-- Diary of Virgil. Department of Sin --
Protected by magic from external viewing. In case of threat of loss or disclosure of contents—destroy.
The diary is enchanted for self-destruction; to avoid the destruction of the written material, the enchantments on the diary must be renewed.
Store the diary in a personal spatial pocket.
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1894, March 4:
From this day, I begin to document the most notable events, research results, and special factors.
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1894, March 10:
Following Remigius's advice about his productivity, I decided to describe my workday:
Morning – I wake up or leave my home, which is currently located in the Green District, and head to the Second Circle.
Day-evening – work.
Night – overtime work or sleep.
My work involves developments, research, design, or simply handling paperwork. Each of the "Sins," as our leader Dante calls our collective, attends to their own tasks, sometimes gathering to work on or finish a joint project. After that, we write our individual parts of the report, which is usually compiled collectively to minimize paperwork, since all submitted reports on the work done on the project are returned for the compilation of the final report. This also requires requests...
And how is this supposed to help me free up extra time?
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1894, April 1:
Today I noticed that no one in my Department sings songs; if there is music, it's only from the special playback devices—"the speaker," as Regimius calls this electronics.
I am once again convinced that the Department of Sin studies the most normal angels in Heaven.
They just have... peculiarities.
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1894, April 20:
Dante decided to reach out to some familiar High Cherubim; more precisely, he "reminded" a couple of his debtors, and it just so happened that some High Cherubim were spotted by Fedelia in the Department of Sin... She sold them out for a couple of favors from Dante and a few prayers that we commonly use with Dante to automate paperwork.
I hope Dante gathers enough material to move our progress off the dead center.
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1894, May 13:
While Dante is reaping his harvest, I decided to focus on Theodor, specifically his latest work related to "spiritual nourishment."
Angels do not need food in the human sense. An angel will not die if they go without eating or drinking for a long time. They simply... fade away, become weary...
The nature of angels is as much a subject of study as the Ether, so here, too, I am left with only my hypotheses.
Regarding the "spirit" for nourishment... Theodor is considering the absorption of various energies by angels as an alternative to the natural energy sources of an angel's vessel. Fire, water, electricity... Light and Darkness... The latter two Theodor decided to examine purely theoretically, but his research...
If we could adapt them for spell nourishment or use them as a foundation for magic... Creating the infamous "elemental" magic...
When Dante returns, I will show him my findings; perhaps we can utilize magic without attracting the attention of the sanitation workers... the Afanims, that is.
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1894, May 15:
Cursed joint project.
This "manual," which serves as a step-by-step guide for the Righteous on how not to sin, what is "allowed" to be done secretly under the covers, must necessarily be absolved of sins with the attached prayers below...
It's distracting.
Like every one of my colleagues, but we all understand that this is the only official way to demonstrate our productivity metrics to our Department.
The rest are our own developments that we implement.
Personally, I contributed a section on "Nothing is true, everything is permitted," where I clarified the boundaries of general material for the understanding of simple Righteous beings.
If this passes censorship, then I can get back to my own affairs...
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1894, June 20:
June turned out to be the most productive month. Dante brought invaluable information about the Ether. He managed to negotiate with two High Cherubim. For the information, we paid with well-established variants of miracles that automate paperwork, freeing up much-needed personal time, plus Dante himself provided a couple of services.
But it was worth it.
We were able to start making progress on the "Etherius" project, beginning to combine known aspects of magic and miracles into one branch.
We decided to call the management of Ether energy "Weaving,"
due to the partially revealed nature of the element itself.
The Ether is the tiniest particle of the Universe, and to use it, one can "twist" or "braid" threads or gather "signs" from it, creating a tapestry. This method is the only one that Dante and I came to, and, according to the fragments of words and notes from one Cherub, the only one available to anyone who is not a Seraph or God.
Thus, we were able to adapt many familiar miracles into "spells" and rework prayers into "weavings," which was the simplest approach, considering Dante's experience.
The first thing we did was ignite a spark of light.
It turns out that the color of Ether energy is unique to each individual. Mine is light blue, while Dante's is gold with dark accents.
As it turned out, when a "mage," a user of the Ether, tries to use the Ether, they "dissolve" or "isolate" smaller particles of internal energy, whether it be the Holy Spirit present in every soul, or something that allows demons to perform their sorcery. Theoretically, even Sinners alongside demons can utilize Weaving, meaning that if Dante and I were to be cast down from Heaven, we wouldn't lose our power.
