Love's Eternity

Prologue

Heavens Gate

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Darkness turned into the most brilliant light, and the light washed over the delicate waves of cloudsoil, and the mirror-like surface of the silver lake. A meadow of the whitest peony flowers basked in the everlasting light. All this created by the hand of a glorious God.
God then created the three hundred and eighteen million angels, brought out of inexistance and into the beautiful meadow. All of the angels bore magnificent, feathered wings, that took shape and color depending on the soul that beheld the wings. Their bodies were carved to perfection, the body of an angel was indestructible, but gentle. The angels brought to heaven by the hand of God were created to admire and adore the Throne.
God created the earth, one minute darkness, next minute a creation of glory. Mortal beings were created, and they walked the earthen soil below Heaven.
Heaven was a magnificent sight. Silver trees grew the most delicious fruit, and the scent of sweet nectar from the flower gardens blew around the limitless Heaven. The angels spent their days there, feasting and singing, singing of their adoration to the Throne, all together in one voice. This would later be called harmony.
God brought up from the cloudsoil eight other thrones, and called up the first eight angels in line to come forth and take the positions. Lucinda, the third spot from the throne, took the place and felt her heart swell with admiration for God.
It did not last.
God had left. He had much to create left in the universe, and he left his angels in Heaven while God himself created what was needed to be created. When he was no longer there, Heaven seemed colder and dimmer than with his presence. The angels started to see one another differently, the color of their wings changed.
Lucinda sat on her ledge, thoughts swirling in her mind. She tried to adore her Creator, God, while he was creating the universe, but she could not. His presence was not here. Lucinda felt a pang of loneliness strike her. God created the angels to adore him, so what could she do now that her Creator was not near?
Lucinda glances down, to see an angel roaming the cloudsoil. A lonely, empty angel. She curiously flew down to him.
The angel had wavy, auburn hair and icy blue eyes. But the angel was missing something, Lucinda thought. She could feel the stare of his icy eyes go straight into her own hazel ones. And Lucinda reached for him, and him to her, and that's when their souls came together.
God returned, for his creations were complete. He sat upon his throne, and it was so bright not even the eyes of an angel could peer at their beloved God. But Lucinda felt different. She felt like her adoration for God was replaced by something else, something bigger.
The angel with icy blue eyes' name was Lucifer. She stood with Lucifer on the cloudsoil, and she felt his lips press against hers, a feeling rushing through her body that she had never felt before.
They pull apart. This was the first time any angel has experimented with adoration beyond their Creator. Lucinda stares into Lucifer's icy eyes; he had a look of wonder, but look of hunger, a thirst for something more in his eyes.
"Tell me you adore me," he states.
"Adoration is for God." Lucinda felt a twisting in her stomach.
"No but this is different. This is love, Lucinda. Love is when you adore someone besides the Throne himself."
"I do not understand this love," Lucinda said. "I do not want to be greater than God." She did not understand the feeling of guilt, the feeling of wrongdoing in her gut.
Lucifer's icy blue eyes darkened. He spun away from her, with rage and anger rooting inside his soul. Lucinda sensed a change inside of him, and she started to fear him. She feared what love was. He only feared the thought of her leaving. He taught her that he was the Morning Star, and she was his Evening Light.
          Lucifer's perch which he sat upon next to the Throne was lowered. The light that once emitted beautifully from Lucifer, did not shine anymore.
Later, Lucinda sat in the meadow of peonies, crying. No angel had ever cried before.
She felt a wing cradle her body.
She wanted to be left alone, but this wing did the opposite. She felt that the angel that bore these wings knew what Luce needed better than what she knew herself.
Lucinda looked up at the new angel above her. He was beautiful, with brilliantly violet eyes, his skin glowing under the magnificent light from the Throne. His wings were the most magnificent shade of silver, and the most pure shade of white.
"Daniel," she knew him as the sixth Archangel, the Angel of the Silent Watchers, the Grigori. "What are you doing here? Why have you come to me?" She says.
He looks at her with a pang of sadness. "What is happening to you?"
No angel has ever seen another angel cry. Lucinda tilts her head towards his. "I think I am losing my light."
She tells him the whole story, the word "love" that Lucifer taught her. Everything poured out of her, and Daniel listened to every word.
When she finished, Daniel finally spoke. "I do not think this love that you have been taught is right. This love is not beautiful, like the love that we have for the Throne." His eyes shone with tears. "If I were yours, and you were mine, I would never take you over with my desire. I would love you as who you truly are."
And suddenly the two angels were kissing. This was much different to her, much better than the love that Lucifer taught her. Her body ached for Daniel, she felt love and adoration for him pour out of her soul as he embraced her with his mighty wings. The two souls together shone brighter than Lucinda's and Lucifer's had.
Later, Lucifer approaches her by the meadow. Lucinda had wanted to tell him about Daniel.
          "Will you come with me to declare our love to Throne? I can stand it no longer."
          She could not do it. "What you call love is not love Lucifer."
          "Let us make plans, Lucinda. Let us scheme for glory! Let us pledge allegiance to our everlasting love."
          "I cannot. How is that love? You adore your ambitions and dreams, not mine. I cannot love a soul so dark that it eats up other's light."
          And with that, Lucifer's rage had increased within his soul. He challenged the Throne to a Roll Call, for the angels to decide whether their allegiance lie with God, or Lucifer.
          Lucifer's grip pulled her through the meadow, but as soon as he started his speech, his distraction allowed for Lucinda to slip away quickly. She searched the meadow for the only soul that really mattered to her.
          Daniel.
          She sat with him, taking in his glorious light, until she heard his name called. He was next in the Roll Call.
          "With respect, I will not choose," he says calmly. "I will not choose Lucifer's side, nor will I side with Heaven."
          Whispers surround the meadow. The angels were shocked. Lucinda was stunned completely.
          He continued. "I choose love. I leave you to your war." He turns to Lucifer, "it is wrong of you to bring this upon us, brother."
          Then, to the Throne: "All that is good in Heaven and on Earth is made of love. Maybe that wasn't your plan when you created the universe—maybe love was just one aspect of a complicated and brutal world. But love was the best thing you made, and it has become the only thing worth saving. This war is not just. This war is not good. Love is the only thing worth fighting for."
          A look of utter shock was painted on all of the angel's faces in the meadow. They have not heard of this ever before.
          Luce's name had not been called, but she and Daniel were a team. She rises up with him.
          "There should never have to be a choice between love and You," Lucinda declared to the Throne. "Maybe one day You will find a way to reconcile adoration and the true love You have made us capable of. But if forced to choose, I must stand beside my love. I choose Daniel and will choose him forevermore."
          She turned to Lucifer, her first love. Without being honest with him, none of this would count. "You showed me the power of love, and for that I will always be grateful. But love ranks a distant third for you, far behind your pride and rage. You have begun a fight you can never win."
          "I am doing this all for you!" He cries.
          This was the universe's first great lie.
          Her love for Daniel towered over her fear for what was to happen.
          "My child, Daniel," the rich, steady voice boomed from the Throne. "You misunderstand. I am standing on my ruling out of love—love for all of my creations."

