Evenstar (42 page)

Read Evenstar Online

Authors: Darcy Town

Ladriam kissed him.
 
With each touch and caress, new elements came into being beneath their feet.
 
He wrapped his wings around her and brought her close.
 
He wanted to be closer, to join with her once more, though he did not know how to do so.
 
Ladriam wrapped her arms around his shoulders seeking the same outcome.

Paimon, Berith, and Andrealphus came to hover in the air above them.
 
Sensing a change, Lucifer and Ladriam looked up.
 
The three Archangels gaped at her.
 
They recognized her at once as Lucifer’s equal.
 

Berith touched down first and tripped, put off by the planet’s physical form.
 
He regained his footing and bowed to them both.
 
“Primangels, a mighty task you have succeeded in.”

Lucifer drew back his wings and turned Ladriam to them.
 
“Ladriam, Primangel of the material.”

Ladriam smiled at the three.
 
“There are more of these angels?
 
Many more?”

Andrealphus came down to the earth.
 
He bowed.
 
“Do you not have your own Archangels?”

“I do not know.”
 
She pointed towards the darkness of the sky.
 
“I was that, the dark matter, Hell.
 
I had no body, no wings.
 
I was all, now I am apart.
 
But you.”
 
She looked at the four.
 
“Where are you from?”

Lucifer answered, “Heaven.”

“And there are more of you?”

“Yes.”
 
Paimon came down last.
 
He reached out to touch her arm in curiosity.
 
He sniffed her hair.
 
“There are the countless vastness of them.
 
Too many to know of, too many to recognize.”

Lucifer shifted his gaze from Ladriam to his Archangels.
 
“You three have changed.
 
You no longer act as one.
 
You are unique.”

Berith nodded.
 
“This act of creation has changed us as it has changed you.”

Lucifer touched his brow.
 
“He and I are separate now completely.”
 
He frowned, odd that the separation did not cause him discontent.

Andrealphus clasped his hands.
 
“His plan is wondrous.”

Ladriam danced away, leaving the four gaping.
 
They knew only song and flight, this movement of the body was foreign, exotic, and beautiful.
 
She smiled and leapt across the barren ground.
 
She called back to them, “You all speak to Him?”

The Archangels shook their heads.
 
Lucifer followed her.
 
“Just us two, you and I.”
 
He trailed her in leaps and bounds across the ground.
 
Nothing held more interest to him now.
 
He had no desire to return to Heaven, no desire to ponder the universe.
 
He wanted her, only Ladriam.
 
Thoughts of his disconnect with God were forgotten.

Berith touched the stone beneath his feet.
 
He sat down and picked at the shiny metal.
 
He formed and moved it, sensed its design.
 
He buried his hands in rock, fascinated with the physical material.
 
He built shapes in the stone, his smile as innocent as a child’s.

Andrealphus leapt from the ground into the atmosphere.
 
He folded his wings and fell, enjoying the sensation of gravity.
 
He leapt repeatedly; the experience of falling made him laugh every time he dropped back towards the planet.
 
“How strange this is!
 
Paimon, do you see?”

Paimon stared into the universe, unblinking.
 
The stars transfixed him.
 
He was entranced by the mathematical perfection of the bodies in the sky; he sought to know this perfection for himself.
 
He wanted to know it all.
 
He saw in equations, in numbers.
 
He understood how everything was, the rules and logic behind the elements.
 
He touched the things around him, measuring, calculating.
 
He followed Ladriam and Lucifer as they created new materials with each mutual touch.
 
The laws and rules changed around them, bent, and reformed.
 
He found their attraction to one another curious.

Lucifer chased Ladriam across the ground.
 
They ran into a boiling ocean.
 
They gaped and held hands as they dipped their toes into the liquid.
 
Ladriam laughed and splashed Lucifer.
 
He leapt into the air and carried her with him.
 
They skimmed the surface of the water and spiraled through it and back into the air.
 
Their laughter rippled across the surface of the water.
 
The combination of the sound created ice and steam.

Ladriam questioned Lucifer about Heaven, her questions and curiosity endless.
 
He spoke to her, told her everything he knew, unable to keep anything from her.
 
She told him of her place, the place known as Hell, the darkness, peace, and emptiness.
 
Lucifer and Ladriam regained their footing upon the land and shared a dance.

Dahlia felt their overwhelming love and excitement.
 
She couldn’t hold it all in.
 
It is undiluted, potent.

Furcas nodded, his attention fixed on Paimon.
 
Pure.

Paimon caught up with the two as they kissed.
 
He watched the mechanics of it.
 
“You are two parts of a whole.”

The two Primangels looked at him.
 
Ladriam nodded.
 
“I feel this is true.”

Lucifer ran his fingers across her bare skin.
 
“I want to be one.”

Paimon looked them over.
 
“How did join you before, when you created this?”

Ladriam looked at her hands.
 
“I do not know.
 
I did not have a body.
 
I was drawn to a light.
 
I thought the light was Him.”
 

Lucifer nodded.
 
“I too had no body.”

Andrealphus and Berith landed nearby.
 
