The Ascendance

Chapter 8 - Fear and weaknesses

“You will be doing the same thing, you will observe a person but this time, instead of determining the human being’s favorite, you will determine their fears and weaknesses,” Angel Zai instructed.

“Okay, Angel Zai. How long is the duration this time?” Joffiel asked.

“For these tasks, you are given two months but you need to give at least 10 fears and weaknesses. For the weaknesses, sometimes it could also be a strength just make sure if one quality is a weakness and strength and you would do great in this task,” Angel Zai answered.

“Thank you as always, Angel Zai,” Joffiel thanked her mentor.

“Don’t worry about it. It is my job as your mentor to help as productive as possible. Anyway, we need to have a lecture first about fears and weaknesses,” Angel Zai replied.

“I’m excited to learn new things!” Joffiel exclaimed.

“I will first talk about human’s weaknesses. As I mentioned earlier, some qualities could be a weakness and could be a strength. It depends on how this quality affects the lifestyle of a person,” Angel Zai told Joffiel.

“I see, then I should always check out the implication of one’s quality to the output of his work,” Joffiel replied.

“Yes, you needed to know the effect. The easiest way to know one’s weakness is for you to determine what is the failure of that specific individual. For example, if you noticed that a person’s work didn’t finish on a due date, look for the cause of that problem. It could be one of the weaknesses of that person, being lazy is one of the common weaknesses on why humans could not finish their tasks in time,” Angel Zai explained.

“I understand,” Joffiel replied.

“Also, one causes of that problem could also be that person is a multitasker. Many people think that being a multitasker is a strength, however, if a human does many things at once but couldn’t finish them, it becomes a weakness. Some people tend to do things simultaneously that they forget that they have deadlines and they could not even realize why they are like that,” Angel Zai continued to explain to Joffiel.

Joffiel listens as her mentor explains things about weaknesses. She’s a fast learner so she’s absorbing every lecture that Angel Zai is giving her. Even though, normally, one could not understand such a thing in just one explanation.

“As the Creator said that your tasks are harder than the others, I thought that I would have a hard time discussing things like this, but instead, you understand everything that I’m saying and you are already having your own thought about this, I’m really amazed on how intelligent you are, Joffiel,” Angel Zai praised Joffiel.

“I think it is just because the way you teach is direct to the point or the way that I wanted you to teach me,” Joffiel replied.

Angel Zai smiled and continued on with her discussion, “So that’s all for weaknesses. On the other hand, fear is one of the emotions that humans have. It is the belief that anything could cause an individual to suffer or to be in pain. Since we are angels, we don’t have this kind of emotion, we are not afraid of anything since we’re not experiencing any pain. But the human world is different, as I already taught, angels could become vulnerable if they go down to the human world, so you should be careful when the time has come,” Angel Zai said.

“I understand, Angel Zai. I will be extra careful during those times,” Joffiel replied.

“Okay, that’s good. Here is the person for your tasks. She’s a 15 year old girl who came from a rich family,” Angel Zai pointed at a person on the screen.

“So for this task, I need to observe her for two months and determine her fears and weaknesses. I could also determine her favorites so I could train just like before,” Joffiel said.

“Well, you don’t have to do that since you will repeat these first two tasks three times in total. But it’s up to you. Your second task would be harder than the first one that’s why we decided to double the amount of time for angels to finish it. The other angels have two years to finish their task,” Angel Zai explained.

“I still haven’t tried so I didn’t know that it will be more difficult so maybe I’ll try to find out her favorite if I could get ten of those fears and weaknesses,” Joffiel replied.

“Yes, doing the task would make you understand why it is harder but one of the reasons is because humans tend to hide their fears and weaknesses to other people,” Angel Zai replied.

“That explains why I couldn’t think of any fears and weaknesses from Jayden, so humans don’t want to expose their vulnerable sides to other humans,” Joffiel replied.

“Yes, that’s right. Okay, for now, I will just observe you as you finish your tasks. As I said from before everytime you feel that there is something wrong with your emotions, just approach me,” Angel Zai reminded Joffiel.

Joffiel started to analyze the person for her task. She learned that the girl’s name is Ashe Mandl. Born from a rich family, Ashe is the only child.

As Joffiel observes Ashe, she noticed that there was a boy named Fenril that also came from a rich family. The Mandl family serves the family where Fenril belongs.

Joffiel noticed him due to his perfect appearance that’s just like Jayden.

“Why am I distracted with this person? I needed to focus on my tasks,” Joffiel talked out loud with herself.

Unlike Jayden, Ashe does not go to school to take classes. She’s being visited by tutors where she joins with Fenril to have their lessons.

As Joffiel learns more about Ashe, she also learns more about other persons like Fenril. Joffiel thought that it would be beneficial for her since if she goes down to the human world, she needs to know everyone at the same time so she could do better at her tasks.

One of the first things that Joffiel noticed about Ashe is that she’s very impatient, whenever their tutor is late on their lesson. Ashe always tries to start to study on her own. Joffiel was unsure if this could be a good or a bad thing.

Joffiel just continues to watch over Ashe. She then learns that everytime Ashe studies on her own, she misses some details that only a person that is very knowledgeable like her tutor could teach. Some additional details made Joffiel become sure that being impatient is one of Ashe’s weaknesses.

One of the things that Joffiel also noticed is that Ashe is a perfectionist.

Joffiel put it as Ashe’s weakness because she became too worried if she did something wrong in the eyes of anyone. This leads Ashe to sometimes repeat her work even though there is nothing wrong with her previous work.

