Evenstar (51 page)

We can switch back to my memories.

No!
 
I’ve had quite enough of the two of you.

Furcas laughed again.
 
You’re not going to get out of it entirely.
 
There are things you need to see.
 
Besides, you know you kind of want to.

No, I
don’t
.
 
I never thought of myself as a voyeur.

Ladriam and Lucifer finished imploding a gas giant and soared away.
 
Dahlia and Furcas were pulled along for the ride.
 
The Primangels oriented back on Earth.
 
The pair chatted and kissed.
 

Lucifer held her and his voice carried, “Then we became separated.
 
We used to be one mind then we became two.
 
We had conversations instead of communes.
 
I find it an interesting change.
 
This new change, total separation, it is interesting also.”

Ladriam twirled through space.
 
“I do not know of anything before the conversations.
 
I was not aware of being.”

Lucifer smiled.
 
“He gives me much to ponder between our talks.”

“Do you find some things confusing?”

“There are always things that I cannot comprehend.
 
Only He can understand all things.”

She sighed.
 
“I want to understand all things too.
 
I ask questions, sometimes He answers but—”

“You question Him?”
 
Lucifer frowned.
 
It had never occurred to him to ask questions.

Ladriam nodded.
 
“Of course, if I do not understand something.
 
That does not mean He always answers, but there is no harm in asking.”

He smiled at her.
 
“You are so unlike the others and I.”

“He said I was an individual.”

Lucifer mulled that over.
 
“Individual, yet part of the whole.”

“Yes.”

He pulled her into a kiss.
 
“And He let us meet to make this place.”

She frowned.
 
“I do not know if it was for that.”

“It has happened, no other reason can exist.”

Ladriam gazed into the universe.
 
“Maybe something else should have happened?”

He looked confused.
 
“Should?”
 
He thought over the concept, it was unfamiliar.
 
There was and there was not, things happened or they did not.
 
There was no value of whether something should or should not happen.
 
“If it has happened then He has willed it.”
 
He swept her into a hug.
 
“Share this with me, this
should
, it is an interesting concept.
 
I wish to know of it.”

“Ask Him to share it.
 
I do not know if it is my place.”
 
She kissed him and drew his attention away.
 
“You had a body before the creation?”

“Yes, in Heaven.”

“I had none regardless.
 
This joining has given one to me.”
 
She looked off into the darkness, her vision slightly troubled.
 
“Have you spoken to Him since the creation?”

“No.”
 
Lucifer flew.
 
“He always summoned me before.
 
I cannot reach Him.”

She looked away.
 
“I…let us go back to our planet!”

Lucifer smiled and grabbed her hands.
 
He burned with blue fire and they streaked away.
 
Earth came into view and the two hit an ocean, sending up a tidal wave.
 
They skimmed the surface and skidded to a stop on an empty beach.
 
The planet looked different, changed as things had grown and evolved as time passed.

Lucifer touched the sand.
 
“This is different.”
 

“Yes.”
 
Ladriam flipped him on his back and straddled him.
 
The area around them rippled with energy.

Seriously?
 
Again?

Come on, Dahl-face.
 
I actually do have something to show you this time that is not
just
sex.

The images shifted as they transitioned from her memories to his.
 
They moved across the planet.
 
Paimon and Furcas were locked in an embrace in the middle of a jungle.
 
The air was humid, heavy, the colors too bright.
 
Neon flowers and birds populated the foliage above.
 
Lucifer and Ladriam’s energy raced across the planet and made both angels look up.

Furcas wiped his brow and untangled his hair.
 
“They are back.
 
Fun!”

Paimon smirked.
 
“We have fun regardless of them.”
   

Furcas smiled.
 
“No, more fun now I think.”

Paimon raised an eyebrow.
 
“Oh
really
?”

“Yes, really.”

Paimon bit him in the neck.
 
Furcas kicked Paimon in the stomach and darted away, smiling.
 
Paimon hit a tree and shook himself off.
 
He sprinted after Furcas.
 
He ran faster and stronger.
 
He caught Furcas.
 
Paimon pinned him to the ground.
 
“You are letting yourself get caught.”

“Oh?”
 
Furcas batted his lashes.
 

Paimon embraced him.
 
The two became mindless as the world seemed to catch fire.

A glowing green light floated out of the earth and hovered near the two.
 
It watched for a time as they rolled, laughed, and cried out.
 
A foot appeared in the green light; a girl stepped out and stood on the ground, a bit wobbly.
 
She had large red eyes and dainty features.
 
At her back, two ghost pale wings fluttered in and out of existence.

Furcas looked up and gasped.
 
“Whoa!
 
Stop.”

“Stop?”
 
Paimon stopped, startled.
 
He followed Furcas’ gaze.
 
“Whoa!”

The little girl laughed.
 
The two angels sat up.
 
Paimon looked her over.
 
“What are you?”

Furcas pointed to her eyes.
 
“She has Ladriam’s eyes.”