Berith carried chunks of metal and he smiled.
 
“You have created wonders that will absorb attention for eternity!”
 
He bowed to Ladriam.
 
“You are a miracle.”

Andrealphus nodded.
 
“We should show you Heaven.”

Ladriam grinned.
 
“I would love to see it.”

Young laughter rang in the air above them.
 
They all looked up.

Furcas sighed.
 
Don’t laugh at my long hair.
 
It was a phase.

Three adolescent angels dropped to the ground, two rambunctious blondes, and a shy, reluctant brunet.
 
Dahlia recognized Furcas instantly.
 
Younger and beautiful, his eyes were large, and his lashes thick.
 
His brown hair ran down his back in waves.
 
He looked at his feet and stayed behind the other two.
 

Twin blonde boys jumped around on the planet beside Furcas.
 
They appeared similar in every way except one had two wings while the other had four.
 
Helion and Belial shared everything, their thoughts, feelings, and souls intertwined.
 
The twins were one in the same, yet separated into two vessels.
 

Helion held his brother’s hand.
 
“Belial has been made Archangel!”

Belial smiled wide-eyed and innocent.
 
He turned in a circle showing off the new set of blue wings.
 
“It was after the creation!
 
Helion and I were singing and they appeared!”

Lucifer perked up.
 
“I now have eight.”
 
He looked at Ladriam.
 
“As you have none of your own, do you want one?”

Ladriam did not understand him.
 
She smiled and held on to his arm.
 
“I have you!”

Andrealphus hugged the twins.
 
“This is wonderful!
 
What is your ward, Belial?”

“Innocence.”
 
Belial hugged Andrealphus, the two stayed locked in an embrace.
 
Belial flapped his four wings lifting the two off the ground.
 
He felt as light as air.
 
Helion danced around the pair, feeding off the happiness of his sibling.
 

Lucifer drew Ladriam over so that he could examine Belial.
 
He inspected Belial’s wings and halos with curiosity.
 
Paimon joined him and did the same.
 
Lucifer looked to Helion and Furcas, and introduced Ladriam.
 

In Andy’s arms, Belial fixated on Ladriam.
 
He let go of Andy gently and stumbled over, stupefied.
 
“Primangel, you are perfection.”

Ladriam looked over the boy.
 
“As are all of you.”

“No, you are more.”
 
Belial touched her hair, her skin.
 
He trembled.
 
“I wish to be as beautiful as you.”

Ladriam smiled.
 
She looked at Lucifer who nodded.
 
She cupped the boy’s face in her hand and kissed his cheeks.
 
Belial’s body shimmered, shifted.
 
The Archangel’s hair grew longer, silkier, her hips rounded, breasts formed, her lips pouted out.
 
Belial blinked, female.
 
Patterned on Ladriam’s body they could have passed for sisters.
 
Her wings stayed blue.
 
She remained Lucifer’s Archangel.
 
Ladriam let her go.
 

Belial looked down at herself.
 
She trembled in joy, her eyes seeking out Ladriam’s.
 
“Thank you, Primangel!”
 
She looked to her twin.
 
Helion gaped and grinned, caught up in her excitement.
 
The twins linked hands and ran in circles around the other Archangels.
 

Andrealphus stumbled after them.
 
He could not take his eyes off Belial.
 
He caught up with the pair and reached for Belial.
 
She let him draw her into an embrace.
 
Andrealphus ran his hands across her body.

She laughed at his expression.
 
“What is it, Andrealphus?”
 

“I…”
 
Andrealphus did not know what he felt, he wanted to hold her, not let her go.
 
He smelled her.
 
He did as Lucifer had and kissed her cheek, then her lips.
 
Belial closed her eyes and smiled, enjoying the sensation.
 
Helion stared at the pairing with curiosity.
 

Paimon watched them with interest.
 
He took in the nuances and touches, marking the process down methodically in his memory.
 
He saw rules change as the pair continued their embrace; equations and numbers filled his vision as he recorded their feelings.
 
He measured their sensations, but did not feel anything himself.
 
Nothing stirred in him.
 
His mind was comprised of a string of cold numbers and facts.

The young Furcas stared at Paimon with unconditional adoration.
 
He could not move.
 
The expression on his face caught between pleasure and pain.
 

Paimon looked up, sensing Furcas’ attention.
 
His eyes caught on the youth.
 
He stared without blinking.
 

Young Furcas blushed scarlet and dropped his eyes.
 
I was such a lovesick fool.
 
I admired and adored him.
 

What about him?
 
What did he feel?

I don’t know if he felt at all about anything at that point.
 
He was,
is
, odd.

What do you mean?

Each Archangel was an aspect of Lucifer.
 
Paimon was his intellect, he valued…recognized nothing besides that.

Furcas’ presence there did not make sense to Paimon, so he turned from the boy and ignored him.
 
He concentrated on his numbers, but his eyes sought him out again.
 
There was something off about him.
 
He stared at Furcas, considering this inconsistency.
 
That there was an inconsistency in perfection…it did not make sense.
 
But perhaps this was normal?

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