An hour.
Sixty dreadfully long minutes passed at an excruciatingly slow pace while I was hiding in the shadow of one of several statues littering the square surrounding the Gleam.
The facades facing the pyramid in front of me were blank, bare, their windows vacant like tired eyes as they watched me in silence.
I held my breath as the guards finally seemed to come alive and leisurely strolled to each their side of the building to patrol the perimeter and meet at the other end for another still and stoic lookout.
I was bolting for the entrance as soon as their gilded armor and helmets disappeared around the corners of the pyramid, darting across the uneven cobblestones beneath my feet, and nearly tripping several times before slipping past the enormous doors and releasing a shaky breath once I was safely out of sight.
My heart was in my throat as I slowly made my way into the tomb, walking carefully across the pathway which, as I glanced to my sides, seemed to be a bridge stretching from one end of the room towards the center, surrounded by and hovering over a pool of milky white water spilling from faucets along the walls into the deep in neat streams.
The silence was overwhelming, and as I took in the many details; stories and secrets and myths cut into the walls which were embedded with dark stones unlike anything I had ever seen before, creating a reverse painting of a night sky on the white marble, the soft whispers of running water and shadows following my every step, my hand instinctively went to the onyx necklace.
At the very center of the room stood a dais, slightly raised and surrounded by torches atop which flames danced lazily back and forth in a non-existent wind, beckoning me forward.
My entire focus, however, as I tried to catch my breath, was on the glass ball that hung suspended atop the platform, directly above two identical stones, each uncut and just as jagged and imperfectly perfect as the other.
Except one was a clear snowy white, and the other a perfect ebony black.
The Imperial Gleam and the Lunar Flame.
Despite the piece of quartz being the stone of my people, of all angels, I found myself unable to tear my eyes off the onyx as I, at last, stood directly in front of the two, and carefully reached out to trail my fingers across the rough surface.
The stone looked as if it had been cut from the night sky itself and placed on the dais, as if it belonged somewhere much greater.
The colour was perfect, the same as empty voids and longing souls, nightmares, mysteries, and mortality, the shadows that refused to leave me lonely, modesty, arrogance, and, most importantly, it was the very same one that resided in the depths of Hongjoong's eyes.
The light seemed to come from within the stones themselves, shooting upwards into the crystalline orb from which the ray of light I had come to know as the Gleam was created, cutting through air and night as it pierced the darkness of the skies through the pyramid's open ceiling.
It was indescribably beautiful and wrong at the same time, and, before I realized it, I had reached for the Lunar Flame, the jagged edges cutting the skin on my palms, and lifted it off the platform.
I flinched and recoiled as an explosion split the silence much too suddenly, much too loudly, like the sounds of broken glass everywhere around me which was quickly followed by voices, yells.
The glass orb was intact, as was the Imperial Gleam, but still, my heart sank as I watched the lights dim within the room dim ever so slightly, flickering and growing fainter than I had ever seen before, as I held the onyx a little closer.
I first tasted panic on my tongue when the sounds of footsteps added to the noise outside of the pyramid, and I cursed at myself for fumbling with my ring as they grew louder with every passing second.
The entrance was not an option.
The only way out was up.
And so, in a blur of white feathers and erratic shouts of my panicked heart, I shot for the sky, just barely fitting through the window at the top of the roof as I followed the Gleam upwards, praying to everything good that the guards hadn't seen me.
I clutched the Lunar Flame as close to my chest as possible, pressing it hard enough against my ribs that I could feel the jagged edges cutting into the skin, but it felt reassuring, safe. It felt as if I was finally close.
I couldn't help but glance back at Illenium as I touched down on my balcony and stumbled to a halt on the smooth marble slabs, but the regret at the action came crashing down on me almost immediately. It was painfully obvious that something had changed, something had been stolen.
Heaven was darker than I had ever seen it before. Nothing like Hell had been, but the unnatural brightness that had covered every aspect and moment of my life previously had now dimmed.
