glaring at Uriel. “I haven’t been that person for a long, long time.”
“Well, it’s time to look around for your inner vagina and find her,” Uriel said, nodding. “Because you’re coming back upstairs.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Sam asked, confusion and anger filling her face.
“I talked to Michelle. She’s agreed to let you come back to Heaven,” As I said the words, Sam glared at me so hard, I thought I might melt. I’ll be honest, I looked around for somewhere to hide.
“And why the fuck would I want to do that?” Sam took a step forward. “They threw me out, Arthur. Made me have to change who I was, change everything just to survive.” She gestured around. “They didn’t help me at all.”
“Aww, sis, Come one. Forgive and forget,” Uriel said, and while her words were full of cheer, doubt had clouded her eyes. “I’m sure once—”
“No.” Sam crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ll not do it.”
“If you don’t, Dred will win,” I said, hating that I was about to make her feel like shit. “And don’t you want to try to stop him, after, you know…”
“I do not like the tone or implication of your words, Arthur,” Sam said, and I felt the mark on my abdomen go colder than ice. “Tread carefully.”
“Look, all I’m saying is that we need you, Sam. We need a smith who knows the angels and can outfit them to stop the Darkness. You’re the best person for that job.” I smiled at her. “Help us, Sam. You’re our only hope.”
20
“I see Heaven hasn’t changed much,” Sam said when we arrived on its hallowed steps. She probably said more, but I was suddenly too distracted because I was busy checking the progress of the achievements.
Just like I’d thought Healing the Rift had increased. Just by having stepped foot in Heaven, my progress had gone from sixty percent to seventy percent. Even better, the Outfit the Troops achievement had increased to five percent. It wasn’t a lot of progress, but it since I’d been at zero before we went down, I was pleased to know we were on the right track.
“Arthur, I’ll need a place to work,” Sam said, and her tone was angrier than I expected. “Is there somewhere?”
“Um… You know, I’m not sure. Let’s find out.” I nodded to her. “I’m sure Maribelle is around here somewhere.”
“Right, that sounds super boring.” Uriel yawned. “I’m gonna go do anything else.” With that the big angel walked off, leaving me alone with Sam.
“I cannot believe I let you talk me into coming back here,” Sam said once Uriel was out of earshot.
“I get it—”
“You don’t get it, Arthur.” Sam shook her head. “Michelle banished me, and now I’m supposed to help her?”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
“The right thing to do wasn’t to throw my ass out of Heaven. We all made mistakes.” She crossed her arms over her chest, clearly still angry. Then again, she’d had a long time to stew.
“Fair enough, but you pretty much have two options. You can let it go, or you can stew.” I smiled at her. “I know letting go isn’t easy, but you’ll be better for it.”
“I recognize that, but it doesn’t make me less angry.” Sam stamped her foot. “Fine, let’s just find Maribelle. Once we get this show on the road, I’ll have work to distract me.”
“Works for me,” I said, looking around for Maribelle. While some of the buildings nearest the rift had been rebuilt, most had just been demoed for parts. Worse, while we had received some supplies from Hell, it hadn’t been nearly enough. That was compounded by there being no resources to harvest here. Heaven was basically a desert made of clouds. There was no stone, no wood, no nothing.
Not that we’d have been able to harvest things anyway given the standard profession of nearly every angel was a generic soldier.
“What happened to the gate and why haven’t you guys fixed the gate yet?” Sam jerked her thumb toward the twisted wreckage behind the rift.
“Jophiel used some kind of rift bomb to blow it open, and we don’t have the expertise to fix it. At least, Maribelle didn’t.” I stared at it for a moment. “So far, the guards have done a good job of keeping the Darkness warriors from getting through. That combined with the threat generation techniques I taught them seems to be keeping us from a full-scale invasion.”
“Perhaps,” Sam rubbed her chin. “But without that gate, the wards keeping the Darkness at bay are greatly weakened. It has to be fixed.” She sighed. “Find me somewhere to work, and I can do it.” She glanced at me. “We’ll probably need more Heavenly Gold though.”
“Do you know where to get that?” I asked as we began making our way through the buildings. I wasn’t quite sure where Maribelle was, but I was hoping if I followed the sound of work, I’d find her, or at least someone who knew where she was.
“I’ve been in Heaven all of ten seconds. How would I know where to find it?” Sam glared at me. “I wasn’t a blacksmith when I was here before.”
