Ariel
10:00 AM
It's true that this place was beautiful. There was a sun, a bright moon, a sky full of stars. The angles of the Euphrates did not charge across its territories, the locusts did not swarm up with too human faces to sting people to madness, and there was grass. This world abounded with life, more than enough for to feed everyone. Ariel had always wondered if they could have done better. That if humanity had the tools, peace, and prosperity they could wipe out everything that was wrong with them. She had always hoped they could rise above these necessary cruelties, the inequalities across their cities, if only the world was kinder.
But it wasn't the world. It was the people.
It felt wrong to be here. Her first set of wings shone like a star surrounded in the mire of the slums. It almost felt cruel, showing people something so beautiful. Still, some found comfort in it, and that comforted her as well. But that wasn't why she was here.
With her eyes Ariel could see sin. A look told her the sins of man. Thief, murderer, rapist, adulterer, and how many more? How many times over could one man ruin others? So she donned the mantle of the Accuser, far enough away that none would know the mark of sin, and brought judgement upon them one at a time. Some were destroyed. Many were in fact. They were crushed under the weight of judgement, and their strength or gangs could not protect them. But some... some found repentance in that darkness. In the midst of the darkness, they truly repented and were saved. Their dreams were peaceful, the insects and parasites fell from their flesh, and their torment had ended. Not guiltless but saved.
Again she sat on the ruins of a building, surveying her tormented target in his house. He had killed before. Many, many times. Perhaps he even enjoyed it. Could someone like that truly find forgiveness?
With a troubled look, the archon opened the book given to her and began to read. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool..."