What Astrid thought was an entrance of a cave turned out to be a long, gloomy tunnel. As they walked slowly and silently towards the faint light, which guided them towards its end, Astrid could feel her mood shift, plummet towards sadness and despair.

She felt Azrael's hand tighten around hers as he led her on, his body tensing in response to her mood.

"I was hoping that it wouldn't affect you this much," he muttered, pulling her a little closer.

"What do you mean?"

"The atmosphere. Oblivis is a place of punishment for us. We are condemned to suffer here until we get our wings back. Or, like Jophiel, drop the idea of returning to Heaven altogether, quit this place, and live hidden in your world."

"Why am I feeling like this?" Astrid prompted, her hand pressed to her heart. It was aching, for Orion's death, for all the injustices caused by her uncle, which she had seen during her journey here, but more than anything, for the approaching loss of Azrael.

"Your angel side is so strong that you react to this place like one of us. It gets a little better with time..."

Astrid nodded, resolved to fight those feelings and put up a brave face for Azrael when he let his voice trail off and she could feel his steps falter as if he wanted to turn around and take her back.

"I'll get used to it," she declared, forcing her voice to sound strong and steady. "Rigel doesn't feel it?" she added, looking at her friend who walked a few steps ahead of them, laughing at something Ramiel had told him, perfectly unaffected by the despair consuming Astrid.

Azrael shook his head. "He has enough of demon blood in him to make him immune to the suffering meant for angels."

"How long have you lived here?" Astrid asked, looking at Azrael. No one deserved to feel like this, the grief, sadness and despair seeping from her heart into her mind was making her entire body feel weak, she was starting to forget the reason and importance of her being here, of her existing at all...

"No, Astrid, you need to fight it," Azrael muttered, wrapping his arm around her. "You'll need all your strength to reach the White Tower. You are here because you want to meet Michael, and unless you change your mind, this is the only way. But I swear I'll carry you back home should I see you can't make it!"

"Thank you, Azrael," she said, stopping and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a brief kiss. "I must meet Michael. And maybe..."

She let her words morph into thoughts, allowing him to read her fantasy of the archangel, permitting Azrael to stay with her on Earth in her mind, blushing even without pronouncing the words aloud.

Azrael deepened the kiss as he read her thoughts, wishing it was possible, noticing how his kiss banished all the despair from her mind momentarily.

"Azrael! Let's move; this is hardly the place or time!" Ramiel's voice reached them in their private corner of Heaven, making Astrid pull away from him and hide her face in the folds of his cloak.

When she looked up, Azrael holding her flush to his body, his unrushed, patient closeness feeling so good after the cold despair she had felt only moments ago, she saw Ramiel and Rigel waiting for them in an arched opening signalling the end of the tunnel, their bodies silhouetted by the pearly light of a misty day. They reached Oblivis.

Azrael kissed her again, realising that what she needed to walk across Oblivis without losing her mind was hope. She needed to believe that there was hope for them. "If Michael won't agree, I can fall again, Astrid. I'm not leaving you," he whispered in her ear before letting go of her.

That he would not, most likely, survive the second fall, was not what she needed to hear right now. His promise filled her with enough happiness to keep her despair at bay, and that was the only thing that mattered.

The four companions exited the tunnel together, finding themselves on a stone ledge set like a narrow balcony above a flatland swathed in pearlescent mist. Tall, rocky outcrops pierced the fog like skeletal fingers in several places, but Astrid could see no trees, no roads, and not even the sun that seemed to be lending to the crawling fog its strange irridescence, and the golden halo to the tower that Astrid just spotted on the horizon. It looked like one of the stone outcrops, just taller and whiter, and steeped in magic. Astrid could perceive its magical pull even from the distance; something inside of her was responding to its mute call, making her feel at home.

"It's farther than it looks," Azrael said, responding to the feelings emanating from her. "And reaching it will be dangerous. We can't use our magic in Oblivis, we won't be able to read our minds until we reach the tower, we can't fly... Let's stay close. Ramiel, you know the dangers as well as I do, let us be careful."

