“Do you actually want eternity…or are you simply too afraid to want anything else?”
Moonlight spilled across the marble floor of the mansion like silver water.
Anaqielle sat alone by the tall window, one leg folded beneath her as the thin fabric of her black nightgown pooled around her feet.
The curtains swayed softly in the cold night wind, carrying the scent of rain through the silent room.
Beyond the glass, the moon hung high above the world.
The same as it had always been, bright and beautiful.
She rested her cheek against her hand and stared at it quietly.
Her face barely showing any change of emotion.
Three hundred years.
It had been three centuries since she had last seen heaven, set foot on the promised paradise and even felt eternal light on her skin.
Three hundred years since Heaven cast her out and somehow, the moon still looked exactly the same.
She gave a soft laugh under her breath.
“How cruel.”
The world changed constantly beneath her.
Kingdoms rose and collapsed.
People died faster than flowers withered, and even languages had changed over the centuries, but the moon remained untouched by time, staring down at her every night like a silent witness to her punishment.
Her ruined wings shifted behind her painfully.
Black feathers scattered across the floor one after another.
Anaqielle glanced at it without emotion now.
At first, the decaying feathers had terrified her.
She used to gather them desperately, trying to hide how quickly her grace was fading.
Trying hard to cling to her former self and once she gathered the feathers, she’d hide them away just so they didn’t mirror her broken self back to her.
Now she simply stepped over them.
A fallen angel only decayed one way.
Slowly and endlessly until nothing divine remained in them.
Their halo would turn dark and lose there golden glow, the white feathers on their wings would blacken and their skin would crack.
The silver markings beneath her collarbone flickered weakly under the moonlight.
Cracks of dim light spread beneath her pale skin like fractures through glass.
Anaqielle closed her eyes.
After centuries, she remained beautiful, abandoned and was continuously rotting.
She tried not to think about home tonight.
That endless luminous sky, the silence of the paradise filled with divine beings and essence.
The feeling of existing without pain, hunger and the unbearable loneliness that came with immortality.
Her fingers tightened slightly against the windowsill.
No matter how much she hated the heaven, a part of her still longed for it.
She still longed to go home.
Then suddenly, the room brightened.
A sharp silver glow spread across the ceiling.
Anaqielle’s eyes snapped open.
A geometric halo appeared in the air before her, rotating slowly with cold, divine light.
Her expression hardened immediately.
‘Heaven,’ she thought.
After three centuries of waiting for any message from home.
A sign that the doors to paradise would be open to her again and she can regain her divinity.
The voice that followed was emotionless.
It was neither male nor female.
It echoed directly inside her soul.
“Seren Anaqielle Light.”
Her throat tightened at the title, Seren.
It was the similar to angel only meant for the fallen ones.
Being called a Seren was an identity, it signified falling from grace of heaven and down to hell to become a monstrous demon or devil.
No one had called her that in centuries.
It was a reminder that heaven didn’t see her as an angel anymore.
They just recognized her as a fallen, a Seren.
The halo continued spinning.
“Your degradation has reached the final threshold.”
Anaqielle said nothing.
She already knew.
Another feather drifted from her wing onto the floor.
“The Radiance offers restoration.”
For the first time in years, her breath caught.
Silence filled the room.
The message shook her inwardly and outwardly.
Carefully and slowly, Anaqielle stood from the window.
“Restoration?” she repeated quietly.
Her mind filled with disbelief.
The voice continued.
“A holy maiden has been chosen.”
At once, a glowing image formed inside the halo.
A young woman dressed in white robes appeared beneath silver light.
Long dark hair, calm blue-grey eyes.
A face so gentle it almost hurt to look at.
One that glowed with a purity Anaqielle could only crave.
Anaqielle frowned slightly.
‘Too pure,’ she felt bitterly.
The voice spoke again.
“Laliya Lancrest. Her Lumen remains unfractured.”
The image shifted.
Anaqielle watched the girl kneeling alone in prayer inside a vast luminous sanctum.
She was still, focused and disciplined in her worship.
She looked untouched by sin or defiance against the sacred laws of heaven.
A soul painfully close to ascension.
Then came the final words.
“Corrupt her and you’ll get to return to heaven. Your sins will be wiped off and you’ll get to go home.”
The room fell silent.
Anaqielle stared at the image of the girl for a long moment.
Then she laughed softly.
She wasn’t amused, she simply felt tired.
“I have waited three hundred years,” she murmured, “And this is the game you offer me?”
“If the holy maiden falls willingly into imbalance, her place in heaven will become yours.”
Anaqielle’s gaze lingered on Laliya’s face.
Pure souls were always the easiest to break.
Lonely people usually were and since Laliya lived all her life suppressing her desires, she figured the mission would be easy.
But something about the girl unsettled her immediately.
The brightness in Laliya’s eyes twisted a knife in her heart that had long grown cold.
The halo dimmed slightly.
“Succeed, and you may return home. Forever freed from the stain of being Seren.”
‘Return home?’ The words struck deeper than she wanted.
For a brief moment, Anaqielle imagined it; her white wings restored, heaven welcoming her back.
No more pain, decay or loneliness.
Then her eyes drifted toward the moon again.
The celestial creation, unchanged after all these years.
It still looked down at her like it was challenging her to accept Heaven’s offer.
Slowly, Anaqielle smiled.
Her lips curled up sharply, the smirk was beautiful and dangerous.
“Well then,” she whispered.
The image of Laliya glowed softly in the darkness before her.
“Let’s see how badly heaven wants her ruined. Because now that she has become my way back to heaven…” She paused, her eyes rising to the moon’s challenge.
“I will break her faith and leave her damned in the pits of hell!”
She closed the window and walked back in her room.
Relief washed over her.
She had gotten an opportunity to return home and leave earth behind.
Anaqielle picked up a black feather on the floor.
Her eyes darkened.
“I will bask in heaven’s light again. No matter the cost!”