"No," Daniel said softly. "This war is about pride. Cast me out, if you must. If that is my destiny, I surrender to it, but not to you."

Lucifer's laughter was a foul belch. "You've got the courage of a god, but the mind of a mortal adolescent. And your punishment shall be that of an adolescent." Lucifer swept his hand to one side. "Hell will not have him."

"And he has already made plain his choice to forsake Heaven," came the disappointed voice from the Throne. "As with all my children, I see what is in your soul. But I do not know now what will become of you, Daniel, nor your love."

          "He will not have his love!" Lucifer shouted.
          "Then you have something to propose, Lucifer?" asked the Throne.
          "An example must be made." Lucifer seethed. "Can you not see? The love he speaks of is destructive!" Lucifer grinned as the seeds of his most evil act began to sprout. "So let it destroy the lovers and not the rest of us! She will die!"
          Gasps from the angels. It was impossible, the very last thing anyone expected.
          "She will die always and forevermore," Lucifer continued, his voice thick with venom.      "She will never pass out of adolescence—will die again and again and again at precisely the moment when she remembers your choice. So that you will never truly be together. That will be her punishment. And as for you, Daniel—"

"That is sufficient," the Throne said. "Should Daniel choose to stand by his decision, what you propose, Lucifer, will be punishment enough." There was a long, strained pause. "Understand: I do not wish this upon any of my children, but Lucifer is right: An example must be made."
          The last thing she remembered was clutching Daniel tightly when the cloudsoil boiled black. The ground dropped out from under them and the angels began their fugue, their Fall. Daniel had slipped from her reach. Her body had fixed into immobility. She lost him. She lost all memory. She lost herself.

•••

AN:
I hope y'all like my first chapter! (I know it's kinda long but oh well.) It's just a little fanfic of Luce's past lives. I'll try to update soon :)

-b