In Their Eyes ((Shade's NaNo))

[Shadaras]

30,000th word: God. (“The angel who rebelled against God.”)

I admit to writing that specifically to make it line up like that, however. And don't ask me why Ri and Lucifer are discussing this. I don't know either.

Edit: Also, this is on the 42nd page. That amuses me even more.

[Shadaras]

Right. I was thinking about In Their Eyes, and determined a few things.

I-- I have no idea how long this is going to be, but Angels is probably going to end soonish.
II-- I'm going to write a prelude to all this once I finish Dies Irae. Assuming I do so before NaNo ends, of course.
III-- This prelude is going to be about the Angel Experiment and written in third person, since I'll be sick of first person by then and I don't think TAE is a story that can be told in first person anyway, since the scientists die, Lucifer isn't old enough for a while.. yeah.
IV-- I have no idea what I want to call this prelude. Other than In Their Eyes - Prelude - Lucifer (The Angel Experiment). Other options are Path to Heaven (which I don't get) and Light Bearer. So yeah.

Anyway, back to Angels, I'm stopping for the day. End word count: 30,105.

And since I have a really short chapter, I'll share it with you. Don't ask what's referenced at the beginning. I'm sure it's possible to figure out, anyway.

SPOILER: Click to show

Lucifer left me alone for weeks after that. I avoided Yuri as much as I could, though I knew he was worried about me. Thadd asked us what had happened, but neither of us told him. Eventually he dropped the subject, though he watched us. It was autumn when I finally apologized to Yuri, having decided that if I hadn’t gone crazy yet, I wasn’t going to. He laughed, and everything went back to normal. Well. Almost. I refused to get an adjustment at the same time as he did. It made it easier, having some time away from everyone to adjust to it.

It was after the next one of those that Lucifer finally visited me again. I was sitting in the forest, just taking in the colors and avoiding the final decision that had to be made before winter came and Yuri and I took our places as Angels and agents. Thadd had chosen to stay an extra year and wait for Keya. I didn’t mind it. I preferred having Yuri, who I knew and trusted. And we still hadn’t chosen our assignment. Neither of us spoke it, but I knew we both thought it. We wouldn’t come near Phoenicia, if it was possible.

Lucifer appeared without warning, as usual. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said, resting a hand on my shoulder.

I looked up at him, smiling. “It’s the colors of fire and darkness.”

“And those are beautiful.” He sat beside me. I watched the ends of his wings flicker and fade, the fire leaving until Lucifer wasn’t in danger of burning down the forest. “Adrian, where are you going to go?”

“Into space.” I shrugged. “Yuri and I are probably going to become spacers. He knows the business, and I can find the words to charm people into using our services.”

Lucifer laughed. “I can see you two doing that,” he said. “But you won’t use your own name. Whose will you use?”

“Not Tuan’s,” I said firmly. I’d decided that years ago. “I’ll use Kaz’s. Adrian Cassiel Sokoll.”

“Cassiel?” Lucifer said, lifting an eyebrow. “Interesting choice.”

“It fits. You must admit that.”

“Oh, I know. The angel of tears, solitude, and temperance. One of the angels called an archangel. How long did it take you to find his name?”

“Not that long, once I started looking in the right places.” I put my arm around Lucifer, pulling him closer. “Does it matter that much?”

“In a way.” Lucifer fell silent, his head resting on my shoulder. I could feel him breathe, his slender frame weighing almost nothing against me. Leaves fell gently from the trees and the wind barely kissed my face. It was a perfect autumn day, in all the ways that mattered.

“Yuri wants to call our ship Malak,” I said, breaking the silence. “Messenger. Angel.”

“It’s a good name. Especially for you two, I think.” Lucifer sighed. “Dreams are interesting, don’t you think?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Ask me in another ten years. Then you might know.” Lucifer pulled away from me, standing. “Or maybe you’ll have forgotten this day by then. Who knows?”

“Hyperion,” I said sarcastically. “And possibly the unknown God that supposedly rules over everything.”

He laughed. “True enough. And I suppose that I have some of the Phoenix’s power, since he drew me back from death. So does that mean I know the future?”

“No, you’re just Jesus, sent to spread the word of God to all the unbelievers.” I grinned. “The stories are rather similar, you know.”

“Or Moses. That one’s pretty close.” Lucifer tilted his head. “Sort of, anyway. Or I could just be Lucifer.”

“The angel whose sin was pride,” I said. “The angel who rebelled against God.”

“No.” He stepped closer, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Lucifer, who broke the Angel Experiment. Lucifer, who became immortal due to beings that shouldn’t exist. Lucifer, who loved only those he shouldn’t.”

“Lucifer,” I added softly, “the immortal angel trapped in the body of a child.”

“That too.” Lucifer smiled at me for a moment before turning and spreading his wings. With a leap, he began flapping them, sending all the fallen leaves into the air. I watched him fly off, a dark blotch against the pure blue sky. He was dark, yes, but he was beautiful. And above all else, he was mine.

[Shadaras]

End word count: 36,056.

Six thousand words today. =D ..yay for crazy scenes that allow me to let characters talk a lot. Best example below.

SPOILER: Click to show

“You should have made it though the Phoenix by now,” Lucifer said. “I doubt you would have bothered to check your computer before leaving. But if you did, oh well.” He paused, voice becoming gentler, more musing. “Raphael, I called you. Raphael, I called you one final time before you left. Raphael, after the healer of the angels. Isn’t that what you are, at your core? You can’t stand to hurt others. You proved that to me, if not to anyone else. So Raphael I shall call you for the rest of this.