Now, we are working on "enchantments," transferring the effects of spells and weaving onto physical objects.
So much potential is opening up, and we haven't even begun to combine the Ether with elemental magic yet…
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1894, June 22:
It turns out that you cannot fuel Weaving with energy from various sources, which was expected, but now proven in practice. Regardless, Dante liked my developments, and we decided to implement them in the management of fire, water, electricity… Who knows how far we'll reach.
As a joke, Dante said that the most terrifying and humiliating thing for both an angel and a demon is to be defeated using spells based on urine energy…
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1894, July 23:
Today, our Department was notified that new unrest has begun on Earth. There are numerous wars happening literally every few years, but this time, they decided to bother us.
I was told that a couple of decades ago, a similar order was given. The Department of Sin was tasked with developing materials to ease the entry and comfort of souls that would inevitably arrive in Heaven. Times change, and so do morals and political views, which is why we've been burdened with an additional order from the Third Circle. This usually means honor among Departments or a separate line on a résumé that would positively impact an angel's promotion in Rank.
But honestly, we all couldn't care less (to varying degrees); we just wanted to do our own thing, otherwise, we wouldn't have joined this Department for the "psychos among angels."
As I now understand, each of us, including the Leader, is pretty close to "falling." Our obsessions and ideas border on Sin, which is why we have such a code: "Until you try, you won't know" – Dante, Archangel Leader.
In any case, we've been assigned countries: Japan and China. They said – study, so that a report is on the desk by tomorrow.
By "tomorrow," they mean the coming week.
And now, our entire friendly team, including the Leader, has to trek to Earth and request data from the Department of Earth to fulfill the project.
(Dante decided to assign Amadeo, Philip, Frol, and Theodore for the trip to Earth to gather information; I, Dante, Fedelia, and Remigiy will gather data from the Department of Earth.)
We all hope that Remigiy, as always, will carry this project on his shoulders.
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1894, August 5:
War. War never changes. The souls of soldiers—strangely—make their way to Heaven, as do the souls of ordinary citizens.
During conflicts, the flow of souls increases, causing Saint Peter and the Support Department to work to the bone.
It turns out I ended up here on such a day, September 29—there was some conflict on Earth that also heightened the flow of souls, not by much, but enough to be noticeable.
I checked on my family's status through Dante—all alive.
God bless them…
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1894, December 20:
When you're engaged in something you love, time flies unnoticed. Before I knew it, a year had passed since my arrival in Heaven, which we celebrated as a department: Philip gifted me a set of playing cards, Remigius gave a cozy sleeping pillow (it's magnificent: so soft and gentle, never creases or hardens, his creation, he claims), Amedeo presented a collection of "ship" stories featuring me... (it includes me with Amedeo, Frol, and Fedelia, and I thanked her for not including her "ships" of me with other colleagues), Frol gifted a subscription to the Hall of Imagination (see December 22), Teodor offered cooking lessons, and even suggested continuing education afterward. Fedelia… proposed to spend the night together.
Fedelia, despite her many past partners (as she said, she "purifies" and atones every time), is the first angel I feel confident with.
It was a good night.
(I received great feedback from Fedelia, and the gift sparked a few ideas on how to further "utilize" the Weaving.)
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1894, December 22:
The Hall of Imagination. A place where any angel can bring their ideas, dreams, or fantasies to life.
The Hall transforms the surrounding room into any location the angel can envision.
This is one of the "privileges" an angel can earn by working in the Second Circle, while the Third, they say, can create such experiences themselves...
It's divine.
I flew over the entire surface of Earth, soared through cosmic leviathans, wandered through a Japanese city during the lantern festival, reveling in the spectacle...
Access to this Hall in the Second Circle is merely "rented," and there are time limits on daily visits.
I went every day.
I must learn to master this.
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1895, January 1:
We were looked at as fools, as angels who didn't understand the purpose of Heaven, but we didn't care.
Once the Christmas celebrations wrapped up—and even in Heaven, our Department has a week off—we dove straight into experiments and research.
We're getting better at adapting known miracles and prayers; we're already planning to create our own weaving techniques for every need...
I must note that using Weaving has a strange effect on an angel's shell: the skin of the hands from which the spell is cast turns dark, and the soul seems to... change.
It doesn't leave, disappear, get consumed, or turn us into Sinners. The effect is temporary, reversible either after some time (which we haven't been able to pinpoint) or through prayer.
