The Mystery
Alistair had never liked the idea of a stranger in his home.
Even the small group of other fallen that he could almost consider friends had not been to his house. He liked his home to be free of foreign scents and presences. He had automated everything in his home to facilitate that.
Therefore, it was surprising how much he loved having the angel he picked up in his house.
As soon as he entered the house, he carried the angel to his bedroom. He carefully placed him on the bed before getting a washcloth to wipe off the blood and dirt on his face, hands and feet.
When he reached the delicate feet, the angel curled his toes as if in protest to the ticklish feeling. However, he still did not wake up. Alistair was a little amused at the motion of the restless feet as he continued wiping them.
"All done, little one," Alistair said softly before covering the angel with a soft blanket.
His hand touched the soft golden hair with a small frown. As he had sensed earlier, the angel still had the light in him. Usually, when angels fell, they would be stripped of their divine light to avoid influencing humans.
Earth was a place ruled by the free will of its inhabitants.
Therefore, when angels fell, they had to follow the rules of good and bad. Despite their intrinsic power and abilities, they did not have divine influence. They had to live through choice and free will like humans.
Yet, Alistair could feel the divinity in the fallen angel. It was a nostalgic thrum of energy. It felt both beautiful and vile to Alistair.
After living on earth for so long, Alistair understood what He envisioned when he made earth and human beings. Letting creatures make choices every day was like living art. It was magnificent in its unpredictability.
Angels could not make choices and could only follow the divine will. Well, that was not entirely true. They could make a choice once not to obey the commands, but the price of that choice was the sin of rebellion and the loss of the light.
This was the reason Alistair could not understand the miracle of the angel breathing softly in his bed. Falling meant committing the sin of rebellion and going against Him, and a disobedient angel could not keep his light.
In addition, He would not allow divine light among humans because it was the power to influence beyond the scope of the natural laws of earth. It was the power to perform miracles, force choices, and even eliminate evil.
He would not allow that because He created the earth to have both light and darkness.
When He ordered the angels to serve humans, He insisted that their role was not to use their power to help humans. Rather, they were guardians of choice. In other words, the angels helped humans understand the choices and consequences of different situations.
They could not even tell humans the right choice. In essence, their work was to stand beside the humans and watch them make moronic decisions over and over again despite understanding the consequences.
Alistair could not stand it and chose to rebel with those who shared his thoughts.
The price he paid was heavy because he was forced to live among the humans he despised. He hated it at first and could only vent by causing countless wars and other disasters that led to mass deaths.
After all, he could make independent choices instead of following orders.
Over time, Alistair lost the joy of destroying human lives and decided to watch them instead. It was through this that he truly understood Earth as a concept and stopped missing having the divine light.
Without it, he could be just Alistair, instead of Morning Star. He could live for himself and do what he pleased. Once he understood this, he could see why humans made choices that they knew were wrong.
There was pleasure in exercising free will in the most unhinged ways as well as in the simplest ways.
Alistair never thought he would have an encounter with divine light again, and he was fine with that. He even had revulsion towards the thought of it. Yet, on his sleeping angel, it did not repel him.
It made him want to bury his nose in his neck and breathe it in deeply.
Still, Alistair was puzzled.
How did a fallen angel manage to keep the divine light and avoid the darkening of his wings?
Alistair was distracted as he continued to gently pet the golden hair that he did not notice the angel's eyes fluttering open. It was only when the angel tried to move his head that he noticed he had regained consciousness.
Alistair's breath caught in his throat as he looked at the open eyes. He thought that the angel would have blue eyes for some reason. Instead, they were the most beautiful shade of dark brown. But that was not what stunned him.
It was something else entirely.
When Alistair looked into those dark eyes, he seemed to see stars. He could not explain it because the angel's confused eyes were not twinkling. They just seemed to have starlight that radiated from within.
For a moment, Alistair thought his heart would jump out of his chest.
He wondered if this was what it felt like to have a heart attack. Angels, even fallen ones, did not get sick. Yet, Alistair wondered if he might be dangerously ill as he was frozen, looking into those bright brown eyes.
His heart felt like it was too big for his chest.
The stunned angel looked back at Alistair like a small, lost animal. It reminded Alistair of the kittens one of his old friends kept. The feeling in his chest changed as he felt like his heart had melted into a puddle.
"You are awake," Alistair said, unable to think of something clever to say.
Tristan looked around and took in the unfamiliar surroundings. Then, the memory of what happened came to him. He had extinguished the Eternal Flame, effectively killing Him and severing heaven and earth.
Now, he was one of the fallen.
The memory of being cast out of heaven so violently made his eyes fill with tears.