“Fair enough.” I sighed, wishing once again I could use my builder powers to just repair stuff. Alas, it didn’t seem like I had that ability. While I could upgrade things if I had the materials, they had to already be in pretty good condition for me to do so. I couldn’t just spend materials to repair it no matter how much I wished I could.
Then again, if I could do that, I’d just build myself a
giant mechanical suit of armor and every time it got damaged, I’d spend resources to fix it and be unstoppable.
“Hey, I think that’s Maribelle.” I pointed to a blue speck in the distance.
Sam put one hand over her eyes like she was shielding her face from the light and squinted. “She seems annoyed.” Sam glanced at me. “It looks like she just threw a hammer at Phanuel.”
It did look like that, which was sort of funny because Phanuel was the Archangel of Peace. Only, as I watched Phanuel shake her head in dismay before moving to pick up the hammer, an idea struck me.
“I’m an idiot,” I mumbled, glancing at Sam.
“I know that, but why specifically?” Sam asked, looking at me.
“After we broke your link with Dred, I talked to Raphael about it, and she said a buncha stuff that basically you being in Hell made it possible.” I gestured at Phanuel. “What if they came down to Hell, and I broke the marks down there?”
“Won’t work.” Sam shook her head. “I know it seems like it will, but I can just tell it won’t. When I was down there, I sort of became part of the local fauna. Even up here again, I can feel myself acclimating to Heaven. They would have to spend a lot of time down there to do what you want, and if they did that, they’d grow weaker like I did.”
That made a certain amount of sense, and while I wanted to try anyway, I wasn’t sure we could risk it. If something happened to one of the Archangels, it’d make it that much harder to stop Dred.
“I think what you need to do is figure out how to complete the achievements you told me about. Then when you have earned the power of Heaven, kick Dred in the balls and rescue Gabriella.” Sam frowned. “I hope she’s doing okay.”
“Me too.” I shut my eyes, taking a breath as I tried to dismiss the feeling that I wasn’t doing enough, wasn’t working hard enough. I knew that wasn’t true per se. I’d been moving toward completing the achievements to gain the strength to face Dred, but at the same time, I worried it wouldn’t be enough, and if it wasn’t, who would save Gabriella?
No. I couldn’t think like that. I had to succeed, to push forward. Gabriella was counting on me, and every moment I spent doubting myself was a moment spent not saving her.
“Hello, Phanuel,” Sam said, and her reverent tone shocked me from my thoughts. I looked up to see that while I’d been thinking we’d somehow crossed the distance to where Maribelle was working with the archangel.
“Samuel. I am glad to see you again. I hope you are staying for a while.” Phanuel bowed her green-haired head before straightening so her lithe, eight foot tall body strained against the too small armor she always wore. It wasn’t her fault exactly, more that all the other angels were shorter than her, and since she never actually engaged in combat, well… Guess she hadn’t been deemed worthy.
“We’ll see,” Sam said, sighing. “It still feels a little weird to be here. The air even tastes different than I remember.”
“Heaven is just a place.” Phanuel smiled. “Home is where you make it. This is no longer your home, though I hope it will not always be that way, sister.”
“Thank you, Phanuel.” Sam nodded as Maribelle came storming over with a bucket of nails.
“Are you taking a break?” Maribelle sighed, glaring at Phanuel. “The infirmary isn’t going to build itself.” She gestured at the frame of the building. “You wanted to help and while I appreciate that, helping should mean I need to work less hard, not more hard.”
“Maribelle,” I said sternly. “That’s not nice.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, was I supposed to be nice. Very well then.” The carpenter cleared her throat. “Thank you, Phanuel. Why don’t you take a break, maybe go see if Sally needs anything? I hear you’re a good healer.”
“Sally asked me to come help you though.” Phanuel looked confused. “It’s only been an hour. I doubt she wants me to return already.”
“Nope, I talked to her. She totally needs your help.” Maribelle smiled brightly. “Totally.”
“Oh, okay then.” Phanuel nodded to Maribelle before looking at Sam and me. “I will be seeing you sister.” Her eyes flicked to me. “Builder.” With that, the Archangel of Peace trudged off to find Sally.
“Does Sally really want her help?” I asked, watching Phanuel go.
“God no.” Maribelle sighed. “She’s nice enough, and she tries hard, but I swear she’s all thumbs. With her help, it’s taking me longer to do the job.”
“Phanuel was always strange like that.” Samuel smirked. “I don’t know what it is about her, but everything just sort of goes slowly when she’s around.”
“Which is why Sally sent her to you, eh?” I asked.
“Turnabout is fair play,” Maribelle said, looking from me to Sam. “I suppose you’ll be wanting a shop?”