“You are the only person I can truly say I loved. Does that surprise you? There are others it would, but I doubt you are one of those. No, to you it would be a surprise that others would even think I could love someone. I don’t seem like the type. But you have only known me through the stories told about me and through nine years of odd relations. You haven’t seen me when I’m around those I named Archangels.” He laughed. “Yes, you would be one of them, if you were still here. You will be one of them, when you tire of traveling the solar system. You would be given wings, just as Zaman has. Except for you, I would ask you to dance the Phoenix-song and see if Hyperion would gift you with the wings of fire you rode on yesterday morning.

“Yes, I watched you. I danced with you then. Yuri saw us, I think. I don’t know what he saw, but he saw us. I know what I was Hyperion taking your body, since you had connected it with his song. He gave you those wings. He flew them for you. And he gave you that feather. Do you still have it? Keep it with you. It will help. I know what going through the Phoenix can do to normal people. It’s not pretty. You, who was knocked into nightmares last time, you have a harder time than most. But leaving should be easier, and you’re more used to the Phoenix now. The feather adds another layer of protection.

“I don’t know if all that will help you when you come back. And you will. You’ll find a child who must be trained and bring that child here. And then I’ll try and convince you to stay. Who knows where that will go? I certainly don’t. Neither do you. Not yet. If everything goes well, however, you’ll stay here with me. That’s what I want. Maybe it’s what you want. I don’t know. Despite what everyone says, I don’t know everything. You knew that from the beginning, though. Though I know more than most people, that’s just because I’ve lived longer and because I get told everything interesting that happens on Phoenicia, as well as in the worlds outside. Along with some of the not so interesting things.

“I don’t know what else to say. There’s more I should say. I know that. But I can always get a message to you, if I need to. You can do the same. Raphael, I trust you. I trust you more than just about anyone else, when you get down to it. You could ask almost anything of me, and I would do it for love of you. Use that wisely, dearest. I don’t want my trust to be misplaced.” Another pause. “If you were here, I’d kiss you. But you aren’t. So imagine it, would you? Goodbye, Raphael. I’ll miss you. But I know that you’ll come back in time, with more than you left with. I just hope coming back doesn’t destroy you.”

[Shadaras]

Right. So today I need to hit 40k to hit my goal. Fun. And I might actually get to Part II today. And in Part II, I've decided to change one thing. Instead of the end being when Luke's eighteen, it's when he's thirteen. Just because I find the idea of Ri sort of not really shooting Lucifer funny. Even though he'll absolutely hate it. And, of course, I still have no idea if Ri's going to survive that scene. I won't know until it's over, honestly.

..I should go write. Yes.

Edit: I have determined that Venusi shuttles look like dragonflies. Simple because I described them as insects and it fits. And I think that'd look really pretty.

EditEdit: This was fun to write.

SPOILER: Click to show

Clouds spun around the wings, swirling and making patterns that I watched avidly as we descended into them. They were beautiful to see, and nothing like the clouds of Phoenicia. These were colored in odd ways, and they covered everything, making it impossible to see more than the wings that broke them into shreds. The wings themselves were beautiful to look at, though. They were thinner than seemed possible and covered with tiny panels, probably to make sure they were acid-resistant, but the panels shone to make the wings beautiful.

The shuttle wove through the clouds, spinning in odd ways sometimes, but always heading down, deeper into the clouds. When something finally came into view, I caught my breath. Kaz had told me of the floating cities of Venus, but his descriptions were nothing compared to the reality. Even what small part I could see was magnificent. Each pod was the size of a house, at least, and they were all bound together by a delicate structure of lines. It was beautiful. Each strand that kept the pods attached to their floating bubbles and to each other shone brightly, even in the clouds that kept the sun from reaching Venus easily. The dark colors of the pods made then easily visible against the clouds, and as the shuttle swooped in closer, heading for one of the largest pods, I saw the multitude of other vehicles swarming around the city.

The most easily visible were the shuttles, which looked like giant dragonflies. They buzzed around, soaring in complex patterns around the pods. Smaller insects looking more like flies were everywhere, creating dark clouds at times and existing only as specks at others. Spider-like vehicles danced over the lines that connected everything, some even weaving new ones by leaping out into the air and being blown to their destination by the wind. It was amazing, beautiful, and like nothing I had ever seen before. I wanted to stay and learn the ways of the Venusi cities, but that wasn’t an option. It was a surprise, in a way, that anyone ever left such beauty.

But then, there were those who would say the same of Ganymede and our sweeping buildings and pastel colors. What you’re used to doesn’t seem amazing anymore, and instead seems utterly normal. The shuttle slowed, gliding towards a large, open building. The plaza I figured we were heading for was covered by other vehicles, and I wondered how we were going to land there without crashing into one of them. Watching them go by beneath us, slowly growing closer, I gained a lot of respect for the pilot, especially when, with a flurry of the wings, we set down perfectly in an open space.

[Shadaras]

40,000th word: Lucifer. ((But when I got back to Malak, I promised myself, I’d send Lucifer a message and ask him.))

Yeah, I lined that one up too. xD ..it was difficult.

SPOILER: Click to show

When we got to Mercury, however, and landed at the same crater as I’d gone to last time, I stirred from the diagrams and actually got a fair amount of sleep. The next morning, I went out alone. The crowds didn’t seem so bad, now that I was tall enough to see over a fair number of them. I followed faded memory and instincts, trying to find Haziah. She wasn’t easy to find. She wasn’t that hard to find either, since as soon as I found the market, I knew I was in the right place. The red and blue cloth had faded and was patched, but I still recognized it and the woman who sat inside.

“Sun and sweet water to you,” I said, bowing. “Would you be Haziah Chaikin, Earth-Speaker?”

“I would be.” Haziah bowed, seeming even older than before. “Enter, Bright-Dancer, and be welcome. What brings you here?”

“This,” I said, holding out the phoenix feather.

She nodded, taking it from my hand without any sign of surprise or worry. “So it is as we told him.” She sighed. “I pity Dark-Angel, now that this has come into play.”

“Dark-Angel?”

