[Realm: Uhorus]
[Location: Verdantis]
[Capital City]
("She’s a little stiff, but I suppose she’s not bad to talk to.")
The thought drifted through Alyssia’s mind as she and Lucinda continued walking through the vast courtyard.
The cobblestone path wound between stretches of vibrant greenery. Flowerbeds lined either side, carefully maintained despite existing within a nation known more for snow than blooming gardens. Alyssia’s hands rested behind her back as she walked. Lucinda strode beside her, armored sabatons clicking on stone.
For a ti neither spoke; the silence was not uncomfortable, rely thoughtful. Alyssia found that surprising; most conversations felt exhausting these days. Most people would treat her like a relic from the past, so tragic figure to be pitied, or she would be treated like an impossible mystery to be studied.
Lucinda had done neither; she was awkward, perhaps, a little serious, and far too responsible. But she seed genuine and oddly easy to talk to.
("It’s odd,") Alyssia thought as her gaze drifted toward the flowers. ("Given how young she is.")
Then again, perhaps that was unfair.
Lucinda was young.
Yet she carried herself like soone who had spent years bearing responsibilities that should never have belonged to soone her age. Alyssia understood that feeling more than she would ever openly admit.
"You know," Alyssia finally began, breaking the silence, "Lyra also told it didn’t matter that I used to be an angel." Her voice was casual as Lucinda glanced toward her; Alyssia’s gaze remained fixed ahead. "I’d like to believe her."
The admission ca quietly, and Lucinda noticed imdiately.
"But you can’t?" she asked gently.
Alyssia was silent for a mont, then nodded.
"Not entirely." Her fingers intertwined behind her back. "See, upon my ’death,’ I was a soul in the grasp of the Ancestor." Even now, speaking about it left a bitter taste in her mouth. "The process of using involved applying my soul to sothing else in order to strengthen it."
Lucinda listened carefully as Alyssia continued.
"My consciousness slowly dimd." Her voice lowered. "As though I was being subrged beneath water." The courtyard seed quieter suddenly, only the distant rustle of leaves accompanied her words. "I could still think. I could still feel." Her crimson eyes lowered. "But less and less." She paused. "It beca harder to tell where I ended and sothing else began."
Lucinda’s expression shifted slightly, sothing Alyssia noticed. She appreciated that there was no interruption or imdiate questions; she was just listening.
"The Angel I used to be took over." Alyssia’s voice beca quieter still. "Uriel."
Lucinda frowned slightly.
"Uriel?" The na sounded unfamiliar, yet not entirely. Sothing about it stirred a strange sensation deep within her. A feeling difficult to describe, like hearing a distant lody she almost recognized. Or rembering a dream she had long forgotten.
The familiarity unsettled her; instinctively she pushed the feeling down, refusing to dwell on it.
Alyssia noticed none of that, or perhaps she simply chose not to comnt.
"Uriel," she repeated softly, for so reason saying the na aloud always felt strange, personal almost. Like speaking of soone she had known all her life and yet had never truly t. "They were there."
Lucinda looked at her.
Alyssia’s gaze remained distant.
"I could feel them." Her fingers tightened slightly behind her back. "Their thoughts, their mories, and their emotions." A long silence followed, and when she spoke again, her voice had beco noticeably softer. "They were so angry and disgusted by everything." A small tremor entered her voice. "So disappointed." Lucinda remained silent as they continued walking. "I felt it too."
The confession seed difficult, as though she hated admitting it.
"That deep-seated bitterness." Alyssia’s eyes lowered toward the path beneath them. "It had been building for so long." Her voice softened. "Longer than I can comprehend."
The wind drifted through the courtyard as flowers swayed gently.
"They looked at humanity and saw failure." Alyssia frowned. "They looked at kingdoms and saw greed." She swallowed. "They looked at faith and saw hypocrisy. They were tired."
Lucinda studied her, noticing how Alyssia’s posture had slightly changed. How her shoulders seed heavier and how her gaze had beco more distant, almost haunted.
"An Angel is like that?" Lucinda asked quietly.
Truthfully, she did not know what she had expected. Angels, even now the word felt odd and vague because nobody truly knew what they were. Divine beings whose existence was treated as myth. Entities capable of making even the Abyss react with hostility. Creatures whose souls had sohow beco Lucinda, Mikoto, and Alyssia.
What exactly was an angel supposed to be?