“Yes.” Sam nodded. “Then I can fix the gate and work on weapons and armor.”
“Figured.” Maribelle chewed on her lip. “There is an old armory we scavenged. It doesn’t have a lot of equipment, but the basics are there. I can probably get it done in a day or two. I’d have to stop working on the infirmary though.”
As she spoke, I glanced at the building in question.
Infirmary
Progress: 18%
Use: Allows for the creation and training of healer classes
Bonus: 10% to all healing related activities carried out within its walls.
“I can see why Sally wants this built,” I mumbled. “How long do you have left on it?”
“Two, maybe three days?” Maribelle shrugged. “Unless you want to get people who know what they’re doing from Hell.”
“And how long to do the retrofits on the armory?” I asked, ignoring her gripe because if I could have done that, I damned well would have done that. Getting Michelle to let anyone up here was almost harder than convincing the Guilds down below to do what they should.
“Same amount probably,” Maribelle looked at the sky, clearly mulling it over. “But we don’t have the equipment for the inside, anyway. Not that we have equipment for the infirmary.” She sighed. “I never realized how much easier it was down below. Here, I go, okay, I need a toaster, but I can’t just go buy a toaster, I have to make a toaster, so I go okay, I need some wire, only they don’t have wire, so I have to figure out how to make wire. It’s like that for every damned component, and it’s infuriating.” She gestured at the torn down buildings all around. “Right now we’ve been salvaging things, but soon enough that won’t work anymore.”
“We need industry,” I agreed. Both Sally and Annabeth had similar concerns, and I knew Sam would as well. Hell, she’d been here ten seconds, and I already needed to go mine Heavenly Gold.
“No.” Sam shook her head. “That’s not what we need.” She turned and looked right at me. Then she poked me in the chest. “You need to make Michelle really open up trade down below. Get contractors and materials here. This piece-mealing bullshit won’t work.”
“Getting Michelle to do anything is impossible.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’ve tried.”
“Try harder,” Sam snapped. “Look, I get it. I know Michelle. Just figure it out, or this is going to take so long Gabriella will give Dred the argument. Once that happens we’re toast.”
“You know, that’s an excellent point,” I said. I mean I’d known that before, but Sam was right. Michelle had promised me a well-oiled machine, and thus far, she’d given me a machine with no gears, sprockets, or whatever else a machine needed to run. It was almost the exact opposite problem I’d had in Hell. There we’d had no labor force but had resources. Here we had labor and no skills or resources.
“Of course it is,” Sam said, blowing a lock of hair out of her face before sighing. “Come on Maribelle, let me help you. Then maybe we can do the armory afterward. There’s no point in abandoning the infirmary when I still need to get my forge and other equipment from below, and that won’t happen until at least tomorrow.”
“Do you know anything about ca
rpentry?” Maribelle asked warily.
“I know how to hit stuff with a hammer. How hard can it be?” Sam asked, and that was my cue to leave.
I spun on my heel and made my way toward the training grounds. More often than not, Michelle would be there drilling the troops endlessly. I’d always wanted to join in, but so far, I’d been too busy. Besides, the run-of-the-mill angels were a bit too weak to spar with, and the archangels were too strong. I really needed a different grade of opponent to face off with if I wanted to learn anything.
21
“You call that a thrust?” Michelle cried, smacking the spear from one of the angels, sending it spinning across the sandy grounds of the training arena. The place sort of reminded me out of a cross between a high school football field and a roman coliseum because it had cheap bleachers, but the grounds were just bloody sand.
“You do it like this!” Michelle demonstrated, striking out with the spear in a perfect blur of precision.
“Sorry,” the angel squeaked before snatching her fallen spear and trying again.
“Better, but as punishment, all of you do a run around the arena. Then fifty pushups.” The rest of the battalion scowled at the girl standing before Michelle before taking off to run the six-mile loop.
“Do you need something?” Michelle asked, turning to me and looking me up and down. “I’m busy trying to get these soldiers back into shape.” She snorted. “A few days in Hell and they became soft.”
“About that,” I said, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “Things need to change.”
“I agree.” Michelle nodded to me. “You shouldn’t let Uriel blow you in the middle of town.” She glared at me. “I don’t want to hear excuses or anything, just keep that shit behind closed doors.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with the two of you where you’d think that was appropriate.”
“Right, sorry about that.” I felt my cheeks flush as Michelle stared at me with her piercing blue eyes.
The Builder's Wrath (The Legendary Builder Book 4) Page 12