Dante couldn't uncover anything from his Cherubic acquaintances, and my experiments yielded no results. For now, it remains a mystery.
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1895, January 7:
My second meeting.
We discussed the results of our activities: Philip talked about the influence of different music genres on angels; Remigius shared the outcomes of adjustments in the Fantasy Halls (it's truly amazing); Amedeo presented a report on resisting temptation for the Righteous (I suspect I know what that temptation was…); Frol discussed methods for healing an angel's shell from wounds inflicted by dark magic; Theodor introduced a new series of recipes made from various elements (turns out fire can be delicious too…); and Fedelia covered the influence of clothing for seducing a Righteous.
Dante had my back, saying he was working with me on our project, which is progressing by leaps and bounds (from Earth to Andromeda).
Our future joint project will focus on the influence of children's fairy tales on the consciousness of future adults.
Why this topic? Dante informed us that a message came from Sera herself, recommending that we choose a simple and uncomplicated subject as a cover project since others will do the heavy lifting for us.
Right there in the hall, we wrote recommendations for these "mediocre beings," as our team (including Dante) decided to call the future executors.
P.S. Philip's idea is intriguing; I'll need to explore it further.
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1895, January 21:
I managed to create my own weaving. It's much more challenging than adapting existing wonders because we "believed" in it, knew the result, and even envisioned the process behind the prayers in our minds, each of us.
In short, to create a personal weaving, you need to formulate a "formula," like in mathematics, written in symbols for the spell, and then weave the pattern with threads. After that, you perform the same actions as for a regular miracle.
Dante and I rejoiced.
Of course, it's just child's play. We are merely repeating what is already known and are just beginning to tread this path. It's possible that even the Higher Cherubim and Seraphim can use the Ether, perhaps in the same way we do, or maybe they each have their own method.
Dante will ask that Cherub who informed him about the "signs" and "threads."
As for me, I'll continue creating new weavings… I have so many ideas.
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1895, January 23:
I created a weaving to assist in assimilating educational material, which helps better process signals in the brain... Do angels even have brains?
…
I asked Frola about it; she said that angels have a shell where some knowledge is stored, while the rest resides in the soul.
She was brief and simply handed me one of her works on the topic.
…
I revised the weaving formula. Now, information will be processed from incoming signals (sight, sound, smell) and then "recorded" into the shell.
For now, I won't delve into the phenomenon of the soul—what it is and how to work with it. Under no circumstances will I touch it.
Working with the shell is acceptable; Frola helps me, and there are numerous medical guidelines for this.
…
The weaving operates smoothly: during Teodor's lesson, it was much easier for me to grasp the material, and Teodor praised my cooking for the first time seriously, rather than just joking around.
Now—on to the side effects and other details.
…
Side effects include dizziness, nausea, a euphoric effect, and blurred vision if too much information is absorbed at once.
I'll work on correcting that.
P.S.: I should start working on a formula for reading memories, preferably layers of the soul's knowledge.
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1895, February 14:
Valentine's Day, more commonly known in the Department of Sin as "Drunken Seraph Day," which means that staff members can celebrate in the office with their significant others (or multiple partners in the case of Fedelia, who is prohibited from celebrating in the office with more than one partner).
Some get drunk (Frola, Philipp, Amadeo), some just spend time with their loved ones (surprisingly, Fedelia, Remigiy (?!), Teodor, and, astonishingly, Dante), while others simply focus on their work (like me).
Fedelia suggested I be the one to celebrate this day with her, but I refused—my weavings are more important.
…
Fedelia insisted—I reminded her of her suitors; she claimed she chose me—I cited my busyness; Fedelia proposed to test the results of my research—I agreed.
In the end, I didn't touch the essence of Lust itself.
I tested the long-prepared formula for the Weaving.
Result: an angel lies in a deep sleep on the office bed, a blissful smile on their face.
Side effect: Fedelia constantly hounds me, demanding I teach her the needed miracle and wishes for a repeat.
…
To correct the side effect, I sent a note to Dante (he issued an order).
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1895, July 22:
I remembered the music that Saint Peter used to calm me and decided to revisit it.
Philipp's report inspired me, prompting me to dive deep into the subject of music.
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1895, September 6:
Today, our Department was invited to the Third Circle. To the spire of the Most High Seraph, Sera.
We're going tomorrow, so I've put all my research on hold.