Heaven

If there was one word to describe the scenery that met my eyes when I exited the room, it would be opulent. My mother loved throwing that word around, using it mostly to describe herself and the gigantic home she kept. It was all bullshit though; not only did my mother not have anything to do with the running of the manor (She pawned off such responsibilities to the house slaves, and the summit of her involvement in said activities was the ordering of one of them whipped if any part of her home was not to her liking.) but the decor she chose was the height of tackiness. Sure the furniture, paintings, and draperies she spent my father’s money on was expensive, but truthfully all of them were as gaudy and tasteless as she was. During the various soirez and get-togethers my mother had at our home, the guests, whenever they were out of earshot of my parents, would always laugh and joke about my mother’s vulgar taste in decoration. The only people mother’s awful attempts at refinement managed to fool were the slaves, and that was because their own living conditions were spartan at best.

But the hallway outside I was currently standing in was truly the essence of the word opulence. Marble floors, intricate wooden panels covering the walls, royal red curtains and drapes framing elegant metal-laced windows; It was all so tasteful and elegant, two things that my bitch of a mother sorely lacked.

What most surprised me though was the bright, golden sunlight that was shining through the windows. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing; surely Hell wouldn’t have the sun shining down upon it? I moved towards one open window nearby, the heels of my ankle-length boots clicking upon the marble floor. Once I reached the window and looked out, I was struck dumb. If I was still breathing, then I would definitely have said that the scenery took my breath away.

Bright blue skies. Towering columns of ivory clouds. The golden sunlight bathing everything in sight. And that was only the sky. The building that I was in was only a small part of the main grounds. I may have been born and grew up in a mansion, but my old ancestral home might as well have been a hovel compared to this place. It was truly palatial. From the window I could see that I was located on the fifth of sixth floor of some magnificent manor home located in a truly expansive estate. The gardens below me had flowers of every color, and the lawns were so flat and carefully maintained it almost seemed unreal. In the distance I could see a paved road of pure white, upon which the curious sight of numerous horseless carriages rode. They were mostly black and shining steel, looking most dignified and official. They were headed to what looked to be the main entrance to the manor, which was a set of gigantic doors guarded by numerous men in white staff jackets and dark trousers.

But the most awe-inspiring sight was the other carriages. They were similar to those on the ground, but these flew magically through the air! There may have been hundreds of them, but they were so far away that the sky over the estate did not seem crowded at all. All of them flew in organized, linear formations, and it almost looked as if the carriages were riding atop invisible bridges several hundred feet in the air.

I was wrong. So very, very wrong. This was not Hell. Not at all. Somehow, someway… I had wound up in Heaven.

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For the next few minutes I took my time staring in awe at all the beauty around me. If it wasn’t for my mask-like face and its complete absence of expression, I’m sure one of the many finely dressed men and women I passed would have called for someone to take the crazy person away.

This place surely was a palace. The small but elegant hallway I had been in soon gave way to vast, stretching corridors that could fit ten carriages going both ways. But these enormous halls were purely for foot traffic. Rich red carpeting spread over the marble floors for the people to walk on while beautiful paintings lined the intricately patterned wood-lined walls. There were even what looked to be gas lanterns hanging from the ceiling, but their light was so bright that I knew the devices were powered by something other than oil.

There were people all around me, dressed in finely tailored frock coat suits for the men while the women wore intricate, and in many cases very improper, gowns of various styles and colors. Throughout the crowd I was also able to spot several white jacketed men who looked to be stewards, as they often helped the various people with questions or need for directions. Closer inspection of these men showed that they too were automatons like myself, though these seemed to be of a more advanced variety. Unlike my porcelain skin and unmoving face, these doll men had shells made of gold-lined metal and their faces had moving parts which simulated human expressions. Their eyes were still the same as mine, though, with the same copper irises and silver sclera. The difference was that unlike mine and the other maid dolls, the stewards’ pupils glowed with a dim, golden glow.

I made sure not to make any sort of contact with them. Though the regular people in the halls were pretty much ignoring me for the most part, I didn’t want to gain the attention of those doll men. They would probably know that something was up, since I didn’t see any other maids around this part of the palace. The last thing I needed now was for one of them to escort me to wherever the rest of the omega dolls were. I really didn’t have any sort of clue as to what I was going to be doing now that I had an eternity in Heaven to look forwards to, but being forced to do women’s work forever was definitely not an activity I was interested in pursuing.

What would be worse was that if I were somehow discovered to be a fake. If someone in authority found out that my soul or whatever was stuck in this doll, they would probably realize that I didn’t belong here. They’d probably send my ass quick as the pony express back to Hell where it was supposed to be.

So, I blended into the crowd by not blending in. There was no way that I, in a maid outfit and a ceramic body, would ever not stand out in the collection of fancy rich jackasses that seemed to roam these hallways. Thus I did my best to remain at the edges of them, keeping my eyes down as I walked. The vast majority of people seemed to be going in one direction, most likely to see that Duke fellow if the butler I left bleeding in the closet was to be believed. There’s no way I was going that way, so I shuffled along in the other direction doing my best not to bump into anyone or get noticed.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Oh, Miss!” a cheerful voice called out. I turned my head in its direction, not really expecting me to be the target of the greeting. Of course my shit luck showed its ugly head again right there and then. Not twelve paces behind me was one of the doll man stewards. He was waving at me with the plates on his face arranged in such a way to convey the look of a friendly smile. Unlike the other stewards, this one wore a red jacket which most definitely marked him as someone important.

