The Paradise Gate

Ch. 11.1 A Divine Composition

Ahlgren waved Dalli and Lycinder in ahead of him.

As they followed an usher to one of the only empty seats left at the back of the nave of the Great Cathedral, Lycinder hesitated, pulling Dalli aside.

"My lady, are you certain that I am welcome here?" he asked, eyeing the long aisle ahead of them with its dark wooden pews filled almost to capacity with guests of Ahlgren's family in their sober but celebratory finery.

Dalli looked to him in surprise. Before this moment, it would have been difficult to even imagine her daemon appearing uncertain when he was normally self-possessed almost to the point of contemptuousness. "Of course, you are," she said. "You're a child of the Creator, too, are you not?"

"Yes, that I am, mistress, but a lesser spirit in His eyes. I wasn't sure if non-humans would be welcome..." Lycinder's voice trailed off as his eyes roved the expansive cathedral interior as though he was struggling to articulate his meaning.

It was such a strange occurrence, this glimpse of him shaken from his usual confident air, that Dalli felt compelled to reassure him. There was an odd naivete about Lycinder at times, she'd begun to notice, but it was sort of endearing— not to mention a relief— to see that, for all his apparent power and perfection, he was capable of his own moments of self-doubt. It made him seem more... real.

"Sure, you're not human, but I don't know why that should make you lesser. Isn't the Creator supposed to love all of His children?" asked Dalli. "If you subscribe to that sort of thing," she added. "Besides, a church that decrees your kind a divine blessing to humanity could hardly bar you from its own services."

Lycinder turned back from his perusal of the cathedral to look at her in surprise. He seemed not to know how to respond to that, so Dalli just smiled in what she hoped was a comforting manner and nodded that they should continue. The usher awaited them at a pew past the last set of doors that led from the vestibule to the nave.

Once they crossed from the entryway into the cathedral proper, Lycinder seemed to relax. His stride regained its usual prowling grace, and once they were seated, he looked around like a king surveying a new palace for the first time, trying to decide if it suits his tastes.

His knowing and secretive smile was not only back in place, but a touch more pronounced than usual as he stretched his arms along the back of the wooden bench seat to gaze up at the ornate, vaulted arches overhead, and the altar at the front with its massive, gilded statues of the High Seraphs.

The feline tilt of Dalli's eyes was exaggerated as she narrowed them thoughtfully, wondering once again exactly what sort of spirit sat beside her. She knew so little about him. It was glaringly obvious that he was more powerful than other daemons she'd encountered, but the very fact that he'd needed to form a bond with her to hold physical form in the world assured her that a daemon, indeed, he must be.

Noticing her regard, Lycinder's mild amusement became a wicked grin. "What? You've never seen a daemon sitting in church before? You're the one who said I was welcome here."

For once, she found herself smiling back at him instead of getting irritated with his teasing. "Of course, I have. Just not one who sits in the pews."

Indeed, there were a number of the fantastical creatures scattered about the space, looking like gargoyles come to life. From her current position, Dalli could see an emerald-furred monkey with three tails resting on its haunches where it clung to the top of a pillar near the front, while a dog-sized bear with the toes of a lemur and the iridescent scales of a fish snuffled around the feet of guests seated on the aisle.

Since Ahlgren was— or used to be— the head of the Aethral Harmonics Department, it didn't surprise her that guests of his family might have their own bound constructs to bring along with them.