Chapter Text
Long ago, before mortal beings had descended onto the lands, before the avian and sea creatures inhabited their dominions, but betwixt the sun, moon and stars; God made Heaven and Hell. Populated with ethereal Angels, malevolent Demons, and other deific entities. And within the millennia since their creation two coexisting councils establish themselves. The Celestial and Infernal Courts, governments formed by these divine beings that overlooked the affairs of mortals and their inevitable demises.
Floating high beyond mortal reach sat the Celestial Courts. On a sea of milky white clouds, giant marble pillars arose beyond the stratosphere and into the very stars themselves. A levitating labyrinth filled with countless corridors that led to the various judicial buildings for the Angels to conduct their sacred affairs. Libraries, auditoriums and courtrooms, Angels prided themselves in their academia and impartial judgements, for they were created in God’s image.
They were created to serve the Lord and preside over Their creation, for They were right and just. As were Angels… predominately.
In front of a pair of giant ornate doors with intricate gold accents stood two Angels. Unbeknownst to them, fate was about to make its biggest gamble since the Lord uttered the phrase, “Let there be light,” for their lives were about to be forever entwined not only to themselves, but to whatever, or whoever was sealed beyond those golden doors.
Miyeon inhaled the familiar scent of cedarwood and petrichor, appearing the picture of composed and collected. Her back straight, head up, and looking ahead, her posture was the epitome of perfect. Her hair was pinned away from her face, cascading down in auburn waves down to her chest and her body was adorned in silk robes that covered her modestly.
Miyeon’s delicate hands wrapped themselves around her golden shield. Engraved on the front were intertwining wheels and multiple sets of eyes. A symbol of her status as a Throned Angel, a chariot of the Lord. Her mind was idle, patiently waiting for time to pass. However, in her peripheral vision, she could not help but observe the fellow Angel next to her.
Pacing down the length of the hallway and back, an ebony-haired Angel fidgeted with her hands excessively. The pearl bracelets she wore around her wrists would clack against themselves with every restless movement she made. Dressed in feathered ruche, a golden lyre enamel pin was attached to the front of her dress, denoting her rank within the Court. A rank higher than Miyeon’s.
“Nervous?” Miyeon asked, grabbing the Angel’s attention. Yuqi paused mid-stride, her existence finally being acknowledged after 30 minutes of agonising silence and anxiety.
“Aren’t you? We’ve been summoned completely out of nowhere by a Seraphim. The highest ranked Angels within the Celestial Courts! With no information about what we have specifically been summoned for, or any indication on whether this should be viewed positively, or negatively.”
“First time then?” Miyeon turned her head towards Yuqi’s direction, taking a closer look at her. She was younger than Miyeon, much younger. Her eyes still shone with a bright sense of vitality that had only dulled over time within Miyeon’s. “You were only recently promoted to Cherub status were you not?”
Yuqi’s eyes widen, taken by surprise. “I-How do you know that?”
“Your pin,” Miyeon nodded at the lyre-shaped pin, “However, while rumours are irreverent and impudent… they are informative.”
“What did you hear about me?” Yuqi’s face morphed into a scowl, brows knitted together. “Because whatever you would have heard are all false fallacies created by jealous and facetious Angels who have nothing better to do than to sit around and spread gossip.”
“So you are not a high achiever or an extremely hardworking individual?”
“No, I’m a– wait… Is that what’s being said about me? Positive things?” Yuqi asked.
“That and you are a little hotheaded,” Miyeon added with a shrug, “but that makes sense. Cupids are very passionate and emotional beings right?”
Angels and Cupids, while similar in appearance, were completely different species. Although celestial in nature, the biggest difference between them was while Angels served the Lord, Cupids served Love and all of its different facets. Angels couldn’t become Cupids, however, Cupids could become Angels and join the Celestial Courts. It wasn’t uncommon to see Cupids within the lower tiers of the courts. So for Yuqi to attain Cherub status, a high-ranking Angel tier, was particularly notable.
“So they do know,” Yuqi muttered, adjusting her pin.
“Was that something you did not want disclosed about yourself?” Miyeon questioned.
