Rain began falling before Anaqielle returned to the mansion.
By the time she stepped onto the balcony outside her room, the night sky had turned dark and heavy, thunder rumbling somewhere beyond the mountains.
She barely noticed.
Her mind was still inside the sanctum.
Still replaying blue-grey eyes widening beneath silver light in curiosity, and hearing the slight shake in Laliya’s voice.
“Don’t.” Laliya’s resistance felt like a joke to her.
Anaqielle pushed open the balcony doors and walked inside, black feathers trailing behind her across the marble floor.
Something about heaven’s message and Laliya felt wrong.
Even her reflection in the radiance pool hit a nerve.
She had corrupted countless souls before her fall.
Desire, loneliness and temptation was predictable.
Mortals were easy to unravel once you found the emptiness inside them.
But with Laliya, the girl had looked at her with fear and fascination.
That second emotion was dangerous because the same curiousity that kills a cat with nine lives has defeated gods, angels, demons and humans alike.
The fallen Seren removed her gloves slowly and tossed them onto the table beside the window.
The silver fractures beneath her skin flickered faintly again.
Her condition was worsening.
The mission had already begun affecting her.
A sharp knock suddenly echoed through the mansion.
Anaqielle frowned immediately.
Only one person knocked like that.
Three quick taps.
Pause.
And then two more.
“Annoying!” She groaned.
Without bothering to answer, she walked toward the doors.
The moment she opened them, a woman shoved past her dramatically.
“You took forever.”
Anaqielle sighed.
“You’re still alive. Disappointing.”
The woman dropped several soaked bags onto the couch before wringing rainwater from her dark braid.
Unlike Anaqielle, she looked far more human.
With warm brown skin, soft amber eyes.
Short black wings tucked beneath a heavy coat.
She didn’t have a halo or a lingering divine glow on her.
Only faint silver scars across her throat remained from what she used to be.
She flopped onto the couch dramatically.
“I hate storms,” she complained.
Anaqielle shut the doors behind her.
“You hate everything, Isa.”
“Correct.”
Isa glanced up suddenly.
Then narrowed her eyes.
“Well?”
Anaqielle blinked once.
“Well what?”
“The mission.” Isa sat up straighter instantly, excitement flashing across her face.
“Tell me you already met the holy maiden.”
Anaqielle said nothing.
Yes, she had met Laliya and Isa already knew about heaven’s mission because of their link.
Isa gasped.
“You did.” She nearly laughed.
“Oh, this is perfect.”
Anaqielle moved toward the liquor cabinet without responding.
Because deep down, she had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be as easy as it seemed.
Redemption, heaven didn’t offer that ticket without obstacles.
And it tickled her skin to imagine the cost of the ticket being dangled in front of her.
Isa followed her with her eyes carefully.
Then her grin slowly widened.
“You like her?”
Anaqielle almost crushed the glass in her hand.
“I met her once.”
“Love at first sight then, that was fast.”
“She’s interesting but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I am in love with her.”
Isa burst into laughter immediately.
“Interesting?” she repeated.
“That’s the word you use before ruining your own life.”
Anaqielle shot her a cold look.
“That was once.”
Isa only grinned wider.
Unlike Anaqielle, Isa had accepted falling long ago.
Once, she had served as Anaqielle’s attendant in heaven.
Under Heaven’s law, helpers tied to an angel shared their fate.
When Anaqielle fell, Isa fell with her.
At first, she hated Anaqielle for it.
Three centuries later, she mostly mocked her instead.
Isa leaned back against the couch.
“So?” she asked casually.
“How pure is she?”
Anaqielle poured herself a drink.
“Painfully pure.”
“Perfect.” Isa pointed at her immediately.
“Then stop looking miserable and corrupt her quickly. The sooner you paint her soul black, the sooner you can return to heaven.”
Anaqielle took a slow sip.
“You make it sound simple.”
“It is simple,” Isa replied.
“She falls. You go home. We go home. Period.”
The words settled heavily into the room.
Home.
For a brief moment, neither spoke.
Rain tapped softly against the windows.
Isa’s expression softened slightly.
“You still miss it,” she said quietly.
Anaqielle looked toward the moon again.
Of course she did, no matter how cruel heaven was… it was still her home.
Isa crossed her arms.
“You’re running out of time, Ana.” She said worriedly.
Only she still called her that.
“Your wings are getting worse.”
As if summoned by the words, pain suddenly burned through Anaqielle’s back.
Her expression tightened slightly.
A black feather drifted onto the floor beside her feet.
Isa watched it fall.
Then looked back up at her.
“If your grace fully collapses, there’s no restoring you after that.”
Anaqielle stayed silent.
Her mind not missing the cruel truth.
“You know what happens then, right?”
Yes, she knew.
What would follow is mindless decay, loss of identity and eventually becoming one of the hollowed creatures wandering beneath the world.
She would be neither angel nor mortal anymore.
Heaven wouldn’t accept her and earth wouldn’t host her.
Isa leaned forward seriously now.
“So listen to me carefully.” Her amber eyes sharpened.
“Do not ruin this chance because you suddenly grew a conscience.”
Anaqielle let out a humorless laugh.
“A conscience? Me?”
“You know what I mean,” Isa stood and walked closer.
“She’s human, Ana.” The words were blunt, cruel and something she needed to hear.
“She’ll die someday regardless of whether you intervene or not. But if you succeed now, you can finally stop suffering.”
Anaqielle’s jaw tightened faintly.
Isa lowered her voice.
“You spent three hundred years begging the sky to let you back in.”
Silence stretched out between them.
The heaviness of the moment settling deeply onto Anaqielle.
“Don’t start hesitating now just because the girl has pretty eyes.”
“I don’t care for pretty eyes,” Anaqielle said.
Isa scoffed.
“You and I both know that isn’t true. If it were, you wouldn’t have fallen in the first place,” she rubbed the truth in Anaqielle’s face.
Anaqielle let out a long sigh.
She set her wine glass down and walked away from the liquor cabinet and stroller across the room.
“Take what I say seriously. You know I am right, and you also know… I am the only one who’ll miss you when you fall to hell,” Isa’s words made her stop dead in her tracks.
“Not heaven, not earth, not even that holy maiden…only me.”
“I know,” she whispered.
Anaqielle collected herself and disappeared into a room at the end of the hall.