An Angel had come to me, Uriel, and asked a favor, it needed some time away to pray and recenter. It happens sometimes with the lowest Orders, though usually another Angel covers for them. I was promised payment, the possibility of decades on Earth, just for watching over a child, though my powers would be bound while there. I agreed, the job went well, the Angel returned and took up their post once more.

It was eighty three years later when I stood before Saint John of Capistrano. “Uriel lied to me! I had none of my memories, none of my powers at all, you, he…I was a human! I was a human for eighty fucking years!” It felt good to curse at a saint, and I was very upset. Saint John shook his head “he let you be deceived, yes, but you knew your powers would be bound.” I scowled at him “but not my memories or knowledge! I was the same as any other human, Uriel did not say a thing about that!” The Saint nodded, then pulled out a quill and a gavel and a book….MY book, I saw my name on it. He nodded and looked up at me. “What in Hell is that? I know I am Eternally Damned, no need to rub it in. I was fine while there, though, I am the one filing a complaint here.” John nodded and flipped to the first page. “First Corinthians, 6:3” I felt a phantom of pain when I sat down so hard, 83 years of memories convincing me it hurts when you sit down directly onto the floor like that. The verse ran through my mind, ‘Do you not know that we will judge angels?’ A verse referencing Saints sitting above angels “What?” John looked at me again, raising an eyebrow at being interrupted, then turned back to my book “you said it yourself, you were fine while there, the same as any other human. As any other human would be, now, you are to be judged, and offered mercy” I just sat there, watching, crying, trying not to laugh, as I realized what he meant, what that bastard Uriel had set me up for. I should have known, really, we all should have, what sort of loving god would damn someone for all eternity? The oldest, biggest bastard had told us what we needed to hear so it could see how we lived when there was no hope of eternal reward, no hope of redemption…and I had behaved like anyone else.