Unlike the magnificent palaces above the clouds that many imagined, Heaven was a complete world unto itself. Like Hell, it was divided into many regions, including the well-known New Jerusalem and Garden of Eden.
The place where the Angels lived was called the Holy City. It had twelve gates, each engraved with Angels, and its walls had twelve foundations bearing the names of the Lamb's Twelve Apostles.
Entering through the eastern gate, one could see curtain-draped houses and chosen believers coming and going. Here, they practiced the same twelve professions as they had on earth.
Beyond the residential area flowed an incomparably clear River of Life, bright as Crystal, through the city. Shimmering light reflected from its surface, and lush trees lined both banks. Every month, they bore twelve kinds of fruit. Their emerald leaves were the world's most precious medicine, capable of healing all peoples.
Following the River of Life upstream brought one to the Sacred Palace, composed of three buildings. Its halls stretched on without end. Only holy Angels could pass beside its throne. At the river's source lay a garden filled with green grass and fresh flowers.
The garden, too, was boundless. It was where the Angels dwelled. Angels returning from guard duty slept on the grass by the river or leaned beneath trees to groom one another's feathers, while chirping newborns preferred to run in groups into the Garden of Eden to catch fish.
There were no flower pavilions, tables, or chairs of the sort common in the human world. Angels walked barefoot and sat on the ground. Yet at the center of the garden stood a regular octagonal curtain structure built by the Archangels, where they often gathered to discuss trivial matters of work.
Michael and Lucifer sat beneath the curtains, drinking Spring of Life