I tried to hasten my steps in an effort to get away from him, but the crowd of rich folk traversing in the opposite direction caused me to go far too slowly. Eventually, the red-jacketed doll man caught up to me.

“Madame, thank goodness I was able to catch up to you,” the steward told me in a fancy British accented voice. “I saw you headed away from the assembly that I was worried you might be lost. Good heavens, it would be simply awful if a Messenger were to wind up missing!”

“I think you’re confused,” I told him simply. I wasn’t really listening to the guy fully since I was mentally debating with myself whether to run or not. I didn’t like my chances of getting away, especially with all the white jackets around.

The steward only laughed. “Oh, my dear lady, you have no idea. I am always being told, ‘Aleph Eleven, why are you always so confused?’ ‘You overthink things too much, Aleph Eleven. Lighten up!’ Hah! I swear I would have been sent to the scrap pile by now if I weren’t so good at my duties.” The doll man blinked and his face twisted into something almost approaching worry. “Speaking of which, are you perhaps lost? All Messengers were supposed to at the gathering by now. I’m sure your party has missed you.”

“Messenger?” I asked. Though I was curious, I also asked in order to buy more time until I thought of a way to give this mechanical idiot the slip.

“Oh, why, of course! Messengers! You and your esteemed cohorts, my lady. Those chosen by the Source to defend the world from harm.” The steward, whose name was apparently Aleph Eleven, told me with confident cheer. “I must say, I am quite surprised to see a fellow Automaton as a Messenger. Why, I didn’t even know our kind could become Messengers! Oh, it fills my core with pride!”

So, apparently Messengers are some type of organization, it’s members chosen by this Source (God?) to be the lawmen of this land? And I was one of them? How? Why? Jesus Christ, Heaven was a complicated place.

“Like I said earlier, friend. You’re mistaken,” I flatly told the automaton. I had considered faking it and playing the part of these Messengers, but I hardly knew anything about them. A good con worked only if you had the right amount of info on your side. It didn’t matter if you were the best liar in the world; if you didn’t know jack shit about who you were pretending to be you’d be found out might quick. “I am no Messenger. I’m just a simple maid.”

Aleph harumphed. Yes, he actually harumphed. “I beg to differ, madame. After all, look at your nameplate.” He then pointed at something over my head.

Looking up, I was shocked to see that there were floating symbols above my head. Where the hell did those come from?! They weren’t in my reflection in the mirror when I woke up. And why didn’t that pervert butler not say anything about it?

Ω 03

Level 23

“Wh-what exactly is that?” I asked, too shocked and irritated to even think of pretending not to see the floating numbers.

“Why, it’s your nameplate. It’s what marks you as a Messenger.” Aleph blinked, his face converting from a smile into a confused expression. “I say, you certainly do seem to be befuddled, if you don’t mind me saying so. Are you perhaps, oh what was the word Messengers usually used? Um… ah, yes. Are you perhaps a newb?”

If I could frown, I would have. Did this asshole just insult me? I had no idea what a newb was, but it didn’t sound flattering. It also sounded too much like rewb for my liking.

“Suppose I was?” I asked, irritation evident in my voice. “What then?”

Aleph laughed, his face sliding back into the too-wide smile. “Oh, well that would explain everything! Though it is rather strange that you would be here in the Capital Hall and not at one of the tutorial areas. Hmm. If you’ll come with me, I can get you to someone who can help you.”

Oh hell no. If they found out I wasn’t who they thought I was, I’d be sent to Hell for sure. I needed to lose this creepy smiling doll man somehow.

“No thanks. I can find my own way,” I told him bluntly.

“Oh, it isn’t a bother!” Aleph said with a laugh. “I pride myself on helping others! Please, come this way.”

His right hand came up to grasp my left arm. I attempted to pull away from him, but his grip would not budge; not even when I tried to yank out my arm with all my might. Either he was incredibly strong or I was retardedly weak. I would put money on the latter being the case, with me being in a woman’s body and all.

“Aleph Eleven!” came a gruff voice from our left. I turned to see a grim looking man (Not another automaton, thank God.) walking towards us. He was wearing the same butler’s suit as the man I had knocked out earlier. “What are you doing with that maid? You should be escorting the Illayan ambassador’s party to the gathering.”

The steward removed its grip from me as he took a lavish bow. “Head Butler Yosseff, I was merely helping this lost Messenger to get back to the training grounds.”

The butler ignored me, his angry stare focusing completely on Aleph. “What the hell are you talking about. That’s a damned Auto, not a Messenger. Are you faulty?”

I took that as my que to get away. Silently but with a quick pace, I made my exit and pushed myself through the mass of streaming patrons. As I slipped away, I continued to hear Aleph’s inanely cheerful voice through the din of the crowd.

“Oh, but you are mistaken, Head Butler. She truly is a Messenger. I detected her nameplate and… oh dear. Wherever did she go?”

“That’s enough, Aleph Eleven. Get back to your duties this instant.”

“B-but…”

“Now.”

That was all I heard as I moved further away from them. I quickly slipped my way into a large congregation of what looked to be monks who had just been passing by. Using them for cover, I was able to maneuver myself well away from the annoying attendant. Hopefully I won’t run into any more unexpected company.

I just got to Heaven, after all. It would’ve been quite the shame to leave so quickly, at least before getting to see all the sights.