Tempted Read Free Page A

the realities. The nobles were
granted use of these, from time to time, to refresh their dark
souls with earthly pleasures. He knew the Seraph knew of them also.
But they allowed them their limited access. He also knew they were
watched all the time. He could sense their eyes and their presence,
but they were never approached.
    He sighed gratefully. A long drawn out
breath of relief. A smile lit up his face. No more interminable
imprisonment. His legion would be in command on the surface. His
own Legatus would guard their right to occupy the realities soon.
They would bar and chain the stairway to Heaven and lock the
seraphim in their ivory tower. He'd banish the mindless do-gooders
to their tedious lives of contemplation and prayer.
    That was to be his first goal.
    The first day's work.
    That and starting the seeds of discontent in
higher government. He would be sending the horde, to swarm the
earth, to switch the mindset of those hovering on the edge of
corruption. They would easily fall into their new ways, with a
small push from an impish hand, or a word of encouragement from a
legionnaire’s mouth, as they passed them by, unseen.
    Uvall didn't have an inherent evil
nature.
    He did not wish for the world to become
awash with chaos and heinous deeds. He had the sense to realize
that they needed mankind to maintain civility. Wars of mass
destruction, plague and pestilence would not achieve their longer
term desires. That would be a wipe out which would initially
overwhelm Hell and then starve it in the future. They needed
mankind to fall from grace to Hell at a controlled pace. To
continue their decline steadily. All he need do was enlighten the
world to the pleasures they were missing. To promote the importance
of money, the root of all evil; to encourage more vice, subtly
making it legal and freely and easily available. A commonplace
indulgence; and to establish a more selfish society in general. One
which cared for themselves, primarily, before others. That was his
doctrine. The one he needed to keep focused on, in order that his
kind survived. And he needed to tackle the power of the church. To
take away their funding, to promote other, more enlightened
religion, that of Baelzebub and the Bible of Darkness.
    Uvall had no time for God or the church.
This had not always been the way. He had been devout at one time. A
great believer and follower of his faith. One of God's champions on
earth. But now he had longstanding issue with Gehove. And he wasn't
the only one. He had only to look around him in the hall to see the
numbers who had fallen from grace. Although some had simply sinned
in some way, many were cast down purely for the reason they had
disagreed with Gehove's doctrine.
    For the ultimate power of good, the deity he
was, Gehove exhibited a distinct lack of humility.
    An overbearing force of being.
    He had resented Gehove's insistence that
everyone become at one with him and adopt his mentality. Where was
individuality in Heaven? Where was fun and physical closeness?
Where was pleasure and the ability to feel anything more than inner
peace? He questioned why they were denied pleasure of any nature.
He questioned everything and that brought about his downfall. In
the final stages of his frustration, he'd pointed out, to a shocked
seraph audience at Gehove's meeting table, that he may as well be
in the deprived and painful depths of Hell, for all he found to
amuse him in Heaven.
    God had taken him at his word and sent him
there not that long afterward.
    He'd accused him of causing dissent in the
ranks of the Seraph. Which was in fact, true. He'd become a rebel
in the ranks - a danger to God's future.
    Uvall had suggested, in open conversation
with the seraph council, that it would be better if they formed
their own union and managed the affairs of Heaven between them. To
dispatch God to whence he came. Although no one knew where that
was.
    This suggestion had been met with deeply
disturbed looks and terrified