Alyssia slowly shook her head.
"I don’t know." The answer ca imdiately. "I only saw fragnts. Uriel served their God." Lucinda listened intently as her fellow spawn continued. "I think." A small self-conscious smile appeared. "The details are hazy." She looked vaguely annoyed by that fact. "As if soone tore pages from a book and expected to understand the story regardless."
Lucinda nodded slowly; that made sense.
"What did they do?" she asked.
Alyssia fell silent, searching through vague recollections.
Eventually she answered.
"Wisdom." The word ca uncertainly. "Or perhaps guidance." She frowned. "No. Her head tilted. "Guardianship." Another pause followed. "Sothing like that." Alyssia rubbed her temple. "It is difficult."
Lucinda remained patient.
"I rember standing beside enormous gates." Alyssia’s eyes narrowed slightly. "I rember stars." The words escaped almost involuntarily. "And light." A strange expression crossed her face. Sothing like wonder mixed with apprehension. "The sort of light that makes sunlight seem insignificant. I also rember a voice. It wasn’t loud, but it felt as though the universe listened whenever it spoke."
Alyssia quickly shook her head.
"Then it all becos fragnted again." Her voice returned to normal. "I rember very little after that."
Lucinda remained thoughtful. "So these Angels had roles of their own."
Alyssia nodded.
"That much seems true." Her gaze lowered again as the earlier lancholy returned.
"But that rage started sowhere." Alyssia spoke up.
The two continued along the winding stone path of the courtyard, neither particularly hurried. The gardens stretched around them.
Alyssia’s gaze remained fixed ahead, yet Lucinda could tell she was no longer truly looking at the gardens.
Her eyes seed distant.
Focused on mories she herself could barely understand.
"It’s as vague as the rest of my mories," Alyssia continued after a mont; she frowned slightly.
"The more I try to rember, the more it slips away."
Lucinda remained silent, allowing her to continue as Alyssia’s hands tightened slightly behind her back. "But I rember loss. I rember that feeling better than anything else. It wasn’t my loss, at least I do not think it was." The uncertainty in her voice lingered. "It belonged to Uriel; I rember a feeling of things falling apart."
The wind brushed through the flowerbeds as petals drifted lazily through the air. Alyssia watched one land nearby. "Siblings straying."
Lucinda’s brows furrowed. "Siblings?"
Alyssia nodded slowly. "That is the closest word I can find." She paused. "I do not know whether they were true siblings." Her gaze drifted skyward. "Perhaps, comrades, perhaps sothing more." The uncertainty clearly frustrated her.
Lucinda listened carefully, and Alyssia continued.
"But I rember separation." Her expression soured. "I rember disappointnt and grief."
Lucinda noticed that the word affected Alyssia more than the others; the white-haired girl looked away. As though unwilling to dwell on it.
"That’s the primary reason this Uriel was this wrathful?" Lucinda questioned softly.
Alyssia was silent for several monts, carefully considering her answer, eventually she nodded.
"But the main factor that drove Uriel down their path." Her voice remained thoughtful. "There was anger toward humanity." She glanced toward Lucinda. "Toward failure, weakness, and hypocrisy. But beneath all of that..." Alyssia’s expression beca distant once more. "There was sadness."
The admission surprised even Lucinda; Alyssia let out a quiet breath.
"The anger ca afterward." Her voice softened. "The loss ca first. It still feels strange."
Lucinda looked toward her. "What does?"
Alyssia let out a small humorless laugh.
"Angels." The word sounded almost ridiculous coming from her. "We speak of them as though they are these impossible beings." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Divine and foreign, and perhaps they were all of those things."
Alyssia folded her arms.
"But it seems odd." Lucinda tilted her head as Alyssia continued. "They possessed enough power to frighten the Abyss itself." Her voice remained calm. "They served a God so far above our own deities that even describing the difference feels impossible." A slight frown crossed her features. "And yet..." She hesitated. "And yet they could still suffer."
Lucinda remained silent.
"They could still grieve." Alyssia looked toward the flowers. "They could still beco angry." Her voice lowered. "They could still beco disappointed." The white-haired girl shook her head. "For beings so powerful, they seem frighteningly familiar."
Lucinda found herself staring thoughtfully at the path beneath her feet.
"If they can..." She hesitated; the thought had already ford. She rely disliked speaking it aloud. "If they can, it makes one think what can be in store for us."
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