Castiel, Protector of Anjutar, is a member of the military order responsible for defending emissaries in their missions. He is young, but already quite experienced, having participated in field missions from the moment he was ordained.
He studied a lot about Earth during his training and, despite his age, have already visited it several times. Amusingly, he has fallen in love with Earth’s culture and especially with human’s sense of humor, to the chagrin of his partners and superiors.
He is constantly smuggling funny books and prints from Earth or telling jokes and making pranks, which to the vast majority of those around him, does not make any sense, although he is slowly acquiring a bit of a following…
Despite his light-heartedness, Castiel is a master of sword and shield but is also trained in both defensive and offensive magic. He has never failed any mission yet, although he had to leave his latest partner in very strange circumstances.
He and Zaria, his partner at the time, an experienced emissary of many cases on Earth, were investigating a series of mysterious thefts, where several sacred relics of all sorts of different religions were being stolen.
Using her detective skills and network of contacts, Zaria had managed to track the thieves after their most recent heist, a sacred icon stolen from a famous church. They were hiding at an abandoned warehouse by the docks, not much far away from the church itself.
She used her revealing vision to detect where all the guards were, helping them sneak in undiscovered.
Once inside the warehouse, they quickly scoped out where the icon was stored, and started preparing
a simple plan to recover it without revealing themselves.
It was almost trivial. Zaria would cast a blinding spell, confusing all the thieves for a few seconds, just enough for Castiel to retrieve the sacred icon and for them to escape. A standard tactic they had used many times before. She prepared her magic staff, pointing it up, but as she mouthed the magic words “Lux…Maxi…” she froze in place, unable to finish casting the spell.
“What is the problem Zaria? Why did you sto…” Castiel then noticed why. Floating close to the ceiling, as if guarding the warehouse, there was a small orb of gold with a huge unblinking eye, a vigilorbus, one of the spying eyes of the Hierarchs.
It immediately turned its gaze unto the pair. “Your work is well-regarded, but now unneeded. Your mission is finished. Come home and rest,” said a thunderous voice, not with sound, but inside their heads. It did not come from the vigilorbus, of course, but was the direct command of one of the Hierarchs.
Zaria was dumbstruck. Why? Why stop just seconds before they were about to finish their mission?
Could this be a trick by an agent of chaos? She was about to question the voice when it boomed again
inside her head: “Follow the order, emissary Zaria. There is no need to question what is already decided.” No trickster could ever replicate that authoritative tone. She sighed and made a signal for Castiel to leave.
“Hey, look on the bright side, we are getting paid the same and getting an early holiday. It’s a bling bling situation,” said Castiel as they walked down the deserted docks.
“It’s called ‘win win’, Casti, and I don’t think it is. If they knew the relic was there, why even send us? And I never seen an orbus on Earth before,” replied Zaria as she started writing the mission debriefing in her holy silver tablet.
“Oh, that relic was one of the most powerful ones, maybe they just wanted to make sure it couldn’t be used for whatever those thieves wanted to use it,” replied Castiel while he chewed on a rubbery snack Earthers called “beef jerky”.
“It’s just… well, nevermind. Maybe too many years in the field are making me a skeptic like all those humans. Trust the order, right?”, said Zaria dryly.
“Trust the order, sister!”
They walked to their safe house and Castiel went to bed, exhausted, mentally preparing himself to go back to Anjutar. But when he woke up, Zaria was nowhere to be seen. He started looking for her frantically, worried he had failed protecting her at the last moment of their mission, but then heard her voice through the communion ring they had paired: “I’m fine Casti, but don’t look for me. I have been called. Please return to Anjutar and carry on, I’m glad we worked together. Don’t look for me,” her voice was calm, but the speech almost sounded rehearsed. Zaria had been on earth for decades, having long lost that monotone of young Anjutaris…
Castiel sighed deeply then finally smiled, speaking to himself: “Well, you were the brains of this operation so I will trust your words my friend. But I hope I can see you again.”. He picked up his trunk, making sure he did not forget his stash of earth artefacts; this time he had gathered a few printed books the humans called “comics”, full of colorful pages and silly gags. Then he said the words of return and traveled through the cosmos, going back home to wait for the next mission.