“You know him.” She didn’t glance up. “You know him very well.”

“Lucifer,” I said softly.

“Just so.” She looked up at me, face grave. “Next time you see him, tell him that what the Earth-Speakers have prophesied is coming to pass. He will remember.”

I nodded. “Anything else?”

“Come back here in eight years or so. There will be someone here for you then.” She tilted her head slightly, staring into space. “Yes. That would be all. And if you return to your friends, you’ll find a pair who wishes to come with you. Trust them. They won’t harm you.”

I bowed again, taking the feather back. “Thank you, Earth-Speaker.”

“Sun and sweet water, Bright-Dancer. Travel safely.”

[Shadaras]

End wordcount for Day VIII was 41,003, by the way. Didn't quite have time to post that, seeing as I had a sleepover between yesterday and today. xD ..so I ended yesterday at 4:10. Which makes that word count (5k-ish) fairly impressive. So yeah. Let's see how much I get done today.

..and soon I will go from Part I to Part II. Soon. I think.

[Shadaras]

45,128 words and twenty chapters. Now I go from Part I (Angels) to Part II (Dies Irae). Joy. I get to reset the chapter numbers, though. xD ..that's a good thing, at least. And I'm only slightly disappointed that Angels didn't get 50k. But this is fine.

SPOILER: Click to show

I didn’t see anyone the next day. Or the next. Or until we reached the next planet. And even then, I only saw them because I flat-out refused to leave the ship and enjoy myself. Ganymede was my birth planet, but that didn’t mean I wanted to visit. I really didn’t want to visit, in fact, especially since I recognized the spaceport we’d set down it. It was the one I’d left from, years ago. So people around here would recognize me. Or at least, they’d have a chance of it, since they’d probably recognize my name, and from there, wonder about it.

And besides, last time I’d checked, the news that Adrian Carstien had been kidnapped was a sore spot between Ganymede and Uranus. I didn’t want to make it any worse. It might get better if Ganymede could celebrate my return, but then they’d force me to stay, and I didn’t want that. I really didn’t want that. If I was forced to stay in any place for longer than I wanted, I’d either kill myself or everyone in the way of my desire to go elsewhere. So while everyone else left to enjoy themselves somehow or another, I sat in my room, both hoping for and fearing the coming of a message from Lucifer.

But even with all I’d said about staying inside, it didn’t take very long before I just sighed, stood, and scribbled a short note. I left the note in the main room, sitting on the central table, and then left Malak, walking through the short tunnel that connected Malak’s hatch to the main spaceport. I didn’t look around until I was in the spaceport, and even then, I just relaxed and let the crowd carry me towards the exit. The pale skin of Asterworlders was prominent, and I blended in here much better than I had ever since I left.

Outside, finding a free bubble was a challenge, but it was one I didn’t mind. The sight of bubbles wasn’t something I’d missed, but it was another element of home. When I finally got in one, I automatically entered the address of my house. Of Rhianne’s house, rather. When the bubble started moving, I almost wiped the address and entered another, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d want to go. Looking out the sides of the bubble, at the place I had called home, I wanted to run away, but at the same time, I wanted to go back to how it used to be. I wanted the days spent dancing, the days spent with Kaz and Tuan, and, most of all, the days when Mom and Dad were still alive.

The closer the bubble got to Rhianne’s house, the tenser I got, until the bubble stopped, letting me out. I stood outside the door, uncertain. I didn’t even know for sure that she still lived here. I assumed it, because Mom had told me that the house had stayed in her line for generations, but I couldn’t know for sure. Not until I actually touched the door and announced myself. But I didn’t want to do that. So I stood there, waiting, hesitant, until I finally just touched it lightly.

It wasn’t anything more than the brush of a fingertip, but the door opened. I closed my eyes for a moment before stepping inside. It was still laid out as I remembered it. The exact decorations weren’t what I remembered, but I hadn’t expected those to stay the same. “Rhianne?” I called, my voice echoing through the house. The door closed behind me, cutting me off from the outside. I felt trapped, but I held my ground, waiting for some sign of life in the house.

Soft footsteps came from the direction of the stairs. I smiled. Of course she’d be up there. She always was. I stepped across the soft rugs, heading for the hallway Rhianne would need to come through. I caught sight of her before she saw me, and suppressed my shock at how she looked. She’d never looked as young as Mom had, but the nine years since I’d last seen her had aged her more than I thought. “Hi,” I said quietly as she registered who I was. “I’d wondered what you’d think, seeing me again.”

“Why are you back?” she asked, sounding afraid. “I thought they’d taken you away and killed you.”

I sighed. “Rhianne, they would never have done that. Never. Do you know why? Tuan, not Aaron, is my father.” I advanced, running a hand along the wall. “They didn’t tell me that for almost a year, of course, but it answers some questions, doesn’t it?” I smiled softly. “My coloring, for one. Why Tuan spent so much time with me. Why Tuan and Mom were so close. Everything becomes clearer.”

“Where did they take you?” Rhianne didn’t move any closer, but she didn’t back up, either. And she sounded more angry than afraid, now. “The Sisters said they had no idea where you were.”

“They were telling the truth. But even if I told you where they took me, you wouldn’t believe me.” I leaned against the wall, sighing. “Rhianne, the place they took me was like old Earth. Not Terra as it is now, but old Earth. It was beautiful.”

“Then why come back? I could have lived without knowing what had happened to you.”

“You could have survived,” I corrected. “Not lived. Not truly. And I couldn’t have really gone on with life without coming back. Besides,” I added, grinning, “they sort kick us out of school after we’re eighteen or so, and after that we get to go out and do whatever we want.”

And that conversation keeps going and I don't feel like having it all here. But it was fun writing Rhianne again. I'll come back to Kaz and Tuan eventually, I hope. Yeah. Right.

[Shadaras]

End wordcount for day IX: 47,530.

