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in heaven and earth
Maya and Raven in Daevinity
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Maya woke up to find that she had missed possibly one of the most important events in her life. Or, in fact, in anyone's.

But there was still the possibility it was all a hoax.

So she read some passages carefully, paid attention to the large warnings, and decided that today, she would be a little bit reckless.

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Raziel has been trying to catch a random summons, without success, for the last fifty years. Summoners are few and far between, and she is far from the only angel interested in visiting Earth. 

Today, something seems to be different. Raziel has known for the last month that something was about to happen, but not what. Apparently the result of the something - or at least one result - is an abrupt increase in the number of random summonings, from one a week to dozens in the last hour, more than a hundred since she woke up this morning. 

She catches one. 

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She finds herself in a garage! There are shelves and walls and a stone floor and a circle with a binding…

Then there's the human standing nearby who may be stuck with her mouth open, just a little.

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Raziel has been practising this. "Greetings, summoner," she begins, flaring her charcoal-coloured wings slightly as she bows.

What was the next line?

Ah, yes. "Be not afraid," she continues, attempting to keep her voice serene and level rather than betray her excitement. "I am the angel Raziel. How may I serve you?" 

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Pause.

"So, not to ask too ridiculous a question, but –" She pauses. "Angels – daeva – actually exist?"

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Well, that's one she hasn't heard before. For a four-hundred-year-old angel, that is no small feat. 

"Clearly." Sarcasm is not appropriate for a professional angel, but it slips through regardless. "Of course, were I a figment of your imagination, no doubt I would say the same."

Raziel frowns, humour giving way to genuine curiosity. "How on Earth did you manage to summon a daeva without knowing of our existence?" She peers down at the circle, looking for clues.

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"I – loosely knew of it, wasn't totally certain. Someone released a book recently, did a couple stunts." Pause. "I only half believed them. Or. Maybe not even that."

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So that is the reason for the sudden jump in summoning. If Raziel ever meets the person responsible, she will have to thank them.

"Well. Now you know." The bindings seem to be reasonably competent, especially for a first-time summoner. Raziel could possibly think of a few ways around them if she wished to wreak havoc, but will have no trouble refraining.

"Is there anything more I may do for you? It has been some time since I visited Earth, and I would dearly like to stay awhile longer."

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"I'm not – wholly – sure on the extent to which your powers are just 'change things'."

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Raziel has given this lecture before, but more often to new angels than to a summoner. She calls up her standard summary in her head, editing it a little for her audience.

"Angels have the power to change any physical object, including ourselves and other people, into any other physical object with sufficiently similar mass and volume. 'Sufficiently similar' does not mean 'identical': I may change a small dense object into a larger less dense object should I choose. However, it is difficult to alter mass or volume by more than a single order of magnitude. 

"The only hard limit is that an angel cannot make something she does not know how to make. If I attempt to change, say, a stone into a pocket-watch, I must have detailed knowledge of a pocket-watch's workings. Similarly, working on the human body requires knowledge of anatomy."

She stretches out one wing to the extent permitted by the circle. "I sculpted these wings myself, from a substance common in Heaven known as 'cloud-fluff'. The knowledge to do so was gained through months of study regarding birds' wings and the creations of other angels."

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"… So quite 'just change things', then." Blink. "Can I ask if you have much knowledge of anatomy?"

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"Enough," she says with false modesty. "Human anatomy more so than most animals, but my studies have been wide and varied. Medicine was one of the first areas I sought to master, after becoming conversant in the major angelic languages.

"I have not visited Earth in fifty years, so any substantial developments since that time may have passed me by. Beside that, I should not have trouble with most anything you think to request. Four centuries of study can impart a sufficiently detailed knowledge of many things."

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"… Fifty years of medicine is quite a bit," says Maya. "But – um, I really should have come up with something in particular but I really didn't apparently think this would work –"

She looks out a window briefly.

"Would you be able to restore a shed? It's – I was going to say it's quite basic work but honestly I don't know what, um, you usually get up to."

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Raziel attempts a reassuring smile. "What I 'usually get up to' is flying around in a sea of cloud-fluff, occasionally turning some of it into food or jewellery or something else trivial. Heaven does not have a shortage of angels, and until today summons were rare." 

