Chapter Text
After the disastrous hearing on Redemption and the foolish Hazbin Hotel project, Sera calls Adam to her office. Consequences for revealing the exterminations were in order, as well as a reprimand for his unnecessary threats towards Charlie.
After the meeting, Adam does not return.
Sera tells Lute that she had sequestered Adam from this year's extermination due to his behavior. Additionally, the accelerated six-month date has been scrapped, and the extermination will proceed yearly as per usual.
In Adam's absence, Lute will lead the army and fulfill his general duties.
Sera tells Lute and the Upper Choirs of Angels that Adam has decided to take a leave of penitence, as he regrets betraying Sera's trust and revealing the exterminations in order to antagonize Charlie. His behavior was unheavenly. She says that he wishes to reflect alone, and will return when he feels he can better serve Heaven with a humble spirit.
There are some murmurs, but the Choirs largely agree that Adam is a bit much (understatement), and could use some time to reflect on his behavior.
Lute is furious that anyone would imply that Adam is anything less than perfect, though she does acknowledge that he let something slip when he shouldn't, and accepts her duty to lead in his absence. She vows to make sure he remembers his place when he returns – as her glorious and terrible commander, holiest amongst the Winners, first man and first ascended, a soul of brilliant gold, hands blackened with blood. Though she allows that perhaps he could stand to have a bit more tact.
Emily is devastated by the whole affair. The revelation of the exterminations, her shaken trust in Sera and the Choirs, the sudden absence of a familiar face, the shock that a soul who had passed divine judgment might need to repent again for new sins. She vows to champion Charlie's cause and find the means to bring redeemed souls to Heaven's gates. She's careful not to directly challenge Sera, but she begins exercising her own power as a seraph toward her new goal.
Emily sets up quarterly progress meetings with Charlie (far too often, in Sera's opinion. What hasty change could occur in three mere months? Yearly would be sufficient. Or perhaps once a decade. Sinners could not change so quickly when it took a lifetime of action to deliver divine judgment. But Emily's free time was hers to waste, as long as her duties to Heaven remained fulfilled).
She also creates a roster of names to share between Heaven and Hell, so that families could know where their loved ones were spending eternity (a compromise she reached with Sera. Originally, Emily wanted people to be able to send letters between Heaven and Hell, but Sera struck it down. The vetting process would be gargantuan. What if sinners wrote of horrors and made threats, and brought pain to those receiving the letters in Heaven? What if reading about Heaven spurred the sinners to revolt and try to take such luxuries for themselves? And besides, Sera said, reading personal letters to check for any risks would be a grave violation of privacy. It would be kinder not to open the Winners in Heaven to such pain at all. This, Emily could not disagree with. It would be cruel to read personal thoughts meant for someone else's families and friends and lovers. And so she acquiesced; no letters).
Adam did not appear during the extermination following the hearing on Redemption of sinners. The clocktower had been reset to its original meter, but Charlie and her companions still spent a long, anxious night preparing for an extermination that never came on the six-month mark. When the actual extermination finally came, the angels grudgingly avoided the hotel. Charlie watched Lute stare hatefully through the gates for long, blood-soaked hours, but she never crossed the threshold.
Emily gushed to Charlie at their next meeting that she had pushed through an exception for souls seeking redemption, and any sinners who maintained residence at the hotel would be exempt from extermination unless they attacked an angel directly. She wished she could have told Charlie before the extermination, but the approval went through mere hours before Lute led the army down to Hell, and Sera said that it would be a good test as to whether the sinners at the hotel could resist attacking angels who were not threatening them. Apparently, Lute was quite upset about it.
Privately, Emily wondered how Adam would feel about the new restriction when he returned from his penitence. He was always so vibrant in his rebellion, though Emily hoped he'd come around to this rule. She could never tell Charlie, but she missed him in Heaven. It had been quiet since he had gone.