Aleks exhaled in relief when the angel left him behind. The question was, how did he get past the guards? The answer was simple. The shackle suppressed any angelic abilities, the emphasis on angelic, not that of his Deva side. Raphael didn't know that.
With a wave of his hand, he froze the two guards and walked past them. They only felt a draft, which they dismissed as unimportant. They hadn't seen that Aleks had walked right past them. It sounded so simple, and it was. Thank goodness my Deva powers are working. But unfortunately they did not bring him out of heaven.
Cautiously, he ran up the floors. In the seventh and ninth, he also froze the guards and walked past them when no one was looking. The higher you went, the fewer angels there were. When he entered the top floor, he quickly fled behind a shelf when he heard footsteps. In the lower ones he could have excused himself with the excuse of a special permit, but not in this one, because he wasn't an archangel. He had absolutely no right of residence here.
As the footsteps moved away, he breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at the books on the shelves and realized that they had dates and titles on them, all before Lucifer's fall. The real story. He had heard in the lecture with the children the year in which Lucifer had fallen, he could orient himself to that. He scurried through the rows of shelves in search of the right year.
When he heard footsteps again, he hid behind a red brocade curtain. He saw a female figure without wings with long green hair running down the aisle and disappeared. Who was that?
He couldn't get distracted, he had to quickly find what he had come here for. After some time, he finally stood in front of the shelf with the right decade. He walked along until he got to the right year. Two thick books came into view, he pulled out the first one and flipped through it. At first glance, nothing out of the ordinary.
He put it back and took the second one. Leafing through it, however, his gaze lingered on a picture, a drawing of a large white snake with a diamond pattern. Degei. It had to be that. Again, he heard footsteps and was startled. Soon, Gadriel would also look for him, he knew that.
Aleks had no choice, he had to take this book with him. But how? His gaze fell on the brocade curtain, which was tied back with a cord. He untied this cord and pulled it out of the loops. Then he pulled up his robe and pressed the book to his stomach. With the cord, which he wrapped around his stomach several times, he fixed the tome to his body as best he could. Well, hope this goes well. One wrong move and you would see the outline of the book.
As the footsteps went in his direction, Aleks waited for the moment, hidden behind the process. When the person was close enough, he froze time, came out of his hiding place and quickly walked past them. It was the woman with the green hair again.
So he made his way back, past the guards. What he hadn't seen was that the woman, while he had walked past her, had turned to him and smiled.
Slowly it was getting late and Gadriel was expected at home. Aleks still wasn't there, so he had to look for him. Just as he was about to set off, Aleks came towards him from the stairs. Thank the gods, he hasn't disappeared. "Time to go home," he greeted Raphael's son joyfully and he just nodded.
Together they went down the steps, because it was not allowed to open a portal near the library. Gadriel was about to call one when a male voice spoke to him. "Gadriel, what are you doing here?" he asked.
The angel turned around and immediately bowed to the archangel who was now standing before him.
Aleks had immediately recognized the change in Gadriel's posture and facial expressions. In front of them stood a mighty angel with golden wings.
"I greet you, Prince Michael," Gadriel greeted the archangel.
Michael. He had already heard that he was Lucifer's twin brother, but it was more than clear. They resembled each other, both had blond hair, except that Michaels reached to his shoulders and was not ash blonde, but golden blonde and he had the same green eyes as Raphael. He was slightly taller than Aleks and had a wider build. So that's my uncle. The power and aura that surrounded Michael was tremendous. He must be truly powerful. Aleks bowed his head while the hood covered his hair.
"I'm here to show someone around," Gadriel said evasively.
This didn't seem to satisfy the archangel. "And whom would that be? Wouldn't you like to introduce them to me?" the archangel asked more emphatically than before.
"I... this is a guest of Raphael's," Gadriel stuttered.
Not lying in the broadest sense, except that I am not a volunteer guest, even if some people see it that way.
The angel began to sweat.
"Why are your wings tucked in?" Michael asked, looking at Aleks.
"He recently suffered a serious injury and I'm not showing mine out of solidarity."
The first was not an answer to his question, and the second was independent of the first, but not a lie. Sly. He could still learn something from this angel.
