But when Castor asked her to pour wine into his mouth, she did so, that same smile smoothed on her lips. She imagined it was Luc’s face she was dabbing with her linen napkin and hoped Luc hadn’t seen.
After the banquet,Lila wanted to walk through the Great Hall and view the rest of it. She’d seen parts of it when she’d applied to the architect program, but their graduation was its inaugural use, and no one had toured the completed space yet except for the graduating architects from their class.
Castor, however, insisted they’d ‘see it all eventually.’ He and Beni rushed the group out of the Banquet Hall and into the crowd of graduates making their way to the West Edge of the Void for a graduation tradition involving a cannon and piles of old lesson scrolls. The scrolls would be shot out into the black nothingness, to be snuffed out and forgotten. In addition, some angels would offer up other memorabilia to be destroyed. Love letters and such.
Exiting through the brass doors at the hall’s entrance, they came out into the vast Inner Courtyard on the Lower Level of the Great Hall. There, lilies and ferns proliferated along marble pathways that met in the center of the bright, open space at a teal ceramic fountain. Cushioned marble benches had been set along these pathways, and Eva ran ahead to greet some of their classmates lounging there. Meanwhile, two servers were still crossing the expanse to get to the banquet, the gold rolling cart between them laden with cakes and wine.
Lila knew the layout of the hall by heart. The East Wing of the Great Hall’s Lower Level consisted of the Exhibition Hall and the Banquet Hall, while across the courtyard, the Kitchens occupied the West Wing. Above Lila, frescoed ceilings detailed scenes from the angels’ work and recreation,and purple and white wisteria tumbled over the spiraling marble staircases leading to the Upper Level, where six multi-purpose meeting rooms were available for the angels’ discretionary use. Higher still, on the Uppermost Level, and accessible only by the outer staircases that led to the watchtowers, there was an open aether theatre that took up the entirety of the building’s roof.
And everywhere, above all else, there was light.
Their group entered the antechamber at the front of the Great Hall, with Adrianna tugging Eva away from every possible conversation partner. There were no doors to the outside, and they descended the marble stairs directly into the Outer Courtyard, which featured sculpted stone angels and tiered retaining walls where water spilled down into the tranquil lake separating the Great Hall from Heaven’s main thoroughfare. They crossed the sole stone arch bridge traversing the water, and Lila briefly looked back at the enormous structure of creamy stone.
From the end of the bridge, she could see the two annexes joined to the Great Hall’s main building by enclosed passageways: the Artisanal Chamber to the right of the East Wing and the Ceremonial Chamber to the left of the West Wing. Flying buttresses sloped downward from the highest level of the main building, and tiered spires rose from the watchtowers on the building’s four corners. There were numerous geometric and organic carvings in the yellow limestone, but she couldn’t make out the details at her current distance.
Only that it was all so beautiful, she could cry. And Lila, on principle, never cried.
“Lila!” Rushing up to her, Eva linked their arms together and spun her around. “What are you looking at, silly? We’re not doing areporton the Great Hall.”
“Lila is. She’s already writing it in her head.” Adrianna caught Lila’s other arm so that she was sandwiched between the couple. They tugged her forward with the crowd while Beni and Castor sauntered ahead of them.
Lila rolled her eyes, though a smile tugged at her mouth.
“You think I’d rather be writing a report right now? Sweet aether, I’m notthatdull,” she muttered.
“I know you’d rather be in the Library,” Eva complained.
“But you’re stuck with us,” Adrianna informed her. “And we’re not letting you out of our sight. Isn’t that right, Eva?” As she spoke, she reachedacross Lila and repositioned one of Eva’s numerous hair pins; the rose gold comb had been falling out, and Eva smiled in thanks, blushing.
“That’s right, so come along!” Eva swept her arm out in a grand gesture. “To the Void!”
“To the Void!” Adrianna chorused, her smooth black hair whipping around her shoulders as they set off skipping.
When they arrived at the most heavily patrolled section of the Void—that place nearest the warriors’ Fortress where Heaven’s marble foundation and golden aether met with an abrupt wall of darkness—Lila saw that the violinists had set up again, though they were playing off-key and swaying to the tune of wine in their heads. Around the perimeter, numerous protective warriors had been stationed, lest someone fall off the ledge and into the Void in their celebratory state, but per tradition, nary an instructor was in sight.
Beni had been chosen as the class orator—an unsurprising fact given his popularity. Unfortunately, Castor bounded up on the makeshift wooden stage and offered to be his co-orator. As a result, Lila was dragged away from Eva and Adrianna to stand awkwardly on the stage as well, as close to the edge as possible but still too visible. She tried to leave, but Castor sulked and tugged her back. Not wanting to make a scene, Lila remained there, stiff and way too sober. She forced a smile at the unruly audience, then angled her body toward the two speakers, hoping to melt into the background.
Castor and Beni were quite drunk at this point in the celebration, but besides that, they’d been tasked with reading the juiciest bits of the love letters that had been submitted.
Beni held up his hands for silence, and a hush fell over the crowd, minus a few rebel conversations.
“To an unnamed?—”
“To an?—”
“You go ahead.” Beni threw his arm around Castor’s shoulders and shoved the letter in his face, his broad frame dwarfing Castor’s wiry one.
“No, no, you go a’ead,” Castor slurred, weakly fighting Beni off. “Is yourrr party.”
Beni belched, then took a deep breath.
“To an unnamed angel.” Beni’s voice, loud under normal circumstances, grated on Lila’s ears as she stood so close. He’d been sorted into masonry, but in Lila’s opinion, he should have been a thespian.
“From an admirer whose name starts with ‘C,’” he continued, surveyingthe crowd as if he might pick out the admirer in question. A few angels chuckled. None volunteered this information. “Is this yours?” He spun toward his co-host, earning himself a punch on the shoulder.
“Okay, okay.” Beni held up his hands. “From an admirer?—”
“Youreaditalready.” Castor leaned into Beni’s space, and Beni shoved him off.
