A short time later,Lila found herself by the obelisk again, sitting next to Luc in an awkward mirror image of the last time they’d been there.
“I’m designing a new world.” Luc spread a map out on Lila’s lap; the drawing depicted a solid disc floating on water, surrounded by atmosphere. Its boundaries reminded her of Heaven’s square structure, part stone and part aether, hovering in the midst of the Void.
“I’m sorry, a what?” she asked, staring down at the Heaven-that-was-not-Heaven.
“A place. Separate from here. Like Heaven, only better.”
“An improved Heaven? Isn’t that what the architects are already doing?” She shifted her back along the obelisk, searching for a more comfortable position. If they weren’t trying to be so secretive, she would have suggested pillows.
Though that might bring up unwanted connotations, leading to?—
“No, no, it’s different. The way Heaven is set up, it can’t support all the features I want to introduce.”
“The way it’sset up?Wow. You really want to tick someone off, don’t you?”
“It’s going to be great.” He brushed his fingers over the map’s surface. Reverential, resolute. “Here, I’ll show you.”
Present Aeon
“Kicked off the Council? Locked in his own house?!” Castor snickered as he, Beni, and Lila stood among the crowd toasting the creation of the cosmos. They were on the bridge traversing the Great Hall’s lake. “I told you all that arrogance would catch up with him. Didn’t I say it? I said, ‘Soon, Luc, you’ll take it too far, and you’ll smack yourself in the face.’” Castor crossed his arms and gave Lila and Beni a smug smile, as though he had actually said that to Luc’s face. When what he’d really done was avoid running into him at every event since they’d graduated.
Lila suppressed an eye roll.
“Excuse me, sorry, excuse me.”
Turning, Lila watched Eva squeeze her way through the large crowd on the bridge. Colorful banners had been hung from the Great Hall’s spires. Inside, flower garlands graced the railings of every staircase. The Council had declared a period of endless feasting, as it had been over an aeon since the Creator had created anything new, aside from the usual materials he supplied. Lila had been a student then. When the last batch of angels had been created, Braun among them.
Now, excitement hummed in the aether, a chorus of voices rising and falling in merry expectation. With the advent of this strange new place, would the Creator make an appearance among the common angels after so many aeons? The whispersflew.
Servers passed around gold platters full of wine and sweet and savory pastries, and Eva nearly collided with one platter of wine but corrected her course.
“Where’s Adrianna?” Beni asked when she’d reached the group, her reddish blonde hair spilling out of a misshapen bun. Unlike most of the crowd, she wore no adornments except the flush in her cheeks.
“Don’t ask me,” she grumbled. “I’m just her other half.”
The back of Lila’s neck prickled. She took a nervous sip of wine. Should she tell Eva what she knew? Keep her promise to Adrianna?
“Ah, come on, Eva.” Beni touched her arm.
“Don’t ‘Eva’ me.” She slapped his hand away. “I’ve been ‘Eva’ long enough.Now,I’m going to bemad.”
“Remember the last creation feast?” Castor asked, oblivious to everything. “We snuck out of the dormitories, and Lila didn’t want to go, so she brought her Library scrolls with her.” He wrinkled his nose in distaste.
“I didn’t want to go either!” Eva announced, leaning back and bracing her elbows on the stone parapet. “The only thing we could do was watch the adults have fun from behind awall.What if we’d been caught?—”
“Are you kidding me?! You drank an entire goblet of wine and wouldn’t stop giggling the whole time.Youalmost got us caught,” Beni accused.
“Well, what else was there to do? Besides, I didn’t steal the wine. Adrianna—” Eva cut herself off, then huffed, straightened, and stuck her hands in her robes. “What is this place supposed to look like anyway? I heard it’s not even going to be visible from here, so why is everyone making all this fuss?”
The group moved aside for the botanists scurrying to drape flower garlands over the parapet.
“Didn’t Luc design it?” Beni asked. “There’s your answer.”
“Who cares?” Castor demanded. “Luc is finished. He’s not even allowed to leave his house.”
“Luc’s smarter than all of us combined,” Eva remarked, surprising Lila. “He’ll be finished when he says he is.” She exchanged a look with Lila. “Idiots.” Extending a hand, she asked, “Are you going to finish that?”
Lila glanced at her wine.
