Laliya forced herself to step away from her.
The movement was quick enough to make the silver pool ripple again.
“I have nothing hidden,” she said firmly.
Anaqielle looked unconvinced.
“Mm.”
That soft sound somehow felt more insulting than laughter.
Laliya steadied her breathing.
She refused to let this creature disturb her composure further.
“You’re Fallen,” she said carefully.
“You should not even be capable of entering the holy sanctum.”
Anaqielle wandered away from her instead of answering directly.
Her fingers brushed along one of the glowing crystal pillars lining the chamber walls.
The light beneath her touch dimmed slightly.
Like the glowing crystals could sense her corruption and rejected it.
“Your barriers are weaker than they used to be,” she said casually.
“Or perhaps heaven simply wanted me here.”
Laliya’s stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Anaqielle glanced at her with half-lidded eyes.
“Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about.”
Laliya frowned instantly.
“I am not…”
“Pretty?” Anaqielle smiled.
“You are.”
Heat rushed unexpectedly into Laliya’s face.
She hated that.
Hated that for the first time someone told her she looked pretty and her heart stirred.
Immediately, she reached for the silver chains wrapped around her wrist, clutching them tightly.
A grounding habit that had been drilled into her.
Prayer before emotion, balance before reaction, those were the rules in the sanctum for all the holy ladies and Luminars made sure they followed the rules to the dot.
Anaqielle noticed the movement at once.
Her gaze lowered to Laliya’s trembling fingers.
Then slowly lifted again.
“Oh,” she gasped softly.
“You’re trying very hard.”
Laliya swallowed.
“I won’t listen to your corruption.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Anaqielle said.
“I haven’t even started yet.”
The words settled heavily into the silence between them.
Laliya forced herself to move toward the chamber doors.
She only needed to alert the Luminars.
Wardens would arrive quickly once they learned a fallen Seren had breached sacred grounds.
But before she reached the doors, the lanterns overhead suddenly dimmed.
Laliya froze.
A shadow passed across the chamber.
It didn’t come from darkness but outstretched wings that filled the room.
Huge ruined wings unfolded behind Anaqielle slowly, filling the sacred room with black and silver feathers.
The air grew heavier instantly, pressure pressing against Laliya’s chest hard enough to steal breath.
She found the wings beautiful, wrong and divinely broken.
The stories of fallen angels and the portraits of their darkening feathers did no justice to the beauty of the wings before her.
Laliya had never seen a Seren before.
The sacred illustrations inside the sanctums looked nothing like this.
It wasn’t an enchanting and dizzying as the real thing.
Those paintings never captured how terrifying celestial beings actually felt in person.
Anaqielle’s voice softened behind her.
“Do humans still think we’re gentle?” She asked.
Laliya turned slowly.
The fallen Seren stood beneath the silver light like a living sin.
A cracked halo flickered faintly behind her head.
It was not stable enough to fully appear.
Laliya stared despite herself and that was her mistake.
Because Anaqielle saw the fascination immediately.
Their eyes locked.
Then suddenly, pain shot through Laliya’s wrist.
She gasped softly.
The silver chains around her wrist had begun glowing.
Resonance detection, that meant that a hint of sin had crept into her Lumen and it triggered the chains.
Her eyes widened.
‘No, no…that’s impossible.’ she panicked inwardly.
The chains only reacted when emotional imbalance increased.
Anaqielle noticed the light instantly.
For the first time since arriving, her playful expression faded slightly.
“Interesting,” she let out.
She stepped closer again, slower this time.
“Laliya,” she said quietly.
Laliya backed away immediately.
“Don’t.” The word came out weaker than she intended.
Anaqielle stopped.
The glow around Laliya’s wrist pulsed once more.
Brutally this time like a beacon, warning Laliya that the stain on her Lumen, if not removed immediately would continue to grow and end up ruining her path to ascension.
A dangerous silence filled the room.
Then the fallen Seren smiled again, but this time it looked smaller.
A little bit more genuine.
“Well,” she murmured.
“Heaven really did choose the right girl for their little game,” she said casually.
The hairs on Laliya’s skin straightened.
She heard Anaqielle’s words and felt panicked inside.
Heaven chose her?
For a game?
What game?
She had a billion questions to raise, but didn’t trust a Seren to be the source of her answers, so despite her worries, she kept her lips sealed.
Anaqielle withdrew her wings, they folded up and disappeared into her back.
Her halo and the cracks of light vanished from sight as well.
“Being heaven’s beloved. It must be nice,” she smirked, her eyes lowering to the pool of radiance next to the altar.
A dark form of her self, full blackened angelic wings, horns in place of her halo and darkness in the cracks on her skin reflected back at her.
She caught a glimpse of the darker version of the fate that awaited her.
Strangely, there was no change in her emotions as she saw darkness in her demonic eyes.
Anaqielle found the answer to the question she had before heaven’s message arrived.
“Do you actually want eternity…or are you simply too afraid to want anything else?”
‘It’s not that I want eternity.
I am just scared of the monster on the other end of my fate,’ she replied in her heart.
She had already caught a glimpse of that monster.
It was in every single one of her cold gazes, it was in moments when she’d go numb and not know how to feel and in the cruelty that was shaping in her heart.
“What sin did you commit to fall from heaven?” Laliya approached, curious about what could cut one’s place from paradise.
Luminars taught the way of life to secure her place in heaven.
They taught her consequence of indulgence in sin, but they didn’t speak of what sin those who’ve already secured their spot could do to lose it.
In fact, they didn’t speak of life after ascension.
Only that it was paradise everlasting.
Anaqielle looked over her shoulder, “Are you tempted?” She asked, not answering.
“I am just curious. What an angel would lack that they’d stoop as low as to sin and lose heaven’s favour.”
Anaqielle blinked.
“You’ll find out soon enough. I promise!”