Monastery of the Seven Forms, Lamashan 21, 4592 AR (part III)

“No.” The word slipped between his lips, without even thinking.

The angel raised her thin eyebrows.

“Don’t be shy, my dear.” She held out her hand. Its ebony complexion seemed almost ethereal, yet not as pale as Ayalal's.

The little boy shook his head in denial and hid his hands behind his back. Sëdara's smile wavered for a moment.

“Why not, little boy?” She asked, still holding her hand, palm up. “I’d take good care of you, you’d have what you desired, you’d be happy. You would have a family.”

“You're scaring him, my lady.”

Ayalal took a deep breath and looked away to the side of the corridor, where Lysa was approaching from the top floor. When she reached him, Ay reached out to grasp her hand, anchoring himself to Lysa’s presence and protection.

The angel stared at the newcomer and slowly straightened. She was about a hand taller, and all her divine countenance cast a heavy shadow over Lysa’s simplicity. But the young woman stared at her firmly, not allowing anything in the stranger to intimidate her.

“Am I? I did not mean to,” she remarked. As she spoke her blue eyes measured Lysa, paying particular attention to the scar on her face. “It’s a pity that such a special child does not want to come with me. He would be welcomed and no one would look twice at his... provenance.”

Ay’s small hand tightened even more firmly.

“He doesn’t want to go,” Lysa said, being direct.

The angel heaved a sigh and shrugged, resigned.

“If so... but you still have time to change your mind, little one. Time to choose having a family.”

Other than Lysa, no one seemed willing to dissuade Sëdara. Some of the children even threw glances of envy at such insistence.

Ay took a deep breath, finding some courage.

“Lysa is my family.”

For an instant, Sëdara’s eyes froze. The little boy shuddered and moved closer to Lysa’s skirt, trying to protect himself. Before the angel could respond to that statement, a male voice from the entrance called her. The cold disappeared and she turned around, watching the approaching man.

Ay also looked at him. Inside a well-cut suit, he was tall, elegant and handsome; but the little boy saw none of it. He took a deep, audible breath, his eyes widening. There was something wrong, something bad around that man. He shook his head, frightened by what he felt and was unable to comprehend.

“My lady, we can’t delay any longer,” the man said. He looked at Ay for a fleeting moment, only because he realized that it was with him that Sëdara had been speaking. He was going to look away with disinterest, but noticed how the child looked at him and frowned.

“You’re right. I was just finishing,” she remarked. “I can take my children right now, right, Headmistress?”

“As we agreed,” said Drane, looking at the five chosen.

Myria leapt into place.

“I'll get my doll!”

And she was about to start running, when the newcomer stopped her, bending down and grabbing her arm.

“It is not necessary. We have lots of dolls,” he said with a kind smile. “Pretty like you.”

The little girl hesitated, her enthusiasm fading a little.

“But Mimi will be sad if I leave her here... I can’t really go? Please sir?”

It was Sëdara who answered, approaching and placing a hand on her head in a caress.

“We'll come back for Mimi later” she said.

The words convinced Myria and she let herself follow the man who had come to call the angel, along with the other children. The man did not look back again, but Sëdara did so, staring at Ayalal. His attention wavered between the man who was already disappearing in the corridor, and the angel.

“I wish you to be happy with your family.” Sëdara glanced at Lysa, before moving away.

The words transmitted nothing more than sincerity, just like her angelic smile. However, Ayalal was unable to believe either of them.

Monastery of the Seven Forms, Lamashan 21, 4592 AR (part II)

“Children” Headmistress Drane caught their attention in an unpleasant tone. Even so, some took only a quick glance at her, so they could look back at the angel. “Lady Sëdara has come here to share her generosity with a gift to each one of you.”

Ayalal looked at the angel with more attention and noticed that she carried in her hand a bag full of something. She took a step forward and leaned a little, to be at the children’s height. On her back, the wings fluttered slightly.

“Hello, everyone,” she said nicely. “I'm very happy to meet you. The lady headmistress told me that you are all very good children, so I brought you these...”

She opened the bag and took out a cake the size of a closed fist. She held it out to the nearest child, Myria, who was looking at her in fascination. The little girl's eyes widened and she shyly stretched her arms, taking the offering as carefully as she could with her little hands.

“Thank you!” Her voice, thinner than usual, betrayed her near-hysteria.

The angel laughed and caressed her head, which left the little girl in the clouds, before distributing the rest of the cakes among the other children. Some smiled at her in thanks, two dared to hug her. By reflex, the headmistress opened her mouth to scold them, but she thought better and held back her words.

Ay, the last to get a cake, took the one that was offered to him. He had never had a piece of cake so large in his possession. He would keep it to share with Lysa and he would ask to visit Yudarh, so the master could also eat a little.