She cranes her neck, but cannot see out of the window without leaving the circle. "I should be able to restore a shed, yes. If it is missing enough material, I may need to borrow some scrap to make up the difference, but that is unlikely to be necessary given that you described the task as 'restore' and not 'rebuild'." Is that a hint of sarcasm returning? Surely not.

"I am not sure how thorough your instructions may have been," although she is eyeing the book in the corner speculatively, "so I will explain the workings of a deal. If you set me a task, you are also required to agree on a payment. Once we have come to an agreement, I may leave the circle and complete the task. I cannot be dismissed between completion of and payment for the task."

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"What sorts of things would you accept as payment?"

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"A modern medical textbook would be delightful, but I do not know how easy such a thing would be to obtain. In the absence of physical texts..." She considers the evidence around her, and concludes that Maya is unlikely to have any special access to the latest innovations. "Perhaps a verbal summary of technological progress since 1955? Some information filters through to Heaven, but not nearly enough."

Assuming the new rate of summoning continues, Raziel will have more opportunities to solicit details, and potentially examples or instructions, from future summoners. That being the case, the most useful thing for now will be knowing what requests it is possible to make. 

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"… Assuming I'm allowed to reference Wikipedia? That works."

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"So, for clarity, the deal is that I will restore your shed to your specifications, and you will summarise the last fifty years of technological advancement, potentially with the aid of reference materials. Are we agreed?

"Although" - she quirks a smile - "you may have to start by explaining Wikipedia, since I don't recognise the name. Some form of encyclopedia?"

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"We are agreed," she nods. "And yeah – so I don't know how much there was about computers back fifty years ago, they probably existed but weren't widely used? They've been developed a lot, we now have an interconnected system throughout the world, the data transfer is collectively called the Internet and then there are – sort of books, online collections of pages. So, Wikipedia."

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Raziel is not smug. Not at all. Absolutely no jumping up and down because she was right, she knew computers would be big - 

"Computers did exist," she confirms, "but only in a few places, and for limited purposes. You have casual access to one, such that you can utilise it to indulge the whims an angel you were not planning to summon?"

Having sealed the bargain, she is free to leave the circle, and accordingly steps forwards to stand next to Maya. On a fancy, she changes her wings to magpie colours, complete with a subtle gleam of iridescence on the black feathers. "We can continue this conversation while I work, if that is more convenient."

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Maya blinks at the show of power. "Uh, sure." She walks over to a door at the edge of the garage, assesses the winged person to see if they'll fit through, and then assumes they have some way of getting through if it'd otherwise be awkward.

"Computers are quite prevalent now, though, yes."

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Raziel follows her summoner - who has not yet introduced herself - through the door, folding her wings up small to do so and opening them back out once she has space. She could easily turn them into cloud-fluff and back, instead, but doing so becomes tedious after a dozen repetitions, and increases the chance that she will forget some small but important detail. 

"What is your name, by the way?" she asks, looking around in barely-concealed curiosity at her new surroundings.

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"– Alice," she smiles. Close enough. To her middle name. "And yours?"

Outside is a small garden. They're on the outskirts of a small town, the tallest buildings around are two storeys, and there's a fence all around the edge of the plot of land.

The shed is a relatively typical example of a garden shed, apparently made of wood but somewhat weather damaged and not particularly well looked-after. It shouldn't be too hard to repair.

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"My name, which I already mentioned - although you might have been distracted - is Raziel." She heads towards the shed, wings occasionally flaring for balance. "I chose it. You can use it to summon me again, in the future: replace 'an angel' with 'the angel Raziel' and it will call me in particular."

Raziel reaches the shed and begins walking around it to peer at all four sides. As she does so, she fires a string of questions at 'Alice', alternating repair specifications with general knowledge and technology questions. Would Alice like her shed a different colour? Treated to be water-resistant, perhaps? 

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Alice does not much care about the colour – her parents are not available for consultation and she doesn't think they'd mind anyway – but water resistance would be nice. It was quite a cheap shed.

"Sorry, about the name – it's not everyday you meet someone you wouldn't have expected to exist."

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"Hm?" Raziel begins repairing the shed, straightening out warped boards and encouraging broken ones to grow back together. Wood is one of her favourite materials with which to work, because of its complexity, and she is only half paying attention to the conversation.