"What's your name?" Michael asked him directly.
Aleks looked into his eyes, withstood his gaze, which surprised him, but he remained silent. Who are you? thought the archangel.
"Sire, please excuse us, but we are expected home," the angel said, looking at him nervously.
Michael put a hand on Aleks' shoulder and for a moment he felt a powerful magic, just for a second.
"Maybe we'll see each other again," Michael said in surprise, and Aleks replied, "It would be an honor."
Then the two moved away.
The archangel knew that he wouldn't get any information from Gadriel, but this boy had aroused his curiosity. Who was he and where did he come from? He would find out.
When they stepped out of the portal at Raphael's mansion, Gadriel breathed a sigh of relief. Why did they have to meet Michael, of all people?
"Gadriel?"
The angel flinched, frightened. "I, excuse me. I was in thought," he said.
Aleks waved his hand with a laugh. "All good. I will now go to my room and rest. I don't want to be disturbed if it's possible," Raphael's son said and then set off.
Now came the unpleasant part for Gadriel, he had to report to Raphael and he knew that his archangel would not like it. Close your eyes and get it done.
Aleks closed the door and sank to the ground. He had just died a thousand deaths. How did I manage to take the book with me unnoticed? He still couldn't believe it.
He locked the door, even though he knew that Gadriel could open it – he had already tried that. Then he went into the washroom with his duvet and sat down in the tub with it. So he heard when someone came in, but wasn't seen right away. The blanket made everything even cozier and, in a pinch, he could hide the book in it. He opened the book and began to read.
Hours passed and he had no result, but he was only a third of the way through. He slept and early in the morning he continued. An employee brought him breakfast, then he was alone again and continued his research. After another few hours, he paused. He had arrived at a paragraph about Degei, and he read it carefully.
»The warriors had pursued the god of the Deva to his cave, where they had surrounded him. Despite the interrogation, he refused to tell the warriors where the carriers were who were supposed to take them into custody.
Finally, they chained him to the bottom of his cave, where he was to live in captivity for eternity. They took all the divine relics to heaven to examine them for clues. The following were found...«
Then all the objects were enumerated, some only described, others provided with a drawing. Many had been deciphered, but two items were still a mystery that wasn't solved. One of them was a casket made of bones that could not be opened with any magic or tool in the world, the other a document that they hadn't been able to translate.
When Aleks looked at the image of the casket, he sucked in his breath sharply. That's it. He had been standing in front of it in the museum when he had felt the tingling sensation. He remembered Degei's testimony.
"What about the third key?" asked Hope.
I hid it with me, but I was attacked. The warriors took him, not knowing what it was.
It has to be it. In this casket is the key.
The key is camouflaged, cannot be found by anyone, unless it belongs to my people or that of the goddess Metis.
Those had been Degei's words. Maybe that was why they hadn't been able to open it. Aleks continued reading, but didn't find anything new. Carefully, he carried the book to the chest of drawers and pushed it into the bottom drawer, hidden under cloth so that it wouldn't be found so quickly.
He had lunch with Gadriel and shortly afterwards they were already holding their training, as the angel still had something to do later. Aleks elegantly intercepted an attack from the angel and passed it on as he had learned. Slowly, he felt how he had to accept the movements.
Gadriel was thrilled.
After the session, Aleks took a shower and sat down with a book about seals and shackles in the garden inside the house by one of the large trees surrounded by a small grassy area. He had discovered the book in Raphael's library and hoped for a solution to the shackle problem.
Unfortunately, there was no good news. Only Raphael or someone similarly powerful could untie the ring, so not even Gadriel could. Aleks sighed, and Belial's image appeared in his mind's eye. He saw his lover looking lovingly at him and stroking his cheek. He saw him swaying Sai and singing softly for him. Aleks' heart contracted painfully. I miss you. He felt it was getting worse. Last night he had woken up screaming from his sleep, had dreamed that Belial had died by Rukia's sword.
I have to get out of here.
But how could hepersuade his father to take the shackle from him? He wouldn't do that, wouldhe? Damn. Lost in thought, he didn't even hear thefootsteps approaching him.