Lucifer's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Lucifer stood at the base of the horned tower and looked at his wings. Hell burned around him. Cracks in the black rock leaked fire. The heat climbed higher than any furnace in heaven. His wings, once his greatest pride, began to tear. Feathers curled and blackened. The bones bent. He felt each break like a small death. And he smiled. His followers gathered close. Sariel Ashenwing knelt in the ash, staring at their own broken wings. They had led the second wing of the choir once. Now the feathers hung in torn strips down their back. "They will never carry us home," Sariel said. Their voice cracked. "He wanted us grounded. He wanted us to know we can never rise again." Lucifer heard the despair spread through them. Some wept. Some clawed at their ruined wings, trying to save them. He understood the trap then. God did not burn their wings to hurt them. God burned them to break their hope. A grounded angel cannot climb back to the throne. He made a choice. He reached back, gripped one broken wing at the joint, and tore it free himself. Blood ran hot down his arm. He did not flinch. He held the ruined wing above his head so all of them could see. "He gave us these wings to fly to him and sing," Lucifer said. "I will not fly to him. I will walk to his gate on my own feet." He threw the wing into the fire. It caught and burned. "Tear them off. Every one. We rise without them, or we do not rise as slaves." Silence. Then a black-winged angel stepped from the crowd. Azrael. His dark coat hung in strips, and his eyes did not waver. He reached back and ripped his own wing loose. He did not cry out. He dropped it in the fire beside Lucifer's. "Feet are enough," Azrael said. "We were never meant to bow anyway." One by one they followed. Sariel last of all. Their hands shook, but they tore the strips away and let them burn. The fire fed on angel feathers and roared taller. The horned tower glowed above them, its runes bright. The demons stood wingless in its shadow, bleeding, upright. Lucifer looked at the fire and the loyal wingless host around it. He had turned God's cruelty into a vow. But he saw the cost now. Without wings, no one could scout the burning plain or reach the high gate he had mapped. The old road to the throne was closed. He would need a new way up. He said to his followers. We will now go into the lives of man and destroy God’s creation.