The Fall

Chapter Two

The night melted away as the sun rose over the mountain, piercing through the windows of the temple. Alta was curled up in her chair, eyes locked on the book as she read through the pages. Though half of them were missing and the dialect was ancient, she gathered enough details to tell her there really was a way to help the Angel's get home.

She had stayed like that for hours, taking notes and cornering certain pages she wanted to go back to later when Alexander found her. "I thought you would be in here," he spoke, making her jump at the sudden intrusion of noise. "Why are you up so early?"

Alta felt a rush of adrenaline at the sight of her brother, "I haven't actually been to sleep at all," she admitted and held the book up when he opened his mouth to reply, probably along the lines of telling her that to function properly she needed eight hours of sleep a night. "I found this."

Alexander closed his mouth and took a step closer so he could see what she was holding, it was old and leather bound, the pages marred by time. "What is it?" He asked.

Alta grinned as she climbed to her feet, opening it to the page about ascending angels to heaven. "It's a spell, from what I can gather it's a way for you to get back home."

Alexander stared at the page, though he could not read it and then shifted his gaze to her, "Really?"

Alta nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, it has a list of ingredients and the incantation," she pointed it out, "but the bottom of the page has been ripped off," she ran her finger over the torn edge," there's one more ingredient but I don't know what."

Alexanders eyes lit up as he processed all of this, then gripped her by the shoulders and shook her excitedly, "Do you know what this means!" He exclaimed with a wide smile, "Alta if you can do this," he breathed out a heavy breath, "then we can go back to heaven."

Alexander's excitement was palpable, it was hard not to feel the same way for him, so she let him drag her out of the library and down to the court yard where the others were.

The courtyard was a quiet placed, closed in by four large lime stone walls with ivy that crawled up them in dense lines. In the spring bright with and pink buds appeared scattered through the green mess.

On warm days Alta liked to take her books out here and read rather than stay cooped up in the library, and the others like to come out here and think. It was at the front of the temple, with the mountain leering above it, casting shadows. There was a fountain, but water had stopped running through it long before she arrived there.

She often asked how exactly the angels found the temple, but they simple replied with an answer similar to 'it was divine fate' so often that she had stopped being curious and just accepted that this was their home and it was unimportant how they came to be there.

"Brothers," Alexander called as they came outside into the early morning sunshine, "sisters, Alta has found us passage back into heaven."

They all looked to them, eyes showing they didn't quite believe what he had said, they had, after all, been waiting for a way back home since the very beginning of time. Clara was the first to speak her doubt, "That is impossible," she said in a low voice that carried over to them, "the Knight's locked the gates."

Ezekiel stepped forward, "Clara is right," he said in a hard tone, "there is no way back."

Alexander groaned in impatience and held up Alta's hand that gripped the book, "She has found this."

Grace rose to her feet, "Is that.." She gasped as he came closer, "the book of angels."

Alta watched her sister gaze at the book as of it held the answer to all her prayers, "You know it?" She asked.