Tomorrow I hit 50k. This is assured.

SPOILER: Click to show

In Their Eyes

Part II: Luke (Dies Irae)

Chapter I

Eight years, it had been. Eight years since Haziah had told me to return. And Mercury hadn’t changed a bit. Oh, the exact composition of dirt and grime had changed, but it was still dirt and grime. The stalls in the marketplace were different, but the shouts for attention were the same. And Haziah’s blue and red cloth was patched and probably made of different fabric, but it was still there, just as it had been eight years ago, just as it had been eighteen years ago. Haziah hadn’t changed either, so far as I could tell.

“Sun and sweet water,” she said. “Bright-Dancer, come in.”

I bowed to her. “May your days be long and bright, Earth-Speaker,” I said, entering. “Eight years ago, you told me to return, and now I have. What is it that you brought me here for?”

“I brought you here for him.” Haziah pointed to a child sitting off to the side. “He is part of Dark-Angel’s plan, and though he is not like you, he is like Acid-Walker in many ways.”

“What is his name?” I asked, studying the child. He wasn’t anything special, so far as I could tell. The only thing of note was his pale skin. It, like mine, stood out among the darker Mercurites. “And he is from here, isn’t he?”

“His name is Luke. I call him Light-Bringer.” I stared at Haziah, not quite believing what she had said. Haziah smiled slightly. “Yes. Luke. Just as you call Dark-Angel Lucas at times, so do all call Light-Bringer Luke.”

“Lucifer,” I whispered. “What fortune brings that name upon him?”

“Look at him,” Haziah said, lifting an arm. The bright clothes she wore fluttered as she moved, making her fragile frame seem larger than it was. “Look with your eyes and your heart.”

I looked. And as he turned towards us, I saw what he looked like. Pale face. Green-gold eyes that didn’t seem quite right. Black hair that almost shone red. Added to his black clothing, he looked almost exactly like Lucifer, assuming Lucifer didn’t have wings. I turned back to Haziah, trying not to keep glancing at the kid. “Where did he come from?” I asked harshly. “Does Lucifer know?”

“He was born to Mercurite parents. They gave him to me, thinking him cursed.” Haziah sighed. “They weren’t far from wrong. And as far as Dark-Angel knows, the prophesy we gave him centuries ago is proceeding. He doesn’t know the exact way it takes, but he knows. You told him.”

“I passed on your message.” I wrenched my eyes back from the child. “What do I have to do with the kid, anyway?”

“Everything. You’re taking him with you.”

If I hadn’t been sitting in front of her, kneeling as was proper. If I hadn’t been in her home. If I hadn’t been able to see him so well. If those hadn’t been true, then I might have been able to voice the protest that rose up in my throat. As it was, I just stared at her, mute.

She laughed softly. “Bright-Dancer, do you fear a child?”

“I fear myself,” I said honestly. “I fear the Phoenix’s curse.”

Haziah laid a cool hand on my forehead. “Do not fear. Light-Bringer has Acid-Walker’s resistance to you.”

“Light-Bringer has Dark-Angel’s attraction, as far as my side of things goes,” I murmured. “Don’t expect me to be able to care for him perfectly, with that riding in my mind.”

“Bright-Dancer, Light-Bringer can take care of himself. He is like you in that way. Ask Dark-Angel about why you were born.” She smiled. “The answer may be most enlightening.”

I sighed. “I will do the best I possibly can, Earth-Speaker. Would you please introduce me to Luke?”

Haziah called Luke over, though I couldn’t understand the words she used. Luke bowed to me when he came over, kneeling next to Haziah. “You are the one Mother calls Bright-Dancer,” he said quietly. “It is an honor to meet you.”

I shivered at his voice. Even that was a near-perfect match for Lucifer’s. Soft and clear, with passion in every syllable. It had never failed to get to me, and Luke’s voice was no different than Lucifer’s in that respect. “It is an honor to meet you, Light-Bringer,” I said, bowing. “Your name promises much.”

“Does it?” Luke smiled. “I never thought of that. And you can call me Luke, if you want. Most people do.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. He was so innocent. He reminded me of myself, in a way. Before I went to Phoenicia, at least. “Very well, Luke. And you can call me Adrian or Ri. Most people do.”

Haziah touched Luke’s knee, and the kid looked at her. Something passed between them, I knew, but I couldn’t tell what. Whatever it was, Luke bowed once more, silently, and retreated. Haziah looked at me, eyes boring into me. “You hear the power of his voice.”

“I hear the power of Lucifer’s words.”

“You hear what you are meant to hear, Bright-Dancer.” She smiled. “That name will change soon, however. Your light will fade beside Dark-Angel and Light-Bringer.”

“Who will I be, then?”

“Cassiel.”

I closed my eyes, trying not to react. “I chose that name for myself eight years ago,” I said, my voice a monotone. “Why only call me by it now?”

“Would you prefer Tears-of-Love?” Haziah said sharply. “Those were the options. Cassiel is what you call yourself, as you say, and so Cassiel you are named.”

“Will you tell Luke?”

“Will you?”

“Not unless I need to.” I shrugged, uncomfortable. “He isn’t going to call me Bright-Dancer all the time, right?”

“You asked him to call you Adrian or Ri, so he’ll choose one. Likely Ri, once he gets to know you.”

I sighed. “How long until I can take him to Malak?”

“He’ll be packed shortly. He doesn’t have much, and you’ll need to teach him about computers.”

I laughed, thinking of what Kay and Nell would do to him when they found out he didn’t know how to use their precious equipment. “How old is he, anyway?”

“Eight. And yes, you will need to take him to Phoenicia when he turns ten.”

“When’s his birthday, then? I may as well do this right.”

“It’s in September. Is that enough for you?”

