"'Tis rare, and those mortal-born angels who make the world a worse place find their powers fading rapidly, and soon enough an end. Should that happen, they are not offered incarnation again, merely the mercy of entering the Gates."

"Okay, well, I will tentatively take a vow to not torture people for no reason - I guess as worded it'd apply to animals but I don't want to torture animals for no reason either."

"I think you misunderstand. Torturing people for a reason is also forbidden. It is things like causing pain during surgery or battle that are not forbidden, so long as it is not an excess or an excuse."

"So when you said if it serves a purpose, you meant if it's an unavoidable side effect."

"Yes. Should I be using examples more often? Shooting a deer with an arrow is acceptable, if you wish to eat it. Laying mouse traps is acceptable, if you wish to be rid of vermin. Shocking a person briefly as a warning is acceptable, if they need warning, but not if it is simply for amusement. You may yet lay traps that might cause pain, so long as they will not cause excessive suffering. One notable example I recall as close to the limit of the vow was when a mortal-born angel who had sworn such a Vow demanded a painful trial as a display of sincerity. Since it was something entered into willingly, this did not violate the Vow."

"More examples is good, yeah. Willingness matters? And being a person matters, presumably, I'd assume that if I wanted to eat a human and shot them this would be a violation."

"Willingness matters. Shooting a person because you wanted to eat them would not be a violation of the Vow of Compassion, so long as you did your best to inflict as little pain as possible in the process. However, it would be evil and you would lose much of Heaven's favor."

"I don't want to eat a person, I'm just sounding out the edges of the vow. But torturing people for, say, information, that's a no go?"

"Correct. That is not happening to cause pain as part of some other process, it is causing pain in order to achieve a goal. Torturing people in service to other goals, such as to gain the trust of evil people for infiltration purposes, would also be a violation. Continuing to fight someone who is experiencing tortuous pain but refuses to surrender, would not be a violation. If they are still trying to attack in any way, that is. Continuing to fight someone who has become helpless would."

"Okay. Still sounds plausibly acceptable but I'd like to hear a few more example vows."

"The vows of Honesty and Honor I had already described briefly.

The vow of Fidelity forbids you from breaking more ordinary vows and promises you had made, or swearing to lies when making statements about the present. Anyone who hears you make such a vow will know of the fact that you are bound to it. If you had vowed to save someone's life without any caveat, you would be made to do so even should it gravely risk your own. Whereas if you had vowed to make a sincere attempt aid, you would be able to retreat if the situation is dire. If you had vowed to accept surrenders, you would be unable to kill those who do in fact surrender to you, and be bound to prevent others from harming them, depending on your own internal understanding of 'surrender' at the time of vowing. It is oft better to leave caveats and end clauses in such vows. You may be released from any promises by the one you had sworn to.

The vow of Diligence commands you to always spend a good portion of your time on some productive enterprise or to self-improvement, in some way. This would be an average of at least two hours of effort per day, save for the Sabbath day, on which you may rest. Anything you feel that is somehow useful to anyone other than yourself counts as a productive enterprise, no matter how grand or humble- From a minimum wage job to administration of an empire. Practicing a hobby of model railway building for your own self might not, but if you mean to donate or sell said models, it yet might. You might arrange vacations in the form of a lack of other work and self-improvement exercises that are entertaining or relaxing, such as reading enlightening books, practicing art or sports with sincere effort, or similar."

"The diligence one sounds... like I could do it ninety nine percent of the time and would really hate to be stuck with it the other one percent."

"I'm afraid I do not understand. I am not sure if I should, if my guidance is lacking for it."

"Is there any advantage to having lots of these or should I just pick one?"

"They each come with a subtle boon of their own, and each grants you more capacity to channel miracles of greater variety. The miracles you are capable of calling must be decided before your arrival, as the structures to attend to them will be built into your angelic form. There are two ways to attain additional miracles to be capable of- Additional vows, and drawing down the amount of energy devoted to your foundation or blessings. Such things are not one to one. As Vows, compassion and honesty and diligence are equal, while honor is somewhat stronger, fidelity somewhat lesser. There are many possible vows I have not yet mentioned as well. Access to the miracle of healing costs the same as the vow of fidelity, while the miracle of the Sun costs the same as compassion or honesty or diligence."

"The design of these powers is complex and much better minded to the minds of the heaven-born than yours, I believe. They are aligned into stable forms that use less virtuous capacity, for miracles, or grant somewhat more for Vows. I could put specific numbers on them to aid your planning, if you wish. Their current forms are highly optimized, but adjustments to them may be possible at a cost, depending on what you desire."

"Separately to the variety of miracles which you might command, Heaven may only grant so many miracles in a given time. They are worked with both your direction and presence to channel them, and the usage of Heaven's, I suppose, intervention budget, a limit to how much we might affect a world at a time. Sometimes, too, with the attention of the heaven-born angels to attend to the details of their implementation. The frequency with which you might call upon miracles depends on a measure which you might think of as Heaven's favor, and depends both on how well you have used miracles in the past and your own virtue and influence on the world. In dire and urgent circumstances this idea of favor might be waved aside for a time. Such as if you face a terrible demon before you are ready, or you must act immediately to prevent the outbreak of a terrible war or some other great tragedy. In such a case, you should pray for the miracle, minding well why it is so urgent."

"Numbers might be helpful, or like, notepaper for me or something, I didn't really follow that."

"I will return shortly with writing equipment."

Daniel stands up, takes off seemingly effortlessly, and wings away towards the gates in the distance.

He's gone for a good while. At least fifteen minutes.

Is there... anything to do here besides look at the pretty gates.

Some of the trees and bushes are heavy with ripe fruit. The stream is warm and inviting. There's a lot more pretty landscape than just the gates and the shining city beyond them, it's just by far the most eye-catching. And she can see some other people down below, each walking towards the gates, and other angels flying high above.

She's gonna take a fruit.

It's delicious.

It's good that they have some amenities out here in the not-in-heaven-yet section.

Is she like, wearing clothes, come to think.

Yep, jeans and a T-shirt. No shoes. She also doesn't really feel hungry or sore at all.

Is she full or just not hungry?