“Sir?”
“Move!”
Luc shoved the boy away from the door.
“Uh…y-yes, sir.” Braun’s ramblings followed him inside. “They took some stuff, but they said they would be back. I don’t think they found what they were looking for.” The boy’s words faded into the aether.
Luc clenched his fists.
As he stepped into the study, crunching glass underfoot, he saw that his home had been wrecked.
The glass encasing his wall-to-wall bookshelves had been smashed, and his research scrolls lay twisted and torn on the marble floor. Glass jars that normally lined the bottom shelves, filled with materials for conducting chemical experiments and embellishments such as gemstones, lay cracked on the marble, leaking out their contents. Even his plant samples had been swept to the ground, where their painted pots lay shattered in glistening shards.
But none of this disturbed Luc so much as the three large wooden tables that stretched to three-fourths of the study’s width. They should have been littered with Luc’s prototypes of Earth, but instead they were bare as stone. Picked clean.
Luc’s blueprints had been burned, and now the rest of his work on Earth was gone as well. The realization tore at his throat, but he had no time to swallow it, and it had nowhere to go. Too much rage already coursed through him, and two warriors appeared in the doorway. They towered over Braun, filled with the stern impassiveness of hardened patrol angels. Gold-hilted swords gleamed at their sides.
“Master Lucifer, your presence is requested in the Artisanal Chamber,” one informed him. “We’re here to escort you.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Luc twisted his words into a snarl. “I’ll bedelightedto pay Michael a visit.”
One and a Half Aeons Pre-Great War
Time passed.
Luc focused more diligently on his courses, and still, he couldn’t rid himself of Hadri.
The Council architect wouldn’t go away.
Hadri accosted Luc on his way to lessons. On his way from lessons. In the middle of his lessons when his class visited one of Hadri’s projects.
If Luc went to the Library to study, Hadri would seat himself across from Luc, wanting to know what he was learning and who he was learning it from and how much time he had left in his courses and what his favorite craft was and why he liked that craft and would he mind terribly if Hadri borrowed a pen?
Hadri could borrow a dozen pens; Luc wouldn’t care. In fact, he could fashion Hadri a hundred pens, each one more unique in style than the last.
But Luc was used to being alone; more than that, heenjoyedbeing alone with his research and his sketches and his schemes. Hethrivedin solitude. Hadri’s presence threw off his thought process.
And he needed to think! He had to figure out why he’d been created; he felt a hundred sets of eyes on him, watching and waiting for him to prove he was worth their collective faith and efforts. Worth the time and resources spent shaping him into the best angel he could be.
Perhaps his new world project was the answer, but he could hardly workout its issues with Hadri hovering over him. That was why, when for the hundredth time Luc entered the library to find Hadri tucked in at Luc’s regular table, a honeyed cake in one hand and a scroll on carpentry in the other, Luc made up his mind to end their association once and for all. Council architect or not, the angel was too much.
As he approached, Hadri smiled and waved. Crumbs littered his beard, like always.
“I saved you a cake.” With sticky fingers, Hadri pushed a plate toward Luc. The cake it held was caramelized at the edges and soaked through with honey, a dusting of cinnamon and a smattering of almonds topping it.
Despite himself, Luc felt tempted by the offer. He’d gotten distracted by his work and had missed his scheduled meal in the students’ dining hall. Again. Nevertheless, he cleared his throat and announced, “Thank you, Master Hadri, but…well…I have to work on drafting my proposal for the architect program. It should take a long while, and I’m afraid I won’t have time to talk with you for the…foreseeable future.”
“Oh?” Hadri knitted his brows, appearing crestfallen. An awkward pause ensued.
Luc shifted on his feet, wondering if he’d been impolite and not quite regretting it.
Abruptly, Hadri began clearing up the table and putting away his things. “Well, of course, of course. You should work on your application. I’ll just, um…What are you working on, by the way?” he asked as he gathered a few scrolls at the end of the table.
Luc hesitated to open his mouth—surely, this would lead to another lengthy conversation. Unfortunately, he had the rare urge to apologize to the older angel. Hadri was one of the few masters who treated the students like peers with valuable insight instead of children that needed constant oversight. Even when he corrected a blunder of Luc’s, Luc neverfeltcorrected; it was more like an exchange of ideas.
“We were tasked with writing a proposal for an entirely new structure, the like of which doesn’t exist anywhere in Heaven,” Luc explained. “The proposal should include the exterior, interior, and furnishings, along with a thorough explanation of the structure’s uses.”
“Oh, that sounds fascinating. And what are you proposing?”
