Dark flight - Lore of the angelic book 1

fleeing the cathedral

the girl takes a deep breath and lets go of my hands for the second time today.
"Impossible... how are you so resistant to my unblocking attempts..."

she huffs a few breaths of air before she reaches out her hands again.
"You look pale..."
her makeup is smudged and her once perfect hair is a mess, she really does look pale, I stopped caring what she or I look like four hours ago.
"I don't care, it doesn't matter."

I sigh and give her my hands but she immediately topples over and starts to cough.
"hey, you need a break. if you tell me where I can get you a glass of water..."
I offer as I stand up. my leg has fallen asleep from sitting on the ground for so long... the woman looks up at me and sighs.
"can you help me up? Let's go get some coffee, you must be tired too..."
"you have coffee here?"

I hoist her up and sling her arm around my shoulder, she is light as a feather.
"lead the way"
She guides me down the hall and down into the street where we sit down in a café, perfectly hidden behind a house corner. I help her sit down at a table before taking a seat myself.
"Thank you, alice."
she hands me a small purse.
"Get me a latte and a cinnamon bun, get yourself soething too, my treat."

I nod and walk up to the counter, I feel awkward, the girl behind the counter waves to me as I approach.
"Hi, you're new here?"
I smile shyly, not wanting to make eye contact.
"A latte and a cinnamon bun... and a hot chocolate for me please"
I look into the purse and up at her.
"Hey, can you explain these coins to me?"

she smiles and lays the three different coins I have seen onto the counter.
"five of these is one of these, five of those is one of these"
she moves from the smallest to the largest with her finger. I nod and count out the amount she names for me. 
"Alright, you go ahead and sit down, I'll bring it to you when it's done."
I feel triumphant at this little win and walk back over to the table.

"alright, our stuff will be right out."
I let myself fall into the chair, the girl on the other end of the table looks up at me.
"thanks a lot. so... I don't think I even told you my name. I'm Deliah."
I wave my hand and lean onto the table.
"well, you know I'm Alice. so... care to tell me a bit about this place and me and stuff..."
She sighs and bites her once purple lip with a sharp exhale through her nose.
"well you know the basics I assume, that we are fallen angels, at least most of us, but there's all sorts of folks here."

I nod and the waitress sets our order down on the table. I thank her and sip on my hot chocolate, it's excellent. Deliah drinks some of her drink as well and hums contently.
"Vampires, werewolves, devils and elves, all of these people trade and live either here or in the cities that have accesses to this place, of course all of them also have their own civillizations."
"and you?"
I ask
"what do you do here?"

she pauses and thinks a moment.
"Well, I used to be the seer of the high council of the arch angels, but I predicted something they didn't like so they felled me. I fled here but I wasn't able to make any predictions ever since, I can still use my other powers though."
her eyebrows raise and she cocks her head to the side like a dog.
"make sense?"

I fold my arms and crinkle my nose up.
"Yeah, but I still don't understand the whole arch angels and fallen angels thing..."
she empties her coffee, the vitality returning to her face slowly, then folds her hands and makes a determined face.
"Ok, your father is the head of the council of ten, the high council of arch angels. the council of ten can convict you of treason or something similar and fell you, that's when they take your halo away from you. it makes you physically weaker and means you're an exile."

she takes my hands across the table and gives me a firm look.
"You're a fully formed arch angel, born of two arch angels, that makes you the most powerful person in this entire cathedral, maybe in the whole world, but you can't access any of that power because, under normal circumstances, you would have naturally been taught to develop them from a young age."
she gestures around at the other winged people.
"Unfortunately right now we have to try and activate them at all, there's a chance your father has purposely blocked it and it's possible your body can't handle the power at first so we need to get you to a safe place as fast as possible in case you end up sleeping for a week."

I furrow my brows.
"I thought this place is safe..."
"for now, yes."

I nod a few times and also finish my beverage. she offers me a piece of her cinnamon bun and I know we should be friends. as much as I judged her at first, I really like her. I take a bite of the fluffy pastry and smile. I'm about to ask her to tell me about arch angels some more when John storms up and grabs me by my wrist. 
"ouch, rude!"
He yanks me out of the chair.
"we need to go"
I pull my arm away
"what?"
"We need to go NOW."

deliah gets up from her seat and steps between him and me.
"explain what is going on here"
John rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.
"Your father's goons have been sculking around the area, we need to leave before they find the entrance and history repeats itself."

Deliah looks at me, then John.
"Give me five minutes to pack up quickly."
John yells after her as she jogs towards the massive complex.
"Hey, what are you doing?!"
"I'm coming with you, duh!"

in the highest hall of the highest tower in the palace of the angel realm sit ten arch angels. ten men all of them wearing suits, sharply tailored. perhaps had they been in the human realm they might have been showing themselves otherwise but now they are all handsome, impossibly perfect, young, some more than others, and at the head of the table sits a man with silver hair, staring bored down at his clipboard.

the chatter of the other angels of the council makes him roll his eyes, they know nothing beyond the literal words of the prophecy, they don't need to know more, bumbling idiots. He gives the woman standing behind him a meaningful look before standing up.

"schedule a sitting with persephone"