I nodded and didn’t speak again. Haziah seemed content to leave it at that, and my mind was churning with thoughts. Mostly about Luke, though Lucifer and Yuri were in the mix too. Most of the thoughts about Luke centered on how like Lucifer he was. The others were in the ‘how does this make sense’ category. I was definitely going to take Haziah’s advice on what to ask Lucifer, but that I could wait on for a little while, at least. The question of how to introduce Luke to everyone else was far more interesting. With Yuri, I could just say ‘don’t ask’ and ‘Haziah’ and he’d get it.

Nell I didn’t worry about. Johan would go along with it, so long as he eventually got an explanation. Kay was a wildcard, as always. But Johan could convince her, assuming I convinced him. And I would. It would just take some time. Time that I probably had, I admitted. We weren’t leaving Mercury for another few days, after all, and until then, nothing was absolutely set in stone for them. I knew what I wanted. Luke would join us and everyone would accept it and get used to it.

Luke came out of an alcove, a bag slung over his back. I glanced at Haziah, bowing, and stood. “Do you want me to take that?” I asked, offering a hand to Luke.

He shook his head. I grinned. “Fare well, Earth-Speaker. I will take care of your child as best I can.”

“Fare well, Cassiel Bright-Dancer.” Haziah rose, placing a hand on Luke’s head. “And may your journey take you to where you must be, Light-Bringer.”

“Goodbye, Mother,” Luke said, hugging her. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll be in your heart,” she replied. “Now leave before you grow more attached.”

I laughed, placing a hand on Luke’s shoulder and leading him out into the crowd.

[Shadaras]

50,000th word: Phoenix. ((I was one with the Phoenix)) And I enjoy trying to put cool words at the 10k marks too much.

So the story gets interesting because I honestly have no idea what's going on anymore. It's fun. Now to see how long Dies Irae gets before I write the death scene. ^_^

[Shadaras]

End Day X: 54,291 words.

SPOILER: Click to show

His breeding program, for instance, that had created me. I had no idea why he’d chosen my mom, though, but he had. Tuan’s choosing made sense, at least. He was, according to Lucifer, the closest person to being of a kind with us. So of course he was bred to someone. I got to be the result, a pale version of Lucifer. And a version that could actually grow up. That, I suspected, was what Luke was created for. So that Lucifer could kill himself and still have someone to continue everything.

Assuming that Lucifer could even die, that was. I somewhat doubted it. Phoenix, after all, never died, and he had been resurrected by the Phoenix, so it stood to reason that he couldn’t die either. I suspected that they’d resurrect me when I died, too, after the whole dancing business and the feather that I’d been given. I just wondered at what age they’d resurrect me, assuming I died of old age. It’d be interesting to find out, when it happened. But that wouldn’t be for a very long while.

Always assuming that I died of age, of course. At the moment, that didn’t seem likely. It seemed much more likely that either I’d kill myself or that Lucifer would kill me for something I’d done in a fit of rage and then be incredibly pitiful and sorry about it all. Neither option was appealing. I sighed, glancing around. The walls of Lucifer’s house were plain, nothing on them at all. It bothered me. I liked the patterns that covered Malak because they gave me something to stare at, as well as being pretty. Lucifer’s house, however, forced you to look at anything but the walls, simply because they were so plain and boring.

I dragged a hand along the wall anyway, just for something to do, and because I was curious to see if there were any cracks. In a house as old as I suspected Lucifer’s was, there had to be some cracks. If there weren’t, it would be even more unreal than it already was. But there weren’t any. Just smooth, unmarked, walls. I was about to pull my hand off when I felt a ridge. It was straight, and ran vertically. I looked for it, but could barely see it, even when it was right in front of my eyes. I could feel it, though, and found the other edges. A secret door. It was ridiculous in how cliché it seemed, but I supposed it worked.

Carefully, I began feeling around the edges, trying to open it. There would probably be some secret button to go with the secret door, since there wasn’t anything nearby to use as a secret lever. It was a failure of Lucifer’s decorating scheme. Or rather, of his lack of one. I smiled slightly, feeling the door move slightly. Pressing harder on the areas my fingers were, it slid back and sideways. I looked inside and was a bit disappointed. The secret passage looked exactly the same as the rest of Lucifer’s house. It wasn’t that much of a surprise, but I’d hoped that he’d make it a bit more interesting, at least.

Descending down the stairs that the passage became, I heard the click of the door closing. I sighed. Typical. It’d take another while to get out, then, when I reached the door. Also typical was that I was heading underground. Every single secret passage in stories went underground. Unless there was enough space in the house or space station or whatever for there to actually be secret passages in the walls or secret rooms that people somehow didn’t account for. Lucifer’s house didn’t have those, at least. I’d matched up the way it looked outside to the rooms inside a while ago, looking for secret areas like this.

Underground hadn’t occurred to me, which I supposed made me stupid, since it was a cliché, and those were supposed to be known by absolutely everyone. I grinned a little at that, glancing around, now that the stairs had ended. A door stood in front of me. A perfectly normal Lucifer door, which is to say that it was made of exactly the same material as the walls, and was only different because it was, amazingly enough, a different color. Admittedly, it wasn’t that different. Just a blue-tinged version of the creamy walls, but any difference was enough to be noticeable, here.

I opened the door into a normal room. There were two passages leading out of it, each veering slightly to one side or the other. I studied them with a sigh. I’d be able to look at both. It was just a matter of guessing which one Luke was more likely to be in. There wasn’t any reason to pick either that I could see, so I started down the left one, simply because Lucifer was left-handed and he’d probably derive some amusement from it. Not the best reason in the world, but there wasn’t really any good reason, since the passages looked exactly the same.

There wasn’t any sound coming from this one, but there hadn’t been any coming from the other one, so it really didn’t matter. I kept walking, trying not to wonder when the passage would end, and what I’d find when it did. The blank passage continued until, surprise, another door. I looked at it, rolled my eyes, and opened it, expecting more of the same. The only two rooms in Lucifer’s house that weren’t white, after all, were the kitchen-dining room area and his bedroom. They also happened to be the two rooms he actually spent a fair amount of time in, which was probably why they had actual color in them.