“Cupids are treated differently in the courts compared to Angels,” Yuqi explained, “I want my merit to speak for who I am, not what I am.”
The doors behind them suddenly shuddered open. Startled, Yuqi immediately straightened her posture and brushed down her dress, her hands resting on her pearl bracelets.
“Do not be afraid,” Miyeon reassured, a small smile gracing her lips as she gave Yuqi a nod. Yuqi returned it, but the soft clacking of spinning pearls re-accompanied their space once more.
Behind the golden door laid a lavish boudoir. Hundreds of tiny glowing orbs were suspended above them providing luminescent lighting. From the door, five Angels exited in a single file from the room, their heads lowered for the Throned One and Cherub. The two moved to either side of the door, allowing the attendant Angels to leave, before making their way inside.
Near the centre of the room stood a small flight of steps, leading up to a large mirrored vanity where a raven-haired Angel sat, facing away from the door with a final attendant Angel. The sleeves of her dress billowed out from her slender arms, whilst the skirt spilled down to the bottom step like a sheet of freshly laid snow. From the vanity, the final attending Angel picked up a beautiful feathered visor and gently placed it over the raven-haired Angel’s eyes. Smoothing down her sleeves, the attendant gazed into the Angel’s reflection with complete devotion and adoration.
“You look beautiful my Seraphim.”
“Beaut..Beautiful…” said the Seraphim softly, acquainting herself with the word.
The attendant stole one last glance at the Angel before parting ways, climbing down the stairs to meet with Miyeon and Yuqi. “The Seraphim is all prepared for her anointment. Are you two members of her court?”
Yuqi was taken aback, staring at the attendant dumbfounded. “Members of her court?”
“We are, yes,” Miyeon jumped in, giving Yuqi a gentle nudge from behind her shield.
“Excellent. She is still fairly new to the Celestial Courts so she should be escorted personally to her courtroom,” the attending Angel explained.
“We shall take it from here. Thank you for your assistance,” Miyeon answered, bowing at the attendant. While Miyeon ranked higher than the attendant, she afforded everyone the same amount of dignity and respect.
The attendant smiled, giving Miyeon and Yuqi two deeply reverent bows before following suit with the five previous Angels, exiting the room. The golden doors slowly swung shut behind her as a near-deafening silence filled the boudoir. From the vanity, the image of the Seraphim was refracted across the mirrors and down towards the two Angels.
“So..” Yuqi’s voice was barely above a whisper, “did we just get assigned to a Seraphim’s court?”
Miyeon grabbed her shield from her arm and hoisted it onto her back. “It appears we have.”
Placing her hands in front of her waist, Miyeon lowered her head, eyes trained on the floor as she awaited instruction. Yuqi took a moment before copying Miyeon’s actions, her hands resting back on her pearl bracelets but resisting the urge to fiddle with them.
The two Angels stood together in silence expectantly, waiting… and waiting. Until their collective pause started to wein uncomfortably long. Miyeon dared to sneak another glance up at the Seraphim. She hadn’t moved a single inch, her eyes still trained upon them, watching. Miyeon, acting in the interest of the Angels around her cleared her voice, but Yuqi interjected, beating her to the punch.
“Should we leave, Seraphim?” the Cherub asked, raising her head.
The Seraphim swivelled around towards the two abruptly, causing the Angels to avert their gazes immediately. Seraphim’s were the highest-ranked Angels within the Celestial Court. The most divine and heavenly beings next to God themself. Not even other celestial beings could look at them directly without their explicit approval and consent. Hence why all Seraphim adorned head coverings or visors that obscured their visage.
Another long and pregnant pause filled the space, waiting upon the Seraphim. Naturally, almost inquisitively, Miyeon’s eyes followed back up to the Angel, risking another look.
“Where… Where is the chamber…looked for?” the Seraphim finally asked. Her lips quivered, trying to summon the necessary words.
“Looked for?” Miyeon repeated. Yuqi shot Miyeon a sceptical look.
“Looked… Located! Where is… the chamber… located?” she sounded. For a Seraphim, despite her imposing stature, her tone was far from intimidating.
“We would not know your Grace. Did you receive any instruction? Or direction?”