The energy around them swelled again, making both angels sway.
 
A child of cloudy complexion formed beside the green one.
 
He opened his salmon-colored eyes.
 
Furcas pointed.
 
“Also Ladriam’s eyes.”

Paimon grinned.
 
“Maybe they are Ladriam’s Archangels?”

Furcas reached out to the cloudy child.
 
The boy smiled and jumped on him.
 
The green girl jumped on Paimon and scrambled to his shoulders.
 
“I am Gaea!”

Paimon smiled up at her.
 
“I am the Archangel Paimon.”

“I am the angel Furcas.”
 
Furcas smiled at the cloudy boy.

The boy grinned, his mouth black.
 
“I am Ouroboros!”

Gaea wiggled happily on Paimon’s shoulders.
 
“Where are Mommy and Daddy?”

“Mommy and Daddy?”
 
Paimon said the words aloud.
 
“Do you mean Ladriam and Lucifer?”

“Yes!”
 
Both children said together.

Paimon and Furcas shared a gleeful look.
 
Paimon pointed out of the jungle.
 
“We shall take you to them!”
 
Gaea held on to Paimon’s red hair and kicked her heels on his chest.
 
His skin took on a green tint at her touch.
 
He ran, flapped his wings, and jumped in soaring bounds.
 
Gaea shrieked in glee.

Furcas watched them with a smile on his face.
 
Ouroboros jumped off Furcas’ back and walked beside him.
 
They held hands.
 
Furcas hummed a melody for the children and they smiled, rapt.
 
He looked at Paimon.
 
“Do you think there are more like them?”

Paimon nodded.
 
“Probably.”

Furcas grinned.
 
“Bet I find the next one first.”

Paimon looked him over.
 
“You are on.”

They passed by a lake and a little girl leapt out in a rush of water.
 
She plowed into Furcas and his mass knocked her back, sending up sea foam into the air.
 
He helped the girl up.
 
“Are you all right?”

She looked at him with burgundy-colored eyes.
 
“
Nicetomeetyou!
”

“First.”
 
Furcas smiled at Paimon, and then pointed to the children.
 
“Are these are your siblings?”

She grinned.
 
“Yes, I am Leviathan!”
 
She linked hands with her brother Ouroboros and the group walked alongside the shoreline.
 

Paimon squinted, waiting to find the next child.
  

Berith, Andrealphus, and Belial landed beside them.
 
Andy linked hands with a boy of gray with indigo eyes.
 
Belial held a girl of midnight blue with opal eyes.
 

Berith carried three children that scrambled across his body.
 
The first was a brown and silver boy with cherry-red eyes.
 
The second was a boy of fire with azure eyes.
 
The third was a child of light.
 
The child in light was too bright to make out clearly besides her neon blue eyes.
 
Andrealphus introduced them, “Chronos, Nix, Titan, Ifrit, and Ra.
 
Who are yours?”

Paimon answered, “These are Gaea, Ouroboros, and Leviathan.”

Gaea stood up on Paimon’s shoulders.
 
“I was first.
 
I am eldest.”

Chronos stuck his tongue out at her.
 
“I was second!”

The rest of the children got their order figured out as the angels watched in delighted awe.
 
Gaea watched over her siblings.
 
“Where are Mommy and Daddy?”

Lucifer and Ladriam dropped out of the sky.
 
Lucifer pointed.
 
“I thought something was strange.”

Ladriam gasped.
 
“Lucifer, they are ours!”

“We created them?”

“Yes!”

Lucifer took in their appearance.
 
A smile graced his lips.
 
He hugged Ladriam and kissed her.
 
“They
are
ours.”

The children rushed their parents.
 
Ladriam swept as many as she could into her arms.
 
She let them drag her to the ground.
 
Lucifer picked up the extras.
 
He stared at Ifrit.
 
The boy belched fire in his face.
 
Lucifer smiled and blasted him right back.
 
The boy laughed and shot fireballs into the sky.
 
Lucifer stared at his son, feeling something different from when he had made his Archangels.
 
He hugged the boy tight.

Nix and Belial chased each other.
 
Belial laughed and swept up the little girl into her arms.
 
Ra jumped on Belial’s back.
 
Belial opened her wings and carried darkness and light into the sky.
 

Ouroboros spun in a whirlwind.
 
He lost his angelic body and changed to a serpent.
 
Leviathan watched him and did the same.
 
The two beasts saw one another and leapt at each other in a flurry of water, wind, and laughter.
 
They ran into Furcas and pulled him down into it.
 

Berith ran by chasing Titan.
 
The boy sank into the earth only to come up behind Berith and pelt him with stones.
 
Berith smiled and ran back the other direction.
 
“I will get you!”

Paimon wandered between groups until he came to Lucifer’s side.
 
He knelt down.
 
“I am apologetic for the time before.”

Lucifer nodded.
 
“You have changed, learned.”
 
He squeezed Ifrit and set the boy down as he looked over his Archangel.