🎵
I have wandered through the endless night,
Chasing echoes, chasing light.
Lifetimes passed, yet none could be,
The home I found when you found me.
You are the dawn I dreamed would rise,
The golden flame behind my eyes.
My Lilucé, my sacred name,
You lit the stars, you stoked the flame.
Now you're here, I breathe again,
No more silence, no more end.
No more waiting, no more why,
You are the truth I won't deny.
I won't let go, not anymore,
You're what all my nights were for.
If fate should dare to pull away,
I'd chase you past the end of days.
So rest, my queen, within my arms,
Safe from time and all its harms.
My Solirae, my sun, my grace,
Forevermore, this is our place.
🎵
Lucifer cradled Lilucé gently in his arms as he sang, swaying with the newborn as though the world outside the nursery no longer mattered. The baby girl stared up at him with wide, peaceful eyes, as if she recognized him. As if some ancient part of her knew exactly who he was.
"Did I wake you, sweetheart?" Lucifer murmured softly, a knowing smirk curving his lips as his glowing eyes flicked to the doorway.
There, standing still as stone, was Ceres, her glare as sharp as obsidian.
"I told you not to call me that," she snapped, eyebrows arched as she stepped into the nursery. Her voice was calm, but venom simmered beneath it.
She and Zeus had been fast asleep in their chamber when something shifted. A prickle of dread pulled her awake, and it only took seconds to realize something was wrong. Zeus, who should've felt it first, remained sound asleep, unmoving. That was when Ceres knew, time had been tampered with.
And so, without hesitation, she rushed to the nursery connected to their chambers.
Even before she opened the door, the lullaby had told her exactly who had come.
"Then should I call you mother-in-law instead?" Lucifer quipped, still rocking Lilucé as if he hadn't just broken reality to sneak into the room.
Ceres grimaced in disgust. "You're gross."
Still, she moved carefully, gently taking Lilucé from his arms. The baby didn't cry, only blinked up at her mother with celestial calm.
Lucifer chuckled and let go without protest. "Eighteen years," he said, eyes never leaving the infant. "Zeus told you already?"
"Yes," Ceres replied coldly. "He told me."
That was the deal. Eighteen years. Eighteen years as Lilucé's mother. After that… Lucifer would take her, his bride reborn.
"Then do me one favor," Ceres said tightly, holding her daughter closer. "Don't show yourself to her before then."
Lucifer's eyes sparkled with mischief, but his tone stayed surprisingly gentle. "Overprotective mommy, I see."
He brushed a finger across Lilucé's tiny hand. "I won't. But I will send presents. Don't try to hide them. She'll only suffer for it later when the truth comes."
Ceres's lips tightened. "She'll be safe, right?"
Lucifer's smirk softened. "As long as she's here in Solmara? She will always be safe. I created this world for her, after all."
Ceres gave a slow nod, the weight of reality pressing on her chest.
For a long moment, silence stretched between them, heavy with unspoken truths.
Then finally, she asked the question she'd been holding back since the moment she saw him.
"Evadne… what about her?"
Lucifer looked at her now, truly looked. No tricks. No pretense. His gaze was raw, honest, and filled with something ancient and painful.
"She's alive," he said quietly.
Hope flickered in Ceres's eyes. "Then bring her here. Please."
Lucifer hesitated. His next words cut like truth forged in fire.
"I can't," he said. "If she stays here, the protection I placed over this world, my sole right as its Creator, will collapse. And it will put Lilucé in danger."
Ceres looked down at her daughter, who now rested quietly against her chest. Her arms tightened around the child protectively.
Lucifer gently guided Ceres to the velvet chair beside Lilucé's cradle, his touch light but insistent.
"Let me tell you a story, sweetheart," he said softly.
Ceres scowled, already ready to snap back a protest, but Lucifer didn't wait. His voice, smooth as velvet and threaded with centuries of sorrow and power, echoed in the nursery as the light around them dimmed.
Then, with each word he spoke, pinpricks of starlight emerged, swirling above them, constellations blooming into scenes that danced and shimmered like a memory written into the very fabric of time.
"At the dawn of all beginnings, when the breath of the Creator shaped light and will into form, three flames were lit, not two."
Above them, three radiant lights sparked into existence.
"The first was Michael,the second was me, and the third… was Seraphadneel."
The third flame pulsed differently, neither cold nor warm, neither holy nor fallen.
