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SVAster woke first.
He was not in the black fortress.
There were no chains.
He lay on a bed of clouds, in the infirmary of the Celestial Kingdom.
The Father's light poured through a window made of dawns.
He tried to rise and could not.
He could not feel his wings.
He turned his head.
Beside him, an enormous figure watched over his sleep.
Tarus, seated on the floor because no chair could bear his weight, slept with the hammer still in his hand.
—Captain? —Aster whispered.
Tarus opened his eyes at once.
—Aster!
He tried to embrace him, but stopped.
He saw the fear in his pupil's eyes.
Aster touched his back.
Only two stumps, bandaged in light.
His wings —those that had held up planets— were gone.
—What did I do? —he asked, his voice broken—. I remember… I attacked you. I attacked our own. In the Kingdom of Shadows… I… I held our brothers by the throat.
Tarus shook his head and knelt to meet his eyes.
—It was not you. It was the shadow they put inside you.
—But it was my hand that struck. My voice that told them to stay away.
Aster hid his face in his hands.
—I was your right hand. I was supposed to be the shield of the others. How can I carry a shield again if I cannot even carry my own shame?
On the other side of the infirmary, Lior woke screaming.
—No! Get away!
Leo was beside him and caught him before he fell from the bed.
—Easy! It's me! It's Leo!
Lior looked at him.
His eyes filled with tears.
—I pointed my sword at you. I put a blade to your chest, brother. You came to save me and I… I tried to kill you.
Leo held him tight.
He did not say «it doesn't matter».
He did not say «forget it».
He knew that, for Lior, it did matter.
—Yes, you did. And it hurt. It hurt a great deal —Leo told him softly—. But it hurt me more to see you in chains. Lior, you are not what you did in the darkness. You are what you chose while you were in it. And you chose to drop the sword.
—I do not deserve to hold one again —said Lior, looking at his empty hands.
At that moment, the door opened.
Agnis entered.
Her sword was no longer on her back.
She carried it in her hands, like an offering.
Her blue flame was now small, humble, almost like a candle.
Nerea came behind her.
Aster tried to rise when he saw her.
—Commander Agnis… I…
—No —Agnis cut him off—. I am the one who must speak.
She knelt before the two beds.
The warrior who never knelt before anyone, who had defied Lucifer, was on her knees before her own soldiers and before her sister.
—When I saw you with black wings… a part of me wanted justice. I wanted to punish you for what you had done. My sword… my sword wanted to burn you clean.
Her voice broke.
—For a second, I thought like him. Like Lucifer. I believed justice was more important than you.
She raised her eyes to Nerea.
—And you taught me it was not. You erased the mark of that human when I wanted to leave it. You shouted to me through the portal. If it had not been for your voice, sister… I would have condemned them.
Nerea knelt as well and took Agnis's hands.
—Your flame was going out because you were carrying alone the weight of being perfect. None of us is perfect, Agnis. Not even you. And we do not have to be.
Agnis let a tear fall.
For the second time in her existence.
—Do you forgive me?
Nerea smiled through tears.
—There is nothing to forgive. There is only something to heal.
Then Nerea rose and stood between Aster and Lior.
She placed a hand on each of their chests.
—Close your eyes. I will not give you back your wings. Only the Father can do that when you are ready. But I will take from you what Lucifer left inside.
From her hands came pure, crystalline water.
It was not a blinding light.
It was like a quiet river.
Aster and Lior arched their backs.
They did not scream in pain.
They wept.
They wept for Zakiel, for the fear, for the shame, for everything they had not been able to say in the Kingdom of Shadows.
When Nerea withdrew her hands, two small pools of black ink remained on the floor and evaporated as they touched the Father's light.
Lior breathed for the first time without a weight on his chest.
Aster could at last look Tarus in the eyes.
—Can I still be your squire?
Tarus smiled.
A smile so wide it shook the clouds.
—You never stopped being one. Only now your shield will have a scar. And scars make shields stronger.
Outside, on the balcony of the Celestial Hall, the Father watched.
He did not intervene.
He let His children heal one another.
Behind Him, Leo approached Agnis, who was still on her knees.
—You know? —he said—. Your flame looks more beautiful now that it is smaller.
Agnis looked at him, confused.
—Before it lit worlds. Now… now it looks as if it can light one person without blinding them.
Leo winked.
—I think it shines better this way.
Agnis, for the first time in weeks, smiled.
A small smile, tired, but real.
Far away, on his throne of broken swords, Lucifer saw it all in the black lake.
He saw the black pools evaporate.
He saw Agnis smile.
He struck the lake and the image shattered.
Hate stepped back.
—They are healing.
—Let them heal —said Lucifer in a voice dangerously calm—. Let them believe the scars have closed. Because when I open them again… they will hurt twice as much.
He rose and looked toward Earth, where humans were beginning to multiply.
—Aster and Lior no longer serve me. Agnis has learned to doubt her own justice. Good. Time for the next brother.
—Whom? —asked Hate.
Lucifer smiled and pointed in the lake to Leo, who at that moment was making Lior laugh so he would forget his guilt.
—The one who has never wept. The one who believes a smile can save everything.
His smile grew darker.
—We are going to teach Leo what losing joy feels like.