The Seraphim turned towards the mirrored vanity behind her and grabbed something from the table. Gliding down with impressive speed, she reached the bottom of the landing, forcing Miyeon and Yuqi to fall to their knees. An envelope was thrust to Miyeon’s head. In her peripheral, she glanced up towards an opened letter with a name written on the front of it in golden cursive. Shuhua.
“Your Holiness, I am only ranked as a Throned Angel. A Cherub should be given permission to read this letter before I were to lay my eyes upon it.”
“Hmmph.”
The envelope swung sharply towards Yuqi. With gingerly hands, Yuqi took it from Shuhua and received the letter. Within ten seconds, however, the letter gently tapped against the side of Miyeon’s shoulder. She peered over to Yuqi with a puzzled expression.
“I dunno,” Yuqi mouthed silently to her.
Taking the letter from the Cherub, Miyeon opened it and read its contents.
Our newly anointed Shuhua,
Your final preparations are underway for your appointed position of Seraphim. Due to these exciting yet unusual circumstances, we have personally assigned you members for your court. Seraphims typically create their own courts, and in time you may add additional members as you see fit. In this instance, however, we have found two Angels from the Celestial Court that shall aid and assist you in your new endeavours. Your Throned Angel is a highly respected solider who has served within the Holy Infantry for hundreds of years and shall act as your protection and guard. Your Cherub has been a surprising new addition who has appeared within the Court and shall tutor you in your studies and enlightenment of Lord’s work. Your courtroom is the Ivory Minaret, located in the Eastern Quarters. You would have received your key in previous meetings.
Grace and peace dear Seraphim.
“Have you procured the key Seraphim?” Miyeon asked, her eyes trained on Angel’s mouth. Shuhua nodded, before gesturing towards the door, her long sleeve sweeping with her movement.
“Would you like me to direct towards your court, your Holiness?”
“Plesan–Please! Please.”
Rising to her feet, Miyeon led the trio outside the boudoir, with Yuqi trailing closely behind and Shuhua taking the rear. Natural sunlight beamed through the hallways of Celestial Courts as they exited, with marble pillars lining the halls of every passage as far as the eye could see. One unfamiliar with the higher levels of the courts would find the pristine and immaculate halls to be near disorientating in their invariable uniformity. Thankfully, Miyeon was all too accustomed, knowing which corners to turn into, and what corridors to outright avoid. The sound of three sets of steps echoed down the porcelain stone as they journeyed towards the Eastern Quarter. Miyeon found comfort in this form of serene silence, a luxury most infantry didn’t receive. A luxury that was unfortunately short-lived, as Yuqi sauntered over to Miyeon’s side at the front of their line.
“Can I ask you something?” Yuqi started.
Miyeon peeked towards her left. What she had quickly discovered about Yuqi was that she was easy to read. She didn’t, or perhaps, couldn’t, hide her emotions as well as others. “Something on your mind Cherub?”
“You don’t have to use my title, you can just call me Yuqi,” she answered.
“Okay, Yuqi, what is on your mind?”
“... Is this standard protocol?”
“Protocol?”
“Is protocol the wrong word?” Yuqi asked, her brow quirked.
“No, not wrong,” Miyeon reassured, “Just overly formal. Do you mean to ask if this is usual?”
“Like, with a Seraphim. Do they tend to be so… not oblivious persay. But–”
“The letter did say she was newly appointed. So she would still be learning some of the duties and responsibilities associated with the role.”
“Is that normal though?”
Miyeon paused for a moment. The Seraphims she’d interacted with in the past were more assertive and typically much older. Shuhua was by far the youngest she had ever seen.
“And to have other Angels appointed to a court,” Yuqi added, “Seraphims assign their own courts. Not the other way around right?”
“I could not say with confidence, but that is not a bad thing necessarily,” Miyeon replied. “She seems a little… naive, but that is why we have been assigned to her court, right? To assist and aid her.”
Yuqi nodded solemnly, glancing behind her to look at the Seraphim.
Shuhua walked with total poise, the skirt on her dress hovering just over the marble flooring and appearing as if she were gliding across the floor. While her hands were placed on her torso, her front hand rhythmically tapped her fingers against her wrist.