"Born of the same divine breath, Seraphadneel was our sister, not lesser, not behind, but equal.
She was the Keeper of Memory, the Shepherd of Souls across realms.
While Michael embodied Justice, and I bore Will… Seraphadneel was Truth."
A vision of wings shimmered above them, silver and blue fire, ethereal and ever-shifting.
"She saw what others could not, the origin of sorrow, the burden of choice, the ache of eternity."
Lucifer's voice lowered, reverent.
"But when the War of Heaven broke, the battle that tore creation in two, Seraphadneel did not choose.
Not because she was afraid.
Not because she did not care.
But because her nature was to remember both light and shadow. She could not turn from one without erasing the other."
The flames above flickered. The stars dimmed.
"And so, she was forgotten.
In Heaven, her name faded like dust on broken stone.
In Hell, her fire was neither feared nor sought.
On Earth, she wandered among mortals, carrying the stories of souls too broken to ascend or descend."
He paused. Looked at Ceres. The glow of the constellations reflected in her eyes.
"Even she forgot… that she was once the third flame."
For a breath, the nursery was silent.
"But the universe," Lucifer said slowly, "did not account for what happens when you forget your purpose… and become free."
The stars above burned brighter.
"Unlike Michael, who must uphold divine law… or me, who must forever challenge it…
Seraphadneel could one day choose love."
Ceres felt her breath catch.
"And so, the universe marked her with a destiny like no other.
Two twin flames, not born of her, but bound to her.
Two brothers of twilight, one with black wings tipped in white, the other white wings streaked with shadow.
Caelithariel and Seradomiel.
Yin and Yang.
They have never met her. Not yet.
But across the eons, they feel her echo.
The soul they were made to find.
The one they were created to protect.
The one who can end their curse."
Lucifer raised a hand, and a vision formed in the starlight, two angelic warriors facing each other, swords drawn, eyes full of sorrow.
"Once, long ago, they served an archangel burdened by a fate that forbade him from ever loving.
He gave them a box. Sealed. Sacred. Dangerous.
Meant for someone not yet known."
Lucifer's voice softened.
"He never spoke her name.
Perhaps he couldn't remember it.
But he called her… his answer."
The vision of the twins flickered, then they stabbed each other with blades forged from faith and pain.
"To protect that secret, the twins chose sin.
They killed one another.
And angels who kill angels suffer the greatest of divine punishments.
In every lifetime since, they are reborn, brothers, strangers, enemies, doomed to betray each other without knowing why.
Again. And again. And again.
Until the curse is broken."
Lucifer's gaze darkened, though his voice never lost its lilt.
"And it can only be broken when they find her.
The one their souls burn for.
The one even Heaven and Hell have forgotten.
Only Seraphadneel can make them whole again.
Only she can choose for them what they were never allowed to choose."
The constellation faded.
Ceres sat frozen, Lilucé sleeping peacefully in her arms.
Lucifer continued his story, his voice low, like a flame flickering in a dark room.
"Before I ever knew the fire in Lilith's eyes, before I dared to fall from grace for a love the heavens could not contain… there was Seraphadneel.
She was not just Michael's and my sister, she was the balance neither of us wanted to admit we needed.
There were days I wondered if the Creator made her solely to keep us tethered to each other. But even the Creator, I think, never truly foresaw what she would become.
Michael always stood beside her. Rigid. Reverent. His voice colder when she was near, too formal to be sincere, too measured to be anything but restrained desire. He followed the Creator's will with flawless devotion… but I saw the cracks.
Michael loved her.
He never said it. Never let it slip. But I saw it in the way his hand would hover near her, close enough to feel her warmth, but never touch. The way he turned slightly toward her voice when she spoke. The way he lingered, just a heartbeat longer, whenever she walked away.
But loving her meant breaking the very purpose for which he was created. And Michael, ever loyal, ever obedient, was not made to choose.
And when she refused to choose a side, when she turned her back on both Heaven and Hell and stood alone in the quiet veil between… where neither law nor rebellion dared tread, I watched him unravel in silence.
He called it treachery. He called it betrayal.
But it wasn't.
It was grief.
It was jealousy.
Because she could love freely.
And she was never meant to love him.
She was meant for two others. Angels whose names Michael once blessed, names he now curses beneath his breath.