Entirely too much description about nothing, including random rambling about less than nothing. xD

[Shadaras]

60,000th word: hurt ((But then, most everything hurt, one way or another.))

End Day XI: 60,018 words

So Luke and Ri are on Venus. Not just in the floating cities, but on its surface. And this does make sense, by the way. Somehow. Still have no idea what'll happen when they get off Venus, but I do know that Lucifer isn't going to kill Ri when Ri kills Luke. *nods*

SPOILER: Click to show

Chapter V

It was fun. It was especially fun if you thought going without sleep for days on end was fun. Luke had it better than I did. I refused to sleep, not sure how the flitter would do on its own. Luke could sleep, though the space was rather cramped. Flitters weren’t designed for long voyages. They were designed as short-range craft. The Venusi used them as scout vehicles, which was why this worked at all. They were designed to fly through space or through Venus’s atmosphere, yes, but they were usually based off of the cities or dragonships.

I’d sent a message to Yuri, asking him to meet us at Venus, or, if he was closer, to meet us along the way. I sent him a projected course along with that message, so that he could find us in the endless amount of space there was. And then I stayed awake, watching for any sign of Yuri or asteroids. There usually weren’t many, but the way my luck had been going from good to bad and back again, it was quite possible we’d find an asteroid. And that would be quite bothersome, especially with how tired I was getting.

I doubt it would’ve been as bad if it hadn’t been for the Phoenix. That had both energized me and exhausted me. Energized for the first day or so, and now, on the second day, I was even more out of it than if I’d just stayed up normally. Part of that might’ve been the stress, I supposed, but it was still an annoying thing. I didn’t like that I could only focus half-heartedly on paying attention. The rest of my attention was spent trying to keep myself awake. Playing semi-mindless games helped with that, at least, and I knew quite a variety of those.

Yuri never sent me a reply saying if they would meet us. I stopped waiting for the message after about twelve hours. If he was going to reply, he would’ve done so by then. At about twenty-four hours, I stopped obsessively checking to see how far away from Venus we were. Around thirty-six hours, I just wanted to fall asleep. Stubbornness and looking at Luke, remembering why in all the hells I was doing this, was what kept me going. I got hungry after a while, too, but if Luke wasn’t going to mention it, neither was I. The flitter had water, at least. Neither of us drank much of it, though.

At forty-eight hours, I started hallucinating. Mostly in that I started talking to myself, talking to someone who, though I knew he only existed in my mind, was still there and was still talking to me. Namely Lucifer. He was even more of an annoyance when I couldn’t run away from him. And he kept getting all the good lines. I couldn’t think of anything clever to say to him after the first hour or so of constant debate. Then I started just ignoring him. It was surprisingly difficult, seeing as he’d do his best to scare me or put me to sleep, depending on the mood he was in.

I enjoyed his attempts to scare me. They rarely worked. I knew what he was going to do as he did it, and could watch as his plans changed. He seemed to ignore that, or he didn’t notice it. It was nice to feel superior to him for once. It really was. At sixty hours, we were almost to Venus and I started slipping into sleep for a few seconds every couple of minutes. Then, at around seventy hours, Venus came into sight. I didn’t send a message to them. I couldn’t quite concentrate enough. It was all I could do to stay awake and alert enough to control the flitter. I didn’t need to think about another thing.

I think Luke contacted them, though, and explained something about what had happened. They let us pass into the atmosphere, at least, and from there, adrenaline kept me going with enough focus to land safely. That was all I really cared about, at that point. Getting down there, putting on the coats that Johan still kept in the flitter, and going inside and just collapsing on the floor. Luke could explain. He was a smart kid. And I did manage to land without destroying anything. I did remember to put a coat on and to get Luke to put one on. And I led the way into the spaceport and only then collapsed, unconscious before I hit the ground.

Sleep was a blank nothing. No nightmares. Nothing. I woke inside a Venusi cell. I blinked, trying to orient myself, and failing. Looking around, I couldn’t see Luke. Sitting up brought on a wave of dizziness, but I forced myself to stay reasonably upright and not puke onto the clean black room I was in. The door had a window in it, which was nice. It showed nothing but another black wall, though, which made it boring. Slowly turning, I looked behind me. There was another window there. That one looked into the perpetual storm of Venus’s atmosphere.

A click and hiss from the door made me turn back to face it. An obviously Venusi man stood just inside my room, looking at me. I waved, grinning, but didn’t say anything. The man sighed. “We know your name, Adrian Sokoll. You’ve been here more than enough to be recognized. Who is the child you brought with you?”

“Good question. His name’s Luke, though. I never got a last name. His adopted mother was Haziah Earth-Speaker, from Mercury.” I shrugged, looking up at the man innocently. “She asked me to take him. I don’t think I’ve done the best of jobs protecting him, though.”

“Where is your Eagle?” The man seemed to be ignoring most of what I said. “Or Malak, if that is what you’d prefer.”

“Either name works. And I don’t know where they are right now. Hopefully they’re heading to Venus, though.”

“Why aren’t you with it?”

“Long story.” I rubbed my face with a hand. “Even longer story if you want to know why I had Johan’s flitter.”

“Which I do.”

“Have you asked the kid?”

“He didn’t make any sense. What he said sounded like some story or a drug-induced dream.” The man stared at me, studying me. “You didn’t do that to him, I hope.”

“Not my fault. I know whose fault as this is, too.” I raised a hand, forestalling his question. “It’s not any of my crew. And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, anyway.”

“Sailing into the sun? A winged boy? You bursting into flames? I doubt your story could make less sense than his.”

“It could, actually.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Try me.”