“There’s something else, though. I just can’t place my finger in it.”
“Finger in it?” Miyeon repeated.
“On it! On it. Sorry, Amourism. We share similar-sounding words but it’s easy to mispronounce them,” Yuqi explained. One of the other characteristics that differentiated Angels from Cupids was their language. Cupids spoke Amourism whilst Angels spoke Virtuian. For Cupids to work amongst Angels within the Celestial Courts, they first had to bridge the language gap between the two celestial species.
“I can only speak Virtuian and will still stumble upon my own words,” Miyeon responded. “To know two different types of speech, a divine and romantic language, is not an easy feat to achieve.”
Suddenly Yuqi squeezed Miyeon’s arm, her eyes widened with a sudden realisation. Startled Miyeon turned her head completely in the Cherub’s direction.
“There’s no way… right?” Yuqi murmured, her mind racing with thoughts Miyeon could not decipher. “Throned One… wait, first. What is your name?”
“I– I don’t tend to reveal it,” Miyeon answered hesitantly.
“We’re going to be working together in the same court for the next hundred years or so, I’d rather call you by your name than your title.”
“... Miyeon.”
“Miyeon, are the eyes on your shield functional?” Yuqi asked, peering over her shoulder to look at the golden weapon.
“They can be, it is an extension of myself,” Miyeon explained.
“So you could see the Seraphim directly behind you?”
“Indeed…”
“And you wouldn’t know any Amourism?”
“None.”
“That’s fine, all you need to do is nod like you’re agreeing with me,” Yuqi smiled.
Miyeon shot Yuqi a probing look, her eyes squinting with suspicion. “Cherub, what are you endeavouring to do?”
“Just trying to prove a theory I have.”
Yuqi peered over Miyeon’s shoulder once more, her attention focused on the different sets of eyes interwoven within the shield. A small gasp escaped her mouth when one of the eyes, one positioned directly in the middle of the shield, blinked at her. “...Miyeon… that’s so cool,” she professed.
Miyeon gave Yuqi a knowing smile, turning her head forward once more. Miyeon had a feeling Yuqi didn’t give compliments very easily.
“You can see her?” Yuqi asked.
Miyeon nodded, focusing her shield eye directly onto the Seraphim behind her, watching her every move.
Clearing her throat, Yuqi launched her plot. “So did you hear? There have been more Cupids sneaking into the Court.”
Suddenly, the Seraphim behind them perked her head up, her attention on Yuqi specifically. A light tap rapped against Miyeon’s shoulder, as Yuqi in the most unsubtle way bulged her eyes at her, urging her to respond.
“Oh… yes?” Miyeon replied. She had no clue what Yuqi was saying, focusing more so on Shuhua’s reaction.
“Cupids? They rank lower than the lowest tier of Angels. They aren’t even ranked!”
Subtlety must be a word missing from Shuhua’s dictionary as well, as the Seraphim’s pace quickened, moving closer to listen in on their one-sided conversation, ears titled comically to the side. As if she understood what Yuqi was saying…
Oh good heavens, she’s a Cupid as well, Miyeon realised. Everything seemed so blatantly obvious in hindsight. The preassigned court, her additional supervision, her apparent naivete, as well as her stilted speech. And it didn’t appear like she had worked her way through the different tiered rankings like Yuqi had. No, not only was she a newly appointed Seraphim, she was also a newly appointed Angel altogether.
“Cupids weren’t in God's plan, they stole God’s image. Good thing no one would ever take a Cupid seriously, Angels just pity them,” Yuqi continued, hitting Miyeon’s side whenever she needed a response from her. Miyeon nodded along, distracted by Shuhua who moved ever closer towards the two. Though the Seraphim’s eyes were obscured, her lips had pursed into a tight pout, the corners of her mouth drawn downward.
“They’re too emotional and can’t be logical or detached from their feelings. They’re weak! A waste of space here.”
Shuhua’s lips began to tremble.
“Cherub,” Miyeon warned sternly, her hand reaching to Yuqi’s upper arm. The Seraphim was only a hair's breadth away.
