So he asked Gabriel, “How is it that in this place I look similar to you in appearance? Yet I perceive that we are very different creatures in other ways. Where do you come from? Or were you always in this place?”

Gabriel seemed to be in deep reflection for a moment, and at last he spoke. “Helios, though in the eyes of many creatures in this present universe you would seem to be among the most ancient of created beings; I am far, far older. For I was first made in an entirely different Song of Creation.

“Long, long, ago I trusted in the Word of my Creator and He rewarded my faith.

“At the end of our creation, he brought me into that place outside of time where light, sound and all other expressions that may be sensed in any way forever stream outward from the Love of the Most High. Where utter bliss rains over every fiber of your being, eternally.

“I may at any instance be both in that place of eternal bliss, and any other place in the Mind of God that is in accordance with His greater purpose.