So I explained everything, in as much detail as I could. The man stood through it all, barely reacting to the story. When I reached the end, he just shook his head and walked out. I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad one, but I knew that either way, he was going to decide our fate. Or he’d tell our stories to the people who’d actually decide our fate. Either way, I didn’t care that much anymore. I flopped back down on the bed they’d provided and fell back asleep.

This time there were nightmares. Nightmares that wouldn’t have been nightmares if the eyes had been red instead of green, if the child had had dark wings instead of light ones. But at the end, they both stood there, and I shot both of them. One fell over. The other just stared at the blood flowing from his chest. I woke from that, the image burned into my mind. I couldn’t tell which one had fallen. That was the part that scared me. I couldn’t tell which Lucifer I had killed.

The man was in my room again. I could hear his breathing. I looked over at him, not bothering to get up. No point. He could tell me everything while I was lying down, after all. “Hi,” I said. “Mind telling me your name?”

“Makari,” he said. “Do you want to know your fate?”

I nodded, not saying a word.

“You and the boy must take your flitter down to the surface and survive for four days.” He smiled. “It is the same test a warrior must undertake. If you survive, then you will be allowed to stay here. If you die, then you’re dead. Do you accept our terms?”

“What are we allowed to bring?”

“One set of clothing and one coat each and a spear each. Nothing else. You may not use the flitter as shelter. I will come down with you to make sure you follow the terms, and then take the flitter. I will track you, and when the four days are over, I will retrieve you, one way or another.”

“We don’t have a choice in the matter, do we?” I grinned. “I accept, Makari. Do I get to catch up on sleep first?”

He laughed. “No, Adrian. You do not. You are to come with me and collect the child, and then I will take you down. The flitter has already been prepared.”

I raised myself, sighing. I didn’t like this. But then, liking it wasn’t a requirement. I just had to do it, and do it as well as I could. Being a warrior of Venus sounded like fun, anyway. I wondered if Johan had done this, and then guessed that he probably hadn’t. The test of a warrior. Johan wasn’t a warrior. I was, though. I’d been trained. And so long as the kid could do well enough to not get himself killed, we could probably endure for four days. I hoped we could. If we couldn’t, then we would die, either by the acid, the beasts, or by Venusi hands.

Note that the rest of that chapter is entirely description. Note that I got my entire wordcount for today from that chapter and another, much shorter, one. And I think this is the longest excerpt I've posted, not counting the prologue.

[Shadaras]

This story is slowly going more towards fantasy than I thought it would. Oh well.

End day XII: 63,040.

No, I didn't write that much today. Whatever.

SPOILER: Click to show

“Do you have any idea how much of a bother it was taking you back?”

I’d barely woken, and already someone was annoyed at me. I grinned, not opening my eyes or responding.

“Get up, Ri. Or at least open your eyes.”

That was a different voice than the first. Less annoyed. More resigned. And a lot more familiar. And just because of that familiarity, I didn’t respond to it.

“Do you want me to take away your precious feather, Ri? I’ll do it.”

I opened my eyes then, annoyed. “Shut up, Yuri.”

“So the warrior awakens.” Yuri grinned, pulling me to a reasonably upright position. “Come on. They want to talk to you.”

“Correction.” Makari’s calm voice was a lot more pleasant than Yuri’s overly excited one. “The Council wants to talk to you. And Yuri isn’t allowed in, despite what he will say.”

I glanced at Yuri, sighed, and stood up on my own. “Right. Lead me to whatever place I’m supposed to be at, tell me how long I was out that time, and what exactly did you mean by that first comment?”

Makari ignored me. Or rather, he ignored my questions. He did start leading me through the winding black corridors, up and up and up some more. I wasn’t really in the mood for looking around. I knew more or less what it’d look like, anyway. I’d been in the citadels enough to know the general outlines of everything, but as we kept going up, I got steadily more worried. The council that Makari had mentioned was something I’d never even heard of before. And never before had I gone this far up.

And usually there were guards. I couldn’t see any sign of life in the citadel other than Makari, and it was beginning to bother me. “Come on,” I said, resisting the urge to poke him. “Tell me how long I was out for, at least. I’ve got a right to know that, right?”

“A week,” Makari said, voice clipped. “And don’t get me started on trying to get you into the flitter after you collapsed. That was a nightmare.”

“Sorry,” I said cheerfully. “What was that last thing all about, anyway? Wasn’t surviving enough?”

“Not for you, apparently. You seem determined to try and kill yourself.” Makari sighed. “Most people don’t set themselves on fire. Fire doesn’t burn down there, anyway.”

“Phoenix fire does,” I said shortly, ending the conversation. I didn’t want to talk about the Phoenix and why in all the hells I could survive Venus with no sleep and a crazy amount of power and luck. It wasn’t something I understood, really, and that bothered me as much as anything else, but what was really annoying was that of all the things that I didn’t understand, why I’d collapsed was the one I understood the least. Well. I could guess, but usually the Phoenix didn’t utterly deplete me like that.

Not that usual described anything about that. I glared at Makari’s back, watching his thin braid sway from side to side. The pale color shone against the black that he wore, the red and gold edging standing out just as much. But the braid was much more interesting, because it moved. And because the rest of Makari’s hair was cropped short, barely reaching the nape of his neck. The twitched stopped soon enough, however, because Makari himself stopped moving.

I glanced up, and seeing the silver-lined door, straightened up. From the relative lack of other doors and the amount of silver, whatever was behind this was probably pretty important. Maybe it was even that council. Probably. Makari looked back at me for a moment, then nodded and opened the door and ushered me in. The darkness was absolute. I wasn’t afraid of the dark, but the way it just stopped at the door, and the way no light really came in from the door was frightening. Nothing should be able to do that.

But then, nothing should live in the sun. Nothing should be able to call fire onto Venus. So if those impossibilities were real, then this one wasn’t impossible. It was just improbable, and thus quite possible. That didn’t make it any less unnerving, however.