“But they are hidden in plain sight, though,” Yuqi's eyes became glassy. “The only true way to spot a Cupid is to learn Amourism, their vulgar, and… obscene language.”
A single tear rolled down the side of Shuhua's face from underneath the feathered visor.
“Yuqi stop!” Miyeon grasped her arm, forcing them to stop dead in their tracks.
“Hmmm? What?” Yuqi switched back to Virtuian, absently dabbing away at her own welling tears.
Hands trembling, Shuhua was frozen in place, her head jerking to Yuqi, then Miyeon, then Yuqi again. In trying to hold back more tears, another singular one rolled down her cheek.
“Yuqi what did you just say to make a High Angel of the Court cry?” Miyeon asked horrified.
“No, that’s… I didn’t mean any of that, I just repeated the things that have been said about me. Us?” Yuqi looked to Shuhua, directly into her eyes, asking for confirmation.
Hands still shaking, Shuhua raised the visor from her face, peeling the feathers back to form a haloed crown. Her eyes, while red and puffy, were full of fury.
“I…I— love and loathing,” Shuhua cussed, reverting to her native tongue, “I need a minute to myself, relay that to the Throned One, Cherub.”
Pivoting on her heels, Shuhua stormed off from the duo, marching down a nearby corridor.
Miyeon noted which direction the Seraphim headed towards before turning to Yuqi. “What did she say?”
“She needs a moment to recollect…” Yuqi summarised, her gaze fixated on the ground, refusing to look at Miyeon.
“I might not know Amourism nor know what you have specifically said, but I do know based on the Seraphim’s reaction that you need to apologise and ask for her eternal forgiveness.”
“I’ve never met another Cupid inside the Court before…” Yuqi answered suddenly. “I–I’ve been working so diligently. Trying to shed my weaknesses, and my empathy in order to fit the mould set by their Holiness… and the first Cupid I encounter... I only regurgitate the hatred and prejudice I received.” Yuqi wiped the rest of her dried tears from her face, finally meeting Miyeon’s careful gaze. “I don’t think she knew.”
“Knew what?”
“About what the Court really thinks about… us.”
Retrospectively, Miyeon should have realised the similarities between the two Angels far sooner before Yuqi had the chance to connect the dots herself. Maybe if she had seen them, she would have never let Yuqi act so impulsively and play along in their charade. Then they
wouldn’t be dealing with an overly distraught Seraphim. If there was one thing Miyeon hated having to facilitate, it was mediation. She was a Throned Angel, a warrior, for a reason. She used her actions, not her words to convey her meanings and objectives. She would never be able to understand why people couldn’t be open with their intentions from the jump. Why hide them? Plus frankly, she was a couple of centuries too old for this nonsense. But now, she was unfortunately the only one who could fix their current predicament. Right now, they needed action.
With a sympathetic look, Miyeon brought Yuqi into a small shoulder hug, stroking her side. “Take three deep breaths, in through your nose, out through your mouth, okay?” Miyeon asked, patting her shoulder affectionately. Yuqi gave her a weak nod but followed her instructions regardless.
“Your Holiness, are you there?” Miyeon called out towards the corridor. No response.
Yuqi’s brows furrowed into a frown. “Seraphim?” Still nothing.
Hesitantly, Miyeon raised her voice once more, calling the Seraphim by her real name. “Shuhua?”
When the two were met with silence, Miyeon and Yuqi shared a concerned look. With Miyeon taking the lead, they rounded down the corridor Shuhua was last seen in, only to discover her feathered halo and no sight of Shuhua. Panic quickly seized the two Angels, with no other signs of the Seraphim in any adjacent hallways.
“Throned– Miyeon… Didn’t she specifically ask for directions for her courtroom?” Yuqi winced, remembering their earlier encounter in the boudoir.
Of course she’d asked, you were there! Miyeon wanted to yell but held her tongue, keeping her thoughts to herself. She didn’t want to upset the Cherrub any further with her ill temper. “So we have not even entered the Court and we have already lost our Seraphim…” Miyeon exhaled, trying to follow her own advice as she steeled herself.
“May the good Lord have mercy on our unfortunate souls.”