“Thank you,” he murmured, looking up at the angel. She watched him with a smile that was more than nice. There was some amusement there, and the expression held a disguised interest. For some reason he could not explain, he leaned closer to the wall in an attempt to widen the distance between them. He looked at the cake again, uncertain. Could it be poisoned?

“There are some left,” said the angel, glancing at the headmistress. “Maybe they can be divided among all the children, later.”

Drane agreed with a serious nod, before glancing at the satisfaction of the children. Her expression relaxed a little.

“Lady Sëdara also wants to adopt some of you,” she announced. And suddenly the cakes were forgotten, the whispered comments were hushed. The ragged bunch of children now focused completely on the angelic young woman.

“It is true. I would like to be a mother to five of you. For now. If that would be alright.”

And after the silence, there was a sudden turbulence of hands shooting up and children surrounding the young woman who raised her eyebrows, stunned with so much commotion.

“Oh, so much enthusiasm! Let's calm down, let's calm down...“ she said softly. “Come on, I'm not leaving yet...”

Ay stood where he was, while the children chattered all at the same time, trying to make themselves heard and claim a place in the angel’s family.

“Children!” The Headmistress' voice was heard above everyone's, harsh, sharp. It was not an instant effect, but the orphans calmed down. “To your places, immediately. If you do that again, you will be grounded until you are adults.”

The angel took a deep breath and straightened out the simple yet good quality dress to which some of the children had clung.

“I” Sëdara emphasized the first word “will choose you.”

With difficulty, the small children restrained themselves. The angel went to the opposite end of the hallway to where Ayalal was. She walked slowly in front of them, studying them and indicating with one finger each of her chosen ones. The fifth person, a 10-year-old boy, located three places away from Ay, smiled with pure contentment as a finger fell on him. Behind them, Myria was already jumping in place, laughing and crying at the same time.

The woman stopped, bringing a finger to her lips, pensive. She took two more passes and stopped in front of Ayalal. The boy tensed and swallowed as he saw the angel bend over, resting her hands on her knees.

“Actually, six is ​​a perfect number. Come with me, little boy.”

Monastery of the Seven Forms, Lamashan 21, 4592 AR (part I) (one year and one month later)

“It’s an angel! Come everyone!”

With his hands still inside the basin where he was washing everybody’s clothes, Ayalal straightened his neck and glanced at Myria. She was a 4-years-old girl who rarely stood still, fueled by an energy that no one knew quite where it came from. This time she was panting, as if she had run from one end of town to the other.

“An angel?” One of the orphans, with whom Ay shared the task, raised an eyebrow. “Don’t make things up...”

“It’s true!” The little girl’s eyes sparkled with pure enthusiasm. “She's in the Headmistress' office. I watched them walk by”.

The other boy scratched his head with a wet hand.

“I'll go check it out. If it's a lie... you eat less bread at dinner,” he said, with the satisfied smile of someone who knows he’s right.

“But it's not a lie,” the little girl sniffed, she then looked at Ay. “You should come too!”

He hesitated, his lips parted. Although he was a bit curious about what Myria had said, he still preferred to finish his task first.

“You can go. I'll be there later.”

She did not insist, and without further delay she started to run down the hall. The other orphan followed her, not running but still unable to hide his curiosity in the hurried pace of his footsteps. Ay looked out the window, thoughtfully. He had never really believed that the angels existed, or perhaps he believed they existed, but that they were not as nice as people wanted them to be. He shrugged and wiped the clothes more vigorously in the water that had been heated in the fireplace.

Minutes passed without any of the children returning. At last, one of the older girls who looked after them stopped at the door and asked him to follow her to the Headmistress' office. A strange apprehension sprouted in his chest as he linked the arrival of the supposed angel with the need of his presence. Had he done something wrong? Had an angel come from heaven to punish him? Would it be better to run away? Maybe Master Yudarh could help him, after all, he was kind of a good demon... Ay took a deep breath and shook his head. He wiped his hands on his patched trousers and followed the older girl without a word.

As he approached the office, he found the remaining orphans lined up in front of the door, the nearest of them trying to peek through a gap as they whispered between them. Ayalal leaned against the wall next to a girl a little taller than him and he waited in silence.

At last the door opened, and Headmistress Drane stepped out, casting a severe glance over on everyone before giving way to the person with whom she had been talking.

Ay blinked, almost dazed. She was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen. The wavy hair, which fell to her waist, resembled a river of gold, and her pale face had a strange perfection that he did not understand. However, there was something even more surprising about her, the thing that made Myria run rampant to them – two wings with feathers of a pure white that spread from her back.

The angel glanced at them with eyes that reminded Ay of the sky above the mountains, and she smiled.