At the bottom of the wooden staircase, Luc lit the candle nearest to the room’s entrance, sparking a chain reaction all along the wall that revealed the line of candles stretching around the vast chamber. Each Council member had an access point leading from their guild’s private study, which broke the line of candles at intervals, but some miracle of the Creator’s power allowed for all of the candles to be lit at the spark of one. In the light dancing on therough gray stones, Luc noted the other entrances. Twelve in total. Eleven opportunities for his activities to be discovered.
He would be quick.
Empty space was the prevailing feature of the chamber. Devoid of Heaven’s usual lavish furnishings, the room consisted of nothing but tall candles set in the plainest of brass sconces and, in the murky center of the room, a brass bowl set on an unimaginative, cylindrical stone pedestal.
Luc approached this stone pedestal as he removed his beech box and unpacked the scrolls inside. He placed several of the pages in the bowl and the rest on the pedestal, then took up one lit candle from the line on the wall.
This was one reason the Council approved designs before they were sent off to the Creator. They couldn’t slip ideas under the door of His chambers. He didn’t live among the angels, but in the indecipherable realm of the Void.
In order to pass ideas to Him, those ideas had to burn.
The blueprints in the Library were technically copies, reproduced by the Creator after a design had been accepted. If a design wasn’t accepted, well, then, its contents were lost.
Luc hesitated. An aeon and a half of his work would be gone in mere moments. A matter of breaths. He hoped his sacrifice would be worth it.
Either way, he would take up his destiny and force it into existence. He would pave a path regardless of what the Council, or even the Creator, decided.
Applying the flame to the first few pages of his blueprints, Luc watched the edges of the paper curl and darken till they turned to sparks and rose upward as shimmering aether, then disappeared.
Unlike their counterparts outside of the chamber, these pages left no ash—that refuse the angels tossed into the Void, along with other material fragments. When the pages had disappeared, he fed the flame a few more. Then a few more. Over and over, he repeated this process until the last page had vanished.
When he’d finished, he peered up into the dimness of the ceiling. The bowl was empty. His box was empty. His workshop, as well, was mostly empty.
He could do nothing but wait.
One Aeon Pre-Great War
For the second half of his Council tour, Hadri led Luc out of the Artisanal Chamber, out of the Great Hall and over to the Library. Luc had spent the better part of his existence in this building, outside of the Lessons Hall and the dormitories, and he relaxed as they entered the main reading hall and its familiar comforts: the white and gold bench next to one window where he’d tucked himself away with news of the latest architectural advancements; the spot at one long marble table where he’d worked on his sketches and researched topics for his lessons; and the section of shelves he’d revisited so many times that he’d memorized the positions of all the scrolls and knew immediately if something new had been added. Glancing at the shelves as they passed, he saw that something newhadbeen added and made a mental note to check it out later.
Retrieving his architect pin from his pocket, Hadri showed Luc how to open the hidden door that led to the architect common room before noticing that Luc’s own pin was missing.
And just like that, Luc tensed again.
His pin. Lila.
Damn.
“I lost it during the celebration,” Luc said without thinking.
“I thought you left early.”
Luc paled, unused to being caught in a falsehood.
“Oh…I…”
Hadri raised an eyebrow.
“I must have lost it…going back to the dormitories,” Luc noted with so much awkwardness that Hadri surely saw through him. If the twinkle in his eye was any indication, hedidsee through him. He spoke, and there was no doubt.
“You know, I thought you’d be more excited on such an occasion. What’s happened?”
“Nothing.”
Hadri frowned.
“I can’t tell you,” Luc tried. It wasn’t a lie. Not only did Lucnot wantto discuss Lila; he literallycould notwithout risking an inquiry.
“Hmm…then let me guess. Matters of the heart?”