"I cannot imagine, always having known humans existed."

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"– How old are you, can I ask?"

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"I am approximately four hundred years old. Angels - and, presumably, other daeva - spring into existence fully grown, but knowing no languages. I did so, as near as I can determine, sometime in the year 1605." 

Raziel is working from a spot at which she can see the front and one side of the shed; she moves to look at the other side. "I am far from the oldest daeva in existence; nor am I among the youngest. New daeva seem to appear at rates proportional to the human population, and for all I know there may be one born today."

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"… How many daeva are there, then, if there's only a chance of them being born today?"

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"I apologise, I spoke imprecisely." Raziel frowns. "My best estimate is that between one hundred and one thousand angels are born every day, and I would assume similar numbers for the other two daeva types."

The shed is taking shape. Most of the remaining work is fine detail, which appears to go slower but is taking equal amounts of concentration. 

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Maya is watching intently. "… I just want to take a moment to say how cool it is that all of this exists."

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"This world is certainly a more interesting place than one without magic," Raziel agrees, "and immortality has its benefits. I cannot imagine what I would do if I did not have forever to find out everything I wish to know."

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"That puts a little bit of a damper on it all, yes."

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"Oh, I suppose you wouldn't know - humans get an afterlife," Raziel says. "It is known as Limbo."

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Maya raises an eyebrow.

"That was not in the info packet."

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Raziel raises one right back. 

"Was it not? That is surprising. Although I suppose the author might not have known either."

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"It was very much really not in the info packet."

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"Well, now you know. Inconveniently, I cannot trivially prove my assertion," she admits, "but you may do so at your leisure by, for example, summoning a demon and requesting the complete posthumous works of Shakespeare." 

Raziel grins. "If you do, please consider summoning me back. I am very fond of Shakespeare, and by all accounts his later work is the best."

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"… I could probably get quite a lot out of a demon." Pause. "Do I need to dismiss you before doing so?"

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"That is not required," Raziel says carefully. "However, there has historically been considerable animosity between our two kinds. While I do not have any personal objection to demons, any you summon may not be kindly inclined towards me."

The shed seems to be finished now; she steps back and gestures for Maya to inspect it. 

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Maya looks at it briefly, seems like she might be satisfied, but then makes her way over to it to poke at it a little and see if it's obviously structurally wrong (or if any of the wood feels obviously not like wood, or… well, anything out of place).

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It is a very good shed! The wood definitely feels like wood, Raziel worked hard on that. As requested, it's basically like the old shed, but repaired and made like new. In fact, it seems to be better constructed than it's ever been. 

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"Thank you kindly," she says. "And now –"

Pause. "Uh. Summarisation of the past fifty years of tech development."

She pauses a bit longer and then gets out her phone.

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And Raziel is treated to a heavily condensed overview of fifty years of technological progress, with the aid of Wikipedia. She listens intently, intricate patterns appearing on her arms and clothing since she doesn't have anything else available on which to take notes. 

"Thank you," she says. "That was most enlightening, and I consider myself more than adequately repaid. Please think of me if you are ever in need of an angel, or if you take my advice regarding Shakespeare's posthumous works."

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"… I sort of apologise for how condensed that was but – I mean, the past fifty years had way more happen than I originally thought of." She shrugs. "I'll look into things – I'm not sure how stuff's gonna shake out, from this."

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"The world has certainly changed since yesterday," Raziel agrees. "That was a perfectly adequate summary; my aim was not to catch up completely, but to learn what it is I do not know."

She folds her wings neatly behind her and bows. "Now that our deal is concluded, you may send me home simply by concentrating on that outcome for a full minute. It was a pleasure doing business with you, Alice, and I hope we may do so again in the future."

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"I hope so too!"

Shortly thereafter, 'Alice' successfully dismisses her.

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And Raziel goes back to Heaven. 

It's much easier to catch random summons now, even after the initial rush dies down. She adds to her collection of languages, acquires a Blackberry even though it won't work in Heaven so she can take it apart. She studies microwaves and pacemakers and remote controls and the internet and smoke detectors and MRI scanners. She persuades one summoner to have a demon make her a computer in return for a particularly delicate medical operation.