A Few Minutes Earlier
Not far from the bus stop Norman was approaching, someone stood in a side alley, casually leaning against a dirty house wall, waiting. If any of the passersby had bothered to glance into the alley, they would have noticed that the man's shadow displayed huge wings folded behind his back. The origin of this part of his shadow couldn't be discerned, as for mortal eyes, the figure had no wings. It would have also been noticed that his head was surrounded by a bright aureole of golden light. Perhaps the reason for the cool sunglasses. But no one looked into the alley. Numerous pedestrians passed by without even noticing the intersection. Because he didn't want them to. And so it was.
As he had been doing for millennia, he listened contentedly to the Song of Creation. He had been there when it began and had adjusted it ever since. And now it sang itself, without him needing to pay much attention to it. He was Eli. Archangel of Creation.
A housefly buzzed softly past him. Interested, he waved it over. Drawn by the heavenly song, the fly settled on his outstretched hand.
Eli softly hummed a variation into the Song of Creation. The fly changed color from gray to creamy. Its wings subtly deformed, and immediately the annoying, shrill buzzing became more melodic. Now it was pleasant and soothing. Eli looked at his creation and saw that it was good.
At that moment, a young woman turned the corner, noticed he was occupied, and politely waited until Eli had finished admiring his work and turned his attention to her. After all, he had called for her.
Finally, he let the improved fly buzz away, turned to the newcomer, and beamed at her. "Ah! Samanael! How lovely that you could come. Or should I address you by your human alias, Samantha Brenner?"
"Please just call me Sam. It's a common abbreviation for both names."
Eli smiled. The figure before him was small and delicate, but the snow-white painted skin and long black hair, as well as the small tattoo of an ornate Egyptian ankh under her left eye, made her appear tough and unfeeling at first glance. But only to someone who didn't know the warm-hearted angel. And only until Sam flashed her usual mischievous grin.
Eli shook his head amusedly. "You Seraphim. Always careful not to lie. Yet a well-thought-out lie is something very creative. And how could creativity be something bad?" Eli blinked reassuringly at her. Most angels who worked for him were always very inhibited in his presence. After all, he was an archangel. Samanael was one of the few who felt so comfortable in his presence that he could crack a few jokes.
Samanael grinned. "Telling the Archangel of Creation to his face that creativity is bad would actually be an idea. But I think it's much more interesting to tell the truth in a way that humans don't believe me or to create a false impression by skillfully omitting information."
Eli returned her grin. "How did your last mission go, by the way? Did everything work out?"
Sam nodded. "No problem at all. It took a while for me to learn to play that electric guitar, but once I got to sing one of my songs for the heavy metal band 'Praise of Corruption', everything went smoothly. After they heard me sing, they didn't care that I was only mediocre with the electric guitar."
"And you managed to convince the band to stop singing such blasphemous, satanic songs."
Sam felt the trust her archangel had in her. It was no question; he had truly had no doubt about her success. Rightly so.
"I was able to convince them that they would be better received by the audience with my lyrics. Satirical songs about companies laying off unnecessary employees, malicious lyrics about polluters, and even a really good love ballad."
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The archangel nodded approvingly. "I'm sure you'll be just as successful on your next mission. I'm going on vacation now, for about a year or so. In the meantime, I want you to look into a phenomenon that I don't quite understand. There's a university just outside the city that seems strange to me. Nexus University. Take a look around there and report back to me when I return. And meanwhile, you can take care of the students. You know how susceptible students are to temptations and bad influences. Lead them back onto the right path!" For the last sentence, he used a deliberately exaggerated emphasis, of which they both knew he didn't mean it seriously.
Samanael thought for a moment and then waved it off. "I've never noticed anything special about the university. It's been around forever. And I've never heard of anything unusual happening there."
Eli nodded knowingly. "The university is completely inconspicuous. So inconspicuous that I only noticed it when I saw a good old friend going in there and followed him. That's when I noticed that the university exists outside of creation. It's not part of the plan for this world..."
"Outside of creation? How can that be?" Sam narrowed her blackened eyes thoughtfully.
"Have fun figuring it out!"
The Song of Creation resounded in a crescendo, which only angels could hear. Then the archangel disappeared. All that remained were the young Sam, disguised as a goth, and a lonely, creamy-colored fly, which flew off confused. Into the silence, the wind whispered Eli's usual farewell to his angels: "Do what you want, but be cool about it..."
Sam nodded, stepped out of the alley, and looked around. She had known her archangel long enough to know that he hadn't sent her to this place without reason.
She looked around attentively. The sidewalk was populated but not crowded. The usual mix of businessmen, rushing along importantly with their phones glued to their ears, mothers proudly hauling their shopping bags home like successful hunters, truanting teenagers, and strolling retirees. Since she was supposed to sneak into the university, Sam thought it was a good idea to join a student. A honk at the end of the street drew her attention to a school bus. Of course. There was the bus stop for the route that also led to the university. She looked for pedestrians in their twenties heading towards the bus stop. That narrowed down the number of possible candidates to just four.
Samanael took a deep breath and focused. All of Eli's followers learned to see the auras of people in order to recognize special talents and outstanding abilities. She immediately ruled out the wannabe punk with headphones blaring painfully bad heavy metal music from a distance. No shining star, by any measure.
The second teenager was just passing the bus stop; his destination seemed to lie elsewhere. So, only two left. The first was a small, chubby Chinese guy who looked somewhat out of place with his bald head and fur-lined robe. Samanael concentrated as she slowly approached the bus stop to not miss the approaching bus. As she focused on seeing the aura of the Chinese guy, she stumbled and forgot to breathe for a moment. She had never seen such an aura in her long life. Bright and radiant, and somehow built from many layers, like the shell of an onion. Layer upon layer piled on top of each other. For a moment, she had the reassuring feeling of breathing fresh mountain air right here in the middle of the busy main street. Then she began to hear chants and the soft ringing of bells in the distance. With a quick shake of her head, she switched back to ordinary perception.
When Sam had regained her composure, she noticed that the relaxed smiling young Chinese guy was looking directly at her, while he politely let another passenger board the bus that had just arrived. Without being able to say exactly how she knew it, she realized that the Asian guy had recognized what she was. Without breaking eye contact, he held his left hand to his chest, fingers up, palm sideways. He bowed slightly. Samanael understood. So, he was one of those. She hadn't expected that here.
She smiled back in relief and then turned her attention to the last candidate. A young man in his early twenties, who was just sprinting to the bus stop with two large sports bags, without getting out of breath for the last few meters. He was just over 1.80 meters tall, but up close, his massive physique made him seem much taller. Not that he was fat; just by the way he moved, Samanael could tell that his massive arms and legs must consist mostly of muscles. The physique of a person who worked physically hard every day instead of shaping his muscles deliberately in the gym.
A quick glance at his aura showed nothing unusual. No talent for magic or similar obscure abilities. A good sense for languages, he probably spoke several, a good spatial imagination, and a talent for manual tasks. Nothing unusual. However, he had a sincere and very likable smile. And Sam had always had a weakness for strong men. As he was just boarding the bus as the last passenger, she followed him and spoke to him shortly after: "Are you also going to Nexus University?"