I stepped inside, ignoring the fear that I could almost taste in the back of my mouth. As soon as I’d entered, Makari followed, closing the door behind him. The darkness, the silence, was absolute. I could barely hear myself breathing, and each breath seemed tainted with something that wasn’t quite there. Fear. Sorrow. And a desperate hope that I couldn’t explain.

“Synarium.” Makari’s voice echoed throughout the chamber, pushing the dark silence back. “Hear me. Hear the voices of the present come to those of you in the past. Hear the call of blood and fire. Synarium, heed the call.”

Hissing voices spun around me, and I could feel their cold presence. I closed my eyes. Sight wouldn’t help, anyway. I could feel the heat on my chest as the Phoenix feather burned. The hisses became true voices, whispering in my ears.

“...shouldn’t accept...”

“...he holds the power...”

“...Phoenix...”

“...darkness and light...”

“...Earth-Speaker’s prophesy...”

“He hears us.”

The voices stopped. I opened my eyes and looked at Makari. Then, very calmly, I spoke. “What in all the hells is up with this room?”

Makari just smiled, holding his hands out. I could see the ghostly spirits whirling around his arms. One spun around him, entering his nose and mouth. The hissing voice came out of Makari’s lips. It was even more disconcerting than hearing the hissing in the first place. “Synarium,” it said, sounding like that should explain everything.

I just glared at Makari. “You got me into all this. So now you should explain how in all the hells I’m getting out.”

“Synarium. Synarium... breathes. Lives.” The spirit, or whatever it was, seemed like it was having a hard time controlling Makari’s body. “Synarium is whole. All. Lives. Breathes. Floats. Flies.”

“I could hear you better when you weren’t using his body, you know,” I said, disgusted.

“We are Synarium. We are the reason the cities live.” A different spirit, this one coiling around me, was speaking. It carefully avoided the Phoenix feather, I noticed. “We are the reason the cities fly.”

“We, Synarium, create the air they breathe,” another added, joining the others in swirling around me. “Synarium keep the citadels together.”

I stood perfectly still, not wanting to disturb them any more than possible. “What is Synarium?”

“This,” one answered, hissing in my ear.

I saw. I could see the silver lines of the spirits floating through all the cites, weaving themselves into everything. The suits, the stones, the lines that held everything together, all of it was bound by Synarium. And then the scenes of Venusi dying, their spirits rising into the air and becoming... Synarium.

Then it all disappeared. I couldn’t see anything. All I could feel was the heat of the Phoenix feather and the chill of the Synarium spirits. All I heard were the hissing voices and the soft song of the Phoenix, competing for something. I couldn’t tell what. And, deep in all that, I heard Echo’s song, riding on each syllable the Synarium voiced. She was holding it all together, I could tell. Or a part of her was. It was echoing everything, helping both sides but making sure neither won.

“Stop,” I said softly. “I am not a prize to be won. I gave my allegiance to Phoenix long ago. I cannot take that back. What is it you want from me, Synarium?”

The hisses stopped for a moment, and then returned in a flurry. I didn’t really try to listen, but even so, I could tell that it’d be pointless. They spoke too quickly and all over each other for it to really work. So I slowly sat down, figuring this could take a while. If Makari was still in the room, I couldn’t tell and I didn’t really care. He had taken me here, but I trusted the Synarium to let me out. When they were ready, at least. That probably wouldn’t be until I had agreed to whatever they were going to say, but so be it. I could agree to most anything, if it meant survival.

The conference finally came to an end, and a single voice spoke to me. “You must agree to end the reign of the Dark Angel Lucifer.”

Hah. I'll leave that fragment on a cliffhanger-ish part. ^_^ ..and yeah, this does all tie together somehow in my mind. And it makes sense, too. Sort of.

So, anyway. I know there are people reading this. I'm curious to know who your favorite character is, who your least favorite is, and why. Assuming you can figure that out, anyway. So yeah. I'd like to see what you say. I really would.

[Abra]

So far. ;_; I started my novel late last year (I know, cheater XD) and I haven't even hit 15k yet. Hah. This is quite an inspiration though! I'll definitely try to squeeze in the time to read it.

[Shadaras]

Any amount of words are good, though. xD ..I'm only this far because until a couple thousand words ago, I knew how the story went. Then I lost the thread. Now I know where it will go, but have no idea how to get there.

Anyway. This amuses me. As the story goes on, the characters I like best shift. Ri and Lucifer stay at the top, of course, but the other ones shift. Kaz went to Yuri in the first part. And now Yuri might give his place to Makari or Luke. Bah. I just wish it were slightly more obvious how I'm going to get the scene I want. I want Luke to be thirteen-ish at the end, not nine-ish. Not that it matters, in the end. But I'd like it to happen that way.

So yeah. And I'm being lazy about writing. Very lazy. I can afford to do that, of course, but it's still annoying.

[Shadaras]

Explain to me how this all makes sense, and I'll be happy. But hey, at least I know how a certain scene comes to be now. Specifically, the one this dream-thing speaks of:

Nightmares that wouldn’t have been nightmares if the eyes had been red instead of green, if the child had had dark wings instead of light ones. But at the end, they both stood there, and I shot both of them. One fell over. The other just stared at the blood flowing from his chest. I woke from that, the image burned into my mind. I couldn’t tell which one had fallen. That was the part that scared me. I couldn’t tell which Lucifer I had killed.

Of course, it makes imperfect sense to me, and I'm not sure how it'll work. But I get to write that scene twice. I think. And it will be fun. ^_^ ..so, at this rate, I'll have one of those scenes around 70k, and the next.. I have no idea. But that second one is likely to send all the magic into chaos. and do a lot of other interesting things. It might even kill Ri. Actually, it'll probably kill Ri. But that's fine.