After a week, Angel Zai decided to visit Joffiel during her training.

“How’s your task? Are you learning something?” Angel Zai asked Joffiel who is very focused on observing Ashe.

“Angel Zai, I believe I knew two of her weaknesses and two of her fears,” Joffiel answered.

“And what is that?” Angel Zai asked.

“One of her weaknesses is being impatient and the other one is being a perfectionist,” Joffiel replied.

Joffiel also explains why she thinks that those were her weaknesses rather than her strengths.

“For her fear, I believe she has a fear in height and also fear in iron. Well I thought that it’s kinda strange but I’m like ninety five percent sure those two were included,” Joffiel continued to speak with Angel Zai.

Angel Zai was surprised by what she had heard. She then asked Joffiel why she thinks it's her fear.

“Well, her fear of height is very obvious as she doesn’t want to go to higher places. One time her friend Fenril made her peak through the window from the third floor of their house, then she was frightened and fell onto her feet. I think that one is a bonus for me,” Joffiel smiled at Angel Zai as she explained.

Angel Zai just nodded and replied, “How about the fear of iron?”

“I realized that one when her tutor brought a pen that has iron as its material, Ashe tried to stay away from it and she became angry with the tutor on why he had something like that. Her friend Fenril just gets the pen from the tutor and throws it away. Her parents also confronted the tutor about this and that time I observed their house and realized that there was no single thing on that place that is made of iron,” Joffiel explained.

Angel Zai just nodded again and said, “I see, that’s good that you already got four which you could write as answers in the end of your tasks. I just needed to do something so I will go for now. Just continue to observe her.”

Angel Zai went away. Joffiel was puzzled on why Angel Zai just stayed for a short time since her mentor always spends longer time watching her.

Joffiel just ignores it and continues to watch Ashe.

As time passed by, she learned that Ashe’s fear includes seawater. Joffiel knows that Ashe loves swimming very much, however, when they have a vacation on the beach with other families, she refuses to swim in the sea. That for Joffiel is good enough reason to say that Ashe fears the seawater.

One time, as Ashe was working on her homework, she fell down on her chair. Her parents immediately aided her and let her rest for a bit. They didn’t call for a doctor and just made Ashe sleep, which for Joffiel is a weird thing to do.

As Joffiel watches this, she remembers what her mentor said about determining what caused the problem, and in this situation, the problem is that Ashe fell while doing her work. Joffiel added this as one of her weaknesses, ‘works too much’.

One month has already passed by and Joffiel already has six answers for the tasks; along her tasks, she also manages to determine some of Ashe’s favorites. During this time, Angel Zai visits her.

“Are you enjoying your tasks, Joffiel?” Angel Zai asked.

“Very much, but there’s one thing that is bugging me,” Joffiel replied.

“What is it?” Angel Zai asked.

“I feel that she’s not a normal human being or it’s more like she’s not a human being,” Joffiel answered.

“You’re really a genius, Joffiel. What you are feeling is true. She’s not a human, but a demon,” Angel Zai replied.

“Ohh, that explains why I’m somewhat bothered that she’s not the same as other humans. Are we not doing anything about this one? Her friend Fenril and her tutor might be in danger,” Joffiel said.

“I already talked about this with our Creator and He said that we should not do anything about this since He’s not seeing anything that could affect you,” Angel Zai replied.

“Affect me, I mean, her friend might be the one to be affected?” Joffiel asked.

“You see, Joffiel. As angels, we don’t usually intervene on anything that demons do unless they proved to be endangering the lives of angels and even the purity of our Creator. But for humans’ safety, we only act if we see it as a detrimental situation,” Angel Zai replied.

“But it’s our job, right? To take care of humans?” Jofffiel asked again.

“Yes, it is. But demons are also as intelligent as us, angels. They could be setting traps for us to feel if we act carelessly, so it is one of the unwritten rules to only act if needed. I hope that you understand this thing,” Angel Zai answered.

“I understand. Thank you, Angel Zai. I will finish my task so I can go to my next one,” Joffiel said.

As the end of the duration of Joffiel task comes, she was already prepared to write down all of her answers on a piece of paper.

“I see that you already have all of your answers. But I’m afraid to say this but we could not confirm if your answers are correct. I will only tell you this so don’t say this to your fellow angels. There’s a group of angels that are determining the right answer for every task at the same time as you guys, however, they usually find the answer after three months on these tasks, so since you did it in just two months, I would show you the result after a month. So for now, let’s proceed to your next tasks,” Angel Zai said.

“Okay, Angel Zai,” Joffiel confirmed.

Angel Zai pointed out the person that Joffiel needed to observe, just like her first tasks, the goal is the same.

After a month, Joffiel is successful in doing her task. She was with Angel Zai to discuss the result of her second tasks.

“Well, I’m not even surprised about this. You got ten correct fears and weaknesses, so passed your training. The group of angels assigned that human were also impressed on how you managed to do it in just two months. We will continue our training until you finish three of each task,” Angel Zai mentioned.

In due time, Joffiel finishes all of the tasks given to her. It’s the first day of the tenth month since she started training.

“Okay, you have three months of free time on your own. You can spend it however you like. Just call me if you need something, alright?” Angel Zai reminded Joffiel.

Joffiel spent her three months playing with the rest of the angels, especially Anna, however there’s just only a few times that they could stay together since some angels are struggling in their tasks and some angels are too busy training.

During the time that Joffiel could not play with others, she goes back to watching many humans and learning things through them.