Azrael wrapped his arm around Astrid's waist, urging her to descend the rocky path leading into the fog at his side, preceding Ramiel and Rigel, his other hand closed around his bow again. The moment they left the path, which ended suddenly at the foot of the rock wall, Astrid's feet sank ankle-deep into mud. She looked up at Azrael questioningly, his face the only thing she could discern through the fog.

"There's no other way," he muttered, voice filled with apology. "It will improve when we get closer to the tower."

The tower that got erased from view by the fog while they descended from the tunnel. Astrid tried to fight the despair, flooding her mind again in the same way the thick, swirling mist submerged the world around them. At least Azrael couldn't read her thoughts here; she didn't want him to worry.

Hand in hand, they waded through the mist and mud for what felt like hours before Azrael led the group to a dry patch of land. Astrid's thoughts had been spinning in circles of grief and sadness, making her feel too tired to even wonder how Azrael managed to find the dry spot or feel reassured by his knowledge of the place. She didn't care about anything until he sat down next to her on a flat rock, which she didn't recall having sat down on, cupped her face in his palms, and kissed her. Then her mind exploded to life again, reminding her of the most important thing-- she couldn't live without Azrael.

"You must eat something," Azrael said, "then we need to move on. Ramiel knows a place where we can spend the night, and if everything goes well, we will reach the tower tomorrow night."

Astrid nodded, accepting the piece of bread and cheese he passed her, forcing her mind to focus on her surroundings. The fog had thinned, but all that she could see around her were the accidentally scattered outcrops of rock and shallow pools of green water seeping through the waterlogged ground to settle on its surface. She could hear the stream they had followed through the pit murmuring somewhere in the mist-shrouded distance.

Nibbling on the stale bread she leaned her head on Azrael's shoulder as she perceived the desolation of this place turning into a fresh wave of despair in her mind, feeling better the moment he wrapped his arm around her, not caring one bit about Ramiel and Rigel's questioning looks darting from her to Azrael. Astrid didn't care what they were thinking; she didn't care what anyone would think about her later. She and Azrael belonged together. She wouldn't let anyone take him away from her, not without putting up a good fight...

A sudden noise scattered Astrid's rebellious thoughts, a noise of numerous feet dragging, splashing through the mud... She tensed; she had thought it was just the four of them here... Astrid hadn't noticed when the fog had thickened around them again; she could see nothing beyond the white, shimmering wall as she let her eyes travel around now. The other two men moved so close that Rigel's back touched her knees, and she looked at Azrael for replies to the strange fear suddenly emanating from everyone.

He only put a finger to his lips in response, begging silence, and she hid her face in the fabric of his cloak to muffle her breaths, focusing on his hands caressing her hair as she tried to ignore the noises turning her skin into gooseflesh reaching them from the fog.

It took interminable minutes, but finally, the shuffling of feet died down. Only the sound of the stream was reaching them from beyond the fog.

"What... were they?" Rigel, who apparently had gotten a glimpse of what Astrid had refused to see, muttered.

Azrael looked at her as he replied, "The zombies from your books." One corner of his lips lifted into a half smile that vanished as fast as it had appeared when he turned to Rigel. "It's the people who jumped into the pit, either out of curiosity or despair. This is the end they all meet. None of you is allowed to reach Oblivis without being guided by us."

"Are they dangerous?" Astrid whispered, her eyes darting into the fog.

"Not for us. They don't perceive the fallen angels. But they can feel you, the human life pulsing through your veins, and they crave it, they yearn to live again."

"Do they... ever get out of here?" Rigel asked, shuddering.

"Yes, but not often. A group of them escapes sometimes and wreaks havoc in your world before we are sent to bring them back."

"I've read about them," Astrid said, wiping away a few tears. It was unfair that anyone had to live like this, forever moving through a fog in search of something they could not obtain.

"I know," Azrael said, pressing his lips against hers. "Let us move on before they find us again."