Illenium was now as dark as it always should have been, righteously dark, and in my arms, I held the one thing that would give that stolen light back to Odeion.
And then I was running again, stumbling through my room, not caring to about being seen enough to put away my wings as I barged through the door and hurried down hallway after hallway all the while I continued to tighten my grip on the stone.
I was so close.
Until I wasn't.
I nearly dropped the onyx as Sunoo suddenly turned a corner, appearing out of thin air, his breath audibly catching as he took me in with a look of surprise in his grey eyes that told me he had been caught just as much off guard as myself.
"Heeseung was worried," the son of Uriel began, pausing for a moment only to frown as he suddenly noticed the Lunar Flame in my arms, "What is-?" he asked, but I brushed past him before he had the chance to finish his question.
By the time I finally reached the portal, Niki and Jake were chasing after me as well, the heirs to the Court of Chastity, Charity, and Kindness all bewildered as the oldest of the three quickly shut the door after us. I froze as I suddenly found myself face-to-face with Sunghoon, Heeseung, Jay, and Jungwon as well.
"Dahlia, this has gone too far, you have to-"
"I know what I have to do, Heeseung," I said, but instead of the confidence and authority I so badly wanted to emanate, my voice came out low and unsure as I realized that I was painfully outnumbered.
I tried to walk past him, my fingertips tingling at just how close the portal was, wisps of bright light dancing like a thin veil between the dark pillars which held up the crumbling archway, but both he and Jay were quick to get in my way, blocking my path.
"Dahlia-"
"If I'm not back in three days, I want you to destroy the portal," I demanded, attempting to stand a little taller as I caught Heeseung's eyes, watching something foreign brewing within them. He grabbed my arm, about to say something, about to oppose, and I clenched my teeth as a wave of sudden anger welled up within me, "Let go of me, son of Raphael," I sneered.
"I'm not asking," I added, watching Jungwon through the corner of my eye as he quietly reached out to pull the other's hand away.
"That was an order," I said, and when all of them still refused to move, I turned to Sunghoon, watching how the son of the first Archangel immediately lowered his head and averted his eyes as they fell onto the angry bruise still marring my face.
"How can you even live with yourself knowing that you're sacrificing everything for a demon?" Heeseung breathed, looking at me as if he was barely able to recognize me anymore. I didn't blame him, not for that at least.
"He's worth it," I said, taking a step closer to the man who still refused to move, "They're all worth it."
"They killed thousands of our people," Jay said.
"And we killed millions of theirs," I stated, not once taking my eyes off the brunette in front of me, now close enough to share breath, to notice how every feature was pulled taught in anger and distress.
"Dahlia, please, I'm sure that there's another way," Jake tried, kind as always. And there was. But I wasn't willing to start another war, to sacrifice more lives.
I had seen the true colours of Illenium for the first time that night.
And right then and there, I saw the true colours of the people I had considered my friends all of my life as well. Because as I stared at Heeseung, and he stared back, we both knew that we wouldn't choose each other in this. Not this time.
"Three days," I said, at last, pushing past him, this time without being met with resistance or complaints. I faced them one last time as I held the Lunar Flame close to my chest, watching the mixed looks of betrayal, disbelief and horror in their eyes which were all the same colour as the ash and forgotten memories lingering in the air around us.
"I have to do what's right, and I trust you to do so as well."
And with that, I let myself fall into the void between the two worlds.
But freedom didn't come without a price.
Redemption wasn't free, and neither was betrayal. Heeseung claimed his payment, in what seemed like the span of a single second, as he reached out and grabbed ahold of my necklace in one last attempt to hold me back, fingers wrapping around the golden chain which snapped with an almost heartbreaking sound at the very moment my entire world became a blur of black and white and silver and obsidian.
Like the first time I had fallen, the sounds of my name on my friends' lips disappeared into the distance as the world of light melted away into darkness and I realized that I had burned every bridge and ruined every chance of ever returning to Heaven.