And when Seraphadneel, before she lost herself, came to me in whispers… told me of a future where Lilith would return, where my fall from Heaven was not failure but design… it broke him.
He heard her.
He saw the way she touched my shoulder, her fingers light as breath. A touch so gentle, it shattered him. Her prophecy wasn't defiance. It wasn't rebellion.
It was love.
Not for me, but for all of us. For balance. For the hope of restoring what we lost.
But Michael couldn't see that.
To him, it was proof that she had chosen me. That she had turned away from Heaven. From him. From everything he stood for.
He didn't strike her. He didn't speak her name in anger.
But he made a vow. A silent, devastating vow I never knew existed, until it was too late.
He swore her prophecy would never come to pass.
That if she would not be his, then her twin flames would never find her.
That Seraphadneel, our sister, our third, would be forgotten forever.
And for a time… he succeeded.
Even she forgot who she was.
She wandered the mortal world, reborn and broken. Carrying echoes of memories she couldn't name. Dreams that faded by morning. Tears she couldn't explain. I searched for her while spinning the prophecy for Lilith's return… and in all my arrogance, I never thought to look where she truly was.
Until I realized…
She was here.
She had been reborn under my nose, in the one place I thought untouchable.
In my world.
Here… in Solmara."
Lucifer turned his eyes to Ceres, a faint, almost sorrowful smile curving his lips as the dimness of the room slowly returned to light.
"And I know you've already pieced it together, sweetheart.
Evadne… is Seraphadneel.
Casadin is Seradomiel. Hades is Caelithariel."
Lucifer's voice softened even more.
"And now, sweetheart, she is facing her own war. Her own battle. And the people she needs most are already with her. This war… this choice… it's not ours to fight. Not anymore.
Not even I have a place in it.
This is her path. And only she can choose which way it ends."
Lucifer stepped closer to Ceres.
"Do not worry about Evadne," he said softly. "There are things in this world that no matter how hard we try to force into happening, will not happen, not because they're impossible, but because it is not yet time. This moment... is your moment. Your chance to begin a new life with Zeus. I suggest you hold onto it, and make the most of it. Because if there's one thing certain in this world, sweetheart… it's uncertainty."
He leaned down and gently touched Lilucé's cheek with a tenderness that betrayed something deeper, something almost human.
"I will see you again after eighteen years, my light."
Lucifer turned to Ceres one last time, placing a necklace into her hand, a delicate chain with a pendant, a morning star entwined with a golden sun.
Then, without another word, he vanished.
And time began to flow again.
Ceres gently placed Lilucé back into her cradle. She sat once more in the velvet chair beside her and began to sing.
🎵
Goodnight, our sunshine, soft and sweet,
Drift to dreams on gentle feet.
You are our wish, our love, our light,
The star that sparkles every night.
Be who you are, grow strong and true,
We'll always be right behind you.
Sleep now, Lilucé, don't you fear,
Wherever you go, we're always near.
Hush now, darling, close your eyes,
We love you more than all the skies.
🎵
She hadn't realized the tears falling down her face, hadn't noticed how her voice cracked with the ache in her chest, until a sob finally broke through.
And then she wept.
"I'm sorry, Vee," Ceres whispered through her tears, voice trembling and hoarse. As if, somehow, Evadne could hear her, wherever she was now.
"I'm sorry if I'm being selfish again… I just… I want to live a happy life. So if you're out there somewhere, please… please forgive me for not fighting beside you."
Her hands clutched her chest as her body shook, every word laced with guilt and longing.
"I promise to live a happy life, for all of us. For you… for Mommy and Daddy, for Alpha, Bear, Milo, and Vivi. And if one day fate lets us meet again… let's sit together and share stories. Of our adventures. Of our laughter. Of all our tears.
Because no matter who you are... whether you're the first princess of Vaelundis or an archangel...
You will always be my baby sister."
And as Ceres grieved alone in the nursery, seeking forgiveness in the silence, she didn't know that Zeus was already standing just beyond the door.
He had heard everything.
He didn't step inside.
He didn't speak.
But in that quiet moment, with only the muffled sounds of Ceres's heartbreak echoing through the door, Zeus made a vow.
That when the sun rose again, he would give everything, everything, to make sure Ceres could finally begin the life she longed for. The one they both deserved.
No more wasted moments.
No more unspoken words.
Here in this world, in Solmara, they would build the happiness that fate once stole from them.
And this time, they would claim it together.